Rural Cochlear Implant Services: Reflections From Parents and (Re)Habilitation Professionals

Austin, Natalie J. Rural cochlear implant services: Reflections from parents and (re)habilitation professionals. Published Doctor of Philosophy dissertation, University of Northern Colorado, 2020. The idea of what “rural” means and the influence of this setting is very complex. The impact on the resources and services available to the family, school district, and community goes beyond geographic barriers. Despite there being known problems with service provision for children with hearing loss in rural areas, little is being done to improve the support offered to families and professionals working to meet the needs of children who have cochlear implants. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to take a deeper and more intimate look at service provision for children with cochlear implants in rural areas from the perspective of parents and the professionals who serve them. Seven parents and seven professionals were interviewed about their experiences. Open-ended interview questions were asked with the goal of identifying themes around the overall impact, challenges, and systems of support related to living and working outside of a city center with children who have cochlear implants. Findings related to the overall experiences of living and working in a rural setting were discussed in terms of the simplicity of rural life, benefits of small class sizes, the added commitment for parents, the importance of family involvement, and the need to be creative to meet students’ unique needs. When looking at the challenges with rural services, issues surrounding logistics, parent motivation, local resources, school support, and local teams were highlighted as causes of difficulty. There were many sources of support discussed including positive opportunities for family advocacy, school services, local professionals, outside support services, and the enhancement of peer connections. Due to the paucity of research on service improvement for children with cochlear implants in rural settings, this study will contribute to the body of inquiry on this topic and in turn highlight meaningful implications for the field. Participants in this study were from rural counties within one midwestern state. Future studies would benefit from looking at participants from a range of rural locations throughout the country. Keywords: cochlear implants, rural, deaf, hard-of-hearing, habilitation, rehabilitation, multidisciplinary tea

Theoretical Investigation of CO2 Activation and Chemical Conversion on Catalytic Nanoparticles

Growing fossil fuel consumption to meet energy demands has led to elevated levels of CO2 (a greenhouse gas) in the atmosphere, which could have a significant impact on the environment. Novel methods for CO2 utilization by catalytic conversion to useful chemicals and fuels are of marked interest for the mitigation of the greenhouse gas footprint. We used electronic structure calculations to assess the conversion of CO2 by metal nanocatalysts. Our work was focused on Cu based, M-doped (M= Ni and Zr) heterogenous nanoparticles and their adsorption and activation of CO2. The strong adsorption and activation of CO2 we observed was attributed to nanoparticle charge transfer to CO2. Due to the oxophilic nature of Zr, the interaction of CO2 with oxidized Cu-Zr was also assessed. We determined that oxidized Zr sites on Cu-Zr can still adsorb and activate CO2 which indicated that Cu-Zr nanoparticles are promising materials for CO2 conversion to industrially relevant products. As an alternative to traditional heterogeneous catalysts, we used computational methods to investigate ligand-protected Au nanoclusters as electrocatalysts for the conversion of CO2 to CO. We found that CO2 electroreduction over fully ligand-protected nanoclusters was not feasible because of unfavorable energies required to stabilize CO2 reduction intermediates. However, we determined that it is thermodynamically feasible to remove ligands from the nanoclusters at experimentally applied potentials. The generated surface sites on the partially ligand-removed nanoclusters were shown to be active for CO2 reduction as they significantly stabilized reduction intermediates. The generated sites were also active for H2 evolution, which agrees with experimental observations that these two processes compete. Interestingly, we found that a specific mode of ligand removal results in a catalyst that was both active and selective for CO2 reduction. In this work, we used computational tools to provide insights into the effects of nanoparticle morphology and composition on the electronic properties of the nanoparticle. Using these insights, we developed active and selective catalysts for CO2 conversion. Our investigations into nanoparticle properties and metal-adsorbate interactions, rationalized experimental observations and could serve as design guidelines for developing catalysts for valuable fuels and chemicals production from CO2

Health Risks and Emerging Trends with the Use of Electronic Cigarettes

Cigarette smoking is associated with many health risks and complications. Despite smokers\u27 strong desire to quit, most battle with nicotine withdrawal and relapse. Because electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) do not contain tobacco, some believe them to be safer than traditional cigarettes and have used them as a replacement or adjunct nicotine source to prevent withdrawal symptoms. Electronic cigarettes are designed to mimic traditional cigarettes and expel a vapor composed of nicotine, water, glycerol, propylene glycol and other flavorings. Many e-cigarette companies use appealing platforms, which promise smoking cessation and harm reduction, to attract consumers; however, several studies have found e-cigarettes actually contain ingredients that are harmful to one\u27s health. Studies have demonstrated that the use of e-cigarettes can be toxic to patients\u27 health if patients do not research the products they intend to purchase. The flavoring of e-cigarettes may be a major contributor to e-cigarette cytotoxicity. If flavoring and other cytotoxic contents of e-cigarettes can be eliminated, e-cigarettes may be useful in smoking reduction and cessation. Many clinicians today support traditional forms of nicotine replacement therapy for smoking cessation rather than e-cigarettes. Due to the lack of regulation and studies by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, e-cigarettes may not be as safe as users may perceive and should not be a preferred product for smoking cessation therapy until they are further studied and regulated

Cut It Out: Conversations with Professional Editors

We know what writers do, but what do professional editors do? Come to this session and learn how editors give shape and clarity to writing, and how they navigate the egos of their clients. The students in this session performed informational interviews with different types of editors, including people whose job is to review manuscripts and people whose job is not to review creative writing but to review important documents that will result in people dying or getting fired if they go wrong. Come to this session and learn about the power of words

Inclusion of 'minor' trauma cases provides a better estimate of the total burden of injury: Queensland Trauma Registry provides a unique perspective

Introduction Injury is recognised as a frequent cause of preventable mortality and morbidity; however, incidence estimates focusing only on the extent of mortality and major trauma may seriously underestimate the magnitude of the total injury burden. There currently exists a paucity of information regarding minor trauma, and the aim of this study was to increase awareness of the contribution of minor trauma cases to the total burden of injury. Methods The demographics, injury details, acute care factors and outcomes of both minor trauma cases and major trauma cases were evaluated using data from the state-wide trauma registry in Queensland, Australia, from 2005 to 2010. The impact of changes in Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) versions on the classification of minor and major injury cases was also assessed. Results Over the 6-year period, minor cases [Injury Severity Score (ISS) ≤ 12] accounted for almost 90% of all trauma included on the Queensland Trauma Registry (QTR). These cases utilised more than half a million acute care bed days, underwent more than 66,500 operations, and accounted for more than 48,000 patient transport episodes via road ambulance, fixed wing aircraft, or helicopter. Furthermore, more than 5800 minor trauma cases utilised in-hospital rehabilitation services; almost 3000 were admitted to an ICU; and more than 20,000 were admitted to hospital for greater than one week. When using the contemporary criteria for classifying trauma (AIS 08), the proportion of cases classified as minor trauma (87.7%) and major trauma (12.3%) were similar to the proportion using the traditional criteria for AIS90 (87.9% and 12.1%, respectively). Conclusions This evaluation of minor trauma cases admitted to public hospitals in Queensland detected high levels of demand placed on trauma system resources in terms of acute care bed days, operations, ICU admissions, in-hospital rehabilitation services and patient transportation, and which are all associated with high cost. These data convincingly demonstrate the significant burden of injury imposed by minor trauma cases serious enough to be admitted to hospital

Analogies between the crossing number and the tangle crossing number

Tanglegrams are special graphs that consist of a pair of rooted binary trees with the same number of leaves, and a perfect matching between the two leaf-sets. These objects are of use in phylogenetics and are represented with straightline drawings where the leaves of the two plane binary trees are on two parallel lines and only the matching edges can cross. The tangle crossing number of a tanglegram is the minimum crossing number over all such drawings and is related to biologically relevant quantities, such as the number of times a parasite switched hosts. Our main results for tanglegrams which parallel known theorems for crossing numbers are as follows. The removal of a single matching edge in a tanglegram with $n$ leaves decreases the tangle crossing number by at most $n-3$, and this is sharp. Additionally, if $\gamma(n)$ is the maximum tangle crossing number of a tanglegram with $n$ leaves, we prove $\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2}(1-o(1))\le\gamma(n)<\frac{1}{2}\binom{n}{2}$. Further, we provide an algorithm for computing non-trivial lower bounds on the tangle crossing number in $O(n^4)$ time. This lower bound may be tight, even for tanglegrams with tangle crossing number $\Theta(n^2)$.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figure

Impacts of ocean acidification on intertidal benthic foraminiferal growth and calcification

Foraminifera are expected to be particularly susceptible to future changes in ocean carbonate chemistry as a function of increased atmospheric CO2. Studies in an experimental recirculating seawater system were performed with a dominant benthic foraminiferal species collected from intertidal mudflats. We investigated the experimental impacts of ocean acidification on survival, growth/calcification, morphology and the biometric features of a calcareous species Elphidium williamsoni. Foraminifera were exposed for 6 weeks to four different pH treatments that replicated future scenarios of a high CO2 atmosphere resulting in lower seawater pH. Results revealed that declining seawater pH caused a decline in foraminiferal survival rate and growth/calcification (mainly through test weight reduction). Scanning electron microscopy image analysis of live specimens at the end of the experimental period show changes in foraminiferal morphology with clear signs of corrosion and cracking on the test surface, septal bridges, sutures and feeding structures of specimens exposed to the lowest pH conditions. These findings suggest that the morphological changes observed in shell feeding structures may serve to alter: (1) foraminiferal feeding efficiency and their long-term ecological competitiveness, (2) the energy transferred within the benthic food web with a subsequent shift in benthic community structures and (3) carbon cycling and total CaCO3 production, both highly significant processes in coastal waters. These experimental results open-up the possibility of modelling future impacts of ocean acidification on both calcification and dissolution in benthic foraminifera within mid-latitude intertidal environments, with potential implications for understanding the changing marine carbon cycle

Interacting Influences of Pregnancy and Corneal Injury on Rabbit Lacrimal Gland Immunoarchitecture and Function

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Estrogen metabolites in a small cohort of patients with idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension.

Increased risk and severity of idiopathic pulmonary arterial hypertension (iPAH) is associated with elevated estradiol in men and postmenopausal women. Pulmonary arteries synthesise estradiol via aromatase and metabolise it via CYP1B1 to mitogenic metabolites; SNPs in aromatase and CYP1B1 have been associated with PAH. This suggests that estradiol metabolism could be altered in iPAH. This proof-of-concept study profiles estradiol and several metabolites of estradiol simultaneously in serum from iPAH patients and controls. We show that the estradiol and metabolite profile is altered in iPAH and that 16-hydroxyestrone and 16-hydroxyestradiol accumulate in iPAH patients with 16-hydroxyestrone levels relating to disease severity