Current Issues Bulletin: The Future of Inclusive Programs in Higher Education in the UK for Students with Intellectual Disabilities: Theory, Praxis, and Paradigms

Universities in the UK are currently inaccessible to students with intellectual disabilities, although alternative non-matriculating programs for these students are growing throughout the rest of the world. The UK is far behind in this international movement although leading in the field of inclusive research. Incorporating student voices, this article explores the many benefits of inclusion in universities for these students as well as consequently for an academic community as a whole. It discusses stumbling blocks toward this aim, including ableism, and lists a number of potential models of inclusion that universities could adopt. Finally, it describes the goals and mission of the advocacy group IHE (UK) and outlines steps that have been taken so far to rectify this situation

Telehealth for the Provision of Occupational Therapy: Reflections on Experiences During the COVID-19 Pandemic

During the COVID-19 pandemic of 2020, healthcare professionals worldwide abruptly shifted from an in-person to a telehealth service delivery model. Many did so without advanced training or preparation. This cross-sectional study explored how occupational therapy practitioners (OTPs) used telehealth during the COVID-19 pandemic, and whether they found it to be an effective service delivery model that should be a permanent option for providing occupational therapy services. An online survey was disseminated; it included Likert scale questions, multiple option questions, and open-ended questions regarding telehealth use during the COVID-19 pandemic. Of the 230 respondents, 176 (77%) support telehealth as a substitute for in-person services; 179 (78%) support telehealth as a permanent option for occupational therapy service delivery. This information lends support to the uninterrupted use of telehealth by OTPs when government emergency orders in response to COVID-19 expire

Book Reviews

Reviews of the following books: Joe Scott, The Woodsman-Songmaker by Edward D. Ives; Legacy of a Lifetime: The Story of Baxter State Park by John W. Hakola; General William King: Merchant, Shipbuilder, and Maine\u27s First Governor by Marion Jaques Smith; Picture History of New England Passenger Vessels by W. Bartlett Cram; Colonial Massachusetts: A History by Benjamin Labaree

Comparison of a dietary record using reported portion size versus standard portion size for assessing nutrient intake

Objective: Because the percentage of missing portion sizes was large in the Aerobics Center Longitudinal Study (ACLS), careful consideration of the accuracy of standard portion sizes was necessary. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the consequences of using standard portion size instead of reported portion sizes on subjects\u27 nutrient intake. Methods: In 2307 men and 411 women, nutrient intake calculated from a 3-day dietary record using reported portion sizes was compared with nutrient intake calculated from the same record in which standard portion sizes were substituted for reported portion sizes. Results: The standard portion sizes provided significantly lower estimates (≥ 20%) of energy and nutrient intakes than the reported portion sizes. Spearman correlation coefficients obtained by the two methods were high, ranging from 0.67 to 0.93. Furthermore, the agreement between both methods was fairly good. Thus, in the ACLS the use of standard portion sizes rather than reported portion sizes did not appear to be suitable to assess the absolute intake at the group level, but appeared to lead to a good ranking of individuals according to nutrient intake. These results were confirmed by the Continuing Survey of Food Intake by Individuals (CSFII), in which the assessment of the portion size was optimal. When the standard portion sizes were adjusted using the correction factor, the ability of the standard portion sizes to assess the absolute nutrient intake at the group level was considerably improved. Conclusions: This study suggests that the adjusted standard portion sizes may be able to replace missing portion sizes in the ACLS database

Evaluation of the stress singularities of plane V-notches in bonded dissimilar materials

According to the linear theory of elasticity, there exists a combination of different orders of stress singularity at a V-notch tip of bonded dissimilar materials. The singularity reflects a strong stress concentration near the sharp V-notches. In this paper, a new way is proposed in order to determine the orders of singularity for two-dimensional V-notch problems. Firstly, on the basis of an asymptotic stress field in terms of radial coordinates at the V-notch tip, the governing equations of the elastic theory are transformed into an eigenvalue problem of ordinary differential equations (ODEs) with respect to the circumferential coordinate h around the notch tip. Then the interpolating matrix method established by the first author is further developed to solve the general eigenvalue problem. Hence, the singularity orders of the V-notch problem are determined through solving the corresponding ODEs by means of the interpolating matrix method. Meanwhile, the associated eigenvectors of the displacement and stress fields near the V-notches are also obtained. These functions are essential in calculating the amplitude of the stress field described as generalized stress intensity factors of the V-notches. The present method is also available to deal with the plane V-notch problems in bonded orthotropic multi-material. Finally, numerical examples are presented to illustrate the accuracy and the effectiveness of the method

Breast MRI Utilization in Older Patients with Newly Diagnosed Breast Cancer

Recently, use of advanced imaging modalities, such as MRI, has increased dramatically. One novel but still evolving use for MRI is in the diagnosis and clinical staging of newly diagnosed breast cancer patients. Compared with mammography, MRI is more sensitive, but less specific, and far more expensive. The purpose of this study is to examine the prevalence and predictors of MRI use for clinical staging in older women with newly diagnosed breast cancer

Association between rheumatoid arthritis disease activity, progression of functional limitation and long-term risk of orthopaedic surgery : Combined analysis of two prospective cohorts supports EULAR treat to target DAS thresholds

Objectives: To examine the association between disease activity in early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), functional limitation and long-term orthopaedic episodes. Methods: Health Assessment Questionnaire (HAQ) disability scores were collected from two longitudinal early RA inception cohorts in routine care; Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Study and Early Rheumatoid Arthritis Network from 1986 to 2012. The incidence of major and intermediate orthopaedic surgical episodes over 25 years was collected from national data sets. Disease activity was categorised by mean disease activity score (DAS28) annually between years 1 and 5; remission (RDAS≤2.6), low (LDAS>2.6-3.2), low-moderate (LMDAS≥3.2-4.19), high-moderate (HMDAS 4.2-5.1) and high (HDAS>5.1). Results: Data from 2045 patients were analysed. Patients in RDAS showed no HAQ progression over 5 years, whereas there was a significant relationship between rising DAS28 category and HAQ at 1 year, and the rate of HAQ progression between years 1 and 5. During 27 986 person-years follow-up, 392 intermediate and 591 major surgeries were observed. Compared with the RDAS category, there was a significantly increased cumulative incidence of intermediate surgery in HDAS (OR 2.59 CI 1.49 to 4.52) and HMDAS (OR 1.8 CI 1.05 to 3.11) categories, and for major surgery in HDAS (OR 2.48 CI 1.5 to 4.11), HMDAS (OR 2.16 CI 1.32 to 3.52) and LMDAS (OR 2.07 CI 1.28 to 3.33) categories. There was no significant difference in HAQ progression or orthopaedic episodes between RDAS and LDAS categories. Conclusions: There is an association between disease activity and both poor function and long-term orthopaedic episodes. This illustrates the far from benign consequences of persistent moderate disease activity, and supports European League Against Rheumatism treat to target recommendations to secure low disease activity or remission in all patients.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Who am I? : Representing the self offline and in different online contexts

The present paper examines the extent to which self-presentation may be affected by the context in which is it undertaken. Individuals were asked to complete the Twenty Statements Test both privately and publicly, but were given an opportunity to withhold any of their personal information before it was made public. Four contexts were examined: an offline context (face-to-face), an un-contextualized general online context, or two specific online contexts (dating or job-seeking). The results suggested that participants were willing to disclose substantially less personal information online than offline. Moreover, disclosure decreased as the online context became more specific, and those in the job-seeking context disclosed the least amount of information. Surprisingly, individual differences in personality did not predict disclosure behavior. Instead, the results are set in the context of audience visibility and social norms, and implications for self-presentation in digital contexts are discussed

A synthesis inversion to constrain global emissions of very short‐lived chlorocarbons, dichloromethane and perchloroethylene : dichloromethane, and perchloroethylene

Dichloromethane (CH2Cl2) and perchloroethylene (C2Cl4) are chlorinated very short lived substances (Cl-VSLS) with anthropogenic sources. Recent studies highlight the increasing influence of such compounds, particularly CH2Cl2, on the stratospheric chlorine budget and therefore on ozone depletion. Here, a multiyear global-scale synthesis inversion was performed to optimize CH2Cl2 (2006–2017) and C2Cl4 (2007–2017) emissions. The approach combines long-term surface observations from global monitoring networks, output from a three-dimensional chemical transport model (TOMCAT), and novel bottom-up information on prior industry emissions. Our posterior results show an increase in global CH2Cl2 emissions from 637 ± 36 Gg yr−1 in 2006 to 1,171 ± 45 Gg yr−1 in 2017, with Asian emissions accounting for 68% and 89% of these totals, respectively. In absolute terms, Asian CH2Cl2 emissions increased annually by 51 Gg yr−1 over the study period, while European and North American emissions declined, indicating a continental-scale shift in emission distribution since the mid-2000s. For C2Cl4, we estimate a decrease in global emissions from 141 ± 14 Gg yr−1 in 2007 to 106 ± 12 Gg yr−1 in 2017. The time-varying posterior emissions offer significant improvements over the prior. Utilizing the posterior emissions leads to modeled tropospheric CH2Cl2 and C2Cl4 abundances and trends in good agreement to those observed (including independent observations to the inversion). A shorter C2Cl4 lifetime, from including an uncertain Cl sink, leads to larger global C2Cl4 emissions by a factor of ~1.5, which in some places improves model-measurement agreement. The sensitivity of our findings to assumptions in the inversion procedure, including CH2Cl2 oceanic emissions, is discussed

‘Sometimes there’s racism towards the French here’: xenophobic microaggressions in pre-2016 London as articulations of symbolic violence

This article discusses xenophobic microaggressions (Pierce, 1970) experienced by members of the French community in London prior to the EU-Membership Referendum in 2016. Acting at the interface of agency and passivity, implicitness and complicity, they go unseen in the social space despite their omnipresence. Through a close reading of empirical data collected as part of an ethnographic study, the article posits that these microaggressions are articulations of historically embedded anti-French ‘symbolic violence’ (Bourdieu and Wacquant, 1992; Bourdieu, 1993). The three main areas addressed are humour, intersectionality and the reproductive nature of the phenomenon (Bourdieu and Passeron, 1970; Bourdieu, 1972)