Developing methodologies for the global in situ conservation of crop wild relatives

Climate change is predicted to have far-reaching deleterious impacts worldwide; agriculture in particular is expected to be effected by significant loss of suitable land and crop yields in the world’s most populous and poorest regions. Crop wild relatives (CWR) are a rich source of underutilised genetic diversity which could help to mitigate climate change for agriculture through breeding new resilient varieties. However, CWR are under-conserved and threatened in the wild. This thesis researches and develops systematic methodologies to advance knowledge and support action on in situ CWR conservation at the global level. Methods included developing a global inventory of CWR associated with crops important for food security worldwide, species distribution modelling, climate change analysis, in situ gap analysis, reserve planning and prioritisation, and, examining the congruence of CWR distributions with regions of high biodiversity and crop diversity. The methods described here can be applied to CWR at both the national and regional level to ensure robust in situ CWR conservation. A principal success of this research is the global CWR inventory, which has been used in several national strategies and as the basis of a major ex situ germplasm collection mission worldwide

Interprofessional Collaboration Between Occupational Therapists and Nurses in an Acute Care Setting: An Exploratory Study

Background. Collaboration between occupational therapists and nurses is key to a positive prognosis for their patients. Currently, there is a gap in the research on professional relationships between occupational therapists and registered nurses in acute care settings. Purpose. To examine interprofessional collaboration between registered nurses and occupational therapy in an acute care setting. Methods. A phenomenological, qualitative design with use of semi-structured interviews was used. Interviewees were four occupational therapists and four registered nurses who currently work in acute care settings in Northern California and were recruited through a snowball, convenience and purposive sampling. Themes and subthemes that emerged from the data answered the research questions. Findings. The key factors preventing collaboration were: Time constraints, role confusion and overlap, personality factors, and lack of occupational therapy advocacy. Implications. This study may guide the development of interprofessional education to improve the collaborative relationship between occupational therapists and nurses to ultimately improve quality of care

Phonological and semantic processing during comprehension in Wernicke’s aphasia: a N400 and Phonological Mapping Negativity study

Comprehension impairments in Wernicke’s aphasia are thought to result from a combination of impaired phonological and semantic processes. However, the relationship between these cognitive processes and language comprehension has only been inferred through offline neuropsychological tasks. This study used ERPs to investigate phonological and semantic processing during online single word comprehension. EEG was recorded in a group of Wernicke’s aphasia n=8 and control participants n=10 while performing a word-picture verification task. The N400 and Phonological Mapping Negativity/ Phonological Mismatch Negativity (PMN) event-related potential components were investigated as an index of semantic and phonological processing, respectively. Individuals with Wernicke’s aphasia displayed reduced and inconsistent N400 and PMN effects in comparison to control participants. Reduced N400 effects in the WA group were simulated in the control group by artificially degrading speech perception. Correlation analyses in the Wernicke’s aphasia group found that PMN but not N400 amplitude was associated with behavioural word-picture verification performance. The results confirm impairments at both phonological and semantic stages of comprehension in Wernicke’s aphasia. However, reduced N400 responses in Wernicke’s aphasia are at least partially attributable to earlier phonological processing impairments. The results provide further support for the traditional model of Wernicke’s aphasia which claims a causative link between phonological processing and language comprehension impairments

Interprofessional Collaboration Between Occupational Therapists and Registered Nurses in Acute Care Settings: An Exploratory Study

Background. Collaboration between occupational therapists and nurses is key to a positive prognosis for their patients. Currently, there is a gap in the research on professional relationships between occupational therapists and registered nurses in acute care settings. Purpose. To examine interprofessional collaboration between registered nurses and occupational therapy in an acute care setting. Methods. A phenomenological, qualitative design with use of semi-structured interviews was used. Interviewees were four occupational therapists and four registered nurses who currently work in acute care settings in Northern California and were recruited through a snowball, convenience and purposive sampling. Themes and subthemes that emerged from the data answered the research questions. Findings. The key factors preventing collaboration were: Time constraints, role confusion and overlap, personality factors, and lack of occupational therapy advocacy. Implications. This study may guide the development of interprofessional education to improve the collaborative relationship between occupational therapists and nurses to ultimately improve quality of care

The effect of non-medical factors on variations in the performance of colonoscopy among different health care settings

Background: Previous studies in the literature have shown significant variations in colonoscopy performance, even when medical factors are taken into account. This study aimed to examine the role of non-medical factors (i.e. embodied in health care system design) as possible contributors to variations in colonoscopy performance. Methods: We used patient data from a multicenter observational study conducted between 2000 and 2002 in 21 centers across 11 western countries. Variability was captured through two performance outcomes (diagnostic yield and colonoscopy withdrawal time), jointly studied as dependent variables using a multilevel two-equation system. Results: Results showed that open-access systems and high-volume colonoscopy centers were independently associated with a higher likelihood of detecting significant lesions and higher withdrawal durations. Fee for service (FFS) payment was associated with shorter withdrawal durations, and had an indirect negative impact on the diagnostic yield. Teaching centers exhibited lower detection rates and higher withdrawal times. Conclusions: Our results suggest that gate-keeping colonoscopy is likely to miss patients with significant lesions and that developing specialized colonoscopy units is important to improve performance. Results also suggest that FFS may result in a lower quality of care in colonoscopy practice and highlight that longer withdrawal times do not necessarily mean higher quality in teaching-centers.Medical Practice Variation (MPV), performance, non-medical factors, panel two-equation linear-probit model, colonoscopy

Interprofessional Collaboration Between Occupational Therapists and Registered Nurses in Acute Care Settings: An Exploratory Study

Background. Collaboration between occupational therapists and nurses is key to a positive prognosis for their patients. Currently, there is a gap in the research on professional relationships between occupational therapists and registered nurses in acute care settings. Purpose. To examine interprofessional collaboration between registered nurses and occupational therapy in an acute care setting. Methods. A phenomenological, qualitative design with use of semi-structured interviews was used. Interviewees were four occupational therapists and four registered nurses who currently work in acute care settings in Northern California and were recruited through a snowball, convenience and purposive sampling. Themes and subthemes that emerged from the data answered the research questions. Findings. The key factors preventing collaboration were: Time constraints, role confusion and overlap, personality factors, and lack of occupational therapy advocacy. Implications. This study may guide the development of interprofessional education to improve the collaborative relationship between occupational therapists and nurses to ultimately improve quality of care.https://scholar.dominican.edu/ug-student-posters/1005/thumbnail.jp

Phonological and semantic processing during comprehension in Wernicke's aphasia: An N400 and Phonological Mapping Negativity Study

Comprehension impairments in Wernicke's aphasia are thought to result from a combination of impaired phonological and semantic processes. However, the relationship between these cognitive processes and language comprehension has only been inferred through offline neuropsychological tasks. This study used ERPs to investigate phonological and semantic processing during online single word comprehension. EEG was recorded in a group of Wernicke's aphasia n=8 and control participants n=10 while performing a word-picture verification task. The N400 and Phonological Mapping Negativity/Phonological Mismatch Negativity (PMN) event-related potential components were investigated as an index of semantic and phonological processing, respectively. Individuals with Wernicke's aphasia displayed reduced and inconsistent N400 and PMN effects in comparison to control participants. Reduced N400 effects in the WA group were simulated in the control group by artificially degrading speech perception. Correlation analyses in the Wernicke's aphasia group found that PMN but not N400 amplitude was associated with behavioural word-picture verification performance. The results confirm impairments at both phonological and semantic stages of comprehension in Wernicke's aphasia. However, reduced N400 responses in Wernicke's aphasia are at least partially attributable to earlier phonological processing impairments. The results provide further support for the traditional model of Wernicke's aphasia which claims a causative link between phonological processing and language comprehension impairments

An open reproducible framework for the study of the iterated prisoner's dilemma

The Axelrod library is an open source Python package that allows for reproducible game theoretic research into the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma. This area of research began in the 1980s but suffers from a lack of documentation and test code. The goal of the library is to provide such a resource, with facilities for the design of new strategies and interactions between them, as well as conducting tournaments and ecological simulations for populations of strategies. With a growing collection of 139 strategies, the library is a also a platform for an original tournament that, in itself, is of interest to the game theoretic community. This paper describes the Iterated Prisoner's Dilemma, the Axelrod library and its development, and insights gained from some novel research.Comment: 11 pages, Journal of Open Research Software 4.1 (2016

Interpersonal Psychotherapy’s problem areas as an organizing framework to understand depression and sexual and reproductive health needs of Kenyan pregnant and parenting adolescents: a qualitative study

Background: Peripartum adolescents experience signifcant interpersonal transitions in their lives. Depression and emotional distress are often exacerbated by adolescents’ responses to these interpersonal changes. Improved understanding of pregnancy-related social changes and maladaptive responses to these shifts may inform novel approaches to addressing the mental health needs of adolescents during the perinatal period. The paper aims to understand the sources of psychological distress in peripartum adolescents and map these to Interpersonal Psychotherapy’s (IPT) problem areas as a framework to understand depression. Method: We conducted interviews in two Nairobi primary care clinics with peripartum adolescents ages 16–18 years (n=23) with experiences of depression, keeping interpersonal psychotherapy framework of problem areas in mind. We explored the nature of their distress, triggers, antecedents of distress associated with an unplanned pregnancy, quality of their relationships with their partner, parents, and other family members, perceived needs, and sources of support. Results: We found that the interpersonal psychotherapy (IPT) framework of interpersonal problems covering grief and loss, role transitions, interpersonal disputes, and social isolation was instrumental in conceptualizing adolescent depression, anxiety, and stress in the perinatal period. Conclusion: Our interviews deepened understanding of peripartum adolescent mental health focusing on four IPT problem areas. The interpersonal framework yields meaningful information about adolescent depression and could help in identifying strategies for addressing their distress