Development Of A Financial Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Measure For Older Adults

Financial decision-making is important for older adults, and many are at increased risk for elder financial exploitation due to a combination of biological, social, and psychological factors. The role of self-efficacy for financial decision-making in this population has received little attention from researchers, but evidence suggests it may be a critical aspect in motivating positive decisions and avoiding exploitation. This study developed the Financial Decision-Making Self-Efficacy Scale (FDMSES) for older adults. Participants (N = 200, mean age = 71.5) completed the Lichtenberg Financial Decision-Making Rating Scale (LFDRS) and a neuropsychological test battery. Items from the LFDRS related to financial decision-making confidence and mood were selected a priori based on a literature review. Factor analyses produced a four-item unidimensional scale, accounting for 42.2% of the variance with factor loadings ranging from .54 to .87 and adequate internal consistency (Cronbach’s α = .73). Higher FDMSES scores were associated with better performance on tests of executive functioning, even after accounting for age and education (Δ R2 ranged from .02 to .04), but were not associated with financial skills and knowledge. Mean FDMSES scores were lower among people with impaired financial decisional ability (t = 2.95, p \u3c .01) and people with a history of elder financial exploitation (t = 4.97, p \u3c .001). These findings highlight the importance of self-efficacy for making real-life financial decisions and avoiding financial exploitation regardless of basic financial abilities. The FDMSES is a brief, psychometrically sound measure for use with older adults and holds promise as a screener to detect psychological vulnerability to financial exploitation, an outcome measure for financial literacy interventions, and an addition to financial surveys

Freeing Energy Data: A Guide for Regulators to Reduce One Barrier to Residential Energy Efficiency

This report advocates for improving entrepreneurs' access to residential energy-use data, thereby increasing the deployment of cost-effective energy-efficiency measures, generating saving and improving the environment. While this report does discuss policy, its focus is on informing policy makers on how to address liability, consumer privacy, and administrative concerns that could arise when third parties receive energy-use data from utilities. What makes this report novel compared to other efforts is that it provides model language for laws or rules that lawmakers or regulators can use as building blocks to open up access to energy data

Alpena Port & Community Asset Inventory

The short-term goal of this project was to provide the foundation for further development of existing ports by completing an inventory of port and community assets, as well as identifying opportunities and constraints, strategies for future activities, and opportunities for regional collaboration. Examples of inventoried assets included: land use, zoning, ownership, existing facilities, uses and ownership, ferry service, environmental issues (e.g. brownfields), commercial businesses, industrial businesses and others. The long-term goal was to expand opportunities for commerce and recreation at the port

Factors that Influence Enrollment in Syringe Services Programs in Rural Areas: A Qualitative Study among Program Clients in Appalachian Kentucky

BACKGROUND: Enrolling sufficient number of people who inject drugs (PWID) into syringe services programs (SSP) is important to curtail outbreaks of drug-related harms. Still, little is known about barriers and facilitators to SSP enrollment in rural areas with no history of such programs. This study\u27s purpose was to develop a grounded theory of the role of the risk environment and individual characteristics of PWID in shaping SSP enrollment in rural Kentucky. METHODS: We conducted one-on-one semi-structured interviews with 41 clients of 5 SSPs that were established in rural counties in Appalachian Kentucky in 2017-2018. Interviews covered PWID needs, the process of becoming aware of SSPs, and barriers and facilitators to SSP enrollment. Applying constructivist grounded theory methods and guided by the Intersectional Risk Environment Framework (IREF), we applied open, axial and selective coding to develop the grounded theory. RESULTS: Stigma, a feature of IREF\u27s meso-level social domain, is the main factor hampering SSP enrollment. PWID hesitated to visit SSPs because of internalized stigma and because of anticipated stigma from police, friends, family and healthcare providers. Fear of stigma was often mitigated or amplified by a constellation of meso-level environmental factors related to healthcare (e.g., SSPs) and social (PWID networks) domains and by PWID\u27s individual characteristics. SSPs mitigated stigma as a barrier to enrollment by providing low threshold services in a friendly atmosphere, and by offering their clients program IDs to protect them from paraphernalia charges. SSP clients spread positive information about the program within PWID networks and helped their hesitant peers to enroll by accompanying them to SSPs. Individual characteristics, including child custody, employment or high social status, made certain PWID more susceptible to drug-related stigma and hence more likely to delay SSP enrollment. CONCLUSIONS: Features of the social and healthcare environments operating at the meso-level, as well as PWID\u27s individual characteristics, appear to enhance or mitigate the effect of stigma as a barrier to SSP enrollment. SSPs opening in locations with high stigma against PWID need to ensure low threshold and friendly services, protect their clients from police and mobilize PWID networks to promote enrollment

CHILES: HI morphology and galaxy environment at z=0.12 and z=0.17

We present a study of 16 HI-detected galaxies found in 178 hours of observations from Epoch 1 of the COSMOS HI Large Extragalactic Survey (CHILES). We focus on two redshift ranges between 0.108 <= z <= 0.127 and 0.162 <= z <= 0.183 which are among the worst affected by radio frequency interference (RFI). While this represents only 10% of the total frequency coverage and 18% of the total expected time on source compared to what will be the full CHILES survey, we demonstrate that our data reduction pipeline recovers high quality data even in regions severely impacted by RFI. We report on our in-depth testing of an automated spectral line source finder to produce HI total intensity maps which we present side-by-side with significance maps to evaluate the reliability of the morphology recovered by the source finder. We recommend that this become a common place manner of presenting data from upcoming HI surveys of resolved objects. We use the COSMOS 20k group catalogue, and we extract filamentary structure using the topological DisPerSE algorithm to evaluate the \hi\ morphology in the context of both local and large-scale environments and we discuss the shortcomings of both methods. Many of the detections show disturbed HI morphologies suggesting they have undergone a recent interaction which is not evident from deep optical imaging alone. Overall, the sample showcases the broad range of ways in which galaxies interact with their environment. This is a first look at the population of galaxies and their local and large-scale environments observed in HI by CHILES at redshifts beyond the z=0.1 Universe.Comment: 23 pages, 12 figures, 1 interactive 3D figure, accepted to MNRA

AIAA Design, Build, Fly Team - MULLET Competition Aircraft 2021-2022

MULLET, the Medical Unmanned Low-Level Electric Transport, is Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach’s aircraft for the 2021–2022 AIAA Design, Build, Fly competition. This UAV was designed to perform four missions, including a ground mission and three flight missions. Mission 1 is a deployment flight that demonstrates the aircraft’s flight capability; Mission 2 is a staging flight for the transportation of vaccine syringes; Mission 3 is a delivery flight for the transportation and deployment of vaccine vial packages; and the Ground Mission is a demonstration of the ability to rapidly prepare the aircraft for flight. The aircraft was designed, manufactured, and flown by a team of 40 undergraduate aerospace engineering students. The design process comprised three phases: conceptual, preliminary, and detail design. Initially, the conceptual design focused on analyzing the requirements with a scoring analysis to select the optimal payload that maximized the mission scores. After the aircraft and subsystem configurations were selected, the weight, wing, tail, and propulsion system were sized during the preliminary design. A detail design then focused on the aircraft’s structural characteristics and systems integration. The manufacturing process followed with the goal of fabricating the aircraft to the designed specifications and weight. A detailed schedule was developed and was continuously refined to manufacture each aircraft iteration in a timely manner, enabling rapid prototyping throughout the design, build, and fly process. Finally, a testing plan was established to evaluate a series of test objectives essential to the aircraft’s mission performance

Salvage lenvatinib/everolimus combination therapy after immune checkpoint inhibitor and VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor for metastatic renal cell carcinoma

BackgroundThe optimal treatment for metastatic renal cell carcinoma (mRCC) patients who have progressed after both immune checkpoint inhibitor (ICI) and VEGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (TKI) remains uncertain. Lenvatinib and everolimus (LE) are frequently used in combination as salvage therapy because of their different antitumor mechanisms, but efficacy and toxicity data in this setting are lacking.MethodsWe retrospectively reviewed charts from two academic centers for 71 adult mRCC patients who received LE after prior ICI and TKI exposure. We evaluated patient demographics, histology, International mRCC Database Consortium (IMDC) risk group, treatment history, and toxicity details. Outcomes of interest included objective response rate (ORR), time to treatment failure (TTF), overall survival (OS), ≥grade 3 toxicities, and schedule or dosage changes, which were evaluated using descriptive statistics, chi-square test, Cox proportional hazards model, and the Kaplan–Meier method.ResultsThe median age was 64 (range 31–84). Most patients had clear cell histology (84.5%) and had undergone nephrectomy (80.3%). IMDC risks were favorable (19.7%), intermediate (int) (66.2%), poor (11.3%), and unknown (2.8%). The average ORR was 26.8%, while the median TTF was 5.5 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 3.5–7.6) and the median OS was 9 months (95% CI, 7.6–12.9). Intermediate and poor IMDC risks were independently associated with a significantly worse TTF compared to favorable risk (hazard ratio (HR), 3.03, 95% CI, 1.18–7.79), as was ≥4L treatment vs. 2L/3L treatment (HR, 2.02, 95% CI, 1.08–3.8). Of the 71 patients, 57.7% had ≥grade 3 adverse events, 60% had treatment interruption, 44.3% had dose reduction, and 21% stopped treatment due to intolerance.ConclusionsLE therapy is feasible but has modest efficacies following ICI/TKI treatment. Patients with favorable risk or treated earlier may have a better treatment response. These observations need to be confirmed in prospective studies

Axonal transport deficit in a KIF5A–/– mouse model

Hereditary spastic paraplegia (HSP) is a neurodegenerative disorder preferentially affecting the longest corticospinal axons. More than 40 HSP genetic loci have been identified, among them SPG10, an autosomal dominant HSP caused by point mutations in the neuronal kinesin heavy chain protein KIF5A. Constitutive KIF5A knockout (KIF5A–/–) mice die early after birth. In these mice, lungs were unexpanded, and cell bodies of lower motor neurons in the spinal cord swollen, but the pathomechanism remained unclear. To gain insights into the pathophysiology, we characterized survival, outgrowth, and function in primary motor and sensory neuron cultures from KIF5A–/– mice. Absence of KIF5A reduced survival in motor neurons, but not in sensory neurons. Outgrowth of axons and dendrites was remarkably diminished in KIF5A–/– motor neurons. The number of axonal branches was reduced, whereas the number of dendrites was not altered. In KIF5A–/– sensory neurons, neurite outgrowth was decreased but the number of neurites remained unchanged. In motor neurons maximum and average velocity of mitochondrial transport was reduced both in anterograde and retrograde direction. Our results point out a role of KIF5A in process outgrowth and axonal transport of mitochondria, affecting motor neurons more severely than sensory neurons. This gives pathophysiological insights into KIF5A associated HSP, and matches the clinical findings of predominant degeneration of the longest axons of the corticospinal tract

Genome-wide association study of corticobasal degeneration identifies risk variants shared with progressive supranuclear palsy

Corticobasal degeneration (CBD) is a neurodegenerative disorder affecting movement and cognition, definitively diagnosed only at autopsy. Here, we conduct a genome-wide association study (GWAS) in CBD cases (n = 152) and 3, 311 controls, and 67 CBD cases and 439 controls in a replication stage. Associations with meta-analysis were 17q21 at MAPT (P = 1.42 x 10(-12)),8p12 at lnc-KIF13B-1, a long non-coding RNA (rs643472;P = 3.41 x 10(-8)),and 2p22 at SOS1 (rs963731;P = 1.76 x 10(-7)). Testing for association of CBD with top progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP) GWAS single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) identified associations at MOBP (3p22;rs1768208;P = 2.07 x 10(-7)) and MAPT H1c (17q21;rs242557;P = 7.91 x 10(-6)). We previously reported SNP/transcript level associations with rs8070723/MAPT, rs242557/MAPT, and rs1768208/MOBP and herein identified association with rs963731/SOS1. We identify new CBD susceptibility loci and show that CBD and PSP share a genetic risk factor other than MAPT at 3p22 MOBP (myelin-associated oligodendrocyte basic protein)