A Case Report of Acute Heart Failure Due to Infective Aortic Endocarditis Diagnosed by Point-of-care Ultrasound

Introduction: Infective endocarditis (IE) is a life-threatening condition with significant morbidity and mortality, and can require surgical repair.Case Report: A 36-year-old man presented to the emergency department for worsening dyspnea and chest pain. Point-of-care echocardiography demonstrated a mobile oscillating mass on the aortic valve with poor approximation of the valve leaflets, suggesting aortic valve insufficiency secondary to IE as the cause of acute heart failure. The patient underwent emergent aortic valve replacement within 24 hours.Discussion: While point-of-care echocardiography has been well documented in identifying tricuspid vegetations, aorticvalve involvement and subsequent heart failure is less well described. Earlier recognition of aortic valve vegetations and insufficiency can expedite surgical intervention, with decreased complication rates linked to earlier antimicrobial therapy.Conclusion: This case report highlights the ability of point-of-care ultrasound to identify aortic vegetations, allowing for the earlier diagnosis and therapy

UK Consumers Priorities for Sustainable Food Purchases

Although interest in ‘sustainable food’ has grown substantially in recent years, an official definition for sustainability has yet to be agreed upon. ‘Sustain: the alliance for better food and farming’ provide guidance to consumers wishing to make more sustainable food purchases, in the form of seven guiding principles. Using these principles, this study seeks to assess UK consumer’s priorities towards sustainable food. A detailed structured questionnaire explored shopping habits, attitudes to sustainable food components (organic, fair-trade, local food and animal welfare), stated purchasing behaviour and demographic information. Questionnaires were sent to 2,500 randomly selected Nottinghamshire (UK) residents. A response rate of 35.6% was achieved. The data reveals that consumers prioritise packaging, how food is produced and animal welfare when considering sustainable food components. Stated purchasing behaviour demonstrates that ‘free range’ and ‘local’ products are more likely to take precedence over other sustainability aspects. Future research will seek to compare and contrast stated and actual preferences by comparing the population survey results to actual purchasing behaviour from supermarket data.Consumer, sustainable food, purchasing behaviour, free range, local, animal welfare, Food Consumption/Nutrition/Food Safety,

The impact of stroke and aphasia on quality of life

textThe report examines the whole-person impact of stroke and stroke-induced aphasia. Incidence and prevalence, physical and somatosensory impacts of stroke are discussed, as are the effects of communicative and cognitive impairments on the patient and family. Stroke and aphasia specific quality of life scales are evaluated relative to design of treatment and quality of life improvement for individuals with aphasia.Communication Sciences and Disorder

Museum visitors' self-efficacy and interest in contemporary art

textContemporary art can pose a particular challenge for museum visitors to interpret, and psychological literature suggests that such challenge to self-efficacy may lower interest (Hong & Lin, 2013; Ryan & Deci, 2000; Schunk & Usher, 2008). This study sought to explore museum visitors’ interpretive strategies, feelings of self-efficacy, and interest. Factors including prior knowledge, interpretation support (e.g., labels), and challenge of artwork were also considered. Results discuss suggestions for museums when displaying works that may be perceived as challenging or unapproachable. Participants included visitors to the Blanton Museum of Art and students at the University of Texas at Austin who were pre-screened for prior knowledge of museums. Sessions occurred during the fall of 2014 and included completing questionnaires while viewing three works in the contemporary galleries. Students also participated in focus groups. Both quantitative and qualitative results confirmed predictions that interpretive self-efficacy and interest are related. Provision of labels did not show significant difference for self-efficacy or interest, but high prior knowledge of art did show increased levels of self-efficacy. A search for meaning and aesthetic observation and preference typically drove participant interpretations; most were highly personal. With low self-efficacy, participants struggled to interpret works and even considered pieces arbitrary. However, they enjoyed being challenged to interpret the work on their own before viewing the label. Participants responded particularly well to the idea of using interactive interpretive devices as a means of building understanding for works to which they may not otherwise be drawn. Overwhelmingly, low-prior-knowledge infrequent visitors wanted clear explanations of the artist's motive for creating the work and wanted the ability to visualize or even mimic the artistic process for creating each piece. Museums striving to increase interest in contemporary art for visitors should prioritize building self-efficacy through supportive interpretive strategies.Educational Psycholog

Identification with all of humanity, uncertainty, and beliefs toward animals

The current study aims to expand on the human-animal relations literature through a social identity lens, using 231 participants recruited from Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. Americans consume large amounts of meat, yet many people feel morally conflicted by enjoying meat, yet killing animals. These feelings can be tied to one’s identity, through identifying as a vegetarian, meat-eater, or animal lover. Humans tend to attach themselves to a social group, act on behalf of that group’s norms and values, and use their groups to reduce feelings of uncertainty by adopting group normative attitudes and behaviors. People who identify strongly with all of humanity tend to hold favorable views of outgroups and express empathy towards outgroups, which may or may not extend to non-human animals (identification with all of humanity; IWAH). However, if people identify strongly with all of humanity, do conditions that exacerbate intergroup perceptions lead them to denigrate and hold less empathy for animals? This study explores whether or not all of humanity can form a salient and coherent identity for people experiencing uncertainty. If so, then the benefits of IWAH (less prejudice and more empathy as IWAH increases) should not extend to non-human animals when people experience uncertainty and look to distinguish the ingroup from a relevant outgroup. Perhaps IWAH captures “global community” rather than a distinct identity and connection with all of humanity? This study predicts that IWAH will produce greater beliefs that animals have human-like qualities (e.g., empathy, personality), particularly when an animal is described in a humanized way; however, this effect will be weakened (or will disappear) in conditions of high uncertainty. Findings did not support the hypotheses; however results and null findings are discussed in terms of implications for future research and theory development examining IWAH from a self-categorization perspective

School Connectedness and Academic Success

Using data collected from the Portsmouth Needs Assessment (2017) in Portsmouth, Virginia, this study focused on examining the relationship between school connectedness and academic success. The purpose of the study was to examine how aspects of school connectedness affects academic success. School connectedness was measured by examining self-report data regarding students’ sense of belonging, sense of culture and ethnic acceptance, classroom participation, and extracurricular activities. Academic success was measured by students’ self-reported grades and how often did they think that they would use the materials that they learned in the future. The results indicated that a student’s sense of belonging and sense of acceptance regardless of their ethnicity and culture, were significant in being able to predict the likelihood that the student would use the classroom materials in the future. The study also revealed that participating in classroom activities and extracurricular activities increased the likelihood of receiving good grades. Overall, as school connectedness increases, so does a student’s academic success

Human sexuality knowledge and attitudes among graduate social work students

The purpose of this research was to obtain empirical evidence regarding the knowledge and attitudes among graduate social work students. It examines the relationship between age, previous sex education, marital status and the amount of human sexuality knowledge

The relationship between parenting style and chilren\u27s anger, aggressive behavior, and perception of intention

This study examined the relationship between parenting style and preschoolers\u27 perceptions of intention, their anger, and their aggressive behavior. Each child was told eight variations of the same story and then was asked to rate the characters\u27 intentions and anger. The parents were given the Modified PARI (Emmerich, 1969) and the Child Behavior Checklist (Achenbach & Edelbrock, 1983) to measure parenting style and the child\u27s aggressive behavior. A regression analysis resulted in a significant Beta score of .41 (p\u3c. 02) between hostility rejection parenting style and the child\u27s perception of intention. Previous research shows a relationship between perception of intention and anger or aggressive behavior (Rotenberg, 1985; Fine, 1980); thus, the results of this study suggest that perception of intention could serve as a mediator between hostile parenting and anger or aggressive behavior

Faculty Recital, Russell Wilson, piano

Russell Wilson, pianowith Michelle Matts, fluteMonday, November 4, 2019 at 7pmSonia Vlahcevic Concert HallW.E. Singleton Center for the Performing ArtsVirginia Commonwealth University922 Park Avenue / Richmond, Va