‘Without occupation you don't exist’: Occupational engagement and mental illness

This article has been made available through the Brunel Open Access Publishing Fund.This phenomenological study explores the meanings of work for people living with severe and enduring mental health conditions. The participants were three women and seven men who were attending a mental health day centre. Data were collected through up to three depth interviews with each participant over 18 months. The interviews were digitally recorded, transcribed verbatim, and analysed according to phenomenological principles. Two overarching themes were identified. Building and maintaining an occupational identity expressed the ways in which participants used occupations as the building blocks of an evolving identity. Most of the participants wanted to work, and participation in occupations was seen as essential to recovery from mental ill-health. Work and other ways of belonging encapsulated the need to feel connected to others. Many of the participants envisaged working as a way of achieving this. The longitudinal nature of the study facilitated engagement with the developing narratives and exploration of the changes and consistencies in the participants' meaning making about their occupations. Implications for understanding individuals' occupational participation which enhances a sense of self and promotes feelings of belonging are identified

The meaning and experience of work in the context of severe and enduring mental health problems: An interpretative phenomenological analysis

This is the author's final version of the article. The final publication is available from the link below. Copyright @ 2013 IOS Press and the Authors.Research into mental health and employment has indicated that work holds multiple meanings for people with mental health problems. This paper reports findings from a phenomenological study which aimed to understand the complexity of these meanings by exploration of the perspectives of one individual who was considering returning to work. Data were gathered through a series of three interviews carried out over a period of 18 months. Three themes were identified – Beliefs and Values about Work, Working with a Mental Health Problem, and Planning for the Future. Analysis and interpretation facilitated understandings of what work represented for the participant. What this study has contributed to the evidence base is a deeper understanding of the multiple meanings of work, and the varied roles that work may play in contributing to meaning and quality of life for people with mental health problems

Chemical application of diffusion quantum Monte Carlo

The diffusion quantum Monte Carlo (QMC) method gives a stochastic solution to the Schroedinger equation. This approach is receiving increasing attention in chemical applications as a result of its high accuracy. However, reducing statistical uncertainty remains a priority because chemical effects are often obtained as small differences of large numbers. As an example, the single-triplet splitting of the energy of the methylene molecule CH sub 2 is given. The QMC algorithm was implemented on the CYBER 205, first as a direct transcription of the algorithm running on the VAX 11/780, and second by explicitly writing vector code for all loops longer than a crossover length C. The speed of the codes relative to one another as a function of C, and relative to the VAX, are discussed. The computational time dependence obtained versus the number of basis functions is discussed and this is compared with that obtained from traditional quantum chemistry codes and that obtained from traditional computer architectures

An integrated development facility for the calibration of low-energy charged particle flight instrumentation

A system was developed for the calibration and development of thermal ion instrumentation. The system provides an extended beam with usable current rates, approx. 1 pA/sq cm, at beam energies as low as 1 eV, with much higher values available with increasing energy. A tandem electrostatic and variable geometry magnetic mirror configuration within the ion source optimizes the use of the ionizing electrons. The system is integrated under microcomputer control to allow automatic control and monitoring of the beam energy and composition and the mass and angle-dependent response of the instrument under test. The system is pumped by a combination of carbon vane and cryogenic sorption roughing pumps and ion and liquid helium operating pumps

UDENTE (Universal Dental E-Learning) A Golden Opportunity for Dental Education

The incorporation of technological advancementsbr in higher education has started to bridgebr the gap in local, national and global delivery of dental courses. This gap, including the global decrease in senior clinical academics, has influenced the development of new teaching and learning techniques. Institutional virtual learning environments (VLE) and other e-learning resources are now in higher demand [1, 2]. This paper describes how one such innovative solutions has been IVIDENT (International Virtual Dental School), has enabled secure and seamless access to high quality e-content and tools through an innovative, universal flexible learning platform. IVIDENT, now UDENTE (Universal Dental E-learning) has been shown to offer new learning experiences for students of dentistry, but its approach can apply across all educational domains. UDENTE also benefits staff as it allows them to contribute and access resources through peer reviewed publishing processes, which ensure the highest quality in education [3]. UDENTE was developed thanks to a £2.3 million grant from the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) and the Department of Health. http://www.udente.org. This academically led educational research project involved dental schools in seven countries. An initially scoping of requirements was followed by elaboration of the tools needed. Pilot testing of the tools, systems and learning resources in particular and the impact of the UDENTE in general were carried out. The pilots revealed evidence of positive impact of a space for learning, teaching, development and communication, with tools for planning of electives and administrative support. The results of these initial pilots have been positive and encouraging, describing UDENTE as an accessible, user friendly platform providing tools that otherwise would be difficult to access in a single space [4]. However, attention to supporting faculty to embrace these new learning domains is essential if such technology enhanced learning (TEL) is to be viewed as a golden opportunity in Higher Education

Searching for annihilation radiation from SN 1006 with SPI on INTEGRAL

Historical Type Ia supernovae are a leading candidate for the source of positrons observed through their diffuse annihilation emission in the Galaxy. However, search for annihilation emission from individual Type Ia supernovae has not been possible before the improved sensitivity of \integral. The total 511 keV annihilation flux from individual SNe Ia, as well as their contribution to the overall diffuse emission, depends critically on the escape fraction of positrons produced in $^{56}$Co decays. Late optical light curves suggest that this fraction may be as high as 5%. We searched for positron annihilation radiation from the historical Type Ia supernova SN 1006 using the SPI instrument on \integral. We did not detect significant 511 keV line emission, with a 3$\sigma$ flux upper limit of 0.59 x 10$^{-4}$ ergs cm^-2 s^-1 for \wsim 1 Msec exposure time, assuming a FWHM of 2.5 keV. This upper limit corresponds to a 7.5% escape fraction, 50% higher than the expected 5% escape scenario, and rules out the possibility that Type Ia supernovae produce all of the positrons in the Galaxy (~ 12% escape fraction), if the mean positron lifetime is less than 10$^{5}$ years. Future observations with \integral will provide stronger limits on the escape fraction of positrons, the mean positron lifetime, and the contribution of Type Ia supernovae to the overall positron content of the Galaxy.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, accepted for publication in ApJ

The curious time lags of PG 1244+026: Discovery of the iron K reverberation lag

High-frequency iron K reverberation lags, where the red wing of the line responds before the line centroid, are a robust signature of relativistic reflection off the inner accretion disc. In this letter, we report the discovery of the Fe K lag in PG 1244+026 from ~120 ks of data (1 orbit of the XMM-Newton telescope). The amplitude of the lag with respect to the continuum is 1000 s at a frequency of ~1e-4 Hz. We also find a possible frequency-dependence of the line: as we probe higher frequencies (i.e. shorter timescales from a smaller emitting region) the Fe K lag peaks at the red wing of the line, while at lower frequencies (from a larger emitting region) we see the dominant reflection lag from the rest frame line centroid. The mean energy spectrum shows a strong soft excess, though interestingly, there is no indication of a soft lag. Given that this source has radio emission and it has little reported correlated variability between the soft excess and the hard band, we explore one possible explanation in which the soft excess in this source is dominated by the steep power-law like emission from a jet, and that a corona (or base of the jet) irradiates the inner accretion disc, creating the blurred reflection features evident in the spectrum and the lag. General Relativistic ray-tracing models fit the Fe K lag well, with the best-fit giving a compact X-ray source at a height of 5 gravitational radii and a black hole mass of 1.3e7 Msun.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, resubmitted to MNRAS after moderate revisions. This paper focuses on the discovery of the Fe K reverberation lag in PG 1244+026. We point the interested reader to Alston, Done & Vaughan (See today: arXiv:submit/0851673), which focuses on the soft lags in this sourc

The light curve of the companion to PSR B1957+20

We present a new analysis of the light curve for the secondary star in the eclipsing binary millisecond pulsar system PSR B1957+20. Combining previous data and new data points at minimum from the Hubble Space Telescope, we have 100% coverage in the R-band. We also have a number of new K_s-band data points, which we use to constrain the infrared magnitude of the system. We model this with the Eclipsing Light Curve code (ELC). From the modelling with the ELC code we obtain colour information about the secondary at minimum light in BVRI and K. For our best fit model we are able to constrain the system inclination to 65 +/- 2 degrees for pulsar masses ranging from 1.3 -- 1.9 M_sun. The pulsar mass is unconstrained. We also find that the secondary star is not filling its Roche lobe. The temperature of the un-irradiated side of the companion is in agreement with previous estimates and we find that the observed temperature gradient across the secondary star is physically sustainable.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures & 3tables. Accepted for publication in MNRA