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Constituting link working through choice and care: An ethnographic account of front‐line social prescribing
Get PDFLink worker social prescribing has become a prominent part of NHS England’s personalisation agenda. However, approaches to social prescribing vary, with multiple discourses emerging about the potential of social prescribing and different interpretations of personalisation. The transformational promise of social prescribing is the subject of ongoing debate, whilst the factors that shape the nature of front‐line link working practices remain unclear. Based on 11 months of in‐depth ethnographic research with link workers delivering social prescribing, we show how link workers’ practices were shaped by the context of the intervention and how individual link workers navigated varied understandings of social prescribing. Following the work of Mol, we show how link workers drew differentially on the interacting logics of choice and care and trace a multiplicity in front‐line link working practices within a single intervention. However, over time, it appeared that a logic of choice was becoming increasingly dominant, making it harder to deliver practices that aligned with a logic of care. We conclude that interpreting personalisation through a logic of choice could potentially undermine link working practices that privilege care whilst obscuring the need for wider investment in health care systems and the social determinants of health
Ultrahigh-sensitivity label-free single mode-tapered multimode-single mode fiber U-shaped biosensor for Staphylococcus aureus detection
Get PDFThe rapid detection of Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus), particularly in the case of very low levels of S. aureus, is very important in food safety and medical diagnostics. In this paper, a fast (<20 mins), label-free biosensor using a U-shaped single mode- tapered multimode- single mode (STMS) fiber structure is presented. The average wavelength shift of the sensor (modified with the IgG from porcine serum with a concentration 200 μg/mL) is as high as 1.552 nm when it is immersed into an S. aureus sample with a concentration of 4 cells/mL. By further diluting the S. aureus to 0.4 cells/mL for a sample volume of 1.5 mL, it is found that a dip wavelength shift of 0.348 nm is observed on occasion which confirms that the biosensor can detect a single colony (cell) of S. aureus. Results for the detection of S. aureus in milk and lettuce samples are also presented and are compared with the wavelength shift results in phosphate buffered saline (PBS), and it is found that the variation in the average wavelength shift is -21 for S. aureus concentrations from 4 to 4×103 cells/mL
Repairing relationship conflict in community sport work: “Offender” perspectives
Get PDFThrough our investigation of relationship conflict and repair in community sport coaching this article makes a novel contribution to the sociology of sport work. Such inquiry is necessary as interpersonal conflict has the potential to erode worker commitment, engagement, performance, satisfaction, and mental health. To date, the study of interpersonal conflict in coaching has been framed psychologically. It is our position that sociologically inspired inquiry is not only necessary but can valuably contribute to academic debate in this area. To redress this situation we conducted in-depth, semi-structured, interviews with 18 community sport coaches to produce rich insights into the participants’ (transgressors) understandings of fractured workplace relations, remedial work used to repair and restore relationships, as well as desirable and undesirable consequences emanating from these restorative efforts. Through our application of Ren and Gray’s and Goffman’s theorization addressing restoration mechanismsthe present study extends existing understanding by detailing how a) relationship conflict was triggered by the participants having violated the identity and control of significant working others, b) participants attempted to repair relations by offering accounts, apologies, and demonstrations of concern, and c) the success of these restorative efforts was variable and dependent on their being accepted by the offended parties. It is our hope that these original empirical and theoretical insights not only advance understanding about relationship conflict and repair but prompt further sociologically inspired research into this important interpersonal aspect of sport work
‘Straighten Up and Fly Right’: Radical right attempts to appeal to the British LGBTQ+ community
Get PDFThis article explores an emerging strategy by sections of the British radical right towards the LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer) community, who the radical right claim are existentially threatened by the alleged violent homophobia of Islam and their ostensible betrayal by ‘the left’. Consequently, parts of the radical right present themselves as the ‘true’ protectors of LGBTQ+ individuals through what we term alter-progressivism. By analysing recorded speeches, discussions and interviews by and with key British radical right figures, we demonstrate three themes: (1) the broad radical right discourse of a ‘Great Replacement’ specifically tailored towards LGBTQ+ anxieties, (2) a narrative in which the radical right portray themselves as the defenders of (some) minorities and (3) an emerging distinction between the far-right and radical right concerning LGBTQ+ rights. We conclude that these themes represent a significant rhetorical shift and reveal the flexibility of radical right narratives in an attempt to appeal to diverse communities. This represents a serious challenge, which compels social scientists to adapt their understandings of radical right ideologies, objectives and strategies
Waterwheel-inspired high-performance hybrid electromagnetic-triboelectric nanogenerators based on fluid pipeline energy harvesting for power supply systems and data monitoring
Get PDFIn this work, a self-powered system based on a triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid pipeline energy harvesting module is demonstrated. Rabbit fur and poly tetra fluoroethylene (PTFE) are used as triboelectric electrodes to fabricate disk-type soft-contact triboelectric nanogenerators (TENGs) instead of traditional direct-contact TENGs to collect the mechanical energy of water flow and convert it into electrical energy. This design has a stable electrical output and gives an improved durability. Its simple fabrication process enables excellent potential for practical applications in industry. In addition, the hybridization of electromagnetic generator module and TENGs module to form a triboelectric-electromagnetic hybrid nanogenerator (TEHNG) can improve the electrical output performance, especially the current output. TEHNG cannot only power small electronic devices, such as lighting systems, but also collect independent fluid energy and monitor data signals simultaneously in harsh environments, such as fluid energy harvesting in industrial production pipelines and temperature and humidity in fluid environments. This work provides an efficient strategy to harvest multiple energies simultaneously, significantly increasing the yield and promoting the application of TENGs in engineering
Policy Clinic as a method to engage students with law reform and social justice: Experiences from Northumbria Law School’s Student Law Office
No full textNorthumbria Law School’s Student Law Office (SLO) has been providing pro-bono legal advice for over 20 years. Work in the SLO provides an opportunity for students to develop practical legal skills alongside their general legal education. Recently, the SLO has incorporated a Policy Clinic into its curriculum. In the Policy Clinic (PC), students conduct empirical legal research for external organisations, with the aim of contributing to law reform. The impetus behind the introduction of the PC was to enlarge the benefits of the CLE program for both the students and the wider community. More specifically, the PC is designed to develop the students’ professional skills in an alternative way, and from a different perspective to that of the standard SLO live client model. This innovative teaching method aims to encourage a social justice ethos in students by engaging them with relevant and impactful research which encourages them to develop valuable skills. Requests for help are received from a variety of organisations. Many requests are from groups which represent vulnerable people, for example, a police service working with victims of domestic abuse. The student work focuses on areas of the law in need of reform and the final submission produced is designed to contribute to a vital and current debate. The students, under supervision, submit research ethics applications; interview participants; analyse data and write a report to be submitted to the instructing organisation and any relevant official bodies. During this process the students are exposed to current legal issues and they develop an appreciation of how to influence positive changes in society. The aim of this chapter is to outline how the PC operates within the SLO at Northumbria University. The intention is to discuss the benefits and challenges of students engaging in this type of work, whilst also providing a guide for others considering setting up a PC. It will outline the practical advantages and difficulties faced during the first year of running the PC
Consistency of Eye Coloration Across Different Relationship Partners
Get PDFStudies have indicated that people are attracted to partners who resemble themselves or their parents, in terms of physical traits including eye color. We might anticipate this inclination to be relatively stable, giving rise to a sequential selection of similar partners who then represent an individual’s “type”. We tested this idea by examining whether people’s sequential partners resembled each other at the level of eye color. We gathered details of the eye colors of the partners of participants (N = 579) across their adult romantic history (N = 3250 relationships), in three samples, comprising two samples which made use of self-reports from predominantly UK-based participants, and one which made use of publicly available information about celebrity relationship histories. Recorded partner eye colors comprised black (N = 39 partners), dark brown (N = 884), light brown (N = 393), hazel (N = 224), blue (N = 936), blue green (N = 245), grey (N = 34), and green (N = 229). We calculated the proportion of identical eye colors within each participant’s relationship history, and compared that to 100,000 random permutations of our dataset, using t-tests to investigate if the eye color of partners across an individual’s relationship history was biased relative to chance (i.e., if there was greater consistency, represented by higher calculated proportions of identical eye colors, in the original dataset than in the permutations). To account for possible eye color reporting errors and ethnic group matching, we ran the analyses restricted to White participants and to high-confidence eye color data; we then ran the analyses again in relation to the complete dataset. We found some limited evidence for some consistency of eye color across people’s relationship histories in some of the samples only when using the complete dataset. We discuss the issues of small effect sizes, partner-report bias, and ethnic group matching in investigating partner consistency across time
Impact of Intergovernmental Transfers on Household Multidimensional Well-Being
Get PDFDo intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households? This paper investigates the relationship between intergovernmental transfers and household multidimensional well-being, using the revenue allocation by the federal government to sub-national or state governments in Nigeria. We follow Alkire & Foster to compute a multidimensional poverty index (MPI), which is the weighted sum of three broad dimensions of poverty – health, education, and living standards. We adopt an instrumental variable (IV) approach by using exogenous variation in oil windfalls as an instrument to mitigate the endogeneity concerns associated with using intergovernmental transfers in our analysis. We find that an increase in intergovernmental transfers leads to an improvement in household multidimensional well-being or a decline in the multidimensional poverty index. We identify recurrent and capital expenditures as some of the potential channels through which intergovernmental transfers affect the multidimensional well-being of households in Nigeria. The findings of this paper reinforce the growing evidence of the developmental impacts of intergovernmental transfers, especially in the context of developing countries
Challenges and Opportunities of Teaching Cybersecurity in Mainstream Computing Programmes in the U.K.
No full textDeveloping the required cybersecurity competencies across computing-related programmes can be challenging in multiple dimensions. The demand for cybersecurity specialists is significant and well appreciated in the UK and globally, but such demand is not limited to these specialists, to ensure all software, systems and services are designed, developed and built securely, and indeed continue to remain secure. This chapter explores the challenges presented in embedding cybersecurity education within computing-related higher education programmes in the UK, and especially how professional body accreditation is increasingly shaping this demand. In particular, a collection of UK-based case studies on how these challenges have been successfully identified and addressed is reported herein, reflecting the diversity and inclusivity of higher education provision across the UK. From this, recommendations are formulated across the research-policy-practice continuum related to innovative and effective learning, teaching and assessment, as well as areas for future research and development