Living the multicultural city: acceptance, belonging and young identities in the city of Leicester, England

Drawing upon research conducted with young people in the city of Leicester, England, this paper explores what it means for those from black and minority ethnic communities, particularly more recent arrivals, to live within and adapt to specific multicultural urban contexts. After introducing prevailing racisms and accommodations, the paper examines how forms of belonging are expressed, re-produced and negotiated through the spatial trajectories of everyday life. This includes the value of emerging versions of place through community, religious practice as a form of social capital, the importance of routine, and the construction of multifaceted identities. Such experiences relate to contingent hierarchies of acceptance and legitimacy, histories of settlement, economic marginalization, as well as gendered and generational roles. These young people negotiate everyday life and belonging by retaining, extending and forging local and trans-national ties; highlighting the relationship between sociospatial positions, everyday practice and identity formation

A study on the management of corticosteroid side effects in cancer patients

Background Systemic corticosteroids lead to many adverse effects especially in cancer patients. Preventive measures and treatment options are essential to minimise such side effects. Objectives The aims of the study included the evaluation of the prescribers’ management of corticosteroid induced hyperglycaemia, dyspepsia, oral candidiasis and proximal myopathy, the discussion of possible reasons for non-adherence to guidelines, and the recommendation of interventions to reduce their risk of occurrence. Method A retrospective review of the medical records for 156 consecutive patients at oncology out-patients and in oncology wards of Boffa Hospital between the 1st and the 14th September 2014 was performed. Only patients who were on long term corticosteroids (>2 weeks’ duration) were considered. Patients younger than 12 years of age or those that were prescribed corticosteroids for antiemetic purposes were excluded from the study. For each of the sampled patients, any management aimed at reducing corticosteroid side effects was compared to the guidelines as stated in an article published in a prominent international journal. Results From 156 cancer patients, 55 patients satisfied the inclusion criteria. The mostly addressed side effect was dyspepsia (n=35; 63.6%) followed by proximal myopathy (n=27; 49%), hyperglycaemia (n=24; 43.6%) and lastly oral candidiasis (n=20; 36%). Adherence to guidelines was as follows: hyperglycaemia – haemo-glucose test (HGT) and glycated haemoglobin (HbA1c) (36%); dyspepsia - prescribing of omeprazole (51%) and ranitidine (5%); oral candidiasis - orophargyngeal exam (29%); and proximal myopathy (40% compliance; of which 35% complying with resistance and endurance exercise and 5% complying with steroid dose reduction). Conclusion Improvement is required with regards to the management of corticosteroid side effects especially for hyperglycaemia and oral candidiasis. Possible actions that may be taken include strategies to improve guideline awareness, the prescribing of the lowest effective dose, adequate patient education and the implementation of a steroid card.peer-reviewe

Using a perceptual measure to evaluate students’ acceptance of digitally-created English learning content

The use of connected computers as interactive tools in the creation and presentation of media-rich content for teaching is increasing rapidly. However, while it is technically possible to create or use digital materials, a number of issues must be explored before teachers can confidently reuse them. Teachers need to know whether the digitally-created content works effectively in their teaching. Institutions need to assure that the content is of the highest standards and fit for educational purpose. This paper outlines the process and procedures used in the development of an instrument to investigate students’ perceptions of digital materials presented in an English language course at a college in Japan. It also describes how a perceptual measure can be used to evaluate whether the content presented meets the learners’ needs

Clinicians’ adherence to local antibiotic guidelines for upper respiratory tract infections in the ear, nose & throat casualty department of a public general hospital

Background: In Malta, resistance to antibiotics constitutes a major threat to public health. This study aims to assess clinicians’ adherence to local antibiotic guidelines when treating cases of acute otitis media, acute tonsillitis and rhinosinusitis, that present to the ear, nose and throat (ENT) casualty department in Malta’s public general hospital, as well as to recommend methods for improving adherence and minimising overprescribing. Methodology: Data on first line antibiotic prescribing regimens was retrieved from ENT casualty sheets between February and March 2015 for adult patients (>12years) diagnosed with acute otitis media, acute tonsillitis and persistent rhinosinusitis. On an audit form, aspects of the prescribed antibiotic were benchmarked to local infection control antibiotic guidelines of 2011 to evaluate adherence. Results: From 1010 casualty records, 188 were antibiotic prescriptions, of which 93 (49.4%) were correctly indicated as per guidelines. From the indicated prescriptions 81 (87%) were assessable, out of which full adherence was only observed in 6 (7%) of prescriptions. All of these were for rhinosinusitis. Full adherence in rhinosinusitis was found to be 43%, whilst no adherence was found in the other infections. The most prescribed antibacterial for all three infections was co-amoxiclav. Conclusion: The current antibiotic guidelines have not been adequately implemented as adherence to antibiotic choice alone was low in all infections. This may have an impact on antibiotic-resistant rates and infection incident rates. Hence to improve adherence to local antibiotic guidelines, it is recommended that these should be clear, regularly updated, well disseminated and reinforced. The addition of a care pathway may further improve appropriate antibiotic use.peer-reviewe

A semantics and implementation of a causal logic programming language

The increasingly widespread availability of multicore and manycore computers demands new programming languages that make parallel programming dramatically easier and less error prone. This paper describes a semantics for a new class of declarative programming languages that support massive amounts of implicit parallelism

Datalog as a parallel general purpose programming language

The increasing available parallelism of computers demands new programming languages that make parallel programming dramatically easier and less error prone. It is proposed that datalog with negation and timestamps is a suitable basis for a general purpose programming language for sequential, parallel and distributed computers. This paper develops a fully incremental bottom-up interpreter for datalog that supports a wide range of execution strategies, with trade-offs affecting efficiency, parallelism and control of resource usage. Examples show how the language can accept real-time external inputs and outputs, and mimic assignment, all without departing from its pure logical semantics

A Parallel semantics for normal logic programs plus time

It is proposed that Normal Logic Programs with an explicit time ordering are a suitable basis for a general purpose parallel programming language. Examples show that such a language can accept real-time external inputs and outputs, and mimic assignment, all without departing from its pure logical semantics. This paper describes a fully incremental bottom-up interpreter that supports a wide range of parallel execution strategies and can extract significant potential parallelism from programs with complex dependencies

Conference Proceedings SINO/NZ TVET Educational Research Forum - Tianjin, P.R. China

The New Zealand and Chinese Ministries of Education have signed a strategic educational partnership to strengthen the links between the two countries. They have agreed to host an annual symposium, showcasing best practice in the delivery of vocational teaching. This publication provides the papers presented by New Zealand authors to the second Sino / NZ TVET Educational Forum held in Tianjin, P.R. China in November 2014