Challenges & Strategies for Conducting Qualitative Research with Persons Diagnosed with Rare Movement Disorders

Unique features of Huntington’s disease and young-onset Parkinson’s disease, both neurodegenerative movement disorders, can pose challenges for conducting qualitative research. From the perspectives of two doctoral candidates conducting research with these groups, a number of challenges are presented and discussed alongside strategies for managing such challenges. Challenges are organized according to physical (e.g., movement), psychological (e.g., cognition) and social (e.g., speech impairment) aspects of these diseases. The strategies presented emphasize the importance of ethical reasoning in situations that can arise, as well as the relationships developed with the research participants. Author transparency and ethical reasoning are both important in conducting quality qualitative research. It is hoped that presenting these challenges and strategies will promote greater dialogue on such issues, and help researchers enable more people with rare movement disorders to participate in qualitative research

Autobiographies as Extant Data in Grounded Theory Methodology: A Reflection

Autobiographies written by those living with illness are readily available sources of data that can also aid in the development of a grounded theory. However, existing methodological guidelines do not provide support for the transparent and rigorous use of these texts. This paper describes a number of issues around the use of these texts, and provides an example of how autobiographies were used in a study conducted by the author. A set of steps that can be used by other grounded theorists considering the use of autobiographies as sources of data is provided, in an attempt to advance this aspect of the methodology

The Student Perspective on Role-Emerging Fieldwork Placements in Occupational Therapy: A Review of the Literature

Role-emerging fieldwork placements are increasingly being used in entry-level occupational therapy programs. However, published reviews have yet to focus on synthesizing the experiences and perspectives of students. This review aims to identify the opportunities, challenges, and future directions of role-emerging fieldwork placements based on the student perspective. A literature review using scoping review methods was conducted, including an electronic database search, hand-searching of journals, and citation tracking. Descriptive and thematic analyses of the articles were performed. Thirty articles were identified through the literature search. Themes that emerged related to opportunities were professional and personal development, independence and autonomy, client-centeredness, and new occupational therapy perspective. Themes that emerged related to challenges were defining a professional role, lack of structure and support, and high level of responsibility. Future directions centered on recommendations for future students and establishing roles within sites. Students benefited from the self-directed nature and client-centered practice in their role-emerging fieldwork placements, while the challenging environment contributed to their overall development. Students recognized a need for occupational therapy services in the wider community and saw role-emerging settings as legitimate career opportunities. Future research is encouraged to explore peer models, student-initiated role-emerging fieldwork placements, and postgraduate experiences

C and N mineralization and earthworm populations in a Norway spruce forest at Hasslöv (SW Sweden), 25 years after liming

During the last decades of the 20th century, acid rain affected many areas in Europe and Northern America. Soil acidification was considered a large problem for forest ecosystems, because it was expected that tree growth would be hampered by low pH, nutrient deficiencies and high concentrations of free Al. Furthermore low soil pH can change the soil fauna and soil microbial biomass. High acidity has also been shown to reduce C and N mineralization. Liming was expected to be a good measure against soil acidification. The present study assesses C and N mineralization and the earthworm community in the Hasslöv forest (SW Sweden; Norway spruce), 25 years after liming with a low dose of CaCO3 (1.75 t ha-1) and a low, medium and high dose (1.55, 3.45 and 8.75 t ha-1) of dolomitic lime. Soil pH correlated to the lime dose. Liming with medium and high doses of dolomitic lime increased C mineralization rates in the FH layer and the upper mineral soil. Liming did not increase N mineralization rates, though there was an increase in nitrification in the soil with the highest dose of lime. The C and N pool were lower in the heavily limed soil and to a lesser extent in the medium limed soil, compared to the control soil, mostly due to a reduction in the organic layer. Furthermore earthworm populations were larger with increasing doses of lime. The dominant species, Dendrobaena octaëdra, was present in all treatments whereas three other species were only found in the highest doses. When extrapolated to the field, both C and N mineralization expressed on an area basis were lower in soils with the highest lime treatment than in the control, and N mineralization was also lower in the medium limed soil. This can be explained by the fact that the C and N pools had been markedly reduced and that the increases in mineralization rate per gram soil could not make up for this reduction. In conclusion, addition of lime has long-lasting effects that can be seen as higher pH, higher C and N mineralization rates, lower soil pools of C and N and higher abundances of earthworms still after 25 years from the liming event. We recommend that as a measure against acidity liming should only be used with great caution

Plant diversity enhances production and downward transport of biodegradable dissolved organic matter

1. Plant diversity is an important driver of belowground ecosystem functions, such as root growth, soil organic matter (SOM) storage, and microbial metabolism, mainly by influencing the interactions between plant roots and soil. Dissolved organic matter (DOM), as the most mobile form of SOM, plays a crucial role for a multitude of soil processes that are central for ecosystem functioning. Thus, DOM is likely to be an important mediator of plant diversity effects on soil processes. However, the relationships between plant diversity and DOM have not been studied so far. 2. We investigated the mechanisms underlying plant diversity effects on concentrations of DOM using continuous soil water sampling across 6 years and 62 plant communities in a long‐term grassland biodiversity experiment in Jena, Germany. Furthermore, we investigated plant diversity effects on the molecular properties of DOM in a subset of the samples. 3. Although DOM concentrations were highly variable over the course of the year with highest concentrations in summer and autumn, we found that DOM concentrations consistently increased with plant diversity across seasons. The positive plant diversity effect on DOM concentrations was mainly mediated by increased microbial activity and newly sequestered carbon in topsoil. However, the effect of soil microbial activity on DOM concentrations differed between seasons, indicating DOM consumption in winter and spring, and DOM production in summer and autumn. Furthermore, we found increased contents of small and easily decomposable DOM molecules reaching deeper soil layers with high plant diversity. 4. Synthesis. Our findings suggest that plant diversity enhances the continuous downward transport of DOM in multiple ways. On the one hand, higher plant diversity results in higher DOM concentrations, on the other hand, this DOM is less degraded. The present study indicates, for the first time, that higher plant diversity enhances the downward transport of dissolved molecules that likely stimulate soil development in deeper layers and therefore increase soil fertility