Life After Stroke: 5 tips for recovery and daily living

(Family Features) In the weeks and months immediately following a stroke, an early rehabilitation program offers the best possible recovery outcomes. While each person’s stroke recovery journey is unique, starting the path toward rehabilitation as soon as it’s medically safe allows stroke survivors to mitigate the lasting effects.

According to the American Stroke Association, a division of the American Heart Association, each year, approximately 800,000 people in the United States have a stroke. Strokes can happen to anyone, at any age. In fact, globally about 1 in 4 adults over the age of 25 will have a stroke in their lifetime.

Early Intervention
The rehabilitation and support a survivor receives can greatly influence health outcomes and recovery. The first three months after a stroke are especially critical. Although recovery may continue for years after a stroke, this time in the immediate aftermath of a stroke is when the brain is most able to adjust to the damage done by the stroke so the survivor can learn new ways to do things.

Physical, Communication and Cognitive Changes
Following a stroke, a survivor may experience physical changes, such as fatigue, seizures, weakness or paralysis on one side of the body or spasticity, stiff or rigid muscles which may cause difficulty with completing daily activities and tasks. If experiencing fatigue, speak with your health care provider about ways to reduce it. Your care team may also be able to provide medications to help with seizures and spasticity. Physical therapy is also an option.

Challenges after a stroke depend on the severity and location of the stroke. In addition to various physical disabilities, stroke survivors may experience aphasia, communication and thought problems related to speaking, listening, understanding or memory. Planning, organizing ideas or making decisions can also be harder.

“Remember to be patient when communicating with a stroke survivor,” said Elissa Charbonneau, M.S., D.O., chief medical officer of Encompass Health and an American Stroke Association national volunteer. “The impact of a stroke on cognitive, speech and language can be significant and isolating. When connecting with a stroke survivor, some helpful practices include demonstrating tasks, breaking actions into smaller steps, enunciating, asking multiple choice questions and repetition.”

Customized Rehabilitation
Once a stroke survivor’s medical condition is stabilized and he or she is ready to leave the hospital, rehabilitation can help restore function and teach new ways to complete everyday tasks. Rehabilitation may take place in an inpatient facility, skilled nursing facility or long-term acute care facility. Outpatient clinics and home health agencies can also provide rehabilitative care in certain circumstances.

One patient’s rehab journey might include therapy to improve balance, strength or mobility while another might need speech or other therapies. A rehabilitation designed for the individual is critical.

Preventing a Recurrence
After a first stroke, nearly 1 in 4 survivors will have another. Stroke survivors can help reduce their risk of having another stroke by working with their health care team to identify what caused the stroke and uncover personal risk factors.

Taking steps such as healthy eating, reducing sedentary time and taking medications as prescribed can help your brain and reduce your risk of a repeat stroke. Controlling conditions such as high blood pressure, diabetes and sleep apnea also reduce your risk of having another stroke.

Support During Your Journey
Caregivers and other loved ones can provide important long-term support during your recovery and rehabilitation.

Find resources for stroke rehab and recovery including the “Life After Stroke” guide, “Simply Good” cookbook and a support network to connect with other survivors at Stroke.org/Recovery.

 

Photo courtesy of Getty Images
 

SOURCE:
American Heart Association

A Twist on Traditional Burgers

Warm weather and grilling go hand-in-hand, and few dishes say summer like burgers. While traditional beef patties come to mind for many, there are also healthy protein options to satisfy that burger craving without sacrificing flavor.

For example, salmon is a nutritionally well-rounded alternative that offers a variety of health benefits, and an option like gluten-free Trident Seafoods Alaska Salmon Burgers are made with wild, sustainable, ocean-caught whole filets with no fillers and are lightly seasoned with a “just-off-the-grill,” smoky flavor. Topped with melted cheddar then piled on top of fresh arugula, peppered bacon and zesty mayo, these Alaskan Salmon Burgers with Peppered Bacon are a twist on tradition that can help you put a protein-packed, flavorful meal on the table in minutes.

Find more healthy seafood recipes at tridentseafoods.com.

Alaskan Salmon Burgers with Peppered Bacon

Prep time: 13 minutes
Servings: 4

• 1/2       cup mayonnaise
• 1 1/2    tablespoons lemon juice
• 1/2       teaspoon lemon zest
• salt
• pepper
• 1          box (11.2 ounces) Trident Seafoods Alaska Salmon Burgers
• 4          cheddar cheese slices
• 4          seeded burger buns, split and toasted
• 4          cups arugula
• 6          strips peppered bacon, cooked
• 12        bread-and-butter pickles, drained

1. In small bowl, combine mayonnaise, lemon juice and lemon zest. Season with salt and pepper. Set aside.
2. Cook salmon burgers according to package directions. When almost cooked through, top each with slice of cheese, cover and cook until melted.
3. Spread cut sides of buns with mayonnaise and top bottom buns with arugula. Cover with salmon burgers, bacon, pickles and top buns.

SOURCE:
Trident Seafoods

Why tornadoes are still hard to forecast – even though storm predictions are improving

A series of images in this photo montage shows the evolution of a tornado. JasonWeingart via Wikimedia, CC BY-SA

Chris Nowotarski, Texas A&M University

As a deadly tornado headed toward Rolling Fork, Mississippi, on March 24, 2023, forecasters saw the storm developing on radar and issued a rare “tornado emergency” warning. NOAA’s Weather Prediction and Storm Prediction centers had been warning for several days about the risk of severe weather in the region. But while forecasters can see the signs of potential tornadoes in advance, forecasting when and where tornadoes will form is still extremely difficult.

We asked Chris Nowotarski, an atmospheric scientist who works on severe thunderstorm computer modeling, to explain why – and how forecast technology is improving.

Why are tornadoes still so difficult to forecast?

Meteorologists have gotten a lot better at forecasting the conditions that make tornadoes more likely. But predicting exactly which thunderstorms will produce a tornado and when is harder, and that’s where a lot of severe weather research is focused today.

Often, you’ll have a line of thunderstorms in an environment that looks favorable for tornadoes, and one storm might produce a tornado but the others don’t.

The differences between them could be due to small differences in meteorological variables, such as temperature. Even changes in the land surface conditions – fields, forested regions or urban environments – could affect whether a tornado forms. These small changes in the storm environment can have large impacts on the processes within storms that can make or break a tornado.

One way scientists gather data for understanding tornadoes is by chasing storms. Annette Price/CIWRO, CC BY

One of the strongest predictors of whether a thunderstorm produces a tornado relates to vertical wind shear, which is how the wind changes direction or speed with height in the atmosphere.

How wind shear interacts with rain-cooled air within storms, which we call “outflow,” and how much precipitation evaporates can influence whether a tornado forms. If you’ve ever been in a thunderstorm, you know that right before it starts to rain, you often get a gust of cold air surging out from the storm. The characteristics of that cold air outflow are important to whether a tornado can form, because tornadoes typically form in that cooler portion of the storm.

How far in advance can you know if a tornado is likely to be large and powerful?

It’s complicated. Radar is still our biggest tool for determining when to issue a tornado warning – meaning a tornado is imminent in the area and people should seek shelter.

The vast majority of violent tornadoes form from supercells, thunderstorms with a deep rotating updraft, called a “mesocyclone.” Vertical wind shear can enable the midlevels of the storm to rotate, and upward suction from this mesocyclone can intensify the rotation within the storm’s outflow into a tornado.

If you have a supercell and it has strong rotation above the ground, that’s often a precursor to a tornado. Some research suggests that a wider mesocyclone is more likely to create a stronger, longer-lasting tornado than other storms.

Forecasters also look at the storm’s environmental conditions – temperature, humidity and wind shear. Those offer more clues that a storm is likely to produce a significant tornado.

What radar showed as a tornado headed toward Rolling Fork on March 24, 2023.

The percentage of tornadoes that receive a warning has increased over recent decades, due to Doppler radar, improved modeling and better understanding of the storm environment. About 87% of deadly tornadoes from 2003 to 2017 had an advance warning.

The lead time for warnings has also improved. In general, it’s about 10 to 15 minutes now. That’s enough time to get to your basement or, if you’re in a trailer park or outside, to find a safe facility. Not every storm will have that much lead time, so it’s important to get to shelter fast.

What are researchers discovering today about tornadoes that can help protect lives in the future?

If you think back to the movie “Twister,” in the early 1990s we were starting to do more field work on tornadoes. We were taking radar out in trucks and driving vehicles with roof-mounted instruments into storms. That’s when we really started to appreciate what we call the storm-scale processes – the conditions inside the storm itself, how variations in temperature and humidity in outflow can influence the potential for tornadoes.

Scientists can’t launch a weather balloon or send instruments into every storm, though. So, we also use computers to model storms to understand what’s happening inside. Often, we’ll run several models, referred to as ensembles. For instance, if nine out of 10 models produce a tornado, we know there’s a good chance the storm will produce tornadoes.

The National Severe Storms Laboratory has recently been experimenting with tornado warnings based on these models, called Warn-on-Forecast, to increase the lead time for tornado warnings.

An early warning can be the difference between life and death for people in homes without basements or cellars. Chandan Khanna/AFP via Getty Images

There are a lot of other areas of research. For example, to better understand how storms form, I do a lot of idealized computer modeling. For that, I use a model with a simplified storm environment and make small changes to the environment to see how that changes the physics within the storm itself.

There are also new tools in storm chasing. There’s been an explosion in the use of drones – scientists are putting sensors into unmanned aerial vehicles and flying them close to and sometimes into the storm.

The focus of tornado research has also shifted from the Great Plains – the traditional “tornado alley” – to the Southeast.

A map of severe tornadoes from 1986 to 2015 shows a large number in the Southeast. NOAA Storm Prediction Center

What’s different about tornadoes in the Southeast?

In the Southeast there are some different influences on storms compared with the Great Plains. The Southeast has more trees and more varied terrain, and also more moisture in the atmosphere because it’s close to the Gulf of Mexico. There tend to be more fatalities in the Southeast, too, because more tornadoes form at night.

We tend to see more tornadoes in the Southeast that are in lines of thunderstorms called “quasi-linear convective systems.” The processes that lead to tornadoes in these storms can be different, and scientists are learning more about that.

Some research has also suggested the start of a climatological shift in tornadoes toward the Southeast. It can be difficult to disentangle an increase in storms from better technology spotting more tornadoes, though. So, more research is needed.

Chris Nowotarski, Associate Professor of Atmospheric Science, Texas A&M University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Teacher pensions are becoming a bigger share of educational costs

Teacher pensions cost nearly $66 billion in 2020. Jose Luis Pelaez Inc/Getty Images

Michael Addonizio, Wayne State University

The 2022 stock market plunge has taken a toll on some of the nation’s largest state and municipal pension funds, making it harder for governments to pay for future retirement benefits to millions of K-12 teachers and other public employees.

Here, Michael Addonizio, an education policy expert at Wayne State University, provides insight on how teacher pensions are affecting K-12 school budgets overall and what, if anything, can be done to better manage pension systems and close funding gaps.

1. Is there enough money to pay teacher pensions?

Yes and no. There is enough money to pay pension benefits to current retirees. But there is not enough money to pay all promised benefits to future retirees.

U.S. teacher pension funds collectively manage about US$3 trillion in assets. These dollars are invested in various ways – stocks, bonds, real estate, foreign currency, and other ways. But these assets held by the retirement plans are generally less than the plans’ liabilities – that is, the projected cost of benefits promised to future retirees. As of 2022, this gap between assets and liabilities is about $878 billion. Put another way, the ratio of assets to liabilities is about 77%. This ratio is down from about 84% in 2021, but is higher than any other year since 2008.

The amount spent on teacher retirement costs in 2020 – $65.9 billion – represented 5.5% of total state and local K-12 spending.

The problem is that these retirement costs have been growing faster than total K-12 expenditures for decades. In 2001, retirement costs amounted to only 1.3% of total state and local school spending.

The growth in teacher retirement costs is due mostly to an increase in payments for unfunded pension liabilities, often referred to as pension debt. This is the amount of money that states and municipalities pay annually into their retirement systems to cover previously unfunded liabilities – that is, the shortfall that a pension fund needs to pay all future promised benefits.

2. How do these pension funding shortfalls occur?

Every year, pension planners have to make assumptions about how fast teacher salaries will grow, how many teachers will teach long enough to qualify for a pension, how long qualified retired teachers will live and collect benefits and how the pension fund’s investments will perform. If all these assumptions are correct and the plan’s expected assets cover its expected liabilities, the plan is considered fully funded.

But the typical teacher pension plan has not been fully funded at any point since about the year 2000. Overly optimistic investment assumptions are often the biggest part of unfunded liabilities. In response, states or big cities often redirect money from school operating budgets into the pension funds. But these governments often fail to make these payments in full.

States and cities face fiscal pressures from other spending demands and from tax collections that fail to keep pace. Pushing some unfunded pension liability costs into the future is often seen as less painful than cutting current government programs or raising taxes. But skimping on covering costs for future retirees often compounds the system’s liability problem over time.

In 2021, fully 69% of teacher retirement costs went to cover unfunded pension liabilities, up from 17% in 2001. In other words, the cost of future benefits is growing faster than the cost of current-year benefits.

Could it be due to increasingly generous retirement benefits? No. A recent report by the Equable Institute, a bipartisan nonprofit that studies public pensions and advises employees, communities and policymakers, concludes that the average value of lifetime benefits for new teachers is about $100,000 less than for their more senior colleagues.

Rather, unfunded pension liabilities can rise because of downturns in the financial market, lowering the systems’ investment earnings. Also, they may increase when schools hire more teachers and support staff, increasing the numbers of workers in the pension system. It can also be due to the rising cost of borrowing,

3. What does this mean for education funding?

As more public dollars flow to teacher retirement systems, fewer resources are available for schools and classrooms. From 2002 to 2020, total state and local K-12 spending rose 33%, while teacher retirement spending rose 220%. Nationally, and in most states, teacher pension costs have been rising faster than K-12 spending for the past two decades. States then take money from state funds normally dedicated to school operations and move them to the pension fund. The result has been less spending for school operations, in the form of either spending cuts or a smaller share of a growing spending pie.

For example, in the 2022-23 fiscal year, my state of Michigan will pay nearly $3 billion from the state School Aid Fund into the state-administered Public School Employees Retirement System to cover future pension costs. However, while this move will lower the amount of unfunded liabilities in the system, these dollars will come directly from state funds intended to support general K-12 school operations.

This practice has been repeated in many states over the past two decades. According to the Equable Institute study, the “hidden cuts” of using K-12 funds to cover pension costs have risen from $457 per student in 2001 to $1,290 per student in 2021 – a 182% increase in constant 2021 dollars.

4. How can the problem be solved?

The solutions rest with the states, and there is no “one size fits all” remedy. Each state has its own K-12 funding system and teacher retirement plans, which are governed by many rules that are embedded in state constitutions and laws. These state laws vary. For example, teachers in 15 states, including California and Texas, aren’t covered by the Social Security system. But there are some common issues and ways to address them.

One common problem is transparency. While it’s usually relatively easy to see how much states, districts and schools are spending for operations, it’s much more difficult to find public data on teacher retirement costs, particularly pension liability costs, because the data is remarkably scarce.

Pension dollars are as much a part of public education budgets as spending on teacher and staff salaries, books, buses and the rest. Careful monitoring and reporting of pension costs, both payments and liabilities, may improve management of these costs before they inflict more damage on budgets for teaching and learning.

Secondly, many states have reduced their financial support for K-12 schools in recent years. The share of personal income given to K-12 schools has steadily declined since the 2007-2009 Great Recession in 39 states.

States could protect school operating budgets by using general fund revenue to pay pension liability costs, not dedicated K-12 aid. Local districts could be responsible for the cost of current-year retirement benefits but cannot do much to manage unfunded pension liabilities. States could cover pension debt costs without reducing state aid for school operations, but it would require raising taxes or cutting programs in other areas.

To begin moving in this direction, states could restore their pre-recession levels of tax effort for K-12 education. A recent study by researchers from Rutgers University, the University of Miami and the Albert Shanker Institute concluded that had all states done this by 2016, schools would have reaped $288 billion in added funding.

Trading off pension support against school operating funds is not an inevitable result of rising pension costs. Whether states have the economic means or political will to address this problem effectively remains to be seen.

Michael Addonizio, Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Wayne State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

4-day work week trials have been labelled a ‘resounding success’. But 4 big questions need answers

Shutterstock

Anthony Veal, University of Technology Sydney

A little more than a century ago, most people in industrialised countries worked 60 hours a week – six ten-hour days. A 40-hour work week of five eight-hour days became the norm, along with increased paid holidays, in the 1950s.

These changes were made possible by massive increases in productivity and hard-fought struggles by workers with bosses for a fair share of the expanding economic pie.

In the 1960s and ‘70s it was expected that this pattern would continue. It was even anticipated that, by the year 2000, there would be a “leisure society”. Instead, the trend towards reduced working hours ground to a halt.

But now there are suggestions we are on the cusp of another great leap forward – a 32-hour, four-day week for the same pay as working five days. This is sometimes referred to as the “100-80-100” model. You will continue to be paid 100% of your wages in return for working 80% of the hours but maintaining 100% production.

In Spain and Scotland, political parties have won elections with the promise of trialling a four-day week, although a similar move in the 2019 UK general election was unsuccessful. In Australia, a Senate committee inquiry has recommended a national trial of the four-day week.

Hopes of the four-day week becoming reality have been buoyed by glowing reports about the success of four-day week trials, in which employers have reported cutting hours but maintaining productivity.

However, impressive as the trial results may appear, it’s still not clear whether the model would work across the economy.

An employer-led movement

Unlike previous campaigns for a shorter work week, the four-day workweek movement is being led by employers in a few, mainly English-speaking, countries. Notable is Andrew Barnes, owner of a New Zealand financial services company, who founded the “4-Day Week Global” organisation.

It has coordinated a program of four-day week trials in six countries (Australia, Canada, Ireland, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States). Almost 100 companies and more than 3,000 employees have been involved. (A highly publicised trial in Iceland was not coordinated by it.)

These trials are being monitored by an “international collaboration” of research teams at three universities: Boston College, Cambridge University, and University College Dublin. The Boston College team is led by work-time/leisure-time guru Juliet Schor, author of the 1991 bestseller The Overworked American.

A number of reports have been published, including one “global” report covering all six countries, and separate reports for the UK and Ireland]. A report on the Australian trial is promised for April.

The latest report from the 4 Day Week Global organisation. 4 Day Week Global

Overall, these reports have declared the trials a “resounding success” – both for employers and employees.

Employees, unsurprisingly, were overwhelmingly positive. They reported less stress, burnout, fatigue and work-family conflict, and better physical and mental health.

More significant were the employers’ responses. They have generally reported improved employee morale and no loss of revenue. Nearly all have committed to, or are considering, continuing with the four-day-week model.

Four big questions

The trials do not, however, answer all the questions about the viability of the four-day week. The four main ones are as follows.

First, are the research results reliable?

Employers and employees were surveyed at the start, halfway through and at the end of the six-month trials. But only about half of the employees and two-thirds of employers completed the vital final round. So there’s some uncertainty about their representativeness.

Second, did the participating firms demonstrate the key productivity proposition: an increase of almost 20% in output per employee per hour worked?

The firms involved were not asked to provide “output” data, just revenue. This may be a reasonable substitute. But it may also have been affected by price movements (inflation was on the march in 2022).

Third, for those firms that achieved the claimed productivity increase, how did it come about? And is it sustainable?

Proponents of the four-day week argue that employees are more productive because they work in a more concentrated way, ignoring distractions. A much longer period than six months will be needed to establish whether this more intense work pattern is sustainable.

Fourth, is the four-day model likely to be applicable across the whole economy?

This is the key question, the answer to which will only emerge over time. The organisations involved in the trials were self-selected and unrepresentative of the economy as a whole. They employed mostly office-based workers. Almost four-fifths were in managerial, professional, IT and clerical occupations. Organisations in other sectors, with different occupational profiles, may find increased productivity through more intensive working difficult to emulate.

Take manufacturing: only three firms from this sector were included in the large UK trial. Since manufacturing has been subject to efficiency studies and labour-saving investment for a century or more, an overall 20% “efficiency gain” to be had across the board seems unlikely.

The productivity gains achieved in office environments may harder to replicate in other settings such as manufacturing. Shutterstock

Then there are sectors that provide face-to-face services to the public, often seven days a week. They cannot close for a day, and their work intensity is often governed by health and safety concerns. Reduced hours are unlikely to be covered by individual productivity increases. To maintain operating hours, either staff will have to work overtime or more staff would need to be employed.

As for the public sector, in Australia and other countries “efficiency savings” involving budget cuts of about 2% a year have been common for decades. Any “slack” is likely to have been already squeezed out of the system. Again, reducing standard hours would result in the need to pay overtime rates or recruit extra staff, at extra cost.

So what now?

This does not mean the four-day week could not spread through the economy.

One scenario is that it could spread in those workplaces and sectors where productivity gains are achievable.

Those employers and sectors not offering reduced hours would find it harder to recruit staff. They would need to reduce hours, perhaps by stages, to compete. In the absence of productivity gains, they would be forced to absorb the extra costs or pass them on in increased prices.

The pace at which such change takes place would depend, as it always has, on the level of economic growth, productivity trends and labour market conditions.

But it is unlikely to happen overnight. And, as always, it will be accompanied by many employers and their representatives claiming the sky is about to fall in.

Anthony Veal, Adjunct Professor, Business School, University of Technology Sydney

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Moving in with your partner? Talking about these 3 things first can smooth the way, according to a couples therapist

Before the boxes are packed, you should square your expectations. Tara Moore/DigitalVision via Getty Images

Kristina S. Brown, Adler University

Partners who live together typically come to this significant place in their relationship in one of two ways – what some clinicians call “sliding versus deciding.” Moving in together can just kind of happen without too much thought, or it can be carefully considered and planned.

Some couples may see living together as a test for future marriage. For others, marriage is not a goal, so living together may be the ultimate statement of their commitment.

I have been a relationship therapist and researcher for over 25 years, specializing in intimate relationships. Based on my research and clinical experience, I recommend that couples discuss the significance of sharing a home before they merge households. Doing so gives partners an opportunity to set realistic expectations, negotiate household roles and practice their communication.

My colleagues and I developed a list of topics partners should talk about before moving in together – or even after, if the moving boxes are already unpacked. These topics are organized into three main categories.

1. Expectations

Why do you want to move in together? What is the purpose? Will it lead to marriage? Many relationships struggle with the intersection of reality and expectation.

Clients tell me that their expectations of living together are often based on what they grew up with – for example, “My mom had dinner on the table every evening at 6 p.m. I expect the same of my partner.” Expectations also extend to intimacy, such as, “Now that we are sharing a bed, we can have sex all the time.”

Conversations about what this stage of commitment means for the relationship and how it affects each individual’s identity are part of this negotiation. Is moving in together “practice” for marriage? Are we moving into one of our current places, or finding a new home together? How will we split up the household finances? How frequently will we be intimate? Will we get a pet?

Understanding what will and won’t change helps smooth this transition, making space for conversations about the nitty-gritty of living together.

2. Household roles

As people launch from their childhood homes, the household rules they grew up with – both the ones they liked and the ones they hated – tend to come along for the ride.

Decide who will do what. lorenzoantonucci/iStock via Getty Images Plus

It’s important for couples to talk about how they plan to handle mundane day-to-day tasks, such as dishes, trash, cooking, cleaning and so on. My colleagues and I recommend couples start these conversations by stating their strengths. If you like grocery shopping but hate cooking, first offer to do what you prefer. Talk through the different needs of your household – including finances, pets, kids, cars and so on – and try to find some balance in the division of responsibilities.

During these negotiations, remember to keep in mind each person’s obligations outside of the home. For example, if one person stays at home or has summers off, take that into consideration in determining balance.

I once worked with a couple where one partner wanted her spouse “to be less of an asshole.” When we dug a bit deeper, what she really wanted was for him to vacuum. Talking further, they began to understand that their household rules were neither balanced nor accommodating of the ebbs and flows of their lifestyle, family needs and professional demands.

3. Communication

Perhaps the most important conversation to have is actually about communication. How responsive do I expect my partner to be when I text them? How do I tell them I really need alone time? When can I talk to them about my changing needs?

This can be an excellent time to reach out to a couple and family therapist to help negotiate some of these issues. Many times, the hurtful comments people make to one another are really about expectations, fear and the anxiety of the unknown. Talking about the best way to recognize and meet your partner’s needs and concerns invites collaboration and unity, which ultimately strengthens the relationship.

Good communication is key to healthy long-term relationships. JGI/Tom Grill/Tetra Images via Getty Images

People and relationships change over time. Everyone is affected by their own life experiences, one of which can be moving in with a partner. Communication and empathy are key as expectations shift and evolve. This continues to be true as couples hit transitions throughout their lives.

Big things like moving, graduating, getting a new job and having children, as well as little things, like choosing which TV shows to watch or trying out a new recipe, are important topics to have conversations about. Developing good communication skills can serve as the foundation for navigating the trials and tribulations relationships bring.

And it’s never too late to start having these conversations – even if you’re already living together.

Kristina S. Brown, Professor and Chair of Couple and Family Therapy, Adler University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Watermarking ChatGPT, DALL-E and other generative AIs could help protect against fraud and misinformation

Images generated by AI systems, like these fake photos of Donald Trump being arrested (he hasn’t been arrested), can be a dangerous source of misinformation. AP Photo/J. David Ake

Hany Farid, University of California, Berkeley

Shortly after rumors leaked of former President Donald Trump’s impending indictment, images purporting to show his arrest appeared online. These images looked like news photos, but they were fake. They were created by a generative artificial intelligence system.

Generative AI, in the form of image generators like DALL-E, Midjourney and Stable Diffusion, and text generators like Bard, ChatGPT, Chinchilla and LLaMA, has exploded in the public sphere. By combining clever machine-learning algorithms with billions of pieces of human-generated content, these systems can do anything from create an eerily realistic image from a caption, synthesize a speech in President Joe Biden’s voice, replace one person’s likeness with another in a video, or write a coherent 800-word op-ed from a title prompt.

Even in these early days, generative AI is capable of creating highly realistic content. My colleague Sophie Nightingale and I found that the average person is unable to reliably distinguish an image of a real person from an AI-generated person. Although audio and video have not yet fully passed through the uncanny valley – images or models of people that are unsettling because they are close to but not quite realistic – they are likely to soon. When this happens, and it is all but guaranteed to, it will become increasingly easier to distort reality.

In this new world, it will be a snap to generate a video of a CEO saying her company’s profits are down 20%, which could lead to billions in market-share loss, or to generate a video of a world leader threatening military action, which could trigger a geopolitical crisis, or to insert the likeness of anyone into a sexually explicit video.

The technology to make fake videos of real people is becoming increasingly available.

Advances in generative AI will soon mean that fake but visually convincing content will proliferate online, leading to an even messier information ecosystem. A secondary consequence is that detractors will be able to easily dismiss as fake actual video evidence of everything from police violence and human rights violations to a world leader burning top-secret documents.

As society stares down the barrel of what is almost certainly just the beginning of these advances in generative AI, there are reasonable and technologically feasible interventions that can be used to help mitigate these abuses. As a computer scientist who specializes in image forensics, I believe that a key method is watermarking.

Watermarks

There is a long history of marking documents and other items to prove their authenticity, indicate ownership and counter counterfeiting. Today, Getty Images, a massive image archive, adds a visible watermark to all digital images in their catalog. This allows customers to freely browse images while protecting Getty’s assets.

Imperceptible digital watermarks are also used for digital rights management. A watermark can be added to a digital image by, for example, tweaking every 10th image pixel so that its color (typically a number in the range 0 to 255) is even-valued. Because this pixel tweaking is so minor, the watermark is imperceptible. And, because this periodic pattern is unlikely to occur naturally, and can easily be verified, it can be used to verify an image’s provenance.

Even medium-resolution images contain millions of pixels, which means that additional information can be embedded into the watermark, including a unique identifier that encodes the generating software and a unique user ID. This same type of imperceptible watermark can be applied to audio and video.

The ideal watermark is one that is imperceptible and also resilient to simple manipulations like cropping, resizing, color adjustment and converting digital formats. Although the pixel color watermark example is not resilient because the color values can be changed, many watermarking strategies have been proposed that are robust – though not impervious – to attempts to remove them.

Watermarking and AI

These watermarks can be baked into the generative AI systems by watermarking all the training data, after which the generated content will contain the same watermark. This baked-in watermark is attractive because it means that generative AI tools can be open-sourced – as the image generator Stable Diffusion is – without concerns that a watermarking process could be removed from the image generator’s software. Stable Diffusion has a watermarking function, but because it’s open source, anyone can simply remove that part of the code.

OpenAI is experimenting with a system to watermark ChatGPT’s creations. Characters in a paragraph cannot, of course, be tweaked like a pixel value, so text watermarking takes on a different form.

Text-based generative AI is based on producing the next most-reasonable word in a sentence. For example, starting with the sentence fragment “an AI system can…,” ChatGPT will predict that the next word should be “learn,” “predict” or “understand.” Associated with each of these words is a probability corresponding to the likelihood of each word appearing next in the sentence. ChatGPT learned these probabilities from the large body of text it was trained on.

Generated text can be watermarked by secretly tagging a subset of words and then biasing the selection of a word to be a synonymous tagged word. For example, the tagged word “comprehend” can be used instead of “understand.” By periodically biasing word selection in this way, a body of text is watermarked based on a particular distribution of tagged words. This approach won’t work for short tweets but is generally effective with text of 800 or more words depending on the specific watermark details.

Generative AI systems can, and I believe should, watermark all their content, allowing for easier downstream identification and, if necessary, intervention. If the industry won’t do this voluntarily, lawmakers could pass regulation to enforce this rule. Unscrupulous people will, of course, not comply with these standards. But, if the major online gatekeepers – Apple and Google app stores, Amazon, Google, Microsoft cloud services and GitHub – enforce these rules by banning noncompliant software, the harm will be significantly reduced.

Signing authentic content

Tackling the problem from the other end, a similar approach could be adopted to authenticate original audiovisual recordings at the point of capture. A specialized camera app could cryptographically sign the recorded content as it’s recorded. There is no way to tamper with this signature without leaving evidence of the attempt. The signature is then stored on a centralized list of trusted signatures.

Although not applicable to text, audiovisual content can then be verified as human-generated. The Coalition for Content Provenance and Authentication (C2PA), a collaborative effort to create a standard for authenticating media, recently released an open specification to support this approach. With major institutions including Adobe, Microsoft, Intel, BBC and many others joining this effort, the C2PA is well positioned to produce effective and widely deployed authentication technology.

The combined signing and watermarking of human-generated and AI-generated content will not prevent all forms of abuse, but it will provide some measure of protection. Any safeguards will have to be continually adapted and refined as adversaries find novel ways to weaponize the latest technologies.

In the same way that society has been fighting a decadeslong battle against other cyber threats like spam, malware and phishing, we should prepare ourselves for an equally protracted battle to defend against various forms of abuse perpetrated using generative AI.

Hany Farid, Professor of Computer Science, University of California, Berkeley

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Russia wants military aid from China – here’s why this deal could help China, too

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, left, met with his then-Chinese counterpart, Wang Yi, in March 2022 in Huangshan. STR/CCTV/AFP via Getty Images

Michael A. Allen, Boise State University

China is considering sending weapons, ammunition and drones to Russia, according to information the Biden administration declassified at the end of February 2023.

China’s military aid would directly support Russia’s war in Ukraine.

This public disclosure, emerging less than a month after the U.S. navy shot down a Chinese balloon that allegedly was being used for spying purposes, further heightened existing tensions between the U.S. and China.

It also comes as Russia is facing mounting costs in its war on Ukraine – both financial and in human lives.

These setbacks have pushed Russia to seek help where the government can find it.

Russia has tried to secure weapons and other military support from allies such as North Korea and neighboring country Belarus. Russia has also turned to neutral countries like India and China to whom it can sell its oil and gas and bring in more money.

China has not publicly announced a decision to give military aid to Russia.

I am a scholar of international relations whose work focuses on the increasing competition between the U.S. and China. Based on my research, I’m certain Russia would welcome any assistance China would offer. China’s decision about whether to get involved in the Ukraine war will be carefully calculated, factoring in potential long-term benefits, risks and the influence of Western powers.

But I think that China’s choice in supporting Russia or not chiefly comes down to two considerations: how the Ukraine conflict will affect China’s overall growth in world politics, and its interest in invading Taiwan.

Russia’s Sergei Lavrov sits across the table from China’s Qin Gang in March 2023 while in New Delhi for a meeting of foreign ministers from the world’s largest industrialized and developing nations. Russian Foreign Ministry Press/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

China’s official stance

Massive military aid to a struggling army is not cheap. The U.S. spent over US$75 billion on aid to Ukraine in 2022. But despite the costs of war, China is considering supplying Russia military hardware for a few reasons.

Economically, China’s interests in Russia include money, energy and trade opportunities.

During the Cold War, the U.S. successfully drove a wedge between the two countries. However, after the Cold War, Russia and China grew closer and became economically interconnected.

Since Russia first launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, China has appeared to maintain a “pro-Russia” neutrality. That is, China is officially neutral and not contributing to the conflict, but its government officials are still echoing Russia’s war narrative and propaganda, while ignoring what Ukraine is telling the world.

China has criticized Western interference in the war. It has also proposed a peace plan for the conflict – which does not actually call for Russia to withdraw its troops from Ukraine.

So far, China has stopped short of sending military aid to Russia. Reversing course would be a substantive departure from China’s previous policy of official neutrality.

Russian President Vladimir Putin reviews a military guard with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing in 2018. Greg Baker/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

A common adversary

Russian success in Ukraine would align with China’s goals of reshaping global politics and power, and could help facilitate China’s own rise as an economic and military leader.

In February 2022, Chinese President Xi Jinping met with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Winter Olympics in Beijing. They issued a joint document calling for reshaping global politics. The lengthy statement details shared values and a vision for a world without the United States as a major leader, and where China and Russia gain more control and influence.

China’s and Russia’s foreign ministers met on March 2, 2023, and China’s government released a statement that reiterated this point, saying that the two countries “have maintained sound and steady development, setting a new paradigm for a new type of major-country relationship.”

Political scientists and human rights scholars do not consider Russia or China to be democracies or politically free. But both countries have lauded their own traditions of democracy and say they stand opposed to a world where the U.S. asserts its version of democracy and human rights as the only option.

Chinese military helicopters fly nearby Taiwan in August 2022. Hector Retamal/AFP via Getty Images

The Taiwan factor

Another reason China may want Russia to succeed in Ukraine is that a Russian victory would give China more external support in any plans to overtake Taiwan or other territories. Taiwan is an island off the coast of China that claims independence, but China maintains it is simply a breakaway province that it wants to regain control over.

If Russia had won the Ukraine war as quickly as it initially planned, this might have paved the way for China to attempt a similar invasion of Taiwan. But there was no quick victory.

Yet a prolonged Russia-Ukraine war may present a new kind of opportunity for China in Taiwan by diverting U.S. money, military resources and attention away from the island.

Chinese Foreign Minister Qin Gang argued on March 7, 2023, that because the U.S. sells weapons to Taiwan, this justifies China selling weapons to Russia.

Some critics have noted that U.S. aid to Ukraine makes it harder for the U.S. to justify defending Taiwan if China attempts to overtake it.

While China invading Taiwan appears unlikely in the short term – and some experts say such a move would be disastrous for China – both the U.S. and China have a vested interest in the fate of Taiwan and the surrounding region.

The U.S. and China have made recent moves to establish more military presence in the South China Sea region. China has increased its display of military force surrounding Taiwan. The United States recently announced it would deploy troops and military equipment in the Philippines, a strategic military base that is close to Taiwan.

Western pressure

In the past few months, the Biden administration and other Western powers have warned China that it should not get involved in the Ukraine conflict.

In March 2023, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz publicly warned China that there would be consequences if it gets involved.

Given that China has not yet officially stepped forward to support Russia, these efforts appear successful.

However, research has shown that countries intervene in conflicts when they think their interests may be affected and when they can make a difference. This could be a factor that pushes China to become more involved in Russia’s battle.

Michael A. Allen, Professor of Political Science, Boise State University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

6 Steps to Get Better Sleep and Improve Heart Health

There’s more to maintaining a healthy heart than just eating right and exercising regularly. While these practices play an important role in both cardiovascular and overall health and well-being, getting a good night’s sleep is also key.

“Getting a good night’s sleep every night is vital to cardiovascular health,” said Donald M. Lloyd-Jones, M.D., Sc.M., FAHA, past volunteer president of the American Heart Association and chair of the department of preventive medicine, the Eileen M. Foell Professor of Heart Research and professor of preventive medicine, medicine and pediatrics at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine. “Adults should aim for an average of 7-9 hours, and babies and kids need more depending on their age.”

However, more than 1 in 3 adults in the United States are not getting the recommended 7-9 hours of sleep per night, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). In addition to increasing risk for cardiovascular conditions like high blood pressure, heart disease, heart attack and stroke, lack of sleep may also put people at risk of depression, cognitive decline, diabetes and obesity.

While high blood pressure – a known risk factor of cardiovascular disease, the No. 1 cause of death worldwide – can run in families, it is more common in non-Hispanic Black adults (56%) than in non-Hispanic white adults (48%), non-Hispanic Asian adults (46%) or Hispanic adults (39%). Healthy lifestyle behaviors, including sleep, can help prevent the condition.

“We know that people who get adequate sleep manage other health factors better as well, such as weight, blood sugar and blood pressure,” Lloyd-Jones said. “The American Heart Association added sleep to the list of factors that support optimal cardiovascular health. We call these Life’s Essential 8, and they include: eating a healthy diet, not smoking or vaping, being physically active and getting adequate sleep along with controlling your blood pressure and maintaining healthy levels of cholesterol and lipids, healthy blood sugar levels and a healthy weight.”

What’s more, falling asleep at different times or sleeping an inconsistent number of hours each night, even variations of more than two hours a night within the same week, may also increase the risk of atherosclerosis, which is a cardiovascular condition where plaque builds up in the arteries, in those age 45 and older, according to research published in the “Journal of the American Heart Association.”

“Maintaining regular sleep schedules and decreasing variability in sleep is an easily adjustable lifestyle behavior that can not only help improve sleep, but also help reduce cardiovascular risk for aging adults,” said study lead author Kelsie Full, Ph.D., M.P.H., an assistant professor of medicine in the division of epidemiology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center.

Education about healthy heart habits from the American Heart Association is nationally supported by Elevance Health Foundation. Some practices to improve sleep health and impact heart health include:

Observe Current Sleep Habits

Keeping a sleep diary to help track your sleep patterns and habits can make it easier to identify factors that may be helping – or hurting – your sleep quality. Monitor what time you go to bed, what time you wake up in the morning, how many times you woke up during the night, how you felt when you woke up and any variables, such as changes to your routine or sleeping arrangements. Having documentation over the course of several weeks can help you identify necessary changes.

Avoid Food and Beverage Close to Bedtime

It can be more difficult to fall asleep if you’re still digesting dinner. To help reduce sleep disruptions caused by food, avoid late dinners and minimize fatty and spicy foods. Similarly, keep an eye on caffeine intake and avoid it later in the day when it can be a barrier to falling asleep.

Exercise Regularly

Physical activity during the day can have a noticeable impact on overall health and wellness but can also make it easier to sleep at night as it can initiate changes in energy use and body temperature. However, exercising too close to bedtime may hinder your body’s ability to settle; aim to have your workout complete at least four hours before you plan to head to bed.

Establish a Bedtime Routine

Getting a good night’s rest often requires getting into a routine. Start by setting an alarm to indicate it’s time to start winding down. Rather than heading straight to bed, take time to create a to-do list for the following day and knock out a few small chores. Then consider implementing a calming activity like meditating, journaling or reading (not on a tablet or smartphone) before drifting off to sleep. Also set an alarm to wake each morning, even on weekends, and avoid hitting the snooze button to keep your biological rhythms synced.

Create a Comfortable Sleep Space

The ideal space for sleeping is dark, quiet and a comfortable temperature, typically around 65 F depending on the individual. Use room-darkening curtains or a sleep mask to block light and ear plugs, a fan or a white noise machine to help drown out distracting noises. Remember, using your bed only for sleep and sex can help establish a strong mental association between your bed and sleep.

Avoid Tech Before Bed

The bright light of televisions, computers and smartphones can mess with your Circadian rhythm and keep you alert when you should be winding down. Try logging off electronic devices at least one hour before bedtime and use the “do not disturb” function to avoid waking up to your phone throughout the night. Better yet, charge devices away from your bed or in another room entirely.

Find more tips to take control of your blood pressure and create healthy sleep habits at Heart.org.

Photo courtesy of Getty Images

SOURCE:
American Heart Association

Satisfy Guests with a Savory Snack and Wine Pairing

Satisfy Guests with a Savory Snack and Wine Pairing

Pairing an easy, delicious appetizer with the perfect wine doesn’t have to be as difficult as it sounds. When you’re ready to elevate your home entertaining, turn to a simplistic recipe featuring fresh, bold flavors.

Developed by sommelier and founder of “The Lush Life,” Sarah Tracey, this Whipped Goat Cheese Salsa Dip is part of her “Dips and Sips” partnership with Fresh Cravings, makers of authentic-tasting chilled salsas offering a vibrant alternative to soft, dull blends of jarred salsa, flavor-filled hummus, plant-based vegan dips and veggie-packed creamy dips.

“When I entertain at home, I’m always looking for ways to impress my friends with fresh, creative bites I can pair with wine,” Tracey said. “My favorite hack is finding great products with high-quality ingredients then creating simple, elevated ways to serve them. The less time I spend in the kitchen, the more time I get to spend with my guests.”

Ready in just 15 minutes and paired with a rosé, this savory recipe provides an ideal way to satisfy guests without spending too much time in the kitchen. Plus, with goat cheese at the heart of the dip, it’s a delicious way to capitalize on trendy butter boards with an approachable main ingredient.

Visit FreshCravings.com to discover more entertaining-worthy recipes and pairing ideas.

Whipped Goat Cheese Salsa Dip
Recipe courtesy of Sarah Tracey
Total time: 15 minutes
Servings: 6

• 1          goat cheese log (8 ounces), softened at room temperature
• 1          pinch sea salt
• 1/2       cup heavy cream
• Fresh Cravings Chunky Salsa, Mild
• 1/2       cup toasted pine nuts (optional)
• 1          bunch fresh parsley, chopped (optional)
• crackers, chips or vegetables
• 19 Crimes Snoop Dogg Rosé

1. In food processor or blender, blend goat cheese with sea salt and 2 tablespoons heavy cream. If mixture is too firm, add cream little by little while pulsing blender until light, fluffy consistency is reached.
2. Spread whipped goat cheese into shallow serving dish or onto board.
3. Top with salsa.
4. Garnish with toasted pine nuts and fresh parsley, if desired.
5. Serve with crackers, chips or veggies. Pair with rosé.

SOURCE:
Fresh Cravings