Exploring evidence-based practice by occupational therapists when working with people with apraxia

Short Report Evidence in the literature supports a number of interventions that occupational therapists may utilise when working with people with apraxia, although there is no gold standard approach. A large-scale survey (n = 304, 36% response rate) was conducted with the membership of the College of Occupational Therapists Specialist Section – Neurological Practice to explore therapists’ understanding of apraxia and to provide a benchmark of current practice. Consensus was found in the majority of belief statements regarding the condition, although the respondents were unclear about the relationship between cognition and apraxia. When the therapists were asked to indicate their choice and use of interventions for apraxia, the results showed that the main consideration was the context in which a person performs activities, with moderate use of specific techniques including errorless learning and chaining. The results are related to the evidence base and the implications for occupational therapy practice and education are discussed

My Heart\u27s To-Night In Texas : By The Silvery Rio Grande

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2184/thumbnail.jp

My Heart\u27s To-Night In Texas : By The Silvery Rio Grande

https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mmb-vp/2185/thumbnail.jp

Data-Mining a Large Digital Sky Survey: From the Challenges to the Scientific Results

The analysis and an efficient scientific exploration of the Digital Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (DPOSS) represents a major technical challenge. The input data set consists of 3 Terabytes of pixel information, and contains a few billion sources. We describe some of the specific scientific problems posed by the data, including searches for distant quasars and clusters of galaxies, and the data-mining techniques we are exploring in addressing them. Machine-assisted discovery methods may become essential for the analysis of such multi-Terabyte data sets. New and future approaches involve unsupervised classification and clustering analysis in the Giga-object data space, including various Bayesian techniques. In addition to the searches for known types of objects in this data base, these techniques may also offer the possibility of discovering previously unknown, rare types of astronomical objects.Comment: Invited paper, to appear in Applications of Digital Image Processing XX, ed. A. Tescher, Proc. S.P.I.E. vol. 3164, in press; 10 pages, a self-contained TeX file, and 3 separate postscript figure

Using machine learning techniques to automate sky survey catalog generation

We describe the application of machine classification techniques to the development of an automated tool for the reduction of a large scientific data set. The 2nd Palomar Observatory Sky Survey provides comprehensive photographic coverage of the northern celestial hemisphere. The photographic plates are being digitized into images containing on the order of 10(exp 7) galaxies and 10(exp 8) stars. Since the size of this data set precludes manual analysis and classification of objects, our approach is to develop a software system which integrates independently developed techniques for image processing and data classification. Image processing routines are applied to identify and measure features of sky objects. Selected features are used to determine the classification of each object. GID3* and O-BTree, two inductive learning techniques, are used to automatically learn classification decision trees from examples. We describe the techniques used, the details of our specific application, and the initial encouraging results which indicate that our approach is well-suited to the problem. The benefits of the approach are increased data reduction throughput, consistency of classification, and the automated derivation of classification rules that will form an objective, examinable basis for classifying sky objects. Furthermore, astronomers will be freed from the tedium of an intensely visual task to pursue more challenging analysis and interpretation problems given automatically cataloged data

A dyadic perspective on retailer-supplier relationships through the lens of social capital

Social capital theory has received increasing attention as a lens through which to examine supply chain relationships and the value creation process. Despite the growing application of social capital and its three dimensions, namely cognitive, structural and relational capital, to inter-organizational research, few studies in reality have taken a dyadic perspective. Using a paired sample of retailer-supplier relationships from Korean fast-moving consumer goods sector, we explore the configuration of social capital dimensions, and the impact on strategic and operational performance. The results suggest three clusters of relationships, which differ significantly on at least two of the dimensions of social capital. Furthermore, these clusters show considerable differences with respect to both operational and strategic performance, particularly at the lower levels of social capital. We also examine the impact of a disparity between the retailer and supplier with respect to different dimensions of social capital, henceforth called dissonance. Of the four clusters that emerge, interestingly, only dissonance on the cognitive dimension is related to lower operational and strategic relationship performance. In investigating the implications of dissonance for the retailer and supplier individually, our results suggest that performance differs based on the magnitude and direction of the dissonance. Our results show that consequences of having social capital or not are not necessarily the same for the retailer and the supplier

Big Data and the Transformation of Operations Models: A Framework and A New Research Agenda

Big Data has been hailed as the ‘next big thing’ to drive business value, transform organisations and industries, and “reveal secrets to those with the humility, willingness and tools to listen” (Mayer-Schönberger and Cukier, 2013: 5). However, despite growing interest from organisations across industry sectors, Big Data applications appear to have concentrated on delivering incremental change and operational efficiency improvements, with little evidence on using Big Data to facilitate strategic, transformational change. In this paper, we explore how Big Data is actually being can be used across different sectors in leading organisations and examine the ways in which it is fostering change in the core operations models of organisations. A definition of ‘operations model’ is developed and the core components dimensions of an operations model are then examined, namely capacity, supply network, process and technology, and people development and organisation. Through a series of case studies, we examine the role of Big Data in affecting some, or all, of these components dimensions in order to generate value for the organisation by optimising, adapting or radically transforming the operations model. Following our analysis, we develop a tentative framework which can be used both for understanding how Big Data affects operations models, and for planning changes in operations models through Big Data. We set out a new research agenda to systematically understand the full potential of Big Data in transforming operations models

Protocol: precision engineering of plant gene loci by homologous recombination cloning in Escherichia coli.

Plant genome sequence data now provide opportunities to conduct molecular genetic studies at the level of the whole gene locus and above. Such studies will be greatly facilitated by adopting and developing further the new generation of genetic engineering tools, based on homologous recombination cloning in Escherichia coli, which are free from the constraints imposed by the availability of suitably positioned restriction sites. Here we describe the basis for homologous recombination cloning in E. coli, the available tools and resources, together with a protocol for long range cloning and manipulation of an Arabidopsis thaliana gene locus, to create constructs co-ordinately driven by locus-specific regulatory elements.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Governing Embedded Partner Networks: Certification and Partner Communities in the IT Sector

Purpose The complexity of supplier-partner networks in the Information Technology (IT) sector where large suppliers utilize thousands of authorized partners, requires that organizations reconsider their approach to governing and managing the relationships involved. Traditional dyadic approaches to governance are likely to prove inadequate. This paper investigates the relationship between network governance mechanisms and relationship performance. Specifically, we examine the contingent effect of certification of partners and the use of partner communities (as formal and informal mechanisms of network governance, respectively), on complex and embedded networks of relationships. Design/methodology/approach A model examining the effect of formal and informal network governance on the relationship between embeddedness (structural and relational) and relationship performance is developed. Data was collected from a sample of partners of leading IT suppliers in the United Kingdom and Ireland. Three-way interactions assess the contingent effect of certification and partner communities on the relationship between embeddedness and relational performance. Findings Results support the use of a combination of certification and partner communities to strengthen the link between network structure (structural embeddedness) and relational embeddedness, as well as relationship performance. Certification requires the sharing of explicit knowledge with partners whereas partner communities aid the creation and dissemination of more tacit, contextual knowledge. Furthermore, partner communities reinforce positive perceptions of fairness in suppliers’ network management practices, overcoming any perceptions of lock-in or coercive control that certification may suggest. Practical implications Certification, despite all its procedural and reputational benefits, damages partner relationships and needs to be supported by partner communities, which themselves show particularly strong benefits in enhancing network relationships. Originality/value Despite the emerging prevalence of certification and partner communities in business-to-business relationships, to date there is a paucity of research on their effects on partner relationships and performance. Organizations with an extensive network of similar partners may suffer network overload. This research shows that such organizations can manage their partner network more effectively through network governance mechanisms, thereby addressing the challenge of overload

Suppression of quantum oscillations and the dependence on site energies in electronic excitation transfer in the Fenna-Matthews-Olson trimer

Energy transfer in the photosynthetic complex of the Green Sulfur Bacteria known as the Fenna-Matthews-Olson (FMO) complex is studied theoretically taking all three subunits (monomers) of the FMO trimer and the recently found eighth bacteriochlorophyll (BChl) molecule into account. We find that in all considered cases there is very little transfer between the monomers. Since it is believed that the eighth BChl is located near the main light harvesting antenna we look at the differences in transfer between the situation when BChl 8 is initially excited and the usually considered case when BChl 1 or 6 is initially excited. We find strong differences in the transfer dynamics, both qualitatively and quantitatively. When the excited state dynamics is initialized at site eight of the FMO complex, we see a slow exponential-like decay of the excitation. This is in contrast to the oscillations and a relatively fast transfer that occurs when only seven sites or initialization at sites 1 and 6 is considered. Additionally we show that differences in the values of the electronic transition energies found in the literature lead to a large difference in the transfer dynamics