Analysis of the MOST light curve of the heavily spotted K2IV component of the single-line spectroscopic binary II Pegasi

Continuous photometric observations of the visible component of the single-line, K2IV spectroscopic binary II Peg carried out by the MOST satellite during 31 consecutive days in 2008 have been analyzed. On top of spot-induced brightness modulation, eleven flares were detected of three distinct types characterized by different values of rise, decay and duration times. The flares showed a preference for occurrence at rotation phases when the most spotted hemisphere is directed to the observer, confirming previous similar reports. An attempt to detect a grazing primary minimum caused by the secondary component transiting in front of the visible star gave a negative result. The brightness variability caused by spots has been interpreted within a cold spot model. An assumption of differential rotation of the primary component gave a better fit to the light curve than a solid-body rotation model.Comment: Accepteed to MNRA

Low-mass and sub-stellar eclipsing binaries in stellar clusters

We highlight the importance of eclipsing double-line binaries in our understanding on star formation and evolution. We review the recent discoveries of low-mass and sub-stellar eclipsing binaries belonging to star-forming regions, open clusters, and globular clusters identified by ground-based surveys and space missions with high-resolution spectroscopic follow-up. These discoveries provide benchmark systems with known distances, metallicities, and ages to calibrate masses and radii predicted by state-of-the-art evolutionary models to a few percent. We report their density and discuss current limitations on the accuracy of the physical parameters. We discuss future opportunities and highlight future guidelines to fill gaps in age and metallicity to improve further our knowledge of low-mass stars and brown dwarfs.Comment: 30 pages, 5 figures, no table. Review pape

What is housing affordability? The case for the residual income approach

This article seeks to increase the awareness of and support for the residual income approach to housing affordability indicators and standards, especially in the United States. It begins with an overview of various semantic, substantive, and definitional issues relating to the notion of affordability, leading to an argument supporting the conceptual soundness of the residual income approach. The concept is then briefly set into the historical context of U.S. and British debates on affordability measures. This description is followed by a discussion of two of the principal issues involved in crafting an operational residual income standard: the selection of a normative standard for non-housing items and the treatment of taxes. The article concludes by considering some of the potential implications of the residual income paradigm for the analysis of housing problems and needs, for housing subsidy policy, and for mortgage underwriting practice

A-92 Assessing Perceived Workload on the Brief Visual Memory Test in Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors

Abstract Objective We examined perceived workload as it is related to Brief Visual Memory Test-Revised (BVMT-R) short-delay and long-delay performance in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and healthy comparison (HC) participants. Method The sample consisted of 39 TBI participants and 54 HC participants. Demographically corrected BVMT-R scores were used to evaluate short-delay and long-delay performances. The perceived workload was measured using the NASA-TLX. Results ANOVA revealed that the HC group outperformed the TBI group on the BVMT-R short-delay and long-delay score, p &amp;lt; 05, η p 2 = 0.05. ANCOVAs controlling for age were used to evaluate NASA-TLX group differences. In regards to the NASA-TLX, TBI participants reported higher levels of physical demand, effort, frustration and overall subjective workload on the BVMT-R short-delay compared to HC participants, p &amp;lt; 05, η p 2 = 0.01–0.09. Furthermore, on the long-delay of the BVMT-R, the NASA-TLX revealed that the TBI group reported higher levels of temporal demand, effort, frustration and overall subjective workload compared to the HC group, p &amp;lt; 0.05, η p 2 = 0.05–0.14. Conclusions Results revealed that TBI participants demonstrated worse BVMT-R performances than HC participants. However, TBI survivors reported higher perceived workload demands compared to the HC group in both short-delay and long-delay of the BVMT-R. Our findings suggest that TBI impacts non-verbal memory performance in both BVMT-R short-delay and long-delay. Also, brain injury may be impacting TBI survivors’ awareness of their non-verbal memory performance. Further work is required to determine what drives the impaired perception of non-verbal memory performance among TBI survivors. </jats:sec

A-91 Examining Symptoms of Depression in Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors Attention and Processing Speed Abilities

Abstract Objective We examined the effects of depression in traumatic brain injury (TBI) and healthy comparison (HC) adults attention/processing speed (APS) performance. Method The sample size consisted of 44 acute TBI (ATBI), 32 chronic TBI (CTBI), and 59 HC participants. The Symbol Digit Modalities Test Oral (SDMT-O) and written (SDMT-W), Stroop Color Word Test word (SCWT-W) and color (SCWT-C), and Trail Making Test part A (TMT-A) were used to evaluate APS. The Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale was used to assess depression (HADS-D). Results ANCOVAs, controlling for age revealed the HC group outperformed both TBI groups on the SDMT-W and SCWT-C, p &amp;lt; 0.05, ηp2 = 0.08–0.24. We also found the CTBI group outperformed the ATBI group on the SDMT-W, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.24. Next, on the SDMT-O and TMT-A, the HC and CTBI groups outperformed the ATBI group, p &amp;lt; 0.05, ηp2 = 0.10–0.15. On the SCWT-W, the HC group outperformed the ATBI group, p = 0.004, ηp2 = 0.08. Additionally, on HADS-D, both TBI groups reported higher symptoms of depression compared to the HC group, p = 0.002, ηp2 = 0.09. Pearson correlations revealed that for the CTBI group HADS-D correlated with SDMT-W, R2 = -0.36, p = 0.043. Finally, for the HC group HADS-D correlated with SDMT-O, R2 = -0.38, p = 0.003, and SCWT-C, R2 = -0.26, p = 0.045. Conclusions Overall, the ATBI survivors underperformed on all APS tasks compared to the HC group. Furthermore, we found the CTBI group outperformed the ATBI group on several APS tasks. Our data suggests that depressive symptoms are related more to APS tasks in CTBI survivors and HC compared to ATBI survivors. </jats:sec

A-100 Examining Spanish-English Bilingual Boston Naming Test Norms in Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors

Abstract Objective We examined two established Spanish-English bilingual norms to assess if traumatic brain injury (TBI) deficits were still found if language was no longer a variable influencing Boston Naming Test (BNT) performance. Method The sample consisted of 47 healthy comparison (HC; 24 English-Monolinguals; 23 Spanish-English Bilinguals), 33 acute TBI (ATBI; 20 English-Monolinguals; 13 Spanish-English Bilinguals), and 25 Chronic TBI (CTBI: 13 English-Monolinguals; 12 Spanish-English Bilinguals) participants. Raw scores and adjusted demographic T-scores (Roberts et al., 2002; Rosselli et al., 1997) were used to evaluate BNT performance. Results An ANCOVA controlling for age, revealed the HC group outperformed the TBI group on the BNT (raw score), p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.11. We also found monolinguals outperformed bilinguals on the BNT, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.24. Using the Roberts et al., (2002) norms, we found the HC group outperformed the TBI group, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.11, but no language differences were found. Next, using Rosselli et al., (1997) norms, we found the HC group outperformed the TBI group on the BNT, p = 0.003, ηp2 = 0.11, and monolingual speakers outperformed bilingual speakers, p = 0.014, ηp2 = 0.06. No interactions were found. Conclusions As expected, the TBI group demonstrated worse BNT performance compared to HC group on both language norms. However, when using Roberts et al., (2002) Spanish-English bilingual norms, no language group differences were found. Our data indicates that when examining BNT performance in a Spanish-English bilingual and English-monolingual TBI sample, Roberts et al., (2002) normative data may be better suited to evaluate BNT deficits in a TBI while taking language into account. </jats:sec

A-125 The Impact of Bilingualism on Symbol Digit Modalities Test Performance Following Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objective Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors exhibit cognitive deficits. Research suggests that multilingualism can influence neurocognitive performance. We examined the effects of TBI and bilingualism/monolingualism on a test of attention and cognitive speed (i.e., Symbol Digit Modalities Test; SDMT). Method The sample consisted of 55 healthy comparison (27 Spanish-English bilinguals; 28 English-monolinguals), 34 acute TBI (14 Spanish-English bilinguals; 23 English-monolinguals), and 27 chronic TBI (13 Spanish-English bilinguals; 12 English-monolinguals) participants. Acute TBI participants were tested 6 months post-injury; chronic TBI participants were tested 12 months or more post-injury. A series of 3X2 ANOVAs were conducted to determine the effect of TBI and language on SDMT written and oral performance. Results ANOVAs revealed the healthy comparison group outperformed both TBI groups on SDMT written, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.21. Also, the healthy comparison and chronic TBI groups outperformed the acute TBI group on SDMT oral, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.13. Interaction effects emerged between TBI and bilingualism/monolingualism. On SDMT written and oral, acute TBI English-monolinguals outperformed acute TBI Spanish-English bilinguals; meanwhile, chronic TBI Spanish-English bilinguals outperformed chronic TBI English-monolinguals, p &amp;lt; 0.05, ηp2 = 0.09–0.10. Conclusion The acute TBI group performed worse than healthy comparison adults on both SDMT tasks. Furthermore, the chronic TBI group demonstrated better SDMT oral abilities compared to the acute TBI group. Relative to monolinguals with TBI, our findings suggest better cognitive recovery of attention and cognitive speed in bilingual TBI participants. Future studies with larger sample sizes should examine if learning English first or second impacts Spanish-English bilingual TBI survivors’ SDMT performance compared to English-monolingual TBI survivors. </jats:sec

A-112 Examining the Utility of the New Dot Counting Test Cut-off Score in Latinx and Traumatic Brain Injury

Abstract Objective The Dot Counting Test (DCT) is a performance validity test. McCaul et al. (2018) recently revised the DCT cut-off score from ≥17 to 13.80; we evaluated the new cut-off in non-Latinx Caucasian and Caucasian Latinx traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors and healthy comparison (HC) participants. Method The sample consisted of 37 acute TBI (ATBI; 11 Caucasian Latinx; 26 non-Latinx Caucasian), 27 chronic TBI (CTBI; 10 Caucasian Latinx; 17 non-Latinx Caucasian), and 55 HC (29 Caucasian Latinx; 26 non-Latinx Caucasian) participants. Results An ANCOVA, controlling for age, revealed no DCT E-scores differences between groups. Both the conventional and the new cut-off scores had different failure rates in ATBI (conventional cut-off: 0%; PNC: 16%), CTBI (conventional cut-off: 7%; PNC: 15%), and HC (conventional cut-off: 10%; PNC: 11%) participants. For the Caucasian Latinx group (conventional cut-off: 6%; PNC: 12%) and the non-Latinx Caucasian group (conventional cut-off: 6%; PNC: 14%), demonstrated different failure rates across cut-off scores. Group differences were found with the McCaul et al. (2018) cut-off and the conventional cut-off. Also, chi-squared analysis revealed non-Latinx Caucasian participants with ATBI had greater failure rates than Caucasian Latinx participants with ATBI. Conclusion The new DCT cut-off score resulted in greater failure rates in TBI survivors. Also, this effect appears to be most pronounced in non-Latinx Caucasian persons with ATBI. Future work should investigate possible reasons for these differences so that more stringent DCT can be utilized in a way that provides less biased results for brain injury survivors across racial and ethnic groups. </jats:sec

A-113 Evaluation of a Recognition Trial for the Symbol Digit Modalities Test as a Performance Validity Measure in Monolingual and Bilingual Traumatic Brain Injury Survivors

Abstract Objective Research shows that traumatic brain injury (TBI) patients perform worse than healthy comparisons (HC) on the Symbol Digit Modalities Test (SDMT). We evaluated cut-off scores for a newly developed recognition trial of the SDMT as a performance validity assessment in monolingual and bilingual TBI survivors and HC adults. Method The sample consisted of 43 acute TBI (ATBI; 24 monolinguals; 19 bilinguals), 32 chronic TBI (CTBI; 13 monolinguals; 19 bilinguals), and 57 HC (24 monolinguals; 33 bilinguals) participants. All participants received standardized administration of the SDMT. None of the participants displayed motivation for feigning cognitive deficits. Results The HC group outperformed both TBI groups on the demographically adjusted SDMT scores, p = 0.000, ηp2 = 0.24. An interaction emerged in SDMT scores where monolingual ATBI outperformed bilingual ATBI and bilingual CTBI outperformed monolingual CTBI, p = 0.017, ηp2 = 0.06. No differences were found in the SDMT recognition trial. Both Bichlmeier and Boone’s suggested cut-off scores had different failure rates in ATBI (Bichlmeier: 77%; Boone: 37%), CTBI (Bichlmeier: 69%; Boone: 19%), and HC (Bichlmeier: 56%; Boone: 26%). For the monolingual group (Bichlmeier: 66%; Boone: 36%) and the bilingual group (Bichlmeier: 66%; Boone: 21%). Finally, chi-squared analysis revealed monolingual TBI had greater failure rates than the bilingual ATBI. Conclusion Bichlmeier’s proposed cut-off score resulted in greater failure rates in TBI survivors compared to Boone’s suggested cut-off score. Furthermore, monolingual ATBI were influenced more by Bichlmeier’s cut-off score than the bilingual ATBI group, although the reason for this finding is unclear and requires additional study with a larger sample size. </jats:sec

A-109 Examining Relationship of Brain Injury, Anxiety and Workload on Trail Making Test Performances

Abstract Objective Both anxiety and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are both related to poorer Trail Making Test (TMT) performances. TBI survivors exhibit a greater incidence of anxiety in contrast to the general population. We evaluated the relationship between TBI and anxiety on TMT and perceived workload ratings. Method The sample consisted of 39 moderate-to-severe TBI [(21 with normal symptoms of anxiety (NSA) and 18 with abnormal symptoms of anxiety (ASA)] and 51 healthy comparison (HC; 26 NSA and 25 ASA) participants. Results ANCOVA’s, controlling for age, revealed the HC group outperformed the TBI group on TMT part A and TMT part B (TMT-B). An interaction emerged on TMT-B, with TBI-ASA participants outperformed TBI-NSA participants and HC-NSA participants outperformed their counterparts with ASA. Ratings of physical demand and frustration were reported higher in TBI participants compared to the HC participants. Moreover, TBI and anxiety symptoms had interactive effects on NASA-TLX temporal demand and frustration ratings, were TBI-ASA participants reported higher scores in contrast to TBI-NSA. Lastly, an interaction emerged with HC participants with ASA reporting better performances in contrast to HC-NSA. Conclusions As expected, TBI participants did worse on both TMT tasks. Next, we found that TBI-ASA participants impacted their TMT-B performance and their perceived workload (i.e., frustration, temporal demand) more than TBI-NSA participants. In the future, studies with a larger sample size should examine if anxiety influences TMT performance and perceived workload in person with mild TBI. </jats:sec