The Self in Research and Other Matters: A Study of Doctoral Students' Conceptions

This study uses metaphor analysis to examine doctoral students’ conceptions obtained from their responses to an on-line survey. The conceptions examined were the conception of self in research, the conception of the PhD, the conception of knowledge, and the conception of the outcomes of research. The conceptions found were allocated to the categories of ‘organic’, ‘spatial’, explorative’ and ‘constructive’, the same categories as were used in a previous study of the students’ conceptions of research. A number of interesting relationships were found and are discussed, including the relationship of the conceptions to each other and to the demographic data obtained in the survey. Some tentative conclusions are discussed and some speculation indulged in

Optimal tariff period determination

We separated the problem into two simpler problems. The first problem is to choose the seasonal tariff periods, and the second problem is to choose the daily tariff periods. During the study group, we mainly considered the first problem, which is simpler because there are just two seasonal tariff periods, peak and off-peak. In the second problem, we can have a maximum of four daily tariff periods

Race, Debt and the Welfare State

In this article I explore how the figure of debt illuminates the racial politics of welfare in neoliberal Britain. I begin by giving a reading of the simultaneous unfolding of post-war race politics and the Beveridgean welfare state, and then turn to consider the interpellative appeal of neoliberal debt to minoritiSed subjects who have, in certain respects, been de facto excluded from prevailing models of welfare citizenship. In particular, this article considers the ways in which household debt might, even as it increases social inequality, simultaneously produce ideas about equality and futurity, as well as gesture towards the possibility of post-national forms of identity and belonging. If we are to challenge the lowest-common-denominator logics of ‘capitalist realism’ it is necessary to develop orientations to the economic that are as convincing as the popular stories that circulate about the operations of the neoliberal marketplace, and which are as meaningful as the social relations they play a part in constituting. Rather than reproduce the racialized model of welfare citizenship that is implicit to the ‘defence’ of the postwar welfare state, I suggest that there are elements of prevailing neoliberal market relations that might themselves serve as a more substantial basis for expressions of racial equality. There is, in other words, something that we can learn from neoliberal debt regimes in order to develop a more egalitarian future-oriented politics of social welfare and economic redistribution

Racism and Brexit: notes towards an antiracist populism

This article takes Brexit and Nigel Farage’s right-wing populism as a starting point to consider the populist politics of racism and antiracism. I demonstrate how two key figures of right-wing populist discourse – the “white working class” and the “liberal elite” – have come to describe a political grammar with a widespread influence and explanatory resonance across the political spectrum, and which have as a result formed a racial common sense in Brexit Britain. Rather than accept the terms of a debate that has been set by the populist right, I draw on Ernesto Laclau to describe a rival politics of antiracist populism. Although it is far from straightforward to navigate, engagement on the terrain of the popular is not optional if we are to counter a fatalistic tendency to conceive of antiracism as a minority or elite concern

Transcranial magnetic stimulation disrupts the perception and embodiment of facial expressions

Copyright © 2008 Society for Neuroscience and the authors. The The Journal of Neuroscience uses a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike licence: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/.Theories of embodied cognition propose that recognizing facial expressions requires visual processing followed by simulation of the somatovisceral responses associated with the perceived expression. To test this proposal, we targeted the right occipital face area (rOFA) and the face region of right somatosensory cortex (rSC) with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) while participants discriminated facial expressions. rTMS selectively impaired discrimination of facial expressions at both sites but had no effect on a matched face identity task. Site specificity within the rSC was demonstrated by targeting rTMS at the face and finger regions while participants performed the expression discrimination task. rTMS targeted at the face region impaired task performance relative to rTMS targeted at the finger region. To establish the temporal course of visual and somatosensory contributions to expression processing, double-pulse TMS was delivered at different times to rOFA and rSC during expression discrimination. Accuracy dropped when pulses were delivered at 60–100 ms at rOFA and at 100–140 and 130–170 ms at rSC. These sequential impairments at rOFA and rSC support embodied accounts of expression recognition as well as hierarchical models of face processing. The results also demonstrate that nonvisual cortical areas contribute during early stages of expression processing.Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Counci

Employers skill survey : case study : health and social care

"This report examines the relationship between service delivery strategies and processes, and the deployment of skills, recruitment problems and skill gaps within selected sub-sectors of health and social care. The sub-sectors within health are physiotherapy and radiography. Within social care the focus is on care of the elderly (both residential and domiciliary care). Although subject to similar drivers and associated pressures, the two sub-sectors of health and social care display markedly different characteristics, particularly in terms of service delivery strategies, qualification frameworks and utilisation of skills. In simple terms, the health and social care subsectors considered within this report may be thought of as being situated at opposite poles of the ‘skills spectrum’: with radiography and physiotherapy characterised by high level skills, while care of the elderly is traditionally associated with low level skills. Hence, the two sub-sectors are discussed separately throughout this report. The greater complexity and range of skills required in the two health sub-sectors is reflected in the comparative length of the two sections of the report" - page 9

Cardiovascular MRI in clinical trials: expanded applications through novel surrogate endpoints

Recent advances in cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) now allow the accurate and reproducible measurement of many aspects of cardiac and vascular structure and function, with prognostic data emerging for several key imaging biomarkers. These biomarkers are increasingly used in the evaluation of new drugs, devices and lifestyle modifications for the prevention and treatment of cardiovascular disease. This review outlines a conceptual framework for the application of imaging biomarkers to clinical trials, highlights several important CMR techniques which are in use in randomised studies, and reviews certain aspects of trial design, conduct and interpretation in relation to the use of CMR

Migrated Avalon Veno-Venous Extracorporeal Membrane Oxygenation Cannula: How to Adjust Without Interruption of Flow.

The Avalon dual lumen cannula is presently the cannula of choice for veno-venous extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VV-ECMO) via right internal jugular cannulation. This cannula establishes VV-ECMO with a single cannulation; however, it requires appropriate positioning to gain adequate oxygenation. Malposition of this cannula can cause inadequate ECMO flow, hypoxia, and structural injury. We have experienced two cases of migration: one into the hepatic vein and the other into the right ventricle. The former was repositioned using echocardiographic guidance without using a guidewire. The latter was repositioned using a guidewire from the femoral vein under fluoroscopy, without antegrade wire placement into the Avalon cannula, discontinuation of ECMO, or bleeding

Does seeking legitimacy through collaboration influence quality assurance practices? A case study of a private sector collaboration in the UK higher education sector

The past two decades have seen an increase in the incidence of private sector providers entering the higher education sector in the UK, which has raised concerns over the quality of provision and whether the quality assurance regime is rigorous enough to ensure the quality of private provision. Collaboration between universities and private providers is one of the ways in which private for-profit organisations contribute to higher education provision in the UK. For a private sector organisation to operate successfully in the sector it needs to gain legitimacy. This paper, therefore investigates the case of a private for -profit organisation that has a collaboration with three UK universities. The lens of institutional theory and legitimacy has been utilised to explain the influence that the collaboration had on the shaping of the quality assurance practices in the private provider