A survey of occupational therapy practitioners in mental health

As part of the College of Occupational Therapists’ Mental Health Project, a survey of occupational therapists practising in mental health in the UK was conducted. A questionnaire was sent to 200 members of the Association of Occupational Therapists in Mental Health and achieved a 68.5% response rate. The majority of the 137 respondents were female, with Senior I staff between 20 and 30 years of age who were unlikely to have worked in another area forming the largest group. Although most had received additional training, they identified the need for more training, especially in aspects of occupational therapy. Most were managed by an occupational therapist and 96% received supervision. Community mental health was the most frequently reported area of work with leisure, counselling, anxiety management and creative activities the most frequently used interventions. Respondents were committed to the core principles of occupational therapy and the need to develop outcome measures and evidence based practice, and were concerned about moves to generic working. This study has provided data, not only for the position paper on the way ahead for occupational therapy in mental health but also for individual occupational therapists and managers

The power of research: exploring active older people participating in Creative Dance – challenging perceptions

This paper contributes to understanding the power of participating in work-based doctoral research after a fulltime career. It explores ways in which active older people choose to participate in “creative dance” activities and how this may benefit them. It draws upon the first author’s experiences in using her leadership, management, presenting and coaching skills creatively, having decided to leave her career as a senior manager and return to dancing and community activities “to see what life will bring”. This includes becoming involved with dance performance activities, founding/managing a grassroots dance organisation, advising, networking and participating in projects concerning ageing and creative arts, whilst undertaking a work-based doctorate programme. Adaptable methodological approaches are explored so that uncertain new ad-hoc paid and voluntary work could be incorporated within research processes. The paper outlines findings about active older people dancing and recommends a way forward on issues concerning ageing; creativity and older people’s creative dance becoming mainstream. There is an argument for the social, political and health benefits of dancing for all, especially older adults and the need for more choices so that all ages can lead meaningful purposeful lives. This research challenges the stereotypes of retiring and becoming marginalised, showing positive aspects of entering the next stage of life and later stages of work, using skills and experience in new ways to benefit others as well as oneself

Charmonium excited state spectrum in lattice QCD

Working with a large basis of covariant derivative-based meson interpolating fields we demonstrate the feasibility of reliably extracting multiple excited states using a variational method. The study is performed on quenched anisotropic lattices with clover quarks at the charm mass. We demonstrate how a knowledge of the continuum limit of a lattice interpolating field can give additional spin-assignment information, even at a single lattice spacing, via the overlap factors of interpolating field and state. Excited state masses are systematically high with respect to quark potential model predictions and, where they exist, experimental states. We conclude that this is most likely a result of the quenched approximation.Comment: Fixed typos: normalisation of chi-squared, some operator projections in appendix, missing lattice irrep tabl

Discharge coefficients for thick-plate orifices

Investigation enables more accurate prediction of coolant flows within internally cooled turbine blades and vanes. The data is applicable for predicting flows in complex flow passages

In situ N2O emissions are not mitigated by hippuric and benzoic acids under denitrifying conditions

This research was financially supported under the National Development Plan, through the Research Stimulus Fund, administered by the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (Grant numbers RSF10/RD/SC/716 and 11S138).peer-reviewedRuminant urine patches deposited onto pasture are a significant source of greenhouse gas nitrous oxide (N2O) from livestock agriculture. Increasing food demand is predicted to lead to a rise in ruminant numbers globally, which, in turn will result in elevated levels of urine-derived N2O. Therefore mitigation strategies are urgently needed. Urine contains hippuric acid and together with one of its breakdown products, benzoic acid, has previously been linked to mitigating N2O emissions from urine patches in laboratory studies. However, the sole field study to date found no effect of hippuric and benzoic acid concentration on N2O emissions. Therefore the aim of this study was to investigate the in situ effect of these urine constituents on N2O emissions under conditions conducive to denitrification losses. Unadulterated bovine urine (0 mM of hippuric acid, U) was applied, as well as urine amended with either benzoic acid (96 mM, U + BA) or varying rates of hippuric acid (8 and 82 mM, U + HA1, U + HA2). Soil inorganic nitrogen (N) and N2O fluxes were monitored over a 66 day period. Urine application resulted in elevated N2O flux for 44 days. The largest N2O fluxes accounting for between 13% (U) and 26% (U + HA1) of total loss were observed on the day of urine application. Between 0.9 and 1.3% of urine-N was lost as N2O. Cumulative N2O loss from the control was 0.3 kg N2O–N ha− 1 compared with 11, 9, 12, and 10 kg N2O–N ha− 1 for the U, U + HA1, U + HA2, and U + BA treatments, respectively. Incremental increases in urine HA or increase in BA concentrations had no effect on N2O emissions. Although simulation of dietary manipulation to reduce N2O emissions through altering individual urine constituents appears to have no effect, there may be other manipulations such as reducing N content or inclusion of synthetic inhibitory products that warrant further investigation.Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marin

College of occupational therapists: Position paper on the way ahead for research, education and practice in mental health

The future of occupational therapy in mental health has been a topic of reflection and debate. The Education and Research Board (now the Education and Practice Board) of the College of Occupational Therapists created a Working Group to develop a position paper on the way ahead for research, education and practice in mental health. Following consultation, the Working Group reviewed literature, examined current research and surveyed practitioners, managers and educators. From these findings, recommendations have been made which will lead to a firmer evidence base for the practice of occupational therapy in mental health, leading to a more effective use of the expertise of occupational therapists and an improved service for users