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.
There is a growing international interest and engagement in the process and outcomes of young people leaving state care. Within the United Kingdom (UK) this had led to legislative reform, policy ...development, advances in practice and improvements in information and research. Yet despite those developments, poor outcomes and high risk of social exclusion continue to be characteristic of these young people's life trajectories. However it is important to note that this is not the case for all care leavers. So what is it in the lives of these young people that determine their experiences of transition from youth to adulthood? What is it that makes the difference between those who on leaving achieve good outcomes, such as self-confidence, educational qualifications and stable relationships, and those who do not? Are there particular turning points in care leavers' lives that provide opportunities for improving their life chances? Are there particular ways that services can provide better supported care careers? Adapted from the source document.
The insightfulness of care leavers about their experiences of transition from care to adulthood is a powerful force for change. The leaving care legislation enhanced duties on Trusts to support and ...provide services for care leavers. Despite this, many young people leave care before they are ready to do so and experience poor outcomes. Yet, some do exceptionally well. Research suggests that transition from youth to adulthood is viewed as increasingly circuitous whilst transitions for care leavers tend to be accelerated and compressed. But how do care leavers themselves perceive their transitions? This study sources their accounts of their experiences. Using a qualitative approach, eight young care leavers from one Trust area in Northern Ireland were interviewed. The Biographical Narrative Interpretive Method (BNIM) was used to generate their care stories. In a supplementary interview, the care leavers constructed their biographical life-lines and self-assessed the degree of support and control they had and how they coped at key turning points in their lives. The data was analysed using BNIM. The findings show that as the care leavers experience events in their lives as they journey through their care pathway, they also experience changes in their subjectivity. These fall into three dominant phases forming a subjective pathway. It begins with 'loss of felt security', moves to 'finding stability' and culminates in 'actualising self'. The care leavers' turning points are not eureka moments associated solely with the events in their lives but are linked to changes in their subjectivity which transform in their consciousness over time. By using BNIM, hitherto an untapped methodology to uncover care leavers' experiences, access is given to their lived subjectivity. The findings reinforce the importance of underpinning policy, care practices and service provision with attachment and resilience theories and they point to the potential contribution of humanistic social psychology.
A highly selective dopamine sensor was fabricated by doping polypyrrole with a sulfonated β-cyclodextrin. This composite material enabled the selective sensing of dopamine in the presence of a large ...excess of ascorbic acid and prevented the regeneration of dopamine through the homogeneous catalytic reaction of the ascorbate anion with the dopamine-o-quinone. A single redox wave, corresponding to the oxidation of dopamine, was observed in dopamine/ascorbate mixtures, giving a truly selective dopamine sensor. The limit of detection was measured as 3.2
×
10
−6
M for dopamine.
The substituted pyrrole monomer, N–(2–cyanoethyl)pyrrole, was electropolymerised in a 70% water and 30% ethanol solution with ClO4– and H2PO4– as the dopant species to give nanowires at short ...electropolymerisation times and microwires at longer deposition periods. On adding toluene to the electropolymerisation solution, hollow microtubes were formed. This was attributed to the adsorption of toluene droplets at the electrode surface which served to separate the dopants from the monomer, with the monomer being highly soluble in the toluene droplet and the inorganic dopants soluble in the water/ethanol mixture. As a result electropolymerisation was confined to the toluene-water/ethanol interface. These polymer systems exhibit redox activity with the oxidation wave centred at about 0.40 V vs SCE, and the broader reduction wave positioned between 0.75 V and 0.25 V vs SCE. Although N-substitution reduces the conductivity of the polymer, various copper deposits, including cubes, leaves and hierarchical structures were deposited at the microwires and microtubes using high overpotentials. The hierarchical structures were wrapped around the microtubes at considerable distances, typically 3–4 µm, from the substrate.
•N-substituted polypyrrole nanowires, microwires and open microtubes were electrochemically formed.•Copper cubes and leaf-like structures were electrodeposited onto the N-substituted polypyrrole nanowires/microwires.•Copper hierarchical structures were wrapped around the microtubes at considerable distance from the substrate electrode.
Copper-based hierarchical micro/nanostructures were prepared using a novel electrochemical route on polypyrrole−polystyrene sulfonate (PPy−PSS) thin films. The resulting structures are composed of ...copper hydroxysulfates, as confirmed by the electrochemical, spectroscopic, and X-ray diffraction characterization. The electrochemistry of the film is a key factor in the overall deposition of the micro/nanostructures. The PPy−PSS films capture cations from the copper sulfate electrolyte solution and facilitate the reduction of dissolved oxygen to hydroxide ions. The system then acts like a nanoreactor as the Cu2+ and OH− ions are concentrated on the polymer surface, which in the presence of the SO4 2− ions from the electrolyte solution results in the electrocrystallization of the copper hydroxysulfates hierarchical structures.
Osteoporotic fractures are a major global public health issue, leading to patient suffering and death, and considerable healthcare costs. Bone mineral density (BMD) measurement is important to ...identify those with osteoporosis and assess their risk of fracture. Both the absolute BMD and the change in BMD over time contribute to fracture risk. Predicting future fracture in individual patients is challenging and impacts clinical decisions such as when to intervene or repeat BMD measurement. Although the importance of BMD change is recognised, an effective way to incorporate this marginal effect into clinical algorithms is lacking.
We compared two methods using longitudinal DXA data generated from subjects with two or more hip DXA scans on the same machine between 2000 and 2018. A simpler statistical method (ZBM) was used to predict an individual's future BMD based on the mean BMD and the standard deviation of the reference group and their BMD measured in the latest scan. A more complex deep learning (DL)-based method was developed to cope with multidimensional longitudinal data, variables extracted from patients' historical DXA scan(s), as well as features drawn from the ZBM method. Sensitivity analyses of several subgroups was conducted to evaluate the performance of the derived models.
2948 white adults aged 40–90 years met our study inclusion: 2652 (90 %) females and 296 (10 %) males. Our DL-based models performed significantly better than the ZBM models in women, particularly our Hybrid-DL model. In contrast, the ZBM-based models performed as well or better than DL-based models in men.
Deep learning-based and statistical models have potential to forecast future BMD using longitudinal clinical data. These methods have the potential to augment clinical decisions regarding when to repeat BMD testing in the assessment of osteoporosis.
•Statistical techniques & DL-based techniques can be used to develop models to predict future BMD.•The DL-based models performed better in women than men.•The ZBM-based models performed as well/better than the DL-based models in men.•These models can augment clinical decisions regarding when to repeat BMD testing.
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