Unseen roots and unfolding flowers? Prison learning, equality and the education of socially excluded groups

The objective of this theoretical article is to critique the notion that adult education, in its current marketised formations, might serve the purpose of rehabilitating learners. To date there has been no detailed interrogation by educationalists of the desirability of rehabilitation as an overarching aim for prison education, or to consider the existing educational philosophies that notions of rehabilitation might cohere with. This article begins to address this gap by engaging with the idea of rehabilitation from a critical adult education perspective. The conceptual framework informing the analysis is critical adult education theory, drawing tangentially on the work of Raymond Williams. The overarching assumption is that education might be understood as the practice of equality, which I employ alongside conceptualisations of empowering adult literacies learning as drawn from writings in the field of New Literacies Studies (NLS). These approaches enable the critique of criminological theory associated with prison learning, alongside the critique of assumptions traceable to NLS. The analysis focuses more specifically on Scotland’s prison system, where the criminological theory of ‘desistance’ currently holds some sway. I observe that whilst perspectives of criminologists and educationists draw upon similar sociological assumptions and underpinnings, different conclusions are inferred about the purpose and practice of adult learning. Here criminologists' conceptualisations tend to neglect power contexts, instead inferring educational practices associated typically with early years education. I also demonstrate the importance of equality in the context of adult education, if educators are to take responsibility for the judgements they make in relation to the education of socially excluded groups

Impact of clinical phenotypes on management and outcomes in European atrial fibrillation patients: a report from the ESC-EHRA EURObservational Research Programme in AF (EORP-AF) General Long-Term Registry

Background: Epidemiological studies in atrial fibrillation (AF) illustrate that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. We aimed to describe European AF patients\u2019 clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course. Methods: We performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward\u2019s Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. We investigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. Results: A total of 9363 were available for this analysis. We identified three clusters: Cluster 1 (n = 3634; 38.8%) characterized by older patients and prevalent non-cardiac comorbidities; Cluster 2 (n = 2774; 29.6%) characterized by younger patients with low prevalence of comorbidities; Cluster 3 (n = 2955;31.6%) characterized by patients\u2019 prevalent cardiovascular risk factors/comorbidities. Over a mean follow-up of 22.5 months, Cluster 3 had the highest rate of cardiovascular events, all-cause death, and the composite outcome (combining the previous two) compared to Cluster 1 and Cluster 2 (all P <.001). An adjusted Cox regression showed that compared to Cluster 2, Cluster 3 (hazard ratio (HR) 2.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) 2.27\u20133.62; HR 3.42, 95%CI 2.72\u20134.31; HR 2.79, 95%CI 2.32\u20133.35), and Cluster 1 (HR 1.88, 95%CI 1.48\u20132.38; HR 2.50, 95%CI 1.98\u20133.15; HR 2.09, 95%CI 1.74\u20132.51) reported a higher risk for the three outcomes respectively. Conclusions: In European AF patients, three main clusters were identified, differentiated by differential presence of comorbidities. Both non-cardiac and cardiac comorbidities clusters were found to be associated with an increased risk of major adverse outcomes

Smartline Environmental Sensor Data and Utility Usage, 2017–2023

The Smartline sensor datasets include utility usage (Gas, Water, Electricity), indoors environmental parameters (Temperature, Humidity, TVOC - Total Volatile Organic Compounds, eCO2 - Estimated Carbon Dioxide, P.M2.5 - Airborne Particulate Matter More than 300 households were recruited in 2017 to take part in the Smartline project to provide data on health, wellbeing, community, indoor environment and utility usages. The overarching aim of the project was to explore and trial opportunities for technology to support people to live healthier and happier lives in their homes and communities. 329 households completed survey questionnaires and 279 opted to have sensors installed. The network of sensors, from which the accompanying data derive, provide opportunities to gain insight in to existing utility usage and environmental conditions in homes. Surveys of participating households were undertaken at several points in the project and linked to sensor data, enabling better exploration of the everyday human lives behind the sensor data. Many of the sensors have recorded data spanning more than 5 years, capturing regular patterns resulting from participants daily routines, seasonal climatic variation, and local weather activity. Unexpected events such as the Covid-19 pandemic, cost of living crisis, and a record summer heatwave all fall within the timeframe of the sensor data.</p

Fragmentation functions at ZEUS

The scaled momentum spectra of final state charged hadrons produced in Deep Inelastic Scattering in the ranges 10 < Q(2) < 1280 GeV2 and 6 . 10(-4) < x(Bjorken) < 5 . 10(-2) have been measured in the current region of the Breit frame using the ZEUS detector. The evolution with Q(2) of the scaled momentum, x(p) = 2p(Breit)/Q, has been investigated and preliminary results are presented which show evidence for scaling violations and support for the universality of quark fragmentation

Jet shapes at HERA

The shape of jets produced in quasi-real photon-proton interactions and deep inelastic positron-proton scattering (DIS) at high Q(2) (Q(2) > 100 GeV2) has been measured with the ZEUS detector at HERA. Jets with transverse energies E-T(jet) > 14 GeV and pseudorapidities (eta(jet)) in the range -1 collisions, and are similar to those in e(+)e(-) interactions

D* and J/psi inelastic photoproduction at HERA

Cross sections of D* and J/Psi inelastic photoproduction were measured by the ZEUS detector at HERA collider. Comparisons of the data with calculations in NLO pQCD and SHA QCD approaches were made

Measurement of the proton structure function F-2 and the total gamma*p cross-section at low Q(2) and low x

The ZEUS-experiment at HERA has significantly enhanced the kinematic coverage for low Q(2) and low x inelastic e(+)p --> e(+) X scattering with an upgrade of the ZEUS-detector in 1995 which extends the acceptance for small positron scattering angles. The upgrade included the modification of the beam pipe with low mass exit windows and the installation of a small electromagnetic sampling calorimeter, the Beam Pipe Calorimeter (BPC), to explore the region in Q(2) of 0.11 less than or equal to Q(2) less than or equal to 0.65 GeV2. A shift of two rear uranium calorimeter (RCAL) modules and the small rear tracking detector (SRTD) closer to the beam together with a data sample taken with a shifted event vertex extended the Q(2) coverage of the main detector down to 0.6 GeV2. Both data sets have been used to measure the proton structure function F-2 and the total virtual photonproton gamma*p cross-section. Results are presented for 0.11 less than or equal to Q(2) less than or equal to 6.10 GeV2 and 2.10(-6) less than or equal to x less than or equal to 7.10(-4) along with a comparison to various models

Measurement of dijets in DIS and comparison to NLO calculations

We report a measurement of the dijet production cross section in neutral current deep inelastic scattering with the ZEUS detector at the HERA ep collider. Dijet events are identified with the cone algorithm and the results are compared to next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations. The systematic uncertainties of both the measurement and the calculation we discussed