A net-zero framework for farms: a business plan

With current agricultural methods causing an abundance of environmental problems, LDEC, LLC is an environmental consulting firm created to address these environmental impacts in the Southeast region of the United States. Examining an industry overview of small dairy farming (a dairy farm having fewer than 500 cows) in the state of Tennessee, LDEC, LLC looks to potentially impact the farming industry on a larger scale. The research for LDEC, LLC is centered on utilizing net-zero technologies in order to address energy usage, water consumption, and waste build-up on farms and reduce their side effects. The success of net-zero initiatives in office and residential settings provides a positive outlook for the use of these systems on farms, but the cost to implement net-zero technologies may not be economical for small farmers. By examining the current status of the dairy industry throughout the United States and Tennessee, LDEC, LLC is able to begin determining if net-zero initiatives are transferable to a farming environment

Breaking the Eviction Cycle: Rethinking Design in an Urban Homeless Campsite

In Knoxville, TN, in an area of decaying rail-based industry close to a cluster of homeless services, people experiencing homelessness, who cannot or will not use the shelter system, generate outdoor campsites. Every 6 or 8 months, local authorities evict the campers due to complaints of trash accumulation or disturbances. The homeless campers then move to new locations, and the cycle begins anew. Homeless service providers and policy makers discuss what to do about the perceived problem, but they do not condone the urban campsites or ask the campers what they need to improve their situations. This is a “wicked problem” as described by Horst Rittel and Melvin Webber – a problem that involves multiple stakeholders with competing agendas and thus has no single or easily-identifiable solution. I elected to investigate the role of the designer in this problem by exploring community-based design as a pathway to mutually satisfying solutions. My research, through ethnographic study and community-based design, revealed that the transitional spaces homeless urban campers generate are important for their expression of agency and autonomy. They desire to feel that they have the freedom to make their own decisions. Therefore, offering decision-making power by allowing urban campsites as transitional spaces for members of the homeless community is an important part of addressing homelessness. This work is an argument for looking at homelessness in a new way and a description of my experience exploring community-based design with members of the homeless community. I intend to generate thoughtfulness among design professionals in situations where they may encounter homelessness in its various manifestations. My analysis may serve as guidance for those who would undertake similar processes

Examination, Exertion, and Exemplification: Wives of Anglican Clergymen in Jane Austen’s Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park

Jane Austen’s Anglicanism shaped her works, especially her novels Northanger Abbey, Sense and Sensibility, and Mansfield Park. Austen is didactic regarding the future of the clergy of the Church of England through the clergymen in these novels (Henry Tilney, Edward Ferrars, and Edmund Bertram, respectively), but her didacticism is clearest through these characters’ wives, Catherine Morland, Elinor Dashwood, and Fanny Price. Mansfield Park and the marriage of Edmund and Fanny are the most explicit exploration of Austen’s view of what was necessary for the future of the Church as it continued changing in the nineteenth century

Playing the Game of Health: Best Practices for Health Optimization Program in a Worksite Setting, with Case Study of a Real World Example

While there have been multiple efforts to improve the health of the population, and simultaneously reducing the cost of healthcare and improving the quality of care, there is no single model for improving population health. Worksite health is a microcosm of the health of the nation and the results of been mixed. This paper considers the best practices associated with key worksite health. These best practices include the type of worksite intervention, attention to health literacy, engagement, onsite clinics, coaching and care plans, a digital platform, social support, population health, performance excellence, performance improvement, and an evaluation strategy. While each best practice is considered important, very few programs provide all of the components, and most emphasize one component over the other. A gap in the literature, therefore, is how these best practices can be combined into a single program. Following the review of literature of best practices, a case study, of the program design, of a comprehensive worksite program was conducted to demonstrate how these best practices are operationalized. The Game of Health, is a cognitive based program that focuses on stress management and behavior change in a program that provides onsite programs, a medical clinic, and a digital platform

Playing the game of health: Best practices for health optimization in a worksite setting with a case study of a real world example

While there have been multiple efforts to improve the health of the population, and simultaneously reducing the cost of healthcare and improving the quality of care, there is no single model for improving population health. Worksite health is a microcosm of the health of the nation and the results of been mixed. This paper considers the best practices associated with key worksite health. These best practices include the type of worksite intervention, attention to health literacy, engagement, onsite clinics, coaching and care plans, a digital platform, social support, population health, performance excellence, performance improvement, and an evaluation strategy. While each best practice is considered important, very few programs provide all of the components, and most emphasize one component over the other. A gap in the literature, therefore, is how these best practices can be combined into a single program. Following the review of literature of best practices, a case study, of the program design, of a comprehensive worksite program was conducted to demonstrate how these best practices are operationalized. The Game of Health, is a cognitive based program that focuses on stress management and behavior change in a program that provides onsite programs, a medical clinic, and a digital platform

Playing the game of health: Best practices for health optimization in a worksite setting with a case study of a real world example

While there have been multiple efforts to improve the health of the population, and simultaneously reducing the cost of healthcare and improving the quality of care, there is no single model for improving population health. Worksite health is a microcosm of the health of the nation and the results of been mixed. This paper considers the best practices associated with key worksite health. These best practices include the type of worksite intervention, attention to health literacy, engagement, onsite clinics, coaching and care plans, a digital platform, social support, population health, performance excellence, performance improvement, and an evaluation strategy. While each best practice is considered important, very few programs provide all of the components, and most emphasize one component over the other. A gap in the literature, therefore, is how these best practices can be combined into a single program. Following the review of literature of best practices, a case study, of the program design, of a comprehensive worksite program was conducted to demonstrate how these best practices are operationalized. The Game of Health, is a cognitive based program that focuses on stress management and behavior change in a program that provides onsite programs, a medical clinic, and a digital platform

Exploring the Use of Ecological Momentary Assessment within a Telehealth Intervention for Families of Children with Autism

Background. The purpose of this study was to explore the use of ecological momentary assessment (EMA) to measure parent self-efficacy and stress throughout a 9-week occupation-based coaching telehealth intervention for families of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Methods. The participants included seven families of children with ASD 2 to 6 years of age. The parents were sent emails to gather EMA measures weekly during the intervention. We used percentages to examine response rates to EMA surveys and a mixed-model regression to examine changes in parent-self efficacy and stress during the intervention. Results. The parents responded to 78.57% of EMA requests, with five parents completing all measures. Using mixed-model regression, findings suggest that EMA captured a significant increase in parenting self-efficacy (p \u3c .01) and a decrease in parenting stress (p \u3c .05) over the course of the intervention. Conclusion. EMA may be a useful method to gather measures of parent factors, and preliminary findings suggest that EMA may be an innovative way to measure outcomes of occupational therapy telehealth interventions for families of children with ASD

Parent Perspectives of an Occupational Therapy Telehealth Intervention

Occupational therapy services delivered via telehealth can support families of young children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in everyday routines such as mealtime, bedtime, and play. The aim of the current study was to understand the lived experiences of parents who participated in a 12-week, telehealth-delivered occupational therapy intervention (Occupation-Based Coaching). We used semi-structured interviews and subsequent thematic content analysis to understand how parents perceived the mechanism of service delivery (i.e., videoconferencing) and the content of the intervention. Themes that emerged from the data included Compatibility with Everyday Life, Collaborative Relationship, and Parent Empowerment. Parents expressed how telehealth fit within their daily lives, how telehealth supported a collaborative relationship with the occupational therapist, and how the content of the intervention built a sense of empowerment

Human indoor climate preferences approximate specific geographies

Root mean square error analysis (between indoor and outdoor climates) and results for temperature and vapor pressur