Evaluation of the introduction of inter-agency referral documentation (Children in Need and in Need of Assessment Consent Form) in North East Lincolnshire

In November 2000, North East Lincolnshire Local Authority introduced ‘Children in Need and in Need of Protection Assessment and Consent’ (A&C) forms1, a tool to be used by agencies when referring children to social services. The aim of the study was to evaluate the impact of the introduction of the A&C form on the pattern and quality of child care referrals made to social services by health, education and ‘other’ agencies (e.g. police and other statutory and voluntary agencies)

Australia's coastal fisheries and farmed seafood: An ecological basis for determining sustainability

In response to consumer concerns about the sustainability of Australian-sourced seafood we derive a set of criteria within an explicit decision-process that can be used to determine whether locally farmed and wild-caught Australian seafood products meet standards of ecological sustainability and Ecologically Sustainable Development. These criteria substantially address the ecological deficiencies we identified in other systems commonly used for assessing seafood sustainability. The criteria address the issues that are relevant to local seafood production, and are populated with indicators (metrics) and benchmarks relevant to the Australian context. The indicators establish performance thresholds drawn from public domain data about the products, including observed empirical data and proxies, and include default decisions to be applied in the absence of adequate information. This decision structure is set within a peer-reviewed expert jury decision-making process. The criteria, decision process and decision outcomes from assessment of a number of pilot products were tested in a real seafood market (Melbourne), where we found a high level of producer, reseller and consumer acceptance of the judgements and ratings. The use of ecologically-derived standards results in several outcomes that differ from those of other seafood assessment systems, especially those assessments more focused on production standards, such as government, industry and NGO-supported programs, popularly used in Australia and worldwide. We conclude that despite high levels of uncertainty surrounding many of the population parameters, ecological patterns and processes, empirical cost-effective proxies can be used to reasonably estimate a form of sustainability that matches consumer interests/expectations for production of fresh local seafood. Despite the plethora of industry and government programs, there remains a significant but presently unmet consumer demand for ecologically-based, technically robust, independently derived, and readily available information about the local sustainability attributes of Australian wild-caught and farmed fresh seafood

Embedding social inclusiveness and appropriateness in engineering assessment of green infrastructure to enhance urban resilience

Urban resilience emerges not only from ‘what’ is done in relation to critical infrastructure systems, but in the ‘how’ of their conception, co-creation and integration into complex socio-ecological-technical systems. For green infrastructure, where ownership and agency may be distributed amongst organisations and diverse communities, inclusiveness and appropriateness require embedding in engineering assessments of green infrastructure and resilience. Through consideration of past, present and future engineering and resilience assessments – from monetising, through greening, to humanising – this paper examines the ways in which GI may be or has already contributed to enhancing urban resilience and types of assessment and indicators that have been or could be used. We suggest that enhancing visibility of the ‘whos’ (individuals, communities) is crucial to fully diversifying assessments. We also suggest some ideas for additional indicators and assert that co-production of future indicators needs to be undertaken with appropriate professionals (e.g. social impact assessment professionals)

The individual experience of ageing prisoners: systematic review and meta-synthesis through a Good Lives Model framework

Objective: The existing literature on ageing prisoners tends to focus on such aspects as diagnosis and physical ill-health. In contrast, the experience of imprisonment from the perspective of ageing prisoners has received less attention. Grounded in a Good Lives Model theoretical framework, we reviewed and meta-synthesised literature around their experience of life in prison, its impact on their wellbeing and how prison services are currently addressing their complex needs. We further identify potential areas of improvement. Methods: 1. Systematic search on Assia, PsycInfo, MedLine, Embase, Web of Science, Google and Gov.uk. 2. Extraction and categorisation of data on NVivo. 3. Development of themes through thematic analysis and meta-synthesis. 4. Identification of potential areas of improvement. Results: We selected 25 studies for our review, of which thirteen were from the USA, seven from the UK, two from Australia and one each from Ireland, Switzerland and Israel. We identified three themes: The hardship of imprisonment, addressing health and social care needs, and the route out of prison. Conclusions: Ageing prisoners have unique and complex health and social care needs which, to varying degree across different countries, are mostly unmet. Promising initiatives to address their needs are emerging but, at present time, the overall experience of incarceration for the ageing prisoner is quite poor, given the inconsistent physical, emotional and social care support offered from prison intake to release and beyond

Electrical and network neuronal properties are preferentially disrupted in dorsal, but not ventral, medial entorhinal cortex in a mouse model of Tauopathy

The entorhinal cortex (EC) is one of the first areas to be disrupted in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and frontotemporal dementia. The responsiveness of individual neurons to electrical and environmental stimuli varies along the dorsal-ventral axis of the medial EC (mEC) in a manner that suggests this topographical organization plays a key role in neural encoding of geometric space. We examined the cellular properties of layer II mEC stellate neurons (mEC-SCs) in rTg4510 mice, a rodent model of neurodegeneration. Dorsoventral gradients in certain intrinsic membrane properties, such as membrane capacitance and afterhyperpolarizations, were flattened in rTg4510 mEC-SCs, while other cellular gradients [e.g., input resistance (Ri), action potential properties] remained intact. Specifically, the intrinsic properties of rTg4510 mEC-SCs in dorsal aspects of the mEC were preferentially affected, such that action potential firing patterns in dorsal mEC-SCs were altered, while those in ventral mEC-SCs were unaffected. We also found that neuronal oscillations in the gamma frequency band (30-80 Hz) were preferentially disrupted in the dorsal mEC of rTg4510 slices, while those in ventral regions were comparatively preserved. These alterations corresponded to a flattened dorsoventral gradient in theta-gamma cross-frequency coupling of local field potentials recorded from the mEC of freely moving rTg4510 mice. These differences were not paralleled by changes to the dorsoventral gradient in parvalbumin staining or neurodegeneration. We propose that the selective disruption to dorsal mECs, and the resultant flattening of certain dorsoventral gradients, may contribute to disturbances in spatial information processing observed in this model of dementia. SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT: The medial entorhinal cortex (mEC) plays a key role in spatial memory and is one of the first areas to express the pathological features of dementia. Neurons of the mEC are anatomically arranged to express functional dorsoventral gradients in a variety of neuronal properties, including grid cell firing field spacing, which is thought to encode geometric scale. We have investigated the effects of tau pathology on functional dorsoventral gradients in the mEC. Using electrophysiological approaches, we have shown that, in a transgenic mouse model of dementia, the functional properties of the dorsal mEC are preferentially disrupted, resulting in a flattening of some dorsoventral gradients. Our data suggest that neural signals arising in the mEC will have a reduced spatial content in dementia

Food Insecurity, Food Assistance, and Psychological Distress among University Students: Cross-Sectional Survey Western Australia, 2020

University students have been identified as a population sub-group vulnerable to food insecurity. This vulnerability increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to assess factors associated with food insecurity among university students and the differences between students with and without children. A cross-sectional survey of (n = 213) students attending one university in Western Australia measured food insecurity, psychological distress, and socio-demographic characteristics. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with food insecurity. Forty-eight percent of students who responded to the survey had experienced food insecurity in 2020. International students who were studying in Australia were nine times more likely to experience food insecurity than domestic students (AOR = 9.13; 95% CI = 2.32–35.97). International students with children were more likely to experience food insecurity than international students without children (p < 0.001) and domestic students with (p < 0.001) or without children (p < 0.001). For each unit increase in depression level, the likelihood of experiencing food insecurity increased (AOR = 1.62; 95% CI = 1.12–2.33). Findings show a higher prevalence of food insecurity among international university students and students with children during the COVID-19 pandemic and that food insecurity was associated with higher levels of psychological distress. These findings highlight the need for targeted interventions to mitigate the risk of food insecurity among Australian university students, particularly among international students, students with children, and those experiencing psychological distress

Re-conceptualising the link between research and practice in social work: a literature review on knowledge utilisation

Despite the recent movement towards greater research use in many areas of social work, criticisms persist that decision making in practice is seldom informed by sound research evidence. Discourse about the research-to-practice gap in social work has tended to focus on the feasibility of evidence-based practice for the profession, but has rarely drawn from the broader knowledge utilisation literature. There are important understandings to be gained from the knowledge utilisation field, which spans more than six decades of interdisciplinary research.This article introduces the wider knowledge utilisation literature to a social work audience. It considers the potential of this body of literature to facilitate research use in social work, as well as conceptual issues that may be hindering it from informing improvements to research utilisation in practice

Structure and function of the bacterial heterodimeric ABC transporter CydDC: stimulation of ATPase activity by thiol and heme compounds.

In Escherichia coli, the biogenesis of both cytochrome bd-type quinol oxidases and periplasmic cytochromes requires the ATP-binding cassette-type cysteine/GSH transporter, CydDC. Recombinant CydDC was purified as a heterodimer and found to be an active ATPase both in soluble form with detergent and when reconstituted into a lipid environment. Two-dimensional crystals of CydDC were analyzed by electron cryomicroscopy, and the protein was shown to be made up of two non-identical domains corresponding to the putative CydD and CydC subunits, with dimensions characteristic of other ATP-binding cassette transporters. CydDC binds heme b. Detergent-solubilized CydDC appears to adopt at least two structural states, each associated with a characteristic level of bound heme. The purified protein in detergent showed a weak basal ATPase activity (approximately 100 nmol Pi/min/mg) that was stimulated ∼3-fold by various thiol compounds, suggesting that CydDC could act as a thiol transporter. The presence of heme (either intrinsic or added in the form of hemin) led to a further enhancement of thiol-stimulated ATPase activity, although a large excess of heme inhibited activity. Similar responses of the ATPase activity were observed with CydDC reconstituted into E. coli lipids. These results suggest that heme may have a regulatory role in CydDC-mediated transmembrane thiol transport

Morphology and kinematics of Lynds 1642

The high latitude translucent molecular cloud L1642 has been mapped in the J=1-0 and J=2-1 transitions of 12CO, 13CO and C18O using the SEST radio telescope. We have analysed the morphology and velocity structure of the cloud using the Positive Matrix Factorization (PMF) method. The results show that L1642 is composed of a main structure at radial velocity 0.2 km/s while the higher velocity components at ~0.5 and 1.0 km/s form an incomplete ring around it, suggesting an expanding shell structure. Fainter emission extends to the north with a still higher velocity of up to 1.6 km/s. Such a velocity structure suggests an elongated morphology in the line of sight direction. The physical properties of the cloud have been investigated assuming LTE conditions, but non-LTE radiative transfer models are also constructed for the 13CO observations. We confirm that L1642 follows an r^-1 density distribution in its outer parts while the distribution is considerably flatter in the core. The cloud is close to virial equilibrium. In an Appendix the PMF results are compared with the view obtained through the analysis of channel maps and by the use of Principal Component Analysis (PCA). Both PMF and PCA present the observations as a linear combination of basic spectral shapes that are extracted from the data. Comparison of the methods shows that the PMF method in particular is able to produce a presentation of the complex velocity that is both compact and easily interpreted.Comment: Accepted to A&

Detecting Compaction Disequilibrium with Anisotropy of Magnetic Susceptibility

In clay-rich sediment, microstructures and macrostructures influence how sediments deform when under stress. When lithology is fairly constant, anisotropy of magnetic susceptibility (AMS) can be a simple technique for measuring the relative consolidation state of sediment, which reflects the sediment burial history. AMS can reveal areas of high water content and apparent overconsolidation associated with unconformities where sediment overburden has been removed. Many other methods for testing consolidation and water content are destructive and invasive, whereas AMS provides a nondestructive means to focus on areas for additional geotechnical study. In zones where the magnetic minerals are undergoing diagenesis, AMS should not be used for detecting compaction state. By utilizing AMS in the Santa Barbara Basin, we were able to identify one clear unconformity and eight zones of high water content in three cores. With the addition of susceptibility, anhysteretic remanent magnetization, and isothermal remanent magnetization rock magnetic techniques, we excluded 3 out of 11 zones from being compaction disequilibria. The AMS signals for these three zones are the result of diagenesis, coring deformation, and burrows. In addition, using AMS eigenvectors, we are able to accurately show the direction of maximum compression for the accumulation zone of the Gaviota Slide