Understanding women's feelings about safety and hazards of street drinking in London through interpretative phenomenological analysis

Aims Drinking alcohol in outdoor public places (e.g. streets and parks) and outside of formally organised events is perceived and reported as antisocial behaviour and may be indicative of a problematic relationship with alcohol, and other clinical needs. This paper aims to address a lack of qualitative research on street drinking in the United Kingdom and develop a textured understanding of the lived-experience of how some women engage in street drinking, in the context of one London borough. Method The authors collected semi-structured interviews as part of a larger mixed methods study on street drinking from April to August 2018. A sub-set of interviews (n = 3) with women who were accessing local drug and alcohol services and had a history of street drinking behaviour were selected as a case series for triangulating analysis with a smaller, homogenous sample. These data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis with a reflexive, feminist, social constructionist approach. Results The authors developed and named a superordinate theme, Constellations of Safety and Hazards for Women Drinking in Public and Private. Within this, four themes were defined and illustrated from the data: Drinking outdoors to be away from hazards at home; Women's awareness of geo-temporal factors to moderate risk; Women identifying risks of accepting drinks from strangers; and Threats of untreated trauma within histories of heavy drinking. Definitions and illustrations from participants aid explanations of how the texts add detail or disruption to dominant discourses. Conclusion The case studies illustrating how these women have experienced alcohol misuse and behaviour change provide reflexive accounts of exercising agency in managing embodied and affective states of vulnerability. This was demonstrated by asserting choice around environmental spaces and friendships, even when still in positions deemed as ‘risky’. These three women's decisions around drinking in public, outdoor spaces were shaped by complex interactions of interpersonal, intrapersonal, socio-economic, and cultural structures. Understanding behaviours is improved with data that situates people in contexts where they experience and make sense of their lives

Inversion of spinning sound fields

A method is presented for the reconstruction of rotating monopole source distributions using acoustic pressures measured on a sideline parallel to the source axis. The method requires no \textit{a priori} assumptions about the source other than that its strength at the frequency of interest vary sinusoidally in azimuth on the source disc so that the radiated acoustic field is composed of a single circumferential mode. When multiple azimuthal modes are present, the acoustic field can be decomposed into azimuthal modes and the method applied to each mode in sequence. The method proceeds in two stages, first finding an intermediate line source derived from the source distribution and then inverting this line source to find the radial variation of source strength. A far-field form of the radiation integrals is derived, showing that the far field pressure is a band-limited Fourier transform of the line source, establishing a limit on the quality of source reconstruction which can be achieved using far-field measurements. The method is applied to simulated data representing wind-tunnel testing of a ducted rotor system (tip Mach number~0.74) and to control of noise from an automotive cooling fan (tip Mach number~0.14), studies which have appeared in the literature of source identification.Comment: Revised version of paper submitted to JASA; five more figures; expanded content with more discussion of error behaviour and relation to Nearfield Acoustical Holograph

Researching trust in the police and trust in justice: a UK perspective

This paper describes the immediate and more distant origins of a programme of comparative research that is examining cross-national variations in public trust in justice and in the police. The programme is built around a module of the fifth European Social Survey, and evolved from a study funded by the European Commission. The paper describes the conceptual framework within which we are operating – developed in large measure from theories of procedural justice. It reviews some of the methodological issues raised by the use of sample surveys to research issues of public trust in the police, public perceptions of institutional legitimacy and compliance with the law. Finally it gives a flavour of some of the early findings emerging from the programme

Plight of Black Farmers in the Context of USDA Farm Loan Programs: A Research Agenda for the Future

Black farmers remain an underdeveloped topic in academic literature. This historical study used a historical research methodology to assess the plight of Black farmers in the context of United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) farm loan programs and offered an array of future research recommendations. We investigated the severity of the plight of Black farmers in the context of USDA farm loan programs with an emphasis on effective and responsive leadership in relation to four elements: 1) legislative initiatives, 2) policy initiatives, 3) USDA structure and delivery systems, and the 4) Pigford v. Glickman class action and consent decree. We identified research and development recommendations for the future, such as interviews to determine the perceptions of Black farmers pertaining to the current accessibility of USDA loans. This research agenda may better assist both scholars and advocates in supporting the steady rise of Black farmers in the U.S

River Restoration Effects on Steelhead Populations in the Manistee River, Michigan: Analysis Using an Individual‐Based Model

The Manistee River, Michigan, watershed includes two dams as well as residential and agricultural development, and the river itself contains a sizeable population of steelhead Oncorhynchus mykiss that supports a valuable recreational fishery. Restoration of the Manistee River and its flow regime may improve steelhead habitat and the fishery. We developed an individual‐based model of steelhead in the Manistee River to assess the population effects of changes in the number of spawners, water discharge from Tippy Dam, and water temperature. The model follows steelhead from spring spawning to the end of the growing season in early fall and depicts the river environment as a series of cells that vary in dimension, water velocity, and substrate. Simulated water discharge, temperature, and prey availability changed daily based on observations from Tippy Dam. Empirically based models describe individual steelhead fry and parr foraging and growth. In the model, steelhead select habitats and maximize individual fitness while accounting for dominance and the availability of feeding territories. We calibrated the model to replicate fish growth, mortality, and population size. Simulation experiments manipulated the number of spawning females, water discharge, and water temperature. The results suggest that Manistee River steelhead incur density limitations in the fry and parr stages and that water discharge and temperature changes affect the number and biomass of parr. Increasing river discharge negatively affected parr numbers and weight. Decreasing maximum midsummer temperature increased parr numbers and weight when the change was large, but otherwise had little effect. These results indicate that restoration of the natural flow regime in the Manistee River will probably increase the quality of the habitat for steelhead but that density limitations in the fry and parr stages may ultimately limit population growth.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/141355/1/tafs1654.pd

Diffuse X-ray emission in spiral galaxies

We compare the soft diffuse X-ray emission from Chandra images of 12 nearby intermediate inclination spiral galaxies to the morphology seen in Halpha, molecular gas, and mid-infrared emission. We find that diffuse X-ray emission is often located along spiral arms in the outer parts of spiral galaxies but tends to be distributed in a rounder morphology in the center. The X-ray morphology in the spiral arms matches that seen in the mid-infrared or Halpha and so implies that the X-ray emission is associated with recent active star formation. We see no strong evidence for X-ray emission trailing the location of high mass star formation in spiral arms. However, population synthesis models predict a high mechanical energy output rate from supernovae for a time period that is about 10 times longer than the lifetime of massive ionizing stars, conflicting with the narrow appearance of the arms in X-rays. The fraction of supernova energy that goes into heating the ISM must depend on environment and is probably higher near sites of active star formation. The X-ray estimated emission measures suggest that the volume filling factors and scale heights are high in the galaxy centers but low in the outer parts of these galaxies. The differences between the X-ray properties and morphology in the centers and outer parts of these galaxies suggest that galactic fountains operate in outer galaxy disks but that winds are primarily driven from galaxy centers.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figures, to be submitted to Ap

Survival strategies in arctic ungulates

Arctic ungulates usually neither freeze nor starve to death despite the rigours of winter. Physiological adaptations enable them to survive and reproduce despite long periods of intense cold and potential undernutrition. Heat conservation is achieved by excellent insulation combined with nasal heat exchange. Seasonal variation in fasting metabolic rate has been reported in several temperate and sub-arctic species of ungulates and seems to occur in muskoxen. Surprisingly, there is no evidence for this in reindeer. Both reindeer and caribou normally maintain low levels of locomotor activity in winter. Light foot loads are important for reducing energy expenditure while walking over snow. The significance and control of selective cooling of the brain during hard exercise (e.g. escape from predators) is discussed. Like other cervids, reindeer and caribou display a pronounced seasonal cycle of appetite and growth which seems to have an intrinsic basis. This has two consequences. First, the animals evidently survive perfectly well despite enduring negative energy balance for long periods. Second, loss of weight in winter is not necessarily evidence of undernutrition. The main role of fat reserves, especially in males, may be to enhance reproductive success. The principal role of fat reserves in winter appears to be to provide a supplement to, rather than a substitute for, poor quality winter forage. Fat also provides an insurance against death during periods of acute starvation

High-performance silver window electrodes for top-illuminated organic photovoltaics using an organo-molybdenum oxide bronze interlayer

We report an organo-molybdenumn oxide bronze that enables the fabrication of high-performance silver window electrodes for top-illuminated solution processed organic photovoltaics without complicating the process of device fabrication. This hybrid material combines the function of wide-band-gap interlayer for efficient hole extraction with the role of metal electrode seed layer, enabling the fabrication of highly transparent, low-sheet-resistance silver window electrodes. Additionally it is also processed from ethanol, which ensures orthogonality with a large range of solution processed organic semiconductors. The key organic component is the low cost small molecule 3-mercaptopropionic acid, which (i) promotes metal film formation and imparts robustness at low metal thickness, (ii) reduces the contact resistance at the Ag/molybdenumn oxide bronze interface, (iii) and greatly improves the film forming properties. Silver electrodes with a thickness of 8 nm deposited by simple vacuum evaporation onto this hybrid interlayer have a sheet resistance as low as 9.7 Ohms per square and mean transparency ∼80% over the wavelength range 400–900 nm without the aid of an antireflecting layer, which makes them well-matched to the needs of organic photovoltaics and applicable to perovskite photovoltaics. The application of this hybrid material is demonstrated in two types of top-illuminated organic photovoltaic devices