132 research outputs found
Three venepuncture techniques in babies: a comparative study
No full textModifying hyodermic needles for blood sampling in babies is common. However, such techniques mean that medical devices are not always used as manufacturers intend and potential and actual risks associated with their use occur. A number of new devices have recently been designed to overcome safety issues. However, whether new devices are any more effective than existing modified methods is unknown.
Through a randomoised controlled trial, this study attempted to compare the safety and efficacy of three blood sampling techniques in babies: (i) the 'broken' needle, (ii) the 'modified' buttrefly' and (iii) a new 'single winged' needle designed specifically for venepuncture in babies and young children.
Eligibility criteria for inclusion to the study comprised: babies twelve months of age and under, weighing over 1500 grams, requiring at least three routine blood samples to monitor their condition, six hours apart. Informed, written parental consent was also required. The sample was drawn from a neonatal intensive care unit and achildren's unit in a large teaching hospital. Ethical approval for the study was gained form the local research ethics committee.
Babies recruited into the study were randomised according to the order in which the three blood sampling techniques were used. Data were collected in terms of: (1) whether the blood sample had been obtained after one, two or more than two attempts; (2) whether there was clotting in the sample and (3) whether there was bruising and the extent of the bruising measured at the largest diamter of the bruise.
Fourteen babies completed the study reulting in the trail being severely underpowered. Recruitment to the study was disappointing and was, in part, attributed to a number of adverse incidents that had occurred in clinical and research practices involving babies and children, that had gained much media attention, both before and during the study period
Liberalism, nationalism and the evolution of middle-class values : the literature on interior decoration in England, 1875-1914.
No full textPhDIn the 1870s and 80s, the interior decoration of the middle-class
home was the focus of a great deal of attention, as reflected in a
dramatic increase in the literature on this subject in the form of
handbooks 'for those about to furnish', articles in women's magazines,
trade Journals and publications for artists and architects. This
literature expressed the most advanced ideas of the day and actively
promoted such progressive concepts as individual freedom of expression,
cosmopolitan internationalism, the need for improvement in the
position of women, and the application of new scientific theories
This thesis traces these ideas to the political ideology of modern
British liberalism which was at its most influential during this
period Liberal writers, in particular John Stuart Mill, wrote
persuasively about the primacy of the private sphere of life In
their view, it was only in private life that man could develop true
individuality through freedom of choice, this concept had important
implications for the appearance of the home Many of those who wrote
on interior decoration had read Mill, or were involved with reform
movements or political activities inspired by liberal theories As a
result, they tried to bring about social change through the application.
of liberal principles to the decoration of the middle-class
home
There were also, however, sharp disagreements expressed in the
decorating literature about what constituted the optimal middle-class
interior These conflicts reflected areas of unresolvable tension
within the ideological framework of liberalism; their impact on
interior decoration is explored as well
As the influence of liberalism waned, the values expressed in the
literature on decoration changed correspondingly The importance of
the home in the formation of national character was given greater
emphasis and a return to 'correct' and traditional national styles was
seen as a necessary protection against both internal weakness and the
'foreign contagion' of European styles such as Art Nouvea
Secondary education and the working class:: Wigan 1920-1970.
Get PDFThis study traces the development of educational provision for working class people in Wigan from 1920 until 1970. The main investigative tool of the study is oral evidence, gathered from interviewing a wide cross-section of people who attended different schools, triangulated against primary archive sources. The main theme of the study is that there was a clearly identified 'dual' and 'differentiated’ system of secondary provision for children in the town. For a small minority of pupils education was delivered in the selective grammar schools, who had access to a superior curriculum with clearly defined outcomes and qualifications. This was undertaken m establishments that were well equipped, and was delivered by teaching staff, who were all university graduates. And contrasts strongly with the lower status non-selective schools, which the majority of working class pupils attended, where the curriculum and ethos were constantly changed and experimented with, to address a growing concern regarding the attainment and progress of the pupils who attended these schools. The establishments that the non-selected pupils attended were poorly equipped, and pupils were taught by non-graduate teachers. The study will also highlight how this 'differentiated' and 'dual system' was maintained by the highly contentious 1l+selection process, reinforced through the social and financial restraints on working class families which pertained whenever the opportunity arose for their children to attend a selective school. In addition, the study reveals how pupils' experience of discipline was influenced by their gender and the status of the school they attended. The witness testimony and primary archive material reveal how the emergence of the welfare state, alongside the increased prosperity and affluence of working people after 1945, contrasted sharply with the abject poverty and hardships that working people experienced during the inter-war years. Nevertheless, despite the post war gains of the Welfare State, the secondary education system remained a mechanism of social differentiation and control. The consequences of this were made a profound impact on the experience, identity and life chances of working class people
The development of the British army during the wars with France, 1793-1815
Get PDFThe British Army that fought the engagement at Waterloo in 1815, was outwardly little changed from that which was engaged in the initial campaigns of the Wars, twenty-two years previously. Line upon line of red-coated, musket-armed infantry, manoeuvred as chess pieces across open fields, deciding the issue by volley and bayonet, having spent a hungry night exposed to rain and cold. The cavalry were still beautifully and often impractically clad, and were always seeking the decisive charge, on their unfed and often sickly mounts. The Army's commander still viewed his troops as 'the scum of the earth', who were rarely paid, and predominantly enlisted for life. It would therefore appear that little had altered from 1793 to 1815, and that this will be a study of continuity rather than change. However, this thesis will show that despite outward appearances, the Army that took the field at Waterloo was intrinsically different from the one that entered the conflict in 1793, being modernised in line with other institutions of state, and other European armies. This thesis is first and foremost intended to be a contribution to the history of the British Army from the outbreak of war with Revolutionary France in 1793, to the reduction of the forces after the battle of Waterloo in 1815. It proceeds from an assumption that the understanding of not only that history, but the history of the developing British state, will be significantly advanced through a study of the operation of, and the changes which took place within, the Army during the Wars with France
The employment of working class women in Leeds, 1880-1914.
Get PDFBetween 1880 and 1914 women's industrial employment in Leeds was transformed
by the introduction of the factory system in the consumer-goods trades. Women
came to predominate in ready-made tailoring, but have been neglected in
histories of the city.
Recent studies have argued that a. focus on the sex division of labour in
social production challenges conventional interpretations of working-class
history. This thesis contributes to current debates by examining women's work
in Leeds. It argues that the sex division of labour and the tensions between
sex and class had a critical impact on the development of the local labour
movement. Studies of women's work have shown the importance of regional
variations in the pattern of female employment. Leeds provides the
opportunity to study a hitherto neglected group, - female factory workers
employed outside cotton textiles.
Wonen's subordinate role within industry and their attitudes to work were
structured by the experience of work itself as well as by their early
socialisatjon and role in the family. The first section examines the
conditions of women's industrial employment. It suggests that job segregation
by sex structured the specific features of women's work in Leeds. Section two locates the extent and type of womens work in Leeds in the
context of the social conditions of family life and contemporary expectations
of appropriate sex roles. The varied family backgrounds, age and marital
status affected the attitudes of individual women to paid employment and
modified its effects..
The final section examines the attitudes of the Leeds labour movement towards
women workers and the tensions between sex and class. The labour movement
failed to address women's needs and to offer a real challenge to their
subordinate industrial position. This weakened union organisation and
independent labour politics in the city
Technical education and the London county council 1918-1939. A study in course innovation and development
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.Our thesis is concerned with the process of course innovation and Development in technical education within the area of the London County Council During the period 1918-39. Although essential, an historical study, the Thesis is intended to be of value in a consideration of future development in Technical education, and in particular in the study of the relationship between Curriculum management and manpower planning. The first part of our thesis describes the institutional structure of the principal sectors of technical education in London and outlines the Type of courses that were available and their general progress during the Interwar years. The second part of our thesis seeks to analyse the background to course innovation and to assess why certain courses were successful and why others were comparative failures. Since the topic is potentially so vast, our thesis has been limited to an identification of major factors, rather than a detailed consideration of each one. Our analysis shows the process of course innovation and development in technical education to have been a highly complex interaction of forces in which the other aspects of the educational structure, including administrative as well as teach1ng institutions, played a vital role. Emphasis has been given to the influence of senior administrative officers within the local I education authority framework. Special mention has been made of the work of the Board of Education and of the limitations of the Board in tailing to establish definite guidelines for course development in technical education. Important factors outside the educational structure have also been considered, including the attitudes of parents and business management to formal technical training
Industrialization and the politics of disorder : Paterson silkworkers 1880-1913
Get PDFThis is an account of the social and work experience of
successive generations of immigrants in a mushrooming industrial city,
Paterson, New Jersey, 1880-1915. In the late nineteenth century the
city became the centre of the American silk industry. It's economy
flourished, dominated by the production of this one product. Its mills
and machinery were technologically the most advanced of any in the world.
Paterson quickly became a Mecca for immigrant silk hands. Their
adaption to the new work routines in the city's mills forms the focal
point of this study. Immigrant workers brought with them work and
collective traditions coloured by their experience in the silk industries
of their homelands. They were ill-suited to the advanced form of production
in Paterson mills and constantly disrupted the plans of local factory owners.
The resultant tension became an ingrained feature of industrial life in the
city as a continuous stream of immigrants re-enforced the disruptive
tendencies of their predecessors in the mills.
Paterson millowners were so hidebound by their wayward workers that
by the end of the century they formed concerted plans to assume a new
dominance over the economic fortunes of the city. Their campaign was directed
primarily against Paterson's newest immigrant group, Italian millhands. It
assumed a distinctive flavour from that fact. In 1913 the new stance of
millowners culminated in the notorious "War in Paterson". Although the
1913 strike is commonly attributed to the inflammatory presence of the
Industrial Workers of the World, it was rooted in tensions wholly independent
of that organization. The failure of the strike confirmed the new social
and political status of Paterson's factory owners, and the eclipse of a
long tradition of collective disruption by the city's immigrant millworkers
The working credos of prison governors in Korea
Get PDFPrison governors occupy a critical position in applying penal policy. Despite the importance of their role, relatively little is known about how they perceive their
work and the prisoners in their care. This study focuses on their working credos in order to understand how and in which ways these affect their working practices. The
study adopted a qualitative approach, gathering data through in-depth interviews with twenty-six Korean prison governors.
The study aimed to construct an explanatory model of these governors' working credos and identify the characteristic features of each credo in order to understand the interrelationship between the governors' working credos and their practices. In pursuing these aims, with reference to a number of key objectives, the study first found that each governor predominantly held one of four working credos: the
punishment, paramilitarist, managerialist and humanitarian credos. The typology of the working credos as Weberian ideal type was constructured by interpreting the features of the Korean prison governors. The characteristic features of each credo were identified with respect to the governors' relationships with the prisoners, staff, government and the outside community.
Despite some similarities to those proposed by previous studies, the Korean governors' working credos showed a distinctive pattern of prevalence. The governors were found to have a greater tendency to hold punitive attitudes and cling to a paramilitaristic culture, and were less affected by managerialism and humanitarinanism than their counterparts in England and Wales. The formation of
their working credos had been influenced by various organisational and societal factors. The country's past military regimes seem to have influenced the formation
of the paramilitarist credo, and, although the evidence was not conclusive. it suggested that the governors' working credos were also influenced by various individual factors to various degrees. for example, by the governors' age. education, period of service in the prison service, and work experience at the Correctional Service Headquarters
A Grounded Theory to Understanding Police Officers’ and Child Care Officers’ Responses to Child Sexual Abuse in Barbados
No full textThe complexities inherent in managing child sexual abuse stem from the intersection of micro factors (e.g., personal values, histories of learning and trauma in some cases), exo level factors (such as agency mandates and professional codes) and macro factors (e.g., socio-economic and societal attitudes). Professionals in Barbados who deal with gender-based violence (including sexual exploitation) have a key role to play in addressing this problem. The ways in which they respond, through their criminal investigations, child protection assessments and interventions, are critical in assisting with the amelioration of the effects of CSA and reducing its prevalence.
This study furthers our understanding and expands knowledge on the subject by examining professional behaviours in responding to child sexual abuse. Factors such as professional identity and codes of ethics, together with institutional regulations and cultural mores, determine how professionals are likely to respond. A grounded theory approach was employed, in an interpretative constructionist manner, to explore the responses of twenty one (21) participants, comprising ten police officers, eight child care officers and focus group members comprising three new participants and four others previously interviewed individually.
Two theoretical paradigms were employed as conceptual lenses to assist data exploration and analysis of emerged meanings. These were the socio-cultural theory of ‘community of practice’, and the feminist perspective, which helped to inform how gender and power might impact on responses. Sitting alongside these approaches is the ecological systems theory, which I have used to ensure that the problem (child sexual abuse) has been located within its wider socio-cultural context.
The grounded theory to emerge from the study is that professional responses to CSA result in, and from, multisystem actions within hierarchies of power and status, which validate particular narratives of abuse and minimise others. Professionals are embedded within these systems and, therefore, often find it difficult to respond to CSA in ways that address root causes and provide justice to its victims. The study highlights the need for the training of police officers and social workers to facilitate a greater level of reflection on issues such as power and gender inequality, and to create opportunities for collaborative practice
The development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England 1834-1939
No full textThis thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University.As indicated by the title the purpose of the thesis is to trace the development of social legislation for blind or deaf persons in England between 1834 and 1939. No attempt is made to deal with assistance whether from statutory or voluntary sources for war blinded or deafened persons. In the first chapter a survey is made of the position of the blind or deaf under the Poor Law Amendment Act of 1834 and succeeding Poor Law legislation up to 1919. Chapter two deals with the enquiry into the condition of the blind carried out in 1874-75 by the Charity Organisation Society and the much more comprehensive survey of the state of the blind or deaf made between 1884 and 1888 by the Royal Commission on the Blind, Deaf and Dumb which reported in 1889. The latter enquiry resulted in the passing of the Education (Blind and Deaf Children) Act of 1893 and also provided the essential data on which state action for the two disabilities could be based. The third chapter gives an account of the campaign to secure legislation for the blind which culminated in the Blind Persons Act of 1920. How the Blind Persons Act was implemented at the local level and the effect on blind welfare of the work of the Advisory Committee on the Welfare of the Blind and the passing of the Local Government Act of 1929, is the concern of chapter four.
Chapter five describes the events leading up to the enactment of legislation relating to the issue of free dog licences in respect of guide dogs for the blind, concessionary postal rates, reduced fees in respect of wireless receiving licences, and the Blind Voters Act of 1933.
In Chapter six the story of the campaign for legislation for the blind is continued up to the passing of the Blind Persons Act of 1938. The penultimate chapter relates the attempts made to secure legislation provision for the deaf in the form of a Deaf Persons Act broadly similar in scope to the Acts on behalf of the blind. The thesis concludes with a consideration of certain conclusions drawn from the subject matter presented in the preceding chapters
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