Educational Impact on Therapists’ Knowledge, Beliefs, and Actions: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACT Purpose: Collaborative goal setting has been shown to be an effective way to promote client engagement leading to improved outcomes; however, healthcare professionals face challenges when implementing collaborative goal setting into their clinical practice. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of educational workshops to 1) increase a therapist’s knowledge of motivational interviewing and action planning, 2) promote collaboration between therapists and their patients/clients, 3) promote collaboration between therapists and their interdisciplinary team and 4) increase the ease of implementation of motivational interviewing and action planning skills into a therapist’s clinical practice. Method: A mixed-methods design was utilized. Occupational therapists and physical therapists were recruited via email to participate. Data were collected via online surveys at three different times (before the first educational workshop, after the second workshop, and three months after the second workshop) consisting of quantitative related survey questions assessing the participants’ knowledge, beliefs, actions, and perceived self-efficacy related to motivational interviewing and action planning and qualitative questions focused on typical goal development processes, level of collaboration and challenges associated with developing goals with clients and interdisciplinary team members and anticipated/resultant impact and meaning of participation in the educational workshops. Results: The sample included 19 participants. Quantitative data demonstrated a statistically significant increase in self-scoring related to knowledge, beliefs, and actions when comparing all the pre-education to the post-education scores, except for one (collaboration with interdisciplinary team members). A follow-up analysis on this criterion demonstrated no statistically significant changes over the three-month period, potentially indicative of retention of the material covered. The qualitative data provided further insight into the challenges faced by participants and the perceived benefits of participating in the educational workshops. Conclusion: The educational workshops appeared to be effective in addressing some of the barriers to collaborative goal setting (e.g. lack of time, knowledge/skills, appropriate patients, concern for duplication of services) found in the literature, most notably providing the participants with the knowledge and skills needed, which is the first step when implementing collaborative goal setting into clinical practice. Further research in this area is recommended

A yeast model for target-primed (non-LTR) retrotransposition

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Target-primed (non-LTR) retrotransposons, such as the human L1 element, are mobile genetic elements found in many eukaryotic genomes. They are often present in large numbers and their retrotransposition can cause mutations and genomic rearrangements. Despite their importance, many aspects of their replication are not well understood.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>We have developed a yeast model system for studying target-primed retrotransposons. This system uses the Zorro3 element from <it>Candida albicans</it>. A cloned copy of Zorro3, tagged with a retrotransposition indicator gene, retrotransposes at a high frequency when introduced into an appropriate <it>C. albicans </it>host strain. Retrotransposed copies of the tagged element exhibit similar features to the native copies, indicating that the natural retrotransposition pathway is being used. Retrotransposition is dependent on the products of the tagged element's own genes and is highly temperature-regulated. The new assay permits the analysis of the effects of specific mutations introduced into the cloned element.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This Zorro3 retrotransposition assay system complements previously available target-primed retrotransposition assays. Due to the relative simplicity of the growth, manipulation and analysis of yeast cells, the system should advance our understanding of target-primed retrotransposition.</p

Film tourism: the pre-production perspective. A case study of Visit Somerset and the Hollywood story of Glastonbury

Film tourism has been researched now for many years and the consequences of post-production are clear. However, there has been little opportunity to explore the perceptions of filming, pre-production, until now. Using a case study approach to the making of one particular Hollywood film on a rural location, the paper focuses on evaluating the business of film tourism and establishing the perceived impacts of film tourism from advanced practitioners and local residents, respectively. Two stages of data collection were adopted during pre-production: elite interviews and focus groups. The findings reveal that the role of each practitioner shapes their level of understanding and knowledge about the myths of Glastonbury, and their evaluation of the debate surrounding creative accuracy versus commercial creativity. Concern over the costs of film-induced travel were also noted, and echoed by residents. However, for residents, uncertainty, a lack of detailed knowledge, and scepticism about the film’s content proved more significant, rather than pre-existing issues faced by the town and expressed by the practitioners. Therefore, it is suggested that practitioners should forge partnerships through tourism collaboration but at the same time they need to manage local residents to ensure they respond to their concerns surrounding corporate takeovers and the commercialisation of their culture, rather than just issues of congestion and transportation

Full regularity for a C*-algebra of the Canonical Commutation Relations. (Erratum added)

The Weyl algebra,- the usual C*-algebra employed to model the canonical commutation relations (CCRs), has a well-known defect in that it has a large number of representations which are not regular and these cannot model physical fields. Here, we construct explicitly a C*-algebra which can reproduce the CCRs of a countably dimensional symplectic space (S,B) and such that its representation set is exactly the full set of regular representations of the CCRs. This construction uses Blackadar's version of infinite tensor products of nonunital C*-algebras, and it produces a "host algebra" (i.e. a generalised group algebra, explained below) for the \sigma-representation theory of the abelian group S where \sigma(.,.):=e^{iB(.,.)/2}. As an easy application, it then follows that for every regular representation of the Weyl algebra of (S,B) on a separable Hilbert space, there is a direct integral decomposition of it into irreducible regular representations (a known result). An Erratum for this paper is added at the end.Comment: An erratum was added to the original pape

The meanings of consent to the donation of cord blood stem cells: perspectives from an interview-based study of a public cord blood bank in England

This paper explores the perspectives of women who have agreed that their umbilical cord blood may be collected for a public ‘cord blood bank’, for use in transplant medicine or research. Drawing on interview data from 27 mothers who agreed to the collection and use of their umbilical cord blood, these choices and the informed consent process are explored. It is shown that the needs of sick children requiring transplants are prominent in narrative accounts of cord blood banking, together with high expectations for future applications of stem cells. Given this dynamic, a concern arises that the complex and multiple uses of tissues and related data might be oversimplified in the consent process. In conclusion, the positive finding of a commitment to mutuality in cord blood banking among these women is underlined, and its implications for the wider debate on cord blood banking are discussed

Assessment of Initial Test Conditions for Experiments to Assess Irradiation Assisted Stress Corrosion Cracking Mechanisms

Irradiation-assisted stress corrosion cracking is a key materials degradation issue in today s nuclear power reactor fleet and affects critical structural components within the reactor core. The effects of increased exposure to irradiation, stress, and/or coolant can substantially increase susceptibility to stress-corrosion cracking of austenitic steels in high-temperature water environments. . Despite 30 years of experience, the underlying mechanisms of IASCC are unknown. Extended service conditions will increase the exposure to irradiation, stress, and corrosive environment for all core internal components. The objective of this effort within the Light Water Reactor Sustainability program is to evaluate the response and mechanisms of IASCC in austenitic stainless steels with single variable experiments. A series of high-value irradiated specimens has been acquired from the past international research programs, providing a valuable opportunity to examine the mechanisms of IASCC. This batch of irradiated specimens has been received and inventoried. In addition, visual examination and sample cleaning has been completed. Microhardness testing has been performed on these specimens. All samples show evidence of hardening, as expected, although the degree of hardening has saturated and no trend with dose is observed. Further, the change in hardening can be converted to changes in mechanical properties. The calculated yield stress is consistent with previous data from light water reactor conditions. In addition, some evidence of changes in deformation mode was identified via examination of the microhardness indents. This analysis may provide further insights into the deformation mode under larger scale tests. Finally, swelling analysis was performed using immersion density methods. Most alloys showed some evidence of swelling, consistent with the expected trends for this class of alloy. The Hf-doped alloy showed densification rather than swelling. This observation may be related to the formation of second-phases under irradiation, although further examination is require

“How can our children learn from us about our way of life or understand who they are?”:Residential schools and their impact on the wellbeing of Indigenous youth in Attapadi, South India

Residential schools are commonly used in India to provide education for Indigenous youth, which requires young people to stay for long periods at distance from their families and communities. Internationally, there is clear evidence for the deleterious effects of residential schools on the mental health and social and community outcomes of Indigenous children, however little is known about the Indian Indigenous experience. This study examined the impact of residential schooling on Indigenous children's wellbeing and that of their communities, using data from an ethnographic research project in Attapadi, Kerala, including interviews, focus group discussions and participant observation with Indigenous communities. Key outcomes from residential schooling reported by the participants include the fear of losing Indigenous identity, shame of being Indigenous, change in the attitude of young people when they returned from schools, and feelings of confusion and stress that young Indigenous participants felt trying to fit into their communities on their return. Findings suggest that these Indigenous youth felt disconnected from several factors that are known to promote resilience for Indigenous communities including a strong cultural identity, connection to the land and ancestors, thereby making them more vulnerable to poor mental health and negative impacts on their overall wellbeing. Addressing these concerns requires a detailed understanding of the specific factors influencing outcomes for Indigenous youth within the Indian residential schooling system, and designing and implementing data-informed conceptual, structural and policy change including the provision of culturally safe mental health services.</p

Covariance systems

We introduce new definitions of states and of representations of covariance systems. The GNS-construction is generalized to this context. It associates a representation with each state of the covariance system. Next, states are extended to states of an appropriate covariance algebra. Two applications are given. We describe a nonrelativistic quantum particle, and we give a simple description of the quantum spacetime model introduced by Doplicher et al.Comment: latex with ams-latex, 23 page