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ItemExperiences of Hearing Loss and Audiological Rehabilitation for Older Adults With Comorbid Psychological Symptoms: A Qualitative Study(AMER SPEECH-LANGUAGE-HEARING ASSOC, 2020-12)Purpose There is a well-established relationship between hearing loss and psychological symptoms. To ensure audiological rehabilitation is provided appropriately for older adults with comorbid psychological symptoms, a greater understanding of their preferences and experiences is needed. This study sought to understand experiences of hearing loss and audiological rehabilitation from the perspective of older adults with comorbid psychological symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, psychosis). Design A qualitative study using in-depth semistructured interviews was conducted with older adults who had attended audiological rehabilitation within the last year and scored above established cutoffs on measures of depression, anxiety, and psychosis. A thematic analysis generated themes that related to participants' experiences of hearing loss and audiological rehabilitation. Results Participants included 14 older adults (eight men and six women) with an average age of 70.5 years (SD = 4.45, range: 64-80) who received hearing aids or a cochlear implant. Three major themes emerged from the analysis of participant interviews. "The cumulative impact of hearing loss and psychological symptoms" theme describes the two-way, additive relationship between hearing ability and psychological symptoms. "The experience of loss throughout hearing loss and audiological rehabilitation" captures subjective losses, the impact they have, and how participants cope with them. In contrast, "The experience of gain throughout hearing loss and audiological rehabilitation" describes the participants' reported gains, their related impacts, and coping strategies. Conclusions The experiences of participants revealed that the presence of comorbid psychological symptoms can influence the experience of hearing loss and audiological rehabilitation. These findings have implications for how audiological rehabilitation is provided to ensure optimal outcomes for adults with hearing loss and comorbid psychological symptoms. Supplemental Material https://doi.org/10.23641/asha.12985955.
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ItemImpact of type 2 diabetes on hospitalization and mortality in people with malignancy(WILEY, 2020-02)AIM: To compare the characteristics of and outcomes for people with malignancies with and without a co-diagnosis of diabetes. METHODS: Emergency department and hospital discharge data from a single centre for the period between 1 January 2015 and 31 December 2017 were used to identify people with a diagnosis of a malignancy and diabetes. Multivariate Cox regression models were used to estimate the effect of diabetes on all-cause mortality. A truncated negative binomial regression model was used to assess the impact of diabetes on length of hospital inpatient stay. Prentice-Williams-Peterson total time models were used to assess the effect of diabetes on number of emergency department re-presentations and inpatient re-admissions. RESULTS: Of 7004 people identified with malignancies, 1195 (17.1%) were also diagnosed with diabetes. A diagnosis of diabetes was associated with a greater number of inpatient re-admissions [adjusted hazard ratio 1.13 (95% CI 1.03, 1.24)], a greater number of emergency department re-presentations [adjusted hazard ratio 1.13 (95% CI 1.05, 1.22)] and longer length of stay [adjusted incidence rate ratio 1.14 (95% CI 1.04, 1.25)]. A co-diagnosis of diabetes was also associated with a 48% increased risk of all-cause mortality [adjusted hazard ratio 1.48 (95% CI 1.22-1.76)]. CONCLUSIONS: People with malignancies and diabetes had significantly more emergency department presentations, more inpatient admissions, longer length of hospital stay and higher rates of all-cause mortality compared to people with a malignancy without diabetes.
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ItemScience Fiction’s Ethical Modes: Totality and Infinity in Isaac Asimov’s Foundation Trilogy and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s Мы (We)(Springer International Publishing, 2020)This chapter asks whether science fiction (SF) has a predisposition to a particular ethical orientation. Rather than seek a single answer to this question of SF’s ethics, Kendal examines two classic SF texts and the traditions they represent: Isaac Asimov’s Foundation trilogy (1951–1953), one of the most iconic series of SF’s American “golden age,” and Yevgeny Zamyatin’s Мы (We) (1921), a highly influential dystopian novel from an Eastern European SF tradition. Drawing on the philosophy of Emmanuel Levinas, Kendal argues that the genre SF that developed in the American pulp magazines was dominated by themes and modes of literary representation best described as totalising, while SF not governed by these generic expectations has often engaged effectively in a more ethical representation of the other.
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ItemFactors influencing the residency of bettongs using one-way gates to exit a fenced reserve(Wiley, 2020-11)Understanding the conditions under which small native Australian mammals can persist in the presence of introduced predators remains a key challenge to conservation ecologists. Bettong‐specific one‐way gates were used at a predator‐free reserve in South Australia to allow the burrowing bettong (Bettongia lesueur) – a small potoroid, listed as ‘vulnerable’ nationally – to disperse out of the reserve. We conducted a field experiment to explore the conditions affecting residence time of bettongs that left the reserve. We monitored bettong and mammalian predator activity outside the fence using track surveys across 18 sites over two seasons. We examined the effect of supplementary feeding as a strategy for increasing residence time, as well as the influence of predator presence and habitat quality, using linear mixed models. Bettong activity was positively associated with supplementary feeding, midstorey vegetation cover and shelter availability. After gates were closed, bettong activity near gates declined to almost zero the following weeks, likely either due to death from predation or due to movement away from the sites. To a small extent, mammalian predators were more likely to be present at sites with high bettong activity. Further research on conditions to support persistence of burrowing bettongs and other small mammals, including understanding minimum necessary predator control effort, is required before successful establishment of populations outside of fences can occur.
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ItemNetworked Music Performance in Virtual Reality: Current Perspectives(Stony Brook University, 2020)The ability for musicians to interact face-to-face has been highly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Physical distancing and travel restrictions have forced teaching, rehearsals, and performances to be moved online. The use of videoconference platforms designed for conversation has also meant accepting their limitations when used in musical contexts. For example, in networked music performance (NMP), low-latency audio is usually transmitted alongside a separate video image. Since videoconference systems usually have a higher degree of in-built delay, the result is that performers often ignore the video image of each other in order to maintain a steady rhythm. If musicians usually avoid looking at each other during NMPs, could virtual reality provide a viable alternative to videoconferencing? In recent years, virtual reality has reemerged as an immersive medium with the ability to bring users together in an online space. However, there is a relatively small body of literature that is concerned with realistic acoustic interaction approaches in NMP when virtual reality is used as the visual medium. This paper explores research at the intersection of networked music performance, virtual reality, and virtual environments. It finds that virtual reality as a visual alternative to videoconferencing in NMP is worthy of further investigation and points to priorities for future research.
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ItemNo Preview AvailableThe pathophysiology of SARS-CoV-2: A suggested model and therapeutic approach(PERGAMON-ELSEVIER SCIENCE LTD, 2020-10-01)In this paper, a model is proposed of the pathophysiological processes of COVID-19 starting from the infection of human type II alveolar epithelial cells (pneumocytes) by SARS-CoV-2 and culminating in the development of ARDS. The innate immune response to infection of type II alveolar epithelial cells leads both to their death by apoptosis and pyroptosis and to alveolar macrophage activation. Activated macrophages secrete proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines and tend to polarise into the inflammatory M1 phenotype. These changes are associated with activation of vascular endothelial cells and thence the recruitment of highly toxic neutrophils and inflammatory activated platelets into the alveolar space. Activated vascular endothelial cells become a source of proinflammatory cytokines and reactive oxygen species (ROS) and contribute to the development of coagulopathy, systemic sepsis, a cytokine storm and ARDS. Pulmonary activated platelets are also an important source of proinflammatory cytokines and ROS, as well as exacerbating pulmonary neutrophil-mediated inflammatory responses and contributing to systemic sepsis by binding to neutrophils to form platelet-neutrophil complexes (PNCs). PNC formation increases neutrophil recruitment, activation priming and extraversion of these immune cells into inflamed pulmonary tissue, thereby contributing to ARDS. Sequestered PNCs cause the development of a procoagulant and proinflammatory environment. The contribution to ARDS of increased extracellular histone levels, circulating mitochondrial DNA, the chromatin protein HMGB1, decreased neutrophil apoptosis, impaired macrophage efferocytosis, the cytokine storm, the toll-like receptor radical cycle, pyroptosis, necroinflammation, lymphopenia and a high Th17 to regulatory T lymphocyte ratio are detailed.
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ItemSuppressing the Thermal SZ-induced Variance in CMB-cluster Lensing Estimators(American Astronomical Society, 2020-01-01)Accurate galaxy cluster mass measurements from the gravitational lensing of the cosmic microwave background temperature maps depend on mitigating potential biases from the cluster's own thermal Sunyaev–Zel'dovich (SZ) effect signal. Quadratic lensing estimators use a pair of maps to extract the lensing signal: a large-scale gradient map and a small-scale lensing map. The SZ bias can be eliminated by using an SZ-free map in the pair, with the gradient map being favored for signal-to-noise reasons. However, while this approach eliminates the bias, the SZ power in small-scale lensing map adds extra variance that can become significant for high-mass clusters and low-noise surveys. In this work, we propose projecting out an SZ template to reduce the SZ variance. Any residual SZ signal after template fitting is uncorrelated with the SZ-free gradient map, and thus does not bias the mass measurements. For massive clusters above $4\times {10}^{14}$ ${M}_{\odot }$ observed by the upcoming CMB-S4 and Simons Observatory experiments, we find that the template fitting approach would increase the cluster lensing signal-to-noise by a factor of 1.4.
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ItemConstraints on Cosmological Parameters from the 500 deg(2) SPTPOL Lensing Power Spectrum(American Astronomical Society, 2020-01-16)We present cosmological constraints based on the cosmic microwave background (CMB) lensing potential power spectrum measurement from the recent 500 deg2 SPTpol survey, the most precise CMB lensing measurement from the ground to date. We fit a flat ΛCDM model to the reconstructed lensing power spectrum alone and in addition with other data sets: baryon acoustic oscillations (BAO), as well as primary CMB spectra from Planck and SPTpol. The cosmological constraints based on SPTpol and Planck lensing band powers are in good agreement when analyzed alone and in combination with Planck full-sky primary CMB data. With weak priors on the baryon density and other parameters, the SPTpol CMB lensing data alone provide a 4% constraint on ${\sigma }_{8}{{\rm{\Omega }}}_{m}^{0.25}=0.593\pm 0.025$. Jointly fitting with BAO data, we find ${\sigma }_{8}=0.779\pm 0.023$, ${{\rm{\Omega }}}_{m}={0.368}_{-0.037}^{+0.032}$, and ${H}_{0}={72.0}_{-2.5}^{+2.1}\,\mathrm{km}\,{{\rm{s}}}^{-1}\,{\mathrm{Mpc}}^{-1}$, up to $2\sigma $ away from the central values preferred by Planck lensing + BAO. However, we recover good agreement between SPTpol and Planck when restricting the analysis to similar scales. We also consider single-parameter extensions to the flat ΛCDM model. The SPTpol lensing spectrum constrains the spatial curvature to be ${{\rm{\Omega }}}_{K}=-0.0007\pm 0.0025$ and the sum of the neutrino masses to be $\sum {m}_{\nu }\lt 0.23$ eV at 95% C.L. (with Planck primary CMB and BAO data), in good agreement with the Planck lensing results. With the differences in the signal-to-noise ratio of the lensing modes and the angular scales covered in the lensing spectra, this analysis represents an important independent check on the full-sky Planck lensing measurement.
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ItemImproving the translation of search strategies using the Polyglot Search Translator: a randomized controlled trial(MEDICAL LIBRARY ASSOC, 2020-04)BACKGROUND: Searching for studies to include in a systematic review (SR) is a time- and labor-intensive process with searches of multiple databases recommended. To reduce the time spent translating search strings across databases, a tool called the Polyglot Search Translator (PST) was developed. The authors evaluated whether using the PST as a search translation aid reduces the time required to translate search strings without increasing errors. METHODS: In a randomized trial, twenty participants were randomly allocated ten database search strings and then randomly assigned to translate five with the assistance of the PST (PST-A method) and five without the assistance of the PST (manual method). We compared the time taken to translate search strings, the number of errors made, and how close the number of references retrieved by a translated search was to the number retrieved by a reference standard translation. RESULTS: Sixteen participants performed 174 translations using the PST-A method and 192 translations using the manual method. The mean time taken to translate a search string with the PST-A method was 31 minutes versus 45 minutes by the manual method (mean difference: 14 minutes). The mean number of errors made per translation by the PST-A method was 8.6 versus 14.6 by the manual method. Large variation in the number of references retrieved makes results for this outcome inconclusive, although the number of references retrieved by the PST-A method was closer to the reference standard translation than the manual method. CONCLUSION: When used to assist with translating search strings across databases, the PST can increase the speed of translation without increasing errors. Errors in search translations can still be a problem, and search specialists should be aware of this.
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ItemAll I Want To Know Is Who I Am: Archival Justice for Australian Care Leavers(Routledge - Taylor & Francis, 2020)Joanne Evans, Frank Golding, Cate O’Neill, and Rachel Tropea recount Australian Care Leavers’ struggle for archival justice in the form of access, and the role of archival and recordkeeping professionals in both furthering and frustrating that struggle. While asserting a professional obligation to participate in a movement towards equity in records and recordkeeping, they observe the profession’s lacklustre collective response and rightfully question the extent to which archival and recordkeeping regimes embedded in existing power structures can meet the needs of the Care Leaver community. This theme appears throughout chapters concerning public records, particularly those produced in the course of systematic dispossession. Using Barbara Klugman’s framework to evaluate social justice advocacy, the authors assess the potential of the Australian Government’s Find and Connect program to further social justice.