Aphasia Beyond the Western Aphasia Battery Cutoff: What to do?

https://griffinshare.fontbonne.edu/slp-posters-2023/1039/thumbnail.jp

Factors affecting quality of life and asthma control in older adults with asthma.

Introduction: Approximately 7.7 percent of adults over the age of 65 have asthma in the United States (U.S), further, the population of older adults in the U.S. will increase to 20% by 2030. Health Related Quality of Life is low for this age group and asthma is often misdiagnosed and undertreated creating a need for research to improve factors that influence Asthma Quality of Life. Aims: This study explored two aims. The first aim evaluates the relationship between medication numeracy and asthma self-management knowledge with asthma self-efficacy. The second aim evaluates medication numeracy, asthma self-management knowledge, asthma self-efficacy, and asthma control with asthma quality of life. Methods: A secondary analysis was derived from the completed study entitled, “Asthma in Older Adults: Identifying Phenotypes and Factors Impacting Outcomes,” and was completed to identify factors affecting quality of life in older adults with asthma. Descriptive statistics, Pearson correlation coefficients, and regression analysis were used to explore these factors. Variables were chosen with guidance from the literature and the Wilson and Cleary Health Related Quality of Life Theory. Results: After completed analysis, the data showed that the regression model for Aim one was not significant and the variables of Asthma Self-Management Knowledge and medication numeracy did not have a significant relationship with asthma self-efficacy. For Aim two regression model showed significant relationships of age, number of comorbidities, medication numeracy and subjective asthma control with asthma quality of life. Conclusions: A new model of Asthma Quality of Life based on Wilson and Cleary’s Health Related Quality of Life model was proposed that included the variables that were found to be significant predictors of Asthma Quality of Life

Earth's Energy Imbalance and Implications

Improving observations of ocean heat content show that Earth is absorbing more energy from the sun than it is radiating to space as heat, even during the recent solar minimum. The inferred planetary energy imbalance, 0.59 \pm 0.15 W/m2 during the 6-year period 2005-2010, confirms the dominant role of the human-made greenhouse effect in driving global climate change. Observed surface temperature change and ocean heat gain together constrain the net climate forcing and ocean mixing rates. We conclude that most climate models mix heat too efficiently into the deep ocean and as a result underestimate the negative forcing by human-made aerosols. Aerosol climate forcing today is inferred to be 1.6 \pm 0.3 W/m2, implying substantial aerosol indirect climate forcing via cloud changes. Continued failure to quantify the specific origins of this large forcing is untenable, as knowledge of changing aerosol effects is needed to understand future climate change. We conclude that recent slowdown of ocean heat uptake was caused by a delayed rebound effect from Mount Pinatubo aerosols and a deep prolonged solar minimum. Observed sea level rise during the Argo float era is readily accounted for by ice melt and ocean thermal expansion, but the ascendency of ice melt leads us to anticipate acceleration of the rate of sea level rise this decade.Comment: 39 pages, 18 figures; revised version submitted to Atmos. Chem. Phy

Intraseasonal variability in the southwestern and central tropical Atlantic Ocean

Various kinds of intraseasonal variability (ISV) exist in the oceans which have recently been observed in many locations surrounding the tropical Atlantic Ocean. In this study, current measurements from mooring sites close to the western boundary in the southern hemisphere and at the equator in the central basin are analyzed which reveal signals at intraseasonal periods. Basinwide altimeter measurements as well as results from two numerical model simulations with varying surface wind forcing are applied in order to clarify the dynamic processes essential for the observed intraseasonal signals. It is shown that in the tropical Atlantic two key processes lead to the generation of fluctuative energy at intraseasonal periods: barotropic and baroclinic instability

The warring gods of sustainability : approaches to sustainability within capitalism

There is no answer to the question “Are sustainability challenges solvable within capitalism?” which is not already taking sides in a debate about values, perceptions and motivations. There are several different approaches to sustainability, based on assumed feasibilities and expected agents of change. By disclosing one’s own stand in the debate while being aware and acknowledging other possible approaches and their rationale would not only be constructive but essential if we are to find solutions to the pressing challenges ahead in the short time frame we have. The aim of this thesis is to enable the reader to grasp and acknowledge the differences between ap-proaches to sustainability with in capitalism, while taking an informed decision for him-/herself as a prerequisite for meaningful dissonance and deliberation. I distinguish between four approaches to sustainability within capitalism based on the type of envisaged change mechanism, i.e. formal institutions – laws, constitutions, regulations – and informal in-stitutions – norms, values, perceptions. Each approach is elaborated and presented in detail: neoliberal sustainability, based on the neoliberal rationale and without any considerable demand for institutional change; neoliberal deep sustainability, advocating informal, i.e. value and perception, change within neoliberalism; Keynesian sustainability, which favours stricter regulation and does not focus too much on informal institutional advance; and republican sustainability, which suggests a revival of civic values in combination with stronger regulation. The selection of approaches is based on an extensive literature review across disciplines and schemes are pooled according to common characteristics. After presenting the four approaches, each is extensively critiqued with arguments of proponents of other approaches including arguments from Eco-Socialist/Marxist and De-/Post-Growth, which serve to critique capitalism as such. This thesis is intended to be a thought-provoking presentation of the plurality of sustainability, pro-posed to facilitate deliberative processes in our daily encounters as well as political debates which have the potential to render clashes of worldviews and interests more constructive

Enterprise risk management in financial groups: analysis of risk concentration and default risk

In financial groups, enterprise risk management is becoming increasingly important in controlling and managing the different independent legal entities in the group. The aim of this paper is to assess and relate risk concentration and joint default probabilities of the group's legal entities in order to achieve a more comprehensive picture of a financial group's risk situation. We further examine the impact of the type of dependence structure on results by comparing linear and nonlinear dependencies using different copula concepts under certain distributional assumptions. Our results show that even if financial groups with different dependence structures do have the same risk concentration factor, joint default probabilities of different sets of subsidiaries can vary tremendousl

Generation of tropical instability waves in the Atlantic Ocean

The spatial and temporal distributions of tropical instability waves (TIWs) in the Atlantic Ocean are investigated using a combination of current observations with moored instruments deployed at the equator at 23°W and a realistic eddy-resolving (1/12°) general circulation model of the Atlantic Ocean. The meridional and vertical shears of the zonal current system contribute to the eddy production rates and thus to the generation of TIWs in the central tropical Atlantic Ocean. In the Southern Hemisphere, TIWs are forced only by baroclinic instability associated with the vertical shear of the central part of the South Equatorial Current (SEC). In the Northern Hemisphere, baroclinic instability due to the vertical shear of the northern SEC (nSEC) as well as barotropic instabilities due to horizontal shears of the Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC)/nSEC and nSEC/North Equatorial Countercurrent (NECC) contribute to the generation of the TIWs. Since seasonal changes of the instability production rates related to the EUC/nSEC are comparable low while the rates related to the nSEC/NECC are high, we suggest that the seasonality of the NECC dominates the seasonal modulation of the TIWs

HIV versus the Terminator: Drug resistance of HIV reverse transcriptase with mutations at the connection subdomain

Abstract only availableAntiretroviral drug therapy can prolong the life of an HIV-infected individual, but this treatment also promotes drug-resistance mutations. The replicative enzyme of HIV, reverse transcriptase (RT), is a primary target for anti-HIV drug therapy because it is responsible for converting the single stranded RNA genome of HIV into double stranded DNA for integration into the host genome. Many current anti-HIV drugs belong to two classes of inhibitors that target RT: nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NRTIs) incorporate into and chain-terminate nascent transcription products of RT, whereas non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTIs) alter enzyme-nucleic acid interactions, thereby affecting the efficiency of DNA polymerization. Here, we focus on NRTI resistance mutations that are located at the connection subdomain of the enzyme in the presence and absence of thymidine analog associated mutations (TAMs). TAMs cause resistance to the commonly prescribed chain terminator 3'-azido-3'-deoxythymidine (AZT) through excision of the incorporated AZT-monophosphate. Mutations in the connection domain, such as N348I, confer resistance to NRTIs and NNRTIs and augment AZT resistance when present in combination with TAMs. Although the underlying mechanism of N348I resistance remains elusive, it has been suggested that the mutation compromises ribonuclease (RNase) H activity, which is responsible for cleaving the viral genomic RNA of the RNA/DNA heterodimeric intermediate. Changes in RNase H cleavage affect the availability of AZT-terminated primers to be excised, thereby increasing the unblocking of template/primer and NRTI resistance. Our investigation attempts to determine if AZT-resistance mutations affect resistance to other commonly prescribed NRTIs, as well as to competitive substrate inhibitors currently in development, through changes in template/primer processing. In addition, we are examining the effects of NRTI and NNRTI cocktails on the RNase H activity of RT possessing connection domain mutations. Our findings should provide insight for screening novel inhibitors for their efficacy against emergent strains of drug-resistant HIV.Life Sciences Undergraduate Research Opportunity Progra