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Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the long-term associations of musical training with speech perception in adverse conditions and cognition in a longitudinal cohort study of middle-age to older adults. Method: This study is based on Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study participants. We asked participants at baseline (1993-1995) about their musical training. Speech perception (word recognition in competing message; Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6), cognitive function (cognitive test battery), and impairment (self-report or surrogate report of Alzheimer's disease or dementia, and/or a Mini-Mental State Examination score [less than or equal to] 24) were assessed up to 5 times over the 20-year follow-up. We included 2,938 Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study participants who had musical training data and at least one follow-up of speech perception and/or cognitive assessment. We used linear mixed-effects models to determine associations between musicianship and decline in speech perception and cognitive function over time and Cox regression models to evaluate associations of musical training with 20-year cumulative incidence of speech perception and cognitive impairment. Models were adjusted for age, sex, and occupation and repeated with additional adjustment for health-related confounders and education. Results: Musicians showed less speech perception decline over time with stronger effects in women (0.16% difference, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.05, 0.26]). Among men, musicians had, on average, better speech perception than nonmusicians (3.41% difference, 95% CI [0.62, 6.20]) and were less likely to develop a cognitive impairment than nonmusicians (hazard ratio = 0.58, 95% CI [0.37, 0.91]). Conclusions: Musicians showed an advantage in speech perception abilities and cognition later in life and less decline over time with different magnitudes of effect sizes in men and women. Associations remained with further adjustment, indicating that some degree of the advantage of musical training is independent of socioeconomic or health differences. If confirmed, these findings could have implications for developing speech perception intervention and prevention strategies.

ObjectiveTo better understand how to educate patients and providers about study findings relevant to treatment guidelines, we assessed pre- versus post-Women's Health Initiative (WHI) differences in menopausal hormone therapy (MHT) initiation and continuation and their correlates, and in women's reasons for initiation and discontinuation.MethodsWe analyzed survey data from up to 14 approximately annual visits over 17 years (1996-2013) from 3,018 participants in the Study of Women's Health Across the Nation, a prospective cohort study. We used logistic regression to compare pre- versus post-WHI associations of covariates with MHT initiation and continuation, and to compare pre- versus post-WHI reasons for initiation and continuation.ResultsMHT initiation dropped from 8.6% pre-WHI to 2.8% post-WHI (P

Climate change and its related impacts are fast becoming the dominant force in the housing market. The fundamental role that housing plays in people's lives makes these effects particularly pernicious, often impacting employment, school attendance, undermining physical and mental health, disrupting social networks, and contributing to food insecurity. The complexity of addressing these issues is compounded by the cyclical and reciprocal relationships among these factors, with housing inequalities frequently lying at the core and climate change impacts percolating throughout. I introduce the framework of acute, secondary, and pre‐emptive/reactive impacts to help understand these mechanisms. To understand and contextualize these connections, I provide a brief overview racial segregation in the United States and related inequalities that place some individuals, groups, and communities at greater risk. Other key sources of housing instability in the United States that are often closely related to housing segregation include lack of affordable housing, growing income inequality, housing discrimination, evictions, and foreclosures, all of which contribute to unequal housing outcomes. These factors are explored using the temporal framework to discuss their connection to climate change, which is in and of itself a major force of housing instability. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Innate immune responses that allow hosts to survive infection depend on the action of multiple conserved signaling pathways. Pathogens and parasites in turn have evolved virulence factors to target these immune signaling pathways in an attempt to overcome host immunity. Consequently, the interactions between host immune molecules and pathogen virulence factors play an important role in determining the outcome of an infection. The immune responses of Drosophila melanogaster provide a valuable model to understand immune signaling and host-pathogen interactions. Flies are commonly infected by parasitoid wasps and mount a coordinated cellular immune response following infection. This response is characterized by the production of specialized blood cells called lamellocytes that form a tight capsule around wasp eggs in the host hemocoel. The conserved JAK-STAT signaling pathway has been implicated in lamellocyte proliferation and is required for successful encapsulation of wasp eggs. Here we show that activity of Stat92E, the D. melanogaster STAT ortholog, is induced in immune tissues following parasitoid infection. Virulent wasp species are able to suppress Stat92E activity during infection, suggesting they target JAK-STAT pathway activation as a virulence strategy. Furthermore, two wasp species (Leptopilina guineaensis and Ganaspis xanthopoda) suppress phenotypes associated with a gain-of-function mutation in hopscotch, the D. melanogaster JAK ortholog, indicating that they inhibit the activity of the core signaling components of the JAK-STAT pathway. Our data suggest that parasitoid wasp virulence factors block JAK-STAT signaling to overcome fly immune defenses. Author summary: Following infection, host immune responses are triggered to provide protection against the invading pathogen. The proper function of these responses depends on the activity of multiple immune signaling pathways. These pathways act in a coordinated manner to orchestrate the immune response, and any disruption can render the host susceptible to infection. Because of this sensitivity, many pathogen species have evolved virulence mechanisms that target host signaling pathways and disrupt their function. We are using the interaction between Drosophila melanogaster and Drosophila-infecting parasitoid wasps to study this relationship between host signaling and pathogen virulence. Parasitoids infect fly larvae, and during infection, transfer virulence protein containing venom into the host, providing a mechanism to alter host signaling. This study is focused on one key immune signaling pathway, the highly conserved JAK-STAT pathway. We find that many virulent parasitoid species restrict the activity of the host JAK-STAT pathway, providing a clue as to their virulence strategy. JAK-STAT signaling plays many additional roles in health and disease, and so this system provides a good model to further understand this important pathway. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: The aim of this study was to determine the longterm associations of musical training with speech perception in adverse conditions and cognition in a longitudinal cohort study of middle-age to older adults. Method: This study is based on Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study participants. We asked participants at baseline (1993-1995) about their musical training. Speech perception (word recognition in competing message; Northwestern University Auditory Test Number 6), cognitive function (cognitive test battery), and impairment (self-report or surrogate report of Alzheimer's disease or dementia, and/or a Mini-Mental State Examination score [less than or equal to] 24) were assessed up to 5 times over the 20-year follow-up. We included 2,938 Epidemiology of Hearing Loss Study participants who had musical training data and at least one follow-up of speech perception and/or cognitive assessment. We used linear mixed-effects models to determine associations between musicianship and decline in speech perception and cognitive function over time and Cox regression models to evaluate associations of musical training with 20-year cumulative incidence of speech perception and cognitive impairment. Models were adjusted for age, sex, and occupation and repeated with additional adjustment for health-related confounders and education. Results: Musicians showed less speech perception decline over time with stronger effects in women (0.16% difference, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.05, 0.26]). Among men, musicians had, on average, better speech perception than nonmusicians (3.41% difference, 95% CI [0.62, 6.20]) and were less likely to develop a cognitive impairment than nonmusicians (hazard ratio = 0.58, 95% CI [0.37, 0.91]). Conclusions: Musicians showed an advantage in speech perception abilities and cognition later in life and less decline over time with different magnitudes of effect sizes in men and women. Associations remained with further adjustment, indicating that some degree of the advantage of musical training is independent of socioeconomic or health differences. If confirmed, these findings could have implications for developing speech perception intervention and prevention strategies. Supplemental Material: https://doi.org/10.23641/asha. 14825454, Speech perception impairments and cognitive impairments and dementia are common in older adults (Prince et al., 2015; Pronk et al., 2013; Wiley et al., 1998), and their occurrences are not [...]

This study extends previous research through analysis of strategic plans of eight universities in a state system to determine if the strategic planning process and the plans meet basic strategic planning precepts. Additionally, one of the universities' plans is more deeply investigated for further insight into the quality of the process and the plan. Our conclusions are consistent with those of previous research that strategic planning is not utilized in higher education to its fullest benefit in accordance with strategic planning concepts or in a manner designed to aid continuous improvement. The weakest link in the plans studied involves a consistent lack of review and analysis that could be used to improve future performance. In fact, we conclude that strategic planning in higher education appears to be serving a purpose other than a management technique designed to guide administrators in directing their organizations to become more effective and efficient. We further conclude that the strategic planning document is considered the end and not the means of an improvement strategy. Our research points to management motivations grounded more in external influence and/or to simply comply with accreditation checklists. Results of our study shed light on how administrators, legislators and state regulatory agencies can improve strategic planning in public higher education.

This study seeks to determine if a difference exists in student performance and participation between an online and face-to-face Accounting Intermediate I class taught by the same professor. Even though students self-selected which course section to enroll, no significant difference was found to exist between the delivery method of the two courses based on the student's major field of study, gender, and whether or not they commuted to class. No significant difference is found between the assessments of the two class sections' membership except the students' course performance. Contrary to prior research, the students enrolled in the online sections did not perform as well as the face-to-face students. This study supports prior research which finds that online class support videos or other materials must be kept to ten minutes or less to retain students' attention.

This study reports the findings of a study assessing the acceptability differences in decisions made by Certified Public Accounting practitioners (CPA) and students studying to become CPAs. The study responds to researchers' call for additional research on topics related to accounting decision ethics. Modified managerial and accounting recognition scenarios were used to collect the acceptability of ethical judgments. The analysis employs factor analysis to affirm whether the scenarios are managerial or accounting recognition decisions. The analyses further divides the managerial decisions into either revenue or expense related. The accounting recognition decisions are further divided into those involving an accounting manipulation or inventory related. Students' acceptability of the accounting transactions was far harsher than the practitioners. However, both students and practitioners considered the accounting scenarios to be unethical. Both students and practitioners judged the managerial revenue scenarios to be ethical but the managerial expense scenarios to be moderately unethical. In addition to the ethical acceptability of accounting transaction, student and practitioner demographic data including age, work experience and academic credentials are investigated to explain the differences.

This article examines the relationship between parental networks and parental school involvement during the elementary school years. Using a large, nationally representative data set of elementary school students--the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study-Kindergarten Cohort--and contextual data from the 2000 U.S. Census, our multilevel analysis shows that higher levels of parental networks in first grade are associated with higher levels of parental school involvement in third grade after controlling for individual- and school-level characteristics. Parental networks are positively related to school involvement activities in formal organizations that consist of parents, teachers, and school staff, including participating in parent-teacher organizations and volunteering at school. Furthermore, the positive effects of parental networks on parental school involvement is stronger for families whose children attend schools in disadvantaged neighborhoods. This suggests that well-connected parental networks can serve as a buffer against school neighborhood disadvantages in encouraging parents to be actively involved in schools.

Blood pressure (BP) is a heritable determinant of risk for cardiovascular disease (CVD). To investigate genetic associations with systolic BP (SBP), diastolic BP (DBP), mean arterial pressure (MAP) and pulse pressure (PP), we genotyped ∼50 000 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) that capture variation in ∼2100 candidate genes for cardiovascular phenotypes in 61 619 individuals of European ancestry from cohort studies in the USA and Europe. We identified novel associations between rs347591 and SBP (chromosome 3p25.3, in an intron of HRH1) and between rs2169137 and DBP (chromosome1q32.1 in an intron of MDM4) and between rs2014408 and SBP (chromosome 11p15 in an intron of SOX6), previously reported to be associated with MAP. We also confirmed 10 previously known loci associated with SBP, DBP, MAP or PP (ADRB1, ATP2B1, SH2B3/ATXN2, CSK, CYP17A1, FURIN, HFE, LSP1, MTHFR, SOX6) at array-wide significance (P < 2.4 × 10(-6)). We then replicated these associations in an independent set of 65 886 individuals of European ancestry. The findings from expression QTL (eQTL) analysis showed associations of SNPs in the MDM4 region with MDM4 expression. We did not find any evidence of association of the two novel SNPs in MDM4 and HRH1 with sequelae of high BP including coronary artery disease (CAD), left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) or stroke. In summary, we identified two novel loci associated with BP and confirmed multiple previously reported associations. Our findings extend our understanding of genes involved in BP regulation, some of which may eventually provide new targets for therapeutic intervention.