The Role of Occupational Therapy in Functional Literacy

In this Opinions in the Profession article we aim to uniquely articulate the distinct value of and need for functional literacy development in the clients we serve. Functional literacy, as coined in this article, is the ability to interpret common written materials needed to effectively carry out basic daily life skills and participate in meaningful occupations and social roles. We propose three specific strategies through which occupational therapists, across practice settings, developmental stages, and populations, can assume active roles in literacy support as it is embedded in occupation: literacy (a) as a form of occupational justice promotion; (b) as an approach to health facilitation, well-being, and adaptive capacity; and (c) as a means to strengthen social connectedness. As the emerging practice area of functional literacy grows, intervention guidelines will need to be established and assessed for effectiveness with specific populations. We urge occupational therapists to begin to consider functional literacy in all client assessment and intervention services

Use of Organic Waste as an Alternative Organic Fertilizer and Synthetic Fertilizer to Ameliorate Acid Soil Productivity

Liquid waste generated in large quantities in the palm oil mill has low pH, and high organic content and its use as an organic amendment could offer an environmentally friendly management strategy. This pot experiment aimed to evaluate the impact of organic waste of the liquid waste from the palm oil mill and synthetic fertilizer on organic carbon and nutrients of an acid soil and soybean yield. The treatments consisted of no synthetic fertilizers, half recommended dose of synthetic fertilizers (0.5R), synthetic fertilizers as recommended 50 kg ha-1 Urea + 200 kg ha-1 SP-36 + 150 kg ha-1 KCl (R) and organic waste with doses of 0, 5, 10, 15 and 20 t ha-1. The experiment was arranged in a completely randomized design with a factorial pattern and three replications. The results demonstrated that there was no significant interaction on soil chemical characteristics by the addition of organic waste and synthetic fertilizers. However, organic waste addition increased soil pH, total organic C, labile organic C, humic acid C, total N, available P, exchangeable K, and cation exchange capacity (CEC), whereas synthetic fertilizer addition only increased available P and exchangeable K. Exchangeable Al was significantly reduced by organic waste while significant effect didn’t occur with synthetic fertilizers. The treatment of organic waste increased total organic C content by 7-24%. A larger sensitivity was indicated by labile organic C compared to total organic C and humid acid C so that labile organic C is a better indicator of alterations of soil organic C owing to organic waste treatment. The treatment of organic waste and synthetic fertilizers showed significant interactions on the dry weight of soybean seed, shoot, and root. The addition of synthetic fertilizers without organic waste increased the dry weight of the soybean seed, shoot and root by 133%, 133% and 140% respectively, while with the addition of 15 t ha-1 organic waste combined with synthetic fertilizer, enhancements by 262%, 261%, and 206% in the dry weight of seed, shoot and root were respectively found

Cyclists' Safety and Security Multiple Correspondence Analysis from GPS Records for Route Choice in Bogotá - Colombia

This research analyzes cyclists' route decision by considering attributes of road safety and security from GPS records of a mobile application in Bogotá. The dataset comprises 3016 georeferenced routes of cyclists registered in the Biko mobile application during February 2018. This database was complemented with accident and thefts records from public entities, a descriptive statistical univariate analysis (RStudio), a Multiple Correspondence Analysis -MCA- (Stata), with multivariate statistical approach, and geographic component (QGIS and ArcGIS). The methods allowed obtaining: [i] a procedure for characterizing quantitative variables per km of route traveled; [ii] Categorization of continuous variables for establishing multivariate relationships through MCA -prerequisite for using this method instead of using surveys (Mobility survey 2019 cyclists' section in Bogotá); [iii] cyclists' commuting patterns with identification of main Origin - Destination zones (UTAM in Bogotá), and [iv] possible initial conditions for the public policies approach in Bogotá, with a continuous comparison between case studies in: Colombia, Latin America, Europe, and the United States, in order to be replicable for any city. ... [From: Introduction

Training for research in community mental health

Training institutions need to do a more adequate job in socializing students early and continuously for the role of community mental health researcher. While psychology is singled out to illustrate this thesis, all the disciplines that make up the community mental health team could profitably be examined from this standpoint. The university climate in which psychologists are reared is examined and nuclear shortcomings in respect to basic trust, feelings of competence, and sense of identity are dramatized.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/44306/1/10597_2005_Article_BF01434879.pd

Improvement of Weld Bead Characteristics in Gas Metal Arc Welding of SA515 Carbon Steel by Applying Alternating Shielding Gas Flow Technique

High service temperature of pressure vessel components necessitates the use of welded SA515 grade carbon steel components. The gas metal arc welding (GMAW) process using CO2 as shielding gas is known for its undesirable spatter behaviour and inferior weld quality. The alternating shielding gas flow (ASGF) technique is proposed in this study using the shielding gases, viz. CO2 and argon to overcome this difficulty. The welding current, stand-off distance, and shielding gas flow were all varied to improve the bead-on-plate profile geometry. The bead profile parameters such as depth of penetration, bead width, and bead height are considered as weld bead parameters. The following methods are used: correlation analysis, analysis of variance (ANOVA), modelling, and grey relational analysis (GRA). According to the findings, the welding current and ASGF are the most influential parameters impacting the weld bead characteristics. By increasing the welding current, the bead profile parameters increase linearly. The geometry of the bead profile was improved by using the GRA

A Scoping Review of Challenges and the Adaptation Process in Academia: Implications for Occupational Therapy Educators

The fulfillment of role expectations and responsibilities as one builds an academic career can be challenging. Increased demand for occupational therapy faculty merits examination of academic experiences from the literature. This study describes the experiences of educators using adaptation models (Savickas & Porfeli, 2012; Schkade & Schultz, 2003) as a theoretical lens. Arksey and O’Malley’s Scoping Study Framework (2005) was used in the study. Researchers reviewed literature from 2005-2017 from four databases. Researchers analyzed 28 articles from higher education and the health professions using quantitative and qualitative methods. Twenty-two of the 28 articles were published from 2010-2017. The studies analyzed were conducted in seven different countries, the majority in the US (n = 11) and Australia (n = 7), and more than half used qualitative designs (n = 15). Three themes describe academic experiences: identity-related challenges in academia, process of adaptation among academics, and identification of factors affecting productivity. This study describes the various experiences of faculty to meet the demands of the academic environment. Adaptation of OT academics to their occupational roles and environments has not been widely explored. The implications for future study are discussed