Developmental Changes in Fantasy Play the Years Two to Six and the Relationship of Social Cognition

Fantasy play is a very general type of play and includes most types of pretending, whereas symbolic and dramatic play are specific types of pretending. There has been much controversy surrounding the age at which a child initially develops the ability to role-take, and the relationship between play and role-taking,. This study examined age and sex differences in eight categories of fantasy play— substitution, attribution of function, animation, insubstantial material, insubstantial situation, character attribution, dramatic, and other play. Relationships were also examined between play categories and egocentrism, role-taking, and verbal IQ. The subjects were 78 two- and six-year olds who were videotaped in free play for three 15-minute sessions, and then given Borke\u27s (1971) role-taking task, Rubin and Maioni\u27s (1975) egocentrism task, and the Peabody Picture Vocabulary test. The data analyses showed age differences in frequency and duration of play categories. All categories, except attribution of function and other play, increased until five years of age and then decreased. Attribution of function and other play decreased with age and then increased in six-year olds. The only sex differences found were in use versus nonuse of the categories. Positive relationships were found between material play categories (substitution, attribution of function, animation) and egocentrism, and between ideational play categories (insubstantial material and situation , character attribution, dramatic) and perspective role-taking. A negative relationship was found between role-taking and egocentrism. Few significant relationships were found between the play categories and verbal IQ. Fantasy play in two-year olds seems to be based on concreteobject types of play. As the child continues to experiment and learn about his/her environment, abstract play develops until the child can gradually role play. As the child becomes proficient in role-taking, the ability to role play also develops. Around six years of age, the child becomes interested in logical activities and fantasy play decreases. Further research is needed to determine if the play categories form a scale, and situational factors need to be examined to determine what influences the fantasy play of children

The illusion of comparable European IFRS financial statements. Beliefs of auditors, analysts and other users

Reaching higher comparability was one of the main goals of the implementation of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS) in the European Union in 2005. However, national accounting traditions and cultural differences continue to cause differences in the application of IFRS (KPMG & von Keitz, 2006). European IFRS financial statements might therefore be less comparable than users of these statements possibly assume. This study contributes by determining to what extent auditors, analysts and other users of European IFRS financial statements believe that these statements are comparable and what they perceive to be the most important problem areas when it comes to comparability. Our survey of 426 individuals reveals that only 41% of the respondents believe that European IFRS financial statements are comparable. The more experienced respondents are, the less they believe in the comparability of these statements. Overall, 13 areas are perceived as problematic for the comparability of IFRS financial statements by at least half of the respondents. The three main issues that appear in most of these problem areas are interpretation differences, subjectivity and disclosure differences.Comparability, European IFRS financial statements, survey

Cognitive and Psychodynamic Mechanisms of Change in Treated and Untreated Depression

Two patient-level mechanisms of change, defenses, and cognition were tested over 3 time points in 65 depressed adults, approximately half receiving treatment. Early changes in automatic thoughts and immature defenses were associated with symptom change from time-one to time-three. The directionality of early automatic thought change predicting symptom change was partially supported, but immature defense change occurs simultaneously with, or after, symptom change. Given the convergent evidence of cognitive change as a mediator of depression reduction, all depression therapies should consider how they address depressive cognition. To build a more complete understanding of how to ameliorate depression, future studies should continue to include constructs from multiple theories and have measures of therapy process in addition to patient level mechanisms

The lived experience of diabetes: conceptualisation using a metaphor

Introduction: It is important for healthcare professionals to understand the reality of living with diabetes in order to better engage and enable people to self-manage. The purpose of this research was thus a preliminary exploration of the lived experience of diabetes. Method: This qualitative study involved seven people with a diagnosis of type 1, type 2 or pre-diabetes. Data was collected via semi-structured interviews and analysed using a phenomenological approach including the use of metaphor. Findings were shared with participants using a felted metaphor of charting a course of health and wellbeing through a choppy sea. Findings: Themes explored within the elements of the metaphor included the boat (self-identity, control, balance, compliance and empowerment, emotions), the sea (physical and social environment, lifestyle, life events), the course (information gathering, change, self-action) and the boatyard (relationships with healthcare providers). Conclusion: For those with type 1, type 2 and pre-diabetes, the elements of charting a course of health and wellbeing through a choppy sea are very much focused on the person in their own context, impacted by their environment, life stage, occupations and attitudes to diabetes self-management, all of which fall within the remit of occupational therapy

THE EFFECT OF SQUAT DEPTHS ON PEAK FORCES DURING COUNTERMOVEMENT JUMPS

The vertical jump is a key fundamental skill which is applied across a range of sports (Swinton, et al., 2010). The aim of the study was to examine the influence of squat depths on peak force, maximal jump height and maximal power on countermovement jump performance. We hypothesized that an increase in squat depth would generate an increase in jump height and power due to the greater time for force generation at take-off. The purpose of this study was to establish a guideline for coaches and athletes to be used in training programs, to determine the optimal squat depth for the athlete

Interpolating and estimating horizontal diffuse solar irradiation to provide UK-wide coverage: selection of the best performing models

Plane-of-array irradiation data is a requirement to simulate the energetic performance of photovoltaic devices (PV). Normally, solar data is only available as global horizontal irradiation, for a limited number of locations, and typically in hourly time resolution. One approach to handling this restricted data is to enhance it initially by interpolation to the location of interest; next, it must be translated to plane-of-array (PoA) data by separately considering the diffuse and the beam components. There are many methods of interpolation. This research selects ordinary kriging as the best performing technique by studying mathematical properties, experimentation and leave-one-out-cross validation. Likewise, a number of different translation models has been developed, most of them parameterised for specific measurement setups and locations. The work presented identifies the optimum approach for the UK on a national scale. The global horizontal irradiation will be split into its constituent parts. Divers separation models were tried. The results of each separation algorithm were checked against measured data distributed across the UK. It became apparent that while there is little difference between procedures (14 Wh/m2 MBE, 12 Wh/m2 RMSE), the Ridley, Boland, Lauret equation (a universal split algorithm) consistently performed well. The combined interpolation/separation RMSE is 86 Wh/m2)

A fast and effective approach to modelling solar energy potential in complex shading environments

A fast and effective model for the computation of solar energy potential in complex shading environments is presented. Accurate calculation and identification of solar energy potential profiles is demonstrated over large areas. Calculation time is exceptionally fast, even on an average specification PC (typically under 1 min per 1 km2). Problems with commonly used low-resolution sky domes that can lead to irradiance calculation errors of ~5% are identified. Ideal placements are easily visually identified from resultant irradiance/irradiation profile images. Image processing techniques for spatially distributed optimization problems are described and an example of energy value optimization is presented by means of individual dwelling demand separation & comparison

The Development of Statewide Policies and Procedures to Implement Telehealth for Part C Service Delivery

The use of telehealth has been discussed nationally as an option to address provider shortages for children, birth through two, enrolled in Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) Early Intervention (EI) programs. Telehealth is an evidence-based service delivery model which can be used to remove barriers in providing EI services to children and their families. In 2016, Colorado’s Part C Early Intervention (EI) program began allowing the use of telehealth as an option for providers to conduct sessions with children and their caregivers. This article outlines the process taken to develop the necessary requirements and supports for telehealth to be incorporated into EI current practice

A fast and effective approach to modelling solar energy potential in complex environments

A fast and effective approach to modelling solar energy potential in complex environment

Estimating rooftop capacity for PV: Are we asking the right question?

Precise estimation of solar energy potential on pitched roofs is crucial for modelling photovoltaic (PV) installation scenarios. However, there is no national database of building characteristics in the UK. This paper begins by reviewing and testing a range of existing techniques for identifying roof characteristics. These all attempt to estimate roof area with varying degrees of accuracy. Rather than attempting to achieve this, a method is developed which assesses each roof to discover whether it is suitable for PV installation. That is, its properties should allow the installation of at least a minimum size photovoltaic system. This contribution provides a tool to assess PV potential on city-wide scales. It develops a pixel-based approach to estimation of solar energy potential over pitched roofs. This is achieved by a combination of publicly available building outline maps and LiDAR (Light Detection and Ranging) data. These are analysed by using a simple statistical technique within a Geographical Information Systems (GIS) environment. The accuracy of the new method is known, following validation against a large housing database. The method is mathematically simple. It is suitable for estimating rooftop capacity of mixed housing type developments