Collaboration between Occupational Therapists and Architects to Incorporate Universal Design to Increase Accessibility

The design of the built environment plays a key role in occupational participation. When the built environment is poorly designed, it severely limits accessibility for an individual with a disability. In contrast, when the built environment is well designed, it can support the occupational performance of individuals of all ages and abilities. Interprofessional collaboration between occupational therapists and architects can improve environmental barriers to occupational participation within home and community settings. Interprofessional collaboration between occupational therapists and architects has involved direct input through consultations, interprofessional education experiences, and the formation of interprofessional organizations. However, barriers to interprofessional collaboration have included the architect’s preference for autonomy, differences between each profession’s terminology, and lack of understanding of each profession’s skill set and scope of practice. This doctoral capstone project sought to bring awareness to and advocate for the inclusion of occupational therapists on design teams to incorporate universal design in new homes and community buildings to increase accessibility. A variety of learning experiences, such as interactions with professionals in both the home modification and architecture fields, conducting interviews and surveys, and attending in-person and online events, contributed to the development of advocacy skills and an understanding of universal design and the architectural culture.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesspring2023/1004/thumbnail.jp

Occupation-Based Programming for an Addiction Recovery Program

Addiction can impact engagement in many different occupations and occupational therapists can assist in returning to engagement in meaningful occupations. This capstone project focused on creating occupation-based programming for an addiction recovery program. This program aims to enhance engagement, skills, and confidence in daily occupations to promote overall well-being during recovery.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesfall2024/1048/thumbnail.jp

Leisure Exploration for Individuals Recovering from Substance Use Disorder

Individuals in recovery from a substance use disorder often report feeling the desire to fill their time with meaning and that time they spent misusing substances was unfulfilling. This poster provides background on what a substance use disorder is and the effects it may have on a person\u27s life. It also dives into the methods used to create, propose, and implement a creative expression group for homeless transitional-aged youth, 18-25, and an exercise group for individuals in recovery from SUD. Finally, this poster discusses the implications of implementing and maintaining programs occupational therapist lead programs in community mental health settings.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonessummer2023/1028/thumbnail.jp

Disability Advocacy in Fashion Design

Originally marketed towards older adults followed by children, adaptive fashion greatly impacts the everyday independence of all disabled people. Utilizing the Person-Environment-Occupation model and understanding the relationship between the disabled community, clothing, and occupational participation and again with the fashion company, the designer, and their fulfillment of a need or gap in accessibility lead to the purpose of this capstone of identifying occupational therapy’s role in designing ready-to-wear adaptive clothing through understanding and bridging the gaps in fashion education for designers. To address this, advocacy in education and educational materials were created to fill this gap and promote accessibility and production of adaptive fashion. Future work is necessary to advocate for adaptive fashion and disability inclusion within the design process. Inclusion and discussions for accessibility are the precursors to action and implementation of change that will increase the quality of life for all.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesspring2023/1033/thumbnail.jp

Cuisine as a Compass: Exploring the Therapeutic Benefits of Community, Cooking, and More within the LGBTQIA+ Population

Background: The LGBTQIA+ population experiences unique barriers to occupation and well being. Anti-LGBTQ legislation encroaches on inclusive and affirming care affecting occupational access. Limited occupational participation and additional exhaustive adaptive strategies to engage in occupations safely have an emotional cost. This research study explores how food or mealtime occupations such as cooking, eating, and hosting can support LGBTQIA+ well-being. This research was made possible by LGBTQIA+ participants that are experts of their lived experience. Methods: This mixed methods research used both qualitative and quantitative methods to gather data on the significance of food-based occupations, culture, mental health, and identity in LGBTQIA+ adults. Qualitative data was collected through 8 individual, semi-structured interviews, 35 survey responses, and 7 photo and caption submissions for photo elicitation. Data was analyzed and assessed using Braun and Clarke’s (2019) six steps of thematic analysis. Results: Several themes and sub-themes emerged through the thematic analysis including joy as a process, community, negotiating identity, the power of memories and meaning-making, food as a means of expression, and symbolism in food. Conclusions: The findings of this research are encouraged to be used to advocate for the therapeutic use of mealtime occupations in supporting the well-being of the LGBTQIA+ community.https://soar.usa.edu/otdcapstonesfall2024/1052/thumbnail.jp

Mergers and Acquisitions in Latin America: Industrial Productivity and Corporate Governance

This paper examines the impact of industrial productivity on transnationals M&As from OECD countries towards Latin American countries in the period 1996 to 2010. It also analyzes the relationship between external mechanism of corporate governance and transnational M&As. For this purpose we use a gravitational model at the industry level. We find that industry productivity and higher standards of corporate governance in the country of origin promote transnational M&As activity. However, it is also found that higher levels of capital and technological productivity decreases transnational M&As activity

Adaptive Defence of the Internet of Things (IoT) using the Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) Model for Social Robots

The Internet of Things (IoT) continues to introduce unique challenges and threats to cybersecurity. In parallel, adaptive and autonomous cyber defence has become an emerging research topic leveraging Artificial Intelligence (AI) for cybersecurity solutions that can learn to recognize, mitigate, and respond to cyber-attacks, and evolve over time as the threat surface continues to increase in complexity. This paradigm presents an environment strongly conducive to agent-based systems, which offer a model for autonomous, cooperative, goal-oriented behaviours which can be applied to perform adaptive cyber defence activities. This paper presents a modular applied framework to leverage data models, domain knowledge, and multi-agent architecture to perform adaptive cyber defence capabilities through contextual policy generation and enforcement. The Belief-Desire-Intention (BDI) model is extended for behavioural modeling of agents to perform practical reasoning and deliberation of actions in pursuit of goals

Holocene sea level fluctuations and coastal evolution in the central Algarve (southern Portugal)

In Armação de Pêra Bay, southern Portugal, environmental changes during the Holocene can be interpreted based on the morphological and sedimentological similarities between older geomorphic features (cemented beach and dune rocks) and present coastal features. Using knowledge of the present beach and dune processes, we propose a two-step model for the evolution of Armação de Pêra Bay. First, during the rapid sea level rise between about 8800 and 6600 yr cal BP, the bay changed from a positive to a negative budget littoral cell and transgressive dunes formed, favoured by drought conditions. At about 5000 yr cal BP, during a sea level maximum, beach width was less than the critical fetch and dunes stabilized and underwent cementation during the wetter Atlantic climatic event. The second phase of dune accumulation started at about 3200 yr cal BP, due to a regression of sea level during which the bay changed back to a positive budget littoral cell in which beach width was greater than the critical fetch. Currently, the beach width is less than the critical fetch, dunes are inactive, and the sedimentary budget is negative due to sediment storage in local river systems.Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia. FEDER, and OE (Project POCTI/CTA/34162/2000

Characterization of sensory neuron subpopulations selectively expressing green fluorescent protein in phosphodiesterase 1C BAC transgenic mice

BACKGROUND: The complex neuronal circuitry of the dorsal horn of the spinal cord is as yet poorly understood. However, defining the circuits underlying the transmission of information from primary afferents to higher levels is critical to our understanding of sensory processing. In this study, we have examined phosphodiesterase 1C (Pde1c) BAC transgenic mice in which a green fluorescent protein (GFP) reporter gene reflects Pde1c expression in sensory neuron subpopulations in the dorsal root ganglia and spinal cord. RESULTS: Using double labeling immunofluorescence, we demonstrate GFP expression in specific subpopulations of primary sensory neurons and a distinct neuronal expression pattern within the spinal cord dorsal horn. In the dorsal root ganglia, their distribution is restricted to those subpopulations of primary sensory neurons that give rise to unmyelinated C fibers (neurofilament 200 negative). A small proportion of both non-peptidergic (IB4-binding) and peptidergic (CGRP immunoreactive) subclasses expressed GFP. However, GFP expression was more common in the non-peptidergic than the peptidergic subclass. GFP was also expressed in a subpopulation of the primary sensory neurons immunoreactive for the vanilloid receptor TRPV1 and the ATP-gated ion channel P2X(3). In the spinal cord dorsal horn, GFP positive neurons were largely restricted to lamina I and to a lesser extent lamina II, but surprisingly did not coexpress markers for key neuronal populations present in the superficial dorsal horn. CONCLUSION: The expression of GFP in subclasses of nociceptors and also in dorsal horn regions densely innervated by nociceptors suggests that Pde1c marks a unique subpopulation of nociceptive sensory neurons

Regulation of human intestinal T-cell responses by type 1 interferon-STAT1 signaling is disrupted in inflammatory bowel disease

This work was supported by a research fellowship grant from the Crohn’s and Colitis in Childhood Research Association (CICRA) and a small project grant from Crohn’s and Colitis UK (CCUK). We would like to acknowledge Professor Ian Sanderson, who helped with the initial design of this work, and provided important support throughout. We would also like to thank Dr Gary Warne for his advice and assistance in the use of the sorting by flow cytometry. We would also like to thank Dr Raj Lahiri and Professor Graham Foster for the kind gift of the primers for the ISGs (2’5’ OAS and MxA)