Policy and service responses to rough sleeping among older people

Rough sleeping in Britain has a long history, and interventions have alternated between legal sanctions and humanitarian concern. This paper critically examines recent changes in homeless policies and services, with particular reference to the needs of older people who sleep rough. The characteristics and problems of the group are first described. Single homeless people were formerly accommodated in direct-access hostels but, from the 1970s, individualised rehabilitation and resettlement have spread. Most recently, services dedicated to older people have begun (although remain few and are unevenly provided). Their achievements are reviewed and drawn upon in formulating normative proposals of the appropriate service mix. The 1990s ‘Rough Sleepers Initiative’ and related programmes promoted a ‘social care market’ of not-for-profit organisations that compete for increased (but short-term) funds to provide services, and the new Labour government will build upon these changes and increase funds. Low tolerance towards the ‘social exclusion’ of homelessness is promised but unerringly constructed as exclusion from work; while rough sleeping is dubbed as anti-social, coercive approaches to achieve a two-thirds reduction are foreseen. The proposed target might stall the development of diverse and effective services, or reduce providers' capacity to combat the perversities of resource allocation. The overall prospects for the improvement and expansion of services to provide significant help to single older homeless people are uncertain

Northern European retired residents in nine southern European areas: characteristics, motivations and adjustment

During the last two decades, northern European retirement residence in the southern European sunbelt has grown strongly and its forms have rapidly changed, but standard demographic and social statistical sources provide no information about the flows, the migrants or their increasingly mobile and complex residential patterns. Considerable primary research has however recently been undertaken into the causes, conditions, experiences and consequences of international retirement migration (IRM) by investigators from Germany, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. Many collaborated when designing their studies and instruments, and all have subsequently worked together in a European Science Foundation Scientific Network. This paper compares the findings of six systematic social surveys in (to be more precise than the title) eight regions of southern Europe and the Canary Islands: all that have tackled similar research questions with similar methods and instruments. It presents interpretations of several comparative tables compiled from their original data, with a focus on the socio-economic backgrounds, motivations and behaviour of the various migrant groups and their relationship with the host and home countries. The paper presents new findings about the typical and variant forms of IRM, and additional understanding of the heterogeneity of the retirees of different nations and in the several regions

The value of 'writing retreats' in advancing innovative pedagogic research

This paper outlines the work of the Centre for Innovation in Higher Education, which uses an educational laboratory model to advance the intersection of innovative research and teaching at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). This evidence-based approach aims to promote active, reflective engagement with research in teaching and learning; foster collaborative and interdisciplinary inquiry into pedagogic practice; and support the development of a dynamic, sustainable pedagogic research community at ARU. The Centre’s work also increases the visibility and calibre of pedagogic research at national and international level. This paper outlines a current research project being undertaken by researchers from the Centre and Anglia Learning & Teaching which explores the longitudinal impact of its writing retreat provision on participants’ writing practices and productivity, together with their perceptions of writing as a key element of the academic identity. This study is generating valuable original data about academics’ writing practices and perceptions. It will contribute to the understanding of this important topic at a theoretical level, as well as outlining practical means through which universities can foster long-term academic writing productivity leading to enhanced research impact

Childhood peer relationships in context

Gifford-Smith and Brownell (2003) have provided an extensive critical review of the current state of the art in peer relations research. Their thorough review of the basic research in these areas clearly illustrates the complexity of the task of understanding these aspects of children’s social development and how they navigate the interrelated relational ecologies. Our purpose is to extend the discussion by suggesting implications for intervention work and related research

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation: Involving Parents and Teachers in the Treatment of a Child with Selective Mutism

This paper provides a case example of the effects of a behavioral intervention implemented i.n the context. of Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC; Sheridan, Kratochwill & Bergan, 1996) for a five-year-old child with selective mutism. Programming common stimuli was combined with positive reinforcement and ·then implemented by a parent and teacher to improve a child\u27s verbal interactions. Overall, the number of words spoken by the child client per day increased from 0 during baseline to a treatment mean of 7.7 words per day. An effect size of 1.60 was yielded, with 100% non-overlapping data between baseline and treatment phases. Additionally, treatment acceptability ratings from the parent and teacher of the child indicated that the consultation procedure was feasible and effective within the general education setting

T-helper cell polarisation following severe polytrauma

Introduction Severe polytrauma induces an immunosuppressive response and is associated with a very high incidence of nosocomial infections. Previous studies have inferred that this detrimental immune response results from polarisation of the T helper (Th) response towards an anti-inflammatory, TH2 dominated, response at the expense of a bactericidal, Th1 response [1]. Objectives 1) To define alterations in TH cell subsets following severe blunt polytrauma. Methods Patients presenting to the emergency department within 2 hours of severe polytrauma were eligible if intubated either at the scene or in ED. Isolated head injuries and those not expected to survive 24 hours were excluded. EDTA anti-coagulated blood was drawn at 0hr (within 2 hours of injury), at 24 and 72hrs. Samples were immediately lysed, washed, stained and analysed using a standardised human 8-colour TH 1, 2 & 17 panel [2] on an LSR II flow cytometer. A paired white cell count differential was obtained at each sampling point. Patients were followed until discharge or death. Data were analysed using non-parametric statistics, with results presented as median and IQR. Results 15 consecutive severe polytrauma patients requiring Intensive Care Unit (ICU) admission were recruited. Demographic and clinical data are outlined in Figure 1. Twelve (80%) lymphocytosis (3.3x109/L, 2.5 - 4.4x109/L) (Figyre 2A). At 72 hours leukocytes had fallen (P < 0.01, figure 2A) such that 6 (54%) of those surviving were lymphopenic (0.9x109/L, 0.6 - 1.2x109/L). Circulating CD4+ (P = 0.01; Figure 2B) and CD4+CD25+ (P < 0.05) lymphocytes increased over 72 hours. When expressed as a percentage of total circulating lymphocytes no significant change in the proportions of the TH 1, 2 & 17 subpopulations was detected (Figure 2C-E). Conclusions Severe polytrauma patients swiftly become lymphopenic. Although a failure to normalise this during the ICU stay correlates with higher mortality [3] our study of TH cell subtypes demonstrates no evidence of a switch to a detrimental anti-inflammatory TH2 subtype at the expense of the potentially protective bactericidal TH1 subtype

An efficient mixed integer programming model for pairing containers in inland transportation based on the assignment of orders

The inland transportation takes a significant portion of the total cost that arises from intermodal transportation. In addition, there are many parties (shipping lines, haulage companies, customers) who share this operation as well as many restrictions that increase the complexity of this problem and make it NP-hard. Therefore, it is important to create an efficient strategy to manage this process in a way to ensure all parties are satisfied. This paper investigates the pairing of containers/orders in drayage transportation from the perspective of delivering paired containers on 40-ft truck and/or individual containers on 20-ft truck, between a single port and a list of customer locations. An assignment mixed integer linear programming model is formulated, which solves the problem of how to combine orders in delivery to save the total transportation cost when orders with both single and multiple destinations exist. In opposition to the traditional models relying on the vehicle routing problem with simultaneous pickups and deliveries and time windows formulation, this model falls into the assignment problem category which is more efficient to solve on large size instances. Another merit for the proposed model is that it can be implemented on different variants of the container drayage problem: import only, import–inland and import–inland–export. Results show that in all cases the pairing of containers yields less cost compared to the individual delivery and decreases empty tours. The proposed model can be solved to optimality efficiently (within half hour) for over 300 orders

Aptitud combinatoria general de centenos diploides y tetraploides

Se estableció como hipótesis que se pueden encontrar diferencias en rendimiento de forraje en las progenies de distintas líneas o cultivares, tanto de centeno diploide como tetraploide, cuando la fuente de polen es una mezcla de los mismos genotipos intervinientes. El objetivo de este trabajo fue determinar la aptitud combinatoria general en diez genotipos de centeno diploide y diez genotipos de centeno tetraploide utilizando el método de la policruza. Se efectuó La prueba de la policruza y se determinó la Aptitud Combinatoria General (A.C.G.) para producción de biomasa (materia verde y seca) mediante una prueba de progenies de al policruza. En centenos diploides no se encontraron diferencias en la A.C.G. en los diez genotipos estudiados, ni para las distintas fechas de corte ni para la producción total (p&lt;0,05). Los diez genotipos pueden utilizarse para la creación de un cultivar sintético. En centenos tetraploides se encontraron diferencias significativas en la A.C.G. tanto para cada fecha de corte como para la producción acumulada de biomasa. Se propone como alternativa, la formación de dos cultivares sintéticos de centenos tetraploides, uno para la producción temprana y otro para la producción temprana y otro para la producción tardía de forraje.Director: Ing. Agr. Guillermo F. Covas e lng. Agr. Héctor A. Paccapelo, Cátedra de Genética

Giant dispersion of critical currents in superconductor with fractal clusters of a normal phase

The influence of fractal clusters of a normal phase on the dynamics of a magnetic flux trapped in a percolative superconductor is considered. The critical current distribution and the current-voltage characteristics of fractal superconducting structures in the resistive state are obtained for an arbitrary fractal dimension of the cluster boundaries. The range of fractal dimensions, where the dispersion of critical currents becomes infinite, is found. It is revealed that the fractality of clusters depresses of the electric field caused by the magnetic flux motion thus increasing the critical current value. It is expected that the maximum current-carrying capability of a superconductor can be achieved in the region of giant dispersion of critical currents.Comment: 7 pages with 3 figure

Efficacy of conjoint behavioral consultation in developmental-behavioral pediatric services.

• Purpose: To evaluate the effects of the CBC model in addressing presenting concerns for children across home, school, and health care systems. • What are the general effects of CBC in addressing identified concerns in a medically-referred sample? • How do parents and teachers perceive CBC in terms of its perceived effectiveness and acceptability? • How satisfied are parents and teachers with CBC consultants and services when provided across homeschool- medical settings