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Occupational therapists are concerned with how people perform across the various daily activities that are important to them. It is recognised within occupational therapy that the presence of illness or disability might affect this performance.In order to assess how a person complete a task and identify what is making it unsatisfying, the occupational therapist will observe the person engaged in familiar activities. The Assessment of Motor and Process Skills (AMPS) provides a standardised framework within which to make these observations. We have found the AMPS to be useful in assessing the performance of people with learning disabilities generally, as well as in assessing those with additional mental illness.We recognise that occupational therapy assessment plays a useful part in a wider multi‐professional, multi‐agency approach to identifying and managing the needs of people with learning disabilities.

The use of anti-dementia medication in people with intellectual disabilities has been controversial and requires additional research to assess the efficacy of such medications. An essential part of this treatment (both in terms of research and clinical practice) is having robust outcome measures to assess the efficacy of these medications for individuals. Currently there is no consensus in the UK regarding which outcome measures, in conjunction with clinical judgement, are effective in informing clinicians’ decision-making regarding anti-dementia medication management and this paper aims to present useful outcome measures.

A comprehensive literature search was conducted to identify relevant outcome measures. Outcome measures focused on aspects of patients’ presentation such as cognition, activities of daily living, neuropsychiatric presentation or the impact of their presentation (either on themselves, or on others). These outcome measures were critically appraised to ascertain their suitability in informing clinician’s decisions regarding management of anti-dementia medication. The focus of this appraisal was on good quality measures that are practical and accessible and can be easily used within clinical NHS services.

This paper provides advice for clinicians on using appropriate outcome measures, depending on patients’ presentations and the symptoms of dementia being targeted, that can be used alongside their clinical assessment to enhance their anti-dementia medication management. Two case studies are presented to illustrate the use of such outcome measures.

The case for using a range of assessments that are both broad in focus, and those specifically selected to measure the areas of functioning targeted by the anti-dementia medication, is presented.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the prominence of mechanical excitations at the time of welding. In the past years, the process of welding technology has expanded its influence in manufacturing. The crucial drawback of conventional welding is prompted by internal stresses and distortions, which is the focal reason for weld defects. These weld defects can be diminished by the process called post-weld heat treatment (PWHT), which consumes more working hours and needs skilled workers. To replace these PWHT processes, mechanical vibrations are introduced during the process of welding to diminish these weld defects.

In the current research, the mechanical vibrations are transferred to weld-pool through vibro-motor and DC motor connected to the electrode. As per standards, the tensile test specimens were prepared for welding with different voltages of vibro-motor and DC motor respectively. The weld joints were tested for tensile strength and analyzed the microstructure at the fusion zone.

Melt-ability at fusion zone of 1018 mild steel was investigated by the single-stroke intense heat process of fusion welding. It is observed that the mechanical vibrations technique has a profound influence on the enhancement of the fusion zone characteristics and grain structure. The peak value of the tensile strength is observed at 100 s of vibration, 190 V of vibro-motor voltage and 18 V of electrode voltage. The tensile strength of the welded joints with vibrations is increased up to 22.64% when it is compared with conventional welding. The enhancement of the tensile strength of the weld bead was obtained because of the formation of fine grain structure. So, mechanical vibrations are identified as the most convenient method for improving the mild steel alloys weld quality.

A novel approach called mechanical vibrations during the process of welding is implemented for fusion zone refinement.

As occupational therapists embrace evidence-informed and occupation-centred practice, the use of standardised visual perceptual tests remains a strong feature of typical paediatric practice. Yet, the research evidence for the use of such tools is inconclusive at best. This study compared the results of the Test of Visual Perceptual Skills (TVPS) with a checklist of reported functional difficulties in 30 children attending occupational therapy. The purpose of this paper was to determine the usefulness of visual perceptual testing in relation to occupation-centred practice.

A descriptive correlational study design was used. Participants were 30 primary school-age children who were on a paediatric occupational therapy caseload. An additional 30 typically developing children participated in the development of the checklist.

Correlations were found between reported functional visual skill difficulties and two subtests of the TVPS (visual memory and visual discrimination). No correlation was found between the reported functional difficulties and any of the other five subtests of the TVPS or the total score.

Results highlight the weak relationship that existed in this study between standardised measures of visual perception, as measured by the TVPS, and functional difficulties. Therapists are cautioned to explore both the evidence base for continued use of standardised visual perceptual measures to inform occupation-centred practice and the need to embrace a more comprehensive person-centred approach to visual perceptual assessment.

No occupational therapy outcome measures have been designed specifically for recovery-orientated services.This paper aims to identify occupational therapy outcome measures relevant to mental health practice and assess them against recovery principles adopted by Irish Mental Health Services.

A narrative review methodology was used to appraise outcome measures against CHIME recovery principles.

A systematic search across 13 databases identified eight well-established outcome measures commonly used within occupational therapy mental health literature. The included outcome measures were appraised using a recovery alignment tool.

All outcome measures connected to some recovery processes. Those using semi-structured interview formats and notably the Canadian Occupational Performance Measure (COPM) had the strongest alignment to recovery processes.

This is the first known review which provides some validation that the included outcome measures support recovery processes, yet the measures rely heavily on therapist’s skills for processes to be facilitated. It recommends that ways to better support the process of partnership in occupational therapy mental health outcome measures be explored and further research be undertaken.

The assessment of fitness to drive after stroke is an emerging area of occupational therapy practice in Ireland. Despite this, little is known about occupational therapists’ evaluation practices, and there are no internationally agreed clinical guidelines to inform best practice. The purpose of this paper is to investigate occupational therapy evaluation practices for fitness to drive after stroke in Ireland.

This is a cross-sectional study design targeting occupational therapists working with people after stroke using an online survey. Summary and descriptive statistics were used to analyse the returned surveys.

In total, 47 occupational therapists participated. Off-road driving assessment was completed by 68 per cent of respondents. Functional assessment and non-driving-specific assessments were most widely used and perceived to be the most useful in informing the off-road assessment. A total of 89 per cent referred clients for on-road assessments; however, some referred without first completing an off-road assessment. The therapists who completed formal post graduate education/training in driving assessment reported greater confidence and competence in their skills and ability to assess fitness to drive. A vast majority of participants agreed that clinical guidelines regarding best practice in this area would be beneficial.

A majority of occupational therapists are assessing fitness to drive after stroke in Ireland with non-driving-specific assessments and functional observations; however, there are many gaps and wide variations between services. Education/training in evaluating fitness to drive after stroke is recommended. The development of clinical guidelines to inform practice would facilitate a consistent approach nationally.

This is the first study completed in Ireland to investigate occupational therapy evaluation practices for fitness to drive after stroke.

THIS title, abbreviated in current fashion to the initials M.S.T., is given to what Personnel Administration Ltd. describe as a new management technique which has been developed by their research and development division under its director, Mr. B. P. Smith. Its aim is to increase the productivity of workers, particularly semi‐skilled ones engaged on repetitive tasks. Since the company claim that M.S.T. is as significant an advance on work study as work study originally was on rate fixing, it plainly calls for examination by experts.

It is all too easy in the hectic world of business to get too involved with the day‐to‐day managing of processes and events. When this happens it is difficult to see the wood for the trees and the automatic pilot syndrome takes over. This does not suggest that you do not know what you are doing ‐ on the contrary you are probably as switched on to whatever activity you are managing as anyone could be. What you could be missing, however, is the explanation as to why you are doing it. If this sounds familiar to you, what might be needed is a detached period from your work. By this I mean stay on the high ground for a while so you can get an overview of what you are doing and, more importantly, why you are doing it. How many managers, I wonder, get the opportunity to question what they are doing? If you allow yourself to slip into complacency then you and your organization will soon lose competitive advantage.

In a recent edition of the nation's favourite soap, Coronation Street, a small incident occurred which illustrated in a nutshell the problems facing the deviser of an industrial design in seeking to protect that design from being copied. Angie, a student of fashion design at the local polytechnic put on a successful show of her designs. Emboldened by the favourable reception she set out a couple of days later for an appointment with a local dress manufacturer to try and sell her designs. She returned a few hours later in tears and with hopes dashed. She had arrived at the firm only to discover that her designs were already being made up into dresses. The designs had been copied at the show and already sold to or copied by them. The incident was not without its silver lining in that in getting drunk to forget the whole sad affair this lead to a romantic interlude with fellow lodger, Curley Watts! It is the purpose of this article to examine the main strands of protection for industrial designs and to look at a proposed new European Community Design Law which has recently been published by the prestigious Max Planck Institute for Foreign and International Patent, Copyright and Competition Law (Munich, 1991). This proposal is being put to the EC Commission as the basis for an EC Regulation.

NOT before time, the future task that lies before industry has been spelled out for us at the various political conferences that have taken place over the past two months.