Practicing food anxiety: Making Australian mothers responsible for their families’ dietary decisions

Concerns about the relationship between diet, weight, and health find widespread expression in the media and are accompanied by significant individual anxiety and responsibilization. However, these pertain especially to mothers, who undertake the bulk of domestic labor involved in managing their families’ health and wellbeing. This article employs the concept of anxiety as social practice to explore the process whereby mothers are made accountable for their families’ dietary decisions. Drawing on data from an Australian study that explored the impact of discourses of childhood obesity prevention on mothers, the article argues that mothers’ engagements with this value-laden discourse are complex and ambiguous, involving varying degrees of self-ascribed responsibility and blame for children's weight and diets. We conclude by drawing attention to the value of viewing food anxiety as social practice, in highlighting issues that are largely invisible in both official discourses and scholarly accounts of childhood obesity prevention

BHPR research: qualitative1. Complex reasoning determines patients' perception of outcome following foot surgery in rheumatoid arhtritis

Background: Foot surgery is common in patients with RA but research into surgical outcomes is limited and conceptually flawed as current outcome measures lack face validity: to date no one has asked patients what is important to them. This study aimed to determine which factors are important to patients when evaluating the success of foot surgery in RA Methods: Semi structured interviews of RA patients who had undergone foot surgery were conducted and transcribed verbatim. Thematic analysis of interviews was conducted to explore issues that were important to patients. Results: 11 RA patients (9 ♂, mean age 59, dis dur = 22yrs, mean of 3 yrs post op) with mixed experiences of foot surgery were interviewed. Patients interpreted outcome in respect to a multitude of factors, frequently positive change in one aspect contrasted with negative opinions about another. Overall, four major themes emerged. Function: Functional ability & participation in valued activities were very important to patients. Walking ability was a key concern but patients interpreted levels of activity in light of other aspects of their disease, reflecting on change in functional ability more than overall level. Positive feelings of improved mobility were often moderated by negative self perception ("I mean, I still walk like a waddling duck”). Appearance: Appearance was important to almost all patients but perhaps the most complex theme of all. Physical appearance, foot shape, and footwear were closely interlinked, yet patients saw these as distinct separate concepts. Patients need to legitimize these feelings was clear and they frequently entered into a defensive repertoire ("it's not cosmetic surgery; it's something that's more important than that, you know?”). Clinician opinion: Surgeons' post operative evaluation of the procedure was very influential. The impact of this appraisal continued to affect patients' lasting impression irrespective of how the outcome compared to their initial goals ("when he'd done it ... he said that hasn't worked as good as he'd wanted to ... but the pain has gone”). Pain: Whilst pain was important to almost all patients, it appeared to be less important than the other themes. Pain was predominately raised when it influenced other themes, such as function; many still felt the need to legitimize their foot pain in order for health professionals to take it seriously ("in the end I went to my GP because it had happened a few times and I went to an orthopaedic surgeon who was quite dismissive of it, it was like what are you complaining about”). Conclusions: Patients interpret the outcome of foot surgery using a multitude of interrelated factors, particularly functional ability, appearance and surgeons' appraisal of the procedure. While pain was often noted, this appeared less important than other factors in the overall outcome of the surgery. Future research into foot surgery should incorporate the complexity of how patients determine their outcome Disclosure statement: All authors have declared no conflicts of interes

Pat Tanner Interview

Pat Tanner, secretary to the chancellor, was interviewed for the University of Minnesota Morris documentary Promise of the Prairie: Education in Three Parts.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/stories/1032/thumbnail.jp

The reconstruction and analysis of archaeological boats and ships

Old ships and shipwrecks have long held an almost mythical fascination in the human mind. Ever since the Renaissance, Greek and Roman ships have been a subject for antiquarian interest, often with speculation rife due to the paucity of evidence, limited mainly to literary sources and representations on monuments, mosaics, and art works. People have always had a fascination with, and a desire to imagine, visualise or reconstruct the ships that have come from the antiquarian and archaeological records. Ship reconstruction from archaeological remains is almost as old as ship archaeology.This thesis presents the techniques and methodologies developed and used for accurate and efficient data capture, in the form of three-dimensional digital documentation, allowing innovative approaches to organising, analysing, comparing, and disseminating data pertaining to the archaeological find. Subsequent advanced digital three-dimensional modelling, combining all the documented data enables detailed accurate reassembly of the surviving elements, as well as the ability to digitally model missing elements to aid in hypothetical reconstructions. These digital reconstructions can have future uses in terms of physical reassembly replica building, and ongoing conservation/analysis of ongoing changes in reconstructed physical remains in a museum.The final phase involves the use of naval architecture software to accurately calculate factors such as centre of gravity and total weight, allowing the establishment of actual floatation conditions, as well as examining external factors such as crew, cargo, wind and wave loading in order to examine hydrostatic and stability performance, as well as potential speed and power analysis, thereby resulting in a more definitive hypothetical reconstruction of archaeological ship and boat finds."Those who fall in love with practice without science are like a sailor who steers a ship without a helm or compass,and who never can be certain whither he is going" – Leonardo da Vinc

The digital reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo ship

This article describes the digital reconstruction of the ship remains from Mound 1, at the early 7th-century Anglo-Saxon burial ground at Sutton Hoo, East Anglia, UK. This research provides a critical component of the wider project to build a full-scale reconstruction of the Sutton Hoo ship. The nature of the archaeological record relating to the Sutton Hoo ship is outlined, and the subsequent assumptions underpinning the digital reconstruction explained, followed by a step-by-step account of that work. Hydrostatic testing of the resulting digitally reconstructed hull is then presented, allowing new insight into the capacity and capability of the vessel

Striking a Balance: User-Experience and Performance in Computerized Game-Based Assessment

Game-based assessment (GBA) is a new frontier in the assessment industry. However, as with serious games, it will likely be important to find an optimal balance between making the game “fun” versus focusing on achieving the educational goals. We created two minigames to assess students’ knowledge of argumentation skills. We conducted an iterative counter-balanced pre-survey-interaction-post-survey study with 124 students. We discovered that game presentation sequence and game perceptions are related to performance in two games with varying numbers of game features and alignment to educational content. Specifically, understanding how to play the games is related to performance when users start with a familiar environment and move to one with more game features, whereas enjoyment is related to performance when users start with a more gamified experience before moving to a familiar environment

Gerontological Social Work: Reflections on its Role, Purpose and Value

Over the last twenty years, successive welfare policies have undermined gerontological social work as a specialist area of social work practice. The UK's ageing population offers an opportunity for gerontological social work to rebuild itself. Increasing numbers of older people with long-term conditions, significant growth in the population of family carers and enhanced community-based living for people with long-term needs combine to reposition social work as—potentially—playing a crucial role in the achievement of key policy goals. The particular skill and knowledge set of social workers uniquely equips them to manage the intersection of issues that currently challenge health and welfare services: complex needs, risk, transitions, end of life, carer stress and frailty. That older service users value the approach, input and expertise of social workers and that social workers have greater capacity to deliver sustainable support are also relevant. For gerontological social work to have a future, not only is it required to reclaim its specialist role, but it must re-establish its commitment to social justice, invest in building an evidence base of effectiveness and embed ageing-related teaching in the social work curriculum