Predictors of Stress in Caregivers of Family Members with Multiple Sclerosis

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is a disease of the central nervous system that typically results in cognitive and physical impairment. Depending upon the severity of symptoms, persons with MS often need assistance from caregivers in their daily lives. Research has shown that when a family member is diagnosed with the disease, household members become a source of caregiver support. The relationships between caregiver burden and chronic illness and between stress and health are well-documented. The impact of caregiving on individuals with MS remains a continued clinical concern, particularly because depression is highly co-occurring in those with the disease. Understanding the predictors of stress will hopefully provide more knowledge on how to best support caregivers and family members living with MS. This study sought to determine which factors increase or mitigate stress in caregivers of family members with MS. These factors were the level of depressive symptoms, perceived social support, level of coping processes, and patient care satisfaction from the caregiver’s perspective. A total of 40 caregiver participants completed an online survey targeting these factors. The results showed that the level of depressive symptoms was the only variable that predicted the level of perceived stress among caregivers. Thus, depression remains an important clinical consideration in the MS population and their caregivers. Future research should specifically explore the types of coping methods and other factors that predict stress in family caregivers in order to support this population

A rhetoric of coupons: Analyzing FSIs and FSI coupons through rhetorical lenses

This thesis consists of two journal articles that examine newspaper coupon booklets called free-standing inserts (FSIs) through feminist and visual rhetoric lenses. The first article attempts to identify the “ideal couponer,” or the audience suggested by the product categories, visuals, and language appearing in FSIs. Through content and textual analyses using a feminist rhetoric lens, the article argues that FSIs evoke the idea of an audience of mothers who conform to gendered cultural assumptions about womanhood and parenthood. The article concludes with theoretical and business implications of these findings, contending that more rhetorical research is necessary to understand how FSIs reinforce social stereotypes and can improve current marketing efforts. The second article analyzes the materiality of FSI coupons and the act of FSI couponing to determine the degree to which they support the preservation and reclamation of domestic narratives. The article suggests that FSI coupons and couponing reinforce domestic narratives about women as homemakers, crafters, and planners, among others. It also proposes that FSI coupons and couponing enable reclamations of the value of crafting and the accessibility of participating in business. When combined, the first and second articles aim to lay a foundation for a rhetoric of coupons

Insights into the early evolution of NF-kappaB signaling based on computational analyses of cnidarian genomes and transcriptomes

NF-kappaB is an ancient transcription factor that is known to play a central role in regulating cellular stress responses in vertebrates and insects, including the innate immune response, and the response to a range of physiochemical insults such as UV radiation and oxidative stress. The early evolution of this pathway is not well understood, because little is known about NF-kappaB signaling in so-called basal animal lineages (e.g., sponges, cnidarians) or closely related outgroups to the Metazoa. Key to understanding the function of a transcription factor is to identify the target genes whose transcription it regulates. To investigate the regulatory role of NF-kappaB in basal animals, specifically the sea anemone Nematostella vectensis, I developed ForSite, a computational tool that identifies putative transcription factor binding sites in the genome in proximity to expressed genes, and I helped to generate a new annotated reference transcriptome for N. vectensis. After demonstrating that ForSite could be used to identify a set of genes enriched for known NF-kappaB targets in human, I applied ForSite along with multiple winnowing criteria (co-localization of p300 binding; evolutionary conservation of target genes) to identify a high-priority list of potential NF-kappaB targets in the anemone. Among the most convincing set of likely target genes are members of a conserved anti-viral pathway, which suggests NF-kappaB plays an ancient role in innate immunity that dates to the cnidarian-bilaterian ancestor. Application of ForSite to two additional cnidarian species, Hydra magnipapillata and Acropora digitifera, failed to show significant conservation of regulation of biological processes by NF-kappaB among the cnidarian species

Compton processes in the bright AGN MCG+8-11-11

We present preliminary results on the hard X-ray emission properties of the Seyfert 1.5 galaxy MCG+8-11-11 as observed by INTEGRAL and SWIFT. All the INTEGRAL IBIS/ISGRI data available up to October 2009 have been analyzed together with two SWIFT/XRT snapshot observations performed in August and October 2009, quasi-simultaneously to INTEGRAL pointed observations of MCG+8-11-11. No correlation is observed between the hard X-ray flux and the spectral slope, while the position of the high-energy cut-off is found to have varied during the INTEGRAL observations. This points to a change in the temperature of the Comptonising medium from a minimum value of kT = 30-50 keV to values larger than 100-150 keV. There is no significant detection of Compton reflection, with a 3 sigma upper limit of R < 0.2, and no line has been detected at 112 keV, as previously claimed from HEAT observations (112 keV flux F < 2.4e-4 ph/cm^2/s). The variability behaviour of MCG+8-11-11 is found to be similar to that shown by IC 4329A, with different temperatures of the electron plasma for similar flux levels of the source, while other bright Seyfert galaxies present different variability patterns at hard X-rays, with spectral changes correlated to flux variations (e.g. NGC 4151).Comment: 6 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication on PoS (contribution PoS(INTEGRAL 2010)077), proceedings of the 8th INTEGRAL Workshop "The Restless Gamma-ray Universe" (September 2010, Dublin, Ireland

Winter habitat of arctic grayling in an interior Alaska stream

Thesis (M.S.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 1995Placer mining and the lack of information on winter ecology of Arctic grayling Thymallus arcticus. has raised concern for this popular sportfish. A study was designed to validate aerial radio telemetry data and to locate and describe overwinter areas (OWA) of Arctic grayling in Beaver Creek, Alaska. Reliance on aerial data alone resulted in overestimation of survival and misidentification of 14 of 26 designated OWAs. Twenty-one Arctic grayling were tracked downstream 12-58 km to 12 OWAs spanning a 31-km section of Beaver Creek. Radio-tagged and untagged Arctic grayling occupied areas with ice thickness of 0.4-1.4 m overlying 0.06-0.52 m of water, flowing at 0.03-0.56 m/s. During winter, discharge, cross-sectional area, velocities, and water width in four OWAs decreased until late March; then, cross-sectional area increased due to an increase in discharge that pushed the ice upward. Adult Arctic grayling overwintered downstream of habitat disturbances, and occupied much shallower winter habitats than expected