Evaluating multiple causes of persistent low microwave backscatter from Amazon forests after the 2005 drought

Amazonia has experienced large-scale regional droughts that affect forest productivity and biomass stocks. Space-borne remote sensing provides basin-wide data on impacts of meteorological anomalies, an important complement to relatively limited ground observations across the Amazon’s vast and remote humid tropical forests. Morning overpass QuikScat Ku-band microwave backscatter from the forest canopy was anomalously low during the 2005 drought, relative to the full instrument record of 1999–2009, and low morning backscatter persisted for 2006–2009, after which the instrument failed. The persistent low backscatter has been suggested to be indicative of increased forest vulnerability to future drought. To better ascribe the cause of the low post-drought backscatter, we analyzed multiyear, gridded remote sensing data sets of precipitation, land surface temperature, forest cover and forest cover loss, and microwave backscatter over the 2005 drought region in the southwestern Amazon Basin (4°-12°S, 66°-76°W) and in adjacent 8°x10° regions to the north and east. We found moderate to weak correlations with the spatial distribution of persistent low backscatter for variables related to three groups of forest impacts: the 2005 drought itself, loss of forest cover, and warmer and drier dry seasons in the post-drought vs. the pre-drought years. However, these variables explained only about one quarter of the variability in depressed backscatter across the southwestern drought region. Our findings indicate that drought impact is a complex phenomenon and that better understanding can only come from more extensive ground data and/or analysis of frequent, spatially-comprehensive, high-resolution data or imagery before and after droughts

Different is not deficient: respecting diversity in early childhood development

CORRESPONDENCE to: Black, M. M., & Richter, L. M. (2022). "Different is not deficient: respecting diversity in early childhood development." The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 6(12), e26. ; https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00276-0An estimated 250 million children under 5 years in low-income and middle-income countries (LMICs) are considered to be at risk of not achieving their full developmental potential because of inadequate care. 1 This assessment was crucial for establishing the Nurturing Care Framework, a roadmap for improving early childhood development globally. Although the number is still based on proxy measures (stunting and poverty rates), newer research draws directly on indicators of nurturing care, provided by UNICEF's Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys. On the basis of these data, in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health Dana McCoy and colleagues 2 claimed that the problem is even bigger: they calculated that 74·6% of children in LMICs aged 3–4 years do not even receive minimally adequate nurturing care. This figure increases to 92·1% for sub-Saharan Africa and to 99·5% in Chad.

Respecting diversity in early childhood development – A response to Seiden et al. and Black and Richter

A RESPONSE to: Seiden, J., Pisani, L., Cuartas, J., Waldman, M., & McCoy, D. C. (2022). "Different is not deficient: respecting diversity in early childhood development–Authors' reply." The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health, 6(12), e27 ; https://doi.org/10.1016/S2352-4642(22)00307-8This contribution is a continuation of a debate in The Lancet Child & Adolescent Health about the scientific and ethical challenges associated with globalizing early childhood interventions. It consists of an original article, a critical response, and two replies

Consensus Statement of the International Summit on Intellectual Disabilityand Dementia Related to Nomenclature

A working group of the 2016 International Summit on Intellectual Disability and Dementia was charged to examine the terminology used to define and report on dementia in publications related to intellectual disability (ID). A review of related publications showed mixed uses of terms associated with dementia or causative diseases. As with dementia research in the non-ID population, language related to dementia in the ID field often lacks precision and could lead to a misunderstanding of the condition(s) under discussion; an increasingly crucial issue given the increased global attention dementia is receiving in that field. Most articles related to ID and dementia reporting clinical or medical research generally provide a structured definition of dementia or related terms; social care articles tend toward term use without definition. Toward terminology standardization within studies/reports on dementia and ID, the Summit recommended that a consistent approach is taken that ensures (a) growing familiarity with dementia-related diagnostic, condition-specific, and social care terms (as identified in the working group's report), (b) creating a guidance document on accurately defining and presenting information about individuals or groups referenced, and (c) that in reports on neuropathologies or cognitive decline or impairment, definitions are used and data include subjects' ages, sex, level of ID, residential situation, basis for dementia diagnosis, presence of Down syndrome (or other risk conditions), years from diagnosis, and if available, scores on objective measures of changing function

Quantification of Sympathetic Transduction in Type 2 Diabetes Patients

Type 2 Diabetes patients (T2D) have been shown to have greater alpha­-adrenergic sensitivity. How this impacts the transduction of muscle sympathetic nerve activity (MSNA) to arterial blood pressure under resting conditions using spontaneous fluctuations in MSNA, as well as during stressors known to elicit sympatho­-excitation (e.g., cold pressor test (CPT)) is unclear. PURPOSE: We tested the hypothesis that T2D patients would exhibit greater sympathetic transduction compared to age­ and BMI­-matched, healthy controls. METHODS: MSNA (microneurography), heart rate (ECG), and beat­-to­-beat arterial blood pressure (finger photoplethysmography) were continuously recorded during a 10 minute baseline period, and in response to a 2­minute CPT in six T2D patients and six age­ and BMI­-matched, healthy controls (CON).To quantify sympathetic transduction at rest, normalized burst heights were divided into four quartiles (smallest to largest), related to the corresponding peak change in mean arterial pressure (MAP) within those quartiles and a slope was determined. To quantify sympathetic transduction in response to a stressor, the change in MAP was related to the change in MSNA from rest to the last minute of CPT. RESULTS: There were no differences in resting sympathetic transduction between groups (CON slope: 0.0103±0.0023 mmHg/AU, T2D slope: 0.0095±0.0016 mmHg/AU; p=0.78). Indeed, signal averaging of MSNA bursts indicated a similar peak increase in blood pressure in CON (+4.2±0.6 mmHg) and T2D (+4.0±0.9 mmHg) (p=0.66). Although the peak increase in blood pressure to CPT tended to be higher in T2D (T2D: +31.6±3.4 mmHg, CON: +21.4±3.7 mmHg; p=0.096), the Δ MAP/ Δ MSNA relationship during CPT was not different between groups (CON: 0.4158±0.21, T2D: 0.1862±0.05; p=0.36). CONCLUSIONS: Despite clear sympathetically-­mediated increases in blood pressure in T2D patients and healthy CON subjects both at rest and during the CPT, neither of the methodologies used to estimate sympathetic transduction, with respect to changes in arterial blood pressure, detected group differences

Multidisciplinary Staffing in a Graduate Writing Center: Making Writing Labor Visible, Valued, and Shared

Writing studies and writing center scholars have recently focused much-needed attention on how graduate student writers are taught, mentored, and supported. This scholarship also points to a persistent and stubborn conundrum: Graduate students must write their way into disciplinary belonging, yet most advisors lack a language for, or even awareness of, the specialized practices and tacit expectations shaping written discourse in their fields. While graduate student–serving writing centers help fill this writing-support gap, a reliance on English and humanities graduate students for staff reproduces a status quo in which the genre awareness and rhetorical vocabulary needed to mentor advanced academic writers are neither widely distributed nor recognized and valued. This essay offers the counterexample of a graduate writing center whose consultants hail primarily from master’s and doctoral programs in the sciences and social sciences. Using feminist social reproduction theory to examine this case study of one graduate writing center, the authors explore how multidisciplinary staffing resists the enclaving of writing process and rhetorical knowledge and points to a future in which the responsibility for mentoring graduate student writers is visible, valued, and shared

Consensus Statement of the International Summit on Intellectual Disability and Dementia Related to Post-Diagnostic Support

Objectives: Post diagnostic support (PDS) has varied definitions within mainstream dementia services and different health and social care organizations, encompassing a range of supports that are offered to adults once diagnosed with dementia until death.  Method: An international summit on intellectual disability and dementia held in Glasgow, Scotland in 2016 identified how PDS applies to adults with an intellectual disability and dementia. The Summit proposed a model that encompassed seven focal areas: post-diagnostic counseling; psychological and medical surveillance; periodic reviews and adjustments to the dementia care plan; early identification of behaviour and psychological symptoms; reviews of care practices and supports for advanced dementia and end of life; supports to carers/ support staff; and evaluation of quality of life. It also explored current practices in providing PDS in intellectual disability services.  Results: The Summit concluded that although there is limited research evidence for pharmacological or non-pharmacological interventions for people with intellectual disability and dementia, viable resources and guidelines describe practical approaches drawn from clinical practice. Post diagnostic support is essential, and the model components in place for the general population, and proposed here for use within the intellectual disability field, need to be individualized and adapted to the person’s needs as dementia progresses.  Conclusions: Recommendations for future research include examining the prevalence and nature of behavioral and psychological symptoms (BPSD) in adults with an intellectual disability who develop dementia, the effectiveness of different non-pharmacological interventions, the interaction between pharmacological and non-pharmacological interventions, and the utility of different models of support

Toward a Research Agenda on the Impact of Dementia upon Carers of Adults with Intellectual Disability

The World Health Organization’s report, Dementia: A Public Health Priority, noted that the number of people affected by dementia will continue to increase and called for nations to address the impact of dementia upon their populations. This included considering the impact on carers providing for adults with intellectual disability affected by Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Within the context of the USA’s dementia plan, a national group has advocated that the needs and interests of adults with dementia and their carers be taken into account when dementia-related research is undertaken. In preparation for the second national summit on caregiving and dementia to be held in the USA in 2020, this article describes an effort undertaken by this national group to identify needed research related to carers of adults with intellectual disability. The group identified three focal areas for the summit to consider: the effect of behavioral and psychological symptoms of dementia on carers, challenges for carers of adults with intellectual disability when dementia becomes evident, and barriers that carers face when accessing supports. A list of recommended topics to be researched is provided

Interoceptive inference, emotion, and the embodied self

The concept of the brain as a prediction machine has enjoyed a resurgence in the context of the Bayesian brain and predictive coding approaches within cognitive science. To date, this perspective has been applied primarily to exteroceptive perception (e.g., vision, audition), and action. Here, I describe a predictive, inferential perspective on interoception: ‘interoceptive inference’ conceives of subjective feeling states (emotions) as arising from actively-inferred generative (predictive) models of the causes of interoceptive afferents. The model generalizes ‘appraisal’ theories that view emotions as emerging from cognitive evaluations of physiological changes, and it sheds new light on the neurocognitive mechanisms that underlie the experience of body ownership and conscious selfhood in health and in neuropsychiatric illness

Consensus Statement of the International Summit on Intellectual Disability and Dementia Related to End-of-life Care in Advanced Dementia

Background  Adults with intellectual disability are affected by dementia at equivalent and elevated rates, many surviving into advanced age. End of life care and support considerations come into play among these individuals when most are in the advanced stage of dementia.  Methods  A preliminary report summarizing available literature and making initial recommendations was developed by a workgroup, reviewed by all conference participants and then was finalized by the workgroup.  Results  The International Summit on Intellectual Disability and Dementia produced a report on End of life care in advanced dementia that provides a synthesis statement which encompasses defining the state of advanced dementia, proposes use of palliative care services (including hospice) and recommends special efforts for enabling advanced directives and advance care planning prior to the extensive progression of dementia. The Summit further recommended that when aiding adults with advanced dementia, the following be undertaken: integrative efforts between intellectual disability and palliative care providers, specialized training for carers on end of life care and supports, and involvement of adults with intellectual disability early on in their advance care planning.  Conclusions  The Consensus recommendations will ensure greater and more appropriate support at end of life for persons with intellectual disabilities and advanced dementia.Additional co-author: the Working Group of the International Summit on Intellectual Disability and Dementi