What Should Be Included in a Measure of Communicative Participation? Perspectives of Speech-language Pathologists

ABSTRACT WHAT SHOULD BE INCLUDED IN A MEASURE OF COMMUNICATIVE PARTICIPATION? PERSPECTIVES OF SPEECH-LANGUAGE PATHOLOGISTS by Natalie Graceffa The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 2017 Under the Supervision of Professor Dr. Shelley Lund As the field has developed, speech-language pathologists (SLP) need to validate their therapies and prove, beyond clinical judgment, that their therapy is necessary and ethical. SLPs and other healthcare professionals must prove they are achieving positive outcomes with their treatment, and that the outcomes they set are appropriate for their patients and clients. To bring this validity to the treatment of health, the International Classification for Functioning, Disability, and Health (ICF) was created. The classification system described health as three different pieces: Body Function and Structure, Activities, and Participation. All three areas are vitally important to maintaining the full health of a person. Participation can be seen as the end outcomes, as they describe involvement in a situation or context. This is the ultimate goal of speech-language therapy, that an individual can participate appropriately in their environments. There are currently outcomes measures for Activity and Participation, but speech-language pathologists in the field have reported varying degrees of dissatisfaction with these measures. To find out more about their dissatisfaction, the research team conducted online focus groups with 14 practicing speech-language pathologists in varying work settings. The transcripts were analyzed and coded with NVIVO software and themes were drawn out from the text. Overall, participants had primarily negative attitudes regarding outcomes measures. Participants also discussed the characteristics of their ideal functional communication outcomes measure and their needs in their current approach to assessment in their setting. Participants also discussed needs in the profession as a whole

Family law update: current issues in proprietary estoppel - Part 2

Natalie Gibson and Rebecca Kelly comment on (1) Davies (2) Davies v Davies [2016] EWCA Civ 463 and the doctrine of proprietary estoppel relating to parents and their daughte

Rethinking metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 pathological findings in psychiatric disorders: implications for the future of novel therapeutics

Background Pharmacological modulation of metabotropic glutamate receptor 5 (mGluR5) is of marked interest as a novel therapeutic mechanism to treat schizophrenia and major depression. However, the status of mGluR5 in the pathophysiology of these disorders remains unknown. Discussion The majority of studies in the schizophrenia post-mortem brain indicate that total mGluR5 expression is unaltered. However, close examination of the literature suggests that these findings are superficial, and in actuality, a number of critical factors have not yet been considered; alterations may be highly dependent on brain region, neuronal population or molecular organisation in specific cellular compartments. A number of genetic knockout studies (mGluR5, Norbin, Homer1 etc.) continue to lend support to a role of mGluR5 in the pathology of schizophrenia, providing impetus to explore the regulation of mGluR5 beyond total mGluR5 protein and mRNA levels. With regards to major depression, preliminary evidence to date shows a reduction in total mGluR5 protein and mRNA levels; however, as in schizophrenia, there are no studies examining mGluR5 function or regulation in the pathological state. A comprehensive understanding of mGluR5 regulation in major depression, particularly in comparison to schizophrenia, is crucial as this has extensive implications for mGluR5 targeting novel therapeutics, especially considering that opposing modulation of mGluR5 is of therapeutic interest for these two disorders. Summary Despite the complexities, examinations of post-mortem human brain provide valuable insights into the pathologies of these inherently human disorders. It is important, especially with regards to the identification of novel therapeutic drug targets, to have an in depth understanding of the pathophysiologies of these disorders. We posit that brain region- and cell type-specific alterations exist in mGluR5 in schizophrenia and depression, with evidence pointing towards altered regulation of this receptor in psychiatric pathology. We consider the implications of these alterations, as well as the distinction between schizophrenia and depression, in the context of novel mGluR5 based therapeutics

Age-related changes in attentional modulation during dynamic attributes of visual attention

Age-related changes in vision (such as decline in visual acuity, contrast sensitivity, temporal resolution, spatial resolution and visual motion processing) and cognition (such as slowing of the information processing system) are a factor of normal, healthy ageing. This thesis investigated the application of attentional modulation during perceptual tasks involving temporal order judgement and motion discrimination. The main aim was to discover if there are any differences in the ways that young and older adults utilise attentional resources. When provided with training to use attentional cues, young and older adults showed enhanced performance during temporal order discrimination. Age differences were identified in the way that the two age groups utilised attentional resources, where older adults used the cues at lower levels of task difficulty compared to young adults. Age differences in attentional modulation were supported by fMRI results which indicated that older adults were utilising a different cortical network to that of young adults to modulate sensory processing in motion specific regions both when attention was focused on the prevailing task, and when attention was divided between two tasks concurrently

The impact of teaching from home during the covid-19 pandemic on the student evaluations of female academics

Student Evaluation of Teaching (SET) results play an important role in academic staff performance evaluation, but also in promotion processes. However, there is much evidence to suggest that the SET used in most universities across the Anglosphere has traditionally penalised female academics. As universities manage the recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic, they will also need to take into account the effect of remote teaching on the validity of student evaluation data. Given SET are critical to promotion success, it is important to then understand the gendered effect of remote teaching on student evaluations. We aimed to evaluate how intrusions of family life, academics’ home environment and competence with remote teaching technology of female academics were viewed by students and if there were noticeable differences in SET data. We analysed 22,485 SET data over 2019 (pre-COVID, face-to-face teaching) and 2020 (COVID-lockdowns, remote teaching) for female and male academics, matched with student gender, in the multidisciplinary First Year College at Victoria University, Melbourne Australia. Our results showed that there were no differences in the score ratings for teacher gender. However, the qualitative data showed that whilst overall there were overwhelmingly positive comments for both male and female teachers, there was an increase in the negative comments on teaching style by male students toward their female teachers during remote teaching and overall more comments relating to attitude. We speculate that this would have a negative impact on the confidence of teaching-intensive female academics hindering their leadership aspirations and career progression in academia

VBA MACRO PROGRAM FOR MANUFACTURING EXECUTION SYSTEM SCRIPT WRITING

Automation Operations Test Scripts are used to validate the Manufacturing Execution Systems (MES) Syncade system configuration for Cell Therapy Facilities. Test scripts are used in the validation process, a highly regulated procedure, which validates the system used to treat cancer patients. These test scripts are written in Excel and uploaded to Application Lifecycle Management (ALM), a tool used for automated testing, to be assessed by the Quality Assurance (QA) team, executed by the Validation Team, then re-inspected by QA. The goal of this project is to accelerate the QA review process and minimize mistakes that appear in the final test execution, hence improving overall quality of test executions. I created an Excel Visual Basics for Application (VBA) Macro that will analyze the test script in Excel before they are uploaded to ALM for review. The VBA Macro, called Check_For_Errors, evaluates the Test script, and creates an Error Check and an Error Glossary worksheet that details the mistakes found in the Test script. Check_For_Errors uses several types of coding loops and subfunctions to identify common mistakes Test Script Authors make that are identified by QA during review. This program follows Good Documentation Practices, GDP, an FDA mandate, to efficiently and effectively review preliminary test scripts that evaluate the system functionality of Bristol-Myers Squibb (BMS) Cell Therapy facilities. The code streamlines the review process by identifying common mistakes before QA reviews the script, which will minimize cycle time for quality reviews and ultimately minimizing errors in the testing process