Digital Technology, Young Children with Disabilities, and Preschool Inclusion: An Observation Study in the Context of the Swedish Preschool

Currently, inclusion is embraced, and the digitalisation of society is one of the salient issues of our time. The aim here is to describe and analyse the use of digital technology and online activities in inclusive preschools in the context of the Swedish preschool. Direct semi-structured observations were conducted in seven inclusive preschools. The results show that various digital technologies and online activities have been implemented, and that these technologies and activities facilitate and enhance preschool inclusion in several ways, both directly and indirectly. The study expands our knowledge about digital technology, young children with disabilities, and preschool inclusion

How environmentally friendly are batteries with no rare or critical materials?

Rechargeable batteries are increasingly used in a number of applications, such as consumer electronics, electric vehicles, and stationary energy storage. An increased use in the latter two applications is envisioned to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.However, the dominant rechargeable battery technology – the lithium-ion battery (LIB) – impacts the environment in several ways throughout its life cycle. In addition, LIBs require critical and/or geochemically scarce materials, such as lithium, natural graphite, and sometimes nickel and cobalt. One promising next generation battery (NGB) is the sodium-ion battery (SIB). While other NGBs can provide higher energy densities, the SIB technology holds great promise from a resource point of view, since it can be made to contain mostly low-cost, abundant and readily available elements, such as sodium and iron. In addition, the manufacturing processes and equipment developed for LIBs can in principle be re-used, enabling convenient scale-up of production. We here assess the life-cycle impacts of a specific SIB with a low content of scarce metals using prospective life cycle assessment (LCA). The SIB is assumed to be a mature technology produced at large scale and this we accomplish by using data from a small-scale producer and scale these up using available large-scale factory data for LIB production. We use a functional unit of 1 kWh of installed battery cell storage capacity and focus on climate and mineral resource impacts, since those have been highlighted in several publications and guidance documents as particularly important to address in LCAs of batteries. Different shares of renewables are considered in energy supply scenarios, along with scenarios for specific energy density developments. The impacts are compared to those of large-scale produced LIBs and to another NGB – the lithium-sulfur battery. To investigate mineral resource impacts of the different technologies in depth, we include two resource impact assessment methods, the crustal scarcity indicator and the surplus ore potential. The aims of the study are (i) to assess the prospective life cycle impacts of the SIB technology in order to reveal whether it is preferable to other battery technologies from an environmental and resource point of view, and (ii) to understand the environmental profile of the SIB in order to identify hotspots

Prospective Life Cycle Assessment of Lithium-Sulfur Batteries for Stationary Energy Storage

The lithium-sulfur (Li-S) battery represents a promisingnext-generationbattery technology because it can reach high energy densities withoutcontaining any rare metals besides lithium. These aspects could giveLi-S batteries a vantage point from an environmental and resourceperspective as compared to lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). Whereas LIBsare currently produced at a large scale, Li-S batteries are not. Therefore,prospective life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to assess the environmentaland resource scarcity impacts of Li-S batteries produced at a largescale for both a cradle-to-gate and a cradle-to-grave scope. Six scenarioswere constructed to account for potential developments, with the overallaim of identifying parameters that reduce (future) environmental andresource impacts. The specific energy density and the type of electrolytesalt are the two most important parameters for reducing cradle-to-gateimpacts, whereas for the cradle-to-grave scope, the electricity source,the cycle life, and, again, the specific energy density, are the mostimportant. Additionally, we find that hydrometallurgical recyclingof Li-S batteries could be beneficial for lowering mineral resourceimpacts but not necessarily for lowering other environmental impacts. Life cycle assessment of lithium-sulfurbatteries indicatesa similar environmental impact but a potentially lower mineral resourceimpact compared to lithium-ion batteries

Children in South Africa with and without intellectual disabilities’ rating of their frequency of participation in everyday activities

In a low-and middle-income country (LMIC) such as South Africa, not much is known about how children with intellectual disabilities (ID) participate in everyday activities, as no studies to date have compared their participation to peers without ID from the same background. Using a newly developed, contextually valid measure of participation, Picture my Participation (PmP), 106 children with (73) and without ID (33), rated their frequency of participation in activities of daily living. Previous international research has established that children with ID tend to participate less frequently than children without ID in everyday activities outside of the school setting. However, much of this research is based on proxy ratings from caregivers rather than children with ID themselves. There is a growing body of evidence that suggests children with disabilities have uniquely different views of their own participation than their caregivers. The existing research evidence is also delimited to studies conducted predominantly in high income contexts (HICSs). Since it is universally acknowledged that participation patterns are affected by the environment, it is important to evaluate the generalizability of the current evidence to LMICs. The current study found that there were many similar patterns of participation between the two groups although significant differences were noted in social, community, leisure and self-care activities. We compare these results to findings from studies conducted in HICs and find that there are similarities but also differences across contexts. This study highlights the importance of gaining a child’s perspective of participation and understanding how intellectual disability can affect participation relative to peers without ID in LMICS.The National Research Foundation (NRF), South Africa and the Swedish Foundation for International Cooperation in Research and Higher Education (STINT).http://www.mdpi.com/journal/ijerphpm2021Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC

Energy use and climate change improvements of Li/S batteries based on life cycle assessment

We present a life cycle assessment (LCA) study of a lithium/sulfur (Li/S) cell regarding its energy use (in\ua0electricity equivalents, kWhel) and climate change (in kg carbon dioxide equivalents, CO2 eq) with the aim of\ua0identifying improvement potentials. Possible improvements are illustrated by departing from a base case of Li/S\ua0battery design, electricity from coal power, and heat from natural gas. In the base case, energy use is calculated\ua0at 580 kWhel kWh−1 and climate change impact at 230 kg CO2 eq kWh−1 of storage capacity. The main contribution\ua0to energy use comes from the LiTFSI electrolyte salt production and the main contribution to climate\ua0change is electricity use during the cell production stage. By (i) reducing cell production electricity requirement,\ua0(ii) sourcing electricity and heat from renewable sources, (iii) improving the specific energy of the Li/S cell, and\ua0(iv) switching to carbon black for the cathode, energy use and climate change impact can be reduced by 54 and\ua093%, respectively. For climate change, our best-case result of 17 kg CO2 eq kWh−1 is of similar magnitude as the\ua0best-case literature results for lithium-ion batteries (LIBs). The lithium metal requirement of Li/S batteries and\ua0LIBs are also of similar magnitude

One-year follow-up after the time management group intervention let’s get organized

BACKGROUND: Time management skills are essential to maintain occupations in everyday life. People with neurodevelopmental or mental disorders often experience persistent difficulties with managing time and organizing daily life, consequently, there is a need to establish interventions with sustainable results. AIM: The aim was to perform a one-year post-intervention follow-up after the intervention Let’s Get Organized (LGO-S) for people with neurodevelopmental or mental disorders. METHODS: The study is a one-year follow-up of a single group pre-test–post-test design. Thirtyeight persons with difficulties in time management due to neurodevelopmental or mental disorders participated. Instruments to collect data were Assessment of Time Management Skills; Weekly Calendar Planning Activity and the Satisfaction with Daily Occupations instrument. Wilcoxons’s signed-rank test was used to compare data over time. RESULTS: There were no significant differences in the participants’ outcomes between post-intervention and one-year follow-up in time management skills and regulation of emotions, satisfaction with daily occupations, and global satisfaction. A significant improvement could be seen in the subscale organization and planning at the one-year follow-up compared to post-intervention. CONCLUSIONS: Improvements in time management skills, organization, and planning, regulation of emotions, and satisfaction with daily occupations after the LGO-S can be maintained in the long term.The Centre for Clinical Research Dalarna, Falun, the Faculty of Medicine and Health, Orebro University, the Regional Research Council in the Uppsala-Orebro Region, and the Research Committee in Region Orebro County.https://www.tandfonline.com/toc/iocc20pm2022Centre for Augmentative and Alternative Communication (CAAC

Emerging collaborative research platforms for the next generation of physical activity, sleep and exercise medicine guidelines: The Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep consortium (ProPASS)

Galileo Galilei’s quote ‘measure what is measurable, and make measurable what is not so’ has particular relevance to health behaviours, such as physical activity (PA), sitting and sleep, whose measurement during free living is notoriously difficult. To date, much of what we know about how these behaviours affect our health is based on self-report by questionnaires which have limited validity, are prone to bias and inquire about selective aspects of these behaviours. Although self-reported evidence has made great contributions to shaping public health and exercise medicine policy and guidelines until now,1 the ongoing advancements of accelerometry-based measurement and evidence synthesis methods are set to change the landscape. The aim of this editorial is to outline new directions in PA and sleep-related epidemiology that open new horizons for guideline development and improvement; and to describe a new research collaboration platform: the Prospective Physical Activity, Sitting, and Sleep consortium (ProPASS). </p

Assessment of participation in people with a mild intellectual disability

The overall aim of this doctoral thesis was to explore an assessment of participation according to the International Classification of Functioning, Disability and Health (ICF) in people with a mild intellectual disability. Study I used secondary data and explored how participation can be assessed. Study II-IV explored participation empirically regarding 68 everyday activities from all nine life domains according to the ICF. Study II explored assessment of self-rated participation by investigating to what extent perceived ability, actual performance and perceived importance correlated. Study III-IV explored the contribution of perceived importance to an assessment of participation; study III by investigating frequencies of everyday activities regarding performance and importance separately as well as regarding combined measures of performance and perceived importance, and study IV by comparing proxy ratings with self-rated measures regarding ability and measures of participation. Study III also correlated measures of participation with a single-item measure of subjective general well-being and study II and IV investigated internal consistency in terms of Cronbach’s alpha. Study II and III included 55 and 69 individuals with intellectual disability respectively. Study IV included 40 individuals with intellectual disability and 40 proxy persons. The informants from the target group were partly the same. Study II and IV supported the suggestions from study I that participation should be assessed by self-ratings and study II found that this is an appropriate method also to people with a mild intellectual disability. Study III showed that participation is related to subjective well-being. Study III-IV found somewhat different results if measuring participation as performance solely or as a combination of performance and perceived importance. Overall, the results of the thesis suggest that performance solely might be sufficient to assess participation at a group level but in a clinical context, when the knowledge of a certain individual is of interest, the perceived aspect of involvement is necessary to include in an assessment of participation

Promoting Self-Determination for Students with Intellectual Disability: A Vygotskian Perspective

Despite weak correlations between IQ scores and self-determination, research indicates that individuals with intellectual disability (ID) show lower levels of self-determination than their non-disabled peers, and that they experience lower effects of self-determination interventions. From a Vygotskian perspective, self-determination skills can be considered complex cognitive abilities that develop through social interaction with and adequate scaffolding by competent tutors. This approach raises the need to look into how self-determination interventions can be adapted to the cognitive profiles of individuals with ID. In this article, the Self-Determined Learning Model of Instruction was used with eight adolescents with mild ID over a three-month period. Typical challenges that were encountered are described, and suggestions for how these challenges can be addressed are discussed. Findings from this study illustrate how the development of self-determination skills may be facilitated when there is congruence between the individual's neurobiological development and the social conditions for development