Small wars in the age of Clausewitz: the watershed between partisan war and people's war

Around the time of Clausewitz’s writing, a new element was introduced into partisan warfare: ideology. Previously, under the ancien régime, partisans were what today we would call special forces, light infantry or cavalry, almost always mercenaries, carrying out special operations, while the main action in war took place between regular armies. Clausewitz lectured his students on such ‘small wars’. In the American War of Independence and the resistance against Napoleon and his allies, operations carried out by such partisans merged with counter-revolutionary, nationalist insurgencies, but these Clausewitz analysed in a distinct category, ‘people's war’. Small wars, people's war, etc. should thus not be thought of as monopoly of either the political Right or the Left.

A virtual headstick for people with spinal cord injuries

This paper presents a virtual headstick system as an alternative to the conventional passive headstick for persons with limited upper extremity function. The system is composed of a pair of kinematically dissimilar master-slave robots with the master robot being operated by the user's head. At the remote site, the end-effector of the slave robot moves as if it were at the tip of an imaginary headstick attached to the user's head. A unique feature of this system is that through force-reflection, the virtual headstick provides the user with proprioceptive information as in a conventional headstick, but with an augmentation of workspace volume and additional mechanical power. This paper describes the test-bed development, system identification, bilateral control implementation, and system performance evaluation.

Head-controlled assistive telerobot with extended physiological proprioception capability

People with disabilities such as quadriplegia can use mouth-sticks and head-sticks as extension devices to perform desired manipulations. These extensions provide extended proprioception which allows users to directly feel forces and other perceptual cues such as texture present at the tip of the mouth-stick. Such devices are effective for two principle reasons: because of their close contact with the user's tactile and proprioceptive sensing abilities; and because they tend to be lightweight and very stiff, and can thus convey tactile and kinesthetic information with high-bandwidth. Unfortunately, traditional mouth-sticks and head-sticks are limited in workspace and in the mechanical power that can be transferred because of user mobility and strength limitations. We describe an alternative implementation of the head-stick device using the idea of a virtual head-stick: a head-controlled bilateral force-reflecting telerobot. In this system the end-effector of the slave robot moves as if it were at the tip of an imaginary extension of the user's head. The design goal is for the system is to have the same intuitive operation and extended proprioception as a regular mouth-stick effector but with augmentation of workspace volume and mechanical power. The input is through a specially modified six DOF master robot (a PerForceTM hand-controller) whose joints can be back-driven to apply forces at the user's head. The manipulation tasks in the environment are performed by a six degree-of-freedom slave robot (the Zebra-ZEROTM) with a built-in force sensor. We describe the prototype hardware/software implementation of the system, control system design, safety/disability issues, and initial evaluation tasks.

Anxiety problems in young people with Asperger syndrome: a case series

It is now well established that the prevalence of mental health difficulties in individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) is considerably higher than in the general population. With recent estimates of the prevalence of autism spectrum disorders being as high as one percent, increasing numbers of children and young people are presenting to local and specialist services with mental health problems in addition to a diagnosis of ASD. Many families report that the impact of the mental health problems can be as or more impairing than the autism spectrum difficulties themselves. Clinical services are frequently called upon to treat these difficulties; however, there is limited evidence for the effectiveness of treatments in this population. This paper reports a case series of children and adolescents with ASD and an anxiety disorder who were treated with a standard cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) rationale adapted to take account of the neuropsychological features of ASD. Common features of the presentation of the disorders and also treatment processes are discussed.

Befriending carers of people with dementia: randomised controlled trial

Objective To evaluate the effectiveness of a voluntary sector based befriending scheme in improving psychological wellbeing and quality of life for family carers of people with dementia. Design Single blind randomised controlled trial. Setting Community settings in East Anglia and London. Participants 236 family carers of people with primary progressive dementia. Intervention Contact with a befriender facilitator and offer of match with a trained lay volunteer befriender compared with no befriender facilitator contact; all participants continued to receive “usual care.” Main outcome measures Carers’ mood (hospital anxiety and depression scale—depression) and health related quality of life (EuroQoL) at 15 months post-randomisation. Results The intention to treat analysis showed no benefit for the intervention “access to a befriender facilitator” on the primary outcome measure or on any of the secondary outcome measures. Conclusions In common with many carers’ services, befriending schemes are not taken up by all carers, and providing access to a befriending scheme is not effective in improving wellbeing.

Continuity of care for carers of people with severe mental illness: results of a longitudinal study

Introduction: Continuity of care has been demonstrated to be important for service users and carer groups have voiced major concerns over disruptions of care. We aimed to assess the experienced continuity of care in carers of patients with both psychotic and non-psychotic disorders and explore its association with carer characteristics and psychological well-being. Methods: Friends and relatives caring for two groups of service users in the care of community mental health teams (CMHTs), 69 with psychotic and 38 with non-psychotic disorders, were assessed annually at three and two time points, respectively. CONTINUES, a measure specifically designed to assess continuity of care for carers themselves, was utilized along with assessments of psychological well-being and caregiving. Results: One hundred and seven carers participated. They reported moderately low continuity of care. Only 22 had had a carer’s assessment and just under a third recorded psychological distress on the GHQ. For those caring for people with psychotic disorders, reported continuity was higher if the carer was male, employed, lived with the user and had had a carer’s assessment; for those caring for people with non-psychotic disorders, it was higher if the carer was from the service user’s immediate family, lived with them and had had a carer’s assessment. Conclusion: The vast majority of the carers had not had a carer’s assessment provided by the CMHT despite this being a clear national priority and being an intervention with obvious potential to increase carers’ reported low levels of continuity of care. Improving continuity of contact with carers may have an important part to play in the overall improvement of care in this patient group and deserves greater attention.

Sesquiterpenoids lactones: benefits to plants and people

Sesquiterpenoids, and specifically sesquiterpene lactones from Asteraceae, may play a highly significant role in human health, both as part of a balanced diet and as pharmaceutical agents, due to their potential for the treatment of cardiovascular disease and cancer. This review highlights the role of sesquiterpene lactones endogenously in the plants that produce them, and explores mechanisms by which they interact in animal and human consumers of these plants. Several mechanisms are proposed for the reduction of inflammation and tumorigenesis at potentially achievable levels in humans. Plants can be classified by their specific array of produced sesquiterpene lactones, showing high levels of translational control. Studies of folk medicines implicate sesquiterpene lactones as the active ingredient in many treatments for other ailments such as diarrhea, burns, influenza, and neurodegradation. In addition to the anti-inflammatory response, sesquiterpene lactones have been found to sensitize tumor cells to conventional drug treatments. This review explores the varied ecological roles of sesquiterpenes in the plant producer, depending upon the plant and the compound. These include allelopathy with other plants, insects, and microbes, thereby causing behavioural or developmental modification to these secondary organisms to the benefit of the sesquiterpenoid producer. Some sesquiterpenoid lactones are antimicrobial, disrupting the cell wall of fungi and invasive bacteria, whereas others protect the plant from environmental stresses that would otherwise cause oxidative damage. Many of the compounds are effective due to their bitter flavor, which has obvious implications for human consumers. The implications of sesquiterpenoid lactone qualitiesfor future crop production are discussed.

Designing a questionnaire to gather carer input to pain assessment for hospitalized people with dementia

We describe development of a questionnaire to elicit pain symptoms and experience, for use by people with dementia or their carers, at hospital admission. The questionnaire provided contextual information to support professionals’ use of the Abbey Pain Scale, a validated tool used by nursing staff internationally. Appropriate information and physical design were required in order, not only to create an approachable questionnaire for patients and carers, but also to ensure fit with hospital processes. Fit with hospital process had significant influence on the final form of the questionnaire, compromising some aspects of design for patients and carers, but this compromise was considered essential to ensure pain management procedures were supplemented by wider, contextual information.

The interaction between the physical environments and people

Buildings affect people in various ways. They can help us to work more effectively; they also present a wide range of stimuli for our senses to react to. Intelligent buildings are designed to be aesthetic in sensory terms not just visually appealing but ones in which occupants experience delight, freshness, airiness, daylight, views out and social ambience. All these factors contribute to a general aesthetic which gives pleasure and affects one’s mood. If there is to be a common vision, it is essential for architects, engineers and clients to work closely together throughout the planning, design, construction and operational stages which represent the conception, birth and life of the building. There has to be an understanding of how patterns of work are best suited to a particular building form served by appropriate environmental systems. A host of technologies are emerging that help these processes, but in the end it is how we think about achieving responsive buildings that matters. Intelligent buildings should cope with social and technological changes and also be adaptable to short-term and long-term human needs. We live through our senses. They rely on stimulation from the tasks we are focused on; people around us but also the physical environment. We breathe air and its quality affects the olfactory system; temperature is felt by thermoreceptors in the skin; sound enters our ears; the visual scene is beheld by our eyes. All these stimuli are transmitted along the sensory nervous system to the brain for processing from which physiological and psychological reactions and judgments are formed depending on perception, expectancies and past experiences. It is clear that the environmental setting plays a role in this sensory process. This is the essence of sensory design. Space plays its part as well. The flow of communication is partly electronic but also largely by people meeting face to face. Our sense of space wants different things at different times. Sometimes privacy but other times social needs have to be satisfied besides the organizational requirement to have effective human communications throughout the building. In general if the senses are satisfied people feel better and work better.

Interpretation of ambiguity: differences between children and adolescents with and without an anxiety disorder

Background: Theory and treatment of anxiety disorders in young people are commonly based on the premise that interpretation biases found in anxious adults are also found in children and adolescents. Although there is some evidence that this may be the case, studies have not typically taken age into account, which is surprising given the normative changes in cognition that occur throughout childhood. The aim of the current study was to identify whether associations between anxiety disorder status and interpretation biases differed in children and adolescents. Methods: The responses of children (7-10 years) and adolescents (13-16 years) with and without anxiety disorders (n = 120) were compared on an ambiguous scenarios task. Results: Children and adolescents with an anxiety disorder showed significantly higher levels of threat interpretation and avoidant strategies than non-anxious children and adolescents. However, age significantly moderated the effect of anxiety disorder status on interpretation of ambiguity, in that adolescents with anxiety disorders showed significantly higher levels of threat interpretation and associated negative emotion than non-anxious adolescents, but a similar relationship was not observed among children. Conclusions: The findings suggest that theoretical accounts of interpretation biases in anxiety disorders in children and adolescents should distinguish between different developmental periods. For both ages, treatment that targets behavioral avoidance appears warranted. However, while adolescents are likely to benefit from treatment that addresses interpretation biases, there may be limited benefit for children under the age of ten.

'The house of books': libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt

In 1957, John Sperry Jr. published an article in Libri entitled “Egyptian libraries: a survey of the evidence.” Some 55 years on, this article revisits the subject, taking into account research undertaken in the field of Egyptology over the last half a century. Based on an extended essay written for the online Certificate in Egyptology course at the University of Manchester, this article considers the evidence for the existence of “institutional” (that is, created for the use and functioning of the state) libraries and archives in Ancient Egypt throughout the dynastic period (c.3500−30 B.C.); their history, purpose and, to some extent, their administration. It also considers an aspect not explored in Sperry’s article, that of “private” libraries in Ancient Egypt (texts collected by an individual for their own personal use). Whilst estimated literacy levels within the general population precluded the widespread collection of texts for personal edification, there is evidence to suggest that private libraries were present in Ancient Egypt. The article concludes with a brief assessment of the legacy of these ancient libraries and their influence on the creation of the Library of Alexandria, in both its ancient and modern manifestations.

Cognitive appraisals in young people with obsessive-compulsive disorder

Background: A number of cognitive appraisals have been identified as important in the manifestation of obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) in adults. There have, however, been few attempts to explore these cognitive appraisals in clinical groups of young people. Method: This study compared young people aged between 11 and 18 years with OCD (N ¼ 28), young people with other types of anxiety disorders (N ¼ 28) and a non-clinical group (N ¼ 62) on three questionnaire measures of cognitive appraisals. These were inflated responsibility (Responsibility Attitude Scale; Salkovskis et al., 2000), thought–action fusion – likelihood other (Thought–Action Fusion Scale; Shafran, Thordarson & Rachman, 1996) and perfectionism (Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; Frost, Marten, Luhart & Rosenblate, 1990). Results: The young people with OCD had significantly higher scores on inflated responsibility, thought–action fusion – (likelihood other), and one aspect of perfectionism, concern over mistakes, than the other groups. In addition, inflated responsibility independently predicted OCD symptom severity. Conclusions: The results generally support a downward extension of the cognitive appraisals held by adults with OCD to young people with the disorder. Some of the results, however, raise issues about potential developmental shifts in cognitive appraisals. The findings are discussed in relation to implications for the cognitive model of OCD and cognitive behavioural therapy for young people with OCD. Keywords: Cognitive models, inflated responsibility, obsessive-compulsive disorder, perfectionism, thought–action fusion. Abbreviations: ADIS-C: Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Children; ADIS-P: Anxiety Disorders Interview Schedule for Parents; E/RP: Exposure/Response Prevention; LOI-CV: Leyton Obsessional Inventory – Child Version; MPS: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale; OCD: Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder; RAS: Responsibility Attitude Scale; TAF-LO: Thought–Action Fusion – (Likelihood Other).

Enchanting resilience: relations of care and people-place connections in agriculture

The practices and decision-making of contemporary agricultural producers are governed by a multitude of different, and sometimes competing, social, economic, regulatory, environmental and ethical imperatives. Understanding how they negotiate and adapt to the demands of this complex and dynamic environment is crucial in maintaining an economically and environmentally viable and resilient agricultural sector. This paper takes a socio-cultural approach to explore the development of social resilience within agriculture through an original and empirically grounded discussion of people-place connections amongst UK farmers. It positions enchantment as central in shaping farmers' embodied and experiential connections with their farms through establishing hopeful, disruptive and demanding ethical practices. Farms emerge as complex moral economies in which an expanded conceptualisation of the social entangles human and non-human actants in dynamic and contextual webs of power and responsibility. While acknowledging that all farms are embedded within broader, nested levels, this paper argues that it is at the micro-scale that the personal, contingent and embodied relations that connect farmers to their farms are experienced and which, in turn, govern their capacity to develop social resilience.