The role of the occupational therapist in disaster areas: systematic review

Background. Disasters are increasingly more frequent events on our planet. During disaster the role of the occupational therapist will require a more specific operative framework within nongovernmental organizations and community health services. Design. Systematic review. Objective. The aim of this study is to evaluate the evidence that highlight occupational therapist’s role in disaster area through a systematic review. Materials and Methods. Research on MEDLINE was performed. All articles from 2005 to 2015 concerning rehabilitation and occupational therapy in disaster areas were included. Results. Ten studies were selected to be included in this review. Four interesting points emerged: the importance of having rehabilitation intervention in postdisaster situations, the necessity to include a rehabilitation team in the early phase of disaster response, the need to provide a method to address the difficult evacuation, and finding the safest method of transport of people with preexisting disabilities and new injuries. Conclusions. The amount of evidence with respect to specific intervention of the occupational therapist’s role in a disaster situation is limited. However some evidence suggests that it could be a good means for reducing the number of medical complications and deaths of persons with preexisting disabilities. The evidences found highlight the necessity to create a multidisciplinary team addressing needs in disasters situation, in which the occupational therapist could certainly contribute

Promising primers for detection of phytoplasma causing coconut lethal yellowing disease in Mozambique

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Impurity and boundary effects in one and two-dimensional inhomogeneous Heisenberg antiferromagnets

We calculate the ground-state energy of one and two-dimensional spatially inhomogeneous antiferromagnetic Heisenberg models for spins 1/2, 1, 3/2 and 2. Our calculations become possible as a consequence of the recent formulation of density-functional theory for Heisenberg models. The method is similar to spin-density-functional theory, but employs a local-density-type approximation designed specifically for the Heisenberg model, allowing us to explore parameter regimes that are hard to access by traditional methods, and to consider complications that are important specifically for nanomagnetic devices, such as the effects of impurities, finite-size, and boundary geometry, in chains, ladders, and higher-dimensional systems.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted by Phys. Rev.

Colonization by benthic algae on submarine in the southeastern area of the Gulf of Trieste

Scopo dello studio è stato quello di analizzare i processi di colonizzazione macroalgale su differenti tipi di substrati artificiali, in due aree del Golfo di Trieste (area nord-occidentale, area sud-orientale). Le due aree sono ecologicamente differenti, in termini di idrodinamismo, batimetria, esposizione a moto ondoso, sedimentazione, torpidità e struttura geologica del fondale. Tali fattori influenzano in maniera differente il processo di colonizzazione algale. Le fasi delle colonizzazioni macroalgali sono state seguite mediante immersioni subacquee dopo 2,6,12 e 24 mesi e i campioni sono stati prelevati tramite grattaggi del substrato. Per l’analisi dei campionamenti è stata utilizzata una scala arbitraria, già utilizzata in precedenti studi (Munda, 1978, 1979, 1991a, 2005). Dall’analisi dei campioni sono state osservate variazioni nel popolamento di alcune specie appartenenti ai gruppi Cystoseira e Sargassum come anche nelle associazioni di Fucales, quasi scomparse dal Golfo. In altri casi invece variazioni spazio-temporali (stagionalità) nella colonizzazione, sono state relazionate con la profondità del fondale, la tipologia dei substrati utilizzati e le diverse strategie di colonizzazione in particolare per quanto riguarda diatomee e macroalghe

Towards a knowledge-based system to assist the Brazilian data-collecting system operation

A study is reported which was carried out to show how a knowledge-based approach would lead to a flexible tool to assist the operation task in a satellite-based environmental data collection system. Some characteristics of a hypothesized system comprised of a satellite and a network of Interrogable Data Collecting Platforms (IDCPs) are pointed out. The Knowledge-Based Planning Assistant System (KBPAS) and some aspects about how knowledge is organized in the IDCP's domain are briefly described