The Short-Form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (copafs-27): A Confirmatory Factor Analysis

To further refine the measurement of coparenting across family dynamics, this article presents data from 2 separately collected samples, the first consisting of 252 parents and the second consisting of 329 parents, analyzed as a pilot study of the Short-Form of the Coparenting Across Family Structures Scale (CoPAFS 27-Items). The purpose of the revised shortened tool is to further the design of an efficient and psychometrically strong tool to aid research and clinical practice with coparents. Our intent was to differentiate coparenting in intact, separated/divorced, and families where the parents were never romantically involved, between mothers and fathers, and between high- and low-income levels. This pilot test assessed psychometric properties (stability, reliability, and internal consistency) of the CoPAFS to determine whether the measure could be useful for evaluating the core dimensions of coparenting. Analyses reduced the 56-item CoPAFS scale developed from existing scales and literature to a 5-component scale of 27 items, including Respect, Trust, Valuing the other parent, Communication and Hostility. Implications for interventions and future research are briefly discussed

Trunk Velocity-Dependent Light Touch Reduces Postural Sway during Standing

Light Touch (LT) has been shown to reduce postural sway in a wide range of populations. While LT is believed to provide additional sensory information for balance modulation, the nature of this information and its specific effect on balance are yet unclear. In order to better understand LT and to potentially harness its advantages for a practical balance aid, we investigated the effect of LT as provided by a haptic robot. Postural sway during standing balance was reduced when the LT force (~ 1 N) applied to the high back area was dependent on the trunk velocity. Additional information on trunk position, provided through orthogonal vibrations, further reduced the sway position-metric of balance but did not further improve the velocity-metric of balance. Our results suggest that limited and noisy information on trunk velocity encoded in LT is sufficient to influence standing balance. © 2019 Saini et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Passively transferred human NMO-IgG exacerbates demyelination in mouse experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis

BACKGROUND: Neuromyelitis optica (NMO) is a devastating inflammatory disorder of the optic nerves and spinal cord characterized by frequently recurring exacerbations of humoral inflammation. NMO is associated with the highly specific NMO-IgG biomarker, an antibody that binds the aquaporin-4 water channel. Aquaporin-4 is present on glial endfeet in the central nervous system (CNS). In humans, the NMO-IgG portends more frequent exacerbations and a worse long-term clinical outcome. METHODS: We tested the longer-term outcome of mice with EAE injected with NMO-IgG and followed them for 60 days. Clinical exams and pathology of the spinal cord and optic nerves were compared to mice that received control human IgG. RESULTS: Passively transferred human NMO-IgG leads to more severe neurology disability over two months after onset of disease. Clinical worsening is associated with an increased concentration of large demyelinating lesions primarily to subpial AQP4-rich regions of the spinal cord. CONCLUSIONS: NMO-IgG is pathogenic in the context of EAE in mice

SmartMocap: Joint Estimation of Human and Camera Motion using Uncalibrated RGB Cameras

Markerless human motion capture (mocap) from multiple RGB cameras is a widely studied problem. Existing methods either need calibrated cameras or calibrate them relative to a static camera, which acts as the reference frame for the mocap system. The calibration step has to be done a priori for every capture session, which is a tedious process, and re-calibration is required whenever cameras are intentionally or accidentally moved. In this paper, we propose a mocap method which uses multiple static and moving extrinsically uncalibrated RGB cameras. The key components of our method are as follows. First, since the cameras and the subject can move freely, we select the ground plane as a common reference to represent both the body and the camera motions unlike existing methods which represent bodies in the camera coordinate. Second, we learn a probability distribution of short human motion sequences ($\sim$1sec) relative to the ground plane and leverage it to disambiguate between the camera and human motion. Third, we use this distribution as a motion prior in a novel multi-stage optimization approach to fit the SMPL human body model and the camera poses to the human body keypoints on the images. Finally, we show that our method can work on a variety of datasets ranging from aerial cameras to smartphones. It also gives more accurate results compared to the state-of-the-art on the task of monocular human mocap with a static camera. Our code is available for research purposes on https://github.com/robot-perception-group/SmartMocap

Exploring Racial Disproportionalities and Disparities for Black Families Involved with the Child Welfare System

Background: The overrepresentation of Black families in child welfare systems across the various geographical locations (e.g. America, Canada, United Kingdom) is a growing concern. There are competing explanations for the causes of overrepresentation and recommendations for eliminating racial disproportionalities and disparities in child welfare system. This systemic scoping review will provide a succinct synthesis of the current literature on Black disproportionality and disparity in child welfare. Methods/Design: This systemic scoping review will employ Arksey and O’Malley’s (2005) five stage framework. This will direct our search of the seven academic databases (EBSCO: Criminal Justice Abstracts OVID: Social Work Abstracts Pro Quest: PsychINFO, ERIC, Sociological Abstracts, International Bibliography of Social Sciences and Web of Science Core Collections). These seven databases have been chosen due to their interdisciplinary resources on the issue of overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare sector. The thematic findings will be systemically synthesized using qualitative analysis and presented visually through a chart. Eligible articles for this scoping review include literature that speaks directly to the experiences of Black families involved with the child welfare system. The results of this scoping review will increase the understanding of how racial disproportionalities and disparities emerge, common outcomes and ways to begin tackling this phenomenon for Black families. Discussion: In order to tackle this gap in knowledge regarding the overrepresentation of Black families in the child welfare system, this comprehensive scoping review will systematically organize the literature in order to understand how this issue manifests and to fill this gap in research. This methodological approach will allow for the development of practical and intentional methods to move forward in mitigating this issue

Patient-focused Websites Related to Stress Urinary Incontinence and Pelvic Organ Prolapse: a DISCERN Quality Analysis

Objective: To evaluate the quality of information presented on English-language websites regarding treatment options for POP and SUI using a validated instrument. Methods: Utilizing the International Urogynecology Association list of continence societies worldwide, faculty nomination and a complementary Google search using the terms “professional organizations stress urinary incontinence / pelvic organ prolapse” English-language, patient-focused websites related to POP and SUI were identified. The websites were evaluated by faculty at an academic medical center, including 4 faculty members of the urogynecology division, 2 urogynecology fellows, 3 urologists, and 1 obstetrician gynecologist. The websites were independently evaluated using the validated DISCERN instrument assessing the reliability and quality of consumer health information.Results: From the IUGA continence societies worldwide list, 47 websites were identified. Five provided patient information in English. Eight additional websites were identified from the Google search or provider nomination. One website provided information only for POP (rectocele), 5 for SUI, and 7 for both. The lowest mean total score for any website was 38.7 and the highest mean total score was 61.5 across all the websites. There were no statistically significant differences in the website mean total scores (p value \u3c0.40 for POP and 0.14 for SUI). For websites covering both topics, POP scores were generally higher than SUI scores, but not statistically significantly different (p value\u3c3.75). The overall quality item scores were also not significantly different (SUI: p\u3c0.923; POP: p \u3c0.813). Missing information most commonly included lack of clear objectives, sources, and information related to the expected outcome of no intervention.Conclusions: Available English-language professional websites written to inform patients about management choices for SUI and POP miss key components of quality patient information

Predictors of Biologic Use and Satisfaction Among Patients With Psoriasis: An Analysis and Geographic Visualization of the 2016 and 2017 National Psoriasis Foundation Annual Surveys

Background: There are an increasing number of biologic therapies approved for the treatment of psoriasis. Previous reports have identified undertreatment as a concern in the United States. Undertreatment has been associated with decreased patient satisfaction and increased morbidity. Objectives: Assess biologic use and satisfaction among respondents to the 2016 and 2017 National Psoriasis Foundation (NPF) Annual Surveys. Methods: Retrospective data analysis of the 2016 and 2017 NPF Annual Survey responses from individuals with psoriasis. ArcGIS Pro software was utilized to generate maps and perform an optimized hot spot analysis of moderate-to-severe psoriasis and biologic use. Results: There were 427 patients with psoriasis involving the skin alone. Biologics were used in3%. Respondents with BSA Conclusion: Despite the increasing number of Food and Drug Administration–approved biologic medications, the proportion of respondents on biologic therapy remained small. Treatment with biologics correlated with less residual disease and increased satisfaction. Geographic variation in state legislation as well as state and federal health insurance did not impact biologic use. However, using GIS, we identify a greater burden of moderate-to severe disease among respondents in the Southeastern United States and a lack of commensurate use of biologics in those areas