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This paper aims to explore how enforced forms of social isolation arising from the first COVID-19 lockdown influenced experiences of problem substance use, relapse and coping strategies for recovery in individuals engaging with harm reduction recovery services.

A qualitative semi-structured interview design was adopted for this research. Seven participants were recruited from a harm reduction recovery organisation. During their initial interview, participants volunteered information regarding their experience of the first lockdown due to emerging concerns of the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants completed a second semi-structured interview at the end of the first lockdown regarding their experience of enforced isolation during this time.

Three themes identified from the analysis were isolation resulting in hindered human capabilities; adjusting to a new normal: an individual experience; and unexpected benefits to recovery resulting from isolation. While some participants reported boredom, loneliness and relapse events, others reported that the national response to the virus did not adversely affect them as they had already adjusted to living in a state of anxiety, isolation and uncertainty. These findings illuminate negative, neutral and positive aspects of substance use recovery throughout the COVID-19 lockdown as well as highlighting the complex and individualised role that social connectedness plays in relapse occurrence.

Participants reported differences in how they were affected by the pandemic, leading to theoretical implications for the effect of social isolation on recovery. For this reason, individuals with a history of dependency should be considered potentially vulnerable to the effects of enforced isolation and should be supported accordingly.

The purpose of this paper is to qualitatively evaluate the impact of therapeutic horticulture (TH) on social integration for people who have mental health problems.

A qualitative grounded theory approach captured the perceptions about TH from people with mental health problems. Data were collected using semi-structured focus group and interviews from a purposive sample (n=7) and were analysed using a constant comparative approach.

Four key themes emerged from the analysis: “a space to grow”, “seeing the person”, “learning about each other through nature” and “connecting to nature and others”. The findings suggest that TH enabled participants to integrate socially, engage with nature and develop confidence.

TH is a potential approach that can help combat social isolation. The findings from this research have implications for people working towards supporting people who are socially excluded. However, this was a pilot study with a small sample size of seven people with mental health problems, whilst four key themes emerged, the saturation of concepts rather than the sample size were saturated to provide an emic perspective of the phenomena.

TH provides a person centred approach that enables people with mental health problems to re-engage and connect with their fellow human beings. Using TH could help improve the public health and well-being of local communities through re-connecting people to the environment and reduce social isolation.

TH embody the principles of empowerment, person centeredness and can support people with mental health problems to integrate socially.

There is limited evidence about the influence that TH have on mental health and social integration. The use of TH is an area that is gathering evidence and this small study highlights the perceived potential benefits of this approach.

International and national education policy identifies the need for young people to develop knowledge and understanding of sustainability and to use this knowledge for positive action. This paper reflects on a larger curriculum investigation project that used the Curriculum Design Coherence (CDC) Model with in-service teachers as a professional learning framework to engage their learners with sustainability in geography education. This paper outlines the diffractive insights of two teacher educators, making sense of our contribution to the project in order to explicitly discern our roles.

Our enquiry is situated within the participatory paradigm in which we recognise the roles of teachers and teacher educators are entangled in the co-production of knowledge.

We find that curriculum design, with its focus on disciplinary knowledge is an important aspect of curriculum coherence in relation to the concept of sustainability. Significantly informed collaboration between teachers and teacher-educators enriches professional learning through engagement with both research materials and conceptually informed dialogues.

We conclude that more research on the role of teacher knowledge with practitioners, is needed to enable professional empowerment so that in turn young people can become informed and critical citizens.

This paper draws on a posthumanist philosophy and a diffractive methodology to make explicit the epistemic role of the teacher educator in a climate change and sustainability education project.

Sexual assault is prevalent on UK University campuses, and prevention efforts are being increased. However, at present there is limited evidence about UK students’ attitudes towards sexual assault prevention and what they think should be done to effectively address the issue. The purpose of this paper is to explore these views to provide a foundation for the development of a new intervention.

A cross-sectional anonymous online survey was completed by 515 students (73 per cent women; M age: 21.56; 79 per cent heterosexual; and 82.9 per cent white). There were quantitative questions about experiences of sexual assault, attitudes towards sexual consent and victim blaming. Qualitative data were collected regarding participants’ views on what universities should do to target sexual assault.

In line with previous studies, the authors found evidence of commonplace and normalised sexual assault behaviours. Women had more positive attitudes towards explicit consent than men, and were less likely to blame victims of sexual assault who had been drinking. Consent behaviour was predicted by positive views towards consent and lower levels of blaming. Themes relating to “awareness”, “attitudes”, “environment” and “opposition” were identified in the qualitative data.

Findings highlight the importance of engaging with students to develop effective prevention measures. Students are likely to find university-led prevention strategies acceptable, but this topic needs to be addressed in the context of the prevailing culture, which may provide an environment where certain behaviours are tolerated. New prevention programmes need to treat the issue as one that is relevant to all students and not just target men as perpetrators and women as victims. Such strategies need to do more than treat this as an isolated issue, to which the solution is re-education about the meaning of consent.

There is at present a lack of research evidence about UK students’ views on sexual assault prevention. This exploratory survey highlights areas for consideration when developing new interventions.

Life studies are a rich source for further research on the role of the Afro‐American woman in society. They are especially useful to gain a better understanding of the Afro‐American experience and to show the joys, sorrows, needs, and ideals of the Afro‐American woman as she struggles from day to day.

The purpose of this paper is to present the optimisation of protocols for the immersion coating of silver onto copper‐track printed circuit board (PCB) assemblies, using a novel class of ionic liquid and to show the implementation of the scale up process.

Various conditions (temperatures and silver concentrations) are studied individually under laboratory conditions and then optimised for a pilot scale demonstrator line that is used to process British Standard test coupons.

The use of these novel liquids for the immersion coating of silver produces silver dip coatings that are bright and even and which give solderability that is as good as the commercial aqueous, nitric acid based, electroless process without any solder‐mask interface etching.

The combined technology has been optimised for an immersion silver coating line. Further development work should be undertaken to tailor the technology for gold immersion coating of PCB assemblies.

The paper details a process in which no solder‐mask interface etching is observed; that does not require the use of strong inorganic acids or expensive catalysts to sustain deposition and which does not appear to be light sensitive in contrast to other processes.

Canadian institutions of higher education have long touted their dedication to inclusivity and diversity. The Academy, however, exists in a mix of new managerialism and collegialism, environments that demand conformity and the prioritization of sameness over difference. For employees with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the very nature of their condition means that conforming to a standard is a difficult, if not impossible task. If passed, the proposed Accessible Canada Act means universities in Canada will have a legal responsibility to accommodate employees with disabilities, including ASD.

ASD is a neurodevelopmental condition of varying severity characterized by difficulties with communication, social interactions, and repetitive behaviors. While it is difficult to determine how many adults live with ASD in Canada, current statistics show that 1 out of 66 children are on the autism spectrum (PHAC, 2018). Many have physical and mental comorbidities that complicate their health status.

Though conformity may streamline human resources processes and standardize staffing issues, it is essential for administration to identify areas where they are weak in supporting potential and current employees who veer from the norm. Libraries need human resources policies and procedures that reflect and celebrate uniqueness. Long-held tendencies toward valuing fit and conventionality need to give way to transformational mentoring and empowering in order for a diverse workforce to reach its fullest potential. Embracing inclusivity will result in numerous benefits, not just for the employee but for the library. This chapter shows how personnel with high-functioning autism can be best supported in Canadian academic libraries.

‘Countrymindedness’ is a resonant but perhaps manufactured term, given wide currency in a 1985 article by political scientist and historian Don Aitkin in the Annual, Australian Cultural History. Political ideology was his focus, as he charted the rise and fall ‐ from the late nineteenth century to around the 1970s ‐ of some ideological preconceptions of the Australian Country Party. These were physiocratic, populist, and decentralist ‐ physiocratic meaning, broadly, the rural way is best. Aitkin claimed the word was used in Country Party circles in the 1920s and 1930s, but gave no examples. Since the word is in no dictionary of Australian usage, or the Oxford Dictionary, coinage may be more recent. No matter. Countrymindedness is a richly evocative word, useful in analysing rural populism during the last Australian century. I suggest it can usefully be extended to analyzing aspects of the inner history of Euro‐settlement in recent centuries.