Design and Rationale of the Cognitive Intervention to Improve Memory in Heart Failure Patients Study

BACKGROUND: Memory loss is an independent predictor of mortality among heart failure patients. Twenty-three percent to 50% of heart failure patients have comorbid memory loss, but few interventions are available to treat the memory loss. The aims of this 3-arm randomized controlled trial were to (1) evaluate efficacy of computerized cognitive training intervention using BrainHQ to improve primary outcomes of memory and serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels and secondary outcomes of working memory, instrumental activities of daily living, and health-related quality of life among heart failure patients; (2) evaluate incremental cost-effectiveness of BrainHQ; and (3) examine depressive symptoms and genomic moderators of BrainHQ effect. METHODS: A sample of 264 heart failure patients within 4 equal-sized blocks (normal/low baseline cognitive function and gender) will be randomly assigned to (1) BrainHQ, (2) active control computer-based crossword puzzles, and (3) usual care control groups. BrainHQ is an 8-week, 40-hour program individualized to each patient's performance. Data collection will be completed at baseline and at 10 weeks and 4 and 8 months. Descriptive statistics, mixed model analyses, and cost-utility analysis using intent-to-treat approach will be computed. CONCLUSIONS: This research will provide new knowledge about the efficacy of BrainHQ to improve memory and increase serum brain-derived neurotrophic factor levels in heart failure. If efficacious, the intervention will provide a new therapeutic approach that is easy to disseminate to treat a serious comorbid condition of heart failure

Holding Death at Bay vs. Prolonging Life: Indexing Fatalism and Optimism in the Ideology of Health, Genetics, and Family History in the U. S. and South Korean Media

Media discourse creates and shapes views of personhood, of possibilities, of wellness, and at the same time, these views and beliefs, in their turn, shape media discourse. Broadcasts of health-related edutainment programs and advertisements are rich sources for the discovery of stances concerning health and illness. We examine media discourse in the United States and South Korea, and uncover consistent indexical patterns pointing to overall ideologies of fatalism in the U.S. and optimism in South Korea. Specifically, from an indexicality-based perspective, we identify the patterned ways in which the ideologies of fatalism and optimism are indexed with regard to agency and stance. We provide evidence of the culturally distinct patterns of discourse that construct health and illness in the U.S. and South Korean media. In the U.S., heart disease and cancer are threats, medicines are omnipotent, and physicians, omniscient. “Death” is explicit and medicines and physicians hold it at bay. Korean discourse frames “life” as explicit underscoring efforts by doctors and medicines to prolong and enhance it. Implications associated with public health discourses employing diverse discursive strategies are discussed

What Sustainable Practices Exist in College and University Dining Services?

College and university dining services administrators (CUDSAs) were surveyed using a web‐based questionnaire to determine sustainable practices in their operations. Results from 138 CUDSAs (26.4% response) indicated that the most frequently used sustainable practices included: recycling of fats, oils, grease, cardboard, white paper, aluminum, and newspaper; and use of recycled products such as napkins. CUDSAs reported that students, university administrators, and customers influenced their sustainable decisions and they were satisfied with their sustainability decisions but not with their resources. CUDSAs at private schools had implemented more practices and were more satisfied than were CUDSAs at public institutions

Like Parent, Like Child: Inheritance of Effector CD8+ T Cell Traits

Beuneu et al. (2010) report that the amount of antigenic stimulation initially sensed by naive CD8+ T cells can establish differentiation set points that are stably maintained in clonal progeny to promote functional diversity

Characterizing and Predicting Email Deferral Behavior

Email triage involves going through unhandled emails and deciding what to do with them. This familiar process can become increasingly challenging as the number of unhandled email grows. During a triage session, users commonly defer handling emails that they cannot immediately deal with to later. These deferred emails, are often related to tasks that are postponed until the user has more time or the right information to deal with them. In this paper, through qualitative interviews and a large-scale log analysis, we study when and what enterprise email users tend to defer. We found that users are more likely to defer emails when handling them involves replying, reading carefully, or clicking on links and attachments. We also learned that the decision to defer emails depends on many factors such as user's workload and the importance of the sender. Our qualitative results suggested that deferring is very common, and our quantitative log analysis confirms that 12% of triage sessions and 16% of daily active users had at least one deferred email on weekdays. We also discuss several deferral strategies such as marking emails as unread and flagging that are reported by our interviewees, and illustrate how such patterns can be also observed in user logs. Inspired by the characteristics of deferred emails and contextual factors involved in deciding if an email should be deferred, we train a classifier for predicting whether a recently triaged email is actually deferred. Our experimental results suggests that deferral can be classified with modest effectiveness. Overall, our work provides novel insights about how users handle their emails and how deferral can be modeled

The impact of gender and disability on the economic well-being of disabled women in the United Kingdom:A longitudinal study between 2009 and 2014

The present study examined the economic well-being of disabled and nondisabled men and women in the United Kingdom. Using the 2009–2014 Life Opportunities Survey (N = 6,159 adults), the study is the first longitudinal study to empirically compare the economic well-being of disabled women in contrast to disabled men and nondisabled men and women. Hierarchical linear modelling and hierarchical linear logistic modelling were used to estimate the longitudinal changes. Findings indicate that, overall, disabled women's economic well-being improved significantly between 2009 and 2014 even after controlling for other demographic characteristics. However, the improvements were not substantial enough to significantly narrow the economic disparities between disabled women and disabled men and nondisabled men and women. Disabled women remained worse off than disabled men and nondisabled men and women in 2014 as they did in 2009. The findings indicate that intersectional discrimination against disabled women exist in the United Kingdom. Findings from this study provide empirical evidence to support policies that enhance the economic security of disabled women.</p

College and University Dining Services Administrators’ Intention to Adopt Sustainable Practices: Results from US Institutions

This study examined college and university dining services administrators’ (CUDSAs) intention to adopt sustainable practices. The theory of planned behavior (TPB) including constructs of subjective norm, attitude, perceived behavior control, and personal norm, formed the theoretical framework. A web-based questionnaire was developed, pretested, and distributed to 535 CUDSAs in the U.S.A. Results indicated that subjective norm (pressure from others) had the most influence on CUDSAs’ intention to adopt sustainable practices, followed by attitude and personal norm. Including the personal norm construct in the TPB model reduced unexplained variance by 33.48%. Limitations of this research are generalizability of results due to use of a sample of U.S.A. members of a professional organization (National Association of College and University Food Services) and low response rate. Results suggest that pressure from college administrators and students has the greatest impact on CUDSAs’ decisions to adopt sustainable practices. The question of why some university dining operations are models for sustainability and others have few sustainable practices has not been explored. The dining services director plays a key role in determining sustainability efforts for that operation. This research explored factors influencing a director’s intention to adopt sustainable practices

A Preliminary Examination of Using Personas to Enhance User-Centered Design

Organizations now routinely collect information about the needs of their consumers/users, but this information is not sufficiently utilized. This research investigates how encapsulating the user needs in a persona affects the resulting design decisions. Personas put a face on the target users and create a vivid design target by using a narrative, picture, and name. In our study, we examine whether personas help designers make more effective design decisions. We also focus on the roles of empathy and memory, and investigate whether personas introduce greater empathy into product design. The results suggest that personas lead to more effective designs when empathy for the persona is created. On the other hand, when the user needs are summarized in a tabular format, the participants must rely on memorization of the user information. The implications of the results and how follow-up studies will tackle unanswered questions are explored