Care Leavers’ Experiences of Transition and Turning Points: Findings from a Biographical Narrative Study

This paper reports on the findings of a PhD research project that set out to explore how young people leaving out of home care experienced and made sense of their transition to adulthood. Using the Biographical Narrative Interpretative Method, in-depth accounts were collected and analysed for eight care leavers. The data suggest that in addition to care leavers living their lives as a series of biographical events, their ‘care career’, they also experience changes in the way they make sense of their lives which form a ‘subjective pathway’. Influenced by the literature on resilience, the research had anticipated that ‘turning point’ events would play a significant role in the young people’s subjective pathways. But the findings show a more gradual, phased shifting of subjectivity. It is suggested that legislation, policy, services and care practices need to facilitate this more drawn out ‘subjective pathway’. Attachment, resilience and humanistic social psychology are proposed as useful theoretical underpinnings for that work

The Baltic Dry Index: cyclicalities, forecasting and hedging strategies

The cyclical properties of the Baltic Dry Index (BDI) and their implications for forecasting performance are investigated. We find that changes in the BDI can lead to permanent shocks to trade of major exporting economies. In our forecasting exercise, we show that commodities and trigonometric regression can lead to improved predictions and then use our forecasting results to perform an investment exercise and to show how they can be used for improved risk management in the freight sector.

Defrauding Daughters Turning Deviant Wives? Reading Female Agency in The Merchant of Venice

Brabantio’s words “Look to her, Moor, if thou hast eyes to see:| She has deceived her father, and may thee” ( Othello , 1.3.292–293) warn Othello about the changing nature of female lo yalty and women’s potential for deviancy. Closely examining d aughters caught in the conflict between anxious fathers and husbands-to- be, this article departs from such paranoid male fa ntasy and instead sets out to explore female deviancy in its legal and dramatic implications with reference to Shakespeare ’s The Merchant of Venice . I will argue that Portia’s and Jessica’s struggle to evade male subsidiarity results in their conscio us positioning themselves on the verge of illegality. Besides occa sioning productive exploration of marriage, law and justice within what Morss (2007:183) terms “the dynamics of human desir e and of social institutions,” I argue that female agency, s een as temporary deviancy and/or self-exclusion, reconfigures the ma le domain by affording the inclusion of previous outsiders (Anto nio, Bassanio and Lorenzo) .

Turning around the poorest neighbourhoods: learning the lessons from twenty years of neighbourhood-based regeneration strategies in England

In the past two decades governments in Britain have launched a series of initiatives designed to reduce the disparities between areas of affluence and deprivation. These initiatives were funded by central government and were delivered through a series of partnership boards operating at the neighbourhood level in areas with high levels of deprivation. Drawing on similar approaches in the US War on Poverty, the engagement of residents in the planning and delivery of projects was a major priority. This chapter draws on the national evaluations of three of these programmes in England: the Single Regeneration Budget, the New Deal for Communities and the Neighbourhood Management Pathfinders. The chapter begins by identifying the common characteristics of these programmes, known as area-based initiatives because they targeted areas of concentrated deprivation with a population of about 10,000 people each. It then goes on to discuss the three national programmes and summarises the main findings in relation to how far key indicators changed for the better. The final section sets out the ways in which policy objectives changed in 2010 after the election of a coalition government. This produced a shift to what was called the ‘Big Society’ where the rhetoric favoured a transfer of power away from central government towards the local, neighbourhood, level. This approach favoured self-help and a call to volunteering rather than channelling resources to the areas in greatest need. The chapter closes by reviewing the relatively modest achievements of this centralist, big-state approach to distressed neighbourhoods of 1990–2010.

The British Army of the Rhine: Turning Nazi Enemies into Cold War Partners

Between 1945 and 1957, West Germany made a dizzying pivot from Nazi bastion to Britain's Cold War ally against the Soviet Union. Successive London governments, though faced with bitter public and military opposition, tasked the British Army of the Rhine (BAOR) to serve as a protecting force while strengthening West German integration into the Western defense structure. Peter Speiser charts the BAOR's fraught transformation from occupier to ally by looking at the charged nexus where British troops and their families interacted with Germany's civilian population. Examining the relationship on many levels, Speiser ranges from how British mass media representations of Germany influenced BAOR troops to initiatives taken by the Army to improve relations. He also weighs German perceptions, surveying clashes between soldiers and civilians and comparing the popularity of the British services with that of the other occupying powers. As Speiser shows, the BAOR's presence did not improve the relationship between British servicemen and the German populace, but it did prevent further deterioration during a crucial and dangerous period of the early Cold War. An incisive look at an under-researched episode, The British Army of the Rhine sheds new light on Anglo-German diplomatic, political, and social relations after 1945, and evaluates their impact on the wider context of European integration in the postwar era.

Avaliação de fatores determinantes e da taxa de incidência da condição DFD (Dark, Firm, Dry) na carne de bovinos abatidos no matadouro da ilha Terceira

Dissertação de Mestrado, Engenharia Zootécnica, 13 de Junho de 2014, Universidade dos Açores.

Turning Lisbon into a tourism and luxury shopping destination for Chinese travellers

Branding Lab

A novel cyclosporin a aqueous formulation for dry eye treatment: in vitro and in vivo evaluation.

PURPOSE: The aim of the present study was the in vitro and in vivo evaluation of a novel aqueous formulation based on polymeric micelles for the topical delivery of cyclosporine A for dry eye treatment. METHODS: In vitro experiments were carried out on primary rabbit corneal cells, which were characterized by immunocytochemistry using fluorescein-labeled lectin I/isolectin B4 for the endothelial cells and mouse monoclonal antibody to cytokeratin 3+12 for the epithelial ones. Living cells were incubated for 1 hour or 24 hours with a fluorescently labeled micelle formulation and analyzed by fluorescence microscopy. In vivo evaluations were done by Schirmer test, osmolarity measurement, CyA kinetics in tears, and CyA ocular distribution after topical instillation. A 0.05% CyA micelle formulation was compared to a marketed emulsion (Restasis). RESULTS: The in vitro experiments showed the internalization of micelles in the living cells. The Schirmer test and osmolarity measurements demonstrated that micelles did not alter the ocular surface properties. The evaluation of the tear fluid gave similar CyA kinetics values: AUC = 2339 ± 1032 min*μg/mL and 2321 ± 881.63; Cmax = 478 ± 111 μg/mL and 451 ± 74; half-life = 36 ± 9 min and 28 ± 9 for the micelle formulation and Restasis, respectively. The ocular distribution investigation revealed that the novel formulation delivered 1540 ± 400 ng CyA/g tissue to the cornea. CONCLUSIONS: The micelle formulation delivered active CyA into the cornea without evident negative influence on the ocular surface properties. This formulation could be applied for immune-related ocular surface diseases.

Expansion Sod Turning

Pictured here from left to right are Jack Miller, Department of Chemistry, R. Misener, Chancellor, R. A. Macleod, Board of Trustees, and actors from the Department of Fine Arts during the sod turning ceremonies in 1982 for the Science Complex expansion to the Mackenzie Chown Complex.

Key Turning

As part of the Official Opening of Brock University, General Vanier unlocked the main doors to the Glenridge Campus with a golden key. It is interesting to note that the Governor General did not proceed to push open the doors, citing "that [it] was not in the script". Instead Madame Vanier instictively pushed open the doors herself moments later. The man just visible in the right edge of the photo is E. R. Davey, chairman of the property and building committee of the Brock University Founders' Committee. The Governor General can be seen turning the key.

Tower Sod Turning Programme

Programme made for the 1965 Sod Turning Ceremony.

Tower Sod Turning

Pictured here from left to right are D. G. Willmot, James Allan, and Dr. James Gibson as they turn the sod at the Tower groundbreaking ceremony in June of 1965.