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Background Speech entrainment (SE), the online mimicking of an audio-visual speech model, has been shown to increase speech fluency in individuals with non-fluent aphasia. One theory that may explain why SE improves speech output is that it synchronizes functional connectivity between anterior and posterior language regions to be more similar to that of neurotypical speakers. Objectives The present study tested this by measuring functional connectivity between 2 regions shown to be necessary for speech production, and their right hemisphere homologues, in 24 persons with aphasia compared to 20 controls during both free (spontaneous) speech and SE. Methods Regional functional connectivity in participants with aphasia were normalized to the control data. Two analyses were then carried out: (1) normalized functional connectivity was compared between persons with aphasia and controls during free speech and SE and (2) stepwise linear models with leave-one-out cross-validation including normed functional connectivity during both tasks and proportion damage to the left hemisphere as independent variables were created for each language score. Results Left anterior–posterior functional connectivity and left posterior to right anterior functional connectivity were significantly more similar to connectivity of the control group during SE compared to free speech. Additionally, connectivity during free speech was more associated with language measures than connectivity during SE. Conclusions Overall, these results suggest that SE promotes normalization of functional connectivity (i.e., return to patterns observed in neurotypical controls), which may explain why individuals with non-fluent aphasia produce more fluent speech during SE compared to spontaneous speech.

The prevalence of dementia is growing as the population and longevity increase. Caregivers of adults with dementia report stress and fatigue and often neglect their health. They also indicate the need for information to address health-related issues, including nutritional problems, of their family members with dementia (FMWD). This study examined the impact of coaching to improve family caregiver (FCG) stress and well-being and to increase the protein intake of both FCGs and their FMWD. All participants received nutrition education including a protein prescription (1.2 g/kg body weight/day) and FCGs received stress-reduction materials. Coached-group randomized participants also received weekly diet coaching and stress-reduction coaching. At baseline and 8 weeks, anthropometrics, a mini-nutritional assessment questionnaire, and diet (protein intake) were assessed in FCGs and FMWD; well-being, fatigue and strain were assessed in FCGs. Repeated two words measures analysis of variance and Fisher’s exact tests examined within group and intervention effects. Twenty-five FCGs (13 coached group, 12 not-coached group) and 23 FMWD (12 coached group, 11 not-coached group) completed the study. No significant differences were found between coached and not-coached FCGs and FMWD at baseline. After 8- weeks, FCGs’ protein intake significantly increased from 1.00 ± 0.17 to 1.35 ± 0.23 g/kg/body weight in the coached group and from 0.91 ± 0.19 to 1.01 ± 0.33 g/kg/body weight in the not-coached group; there was also an intervention effect (p=.01, η2 = .24). The percentage of FCGs with baseline protein intake less than prescription guidelines and with an end-of-study protein intake meeting/exceeding the prescription significantly differed, with 60% of coached FCGs versus 10% of not coached FCGs meeting the prescription. No intervention effects were shown for protein intake in FMWD or for well-being, fatigue or strain among FCGs. Diet coaching with nutrition education successfully assisted FCGs with improving their protein intake versus nutrition education alone.

Conservatives report greater life satisfaction than liberals, but this relationship is relatively weak. To date, the evidence is limited to a narrow set of well-being measures that ask participants for a single assessment of their life in general. We address this shortcoming by examining the relationship between political orientation and well-being using measures of life satisfaction, affect, and meaning and purpose in life. Participants completed well-being measures after reflecting on their whole life (Studies 1a, 1b, and 2), at the end of their day (Study 3), and in the present moment (Study 4). Across five studies, conservatives reported greater meaning and purpose in life than liberals at each reporting period. This finding remained significant after adjusting for religiosity and was usually stronger than the relationships involving other well-being measures. Finally, meaning in life was more closely related to social conservatism than economic conservatism.

Concerns over CO2 emissions and global warming continue to enforce the transport sector to reduce the fuel consumption of heavy duty diesel goods vehicles as one of the major contributors of CO2. Such powertrain platforms look set to remain the dominant source of heavy duty vehicle propulsion for decades to come. The currently reported work was concerned with experimental evaluation of the potential to partially displace diesel with hydrogen fuel, which continues to attract attention as a potential longer term alternative fuel solution, whether produced on-board or remotely via sustainable methods. The single cylinder engine adopted was of 2.0 litre capacity, with common rail diesel fuel injection and exhaust gas recirculation (EGR) typical of current production technology. The work involved fumigation of H2 into the engine intake system at engine loads typically visited under real world driving conditions. Highest practical hydrogen substitution ratios increased indicated efficiency by up to 4.6% at 6 bar net indicated mean effective pressure (IMEPn) and 2.4% at 12 bar IMEPn. In 6bar IMEPn, CO2, CO and soot all reduced by 58%, 83% and 58% respectively while the corresponding reduction of these emissions in 12 bar IMEPn, were 27%, 45% and 71% respectively toward diesel-only baseline. Under such conditions the use of a pre-injection prior to the main diesel injection was essential to control the heat release and pressure rise rates.

Acute care practice settings are stressful. Nurse leaders face stressful demands of numerous competing priorities. Some nurse leaders experience unmanageable stress, but success requires self-care. This article presents a repeated measures intervention design study using mixed methods to investigate a self-care simple meditation practice for nurse leaders. Themes and subthemes emerged in association with the three data collection points: at baseline (pretest), after 6 weeks, and after 12 weeks (posttest) from introduction of the self-care simple meditation practice. An analysis of variance yielded a statistically significant drop in perceived stress at 6 weeks and again at 12 weeks. Conducting future research is merited.

The ProblemResearch syntheses are rarely used in the field of human resource development (HRD). There are notable exceptions, but our search of the related literature found relatively few instances where procedures like meta-analyses are used to advance theory and empirically informed practice.The SolutionTo address this gap, this article provides a broad overview of different techniques for synthesizing literature. The article describes how research syntheses can be used to inform theory development; this is done via the description of a construct called nomological network. Such a network can be thought of as kind of minitheory, which is derived from the theoretical relationships among key constructs.The StakeholdersReaders interested in developing empirically informed HRD theory and practice should benefit from a description of how research syntheses can inform their work.

The renaissance of border studies during the past decade has been characterized by a crossing of disciplinary borders, bringing together geographers, political scientists, sociologists, anthropologists, historians, literary scholars, legal experts, along with border practitioners engaged in the practical aspects of boundary demarcation, delimitation and management. This growth in border studies runs contrary to much of the globalization discourse which was prevalent during the late 1980s and early 1990s, positing a new ‘borderless’ world, in which the barrier impact of borders became insignificant. The article points to the common use of terminology which can create a shared border discourse among a diverse group of scholars, such as boundary demarcation, the nature of frontiers, borderlands and transition zones, and the ways in which borders are crossed. The article also discusses the reclosing of borders which is taking place as a result of 9/11 as part of the stated war against global terror.

The study of borders has undergone a renaissance during the past decade. This is reflected in an impressive list of conferences, workshops and scholarly publications. This renaissance has been partly due to the emergence of a counternarrative to the borderless and deterritorialized world discourse which has accompanied much of globalization theory. The study of borders has moved beyond the limited confines of the political geography discourse, crossing its own disciplinary boundaries, to include sociologists, political scientists, historians, international lawyers and scholars of international relations. But this meeting of disciplines has not yet been successful in creating a common language or glossary of terms which is relevant to all scholars of borders. Central to the contemporary study of borders are notions such as `borders are institutions', the process of `bordering' as a dynamic in its own right, and the border terminologies which focus on the binary distinctions between the `us' and `them', the `included' and the `excluded'. Borders should be studied not only from a top-down perspective, but also from the bottom up, with a focus on the individual border narratives and experiences, reflecting the ways in which borders impact upon the daily life practices of people living in and around the borderland and transboundary transition zones. In positing an agenda for the next generation of border-related research, borders should be seen for their potential to constitute bridges and points of contact, as much as they have traditionally constituted barriers to movement and communication.

The film and television production industry is significant in both New Zealand and British Columbia. Governments in both localities provide substantial support for the industry through government agencies and tax incentives. This study reviews the effectiveness and success of the New Zealand Film Commission and BC Film in meeting their respective mandates and strategic goals over the last five years. The scope and success of government tax incentives in attracting and encouraging production in both localities are reviewed, with an analysis undertaken of the results. The paper concludes that the greater cultural focus by the New Zealand government compared with that of British Columbia has resulted in a stronger track record of critically acclaimed and commercially successful films from New Zealand, with a more mixed record from the service-oriented film economy of British Columbia.

The term geopolitics is understood and used in a variety of ways. Political geographers typically invoke the term with reference to the geographical assumptions and understandings that influence world politics. Outside of the academy, geopolitics often connotes a conservative or right-wing political-territorial calculus associated with the strategic designs of Henry Kissinger, Aleksandr Dugin, and followers of the new Geopolitik in Germany. This forum considers the nature and significance of the gap in the ways that the term geopolitics is understood and deployed. Four eminent contributors to the literature in political geography offer their thoughts on the meanings associated with the term and potential confusions that arise from its different uses.

Objectif: Pour examiner les correlations de la reaction therapeutique des patients souffrant de trouble panique accompagne de palpitations, nous avons emis l'hypothese que la reaction therapeutique serait en correlation avec la variabilite de la frequence cardiaque (VFC) et les mesures du sommeil. Methodes: Apres 1 semaine d'elimination du placebo, 27 patients exempts de maladie cardiaque structurelle et ne prenant pas de medicaments agissant sur le coeur ont ete affectes, au hasard, a double insu, a 4 semaines de traitement a la clonazepam (agent anti-panique reconnu) ou a un placebo. Nous avons effectue des mesures du sommeil regulieres et enregistre la VFC selon la methode de Holter de 24 heures, au debut et a la fin de l'etude. Nous avons defini la reaction au traitement comme une amelioration de 50 % du score a l'echelle d'anxiete de Hamilton (HAMA), confirmee par des questionnaires et la reaction a une infusion de lactate de sodium. Resultats: Il y a eu 12 sujets repondants et 15 non-repondants. La normalisation de la structure de sommeil (incluant moins de sommeil de la phase 1 et de sommeil paradoxal) a ete observee chez les sujets repondants tant au medicament qu'au placebo (P = 0,011 et P = 0,05, respectivement) et chez les repondants au placebo seulement, comparativement aux non-repondants (P = 0.006 et P = 0,013, respectivement). Les repondants au placebo etaient plus susceptibles de presenter moins de depression, mais meme en controlant la depression, les principaux effets sur le sommeil demeuraient. Aucune des mesures de la VFC ne correlait avec la reaction, mais comparee au placebo, la clonazepram entrainait une diminution dans toutes les mesures du temps et de la frequence de la variabilite de la frequence cardiaque (tous, P < 0,05). Conclusions: Les mecanismes centraux sont relies a la reaction therapeutique des patients souffrant de trouble panique accompagne de palpitations, mais cela n'est pas en correlation directe avec la VFC. Des etudes plus vastes et plus longues pourraient permettre des explications objectives de la reaction au placebo dans le trouble panique.

State boundaries have constituted a major topic in the tradition of political geography. Boundary analysis has focused on the international scale, since international boundaries provide perhaps the most explicit manifestation of the large-scale connection between politics and geography. The past decade has witnessed a renewed interest in boundaries, both within geography and from the wider field of social theory. Geographers have sought to place the notions of boundary within other social theoretical constructs, while other social scientists have attempted to understand the role of space and, in some cases, territory in their understanding of personal, group, and national boundaries and identities. Recent studies include analyses of the postmodern ideas of territoriality and the ‘disappearance’ of borders, the construction of sociospatial identities, socialization narratives in which boundaries are responsible for creating the ‘us’ and the ‘Other’, and the different scale dimensions of boundary research. These can be brought together within a multidimensional, multidisciplinary framework for the future study of boundary phenomena.

Numerous studies have been conducted in the past few decades on obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) as an independent risk factor for the development and progression of cardiac arrhythmia. Treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy lowers blood pressure, improves ejection fraction in patients with heart failure, and decreases the need of revascularization procedures in patients with coronary artery disease. However, there has been little published discussion regarding the effect of CPAP treatment on cardiac arrhythmia in patients with OSA. We aimed to summarize scientific evidence regarding the utility of CPAP treatment in managing the recurrence and severity of different types of cardiac arrhythmia. We retrieved articles published in English before December 2016, through database search of PubMed, CENTRAL, and Embase. All peer-reviewed experimental, comparative, and other observational studies focused on adults were considered eligible. Several studies documented positive changes in arrhythmia frequency and severity with CPAP application, irrespective of type of arrhythmia, study methodology, or setting. However, the available evidence on the impact of CPAP treatment on the frequency and severity of cardiac arrhythmia is limited by heterogeneity of data. The duration of CPAP application, compliance with treatment, and baseline severity of OSA and cardiac pathology are important confounding factors that influence the effect of CPAP treatment. We emphasize the need for agreement on a core set of relevant predictors of the magnitude of the effect. Future research should carefully address these factors and their influence on the potential therapeutic ability of CPAP treatment to improve cardiac outcomes and reduce the risks of adverse cardiac and noncardiac effects associated with untreated OSA.

The delivery of public services in rural areas is a problem encountered not only by declining and peripheral areas but also by newly founded exurban communities. The problems of small size are exacerbated by the demand within these communities for high levels and a high quality of service provision. The existing local government network in these rural and rurban areas is unable to cope with the increased demand emanating from these new communities. This is particularly problematic in Israel, where the rural system of local government, the regional councils, have traditionally fulfilled the role of providing services to agricultural and cooperative communities. In this paper the nature of the service demands made by new exurban communities in Israel, the problems encountered by the regional councils in providing these same services, and the tensions which result from this lack of compatibility are discussed. Proposed functional solutions are presented and compared, ranging from minor modifications to the existing system of rural local government to those which require a change in the formal municipal status of the exurban communities.