"How far will Miley go next?”: Miley Cyrus and the news in celebrity gossip magazines

This thesis examines news values in celebrity news. News values have been thoroughly analysed with regard to “serious” news, but little has been done to see how useful existing conceptions of news values are for celebrity news in gossip magazines. This thesis examines coverage of Miley Cyrus in four Australian gossip magazines from December 2010 to July 2014 according to traditional news values, and argues they are inadequate for understanding how celebrity news is produced. It then proposes and tests a different set of news values that function for celebrity news. Using a queer approach to heteronormativity, this thesis argues that the news values employed by celebrity magazines uphold and maintain a normative hierarchy, through the promotion of non-normative behaviour as scandalous gossip, and normative behaviour as worthy of celebration

Negative triangles : simple geometric shapes convey emotional valence

It has been suggested that downward pointing triangles convey negative valence, perhaps because they mimic an underlying primitive feature present in negative facial expressions (Larson, Aronoff, and Stearns, 2007). Here, we test this proposition using a flanker interference paradigm in which participants indicated the valence of a central face target, presented between two adjacent distracters. Experiment 1 showed that, compared with face flankers, downward pointing triangles had little influence on responses to face targets. However, in Experiment 2, when attentional competition was increased between target and flankers, downward pointing triangles slowed responses to positively valenced face targets, and speeded them to negatively valenced targets, consistent with valence-based flanker compatibility effects. These findings provide converging evidence that simple geometric shapes may convey emotional valence

Pathways of care: longitudinal study on children and young people in out-of-home care in New South Wales

This article outlines a prospective longitudinal study on the wellbeing of children placed in out-of-home care in New South Wales and the factors that influence their wellbeing. Overview The Pathways of Care longitudinal study (POCLS) is a new prospective longitudinal study designed to address the methodological limitations of previous research. The overall aim of this longitudinal study of children and young people in out-of-home care (OOHC) is to collect detailed information about the wellbeing of children placed in OOHC in NSW and the factors that influence their wellbeing. It will provide a strong evidence base to inform policy and practice, and in turn improve decision making about how best to support children and young people who have experienced abuse and neglect. This five-year study, which commenced in March 2011, differs from previous Australian research in OOHC because the population cohort is all children and young people entering OOHC for the first time and includes children of all ages as well as all geographic locations in NSW. It also collects information from multiple sources, including carers, children and young people, caseworkers, teachers and administrative data through record linkage. The study has a broad scope and collects detailed information about the characteristics and circumstances of children and young people on entry to OOHC, the experiences of children and young people in OOHC, and their developmental pathways in order to identify the factors that influence their outcomes. The developmental domains of interest are the children\u27s physical health, social-emotional wellbeing and cognitive/learning ability. POCLS will follow children and young people regardless of their pathways through OOHC (e.g., placement changes, restoration, adoption or ageing out) to examine the factors that predispose children and young people to poorer outcomes and what factors are protective

Age-related gait standards for healthy children and young people: the GOS-ICH paediatric gait centiles

Objective To develop paediatric gait standards in healthy children and young people. Methods This observational study builds on earlier work to address the lack of population standards for gait measurements in children. Analysing gait in children affected by neurological or musculoskeletal conditions is an important component of paediatric assessment but is often confounded by developmental changes. The standards presented here do not require clinician expertise to interpret and offer an alternative to developmental tables of normalised gait data. Healthy children aged 1-19 years were recruited from community settings in London and Hertfordshire, U.K. The GAITRite ® walkway was used to record measurements for each child for velocity, cadence, step length, base of support, and stance, single and double support (as percentage of gait cycle). We fitted generalized linear additive models for location, scale and shape (gamlss). Results We constructed percentile charts for seven gait variables measured on 624 (321 males) contemporary healthy children using gamlss package in R. A clinical application of gait standards was explored. Conclusion Age-related, gender-specific standards for seven gait variables were developed and are presented here. They have a familiar format and can be used clinically to aid diagnoses, and to monitor change over time for both medical therapy and natural history of the condition. The clinical example demonstrates the potential of the GOS-ICH Paediatric Gait Centiles (GOS-ICH PGC) to enable meaningful interpretation of change in an individual’s performance, and describes characteristic features of gait from a specific population throughout childhood.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

An enhanced fresh cadaveric model for reconstructive microsurgery training

Open access via Springer Compact Acknowledgements The generosity of the people of the North East of Scotland who donated their bodies to the University of Aberdeen for anatomical study is recognised. Their contribution is appreciated and valued. Funding The authors received no financial support for the research, authorship, and/or publication of this article.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Online Supportive Conversations and Reflection Sessions (OSCaRS): A Feasibility Pilot with Care Home Staff during the Pandemic

Care homes care for people with complex needs, supporting them to the end of life and are now being seen as the ‘de facto’ hospice. Reflective debriefing for care home staff has been found to help support staff and provide an educative and communicative function when a resident dies. Pre-COVID-19, one of the authors had been conducting reflective debriefings face-to-face with care home staff but when COVID-19 struck, face-to-face sessions were impossible. An online format was developed with the aim of providing emotional support and practice-based learning in relation to death and dying through reflection. This study assessed the acceptability and feasibility of delivering online supportive conversations and reflective sessions (OSCaRS) on palliative and end of life care to care home staff during the pandemic. A mixed methods study design was undertaken in April to September 2020. Qualitative data comprised of digital recordings of sessions and semi-structured interviews with OSCaRS participants, managers and session facilitators. An online survey was sent to all staff and had a response rate of 12%.  Eleven OSCaRS were conducted over ten weeks. Thirty-four staff members attended one or more sessions. Three overarching themes were identified from the data: pressures of working in a pandemic, practicalities of delivering online support and, practice development opportunities. Engaging care home staff in online structured supportive conversations and reflections in relation to death and dying is acceptable, feasible and valuable for providing support with the pressures of working in a pandemic.  There is value for OSCaRS to continue as online sessions as they provide care home staff access to practice-based learning and support from professionals and allows specialists based in a range of settings to in-reach into care homes in an efficient way. Future implementation must consider the availability of sufficient devices with cameras to aid participation, timing and frequency of sessions to accommodate staff workflows, the engagement and support of managers and post-session support.