Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

  • Purposeful activity

    The goal-directed use of time, energy, or attention that involves the active participation of the doer. Purposeful activity by humans often involves a social environment (others), a physical environment (objects, tools, and materials), and a process, which often culminates in a product.  

  • Leisure activity

    Activities chosen because they are pleasurable, relaxing, or in other ways emotionally satisfying, typically after work and other responsibilities are done.  

  • Graded activity

    In occupational therapy, a principle of therapeutic intervention in which tasks are classified and presented gradually according to the individual’s level of function and the challenge or degree of skill (physical, social, or cognitive) required by the task.  

  • Activities-specific balance confidence scale

    A 16-item instrument designed to measure a patient’s perception of balance and his or her subsequent fear of falling. The patient ranks his or her confidence to complete each item from 0% (no confidence) to 100% (complete confidence).  

  • Index of activities of daily living

    An assessment tool developed by American gerontologist S. Katz and his colleagues. It assesses self-maintenance in older adults and focuses on the unaided performance of six basic personal care activities: eating, toileting, dressing, bathing, transferring, and continence.  

  • Activins

    A family of polypeptide growth factors that help regulate various biological functions, especially fertility.  

  • Active treatment

    Treatment directed specifically toward cure of a disease or the resolution of injury.  

  • Active range of motion

    The amount of joint motion produced by voluntary muscle contraction.  

  • Active heat and moisture exchanger

    An addition to a ventilator circuit that filter, heats, humidifies, and exchanges moisture with the gases supplied to the ventilated patient.  

  • Active electrode

    In electrosurgery, the electrode used for cutting or coagulating tissue; the lead where the electrical current concentrates. An electrode that is smaller than a dispersive electrode and produces stimulation in a concentrated area.  

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