The Ethics of Troubled Images

This special issue of Cultural Studies Review brings together an interdisciplinary range of scholarship to investigate the ethical implications of troubled images

The Voice of the Child in Child Protection:Whose Voice?

Article 12 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child outlines the rights of children to express their views in decisions affecting their lives. There is further evidence to support the positive benefits for children who are afforded this right. However, evidence shows that despite legislative and policy frameworks to support this, repeated messages from inquiry reports highlight failures to do so. This paper draws upon research undertaken in Scotland but the findings of the study are relevant across the UK and beyond. Child protection documentation including reports and case conference minutes were analysed to assess to what extent the child’s views were presented to, and considered in, decision making forums. In particular the study considers how the child’s views and wishes are represented in writing, and highlights the ways which professionals filtered and interpreted the child’s view rather than presented it in its pure form. Messages have emerged identifying a need for workers to be clear about the factors which influence their practice with children. These include the value they place on children’s participation, the skills and confidence needed to engage children with complex needs and the impact of competing tensions. One example of such a tension is that between the needs of busy workers, and those of children who are potentially involved in a range of decision making processes

Understanding the Recovery Process in Psychosis

Conceptualizing recovery in the context of severe and persisting mental health conditions is a complex issue. In recent years, there has been a call to re-focus research from understanding the concept of recovery to improving understanding of the process of recovery. There is a paucity of knowledge about the core processes involved in recovery from psychosis. Objective: The authors aimed to gain insight into possible processes involved in recovery through analyzing data generated from a large qualitative study investigating employment barriers and support needs of people living with psychosis. Research Design and Methods: Participants were 137 individuals drawn from six key stakeholder groups. Data obtained from focus groups (14) and individual interviews (34) were analyzed using thematic analysis. Results: The main recovery processes identified were: learning effective coping strategies; recognizing personal potential; identifying and realizing personal goals; participation in social and occupational roles; positive risk-taking; and reclaiming personal identity. Discussion: The results of this study have implications for treatment as well as the daily support needs of people recovering from psychosis

Visual Attention in Jumping Spiders

The different ways that animals extract and analyze visual information from their environment is of interest to sensory ecologists. Jumping spiders, well-known for visually guided mating and hunting behavior, are an interesting model for the study of visual attention because they quickly and efficiently integrate information from eight eyes with a small brain. Stimuli in front of the spider are examined by two functionally and morphologically distinct pairs of forward-facing eyes. The principal eyes discern fine details and have small retinas and thus a small visual field. However, their position at the back of moveable tubes within the cephalothorax expands this visual field. The anterolateral eyes, one of the three pairs of secondary eyes, have lower spatial acuity and a larger visual field that overlaps with that of the principal eyes. They act as motion detectors, directing the principal eyes to objects appearing in their visual field. In Chapter 1, using a salticid-specific eyetracker, I explore how characteristics of a stimulus influence whether the secondary eyes redirect the gaze of the principal eyes from a principal stimulus to a new stimulus appearing in the visual field. I found that spiders suppressed redirection of the principal eyes when engaged by a salient stimulus, and redirected to moving peripheral stimuli more frequently than to stationary peripheral stimuli. The principal eyes are also known to engage in a complex behavior called “scanning,” involving both dorsoventral and rotational movement. One hypothesis regarding scanning’s function is that it helps spiders identify important lines and angles in stimuli. However, scanning routines are not well understood. In Chapter 2, I measured scanning behaviors when spiders were watching quickly moving versus still or slowly moving images. I found that spiders spent more time overall looking at still or slowly moving images, and that stimulus speed does not appear to affect rotational movement of the retinas. Overall, I conclude that motion in an appearing stimulus elicits the attention of the principal eyes, but it remains unclear how and whether scanning functions in the extraction of detail from moving stimuli

Giving a Student Voice to California's Dropout Crisis

Shares what first-year high school students find motivating or discouraging; how they view family, peer, and school factors; and how demographic characteristics, attitudes toward school, and support networks affect the odds of their dropping out

Reflections on the Death Scene

An introduction to the Death Scene issue of Cultural Studies Review, with reflections on the nature of the death scene in general and on the specific issues covered by contributors

Towards Understanding Apparent South Australian GP Resistance to Adopting Health Informatics Systems

This paper reports on a qualitative study of the attitudes of 23 South Australian practitioners in General Practice (GP) towards adopting an unspecified data amalgamating Health Informatics (HI) system. Findings suggest key areas of concern are associated with the potential for diminution of control over change and adoption was primarily influenced by a perceived need to protect the role and value of GPs. If change was seen as involuntary, uncertain or without demonstrable benefit to relevant patient outcomes, the prospect of change tended to manifest as passive or active GP resistance. Findings suggest increased exposure to use of HI systems influences GP perception of both the importance and certainty of potential implementation outcomes. It was concluded that discrete attitudes towards the use of HIS technology could be identified. Determined by contextual GP perceptions of competing managerial, technological and political factors, they are not mutually exclusive and more appropriately seen as a series of developmental and co-existing perspectives

Understanding South Australian GP Attitudes Towards Health Informatics Systems

This paper reports on the attitudes of 20 practitioners in South Australian General Practice towards adopting Health Informatics (HI) systems. HI systems are aimed at improving the overall quality and management of healthcare, but adoption of the technology may require a change in the General Practitioner’s (GP) approach to the way they perform their healthcare delivery role. This qualitative study found HI adoption was primarily influenced by the perceived potential for change in the professional’s value and role. While GPs were generally reluctant to consider technological innovation that was not perceived to demonstrate potential for improvement in patient health outcomes, increased exposure to HI systems positively influenced perceptions of both the importance and the certainty of potential implementation outcomes. It was concluded that GP attitudes could be characterised by four different perspectives of HI systems use in general practice medicine delivery

Streaking images that appear only in the plane of diffraction in undoped GaAs single crystals: Diffraction imaging (topography) by monochromatic synchrotron radiation

Streaking images restricted to the direction of the diffraction (scattering) vector have been observed on transmission through undoped GaAs. These disruption images (caused by the reduction of diffraction in the direction of observation) appear both in the forward and in Bragg diffracted directions in monochromatic synchrontron radiation diffraction imaging. This previously unobserved phenomenon can be explained in terms of planar defects (interfaces) or platelets which affects the absorption coefficient in anomalous transmission. Such regions of the crystal look perfect despite the presence of imperfections when the scattering vector is not perpendicular to the normal of the platelets. The observed crystallographic orientation of these interfaces strongly indicates that they are antiphase boundaries