“Till we hear the last all clear”: gender and the presentation of self in young girls’ writing about the bombing of Hull during the Second World War

On 9 February 1942, Peggy Warren, a teacher at Springburn Street School in Hull, set her class of ten- to twelve-year-old girls the task of producing an essay entitled, ‘What Happened to Me and What I Did in the Air Raids’.1 Springburn Street School was a mixed school of around 900 pupils, situated among the heavily bombed working-class terraces north of Hull's docks.2 The essays thus evidence a vivid familiarity with the death and destruction caused by the sporadic, but heavy bombing experienced by Hull in over sixty air raids between 1940 and 1945.3 The school had already absorbed a number of the children from local bombed-out schools when, shortly after the essays were composed, it was destroyed itself.4 Sixty years later, the collection of twenty-nine manuscripts was presented to Hull Local Studies Library archive by Miss Warren's nephew and survives as a snapshot of young girls’ experiences during an extraordinary period for British civilians. The essays – produced on a single day in response to a specified question – evidence how young girls made sense of their experience of bombing. The selfhoods produced through the girls’ narratives were shaped by gendered discourses on civilian service and, as such, provide a rare opportunity to investigate the constitution of wartime subjectivities among young girls living through ‘the Blitz’

The influence of barefoot and barefoot inspired footwear on the kinetics and kinematics of running in comparison to conventional running shoes.

Barefoot running has experienced a resurgence in footwear biomechanics literature, based on the supposition that it serves to reduce the occurrence of overuse injuries in comparison to conventional shoe models. This consensus has lead footwear manufacturers to develop shoes which aim to mimic the mechanics of barefoot locomotion. This study compared the impact kinetics and 3-D joint angular kinematics observed whilst running: barefoot, in conventional cushioned running shoes and in shoes designed to integrate the perceived benefits of barefoot locomotion. The aim of the current investigation was therefore to determine whether differences in impact kinetics exist between the footwear conditions and whether shoes which aim to simulate barefoot movement patterns can closely mimic the 3-D kinematics of barefoot running. Twelve participants ran at 4.0 m.s-1±5% in each footwear condition. Angular joint kinematics from the hip, knee and ankle in the sagittal, coronal and transverse planes were measured using an eight camera motion analysis system. In addition simultaneous tibial acceleration and ground reaction forces were obtained. Impact parameters and joint kinematics were subsequently compared using repeated measures ANOVAs. The kinematic analysis indicates that in comparison to the conventional and barefoot inspired shoes that running barefoot was associated significantly greater plantar-flexion at footstrike and range of motion to peak dorsiflexion. Furthermore, the kinetic analysis revealed that compared to the conventional footwear impact parameters were significantly greater in the barefoot condition. Therefore this study suggests that barefoot running is associated with impact kinetics linked to an increased risk of overuse injury, when compared to conventional shod running. Furthermore, the mechanics of the shoes which aim to simulate barefoot movement patterns do not appear to closely mimic the kinematics of barefoot locomotion

A Comparative Study of the ReCell® Device and Autologous Spit-Thickness Meshed Skin Graft in the Treatment of Acute Burn Injuries.

Early excision and autografting are standard care for deeper burns. However, donor sites are a source of significant morbidity. To address this, the ReCell® Autologous Cell Harvesting Device (ReCell) was designed for use at the point-of-care to prepare a noncultured, autologous skin cell suspension (ASCS) capable of epidermal regeneration using minimal donor skin. A prospective study was conducted to evaluate the clinical performance of ReCell vs meshed split-thickness skin grafts (STSG, Control) for the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns. Effectiveness measures were assessed to 1 year for both ASCS and Control treatment sites and donor sites, including the incidence of healing, scarring, and pain. At 4 weeks, 98% of the ASCS-treated sites were healed compared with 100% of the Controls. Pain and assessments of scarring at the treatment sites were reported to be similar between groups. Significant differences were observed between ReCell and Control donor sites. The mean ReCell donor area was approximately 40 times smaller than that of the Control (P < .0001), and after 1 week, significantly more ReCell donor sites were healed than Controls (P = .04). Over the first 16 weeks, patients reported significantly less pain at the ReCell donor sites compared with Controls (P ≤ .05 at each time point). Long-term patients reported higher satisfaction with ReCell donor site outcomes compared with the Controls. This study provides evidence that the treatment of deep partial-thickness burns with ASCS results in comparable healing, with significantly reduced donor site size and pain and improved appearance relative to STSG

Supervisor trainees' and their supervisors' perceptions of attainment of knowledge and skills. An empirical evaluation of a psychotherapy supervisor training programme

Objectives. This study aimed to evaluate the success of a two-year, part-time training programme for psychotherapy supervisors. A second aim was to examine factors that might contribute to perceived knowledge and skills attainment during the training course. Design. This is a naturalistic, longitudinal study where several measures are used to examine group process and outcome. Methods. Supervisor trainees’ (n=21) and their facilitators’ (n=6) ratings of learning (knowledge and skills), relations to the supervisor and supervision group, usage of the group, and supervisor style were completed at three time points. Results. The findings suggested that both trainees and their supervisors perceived that the trainees attained a substantial amount of knowledge and skills during the course. In accordance with the literature and expectations, the regression analysis suggested a strong negative association between a strong focus on group processes in the initial and middle phases of the training and perceived knowledge and skills attainment in the final phase of the training. The expected, positive role of relations among trainees in the supervision group in the first half of the training and perceived knowledge and skills attainment in the final part of the training was obtained, whilst the hypothesized significance of the relationship between trainee and supervisor did not receive support. Conclusions The supervisory course seemed to provide a training that allowed trainees to attain knowledge and skills that are necessary for psychotherapy supervisors. The results of this pilot study also emphasize the need of more research on learning in the context of group supervision in psychotherapy

Alternative approaches for studying shared and distributed leadership

Scholars hold different perspectives about leadership which are not limited to a formally appointed leader. Of the abundance of terms used to describe this phenomenon, shared and distributed are the most prevalent. These terms are often used interchangeably, resulting in confusion in the way that shared and distributed leadership is conceptualized and investigated. This paper provides a historical development of this field, challenges existing conceptions and reveals inconsistencies and contradictions that are seldom acknowledged. Four distinct approaches to the study of shared and distributed leadership are identified in the literature, each embracing different ontological views and leadership epistemologies. Individually, the four approaches offer valuable - yet partial - understanding. Comparing and contrasting the assumptions and insights from the four approaches raises fundamental issues about how we think about leadership in terms of research, practice and development

Consuming communities: the neighbourhood unit and the role of retail spaces on British housing estates, 1944–1958

This article challenges perceptions about the origins and objectives of the ‘neighbourhood unit principle’ that emerged in 1944, by focusing on the location and purpose of shops. It argues that the positioning of retail spaces was central, but largely overlooked, to the socio-spatial schema that lay at the heart of the neighbourhood principle. Planners saw shops as a hub of face-to-face interaction, through which nebulous objectives like ‘community spirit’ might be engendered. However, planners did not account for the way that their need-based model of shopping might be undermined by the consumer habits of inhabitants and the changing objectives of retailers

The Threshold of the state: civil defence, the blackout and the home in Second World War Britain

This article re-considers the way that the British state extended its control of the home during the Second World War, using the implementation of air raid precautions and the blackout as a lens through which to view the state’s developing attitudes to domestic space. Presented here is not the familiar story of pitch-dark, dangerous streets or altered cityscapes of fear and destruction; instead, by examining personal testimony the article inverts traditional treatments of the blackout to look at the interior of dwellings, demonstrating how the realities of total warfare impinged upon the psychological elements that constituted the home. What emerges not only expands historical understandings of the wartime experience of civilians, it also shows civil defence measures as highly-visible points on an often antagonistic trajectory of state interactions with citizens concerning the privacy and security of the dwelling in the modern city. The requirements of civil defence, I argue, were not merely the product of exceptional war-time circumstances, but symptomatic of long-standing attempts to open up dwellings to state scrutiny. These attempts had both a significant pre-war lineage and, crucially, implications beyond the end of the war in private homes and on social housing estates

Objective Measurement of Adherence with Splint Use After Burn Injury

The prescription of splints (orthoses) to help protect vulnerable structures and maintain range of motion after skin grafting surgery is an integral part of burn recovery. The degree to which a patient adheres to wearing a prescribed orthosis is believed to play a major role in outcome. Oftentimes however, an orthosis is uncomfortable or undesirable to wear thus affecting a patient’s adherence. At our burn center, while the patient is in ICU, orthosis application and wear is heavily dependent on staff. During care on the acute ward, the responsibility is shared by family and staff. In outpatient (OP), the patient and caregiver are primarily responsible for orthotic wear adherence. The purpose of our study was to use temperature sensors to objectively determine patient adherence with splints during the three different stages of burn recovery

Materialising contexts: virtual soundscapes for real-world exploration

© 2020, The Author(s). This article presents the results of a study based on a group of participants’ interactions with an experimental sound installation at the National Science and Media Museum in Bradford, UK. The installation used audio augmented reality to attach virtual sound sources to a vintage radio receiver from the museum’s collection, with a view to understanding the potentials of this technology for promoting exploration and engagement within museums and galleries. We employ a practice-based design ethnography, including a thematic analysis of our participants’ interactions with spatialised interactive audio, and present an identified sequence of interactional phases. We discuss how audio augmented artefacts can communicate and engage visitors beyond their traditional confines of line-of-sight, and how visitors can be drawn to engage further, beyond the realm of their original encounter. Finally, we provide evidence of how contextualised and embodied interactions, along with authentic audio reproduction, evoked personal memories associated with our museum artefact, and how this can promote interest in the acquisition of declarative knowledge. Additionally, through the adoption of a functional and theoretical aura-based model, we present ways in which this could be achieved, and, overall, we demonstrate a material object’s potential role as an interface for engaging users with, and contextualising, immaterial digital audio archival content