A Multiform, Group-Based Rehabilitation Program for Visually Impaired Young People to Promote Activity and Participation. A Pilot Study.

Young people with visual impairment (YPWVI) face several challenges in their everyday lives. However, little is known about interventions that focus on promoting their participation that contributes to health and well-being and is considered the most relevant outcome in rehabilitation. OBJECTIVES: This study investigated the clinical outcomes and acceptability of a new one-year, multiform, group-based rehabilitation program for YPWVI. The aim of the pilot program was to support them becoming more independent and to promote their participation. Rehabilitation consisted of group-meetings in an institutional setting, online group meetings, individually tailored one-on-one guidance, individual online discussions and parents' group meetings. Fifteen young persons with visual impairment were recruited and 14 completed the intervention, six of whom were blind or had severe visual impairment and eight had mild visual loss. METHODOLOGY: The study utilized a mixed methods triangulation design. Clinical outcome measures were goal attainment scaling (GAS) and occupational performance (COPM) completed with qualitative interview data. Focus group interviews with participants and parents were used to evaluate the acceptability of the program. RESULTS: GAS-rated personal goals were widely achieved and the scores of both performance and satisfaction scales of COPM improved. Overall, the rehabilitation program proved to be acceptable. Group-based rehabilitation was deemed very important and it enabled peer support. However, two-day periods of inpatient rehabilitation, proved to be too short, whereas five-day periods were considered to disturb schoolwork. CONCLUSIONS: Group-based multi-form rehabilitation for YPWVI can have a positive impact on activity and participation of the participants. The program can support independence and the achievement of rehabilitation goals. The group format was applauded for providing social support and company. The program required some structural modifications.

Ecosystem Services Related to Carbon Cycling - Modeling Present and Future Impacts in Boreal Forests.

Forests regulate climate, as carbon, water and nutrient fluxes are modified by physiological processes of vegetation and soil. Forests also provide renewable raw material, food, and recreational possibilities. Rapid climate warming projected for the boreal zone may change the provision of these ecosystem services. We demonstrate model based estimates of present and future ecosystem services related to carbon cycling of boreal forests. The services were derived from biophysical variables calculated by two dynamic models. Future changes in the biophysical variables were driven by climate change scenarios obtained as results of a sample of global climate models downscaled for Finland, assuming three future pathways of radiative forcing. We introduce continuous monitoring on phenology to be used in model parametrization through a webcam network with automated image processing features. In our analysis, climate change impacts on key boreal forest ecosystem services are both beneficial and detrimental. Our results indicate an increase in annual forest growth of about 60% and an increase in annual carbon sink of roughly 40% from the reference period (1981-2010) to the end of the century. The vegetation active period was projected to start about 3 weeks earlier and end ten days later by the end of the century compared to currently. We found a risk for increasing drought, and a decrease in the number of soil frost days. Our results show a considerable uncertainty in future provision of boreal forest ecosystem services.

Early snowmelt significantly enhances boreal springtime carbon uptake.

We determine the annual timing of spring recovery from space-borne microwave radiometer observations across northern hemisphere boreal evergreen forests for 1979-2014. We find a trend of advanced spring recovery of carbon uptake for this period, with a total average shift of 8.1 d (2.3 d/decade). We use this trend to estimate the corresponding changes in gross primary production (GPP) by applying in situ carbon flux observations. Micrometeorological CO2 measurements at four sites in northern Europe and North America indicate that such an advance in spring recovery would have increased the January-June GPP sum by 29 g⋅C⋅m-2 [8.4 g⋅C⋅m-2 (3.7%)/decade]. We find this sensitivity of the measured springtime GPP to the spring recovery to be in accordance with the corresponding sensitivity derived from simulations with a land ecosystem model coupled to a global circulation model. The model-predicted increase in springtime cumulative GPP was 0.035 Pg/decade [15.5 g⋅C⋅m-2 (6.8%)/decade] for Eurasian forests and 0.017 Pg/decade for forests in North America [9.8 g⋅C⋅m-2 (4.4%)/decade]. This change in the springtime sum of GPP related to the timing of spring snowmelt is quantified here for boreal evergreen forests.