Exploration of experiences of counsellors and psychotherapists providing psychotherapy in second language

This research explored the experiences of bilingual therapists, whose first language was not English, conducting psychotherapy/counselling in English. Eight bilingual therapists/ counsellors who were originally from six different countries were interviewed using semi-structured interviews. All of the bilingual therapists had the experience of working in the United Kingdom in English as well as working in their own mother tongue. The findings were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis (IPA) and five clusters of themes were identified. The first cluster of themes was related to the emotions experienced, like ‘anxiety’ and ‘frustration’. The second group of themes was those pertaining to the relationship of the participants with their clients, like ‘avoidance of clarification’, ‘shift of attention’ and ‘delay in the pace of therapy’. The third array of themes described the professional identity of the participants as therapists/ counsellors, like fear of ‘the client’s judgment’, or feeling of ‘not being self’, and also the possibility of a ‘hierarchy of acceptance of languages in the United Kingdom’. The fourth collection of themes represented the support systems that were available to the participants when they had difficulties working in English as a second language. The prime source of support for the research participants was their supervisors. They also referred to ‘review with their clients’ and ‘help of a colleague’. The fifth cluster of themes was related to any reference to culture in their interviews. All eight participants believed that culture and language overlap to some degree and are hard to separate. The dissemination of this dissertation was to promote the awareness of bilingual therapists regarding the hardships of working in a second language, and to increase the awareness of supervisors, academic staff and regulating authorities like UKCP and BPS of the problems bilingual therapists might face in working in English as a second language. This study recommends the integration of short-term workshops in the accreditation process or curriculum of studies of such bilingual therapists about the potential hurdles they might face in fulfilling their job as a therapist. As some of the findings—like avoiding clarifications or pretending to comprehend—could be potentially harmful to clients and their therapists, a systematic review of the work of international students or bilingual therapists who have language-related issues seems advisable. Based on the findings of this research, some ideas for further studies are suggested. As most of the fear of being judged and the anxiety experienced by the participants were subjective experiences, a dyad study of both client and therapist experiences could investigate the similarities and discrepancies between the therapists’ perceptions and their clients’ experiences of them. Research into the experiences of the supervisors of such therapists could lead to a richer understanding of this phenomenon from another angle. Keywords: Second language in Psychotherapy, Bilingualism, Counselling, IPA, Cultural difference

Facilitators and barriers of adaptation to diabetes: experiences of Iranian patients

Background: Diabetes mellitus is one of the most challenging and burdensome chronic diseases of the 21st century and More than 1% of the Iranian urban population older than 20 years develops Type 2 diabetes each year. Living with diabetes mellitus has been described as a dynamic personal transitional adaptation, based on restructuring of the illness perceived experience and management of the self. Adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes mellitus is an integral part of diabetes care.This study explored the experiences of facilitators and barriers adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes by Iranian patients.Methods: This study was conducted by using qualitative content analysis. Data were collected via in-depth, semi-structured and face to face interviews with 15 patients with type2 diabetes.Results: Three themes emerged from collected data, including a) individual context with Beliefs, personal background, and previous experience subthemes. b) supportive system with Family, Society and Health organizations subthemes and c) self-comparison with comparison with other diabetes and comparison with other diseases subthemes.Conclusions: Identifying and managing Facilitators and Barriers adaptation to Type 2 Diabetes mellitus are an integral part of diabetes care. This study provides a better understanding of the factors from perspective of patients and it can be utilized by health care providers to adapt their health care and education contents to better meet the needs of people with diabetes. © 2014 Karimi Moonaghi et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Struggling towards diagnosis: Experiences of Iranian diabetes

Background: Healthcare-seeking behavior is one of the factors determining the uptake and outcome of healthcare. However, few studies have discussed how and why diabetics seek healthcare assistance before meeting a physician. Objectives: In this study, we explored the subjective experiences of healthcare-seeking behavior among Iranian patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. Patients and Methods: A qualitative approach was adopted using a conventional content analysis of semi-structured interviews carried out in the Diabetes Association in Tabriz (Iran) with 15 participants suffering from type 2 diabetes. Participants were recruited by the purposeful sampling method. Results: Five themes emerged from the study: 1) warning by physical signs; 2) personal processing; 3) self-remedy and its outcomes; 4) seeking information, and; 5) diagnosis and verification of information by healthcare staff. Conclusions: Individual social context plays an important role in the decision-making process when seeking healthcare for diabetes. The results of this study can be utilized by healthcare providers to facilitate interventions to increase diabetics' active involvement in their healthcare, and encourage a wider knowledge of its symptoms and outcomes to facilitate appropriate healthcare-seeking and service use. © 2014, Iranian Red Crescent Medical Journal

Kinetic, equilibrium and thermodynamic investigations of Ni(II), Cd(II), Cu(II) and Co(II) adsorption on barley straw ash

AbstractThis work reports the application of a straw ash from barley as a novel bioadsorbent for the removal of several heavy metals: Ni(II), Cd(II), Cu(II), and Co(II). Equilibrium and kinetic models for heavy metals sorption were developed by considering the effect of the contact time, initial heavy metal ion concentrations, effect of temperature, and initial pH. The adsorption of heavy metal ions have been studied in terms of pseudo-first- and -second-order kinetics, and the Freundlich, Langmuir and Langmuir–Freundlich isotherms models have also been used to the equilibrium adsorption data. The equilibrium data fitted well with the Langmuir–Freundlich model and showed the following affinity order of the material: Ni(II)>Cu(II)>Co(II)>Cd(II). The adsorption kinetics followed the mechanism of the pseudo-second-order equation for all systems studied, confirming chemical sorption as the rate-limiting step of adsorption mechanisms. The thermodynamic parameters (ΔG°, ΔH° and ΔS°) indicated that the adsorption of heavy metals ions were feasible, spontaneous and endothermic at 15–80°C

Effect of different levels of dietary betaine on growth performance, food efficiency and survival rate of pike perch (Sander lucioperca) fingerlings

A 6-week feeding experiments were carried out to determine the effects of different levels of dietary betaine on growth performance, food efficiency and survival rate of pike perch which has a critical period during transition feeding. Fingerlings of pike perch were fed with live food (treatment A), without betaine added to biomar (treatment B), 1% betaine added to biomar (treatment C) and 2% betaine added to biomar (treatment D) in 1000 l concreted tanks. 200 fingerlings (1.50 g, mean weight) were stocked in each tank and fed up to 7 meals per day. Higher increment in body weight (4.99 ± 0.73 g), specific growth rate (3.90 ± 0.06) and food efficiency (104.42 ± 4.27) were obtained with treatment D (2% betaine added to biomar). This treatment also showed significant (P<0.05) decrease in food conversion ratio (0.93 ± 0.04) in comparison with other treatments. Highest survival rate was observed in treatment B (biomar without betaine) with a 34.5 % rate and greatest cannibalism (1.03 ± 0.01) was found in treatment D, respectively. It was concluded that betaine could increase the palatability and acceptability of food and could be suitable to weaning the pike perch fingerlings to artificial diet

Study of distribution, abundance and biomass of macro benthic fauna in the northern creeks of Bushehr province

Macro benthic invertebrate distribution and abundance in northern creeks of Boushehr province were analyzed by seasonal sampling from autumn 2000 till summer 2001. Sampling was carried out of sediments from bottom of nine stations which located in creeks and one control station in the sea by using of Van Veen Grab sampler. In additional, eight groups of macro benthos were identified which the most abundant populations among them were Gastropoda (51%), Bivalvia and Polychaeta (17.4%) and Amphipoda (5.3%) respectively. The maximum density of macro benthos was 2378 ind/m2 in spring and the minimum was 1174 ind/m^2 in autumn and also maximum and minimum biomass was 79.06g/ m^2 in summer and 17.72g/ m^2 in winter. The average wet weight of macro fauna biomass was 49.95 (± 33.6) g/ m^2

Genotypes performance in relation to drought tolerance in barley using multi-environment trials

ArticleThe selection of stable and superior genotypes, with the aim of improving grain yield in breeding programs, requires the evaluation of genotypes under different environments. In this study, the yields of 10 barley genotypes were evaluated in eight different environments using a graphical method (GGE biplot). These experiments were conducted from 2011 to 2015. There were irrigated and rain-fed conditions, as a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. Results indicated that the two components of PC1 and PC2 explained 62.9% and 14.9% of the total variation observed in the yield, respectively. Genotypes with a positive value for PC1 (i.e., PC1 > 0) had the adaptable and the highest performance, whereas genotypes with a negative value for the first component (i.e., PC1 < 0) were non-adaptable and had the lowest performance. Likewise, among the genotypes, some had their second component scores near zero, and they exhibited the greatest stability compared to other genotypes. Specifically, genotype 3 had the highest grain yield and stability, while genotypes 2 and 8 showed relatively high yields

Closed-Loop Recycling of Copper from Waste Printed Circuit Boards Using Bioleaching and Electrowinning Processes

International audienceIn the present study, a model of closed-loop recycling of copper from PCBs is demonstrated, which involves the sequential application of bioleaching and electrowinning to selectively extract copper. This approach is proposed as part of the solution to resolve the challenging ever-increasing accumulation of electronic waste, e-waste, in the environment. This work is targeting copper, the most abundant metal in e-waste that represents up to 20% by weight of printed circuit boards (PCBs). In the first stage, bioleaching was tested for different pulp densities (0.25–1.00% w/v) and successfully used to extract multiple metals from PCBs using the acidophilic bacterium, Acidithiobacillus ferrooxidans. In the second stage, the method focused on the recovery of copper from the bioleachate by electrowinning. Metallic copper foils were formed, and the results demonstrated that 75.8% of copper available in PCBs had been recovered as a high quality copper foil, with 99 + % purity, as determined by energy dispersive X-ray analysis and Inductively-Coupled Plasma Optical Emission Spectrometry. This model of copper extraction, combining bioleaching and electrowinning, demonstrates a closed-loop method of recycling that illustrates the application of bioleaching in the circular economy. The copper foils have the potential to be reused, to form new, high value copper clad laminate for the production of complex printed circuit boards for the electronics manufacturing industry. Graphic Abstract: [Figure not available: see fulltext.] © 2020, The Author(s)