Disabled people and the Internet: experiences, barriers and opportunities

The UK government aims to make all its information and transactions available electronically by 2005. General use of the Internet also continues to grow. This report investigates the Internet's barriers and benefits for disabled people, and considers whether it acts as a means to reduce their social exclusion. The study surveys the views and experiences of disabled people, both Internet users and non-users. Topics covered include: what the Internet is used for; use of and difficulties with assistive devices (special equipment and adaptations needed by some disabled people in order to use computers); how people learn to use the Internet; views of website accessibility; advantages and disadvantages of Internet usage. It also explores participants' restrictions on using the Internet, and people's reasons for not using it. There has been little previous research in this area, but the authors review the existing literature. The report finds that many practical problems - such as the cost of training, finding appropriate assistive devices, website accessibility - all inhibit Internet opportunities for many disabled people

Conservatism of mineral magnetic signatures in farm dam sediments in the South African Karoo: the potential effects of particle size and post-depositional diagenesis

Purpose: A methodology was developed to evaluate and mitigate the impacts of particle size and post-depositional diagenesis when using mineral magnetic signatures to trace the sources of historically deposited sediment in farm dams in the South African Karoo. Materials and methods: Samples from a range of potential sediment sources were sieved to different particle size fractions, and the relationships between pairs of tracer signatures were established for each fraction. Non-conservatism of the magnetic signatures was determined by identifying whether the magnetic signatures of the farm dam sediments were within the range of those of the fractionated source samples. By fractionating the sediment source samples, the core samples were able to be traced using appropriately sized sources. Results and discussion: It was found that strong relationships existed between the pairs of tracer signatures at all particle size fractions. Relationships in the <32 μm fraction were significantly different to that of coarser fractions. It was also found that particle size had a large effect on all magnetic signatures and would prove to be a large source of uncertainty if not accounted for within any methodology developed for quantitative source discrimination and source apportionment. There was very little non-conservatism caused by diagenetic or biogenic processes in six of the seven dams sampled. In one dam, there was evidence to suggest that dissolution had probably caused the loss of almost all small superparamagnetic and stable single-domain grains. The other signatures associated with coarser magnetic grains in this dam were generally unaffected by the dissolution processes. Conclusions: The good preservation of magnetic signatures suggests that they can make reliable tracers over historical timescales (up to 164 years) in the Karoo and similar semi- arid catchments. However, the mitigation of particle size effects and screening for post-depositional alteration is an essential part of their use. The methodology presented in this paper is a potential way of recognising tracer non-conservatism and limiting its effects in future studies

'White knuckle care work' : violence, gender and new public management in the voluntary sector

Drawing on comparative data from Canada and Scotland, this article explores reasons why violence is tolerated in non-profit care settings. This article will provide insights into how workers' orientations to work, the desire to care and the intrinsic rewards from working in a non-profit context interact with the organization of work and managerially constructed workplace norms and cultures (Burawoy, 1979) to offset the tensions in an environment characterized by scarce resources and poor working conditions. This article will also outline how the same environment of scarce resources causes strains in management's efforts to establish such cultures. Working with highly excluded service users with problems that do not respond to easy interventions, workers find themselves working at the edge of their endurance, hanging on by their fingernails, and beginning to participate in various forms of resistance; suggesting that even among the most highly committed, 'white knuckle care' may be unsustainable

Problem gambling: a suitable case for social work?

Problem gambling attracts little attention from health and social care agencies in the UK. Prevalence surveys suggest that 0.6% of the population are problem gamblers and it is suggested that for each of these individuals, 10–17 other people, including children and other family members, are affected. Problem gambling is linked to many individual and social problems including: depression, suicide, significant debt, bankruptcy, family conflict, domestic violence, neglect and maltreatment of children and offending. This makes the issue central to social work territory. Yet, the training of social workers in the UK has consistently neglected issues of addictive behaviour. Whilst some attention has been paid in recent years to substance abuse issues, there has remained a silence in relation to gambling problems. Social workers provide more help for problems relating to addictions than other helping professions. There is good evidence that treatment, and early intervention for gambling problems, including psycho-social and public health approaches, can be very effective. This paper argues that problem gambling should be moved onto the radar of the social work profession, via inclusion on qualifying and post-qualifying training programmes and via research and dissemination of good practice via institutions such as the Social Care Institute for Excellence (SCIE). Keywords: problem gambling; addictive behaviour; socia

The potential for gamma-emitting radionuclides to contribute to an understanding of erosion processes in South Africa

Several research projects undertaken by the authors and others over the last 14 years have used fallout and geogenic radionuclides for understanding erosion processes and sediment yield dynamics in South Africa over the last 100–200 years as European settlers colonised the interior plains and plateaux of the country and imported new livestock and farming techniques to the region. These projects have used two fallout radionuclides (210Pb and 137Cs) to date sediments accumulating in reservoirs, farm dams, wetlands, alluvial fans and floodouts and have used other fallout nuclides (7Be) and long-lived geogenic radionuclides (e.g. 40K, 235U) as part of a composite fingerprint exploring contemporary sediment sources and changes to sources through time. While successful in many parts of the world, applying these techniques in Southern Africa has posed a number of challenges often not encountered elsewhere. Here we explore some of the benefits and challenges in using gamma-emitting radionuclides, especially 137Cs, in these landscapes. Benefits include the potential for discriminating gully sidewall from topsoil sources, which has helped to identify contemporary gully systems as sediment conduits, rather than sources, and for providing a time-synchronous marker horizon in a range of sedimentary environments that has helped to develop robust chronologies. Challenges include the spatial variability in soil cover on steep rocky hillslopes, which is likely to challenge assumptions about the uniformity of initial fallout nuclide distribution, the paucity of stable (non-eroding) sites in order to estimate atmospheric fallout inventories, and the limited success of 210Pb dating in some rapidly accumulating high altitude catchments where sediments often comprise significant amounts of sand and gravel. Despite these challenges we present evidence suggesting that the use of gamma-emitting radionuclides can make a significant contribution to our understanding of erosion processes and sediment yield dynamics. Future research highlighted in the conclusion will try to address current challenges and outline new projects established to address them more fully

A Large Solid Angle Study of Pion Absorption on He3

Measurements have been made of pi+ absorption on He3 at T_pi+ = 118, 162, and 239 MeV using the Large Acceptance Detector System (LADS). The nearly 4pi solid angle coverage of this detector minimizes uncertainties associated with extrapolations over unmeasured regions of phase space. The total absorption cross section is reported. In addition, the total cross section is divided into components in which only two or all three nucleons play a significant role in the process. These are the first direct measurements of the total and three nucleon absorption cross sections.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX. 3 figures, anonymous ftp MITLNS.MIT.EDU, cd LADS. Submitted to PRL. PSI-PR-94-11 (Paul Scherrer Institute) and LNS 94-56 (MIT Lab. for Nucl. Sci.

Tracking the reflexivity of the (dis)engaged citizen: some methodological reflections

The relationship between governments and citizens in many contemporary democracies is haunted by uncertainty and sociologists face the task of listening effectively to citizens’ own reflections on this uncertain relationship. This article reflects on the qualitative methodology of a recently completed UK project which used a combination of diary and multiple interviews/ focus groups to track over a fieldwork period of up to a year citizens’ reflections on their relationship to a public world and the contribution to this of their media consumption. In particular, the article considers how the project’s multiple methods enabled multiple angles on the inevitable artificiality and performative dimension of the diary process, resulting in rich data on people’s complex reflections on the uncertain position of the contemporary citizen

Constrained by managerialism : caring as participation in the voluntary social services

The data in this study show that care is a connective process, underlying and motivating participation and as a force that compels involvement in the lives of others, care is at least a micro-participative process. Care or affinity not only persisted in the face of opposition, but it was also used by workers as a counter discourse and set of practices with which to resist the erosion of worker participation and open up less autonomized practices and ways of connecting with fellow staff, clients and the communities they served. The data suggest that while managerialism and taylorised practice models may remove or reduce opportunities for worker participation, care is a theme or storyline that gave workers other ways to understand their work and why they did it, as well as ways they were prepared to resist managerial priorities and directives, including the erosion of various kinds of direct and indirect participation. The degree of resistance possible, even in the highly technocratic worksite in Australia, shows that cracks and fissures exist within managerialism