Surviving alone: the relationship between economic resources and health status in the unmarried later in life and what public policymakers can learn from this relationship

As current social trends to delay marriage and age demographics continue to change, the number of single adults surviving into old and very old age will increase proportionately. This demographic change represents one of the most important challenges for public policymakers, government leaders and employers alike as they work to balance the policy implications of what it means to survive alone in later in live. The purpose of this research was to compare three unmarried groups (e.g., never married, divorced, and widowed) and three age groups (e.g., 65-74 years of age, 75-84 years of age, and 85 years and older) with regard to individual attributes, such as education, economic resources, income, functional health, subject health and access to health services. One of the goals of the research was to determine age, gender, and marital status similarities and differences among groups. Results revealed significant marital status differences in two domains: education and functional health. For education, the never-married group scored higher than the other two groups, F (2, 224) = 10.91, p \u3c .001. The widowed group scored higher in functional health than the never-married and the divorced groups, F (2, 222) = 3.22, p \u3c .05. There were no significant differences across the age groups with regard to resources and outcome variables. There was, however, a significant interaction obtained among the age groups by marital status relative to access to health services, F (4, 213) = 2.51, p \u3c .05. The never-married group age 75 to 84 reported the best access to health services, whereas the divorced group age 75 to 84 reported the lowest access to health services. One significant gender difference was obtained. Men scored higher than women relative to income F (1, 224) = 9.35, p \u3c .01

Games and Activities Based on Grammatical Areas Which are Problems for the Intermediate ESL Student

This project consists of games and activities based on grammatical areas which are problems for the intermediate-level ESL student After polling ESL teachers, we selected three specific problem areas: (1) irregular past tense verbs (2) modal auxiliaries (3) verbs in the perfective For each grammatical area we have created a minimum of six games/activities, including at least one card game, one board game, one individualized activity, and one jazz chant. Every game and activity has been tested through actual use in at least one ESL classroom. Revisions have been made based on the results of this testing

Revisiting Informal Justice: Restorative Justice and Democratic Professionalism

Debates over informal or popular justice recur periodically in sociolega

An Update: Preparation and Credentialing Requirements of Two-Year College Technical Instructors: A National Study

This study was conducted to see what changes have occurred in the preparation and credentialing of postsecondary technical faculty. The specific objectives of this study were: (a) to describe current credentialing requirements for two-year college technical instructors; (b) to describe program requirements for postsecondary technical teacher education programs; and (c) to compare changes that have occurred since prior studies. Since 1990 there has been a decline in the number of states that have credentialing requirements—down from 19 to 11 in 2006. The number of programs that prepare postsecondary technical faculty appears to be stable at a time of anticipated shortage of two-year technical faculty

A data science approach to understanding physical drivers of coastal primary productivity and effects on carbonate chemistry

How do ocean mixing regimes influence primary productivity and carbon dynamics? Primary productivity is a key quantity in the quality of habitat for higher trophic levels including larval salmon. Here, we analyze the physical oceanographic and primary productivity dynamics of the Salish Sea using the output of SalishSeaCast, a newly-developed biophysical model based on the NEMO framework (Olson et al, in preparation). The biophysical model estimates three classes of primary producers - diatoms, small flagellates and Mesodynium rubrum. Here, we consider daily depth-integrated biomass signals for all three organismal classes extracted from the model domain over the course of two years, as well as daily signals of halocline depth, river input, wind energy, and tidal mixing. These signals are then analyzed using a normalized hierarchical clustering approach. The analysis shows large biomass variance (~2 orders of magnitude) throughout the model domain, and clear spatial patterns in biomass correspond to regions dominated by different mixing and stratification regimes. The signal clusters demonstrate a clear boundary between the biomass patterns in the Northern and Southern Strait of Georgia, and offer a physical explanation for the difference. We then compare this output to carbonate chemistry data and the developing carbonate chemistry numerical model, to gain insight into biophysical drivers of carbonate chemistry distribution in different regions of the Strait. The study represents the first attempt at a large-scale statistical analysis of the newly-developed model, and demonstrates the unique utility of this approach in identifying discrete regions governed by various primary productivity regimes, and provides a framework for considering their effects on carbonate chemistry. In the future, such an analysis may be used to understand the impact of shifting stratification and mixing regimes on the interaction of primary productivity and carbonate chemistry under anthropogenic climate change

Female Athletes And Performance-Enhancer Usage

The purpose of this study was to develop a knowledge base on factors associated with performance-enhancer usage among female athletes at the high school level in order to identify markers for a future prevention-education program.  The study used a pretest-only, between-subjects Likert Scale survey to rank the importance of internal and external pressures that may lead to performance-enhancer usage among this population.  Subjects included 122 female athletes from top-ranked sport programs at 7 New Jersey high schools.  Descriptive and quantitative statistics were used to analyze the data at a p<.05 significance level.  The Chi Square Test of Homogeneity, Spearman Correlation Coefficient, Kruskal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA, and Scheffé Post-Hoc Test were used to analyze associations between the nine survey issues and five levels of importance.  Results indicated that subjects rated the pressure to win and self-induced competitive pressures as the two most important factors in leading to performance-enhancer usage.  Chi-Square results showed significant differences in the level of importance for each of the nine issues presented, while the Spearman Correlation revealed several correlations among certain issues.  The Kruskal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA showed significant differences in ranks when data were grouped by school and sport.  Post-Hoc analysis supported findings of the Kruskal-Wallis One-Way ANOVA.  This study provided descriptive and quantitative data that added to the existing research.  The findings may be used by health educators and athletic coaches for performance-enhancer prevention-education programs

Weight Watchers on prescription: an observational study of weight change among adults referred to Weight Watchers by the NHS.

BACKGROUND: The scale of overweight and obesity in the UK places a considerable burden on the NHS. In some areas the NHS has formed partnerships with commercial companies to offer weight management services, but there has been little evaluation of these schemes.This study is an independent audit of the Weight Watchers NHS Referral scheme and evaluates the weight change of obese and overweight adults referred to Weight Watchers (WW) by the NHS. METHOD: Data was obtained from the WW NHS Referral Scheme database for 29,326 referral courses started after 2nd April 2007 and ending before 6th October 2009 [90% female; median age 49 years (IQR 38-61 years); median BMI 35.1 kg/m2 (IQR 31.8-39.5 kg/m2). Participants received vouchers (funded by the PCT following referral by a healthcare professional) to attend 12 WW meetings. Body weight was measured at WW meetings and relayed to the central database. RESULTS: Median weight change for all referrals was -2.8 kg [IQR -5.9--0.7 kg] representing -3.1% initial weight. 33% of all courses resulted in loss of ≥5% initial weight. 54% of courses were completed. Median weight change for those completing a first course was -5.4 kg [IQR -7.8--3.1 kg] or -5.6% of initial weight. 57% lost ≥5% initial weight. CONCLUSIONS: A third of all patients who were referred to WW through the WW NHS Referral Scheme and started a 12 session course achieved ≥5% weight loss, which is usually associated with clinical benefits. This is the largest audit of NHS referral to a commercial weight loss programme in the UK and results are comparable with other options for weight loss available through primary care.RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are

Salish Sea model ecosystem - lower trophic: episodic nutrient supply in the northern Strait of Georgia

Salish Sea Model Ecosystem - Lower Trophic (SMELT) is a three-dimensional biogeochemical model coupled to a NEMO-based physical model of the Salish Sea, run operationally at UBC as part of the SalishSeaCast system. In this presentation, we will first establish the model\u27s skill at reproducing nitrate concentrations by comparison with data from the Pacific Salmon Foundation’s citizen science program and Institute of Ocean Sciences repeat surveys. We will then discuss episodic nitrate supply to the surface waters of the northwest Strait of Georgia. This phenomenon is evident as a region of elevated mean (March-November) and standard deviation (April-September) of surface nitrate stretching from Discovery Passage to Baynes Sound in a monthly climatology based on simulations from fall 2014 to present. We will analyze the relative contributions of southward advection of nitrate supplied through tidally-enhanced mixing in Discovery Passage and of local upwelling. This assessment will be based on analysis of SalishSeaCast simulations as well as additional numerical tracer experiments. We will discuss the importance of the phenomenon as a source of nutrients to the euphotic zone, fueling primary production in the northern Strait of Georgia

Emergence of a STAT3 mutated NK clone in LGL leukemia

AbstractLarge granular lymphocyte (LGL) leukemia is a chronic clonal lymphoproliferative disorder. Here, a T-LGL leukemia patient developed NK-LGL leukemia with residual leukemic T-LGL. TCRVβ usage and CDR3 sequence drifts were observed with disease progression. A STAT3 S614R mutation was identified in NK but not T-cells in the mixed leukemic stage. Multiple, non-dominant T-cell clones with distinct STAT3 mutations were present throughout. Our results suggest that T and NK-LGL leukemia may share common pathogenesis mechanisms and that STAT3 mutation alone is insufficient to bring about clonal expansion. Mutational and immunological monitoring may provide diagnostic and therapeutic significance in LGL leukemia