The Rate, Causes and Consequences of Home Closures

One of the attributes of a mixed economy of care is that inevitably some homes will go out of business, with consequent costs for the individuals involved and the regulating authorities. However, the rise in home closures during recent years has given rise to concerns about the capacity of the care home sector and the effects on current residents. This report describes the results of the first phase of a study on the causes, processes and consequences of home closure. A survey of registration and inspection (R&I) units was conducted to identify rates of closure, the proportion of closures that were due to business reasons, changes in registration, the consequences for supply and the views of unit managers. A follow up telephone interview was conducted with those units that covered areas included in a 1996 survey of homes. This interview was used to collect more detailed information about the two most recent closures

If you build it, will they come? How researchers perceive and use web 2.0

Over the past 15 years, the web has transformed the way we seek and use information. In the last 5 years in particular a set of innovative techniques – collectively termed ‘web 2.0’ – have enabled people to become producers as well as consumers of information. It has been suggested that these relatively easy-to-use tools, and the behaviours which underpin their use, have enormous potential for scholarly researchers, enabling them to communicate their research and its findings more rapidly, broadly and effectively than ever before. This report is based on a study commissioned by the Research Information Network to investigate whether such aspirations are being realised. It seeks to improve our currently limited understanding of whether, and if so how, researchers are making use of various web 2.0 tools in the course of their work, the factors that encourage or inhibit adoption, and researchers’ attitudes towards web 2.0 and other forms of communication. Context: How researchers communicate their work and their findings varies in different subjects or disciplines, and in different institutional settings. Such differences have a strong influence on how researchers approach the adoption – or not – of new information and communications technologies. It is also important to stress that ‘web 2.0’ encompasses a wide range of interactions between technologies and social practices which allow web users to generate, repurpose and share content with each other. We focus in this study on a range of generic tools – wikis, blogs and some social networking systems – as well as those designed specifically by and for people within the scholarly community. Method: Our study was designed not only to capture current attitudes and patterns of adoption but also to identify researchers’ needs and aspirations, and problems that they encounter. We began with an online survey, which collected information about researchers’ information gathering and dissemination habits and their attitudes towards web 2.0. This was followed by in-depth, semi-structured interviews with a stratified sample of survey respondents to explore in more depth their experience of web 2.0, including perceived barriers as well as drivers to adoption. Finally, we undertook five case studies of web 2.0 services to investigate their development and adoption across different communities and business models. Key findings: Our study indicates that a majority of researchers are making at least occasional use of one or more web 2.0 tools or services for purposes related to their research: for communicating their work; for developing and sustaining networks and collaborations; or for finding out about what others are doing. But frequent or intensive use is rare, and some researchers regard blogs, wikis and other novel forms of communication as a waste of time or even dangerous. In deciding if they will make web 2.0 tools and services part of their everyday practice, the key questions for researchers are the benefits they may secure from doing so, and how it fits with their use of established services. Researchers who use web 2.0 tools and services do not see them as comparable to or substitutes for other channels and means of communication, but as having their own distinctive role for specific purposes and at particular stages of research. And frequent use of one kind of tool does not imply frequent use of others as well

Crime scene examiners and volume crime investigations: an empirical study of perception and practice

Most police forces in the UK employ specially trained crime scene examiners (CSEs) to provide forensic science support to the investigation of crime. Previous research has shown wide variations in the management, deployment, and performance of this staff group. There is also evidence that informal elements of professional and organisational culture, in particular the role characterisations of crime scene examiners, also have a bearing on their effective use in the investigation of high volume property crime. These issues are explored as part of a more extensive study of forensic science provision in the two largest police forces in Scotland and by the four main Scottish Police Services Authority Forensic Services (SPSA FS) units. A range of staff in these organisations described their understandings of the role of crime scene examiners – as evidence collectors, forensic investigators, specialist advisers, or any combination of these. Whilst two thirds (62%) of respondents recognised the complexity and scope of the role of CSEs including its cognitive elements, a substantial minority (38%) categorised the role as having a single element – collecting evidence – and therefore perceived it as limited largely mechanical in character. The reasons for, and consequences of, this perception are considered, and the paper concludes with a challenge to reconsider this limited view of what crime scene examiners can contribute to volume crime investigations

Standardisation and innovation

The paper discusses the relations that exist between standards on the one hand, and innovation and implementation on the other. We will argue that these activities must not be considered separately, especially since standards-based components are going to play an increasingly important role in implementation processes

On the Observability of Optically Thin Coronal Hyperfine Structure Lines

We present Cloudy calculations for the intensity of coronal hyperfine lines in various environments. We model indirect collisional and radiative transitions, and quantify the collisionally-excited line emissivity in the density-temperature phase-space. As an observational aid, we also express the emissivity in units of the continuum in the 0.4--0.7 keV band. For most hyperfine lines, knowledge of the X-ray surface brightness and the plasma temperature is sufficient for rough estimates. We find that the radiation fields of both Perseus A and Virgo A can enhance the populations of highly ionized species within 1 kpc. They can also enhance line emissivity within the cluster core. This could have implications for the interpretation of spectra around bright AGN. We find the intensity of the $^{57}$Fe XXIV {\lambda}3.068 mm to be about two orders of magnitude fainter than previously thought, at about 20 {\mu}K. Comparably bright lines may be found in the infrared. Finally, we find the intensity of hyperfine lines in the Extended Orion Nebula to be low, due to the shallow sightline. Observations of coronal hyperfine lines will likely be feasible with the next generation of radio and sub-mm telescopes.Comment: 48 pages; 13 figures; 9 tables; additional images available at the online journa

Pick-n-mix approaches to technology supply : XML as a standard “glue” linking universalised locals

We report on our experiences in a participatory design project to develop ICTs in a hospital ward working with deliberate self-harm patients. This project involves the creation and constant re-creation of sociotechnical ensembles in which XML-related technologies may come to play vital roles. The importance of these technologies arises from the aim underlying the project of creating systems that are shaped in locally meaningful ways but reach beyond their immediate context to gain wider importance. We argue that XML is well placed to play the role of "glue" that binds multiple such systems together. We analyse the implications of localised systems development for technology supply and argue that inscriptions that are evident in XML-related standards are and will be very important for the uptake of XML technologies