Chronic Disease Self-Management and Behavior Change Attitudes in Older Adults: A Mixed-Method Feasibility Study

The population of older adults with chronic disease is increasing, yet little is known about their perception of chronic disease and self-management. To develop successful and sustainable chronic disease self-management interventions in the older adult population, health care providers must first understand older adults’ attitudes toward health status and behavior change. This pilot study was conducted to determine the feasibility of the study design. The purpose of this pilot study was to assess the appropriateness of using a mixed-methods research design to investigate Appalachian older adult’s attitude toward the chronic disease experience and health behavior change. A convergent, parallel mixed-method design included a quantitative questionnaire and qualitative focus groups in churches in northeast Tennessee. The aim of the study was met, and the methodology of the study was found to be feasible for larger studies. Divergence of data was found when evaluating qualitative and quantitative data. The study instrument was found to be reliable for future use. The implications of the results suggest that the study design is appropriate for the purpose of the study

Detecting Urban Emissions Changes and Events With a Near‐Real‐Time‐Capable Inversion System

In situ observing networks are increasingly being used to study greenhouse gas emissions in urban environments. While the need for sufficiently dense observations has often been discussed, density requirements depend on the question posed and interact with other choices made in the analysis. Focusing on the interaction of network density with varied meteorological information used to drive atmospheric transport, we perform geostatistical inversions of methane flux in the South Coast Air Basin, California, in 2015–2016 using transport driven by a locally tuned Weather Research and Forecasting configuration as well as by operationally available meteorological products. We find total‐basin flux estimates vary by as much as a factor of two between inversions, but the spread can be greatly reduced by calibrating the estimates to account for modeled sensitivity. Using observations from the full Los Angeles Megacities Carbon Project observing network, inversions driven by low‐resolution generic wind fields are robustly sensitive (p < 0.05) to seasonal differences in methane flux and to the increase in emissions caused by the 2015 Aliso Canyon natural gas leak. When the number of observing sites is reduced, the basin‐wide sensitivity degrades, but flux events can be detected by testing for changes in flux variance, and even a single site can robustly detect basin‐wide seasonal flux variations. Overall, an urban monitoring system using an operational methane observing network and off‐the‐shelf meteorology could detect many seasonal or event‐driven changes in near real time—and, if calibrated to a model chosen as a transfer standard, could also quantify absolute emissions.Key PointsLA CH4 flux estimates differ by driving meteorology but agree when calibrated for model sensitivityAliso Canyon leak can be detected by inversions using operational meteorologyOperational meteorology driven inversions significantly detect seasonal emission changes even with only one sitePeer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149534/1/jgrd55279-sup-0001-Text_SI-S01.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149534/2/jgrd55279.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/149534/3/jgrd55279_am.pd

Birth characteristics and childhood carcinomas

BACKGROUND: Carcinomas in children are rare and have not been well studied. METHODS: We conducted a population-based case–control study and examined associations between birth characteristics and childhood carcinomas diagnosed from 28 days to 14 years during 1980–2004 using pooled data from five states (NY, WA, MN, TX, and CA) that linked their birth and cancer registries. The pooled data set contained 57 966 controls and 475 carcinoma cases, including 159 thyroid and 126 malignant melanoma cases. We used unconditional logistic regression to calculate odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). RESULTS: White compared with ‘other' race was positively associated with melanoma (OR=3.22, 95% CI 1.33–8.33). Older maternal age increased the risk for melanoma (OR(per 5-year age increase)=1.20, 95% CI 1.00–1.44), whereas paternal age increased the risk for any carcinoma (OR=1.10(per 5-year age increase), 95% CI 1.01–1.20) and thyroid carcinoma (OR(per 5-year age increase)=1.16, 95% CI 1.01–1.33). Gestational age <37 vs 37–42 weeks increased the risk for thyroid carcinoma (OR=1.87, 95% CI 1.07–3.27). Plurality, birth weight, and birth order were not significantly associated with childhood carcinomas. CONCLUSION: This exploratory study indicates that some birth characteristics including older parental age and low gestational age may be related to childhood carcinoma aetiology

Caribbean Corals in Crisis: Record Thermal Stress, Bleaching, and Mortality in 2005

BACKGROUND The rising temperature of the world's oceans has become a major threat to coral reefs globally as the severity and frequency of mass coral bleaching and mortality events increase. In 2005, high ocean temperatures in the tropical Atlantic and Caribbean resulted in the most severe bleaching event ever recorded in the basin. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Satellite-based tools provided warnings for coral reef managers and scientists, guiding both the timing and location of researchers' field observations as anomalously warm conditions developed and spread across the greater Caribbean region from June to October 2005. Field surveys of bleaching and mortality exceeded prior efforts in detail and extent, and provided a new standard for documenting the effects of bleaching and for testing nowcast and forecast products. Collaborators from 22 countries undertook the most comprehensive documentation of basin-scale bleaching to date and found that over 80% of corals bleached and over 40% died at many sites. The most severe bleaching coincided with waters nearest a western Atlantic warm pool that was centered off the northern end of the Lesser Antilles. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE Thermal stress during the 2005 event exceeded any observed from the Caribbean in the prior 20 years, and regionally-averaged temperatures were the warmest in over 150 years. Comparison of satellite data against field surveys demonstrated a significant predictive relationship between accumulated heat stress (measured using NOAA Coral Reef Watch's Degree Heating Weeks) and bleaching intensity. This severe, widespread bleaching and mortality will undoubtedly have long-term consequences for reef ecosystems and suggests a troubled future for tropical marine ecosystems under a warming climate.This work was partially supported by salaries from the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program to the NOAA Coral Reef Conservation Program authors. NOAA provided funding to Caribbean ReefCheck investigators to undertake surveys of bleaching and mortality. Otherwise, no funding from outside authors' institutions was necessary for the undertaking of this study. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript

Risk of winter hospitalisation and death from acute respiratory infections in Scotland: national retrospective cohort study

Objectives We undertook a national analysis to characterise and identify risk factors for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) resulting in hospitalisation and death during the winter period in Scotland. Design A population-based retrospective cohort analysis Setting Scotland Participants 5.4 million residents in Scotland Main outcome measures Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between risk factors and ARI hospitalisation. Results Between September 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023, there were 22,284 (10.9% of 203,549 with any emergency hospitalisation) ARI hospitalisations (1,759 in children and 20,525 in adults) in Scotland. Compared to the reference group of children aged 6-17 years, the risk of ARI hospitalisation was higher in children aged 3-5 years (aHR=4.55 95%CI (4.11-5.04)). Compared to 25-29 years old, the risk of ARI hospitalisation was highest amongst the oldest adults aged ≥80 years (7.86 (7.06-8.76)). Adults from more deprived areas (most deprived vs least deprived, 1.64 (1.57-1.72)), with existing health conditions (≥5 vs 0 health conditions, 4.84 (4.53-5.18)) or with history of all-cause emergency admissions (≥6 vs 0 previous emergency admissions 7.53 (5.48-10.35)) were at higher risk of ARI hospitalisations. The risk increased by the number of existing health conditions and previous emergency admission. Similar associations were seen in children. Conclusions Younger children, older adults, those from more deprived backgrounds and individuals with greater numbers of pre-existing conditions and previous emergency admission were at increased risk for winter hospitalisations for ARI

Risk of winter hospitalisation and death from acute respiratory infections in Scotland : national retrospective cohort study

Funding : This study is funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR). The views expressed are those of the author(s) and not necessarily those of the NIHR or the Department of Health and Social Care. This work also benefits from the infrastructure and partnerships assembled by HDR UK, including through the Data and Connectivity National Core Study, funded by UK Research and Innovation [grant ref MC_PC_20058].Objectives  We undertook a national analysis to characterise and identify risk factors for acute respiratory infections (ARIs) resulting in hospitalisation during the winter period in Scotland. Design  A population-based retrospective cohort analysis. Setting   Scotland. Participants   5.4 million residents in Scotland. Main outcome measures   Cox proportional hazard models were used to estimate adjusted hazard ratios (aHR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for the association between risk factors and ARI hospitalisation. Results   Between September 1, 2022 and January 31, 2023, there were 22,284 (10.9% of 203,549 with any emergency hospitalisation) ARI hospitalisations (1,759 in children and 20,525 in adults) in Scotland. Compared to the reference group of children aged 6-17 years, the risk of ARI hospitalisation was higher in children aged 3-5 years (aHR=4.55 95%CI (4.11-5.04)). Compared to 25-29 years old, the risk of ARI hospitalisation was highest amongst the oldest adults aged ≥80 years (7.86 (7.06-8.76)). Adults from more deprived areas (most deprived vs least deprived, 1.64 (1.57-1.72)), with existing health conditions (≥5 vs 0 health conditions, 4.84 (4.53-5.18)) or with history of all-cause emergency admissions (≥6 vs 0 previous emergency admissions 7.53 (5.48-10.35)) were at higher risk of ARI hospitalisations. The risk increased by the number of existing health conditions and previous emergency admission. Similar associations were seen in children. Conclusions   Younger children, older adults, those from more deprived backgrounds and individuals with greater numbers of pre-existing conditions and previous emergency admission were at increased risk for winter hospitalisations for ARI.Peer reviewe

US Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter 2017: Community Report

This white paper summarizes the workshop "U.S. Cosmic Visions: New Ideas in Dark Matter" held at University of Maryland on March 23-25, 2017.Comment: 102 pages + reference

How university’s activities support the development of students’ entrepreneurial abilities: case of Slovenia and Croatia

The paper reports how the offered university activities support the development of students’ entrepreneurship abilities. Data were collected from 306 students from Slovenian and 609 students from Croatian universities. The study reduces the gap between theoretical researches about the academic entrepreneurship education and individual empirical studies about the student’s estimation of the offered academic activities for development of their entrepreneurial abilities. The empirical research revealed differences in Slovenian and Croatian students’ perception about (a) needed academic activities and (b) significance of the offered university activities, for the development of their entrepreneurial abilities. Additionally, the results reveal that the impact of students’ gender and study level on their perception about the importance of the offered academic activities is not significant for most of the considered activities. The main practical implication is focused on further improvement of universities’ entrepreneurship education programs through selection and utilization of activities which can fill in the recognized gaps between the students’ needed and the offered academic activities for the development of students’ entrepreneurial abilities

The role of retrograde intraflagellar transport in flagellar assembly, maintenance, and function

The maintenance of flagellar length is believed to require both anterograde and retrograde intraflagellar transport (IFT). However, it is difficult to uncouple the functions of retrograde transport from anterograde, as null mutants in dynein heavy chain 1b (DHC1b) have stumpy flagella, demonstrating solely that retrograde IFT is required for flagellar assembly. We isolated a Chlamydomonas reinhardtii mutant (dhc1b-3) with a temperature-sensitive defect in DHC1b, enabling inducible inhibition of retrograde IFT in full-length flagella. Although dhc1b-3 flagella at the nonpermissive temperature (34 degrees C) showed a dramatic reduction of retrograde IFT, they remained nearly full-length for many hours. However, dhc1b-3 cells at 34 degrees C had strong defects in flagellar assembly after cell division or pH shock. Furthermore, dhc1b-3 cells displayed altered phototaxis and flagellar beat. Thus, robust retrograde IFT is required for flagellar assembly and function but is dispensable for the maintenance of flagellar length. Proteomic analysis of dhc1b-3 flagella revealed distinct classes of proteins that change in abundance when retrograde IFT is inhibited