Process Evaluation of the Realising Ambition Programme

Launched in May 2012 by the Big Lottery Fund (hereafter 'the Fund'), the Realising Ambition programme aims to help more young people aged 8-14 fulfil their potential and avoid pathways into offending. It does this by supporting 25 organisations to replicate proven youth interventions at new sites across the UK. The Realising Ambition process evaluation covered the first three, of five, years of the programme (2012-2015). The process evaluation had two key objectives:* To gain an understanding of the practical issues associated with replication, including issues emerging for organisations involved in replication themselves.* To explore what does and doesn't work when supporting organisations to replicate proven models, and the resources required to support different approaches to replication

Investigating the role of executive attentional control to self-harm in a non-clinical cohort with borderline personality features

Self-injurious behavior (or self-harm) is a frequently reported maladaptive behavior in the general population and a key feature of borderline personality disorder (BPD). Poor affect regulation is strongly linked to a propensity to self-harm, is a core component of BPD, and is linked with reduced attentional control abilities. The idea that attentional control difficulties may provide a link between BPD, negative affect and self-harm has yet to be established, however. The present study explored the putative relationship between levels of BPD features, three aspects of attentional/executive control, affect, and self-harm history in a sample of 340 non-clinical participants recruited online from self-harm forums and social networking sites. Analyses showed that self-reported levels of BPD features and attentional focusing predicted self-harm incidence, and high attentional focusing increased the likelihood of a prior self-harm history in those with high BPD features. Ability to shift attention was associated with a reduced likelihood of self-harm, suggesting that good attentional switching ability may provide a protective buffer against self-harm behavior for some individuals. These attentional control differences mediated the association between negative affect and self-harm, but the relationship between BPD and self-harm appears independent

Smart Metering Early Learning Project: Synthesis Report

Smart electricity and gas meters with the offer of an in-home display are due to be rolled out to all households in Great Britain by the end of 2020. DECC commissioned this synthesis research as part of its work to support a successful smart metering implementation programme (the Programme), to offer an initial analysis of progress to date and to learn how householders can best be engaged in order to benefit from the roll-out, in particular by saving energy. This report summarises and analyses evidence from a range of sources, including three new DECC research projects into how GB householders engage with smart metering, GB and international evidence on smart metering and energy feedback, and evidence from public health behaviour change programmes

Applying Theory of Change to strategy articulation cycles in design projects: Potentials and shortcomings through the Designscapes case study

Since the 1990s, the framework of Theory of Change has been used to address complex contexts of intervention especially in relation to planning and evaluating social practice. Theory of Change can be defined as the systematic and cumulative study of the links between the activities, outcomes, and context of an intervention. The aim of this paper is to explore through a case study whether Theory of Change can support more strategic approaches in design. In particular, the paper examines how Theory of Change was applied to DESIGNSCAPES - a project oriented, among other things, toward offering a supporting service for all those city actors interested in using design to develop urban innovation initiatives that tackle complex issues of broad concern

A slope-theory approach to electrical probe recording on phase-change media

Copyright © 2005 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Journal of Applied Physics 97 (2005) and may be found at http://link.aip.org/link/?JAPIAU/97/103537/1notes: The first paper to address theoretically the issue of writing resolution in electrical probe recording on phase-change media. The theory combined the thermal, kinetic, and electronic properties of the storage medium in an analytical framework to predict the ultimate writing resolutions of this technology. The theory also provided directions in material selection and design to increase the resolution and hence storage density of this new technology. The work led to invited presentations at on probe-based storage at the IEEE/IoP Magnetics Society Wohlfarth Lecture Meeting, London, April 2005 and at the Seagate Research Conclave, June 2007 at Sprintown, Northern Ireland.A theoretical approach to predicting the spatial extent of the amorphous to crystalline transition region during the probe recording process on phase-change storage media is presented. The extent of this transition region determines the ultimate achievable linear density for data storage using phase-change materials. The approach has parallels with the slope theory used to find magnetic transition lengths in magnetic recording, and shows that the amorphous to crystalline transition length can be minimized by reducing the thickness of the phase-change layer, by minimizing lateral heat flow, and by maximizing the ratio of the activation energy for crystallization to the transition temperature Ec/Tt

Baseline patient profiling and three-year outcome data after metabolic surgery at a South African centre of excellence

The bariatric team at Waterfall City Hospital in Gauteng has performed 820 metabolic surgeries under the guidance of an extended team, and with comprehensive recordkeeping. Baseline profiling on more than 50 variables afforded insight into patients undergoing surgery. The available outcome data over three years were comparable with those in the documented literature. The attempted weight loss period prior to agreeing to surgery was 16–18 years. Weight loss in the overall cohort was 29% at three years, with a two-year outcome as follows: diabetes mellitus remission of 81.6% in males and 83.1% in females, full and part-hypertension resolution of 84.8% in males and 74.6% in females, hyperlipidaemia on no treatment of 76.8% in males and 72.1% in females, and sleep apnoea of 75.5% in males and 76.8% in females. Separating out the diabetic group indicated a diabetes mellitus remission of 73.9% in males and 75.1% in females at one year. Improvement in the components of metabolic syndrome was demonstrated in the total cohort. There was an worse profile and higher risk in the male patients. Similarly, higher risk was recorded in the biliopancreatic diversion-duodenal switch cohort, and there was a higher percentage of elected diabetic patients. A wide range of revision surgery was performed, with a higher complication rate (20%) experienced compared to that recorded with the primary surgeries. The morbidity data were separated into medical and surgical morbidity. Major medical morbidity was documented at 5.6% and surgical morbidity at 3.9%. Surgical morbidity in the first 250 cases was reported to be 6% vs. 2.7% in the last 570 cases. Mortality for the cohort was noted to be 0.1%.Keywords: bariatric surgery, outcome data, profiling, South Afric