Water Based Therapy Educational Resource and Program Development for Children with Neurological Disorders

Children with neurological disorders require more social, behavioral, and physical support to be successful in everyday life (Ogundele, 2018). The impairments these children face can often lead to isolation, decreased overall functioning, and impact engagement in occupations such as play, social participation, and leisure (Kwan and Collet, 2020). Access to water-based group lessons can be limited due to one- on-one instruction required. Occupational therapy has the skill set to be able to incorporate play, social participation, and leisure-based activities for children with neurological disorders

Who Are We Citing and How? A SoTL Citation Analysis

The Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) is continuing to develop as a multidisciplinary, international field of practice and a topic of study itself. As the field matures, one area of interest has been the SoTL literature review. However, there has not been an evidence-based study of SoTL citation practices. The purpose of this study was to analyze one year’s worth of articles from this journal to see how references and in-text citations are used. Overall, 514 references and 954 in-text citations were found across 18 articles. A diverse range of multidisciplinary and specialized academic journals were cited; 8 percent of in-text citations cited a source other than an academic journal. Each reference and in-text citation was coded as either substantive (Applied, Contrastive, or Supportive) or non-substantive (Reviewed or Perfunctory). A high rate of in-text citations (74 percent) were found to be non-substantive, with the majority of non-substantive in-text citations (71 percent) found in either the Introduction or Literature Review sections of the articles. Conversely, of the 26 percent of in-text citations considered substantive, 50 percent were found in either the Results & Discussion or Conclusion sections. We demonstrate the use of the coding scheme as a self-assessment tool and conclude by suggesting that SoTL authors and reviewers could use it to assess the depth and breadth of their literature reviews

Prevention of Falls in Adults Older than 60 Years through Therapeutic Riding: A Critically Appraised Topic

This critically appraised topic paper will address the focus question relating to the intervention of therapeutic riding. A critically appraised topic (CAT) is an overview of scientific literature about an intervention or practical issue and how it relates to practice (Barends et al., 2017). The use of the Ecological Human Performance (EHP) model is to guide this CAT research with a theoretical basis. EHP was chosen for its emphasis on the person, environment, and tasks. The person is described in EHP as including their experiences, sensorimotor, cognition, and psychosocial abilities (Dunn et al., 1994). The use of EHP provides a holistic and comprehensive approach to understand the context and person relating the intervention of therapeutic riding

From RNA-seq reads to differential expression results

Many methods and tools are available for preprocessing high-throughput RNA sequencing data and detecting differential expression

North Atlantic winter eddy-driven jet and atmospheric blocking variability in the Community Earth System Model version 1 Large Ensemble simulations

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Climate Dynamics 51 (2018): 3275–3289, doi:10.1007/s00382-018-4078-6.The atmospheric jet and blocking distributions, especially in the North Atlantic sector, have been challenging features for a climate model to realistically reproduce. This study examines climatological distributions of winter (December–February) daily jet latitude and blocking in the North Atlantic from the 40-member Community Earth System Model version 1 Large Ensemble (CESM1LE) simulations. This analysis aims at examining whether a broad range of internal climate variability encompassed by a large ensemble of simulations results in an improved representation of the jet latitude distributions and blocking days in CESM1LE. In the historical runs (1951–2005), the daily zonal wind at 850 hPa exhibits three distinct preferred latitudes for the eddy-driven jet position as seen in the reanalysis datasets, which represents a significant improvement from the previous version of the same model. However, the meridional separations between the three jet latitudes are much smaller than those in the reanalyses. In particular, the jet rarely migrates to the observed southernmost position around 37°N. This leads to the bias in blocking frequency that is too low over Greenland and too high over the Azores. These features are shown to be remarkably stable across the 40 ensemble members with negligible member-to-member spread. This result implies the range of internal variability of winter jet latitude and blocking frequency within the 55-year segment from each ensemble member is comparable to that represented by the full large ensemble. Comparison with 2046–2100 from the RCP8.5 future projection runs suggests that the daily jet position is projected to maintain the same three preferred latitudes, with a slightly higher frequency of occurrence over the central latitude around 50°N, instead of shifting poleward in the future as documented in some previous studies. In addition, the daily jet speed is projected not to change significantly between 1951–2005 and 2046–2100. On the other hand, the climatological mean jet is projected to become slightly more elongated and stronger on its southern flank, and the blocking frequency over the Azores is projected to decrease.Authors gratefully acknowledge support from the UCAR Significant Opportunities in Atmospheric Research and Science (SOARS) and WHOI Summer Student Fellowship programs. AC and CM were supported in part by the SOARS program, NSF Grant AGS- 1120459. In addition, the supports by the NSF AGS Climate and Largescale Dynamics program and OCE Physical Oceanography program (AGS-1355339) to Y-OK and HS, the DOE BER Regional and Global Climate Modeling program (DE-SC0014433) to Y-OK, and the NSF EaSM3 Sustainability Research Networks program (OCE-1419235) to HS are acknowledged

The effect of early child care attendance on childhood asthma and wheezing: A meta-analysis.

ObjectiveResearch evidence offers mixed results regarding the relationship between early child care attendance and childhood asthma and wheezing. A meta-analysis was conducted to synthesize the current research evidence of the association between early child care attendance and the risk of childhood asthma and wheezing.MethodPeer reviewed studies published from 1964-January 2017 were identified in MEDLINE, CINAL, and EMBASE using MeSH headings relevant to child care and asthma. Two investigators independently reviewed the selected articles from this search. All relevant articles that met our inclusion criteria were selected for further analysis. Data were extracted from studies that had sufficient data to analyze the odds of asthma or wheezing among children who attended child care.ResultsThe meta-analysis of 32 studies found that (1) early child care attendance is protective against asthma in children 3-5 years of age but not for children with asthma 6 years of age or older. (2) Early child care attendance increases the risk of wheezing among children 2 years of age or younger, but not the risk of wheezing for children over 2 years of age.ConclusionsThis meta-analysis shows that early child care attendance is not significantly associated with the risk of asthma or wheeze in children 6 years of age or older

Factors affecting crop insurance use among underserved producers

Historically, minority producers have been plagued by racial disparities resulting in them settling in areas less suitable for farming and being discriminated against in federal farm programs. In the two most recent Farm Bills, 2014 and 2018, there has been an increase in policies supporting underserved producers. Policies include the addition of veterans in the definition of historically underserved producers as well as reducing experience requirements for veterans to qualify for loans, amending the definition of beginning farmers from someone with five years or less experience to 10 years or less, and offering veteran and beginning producers an additional 10% subsidy rate above normal. The objective of this study is to analyze how spatial, demographic and risk (drought) effect the crop insurance purchases of underserved and veteran producers given the changes made in the 2018 Farm Bill. A cross-sectional analysis is used to determine if veterans and minorities faced greater agricultural risk and if they have equal access to crop insurance to help mitigate that risk prior to the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. A difference-in-difference technique is then used to determine the effect the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill and drought levels had on crop insurance adoption. The cross-sectional analysis indicated a negative correlation between shares of veterans and minorities in a county and access to crop insurance, and a positive correlation between the shares in a county and agricultural risk of drought. The difference-in-difference showed that both veterans and minorities had increased access to crop insurance after the implementation of the 2018 Farm Bill. This is important as crop insurance is the primary way producers can mitigate risk

Building Fiction: The Architecture of Narrative in Harry Potter

A person does not experience architecture as a purely physical construct. Lived space transcends mere materiality, as each individual experiences the world outside oneself through the unique filter of one’s own mind. In this way, architecture becomes subjective: influenced by the memories and imagination of its viewers, who use the physical realm as a take-off point from which to shape their own environments within the context of their respective psyches. Fictional architecture (or the architecture of narrative) uses this same concept to build the environments in film and literature; although, in these cases, the cues given to an audience are images, sounds and/or words rather than three-dimensional space. The term ‘architecture of narrative’, as used in this thesis, refers to the architecture of books and films which must rely on imaginary environments. This type of architecture is free of the strict rules and regulations which govern built form in the corporeal world; however, in order for an audience to relate to and engage with these imaginary environments, it must still employ boundaries which give the fictional realm stability, coherence and continuity. When these boundaries are applied successfully, the viewer experiences an immersion in narrative space which generates memories of place which are comparable to that of a physical environment. This thesis seeks to explore how storytellers use overlapping real and fictional architectural environments in order to propel narrative and precipitate an immersive experience for an audience, using the acclaimed Harry Potter series as the primary vehicle for exploration. The study will review the narrative and architectural typologies, physical settings and imagined spaces used to connect the viewer to the narrative’s highly detailed world. This examination will attempt to determine the role architecture plays in the Harry Potter universe, comment on the ways fictional environments can be used to reframe an audience’s existing notions of the corporeal world, and suggest how architects might learn from the strategies used to build these compelling internal spaces and apply them to their practice

Gene ontology analysis for RNA-seq: accounting for selection bias

GOseq is a method for GO analysis of RNA-seq data that takes into account the length bias inherent in RNA-se

The global burden of adolescent and young adult cancer in 2019: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2019

Background: In estimating the global burden of cancer, adolescents and young adults with cancer are often overlooked, despite being a distinct subgroup with unique epidemiology, clinical care needs, and societal impact. Comprehensive estimates of the global cancer burden in adolescents and young adults (aged 15-39 years) are lacking. To address this gap, we analysed results from the Global Burden of Diseases, Injuries, and Risk Factors Study (GBD) 2019, with a focus on the outcome of disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs), to inform global cancer control measures in adolescents and young adults. Methods: Using the GBD 2019 methodology, international mortality data were collected from vital registration systems, verbal autopsies, and population-based cancer registry inputs modelled with mortality-to-incidence ratios (MIRs). Incidence was computed with mortality estimates and corresponding MIRs. Prevalence estimates were calculated using modelled survival and multiplied by disability weights to obtain years lived with disability (YLDs). Years of life lost (YLLs) were calculated as age-specific cancer deaths multiplied by the standard life expectancy at the age of death. The main outcome was DALYs (the sum of YLLs and YLDs). Estimates were presented globally and by Socio-demographic Index (SDI) quintiles (countries ranked and divided into five equal SDI groups), and all estimates were presented with corresponding 95% uncertainty intervals (UIs). For this analysis, we used the age range of 15-39 years to define adolescents and young adults. Findings: There were 1·19 million (95% UI 1·11-1·28) incident cancer cases and 396 000 (370 000-425 000) deaths due to cancer among people aged 15-39 years worldwide in 2019. The highest age-standardised incidence rates occurred in high SDI (59·6 [54·5-65·7] per 100 000 person-years) and high-middle SDI countries (53·2 [48·8-57·9] per 100 000 person-years), while the highest age-standardised mortality rates were in low-middle SDI (14·2 [12·9-15·6] per 100 000 person-years) and middle SDI (13·6 [12·6-14·8] per 100 000 person-years) countries. In 2019, adolescent and young adult cancers contributed 23·5 million (21·9-25·2) DALYs to the global burden of disease, of which 2·7% (1·9-3·6) came from YLDs and 97·3% (96·4-98·1) from YLLs. Cancer was the fourth leading cause of death and tenth leading cause of DALYs in adolescents and young adults globally. Interpretation: Adolescent and young adult cancers contributed substantially to the overall adolescent and young adult disease burden globally in 2019. These results provide new insights into the distribution and magnitude of the adolescent and young adult cancer burden around the world. With notable differences observed across SDI settings, these estimates can inform global and country-level cancer control efforts.Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, American Lebanese Syrian Associated Charities, St Baldrick’s Foundation, and the National Cancer InstituteS