Capturing the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings: initial observations from a feasibility study

This article reports the initial findings of a feasibility study that has captured the scale and pattern of recurrent care proceedings. Although frontline professionals have reported long-standing concerns about the repeat clients of public law proceedings, prior to the study we report, the scale of the problem has been unknown. With funding from the Nuffield Foundation and support from the Child and Family Court Advisory Service (CAFCASS) and the President of the Family Division, the research team has arrived at a first estimate of prevalence, confirming that recurrence is a sizeable problem for the English family court. Based on cases that completed during the observational window 2007-2013 (calendar years), 7,143 birth mothers appeared in 15,645 recurrent care applications concerning 22,790 infants and children. Moreover, the study most likely underestimates recurrence, because reliable data concerning completed cases is not available before 2007. Initial observations are that the spacing between recurrent care proceedings is very short, which raises searching questions about prevention. Where episodes of care proceedings follow in swift succession, most likely prompted by the birth of another infant, this affords mothers little opportunity to effect change. Unless, this ‘status quo’ is tackled, it is difficult to envisage how vulnerable birth mothers can exit this cycle. Preliminary recommendations are made in respect of policy and practice change

What do we really mean by ‘Personal Knowledge’?

As teachers and researchers, we have explored the development of a religion and worldviews approach in theory and in practice. Here we bring together our shared reflections on the idea of ‘personal knowledge’ and its application in the Religion & Worldviews classroom

Distributed lag models for hydrological data

The distributed lag model (DLM), used most prominently in air pollution studies, finds application wherever the effect of a covariate is delayed and distributed through time. We explore the use of modified formulations of DLMs to provide flexible varying-coeficient models with smoothness constraints, applicable in any setting in which lagged covariates are regressed on a time-dependent response. The models are applied to simulated flow and rainfall data and to flow data from a Scottish mountain river, with particular emphasis on approximating the relationship between environmental covariates and flow regimes in order to detect the influence of unobserved processes. It was found that under certain rainfall conditions some of the variability in the influence of rainfall on flow arises through a complex interaction between antecedent ground wetness and the time-delay in rainfall. The models are able to identify subtle changes in rainfall response, particularly in the location of peak influence in the lag structure and offer a computationally attractive approach for fitting DLMs

Persistent, symptomless, systemic, and seed-borne infection of lettuce by Botrytis cinerea

Experiments are presented which show that Botrytis cinerea, the cause of gray mould disease, is often present in symptomless lettuce plants as a systemic, endophytic, infection which may arise from seed. The fungus was isolated on selective media from surface sterilized sections of roots, stem pieces and leaf discs from symptomless plants grown in a conventional glasshouse and in a spore-free air-flow provided by an isolation propagator. The presence of B. cinerea was confirmed by immuno-labelling the tissues with the Botrytis-specific monoclonal antibody BC-12.CA4. As plants grew, infection spread from the roots to stems and leaves. Surface sterilization of seeds reduced the number of infected symptomless plants. Artificial infection of seedlings with dry conidia increased the rate of infection in some experiments. Selected isolates were genetically finger-printed using microsatellite loci. This confirmed systemic spread of the inoculating isolates but showed that other isolates were also present and that single plants hosted multiple isolates. This shows that B. cinerea commonly grows in lettuce plants as an endophyte, as has already been shown for Primula. If true for other hosts, the endophytic phase may be as important a component of the species population as the aggressive necrotrophic phase

Viral delivery of antioxidant genes as a therapeutic strategy in experimental models of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a progressive neurodegenerative disorder with no effective treatment to date. Despite its multi-factorial aetiology, oxidative stress is hypothesized to be one of the key pathogenic mechanisms. It is thus proposed that manipulation of the expression of antioxidant genes that are downregulated in the presence of mutant SOD1 may serve as a therapeutic strategy for motor neuronal protection. Lentiviral vectors expressing either PRDX3 or NRF2 genes were tested in the motor neuronal-like NSC34 cell line, and in the ALS tissue culture model, NSC34 cells expressing the human SOD1(G93A) mutation. The NSC34 SOD1(G93A) cells overexpressing either PRDX3 or NRF2 showed a significant decrease in endogenous oxidation stress levels by 40 and 50% respectively compared with controls, whereas cell survival was increased by 30% in both cases. The neuroprotective potential of those two genes was further investigated in vivo in the SOD1(G93A) ALS mouse model, by administering intramuscular injections of adenoassociated virus serotype 6 (AAV6) expressing either of the target genes at a presymptomatic stage. Despite the absence of a significant effect in survival, disease onset or progression, which can be explained by the inefficient viral delivery, the promising in vitro data suggest that a more widespread CNS delivery is needed

Islamic Geometries: Spiritual Affects Against a Secularist Grid

Discussions of surface pattern in Islamic art resonate within broader tensions about the role of figural representation in communicating meaning. The question of whether geometric pattern communicates—whether it functions as a language without a code—reflects broader tensions about the relationship between secular and spiritual communication. Poised between discussions of modernism and Islam, the attribution of linguistic capacity to geometry serves as a measure for the possibility of abstracting pure reason from the religious roots of representationalism. This paper explores this question in four parts. First, it examines the articulation of geometric meaning in Islamic discourses. It then explores European discussions of geometry between language and ornament poised between a search for universal reason and universal spiritualism, both in modernist painting and in modern exhibitions. The final section the expressive capacity of artistic responses to historical Islamic isometric geometries in the adaptive reuse of historical Iranian arts as contemporary abstraction in the sculptures of Monir Shahroudy Farmanfarmaian (1928–1919) and in the popular transformation prints of M. C. Escher (1898–1972). It argues that the frequent recognition of intrinsic meaning in geometry, expressed in both premodern Islamic and modern secular interpretations, undermines art historical expectations of theorization as a necessary intermediary for communication. Geometry thereby functions as a language without a code

Enablers and Barriers to an equitable Higher Degree by Research (HDR) learning Environment

The aim of this project is to uncover the enablers and barriers to an equitable Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) learning environment. Increasingly, universities are offering researcher development activities, such as workshops, online courses, industry-based internships and work-integrated learning opportunities, as part of the HDR degree that aim to enhance the employability of research students and help them to become full participants in a rich research community. However, there is concern that these activities are designed around a ‘mythical’ young, full-time PhD student with minimal external responsibilities. Research suggests that those from equity backgrounds are less likely to enrol in HDR study and once enrolled are more likely to drop-out before completing their program. In addition, students often have more than one compounding disadvantage affecting their studies. Completing studies online, by distance or through part-time study often signals that students have significant work and/or carer responsibilities which understandably affects retention and completions in research-based programs. Rather than focussing on retention and completion, we explore the experience of HDR students from recognised (and unrecognised) equity groups within the researcher development environment. Using Shaw’s (2010) journey plot tool, we will seek insights from HDR students of the enablers and barriers to their full participation during their candidature. This will illuminate the students’ personal external enablers and networks and identify which aspects of their learning environment are most helpful to them at different stages of their candidature. We will provide feedback to Australian universities to outline strategies and avenues to assist students from disadvantaged or atypical backgrounds who are experiencing challenges in their PhD journeys. For this small study we will focus on female students in two different contexts, a regional university with an established equity program and a research-intensive capital city G08 University comparing experiences in Science Technology Engineering Mathematics and Medicine (STEMM) disciplines with those in Humanities, Social Sciences, Business and Creative disciplines

A randomised, controlled, double blind, non-inferiority trial of ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block vs. spinal morphine for analgesia after primary hip arthroplasty

We performed a single centre, double blind, randomised, controlled, non-inferiority study comparing ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block with spinal morphine for the primary outcome of 24-h postoperative morphine consumption in patients undergoing primary total hip arthroplasty under spinal anaesthesia with levobupivacaine. One hundred and eight patients were randomly allocated to receive either ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block with 2 mg.kg−1 levobupivacaine (fascia iliaca group) or spinal morphine 100 μg plus a sham ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block using saline (spinal morphine group). The pre-defined non-inferiority margin was a median difference between the groups of 10 mg in cumulative intravenous morphine use in the first 24 h postoperatively. Patients in the fascia iliaca group received 25 mg more intravenous morphine than patients in the spinal morphine group (95% CI 9.0–30.5 mg, p < 0.001). Ultrasound-guided fascia iliaca block was significantly worse than spinal morphine in the provision of analgesia in the first 24 h after total hip arthroplasty. No increase in side-effects was noted in the spinal morphine group but the study was not powered to investigate all secondary outcomes

Recurrent ~24 h Periods in RXTE ASM Data

Analysis of data from the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer satellite's All Sky Monitor instrument for several X-ray binary sources has identified a recurrent \~24 h period. This period is sometimes highly significant, giving rise to the possibility of it being identified as an orbital or super-orbital period. Further analysis has revealed the same period in a number of other X-ray sources. As a result this period has been discounted as spurious, described variously as arising from daily variations in background levels and beating between the sampling period and long-term secular trends in the light curves. We present here an analysis of the spurious periods and show that the dominant mechanism is in fact spectral leakage of low-frequency power present in the light curves.Comment: 9 Pages, 10 figures, 1 table, submitted to PASA 20th December 2004. Added 1 page of text and 3 figures to clarify results and discussion. Resubmitted 16th May 2005. Accepted 25th June 200

Electrochemical characterization of systems for secondary battery application Second quarterly report, Aug. - Oct. 1966

Multisweep cyclic voltammetry for electrochemical characterization of systems for secondary battery applicatio