TEXTILE TECHNOLOGIES IN CONCRETE ENVIRONMENTS."

Girli Concrete is a cross disciplinary funded research project based in the University of Ulster involving a textile designer/ researcher, an architect/ academic and a concrete manufacturing firm.
Girli Concrete brings together concrete and textile technologies, testing ideas of
concrete as textile and textile as structure. It challenges the perception of textiles as only the ‘dressing’ to structure and instead integrates textile technologies into the products of building products. Girli Concrete uses ‘low tech’ methods of wet and dry concrete casting in combination with ‘high tech’ textile methods using laser cutting, etching, flocking and digital printing. Whilst we have been inspired by recent print and imprint techniques in architectural cladding, Girli Concrete is generated within the depth of the concrete’s cement paste “skin”, bringing the trades and crafts of both industries together with innovative results.
Architecture and Textiles have an odd, somewhat unresolved relationship. Confined to a subservient role in architecture, textiles exist chiefly within the categories of soft furnishings and interior design. Girli Concrete aims to mainstream tactility in the production of built environment products, raising the human and environmental interface to the same specification level as the technical. This paper will chart:
The background and wider theoretical concerns to the project.
The development of Girli Concrete, highlighting the areas where craft becomes
art and art becomes science in the combination of textile and concrete
technologies.
The challenges of identifying funding to support such combination technologies,
working methods and philosophies.
The challenges of generating and sustaining practice within an academic
research environment
The outcomes to date

Implementation of a non-orthogonal model for the finite element simulation of textile composite draping

In the pursuit of producing high quality, low-cost composite aircraft structures, out-of-autoclave manufacturing processes for textile reinforcements are being simulated with increasing accuracy. This paper focuses on the continuum-based, finite element modelling of textile composites as they deform during the draping process. A non-orthogonal constitutive model tracks yarn orientations within a material subroutine developed for Abaqus/Explicit, resulting in the realistic determination of fabric shearing and material draw-in. Supplementary material characterisation was experimentally performed in order to define the tensile and non-linear shear behaviour accurately. The validity of the finite element model has been studied through comparison with similar research in the field and the experimental lay-up of carbon fibre textile reinforcement over a tool with double curvature geometry, showing good agreement.

Building capacity in palliative care for personal support workers in long-term care through experiential learning

Background

Providing palliative care in long-term care (LTC) homes is an area of growing importance. As a result, attention is being given to exploring effective palliative care learning strategies for personal support workers (PSWs) who provide the most hands-on care to LTC residents.

The purpose of this intervention was to explore hospice visits as an experiential learning strategy to increase the capacity of PSWs in palliative care, specifically related to their new learning, and how they anticipated this experience changed their practices in LTC.

This study utilised a qualitative descriptive design.

Eleven PSWs from four Ontario LTC homes were sent to their local hospice to shadow staff for one to two days. After the visit, PSWs completed a questionnaire with open-ended questions based on critical reflection. Data were analysed using thematic content analysis.

PSWs commented on the extent of resident-focused care at the hospice and how palliative care interventions were tailored to meet the needs of residents. PSWs were surprised with the lack of routine at the hospice but felt that hospice staff prioritised their time effectively in order to meet family and client care needs. Some PSWs were pleased to see how well integrated the PSW role is on the community hospice team without any hierarchical relationships. Finally, PSWs felt that other LTC staff would benefit from palliative care education and becoming more comfortable with talking about death and dying with other staff, residents and family members.

This study highlighted the benefits of PSWs attending a hospice as an experiential learning strategy. Future work is needed to evaluate this strategy using more rigorous designs as a way to build capacity within PSWs to provide optimal palliative care for LTC residents and their family members.

PSWs need to be recognised as important members within the interdisciplinary team. PSWs who shadow staff at hospices view this experience as a positive strategy to meet their learning needs related to palliative care.

Book Review - An Architecture of Parts: Architects, Building Workers and Industrialisation in Britain 1940–1970 by Christine Wall and Architecture and the Welfare State, edited by Mark Swenarton, Tom Avermaete and Dirk van den Heuvel.

UNCRC and social workers' relationships with young children

This paper considers the provisions of the UNCRC and applies them to the field of child protection suggesting new ways of working that are rights compliant.

Ethical issues experienced by healthcare workers in nursing homes: Literature review

BACKGROUND: Ethical issues are increasingly being reported by care-providers; however, little is known about the nature of these issues within the nursing home. Ethical issues are unavoidable in healthcare and can result in opportunities for improving work and care conditions; however, they are also associated with detrimental outcomes including staff burnout and moral distress.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this review was to identify prior research which focuses on ethical issues in the nursing home and to explore staffs' experiences of ethical issues.

METHODS: Using a systematic approach based on Aveyard (2014), a literature review was conducted which focused on ethical and moral issues, nurses and nursing assistants, and the nursing home.

FINDINGS: The most salient themes identified in the review included clashing ethical principles, issues related to communication, lack of resources and quality of care provision. The review also identified solutions for overcoming the ethical issues that were identified and revealed the definitional challenges that permeate this area of work.

CONCLUSIONS: The review highlighted a need for improved ethics education for care-providers.