The crystalline form of methamphetamine, commonly known as crystal meth or ‘ICE’ is a highly addictive and powerful stimulant. Users of crystal meth often require emergency care, and are associated with a substantial burden of care by emergency care providers. In this qualitative study, we report findings from semi-structured interviews conducted with health professionals (n=9) about their experiences providing care for patients affected by ICE and presenting to the emergency department. Safety and aggression management was revealed as a major aspect of care provision for these personnel, and a major theme: ‘Staying safe’ was revealed. ‘Staying safe’ described experiences of participants being exposed to potentially unsafe situations, and their responses to the challenging behaviours and aggression participants encountered when caring for these patients. Our findings highlight the need for ED staff to understand the nature of ICE use and its adverse impact on the mental and physical health of users. Furthermo…
The SLiDA project investigated how institutions are creating and enabling opportunities that promote the development of effective learning in a digital age. The ultimate aim was to promote strategies that support learners to develop the access, skills, strategies and attributes they need to learn effectively with technology. The main deliverables of the study were a set of nine institutional web-based Case Studies. This synthesis report is not a summary of the case studies. It is, rather, an attempt to draw out key features of the policies and practices documented in the case studies and to make recommendations to institutional managers about supporting learners to effectively use technology.
Writer’s Retreat is a pavilion design for a writer-in-residence in Deptford, London. Shaped by the environment to form three unique studios with different views, interiors and sound qualities, the pavilion is designed to counteract writer’s block. The site provides an opportunity to engage with the debates surrounding culture-led redevelopment, established communities and regeneration in deprived areas. With a view over Deptford High Street, the writer observes a place that, three times a week, is transformed from quiet street to bustling urban market, offering everything from toilet rolls to evening gowns. The pavilion invites the public to sit down and step away from the commercial market, whilst listening to the life of the street as a storytelling space.
Blue Planet Biophilia is a collection of final drawings, diagrams and renders that explore how water can be integrated into the workspace to benefit workers’ wellbeing. According to biologist E. O. Wilson, ‘Biophlia’ refers to an innate and genetically determined affinity of human beings with the natural world. These designs show how water can provide natural ventilation and a more ‘biophilic’ atmosphere. With sites in both London and Barcelona, Dechow focuses on designing spaces where the user is surrounded by both the physical presence and the natural acoustics of water. The final design shows an ocean-plastic recycling hub with an adjoining design studio on the coast of Barcelona. Giant cones bring the rolling, crashing and lapping acoustics of the water beneath the building up into the workspace, where designers can sit and work surrounded by ocean views, and the comings and goings of the Mediterranean fishermen.
The paper introduces the method of separation for improving reliability and reducing technical risk and provides insight into the various mechanisms through which the method of separation attains this goal. A comprehensive classification of techniques for improving reliability and reducing risk, based on the method of separation has been proposed for the first time. From this classification, three principal categories of separation techniques have been identified: (i) assuring distinct functions/properties/behaviour for distinct components or parts (ii) assuring distinct properties/behaviour at distinct time, value of a parameter, conditions or scale and (iii) distancing risk-critical factors. The concept ‘stochastic separation’ of random events and methods for providing a stochastic separation have been introduced. It is shown that separation of properties is an efficient technique for compensating the drawbacks associated with a selection based on homogeneous properties. It is also demonstrated that the me…
Memristor emerged as an auspicious device in the field of neuromorphic engineering due to its nanoscale size, non- volatility, scalability, fast switching, low power consumption, high density and compatability with CMOS technology. This paper unveils the first mathematical memristor modeling in C++. We also represent the implementation and training of a single layer and multilayer neural network using C++ memristor model. The memristive crossbar structure has been utilized to train the network. We successfully demonstrated linear and non-linear seperable logic functions using C++ memristor modeling in the simulation of neural network. We also demonstrated pattern classifier using single layer neural network at two different learning rates and the network performs satisfactorily at both the learning rates.
Drawing on research conducted in Australia and the United Kingdom, this paper addresses two questions: first, how is parenting and childcare provision performed within restaurants, cafes and pubs; and second, how are different aspects of hospitality provision entangled with parent, carer and children’s experiences? The findings show how gestures of hospitality, particularly service interactions that are tailored to meet the specialist needs of these consumers, can create positive emotions and encourage customer loyalty. Furthermore, the data show the importance of recognising children as sovereign consumers. We conclude that responding directly to children’s needs can augment their experiences and hence, those of their carers and other patrons. The paper identifies a number of implications for management practice and several avenues for future research.
This article explores the use of visual imagination and reflexivity in the creation of poetry as a form of action inquiry. The power of poetry to help inquire into and illuminate new understandings is demonstrated in the creative and imaginative use of imagery, similes and metaphors contained within the choice of words and the connections made to them. Through my work with managers and staff in organizations, by using poetry I have come to understand that the poetic words used not only hold the possibility of explaining and describing experiences, they validate the range of associated emotions and can also influence actions when new meanings and understandings are reached. I have found that the process of action inquiry encourages and facilitates reflexivity. For the purpose of this article I have chosen to focus on work-life balance – an issue that many find challenging at different stages in their working lives.
This thesis investigates selected seventeenth century writings from England and New England to explore the varying significances afforded to the Biblical figure of Adam in theories of the polity. It notes the strong impulse in this period of political upheaval to find foundations and patterns for the polity by returning to the original of Adam’s existence in the Garden of Eden as recorded in Genesis and reinterpreted in Christian tradition. An overview of the times and their political and religious order identifies contemporary preoccupations – legitimacy of sovereignty, security of person and property, freedom of religious conscience, direction of history, expansion to new parts of the world and encounters with new people – that coloured interpretations and political applications of Adam. Against this background, the thesis presents contemporary conversations in which interpretations of Adam played a significant part, proposing a categorisation of Adam as state (the pattern and condition of man and polity) a…
Mina Loy’s engagement with dance in her writings exemplifies how a woman writer could use this corporeal art as a means to articulate a feminist sensibility. In a period when dance was undergoing similar seismic shifts to those transforming the written and visual arts, Loy drew on ballet and modern dance, and their expressive kinaesthetics, to examine the gender politics of the dancing body and explore the performative energies of the written word. This article examines Loy’s published and unpublished work, from early poems on Italian futurism to her long poem on Isadora Duncan, and the dancing that inspired them. It argues that Loy draws on dance to interrogate and experiment with the way meaning is made with the body and how the body can be part of the meanings of language.