Are schools panoptic?

Schools are often understood by social researchers as panoptic spaces, where power is exercised through constant surveillance and monitoring. In this paper, I use Foucault’s notorious account of the Panopticon as a point of departure for a detailed empirical investigation of the specificities of surveillance in schools. Drawing on ethnographic data from fieldwork in a primary school, I argue that how surveillance actually operated in this context diverged from the panoptic programme in two crucial ways: surveillance was (i) discontinuous rather than total, and therefore open to resistance and evasion, and (ii) exercised through sound and hearing as much as through vision

Five-country Study on Service and Volunteering in Southern Africa Malawi Country Report

This study on the nature and form of civic service and volunteering in Malawi followed a qualitative, descriptive research approach, drawing on information from an extensive document search, interviews with key informants responsible for supporting and/or implementing service and volunteering programmes and a focus group discussion with representatives of national and international organisations running structured service programmes, as well as those involved in district and community-based activities

Diffusion technique stabilizes resistor values

Reduction of the contact resistance stabilizes the values, over a broad temperature range, of resistors used in linear integrated circuits. This reduction is accomplished by p-plus diffusion under the alloyed aluminum contacts

Accreditation of practice educators: An expectation too far ?

The successful completion of practice placements is essential to the education of occupational therapists; however, ensuring quality placements is challenging for occupational therapy educators. In 2000, Brunel University introduced a revised system of accreditation of practice educators which involved attendance at a course, the supervision of a student and the submission of an essay to be assessed. An audit revealed that a total of 314 therapists attended 15 courses between 2000 and 2003; of these, 243 (77%) subsequently supervised students and 32 (10%) became accredited. The requirement to accredit practice educators, which is a commendable attempt to ensure quality, may paradoxically have been detrimental in achieving quality. The College of Occupational Therapists’ apparent change of emphasis on this topic is welcome

Enabling occupational therapy students to take a fresh approach to psychosis

This practice evaluation describes the implementation of a 2-day workshop on psychosis with third-year undergraduate occupational therapy students at Brunel University. The work was undertaken by the teaching team at Brunel University, a clinical psychologist working in assertive outreach and an occupational therapist working in community mental health. The background to the project and the way in which the 2-day workshop was adapted to accommodate the university timetable are outlined. An evaluation of the workshop, its place in the occupational therapy programme and the feedback from students are presented

A systematic review of recommended modifications of CBT for people with cognitive impairments following brain injury

Due to diverse cognitive, emotional and interpersonal changes that can follow brain injury, psychological therapies often need to be adapted to suit the complex needs of this population. The aims of the study were to synthesise published recommendations for therapy modifications following brain injury from non-progressive traumatic, vascular, or metabolic causes and to determine how often such modifications have been applied to cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) for post-injury emotional adjustment problems. A systematic review and narrative synthesis of therapy modifications recommended in review articles and reported in intervention studies was undertaken. Database and manual searches identified 688 unique papers of which eight review articles and 16 intervention studies met inclusion criteria. The review articles were thematically analysed and a checklist of commonly recommended modifications composed. The checklist items clustered under themes of: therapeutic education and formulation; attention; communication; memory; and executive functioning. When this checklist was applied to the intervention studies, memory aids and an emphasis on socialising patients to the CBT model were most frequently reported as adaptations. It was concluded that the inconsistent reporting of psychological therapy adaptations for people with brain injury is a barrier to developing effective and replicable therapies. We present a comprehensive account of potential modifications that should be used to guide future research and practice

Telescience Testbed Pilot Program

The Telescience Testbed Pilot Program is developing initial recommendations for requirements and design approaches for the information systems of the Space Station era. During this quarter, drafting of the final reports of the various participants was initiated. Several drafts are included in this report as the University technical reports