“Having Your Say” – Reflections on a Training Course For Older People Volunteering to Become Peer Visitors in Care Homes

This article analyses the “Having Your Say” training course which was designed as the initial stage of a project developing peer visitors for older people’s residential care homes. Peer visitors are older people who volunteer to take on a role aimed at capturing a “peer” perspective on the qualitative aspects of living within a residential care home 1, in contrast to the empirical and regulatory perspectives which various managerial and inspectoral regimes already address as part of their statutory obligations. This training course represents part of an ongoing programme aimed at further developing partnership working between a statutory provider, a higher education institution and a range of service user organisations including Worcestershire Association of Service Users (WASU) and Worcestershire Older Peoples’ Forum, a further intention being to evaluate the effectiveness of the actual “Having Your Say” scheme itself once it has become more fully established. Considered within the article are the processes of developing and implementing preliminary support and learning for peer visitors, the reflective learning environment’s ability to facilitate older participants’’ learning and experience in order to further inform the project and an examination of the challenges involved in working with older people in learning and teaching activities. The “Having Your Say” project is believed to be the first of its kind in the UK

Characterization of the complications associated with plasma exchange for thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura and related thrombotic microangiopathic anaemias: a single institution experience.

Plasma exchange (PEX) is a life-saving therapeutic procedure in patients with thrombotic thrombocytopaenic purpura (TTP) and other thrombotic microangiopathic anaemias (TMAs). However, it may be associated with significant complications, exacerbating the morbidity and mortality in this patient group

Dispersion of antimony from oxidizing ore deposits

The solubilities of brandholzite, [Mg(H2O)6][Sb(OH)6]2, and bottinoite, [Ni(H2O)6][Sb(OH)6]2, at 25 °C in water have been measured. Solubilities are 1.95(4) × 10-3 and 3.42(11) × 10-4 mol dm-3, respectively. The incongruent dissolution of romeite, Ca2Sb2O7, and bindheimite, Pb2Sb2O7, at 25 °C in 0.100 mol dm-3 aqueous HNO3 was also investigated. Equilibrium dissolved Sb concentrations were 3.3 ± 1.0 × 10-7 and 7.7 ± 2.1 × 10-8 mol dm-3, respectively. These values have been used to re-evaluate the geochemical mobility of Sb in the supergene environment. It is concluded that the element is geochemically immobile in solution and in soils. This was in part validated by an orientation soil geochemical survey over the Bayley Park prospect near Armidale, New South Wales, Australia. Anomalous soil Sb levels are confined to within 100 m of known stibnite mineralizatio

August 1972 solar-terrestrial events: Observations of interplanetary shocks at 2.2 AU

Pioneer 10 magnetic field measurements, supplemented by previously published plasma data, have been used to identify shocks at 2.2 AU associated with the large solar flares of early August 1972. The first three flares, which gave rise to three forward shocks at Pioneer 9 and at earth, led to only a single forward shock at Pioneer 10. The plasma driver accompanying the shock has been tentatively identified. A local shock velocity at Pioneer 10 of 717 km/s has been estimated by assuming that the shock was propagating radially across the interplanetary magnetic field. This velocity and the rise time of ≃2 s imply a shock thickness of ∼1400 km, which appears to be large in comparison with the characteristic plasma lengths customarily used to account for the thickness of the earth's bow shock. This Pioneer 10 shock is identified with the second forward shock observed at Pioneer 9, which was then at 0.8 AU and radially aligned with Pioneer 10, since it was apparently the only Pioneer 9 shock that was also driven. The local velocity of the Pioneer 9 shock of 670 km/s, previously inferred by other authors, compares reasonably well with the local velocity at Pioneer 10, but both values are significantly smaller than the average value computed from the time interval required for the shock to propagate from the sun to Pioneer 9 (2220 km/s). The velocity implied by the time required to propagate from Pioneer 9 to Pioneer 10 (770 km/s) is in reasonable agreement with the local velocities. The fourth solar flare also gave rise to a forward shock at Pioneer 10 as well as at Pioneer 9. The local velocity at Pioneer 10, estimated on the basis of quasi-perpendicularity, is 660 km/s, a value which again agrees well with previously derived velocities for the Pioneer 9 shock of 670 km/s. The local velocities for this shock and the velocity between Pioneer 9 and Pioneer 10 (635 km/s) are also significantly less than the average velocity of propagation from the sun to Pioneer 9 (830 km/s). The general finding that the local velocities of both shocks are approximately equal at 0.8 and 2.2 AU but significantly slower than the average speeds nearer the sun is interpreted as evidence of a major deceleration of the shocks as they propagate outward from the sun that is essentially completed when the shocks reach 0.8 AU, there being little, if any, subsequent deceleration. This conclusion is qualitatively inconsistent with previous inferences of a deceleration of the shocks as they propagate from 0.8 to 2.2 AU. A third, reverse shock is also identified in the Pioneer 10 data which was not seen either at Pioneer 9 or at earth. The estimated speed of this shock is 530 km/s, and its estimated thickness is ≲500 km, which compares well with an anticipated proton inertial length of 500 km

The Balance of Power, Public Goods, and the Lost Art of Grand Strategy: American Policy toward the Persian Gulf and Rising Asia in the 21st Century

An important driver of relative decline in America’s international standing is the failure of its political elites to define reality-based foreign policy goals and to relate the diplomatic, economic, and military means at Washington’s disposal to realizing them—the essence of “grand strategy.” For several decades, American policy has been pulled in opposite directions by two competing models of grand strategy. In one—the leadership model—America maximizes its international standing by adroitly managing regional and global power balances and promoting the processes of economic liberalization known collectively as globalization. In the second model—the transformation model—America seeks not to manage power balances but to transcend them by becoming a hegemon, in key regions and globally. The chief reason American policy is failing is because, since the Cold War’s end, the transformation model has gained almost complete ascendancy in American political circles. That is problematic because transformationalists reject a lesson that balance of power theorists and foreign policy realists know: while hegemony seems nice in theory, in the real world it is unattainable. Pursuing hegemony is not just quixotic; it is counter-productive for a great power’s strategic position. To arrest its decline, the United States must recover a capacity for sound grand strategy, grounded in the leadership model. This is especially so with respect to two regions where policy efficacy will largely determine America’s standing as a 21st-century great power: the Persian Gulf and rising Asia. Deficiencies in U.S. policy toward each of these critical regions have become synergistic with deficiencies toward the other; over time, these deficiencies have contributed much to the erosion of America’s international standing. Recovering a capacity for sound grand strategy will require a thoroughgoing recasting of policy toward both regions—and more nuanced appreciation of the interrelationship between them for U.S. interests

Is Sunlight the Best Disinfectant? The Role of Regulation in Addressing Cybersecurity Concerns

The technological landscape in the United States is changing rapidly, and this transformation carries with it unprecedented challenges for administrators, companies, and investors alike. In particular, cybersecurity concerns are growing in light of the new opportunities for cyber malfeasance in this landscape—opportunities to pillage corporate databases and exploit the sensitive consumer information housed therein. For administrators, these new threats challenge prevailing regulatory frameworks and demand novel solutions. For companies, this landscape brings financial and reputational threats. For stakeholders, the cyber era presents the risk of investment losses and, in some cases, loss of personal data. The Securities and Exchange Commission has responded to these changes by applying increased scrutiny to corporate cybersecurity disclosures, according to its guiding maxim that sunlight—that is, transparency—is the best disinfectant. Specifically, the Securities and Exchange Commission recently adopted new reporting requirements in an effort to keep in step with technological advances. However, applying old regulatory frameworks to a novel context may trigger unintended consequences, and thereby fall short of providing the Securities and Exchange Commission’s hoped-for benefits. This Note critically analyzes one of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new reporting requirements, Form 8-K’s Item 1.05 disclosure obligation, and seeks to determine whether sunlight is the best disinfectant in the cybersecurity context. Ultimately, this Note answers that question in the negative, instead advocating for the adoption of a more nuanced regulatory approach to navigate this uncharted territory

Raised in the Briar Patch: Misreading Warren’s Essay on Race

As human beings, we are prone to all sorts of misreadings: of literary works, of others, of ourselves. This scholarly and personal visit to “The Briar Patch” reveals a younger Warren subtly, perhaps even unconsciously, advocating integration in a world that in the 1920’s was not (and some might say still isn’t) ready to accept full equality

Challenging White Fragility through Black Feminist Political Poetry

Due to overwhelming patriarchal hegemonies that women – white women, rich women, young women, and cis women – continue to uphold, feminism struggles to serve all women justly. To combat this negligence in feminism’s fourth-wave movement, I will use this thesis to highlight ways that Black feminist poets have not only shaped feminist theory through their own contributions, but also have prolonged and saved the livelihood of both gender and racial equality. With a strong emphasis on Intersectional Feminism, I will explore the ways in which women can be united against tokenistic power, beginning with the inspiration from three voices: Gwendolyn Brooks (1917 – 2000), Maya Angelou (1928 – 2014), and Audre Lorde (1934 – 1992)