Comparing Learning Platform Impact on Low Vision Education for Occupational Therapists

This pilot study examines the impact of face-to-face, remote, and hybrid learning platforms on satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge-application of occupational therapy practitioners during a synchronous low vision continuing education program. Fifteen participants were divided into three groups, each corresponding to one learning platform. They engaged in two 45-min learning sessions and completed pre, post, and follow-up surveys to measure the impact of the learning platform on the dependent variables of satisfaction, confidence, and knowledge application. No significant differences were found between learning platforms for the three variables, but improvements from pre to follow-up survey were found to be significant for confidence and knowledge application for all groups. These findings indicate that similar education provided to occupational therapy practitioners may result in improved confidence and knowledge application to clinical practice from the beginning to the end of the educational program, despite the learning platform. Flexibility with online learning options increased participation and adherence rates. Synchronous remote and hybrid learning platforms may be as effective as traditional face-to-face methods, specifically with increasing practitioner confidence and knowledge application. Remote options may reduce peer interactions but increase flexibility and convenience with scheduling for program scalability and accessibility

An exploratory study of residents' perception of place image: the case of Kavala

Studies on place image have predominantly focused on the tourists’ destination image and have given limited attention to other stakeholders’ perspectives. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the notion of residents’ place image, whereby it reviews existing literature on residents’ place image in terms of whether common attributes can be identified, and examines the role of community-focused attributes in its measurement. Data collected from a sample of 481 Kavala residents (Greece) were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The study reveals that the existing measurement tools have typically emphasized destination-focused attributes and neglected community-focused attributes. This study contributes to the residents’ place image research by proposing a more holistic measurement, which consisted of four dimensions: physical appearance, community services, social environment, and entertainment opportunities. The study also offers practical insights for developing and promoting a tourist place while simultaneously enhancing its residents’ quality of life

Residents' place image: a meaningful psychographic variable for tourism segmentation?

While there has been a considerable body of research on tourists’ place image, there remains limited attention on residents’ place image, specifically, in relation to its segmentation utility. This study seeks to address this oversight by a) clustering the local residents based on the image held of a tourism place, and b) exploring the extent to which the identified image-based resident clusters share similar (dissimilar) demographic characteristics and attitude towards tourism development. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 481 residents of a Greek city. The findings support the utility of residents’ place image as a psychographic segmentation variable revealing the existence of three distinct resident groups - termed “Nature Loving”, “Apathetic” and “Advocate.” Results also suggest that these resident groups exhibit dissimilar demographic characteristics and dissimilar attitude towards tourism. In comparison with other segments, the Apathetic exhibits the least favourable image and the least supportive attitude towards tourism

An Exploratory Study of Residents’ Perception of Place Image: The Case of Kavala

Studies on place image have predominantly focused on the tourists’ destination image and have given limited attention to other stakeholders’ perspectives. This study aims to address this gap by focusing on the notion of residents’ place image, whereby it reviews existing literature on residents’ place image in terms of whether common attributes can be identified, and examines the role of community-focused attributes in its measurement. Data collected from a sample of 481 Kavala residents (Greece) were subjected to exploratory and confirmatory factor analysis. The study reveals that the existing measurement tools have typically emphasized destination-focused attributes and neglected community-focused attributes. This study contributes to the residents’ place image research by proposing a more holistic measurement, which consisted of four dimensions: physical appearance, community services, social environment, and entertainment opportunities. The study also offers practical insights for developing and promoting a tourist place while simultaneously enhancing its residents’ quality of life

Hydrogen bonding and coordination in normal and supercritical water from X-ray inelastic scattering

A direct measure of hydrogen bonding in water under conditions ranging from the normal state to the supercritical regime is derived from the Compton scattering of inelastically-scattered X-rays. First, we show that a measure of the number of electrons $n_e$ involved in hydrogen bonding at varying thermodynamic conditions can be directly obtained from Compton profile differences. Then, we use first-principles simulations to provide a connection between $n_e$ and the number of hydrogen bonds $n_{HB}$. Our study shows that over the broad range studied the relationship between $n_e$ and $n_{HB}$ is linear, allowing for a direct experimental measure of bonding and coordination in water. In particular, the transition to supercritical state is characterized by a sharp increase in the number of water monomers, but also displays a significant number of residual dimers and trimers.Comment: 14 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl

Multiple Factorizations of Bivariate Linear Partial Differential Operators

We study the case when a bivariate Linear Partial Differential Operator (LPDO) of orders three or four has several different factorizations. We prove that a third-order bivariate LPDO has a first-order left and right factors such that their symbols are co-prime if and only if the operator has a factorization into three factors, the left one of which is exactly the initial left factor and the right one is exactly the initial right factor. We show that the condition that the symbols of the initial left and right factors are co-prime is essential, and that the analogous statement "as it is" is not true for LPDOs of order four. Then we consider completely reducible LPDOs, which are defined as an intersection of principal ideals. Such operators may also be required to have several different factorizations. Considering all possible cases, we ruled out some of them from the consideration due to the first result of the paper. The explicit formulae for the sufficient conditions for the complete reducibility of an LPDO were found also

Mouse frontal cortex mediates additive multisensory decisions

The brain can combine auditory and visual information to localize objects. However, the cortical substrates underlying audiovisual integration remain uncertain. Here, we show that mouse frontal cortex combines auditory and visual evidence; that this combination is additive, mirroring behavior; and that it evolves with learning. We trained mice in an audiovisual localization task. Inactivating frontal cortex impaired responses to either sensory modality, while inactivating visual or parietal cortex affected only visual stimuli. Recordings from >14,000 neurons indicated that after task learning, activity in the anterior part of frontal area MOs (secondary motor cortex) additively encodes visual and auditory signals, consistent with the mice's behavioral strategy. An accumulator model applied to these sensory representations reproduced the observed choices and reaction times. These results suggest that frontal cortex adapts through learning to combine evidence across sensory cortices, providing a signal that is transformed into a binary decision by a downstream accumulator

Seasonal effects on depression risk and suicidal symptoms in postpartum women

Background: Postpartum depression (PPD) is the most common complication of childbirth. Suicide is a leading cause of maternal death in the first postpartum year. Depressed mothers often have suicidal ideation (SI). Depression and suicidality may vary across the seasons. Previous studies of seasonality and PPD were relatively small or encumbered by study design constraints. We examined the possible relationship between seasonality, depression, and SI in 9,339 new mothers. Methods: From 2006 to 2010, the investigators screened women within 4-6 weeks postpartum with the Edinburgh Postnatal Depression Scale (EPDS). We used spectral analysis to explore seasonal variation in risk for depression and suicidality. Results: The study team screened 9,339 new mothers, of whom 1,316 (14%) women had positive depression scores (EPDS≥10) which suggest PPD risk; 294 (3%) women had SI (item 10≥1). A positive EPDS was associated significantly with SI. PPD risk varied significantly across 12-months-risk was highest in December. We detected no seasonal variation in SI. Conclusions: Effects of seasonal light variation may contribute to increased risk for depressive symptoms. Suicidality could be related to maternal depression but not seasonal variation. Depression and Anxiety, 2011. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc. © 2011 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Behavioral origin of sound-evoked activity in mouse visual cortex

Sensory cortices can be affected by stimuli of multiple modalities and are thus increasingly thought to be multisensory. For instance, primary visual cortex (V1) is influenced not only by images but also by sounds. Here we show that the activity evoked by sounds in V1, measured with Neuropixels probes, is stereotyped across neurons and even across mice. It is independent of projections from auditory cortex and resembles activity evoked in the hippocampal formation, which receives little direct auditory input. Its low-dimensional nature starkly contrasts the high-dimensional code that V1 uses to represent images. Furthermore, this sound-evoked activity can be precisely predicted by small body movements that are elicited by each sound and are stereotyped across trials and mice. Thus, neural activity that is apparently multisensory may simply arise from low-dimensional signals associated with internal state and behavior

Residents’ Place Image: A Meaningful Psychographic Variable for Tourism Segmentation?

While there has been a considerable body of research on tourists’ place image, there remains limited attention on residents’ place image, specifically, in relation to its segmentation utility. This study seeks to address this oversight by a) clustering the local residents based on the image held of a tourism place, and b) exploring the extent to which the identified image-based resident clusters share similar (dissimilar) demographic characteristics and attitude towards tourism development. Empirical analysis was based on a sample of 481 residents of a Greek city. The findings support the utility of residents’ place image as a psychographic segmentation variable revealing the existence of three distinct resident groups - termed “Nature Loving”, “Apathetic” and “Advocate.” Results also suggest that these resident groups exhibit dissimilar demographic characteristics and dissimilar attitude towards tourism. In comparison with other segments, the Apathetic exhibits the least favourable image and the least supportive attitude towards tourism