scholarly journals Why Choose the Railway?

Crisis ◽  
2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keely S. E. Duddin ◽  
Benjamin Raynes

Abstract. Background: The impact of railway suicide in the United Kingdom is extensive, yet reasons for why people choose this method are not clearly understood and research into the examination of suicide notes in this area is limited. Aims: Our study aimed to utilize the unique access to suicide notes written by those who died by suicide on the railway so as to gain a greater understanding of why people chose this method. Method: Descriptive and thematic analysis was conducted on 75 suicide notes for those who had died by suicide on the UK railway between 2010 and 2016. Results: Demographic findings from the sample were largely consistent with railway UK data trends. Five main themes were identified as being significant: “certain and instant,” “impersonal and non-human,” “ability to be planned,” “a good death,” and “bereavement suicide.” Limitations: Findings are based on suicide note authors who died by suicide on the railway in the UK, as such generalizability may be limited. Conclusion: Findings suggest that people select the railway for their suicide for the following motives: perception of being instant and certain and viewed as a good death, ability to be planned, belief it causes less of a burden on loved ones (via the perception of the railway as impersonal), and a prior experience of it being fatal (via bereavement suicide). Key implications in relation to prevention strategies and future research are discussed.

Author(s):  
Stefan Koehn ◽  
Farzad Amirabdollahian

The Exercise Benefits/Barriers Scale (EBBS) research instrument has been extensively used to investigate the perceived benefits and barriers of exercise in a range of settings. In order to examine theoretical contentions and translate the findings, it is imperative to implement measurement tools that operationalize the constructs in an accurate and reliable way. The original validation of the EBBS proposed a nine-factor structure for the research tool, examined the EBBS factor structure, and suggested that various factors are important for the testing of the perception of exercise benefits and barriers, whereas a few items and factors may not be vital. The current study conducted a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) using hierarchical testing in 565 participants from the northwest region of the United Kingdom, the results of which provided evidence for a four-factor structure of the benefits measure, with the Comparative Fit Index (CFI) = 0.943, Tucker–Lewis Index (TLI) = 0.933, and root means square error of approximation (RMSEA) = 0.051, namely life enhancement, physical performance, psychological outlook, and social interaction, as well as a two-factor structure of the barrier measures, with the CFI = 0.953, TLI = 0.931, and RMSEA = 0.063, including exercise milieu and time expenditure. Our findings showed that for a six-factor correlated model, the CFI = 0.930, TLI = 0.919, and RMSEA = 0.046. The multi-group CFA provided support for gender invariance. The results indicated that after three decades of the original validation of the EBBS, many of the core factors and items are still relevant for the assessment of higher-order factors; however, the 26-item concise tool proposed in the current study displays a better parsimony in comparison with the original 43-item questionnaire. Overall, the current study provides support for a reliable, cross-culturally valid EBBS within the UK adult population, however, it proposes a shorter and more concise version compared with the original tool, and gives direction for future research to focus on the content validity for assessing the perception of the barriers to physical activity.


2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Nando Sigona ◽  
Jotaro Kato ◽  
Irina Kuznetsova

AbstractThe article examines the migration infrastructures and pathways through which migrants move into, through and out of irregular status in Japan and the UK and how these infrastructures uniquely shape their migrant experiences of irregularity at key stages of their migration projects.Our analysis brings together two bodies of migration scholarship, namely critical work on the social and legal production of illegality and the impact of legal violence on the lives of immigrants with precarious legal status, and on the role of migration infrastructures in shaping mobility pathways.Drawing upon in-depth qualitative interviews with irregular and precarious migrants in Japan and the UK collected over a ten-year period, this article develops a three-pronged analysis of the infrastructures of irregularity, focusing on infrastructures of entry, settlement and exit, casting a comparative light on the mechanisms that produce precarious and expendable migrant lives in relation to access to labour and labour conditions, access and quality of housing and law enforcement, and how migrants adapt, cope, resist or eventually are overpowered by them.


Author(s):  
Mary E. Lewis

This chapter explores our current knowledge of pathology and trauma in Romano-British non-adult samples focusing on the children from the late Roman cemetery of Poundbury Camp, Dorset. Evidence for metabolic diseases (rickets, scurvy, iron deficiency anaemia), fractures, thalassemia, congenital disorders and tuberculosis, are presented with emphasis on what their presence tells us about the impact of the Romans in Britain. Many of the large Roman sites from the UK were excavated long before diagnostic criteria for recognizing pathology in child remains were fully developed, and European studies tend only to focus on anaemia and its link to malaria. A lack of environmental evidence for the sites from which our skeletal remains are derived is also problematic, and this chapter hopes to set the agenda for future research into the health and life of children living in the Roman World.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Richard Philip Lee ◽  
Caroline Coulson ◽  
Kate Hackett

The on-going rise in demand experienced by voluntary and community organisations (VCOs) providing emergency food aid has been described as a sign of a social and public health crisis in the UK (Loopstra, 2018; Lambie-Mumford, 2019), compounded since 2020 by the impact of (and responses to) Covid 19 (Power et al., 2020). In this article we adopted a social practice approach to understanding the work of food bank volunteering. We identify how ‘helping others’, ‘deploying coping strategies’ and ‘creating atmospheres’ are key specific (and connected) forms of shared social practice. Further, these practices are sometimes suffused by faith-based practice. The analysis offers insights into how such spaces of care and encounter (Williams et al., 2016; Cloke et al., 2017) function, considers the implications for these distinctive organisational forms (the growth of which has been subject to justified critique) and suggests avenues for future research.


2021 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Harry E. R. Shepherd ◽  
Florence S. Atherden ◽  
Ho Man Theophilus Chan ◽  
Alexandra Loveridge ◽  
Andrew J. Tatem

Abstract Background Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how these policies impacted travel patterns over time and at different spatial scales is important for designing effective strategies, future pandemic planning and in providing broader insights on the population geography of the country. Crowd level data on mobile phone usage can be used as a proxy for population mobility patterns and provide a way of quantifying in near-real time the impact of social distancing measures on changes in mobility. Methods Here we explore patterns of change in densities, domestic and international flows and co-location of Facebook users in the UK from March 2020 to March 2021. Results We find substantial heterogeneities across time and region, with large changes observed compared to pre-pademic patterns. The impacts of periods of lockdown on distances travelled and flow volumes are evident, with each showing variations, but some significant reductions in co-location rates. Clear differences in multiple metrics of mobility are seen in central London compared to the rest of the UK, with each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland showing significant deviations from England at times. Moreover, the impacts of rapid changes in rules on international travel to and from the UK are seen in substantial fluctuations in traveller volumes by destination. Conclusions While questions remain about the representativeness of the Facebook data, previous studies have shown strong correspondence with census-based data and alternative mobility measures, suggesting that findings here are valuable for guiding strategies.


Author(s):  
Andrew Ashworth ◽  
Julian V. Roberts

Sentencing represents the apex of the criminal process and is the most public stage of the criminal justice system. Controversial sentences attract widespread media coverage, intense public interest, and much public and political criticism. This chapter explores sentencing in the United Kingdom, and draws some conclusions with relevance to other common law jurisdictions. Sentencing has changed greatly in recent years, notably through the introduction of sentencing guidelines in England and Wales, and more recently, Scotland. However, there are still doubts about the fairness and consistency of sentencing practice, not least in the use of imprisonment. Among the key issues to be examined in this chapter are the tendency towards net-widening, the effects of race and gender, the impact of pleading guilty, the use of indeterminate sentences, the rise of mandatory sentences, and the role of the victim in the sentencing process. The chapter begins by outlining the methods by which cases come before the courts for sentencing. It then summarizes the specific sentences available to courts and examines current sentencing patterns, before turning to a more detailed exploration of sentencing guidelines, and of the key issues identified above. The chapter addresses two critical questions: What is sentencing (namely who exerts the power to punish)? Does sentencing in the UK measure up to appropriate standards of fairness and consistency?


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohammadreza Mohammadi ◽  
John Finnan ◽  
Chris Baker ◽  
Mark Sterling

This paper examines the impact that climate change may have on the lodging of oats in the Republic of Ireland and the UK. Through the consideration of a novel lodging model representing the motion of an oat plant due to the interaction of wind and rain and integrating future predictions of wind and rainfall due to climate change, appropriate conclusions have been made. In order to provide meteorological data for the lodging model, wind and rainfall inputs are analysed using 30 years’ time series corresponding to peak lodging months (June and July) from 38 meteorological stations in the United Kingdom and the Irish Republic, which enables the relevant probability density functions (PDFs) to be established. Moreover, climate data for the next six decades in the British Isles produced by UK climate change projections (UKCP18) are analysed, and future wind and rainfall PDFs are obtained. It is observed that the predicted changes likely to occur during the key growing period (June to July) in the next 30 years are in keeping with variations, which can occur due to different husbandry treatments/plant varieties. In addition, the utility of a double exponential function for representing the rainfall probability has been observed with appropriate values for the constants given.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Damer P. Blake ◽  
Jolene Knox ◽  
Ben Dehaeck ◽  
Ben Huntington ◽  
Thilak Rathinam ◽  
...  

Abstract Coccidiosis, caused by Eimeria species parasites, has long been recognised as an economically significant disease of chickens. As the global chicken population continues to grow, and its contribution to food security intensifies, it is increasingly important to assess the impact of diseases that compromise chicken productivity and welfare. In 1999, Williams published one of the most comprehensive estimates for the cost of coccidiosis in chickens, featuring a compartmentalised model for the costs of prophylaxis, treatment and losses, indicating a total cost in excess of £38 million in the United Kingdom (UK) in 1995. In the 25 years since this analysis the global chicken population has doubled and systems of chicken meat and egg production have advanced through improved nutrition, husbandry and selective breeding of chickens, and wider use of anticoccidial vaccines. Using data from industry representatives including veterinarians, farmers, production and health experts, we have updated the Williams model and estimate that coccidiosis in chickens cost the UK £99.2 million in 2016 (range £73.0–£125.5 million). Applying the model to data from Brazil, Egypt, Guatemala, India, New Zealand, Nigeria and the United States resulted in estimates that, when extrapolated by geographical region, indicate a global cost of ~ £10.4 billion at 2016 prices (£7.7–£13.0 billion), equivalent to £0.16/chicken produced. Understanding the economic costs of livestock diseases can be advantageous, providing baselines to evaluate the impact of different husbandry systems and interventions. The updated cost of coccidiosis in chickens will inform debates on the value of chemoprophylaxis and development of novel anticoccidial vaccines.


2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (ahead-of-print) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ying Yang ◽  
Christopher Cooke

PurposeThis study aims to explore the barriers to upscaling the production capacity of the edible insect sector in the UK and to identify the impact of current regulation on the sector's development.Design/methodology/approachA significant proportion of edible insect-producing companies within the UK were identified through an online market research database and contacted via email to invite them to participate in this study. Phone interviews were conducted with ten companies. Thematic analysis was adopted for data analysis.FindingsThere were five themes identified as barriers to the upscaling of the production for the edible insect sector in the UK: insect feeding materials, production capacity, expertise and knowledge, new product development and regulatory uncertainty.Research limitations/implicationsThis research was based on a qualitative study. Further quantitative research is needed to test the extent of the impact of these five themes on upscaling production capacity. In addition to production capacity, marketing and consumers' acceptance, culture and behaviour can also be considered in future studies.Originality/valueThis study makes a significant contribution to the literature by providing insight on the barriers to upscaling production capacity in the edible insect sector.


Subject The impact of Brexit on the UK agricultural and food and drink sectors. Significance Agriculture and the food and drink sector will be among those industries most affected by Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to pursue a ‘hard’ Brexit. It is uncertain to what extent domestic agricultural policies will replace the support and funding mechanisms of the EU. The food and drink sector will have to adjust to the possibility of future tariffs. Impacts Scottish independence would hit the drink sector, with Scotch whisky alone accounting for almost one-quarter of UK food and drink exports. The burgeoning UK wine industry could be damaged if the informal knowledge transfer from French wine experts slows down. The United Kingdom and the EU will need to cooperate on the issue of access arrangements for fishing.


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