An Elective Course Exploring Occupational Justice Through Occupational Storytelling and Story Making

The purpose of this study was to examine whether second-year Master of Occupational Therapy (MOT) students who enroll in the elective course “Occupation in Long-Term Care (LTC)” would be able to apply concepts of occupational justice in the nursing home environment through engaging residents in occupational storytelling and story making in order to facilitate resident self-advocacy for participation in a valued occupation. The occupational therapy elective course was developed and implemented with students alternating between the classroom and the nursing home environments. Outcome evaluation measurements included analysis of student reflective journaling to obtain qualitative data. The researcher found that students are able to understand the concepts and issues of occupational justice in the nursing home population and apply knowledge to facilitate the resident’s participation in meaningful occupations

Model-based Optimization of the Switching Performance of a Switch Disconnector

Low voltage switch disconnectors (SD) combine rated load switching with disconnector functionality, providing safe electrical isolation. Electrical contacts are separated forming an arc discharge that needs to be quenched at first current zero (CZ) to protect the load and the SD itself. With increased line voltage, interruption at first CZ crossing is getting more difficult due to increased transient recovery voltage (TRV) and larger post arc current, leading to excessive contact erosion with longer arcing time. Arc simulation methodology was utilized to improve the design for better arc cooling close to CZ. Therefore, benchmark values of arc resistance and thermal time constant were evaluated close to CZ for a successful test at lower line voltage. The cooling efficiency of different designs at higher line voltage was analyzed by 3D arc simulation. A revised design was able to clear overload currents at lower and higher line voltages at first CZ, preventing excessive contact damage

Isolation of 1-(3',4'-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-(2",4",6"-trihydroxyphenyl)-propan-2-ol from grape seed extract and evaluation of its antioxidant and antispasmodic potential

HPLC profiling of phenolics in grape seed extracts revealed a prominent peak of an unknown substance with concentrations up to 5.3%. Spectroscopic data allowed the identification of the compound 1 as 1-(3′,4′-dihydroxyphenyl)-3-(2″,4″,6″-trihydroxyphenyl)-propan-2-ol. 1 is known to be produced from catechin and epicatechin through anaerobic bacteria from human, as well as the rat, intestines. It was hypothesized that the marc remaining after expression of juice from grapes became infested during storage, resulting in the production of 1. Because compound 1 is infrequently found in nature and has never been found in grape seeds, its presence may be considered a marker of an unwanted anaerobic bacterial process occurring during production. The antioxidant potential of 1 was determined by DPPH, ABTS, and FRAP (ferric reducing antioxidant power) assays and compared to the potential of the following compounds: phloroglucine, pyrogallol, gallic acid, catechin, and epicatechin. Furthermore, it was established that 1 significantly reduced guinea pig ileum contraction induced by histamine

Home Modification and Adaptation Educational Seminar for Individuals with Parkinson Disease to Reduce Risk of Falls

Indiana University Purdue University IndianapolisClients with Parkinson’s disease have high rates of falls within their homes due to the movement disorders typically associated with the disease. This study used quantitative methods to determine the program evaluation of educational seminars on home modifications and adaptations to reduce the risk of falls in Parkinson’s disease (PD) clients. Two educational seminars were given to PD clients and caregivers on how to make modifications and adaptations to their homes and included resources for where to find adaptive equipment and services for providing installations and modifications. Data was collected through pre and post-surveys and analyzed using an independent samples t-test analysis. There was a significant difference in the knowledge of how to make living spaces, bathrooms, and bedrooms safer to reduce the risk of falls in the home. There was also a significant difference in the overall satisfaction of participants’ knowledge on how to complete home modifications and adaptations and for their knowledge on resources/places to find adaptive equipment. Recommendations included continuing to provide home modification education to people with Parkinson’s to ensure further safety and help reduce the risk of falls within the home. The results propose that PD clients are not receiving education on home modifications at rates that would be of benefit to them.Occupational Therap

Integrated signaling in developing lymphocytes: The role of DNA damage responses

Lymphocyte development occurs in a stepwise progression through distinct developmental stages. This ordered maturation ensures that cells express a single, non-autoreactive antigen receptor, which is the cornerstone of a diverse adaptive immune response. Expression of a mature antigen receptor requires assembly of the antigen receptor genes by the process of V(D)J recombination, a reaction that joins distant gene segments through DNA double-strand break (DSB) intermediates. These physiologic DSBs are generated by the recombinase-activating gene (RAG) -1 and -2 proteins, and their generation is regulated by lymphocyte and developmental stage-specific signals from cytokine receptors and antigen receptor chains. Collectively, these signals ensure that V(D)J recombination of specific antigen receptor genes occurs at discrete developmental stages. Once generated, RAG-induced DSBs activate the ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM) kinase to orchestrate a multifaceted DNA damage response that ensures proper DSB repair. In response to RAG DSBs, ATM also regulates a cell type-specific transcriptional response, and here we discuss how this genetic program integrates with other cellular cues to regulate lymphocyte development

Compressive Sensing of Signals Generated in Plastic Scintillators in a Novel J-PET Instrument

The J-PET scanner, which allows for single bed imaging of the whole human body, is currently under development at the Jagiellonian University. The dis- cussed detector offers improvement of the Time of Flight (TOF) resolution due to the use of fast plastic scintillators and dedicated electronics allowing for sam- pling in the voltage domain of signals with durations of few nanoseconds. In this paper we show that recovery of the whole signal, based on only a few samples, is possible. In order to do that, we incorporate the training signals into the Tikhonov regularization framework and we perform the Principal Component Analysis decomposition, which is well known for its compaction properties. The method yields a simple closed form analytical solution that does not require iter- ative processing. Moreover, from the Bayes theory the properties of regularized solution, especially its covariance matrix, may be easily derived. This is the key to introduce and prove the formula for calculations of the signal recovery error. In this paper we show that an average recovery error is approximately inversely proportional to the number of acquired samples

Application of the Compress Sensing Theory for Improvement of the TOF Resolution in a Novel J-PET Instrument

Nowadays, in Positron Emission Tomography (PET) systems, a Time of Flight information is used to improve the image reconstruction process. In Time of Flight PET (TOF-PET), fast detectors are able to measure the difference in the arrival time of the two gamma rays, with the precision enabling to shorten significantly a range along the line-of-response (LOR) where the annihilation occurred. In the new concept, called J-PET scanner, gamma rays are detected in plastic scintillators. In a single strip of J-PET system, time values are obtained by probing signals in the amplitude domain. Owing to Compress Sensing theory, information about the shape and amplitude of the signals is recovered. In this paper we demonstrate that based on the acquired signals parameters, a better signal normalization may be provided in order to improve the TOF resolution. The procedure was tested using large sample of data registered by a dedicated detection setup enabling sampling of signals with 50 ps intervals. Experimental setup provided irradiation of a chosen position in the plastic scintillator strip with annihilation gamma quanta