Apolitical? A defence of the Bank of England

Reap what you sow: A defence of the Bank of England by Jamie Sanders In recent months the Bank of England has become somewhat of a political punching bag. Our PM, in the midst of post-referendum bewilderment, emphasized the distributional woes fuelled through unconventional monetary policy. The newly inaugurated leader of the Labour party, Jeremy Corbyn, proposed his notion for “People’s Quantitative Easing” in a subversive retaliation to recent loose monetary policy. Most recently the Bank has come under fire from prominent Brexit campaigners regarding the Bank’s “project fear” predictions – which are yet to materialise

The Use of Art in Therapy: An Exploratory Study

No abstract provided

The Use of Art in Therapy: An Exploratory Study

No abstract provided

Mountain pine beetles and Colorado forests : findings from a re-survey of Colorado community residents

North Central Colorado has experienced an extensive mountain pine beetle outbreak over the last 20 years. We conducted a survey of Colorado residents about their response to forest disturbance by mountain pine beetles in 2007. A survey questionnaire was sent to randomly selected households in Breckenridge, Dillon, Frisco, Granby, Kremmling, Silverthorne, Steamboat Springs, Vail, and Walden, Colorado. In 2018, we did a follow-up mail survey to see how local communities and residents have experienced and reacted to the mountain pine beetle outbreak and the accompanying changes in Colorado forests over time. These reports describe major findings of the 2018 re-survey for the whole study area and for individual study communities.This research was supported by the Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation (Award #1733990).This research was supported by the Decision, Risk and Management Sciences Program of the National Science Foundation (Award #1733990).Hua Qin, Elizabeth Prentice, Christine Sanders (University of Missouri-Columbia), Hannah Brenkert-Smith, Jamie Vickery (University of Colorado Boulder)Colorado re-survey report (20 pages : illustration) -- Breckenridge community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Dillon community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Frisco community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Granby community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Kremmling community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Silverthorne community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Steamboat Spring community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Vait community survey report (13 pages : illustration) -- Walden community survey report (13 pages : illustration

Climate change influences foliar nutrition and metabolism of red maple (Acer rubrum) trees in a northern hardwood forest

© The Author(s), 2022. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Blagden, M., Harrison, J. L., Minocha, R., Sanders-DeMott, R., Long, S., & Templer, P. H. Climate change influences foliar nutrition and metabolism of red maple (Acer rubrum) trees in a northern hardwood forest. Ecosphere, 13(2), (2022): e03859. https://doi.org/10.1002/ecs2.3859.Mean annual air temperatures are projected to increase, while the winter snowpack is expected to shrink in depth and duration for many mid- and high-latitude temperate forest ecosystems over the next several decades. Together, these changes will lead to warmer growing season soil temperatures and an increased frequency of soil freeze–thaw cycles (FTCs) in winter. We took advantage of the Climate Change Across Seasons Experiment (CCASE) at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest in the White Mountains of New Hampshire, USA, to determine how these changes in soil temperature affect foliar nitrogen (N) and carbon metabolism of red maple (Acer rubrum) trees in 2015 and 2017. Earlier work from this study revealed a similar increase in foliar N concentrations with growing season soil warming, with or without the occurrence of soil FTCs in winter. However, these changes in soil warming could differentially affect the availability of cellular nutrients, concentrations of primary and secondary metabolites, and the rates of photosynthesis that are all responsive to climate change. We found that foliar concentrations of phosphorus (P), potassium (K), N, spermine (a polyamine), amino acids (alanine, histidine, and phenylalanine), chlorophyll, carotenoids, sucrose, and rates of photosynthesis increased with growing season soil warming. Despite similar concentrations of foliar N with soil warming with and without soil FTCs in winter, winter soil FTCs affected other foliar metabolic responses. The combination of growing season soil warming and winter soil FTCs led to increased concentrations of two polyamines (putrescine and spermine) and amino acids (alanine, proline, aspartic acid, γ-aminobutyric acid, valine, leucine, and isoleucine). Treatment-specific metabolic changes indicated that while responses to growing season warming were more connected to their role as growth modulators, soil warming + FTC treatment-related effects revealed their dual role in growth and stress tolerance. Together, the results of this study demonstrate that growing season soil warming has multiple positive effects on foliar N and cellular metabolism in trees and that some of these foliar responses are further modified by the addition of stress from winter soil FTCs.This research was supported by an NSF Long Term Ecological Research (LTER) Grant to Hubbard Brook (NSF 1114804 and 1637685) and an NSF CAREER grant to PHT (NSF DEB1149929). RSD was supported by NSF DGE0947950, a Boston University (BU) Dean's Fellowship, and the BU Program in Biogeoscience. Jamie Harrison was supported by a BU Dean's Fellowship. Megan Blagden was supported by a BU Undergraduate Research Opportunity Program fellowship. This manuscript is a contribution to the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study. Hubbard Brook is part of the LTER network, which is supported by the NSF

A Question of Access: Exploring the Perceived Benefits and Barriers of Intelligent Voice Assistants for Improving Access to Consumer Health Resources Among Low-Income Older Adults

Intelligent voice assistants (IVAs) such as Amazon Echo and Google Home present a promising opportunity to improve access to consumer health information and resources for older adults. However, researchers know little about older adults' opinions of using IVAs for these potentially critical tasks, particularly those with already limited access. In this paper, we explore older adults' views about IVAs for consumer health and wellness information with the goal of better understanding what they envision as benefits and barriers of using such technology in the future. We shared an IVA prototype with ten older adults (60 years of age or older). We interviewed them about how a similar system might impact their access to consumer health information. Participants saw the potential for IVAs to improve their search experiences and support them with other health tasks. However, participants were also concerned about adopting an IVA for health due to access barriers, confidentiality risks, and concerns about receiving trusted information. Based on our findings, we discuss considerations for designing IVAs for underserved, older adult populations

Comparing Older and Younger Adults Perceptions of Voice and Text-based Search for Consumer Health Information Tasks

The increased prevalence of voice search presents opportunities to address consumer challenges accessing online health information. However, it is essential to understand how users’ perceptions of voice affect their search processes for health information, concerns, and different scenarios for using voice for health information tasks. We conducted semi-structured interviews with 16 younger (18-25) and older (60-64) adult participants to understand and compare their perceptions of using voice and text-based search for non-health-related and health related tasks. While most participants preferred traditional text search, younger adults were not inclined to use voice search for health information due to concerns about privacy, credibility, and perceived efficiency in filtering results. Older adults found voice search potentially beneficial for reducing manual query generation burdens; however, some were unsure of how to use the technology effectively. We provide a set of considerations to address concerns about voice search for health information tasks in the futur

A Circle of Friends: Persuasive Tools to Improve Heart Health

Cardiovascular disease (CVD) is the leading causes of death in the United States and worldwide. While CVD risk factors are well-known and many can be changed with diet and exercise, more research is needed to understand how to design effective interventions that help patients reduce CVD risk. In this paper, we present the results of a content analysis of the Health Freedom Circle of Friends (COF) Walking Program, a community-based health program run by a public health non-profit that has been shown to reduce CVD risks. We examine the design to better understand the persuasive tools used as well as parts of the design that might benefit from a technological intervention

Collecting Symptoms and Sensor Data With Consumer Smartwatches (the Knee OsteoArthritis, Linking Activity and Pain Study):Protocol for a Longitudinal, Observational Feasibility Study

BACKGROUND: The Knee OsteoArthritis, Linking Activity and Pain (KOALAP) study is the first to test the feasibility of using consumer-grade cellular smartwatches for health care research. OBJECTIVE: The overall aim was to investigate the feasibility of using consumer-grade cellular smartwatches as a novel tool to capture data on pain (multiple times a day) and physical activity (continuously) in patients with knee osteoarthritis. Additionally, KOALAP aimed to investigate smartwatch sensor data quality and assess whether engagement, acceptability, and user experience are sufficient for future large-scale observational and interventional studies. METHODS: A total of 26 participants with self-diagnosed knee osteoarthritis were recruited in September 2017. All participants were aged 50 years or over and either lived in or were willing to travel to the Greater Manchester area. Participants received a smartwatch (Huawei Watch 2) with a bespoke app that collected patient-reported outcomes via questionnaires and continuous watch sensor data. All data were collected daily for 90 days. Additional data were collected through interviews (at baseline and follow-up) and baseline and end-of-study questionnaires. This study underwent full review by the University of Manchester Research Ethics Committee (#0165) and University Information Governance (#IGRR000060). For qualitative data analysis, a system-level security policy was developed in collaboration with the University Information Governance Office. Additionally, the project underwent an internal review process at Google, including separate reviews of accessibility, product engineering, privacy, security, legal, and protection regulation compliance. RESULTS: Participants were recruited in September 2017. Data collection via the watches was completed in January 2018. Collection of qualitative data through patient interviews is still ongoing. Data analysis will commence when all data are collected; results are expected in 2019. CONCLUSIONS: KOALAP is the first health study to use consumer cellular smartwatches to collect self-reported symptoms alongside sensor data for musculoskeletal disorders. The results of this study will be used to inform the design of future mobile health studies. Results for feasibility and participant motivations will inform future researchers whether or under which conditions cellular smartwatches are a useful tool to collect patient-reported outcomes alongside passively measured patient behavior. The exploration of associations between self-reported symptoms at different moments will contribute to our understanding of whether it may be valuable to collect symptom data more frequently. Sensor data-quality measurements will indicate whether cellular smartwatch usage is feasible for obtaining sensor data. Methods for data-quality assessment and data-processing methods may be reusable, although generalizability to other clinical areas should be further investigated. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/10238

The effects of trauma on intimate relationships: A qualitative study with clinical couples

Research has traditionally focused on the development of symptoms in those who experienced trauma directly but has overlooked the impact of trauma on victims' families. In recent years, researchers and clinicians have begun to examine how individual exposure to traumatic events affects the spouses or partners, children, and professional helpers of trauma survivors. The current study examines qualitative interview data from 17 individuals, analyzed using a retroductive methodology to identify how intimate relationships are affected when there is a history of trauma exposure. The following primary themes were identified: increased communication, decreased communication, increased cohesion/connection, decreased cohesion/connection, increased understanding, decreased understanding, sexual intimacy problems, symptoms of relationship distress, support from partner, and relationship resources. Areas for future research and clinical implications are identified