Representation of Theory in Occupational Therapy Education: An International Systematic Mapping Review, 1940-2015

Previous review research has outlined the state of various aspects of occupational therapy education. No reviews, however, have examined how theory, specifically, is represented in educational scholarship. This systematic mapping review explored the way in which theory, as it relates to both occupational therapy practice and pedagogy, has been discussed throughout occupational therapy education scholarship. In the education scholarship, theory pertaining to occupational therapy practice often overlaps with theory pertaining to pedagogy; therefore, both domains were included in the review. A systematic search for occupational therapy education literature published between 1940 and 2015 resulted in 9765 unique citations, 556 of which met inclusion criteria. Papers were coded for curriculum design, teaching methods, research design, and theoretical content. This paper presents findings related to theoretical content. Results demonstrated that theory, when referenced, referred to established social science theories more prominently than occupational therapy specific theory, until recent decades. Further, theory was often treated as a footnote to the main discussion rather than as a focal point. The authors discuss the importance of prioritizing a line of scholarship surrounding how to convey theory in such a way that it better informs pedagogy as well as the processes of evaluation, planning, and intervention. This comprehensive historical review serves to orient occupational therapy scholars to the past and present state of theory while also shedding light on its necessary inclusion in future scholarship

Global Perspectives on Labour Education into the New Millennium

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Cooperative effects in nuclear excitation with coherent x-ray light

The interaction between super-intense coherent x-ray light and nuclei is studied theoretically. One of the main difficulties with driving nuclear transitions arises from the very narrow nuclear excited state widths which limit the coupling between laser and nuclei. In the context of direct laser-nucleus interaction, we consider the nuclear width broadening that occurs when in solid targets, the excitation caused by a single photon is shared by a large number of nuclei, forming a collective excited state. Our results show that for certain isotopes, cooperative effects may lead to an enhancement of the nuclear excited state population by almost two orders of magnitude. Additionally, an update of previous estimates for nuclear excited state population and signal photons taking into account the experimental advances of the x-ray coherent light sources is given. The presented values are an improvement by orders of magnitude and are encouraging for the future prospects of nuclear quantum optics.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures, 5 tables; updated to the published version, one additional results tabl

Coherent control of the cooperative branching ratio for nuclear x-ray pumping

Coherent control of nuclear pumping in a three level system driven by x-ray light is investigated. In single nuclei, the pumping performance is determined by the branching ratio of the excited state populated by the x-ray pulse. Our results are based on the observation that in ensembles of nuclei, cooperative excitation and decay leads to a greatly modified nuclear dynamics, which we characterize by a time-dependent cooperative branching ratio. We discuss prospects of steering the x-ray pumping by coherently controlling the cooperative decay. First, we study an ideal case with purely superradiant decay and perfect control of the cooperative emission. A numerical analysis of x-ray pumping in nuclear forward scattering with coherent control of the cooperative decay via externally applied magnetic fields is presented. Next, we provide an extended survey of nuclei suitable for our scheme, and propose proof-of-principle implementations already possible with typical M\"ossbauer nuclear systems such as $^{57}\mathrm{Fe}$. Finally, we discuss the application of such control techniques to the population or depletion of long-lived nuclear states.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures; updated to the published versio

Impact of animal strain on gene expression in a rat model of acute cardiac rejection

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The expression levels of many genes show wide natural variation among strains or populations. This study investigated the potential for animal strain-related genotypic differences to confound gene expression profiles in acute cellular rejection (ACR). Using a rat heart transplant model and 2 different rat strains (Dark Agouti, and Brown Norway), microarrays were performed on native hearts, transplanted hearts, and peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC).</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In heart tissue, strain alone affected the expression of only 33 probesets while rejection affected the expression of 1368 probesets (FDR 10% and FC ≥ 3). Only 13 genes were affected by both strain and rejection, which was < 1% (13/1368) of all probesets differentially expressed in ACR. However, for PBMC, strain alone affected 265 probesets (FDR 10% and FC ≥ 3) and the addition of ACR had little further effect. Pathway analysis of these differentially expressed strain effect genes connected them with immune response, cell motility and cell death, functional themes that overlap with those related to ACR. After accounting for animal strain, additional analysis identified 30 PBMC candidate genes potentially associated with ACR.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In ACR, genetic background has a large impact on the transcriptome of immune cells, but not heart tissue. Gene expression studies of ACR should avoid study designs that require cross strain comparisons between leukocytes.</p

Integrating genomic information and productivity and climate-adaptability traits into a regional white spruce breeding program

Tree improvement programs often focus on improving productivity-related traits; however, under present climate change scenarios, climate change-related (adaptive) traits should also be incorporated into such programs. Therefore, quantifying the genetic variation and correlations among productivity and adaptability traits, and the importance of genotype by environment interactions, including defense compounds involved in biotic and abiotic resistance, is essential for selecting parents for the production of resilient and sustainable forests. Here, we estimated quantitative genetic parameters for 15 growth, wood quality, drought resilience, and monoterpene traits for Picea glauca (Moench) Voss (white spruce). We sampled 1,540 trees from three open-pollinated progeny trials, genotyped with 467,224 SNP markers using genotyping-by-sequencing (GBS). We used the pedigree and SNP information to calculate, respectively, the average numerator and genomic relationship matrices, and univariate and multivariate individual-tree models to obtain estimates of (co)variance components. With few site-specific exceptions, all traits examined were under genetic control. Overall, higher heritability estimates were derived from the genomic- than their counterpart pedigree-based relationship matrix. Selection for height, generally, improved diameter and water use efficiency, but decreased wood density, microfibril angle, and drought resistance. Genome-based correlations between traits reaffirmed the pedigree-based correlations for most trait pairs. High and positive genetic correlations between sites were observed (average 0.68), except for those pairs involving the highest elevation, warmer, and moister site, specifically for growth and microfibril angle. These results illustrate the advantage of using genomic information jointly with productivity and adaptability traits, and defense compounds to enhance tree breeding selection for changing climate.Instituto de Recursos BiológicosFil: Cappa, Eduardo Pablo. Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA). Instituto de Recursos Biológicos; ArgentinaFil: Cappa, Eduardo Pablo. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas; ArgentinaFil: Klutsch, Jenifer G. University of Alberta; Department of Renewable Resources; CanadaFil: Sebastian-Azcona, Jaime. University of Alberta; Department of Renewable Resources; CanadaFil: Ratchiffe, Blaise. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; CanadáFil: Xiaojing, Wei. University of Alberta; Department of Renewable Resources; CanadaFil: Da Ros, Letitia. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Wood Science; CanadáFil: Yang, Liu. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; CanadáFil: Chen, Charles. Oklahoma State University. Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology; Estados UnidosFil: Benowicz, Andy. Alberta Agriculture and Forestry. Forest Stewardship and Trade Branch; CanadáFil: Sadoway, Shane. Blue Ridge Lumber Inc.; CanadáFil: Mansfield, Shawn D. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Wood Science; CanadáFil: Erbilgin, Nadir. University of Alberta; Department of Renewable Resources; CanadaFil: Thomas, Barb R. University of Alberta; Department of Renewable Resources; CanadaFil: El-Kassaby, Yousry A. University of British Columbia. Faculty of Forestry. Department of Forest and Conservation Sciences; Canad

Association between plasma metabolites and gene expression profiles in five porcine endocrine tissues

Background: Endocrine tissues play a fundamental role in maintaining homeostasis of plasma metabolites such as non-esterified fatty acids and glucose, the levels of which reflect the energy balance or the health status of animals. However, the relationship between the transcriptome of endocrine tissues and plasma metabolites has been poorly studied. Methods: We determined the blood levels of 12 plasma metabolites in 27 pigs belonging to five breeds, each breed consisting of both females and males. The transcriptome of five endocrine tissues i.e. hypothalamus, adenohypophysis, thyroid gland, gonads and backfat tissues from 16 out of the 27 pigs was also determined. Sex and breed effects on the 12 plasma metabolites were investigated and associations between genes expressed in the five endocrine tissues and the 12 plasma metabolites measured were analyzed. A probeset was defined as a quantitative trait transcript (QTT) when its association with a particular metabolic trait achieved a nominal P value < 0.01. Results: A larger than expected number of QTT was found for non-esterified fatty acids and alanine aminotransferase in at least two tissues. The associations were highly tissue-specific. The QTT within the tissues were divided into co-expression network modules enriched for genes in Kyoto Encyclopedia of Genes and Genomes or gene ontology categories that are related to the physiological functions of the corresponding tissues. We also explored a multi-tissue co-expression network using QTT for non-esterified fatty acids from the five tissues and found that a module, enriched in hypothalamus QTT, was positioned at the centre of the entire multi-tissue network. Conclusions: These results emphasize the relationships between endocrine tissues and plasma metabolites in terms of gene expression. Highly tissue-specific association patterns suggest that candidate genes or gene pathways should be investigated in the context of specific tissues

Analysis of Social Work Theory Progression Published in 2004

The authors reviewed 67 articles that discussed and/or tested human behavior theories from social work journals published in 2004 in order to assess the level and quality of theory progression. The articles were further sorted into Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards (EPAS) Foundation Curriculum content areas of HBSE, practice, policy, field education, values & ethics, diversity, populations-at-risk/social and economic justice, and research for purposes of categorization. Results indicated that HBSE and practice were by far the largest group of articles reviewed.Also found was that social work has a limited amount of theory discussion in the content areas of field, values and ethics, diversity, and populations-at-risk/social and economic justice. Thirty-three articles were found to demonstrate theory progression, eight articles presented new/emerging theories, and 26 articles discussed or critiqued theories without presenting evidence of theory progression