Cognitive Ability and Retiree Health Care Expenditure

Prior research indicates that retirees with less cognitive ability are at greater financial risk because they have lower incomes yet higher medical expenditures. Linking HRS data to administrative records, we evaluate two hypotheses about why this group spends more on health: (1) they are in worse health; (2) they receive more expensive or less effective care for the same conditions. We find that the bulk, but not all, of the cross-sectional relationship can be attributed to the poorer health of those with lower cognitive functioning. Much of this relationship appears to be driven by coincident declines in cognitive ability and health. While, in this respect, the data have important limitations, we find no evidence of substantial differences in care, conditional on observable health.

The Effects of Task, Task Mapping, and Layout Space on User Performance in Information-Rich Virtual Environments

How should abstract information be displayed in Information-Rich Virtual Environments (IRVEs)? There are a variety of techniques available, and it is important to determine which techniques help foster a user’s understanding both within and between abstract and spatial information types. Our evaluation compared two such techniques: Object Space and Display Space. Users strongly prefer Display Space over Object Space, and those who use Display Space may perform better. Display Space was faster and more accurate than Object Space for tasks comparing abstract information. Object Space was more accurate for comparisons of spatial information. These results suggest that for abstract criteria, visibility is a more important requirement than perceptual coupling by depth and association cues. They also support the value of perceptual coupling for tasks with spatial criteria

Strengths So White: Interrogating StrengthsQuest Education Through a Critical Whiteness Lens

Many college student leadership programs utilize StrengthsQuest as a tool for individual and group development. Although StrengthsQuest is touted as a universal tool to help all individuals leverage their strengths in varied settings, the authors are critical of both the tool itself and the ways educators utilize StrengthsQuest. This paper employs tenets of critical whiteness theory, including color evasiveness, normalization, and solipsism, to deconstruct StrengthsQuest within the context of leadership education. Additionally, the authors offer possibilities for reimagining StrengthsQuest education in ways that center inclusion and justice. Finally, strategies for critical leadership educators are discussed

Assessment of Muscular Anatomical and Physiological Development During Injury Rehabilitation

After an injury occurs, there are many physiological regressions that occur. These regressions lead to altered muscle thickness, muscle length, strength and power potentials, motor recruitment, and neuromuscular control. These variables are further exacerbated if the given injury requires surgical intervention. Rehabilitation aids in reducing these regressions and is important both pre-surgery and post-surgery when intervention beyond rehabilitation is needed. Ultrasound imaging can be utilized to monitor the progression of a muscle\u27s specific muscles anatomy. The muscles of interest are dependent upon the injury, The purpose of this study is to monitor short-term muscular adaptations to establish their importance in injury rehabilitation. A secondary purpose is to determine the importance of monitoring the development of these physiological properties in the return-to-play process. The specific physiological factor of interest in this case study is pennation angle, but multiple will be assessed and analyzed

Integrated Behavioral Health Training in Counselor Education: A Call to Action

The American healthcare system is beginning to adopt an integrated behavioral health model as a way to meet the ever-changing and holistic needs of patients by creating opportunities for collaboration among medical and behavioral health professionals. Professional counselors play a vital role in integrative behavioral health through their meaningful participation on interdisciplinary healthcare teams. Professional counselors are key to any interdisciplinary team because they embrace a biopsychosocial wellness perspective and have undergone clinical and academic training. However, many counseling programs do not specifically educate or train counselors in how to work in integrated care settings. As such, counselor educators must adapt to this evolving system of healthcare by providing students with didactic and experiential learning opportunities to promote competence and readiness to practice in this new wave of healthcare

An Activity-Based Nanosensor for Traumatic Brain Injury.

Currently, traumatic brain injury (TBI) is detected by medical imaging; however, medical imaging requires expensive capital equipment, is time- and resource-intensive, and is poor at predicting patient prognosis. To date, direct measurement of elevated protease activity has yet to be utilized to detect TBI. In this work, we engineered an activity-based nanosensor for TBI (TBI-ABN) that responds to increased protease activity initiated after brain injury. We establish that a calcium-sensitive protease, calpain-1, is active in the injured brain hours within injury. We then optimize the molecular weight of a nanoscale polymeric carrier to infiltrate into the injured brain tissue with minimal renal filtration. A calpain-1 substrate that generates a fluorescent signal upon cleavage was attached to this nanoscale polymeric carrier to generate an engineered TBI-ABN. When applied intravenously to a mouse model of TBI, our engineered sensor is observed to locally activate in the injured brain tissue. This TBI-ABN is the first demonstration of a sensor that responds to protease activity to detect TBI

Medicare+Choice in Palm Beach: Watching and Waiting?

Under the Medicare+Choice program, firms have been able to offer products on a county by county basis, making participation decisions based on factors such as county payment rate, strength of local provider networks, and beneficiary\u27s affinity for managed care. In 2003, Medicare+Choice payment rates paid to plans range from $495 in rural floor counties to a high of$872 in Staten Island, NY. Consequently, there is large national variation in benefits, premiums, and plan participation. A recent site visit to Palm Beach county and neighboring Miami-Dade highlighted many of the differences between counties which may pose challenges to firms trying to enter large service areas

Recession Depression: Mental Health Effects of the 2008 Stock Market Crash

Do sudden, large wealth losses affect mental health? We use exogenous variation in the interview dates of the 2008 Health and Retirement Study to assess the impact of large wealth losses on mental health among older U.S. adults. We compare cross-wave changes in wealth and mental health for respondents interviewed before and after the October 2008 stock market crash. We find that the crash reduced wealth and increased feelings of depression and use of antidepressant drugs, and that these effects were largest among respondents with high levels of stock holdings prior to the crash. These results suggest that sudden wealth losses cause immediate declines in subjective measures of mental health. However, we find no evidence that wealth losses lead to increases in clinically-validated measures of depressive symptoms or indicators of depression

The Effects of Dynamic Versus Static Stretching on Lower Body Power

Dynamic and static warmups have both been used to prepare for exercise and sport. Previous researchers indicate that dynamic stretching is the best warmup before performing exercise because it involves moving joints through their full range of motion throughout the stretch. PURPOSE: The purpose of this study was to investigate the difference in dynamic stretching versus static stretching in an athlete’s lower body explosiveness. METHODS: A convenience sample of twelve physically active college students completed the study (age: 20.25 ± 0.75 years; height: 176.69 ± 8.09 cm; weight: 76.74 ± 17.92 kg; mean ± SD). Three participants identified as female and nine were male. Each participant performed three randomly assigned treatments on different testing days, a dynamic stretching warmup, static stretching warmup, as well as a control treatment of no stretching. The two warmups were focused on the same muscle groups. Vertical jump and standing broad jump were performed after each stretching warmup and the best score of two trials was recorded. Testing sessions were separated by at least 24 hours. RESULTS: There was no statistically significant difference between warmup treatments for standing broad jump measurements (F (2,22) = 1.783, p = 0.192). The warmups did significantly affect vertical jump measurements (F (2,22) = 3.515, p = .047). The dynamic stretching warmup resulted in significantly greater vertical jump than static stretching (mean difference = 0.858cm, p = 0.034). There was no significant difference between the static warmup and control (mean difference = 0.100cm, p = 0.752) nor between the dynamic warmup and control (mean difference = 0.758cm, p = 0.08). CONCLUSION: The dynamic warmup resulted in a greater vertical jump than a static warm up. Warm up type did not affect standing broad jump. These findings suggest that dynamic stretching may be desirable for greatest lower body explosiveness, especially vertical lower body power production