Daily occupations among asylum seekers- Experience, performance and perception

Asylum seekers often find themselves in a situation where the structure and content of daily occupations have been disrupted and they might have limited access to paid work and education. Studies have shown that asylum seekers experience occupational depri- vation and a change in daily occupations which might even influence their identity. Such deprivation can eventually lead to dissatisfaction with everyday life and to occupational dysfunction, i.e. a decline in ADL ability. Asylum seekers are a group who are more likely to suffer from health problems than the background population. Especially torture survivors suffer from ill health. Pain and psychological symptoms are among the most frequent health issues for both asylum seekers and torture survivors and may cause occupation-related problems. The overarching aim of this thesis was to investigate how staying in an asylum centre influenced occupations on three levels – the experience of occupational deprivation, satisfaction with daily occupations and performance of ADL tasks and whether occupational satisfaction and performance changed over a ten month period. As there are often torture survivors among asylum seekers, another aim was to assess whether torture had an influence on the occupational satisfaction and performance, and whether this had changed after ten months. Forty-three asylum seekers from Afghanistan, Iran and Syria participated at baseline and ten months later 17 were available for inclusion in follow-up studies. Study I showed that the asylum seekers experienced occupational deprivation during detention, and had trouble maintaining former occupations due to limited access to activities. The results in Studies II-IV showed a high prevalence of torture survivors, high ratings of distress and low ratings of general well-being and health, all of which had associations to occupational satisfaction, activity level and occupational performance. Torture did not appear to have an influence on satisfaction with daily occupations, but physical torture could be a predictor of decline in ADL motor skills (Study III). On arrival the participants had difficulties performing ADL tasks and expressed low satisfaction with daily occupations. Ten months later there was a statistically and clinically significant decline in ADL performance, although not in satisfaction with daily occupations and activity level. A significant decline was also seen regarding self-rated health measures. However, there was no difference between tortured and non-tortured asylum seekers regarding ADL ability and self-rated health at baseline. Due to dropout at follow-up and a prevalence of torture survivors, this analysis could not be performed at the follow-up. 13 This thesis points at a need for developing adequate occupation-focused rehabilita- tion programmes for asylum seekers and torture survivors, in order to enable occupa- tion and prevent development of ill health for this specific group

Psychometric evaluation of the Danish version of Satisfaction with Daily Occupations (SDO).

Abstract Aims: The Satisfaction with Daily Occupations (SDO) scale assesses satisfaction within the domains of work, leisure, domestic tasks, and self-care. The aim was to investigate the psychometric properties of the Danish version of the SDO when used with asylum seekers. Methods: The participants were 93 Danes without known ill health and 43 asylum seekers. They completed the SDO and rated their perceived health, activity level, and general satisfaction with daily occupations. Translation into Danish and back-translation into Swedish was made by professional interpreters. Results: Internal consistency was α = 0.75 for the Danish sample and α = 0.79 for the asylum seekers. The SDO distinguished between asylum seekers and the Danish sample, suggesting criterion validity. Concurrent validity, analysed against general satisfaction with daily occupations, was indicated for both samples. Discriminant validity was indicated against self-rated health for both samples and against activity level for the Danish sample. There was, however, a correlation of 0.65 between the SDO satisfaction score and activity level for the asylum seekers. Conclusion: The SDO exhibited satisfactory internal consistency and criterion and concurrent validity. The findings regarding discriminant validity were somewhat inconclusive. The Danish SDO may be regarded as psychometrically sound but further psychometric testing is needed

Influence of a pulsed laser regime on surface finish induced by thedirect metal deposition process on a Ti64 alloy

tThe direct metal deposition (DMD) laser technique is a free-form metal deposition process, which allowsgenerating a prototype or small series of near net-shape structures. Despite numerous advantages, oneof the most critical issues of the technique is that produced pieces have a deleterious surface finish whichrequires post machining steps. Following recent investigations where the use of laser pulses instead of acontinuous regime was successful to obtain smoother DMD structures, this paper relates investigationson the influence of a pulsed laser regime on the surface finish induced by DMD on a widely used titaniumalloy (Ti64). Findings confirm that using high mean powers improves surface finish but also indicate aspecific effect of the laser operating mode: using a quasi-continuous pulsed mode instead of fully-cw laserheating is an efficient way for surface finish improvement. For similar average powers, the use of a pulsedmode with large duty cycles is clearly shown to provide smoothening effects. The formation of larger andstable melt pools having less pronounced lateral curvatures, and the reduction of thermal gradients andMarangoni flow in the external side of the fusion zone were assumed to be the main reasons for surfacefinish improvement. Additional results indicate that combining the benefits from a pulsed regime and auniform laser irradiation does not provide further reduction of surface roughness

Influence of various process conditions on surface finishes induced by the direct metal deposition laser technique on a Ti–6Al–4V alloy

The direct metal deposition (DMD) with laser is a free-form metal deposition process for manufacturing dense pieces, which allows generating a prototype or small series of near net-shape structures. One of the most critical issues is that produced pieces have a deleterious surface finish which systematically requires post machining steps. This problem has never been fully addressed before. The present work describes investigations on the DMD process, using an Yb-YAG disk laser, and a widely used titanium alloy (Ti–6Al–4V) to understand the influence of the main process parameters on the surface finish quality. The focus of our work was: (1) to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for deleterious surface finishes, (2) to propose different experimental solutions for improving surface finish. In order to understand the physical mechanisms responsible for deleterious surface finishes, we have carried out: (1) a precise characterization of the laser beam and the powder stream; (2) a large number of multi-layered walls using different process parameters (P(W), V(m/min), Dm (g/min), Gaussian or uniform beam distribution); (3) a real time fast camera analysis of melt pool dynamics and melt-pool – powder stream coupling; (4) a characterization of wall morphologies versus process parameters using 2D and 3D profilometry. The results confirm that surface degradation depends on two distinct aspects: the sticking of nonmelted or partially melted particles on the free surfaces, and the formation of menisci with more or less pronounced curvature radii. Among other aspects, a reduction of layer thickness and an increase of melt-pool volumes to favor re-melting processes are shown to have a beneficial effect on roughness parameters. Last, a simple analytical model was proposed to correlate melt-pool geometries to resulting surface finishes

FRA PRIMITIV TANKE TIL MAGISK TÆNKNING: Lucien Lévy-Bruhl og begrebet „participation*1

Lucien Lévy-Bruhl og begrebet „participation*