A Brief History of Record Management at the National Archives

This paper is a much abridged version of a section of the opening chapter of the official history of criminal justice between 1959 and 1997 which David Downes, Tim Newburn and Paul Rock were formally commissioned to write some six and a half years ago. Their work has been based on numerous archives, secondary sources and interviews, but the principal resource, and the principal archive, the repository of government records, the ‘strong box of the Empire’, is the National Archive at Kew, and the focus of this article is on record management there

Envisioning a Healthy Future: A Re-becoming of Native American Men

Native American men have historically been important to their communities, each having a specific function in the perpetuation of cultural norms and practices. Oral tradition and communal experiential activity were pathways of maintaining a connection with others and in regenerating culture. In contrast, the modern dominant culture values and emphasizes individuation as an indicator of psychosocial growth. This influence seems to have hindered Indigenous people/men in maintaining a sense of connection with the community. Survival for Indigenous men during the establishment of encroaching nations has often occurred through relinquishment of a part of \u27self\u27 psychically. Aboriginal men report experiencing hopelessness living in a self-imposed isolation, without a sense of tradition or direction. Healing may focus on use of normative and narrative efforts that rebuild the \u27self\u27 as a part of others and the community, which fosters a sense of interconnectedness. Ceremony is an adjunct to developing linkages between heritage, roles, and a community connection

'The dreadful flood of documents': the 1958 Public Record Act and its aftermath: part 2: after-effects

Part 1 of this double-barrelled article described the genealogy of the 1958 Public Records Act, which was enacted at the very opening of the history of criminal justice upon which David Downes, Tim Newburn and I had embarked and which was still in force whilst we worked. It related how a concatenation of events – a prodigiously increasing accumulation of official papers generated by the swelling bureaucracy of an ever more busy state; the need for effecting economies at a time of austerity; and the application of policies driven by a new organisation and methods team at the Treasury – made it seem imperative radically to control the flow of records and restrict the numbers that were retained. Part 2 describes the implementation of the Act, the reorganisation of the Public Record Office (PRO)and the manner in which concern about what was called a ‘dreadful flood of documents’ continued to press hard on record retention policies

‘The dreadful flood of documents’: the 1958 Public Record Act and its aftermath. Part 1: the genesis of the act

This bipartite paper flows out of the writing of a history of criminal justice and it attempts to resolve why so many state records of scholarly importance were destroyed in the latter half of the twentieth century. Since its foundation in 1838, the Public Record Office or PRO, later The National Archives, the chief repository of state papers, has confronted the problem of how to accommodate a remorselessly growing mass of documents. Shaped by periodic crises and bouts of anxious stocktaking, it has sought continually to develop effective ways of culling or ‘weeding’ the unwanted record. At the end of the Second World War, especially, the accumulation of papers had become so substantial that a new and radical organisation and methods analysis was to be applied by the Treasury to what was defined as a failed and antiquarian PRO. A committee under the chairmanship of Sir James Grigg elected to give primacy to reducing the volume of records. It turned its back on what it took to be the PRO’s discredited staff, techniques and ideology, although, ironically, it did warmly endorse the presumption of Sir Hilary Jenkinson, the PRO’s deputy keeper, that historians and archivists were quite incapable of identifying which records might become of future historical interest. Criteria of historical significance were as a result to be introduced slowly and belatedly, and only after Sir Hilary had departed. The outcome was to be a structural revolution that was driven principally by an imperative to save money and labour, conserve space and do away with as many records as possible, and much that was of scholarly interest has been lost in consequence

Deep Interference Mitigation and Denoising of Real-World FMCW Radar Signals

Radar sensors are crucial for environment perception of driver assistance systems as well as autonomous cars. Key performance factors are a fine range resolution and the possibility to directly measure velocity. With a rising number of radar sensors and the so far unregulated automotive radar frequency band, mutual interference is inevitable and must be dealt with. Sensors must be capable of detecting, or even mitigating the harmful effects of interference, which include a decreased detection sensitivity. In this paper, we evaluate a Convolutional Neural Network (CNN)-based approach for interference mitigation on real-world radar measurements. We combine real measurements with simulated interference in order to create input-output data suitable for training the model. We analyze the performance to model complexity relation on simulated and measurement data, based on an extensive parameter search. Further, a finite sample size performance comparison shows the effectiveness of the model trained on either simulated or real data as well as for transfer learning. A comparative performance analysis with the state of the art emphasizes the potential of CNN-based models for interference mitigation and denoising of real-world measurements, also considering resource constraints of the hardware.Comment: 2020 IEEE International Radar Conference (RADAR

Acción : diario de Teruel y su provincia: Año IV Número 908 - (05/11/35)

Background: Activities of daily living (ADL) are often used as predictors of health and function in older persons. This systematic review is part of a series initiated by the European Network for Action on Ageing and Physical Activity (EUNAAPA). Aim: To assess psychometric properties of ADL instruments for use in older populations. Methods: Electronic databases (Medline, EMBASE, AMED, Psycinfo, CINAHL) were searched, using MeSH terms and relevant keywords. Studies, published in English, were included if they evaluated one or more psychometric properties of ADL instruments in community-dwelling older persons aged 60 years and older. Combination scales with IADL were excluded. This systematic review adhered to a pre-specified protocol regarding reliability, validity, and responsiveness. Results: In total, 140 articles describing more than 50 different ADL instruments were included. Ten instruments which were applied in minimally three different articles of good quality (clear descriptions and adequate design according to the protocol), were evaluated for reliability, validity and responsiveness; each received a summary score. The four instruments with the highest scores were the Functional Autonomy Measurement System (SMAF), 5-items Katz list (although content and wording are often inconsistent across studies), Functional Independence and Difficulty Scale (FIDS) and the Barthel Index. Discussion: Critical reflection is essential to avoid unnecessary modifications and use of instruments that have not been documented to be valid or reliable. Conclusion: Based on this systematic review, we recommend the SMAF, 5-item Katz, FIDS and Barthel index as ADL measures for research and care practice in older populations

Highlighting the hidden dangers of a ‘weak’ opioid:Deaths following use of dihydrocodeine in England (2001–2020)

BackgroundDihydrocodeine (DHC) is considered a ‘weak’ opioid, but there is evidence of its increasing misuse in overdose deaths. This research aims to analyse trends in DHC-related deaths in England relevant to source and dose of DHC, and decedent demographics.MethodsCases from England reported to the National Programme on Substance Abuse Deaths (NPSAD) where DHC was identified at post-mortem and/or implicated in death between 2001 and 2020 were extracted for analysis.Results2071 DHC-related deaths were identified. The greatest number of deaths involved illicitly obtained DHC and a significant increase in these deaths was recorded over time (r = 0.5, p = 0.03). However, there was a concurrent decline in the implication rate of DHC in causing death (r = −0.6, p &lt; 0.01). Fatalities were primarily due to accidental overdose (64.8%) and misuse was highly prevalent in combination with additional central nervous system depressants (95.3%), namely illicit heroin/morphine and diazepam. In contrast, when DHC was obtained over-the-counter (OTC) suicide mortality accounted for almost half of the deaths (42.5%). Differences in polysubstance use were also identified, with less heroin/morphine and benzodiazepine co-detection, but increased OTC codeine co-detection.ConclusionsDHC misuse in England is increasing. The pharmacological consideration of DHC as a ‘weak’ opioid may be misinterpreted by users, leading to accidental overdosing. There is an urgent need to understand increasing polypharmacy in overdose deaths. Additionally, suicides involving DHC is a potential cause for concern and a review of OTC opioid-paracetamol preparations is necessary to determine whether the benefits of these medications continue to outweigh the risks of intentional overdose.</p

What is second-order vision for? Discriminating illumination versus material changes

The human visual system is sensitive to second-order modulations of the local contrast (CM) or amplitude (AM) of a carrier signal. Second-order cues are detected independently of first-order luminance signals; however, it is not clear why vision should benet from second-order sensitivity. Analysis of the first-and second-order contents of natural images suggests that these cues tend to occur together, but their phase relationship varies. We have shown that in-phase combinations of LM and AM are perceived as a shaded corrugated surface whereas the anti-phase combination can be seen as corrugated when presented alone or as a flat material change when presented in a plaid containing the in-phase cue. We now extend these findings using new stimulus types and a novel haptic matching task. We also introduce a computational model based on initially separate first-and second-order channels that are combined within orientation and subsequently across orientation to produce a shading signal. Contrast gain control allows the LM + AM cue to suppress responses to the LM-AM when presented in a plaid. Thus, the model sees LM -AM as flat in these circumstances. We conclude that second-order vision plays a key role in disambiguating the origin of luminance changes within an image. © ARVO