Book review: Occupational therapy and physical dysfunction: enabling occupation, 6th ed.

When I did my training, the 4th edition of Occupational therapy and physical dysfunction was the set text with its emphasis on principles, skills and practice, but very much based on the ‘physical conditions’ that occupational therapists were likely to come across in hospitals or in the community. By contrast, the 6th edition of Occupational therapy and physical dysfunction, edited by a completely new team, is similar in name only. With its emphasis on enabling occupation, it examines a much wider world view for occupational therapists and is as relevant to those working in mental health as it is to physical occupational therapists and, in fact, challenges the dichotomy that persists in our profession

Surgical Competence: Assessing, Acquiring, Maintaining and Restoring

No Abstract

Unique Challenges in Risk Assessment with Rural Domestic Violence Victims: Implications for Practice

Through interviews with violence against women (VAW) workers (n=14), the present study examined workers’ perspectives of risk factors and the challenges in assessing risk for women experiencing domestic violence (DV) in rural locations. The present study also examined what promising practices VAW workers are utilizing when working with women experiencing DV in rural locations. Qualitative analysis indicated several risk factors including the location (i.e., geographic isolation, lack of transportation, and lack of community resources) and cultural factors (i.e., accepted and more available use of firearms, poverty, and no privacy/anonymity). Moreover, qualitative analyses indicated several challenges for VAW workers assessing risk including barriers at the systemic (i.e., lack of agreement between services), organizational (i.e., lack of collaboration and risk assessment being underutilized/valued), and individual (i.e., complexity of issues) levels. The findings support other research in the field that highlight the increased vulnerability of women experiencing DV in rural locations and the added barriers and complexities in assessing risk for this population. However, participants outlined promising practices being implemented for rural locations such as interagency collaboration, education, growing awareness, and outreach programs. Implications for future research and practice include further examination of the identified promising practices, a continued focus on collaborative approaches, and innovative ways to prevent and manage risk in rural locations

Process-based modelling of decadal trends in growth, survival, and smolting of wild salmon (Salmo salar) parr in a Scottish upland stream

This paper reports a new model of the freshwater stages of an anadromous fish, at the core of which is a stochastic description of the size-at-age dynamics of a growing cohort. Emigration is assumed to require the individual to exceed a threshold size at a critical time of year, thus making the distributions of survival to, and age at, smolting emergent properties of the model. The model is applied to a long-term data set on juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar) in the Girnock Burn, Scotland, to understand the role played by decadal temperature trends in generating changes in smolt production and age distribution. We conclude that changes in age at smolting are compatible with causation by shifts in the temperature regime. However, the large attenuation between a dramatic fall in spawner numbers and a relatively minor diminution in total smolt production does not result from the physiological effects of temperature but is rather a result of strongly density-dependent mortality between the deposition of ova and the appearance of catchable fry the following summer

Evaluation of the Scrub Practitioners' List of Intraoperative Non-Technical Skills (SPLINTS) system

Peer reviewedPostprin

Does the mode of delivery affect mathematics examination results?

At present most examinations are delivered on paper but there is a growing trend in many subjects to deliver some or part of these examinations by computer. It is therefore important to know whether there are any differences in the results obtained by candidates sitting examinations taken by computer compared with those obtained by candidates sitting conventional examinations using pen and paper. The purpose of this article is to describe the outcome of a pilot study designed to∗ investigate possible causes of any differences in results from the use of different modes of delivery in a mathematics examination. One outcome of this study was that the process of translating examination questions into a format required for use on the computer (but keeping this as a pen and paper test) can have a significant effect on examination results. However, the main conclusion is that changing the medium only has no effect on the results in mathematics examinations

Invoice smart contracts for design SMEs.

In recent years, Blockchain technology has evolved from its original application in cryptocurrency and can now be used for applications such as Smart Contracts. Smart Contracts automatically excecute transactions without the need for a central authority however there are very few use cases of the technology, particularly amongst UK AEC Design SMEs. This paper uses a hybrid method approach which combines questionnaires with semistructured interviews to create a framework which showcases how a Smart Contract invoicing process could work for Design SMEs. This could create an automated invoicing process which is more efficient and reduces the risk of late or non-paymnet