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Screening for intellectual disability in autistic people: A brief report
Get PDFBackground: There is high co-occurrence between intellectual disability and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It is important to identify people who have both conditions for clinical and research reasons. This study explored if the Child and Adolescent Intellectual Disability Screening Questionnaire (CAIDS-Q) and Learning Disability Screening Questionnaire (LDSQ) could accurately identify intellectual disability in autistic children and adults respectively.
Method: Pre-existing CAIDS-Q data for 40 autistic children and LDSQ data for 27 autistic adults were used. The participants were classified as likely to have an intellectual disability or not based on the age-appropriate cut-off score on the relevant screening tools. This was compared with their clinical diagnosis of intellectual disability.
Results: The sensitivity, specificity, and positive and negative predictive values, for the CAIDS-Q were 93.1%, 88.5%, 90% and 92% respectively. The corresponding figures for the LDSQ were 75%, 95.6%, 75%, and 95.6%.
Conclusions: The values for the CAIDS-Q were broadly consistent with figures found in previous research. The sensitivity and PPV figures for the LDSQ, were somewhat lower. The specificity and sensitivity values for both measures were above the threshold for levels that are generally considered to be acceptable for a developmental screening tool. The results suggest that the CAIDS-Q and LDSQ may be appropriate measures to screen for intellectual disability in autistic people
Use of propionic acid additions to enhance zinc removal from mine drainage in short residence time, flow-through sulfate-reducing bioreactors
Get PDFThe effectiveness of liquid carbon additions to enhance zinc removal in laboratory-scale short hydraulic residence time (19 hours) compost bioreactors receiving synthetic mine water with a high influent zinc concentration (45 mg/L) was investigated. Effective removal of such elevated zinc concentrations could not be sustained by sulfate reduction and / or other attenuation processes without carbon supplementation. Propionic acid addition resulted in improved and sustained performance by promoting the activities of sulfate reducing bacteria, leading to efficient zinc removal (mean 99) via bacterial sulfate reduction. In contrast, cessation of propionic acid addition led to carbon limitation and the growth of sulfur oxidising bacteria, compromising zinc removal by bacterial sulfate reduction. These research findings demonstrate the potential for modest liquid carbon additions to compost-based passive treatment systems to engineer microbial responses which enhance rates of zinc attenuation in a short hydraulic residence time, enabling remediation of highly polluting mine drainage at sites with limited land availability
Religion, spirituality, and well-being: A systematic literature review and futuristic agenda
Get PDFInformed by religion and psychology literature, this study reviews the literature on religiosity, spirituality, and psychology to support existing theory development in the current emergence of “Management, Spirituality, and Religion” field of study, encourage new contextual thinking and develop a framework to guide businesses on the integration of spirituality and religiosity at work given their documented benefits in relation to personal well-being and productivity. Using the Web of Science (WoS) database, the paper reviews and synthesizes recent research in a systematic, transparent, and reproducible manner. In addition, to verify and include the state-of-the-art of high-quality scientific articles, we refer to the Chartered Association of Business Schools list leading to the adoption of the following criteria: (a) journals listed in the ABS ranking as 3- and 4-star class, (b) indexed under the field of ethics (i.e., ETHICS-CSR-MAN), (c) articles published between 2000 and 2021, and (d) topical relevance. The review extends the existing literature by developing a framework for organizations that helps in identifying possible linkages between religiosity, spirituality, and employee well-being. This was done by (1) extending the six indicators of Ryff's well-being framework, (2) highlighting potential spiritual practices for individuals and organizations and their implications, and (3) presenting a framework that is contextualized to the extent possible and that can serve as a useful guide for organizations. Insights from our review yield in turn two key propositions: (1) workplace spirituality and individual spirituality are both important for employees' well-being, and (2) individual religiosity is an important factor for personal well-being. This offers in turn reinvigorated awareness and new insights into the topic under study. The study highlights in closing an array of future possible research directions
Parents perceptions of online physical activity and leisure with early years children during Covid-19 and beyond.
Get PDFPrior to Covid-19, businesses offering enrichment activities for pre-school aged children were saturating the early years (0–5 years) market. However, the pandemic caused sudden changes to family routines with regular leisure activities cancelled. Using Lareau’s theory of concerted cultivation as a framework, we explored how physical activity (PA) was managed by parents of pre-school children and how routines changed during the pandemic. A UK national online survey was completed by 925 parents. Sixteen tailored, follow-up semi-structured interviews were undertaken with parents. Due to the nature of the pandemic and the age range of the young children, it was the parents who ultimately made decisions about PA, and it was parents who had to adapt, often to a challenging set of circumstances. Our data suggests many parents sought to utilise informal play and online PA during the lockdown periods with mixed levels of success. For those that attended baby, toddler, and pre-school sport sessions provided by commercial businesses prior to lockdown, the vast majority were eager to resume their in-person classes as opposed to continuing online. Parents perceived a wider range of benefits and cultivation for their child if they attended such classes in person (e.g. expert delivery, socialisation, and routine)
Assessing the bets advertised on Twitter by gambling operators and gambling affiliates – an observational study incorporating simulation data to measure bet success
Get PDFThis study assessed bets advertised on Twitter by betting operators and affiliates, as well as their success. Bets advertised by 10 Twitter accounts were tracked over two weeks. Information recorded included: bet odds, bet type, number of times advertised, and bet success. The success of bets was calculated based upon placing equal stakes on each bet and running four sets of 10,000 simulations, each of an increasing number of randomly chosen bets with fixed bet stake per bet from those recorded. Both operators and affiliates advertised around 140 bets per day at average decimal odds of 6.0, however affiliates posted each bet three-times more than operators. Only one-in-five bets advertised won. Affiliate bets led to a 12% loss of original stakes, whilst operator bets led to a 20% loss. Only 30% of 10,000 simulations of 14 randomly chosen bets led to profit, decreasing to 19% when the number of bets included in the simulation increased to 140. Findings raise concerns about the volume of bets advertised on social media with large expected losses. Simulation data demonstrates how the chance of making a profit decreases the more advertised bets are bet upon. Future research should explore bettors’ responses to such marketing
The Assemblages of (Counter) Spectacle – Mega-Retail in Post-Dictatorship Chile and Beyond
Get PDFSpectacle, once a key term for critical theories, has had limited theoretical development in recent decades. To make sure the concept remains relevant today, this paper turns to actor-network theory (ANT) and assemblage theories to reconceptualize what the spectacle is and how it operates today. Working with a case study of a controversial urban spectacle in southern Chile – a new shopping mall, the “Mall Paseo Chiloé” – this paper explores a set of findings that illustrate what these approaches have to offer. First, in viewing the spectacle as a hybrid entity, we uncover vital forces inside what might at first appear to be irrelevant features of the building's architectural design. At the same time, this approach includes the forces of ambivalent desire and fluidity that reveal the dynamics of resistance inside that same design. As such, this paper focuses on a specific aspect of this building that makes it a unique form of counter-spectacle
The impact of Holocene deglaciation and glacial dynamics on the landscapes and geomorphology of Potter Peninsula, King George Island (Isla 25 Mayo), NW Antarctic Peninsula
Get PDFThe timing and impact of deglaciation and Holocene readvances on the terrestrial continental margins of the Antarctic Peninsula (AP) have been well-studied but are still debated. Potter Peninsula on King George Island (KGI) (Isla 25 de Mayo), South Shetland Islands (SSI), NW Antarctic Peninsula, has a detailed assemblage of glacial landforms and stratigraphic exposures for constraining deglacial landscape development and glacier readvances. We undertook new morphostratigraphic mapping of the deglaciated foreland of the Warszawa Icefield, an outlet of the Bellingshausen (Collins) Ice Cap on Potter Peninsula, using satellite imagery and new lithofacies recognition and interpretations, combined with new chronostratigraphic analysis of stratigraphic sections, lake sediments, and moraine deposits. Results show that the deglaciation on Potter Peninsula began before c. 8.2 ka. Around c. 7.0 ka, the Warszawa Icefield and the marine-facing Fourcade Glacier readvanced across Potter Peninsula and to the outer part of Potter Cove. Evidence of further readvances on Potter Peninsula was absent until the Warszawa Icefield margin was landward of its present position on three occasions: c. 1.7–1.4 ka, after c. 0.7 ka (most likely c. 0.5–0.1 ka), and by 1956 CE. The timing of Holocene deglaciation and glacier fluctuations on Potter Peninsula are broadly coeval with other glacier- and ice-free areas on the SSI and the northern AP and likely driven by interactions between millennial–centennial-scale changes in solar insolation and irradiance, the southern westerlies, and the Southern Annular Mode
Exercise referral scheme participant characteristics, referral mode and completion status
Get PDFObjective: There is recent evidence that exercise referral schemes (ERSs) are beginning to permit self-referral access. Notwithstanding this, to date it is unknown whether key referral characteristics, such as age, gender and socioeconomic status are associated with a greater likelihood of self-referring to an ERS, and whether self-referral participants are more or less likely to complete schemes, than traditional healthcare referrals. Design/Setting: This study presents an evaluation and cross-sectional exploration of key participant referral characteristics of those (n = 647) who signed up to ‘Active West Lancs’; a 12-week ERS in the northwest of England. Methods: Chi-square analysis, tests of difference and binary logistic regression were conducted to explore associations between key referral characteristics and (1) the likelihood of accessing Active West Lancs via a self- or healthcare-referral and (2) the likelihood of completion.Results: Fifty-six percent of participants accessed the scheme via self-referral. These participants were more likely to be women, to report a musculoskeletal primary health condition, to access a specific site and to do so during spring. The scheme had an overall completion rate of 42.2. Participants who were older, resided in less socioeconomically deprived neighbourhoods, and accessed a specific site were more likely to complete. Self-referral participants were not more or less likely to complete than those who enrolled via healthcare-referral. Conclusions: These data do not directly identify a clear benefit or detriment to Active West Lancs’ incorporation of self-referral participants. Notwithstanding this, enabling self-referral ERS access may widen scheme participation opportunities among those reluctant to seek referral from a healthcare provider and reduce the administrative burden for healthcare providers themselves
Normative puzzles for local government: Managing the introduction of single‐handed care in England
Get PDFA crisis in social care is apparent across the developed world as ageing populations put unprecedented demand on understaffed social care workforces. A recent popular response to this ‘care crisis’ within the UK involves the ‘innovation’ of single‐handed care (SHC). SHC involves a care package with two or more homecare workers being reduced to one worker using advanced equipment and new moving and handling techniques. In this article, we explore how SHC is rendered in 245 documents from 52 local authorities in England. Using Actor Network Theory as an interpretative lens, we suggest documents attempt to satisfy three ‘duties of care’: to the individual wellbeing of citizens, morally and fiscally to the collective and to innovation. Each appeal to different stakeholder groups necessary for SHC to work, but the combination of duties can pose problems in enabling coherent stories of SHC. Duties can be kept apart in different documents, but at times they must be brought together in certain textual spaces to enact SHC as a coherent enterprise. Here, the potential tensions that emerge are routinely orientated to as (merely) problems of process that can and should be managed in and through a more refined approach to change management
Identifying and prioritising the key components of a Quality Improvement Network for allied health professionals and psychological therapists: a group concept mapping project
Get PDFIntroduction
Despite growing enthusiasm for quality improvement (QI), the complexities of modern healthcare continue to create gaps in our ability to consistently deliver the most effective and efficient care for patients, and improvement activities often fail to achieve widespread uptake even when there is robust evidence of their benefits.
Methods
We undertook a novel, mixed methods evaluation and planning project using group concept mapping (GCM) methodology to identify and prioritise the ways in which our recently established Quality Improvement Network (QIN) could support allied health professionals, psychological therapists and administrative staff in their daily work to improve patient outcomes and experience. Mid-level leaders across our therapy services department contributed towards a statement generation activity and individually sorted these statements into themes. Each statement was rated for perceived importance and current success. Multidimensional scaling and hierarchical cluster analysis were applied to the sorted data to produce themed clusters of ideas within concept maps. Priority values were applied to these maps to identify key areas for future QIN activity.
Results
Overall, 34 participants took part in ideas generation, 20 in sorting and 30 in the rating activity. A five-item cluster map was agreed on, containing the following named clusters: data support; practical skills and training; time and resources; embedding a QI culture; and sharing ideas and working together. Statements contained within each of the five clusters highlight the importance of supporting a range of activities spanning the technical and human aspects of QI at an individual, group/team, organisation and wider systems level.
Conclusion
GCM provided a structured and systematic approach for identifying the perceived support needs of allied health professionals, psychological therapists and administrative support staff in relation to QI. The findings from this project provide a useful benchmark from which to track targeted QI support in an applied healthcare setting