Constructing Fatality Review: A Policy Analysis of the Emergence of Domestic Homicide Reviews in England and Wales

In England and Wales, Domestic Homicide Reviews (DHRs) examine domestic abuse-related deaths to identify lessons to be learned. However, their emergence as a policy initiative has been little considered. To address this gap, a thematic discourse analysis of policy documents to 2011 was undertaken, examining the justification for, and conceptualization of, DHRs before their implementation. It is argued that DHRs were constructed as a taken-for-granted good, through which multi-agency partners would generate learning while the (gendered) subject was silenced. Attending to aspirations, contradictions, and tensions in the emergence of DHRs has implications for their understanding and operationalization in the present.

Blurring the play–drama boundary: A case study investigating the teaching and learning of a drama-integrated curriculum in a Hong Kong kindergarten

This study aims to conceptualise a drama-integrated curriculum devised from process drama as an approach to play-based pedagogy and curriculum to realise the policy initiative of learning through play. By investigating teachers’ perspectives and practices in relation to the curriculum of a local kindergarten, examples of effective drama-integration strategies and the associated children's learning are identified and organised into four themes – namely, drama teaching and learning through, before, in and after play. The teachers understood that although their curriculum is not based on free play, its not-so-free features may reconcile the play–learning binarism, daring them to navigate the maze of complex relationships between play, drama, teaching and learning in implementing a playful curriculum.

Predicting People’s Motivation to Engage in Urban Possum Control

Initiatives such as education, incentives, and regulations are used to change people’s behaviour and thereby achieve policy objectives. Understanding and predicting the willingness of people to change their behaviour in response to an initiative is critical in assessing its likely effectiveness. We present a framework proposed by Kaine et al. (2010) for understanding and predicting the motivation of people to change their behaviour in response to a policy initiative. The framework draws on the marketing concept of ‘involvement’, a measure of motivation. Through application to a predator control case study, we show how the framework may be used to predict people’s responses to a policy initiative and how these predictions might help agencies develop strategies to promote behaviour change.

Russian border regions in the economic corridor of China-Mongolia-Russia

The object of the paper are the border regions of Siberia as a part of the planned China-MongoliaRussia economic corridor in China’s foreign policy initiative “One Belt One Road”. The aim of the study is to reveal the nature of the interaction of these regions with the outside world to determine the ways of their development within a common economic space of the corridor. The study is based on the analysis of foreign investment flows to the border regions using macro- and microeconomic methods. The volume foreign capital goes mainly to mining, while other industries are dominated by small enterprises formed by foreign citizens, not corporations. In these areas, intermediary business prevails, which does not require increased human capital. China is gradually replacing other counter-partners in the use of natural resources, including mineral and forest ones. The problems of development of the border regions in common economic space of the corridor due to similar resource specialisation and weak development of the embedded economy have been identified. With the development of transit infrastructure, it is necessary to develop local industries integrated into large projects and capable of using this infrastructure to expand sales markets.

Near Future Teaching: Practice, policy and digital education futures

When considering digital futures for universities it is the instrumentalising narratives developed by corporate ‘ed-tech’ which often drive the debate. These are narratives which, aligning tightly to marketisation, unbundling and other dominant ideological trends, describe a highly technologised, datafied and surveillant future for teaching. This future is often framed as an imperative, leaving university communities with the sense that a future is being designed for them over which they have relatively little control. This paper describes the theory, methods and outcomes of a project which set out to counter this tendency, using participative, co-design methods within a ‘top down’ policy initiative to envision an alternative future for digital education within our own institution. Our starting point was that universities need to get better at crafting their own, compelling counter-narratives concerning the future of technology in teaching, in order to assert the agency and presence of the academic and student bodies in the face of technological change. In working toward this, we drew on recent thinking in anticipation studies in education and developed an original methodology for participative futures work within universities. The paper reports on the outcomes of this project, and its implications for the sector more generally, arguing that university communities can work to define their own digital futures through an emphasis on collectivity, participation and hope.

Implantable cardioverter defibrillator devices: when, how and who should discuss deactivation with patients: a systematic literature review

BackgroundImplantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are used to treat life-threatening cardiac arrhythmias and prevent sudden cardiac arrest. As recipients age they may develop greater risk of dying as a result of progressive multimorbidity rather than sudden cardiac death. Defibrillation shocks may prolong an uncomfortable dying process. Deactivation of the defibrillator would prevent this, yet is not always discussed and planned.AimTo systematically review published evidence on ICD deactivation discussions and make recommendations on when, how and who should facilitate effective and patient-centred deactivation discussions.MethodsUsing standard systematic review methods, MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL and PsycInfo were searched for studies published in the English language between 2010 and March 2021. Inclusion criteria were studies of adults (≥18 years) and including discussions on ICD deactivation and/or related communication. Included studies were independently reviewed, data extracted, quality assessed and data synthesised using a deductive approach.ResultsOf the 8893 articles identified, 22 papers met the inclusion criteria. Deductive approach led to identification of five main themes: (1) timing of ICD deactivation discussions, (2) initiation of deactivation discussions, (3) advance directives, (4) barriers to discussions and (5) facilitators of discussions.ConclusionsDespite available guidelines, conversations on device deactivation are not being undertaken consistently. Evidence suggests lack of professional awareness of guidelines and limited training in communication skills. To prevent distress and promote comfortable dying, there needs to be a proactive clinical and policy initiative in the education of both professionals and patients and their relatives about device deactivation.

Aircraft Requirements for Sustainable Regional Aviation

Recently, the new Green Deal policy initiative was presented by the European Union. The EU aims to achieve a sustainable future and be the first climate-neutral continent by 2050. It targets all of the continent’s industries, meaning aviation must contribute to these changes as well. By employing a systems engineering approach, this high-level task can be split into different levels to get from the vision to the relevant system or product itself. Part of this iterative process involves the aircraft requirements, which make the goals more achievable on the system level and allow validation of whether the designed systems fulfill these requirements. Within this work, the top-level aircraft requirements (TLARs) for a hybrid-electric regional aircraft for up to 50 passengers are presented. Apart from performance requirements, other requirements, like environmental ones, are also included. To check whether these requirements are fulfilled, different reference missions were defined which challenge various extremes within the requirements. Furthermore, figures of merit are established, providing a way of validating and comparing different aircraft designs. The modular structure of these aircraft designs ensures the possibility of evaluating different architectures and adapting these figures if necessary. Moreover, different criteria can be accounted for, or their calculation methods or weighting can be changed.

Crossing Lines

This chapter exemplifies both the strengths and shortcomings of Beijing’s orchestration approach. It begins by describing how Yunnan province officials utilized Beijing’s support for expanding economic ties in ways that exacerbated the pernicious effects of gambling, logging, and illicit mining in Myanmar’s loosely governed border regions. The second case covers a policy initiative designed to advance multiple interests at modest cost: China’s opium substitution program. The initiative succeeded economically, as Chinese firms earned profits while securing a foothold in Myanmar’s agricultural sector. Yet it failed to stem opium production, instead exacerbating popular distrust of China and feeding instability across the border region. The final case reveals similar problems with several controversial Chinese infrastructure projects in Myanmar. Overall, moral hazard problems, policy stretching, and enterprise malfeasance all proved far more severe in Myanmar than in North Korea or Europe. I conclude by evaluating Beijing’s responses to these challenges.

Covid-19 and some contours of India’s ongoing agrarian crisis

The onset of the Covid-19 pandemic has led to an aggravation of the agrarian crisis in India. The rural proletariat, poor peasants, and a section of middle peasants in India have been adversely affected. The paper advances a composite policy initiative to deal with this aggravation of the agrarian crisis involving an expansion of the existing rural employment guarantee schemes, various input subsidies to farmers, universal provision of safety gear for rural producers, and an expanded public procurement of food grains. It concludes with the political prognosis of the proposed composite policy initiative.