Longitudinal study of local authority child and family social workers (wave 1) Findings from a 5 year study of local authority child and family social workers in England.

The longitudinal study investigates recruitment, retention and career progression in local authority child and family social work over 5 years. This is the first of 5 reports. It provides workforce information for employers and policy makers. Topics covered in this report include: •entry routes into local authority child and family social work •current employment and career history •workplace wellbeing •management, supervision and working environment •job satisfaction •career progression and future career plan

The Reality of Digital currency as a Financial Medium of Exchange

This paper presents a discussion of the requirements for the long term acceptance of digital currency as a financial medium of exchange through the examination of fundamental criteria associated with common tender and the examination of selected digital currencies. According to the U.S. Treasury, digital currencies are subject to regulation if that digital currency has a substitutive purpose for facilitating exchanging goods and services (Financial Crimes Enforcement Network, 2013). Although governments can place stipulations on currencies, users of common tender, such as digital currencies, expect at least three basic privileges for a digital currency to evolve from conception to realization. First, a digital currency must be considered intangible personal property similar to trademarks, copyrights, and patents. Second, ownership disputes must be subject to a system such as a Judicial Proceeding or Binding Arbitration to resolve property conflicts. Finally, a digital currency must be subject to similar regulatio

Technocriticism: A Study of Hypertext 2.0: The Convergence of Contemporary Critical Theory and Technology and Writing Machines

The emergence of digital media and the development of computer technology have given birth to a new form of electronic text called Hypertext, it has had a major impact on traditional literary studies thereby giving birth to a new kind of literature called Electronic Literature. Technology has given a new direction to literary studies by serving as a significant avenue for the production and dissemination of literary texts by introducing new ways of reading, writing and thinking about textuality. Such an environment called by Jean Baudrillard as “Hyperreality” (Baudrillard 1988: 16) resulted in a mass transformation, including the basic literary concepts like texts, narrative and linearity. This influence of technology on literary theory is known as Technocriticism which: Is a branch of critical theory devoted to the study of technological change. It treats technological transformations as historically specific changes in personal and social practices of research, regulation, distribution, promotion, appropriation, use, and discourse, rather than as an autonomous or socially indifferent accumulation of useful inventions, or as an uncritical narrative of linear “progress”, “development” or “innovation” . (www.wikipedia.org) Technocriticism as a critical literary theory has not come on its own but has emerged out of a need to seek an explanation for these technological transformations in different fields as ontologically perceived cultural constructs rather than treated as mere technological products. It has necessitated to place literary aspects of life and culture into a proper perspective in the age of technological advancement rather than consider technology as a threat to the traditional organisation of reading, writing and to the intellectual dialogue. Viewed in this perspective, the study of various literary concepts associated with Technocriticism - concepts like texts, narrative and linearity- becomes very important and emerges as one of the most interesting areas of study in the contemporary critical theory. The text ceases to be a linear narrative with a logical beginning, middle and end. Instead, various parts of the text may be transferred, structure rearranged, portions added to and even deleted simultaneously which verily alter the way a text looks and reads on the screen. Further, the reader too can compose his comments and the change that takes place is not only from a closed, linear and authoritative aesthetic where the reader is passive, but to an open, non-linear and non-hierarchical aesthetic where the reader is actively involved with the text. The reader can easily create his narrative in the world of virtual reality. The reader is thus seen as a player providing solutions and reshaping images already organized by the writer. Interactive fiction and drama are interesting examples of this new mode of reading

The Hero as a Deep-Diver: Existential Problematics in Kurt Vonnegut’s Breakfast of Champions & Jerzy Kosinski’s Pinball

American novelists of the late nineteenth century and twentieth century have been quite adept at creating deep memorable characters. These novelists often used their protagonists for higher purposes, such as endeavouring to construct a critique of the times by placing the characters in opposition to their respective societies. As a result, in American novel, the hero often became an unassuming type of hero who courageously defied the conventional beliefs and ignorant assumptions of society. The American fictional hero is constantly confronted by an ugly challenging reality; that is society and its pressures of conformity. In American tradition society is never a neutral force; rather it is intrusively active force which encroaches on the lives of individuals. The hero can never ignore or neglect it. He is forced to fight against a suffocating society and repelling reality

Systematic studies on genus Nepeta L. (Lamiaceae) in Kashmir Himalaya.

The past century has witnessed compilation of Floras of most of the regions of the World. The taxonomists have documented and communicated a better understanding of the floristic resources, as they are indispensable for the botanical progress of a country or a region. Over the same period, much information on the constituent taxa of Floras has been documented: the information pertaining to their taxonomy, nomenclature, distribution, variation, pollen and seed morphology, economic utility, and many other aspects. Kashmir, naturing beauty on the Earth, has also been a witness to this scenario, the main aim having been to have a thorough insight into and documentation of the overall floristic diversity of the Valley. The floras of several important regions/areas in the Kashmir Himalaya have been worked out. A number of genera in Lamiaceae have been revised/monographed, both on World basis and at regional levels, such as Bentham (1834), Labiatarum Genera Et Species; Bentham (1848), in Candolle, Prodromus ystematis Naturalis Regni Vegetabilis; Hooker (1885), in Flora of British India; Briquet (1896), in Engler and Prantel, Die Naturlichen P flanzenfamilien; Boissier (1879), in Flora Orientalis; Pojarkova (1954), in Flora of USSR; Turner (1972), in Flora Europaea; Hedge and Lamond (1982), in Flora of Turkey; and Rechinger (1982), in Flora Iranica.Digital copy of Thesis.University of Kashmir

Floristic diversity of Kashmir Himalayan grasslands in relation to their functioning

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Longitudinal study of child and family social workers (wave 3)

In 2018, the Department for Education (DfE) commissioned a consortium led by IFF Research, working with social work academics at Manchester Metropolitan University and the University of Salford, to conduct a longitudinal study tracking the careers of local authority child and family social workers in England. This landmark study aimed to collect robust evidence on recruitment, retention and progression in child and family social work by tracking individuals over a five-year period. In Wave 3, new questions were added about the impacts of Covid-19 on child and family social workers’ workplace wellbeing, access to learning and development, flexible working, relationships with colleagues, and relationships with children, families and carer