“Having Your Say” – Reflections on a Training Course For Older People Volunteering to Become Peer Visitors in Care Homes

This article analyses the “Having Your Say” training course which was designed as the initial stage of a project developing peer visitors for older people’s residential care homes. Peer visitors are older people who volunteer to take on a role aimed at capturing a “peer” perspective on the qualitative aspects of living within a residential care home 1, in contrast to the empirical and regulatory perspectives which various managerial and inspectoral regimes already address as part of their statutory obligations. This training course represents part of an ongoing programme aimed at further developing partnership working between a statutory provider, a higher education institution and a range of service user organisations including Worcestershire Association of Service Users (WASU) and Worcestershire Older Peoples’ Forum, a further intention being to evaluate the effectiveness of the actual “Having Your Say” scheme itself once it has become more fully established. Considered within the article are the processes of developing and implementing preliminary support and learning for peer visitors, the reflective learning environment’s ability to facilitate older participants’’ learning and experience in order to further inform the project and an examination of the challenges involved in working with older people in learning and teaching activities. The “Having Your Say” project is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK

Radio Pulse Properties of the Millisecond Pulsar PSR J0437-4715. I. Observations at 20cm

We present a total of 48 minutes of observations of the nearby, bright millisecond pulsar PSR J0437-4715 taken at the Parkes radio observatory in Australia. The data were obtained at a central radio frequency of 1380 MHz using a high-speed tape recorder that permitted coherent Nyquist sampling of 50 MHz of bandwidth in each of two polarizations. Using the high time resolution available from this voltage recording technique, we have studied a variety of single-pulse properties, most for the first time in a millisecond pulsar. We find no evidence for "diffractive" quantization effects in the individual pulse arrival times or amplitudes as have been reported for this pulsar at lower radio frequency using coarser time resolution (Ables et al. 1997). Overall, we find that the single pulse properties of PSR J0437-4715 are similar to those of the common slow-rotating pulsars, even though this pulsar's magnetosphere and surface magnetic field are several orders of magnitude smaller than those of the general population. The pulsar radio emission mechanism must therefore be insensitive to these fundamental neutron star properties.Comment: 24 Postscript pages, 11 eps figures. Accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journal. Abbreviated abstract follow

Perspectives of volunteers and professionals working County Lines

Over recent years there has been growing concern regarding children and young people being exploited by criminal gangs who are involved in trafficking drugs and other illegal trade between different geographic locations. The recent manifestations of this phenomenon have become known as ‘County Lines’ (Home Office, 2018, p.2), a phenomenon by which gangs and organised criminal networks trade illegal drugs to across different towns and cities within the UK. Children and vulnerable adults are exploited through the dedicated use of mobile phones, coercion, intimidation, violence and weapons. Reports such as the All-Party Parliamentary Group (APPG) for Runaway and Missing Children and Adults (2017) and the National Crime Agency (NCA) (2017) help raise awareness and highlight the dangers to children and young people, but at a practice level there has been little collation of best practice approaches. Despite these guidelines, each professional discipline and voluntary/faith organisation has their own approach to understanding and responding to the challenges of County Lines, raising questions about the efficacy of interdisciplinary safeguarding, which the present study was designed to explore

Astrometric Detection of Terrestrial Planets in the Habitable Zones of Nearby Stars with SIM PlanetQuest

SIM PlanetQuest (Space Interferometry Mission) is a space-borne Michelson interferometer for precision stellar astrometry, with a nine meter baseline, currently slated for launch in 2015. One of the principal science goals is the astrometric detection and orbit characterization of terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of nearby stars. Differential astrometry of the target star against a set of reference stars lying within a degree will allow measurement of the target star's reflex motion with astrometric accuracy of 1 micro-arcsecond in a single measurement. We assess SIM's capability for detection (as opposed to characterization by orbit determination) of terrestrial planets in the habitable zones of nearby solar-type stars. We compare SIM's performance on target lists optimized for the SIM and Terrestrial Planet Finder Coronograph (TPF-C) missions. Performance is quantified by three metrics: minimum detectable planet mass, number and mass distribution of detected planets, and completeness of detections in each mass range. Finally, we discuss the issue of confidence in detections and non-detections, and show how information from SIM's planet survey can enable TPF to increase its yield of terrestrial planets.Comment: Minor corrections to figures and tables. 46 pages, 27 figures. To appear in PASP (Publications of the Astronomical Society of the Pacific), May 200

Causes of and alternatives to medication for behaviours that challenge in people with intellectual disabilities: direct care providers' perspectives

Behaviours that challenge (BtC), such as aggression and self-injury, are manifested by many people with intellectual disabilities (ID). National and international guidelines recommend non-pharmacological psychosocial intervention before considering medication to address BtC. Support staff play a pivotal role in the prescription process. Using coproduction, we developed a training programme for support staff, called SPECTROM, to give them knowledge and empower them to question inappropriate prescriptions and ask for the discontinuation of medication if appropriate and instead look for ways to help people with ID when they are distressed without relying on medication. We have presented data from two focus groups that we conducted during the development of SPECTROM: one that included support staff, and another that had service managers and trainers. In these focus groups, we explored participants’ views on the use of medication to address BtC with a particular emphasis on the causes of and alternatives to medication for BtC. Along with the participants’ views, we have also presented how we have addressed these issues in the SPECTROM resources

Space VLBI Observations of 3C 279 at 1.6 and 5 GHz

We present the first VLBI Space Observatory Programme (VSOP) observations of the gamma-ray blazar 3C 279 at 1.6 and 5 GHz. The combination of the VSOP and VLBA-only images at these two frequencies maps the jet structure on scales from 1 to 100 mas. On small angular scales the structure is dominated by the quasar core and the bright secondary component `C4' located 3 milliarcseconds from the core (at this epoch). On larger angular scales the structure is dominated by a jet extending to the southwest, which at the largest scale seen in these images connects with the smallest scale structure seen in VLA images. We have exploited two of the main strengths of VSOP: the ability to obtain matched-resolution images to ground-based images at higher frequencies and the ability to measure high brightness temperatures. A spectral index map was made by combining the VSOP 1.6 GHz image with a matched-resolution VLBA-only image at 5 GHz from our VSOP observation on the following day. The spectral index map shows the core to have a highly inverted spectrum, with some areas having a spectral index approaching the limiting value for synchrotron self-absorbed radiation of 2.5. Gaussian model fits to the VSOP visibilities revealed high brightness temperatures (>10^{12} K) that are difficult to measure with ground-only arrays. An extensive error analysis was performed on the brightness temperature measurements. Most components did not have measurable brightness temperature upper limits, but lower limits were measured as high as 5x10^{12} K. This lower limit is significantly above both the nominal inverse Compton and equipartition brightness temperature limits. The derived Doppler factor, Lorentz factor, and angle to the line-of-sight in the case of the equipartition limit are at the upper end of the range of expected values for EGRET blazars.Comment: 11 pages, 6 figures, emulateapj.sty, To be published in The Astrophysical Journal, v537, Jul 1, 200

A sharp 141 GeV Higgs prediction from environmental selection

We construct an environmentally selected supersymmetric standard model with a single Higgs doublet, in analogy with the work of Hall and Nomura. The low energy spectrum presents only the standard model states with a single Higgs and TeV scale gauginos. The model features a precise Higgs mass prediction m_H=141\pm 2 GeV and the neutral wino provides a viable dark matter candidate.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, 2 tables. v2: Minor corrections and amendments, references adde

Zero modes, entropy bounds and partition functions

Some recent finite temperature calculations arising in the investigation of the Verlinde-Cardy relation are re-analysed. Some remarks are also made about temperature inversion symmetry.Comment: 12 pages, JyTe

Multi-Epoch Observations of Survey Sources

Five objects mapped as part of a VLBI survey have been re-observed at 5 GHz, and four of them have also been observed at 10 GHz. Three of the objects show no substantial structural variations: an upper limit of 2c can be placed on the apparent relative velocities of the components. One object (0711+356) shows structural variations which are mostly simply described in terms of a superluminal contraction. The remaining object (3C371, 1807+698) shows substantial structural variations which suggest that it probably is a superluminal source. The source 0710+439 is especially interesting as it consists of a central flat-spectrum core component straddled by two compact steep-spectrum components

Cerebellar Abiotrophy in Two Related Lion-tailed Macaques (Macaca silenus)

Cerebellar abiotrophy is a degenerative condition characterized by either early or late onset of severe neurological deficits caused by the marked depletion of Purkinje cells and granule cell neurons of the cerebellar cortex. The condition has been reported in numerous species with a proposed genetic basis of transmission. Here we present the anatomopathological investigation of two closely related lion-tailed macaques. Both cases, a 9-month-old male and a 4-month-old female, shared a long history of progressively worsening ataxia, incoordination and delayed body growth. Based on the characteristic findings, diagnoses of cerebellar abiotrophy were made. The relatedness of the two cases strongly supports an inherited mode of transmission. To the authors’ knowledge, this is the first report of cerebellar abiotrophy in a macaque species