Beings in their own right? Exploring Children and young people's sibling and twin relationships in the Minority World

This paper examines the contributions that the sociological study of sibship and twinship in the Minority World can make to childhood studies. It argues that, in providing one forum within which to explore children and young people's social relationships, we can add to our understanding of children and young people's interdependence and develop a more nuanced understanding of agency. As emergent subjects, children, young people and adults are in a process of ‘becoming’. However, this does not mean that they can ‘become’ anything they choose to. The notion of negotiated interdependence (Punch 2002) is useful in helping us to grasp the contingent nature of children and young people's agency

Unequal pay for equal parts A survey of performers in the theatre and the electronic media

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q96/03125 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Soft loan schemes and the finance gap An evaluation study

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q94/24764 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

A directory of soft loan schemes available for small businesses in England

SIGLEAvailable from British Library Document Supply Centre- DSC:q95/16680 / BLDSC - British Library Document Supply CentreGBUnited Kingdo

Costs and longer-term savings of parenting programmes for the prevention of persistent conduct disorder: a modelling study

Background Conduct disorders are the most common psychiatric disorders in children and may persist into adulthood in about 50% of cases. The costs to society are high and impact many public sector agencies. Parenting programmes have been shown to positively affect child behaviour, but little is known about their potential long-term cost-effectiveness. We therefore estimate the costs of and longer-term savings from evidence-based parenting programmes for the prevention of persistent conduct disorder. Methods A decision-analytic Markov model compares two scenarios: 1) a 5-year old with clinical conduct disorder receives an evidence-based parenting programme; 2) the same 5-year old does not receive the programme. Cost-savings analysis is performed by comparing the probability that conduct disorder persists over time in each scenario, adopting both a public sector and a societal perspective. If the intervention is successful in reducing persistent conduct disorder, cost savings may arise from reduced use of health services, education support, social care, voluntary agencies and from crimes averted. Results Results strongly suggest that parenting programmes reduce the chance that conduct disorder persists into adulthood and are cost-saving to the public sector within 5-8 years under base case conditions. Total savings to society over 25 years are estimated at £16,435 per family, which compares with an intervention cost in the range of £952-£2,078 (2008/09 prices). Conclusions Effective implementation of evidence-based parenting programmes is likely to yield cost savings to the public sector and society. More research is needed to address evidence gaps regarding the current level of provision, longer-term effectiveness and questions of implementation, engagement and equity

Characterization of Saharan dust, marine aerosols and mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols and dust by means of multi-wavelength depolarization and Raman lidar measurements during SAMUM 2

The particle linear depolarization ratio δp of Saharan dust, marine aerosols and mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols from southern West Africa and Saharan dust was determined at three wavelengths with three lidar systems during the SAharan Mineral dUst experiMent 2 at the airport of Praia, Cape Verde, between 22 January and 9 February 2008. The lidar ratio Sp of these major types of tropospheric aerosols was analysed at two wavelengths. For Saharan dust, we find wavelength dependent mean particle linear depolarization ratios δp of 0.24-0.27 at 355 nm, 0.29-0.31 at 532 nm and 0.36-0.40 at 710 nm, and wavelength independent mean lidar ratios Sp of 48-70 sr. Mixtures of biomass-burning aerosols and dust show wavelength independent values of δp and Sp between 0.12-0.23 and 57-98 sr, respectively. The mean values of marine aerosols range independent of wavelength for δp from 0.01 to 0.03 and for Sp from 14 to 24 sr.Peer reviewe