Supporting experienced hospital nurses to move into community matron roles

Report of a study to examine the key knowledge and support required by nurses, experienced in the management of patients with long term conditions, to work in primary care contexts in undertaking community matron roles. Commissioned by the Department of Health (England) 200

Critical issues in social science climate change research

Copyright © 2014 Academy of Social SciencesThis paper examines the challenges and opportunities for social scientists working on climate change research. Much work is required to expose and destabilise taken-for-granted assumptions about: (i) the nature of climate change, its complex ontology and knowledge-making practices; and (ii) how academic knowledge is made at the expense of other ways of knowing, doing and being in the world. I examine the relationship between the natural and social sciences, the epistemological question of what people are, and the multiple spaces, sites and practices across which and about which social science research on climate change is being produced

Cultural ecosystem services and the challenge for cultural geography

Copyright © 2014 The Author(s) Geography Compass © 2014 John Wiley & Sons LtdCultural ecosystem services are one of four services identified by the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment as critical to the support of human life on earth and therefore in need of proper valuation and protection. Cultural services seem to embody the objects of enquiry for cultural geographers interested in landscape, identity and place. However, potentially insurmountable epistemological challenges face the participation of cultural geographers in the following: (i) the identification and evaluation of CES; and (ii) the operationalisation of environmental governance. One challenge for cultural geographers is to make the relevance of their theoretical and conceptual insights felt in a field dominated by the natural sciences and scientific epistemologies. Meanwhile, the problems of defining and identifying cultural services in ways that make them compatible with provision, regulating and supporting services, even threaten the continued inclusion of cultural services in the ecosystem services approach. The concept of landscape seems to provide a shared intellectual terrain over which cultural geographers can work with others interested in cultural ecosystem services

Upper limits on K-band polarization in three high-redshift radio galaxies: LBDS 53W091, 3C 441 and MRC 0156-252

We present the results of K-band imaging polarimetry of three radio galaxies, including the very red and apparently old z=1.55 galaxy 53W091. We find weak evidence for polarization in components of 3C 441 and in the south-east companion of 53W091, but no evidence of significant polarization in 53W091 itself. We also find strong evidence that MRC 0156-252 is unpolarised. We present upper limits for the K-band polarization of all three sources. For 53W091, the lack of significant K-band polarization provides further confidence that its red R-K colour can be attributed to a mature stellar population, consistent with the detailed analyses of its ultraviolet spectral-energy distribution which indicate a minimum age of 2-3.5 Gyr.Comment: 7 pages, 3 postscript figures. In press at MNRA

Root mass and root distribution of irrigated brome as affected by long-term nitrogen fertilization

Non-Peer Reviewe

A Stakeholder Generated Conceptualization for Successful Return to Work Outcome Evaluation: A Concept Mapping Approach

Measurement of return to work (RTW) lacks attention to outcomes of relevance to all stakeholders. The objective of this thesis was to define what constitutes a successful RTW outcome from a stakeholder perspective and determine how to best measure it. A concept mapping method was used to create a conceptualization of successful RTW outcome based on indicators of interest and importance to various stakeholders. RTW researchers were questioned and the literature was searched for measures that mapped to the conceptualization and concepts. Stakeholders, made up of RTW consumers and providers, generated 48 indicators of successful RTW which were subsequently grouped into six concepts. Stakeholders also rated the importance of each of the indicators. In preparation for creating a final conceptualization the stakeholder-generated concepts and rating data were presented to a researcher group who were invited to comment and provide further input. The researcher group confirmed the inclusiveness of the generated concepts and discussed various aspects of the resulting conceptualization. Names of measures that appeared to evaluate various concepts were also offered. The final conceptualization was constructed in an attempt to reflect both practice and research realities. The stakeholder-generated data, discussion points from RTW researcher focus groups and the investigator’s intimate knowledge of both practical RTW issues and RTW literature were used in the creation of a logic model. Final concepts were support and collaboration, stakeholder perspectives, rights, respect and dignity, maintenance of well-being, worker job function and worker job satisfaction. The logic model was developed to illustrate temporal aspects and the relationships among the concepts of this RTW outcome evaluation theory. This project is the first that identifies shared and clear goals of RTW program outcomes. Results suggest that there are measures that fully capture some concepts but aspects of other concepts will likely need development of new measures. Further study is needed to determine the ability of the model to differentiate between successful and unsuccessful RTW outcomes and to develop an outcome measure that targets the concepts of the model explicitly