A Community Approach to Sexual Violence: Villanova’s SARC Team

Come learn how Villanova established and developed a team of community members who serve as the Sexual Assault Resource Coordinator (SARC) Team that help provide support to students who have experienced or been impacted by sexual violence. The discussion aims to: identify one community-based strategy for responding to disclosures of sexual violence; describe one implementation process for creating a sexual violence response team comprised of diverse faculty and staff of varying disciplines and positions; examine impact as it relates to reports of sexual violence, bystander intervention, and prevention efforts; and discuss lessons learned in the implementation and process of a sexual violence response team comprised of faculty and staff

Elevated serum homocysteine levels have differential gender-specific associations with motor and cognitive states in Parkinson’s disease

Background: Studies attempting to elucidate an association between homocysteine and symptom progression in Parkinson’s disease (PD) have had largely discrepant findings. This study aimed to investigate elevated serum homocysteine levels and symptom progression in a cohort of PD patients. Methods: Serum homocysteine, folate, and vitamin B12 levels were measured in 205 people with PD and 78 age-matched healthy controls. People with Parkinson’s disease underwent a battery of clinical assessments to evaluate symptom severity, including motor (MDS-UPDRS) and cognitive (ACE-R) assessments. Multivariate generalized linear models were created, controlling for confounding variables, and were used to determine whether serum markers are associated with various symptom outcome measures. Results; People with Parkinson’s disease displayed significantly elevated homocysteine levels (p\u3c0.001), but not folate or vitamin B12 levels, when compared to healthy controls. A significant positive correlation between homocysteine and MDS-UPDRS III score was identified in males with Parkinson’s disease (rs=0.319, p\u3c0.001), but not in females, whereas a significant negative correlation between homocysteine levels and total ACE-R score was observed in females with Parkinson’s disease (rs=−0.449, p\u3c0.001), but not in males. Multivariate general linear models confirmed that homocysteine was significantly predictive of MDS-UPDRSIII score in male patients (p = 0.004) and predictive of total ACE-R score in female patients (p = 0.021). Conclusion: Elevated serum homocysteine levels are associated with a greater motor impairment in males with Parkinson’s disease and poorer cognitive performance in females with Parkinson’s disease. Our gender specific findings may help to explain previous discrepancies in the literature surrounding the utility of homocysteine as a biomarker in PD

Elevated HDL Levels Linked to Poorer Cognitive Ability in Females With Parkinson’s Disease

IntroductionCholesterol levels have been associated with age-related cognitive decline, however, such an association has not been comprehensively explored in people with Parkinson’s disease (PD). To address this uncertainty, the current cross-sectional study examined the cholesterol profile and cognitive performance in a cohort of PD patients.MethodsCognitive function was evaluated using two validated assessments (ACE-R and SCOPA-COG) in 182 people with PD from the Australian Parkinson’s Disease Registry. Total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein (HDL), low-density lipoprotein (LDL), and Triglyceride (TRG) levels were examined within this cohort. The influence of individual lipid subfractions on domain-specific cognitive performance was investigated using covariate-adjusted generalised linear models.ResultsFemales with PD exhibited significantly higher lipid subfraction levels (TC, HDL, and LDL) when compared to male counterparts. While accounting for covariates, HDL levels were strongly associated with poorer performance across multiple cognitive domains in females but not males. Conversely, TC and LDL levels were not associated with cognitive status in people with PD.ConclusionHigher serum HDL associates with poorer cognitive function in females with PD and presents a sex-specific biomarker for cognitive impairment in PD

Erasmus Language students in a British University – a case study

Students’ assessment of their academic experience is actively sought by Higher Education institutions, as evidenced in the National Student Survey introduced in 2005. Erasmus students, despite their growing numbers, tend to be excluded from these satisfaction surveys, even though they, too, are primary customers of a University. This study aims to present results from bespoke questionnaires and semi-structured interviews with a sample of Erasmus students studying languages in a British University. These methods allow us insight into the experience of these students and their assessment as a primary customer, with a focus on language learning and teaching, university facilities and student support. It investigates to what extent these factors influence their levels of satisfaction and what costs of adaptation if any, they encounter. Although excellent levels of satisfaction were found, some costs affect their experience. They relate to difficulties in adapting to a learning methodology based on a low number of hours and independent learning and to a guidance and support system seen as too stifling. The results portray this cohort’s British University as a well-equipped and well-meaning but ultimately overbearing institution, which may indicate that minimising costs can eliminate some sources of dissatisfaction

Inflation and Dark Energy from spectroscopy at z > 2

The expansion of the Universe is understood to have accelerated during two epochs: in its very first moments during a period of Inflation and much more recently, at z < 1, when Dark Energy is hypothesized to drive cosmic acceleration. The undiscovered mechanisms behind these two epochs represent some of the most important open problems in fundamental physics. The large cosmological volume at 2 < z < 5, together with the ability to efficiently target high-$z$ galaxies with known techniques, enables large gains in the study of Inflation and Dark Energy. A future spectroscopic survey can test the Gaussianity of the initial conditions up to a factor of ~50 better than our current bounds, crossing the crucial theoretical threshold of $\sigma(f_{NL}^{\rm local})$ of order unity that separates single field and multi-field models. Simultaneously, it can measure the fraction of Dark Energy at the percent level up to $z = 5$, thus serving as an unprecedented test of the standard model and opening up a tremendous discovery space

Cold War Fictions

This chapter offers a detailed reading of McEwan’s 2012 novel Sweet Tooth as a highly self-conscious and allusive literary spy thriller of the Cold War era, one which invites a renewed attention to the Cold War themes, ideas and literary strategies which have been important in his work since the late 1970s in which the novel is set. These flourished especially in the two novels written around the fall of the Berlin Wall, The Innocent and Black Dogs which also receive extended treatment here. In McEwan’s reworking of the Cold War spy thriller as postmodern literary fiction we find, it is argued, a recurrent fascination with misunderstandings and readjustments in emotional and political relations between the sexes as an analogy for Cold War politics and vice versa. Added to this McEwan increasingly packs his fictions with informed literary debate that constitute a profound exploration of literary genres and of the complex relationship between author and reader

Review of research to inform California's climate scoping plan: Agriculture and working lands

Agriculture in California contributes 8% of the state's greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. To inform the state's policy and program strategy to meet climate targets, we review recent research on practices that can reduce emissions, sequester carbon and provide other co-benefits to producers and the environment across agriculture and rangeland systems. Importantly, the research reviewed here was conducted in California and addresses practices in our specific agricultural, socioeconomic and biophysical environment. Farmland conversion and the dairy and intensive livestock sector are the largest contributors to GHG emissions and offer the greatest opportunities for avoided emissions. We also identify a range of other opportunities including soil and nutrient management, integrated and diversified farming systems, rangeland management, and biomass-based energy generation. Additional research to replicate and quantify the emissions reduction or carbon sequestration potential of these practices will strengthen the evidence base for California climate policy

Common polygenic variation in coeliac disease and confirmation of ZNF335 and NIFA as disease susceptibility loci

Coeliac disease (CD) is a chronic immune-mediated disease triggered by the ingestion of gluten. It has an estimated prevalence of approximately 1% in European populations. Specific HLA-DQA1 and HLA-DQB1 alleles are established coeliac susceptibility genes and are required for the presentation of gliadin to the immune system resulting in damage to the intestinal mucosa. In the largest association analysis of CD to date, 39 non-HLA risk loci were identified, 13 of which were new, in a sample of 12 014 individuals with CD and 12 228 controls using the Immunochip genotyping platform. Including the HLA, this brings the total number of known CD loci to 40. We have replicated this study in an independent Irish CD case–control population of 425 CD and 453 controls using the Immunochip platform. Using a binomial sign test, we show that the direction of the effects of previously described risk alleles were highly correlated with those reported in the Irish population, (P=2.2 × 10−16). Using the Polygene Risk Score (PRS) approach, we estimated that up to 35% of the genetic variance could be explained by loci present on the Immunochip (P=9 × 10−75). When this is limited to non-HLA loci, we explain a maximum of 4.5% of the genetic variance (P=3.6 × 10−18). Finally, we performed a meta-analysis of our data with the previous reports, identifying two further loci harbouring the ZNF335 and NIFA genes which now exceed genome-wide significance, taking the total number of CD susceptibility loci to 42