A Study of Regional CARES Act Fraud relationships to Gross Domestic Product, Poverty Level, & Educational Completion per Region

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the United States government decided to enact Public Law No: 116-136, better known as the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, made public law March 27, 2020 (Public Law No. 116-136). Under the CARES Act the government responded to COVID-19 hardships by distributing relief packages to qualifying members and businesses of the community. These relief packages came in the form of various programs; the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL), and Unemployment Insurance (UI). However, a staggering amount of fraud took place during the issuance of these programs which resulted in money going towards people and businesses who did not require the assistance the CARES Act provided. The purpose of this research is to 1) establish the amount of fraud and percent of fraud compared to state total assistance received that occurred per state as a result of the CARES Act, 2) establish Gross Domestic Product (GDP), Poverty Level, and an educational attainment measurement for each state, 3) show if there is or is not statistical significance with the relation of these measurement factors against the percent of fraud in each state. All numbers collected and calculated will be shown by region (i.e Northeast) as well as individual state (i.e Connecticut) for the integrity of the research. This will show if there is a direct correlation between the economic and educational status of individuals or businesses that attempted to fraud the government out of CARES Act funding. The cumulative information can be used to determine if education or economic stability can decrease the level of Fraud that the government experiences and where educational or economic resources should be supplied based on the level of fraud in each state and geographic region

Early speech deterioration in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis: A case study of newscaster Donna Britt

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this study is to detect and track speech changes using acoustic and perceptual measures in an individual (a local newscaster) with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) using data from before her diagnosis, around the time of her diagnosis, and after her diagnosis. Methods: Six time points, ranging from 37 months around her diagnosis, were analyzed from one speaker with ALS. Three acoustic parameters were measured: articulation rate, acoustic vowel space, and the slope of the second formant. Additionally, two experts with more than 10 years of experience perceptually analyzed the speech samples on 17 characteristics using a 7-point scale. Results: The findings of this study revealed a decline in most parameters, both acoustic and perceptual, in the last time point, as expected. Additionally, a gradual increase in articulation rate, acoustic vowel space, and the number of syllables per utterance is observed before a decline after time point 4. Discussion: The gradual increase in some parameters before a decline may reflect the speaker’s compensatory strategies. After time point 4, it is suspected the speaker could no longer compensate, and thus a decline is observed. Additionally, both perceptual and acoustic measures indicate speech changes over time; however, acoustic measures (i.e. articulation rate) appear to provide objective data to support subtle, perceptual changes between time points

The neurological underpinnings of cluttering: Some initial findings

Background Cluttering is a fluency disorder characterised by overly rapid or jerky speech patterns that compromise intelligibility. The neural correlates of cluttering are unknown but theoretical accounts implicate the basal ganglia and medial prefrontal cortex. Dysfunction in these brain areas would be consistent with difficulties in selection and control of speech motor programs that are characteristic of speech disfluencies in cluttering. There is a surprising lack of investigation into this disorder using modern imaging techniques. Here, we used functional MRI to investigate the neural correlates of cluttering. Method We scanned 17 adults who clutter and 17 normally fluent control speakers matched for age and sex. Brain activity was recorded using sparse-sampling functional MRI while participants viewed scenes and either (i) produced overt speech describing the scene or (ii) read out loud a sentence provided that described the scene. Speech was recorded and analysed off line. Differences in brain activity for each condition compared to a silent resting baseline and between conditions were analysed for each group separately (cluster-forming threshold Z > 3.1, extent p 30 voxels, uncorrected). Results In both conditions, the patterns of activation in adults who clutter and control speakers were strikingly similar, particularly at the cortical level. Direct group comparisons revealed greater activity in adults who clutter compared to control speakers in the lateral premotor cortex bilaterally and, as predicted, on the medial surface (pre-supplementary motor area). Subcortically, adults who clutter showed greater activity than control speakers in the basal ganglia. Specifically, the caudate nucleus and putamen were overactive in adults who clutter for the comparison of picture description with sentence reading. In addition, adults who clutter had reduced activity relative to control speakers in the lateral anterior cerebellum bilaterally. Eleven of the 17 adults who clutter also stuttered. This comorbid diagnosis of stuttering was found to contribute to the abnormal overactivity seen in the group of adults who clutter in the right ventral premotor cortex and right anterior cingulate cortex. In the remaining areas of abnormal activity seen in adults who clutter compared to controls, the subgroup who clutter and stutter did not differ from the subgroup who clutter but do not stutter. Conclusions Our findings were in good agreement with theoretical predictions regarding the neural correlates of cluttering. We found evidence for abnormal function in the basal ganglia and their cortical output target, the medial prefrontal cortex. The findings are discussed in relation to models of cluttering that point to problems with motor control of speech

“That I should always listen to my body and love it”: Finding the Mind-Body Connection in Nineteenth- and Twentieth-Century Slave Texts

This thesis explores the presence of the movement theories of Irmgard Bartenieff, Peggy Hackney, and Rudolf Von Laban in the following texts: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, An American Slave. Written by Himself (1845), The History of Mary Prince: A West Indian Slave (1831), Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl, Written by Herself, Linda Brent (1861), Sherley Anne Williams’s Dessa Rose (1986) and Toni Morrison’s Beloved (1987). The terms and phrases of movement theory will be introduced to the contemporary critical discussion already surrounding the texts, both furthering and challenging existing arguments