ABSTRACT: The variety of narratives on implementation of reform, including the European Commission's explanations, formed a foggy cloud, so that it is not clear what the actual tasks are in this reform – efficiency, effectiveness, uniformity, furthering harmonisation and convergence at ...
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Purpose Self-injury is common in forensic psychiatric settings. Recent research offers some insights into the functions and management of self-injurious behaviour but generally focusses on either the experiences of staff or patients. This study aims to explore the experiences of both staff and patients with non-suicidal self-injury in a Dutch forensic psychiatric hospital. Design/methodology/approach In total, 6 patients and 11 staff members were interviewed about the functions they ascribe to self-injurious behaviour, the emotional experience provoked by this behaviour and the management of self-injurious behaviour. The interviews were transcribed and analysed using a thematic analysis. Findings Four main themes resulted from the analysis: functions; emotional distancing; patient needs; and management. Overall, findings illustrate that staff reports limited knowledge of the different functions of self-injury. To circumvent potential automatic stereotypical judgement, staff should proactively engage in conversation about this topic with their patients. In managing self-injurious behaviour, clarity and uniformity among staff members should be promoted, and collaboration between the staff and patients is desirable. Staff recognised the potential benefit of a management guideline. Staff may find detached coping strategies to be effective but should be vigilant to not let this evolve into excessive detachment. Practical implications Increased knowledge and awareness of self-injury functions among staff can allow for better understanding and evaluation of self-injury incidents. Circumvention of automatic, stereotypical judgement of self-injurious behaviour is warranted, and more accessible explanations of the variety of functions of self-injury should be used. More proactive engagement in conversations about functions of self-injury by staff, can facilitate this. Detached coping can help staff to remain resilient in their job, but requires vigilance to prevent this from turning into excessive detachment. Clarity and uniformity among staff when managing self-injury incidents is considered beneficial by both patients and staff. A guideline may facilitate this. When imposing restrictions on patients, staff should strive to establish collaboration with the patient in determining the course of action and ensure the restriction is temporary. Originality/value The impact of self-injurious behaviour on all those involved can be enormous. More research is needed into experiences of both patients and staff members regarding the impact, motivations, precipitants and functions of self-injurious behaviour, and effective treatment of it.
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On April 12th 2019, researchers, students and consortia gathered at the World Horti Centre for an update on the overall status of the HiPerGreen project. The day consisted of presentations from a variety of the HiPerGreen students, staff and guest speakers. There were a variety of exciting updates from the technological and biological realms of the project, as well as an insightful presentation from Deliflor’s Geert Van Geest on Deliflor and their interests in imaging of chrysanthemums. Several new pieces of technology have arisen from the HiPerGreen project. The first being a rail-based imaging system capable of traversing the greenhouse using the heating pipes commonly found in Dutch greenhouses. The drone landing dock has also taken great steps forward and finally, HiPerGreen has partnered with drone manufacture Avular, a company working on the world’s first ‘ultra-wide band’ localized indoor drone. From a biological standpoint significant progress has been made regarding long-term plant monitoring with a focus on reducing fusarium occurrence in the crop. Students are working in climate chambers to model the symptoms of fusarium infection in orchids. Students are also working at Deliflor using the railsystem to measure uniformity in chrysanthemum test crops. Research with the multispectral camera continued and the team hopes to integrate the imaging into mass plant monitoring. The sympoium was concluded with a drink.
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Doesn 't anyone see what a horrible uniformity we have begun to create worldwide? Doesn 't anyone see that we would be much better off if we were really connected and focused on each other, instead of learning to frame each other through rules and protocols? With our machinations we have created a scale on which there are only hungry people: 7,812,284,764 Snow White (m / f / other), yearning for a kiss!
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Always striving for superlatives makes for one-dimensional judgements. From one perspective something can be the best or the most unique, but from an infinite number of other perspectives it isn't. The fastest runner is not necessarily the healthiest person, let alone the best partner or parent. In addition, thinking in superlatives leads to uniformity instead of diversity. With all our innovations and our pursuit of better, more beautiful and more luxurious things, we are now worse off than: as a species we are as dependent on nature as all other living species while it is undeniable that technological progress causes ecological deterioration. It is argued that more is not always better, so we should stop living (exclusively) for exclamation marks!
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I love technology. We live technology; technology is as ubiquitous as nature used to be. It has reduced biodiversity and cultural diversity, creating a dangerous global uniformity with pollution, deforestation, climate problems and boredom and loneliness, also on a global scale. A lot of technology has been developed in the "war industry", and it can be used just as easily for, as against, humanity. One may argue that it is not the technology that is the problem, but the use of it. But no individual, body or government is in control, technology development has a life of its own in the laboratories of knowledge institutions and science, and especially in the hands of thousands of innovators and companies, who earn their living with it. Technology and humanity, two dangerous loves of mine!
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Does Northern Europe possess unique characteristics that cannot disappear and do not need to disappear, or will globalisation inevitably result in uniformity, divested businesses, lower wages and huge pressure on social security provisions? This is one of the main questions addressed by the authors.The authors examine how companies respond to global developments. They also discuss the implications of these developments for entrepreneurs and whether knowledge institutions and governments play a part in creating a climate that is conducive to enterprise. They consider these issues from the perspective of different regions. Each region has its own distinct regional characteristics and its own distinct regional views on particular issues. As well as endeavouring to describe the key macroeconomic characteristics, they also consider how (entrepreneurial and policy-making) organisations should respond to the current macroeconomic challenges.
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Objective: In myocardial perfusion single-photon emission computed tomography (SPECT), abdominal activity often interferes with the evaluation of perfusion in the inferior wall, especially after pharmacological stress. In this randomized study, we examined the effect of carbonated water intake versus still water intake on the quality of images obtained during myocardial perfusion images (MPI) studies. Methods: A total of 467 MIBI studies were randomized into a carbonated water group and a water group. The presence of intestinal activity adjacent to the inferior wall was evaluated by two observers. Furthermore, a semiquantitative analysis was performed in the adenosine subgroup,using a count ratio of the inferior myocardial wall and adjacent abdominal activity. Results: The need for repeated SPECT in the adenosine studies was 5.3 % in the carbonated water group versus 19.4 % in the still water group (p = 0.019). The inferior wall-to-abdomen count ratio was significantly higher in the carbonated water group compared to the still water group (2.11 ± 1.00 vs. 1.72 ± 0.73, p\0.001). The effect of carbonated water during rest and after exercise was not significant. Conclusions: This randomized study showed that carbonated water significantly reduced the interference of extra-cardiac activity in adenosine SPECT MPI. Keywords: Extra-cardiac radioactivity, Myocardial SPECT, Image quality enhancement, Carbonated water
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Contemporary social work is subjected to ongoing questions in terms of its effectiveness and accountability. It appears to be problematic for social workers to defend themselves in a proper manner. When they do so, they often seem to rely primarily on a rhetoric of good intentions and are thus unable to constructively asses the underlying principles of their work. These considerations have prompted the research outline that is presented in this paper.
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Detecting practical problems of persons with dementia (PwD) experience at home, and advising them on solutions to facilitate aging in place are complex and challenging tasks for nurses and case managers. In this two group randomized, controlled laboratory experiment, the efficacy of a decision support application aiming to increase nurses' and case managers' confidence in clinical judgment and decision-making was tested. The participants (N = 67) assessed a case of a PwD within the problem domains: self-reliance, safety and informal care, and provided suggestions for possible solutions. Participants used either their regular procedure with (intervention group) or without the App (control group) to conduct these tasks. No statistically significant difference was found on the primary outcome measure, the overall level of confidence. However, nurses and case managers highly recommended use of the App in practice. To explain these results, more research on the potential added value of the App is needed.
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