A Musician\u27s Lament: A Creative Piece Resulting from the Interaction Between Grief and Music

This thesis resulted in the creation of a musical work that reflects on my period of bereavement after the loss of my best friend. My research centered around the interaction between the human brain and grief, music and the interaction between the two as they happen simultaneously. In addition, I studied the works of the great composers to serve as a model as I set out to write my own work. Written here is a rationale on the creative piece as well as my research presented prior to the writing of the piece

Experimental investigation of microencapsulated phase change material water slurry performance in an oscillating heat pipe

An experimental investigation was performed to determine the heat transfer performance of an oscillating heat pipe (OHP) with a micro-encapsulated phase change material (MPCM) slurry working fluid. In this investigation, MPCMs with diameters ranging from 3.8 [mu]m to 29.4 [mu]m was added in the working fluid to determine MPCMs' effect on the heat transport capability. It is expected that when the MPCMs are in the evaporator, the MPCMs change phase from solid to liquid to absorb more thermal energy. When the MPCMs move to the condenser section, MPCMs change phase from liquid to solid, the MPCMs can release more thermal energy. In this way, it can help increase the heat transport capability in an OHP. The effects of the encapsulation ratio, encapsulation efficiency, geometric dimensions, density, and latent heat of investigated MPCMs on the thermal performance in OHPs were experimentally conducted. Experimental results show that the MPCMs added in the working fluid can enhance the heat transport capability in an OHP and it is found that the best performance of the OHP occurred at a MPCM weight concentration of 3 percent in the slurry, which can achieve an improvement of 15.5 percent.Includes bibliographical references

Are all competencies equal in the eyes of residents? A multicenter study of emergency medicine residents’ interest in feedback

Introduction: Feedback, particularly real-time feedback, is critical to resident education.  The emergency medicine (EM) milestones were developed in 2012 to enhance resident assessment and many programs utilize them to provide focused resident feedback. The purpose of this study was to evaluate EM residents’ level of interest in receiving real-time feedback on each of the 23 milestone sub-competencies.Methods: This was a multicenter cross sectional study of EM residents. Participants were surveyed on their level of interest in receiving real-time on-shift feedback on each of the 23 milestone sub-competencies. Anonymous paper or computerized surveys were distributed to residents at three 4-year training programs and three 3-year training programs with a total of 223 resident respondents. Residents rated their level of interest in each milestone on a 6-point semantic differential response scale. Average level of interest was calculated for each of the 23 sub-competencies, both as an average of all 223 respondents as well as by individual postgraduate year (PGY) level of training. One-way ANOVA analysis was performed to determine statistical significance.Results: The overall survey response rate across all institutions was 82%. Emergency stabilization had the highest mean rating (5.47/6) while technology had the lowest rating (3.24/6). However, none of the 23 milestone sub-competencies were statistically significant based on ANOVA analysis.Conclusion: It is unclear whether residents ascribe much more value to certain sub-competency domains than others.  Further studies are necessary to determine whether residents’ sub-competency valuations need to be considered when developing an assessment or feedback program focusing on the 23 EM milestones

The Summit on Creativity and Aging in America

This report looks at how the federal government can leverage the arts to foster healthy aging and inclusive design for this growing population. This white paper features recommendations from the May 2015 Summit on Creativity and Aging in America, a convening of more than 70 experts hosted by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Center for Creative Aging. The paper highlights recommendations on healthy aging, lifelong learning in the arts, and age-friendly community design. The summit was a precursor to the 2015 White House Conference on Aging, which addressed four major issues: retirement security, long-term services and supports, healthy aging, and elder abuse

Naturally occurring autoantibodies against beta-amyloid: investigating their role in transgenic animal and in vitro models of Alzheimer's disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disorder primarily affecting regions of the brain responsible for higher cognitive functions. Immunization against β-amyloid (Aβ) in animal models of AD has been shown to be effective on the molecular level but also on the behavioral level. Recently, we reported naturally occurring autoantibodies against Aβ (NAbs-Aβ) being reduced in Alzheimer's disease patients. Here, we further investigated their physiological role: in epitope mapping studies, NAbs-Aβ recognized the mid-/C-terminal end of Aβ and preferentially bound to oligomers but failed to bind to monomers/fibrils. NAbs-Aβ were able to interfere with Aβ peptide toxicity, but NAbs-Aβ did not readily clear senile plaques although early fleecy-like plaques were reduced. Administration of NAbs-Aβ in transgenic mice improved the object location memory significantly, almost reaching performance levels of wild-type control mice. These findings suggest a novel physiological mechanism involving NAbs-Aβ to dispose of proteins or peptides that are prone to forming toxic aggregates

Evidence for a role of adaptive immune response in the disease pathogenesis of the MPTP mouse model of Parkinson’s disease

Funded by The Parkinson's Disease Foundation The Wellcome Trust (WT080782MF) Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council and the Royal Society Acknowledgment The authors are grateful to the staff of the Medical Research Facility for their help with the animal care. The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Exploring a Common Data Element for International Research in Long-Term Care Homes: A Measure for Evaluating Nursing Supervisor Effectiveness

The aim of this study is to recommend a common data element (CDE) to measure supervisory effectiveness of staff working in LTC homes that can be used in international research. Supervisory effectiveness can serve as a CDE in an effort to establish an international, person-centered LTC research infrastructure in accordance with the aims of the WE-THRIVE group (Worldwide Elements to Harmonize Research in Long Term Care Living Environments). A literature review was completed and then a panel of experts independently reviewed and prioritized appropriateness of the measures with mindfulness of their potential applications to international LTC settings. The selection of a recommended CDE measure was guided by the WE-THRIVE group’s focus on capacity rather than deficits, the expected availability of internationally comparable data and the goal to provide a short, ecologically viable measurement, specifically for low- and middle-income countries. Two measures were considered as the CDE for supervisory effectiveness, Benjamin Rose Relationship Scale and the Supervisory Support Scale; however, given that the latter measure has been translated in Spanish and Chinese and has been tested with nursing assistants in both of these countries with good psychometric properties, our group recommends it as the CDE going forward

Changes in quality of life, cognition and functional status following catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation

Objective To investigate changes in quality of life (QoL), cognition and functional status according to arrhythmia recurrence after atrial fibrillation (AF) ablation. Methods We compared QoL, cognition and functional status in patients with recurrent atrial tachycardia (AT)/AF versus those without recurrent AT/AF in the AXAFA-AFNET 5 clinical trial. We also sought to identify factors associated with improvement in QoL and functional status following AF ablation by overall change scores with and without analysis of covariance (ANCOVA). Results Among 518 patients who underwent AF ablation, 154 (29.7%) experienced recurrent AT/AF at 3 months. Patients with recurrent AT/AF had higher mean CHA(2)DS(2)-VASc scores (2.8 vs 2.3, p Conclusions Patients without recurrent AT/AF appear to experience greater improvement in functional status but similar QoL as those with recurrent AT/AF after AF ablation

Blurred lines: work, eldercare and HRM

peer-reviewedThe full text of this article will not be available in ULIR until the embargo expires on the 27/06/2020Increased levels of female labour market participation have impacted on the ability of families to provide care for elderly relatives in many industrialised societies. While work–family balance has received significant academic attention, less attention has focused specifically on individuals with eldercare responsibility, a cohort which accounts for a growing segment of the labour market internationally. Taking a qualitative research approach this paper uses work/family border theory to the constraints and facilitators to reconciling care and employment for employees working full-time in Ireland. The findings highlight the significant impact that eldercare provision has on employees with regard to day-to-day work commitments. We find that while general work–life balance policies exist within organisations, that the design and functionality of such policies are of limited value to elder caregivers. Furthermore, this paper highlights how the lack of formal HR policies around eldercare within organisations results in a reliance on supervisory discretion. We make some recommendations for organisational level strategies to address the needs of a growing number of caregivers.peer-reviewe