Addressing Culture throughout the Occupational Therapy Process: Beyond the Basics

Purpose: Our product, a continuing education course for occupational therapy practitioners, was created with the purpose of giving attendees an opportunity to engage in hands-on learning exercises that will assist them with addressing culture throughout the occupational therapy process

“Is this my Great Aunt?”: An Analysis of Human Skeletal Remains to Construct a Biological Profile

Forensic anthropology is the sub-discipline that applies the principles and methods of physical anthropology to medico-legal cases. Forensic anthropologists have a multiplicity of skills that are used in various ways, but amongst those is the ability to construct a biological profile from a set, or sets of, unknown, skeletonized remains. Biological profiles of adult human skeletal remains consist of sex, age-at-death, ancestry, stature, trauma, and pathology. The information gained through these analyses are used in two ways: to provide immediate supporting evidence for identification, and to provide a means of narrowing potential lists of individuals. There are various methods to complete this process, but the most common include analyzing the morphoscopic traits of the skeleton, particularly the cranium and pelvis, and using various measurements of the long bones (humerus, femur, etc.). This research will focus on the process of creating a biological profile for an unknown historic skeleton brought to the University of Montana Forensic Anthropology Laboratory (UMFAL). This individual represents one of three historic skeletons found in unmarked graves in Beaverhead County, MT. The goal of this research was to aid in the identification of these remains using multiple methods to create a complete biological profile for the individual. Our analysis found that the remains are most consistent with a female individual aged 35-45 years at death, with a height between 4 ft 9 ins and 5 ft 5 ins, most likely of European ancestry with some Asian admixture, and no perimortem trauma. This individual likely died in the early to mid 1900’s based on artifacts associated with the remains. Biological profiles are the backbone of Forensic Anthropology and this research is unique in that it combines the profile based on the skeletal analysis with historic artifact analysis all with the goal of identification

Investigating the effect of soluble hydrogen on plasticity in low-symmetry alpha- uranium

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Experimenting with ecosystem interaction networks in search of threshold potentials in real-world marine ecosystems

Thresholds profoundly affect our understanding and management of ecosystem dynamics, but we have yet to develop practical techniques to assess the risk that thresholds will be crossed. Combining ecological knowledge of critical system interdependencies with a large-scale experiment, we tested for breaks in the ecosystem interaction network to identify threshold potential in real-world ecosystem dynamics. Our experiment with the bivalves Macomona liliana and Austrovenus stutchburyi on marine sandflats in New Zealand demonstrated that reductions in incident sunlight changed the interaction network between sediment biogeochemical fluxes, productivity, and macrofauna. By demonstrating loss of positive feedbacks and changes in the architecture of the network, we provide mechanistic evidence that stressors lead to break points in dynamics, which theory predicts predispose a system to a critical transition

Neighbourhood cohesion and mental wellbeing among older adults:A mixed methods approach

There is now a body of evidence that demonstrates strong links between neighbourhood characteristics and mental health and wellbeing. There is an increasing interest in how this relationship varies for individuals of different ages. Understanding the link between neighbourhood and wellbeing for older adults is of particular significance, given the changing age structure of the population and the desire among policy makers and practitioners to promote healthy and active ageing. This paper provides further evidence on the nature and strength of the link between individual perceptions of neighbourhood belonging and mental wellbeing among those over age fifty using both qualitative and quantitative data from three British cohort studies. Between 2008 and 2011 quantitative data were collected from 10,312 cohort members, and 230 of them took part in qualitative biographical interviews.Quantitative analysis confirms that there is a moderate association between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing measured at the individual level in each of the three cohorts. This association persists after controlling for a range of covariates including personality. The association between neighbourhood cohesion and wellbeing is stronger for individuals in the older two cohorts than in the younger cohort.Using qualitative biographical interviews with 116 men and 114 women we illustrate how individuals talk about their sense of neighbourhood belonging. The importance of social participation as a mechanism for promoting neighbourhood belonging, and the use of age and life stage as characteristics to describe and define neighbours, is clear. In addition, the qualitative interviews point to the difficulties of using a short battery of questions to capture the varied and multi-dimensional nature of neighbourhood relations.<br/

Longitudinal trajectories in cortical thickness and volume atrophy: Superior cognitive performance does not protect against brain atrophy in older adults

Background: Previous research has identified a small subgroup of older adults that maintain a high level of cognitive functioning well into advanced age. Investigation of those with superior cognitive performance (SCP) for their age is important, as age-related decline has previously been thought to be inevitable. Objective: Preservation of cortical thickness and volume was evaluated in 76 older adults with SCP and 100 typical older adults (TOAs) assessed up to five times over six years. Methods: Regions of interest (ROIs) found to have been associated with super-aging status (a construct similar to SCP status) in previous literature were investigated, followed by a discovery phase analyses of additional regions. SCPs were aged 70 + at baseline, scoring at/above normative memory (CVLT-II) levels for demographically similar individuals aged 30–44 years old, and in the unimpaired range for all other cognitive domains over the course of the study. Results: In linear mixed models, following adjustment for multiple comparisons, there were no significant differences between rates of thinning or volume atrophy between SCPs and TOAs in previously identified ROIs, or the discovery phase analyses. With only amyloid-β negative individuals in the analyses, again there were no significant differences between SCPs and TOAs. Conclusion: The increased methodological rigor in classifying groups, together with the influence of cognitive reserve, are discussed as potential factors accounting for our findings as compared to the extant literature on those with superior cognitive performance for their age

Using imputation to provide harmonized longitudinal measures of cognition across AIBL and ADNI

To improve understanding of Alzheimer’s disease, large observational studies are needed to increase power for more nuanced analyses. Combining data across existing observational studies represents one solution. However, the disparity of such datasets makes this a non-trivial task. Here, a machine learning approach was applied to impute longitudinal neuropsychological test scores across two observational studies, namely the Australian Imaging, Biomarkers and Lifestyle Study (AIBL) and the Alzheimer\u27s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) providing an overall harmonised dataset. MissForest, a machine learning algorithm, capitalises on the underlying structure and relationships of data to impute test scores not measured in one study aligning it to the other study. Results demonstrated that simulated missing values from one dataset could be accurately imputed, and that imputation of actual missing data in one dataset showed comparable discrimination (p \u3c 0.001) for clinical classification to measured data in the other dataset. Further, the increased power of the overall harmonised dataset was demonstrated by observing a significant association between CVLT-II test scores (imputed for ADNI) with PET Amyloid-β in MCI APOE-ε4 homozygotes in the imputed data (N = 65) but not for the original AIBL dataset (N = 11). These results suggest that MissForest can provide a practical solution for data harmonization using imputation across studies to improve power for more nuanced analyses

Irs2 Silencing Increases Apoptosis And Potentiates The Effects Of Ruxolitinib In Jak2v617f-positive Myeloproliferative Neoplasms.

The recurrent V617F mutation in JAK2 (JAK2V617F) has emerged as the primary contributor to the pathogenesis of myeloproliferative neoplasms (MPN). However, the lack of complete response in most patients treated with the JAK1/2 inhibitor, ruxolitinib, indicates the need for identifying pathways that cooperate with JAK2. Activated JAK2 was found to be associated with the insulin receptor substrate 2 (IRS2) in non-hematological cells. We identified JAK2/IRS2 binding in JAK2V617F HEL cells, but not in the JAK2WT U937 cell line. In HEL cells, IRS2 silencing decreased STAT5 phosphorylation, reduced cell viability and increased apoptosis; these effects were enhanced when IRS2 silencing was combined with ruxolitinib. In U937 cells, IRS2 silencing neither reduced cell viability nor induced apoptosis. IRS1/2 pharmacological inhibition in primary MPN samples reduced cell viability in JAK2V617F-positive but not JAK2WT specimens; combination with ruxolitinib had additive effects. IRS2 expression was significantly higher in CD34+ cells from essential thrombocythemia patients compared to healthy donors, and in JAK2V617F MPN patients when compared to JAK2WT. Our data indicate that IRS2 is a binding partner of JAK2V617F in MPN. IRS2 contributes to increased cell viability and reduced apoptosis in JAK2-mutated cells. Combined pharmacological inhibition of IRS2 and JAK2 may have a potential clinical application in MPN.