System development guidelines from a review of motion-based technology for people with MCI or dementia

As the population ages and the number of people living with dementia or mild cognitive impairment (MCI) continues to increase, it is critical to identify creative and innovative ways to support and improve their quality of life. Motion-based technology has shown significant potential for people living with dementia or MCI by providing opportunities for cognitive stimulation, physical activity and participation in meaningful leisure activities, while simultaneously functioning as a useful tool for research and development of interventions. However, many of the current systems created using motion-based technology have not been designed specifically for people with dementia or MCI. Additionally, the usability and accessibility of these systems for these populations has not been thoroughly considered. This paper presents a set of system development guidelines derived from a review of the state of the art of motion-based technologies for people with dementia or MCI. These guidelines highlight three overarching domains of consideration for systems targeting people with dementia or MCI: (i) cognitive, (ii) physical, and (iii) social. We present the guidelines in terms of relevant design and use considerations within these domains and the emergent design themes within each domain. Our hope is that these guidelines will aid in designing motion-based software to meet the needs of people with dementia or MCI such that the potential of these technologies can be realized

Dental College of Georgia teams up with Richmond County Health Department to help

Background: The Central Savannah River Area remains, for many of the poor, a dental health care shortage area. Each year, from December to March, fourth-year dental students perform outreach with faculty to search the community for unmet dental needs, including dental caries and periodontal disease, the treatment of which is required for the Central Regional Dental Testing Service (CRDTS) Exam, the dental licensing examination. Methods: Fourth year students at the Augusta University Dental College of Georgia recruit patients for free dental pre-screenings at health fairs, community centers, the Barnyard Flea Market, and the dental school. Persons with periodontitis are invited for further screenings at the dental school where they receive a free dental examination and dental radiographs. Many of these patients present with other dental needs requiring restorations, root canals, and extractions, conditions that potentially could disqualify them from receiving periodontal therapy during CRDTS. Through a collaborative effort with the Richmond County Health Department Dental Clinic, these patients receive the treatment for their acute dental needs, while also qualifying them for the periodontics portion of the exam. Results: Regardless of their qualification status for boards, the program provides referrals for patients to the Dental College of Georgia or the Richmond County Health Department, gives patients a chance to be informed about their oral health status, and gives qualifying patients the potential to receive discounted or even free dental work. The efforts of the senior dental students represent an oral public health service effective in achieving improvements in periodontal outcomes within our community. Conclusions: This program not only benefits the future dentists of Georgia by helping provide licensing board requirements, it also introduces dental students to a more diverse population and provides exposure to public health outreach. In addition, this program offers a valuable service to underserved populations who would otherwise have limited or no access to dental care

Cabinet formation and portfolio distribution in European multiparty systems

Government formation in multiparty systems is of self-evident substantive importance, and the subject of an enormous theoretical literature. Empirical evaluations of models of government formation tend to separate government formation per se from the distribution of key government pay-offs, such as cabinet portfolios, between members of the resulting government. Models of government formation are necessarily specified ex ante, absent any knowledge of the government that forms. Models of the distribution of cabinet portfolios are typically, though not necessarily, specified ex post, taking into account knowledge of the identity of some government ‘formateur’ or even of the composition of the eventual cabinet. This disjunction lies at the heart of a notorious contradiction between predictions of the distribution of cabinet portfolios made by canonical models of legislative bargaining and the robust empirical regularity of proportional portfolio allocations – Gamson’s Law. This article resolves this contradiction by specifying and estimating a joint model of cabinet formation and portfolio distribution that, for example, predicts ex ante which parties will receive zero portfolios rather than taking this as given ex post. It concludes that canonical models of legislative bargaining do increase the ability to predict government membership, but that portfolio distribution between government members conforms robustly to a proportionality norm because portfolio distribution follows the much more difficult process of policy bargaining in the typical government formation process

Cabinet Formation and Portfolio Distribution in European Multiparty Systems

Government formation in multiparty systems is of self-evident substantive importance, and the subject of an enormous theoretical literature. Empirical evaluations of models of government formation tend to separate government formation per se from the distribution of key government pay-offs, such as cabinet portfolios, between members of the resulting government. Models of government formation are necessarily specified ex ante, absent any knowledge of the government that forms. Models of the distribution of cabinet portfolios are typically, though not necessarily, specified ex post, taking into account knowledge of the identity of some government ‘formateur’ or even of the composition of the eventual cabinet. This disjunction lies at the heart of a notorious contradiction between predictions of the distribution of cabinet portfolios made by canonical models of legislative bargaining and the robust empirical regularity of proportional portfolio allocations – Gamson’s Law. This article resolves this contradiction by specifying and estimating a joint model of cabinet formation and portfolio distribution that, for example, predicts ex ante which parties will receive zero portfolios rather than taking this as given ex post. It concludes that canonical models of legislative bargaining do increase the ability to predict government membership, but that portfolio distribution between government members conforms robustly to a proportionality norm because portfolio distribution follows the much more difficult process of policy bargaining in the typical government formation process.Peer Reviewe

Complete adiabatic waveform templates for a test-mass in the Schwarzschild spacetime: VIRGO and Advanced LIGO studies

Post-Newtonian expansions of the binding energy and gravitational wave flux truncated at the {\it same relative} post-Newtonian order form the basis of the {\it standard adiabatic} approximation to the phasing of gravitational waves from inspiralling compact binaries. Viewed in terms of the dynamics of the binary, the standard approximation is equivalent to neglecting certain conservative post-Newtonian terms in the acceleration. In an earlier work, we had proposed a new {\it complete adiabatic} approximant constructed from the energy and flux functions. At the leading order it employs the 2PN energy function rather than the 0PN one in the standard approximation, so that, effectively the approximation corresponds to the dynamics where there are no missing post-Newtonian terms in the acceleration. In this paper, we compare the overlaps of the standard and complete adiabatic templates with the exact waveform in the adiabatic approximation of a test-mass motion in the Schwarzschild spacetime, for the VIRGO and the Advanced LIGO noise spectra. It is found that the complete adiabatic approximants lead to a remarkable improvement in the {\it effectualness} at lower PN ($<$ 3PN) orders, while standard approximants of order $\geq$ 3PN provide a good lower-bound to the complete approximants for the construction of effectual templates. {\it Faithfulness} of complete approximants is better than that of standard approximants except for a few post-Newtonian orders. Standard and complete approximants beyond the adiabatic approximation are also studied using the Lagrangian templates of Buonanno, Chen and Vallisneri.Comment: Proceedings of the GWDAW-9, Accepted for publication in Class. Quant. Gra

Portuguese hosts for Ornithodoros erraticus ticks

The hematophagous soft tick Ornithodoros erraticus feeds nocturnally on multiple warm-blooded vertebrate hosts. This tick is often found living buried in the soil of traditional pigpens. O. erraticus is an important infectious disease vector both for humans and animals. In the Iberian Peninsula, this tick serves as the vector of human tick-borne relapsing fever caused by the spirochete Borrelia hispanica. The natural ecosystems maintaining this spirochete are not well understood, with details of competent vertebrate reservoirs and tick–host interactions poorly understood. Investigation of arthropod blood meal composition provides evidence linking the vector to specific hosts, providing insights into possible disease reservoirs. Ticks collected from two pigpens located in southern Portugal were subjected to blood meal analysis. PCR amplification of vertebrate cytochrome b was used to disclose the original host from which 349 ticks had derived their previous blood meal. Host origins for blood meal analysis from 79 of 349 ticks revealed that 46.8% had previously fed from pigs, 35.4% human, 13.9% bovine, 5.1% sheep, 1.3% rodent, and 1.3% from birds. Three samples revealed mixed blood meals, namely, human–pig (1.3%), sheep–pig (1.3%), and bovine–pig (1.3%). The major role of pigs as hosts is consistent with fieldwork observations and underlines the importance of pigs for maintaining O. erraticus tick populations. Humans serve as accidental hosts, frequently confirmed by reports from both producers and veterinarians. Other livestock species and wildlife prevalent in the region appear only to have a minor role in maintaining this tick. The results demonstrate the importance of blood meal analysis to determine tick hosts providing a tool for investigation of sylvatic cycle for Borrelia hispanica

Escape Velocity: Why the Prospect of Extreme Human Life Extension Matters Now

Should we be considering the social and economic ramifications of a society where life-span could be limitless

Are Coping Strategies a Cop Out?

Summary Few would dispute the legitimacy of putting indigenous coping strategies firmly on the food security and famine mitigation agenda. Yet the idea of coping strategies needs to be regarded with caution, especially when used to identify famine early warning indicators. There is a tendency for ‘coping strategies’ to become shorthand for a complex web of processes at work, making for great confusion in identifying what is being talked about. With respect to famine early warning, the complexity of these processes makes for potentially huge difficulties in data collection and interpretation. In the quest to incorporate coping strategies into policy?making and planning, hard choices have to be made between operational feasibility and confronting the intricacies of ? and limitations to ? indigenous response, close to where the action is; and it is essential to be clear as to what they are. A first step is to distinguish at a conceptual level between coping and adapting. If coping strategies are to be monitored as part of early warning systems, it is the motivation for, the timing of and the effectiveness of their use which must be tracked: a formidable task. Resumé Les Stratégies D'Adaptation: Sont?Elles Tout Simplement Échappatoires? Peu de gens ne nieraient la légitimité d'inclure les stratégies autochtones adaptation aux problèmes à l'ordre du jour de tout programme de sécurité alimentaire et d'allégement de la famine. Ceci dit, il y aurait néanmoins lieu de se méfier tant soit peu de ces stratégies, surtout comme première alerte de famine. Une tendance existe par laquelle le terme stratégie d'adaptation (‘coping strategy’) est de plus en plus emprunté comme fourre?tout linguistique qui avale tout un éventail de transactions très complexes; ce qui rend l'identification exacte de ces stratégies d'autant plus compliqée. En ce qui concerne les systèmes d'alerte précoce de famine, la complexité même de ces stratégies présente de très graves difficultés au niveau du rassemblement et de l'analyse des données. Dans toute tentative d'inclure des stratégies d'adaptation dans la formulation et la mise en viguer des politiques, des choix difficiles s'imposent entre la faisabilité opérationnelle et le moyen de tenir compte des détours de la réponse autochtone et dans un même temps, de tenir compte de ses propres limites; ainsi, il est essentiel de connaitre ces détours et ces limites à fond. Un premier pas serait d'établir, au niveau conceptuel, la différence entre les stratégies d'adaptation en tant que réponses conjoncturelles face aux conditions anormales, et le processus d'adaptation permanente qui entraine des changements fondamentaux dans les systèmes de production concernés. Si l'on veut que les stratégies d'adaptation constituent un élément qui puisse être compris dans le système de'alerte précoce, il y aurait lieu de faire le suivi de la motivation, de l'incidence et de l'efficacité de leur exploitation, ce qui représenterait une tache de recherche très onéreuse. Resumen Estrategias De Solución: Una ‘Salida Fácil?’ Dentro de la agenda de soluciones para los problemas de seguridad alimentaria y mitigación del hambre, las estrategias indígenas tienan una legitimidad que muy pocos disputan. Sin embargo, esta idea de estrategias para resolver el problema del hambre debe ser abordada con precaución, especialmente cuando se usa para identificar indicadores precoces de hambre. Hay una tendencia a transformar las estrategias de solución en una versión condensada de una compleja red de procesos en acción, creando gran confusión al tratar de individualizar el asunto específico de que se trata. Con respecto a indicadores precoces, la complejidad de estos procesos ocasiona dificultades potencialmente graves en la compilación e interpretación de datos. Al tratar de incorporar estrategias dentro de la elaboración y planeamiento de programas de acción, se deben llevar a cabo elecciones muy difíciles entre la viabilidad operativa y la confrontación con la intricada ? y limitada ? respuesta local, y es esencial tener en claro qué es cada una. El primer paso es distinguir a nivel conceptual entre solución y adaptación. Para regular estas estrategias como parte del sistema de aviso precoz, se debe seguir la trayectoria de su motivación, su oportinidad y su eficacia; y ésta es una tarea formidable

Nonlinear Equations for Symmetric Massless Higher Spin Fields in (A)dSd(A)dS_d

Nonlinear field equations for totally symmetric bosonic massless fields of all spins in any dimension are presented.Comment: 19 pages, latex, no figures, v2 minor correction