Effectiveness of Sensory Integration on School-Age Children with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

Introduction: Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) is a common mental disorder that poses significant effects on an individual’s ability to effectively carry out daily functions; characteristics include hyperactive, inattentive, and impulsive behaviors (Dogru; Kadam). ADHD is problematic for school-aged children; children with ADHD lack the ability to integrate sensory information. The purpose of this systematic review is to explore the effectiveness of sensory integration therapy in managing ADHD symptoms in school aged children. Methods: A search of literature was conducted during September of 2022 and January of 2023. Databases used to complete the search included EBSCO Host, Academic Search Ultimate, and National Library of Medicine. Search terms comprised children or kids or youth, ADHD or attention deficit hyperactive disorder or attention deficit-hyperactive disorder, children with ADHD, and sensory integration or sensory modulation or sensory integration therapy or sensory based intervention. The search yielded forty-two academic journals total, with eleven journals meeting inclusion criteria of publication date between 2006-2022, subjects between the ages of six through twelve, subjects with a diagnosis of ADHD, and subjects who have undergone sensory integration therapy. Each journal was reviewed and scored using the Oxford Centre for Evidence Based Medicine 2011 Levels of Evidence. Results: Eleven articles were included in this study. An analysis using the Hierarchy of Evidence Scale identified two articles as level 2 and 9 as level three. Articles used common outcome measures, such as Parent-Teacher reports and ADHD scales. These outcome measures were sued to look at how sensory integration impacted motor control, executive function and sensory processing in children with ADHD. Discussion: Sensory integration therapy provides interventions that target seven key senses including; tactile, visual, olfactory, taste, auditory, proprioception, and vestibular. Interventions are delivered at varying intensities in order to desensitize the individual to achieve a more controlled response to daily environments. Overall, research has supported that sensory integration therapy helps improve sensory integration, motor control, and executive function and can lead to long term benefits in children with ADHD. Improvements in these areas may lead to improved behaviors, academic achievement, and social development. Implicating sensory integration interventions into physical therapy treatment sessions in school-aged children with ADHD will be beneficial for the children based on the evidence found in our systematic review. Conclusion: Sensory integration therapy is a beneficial intervention to improve symptoms in children with ADHD. More research is needed to further support the benefits of sensory integration therapy.https://digitalcommons.misericordia.edu/research_posters2023/1024/thumbnail.jp

Historians\u27 Reaction to the Documentary, The Dust Bowl

Historical documentaries have a wider audience and often a greater visceral impact than written histories. They frequently resonate deeply with viewers through the use of images, first-person narratives, and evocative filming. To wield such emotional power responsibly demands great attention to accuracy and nuance. In the fall of 2013 these four historians met at the Northern Great Plains History Conference to discuss Ken Burns\u27s latest work on the Dust Bowl. Each of the panelists presents a different critique of the documentary. By looking at the piece\u27s sources, its music, its narration, and, most importantly, its message, they concluded that the film presents a one-dimensional, often inaccurate, over dramatization of the hardships experienced on the Great Plains in the depths of the Great Depression. Moreover, Burns ignores much of the recent scholarship on the Dust Bowl in the documentary, actively choosing a simplified narrative over a more realistic, complex account

Fabrication of electrospun nanofiber composite of g-C3N4 and Au nanoparticles as plasmonic photocatalyst

In this research, we have fabricated a composite nanofiber mat of plasmonic photocatalyst consisting of g-C3N4, gold nanoparticles (AuNPs) and random nanofibers of polyvinylidene fluoride (PVDF) by electrospinning. The structure and chemical properties of the nanofiber mat were investigated in detail by ESEM, TEM, AFM, XPS, FTIR, XRD, TGA, PL spectroscopy and UV-Vis reflectance spectra. Imaging of the composite map confirmed that the fiber diameter was in the range of 100-400 nm with the g-C3N4 size in the range of 2-8 μm. Backscattered (Zcontrast) electron imaging in ESEM revealed that the AuNP particle size is in the range of 60-160 nm with Au content 0.02%. XPS and FTIR recognized the chemical identify of individual components and it was revealed that chemical structure of those components remained unaltered. PL spectroscopic results revealed slight PL quenching caused by the relaxation of charge carriers in the AuNPs. Bandgap energy, as calculated by Kubeka- Munk analysis of the of the reflectance data, was found to be 2.94 eV. The photocatalytic efficiency of the nanofiber mat was confirmed by photoelectrochemical study and photocatalytic degradation of a dye, methylene blue. Methylene blue was successfully degraded by the composite mat under repeated cycles

Agroecosystem energy transitions in the old and new worlds : trajectories and determinants at the regional scale

Energy efficiency in biomass production is a major challenge for a future transition to sustainable food and energy provision. This study uses methodologically consistent data on agroecosystem energy flows and different metrics of energetic efficiency from seven regional case studies in North America (USA and Canada) and Europe (Spain and Austria) to investigate energy transitions in Western agroecosystems from the late nineteenth to the late twentieth centuries. We quantify indicators such as external final energy return on investment (EFEROI, i.e., final produce per unit of external energy input), internal final EROI (IFEROI, final produce per unit of biomass reused locally), and final EROI (FEROI, final produce per unit of total inputs consumed). The transition is characterized by increasing final produce accompanied by increasing external energy inputs and stable local biomass reused. External inputs did not replace internal biomass reinvestments, but added to them. The results were declining EFEROI, stable or increasing IFEROI, and diverging trends in FEROI. The factors shaping agroecosystem energy profiles changed in the course of the transition: Under advanced organic and frontier agriculture of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, population density and biogeographic conditions explained both agroecosystem productivity and energy inputs. In industrialized agroecosystems, biogeographic conditions and specific socio-economic factors influenced trends towards increased agroecosystem specialization. The share of livestock products in a region'sfinal produce was the most important factor determining energy returns on investment

Demography and Environment in Grassland Settlement: Using Linked Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Data to Explore Household and Agricultural Systems

The Demography and Environment in Grassland Settlement project (DEGS) is a study of the relationship between population and environment in Kansas during its settlement and conversion from grassland to grain cultivation and rangeland. The research team involved in this project had as its goal to bring together data about farms and farm families in order to understand the core transformations in land use and family dynamics that took place during the process of settling and developing an agricultural landscape. For reasons we will explain later, the state of Kansas – located near the centre of the U.S. in a grassland ecosystem – is ideally suited for this study by virtue of its location, history and the documents that exist about it. In order to capture the environmental variability of Kansas, we are assembling a linked database of farm and family census records for twenty-five townships scattered across the state. This paper is about the process of choosing that sample, about the data we have accumulated and about the process we are undertaking to link records about families and farms through time and to attempt to find their locations in space.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/60442/1/sylvester_etal.demography and environment.pd

"The Dust Was Long In Settling": Human Capital and the Lasting Impact of the American Dust Bowl

I find that childhood exposure to the Dust Bowl, an environmental shock to health and income, adversely impacted later-life human capital—especially when exposure was in utero—increasing poverty and disability rates, and decreasing fertility and college completion rates. The event’s devastation of agriculture, however, had the beneficial effect of increasing high school completion, likely by pushing children who otherwise might have worked on the farm into secondary schooling. Lastly, New Deal spending helped remediate Dust Bowl damage, suggesting that timely and substantial policy interventions can aid in human recovery from natural disasters

Patient with Total Hip Replacement: Bedside Simulation and its Implications for Collaborative Practice and Improved Patient Safety

Purpose – To share an experience that provides students with an authentic opportunity to perform, collaborate and learn roles and responsibilities during a simulated bedside experience with medical imaging (MI), nursing and physical therapy (PT) students. Background – Collaborative “practice ready” graduates are essential to the concept of patient-centered care and are dependent on the shared knowledge of one’s individual skills as well as the common skills within the team structure. This preparation cannot occur without the emphasis on roles and responsibilities, collaborative communication, and improved teamwork. Many interprofessional education (IPE) programs provide collaborative experiences between nursing and PT students, but opportunity for MI is not always present. This experience offers a unique model to allow integration of imaging as an important component of the team. Description – Collaborative student teams attended to a simulated patient at the bedside in a nursing lab. Students were provided with a patient chart. Nursing students initiated the introduction and evaluation, physical therapy students performed the pre-transfer assessments, and medical imaging students performed simulated post-operative x-rays. Each was charged with ensuring communication, teamwork and patient safety. Results – Qualitative feedback was positive. Common themes evolved around improved knowledge of the roles of others, similarities in assessment needs, and the importance of communication. A common thread was the role that communication and teamwork play in patient safety when positioning and mobilizing a patient with post-surgical precautions, the use of imaging to aid in diagnostic decision making, and the need to keep the patient at the center of collaborative care. Conclusion – This simulation offered students the opportunity to improve on the collaborative effort of nursing, PT and MI that is often part of the patient experience s/p a total hip arthroplasty. Relevance – Integration of multiple professions in simulated experiences broadens the discussion and highlights the commonalities of patient-centered care. Objectives Recognize opportunities and value to engage medical imaging, nursing and physical therapy students in a collaborative learning experience. Describe approaches for integrating different health professional students with the focus on communication and information sharing for patient safety initiatives. Describe an innovative interprofessional simulation activity with attention to cooperative clinical partnerships

Widening the analysis of Energy Return on Investment (EROI) in agro-ecosystems: Socio-ecological transitions to industrialized farm systems (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999)

Energy balances of farm systems have overlooked the role of energy flows that remain within agro-ecosystems. Yet, such internal flows fulfil important socio-ecological functions, including maintenance of farmers themselves and agro-ecosystem structures. Farming can either give rise to complex landscapes that favour associated biodiversity, or the opposite. This variability can be understood by assessing several types of Energy Returns on Investment (EROI). Applying these measures to a farm system in Catalonia, Spain in 1860 and in 1999, reveals the expected decrease in the ratio of final energy output to total and external inputs. The transition from solar-based to a fossil fuel based agro-ecosystem was further accompanied by an increase in the ratio of final energy output to biomass reused, as well as an absolute increase of Unharvested Phytomass grown in derelict forestland. The study reveals an apparent link between reuse of biomass and the decrease of landscape heterogeneity along with its associated biodiversity

Opening the black box of energy throughputs in farm systems: A decomposition analysis between the energy returns to external inputs, internal biomass reuses and total inputs consumed (the Vallès County, Catalonia, c.1860 and 1999)

We present an energy analysis of past and present farm systems aimed to contribute to their sustainability assessment. Looking at agroecosystems as a set of energy loops between nature and society, and adopting a farm-operator standpoint at landscape level to set the system boundaries, enthalpy values of energy carriers are accounted for net Final Produce going outside as well as for Biomass Reused cycling inside, and External Inputs are accounted using embodied values. Human Labour is accounted for the fraction of the energy intake of labouring people devoted to perform farm work, considering the local or external origin of their food basket. In this approach the proportion of internal Biomass Reused becomes a hallmark of organic farm systems that tend to save External Inputs, whereas industrial farming and livestock breeding in feedlots tend to get rid of reuses replacing them with inputs coming from outside. Hence, decomposing the internal or external energy throughputs may bring to light their contrasting sociometabolic profiles. A Catalan case study in 1860 and 1990 is used as a test bench to show how revealing this decomposing analysis may be to plot the energy profiles of farm systems and their possible improvement pathways