Piece Of Practice Research Articles

A gestalt shift? Reflections from researchers turned elected representatives on the real-world use of evidence in policy making

This practice piece will present a comparative reflection of how the use of evidence in policy looks when viewed from the outside, as a researcher, with how evidence use is experienced when working as a policy maker. The three authors are unusual in sharing an experience of studying evidence use in policy before becoming elected politicians who are involved in policy making and who have therefore gained a very different, more direct experience of how evidence is used in policy-making settings. Synhaeve has studied evidence use in secure youth care and is an elected councillor and was elected national member of parliament for the Democrats 66 Party in the Netherlands, McMahon has studied evidence use in public health and is an elected councillor for the Labour Party in England, while Heap has studied evidence use in social security policy and is an elected councillor for the Green Party in Scotland. The practice piece will consider to what extent their perspectives on evidence use in policy have shifted as they have moved from researcher to political representative and policy maker, and will consider to what extent these experiences have been shaped by their substantive policy interests and the political systems in which each is operating. It will conclude by summarising the collective insights that have emerged for the three authors as they have shifted to viewing evidence use from the perspective of an insider, who is using evidence in making policy, rather than an outsider, producing evidence with a view to influencing policy.

Cultural adaptation of a trauma-informed mind-body intervention for survivors of human trafficking

In this Voices from Practice article, we present the process for adapting a 12-week mind-body group mental health intervention from development and implementation in Uganda for implementation with human trafficking survivors in the Philippines. We summarize key steps in the intervention adaptation process, outlining recommendations for other social work practitioners interested in culturally adapting community mental health interventions. This Voices from Practice piece provides guidance to social workers regarding an intentional and client-centered approach to adaptation of interventions across cultural contexts.

Portfolios For Professional Writers: A Reflection on Preparing Capstone Students For Professional Writing

In this reflective practice piece, two instructors grapple with the unexpectedly disappointing results of a culminating digital portfolio in a professional writing program. Instructors had hoped students would approach the digital portfolio as a tool in the job market to showcase their writing skills and interests. Instead, we found that despite the program-wide emphasis on crafting and selecting pieces for this final capstone project, students’ portfolios did not reflect the level of professionalism we anticipated regarding the selection of work and overall design. We were concerned that students viewed this as just another assignment instead of a tool that would support them in the job market. In reflecting on the disconnect between our expectations and the student’s approach to the project, and in conversation with the theory of self-focus in the life-stage of emerging adulthood (Arnett, 2016) and the need for additional guidance on large projects such as these (Lam, 2020; Ring et al., 2017), we instituted portfolio check-ins. These one-on-one meetings with the instructor augmented the peer reviews already in the course to provide the perspective of how a possible employer might evaluate their portfolio and other considerations for strengthening their work. Future research will look to survey program graduates to get a better sense of if and how the portfolios are used post-graduation. Keywords: digital portfolios, ePortfolios, capstone, professional writing, writing, undergraduate, career readiness, emerging adulthood

Vertical Takeoff and Landing for Distribution of Parcels to Hospitals: A Case Study about Industry 5.0 Application in Israel’s Healthcare Arena

To gain a sustained competitive advantage, organizations such as UPS, Fedex, Amazon, etc., began to seek for industry 5.0 innovative autonomous delivery options for the last mile. Autonomous unmanned aerial vehicles are a promising alternative for the logistics industry. The fact that drones are propelled by green renewable energy source fits the companies’ need to become sustainable, replacing their fuel truck fleets, especially for traveling to remote rural locations to deliver small packages, but a major obstacle is the necessity for charging stations which is well documented in the literature. Therefore, the current research embarks on devising a novel yet practical piece of technology adopting the simplicity approach of direct flights to destinations. The analysis showcases the application for a network of warehouses and hospitals in Israel while controlling costs. Given the products in the case study are medical, direct flight has the potential to save lives when every moment counts. Hydrogen cell technology allows long-range flying without refueling, and it is both vibration-free which is essential for sensitive medical equipment and environmentally friendly in terms of air pollution and silence in urban areas. Importantly, hydrogen cells are lighter, with higher energy density than batteries, which makes them ideal for drone usage to reduce weight, maintain a longer life, and enable faster charging, all of which minimize downtime. Also, hydrogen sourcing is low-cost and unlimited compared to lithium-ion material which needs to be mined. The case study investigates an Israeli entrepreneurial company, Gadfin, which builds a vertical takeoff-and-landing-type of drone with folded wings that enable higher speed for the delivery of refrigerated medical cargo, blood, organs for transplant, and more to hospitals in partnership with the Israeli medical logistic conglomerate, SAREL. An analysis of shipping optimization (concerning the number and type of drone) is conducted using a mixed-integer linear programming technique based on various types of constraints such as traveling distance, parcel weight, the amount of flight controllers and daily number of flights allowed in order to not overcrowd the airspace. Importantly, the discussion assesses the ecosystem’s variety of risks and commensurate safety mechanisms for advancing a newly shaped landscape of drones in an Israeli tight airspace to establish a network of national routes for drone traffic. The conclusion of this research cautions limitations to overcome as the utilization of drones expand and offers future research avenues.

What are Human Factors and Ergonomics?

This is the second of four co-written papers for the Advancing Practice series. In our first paper published in The Practising Midwife July 2023 issue, we explored patient safety in maternity and midwifery care. Here, we discuss ‘Human Factors and Ergonomics’ within healthcare, maternity and midwifery. The reflection points throughout this Advancing Practice piece are adapted from the NHS Education for Scotland’s Safety Culture Discussion Cards.1 In this paper, we hope to support midwives’ understanding of the current maternity safety landscape via a Human Factors perspective.

Confronting Colonialism in Canadian Dietetics Curricula.

Many Canadian universities have committed to becoming more accountable to Indigenous Peoples by confronting the systemic, historical, and ongoing colonialism and anti-Indigenous racism that shape their campuses. In this Perspective in Practice piece, we invite the field of dietetics to consider how colonialism has shaped dietetics research, teaching, and practice. We also consider how we might transform the field of dietetics in ways that accept settler responsibility for interrupting racism and colonial harm; support the resurgence of Indigenous food and health practices; and recognise the connections between struggles to ensure that Indigenous Peoples can access culturally appropriate food and health care, and struggles for Indigenous sovereignty and self-determination. We do this by reviewing the history of the dietetics field, examining critical responses to existing Indigenisation and decolonisation efforts, and reflecting on recent changes to required dietetics competencies. We argue that curricula in dietetics programmes must teach the history of the colonial food system and equip students to identify and interrupt the individual and institutional colonial dynamics that contribute to the ongoing dispossession of Indigenous Peoples' lands and food sources and negatively impact Indigenous patients.

Case development technology for the development of English competence in dialogical speech of future English teachers

The article examines the concept of case study technology and its impact on the development of English language competence in the dialogical speech of future English language teachers. The research of Ukrainian and foreign scholars, who in their works described the case study technology as an effective technology for teaching foreign languages and cultures, was analyzed. In order to create an effective case, during its development, it is necessary to take into account its type in accordance with educational goals. The technology for the development of the case itself, that is, a set of educational materials, which reveal a training problematic situation for the development of English language competence in dialogic speech of future English language teachers, is described. The case development technology consists of two blocks. The first block contains points related to the determination of the place of the case in an educational process and the formation of the main goals of the case application, the second block provides some practical pieces of advice on the process of case development. The last stage in the process of introducing the case study technology to the educational process is the creation of a model of the case itself for its further implementation into practice. Using casres involves two stages: preparatory and main one. At the preparatory stage, students independently study case materials and, if necessary, the teacher provides some explanations regarding the given information. At the main stage, students offer their individual vision of solving the proposed problem outlined in the case materials.

United States

Abstract This short State Practice piece describes ongoing efforts to prepare a United States’ Ocean Action Climate Plan that will balance both “blue economy” development priorities (energy and shipping) and conservation and restoration priorities.

Informed consent with people judged incapable of legally consenting

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to consider informed consent with those who may be legally judged incapable of consent. Frequently individuals with traumatic brain injuries and intellectual disabilities may fall into this category. This paper seeks to consider aspects of guardianship, moral and legal implications and best practices for mental health professionals.Design/methodology/approachThis practice piece reviews literature regarding informed consent, as well as pertinent issues in the professional literature regarding types of guardianship as well as the occurrence of “Lucid intervals.” Furthermore, literature from moral philosophy and current legal research was examined to fully provide readers with a grasp of the legal and ethical landscape of this issue.FindingsThe paper finds that treating consent as a one-time binary event is lacking in both practicality and nuance. Moral philosophy and issues regarding paternalism are raised, as well as practice approaches to assessment of capability and how to engage in therapy in meaningful ways.Originality/valueThis paper provides insight into providing dignity-affirming therapy with a population that is often not considered in the literature of mental health ethics. When it is considered, the suggestions are so vague as to be of limited use. This manuscript provides nuance and practical applications to be a therapist that promotes dignity in those who might have varying levels of capacity to consent.

Determining Chess Piece Values Using Machine Learning

This paper attempts to generate point values for chess pieces, as alternatives to the commonly accepted chess piece values. We use a database of over a million online chess games to heuristically determine the value of a chess piece, by using material imbalances to predict game results. We then explore how piece values change when we analyze material imbalances at various stages of a chess game. As further exploration, we determine what practical values chess pieces and imbalances have at various rating ranges. This creates practical data that players of varying rating can use to aid in chess calculation, as opposed to the rigid values that are typically accepted.

The Tip of the Buyer: Extracting Product Tips from Reviews

Product reviews play a key role in e-commerce platforms. Studies show that many users read product reviews before a purchase and trust them to the same extent as personal recommendations. However, in many cases, the number of reviews per product is large and extracting useful information becomes a challenging task. Several websites have recently added an option to post tips —short, concise, practical, and self-contained pieces of advice about the products. These tips are complementary to the reviews and usually add a new non-trivial insight about the product, beyond its title, attributes, and description. Yet, most if not all major e-commerce platforms lack the notion of a tip as a first-class citizen and customers typically express their advice through other means, such as reviews. In this work, we propose an extractive method for tip generation from product reviews. We focus on five popular e-commerce domains whose reviews tend to contain useful non-trivial tips that are beneficial for potential customers. We formally define the task of tip extraction in e-commerce by providing the list of tip types, tip timing (before and/or after the purchase), and connection to the surrounding context sentences. To extract the tips, we propose a supervised approach and leverage a publicly available dataset, annotated by human editors, containing 14,000 product reviews. To demonstrate the potential of our approach, we compare different tip generation methods and evaluate them both manually and over the labeled set. Our approach demonstrates particularly high performance for popular products in the Baby, Home Improvement, and Sports & Outdoors domains, with precision of over 95% for the top 3 tips per product. In addition, we evaluate the performance of our methods on previously unseen domains. Finally, we discuss the practical usage of our approach in real-world applications. Concretely, we explain how tips generated from user reviews can be integrated in various use cases within e-commerce platforms and benefit both buyers and sellers.

High–Quality Formative Writing Assessment for Middle School Students in Tier 2 Literacy Interventions

Increased expectations for writing performance have created a need for formative writing assessments that will help middle school teachers better understand adolescents’ grade–appropriate writing skills and monitor the progress of students with or at risk for writing disabilities. In this practice piece, we first explain research–based recommendations for high–quality writing prompts that are interesting to students, provide clear directions, and ensure accessibility and fairness. Then, we use lessons learned from working with adolescents in Tier 2 literacy intervention classes to demonstrate how teachers can apply the recommendations to identify or develop prompts that will encourage students to write responses. In addition, we explain how analytic rubrics may be used to evaluate responses as a means of informing instruction and further refining the prompts.

Nurturing mental health and well-being using ordinary farms

Purpose This practice piece aims to review an occupational therapy led pilot programme – social farming as an intervention option in an adult community mental health setting in Ireland. It will also reflect on the practical implications of delivering the natural surroundings based programme through the COVID-19 pandemic and plans for the future development of such programmes in adult mental health services. Design/methodology/approach The Occupational Circumstances Assessment Interview Rating Scale (OCAIRS) was used to measure occupational participation (Forsyth, 2005). This was administered with participants’ pre and post their participation in the 10-week programme. An internal questionnaire was developed to further capture both the participant and farmer experiences of the social farming programme. Findings Whilst improvements were noted in a number of OCAIRS domains, it was difficult to identify small changes over a short period of time. The main domains of change were habits, roles, interests and personal causation. The success of the social farming placements was also reflected in the internal questionnaire. The pilot programme has resulted in the further development of the social farming programme and securing of funding for placements for five years. Originality/value It would be beneficial to consider other standardised assessments that assess quality of life and occupation for future placements. It is also beneficial to consider practical implications in delivering a social farming programme, particularly to those with barriers to transport. It is hoped this paper will contribute to the growing knowledge of social farming as a meaningful therapeutic intervention in mental health occupational therapy practice.

Offline Imagery Checks for Remote Drone Usage

Drones are increasingly used for a wide range of applications including mapping, monitoring, detection, tracking and videography. Drone software and flight mission programs are, however, still largely marketed for “urban” use such as property photography, roof inspections or 3D mapping. As a result, much of the flight mission software is reliant upon an internet connection and has built-in cloud-based services to allow for the mosaicking of imagery as a direct part of the image collection process. Another growing use for drones is in conservation, where drones are monitoring species and habitat change. Naturally, much of this work is undertaken in areas without internet connection. Working remotely increases field costs, and time in the field is often aligned with specific ecological seasons. As a result, pilots in these scenarios often have only one chance to collect appropriate data and an opportunity missed can mean failure to meet research aims and contract deliverables. We provide a simple but highly practical piece of code allowing drone pilots to quickly plot the geographical position of captured photographs and assess the likelihood of the successful production of an orthomosaic. Most importantly, this process can be performed in the field with no reliance on an internet connection, and as a result can highlight any missing sections of imagery that may need recollecting, before the opportunity is missed. Code is written in R, a familiar software to many ecologists, and provided on a GitHub repository for download. We recommend this data quality check be integrated into a pilot’s standard image capture process for the dependable production of mosaics and general quality assurance of drone collected imagery.

Reflection of Spiritual Culture in the Images on the Folding Screen

The appearance of the screen as a social and cultural phenomenon is closely related to the idea of the daily life of the Chinese, which includes folklore, as well as cultural and folk traditions. The paintings, the plot of which is a screen, reflect a unique Chinese aesthetic concept and the author's view of life and values. In addition, the properties of the screen can be studied from different angles: from a practical piece of furniture to an abstract art form. The focus of this article is the images of the screen in the pictorial art of China. The purpose of the study is to identify the cultural and philosophical meanings behind these images. The novelty of the research is connected with the chosen perspective: such a complex phenomenon of Chinese culture as a screen is viewed through the prism and in close connection with the traditions of Chinese pictorial art. In the course of the study, a conclusion was made about the manifestation of religious-philosophical, ideological, moral and aesthetic ideas of the Chinese in the images of the screen. In addition, the educational role of these images, which carry an educational function, is determined. A special contribution of the author can be called the identification of Confucian and Taoist ideas symbolically embodied in the images of the screen in Chinese painting. In general, the screen in this work is considered as a key to understanding of the deep meanings of traditional painting.

Review: Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment, by Jonathan Sterne

Review: <i>Diminished Faculties: A Political Phenomenology of Impairment</i>, by Jonathan Sterne

A Study of Student Assessment and Grading System: Potentials and Challenges

Abstract: The way toward educating and realizing which is made-up to be important for the understudy loses its euphoria as a result of the negative implications of assessment. There is a need to look at the holistic assessment of a learner which also includes co scholastic area of Life Skills, Values andAttitudes, Games and Sports as well as Co- Curricular activities. We require taking a gander at the all-encompassing evaluation of a student which additionally contains curricular, co- educational everyday issue abilities, mentalities and qualities, sports and games just as co- curricular exercises. The destinations of the examination were, to comprehend the reviewing arrangement of substitute assessment; and furthermore to feature its difficulties, decisions and outcomes. Thereviewing plan attempts at tending to both curricular and co-curricular exercises in a comprehensive way. The main capacity of Grading is to convey successfully to an assortment of partners the level of accomplishment of an individual understudy. The reviewing of understudies would likewise remove the alarming critical nature of imprintsacquired in a test prompting a peaceful and happy learning climate in the school. It likewise empowers keeping up an important coherence in the appraisal design and furthermore guaranteeing an essential consistency in the schools. The crucial point of the present study was to understand the reviewing framework for understudy evaluation, its difficulties and results. Assessment is a basic piece of the instructive practice as some type of evaluation is basic to discover the viability of showing learning measures and their digestion by students. Outer assessments „are generally improper for the knowledge society‟ of the 21stcentury and its‟ require for imaginative issue solvers‟, Questions if not organized well, "call for repetition retention and neglect to test higher-request abilities like thinking and investigation, critical thinking, parallel reasoning, innovativeness andjudgment. Assessment offers an indispensable measuring stick to pass judgment on the natureof understudies. It assumes a fundamental function in the instructive framework. It additionally enriches with inspiration and a feeling of direction to the two instructors and understudies to accomplish set objectives. The term assessment has come to be connected with pressure and tension.

Theorising practice: independent trade unions in the UK

This Theory into Practice piece uses theoretical underpinnings of Ness as well as Cleaver and Sivanandan to explore the role of two independent trade unions that emerged in the UK in the mid 2010s, namely the Independent Workers of Great Britain (IWGB) in 2012 and the United Voices of the World (UVW) in 2014. Despite being of relatively small size (each has a membership of under 10,000) and with few financial resources, they have been praised for their ground-breaking and ‘significant high-profile wins’ in ‘David and Goliath’ battles. In this article I discuss why low paid, largely migrant workers have organised within these independent unions; and the extent to which they have applied syndicalist tactics and strategies. The analysis is rooted in my practice, as someone who was involved in the IWGB from the start and then co-founded the UVW in 2014.

On Freedom and Responsibility in an Extra-Moral Sense: Nietzsche and Non-Sovereign Responsibility

AbstractInterpreting Nietzsche’s writings on agency and responsibility through the lens of non-sovereignty generates interpretive and political-theoretical contributions. More specifically, I advance three arguments. First, Nietzsche’s genealogical critique of moral responsibility denaturalizes modernity’s conception of individual sovereignty and responsibility, by providing a naturalistic account of agency. Agency and responsibility are neither Kantian presuppositions of practical reason nor pieces of folk psychology to be abolished, but are normative, social, and historical achievements, and thus non-sovereign. Second, this implies a theory of responsibility that is simultaneously more and less demanding than moralistic accounts: while, because agents are not autonomous, they do not bear sole responsibility for their lives, they are called upon to be responsible to and for the world, by maintaining the conditions of possible agency and flourishing. Third, Nietzsche provides both generative resources and cautionary tales for political theories of non-sovereign agency. While non-sovereign responsibility holds emancipatory and potentially democratic implications, Nietzsche’s explicit political writings demonstrate the risk that, rather than tempering existential resentment, this account could generate and intensify a resentful anti-political authoritarianism. Just as non-sovereignty provides a useful framework for making sense of tensions within Nietzsche’s thought, Nietzsche’s post-moral theory of agency and responsibility brings forward tensions, provocations, and paradoxes that must be engaged by theorists of non-sovereignty.

The Implied Imperative: Poetry as Ethics in the Proverbs of the Tirukkuṟaḷ

ABSTRACTThe Tirukkuṟaḷ is a text of Tamil proverbs that circulates widely in South India today. While the first two sections of the text contain practical pieces of ethical advice, the third section contains an extended love poem. This variation in content has resulted in a dichotomous view of the text in which ethics and poetry are viewed as fundamentally distinct. This paper blurs the distinction between ethics and poetry by showing how the poetic form of the Tirukkuṟaḷ's proverbs not only enhances the text's ethical message but also participates in the ethical formation of the text's audience. Building on Geoffrey Galt Harpham's notion of sub‐ethics, I argue that the Tirukkuṟaḷ uses three literary strategies—metaphor, inference, and suspense—to engage the audience in modes of “sub‐ethical” reflection by raising ethical questions and framing ethical choices.