Service provider difficulties in operationalising coercive control

We examined perspectives of social workers, police officers, and specialist domestic abuse practitioners about their perceived ability and organizational readiness to respond effectively to incidents of coercive and controlling behavior. Interviews revealed intervention and risk assessment strategies structured around an outdated, maladaptive concept of domestic abuse as an unambiguous and violent event and frontline services that lacked appreciation of the power dynamics inherent in controlling relationships. The analysis demonstrates how lack of definitional clarity around nonphysical domestic abuse can increase the use of discretion by frontline services and, by extension, increase the discounting of coercive control by pressured frontline officers

Analysis of ultrasonic transducers with fractal architecture

Ultrasonic transducers composed of a periodic piezoelectric composite are generally accepted as the design of choice in many applications. Their architecture is normally very regular and this is due to manufacturing constraints rather than performance optimisation. Many of these manufacturing restrictions no longer hold due to new production methods such as computer controlled, laser cutting, and so there is now freedom to investigate new types of geometry. In this paper, the plane wave expansion model is utilised to investigate the behaviour of a transducer with a self-similar architecture. The Cantor set is utilised to design a 2-2 conguration, and a 1-3 conguration is investigated with a Sierpinski Carpet geometry

An exploratory study on social entrepreneurship in Egypt

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to add to the existing wealth of knowledge on the benefits and challenges of social entrepreneurship in Egypt, a challenging emerging economy. Design/methodology/approach The research combines secondary and primary research with the latter including interviews across the public, private and social entrepreneurship sectors, together with surveys to gather Egyptian and international perspectives. Findings The study addresses several political, cultural and economic themes that significantly influence the emergence and growth of social entrepreneurship organisations in Egypt. Research limitations/implications Egypt is undergoing significant change at present; hence, this research provides a snapshot of what may be considered a very dynamic environment. Practical implications Recommendations are made that have practical implications for each of the public, private, development and non-profit sectors in Egypt. It is suggested that the public sector ought to unite its efforts under one umbrella organisation, the private sector could benefit from growing social awareness across the region, while development groups should continue to focus on education generally. Non-profit entities can seek to collaborate with others, and all organisations can make better use of developing global communications technology. Social implications A base of social entrepreneurship is already established in Egypt, but this research suggests that further encouragement of these initiatives could help develop the economy and foster a more socially aware culture and political landscape. Originality/value Social entrepreneurship in Egypt continues to evolve, and this research identifies a number of economic, cultural and political perspectives that, if addressed, could help accelerate progress

Exploring the growth challenges of social enterprises: Identifying staffing, earnings-generation and communications as critical success factors

How best to support the sustainability and growth of social enterprises is important to multiple stakeholders (Cavusgil & Knight, 2015; Thompson, Mawson & Martin, 2017). Evidence highlights that social enterprises struggle to scale-up, as reflected by a majority of UK-based social enterprises failing to breakeven. This research studies over one hundred social enterprises to explore the reasons for ineffective scaling and to identify where the priorities and challenges lie in achieving success. Recent literature and the Bloom & Smith (2010) SCALERS model (Staffing; Communicating; Alliance-building; Lobbying; Earnings-generation; Replicating; and Stimulating market forces) are used to determine key issues. The findings indicate that the effective scaling and impact (Kim, 2015) of social enterprises is reliant on three critical success factors: Staffing; Earnings generation; and Communications. Social enterprises need to optimise the recruitment and deployment of employees and volunteers, bearing in mind that they are essential for the replication of successes and in building alliances with networks of stakeholders (Stam, Arzalanian & Elfring, 2014). A robust earnings generation model is essential and may require the development of innovative income streams. Effective staff and robust finances helping establish strong coalitions, joint-ventures and partnerships across the stakeholder spectrum

Influencing decision-makers as the next step for entrepreneurship educators: lessons from entrepreneurship education in challenging economies

Based on research into the challenging and emerging economies of Peru and Egypt, this study explores how the potential role for entrepreneurship educators is evolving. Interviews and questionnaires with 70 participants from two strands of entrepreneurship, female entrepreneurship in Peru and social entrepreneurship in Egypt, are used to assess entrepreneurship in such challenging economies. Both regions, Latin America and Africa, need successes in entrepreneurship to help establish social, economic and political stability in their nation states. However, the relationship between entrepreneurship and national stability is complex and symbiotic, as national stabilities also help catalyse success in entrepreneurial and enterprise initiatives. The relevance of enterprise and entrepreneurial education and its impact on connected issues such as graduate attributes and employability is complex. This research indicates that, while entrepreneurship education is certainly an asset for individuals in terms of creating new ventures and in enhancing their employability, entrepreneurship educators should also focus on influencing the national decision-makers in challenging and emerging economies. This includes politicians, financiers and other leaders across the public, private and third-sectors of society, as it is often these individuals who create the necessary atmosphere and ethos for entrepreneurial initiatives to flourish

Real-time assembly of ribonucleoprotein complexes on nascent RNA transcripts.

Cellular protein-RNA complexes assemble on nascent transcripts, but methods to observe transcription and protein binding in real time and at physiological concentrations are not available. Here, we report a single-molecule approach based on zero-mode waveguides that simultaneously tracks transcription progress and the binding of ribosomal protein S15 to nascent RNA transcripts during early ribosome biogenesis. We observe stable binding of S15 to single RNAs immediately after transcription for the majority of the transcripts at 35 °C but for less than half at 20 °C. The remaining transcripts exhibit either rapid and transient binding or are unable to bind S15, likely due to RNA misfolding. Our work establishes the foundation for studying transcription and its coupled co-transcriptional processes, including RNA folding, ligand binding, and enzymatic activity such as in coupling of transcription to splicing, ribosome assembly or translation

Hypervelocity Stars from the Andromeda Galaxy

Hypervelocity stars (HVSs) discovered in the Milky Way (MW) halo are thought to be ejected from near the massive black hole (MBH) at the galactic centre. In this paper we investigate the spatial and velocity distributions of the HVSs which are expected to be similarly produced in the Andromeda galaxy (M31). We consider three different HVS production mechanisms: (i) the disruption of stellar binaries by the galactocentric MBH; (ii) the ejection of stars by an in-spiraling intermediate mass black hole; and (iii) the scattering of stars off a cluster of stellar-mass black holes orbiting around the MBH. While the first two mechanisms would produce large numbers of HVSs in M31, we show that the third mechanism would not be effective in M31. We numerically calculate 1.2*10^6 trajectories of HVSs from M31 within a simple model of the Local Group and hence infer the current distribution of these stars. Gravitational focusing of the HVSs by the MW and the diffuse Local Group medium leads to high densities of low mass (~ solar mass) M31 HVSs near the MW. Within the virialized MW halo, we expect there to be of order 1000 HVSs for the first mechanism and a few hundred HVSs for the second mechanism; many of these stars should have distinctively large approach velocities (< -500 km/s). In addition, we predict ~5 hypervelocity RGB stars within the M31 halo which could be identified observationally. Future MW astrometric surveys or searches for distant giants could thus find HVSs from M31.Comment: 14 pages, 6 figures, changed to match version accepted by MNRA

Introducing a New Grade 8 Curriculum in Children's Rights

Existing research indicates that the effective implementation of new curricula depends on several variables including teachers' agreement with the goals of a new program, its impact on workload, and opportunities for professional development. The purpose of this research was to assess how far 31 grade 8 teachers implemented a new children s rights curriculum, whether the implementation of the curriculum changed their and their students' attitudes about children's rights, and to identify factors that encouraged implementation. Major findings were as follows: Workload, defined in terms of years of experience and class size, was predictive of curriculum use. The more teachers used the curriculum, the higher they rated it and the more they expressed attitudes supportive of children's rights. Students' support for the rights of adults, including ethnocultural minorities and those with disabilities, was positively related to their teachers' support for children's rights.La recherche indique que la mise en œuvre réussie d'un nouveau curriculum dépend de plusieurs variables dont l'accord de renseignant quant aux buts du nouveau programme, son impact sur la charge de travail et les occasions de développement professionnel que l'on présente. Cette recherche avait trois buts : évaluer dans quelle mesure 31 enseignants de la 8e année ont mis en application un nouveau curriculum sur les droits des enfants, déterminer si la mise en vigueur a changé l'attitude des enseignants et des élèves face aux droits des enfants, et identifier les facteurs qui facilitent la mise en application. Les résultats indiquent que la charge de travail, définie en fonction des années d'expérience et de la taille de la classe, constituait une valeur prédictive quant à l'emploi que ferait un enseignant du nouveau curriculum. Plus les enseignants utilisaient le curriculum, plus ils l'appréciaient et plus leur attitude face aux droits des enfants était positive. Une corrélation positive a également été établie entre l'appui que manifestaient les élèves face aux droits des adultes, y compris ceux des minorités ethnoculturelles et des personnes ayant une déficience, et l'appui des enseignants pour les droits des enfants