Rhythmic performance in hypokinetic dysarthria : relationship between reading, spontaneous speech and diadochokinetic tasks

Purpose: This study aimed to investigate whether rhythm metrics are sensitive to change in speakers with mild hypokinetic dysarthria, whether such changes can be detected in reading and spontaneous speech, and whether diadochokinetic (DDK) performance relates to rhythmic properties of speech tasks. Method: Ten people with Parkinson’s Disease (PwPD) with mild hypokinetic dysarthria and ten healthy control speakers produced DDK repetitions, a reading passage and a spontaneous monologue. Articulation rate, as well as ten rhythm metrics were applied to the speech data. DDK performance was captured by mean, standard deviation (SD) and coefficient of variation (CoV) of syllable duration. Results: Group differences were apparent across both speech tasks, but mainly in spontaneous speech. The control speakers changed their rhythm performance between the two tasks, whereas the PwPD displayed a more constant behaviour. The correlation analysis of speech and DDK tasks resulted in few meaningful relationships. Conclusions: Rhythm metrics appeared to be sensitive to mild levels of impairment in PwPD. They are thus suitable for use as diagnostic or outcome measures. In addition, we demonstrated that conversational data can be used in the investigation of rhythm. Finally, the value of DDK tasks in predicting the rhythm performance during speech could not be demonstrated successfully

The Role of the Safeguarder in the Children's Hearings System

1.1 Background In 2013, under the auspices of the Children’s Hearings (Scotland) Act 2011 (‘the 2011 Act’) responsibility for safeguarder recruitment, appointment and administration was transferred from local authorities to the Scottish Ministers and a national voluntary organisation, Children 1st, was contracted to set up and administer a national Safeguarders Panel. In September 2016, the Scottish Government commissioned the University of Strathclyde to undertake this study to understand the role of the safeguarder in the children’s hearings system. There have been two such previous studies: The Role of the Safeguarder in Scotland (Hill et al, 2000) and Safeguarders Research (Gadda et al, 2015). As in the 2000 study, the current research team was able to conduct interviews with sheriffs and to include them in the data collected through a questionnaire, thereby offering some further information on the safeguarder role in court proceedings. This current project has also been able to consider some aspects of the framework put in place by Children 1st to promote consistency and quality in performance of the role. There is little academic discussion of the role though it is covered by Sutherland (2008: 10-026 - 10-028) and by Norrie (2013: 2-21 – 2-33). The Scottish Government has also published Practice Notes on the Role of the Safeguarder (Scottish Government, 2016) which is a comprehensive statement, for safeguarders themselves, of the work which they should undertake. In implementing this, together with the statement on the Practice Standards for Safeguarders (Scottish Government, 2015), Children 1st has done much to ensure that the context in which safeguarders operate is clearly defined. 1.2 Aims and Objectives of the Research The aims of the research were as follows: 1. “to identify and quantify the added value that safeguarders bring to decisions relating to children and young people in children’s hearings proceedings from the perspective of practitioners and professionals (including safeguarders themselves); and 2. to inform future development and support requirements for the role of safeguarder within the children’s hearings system through delivering an understanding of how the role of a safeguarder is perceived in practice and how the role impacts on decision-making, both positively and negatively”. The research questions were: to explore how the current system of safeguarders operates, and is managed, from all agency perspectives; to elicit safeguarder and other agency perspectives of the role and effectiveness of safeguarders and how that role interacts/overlaps with other key roles in the children’s hearings system; to identify the skills and qualifications deemed essential to the effectiveness of the safeguarder role; and to identify the type and extent of management, support and training needs currently in place and potentially required to ensure the future effectiveness of the safeguarder role and safeguarder panel. In this report, Chapter 2 describes the methods used and outlines the demographics of the various respondents who participated in the fieldwork. Chapters 3 – 6 present findings, with some discussion at the end of each. Chapter 3 offers an understanding of how the safeguarder role is conceived in practice. Chapter 4 examines the reasons for appointment of safeguarders as part of its exploration of how the current system of safeguarding operates and ways in which the role impacts on decision-making. Chapter 5 continues this exploration from all agency perspectives through an examination of the work which safeguarders actually undertake including investigation, reporting and recommendations, and views of stakeholders on aspects of this. It also looks specifically at the structure, content and quality of safeguarder reports (by comparison also with social work reports). Chapter 6 explores stakeholder views on administration of the current system for safeguarders and also identifies skills and qualifications required for fulfilment of the role of safeguarder and safeguarders’ management, support and training needs. The final Chapter, Chapter 7, provides further analysis of the findings including in relation to the effectiveness and added value of safeguarders

Associations between Ambient Outdoor Temperature and Patterns of Morbidity and Mortality in Scotland

This report investigates the association between ambient air temperature and health impacts, measured as morbidity (hospital admissions) and mortality, in Scotland to determine what evidence there is to reject the (null) hypothesis that there is no relationship

Solving the Reemployment Puzzle: From Research to Policy

Wandner examines the research and evaluation of U.S. employment and training programs over the past 25 years. He also discusses the impact such research can have and how misuse of research findings can hamper program effectiveness.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1221/thumbnail.jp

Introduction [to Solving the Reemployment Puzzle]

Wandner examines the research and evaluation of U.S. employment and training programs over the past 25 years. He also discusses the impact such research can have and how misuse of research findings can hamper program effectiveness.https://research.upjohn.org/up_press/1221/thumbnail.jp

Secondary literacy across the curriculum: Challenges and possibilities

This paper discusses the challenges and possibilities attendant upon successfully implementing literacy across the curriculum initiatives – or ‘school language policies’ as they have come to be known - particularly at the secondary or high school level. It provides a theoretical background to these issues, exploring previous academic discussions of school language policies, and highlights key areas of concern as well as opportunity with respect to school implementation of such policies. As such, it provides a necessary conceptual background to the subsequent papers in this special issue, which focus upon the Secondary Schools’ Literacy Initiative (SSLI) – a New Zealand funded programme that aims to establish cross-curricular language and literacy policies in secondary schools

Eastern European Young People in Brexit Britain : Racism, Anxiety and a Precarious Future [Research and Policy Briefing No.1]

Here to Stay? is a research project which explores the lives of young people who arrived in the UK as migrant children from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It focuses on young people aged 12-18 who migrated after the EU enlargement in 2004 and have lived in the UK for at least 3 years. The project explores how migration and current immigration policies are impacting their lives, how satisfied they are with local services, the quality of their relationships, and what are their feelings of identity and belonging in the UK. The study is important because it presents the first analysis since the Brexit Referendum on how current plans for Britain to leave the European Union are impacting on young Eastern Europeans’ lives. We have gathered the opinions and experiences of over 1,100 young people on a range of issues, including Brexit, their participation in communities and access to services, their experiences of racism and exclusion, their relationships, well-being and plans for future now that the UK is planning to leave the EU. These Briefings aim to inform a wide range of audiences on the experiences of young Eastern Europeans living in contemporary Britain. The Briefings should also help local authorities and other organisations develop policies and improve services for young people, taking into account their needs and experiences

Weak-anchoring effects in a thin pinned ridge of nematic liquid crystal

A theoretical investigation of weak-anchoring effects in a thin two-dimensional pinned static ridge of nematic liquid crystal resting on a flat solid substrate in an atmosphere of passive gas is performed. Specifically, we solve a reduced version of the general system of governing equations recently derived by Cousins et al. [Proc. Roy. Soc. A}, 478(2259):20210849, 2022] valid for a symmetric thin ridge under the one-constant approximation of the Frank--Oseen bulk elastic energy with pinned contact lines to determine the shape of the ridge and the behaviour of the director within it. Numerical investigations covering a wide range of parameter values indicate that the energetically-preferred solutions can be classified in terms of the Jenkins--Barratt--Barbero--Barberi critical thickness into five qualitatively different types of solution. In particular, the theoretical results suggest that anchoring breaking occurs close to the contact lines. The theoretical predictions are supported by the results of physical experiments for a ridge of the nematic 4'-pentyl-4-biphenylcarbonitrile (5CB). In particular, these experiments show that the homeotropic anchoring at the gas--nematic interface is broken close to the contact lines by the stronger rubbed planar anchoring at the nematic--substrate interface. A comparison between the experimental values of and the theoretical predictions for the effective refractive index of the ridge gives a first estimate of the anchoring strength of an interface between air and 5CB to be $(9.80\pm1.12)\times10^{-6}\,{\rm N m}^{-1}$ at a temperature of $(22\pm1.5)^\circ$C

Eastern European Young People's Use of Services in the UK

Here to Stay? is a research project which explores the lives of young people who arrived in the UK as migrant children from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It focuses on young people aged 12-18 who migrated after the EU enlargement in 2004 and have lived in the UK for at least 3 years. The project explores how migration and current immigration policies are impacting their lives, how satisfied they are with local services, the quality of their relationships, and what are their feelings of identity and belonging in the UK. The study is important because it presents the first analysis since the Brexit Referendum on how current plans for Britain to leave the European Union are impacting on young Eastern Europeans’ lives. We have gathered the opinions and experiences of over 1,100 young people on a range of issues, including Brexit, their participation in communities and access to services, their experiences of racism and exclusion, their relationships, well-being and plans for future now that the UK is planning to leave the EU. These Briefings aim to inform a wide range of audiences on the experiences of young Eastern Europeans living in contemporary Britain. The Briefings should also help local authorities and other organisations develop policies and improve services for young people, taking into account their needs and experiences

Eastern European Young People's Political and Community Engagement in the UK

Here to Stay? is a research project which explores the lives of young people who arrived in the UK as migrant children from Central and Eastern Europe (CEE). It focuses on young people aged 12-18 who migrated after the EU enlargement in 2004 and have lived in the UK for at least 3 years. The project explores how migration and current immigration policies are impacting their lives, how satisfied they are with local services, the quality of their relationships, and what are their feelings of identity and belonging in the UK. The study is important because it presents the first analysis since the Brexit Referendum on how current plans for Britain to leave the European Union are impacting on young Eastern Europeans’ lives. We have gathered the opinions and experiences of over 1,100 young people on a range of issues, including Brexit, their participation in communities and access to services, their experiences of racism and exclusion, their relationships, well-being and plans for future now that the UK is planning to leave the EU. These Briefings aim to inform a wide range of audiences on the experiences of young Eastern Europeans living in contemporary Britain. The Briefings should also help local authorities and other organisations develop policies and improve services for young people, taking into account their needs and experiences