Documents, Practices and Policy

What are the practices of policy making? In this paper, we seek to identify and understand them by attending to one of the principal artefacts – the document – through which they are organised. We review the different ways in which researchers have understood documents and their function in public policy, endorsing a focus on content but noting that the processes by which documents are produced and used have been left largely unexamined. We specify our understanding of the document as an artefact, exploring aspects of its materiality in both paper and electronic forms. The key characteristic of the policy document, we suggest, is the way it is produced and used collectively, in groups.</jats:p

Tracing the Hercules stream around the Galaxy

It has been proposed that the Hercules stream, a group of co-moving stars in the Solar neighborhood offset from the bulk of the velocity distribution, is the result of resonant interactions between stars in the outer disk and the Galactic bar. So far it has only been seen in the immediate Solar neighborhood, but the resonance model makes a prediction over a large fraction of the Galactic disk. I predict the distribution of stellar velocities and the changing Hercules feature in this distribution as a function of location in the Galactic disk in a simple model for the Galaxy and the bar that produces the observed Hercules stream. The Hercules feature is expected to be strong enough to be unambiguously detected in the distribution of line-of-sight velocities in selected directions. I identify quantitatively the most promising lines of sight for detection in line-of-sight velocities using the Kullback-Leibler divergence between the predictions of the resonance model and an axisymmetric model; these directions are at 250 deg <~ l <~ 290 deg. The predictions presented here are only weakly affected by distance uncertainties, assumptions about the distribution function in the stellar disk, and the details of the Galactic potential including the effect of spiral structure. Gaia and future spectroscopic surveys of the Galactic disk such as APOGEE and HERMES will be able to robustly test the origin of the Hercules stream and constrain the properties of the Galactic bar

Interviews with Dorothy Jane Nuckolls, Joseph, Vodraska, Connie Congdon and Kay Finley

Interviews with Dorothy Jane Nuckolls, Joseph, Vodraska, Connie Congdon and Kay Finley 00:00:00 - Recording begins in-progress. Song, I Will Never Marry vocal with guitar 00:02:27 - Song, Engine 143 vocal with guitar 00:05:19 - Song, Squirty, Squirty vocal duet with guitar 00:06:25 - Song, Old Paint vocal with guitar 00:08:01 - Introduction, Joseph H. Vodraska of Wilson, KS by Mona Mae Brubaker on November 1, 1963 in Blackwolf, KS. 00:08:27 - Song, Austrian-Hungarian Cavalry Song played on accordion 00:09:01 - Song, Austrian-Hungarian Cavalry Song vocal, in Czech 00:10:55 - Song, May I Sleep In Your Barn Tonight, Mister? vocal group and accordion, to the tune of Red River Valley 00:13:41 - Introduction, Connie Congdon and Kay Finley of Garden City, KS by Gary Freeman on November 23, 1963 00:14:00 - Song, Mandy vocal duet with guitar. This portion of the tape suffers from distortion. 00:18:04 - Song, In the Pines vocal duet with guitar. 00:20:12 - Song, How Sad Flows The Stream vocal with guitar 00:21:52 - Song, Darlin\u27 Corey vocal with guitar 00:26:50 - Song, O\u27 Freedom vocal with guitar 00:30:32 - Song, Handsome, Winsome Johnny vocal with guitar 00:34:20 - Song, Good Ol\u27 Mountain Dew vocal with guitar 00:37:06 - Song, Pretty Saro vocal with guitar 00:40:23 - Song, Goodnight Irene vocal with guitar 00:43:05 - Song, Jamaica Goodbye vocal with guitar 00:45:06 - Concluding remarks 00:45:37 - Tape concludes with a faint musical recording and conversationhttps://scholars.fhsu.edu/sackett/1090/thumbnail.jp

The Contribution of Pharmacists and Pharmacy Technicians to Person-Centred Care within a Medicine’s Optimisation in Care Homes Service: A Qualitative Evaluation

Pharmacists and pharmacy technicians seek to improve person-centred care. Improvements to systems for care homes seeks to reduce medicines waste and inefficiency, particularly through supporting care home staff, to enhance safer administration of medicines. A complex evaluation used qualitative design and utilised narrative enquiry, and team members and key stakeholders were interviewed. Framework analysis was used, aligning findings to a person-centred care framework for older people. The Medicines Optimisation in Care Homes (MOCH) team brokered improvement practices across care homes to enhance person-centred care. The framework analysis confirms that the team used ‘authentic attention’ in relation to the residents’ experiences and flexibility in relation to negotiating medication. The importance of transparency of processes and systems in medicines management is highlighted, alongside requirements for person-centred care to make explicit the reason for taking a medication, and the continuous discussion with a range of stakeholders about the continuing need for particular medications. The outcome of the evaluation includes insights into a new area of pharmacy practice in community, based on the skills, knowledge, and experience of pharmacists and pharmacy technicians working in the care home sector. Further study is needed into the efficacy and outcomes of medicines management interventions

Persecutory delusions: Effects of cognitive bias modification for interpretation and the Maudsley Review Training Programme on social anxiety, jumping to conclusions, belief inflexibility and paranoia

Background and objectives: The Threat Anticipation Model (Freeman, 2007) implicates social anxiety, jumping to conclusions (JTC) and belief inflexibility in persecutory delusions. We investigated whether Cognitive Bias Modification for Interpretation (CBM-I; Turner et al., 2011) improves social anxiety by targeting negative interpretation bias of ambiguous social information. We determined whether the Maudsley Review Training Programme (MRTP; Waller et al., 2011) improves JTC, belief inflexibility and paranoia. We also explored effects of CBM-I on JTC/belief inflexibility and paranoia, as well as the MRTP on social anxiety. Methods: Twelve participants from Early Intervention and Recovery Services in East Anglia completed measures of social anxiety, paranoia, JTC and belief inflexibility. A concurrent multiple baseline case series design was used. Results: Three of twelve participants improved in social anxiety following CBM-I, paranoia improved in 6/12 cases. CBM-I had no effect on JTC/belief inflexibility. The MRTP improved JTC and/or belief inflexibility in 9/12 cases, while improving paranoia for 6/12 individuals. The MRTP improved social anxiety in one case. Limitations: The small sample size and large effects necessary for single case series designs limit the generality of findings. These are discussed in more detail. Conclusions: This study suggests that whilst both CBM-I and the MRTP may have a positive impact on paranoia and social anxiety, the effects on JTC/belief inflexibility are largely specific to the MRTP. Relationships between social anxiety, JTC, belief inflexibility and paranoia existed in 10/12 individuals, supporting the Threat Anticipation Model