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Background Verbal fluency tasks are routinely used in clinical assessment and research studies of aphasia. People with aphasia produce fewer items in verbal fluency tasks. It remains unclear if their output is limited solely by their lexical difficulties and/or has a basis in their executive control abilities. Recent research has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency performance using temporal characteristics of words retrieved, clustering and switching, and pause durations, along with separate measures of executive control stands to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of verbal fluency in aphasia. Aims To determine the locus of the verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia, we compared semantic and letter fluency trials between people with aphasia and healthy control participants using a wide range of variables to capture the performance between the two groups. The groups were also tested on separate measures of executive control to determine the relationship amongst these tasks and fluency performance. Methods & Procedures Semantic (animal) and letter (F, A, S) fluency data for 60s trials were collected from 14 people with aphasia (PWA) and 24 healthy adult controls (HC). Variables, such as number of correct responses, clustering and switching analyses, were performed along with temporal measures of the retrieved words (response latencies) and pause durations. Participants performed executive control tasks to measure inhibitory control, mental-set shifting and memory span. Outcomes & Results Compared with HC, PWA produced fewer correct responses, showed greater difficulty with the letter fluency condition, were slower in getting started with the trials, showed slower retrieval times as noted in within- and between-cluster pause durations, and switched less often. Despite these retrieval difficulties, PWA showed a similar decline in the rate of recall to HC, and had similar cluster size. Executive control measures

The existence of ozone as a greenhouse gas in the Earth‘s climate system has a great impact on the radiative transfer in the atmosphere, affecting among others, the global climate. Various climate modelling studies have highlighted the importance of ozone as a key driver of climate change. However, the climate models at the research group, Paleoclimate Dynamics at The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) lacked the interactive chemistry scheme for calculating ozone changes due to the enormous computational expenses. In this respect, this thesis addresses the vital question of the accuracy of specific climate patterns in the atmosphere-ocean coupled model AWI-ESM-2.1-LR, in comparison to the behaviour of a real climate state where ozone is fully forcing and reacting to climate changes. Quantification of the adjusted ozone in response to 4xCO2 is crucial, taking into account how modified ozone impacts the climate. In this study, the average values of surface temperature, total precipitation, vertically integrated water vapour, geopotential height at 500 hPa, 250 hPa, 100 hPa levels, and sea ice concentration together with the model metrics like climate sensitivity and polar amplification has been investigated under the aegis of Pre-Industrial (PI), 4xCO2, and 4xCO2_O3 simulations. These simulations have been performed by AWI-ESM-2.1-LR, a state-of-the-art climate model that will be used as a workhorse for simulating various climate states, from much warmer to present, to much colder than present climate states. Noteworthy is the intense Arctic warming during boreal winter in the 4xCO 2 simulation. This pronounced warming can be manifested by the strong increase in vertically integrated water vapour in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) high latitudes. However, the modified ozone forcing on the surface temperature response to 4xCO2 produces a cooling pattern. Furthermore, an enhanced precipitation pattern of 1069.72 mm/year is observed in the tropical mid-latitude region covering

Background: Mental capacity legislation in the United Kingdom is designed to safeguard the rights of people who may need support to, or may be unable to, make autonomous decisions. Very limited evidence has been published about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the application of mental capacity legislation and, to our knowledge, none on the ability of speech and language therapists (SLTs) to support people with communication disabilities to engage in decision-making. Aim: To describe how UK SLTs supported people with communication disabilities to make decisions and participate in mental capacity assessments, best interests decision-making and advance care planning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study used an online survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data about SLTs’ practice experiences between August and November 2020. SLTs working with a range of adult clinical populations in different care settings were sampled purposively from all UK jurisdictions. Participants were recruited through professional networks and social media. Quantitative data were summarised using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results: Data were collected from 107 SLTs working in a range of settings across all four UK nations. The sample included SLTs working with people with neurological conditions, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and acute confusion. The need for SLT support appeared to increase during the pandemic. Most respondents were still able to offer support, however the amount and nature of support varied. Quality of support was impacted by adjustments associated with social distancing and infection control restrictions. Personal Protective Equipment was identified as a barrier to communication. Indirect working methods (e.g., telehealth) were inaccessible to some people with communication disabilities. Most respondents felt confident that legal requirements were upheld, but

The existence of ozone as a greenhouse gas in the Earth‘s climate system has a great impact on the radiative transfer in the atmosphere, affecting among others, the global climate. Various climate modelling studies have highlighted the importance of ozone as a key driver of climate change. However, the climate models at the research group, Paleoclimate Dynamics at The Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI) lacked the interactive chemistry scheme for calculating ozone changes due to the enormous computational expenses. In this respect, this thesis addresses the vital question of the accuracy of specific climate patterns in the atmosphere-ocean coupled model AWI-ESM-2.1-LR, in comparison to the behaviour of a real climate state where ozone is fully forcing and reacting to climate changes. Quantification of the adjusted ozone in response to 4xCO2 is crucial, taking into account how modified ozone impacts the climate. In this study, the average values of surface temperature, total precipitation, vertically integrated water vapour, geopotential height at 500 hPa, 250 hPa, 100 hPa levels, and sea ice concentration together with the model metrics like climate sensitivity and polar amplification has been investigated under the aegis of Pre-Industrial (PI), 4xCO2, and 4xCO2_O3 simulations. These simulations have been performed by AWI-ESM-2.1-LR, a state-of-the-art climate model that will be used as a workhorse for simulating various climate states, from much warmer to present, to much colder than present climate states. Noteworthy is the intense Arctic warming during boreal winter in the 4xCO 2 simulation. This pronounced warming can be manifested by the strong increase in vertically integrated water vapour in the Northern Hemisphere (NH) high latitudes. However, the modified ozone forcing on the surface temperature response to 4xCO2 produces a cooling pattern. Furthermore, an enhanced precipitation pattern of 1069.72 mm/year is observed in the tropical mid-latitude region covering

Background Verbal fluency tasks are routinely used in clinical assessment and research studies of aphasia. People with aphasia produce fewer items in verbal fluency tasks. It remains unclear if their output is limited solely by their lexical difficulties and/or has a basis in their executive control abilities. Recent research has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency performance using temporal characteristics of words retrieved, clustering and switching, and pause durations, along with separate measures of executive control stands to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of verbal fluency in aphasia. Aims To determine the locus of the verbal fluency difficulties in aphasia, we compared semantic and letter fluency trials between people with aphasia and healthy control participants using a wide range of variables to capture the performance between the two groups. The groups were also tested on separate measures of executive control to determine the relationship amongst these tasks and fluency performance. Methods & Procedures Semantic (animal) and letter (F, A, S) fluency data for 60s trials were collected from 14 people with aphasia (PWA) and 24 healthy adult controls (HC). Variables, such as number of correct responses, clustering and switching analyses, were performed along with temporal measures of the retrieved words (response latencies) and pause durations. Participants performed executive control tasks to measure inhibitory control, mental-set shifting and memory span. Outcomes & Results Compared with HC, PWA produced fewer correct responses, showed greater difficulty with the letter fluency condition, were slower in getting started with the trials, showed slower retrieval times as noted in within- and between-cluster pause durations, and switched less often. Despite these retrieval difficulties, PWA showed a similar decline in the rate of recall to HC, and had similar cluster size. Executive control measures

Background: Mental capacity legislation in the United Kingdom is designed to safeguard the rights of people who may need support to, or may be unable to, make autonomous decisions. Very limited evidence has been published about the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the application of mental capacity legislation and, to our knowledge, none on the ability of speech and language therapists (SLTs) to support people with communication disabilities to engage in decision-making. Aim: To describe how UK SLTs supported people with communication disabilities to make decisions and participate in mental capacity assessments, best interests decision-making and advance care planning during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: This descriptive, cross-sectional study used an online survey to collect quantitative and qualitative data about SLTs’ practice experiences between August and November 2020. SLTs working with a range of adult clinical populations in different care settings were sampled purposively from all UK jurisdictions. Participants were recruited through professional networks and social media. Quantitative data were summarised using descriptive statistics. Qualitative data were analysed thematically. Results: Data were collected from 107 SLTs working in a range of settings across all four UK nations. The sample included SLTs working with people with neurological conditions, learning disabilities, mental health conditions and acute confusion. The need for SLT support appeared to increase during the pandemic. Most respondents were still able to offer support, however the amount and nature of support varied. Quality of support was impacted by adjustments associated with social distancing and infection control restrictions. Personal Protective Equipment was identified as a barrier to communication. Indirect working methods (e.g., telehealth) were inaccessible to some people with communication disabilities. Most respondents felt confident that legal requirements were upheld, but

Research in bilingual healthy controls (BHC) has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency along with separate measures of executive control stand to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of the task. Such data are currently lacking in bilinguals with aphasia (BWA). We aimed to compare the characteristics of verbal fluency performance (semantic, letter) in Bengali–English BWA and BHC, in terms of cross-linguistic differences, variation on the parameters of bilingualism, and cognitive underpinnings. BWA showed significant differences on verbal fluency variables where executive control demands were higher (fluency difference score, number of switches, between-cluster pauses); whilst performed similarly on variables where executive control demands were lower (cluster size, within-cluster pauses). Despite clear cross-linguistic advantage in Bengali for BHC, no cross-linguistic differences were noted in BWA. BWA who were most affected in the independent executive control measures also showed greater impairment in letter fluency condition. Correlation analyses revealed a significant relationship for BWA between inhibitory control and number of correct responses, initial retrieval time, and number of switches. This research contributes to the debate of underlying mechanisms of word retrieval deficits in aphasia, and adds to the nascent literature of BWA in South Asian languages.

Research in bilingual healthy controls (BHC) has illustrated that detailed characterization of verbal fluency along with separate measures of executive control stand to inform our understanding of the lexical and cognitive underpinnings of the task. Such data are currently lacking in bilinguals with aphasia (BWA). We aimed to compare the characteristics of verbal fluency performance (semantic, letter) in Bengali–English BWA and BHC, in terms of cross-linguistic differences, variation on the parameters of bilingualism, and cognitive underpinnings. BWA showed significant differences on verbal fluency variables where executive control demands were higher (fluency difference score, number of switches, between-cluster pauses); whilst performed similarly on variables where executive control demands were lower (cluster size, within-cluster pauses). Despite clear cross-linguistic advantage in Bengali for BHC, no cross-linguistic differences were noted in BWA. BWA who were most affected in the independent executive control measures also showed greater impairment in letter fluency condition. Correlation analyses revealed a significant relationship for BWA between inhibitory control and number of correct responses, initial retrieval time, and number of switches. This research contributes to the debate of underlying mechanisms of word retrieval deficits in aphasia, and adds to the nascent literature of BWA in South Asian languages.

Two individuals with jargon aphasia with similar clinical profiles received identical phonological therapy but responded differently to the therapy-P9 did not show any positive gains but FF showed improved naming. Analysis showed that FF and P9 had comparable performance in the semantic domain but P9 had poorer phonological skills. FF also showed a decrease in the number of neologisms and an increase in similarity with the target following therapy. Discussion will focus on the importance of exploring underlying linguistic processes before initiating therapy and the importance of analyzing both quality and quantity of errors to measure the impact of therapy.

A holy grail for environmental microbiologists is being able to predict the effects of any given microbial community on a particular environment. In an era of increasingly dramatic changes in global climate, this goal is becoming evermore important. It is now well accepted that microorganisms have had and continue to have a profound influence on shaping the chemistry of the Earth. It would thus be both intellectually satisfying and practically useful if we could enumerate the microbial players in a specific locale, and, knowing their metabolic potential and how they regulate their various metabolisms, make predictions about how their presence would shape the geochemistry of that locale as it evolves in time.

Two individuals with jargon aphasia with similar clinical profiles received identical phonological therapy but responded differently to the therapy-P9 did not show any positive gains but FF showed improved naming. Analysis showed that FF and P9 had comparable performance in the semantic domain but P9 had poorer phonological skills. FF also showed a decrease in the number of neologisms and an increase in similarity with the target following therapy. Discussion will focus on the importance of exploring underlying linguistic processes before initiating therapy and the importance of analyzing both quality and quantity of errors to measure the impact of therapy.

Wallace, S. J., Worrall, L., Rose, T., Le Dorze, G., Breitenstein, C., Hilari, K., . . . Webster, J. (2019). A core outcome set for aphasia treatment research: The ROMA consensus statement. International Journal of Stroke, 14(2), 180-185. Available here

BackgroundEvidence-based recommendations for a core outcome set (COS; minimum set of outcomes) for aphasia treatment research have been developed (the Research Outcome Measurement in Aphasia-ROMA, COS). Five recommended core outcome constructs: communication, language, quality of life, emotional well-being and patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment, were identified through three international consensus studies. Constructs were paired with outcome measurement instruments (OMIs) during an international consensus meeting (ROMA-1). Before the current study (ROMA-2), agreement had not been reached on OMIs for the constructs of communication or patient-reported satisfaction/impact of treatment. AimTo establish consensus on a communication OMI for inclusion in the ROMA COS. Methods & ProceduresResearch methods were based on recommendations from the Core Outcome Measures in Effectiveness Trials (COMET) Initiative. Participants with expertise in design and conduct of aphasia trials, measurement instrument development/testing and/or communication outcome measurement were recruited through an open call. Before the consensus meeting, participants agreed on a definition of communication, identified appropriate OMIs, extracted their measurement properties and established criteria for their quality assessment. During the consensus meeting they short-listed OMIs and participants without conflicts of interest voted on the two most highly ranked instruments. Consensus was defined a priori as agreement by >= 70% of participants. Outcomes & ResultsIn total, 40 researchers from nine countries participated in ROMA-2 (including four facilitators and three-panel members who participated in pre-meeting activities only). A total of 20 OMIs were identified and evaluated. Eight short-listed communication measures were further evaluated for their measurement properties and ranked. Participants in the consensus meeting (n = 33) who did not have conflicts of interest (n = 29) voted on