'I know how I feel': listening to young people with life-limiting conditions who have learning and communication impairments

UK government policy advocates involving children in decisions about their lives. However, disabled children are often marginalized and not consulted, especially those with learning and communication impairments. Drawing on an ongoing English Government funded longitudinal study exploring different groups of service users' choices, this article demonstrates the important contribution that qualitative research methods, especially non-traditional methods, can procure when working with young people who are non-verbal or have limited speech. Working with young people with life-limiting conditions raises some specific challenges for researchers. Here, adapting project wide materials and research methods in order to gain some thematic continuity across different service user groups. Some of these considerations and challenges will be discussed, especially the development of non-verbal forms of communication (talking matsTM). Practical experiences, both positive and negative will be examined. The article concludes by considering some wider implications of using symbols based methods for future research and how these methods can be used across disciplines and by practitioners in their everyday work

Ryegrasses: An Option for an Annual Forage Crop in Alaska

Annuals are often planted for a forage crop in Alaska, often on land that is being renovated or on newly cleared land, thus providing a longer opportunity for worldng the soil before seeding a perennial. Oats (Avena sativa) and barley (Hordeum vulgare) , sometimes seeded with a legume, are the most important annuals used for forage in Alaska. Cereals can provide a high-yield , late-summer forage crop, stored as hay or silage. Ryegrass (Lolium), another annual not now in significant use in Alaska , affords an option that merits consideration in forage programs

Perennial Grass Trials for Forage Purposes In Three Areas of Southcentral Alaska

Forage trials of seeded perennial grasses were conducted at four sites in three areas of southcentral Alaska on soils with pH readings generally below 5.5 (down to 4 .35) . Three trials were at forested locations and one at a subalpine site. Each trial was sustained for three to five harvest years under a two-harvest system. 'Engmo' timothy (Phleum pratense) , the standard forage grass on strongly acidic soils in the region, equaled or, more often , exceeded the other grasses in first-harvest yields, but often was surpassed in second-harvest yields. Grasses often substantially exceeding timothy in second-harvest yields included reed canarygrass (Phalaris arundinacea) and entries of tufted hairgrass (Deschampsia caespitosa) and Bering hairgrass (D. beringensis), sometimes providing more total yield than timothy. Some red fescues (Festuca rubra) and 'Nugget' Kentucky bluegrass .(Poa pratensis) also tended to surpass timothy in second growth. Smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis) failed at sites with soil pH below 5.3, but persisted at one site with pH varying from 5.3 to 5.7. 'Garrison' creeping foxtail (Alopecurus arundinaceus) also failed at these sites; its close relative meadow foxtail (A. pratensis), was better adapted to the strongly acidic sites. Indigenous polargrass (Arctagrostis latifolia) about equaled or surpassed timothy in yield at two of the sites, and bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) provided comparable but somewhat lower yields. Timothy tended to be higher in digestible dry matter than most grasses, but near to below average in CP, P, K, and Ca concentrations. Some deficiencies occurred in energy values (DDM) and, except for red fescue, in Ca concentrations of first-harvest herbage relative to the requirements of a growing 500-lb steer. Crude protein of second-harvest herbage was deficient for many grasses at two sites, and DDM was marginal to low for some, but especially for bluejoint reedgrass

Circular 45

This circular provides guidance on fertilizing native hay meadows of bluejoint reedgrass (Calamagrostis canadensis) on the lower Kenai Peninsula. It is based on a num ber o f experim ental trials conducted by the authors on Kachemak silt loam soil at various sites near Homer

Spiritual care and therapy: integrative perspectives

Title: Spiritual care and therapy: integrative perspectives. Author: VanKatwyk, Peter L. (Peter Lorens), 1938- Spiritual care and therapy 197 p. Publisher: Waterloo : Wilfrid Laurier University Press, 2003

Revegetation Research on Coal Mine Overburden Materials in Interior to Southcentral Alaska

This report was reprinted from Focus on Alaska's Coal '86: Proceedings of the Conference MIRL Report Number 72. The pagination in the original publication has been retained. Focus on Alaska's Coal '86 was published in July 1987 by Mineral Industry Research Laboratory, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, Alaska 99775-1180.Plant material, and planting and fertilizer scheduling studies were conducted on coal mine overburden materials in the Nenana coal field at the Usibelli coal mine near Healy, in the Matanuska coal field at the Jonesville mine north of Anchorage, and at two test pits in the Beluga coal field west of Anchorage. With proper fertilization a number of grasses were found to maintain adequate cover for soil stabilization purposes over the five-to-seven-years of the various trials. The consistently good performers were entries of tufted hairgrass, Bering hairgrass, red fescue, hard fescue polar-grass, and Kentucky bluegrass. Most were native to Alaska. Some northern -selected materials of alfalfa did well on sites below timberline with near neutral soils. Fertilizer responses and indicated nutrient requirements indicated a preferred schedule of fertilizer applications in the first and third, and possibly fifth or sixth growing years. Seedings conducted from spring, in late May, into summer, in late July, produced equally satisfactory results

Optical scanner

An optical scanner for imaging lines in an object plane onto a linear array in a focal plane either continuously or discretely is described. The scanner consists of a set of four mutually perpendicularly oriented plane corner mirrors which provide a reflecting path that describes a parallelogram. In addition, there is a plane parallel scanning mirror with a front and back reflecting surface located midway between the first and fourth corner mirrors. It is oriented so that in the mid-scan position it is parallel to the first corner mirror, and therefore perpendicular to the fourth corner mirror. As the scan mirror rotates, rays incident from a plurality of lines in the object plane are selectively directed through the optical system arriving at a common intersection on the back surface of the scanning mirror where the rays are colinearly directed toward a lens and then imaged onto the linear array in the focal plane. A set of compensating mirrors may be introduced just before the imaging lens to compensate for a small and generally negligible path difference delta sub l between the axial and marginal rays