Understanding Unique Factors of Social Isolation and Loneliness of Military Veterans: A Delphi Study

Social isolation and loneliness are recognised societal issues, and it is estimated that between 5% and 18% of adults in the United Kingdom feel that they are ‘often’ or ‘always’ lonely (Co-Op Foundation and The Red Cross, 2016; Office for National Statistics, 2018). Furthermore, social isolation and loneliness are highlighted as being central to the narratives of military veterans, and the Armed Forces Community (Kiernan et al., 2018; Stapleton, 2018; Wilson, Hill, & Kiernan, 2018). This study aimed to gather expert consensus relating to the cause, impact and ways to tackle social isolation and loneliness of military veterans. It builds on previous research conducted by the Northern Hub for Veterans and Military Families Research, Northumbria University which highlighted that military veterans can experience social isolation and loneliness in a ‘unique’ way (Kiernan et al., 2018; Wilson, Hill & Kiernan, 2018). This ‘uniqueness’ is due to military-related intrinsic and extrinsic factors including number of transitions, military-related trauma such as limb loss, physical health and mobility, and losing touch with comrades (Kiernan et al., 2018; SSAFA, 2017; Stapleton, 2018; Wilson et al., 2018). Using the Delphi method (Helmer-Hirschberg, 1967) to gather expert consensus of military veterans’ social isolation and loneliness, this study aimed to: • Further explore the concept that veterans are considered as being ‘unique’ to adults to the general population, and other members of the armed forces community in their experiences of social isolation and loneliness. • Consider whether older veterans are ‘unique’ to younger veterans in their experiences of social isolation and loneliness. • Examine perceived factors leading to social isolation and loneliness of veterans. • Identify perceptions of how to tackle veterans’ social isolation and loneliness

Fire and Life Safety Analysis- Cal Poly Recreation Center

The purpose of this fire and life safety analysis is to determine whether Cal Poly’s Recreation Center meets fire safety goals. The primary fire safety goal is to provide building occupants with an environment that is tenable and allows for safe egress in the event of a fire, and reduce the likelihood of any catastrophic fire event. This goal can be achieved by protecting the occupants not intimate with the initial fire development and improving survivability of those occupants intimate with the initial fire development, NFPA 101, 2012. A prescriptive-based design approach and a performance-based design approach are used to evaluate building safety. The prescriptive-based approach is used to evaluate the building’s structural fire protection systems, fire detection and alarm systems, fire suppression systems and egress design, and is based on the 2007 California Codes in which the building was built. The performance-based design approach is used to analyze how the building will perform in the event of a fire. The performance-based approach evaluates the building based on the required safe egress time (RSET) and available safe egress time (ASET) for occupants to evacuate the building safely in the event of a fire. A tenability study was conducted to predict the effects of fire within the Old Gym space of the Recreation Center using natural ventilation to control smoke. The study is evaluated in this report using two computer software programs, Fire Dynamics Simulator (FDS) and Pathfinder, to determine if occupant safety is sufficient. The results of this analysis showed inadequate time for people to egress safely from the gym with the fuel load of the bleachers. It was recommended that a mechanical exhaust smoke control system be installed to increase the ASET and allow everyone time to egress safely. This report remarks on the sprinkler system above the bleachers; questioning the reason for their design to be based off light hazard and not the class A plastic high pile storage

Barbeque Grill Temperature Distribution Design Improvement

Team License to Grill set out to asses Bull Outdoor Products, Inc.’s barbeques and quantify the apparent uneven temperature distribution or “hot spots” and “cold spots” across the grill. This testing was accomplished with the design and fabrication of a test fixture allowing for accurate and repeatable temperature collection across the barbeque. With results that matched the sponsor’s claims of hot and cold spots, an engineering model was made using heat transfer and thermodynamic equations. Once the model somewhat resembled the experimental data, it was used to suggest different modifications that would allow for better temperature distribution. It was discovered that the flame tamers have a large role in controlling heat going to the grill bars. This led to testing modified flame tamers to control temperature differences across the barbeque. It was found that greater air flow through the top of the flame tamers resulted in a more uniform temperature of the grill. The final iteration of the modified flame tamers incorporated larger holes that allowed for more hot gas to heat the front of the grill giving a slightly better front-to-back temperature distribution than before

Species-occupancy distribution removes an excessive parameter from species-area relationship

Aim Although species-occupancy distributions (SODs) and species-area relationships (SARs) arise from the two marginal sums of the same presence/absence matrices, the two biodiversity patterns are usually explored independently. Here, we aim to unify the two patterns for isolate-based data by constraining the SAR to conserve information from the SOD. Location Widespread. Methods Focusing on the power-model SAR, we first developed a constrained form that conserved the total number of occupancies from the SOD. Next, we developed an additive-constrained SAR that conserves the entire shape of the SOD within the power-model SAR function, using a single parameter (the slope of the endemics-area relationship). We then relate this additive-constrained SAR to multiple-sites similarity measures, based on a probabilistic view of Sørensen similarity. We extend the constrained and additive-constrained SAR framework to 23 published SAR functions. We compare the fit of the original and constrained forms of 12 SAR functions using 154 published data sets, covering various spatial scales, taxa and systems. Main conclusions In all 23 SAR functions, the constrained form had one parameter less than the original form. In all 154 data sets the model with the highest weight based on the corrected Akaike's information criteria (wAICc) had a constrained form. The constrained form received higher wAICc than the original form in 98.79% of valid pairwise cases, approaching the wAICc expected under identical log-likelihood. Our work suggests, both theoretically and empirically, that all SAR functions may have one unnecessary parameter, which can be excluded from the function without reduction in goodness-of-fit. The more parsimonious constrained forms are also easier to interpret as they reflect the probability of a randomly chosen occupancy to be found in an isolate. The additive-constrained SARs accounts for two complimentary turn-over components of occupancies: turnover between species and turnover between sites

Effects of antiplatelet therapy on stroke risk by brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases: subgroup analyses of the RESTART randomised, open-label trial

Background Findings from the RESTART trial suggest that starting antiplatelet therapy might reduce the risk of recurrent symptomatic intracerebral haemorrhage compared with avoiding antiplatelet therapy. Brain imaging features of intracerebral haemorrhage and cerebral small vessel diseases (such as cerebral microbleeds) are associated with greater risks of recurrent intracerebral haemorrhage. We did subgroup analyses of the RESTART trial to explore whether these brain imaging features modify the effects of antiplatelet therapy

Social Isolation and Loneliness of UK Veterans: A Delphi Study

Background Evidence increasingly acknowledges the impact of social isolation and loneliness on the lives of military veterans and the wider Armed Forces Community. Aims The study gathered expert consensus to (i) understand if veterans are considered ‘unique’ in their experiences of social isolation and loneliness; (ii) examine perceived factors leading to social isolation and loneliness of veterans; (iii) identify ways to tackle veterans’ social isolation and loneliness. Methods This study adopted a three-phase Delphi method. Phase 1 utilized a qualitative approach and Phase 2 and Phase 3 utilized a mixed-methods approach. Results Several outcomes were identified across the three phases. Transition out of the military was viewed as a period to build emotional resilience and raise awareness of relevant services. It was also concluded that veterans would benefit from integrating into services within the wider community, and that social prescribing services could be a vehicle to link veterans to relevant services. Furthermore, access to, and the content of, programmes was also of importance. Conclusions These findings illustrate various important interventional aspects to consider when funding and implementing programmes focussed on tackling social isolation and loneliness

Spatial patterns of tree species richness in two temperate forests

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/86997/1/j.1365-2745.2011.01857.x.pd

Inflammatory chemokine receptors regulate CD8+ T cell contraction and memory generation following infection

CD8+ T cells lacking CXCR3 and CCR5 expression have impaired contraction and generate an increased number of memory cells after virus infection

Anti-TNF-Alpha Therapy Enhances the Effects of Enzyme Replacement Therapy in Rats with Mucopolysaccharidosis Type VI

Although enzyme replacement therapy (ERT) is available for several lysosomal storage disorders, the benefit of this treatment to the skeletal system is very limited. Our previous work has shown the importance of the Toll-like receptor 4/TNF-alpha inflammatory pathway in the skeletal pathology of the mucopolysaccharidoses (MPS), and we therefore undertook a study to examine the additive benefit of combining anti-TNF-alpha therapy with ERT in a rat model of MPS type VI.MPS VI rats were treated for 8 months with Naglazyme® (recombinant human N-acetyl-galactosamine-4-sulfatase), or by a combined protocol using Naglazyme® and the rat-specific anti-TNF-alpha drug, CNTO1081. Both protocols led to markedly reduced serum levels of TNF-alpha and RANKL, although only the combined treatment reduced TNF-alpha in the articular cartilage. Analysis of cultured articular chondrocytes showed that the combination therapy also restored collagen IIA1 expression, and reduced expression of the apoptotic marker, PARP. Motor activity and mobility were improved by ERT, and these were significantly enhanced by combination treatment. Tracheal deformities in the MPS VI animals were only improved by combination therapy, and there was a modest improvement in bone length. Ceramide levels in the trachea also were markedly reduced. MicroCT analysis did not demonstrate any significant positive effects on bone microarchitecture from either treatment, nor was there histological improvement in the bone growth plates.The results demonstrate that combining ERT with anti-TNF-alpha therapy improved the treatment outcome and led to significant clinical benefit. They also further validate the usefulness of TNF-alpha, RANKL and other inflammatory molecules as biomarkers for the MPS disorders. Further evaluation of this combination approach in other MPS animal models and patients is warranted

Present‐day motion of the Sierra Nevada block and some tectonic implications for the Basin and Range province, North American Cordillera

Global Positioning System (GPS) data from five sites on the stable interior of the Sierra Nevada block are inverted to describe its angular velocity relative to stable North America. The velocity data for the five sites fit the rigid block model with rms misfits of 0.3 mm/yr (north) and 0.8 mm/yr (east), smaller than independently estimated data uncertainty, indicating that the rigid block model is appropriate. The new Euler vector, 17.0°N, 137.3°W, rotation rate 0.28 degrees per million years, predicts that the block is translating to the northwest, nearly parallel to the plate motion direction, at 13–14 mm/yr, faster than previous estimates. Using the predicted Sierra Nevada block velocity as a kinematic boundary condition and GPS, VLBI and other data from the interior and margins of the Basin and Range, we estimate the velocities of some major boundary zone faults. For a transect approximately perpendicular to plate motion through northern Owens Valley, the eastern California shear zone (western boundary of the Basin and Range province) accommodates 11±1 mm/yr of right‐lateral shear primarily on two faults, the Owens Valley‐White Mountain (3±2 mm/yr) and Fish Lake Valley (8±2 mm/yr) fault zones, based on a viscoelastic coupling model that accounts for the effects of the 1872 Owens Valley earthquake and the rheology of the lower crust. Together these two faults, separated by less than 50 km on this transect, define a region of high surface velocity gradient on the eastern boundary of the Sierra Nevada block. The Wasatch Fault zone accommodates less than 3±1 mm/yr of east‐west extension on the eastern boundary of the Basin and Range province. Remaining deformation within the Basin and Range interior is also probably less than 3 mm/yr