A Program to Improve the Quality of Life of Caregivers of Older Adults with Chronic Conditions: A Pilot Study

Background: Among the nearly 41.8 million family caregivers of older adults 50 years of age and older in the United States, only 30% of caregivers report receiving the education, resources, and support they need to feel competent in their role. Many existing programs focus on dementia-related caregiving, and programs are needed to address the caregiving needs of individuals with chronic conditions. Method: A pilot study using a mixed methods design was conducted with eight participants. The pre and post. measure, Adult Carer Quality of Life (AC-QoL), and post program individual interviews were conducted. Results: Six of the eight AC-QoL subscales showed improvement in quality of life and two showed decreases. The effect size was 0.63 for the total AC-QoL score, requiring 25–30 participants to achieve a power of 0.80 in a larger study. Interview data indicated the program provided an outside perspective of caregiver needs, provided information, resources and a support system, reduced their stress, and improved self-efficacy. Conclusion: Further study of programs for caregivers of older adults with chronic conditions are important to fully address the needs of 35 million unpaid caregivers. Occupational therapists are ideally situated for leading the development of such programs given their unique practice focus and expertise

Those Who Need It Most: Maximizing Transit Accessibility and Removing Barriers to Employment in Areas of Concentrated Poverty

This research assesses the transportation assets and challenges faced by residents of Areas of Concentrated Poverty (ACPs), paying special attention to ACP50s—ACPs in which people of color comprise more than 50% of the population. The authors develop a graphically-facilitated survey blending multiple choice, free response, cognitive mapping and discussion questions to capture unmet transportation needs and user experience information difficult to gather in traditional travel behavior surveys. They find that participants’ activity spaces vary significantly based on car availability and local built form and that pedestrian environments around stops affect the experience of using transit in ACPs more strongly than transit service itself, leading to the conclusion that transit- and pedestrian-oriented community design is a significant equity issue

Consensus in Guidelines for Evaluation of DSD by the Texas Children's Hospital Multidisciplinary Gender Medicine Team

The Gender Medicine Team (GMT), comprised of members with expertise in endocrinology, ethics, genetics, gynecology, pediatric surgery, psychology, and urology, at Texas Children's Hospital and Baylor College of Medicine formed a task force to formulate a consensus statement on practice guidelines for managing disorders of sexual differentiation (DSD) and for making sex assignments. The GMT task force reviewed published evidence and incorporated findings from clinical experience. Grading of Recommendations, Assessment, Development, and Evaluation (GRADE) was used to assess the quality of evidence presented in the literature for establishing evidence-based guidelines. The task force presents a consensus statement regarding specific diagnostic and therapeutic issues in the management of individuals who present with DSD. The consensus statement includes recommendations for (1) laboratory workup, (2) acute management, (3) sex assignment in an ethical framework that includes education and involvement of the parents, and (4) surgical management

Informing the Design of Privacy-Empowering Tools for the Connected Home

Connected devices in the home represent a potentially grave new privacy threat due to their unfettered access to the most personal spaces in people's lives. Prior work has shown that despite concerns about such devices, people often lack sufficient awareness, understanding, or means of taking effective action. To explore the potential for new tools that support such needs directly we developed Aretha, a privacy assistant technology probe that combines a network disaggregator, personal tutor, and firewall, to empower end-users with both the knowledge and mechanisms to control disclosures from their homes. We deployed Aretha in three households over six weeks, with the aim of understanding how this combination of capabilities might enable users to gain awareness of data disclosures by their devices, form educated privacy preferences, and to block unwanted data flows. The probe, with its novel affordances-and its limitations-prompted users to co-adapt, finding new control mechanisms and suggesting new approaches to address the challenge of regaining privacy in the connected home.Comment: 10 pages, 2 figures. To appear in the Proceedings of the 2020 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI '20

Comparative Genomics of Emerging Human Ehrlichiosis Agents

Anaplasma (formerly Ehrlichia) phagocytophilum, Ehrlichia chaffeensis, and Neorickettsia (formerly Ehrlichia) sennetsu are intracellular vector-borne pathogens that cause human ehrlichiosis, an emerging infectious disease. We present the complete genome sequences of these organisms along with comparisons to other organisms in the Rickettsiales order. Ehrlichia spp. and Anaplasma spp. display a unique large expansion of immunodominant outer membrane proteins facilitating antigenic variation. All Rickettsiales have a diminished ability to synthesize amino acids compared to their closest free-living relatives. Unlike members of the Rickettsiaceae family, these pathogenic Anaplasmataceae are capable of making all major vitamins, cofactors, and nucleotides, which could confer a beneficial role in the invertebrate vector or the vertebrate host. Further analysis identified proteins potentially involved in vacuole confinement of the Anaplasmataceae, a life cycle involving a hematophagous vector, vertebrate pathogenesis, human pathogenesis, and lack of transovarial transmission. These discoveries provide significant insights into the biology of these obligate intracellular pathogens

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

Crop Updates 2001 - Weeds

This session covers forty six papers from different authors: 1. INTRODUCTION, Vanessa Stewart, Agriculture Western Australia PLENARY 2. Wild radish – the implications for our rotations, David Bowran, Centre for Cropping Systems INTEGRATED WEED MANAGEMENT IWM system studies/demonstration sites 3. Integrated weed management: Cadoux, Alexandra Wallace, Agriculture Western Australia 4. A system approach to managing resistant ryegrass, Bill Roy, Agricultural Consulting and Research Services Pty Ltd, York 5. Long term herbicide resistance demonstration, Peter Newman, Agriculture Western Australia, Cameron Weeks, Tony Blake and Dave Nicholson 6. Integrated weed management: Katanning, Alexandra Wallace, Agriculture Western Australia 7. Integrated weed management: Merredin, Vanessa Stewart, Agriculture Western Australia 8. Short term pasture phases for weed control, Clinton Revell and Candy Hudson, Agriculture Western Australia Weed biology – implications for IWM 9. Competitivness of wild radish in a wheat-lupin rotation , Abul Hashem, Nerys Wilkins, and Terry Piper, Agriculture Western Australia 10. Population explosion and persistence of wild radish in a wheat-lupin rotation, Abul Hashem, Nerys Wilkins, Aik Cheam and Terry Piper , Agriculture Western Australia 11. Variation is seed dormancy and management of annual ryegrass, Amanda Ellery and Ross Chapman, CSIRO 12. Can we eradicate barley grass, Sally Peltzer, Agriculture Western Australia Adoption and modelling 13. Where to with RIM? Vanessa Stewart1 and Robert Barrett-Lennard2, 1Agriculture Western Australia, 2Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (WAHRI) 14. Multi-species RIM model, Marta Monjardino1,2, David Pannell2 and Stephen Powles1 1Western Australian Herbicide Resistance Initiative (WAHRI), 2ARE, University of Western Australia 15. What causes WA grain growers to adopt IWM practices? Rick Llewellyn, WAHRI/ARE, Faculty of Agriculture, University of WA New options for IWM? 16. Fuzzy tramlines for more yield and less weeds, Paul Blackwell Agriculture Western Australia, and Maurice Black, Harbour Lights Estate, Geraldton 17. Inter-row knockdowns for profitable lupins, Paul Blackwell, Agriculture Western Australia and Miles Obst, Farmer Mingenew 18. Row cropping and weed control in lupins, Mike Collins and Julie Roche, Agriculture Western Australia 19. Cross seedimg suppresses annual ryegrass and increases wheat yield, Abul Hashem, Dave Nicholson and Nerys Wilkins Agriculture Western Australia 20. Weed control by chaff burial, Mike Collins, Agriculture Western Australia HERBICIDE RESISTANCE 21. Resistance in wild oats to Fop and Dim herbicides in Western Australia, Abul Hashem and Harmohinder Dhammu, Agriculture Western Australia 22. Triazine and diflufenican resistance in wild radish: what it means to the lupin industry, Aik Cheam, Siew Lee, David Nicholson and Peter Newman, Agriculture Western Australia 23. Comparison if in situ v seed testing for determining herbicide resistance, Bill Roy, Agricultural Consulting and Research Services Pty Ltd, York HERBICIDE TOLERANCE 24. Phenoxy herbicide tolerance of wheat, Peter Newman and Dave Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia 25. Tolerance of wheat to phenoxy herbicides, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and Mario F. D\u27Antuono, Agriculture Western Australia 26. Herbicide tolerance of new wheats, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and David F. Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia 27. Herbicide tolerance of durum wheats, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper and David F. Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia 28. Herbicide tolerance of new field pea varieties, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper, David F. Nicholson, and Mario F. D\u27Antuono, Agriculture Western Australia 29. Herbicide tolerance of Cooke field peas on marginal soil, Harmohinder S. Dhammu, Terry Piper, David F. Nicholson, and Mario F. D\u27Antuono, Agriculture Western Australia 30. Herbicide tolerance of some annual pasture legumes adapted to coarse textured sandy soils, Clinton Revell and Ian Rose, Agriculture Western Australia 31 Herbicide tolerance of some annual pasture legumes adapted to fine textured clay soils, Clinton Revell and Ian Rose, Agriculture Western Australia WEED CONTROL IN LUCERNE 32. Management of weeds for Lucerne establishment, Diana Fedorenko, Clayton Butterly, Stuart McAlpine, Terry Piper and David Bowran, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 33. Management of weeds in the second year of Lucerne, Diana Fedorenko, Clayton Butterly, Stuart McAlpine, Terry Piper and David Bowran, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 34. Residual effects of weed management in the third year of Lucerne, Diana Fedorenko, Clayton Butterly, Stuart McAlpine, Terry Piper and David Bowran, Centre for Cropping Systems, Agriculture Western Australia 35. Herbicide tolerance and weed control in Lucerne, Peter Newman, Dave Nicholson and Keith Devenish Agriculture Western Australia HERBICIDES – NEW PRODUCTS/PRODUCE USES; USE New products or product use 36. New herbicide options for canola, John Moore and Paul Matson, Agriculture Western Australia 37. Chemical broadleaf weed management in Peaola, Shannon Barraclough and Lionel Martin, Muresk Institute of Agriculture, Curtin University of Technology 38. Balance® - a new broad leaf herbicide for the chickpea industry, Mike Clarke, Jonas Hodgson and Lawrence Price, Aventis CropScience 39. Marshmallow – robust herbicide strategies, Craig Brown, IAMA Agribusiness 40. Affinity DF – a prospective option for selective in-crop marshmallow control, Gordon Cumming, Technical Officer, Crop Care Australasia 41. A new formulation of Carfentrazone-ethyl for pre-seeding knockdown control of broadleaved weeds including Marshmallow, Gordon Cumming, Technical Officer, Crop Care Australasia Herbicide use 42. Autumn applied trifluralin can be effective! Bill Crabtree, Scientific Officer, Western Australian No-Tillage Farmers Association 43. Which knockdown herbicide for small ryegrass? Peter Newman and Dave Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia 44. Poor radish control with Group D herbicides in lupins, Peter Newman and Dave Nicholson, Agriculture Western Australia WEED ISSUES 45. Distribution and incidence of aphids and barley yellow dwarf virus in over-summering grasses in the WA wheatbelt, Jenny Hawkes and Roger Jones, CLIMA and Agriculture Western Australia 46. e-weed, Vanessa Stewart, Agriculture Western Australia CONTRIBUTING AUTHOR CONTACT DETAIL

Mechanisms of Loss of Functions of Human Angiogenin Variants Implicated in Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis

Background: Mutations in the coding region of angiogenin (ANG) gene have been found in patients suffering from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS). Neurodegeneration results from the loss of angiogenic ability of ANG (protein coded by ANG). In this work, we performed extensive molecular dynamics (MD) simulations of wild-type ANG and disease associated ANG variants to elucidate the mechanism behind the loss of ribonucleolytic activity and nuclear translocation activity, functions needed for angiogenesis. Methodology/Principal Findings: MD simulations were carried out to study the structural and dynamic differences in the catalytic site and nuclear localization signal residues between WT-ANG (Wild-type ANG) and six mutants. Variants K17I, S28N, P112L and V113I have confirmed association with ALS, while T195C and A238G single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) encoding L35P and K60E mutants respectively, have not been associated with ALS. Our results show that loss of ribonucleolytic activity in K17I is caused by conformational switching of the catalytic residue His114 by 99u. The loss of nuclear translocation activity of S28N and P112L is caused by changes in the folding of the residues 31 RRR 33 that result in the reduction in solvent accessible surface area (SASA). Consequently, we predict that V113I will exhibit loss of angiogenic properties by loss of nuclear translocation activity and L35P by loss of both ribonucleolytic activity and nuclear translocation activity. No functional loss was inferred for K60E. The MD simulation results were supported by hydrogen bond interactio