Social worker experience of fatal child abuse

This research study used Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis to examine the lived experiences of four social work practitioners who have been directly involved in cases of fatal child abuse. The research examines how the tragedies impacted upon the workers in both personal and professional capacities and locates those experiences within the relevant organisational context. The study reveals that all the workers were significantly affected in different ways by the tragedies. Although there is some evidence of good practice it is evidence that the emotional and support needs of the workers were largely ignored by the organisations in which they practiced. The study reveals that following the children's deaths, the supervision the social workers received was often inappropriate and inconsistent and the Serious Case Reviews that were undertaken further contributed to the isolation and blame already being experienced by the workers involved. The research examines how such factors as media responses, organisational culture, working practices and the serious case review system, combine to provide a means by which systemic failures are minimised and ignored in favour of attributing blame to the actions or inaction of individual social work practitioners

A Trend-Change Extension of the Cairns-Blake-Dowd Model

This paper builds on the two-factor mortality model known as the Cairns-Blake-Dowd (CBD) model, which is used to project future mortality. It is shown that these two factors do not follow a random walk, as proposed in the original model, but that each should instead be modelled as a random fluctuation around a trend, the trend changing periodically. The paper uses statistical techniques to determine the points at which there are statistically significant changes in each trend. The frequency of change in each trend is then used to project the frequency of future changes, and the sizes of historical changes are used to project the sizes of future changes. The results are then presented as fan charts, and used to estimate the range of possible future outcomes for period life expectancies. These projections show that modelling mortality rates in this way leaves much greater uncertainty over future life expectancy in the long term

Strategies For Mass Customization

Mass customization allows firms to produce only things their customers want (or produce after they have orders in hand). This approach, make-to-order, brings many benefits to firms in terms of cost and profit because of lower inventory levels, maximum sales, elimination of material waste, flexible production and, most of all, customer satisfaction. However, mass customization may not be the panacea for all organizations. While some companies are very successful with mass customization, others are not.  This paper illustrates that mass customization strategies depend on an understanding of the conditions in each industry

Strategies For Mass Customization

Mass customization allows firms to produce only things their customers want (or produce after they have orders in hand). This approach, make-to-order, brings many benefits to firms in terms of cost and profit because of lower inventory levels, maximum sales, elimination of material waste, flexible production and, most of all, customer satisfaction. However, mass customization may not be the panacea for all organizations. While some companies are very successful with mass customization, others are not.  This paper illustrates that mass customization strategies depend on an understanding of the conditions in each industry

Nonflammable Lithium Metal Full Cells with Ultra-high Energy Density Based on Coordinated Carbonate Electrolytes

Coupling thin Li metal anodes with high-capacity/high-voltage cathodes such as LiNi0.8Co0.1Mn0.1O2 (NCM811) is a promising way to increase lithium battery energy density. Yet, the realization of high-performance full cells remains a formidable challenge. Here, we demonstrate a new class of highly coordinated, nonflammable carbonate electrolytes based on lithium bis(fluorosulfonyl)imide (UFSI) in propylene carbonate/fluoroethylene carbonate mixtures. Utilizing an optimal salt concentr ation (4 M LiFSI) of the electrolyte results in a unique coordination structure of Li+-FSI-solvent cluster, which is critical for enabling the formation of stable interfaces on both the thin Li metal anode and high-voltage NCM811 cathode. Under highly demanding cell configuration and operating conditions (Li metal anode = 35 mu m, areal capacity/charge voltage of NCM811 cathode = 4.8 mAh cm(-2)/4 .6 V, and anode excess capacity [relative to the cathode] = 0.83), the Li metal-based full cell provides exceptional electrochemical performance (energy densities = 679 Wh kg(cell)(-1)/1,024 Wh L-cell(-1)) coupled with nonflammability

Structural Polymorphism of the Cytoskeleton: A Model of Linker-Assisted Filament Aggregation

The phase behavior of charged rods in the presence of inter-rod linkers is studied theoretically as a model for the equilibrium behavior underlying the organization of actin filaments by linker proteins in the cytoskeleton. The presence of linkers in the solution modifies the effective inter-rod interaction and can lead to inter-filament attraction. Depending on the system's composition and physical properties such as linker binding energies, filaments will either orient perpendicular or parallel to each other, leading to network-like or bundled structures. We show that such a system can have one of three generic phase diagrams, one dominated by bundles, another by networks, and the third containing both bundle and network-like phases. The first two diagrams can be found over a wide range of interaction energies, while the third occurs only for a narrow range. These results provide theoretical understanding of the classification of linker proteins as bundling proteins or crosslinking proteins. In addition, they suggest possible mechanisms by which the cell may control cytoskeletal morphology.Comment: 17 pages, 3 figure

Social worker experience of fatal child abuse, an interpretive phenomenological analysis.

This research project is an interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) of the lived experiences of four social work practitioners who have been directly involved in cases of fatal child abuse. The research examines how the tragedies impacted upon the workers in both personal and professional capacities and locates those experiences within the relevant organisational context. The study reveals that all the workers were significantly affected in different ways by the tragedies; however their emotional and support needs were largely ignored by the organisations in which they practiced. The study reveals that following the children's deaths, the support and supervision the social workers received was often inappropriate and inconsistent and the serious case reviews that were undertaken further contributed to the isolation and blame already being experienced by the workers involved. The theoretical analysis within the study relates the workers experiences to Doka's (2002) typology of disenfranchised grief. The study introduces a new concept developed by the author. Termed the "personification of systemic failure", this concept highlights how such factors as media responses, organisational culture, working practices and the serious case review system, combine to provide a means by which systemic failures are minimised and ignored in favour of attributing blame to the actions or inaction of individual social work practitioners.</p

Firm finances, weather derivatives and geography

This paper considers some intellectual, practical and political dimensions of collaboration between human and physical geographers exploring how firms are using relatively new financial products – weather derivatives – to displace any costs of weather-related uncertainty and risk. The paper defines weather derivatives and indicates how they differ from weather insurance products before considering the geo-political, cultural and economic context for their creation. The paper concludes by reflecting on the challenges of research collaboration across the human–physical geography divide and suggests that while such initiatives may be undermined by a range of institutional and intellectual factors, conversations between physical and human geographers remain and are likely to become increasingly pertinent. The creation of a market in weather derivatives raises a host of urgent political and regulatory questions and the confluence of natural and social knowledges, co-existing within and through the geography academy, provides a constructive and creative basis from which to engage with this new market and wider discourses of uneven economic development and climate change