Sentimentality Has its Place in Human Rights Activism: Nadia Murad Basee Taha’s Testimony and The Yazidi Story

This project tells the story of Nadia Murad and the Yazidi genocide of 2014 through analysis of her own testimony and considers the success and the intricacies of her approach to aiding the Yazidis who suffer to this day. It discusses the power of using sentimentality and emotion in human rights activism

Is Busk and Serlin’s measure of therapy effect size d a suitable measure for use in therapy studies? Evidence from simulations

Beeson & Robey (2006) advocate Busk & Serlin’s d as a good measure of effect size, suitable for meta-analysis of single case experimental designs of therapy. Unfortunately there are no available data supporting the use of this measure. We propose a set of criteria for a suitable measure of effect size and investigate whether d meets them in 1360 simulations each involving 10000 measures of d. We show that d always overestimates the true effect size and this is primarily related to the number of items in the baseline series and the degree of lag 1 autocorrelation in the series. We show that Busk & Serlin’s d does not meet any of our suggested criteria. It is difficult to see how its use can be justified

Palliative care for people with dementia living at home: a systematic review of interventions

Background: The European Association for Palliative Care White Paper defined optimal palliative care in dementia based on evidence and expert consensus. Yet, we know little on how to achieve this for people with dementia living and dying at home. Aims: To examine evidence on home palliative care interventions in dementia, in terms of their effectiveness on end-of-life care outcomes, factors influencing implementation, the extent to which they address the European Association for Palliative Care palliative care domains and evidence gaps. Design: A systematic review of home palliative care interventions in dementia. Data sources: The review adhered to the PRISMA guidelines and the protocol was registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018093607). We searched four electronic databases up to April 2018 (PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane library and CINAHL) and conducted lateral searches. Results: We retrieved eight relevant studies, none of which was of high quality. The evidence, albeit of generally weak quality, showed the potential benefits of the interventions in improving end-of-life care outcomes, for example, behavioural disturbances. The interventions most commonly focused on optimal symptom management, continuity of care and psychosocial support. Other European Association for Palliative Care domains identified as important in palliative care for people with dementia, for example, prognostication of dying or avoidance of burdensome interventions were under-reported. No direct evidence on facilitators and barriers to implementation was found. Conclusions: The review highlights the paucity of high-quality dementia-specific research in this area and recommends key areas for future work, for example, the need for process evaluation to identify facilitators and barriers to implementing interventions.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Examining the potency of verb retrieval treatments in aphasia: The components matter- A pilot study

This study examined the potency of various components of common treatments for verb retrieval deficits in Broca’s aphasia. We examined the effects of semantic, word repetition, gesture, and combined semantic plus gesture treatments in five single-subject multiple-baseline across conditions designs. Participants with word form deficits showed significantly improved verb production on trained items while control items showed minimal change, and generalization to picture description was demonstrated with modest generalization to discourse tasks. However, the participant with semantic verb impairment showed a minimal response to treatment. Participants demonstrated a unique degree of response to the different treatment components

The Comparative Effects of Multi-modality and Constraint-induced Aphasia Therapy-Plus Treatments for Severe Chronic Aphasia

Anomia is a characteristic symptom of aphasia. Impairments in functional communication associated with aphasia have been found to negatively impact upon an individual‟s quality of life (QoL) in a number of areas, including independence and the ability to participate in social and leisure activities (Cruice, Worrall, & Hickson, 2006). Our review of the literature suggests that measurement of treatment effects has been influenced by treatment type and intensity, the measurement phases applied, the outcome measures used, aphasia severity and type, and the presence of concomitant impairments. It is clear that both constraint-induced and alternative/multi-modality treatments can be effective for reducing anomia. However, the question of which treatments, particularly constraint-induced and alternative/multi-modality treatments, are most efficacious for certain types, severities, and chronicities of aphasia remains unanswered. Only three known studies (Barthel, Meinzer, Djundja, & Rockstroh, 2008; Kurland, Baldwin, & Tauer, 2010; Maher et al., 2006) have involved direct comparisons between constraint-induced and multi-modality interventions. This is a particularly interesting comparison, given the great distinction between the two forms of therapy, and the interpretation that the research underpinning the principle of constraint in aphasia rehabilitation is inconclusive. Further, a number of methodological flaws in the reviewed studies weaken the research findings. Thus, we identified a need for continued study in this area

Disease Risks to Whooping Cranes (Grus americana) Determined by Non-invasive Sampling and Use of the Sandhill Crane (Grus canadensis) as a Surrogate

The only self-sustaining wild population of endangered whooping cranes (Grus americana) has grown to approximately 308 individuals. However, the population growth is not consistent with species recovery goals, and the impact of parasite infection on whooping crane populations is largely unknown. Our goal was to quantify the prevalence of fecal parasites and hemoparasites in whooping cranes and to compare the prevalence of infection between whooping and sandhill cranes (Grus canadensis). We assessed the prevalence and phenology of Eimeria oocysts in whooping crane fecal samples collected across two winter seasons (November 2012 – April 2014) at the Aransas National Wildlife Refuge along the Texas Gulf coast. Across both years, 26.5% (n=328) of fecal samples were positive for Eimeria based on microscopy. We noted nematode eggs in 30% (n=327) and 2.7% (n=75) of whooping and sandhill crane fecal samples, respectively. However, sequences from these samples aligned with soil-dwelling nematodes, indicating environmental contamination. We noted trematode eggs in 11.1% (n=63) and 50% (n=20) of whooping and sandhill crane samples, respectively. We identified three species of trematode, one cestode, one acanthocephalan, and one nematode in sandhill cranes on necropsy. Orchipedum jolliei was the most common trematode and was noted in 42% (n=108) of sandhill cranes. The prevalence of O. jolliei was significantly higher in sandhill cranes wintering along the Texas Gulf Coast than in the Texas panhandle or New Mexico. We used three different PCR assays to screen samples for Haemosporida and detected an infection prevalence of 59.5% (n=163) across all birds. Infection prevalence was high in whooping cranes and sympatric sandhill cranes, but significantly lower in allopatric sandhill cranes. Haemoproteus antigonis was present in 46% of samples from both crane species and was phylogenetically distinct from other avian Haemosporida. We demonstrate that non-invasive fecal collections combined with PCR and DNA sequencing techniques provides a useful tool for monitoring coccidia and helminth infection in cranes. We also document a high prevalence of H. antigonis in whooping cranes and sympatric sandhill cranes, supporting the use of sandhill cranes as a surrogate species for understanding health threats to the endangered whooping crane