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Ongoing Programme (ongoing + programme)

Distribution by Scientific Domains

Medical Sciences	33%

Selected Abstracts

Waterponding: Reclamation technique for scalded duplex soils in western New South Wales rangelands

ECOLOGICAL MANAGEMENT & RESTORATION, Issue 3 2008
Ray Thompson
Summary Building on previous trials initiated in the 1960s, a demonstration programme involving 18 landholders was established at Nyngan, New South Wales Australia; in the mid-1980s to refine ,waterponding' techniques used to rehabilitate scalded claypans. The waterponding technique involves building horseshoe shaped banks (about 240 m in length) to create ponds of about 0.4 ha each. Each pond retains up to 10 cm of water after rain which leaches soluble salts from the scald surface. This improves the remaining soil structure, inducing surface cracking, better water penetration and allows entrapment of wind-blown seed. Consequently, niches are formed for the germination of this (and any sown) seed and recovery of a range of chenopod native pasture species occurs on the sites, which can be supplemented by direct seeding. What started as a project continues now as a standard rangeland rehabilitation process for reclaiming bare, scalded semi-arid areas of New South Wales and turning them back into biodiverse and productive rangelands. Since 1985, further modifications have been made to the method and the ongoing programme has surveyed, marked out and built approximately 56 700 waterponds within the Marra Creek waterponding district. [source]

Staff gender ratio and aggression in a forensic psychiatric hospital

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MENTAL HEALTH NURSING, Issue 2 2006
Michael Daffern
ABSTRACT:, Gender balance in acute psychiatric inpatient units remains a contentious issue. In terms of maintaining staff and patient safety, ,balance' is often considered by ensuring there are ,sufficient' male nurses present on each shift. In an ongoing programme of research into aggression, the authors investigated reported incidents of patient aggression and examined the gender ratio on each shift over a 6-month period. Contrary to the popular notion that a particular gender ratio might have some relationship with the likelihood of aggressive incidents, there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of male staff working on the shifts when there was an aggressive incident compared with the shifts when there was no aggressive incident. Further, when an incident did occur, the severity of the incident bore no relationship with the proportion of male staff working on the shift. Nor did the gender of the shift leader have an impact on the decision to seclude the patient or the likelihood of completing an incident form following an aggressive incident. Staff confidence in managing aggression may be influenced by the presence of male staff. Further, aspects of prevention and management may be influenced by staff gender. However, results suggest there is no evidence that the frequency or severity of aggression is influenced by staff gender ratio. [source]

A search for circumstellar material around B-type stars in the Galactic halo

MONTHLY NOTICES OF THE ROYAL ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY, Issue 4 2002
H. R. M. Magee
Abstract 19 B-type stars, selected from the Palomar,Green Survey, have been observed at infrared wavelengths to search for possible infrared excesses, as part of an ongoing programme to investigate the nature of early-type stars at high Galactic latitudes. The resulting infrared fluxes, along with Strömgren photometry, are compared with theoretical flux profiles to determine whether any of the targets show evidence of circumstellar material, which may be indicative of post-main-sequence evolution. Eighteen of the targets have flux distributions in good agreement with theoretical predictions. However, one star, PG 2120+062, shows a small near-infrared excess, which may be due either to a cool companion of spectral type F5,F7, or to circumstellar material, indicating that it may be an evolved object such as a post-asymptotic giant branch star, in the transition region between the asymptotic giant branch and planetary nebula phase, with the infrared excess due to recent mass loss during giant branch evolution. [source]

The identification of Roman buildings from the air: recent discoveries in Western Transylvania,

ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION, Issue 2 2003
W. S. Hanson
Abstract An ongoing programme of archaeological aerial reconnaissance in southwestern Transylvania, the first time such a programme has been conducted in Romania, revealed quite large numbers of negative cropmarks or parchmarks, particularly in the dry summer of 2000. These areas of restricted crop growth indicated the presence of buried stone-walled buildings, predominantly of Roman date, which were previously unknown. Important discoveries included much of the internal plan of the auxiliary fort at Cigmau; an extensive civil settlement to the east of that fort; buildings within the civil settlements outside the forts at Vetel (Micia) and Razboieni; buildings and property boundaries within the municipium at Apulum (Alba Iulia); and villas at Oarda and Vintu de Jos. By contrast, positive cropmarks, enhanced growth reflecting the existence of buried pits or enclosure ditches, were observed only rarely. Explanations for this phenomenon linked to a bias in the reconnaissance programme or to a general absence of enclosed sites within the archaeological record in the area are rejected. The preferred explanation relates to local soil conditions, whereby the widespread, deep alluvial soils reduce the contrast in moisture content between buried archaeological ditches or pits and the surrounding soil matrix so that positive cropmarks are rarely formed. Copyright © 2003 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source]

The emergence of service-based integrated coastal management in the UK

AREA, Issue 3 2010
Tracey Hewett
Coastal partnerships are the primary mechanism to support local and regional integrated coastal management (ICM) in the United Kingdom. This paper identifies four evolutionary stages of coastal partnership development, in which partnerships pass through stages of foundation, challenge, reflection and renewal. Through examining these stages, it was apparent that the manner in which coastal partnerships in the UK support ICM has evolved from a plan-led approach to a service-based approach since the early 1990s. In the service-based approach, partnerships support ICM through an ongoing programme of facilitated stakeholder engagement, capacity building and information exchange, rather than through the development and implementation of an outcome-based management plan. This has been prompted by a number of interconnected factors, including funding scarcity, a historic lack of national-level support and ambiguous evidence of success. Following a discussion of the benefits and burdens of the service-based approach, the paper concludes that whilst the service-based ICM support model offers many advantages and opportunities, the wider coastal governance framework in the UK may still present considerable challenges to its future success. [source]

HIV and the body: a review of multidisciplinary management

HIV MEDICINE, Issue 2010
J Rockstroh
Abstract The increase in the life expectancy achieved following the introduction of more effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) in recent years now means that the HIV-infected population are for the first time being exposed to the age-related diseases that affect the general population. Nevertheless, the prevalence of these diseases (which include cardiovascular disease, dyslipidaemia, glucose intolerance and diabetes) is higher, and their onset earlier in the HIV population, probably due to the complex interplay between HIV infection, coinfection with hepatitis B and C, and ART. As a result, HIV physicians are now required to adopt a new approach to the management of HIV, which involves screening and regular monitoring of all HIV-infected individuals for the presence of comorbidities and prompt referral to other clinical specialties when required. If this challenge to patient management is to be overcome, it is clear that educating physicians in the diagnosis and treatment of age-associated comorbidities is essential, either through ongoing programmes such as the HIV and the Body initiative, an overarching independent medical education programme established in 2007 and overseen by an independent Steering Committee, organized and funded by Gilead, and/or through internal training. To assist in this process, this article provides an overview of common comorbidities affecting HIV-infected persons and provides practical guidance on their management. [source]