Establishing a community of practice for dementia champions (innovative practice)

Andrea Mayfhofer, Claire Goodman & Cheryl Holman, 'Establishing a community of practice for dementia champions (innovative practice), Dementia, Vol. 14 (2): 259-266, first published online 14 July 2014, available at doi:10.1177/1471301214542534 Published by Sage. © The Author(s) 2014.This discussion paper considers the currently evolving roles of dementia champions and describes an initiative designed to support their activities. The aim of this initiative was to establish a county-wide group that has a shared group identity and sufficient critical mass that is able to identify and implement dementia training and development needs for the health and social care workforce. The approach used to achieve this aim was a Dementia Champion Community of Practice Project, which involved dementia leads in various NHS Trusts. Whilst this approach might be effective at practitioner level, the Dementia Champion Community of Practice Project experience suggests that if such initiatives are to be sustainable they need to be strategically placed within networks that can bring together service providers, educators and commissionersPeer reviewe

Current practice and recommendations for modelling global change impacts on water resource in the Himalayas

Global change is expected to have a strong impact in the Himalayan region. The climatic and orographic conditions result in unique modelling challenges and requirements. This paper critically appraises recent hydrological modelling applications in Himalayan river basins, focusing on their utility to analyse the impacts of future climate and socio-economic changes on water resource availability in the region. Results show that the latter are only represented by land use change. Distributed, process-based hydrological models coupled with temperature-index melt models are predominant. The choice of spatial discretisation is critical for model performance due to the strong influence of elevation on meteorological variables and snow/ice accumulation and melt. However, the sparsity and limited reliability of point weather data, and the biases and low resolution of gridded datasets, hinder the representation of the meteorological complexity. These data limitations often limit the selection of models and the quality of the outputs by forcing the exclusion of processes that are significant to the local hydrology. The absence of observations for water stores and fluxes other than river flows prevents multi-variable calibration and increases the risk of equifinality. The uncertainties arising from these limitations are amplified in climate change analyses and, thus, systematic assessment of uncertainty propagation is required. Based on these insights, transferable recommendations are made on directions for future data collection and model applications that may enhance realism within models and advance the ability of global change impact assessments to inform adaptation planning in this globally important region

The therapy hour in black and white : an exploration of counselor preference and cultural mistrust among African American students

textThis study explored interpersonal trust, racial identity, perceived racism, and religious orientation as predictors of preference for a Black counselor and cultural mistrust. The unique variance of interpersonal trust and cultural mistrust in predicting preference for a Black counselor was also explored. The relationship between cultural mistrust and interpersonal trust was tested to determine whether or not they are independent constructs. This study also examined the relationship between racial identity and religious orientation. Gender differences in religious orientation, cultural mistrust and preference for a Black counselor were examined. Previous studies provide support that cultural mistrust contributes to negative help-seeking attitudes and underutilization of mental health services. Researchers have identified racial identity and perceived racism as correlates to and/or predictors of cultural mistrust and preference for a Black counselor (Whaley, 2001). This study involved participants recruited in part from the Educational Psychology (EDP) Subject Pool at The University of Texas at Austin (UT). Participants were also recruited from five student organizations at UT. Participants completed the survey using an online survey tool or a paper copy of the survey. One stratum was used for selection of participants: students who racially identify as African-American or Black. Results of the study revealed interpersonal trust as a significant predictor of preference for a Black counselor. However, exploratory analyses indicated that cultural mistrust served as the sole predictor of Black counselor preference when seeking a counselor for dealing with racial concerns. Interpersonal trust, immersion-emersion anti-white racial identity attitudes (IEAW) and extrinsic religious orientation were significant predictors of cultural mistrust. Results also indicated a positive relationship between Internalization Multiculturalist (IMCI) racial identity attitudes and intrinsic religious orientation. A negative correlation was found to exist between intrinsic religious orientation and IEAW. High cultural mistrust levels were also positively associated with high IEAW attitudes. Additionally, a small, yet statistically significant negative relationship was found to exist between cultural mistrust and interpersonal trust. Cultural mistrust did not account for a significant amount of variance above that of interpersonal trust in predicting preference for a Black counselor. Finally, no mean sex differences were found among levels of Black counselor preference, cultural mistrust, and intrinsic or extrinsic religious orientation. Exploratory analyses also revealed a positive relationship between cultural mistrust and seven out of ten scenarios for Black counselor preference. Individuals with a preference for a Black counselor reported higher levels of cultural mistrust related to issues concerning: excessive worry/anxiety, drinking too much alcohol/using drugs, relationship problems, feelings of harassment/feeling threatened, sexual issues, racial issues, and difficulty controlling anger. Results of the study bear implications for understanding cultural mistrust and interpersonal trust as it relates to counselor preference. Implications for counselors are also discussed regarding the intersection of racial and religious identities. Limitations and future directions for research are also discussed.Educational Psycholog

Strategy to determine the foot plantar center of pressure of a person through deep learning neural networks

Some case studies treated by physiotherapists or orthopedists to measure the alignment of the lower extremities during a gait cycle are based on empirical methods of visual observation. This methodology does not guarantee total success, since it depends on the experience of the specialist, what can cause irreversible damage to patients, such as: hip displacement, wear and overload of the joints of a single lower limb. Although, this problem has been addressed in the investigation by means of devices implementation with sensors or methods of processing sequences of images and videos, this topic is still under investigation because the current methods depend on many external elements and data given by an expert in the area. Therefore, this paper proposes a partial solution to this problem by systematizing the experience of a specialist through a computational learning method

Recognition system for facial expression by processing images with deep learning neural network

The recognition systems of patterns in images are mechanisms that filter the information that provides an image to highlight the area of interest for the user. Usually, these mechanisms are based on mathematical transformations that allow the processor to perform interpretations based on the geometry or shape of the image. However, the strategies that implement mathematical transformations are limited, since the effectiveness of these techniques is reduced by changing the morphology or resolution of the image. This paper presents a partial solution to this limitation with a digital image processing technique based on a deep learning neural network (DNN). This technique incorporates a mechanism that allows the DNN to determine the facial expression of a person, based on the segmented information of the image of their face. By segmenting the image and processing its characteristics in parallel, the proposed technique increases the effectiveness of recognizing facial gestures in different images even when modifying their characteristics

Exploring trade-offs between SDGs for Indus River Dolphin conservation and human water security in the regulated Beas River, India

This work was supported by the Global Challenges Research Fund through quality-related funding (QR GCRF) and the UK Natural Environment Research Council (Grant number NE/N015541/1). J. Krishnaswamy acknowledges support from the Climate Change and Disaster Risk Mitigation component of the National Mission on Biodiversity and Human Well-being supported by the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India and Google Research (Google Grant for AI on Social Good).In India’s Indo-Gangetic plains, river flows are strongly altered by dams, barrages and water diversions for irrigation, urban supply, hydropower production and flood control. Human demands for freshwater are likely to intensify with climatic and socio-economic changes, exacerbating trade-offs between different sustainable development goals (SDGs) dependent on freshwater (e.g. SDG2, SDG6, SDG7, SDG11 and SDG15). Freshwater ecosystems and endangered aquatic species are not explicitly addressed in the SDGs, but only nested as targets within SDG6 and SDG15. Thus, there is high risk that decisions to advance other SDGs may overlook impacts on them. In this study, we link a water resource systems model and a forecast extinction risk model to analyze how alternative conservation strategies in the regulated Beas River (India) affect the likelihood of survival of the only remaining population of endangered Indus River Dolphins (IRD) in India in the face of climate change-induced impacts on river hydrology and human water demands, explicitly accounting for potential trade-offs between related SDGs. We find that the frequency of low flow released from the main reservoir may increase under some climate change scenarios, significantly affecting the IRD population. The strongest trade-offs exist between the persistence of IRD, urban water supply and hydropower generation. The establishment of ecologically informed reservoir releases combined with IRD population supplementation enhances the probability of survival of the IRD and is compatible with improving the status of relevant SDGs. This will require water managers, conservation scientists, and other stakeholders to continue collaborating to develop holistic water management strategies.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

A method for monthly mapping of wet and dry snow using Sentinel-1 and MODIS: Application to a Himalayan river basin

Satellite Remote Sensing, with both optical and SAR instruments, can provide distributed observations of snow cover over extended and inaccessible areas. Both instruments are complementary, but there have been limited attempts at combining their measurements. We describe a novel approach to produce monthly maps of dry and wet snow areas through application of data fusion techniques to MODIS fractional snow cover and Sentinel-1 wet snow mask, facilitated by Google Earth Engine. The method is demonstrated in a 55,000 km2 river basin in the Indian Himalayan region over a period of ∼2.5 years, although it can be applied to any areas of the world where Sentinel-1 data are routinely available. The typical underestimation of wet snow area by SAR is corrected using a digital elevation model to estimate the average melting altitude. We also present an empirical model to derive the fractional cover of wet snow from Sentinel-1. Finally, we demonstrate that Sentinel-1 effectively complements MODIS as it highlights a snowmelt phase which occurs with a decrease in snow depth but no/little decrease in snowpack area. Further developments are now needed to incorporate these high resolution observations of snow areas as inputs to hydrological models for better runoff analysis and improved management of water resources and flood risk

Erosion and sediment transport modelling to inform payment for ecosystem services schemes

Erosion and the impacts of the redistribution of sediment are a serious threat to the quality of water resources. They cause losses and/or additional expenses in many areas, such as water treatment, biodiversity or fisheries. The implementation of catchment management measures, aimed at preventing the transfer of sediment to rivers, can be a cost-beneficial way to address the problem. In order to select the measures and appropriate locations for erosion control, the spatially distributed soil erosion and sediment delivery model WaTEM-SEDEM was used. The model was calibrated against total suspended solids data at the outlet of the Wey catchment, South-east England, yielding satisfactory results. Different scenarios of catchment management were modelled to reduce the amount of sediment transported to the river. Scenarios introducing 24 retention ponds, 50-m-wide buffer strips and cover crops in areas with the largest erosion and sediment delivery were tested. The largest decrease in both sediment production and sediment export was obtained using cover crops, with reductions of 13.4% and 14.1%, respectively. A cost-benefit analysis considering multiple ecosystem services (e.g. control of erosion rates, attenuation of mass flow, pest control, wildlife and its outputs) identified the cover crops as the most cost-beneficial measure and a possible funding scheme based on payments for ecosystem services was developed as a way to enable its implementation

Potential impacts of warming climate on future water resources and hydropower production in a glacierized catchment in Western Himalaya

Abstract and Poste

Transit Timing Observations from Kepler: VII. Confirmation of 27 planets in 13 multiplanet systems via Transit Timing Variations and orbital stability

We confirm 27 planets in 13 planetary systems by showing the existence of statistically significant anti-correlated transit timing variations (TTVs), which demonstrates that the planet candidates are in the same system, and long-term dynamical stability, which places limits on the masses of the candidates---showing that they are planetary. %This overall method of planet confirmation was first applied to \kepler systems 23 through 32. All of these newly confirmed planetary systems have orbital periods that place them near first-order mean motion resonances (MMRs), including 6 systems near the 2:1 MMR, 5 near 3:2, and one each near 4:3, 5:4, and 6:5. In addition, several unconfirmed planet candidates exist in some systems (that cannot be confirmed with this method at this time). A few of these candidates would also be near first order MMRs with either the confirmed planets or with other candidates. One system of particular interest, Kepler-56 (KOI-1241), is a pair of planets orbiting a 12th magnitude, giant star with radius over three times that of the Sun and effective temperature of 4900 K---among the largest stars known to host a transiting exoplanetary system.Comment: 12 pages, 13 figures, 5 tables. Submitted to MNRA