Screening for Post-Stroke Visual Impairment: Implications for Occupational Therapy Practice

The prevalence of post-stroke visual impairment is alarmingly high, with estimates of up to two-thirds of stroke survivors experiencing deficits (Rowe, Hepworth, Howard et al., 2019). However, research indicates that greater than 60% of visual acuity deficits and visual-spatial neglect in patients with stroke are undetected by standard clinical practice (Edwards et al., 2006). Thus, many patients with stroke have clinically significant visual impairments that are not being detected, and therefore, are not being adequately addressed. Visual impairments can substantially influence an individual\u27s everyday functioning, safety, social interaction, and quality of life. Without skilled intervention and support, individuals experiencing these deficits may develop reduced self-efficacy, social isolation, and occupational deprivation (Perea et al., 2018). The aim of this thesis is to spread awareness of the high prevalence and underdiagnosis of post-stroke visual impairment, educate current and future occupational therapy practitioners on recommendations to reduce heterogeneity in assessment practices, and advocate for the role of occupational therapy in improving detection of post-stroke visual impairment to optimize the functional recovery and quality of life of stroke survivors. This knowledge was disseminated in three ways. The first method was to educate occupational therapy practitioners and students via a Minnesota Occupational Therapy Association virtual continuing education session. The second method was to inform readers of the American Occupational Therapy Association’s Rehabilitation and Disability Special Interest Section Quarterly Practice Connection through an article submitted for publication. The final method was to raise awareness and educate occupational therapy practitioners, students, and educators attending the 2021 Iowa Occupational Therapy Association annual conference by presenting a poster. Completion of these three knowledge translation projects generated awareness and greater understanding of the factors resulting in the underdiagnosis of post-stroke visual impairment and affirmed occupational therapy’s role in screening for visual impairments poststroke. However, there is need for continued education aimed at improving knowledge and awareness of the visual problems that can occur after stroke amongst occupational therapists, other members of the stroke care team, and the general public. Furthermore, now that core outcome sets for vision screening and full vision assessment have been developed to assist in reducing the heterogeneity in assessment practices, efforts to disseminate this information to clinicians and researchers involved in screening and assessment of post-stroke visual impairment should be prioritized. Future research should evaluate the use of these outcome sets and attempt to achieve consensus on how the outcomes should be measured

Psychology and Economics: Evidence from the Field

The research in Psychology and Economics (a.k.a. Behavioral Economics) suggests that individuals deviate from the standard model in three respects: (i) non-standard preferences; (ii) non-standard beliefs; and (iii) non-standard decision-making. In this paper, I survey the empirical evidence from the field on these three classes of deviations. The evidence covers a number of applications, from consumption to finance, from crime to voting, from giving to labor supply. In the class of non-standard preferences, I discuss time preferences (self-control problems), risk preferences (reference dependence), and social preferences. On non-standard beliefs, I present evidence on overconfidence, on the law of small numbers, and on projection bias. Regarding non-standard decision-making, I cover limited attention, menu effects, persuasion and social pressure, and emotions. I also present evidence on how rational actors -- firms, employers, CEOs, investors, and politicians -- respond to the non-standard behavior described in the survey. I then summarize five common empirical methodologies used in Psychology and Economics. Finally, I briefly discuss under what conditions experience and market interactions limit the impact of the non-standard features.

Toward a “global novel:” An ecocritical reading of Tawada Yōko’s The Emissary

Aim of this paper is to re-read Tawada Yōko’s novel Kentōshi through the interpretative framework of the new literary category of the “global novel”. Moving from the description of environmental catastrophe my analysis will show how this novel by Tawada can represent not only the first work of this genre written by the author but, for the intrinsic value of Tawada’s literature itself, it can help shape and redefine the category of the global novel itself

Cock: Essays and Illustrations on Attention, Accessibility, and Deep Play

Clifford Geertz\u27s theory of deep play --most thoroughly explored in his 1973 essay Deep Play: Notes on the Balinese Cockfight --states that acts of recreation and sport carry within them the greater values, traumas, and taboos of the individual cultures which practice them. An illustrated anthology, Cock: Essays and Illustrations on Attention, Accessibility, and Deep Play elaborates upon Geertz\u27s pre-established definition of deep play by applying its terminology to cultural practices beyond the Balinese cockfight, analyzing brief parentheticals and asides in Geertz\u27s text, and exploring methods of making the greater anthropological field more accessible via multimodal anthropological publication. Also, it is filled to the brim with innuendo and penis jokes, and is 69 pages in length, which is awfully funny

A Novel Approach to Equating English Teachers’ and Chinese Teachers’ Ratings of Behaviours Characterised by Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

The diagnosis and treatment of ADHD rely on accurately identifying and interpreting symptoms. However, different raters may have different perceptions of ADHD symptoms, which can significantly impact ADHD diagnosis and prevalence rates. This study presented a novel way to compare ADHD symptom ratings between children from China and England while considering raters' differences. The study developed a series of cartoon animations to measure the raters' leniency toward Children’s ADHD symptoms. The Many-facet Rasch Model was then applied to adjust the children's ADHD symptom ratings according to their raters' leniency. The study was conducted in Year 2 classrooms in schools in China and England, and participating teachers were asked to rate cartoon characters' ADHD behaviours according to their tolerance. They were also asked to rate 10 children selected randomly from their class about ADHD symptoms. The study found that Chinese teachers were more lenient with children's ADHD behaviours than their English colleagues. Moreover, after adjusting for raters' leniency, Chinese children's ratings increased significantly, while English children's ratings decreased significantly. The study also found that Chinese children's ratings of ADHD behaviours were significantly higher than those of English children. Additionally, the Inter-rater Agreement was low among Chinese teachers. The findings highlight the significant impact of raters' differences on ADHD symptom ratings and the importance of equating teachers' ratings of children's ADHD symptoms to produce a relatively fair comparison between countries. The study's use of cartoon animations offers many advantages over text and videotape vignettes for cross-cultural studies. Moreover, the findings suggest that multi-informants are necessary for a single setting for diagnosing ADHD in children. In conclusion, this study provides valuable insights into the impact of rater differences on ADHD symptom ratings and the importance of considering these differences when comparing prevalence rates between countries. Future research should explore ways to improve inter-rater agreement among raters and investigate other factors that may affect ADHD diagnosis and treatment

Real Fake News: The Colbert Report and Affective Polarization

This Independent Study examines the relationship between political satire and affective polarization. Affective polarization is a newly growing form of political polarization wherein partisans are polarized based on mutual dislike for opposing partisans rather than ideological disagreements. Political news has been linked to this recent trend in polarization. Over the past two decades, political scientists have taken an interest in investigating the impact of political satire programs like The Daily Show and The Colbert Report through the same lens as traditional political news. These satirical news programs implement satire, a more complex form of comedy that can require more cognitive processing and can produce a variety of viewing effects. This projects looks into how orientation of The Colbert Report and partisanship influences one’s affective response to viewing a clip from The Colbert Report. Drawing from past research, I establish a dual moderating hypothesis which predicted that conservatives under the entertainment orientation and liberals under the information orientation would experience higher affective polarization. I utilize an experimental research design to test my hypotheses. Results showed that liberals did not experience different levels of affective polarization under different orientations, and that conservatives experienced a stronger affective response under the entertainment orientation

Teaching visual literacies: The case of The Great American Dust Bowl

Teachers and students require a range of tools to engage with visual texts. Using The Great American Dust Bowlby Don Brown (2013) as an exemplar text, we outline four conceptions of visual literacy: rhetorical, instructional, industrial and visuo-spatial and discuss their use in our literacy education practice. In addition, we provide a brief model of a second text, The Arrival (Tan, 2013) and a list of suggested texts for students at different levels (elementary, middle, and high school). We argue that these tools have the potential to deepen conceptions of visual literacies and empower teachers and students to understand the many ways in which visual texts operate to send message and evoke response and engagement

How to understand and handle math difficulties encountered by students with attention deficit and hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Students with ADHD often find difficulties in learning mathematics. Such condition happens because they usually have limitations in perception, visual-motor, fine-motor, and spatial organization development. Furthermore, they have limitations in memorizing, giving attention, sequencing, language, self monitoring and self management. Some cases of elementary-school-age students with ADHD whose intelligence capacity was average or above that had been learned revealed that the math difficulty the students had the most was in problem-solving test (a story-form question). This matter is understandable because this type of question demands that the students have comprehensive language skills to comprehend the implicit meaning of the mathematical sentences, ability to analyze synthesis, ability to maintain attention continuously in following the problem-solving sequencing, and ability to recall and monitor whether the sequence has been done correctly. Other difficulties in math are related to mistakes in reading the question-they might skip some parts, copying the symbols or numbers, counting, writing down the results of the counting. Some strategies and interventions to handle math difficulties include making the abstract more concrete, compensating for memory difficulties and increasing recall of math facts/procedures, compensating for spatial organization and perceptual motor difficulties, using instructional and assessment strategies and modifications, increasing focus and attention, using problem-solving strategies, using self monitoring and meta-cognitive strategies, and increasing the motivatio