Producing the 'problem of drugs': a cross national-comparison of ‘recovery' discourse in two Australian and British reports

The notion of ‘recovery’ as an overarching approach to drug policy remains controversial. This cross-national analysis considers how the problem of drugs was constructed and represented in two key reports on the place of ‘recovery’ in drug policy, critically examining how the problem of drugs (and the people who use them) are constituted in recovery discourse, and how these problematisations are shaped and disseminated. Bacchi's poststructuralist approach is applied to two documents (one in Britain and one in Australia) to analyse how the ‘problem of drugs’ and the people who use them are constituted: as problematic users, constraining alternative understandings of the shifting nature of drug use; as responsibilised individuals (in Britain) and as patients (in Australia); as worthy of citizenship in the context of treatment and recovery, silencing the assumption of unworthiness and the loss of rights for those who continue to use drugs in ‘problematic’ ways. The position of the organisations which produced the reports is considered, with the authority of both organisations resting on their status as independent, apolitical bodies providing ‘evidence-based’ advice. There is a need to carefully weigh up the desirable and undesirable political effects of these constructions. The meaning of ‘recovery’ and how it could be realised in policy and practice is still being negotiated. By comparatively analysing how the problem of drugs was produced in ‘recovery’ discourse in two jurisdictions, at two specific points in the policy debate, we are reminded that ways of thinking about ‘problems’ reflect specific contexts, and how we are invoked to think about policy responses will be dependent upon these conditions. As ‘recovery’ continues to evolve, opening up spaces to discuss its contested meanings and effects will be an ongoing endeavour

CRASHWORTHY RAILING FOR TIMBER BRIDGES

Bridge railing systems in the United States have historically beers designed based on static load criteria given in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation 0fficials (AASHTO) Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges. In the past decade, full-scale vehicle crash testing has been recognized as a more appropriate and reliable method of evaluating bridge railing acceptability. In 1993, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program published Report 350, Recommended Procedures for the Saftey Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, which provides new criteria for evaluating longitudinal barriers. Based on these specifications, a cooperative research program is continuing between the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, the Midwest Roadside Saftety Facility of the University of Nebraska- Lincoln; and the Federal Highway Administration to develop and crash test bridge railings for wood bridge decks. This paper describes research that resulted in the successful development and testing of several bridge railings for longitudinal and transverse wood decks in accordance with NCHRP Report 350 requirements

Crash-Tested Bridge Railings for Timber Bridges

Bridge railing systems in the United States historically have been designed on the basis of static load criteria given in the AASHTO Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges. In the past decade, full-scale vehicle crash testing has been recognized as a more appropriate and reliable method of evaluating bridge railing acceptability. In 1989 AASHTO published Guide Specifications for Bridge Railings, which gives the recommendations and procedures to evaluate bridge railings by full-scale vehicle crash testing. In 1993 NCHRP published Report 350: Recommended Procedures for the Safety Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, which provides criteria for evaluating longitudinal barriers. From these specifications, a cooperative research program was initiated to develop and crash test several bridge railings for longitudinal wood decks. The research resulted in the successful development and testing of five bridge railing systems for longitudinally laminated wood bridge decks in accordance with the AASHTO Performance Level 1 and Performance Level 2 requirements and the Test Level 4 requirements of NCHRP Report 350

CRASHWORTHY RAILING FOR TIMBER BRIDGES

Bridge railing systems in the United States have historically beers designed based on static load criteria given in the American Association of State Highway and Transportation 0fficials (AASHTO) Standard Specifications for Highway Bridges. In the past decade, full-scale vehicle crash testing has been recognized as a more appropriate and reliable method of evaluating bridge railing acceptability. In 1993, the National Cooperative Highway Research Program published Report 350, Recommended Procedures for the Saftey Performance Evaluation of Highway Features, which provides new criteria for evaluating longitudinal barriers. Based on these specifications, a cooperative research program is continuing between the USDA Forest Service, Forest Products Laboratory, the Midwest Roadside Saftety Facility of the University of Nebraska- Lincoln; and the Federal Highway Administration to develop and crash test bridge railings for wood bridge decks. This paper describes research that resulted in the successful development and testing of several bridge railings for longitudinal and transverse wood decks in accordance with NCHRP Report 350 requirements

Graphene on Si(111)7x7

We demonstrate that it is possible to mechanically exfoliate graphene under ultra high vacuum conditions on the atomically well defined surface of single crystalline silicon. The flakes are several hundred nanometers in lateral size and their optical contrast is very faint in agreement with calculated data. Single layer graphene is investigated by Raman mapping. The G and 2D peaks are shifted and narrowed compared to undoped graphene. With spatially resolved Kelvin probe measurements we show that this is due to p-type doping with hole densities of n_h \simeq 6x10^{12} cm^{-2}. The in vacuo preparation technique presented here should open up new possibilities to influence the properties of graphene by introducing adsorbates in a controlled way.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Precise measurement of HFS of positronium

The ground state hyperfine splitting in positronium, $\Delta _{\mathrm{HFS}}$, is sensitive to high order corrections of QED. A new calculation up to $O(\alpha ^3)$ has revealed a $3.9 \sigma$ discrepancy between the QED prediction and the experimental results. This discrepancy might either be due to systematic problems in the previous experiments or to contributions beyond the Standard Model. We propose an experiment to measure $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}}$ employing new methods designed to remedy the systematic errors which may have affected the previous experiments. Our experiment will provide an independent check of the discrepancy. The measurement is in progress and a preliminary result of $\Delta_{\mathrm{HFS}} = 203.399 \pm 0.029 \mathrm{GHz} (143 \mathrm{ppm})$ has been obtained. A measurement with a precision of O(1) ppm is expected within a few years.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figures, contributed to POSMOL 2009, will be published in J. Phys.: Conf. Serie