Reaction of passengers to public service vehicle ride

A series of questionnaire studies is described, which was carried out on passengers in public service vehicles in the United Kingdom particularly cross-channel hovercraft, helicopter and train. The effectiveness of the different rating techniques employed is examined and it is demonstrated that useful and reliable information can be obtained on the effects of such physical parameters as vibration, vehicle motion and noise using rating methods which involve no external standards. Some results obtained from analysis of the survey returns are presented

The celebrity entrepreneur on television: profile, politics and power

This article examines the rise of the ‘celebrity entrepreneur’ on television through the emergence of the ‘business entertainment format’ and considers the ways in which regular television exposure can be converted into political influence. Within television studies there has been a preoccupation in recent years with how lifestyle and reality formats work to transform ‘ordinary’ people into celebrities. As a result, the contribution of vocationally skilled business professionals to factual entertainment programming has gone almost unnoticed. This article draws on interviews with key media industry professionals and begins by looking at the construction of entrepreneurs as different types of television personalities and how discourses of work, skill and knowledge function in business shows. It then outlines how entrepreneurs can utilize their newly acquired televisual skills to cultivate a wider media profile and secure various forms of political access and influence. Integral to this is the centrality of public relations and media management agencies in shaping media discourses and developing the individual as a ‘brand identity’ that can be used to endorse a range of products or ideas. This has led to policy makers and politicians attempting to mobilize the media profile of celebrity entrepreneurs to reach out and connect with the public on business and enterprise-related issues

Distracting people from sources of discomfort in a simulated aircraft environment

BACKGROUND: Comfort is an important factor in the acceptance of transport systems. In 2010 and 2011, the European Commission (EC) put forward its vision for air travel in the year 2050 which envisaged the use of in-flight virtual reality. This paper addressed the EC vision by investigating the effect of virtual environments on comfort. Research has shown that virtual environments can provide entertaining experiences and can be effective distracters from painful experiences. OBJECTIVE: To determine the extent to which a virtual environment could distract people from sources of discomfort. METHODS: Experiments which involved inducing discomfort commonly experienced in-flight (e.g. limited space, noise) in order to determine the extent to which viewing a virtual environment could distract people from discomfort. RESULTS: Virtual environments can fully or partially distract people from sources of discomfort, becoming more effective when they are interesting. They are also more effective at distracting people from discomfort caused by restricted space than noise disturbances. CONCLUSIONS: Virtual environments have the potential to enhance passenger comfort by providing positive distractions from sources of discomfort. Further research is required to understand more fully the reasons why the effect was stronger for one source of discomfort than the other

Comparing international coverage of 9/11 : towards an interdisciplinary explanation of the construction of news

This article presents an interdisciplinary model attempting to explain how news is constructed by relying on the contributions of different fields of study: News Sociology, Political Communications, International Communications, International Relations. It is a first step towards developing a holistic theoretical approach to what shapes the news, which bridges current micro to macro approaches. More precisely the model explains news variation across different media organization and countries by focusing on the different way the sense of newsworthiness of journalists is affected by three main variables: national interest, national journalistic culture, and editorial policy of each media organization. The model is developed on the basis of an investigation into what shaped the media coverage of 9/11 in eight elite newspapers across the US, France, Italy and Pakistan

‘Off With Their Heads’: British Prime Ministers and the Power to Dismiss

The British prime minister’s power to appoint and dismiss ministers is probably his most important single power. This article explores how prime ministers from Macmillan to Blair have used that power. The article considers the criteria that prime ministers use when choosing to appoint or dismiss individuals from office before examining the calculations and miscalculations that prime ministers have made in practice. Finally, the article analyses the way that prime ministers have exercised, in particular, their power to dismiss and finds that Thatcher was far more likely than others to sack cabinet colleagues on ideological or policy grounds. The article emphasizes that prime ministers’ relationships with especially powerful ministers – ‘big beasts of the jungle’ – are crucial to an understanding of British government at the top.</jats:p

Reasonable adjustments for people with learning disabilities under the care of mental health services: a scoping review.

Background: Reasonable adjustments are the removal of a barrier or the provision of an auxiliary aid to prevent people with any protected characteristic from being disadvantaged. They are required by the Equality Act 2010 and are needed to ensure the accessibility of health care for all patients, including people with learning disabilities. Although several studies have explained why reasonable adjustments may be needed in psychiatric care, there is little guidance on how this should be done, and which reasonable adjustments are most effective. The author’s aim was to perform a scoping review of the current research to identify which reasonable adjustments have been implemented and, if possible, which have the most positive outcomes. Methods: PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, and CINAHL were searched to obtain articles that met the inclusion criteria. The researcher screened the abstracts of the papers selected and extracted the data from each selected paper, supported by the project supervisor. Data was extracted on the methods, location of research, and study results. A six-step thematic analysis was performed.&nbsp; Results: 17 articles from 2010 to 2024 were included. Thematic analysis carried out on these papers identified four themes: “Easy read,” “Psychosocial interventions,” “One size does not fit all,” and “Gaps in the evidence base.” Several promising reasonable adjustments were identified, including providing easy read clinic letters and leaflets, the involvement of caregivers in psychosocial interventions, the use of roleplay as a teaching device, and an increased number of CBT sessions. Several barriers to the implementation of reasonable adjustments have been identified. Often, there is little guidance on how to adapt existing treatments for people with learning disabilities, and many studies highlighted that management was not encouraging reasonable adjustments or supporting the clinicians that were implementing them. Conclusions: Overall, the most effective reasonable adjustment is likely the inclusion of caregivers in psychosocial interventions. However, there are several limitations to this, such as the lack of other studies assessing reasonable adjustments individually and only a few studies measuring the effect of reasonable adjustments on clinical outcomes. Some reasonable adjustments have been implemented, and many are being piloted. However, most are only being suggested or are being implemented on an individual level rather than on an organisation level, with adjustments for everyone using the service. For research on this topic to improve, more quantitative studies on the effects of reasonable adjustments are required, and comparative studies between reasonable adjustments will help to determine which is the most effective

Stratigraphy and depositional environments of the Vaqueros Formation, Central Santa Monica Mountains, California

The Vaqueros Formation along the southern flank of the central Santa Monica Mountains is a sequence of lower upper Oligocene through lower middle Miocene sandstone and siltstone that records a rapid transgression due to rising sea level and a subsequent progradation of a deltaic system. Study of these rocks reveals nine lithosome units that are process controlled. The lithosomes, from lower to upper, include: a parallel-laminated siltstone (A); parallel-laminated, fine-grained sandstone (B): structureless, fine-grained sandstone (C); cross-bedded sandstone (D); parallel-laminated, coarse-grained sandstone (E); structureless, coarse-grained sandstone (F); bioturbated, fine-grained sandstone (G); parallel-laminated, medium-grained sandstone (H); and interbedded red-and-green siltstone (I). Provenance and paleocurrent data are scarce, but source terrains that contributed high-grade metamorphic and reworked sedimentary clastic material to the study area are indicated. The river that supplied sediment probably flowed from a northern or eastern direction. There are two possible orientations of the shoreline: one that trended north-south and another that trended east-west. A riverdominated deltaic depositional system existed in the eastern portion of the study area, whereas wave-dominated deposition along an erosional coastline took place in the western region. The western stratigraphic sections - San Nicholas Canyon, Encinal Canyon, and Latigo Canyon contain strictly marine environments from offshore to backshore. A large amount of sediment from increasing tectonics caused the shoreline to prograde and the rocks generally reflect a shallowing upward from the bottom to the top of the stratigraphic sections. The eastern sections Corral Canyon, Puerco Canyon, Malibu Canyon, and Piuma Road - contain rocks which also reflect a general shallowing upward, however, this is due to the progradation of a Riverdominated deltaic system. The inferred environments determined from these rocks are prodelta, delta front, and lower and upper delta plain. Although it is difficult to distinguish between the two, the deltaic and marine strandline deposits probably interfinger with each other between Corral and Latigo Canyons. During the early late Oligocene there was a rapid transgression of the sea. In the west, offshore and shoreface sediment of the Vaqueros was deposited unconformably on the nonmarine Sespe Formation. At the same time, deltaic deposits of the Vaqueros and fluvial deposits of the Sespe were interfingering in the east. The greatest extension of the transgression was just east of the Puerco Canyon section. Continued subsidence and deposition allowed a thick section of sand to accumulate. Although sea levels continued to rise, the delta prograded due to the high sedimentation rate. After the early medial Miocene, uplift was followed by erosion and the Topanga Canyon Formation was deposited unconformably onto much of the Vaqueros.Includes bibliographical references (pages 83-91)California State University, Northridge. Department of Geological Sciences

Increased versus stable doses of inhaled corticosteroids for exacerbations of chronic asthma in adults and children.

BACKGROUND: People with asthma may experience exacerbations or "attacks" during which their symptoms worsen and additional treatment is required. Written action plans may advocate doubling the dose of inhaled steroids in the early stages of an asthma exacerbation to reduce the severity of the attack and to prevent the need for oral steroids or hospital admission. OBJECTIVES: To compare the clinical effectiveness and safety of increased versus stable doses of inhaled corticosteroids (ICS) as part of a patient-initiated action plan for home management of exacerbations in children and adults with persistent asthma. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Airways Group Specialised Register, which is derived from searches of the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), MEDLINE, EMBASE and the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL) to March 2016. We handsearched respiratory journals and meeting abstracts. SELECTION CRITERIA: We included randomised controlled trials (RCTs) that compared increased versus stable doses of ICS for home management of asthma exacerbations. We included studies of children or adults with persistent asthma who were receiving daily maintenance ICS. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: Two review authors independently selected trials, assessed quality and extracted data. We contacted authors of RCTs for additional information. MAIN RESULTS: This review update added three new studies including 419 participants to the review. In total, we identified eight RCTs, most of which were at low risk of bias, involving 1669 participants with mild to moderate asthma. We included three paediatric (n = 422) and five adult (n = 1247) studies; six were parallel-group trials and two had a cross-over design. All but one study followed participants for six months to one year. Allowed maintenance doses of ICS varied in adult and paediatric studies, as did use of concomitant medications and doses of ICS initiated during exacerbations. Investigators gave participants a study inhaler containing additional ICS or placebo to be started as part of an action plan for treatment of exacerbations.The odds of treatment failure, defined as the need for oral corticosteroids, were not significantly reduced among those randomised to increased ICS compared with those taking their usual stable maintenance dose (odds ratio (OR) 0.89, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.68 to 1.18; participants = 1520; studies = 7). When we analysed only people who actually took their study inhaler for an exacerbation, we found much variation between study results but the evidence did not show a significant benefit of increasing ICS dose (OR 0.84, 95% CI 0.54 to 1.30; participants = 766; studies = 7). The odds of having an unscheduled physician visit (OR 0.96, 95% CI 0.66 to 1.41; participants = 931; studies = 3) or acute visit (Peto OR 0.98, 95% CI 0.24 to 3.98; participants = 450; studies = 3) were not significantly reduced by an increased versus stable dose of ICS, and evidence was insufficient to permit assessment of impact on the duration of exacerbation; our ability to draw conclusions from these outcomes was limited by the number of studies reporting these events and by the number of events included in the analyses. The odds of serious events (OR 1.69, 95% CI 0.77 to 3.71; participants = 394; studies = 2) and non-serious events, such as oral irritation, headaches and changes in appetite (OR 2.15, 95% CI 0.68 to 6.73; participants = 142; studies = 2), were neither increased nor decreased significantly by increased versus stable doses of ICS during an exacerbation. Too few studies are available to allow firm conclusions on the basis of subgroup analyses conducted to investigate the impact of age, time to treatment initiation, doses used, smoking history and the fold increase of ICS on the magnitude of effect; yet, effect size appears similar in children and adults. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: Current evidence does not support increasing the dose of ICS as part of a self initiated action plan to treat exacerbations in adults and children with mild to moderate asthma. Increased ICS dose is not associated with a statistically significant reduction in the odds of requiring rescue oral corticosteroids for the exacerbation, or of having adverse events, compared with a stable ICS dose. Wide confidence intervals for several outcomes mean we cannot rule out possible benefits of this approach

Interventions to optimise prescribing for older people in care homes

Background There is a substantial body of evidence that prescribing for care home residents is suboptimal and requires improvement. Consequently, there is a need to identify effective interventions to optimise prescribing and resident outcomes in this context. This is an update of a previously published review (Alldred 2013). Objectives The objective of the review was to determine the effect of interventions to optimise overall prescribing for older people living in care homes. Search methods For this update, we searched the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (including the Cochrane Effective Practice and Organisation of Care (EPOC) Specialised Register), MEDLINE, EMBASE and CINAHL to May 2015. We also searched clinical trial registries for relevant studies. Selection criteria We included randomised controlled trials evaluating interventions aimed at optimising prescribing for older people (aged 65 years or older) living in institutionalised care facilities. Studies were included if they measured one or more of the following primary outcomes: adverse drug events; hospital admissions; mortality; or secondary outcomes, quality of life (using validated instrument); medication-related problems; medication appropriateness (using validated instrument); medicine costs. Data collection and analysis Two authors independently screened titles and abstracts, assessed studies for eligibility, assessed risk of bias and extracted data. We presented a narrative summary of results. Main results The 12 included studies involved 10,953 residents in 355 (range 1 to 85) care homes in ten countries. Nine studies were cluster-randomised controlled trials and three studies were patient-randomised controlled trials. The interventions evaluated were diverse and often multifaceted. Medication review was a component of ten studies. Four studies involved multidisciplinary case-conferencing, five studies involved an educational element for health and care professionals and one study evaluated the use of clinical decision support technology. We did not combine the results in a meta-analysis due to heterogeneity across studies. Interventions to optimise prescribing may lead to fewer days in hospital (one study out of eight; low certainty evidence), a slower decline in health-related quality of life (one study out of two; low certainty evidence), the identification and resolution of medication-related problems (seven studies; low certainty evidence), and may lead to improved medication appropriateness (five studies out of five studies; low certainty evidence). We are uncertain whether the intervention improves/reduces medicine costs (five studies; very low certainty evidence) and it may make little or no difference on adverse drug events (two studies; low certainty evidence) or mortality (six studies; low certainty evidence). The risk of bias across studies was heterogeneous. Authors' conclusions We could not draw robust conclusions from the evidence due to variability in design, interventions, outcomes and results. The interventions implemented in the studies in this review led to the identification and resolution of medication-related problems and improvements in medication appropriateness, however evidence of a consistent effect on resident-related outcomes was not found. There is a need for high-quality cluster-randomised controlled trials testing clinical decision support systems and multidisciplinary interventions that measure well-defined, important resident-related outcomes

Winston Churchill's "crazy broadcast": party, nation, and the 1945 Gestapo speech

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