Through a Glass Darkly: Reinforcing Beverage Icons By Leveraging Cultural Identity at Beverage Sites, the Guinness Store House, Dublin and la Cité du Vin, Bordeaux

“To explore food and drink is unavoidably to visit culture also.” (Boniface 2003, p.1). The Guinness Storehouse, Dublin and La Cité Du Vin, Bordeaux are ambitious beverage tourism sites. Both have successfully leveraged the cultural capital associated with the iconic beverages produced in their environs to devise dedicated visitor attractions. Beverage tourism is a developing, niche sector of a larger global food tourism trend. This paper explores La Cité Du Vin, Bordeaux and the Guinness Storehouse, Dublin, and shows how these sites have become the physical embodiment of the story or culture of these beverages. Research pertaining to the broader field of food tourism is referenced as it offers insights which help to frame beverage tourism in a wider gastro-tourism context. It is impossible to separate food and drinks from the people and cultures that have developed them. As people migrate, their food and beverages also travel the globe functioning as cultural ambassadors for their place and culture of origin. Croissants, ramen, tacos, Irish stout and Bordeaux claret are no longer only enjoyed by locals or visitors. These iconic food and drinks have a world-wide consumer base. If the cultural essence of a country can be distilled into one glass, then the icons of a glass of red wine and a pint of stout have become a synecdoche for France and Ireland respectively. Moreover, these beverages have spawned a tourist industry founded on pilgrimage to the source of these liquids

Indirect language therapy for children with persistent language impairment in mainstream primary schools : outcomes from a cohort intervention

A manualized language therapy developed via a randomized controlled trial had proved efficacious in the short-term in developing expressive language for mainstream primary school children with persistent language impairment. This therapy had been delivered to a predetermined schedule by speech and language therapists or speech and language therapy assistants to children individually or in groups. However, this model of service delivery is no longer the most common model in UK schools, where indirect consultancy approaches with intervention delivered by school staff are often used. A cohort study was undertaken to investigate whether the therapy was equally efficacious when delivered to comparable children by school staff, rather than speech and language therapists or speech and language therapy assistants. Children in the cohort study were selected using the same criteria as in the randomized controlled trial, and the same manualized therapy was used, but delivered by mainstream school staff using a consultancy model common in the UK. Outcomes were compared with those of randomized controlled trial participants. The gains in expressive language measured in the randomized controlled trial were not replicated in the cohort study. Less language-learning activity was recorded than had been planned, and less than was delivered in the randomized controlled trial. Implications for 'consultancy' speech and language therapist service delivery models in mainstream schools are outlined

A cluster randomised control trial of a multi-component weight management programme for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity

There have been few published controlled studies of multi-component weight management programmes that include an energy deficit diet (EDD), for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. The objective of this study was to conduct a single-blind, cluster randomised controlled trial comparing a multi-component weight management programme to a health education programme. Participants were randomised to either TAKE 5, which included an EDD or Waist Winners Too (WWToo), based on health education principles. Outcomes measured at baseline, 6 months (after a weight loss phase) and 12 months (after a 6-month weight maintenance phase), by a researcher blinded to treatment allocation, included: weight; BMI; waist circumference; physical activity; sedentary behaviour and health-related quality of life. The recruitment strategy was effective with fifty participants successfully recruited. Both programmes were acceptable to adults with intellectual disabilities, evidenced by high retention rates (90 %). Exploratory efficacy analysis revealed that at 12 months there was a trend for more participants in TAKE 5 (50·0 %) to achieve a clinically important weight loss of 5-10 %, in comparison to WWToo (20·8 %) (OR 3·76; 95 % CI 0·92, 15·30; 0·064). This study found that a multi-component weight management programme that included an EDD, is feasible and an acceptable approach to weight loss when tailored to meet the needs of adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity

Impaired Control as a Mediating Factor in the Negative Expectancy-Motivation for Recovery Relationship

Objectives 1. To examine the functioning of a clinical psychology direct access service working under routine NHS conditions. 2 . To examine levels of patient attendance. 3. To establish the degree to which patients benefit from attending and what factors are associated with improved outcomes. 4. To produce data that can be used in standard setting, through which practice can be improved and evaluated. Design A retrospective analysis of discharge data on a cohort of patients discharged from a Clinical Psychology direct access service. Setting An out-patient clinical psychology department in the West Sector of Glasgow. The Sector covers a large geographical area and is divided into 3 localities. Cases All patients discharged from the Riverside locality between September 1999 - August 2000. Results Of the 257 patients discharged, 53 (20%) failed to attend for first appointment. Of the 204 who did attend, 123 (60%) completed treatment and 81 (40%) dropped out. For those who attended 67% improved, this figure rising to 89% improvement rates for those who completed treatment. Eighty-one per cent of patients came from the middle to high areas of deprivation. Interventions were generally brief (average length of treatment is 5 sessions) with 82% of patients attending for less than 8 sessions. Improved outcomes were associated with staying in treatment to completion and being treated for anxiety disorders. Conclusions Within the service people are seen with a wide range of psychological problems, many from areas of middle to high deprivation. Examination of attendance rates show that a large proportion never attended or dropped out, with just less than half completing treatment. The service is beneficial to the majority of those who attend, particularly those patients who complete treatment. Interventions were generally brief and were not confined to the 'worried well'. The study has provided data which can be used for standard setting for our own and similar services

Bullying: research into practice

Prsentation looking at the issues which affect bullying including the imbalance of power, bullying versus peer aggression, repeated versus 'one-off' incidents, and intent

A single-blind, pilot randomised trial of a weight management intervention for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity: study protocol

Background: The prevalence of obesity in adults with intellectual disabilities has consistently been reported to be higher than the general population. Despite the negative impact of obesity on health, there is little evidence of the effectiveness of weight management interventions for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity. Preliminary results from a single-stranded feasibility study of a multi-component weight management intervention specifically designed for adults with intellectual disabilities and obesity (TAKE 5) and that satisfied clinical recommendations reported that it was acceptable to adults with intellectual disabilities and their carers. This study aims to determine the feasibility of a full-scale clinical trial of TAKE 5.<p></p> Methods: This study will follow a pilot randomised trial design. Sixty-six obese participants (body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m2) will be randomly allocated to the TAKE 5 multi-component weight management intervention or a health education ‘active’ control intervention (Waist Winners Too (WWToo)). Both interventions will be delivered over a 12-month period. Participants’ anthropometric measures (body weight, BMI, waist circumference, percentage body fat); indicators of activity (levels of physical activity and sedentary behaviour) and well-being will be measured at three time points: baseline, 6 and 12 months. The researcher collecting outcome measures will be blind to study group allocation.<p></p> Conclusions: The data from this study will generate pilot data on the acceptability of randomisation, attrition rates and the estimates of patient-centred outcomes of TAKE 5, which will help inform future research and the development of a full-scale randomised clinical trial

I Love You, Man: Gendered narratives of friendship in contemporary Hollywood comedies

This article begins with a simple observation: there are very few contemporary Hollywood films in which women are shown becoming friends. This is in contrast to the "bromance," in which new connections between men are privileged, yet this pattern has gone largely unremarked in the literature. This article has two aims: to sketch this pattern and explore reasons for it through comparing the "girlfriend flick" and "bromance." To do this, we first discuss those rare occasions when women do become friends on screen, using Jackie Stacey's work to understand the difficulties this narrative trajectory poses for Hollywood. This raises questions about the relationship between the homosocial and homosexual which set up our comparison of female and male friendship films and provides the rationale for our focus on the beginnings of friendships as moments where tensions around gendered fascinations are most obvious. The films discussed are Baby Mama, Step Brothers, I Love You, Man, Funny People, Due Date, and Crazy, Stupid, Love. The differences we identify hinge on issues of gendered representability and identification which have long been at the heart of feminist film scholarship

Successful Treatment of an MTBE-impacted Aquifer Using a Bioreactor Self-colonized by Native Aquifer Bacteria

A field-scale fixed bed bioreactor was used to successfully treat an MTBE-contaminated aquifer in North Hollywood, CA without requiring inoculation with introduced bacteria. Native bacteria from the MTBE-impacted aquifer rapidly colonized the bioreactor, entering the bioreactor in the contaminated groundwater pumped from the site, and biodegraded MTBE with greater than 99 % removal efficiency. DNA sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene identified MTBE-degrading bacteria Methylibium petroleiphilum in the bioreactor. Quantitative PCR showed M. petroleiphilum enriched by three orders of magnitude in the bioreactor above densities pre-existing in the groundwater. Because treatment was carried out by indigenous rather than introduced organisms, regulatory approval was obtained for implementation of a full-scale bioreactor to continue treatment of the aquifer. In addition, after confirmation of MTBE removal in the bioreactor to below maximum contaminant limit levels (MCL; MTBE = 5 μg L−1), treated water was approved for reinjection back into the aquifer rather than requiring discharge to a water treatment system. This is the first treatment system in California to be approved for reinjection of biologically treated effluent into a drinking water aquifer. This study demonstrated the potential for using native microbial communities already present in the aquifer as an inoculum for ex-situ bioreactors, circumventing the need to establish non-native, non-acclimated and potentially costly inoculants. Understanding and harnessing the metabolic potential of native organisms circumvents some of the issues associated with introducing non-native organisms into drinking water aquifers, and can provide a low-cost and efficient remediation technology that can streamline future bioremediation approval processes