Evaluation of on-road driving in people with hemianopia and quadrantanopia

OBJECTIVE: To examine whether some drivers with hemianopia or quadrantanopia display safe driving skills on the road compared with drivers with normal visual fields. ---------- METHOD: An occupational therapist evaluated 22 people with hemianopia, 8 with quadrantanopia, and 30 with normal vision for driving skills during naturalistic driving using six rating scales. ---------- RESULTS: Of drivers with normal vision, >90% drove flawlessly or had minor errors. Although drivers with hemianopia were more likely to receive poorer ratings for all skills, 59.1%–81.8% performed with no or minor errors. A skill commonly problematic for them was lane keeping (40.9%). Of 8 drivers with quadrantanopia, 7 (87.5%) exhibited no or minor errors. ---------- CONCLUSION: This study of people with hemianopia or quadrantanopia with no lateral spatial neglect highlights the need to provide individual opportunities for on-road driving evaluation under natural traffic conditions if a person is motivated to return to driving after brain injury.

Nurse-led telephone interventions for people with cardiac disease : A review of the research literature

Background: Nurse-led telephone follow-up offers a relatively inexpensive method of delivering education and support for assisting recovery in the early discharge period; however, its efficacy is yet to be determined. Aim: To perform a critical integrative review of the research literature addressing the effectiveness of nurse-led telephone interventions for people with coronary heart disease (CHD). Methods: A literature search of five health care databases; Sciencedirect, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature, Pubmed, Proquest and Medline to identify journal articles between 1980 and 2009. People with cardiac disease were considered for inclusion in this review. The search yielded 128 papers, of which 24 met the inclusion criteria. Results: A total of 8330 participants from 24 studies were included in the final review. Seven studies demonstrated statistically significant differences in all outcomes measured, used two group experimental research design and valid and reliable instruments. Some positive effects were detected in eight studies in regards to nurse-led telephone interventions for people with cardiac disease and no differences were detected in nine studies. Discussion: Studies with some positive effects generally had stronger research designs, large samples, used valid and reliable instruments and extensive nurse-led educative interventions. Conclusion: The results suggest that people with cardiac disease showed some benefits from nurse-led/delivered telephone interventions. More rigorous research into this area is needed.

Motivations and intentions : a case study of design-led activism

With a focus on intention and motivation, this paper describes a study involving three organisational communities and their collective effort to develop and provide more inclusive housing for people with disabilities and their families. While many studies, such as that by Rocha & Miles (2009), focus on commercial organisations, and sustainability from an economic perspective, this study involves a not-for-profit organisation (the accommodation and service provider) as well as a research organisation and a design action group volunteering their services free of charge. From this pro-bono context, the paper describes a case study that explores the nature of the collective as a basis for creative practice and political activism and the theoretical implications and wider application in terms of emerging research in the area of collaborative entrepreneurship and design activism.

Policy into practice : adoption of hazard mitigation measures by local government in Queensland : a collaborative research project between Queensland University of Technology and Emergency Management Queensland in association with Local Government of Queensland Disaster Management Alliance

The focus of the present research was to investigate how Local Governments in Queensland were progressing with the adoption of delineated DM policies and supporting guidelines. The study consulted Local Government representatives and hence, the results reflect their views on these issues. Is adoption occurring? To what degree? Are policies and guidelines being effectively implemented so that the objective of a safer, more resilient community is being achieved? If not, what are the current barriers to achieving this, and can recommendations be made to overcome these barriers? These questions defined the basis on which the present study was designed and the survey tools developed. While it was recognised that LGAQ and Emergency Management Queensland (EMQ) may have differing views on some reported issues, it was beyond the scope of the present study to canvass those views. The study resolved to document and analyse these questions under the broad themes of: • Building community capacity (notably via community awareness). • Council operationalisation of DM. • Regional partnerships (in mitigation/adaptation). Data was collected via a survey tool comprising two components: • An online questionnaire survey distributed via the LGAQ Disaster Management Alliance (hereafter referred to as the “Alliance”) to DM sections of all Queensland Local Government Councils; and • a series of focus groups with selected Queensland Councils

Psychological interventions for alcohol misuse among people with co-occurring depression or anxiety disorders: A systematic review

Abstract OBJECTIVE: Depression, anxiety and alcohol misuse frequently co-occur. While there is an extensive literature reporting on the efficacy of psychological treatments that target depression, anxiety or alcohol misuse separately, less research has examined treatments that address these disorders when they co-occur. We conducted a systematic review to determine whether psychological interventions that target alcohol misuse among people with co-occurring depressive or anxiety disorders are effective. DATA SOURCES: We systematically searched the PubMed and PsychINFO databases from inception to March 2010. Individual searches in alcohol, depression and anxiety were conducted, and were limited to 'human' published 'randomized controlled trials' or 'sequential allocation' articles written in English. STUDY SELECTION: We identified randomized controlled trials that compared manual guided psychological interventions for alcohol misuse among individuals with depressive or anxiety disorders. Of 1540 articles identified, eight met inclusion criteria for the review. DATA EXTRACTION: From each study, we recorded alcohol and mental health outcomes, and other relevant clinical factors including age, gender ratio, follow-up length and drop-out rates. Quality of studies was also assessed. DATA SYNTHESIS: Motivational interviewing and cognitive-behavioral interventions were associated with significant reductions in alcohol consumption and depressive and/or anxiety symptoms. Although brief interventions were associated with significant improvements in both mental health and alcohol use variables, longer interventions produced even better outcomes. CONCLUSIONS: There is accumulating evidence for the effectiveness of motivational interviewing and cognitive behavior therapy for people with co-occurring alcohol and depressive or anxiety disorders.

Reasonable adjustment and the assessment of students with disabilities: Australian legal issues and trends

Student assessment is particularly important, and particularly controversial, because it is the means by which student achievement is determined. Reasonable adjustment to student assessment is of equal importance as the means of ensuring the mitigation, or even elimination, of disability related barriers to the demonstration of student achievement. The significance of reasonable adjustment is obvious in the later years of secondary school, and in the tertiary sector, because failure to adjust assessment may be asserted as the reason a student did not achieve as well as anticipated or as the reason a student was excluded from a course and, as a result, from future study and employment opportunities. Even in the early years of schooling, however, assessment and its management are a critical issue for staff and students, especially in an education system like Australia’s with an ever increasing emphasis on national benchmarks testing. This paper will explain the legislation which underpins the right to reasonable adjustment in education in Australian schools. It will give examples of the kinds of adjustment which may be made to promote equality of opportunity in the area of assessment. It will also consider some of the controversies which have confronted, or which, it may be speculated, are likely to confront Australian education institutions as they work towards compliance with reasonable adjustment laws.

Opportunities of public transport experience enhancements with mobile services and urban screens

Public transportation is an environment with great potential for applying innovative ubiquitous computing services to enhance user experiences. This paper provides the underpinning rationale for research that will be looking at how real-time passenger information system deployed by transit authorities can provide a core platform to improve commuters’ user experiences during all stages of their journey. The proposal builds on this platform to inform the design and development of innovative social media, mobile computing and geospatial information applications, with the hope to create fun and meaningful experiences for passengers during their everyday travel. Furthermore, we present the findings of our pilot study that aims to offer a better understanding of passengers’ activities and social interactions during their daily commute.

Integrating organisational design with IT design : the Queensland Health payroll case

Most existing requirements engineering approaches focus on the modelling and specification of the IT artefacts ignoring the environment where the application is deployed. Although some requirements engineering approaches consider the stakeholder’s goals, they still focus on the IT artefacts’ specification. However, IT artefacts are embedded in a dynamic organisational environment and their design and specification cannot be separated from the environment’s constant evolution. Therefore, during the initial stages of a requirements engineering process it is advantageous to consider the integration of IT design with organisational design. We proposed the ADMITO (Analysis, Design and Management of IT and Organisations) approach to represent the dynamic relations between social and material entities, where the latter are divided into technological and organisational entities. In this paper we show how by using ADMITO in a concrete case, the Queensland Health Payroll (QHP) case, it is possible to have an integrated representation of IT and organisational design supporting organisational change and IT requirements specification.