Mindfulness and the Quality of Romantic Relationships: Is it All About Well-Being?

Studies have shown that mindfulness is positively associated with a number of individual factors related to well-being, attention and awareness, and life satisfaction. Mindfulness has also been shown to be positively associated with the perceived quality of romantic relationships. However, the factors underlying the connection between mindfulness and relationship quality are not well understood. A study is reported in which the connection between mindfulness and perceived relationship quality was investigated when individual life satisfaction was controlled for. The results suggest that individual life satisfaction partially mediates the association between mindfulness and relationship quality but that other factors also contribute to that association. Possible additional mediating factors and ideas for possible future studies that could throw light on this connection are discussed

Test Pit Investigation: Oldbury Farm March 7 and 14, 2017. Data Structure Report

Archaeology students of the Institute of Science and the Environment, at the University of Worcester conducted an archaeological investigation at Oldbury Farm, SO 827 554, on March 7 and 14, 2017, to follow up the results of field survey undertaken in 2016. Test pits were placed in an area in which Middle Palaeolithic and Late Neolithic/Early Bronze Age flints had been previously recovered. Excavation and further surface pick-up identified an area of fire cracked rock which coincides with an area of ferrous dipolar anomalies revealed by a gradiometer survey conducted by CsMg associates (2016). These results suggest the presence of prehistoric activity, which invites further investigation

Roles of Dicer-Like Proteins 2 and 4 in Intra- and Intercellular Antiviral Silencing

RNA silencing is an innate antiviral mechanism conserved in organisms across kingdoms. Such cellular defense involves DICER or DICER-LIKEs (DCLs) that process viral RNAs into small interfering (vsi)RNAs. Plants encode four DCLs which play diverse roles in cell-autonomous virus-induced RNA silencing (known as VIGS) against viral invasion. However, intracellular VIGS can spread between cells, and the genetic basis and involvement of vsiRNAs in non-cell autonomous VIGS remains poorly understood. Here using GFP as a reporter gene together with a suite of DCL RNAi transgenic lines, we show that in addition to well-established activities of DCLs in intracellular VIGS and vsiRNA biogenesis, DCL4 inhibits intercellular VIGS whilst DCL2 is required, likely along with DCL2-processed/dependent vsiRNAs and their precursor RNAs, for efficient VIGS trafficking from epidermal to adjacent cells. DCL4 imposed an epistatic effect on DCL2 to impede cell-to-cell spread of VIGS. Our results demonstrate previously unknown functions for DCL2 and DCL4 which may form a dual defensive frontier for intra- and intercellular silencing to double-protect cells from virus infection in Nicotiana benthamiana

Preparing Parents for Discharge from Hospital with their Infant After Complex Cardiac Surgery Using the Congenital Heart Assessment Tool. An Online Learning Resource for Health Care Professionals

Introduction The aim of this session is to present an online learning resource developed within a portfolio of research around the Congenital Heart Assessment Tool (CHAT). The CHAT, an early warning tool for parents to use at home to monitor their infant following the first stage of surgery for complex Congenital Heart Disease (CHD), was developed in 2012 and implemented within a feasibility Study (phase one) at one specialist centre during 2013-2015 (Gaskin, Daniels & Barron 2016; Gaskin Wray & Barron, 2018). Phase two of the project was to evaluate the CHAT in four children’s cardiac centres in the UK as part of a Health Improvement Project during 2017 (Smith et al, 2018), resulting in an updated version of the tool (CHAT2). Methods This third phase of the project involved development of an online learning resource, which was funded by the University and created in collaboration with Little Hearts Matter, a UK CHD Charity. The aim being to enable wider implementation of CHAT across the UK, through consistent education of health care professionals who are involved in the preparation of parents and families for their infant’s discharge. The learning objectives of the online learning resource are for health care professionals to have: • Enhanced knowledge and understanding of complex CHD in order to teach parents how to spot signs of clinical deterioration in their infant whilst at home • Developed an understanding of the CHAT, who it is for, what it does, and why it is used • Learnt how to use CHAT when teaching parents prior to discharge • Learnt how to use CHAT to support decision making when taking telephone calls from families at home The online learning resource recognises different learning styles and incorporates a range of self directed activities, video clips demonstrating how to use CHAT and links to a breadth of supporting resources. The resource is currently being piloted and a staged implementation and evaluation strategy is being planned for 2019. Results This session will provide an update on the progress of the implementation of this e-learning resource, which could subsequently be made available internationally

Running With the Ball? Making a Play for Sport Heritage Archives in Higher Education Contexts

For considerable time, academia (in particular, the Humanities) has been in an intellectual, economic and pragmatic par des deux with the culture and arts sector (in this case, heritage, museums and archives). In many ways, given their respective pursuits of scientific enquiry and learning, valuable contribution to a knowledge economy, commitment to public enlightenment, and exploration of critical and creative endeavour, a relationship between the sectors makes sense. Unity notwithstanding, the relationships have become increasingly now influenced by (en)forced contextual constraints (e.g., government policy development and intervention, neoliberal market forces, structural and ideological shifts in funding acquisition and allocation, patronage changes and demands, and/or individual political priorities) (Dubuc 2011; McCall and Gray 2014; Watson 2002). Drawing on education and heritage scholarship, and theoretical frameworks of sport culture spaces (Hardy, Loy and Booth 2009; Phillips 2012; Pinson 2017), this paper examines efforts undertaken at one specific Higher Education establishment in the United Kingdom in which institutional agendas (vis-à-vis historical and cultural foci, encouraging ‘impactful’ academic activity, brand exposure, economic efficiency, and community engagement) have contoured, and become entwined with, an embryonic sport heritage and archive project. Recalling similar arrangements elsewhere (Krüger 2014; Reilly, Clayton and Hughson 2014; Reilly 2015), the aim of this case study is to explore how the wider education and cultural policy context have precipitated an increasingly symbiotic and dependent relationship between university and cultural/arts initiatives. The paper considers how the impetus to develop a sports-based (basketball) heritage archive and study centre reflects the current fragilities of the two sectors, yet, concomitantly, reveals the potentials that might be developed from fostering greater intellectual and pragmatic alliances. The paper concludes by advocating the practical, political and ideological usefulness of network formation, sustainability measures and continued cross-sector dialogue

Cataloguing Kays: Body Image in the Catalogues of Kay & Co Ltd of Worcester, 1920 - 2000. JISC Final Report

Cataloguing Kays is a university-run project intended to create a community web-archive to celebrate the history and public memory of Kay & Co Ltd of Worcester, a noted mailorder catalogue company which was, until 2006, the largest employer in Worcester. The Kays Archive, housed at UoW, is one of the most comprehensive archive collections of 20th century mail-order catalogues in the UK and has a strong local elevance. The catalogues provide a window into over 100 years of body image, social history, consumable goods, fashion and design. The Project Team created www.WorldofKays.org, an online, fully-searchable archive containing 1500 digitised images from the catalogues, 1920-2000. The website is intended to form a seed bed for international research, focussing in particular on the representation of body image and the way the catalogues represent the developing tropes of consumer lifestyle and aspiration. The images are enhanced by blog postings from or film and audio interviews with local residents and former Kays staff members, who recall how the goods were selected and presented; as well as the impact the mail-order industry had on shaping 20th century lifestyle and consumption. These interviews and blogs have been sourced through the Cataloguing Kays team’s outreach activity in the local, academic and online communities. From the outset, we, the Cataloguing Kays team, engaged with online communities through social media sites, Facebook and Twitter, and through specialist blogs and online forums, inviting comment and contributions. Through events for the general public and a programme of targeted community outreach work with Kays Heritage Group and support groups for Worcestershire’s young and adult carers, we have also collected filmed and audio reminiscence material as well as community art and poetry content for the website. Our academic conference, the Catalogue of Dreams, showcased both the website and the physical archive to the wider academic, cultural and heritage sectors, provoking lively debateand much interest from international scholars

Exploring the experiences of domestic abuse survivors working in the field of domestic abuse support: What are the psychological consequences of working in this field for women survivors of abuse?

Women’s community groups as well as domestic and sexual abuse support organisations provide safe spaces of healing for women surviving trauma and abuse; spaces where mutual understanding and shared experience can offer a sense of hope and recovery. It is quite usual for a significant proportion of support workers and practitioners within these organisations to share lived experiences of abuse, estimated to constitute over 50% of organisational staffing (Slattery and Goodman, 2009; Bemiller and Williams, 2011). This has been common since the first women’s groups were formed in communities in the 1960s and 1970s in England and these women’s community services are arguably never more needed than currently, given the current epidemic of violence against women and girls being perpetrated (Justice Inspectorates, 2021). However, what of the impact on support workers with lived experience of abuse? I interviewed twelve women support workers from five different women’s support organisations to ask about their thoughts, feelings, and experiences regarding their career choice and to enquire how this had affected them in terms of both positive and negative emotional impacts. What were they gaining personally and what was the impact on them when undertaking this emotionally challenging work

Workshop with Internal Medicine Trainees: Self awareness for enhanced self regulation in decision making

Transactional Analysis and the Theory of Drivers are used to frame the making of decisions with a view to furthering self awareness and self regulation for practitioners in an acute performance arena. Session content:- Contract setting; Rapport Orientation using values & long pre-start Eric Berne Transactional Analysis : The PAC Model; ego states; egogram; TA proper Taibi Kahler Theory of Drivers - characteristics; implications; case example Implications for self-awareness and self-regulatio

Demonstration of Onion Downy Mildew Lateral Flow Devices

Workshop and demonstration of onion downy mildew lateral flow devices which been developed to assay, detect and quantify onion downy mildew disease

Significant People: Key Stage 1 Activity Book

In 2016-17 The National Archives collaborated with the University of Worcester to create a Key Stage 1 resource to tie in with the National Curriculum’s focus on ‘significant people in British history’. Students on the Graphic Design course’s Children’s Book Design module were given a live brief to create an activity book which focussed on three key people and incorporated archival material. The students were given a shortlist of significant people to choose from as well as biographical information. The students also visited The National Archives to hear about the curriculum and our requirements. As part of the visit the students also had the opportunity to handle documents related to each of our shortlisted significant people. After the students submitted their designs, staff at The National Archives and the University of Worcester amalgamated some of them into the final resource