Suchergebnisse

Examines the concepts of "respectability" and "reputation" and their emergent functions in the colonial politics immediately following emancipation in Trinidad. Author explains how these concepts presupposed and entailed a different representation and valuation of local historical processes, and how the "diameter" of respectability relates to the emergence of an educated colored and black "petite bourgeoisie" as Trinidad's plantation complex developed into a class-based Creole society. He first discusses how after 1838 British education imposed British ideas of respectability in Trinidad, which in the last half of the 19th c. were adapted by an emerging local black middle class to be operative for their social mobility. He then juxtaposes the burgeoning of a large urban black underclass in the same period, and the revival by the underclass of the island's Carnival, where a set of values opposed to the norms of respectability were conjured.

There are many theories as to what form good-quality parenting should take. Attachment theory emphasises providing a secure base through sensitive responding at times of emotional need. Social learning theory outlines the need for firm limits in addition to the promotion of positive interchanges. These theories are supported by numerous quantitative research studies investigating which parenting styles are associated with better outcomes for children in general and for those with additional needs due to prior abuse or emotional and behavioural difficulties. However, there have been few systematic qualitative studies asking children themselves about their care experiences, particularly with abused or neglected children who are now safe in foster care. Using an adapted version of the Child Attachment Interview, we interviewed 12 children aged 13 to 15 years, who had been taken into care due to abuse and fostered for at least six months, with the aim of exploring their attachment to their birth parents, foster carers and attitudes to different parenting styles in general. Transcripts were analysed using the qualitative technique of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Overall, the abused children spoke more positively of foster care than the care provided by their birth parents. Parenting techniques mentioned in positive terms were a clear disciplinary style, setting firm boundaries, nurturing care, enjoyable time together and mentoring further development. Negative themes included angry or inconsistent disciplinary styles, failure to set appropriate boundaries, rejecting and neglectful behaviour, a lack of joint activities, a chaotic lifestyle and parental illness. This study provides a unique perspective on parenting, as the children studied have experienced both poor parenting and reasonably normal care. The findings are applicable to care provided for fostered children and could be relevant to the upbringing of children in general.

There are many theories as to what form good-quality parenting should take. Attachment theory emphasises providing a secure base through sensitive responding at times of emotional need. Social learning theory outlines the need for firm limits in addition to the promotion of positive interchanges. These theories are supported by numerous quantitative research studies investigating which parenting styles are associated with better outcomes for children in general and for those with additional needs due to prior abuse or emotional and behavioural difficulties. However, there have been few systematic qualitative studies asking children themselves about their care experiences, particularly with abused or neglected children who are now safe in foster care. Using an adapted version of the Child Attachment Interview, we interviewed 12 children aged 13 to 15 years, who had been taken into care due to abuse and fostered for at least six months, with the aim of exploring their attachment to their birth parents, foster carers and attitudes to different parenting styles in general. Transcripts were analysed using the qualitative technique of Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Overall, the abused children spoke more positively of foster care than the care provided by their birth parents. Parenting techniques mentioned in positive terms were a clear disciplinary style, setting firm boundaries, nurturing care, enjoyable time together and mentoring further development. Negative themes included angry or inconsistent disciplinary styles, failure to set appropriate boundaries, rejecting and neglectful behaviour, a lack of joint activities, a chaotic lifestyle and parental illness. This study provides a unique perspective on parenting, as the children studied have experienced both poor parenting and reasonably normal care. The findings are applicable to care provided for fostered children and could be relevant to the upbringing of children in general.

The majority of looked after children are now in some kind of foster care and carers are expected to cope with many children who have complex needs and challenging behaviour. If foster carers are to take on these increasing responsibilities they clearly require good preparation, comprehensive support and the right kind of training. Yet currently, the structure and quality of training vary significantly, and there is little evidence about the impact of training on foster carers or the children they look after. This article by Andrea Warman, Clare Pallett and Stephen Scott uses evaluation material from a new post-approval training programme for foster carers in Southwark and draws upon education research to argue that there must be more debate about how we train and the role that foster carers could play in training their peers.

High availability (HA) is today an important issue in the domain of cluster computing, clusters being more and more larger, introducing a lot of failures. Today, the literature provides a lot of different HA strategies to tolerate application failures (applications being sequential or parallel). Unfortunately, it is still difficult to implement these HA policies inside a real system, and therefore the study of these policies is most of the time just theoretic, without real implementation. Therefore, a framework to ease the implementation of such policies is interesting. Moreover, a single system image (SSI), thanks to mechanisms for the global management of cluster resources, is a good candidate to provide such a framework. This paper presents the preliminary study of this framework on top of the Kerrighed SSI. \\ La haute disponibilité est aujourd'hui un problème important pour les grappes de calculateurs, ceux-ci ayant une taille de plus en plus grande, introduisant de nombreuses fautes. Pour cela, la littérature offre de nombreuses stratégies permettant de tolérer les fautes d'applications (que les applications soient séquentielles ou parallèles). Malheureusement, la mise en \oe uvre de ces politiques de haute disponibilité est toujours difficile et leur étude est donc très souvent limité à une étude théorique, sans réelle mise en oeuvre. Un environnement dédié simplifiant la mise en oeuvre de telles politiques est donc intéresant. De plus, un Système à Image Unique (Single System Image - SSI), grâce à ses mécanismes de gestion globale des ressources de la grappe, est un bon candidat pour offrir un tel environnement. Ce document présente l'étude préliminaire d'un tel environnement fondé sur le SSI Kerrighed.

High availability (HA) is today an important issue in the domain of cluster computing, clusters being more and more larger, introducing a lot of failures. Today, the literature provides a lot of different HA strategies to tolerate application failures (applications being sequential or parallel). Unfortunately, it is still difficult to implement these HA policies inside a real system, and therefore the study of these policies is most of the time just theoretic, without real implementation. Therefore, a framework to ease the implementation of such policies is interesting. Moreover, a single system image (SSI), thanks to mechanisms for the global management of cluster resources, is a good candidate to provide such a framework. This paper presents the preliminary study of this framework on top of the Kerrighed SSI. \\ La haute disponibilité est aujourd'hui un problème important pour les grappes de calculateurs, ceux-ci ayant une taille de plus en plus grande, introduisant de nombreuses fautes. Pour cela, la littérature offre de nombreuses stratégies permettant de tolérer les fautes d'applications (que les applications soient séquentielles ou parallèles). Malheureusement, la mise en \oe uvre de ces politiques de haute disponibilité est toujours difficile et leur étude est donc très souvent limité à une étude théorique, sans réelle mise en oeuvre. Un environnement dédié simplifiant la mise en oeuvre de telles politiques est donc intéresant. De plus, un Système à Image Unique (Single System Image - SSI), grâce à ses mécanismes de gestion globale des ressources de la grappe, est un bon candidat pour offrir un tel environnement. Ce document présente l'étude préliminaire d'un tel environnement fondé sur le SSI Kerrighed.

High availability (HA) is today an important issue in the domain of cluster computing, clusters being more and more larger, introducing a lot of failures. Today, the literature provides a lot of different HA strategies to tolerate application failures (applications being sequential or parallel). Unfortunately, it is still difficult to implement these HA policies inside a real system, and therefore the study of these policies is most of the time just theoretic, without real implementation. Therefore, a framework to ease the implementation of such policies is interesting. Moreover, a single system image (SSI), thanks to mechanisms for the global management of cluster resources, is a good candidate to provide such a framework. This paper presents the preliminary study of this framework on top of the Kerrighed SSI. \\ La haute disponibilité est aujourd'hui un problème important pour les grappes de calculateurs, ceux-ci ayant une taille de plus en plus grande, introduisant de nombreuses fautes. Pour cela, la littérature offre de nombreuses stratégies permettant de tolérer les fautes d'applications (que les applications soient séquentielles ou parallèles). Malheureusement, la mise en \oe uvre de ces politiques de haute disponibilité est toujours difficile et leur étude est donc très souvent limité à une étude théorique, sans réelle mise en oeuvre. Un environnement dédié simplifiant la mise en oeuvre de telles politiques est donc intéresant. De plus, un Système à Image Unique (Single System Image - SSI), grâce à ses mécanismes de gestion globale des ressources de la grappe, est un bon candidat pour offrir un tel environnement. Ce document présente l'étude préliminaire d'un tel environnement fondé sur le SSI Kerrighed.

ObjectivesCriminal offending and re-offending comes at a significant social and economic cost. Offending prevention therefore presents a high priority policy area. Low educational attainment is a known risk factor for offending, but little is understood about how changes in school performance over time might be associated with offending.
MethodsWe investigated this in a large sample of n~4.3 million pupils using an administrative data linkage between two routinely-collected national datasets: the National Pupil Database (NPD) and the Police National Computer (PNC). First, we conducted growth mixture modelling using NPD data over three statutory testing years (School Years 2, 6 and 11). We then investigated the association between membership of these trajectories and subsequent conviction or caution for any criminal offence between Year 11 and age 21.
ResultsWe derived five school performance trajectories: (1) Average Consistent (n=3,497,167, 81.0%), (2) Average Increasing (n=66,383, 1.5%), (3) Average Declining (n=373,117, 8.6%), (4) Low Increasing (n=98,805, 2.3%), and (5) Low Consistent (n=281,964, 6.5%). The Average Declining group had the highest proportion of individuals who went on to be convicted or cautioned for any first offence up to age 21 (9.8%), followed by the Low Consistent (8.5%), Low Increasing (5.6%), Average Consistent (4.2%) and Average Increasing (1.5%) groups. Furthermore, as the number of offending days between Year 11 and age 21 increased (indicating repeat offending), the likelihood of having been in the Average Declining or Low Consistent groups also increased. We will also present findings from multilevel models accounting for school clustering, different offence types, and interactions.
ConclusionTentatively, findings suggest that changes in school performance could help to identify pupils who are struggling and at increased risk of criminal justice involvement, and therefore might be in need of additional support.

A project has been set up in a socially deprived inner-London borough to provide foster carers with practical skills in the management of child behaviour. Clare Pallett, Stephen Scott, Kathy Blackeby, William Yule and Roger Weissman discuss why the project was set up and consider how carers learn best. Social workers often provide good general support to carers and placements, but may not offer more specific practical advice in managing behaviour so well. A training course based on cognitive-behavioural theory is described and case examples given. The evidence presented shows significant improvements in carer—child interaction, child difficulty, specific child problems causing most worry to carers, and child emotional symptoms; insignificant improvements were seen in hyperactivity and conduct problems.

Urban greenspace has consistently been argued to be of great importance to the wellbeing, health, and daily lives of residents and users. This paper reports results from a study that combined the visualisation of public results from a study that combined the visualisation of public greenspace with environmental economics, and that aimed to develop a method by which realistic computer models of sites could be used within preference studies. As part of a methodology that employed contingent rating to establish the values placed on specific greenspace sites, three-dimensional computer models were used to produce visualisations of particular environmental conditions. Of particular importance to the study was the influence of variables including lighting, season, time of day, and weather on the perception of respondents. This study followed previous work that established a suitable approach to the modelling and testing of entirely moveable physical variables within the built environment. As such, the study has established firmly that computer-generated visualisations are appropriate for use within environmental economic surveys, and that there is potential for a holistic range of attributes to be included in such studies.

PurposeThe Helping Children Achieve study is a randomised controlled trial designed to test the effectiveness of parenting interventions for children at risk of anti‐social behaviour. The paper aims to examine the challenges in recruitment to the HCA trial.Design/methodology/approachThe study is on‐going and is being conducted at two sites: an inner city London borough and a city in the South West of England. In total, 395 participants consented to participate in the trial; 325 were assessed at baseline and 215 met the criteria and agreed to take part. Recruitment used population screens and referrals.FindingsThe screening procedure was more labour intensive but attracted greater numbers, including many parents who might not otherwise have sought help and included many families from disadvantaged backgrounds. The referrals included those with more serious problems and a higher proportion engaged with the service. Recruitment rates were lower in the London site due to ineligibility and greater difficulty in accessing schools. Retention in the two areas was similar.Originality/valueThe study provides data on recruitment challenges and lessons learned that could help formulate future policy regarding service delivery. Also of value is the finding that it is possible to conduct population screens in very deprived, multi‐ethnic areas and to get high rates of return.