Relating the Makerspace Movement to DIY Adaptive Equipment in an Online Intervention Course for Adults with Physical Disabilities

Many occupational therapy programs use hybrid instruction methods that include virtual learning. To ensure active learning techniques, instructors must alter and adapt traditional instruction methods to the virtual environment. This article explores the use of a virtual Makerspace to create adaptive equipment used throughout online intervention course experiences. Thirty-seven first year occupational therapy students participated in an exclusively online, synchronous course focusing on interventions for adults with physical disabilities. A Makerspace was created to allow students to have access to adaptive equipment (AE) and teach students how to fabricate low-cost AE for future clients. During class, guided instruction was provided to fabricate a sock aide and a universal cuff. This AE was then used throughout the course to provide hands on learning opportunities. Summative assessments were used at midterm and at the conclusion of the course. Students noted enjoyment and preference for hands on activities such as Makerspace, acknowledging how this connected with roleplaying and client interactions. Students were observably engaged throughout the course and integrated AE into learning scenarios throughout. Student feedback supported the use of a virtual Makerspace and reinforces the notion of the maker movement as shared ideas and space to build community. This not only provides a learning opportunity but offers connection in virtual environments. Makerspace activities can also be used to build competence and confidence in OT intervention. A Makerspace is an active learning opportunity that can be successful in person or virtual environments

Take-off Characteristics for NACA 4612 Aerofoil in a Twin-Wing Configuration With Optimum Angles of Attack

Unmanned Aerial Vehicles are used generally at low levels and speeds. The research reported in this article investigates the possible use of twin-wing designs for higher altitudes with a focus on the possible lift capable for either short runways or high payloads. The wing aerofoil and unique Angles of Attack, AoA, are set 5o on the upper wing and 10o on the lower. There is a positive upper wing stagger of 50% of the chord length at height separation of 1 chord. These parameters have been established from previous research and this research investigates how they generate lift at take-off and what lift and drag properties exist. It also determines if these parameters are in-line with those for high altitude flight

Micronutrient deficiencies in Manitoba crops

Non-Peer Reviewe

Multi-Choice Questions and Their Problems When Used for Assessment of Aircraft Engineers Education

Licensed aircraft engineers under the European Aviation Safety Agency, EASA, undertake academic training to complement their practical and type specific studies. These exams are mainly Multi-Choice Questions, MCQ, and four 20-minute essays. The MCQ exams are as few as 16 questions to a maximum of 140 questions. A score of 75% is needed to pass each exam, and each question has three possible answers. This authors of this paper reviews the theory and design of the MCQ and asks if the assumptions are valid and that it achieves the academic level assumed for engineers who will be maintaining some of the most complex system in the world, and the safety of passengers. It will argue that there are failings and how this can be address, in particular, that repeated tests should have a higher pass level

Comparison of combination methods to create calibrated ensemble forecasts for seasonal influenza in the U.S.

The characteristics of influenza seasons vary substantially from year to year, posing challenges for public health preparation and response. Influenza forecasting is used to inform seasonal outbreak response, which can in turn potentially reduce the impact of an epidemic. The United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, in collaboration with external researchers, has run an annual prospective influenza forecasting exercise, known as the FluSight challenge. Uniting theoretical results from the forecasting literature with domain-specific forecasts from influenza outbreaks, we applied parametric forecast combination methods that simultaneously optimize model weights and calibrate the ensemble via a beta transformation and made adjustments to the methods to reduce their complexity. We used the beta-transformed linear pool, the finite beta mixture model, and their equal weight adaptations to produce ensemble forecasts retrospectively for the 2016/2017, 2017/2018, and 2018/2019 influenza seasons in the U.S. We compared their performance to methods that were used in the FluSight challenge to produce the FluSight Network ensemble, namely the equally weighted linear pool and the linear pool. Ensemble forecasts produced from methods with a beta transformation were shown to outperform those from the equally weighted linear pool and the linear pool for all week-ahead targets across in the test seasons based on average log scores. We observed improvements in overall accuracy despite the beta-transformed linear pool or beta mixture methods\u27 modest under-prediction across all targets and seasons. Combination techniques that explicitly adjust for known calibration issues in linear pooling should be considered to improve probabilistic scores in outbreak settings

Concordance of Illness Representations: The Key to Improving Care of Medically Unexplained Symptoms

How can effective patient-provider relationships be developed when the underlying cause of the health condition is not well understood and becomes a point of controversy between patient and provider? This problem underlies the difficulty in treating medically unexplained symptoms and syndromes (MUS; e.g., fibromyalgia, chronic fatigue syndrome), which primary care providers consider to be among the most difficult conditions to treat.1 This difficulty extends to the patient-provider relationship which is characterized by discord over MUS.1 In this article, we argue that the key to improving the patient provider relationship is for the patient and provider to develop congruent illness perceptions about MUS

Innovating Pedagogy 2015: Open University Innovation Report 4

This series of reports explores new forms of teaching, learning and assessment for an interactive world, to guide teachers and policy makers in productive innovation. This fourth report proposes ten innovations that are already in currency but have not yet had a profound influence on education. To produce it, a group of academics at the Institute of Educational Technology in The Open University collaborated with researchers from the Center for Technology in Learning at SRI International. We proposed a long list of new educational terms, theories, and practices. We then pared these down to ten that have the potential to provoke major shifts in educational practice, particularly in post-school education. Lastly, we drew on published and unpublished writings to compile the ten sketches of new pedagogies that might transform education. These are summarised below in an approximate order of immediacy and timescale to widespread implementation