Performance evaluation for prescription of assistive technology devices

Introdução: A indicação e implementação da Tecnologia Assistiva (TA), quando realizada de forma integrada, pode auxiliar na prescrição de dispositivos que favoreçam a maior participação nas atividades cotidianas, atenuando o impacto imposto pelas limitações funcionais de indivíduo com deficiência física . Objetivo: verificar as contribuições do uso da Medida Canadense de Desempenho Ocupacional (COPM), fundamentada na prática centrada no cliente, no momento da indicação de TA. Procedimentos metodológicos: Trata-se de um estudo descritivo transversal realizado com 31 indivíduos com deficiência física de um hospital público do Distrito Federal. A coleta de dados ocorreu por meio da aplicação da avaliação COPM, sendo realizada a categorização das TA a partir do levantamento das áreas de desempenho mais comprometidas. Resultados: Do total de participantes, 51,6 % (n=16) solicitaram alguma indicação e/ou confecção de TA. A área de autocuidado foi apontada como a mais comprometida (96,7%), concentrando também, maior número de solicitações de TA. Conclusão: Este estudo pode contribuir com as pesquisas que investigam o uso de avaliações para a indicação de dispositivos e, espera-se que novas pesquisas possam dar continuidade a este processo, priorizando a participação ativa do indivíduo no momento de avaliar as necessidades do uso da TA.Introduction: The prescription and implementation of Assistive Technology (AT), when done correctly, can alleviate the impact functional limitations have on physically disabled individuals, providing them with greater participation in everyday activities. Objective: To verify the contributions of using the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM), which is focused on the client’s performance, when prescribing the use of AT. Methods: This is a research of descriptive transversal character, carried out with 31 patients from a public hospital in the Federal District. Data collection was carried out through the application of the COPM evaluation, and the study of the most compromised performance areas was useful for the categorization of the Assistive Technology devices. Results: From the total of participants, 51.6% (n=16) asked for indication and/or production of an AT device. The self-care area was the most compromised (96.7%), and also had the most requests for AT devices. Conclusion: This study can contribute to studies that investigate the use of evaluations for the prescription of devices. We hope that new researches can give this process continuity, prioritizing an active participation of the client when evaluating the need for an AT device

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear un derstanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5–7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8–11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world’s most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepre sented in biodiversity databases.13–15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may elim inate pieces of the Amazon’s biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological com munities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple or ganism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region’s vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most ne glected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lostinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Pervasive gaps in Amazonian ecological research

Biodiversity loss is one of the main challenges of our time,1,2 and attempts to address it require a clear understanding of how ecological communities respond to environmental change across time and space.3,4 While the increasing availability of global databases on ecological communities has advanced our knowledge of biodiversity sensitivity to environmental changes,5,6,7 vast areas of the tropics remain understudied.8,9,10,11 In the American tropics, Amazonia stands out as the world's most diverse rainforest and the primary source of Neotropical biodiversity,12 but it remains among the least known forests in America and is often underrepresented in biodiversity databases.13,14,15 To worsen this situation, human-induced modifications16,17 may eliminate pieces of the Amazon's biodiversity puzzle before we can use them to understand how ecological communities are responding. To increase generalization and applicability of biodiversity knowledge,18,19 it is thus crucial to reduce biases in ecological research, particularly in regions projected to face the most pronounced environmental changes. We integrate ecological community metadata of 7,694 sampling sites for multiple organism groups in a machine learning model framework to map the research probability across the Brazilian Amazonia, while identifying the region's vulnerability to environmental change. 15%–18% of the most neglected areas in ecological research are expected to experience severe climate or land use changes by 2050. This means that unless we take immediate action, we will not be able to establish their current status, much less monitor how it is changing and what is being lost

Characterisation of microbial attack on archaeological bone

As part of an EU funded project to investigate the factors influencing bone preservation in the archaeological record, more than 250 bones from 41 archaeological sites in five countries spanning four climatic regions were studied for diagenetic alteration. Sites were selected to cover a range of environmental conditions and archaeological contexts. Microscopic and physical (mercury intrusion porosimetry) analyses of these bones revealed that the majority (68%) had suffered microbial attack. Furthermore, significant differences were found between animal and human bone in both the state of preservation and the type of microbial attack present. These differences in preservation might result from differences in early taphonomy of the bones. © 2003 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved