Foster carers’ narrative; Looking after unaccompanied refugee children in the UK

As the number of refugees increases, the number of unaccompanied refugee children (URC) seeking asylum have continued to surge too as war, famine, and political issues are endless. Following a difficult and often traumatic journey into the United Kingdom (UK) the URC are often placed into foster homes; yet little is known about the foster placements they are placed in as the research in this area is sparse. The current literature has failed to capture the foster carer’s experience of looking after a niche group of children. This study hopes to offer a valuable insight into how we can understand their needs by adopting a narrative thematic method to hear their stories. The research was carried out with five Tower Hamlet foster carers who have had at least one URC in their placement. Each participant engaged in one semi-structured interview which was conducted online due to the Covid-19 outbreak. The interviews were recorded, transcribed by the researcher, and then analysed using narrative thematic analysis, focusing on the stories they shared about their experiences of looking after URC. The analysis found five shared narratives; ‘understanding culture’, ‘accepting help’, ‘feeling safe’, ‘our skills’, and ‘duty to help’ and one uncommon narrative ‘abusing the system’, in which foster carers described their experience

Efficiency and Technological Change in Health Care Services in Ontario

This paper presents productivity measurement results for hospital services using panel data for Ontario hospitals between 2003 and 2006. The study uses the Malmquist Productivity index (MPI) obtained through the application of Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) which is decomposed into efficiency change (ECH), i.e., movement towards the best practice frontier and technological change (TCH), i.e., movement of the frontier itself (Färe et al. [12]). The study also uses kernel density estimation techniques for analysis of efficiency distributions of the productivity scores and their components across different types of hospitals (e.g. small /large and rural /urban) and over time. Our results suggest that in addition to average productivity it is important to examine distributions of productivity and of its components which we find differs by hospital type and over time. We find that productivity growth occurred mostly through improvement in technology and in spite of declining efficiency. The results provide useful insight into the underlying mechanisms of observed changes in overall productivity, in technological change and in technical efficiency change in this vital sector of the health care market.

Learning to Learn-Concepts in a First Power Engineering Course

Three well-known and widely accepted concepts in educational psychology are revisited. These are inventory of learning styles, taxonomy of educational objectives, and metacognition. Relationships among these concepts are highlighted. Often, a student can develop his (or her) own learning style by the process of metacognition. Ideas are borrowed from these concepts for use in a first-level power systems course. It is beyond a doubt that both cognitive and metacognitive skills are necessary for students to succeed in any course. While a semester-long power systems course leaves little time for critical thinking and passive reflection for students, certain activities may very well serve for some of these learning processes

A Rule-Based Dynamic Economic Dispatch for Power Systems

The author introduces a novel operation tool for economic dispatch. It deals with the development and implementation of a new approach-a dynamic rule-based dispatch algorithm that takes into account the major problems faced by the dispatch operator during a dispatch interval and channels those into a database for use by a rule-based system. The algorithm is very fast and can be used effectively in interconnected systems. It can also handle renewable technologies and is therefore considered useful for major electric power utilities contemplating adding a significant amount of these new generation sources to their existing mi

Optimizing the Integration of Photovoltaic Systems with Electric Utilities

The author introduces a comprehensive simulation package whereby the optimal size, operation, performance and economics of a photovoltaic (PV) system can be determined in the utility-integrated mode. The central issue is to present a single definitive optimization model. A stepwise analytical methodology starting at the solar resource and culminating in the value of the PV system in terms of avoided costs is provided. The methodology includes processing of the solar irradiance; identification of the PV system\u27\u27s configuration and operational features; identification of real-time system controls in the presence of PV generation; security assessment in the presence of PV and production costing and capacity expansion analysis with PV. The optimization package is subdivided into five different subgroups based on their respective purposes in the context of the overall scheme. The author describes the functions of each subgroup

Operational Characteristics of Wind Plants and Windfarms

A wide range of power generation technologies exist today, whose characteristics can vary significantly. Additionally, a diverse range of wind turbines are available in the market. With experienced wind developers taking the charge in installing multi-megawatt-size windfarms at a rapid pace, the role of wind power in electricity generation is bound to grow in significance in the coming years. This panel takes a critical look at the operating characteristics of existing and planned wind power generation systems and their relationship to interconnection requirements and performance standards

Power Education at the Crossroads

To meet the demands of designing and running far more complex and highly integrated electricity systems, a new kind of power engineer is needed. In this paper, the author describes how, though students tend to favor higher-tech and more lucrative fields than power Engineering; reports of the discipline\u27\u27s demise are exaggerate