My bitterness is deeper than the ocean : understanding internalized stigma from the perspectives of persons with schizophrenia and their family caregivers.

Background: It is estimated that 8 million of the Chinese adult population had a diagnosis of schizophrenia. Stigma associated with mental illness, which is pervasive in the Chinese cultural context, impacts both persons with schizophrenia and their family caregivers. However, a review of the literature found a dearth of research that explored internalized stigma from the perspectives of both patients and their caregivers. Methods: We integrated data from standardized scales and narratives from semi-structured interviews obtained from eight family-dyads. Interview narratives about stigma were analyzed using directed content analysis and compared with responses from Chinese versions of the Internalized Stigma of Mental Illness Scale and Affiliated Stigma Scale. Scores from the two scales and number of text fragments were compared to identify consistency of responses using the two methods. Profiles from three family-dyads were analyzed to highlight the interactive aspect of stigma in a dyadic relationship. Results: Our analyses suggested that persons with schizophrenia and their caregivers both internalized negative valuation from their social networks and reduced engagement in the community. Participants with schizophrenia expressed a sense of shame and inferiority, spoke about being a burden to their family, and expressed self-disappointment as a result of having a psychiatric diagnosis. Caregivers expressed high level of emotional distress because of mental illness in the family. Family dyads varied in the extent that internalized stigma were experienced by patients and caregivers. Conclusions: Family plays a central role in caring for persons with mental illness in China. Given the increasingly community-based nature of mental health services delivery, understanding internalized stigma as a family unit is important to guide the development of cultural-informed treatments. This pilot study provides a method that can be used to collect data that take into consideration the cultural nuances of Chinese societies

INNOVATIVE AND PRIZE-WINNING EDUCATIONAL MUSIC ACTIVITIES IN SPECIAL EDUCATION THOUGHT THE ETWINNING PROJECT

The Thessaloniki Music School has been repeatedly awarded for its innovative activities in eTwinning programs in special music education. Students with visual impairments and with developmental disorders were encouraged to participate in these programs. Digital music was exchanged from many European countries and original musical compositions were produced and presented. The European and traditional music scores were presented for the first time in electronic Braille form. For students with learning difficulties and pervasive developmental disorders there were special educational presentations with a combination of special educational methods, Relationship Development Intervention, the Irlen method using light sensitivity, and Treatment and Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children (TEACCH method). The greatest achievement of the project was the composition of the e Twinning hymn whose lyrics are about friendship in various musical arrangements and languages. Our hymn was presented at concerts, conferences, the Grundtvig European workshop and was uploaded on websites. Article visualizations

Graduate Student Transcription of Accented Speech

There are many speech sound differences between Standard American English and English spoken by an individual from a different language background, who speaks with an accent. The purpose of this study is to research graduate students\u27 preparedness and ability to transcribe speech from varying cultural backgrounds. A transcription assessment was administered to current speech-language pathology graduate students with results compared to professionals in the field who completed the transcription based on both listening and spectrogram images. Graduate students were also surveyed regarding their phonetics education experiences. Overall, students were able to transcribe accented speech with 64.2% accuracy. Participants’ transcription of consonants (78.1% accuracy) was significantly better than their transcription of vowels (49.1% accuracy). Students used diacritic markers with 0% accuracy. Participant accuracy scores were influenced by the number of phonetics courses they had previously taken, the number of speakers they had experience transcribing, and how comfortable they felt with phonetic transcription. Through analyzing graduate students\u27 transcriptions of accented English speech from native Spanish, Italian, and Chinese speakers, the determination that students were unprepared to phonetically transcribe individuals with diverse linguistic backgrounds was made. Additional educational resources should be provided to students including more diverse transcription practices and diversity-focused continuing education opportunities. Additional research is recommended to include a larger, more diverse sample from an area with a high level of linguistic diversity and to include other speech sound differences and disorders encountered by speech-language pathologists

Effects of nucleosome remodeling factor ACF1 on in vivo chromatin organization

Eukaryotic genomes make use of nucleosomes to considerably reduce their packaging volumes. As a consequence, the underlying DNA is rendered inaccessible. Cells make use of ATP-dependent remodeling factors to disrupt histone-DNA contacts and bring about access to the DNA. ACF1 is the largest regulatory subunit of two nucleosome remodeling factors, namely ACF and CHRAC. These complexes assemble, slide or evenly space nucleosomes on DNA with an ability to sense the linker lengths. However, roles of ACF1 in organizing nucleosomes in vivo and their physiological consequences are largely unclear. To understand the roles of ACF1 on chromatin organization, I compared nucleosome occupancy and transcription profiles in wild-type and ACF1-deficient Drosophila embryos. To further investigate and corroborate these chromatin changes, I performed genomewide mapping of ACF1 using chromatin immunoprecipitation. Nucleosome occupancy was mapped by subjecting DNA obtained from MNase-digested chromatin to deep sequencing and the occupancies were analyzed using advanced analog signal processing methods. We found discontinuous and discrete patches of regularly positioned nucleosomes in wild-type tissue, referred to as ‘regularity regions’. These regions span actively transcribing and silent chromatin domains and show associated variation in the linker lengths across them. A subset of these regions located at sides remote from the transcriptional start sites loses regularity upon ACF1 deletion and show presence of a novel DNA sequence motif. Analyzing nucleosome periodicity by autocorrelation function revealed that nucleosome linker length is longer in ACF1-deficient embryos. Despite profound quantifiable changes in the chromatin organization the RNA expression analyses did not show any major changes. Genomewide localization of ACF1 was studied using by chromatin immunoprecipitation. We observed a strong enrichment of ACF1 along active promoter regions, coinciding strikingly well with another remodeling factor, RSF-1. However, careful analyses using mutant tissues for both proteins demonstrated that the observed enrichments were in fact false positive. We define 3100 genomic sites as false positive ‘Phantom Peaks’ that tend to enrich in the ChIP-seq experiments. By comparing publicly accessible profiles and the Phantom regions, we showed that several ChIP-seq profiles of the epigenetic regulators show strong enrichment along the Phantom Peaks. In conclusion, we identify regions of regularly organized nucleosomes across the genome and show that a subset localized in silent chromatin regions is affected by ACF1 deletion. Moreover, we identified a class of false positive ChIP-seq peaks at active promoters. This list of Phantom Peaks can be used to assess potential false positive signal in a ChIP-seq profile, especially when mutant tissue is not available as a control.Eukaryoten nutzen Nukleosomen um das Packvolumen ihres Genoms drastisch zu reduzieren. Dadurch wird die Zugänglichkeit der DNA stark eingeschränkt. Um bei Bedarf DNA-Abschnitte von Nukleosomen zu lösen nutzen eukaryotische Zellen ATP-abhängige Remodeling Faktoren. Zwei dieser Remodeling Faktoren, ACF und CHRAC, sind Multiproteinkomplexe und beinhalten als grösste Untereinheit das Protein ACF1. Beide Komplexe können Nukleosomen assemblieren, verschieben und mit gleichmässigen Abständen auf einem DNA-Strang anordnen. Es ist aber noch weitgehend unbekannt, was die genauen Funktionen dieser Komplexe in der lebenden Zelle sind, und wie sie dort die Nukleosomenorganisation beeinflussen. Um diese Fragen zu beantworten habe ich Nukleosomenverteilungen und Transkriptionsprofile in normalen und ACF1-mutanten Drosophilaembryonen bestimmt. Zusätzlich habe ich mit Hilfe der Chromatin-Immunopräzipitations-Methode (ChIP) untersucht, wo auf dem Genome ACF1 bindet. Die Nuklesomenverteilung wurde bestimmt, indem Embryonenchromatin mit MNase verdaut wurde, und die resultierenden DNA-Fragmente sequenziert wurden. Dabei haben wir herausgefunden, dass es verschiedene Regionen auf dem Genom mit sehr gleichmässig angeordneten Nukleosomen gibt. Wir nennen diese Regionen “regularity regions”. Sie sind sowohl in transkribiertem wie auch inaktivem Chromatin zu finden und haben unterschiedliche Nukleosomenlinkerlängen. Viele dieser regulären Regionen sind nur in normalen, aber nicht in ACF1-mutanten Embryonen zu finden. Diese ACF1-abhängigen regulären Chromatinabschnitte zeigen auch bislang unbekanntes DNA Motiv. Indem die Nukleosomenperiodizität mit einer Autokorrelationsfunktion bestimmt wurde, konnte gezeigt werden, dass der Nukleosomenlinker in ACF1-mutanten Embryonen länger als normal ist. Obwohl klare Defekte in der Chromatinorganisation in ACF1 Mutanten gefunden wurden, zeigte eine RNA-Expressionsanalyse keine grösseren Unterschiede zu normalen Embryonen. Die genomweite Verteilung von ACF1 wurde mit der ChIP-Methode untersucht. Wir haben dabei eine starke Anreicherung von ACF1 an aktiven Promotoren gefunden, sehr ähnlich wie beim verwandten Remodeling Faktor RSF-1. Nachdem wir aber die Experimente in ACF1 und RSF-1 mutanten Embryonen wiederholt hatten, und die Lokalisierung beider Faktoren an Promotoren immer noch zu sehen war, schlossen wir daraus, dass die beobachteten Anreicherungen falsch-positiv waren. Insgesamt haben wir in unseren ChIP-Experimenten an 3100 Stellen des Genoms falsch-positive “Phantom Peaks” gefunden. Indem wir verschiedene öffentlich zugängliche ChIP-Profile mit diesen “Phantom Peaks” verglichen haben, konnten wir zeigen, dass mehrere dieser Profile ein grosse Übereinstimmung mit den “Phantom Peaks” hatten. Wir haben also einerseits innerhalb des Fliegengenoms Regionen mit sehr gleichmässig angeordneten Nukleosomen gefunden und gezeigt, dass ein Teil davon die Regularität in der Absenz von ACF1 verliert. Darüberhinaus haben wir eine Klasse von falsch-positiven ChIP-Anreicherungen an aktiven Promotoren identifiziert: Diese Liste von “Phantom Peaks” kann nun dazu benutzt werden, potentiell falsch-positive Signale in ChIP-Experimenten zu identifizieren, vor allem wenn keine Kontrolle mit einer Nullmutante durchgeführt werden kann

A case study of students entering writing courses at College of Sequoias

The purpose of this qualitative research study is to discover whether English Language Learners\u27 (ELLs\u27), English as a Second Language (ESL) students\u27, and First Generation College Students\u27 (FGCSs\u27) participation in College of the Sequoias\u27 writing center encouraged or yielded students\u27 personal and professional involvement. The purpose of this study is to encourage faculty, staff, ESLs/ELLs/FGCSs, and community stakeholders to enroll in the services offered at the college discipline\u27s writing center. More specifically the research questions for this study are as follows: According to student and staff members, is the writing center at College of the Sequoias maintaining effective reading and writing tutoring services for English as Second Language (ESL) students? 1. According to student and staff members, is the writing center at College of the Sequoias maintaining effective reading and writing tutoring services for English Language Learner (ELL) students? 2. According to student and staff members, is the writing center at College of the Sequoias maintaining effective reading and writing tutoring services for First Generation College Students (FGCSs)? 3. According to student and staff members, does maintaining reading and writing tutoring services for ESL students, ELL students, and FGCSs encourage faculty members\u27 and tutors\u27 personal and professional involvement? 4. According to student and staff members, how can tutors help to develop writing and reading courses for ESL students, ELL students, and FGCSs? The conclusions of the study include: College of the Sequoias must acknowledge the need for transformational and transgressional learning. In order for the dominant ethnic and cultural background of students to be independent learners and thinkers an institutional school reform must be in action. The present study contributes to the literature regarding ESL/ELL/FGCS adult learning theories and practices and explores the need for additional pedagogical practices to be implemented for post-secondary instructors and staff members. This study also helps to establish the strengths and weaknesses inherent in multiculturalism and diverse learning theories

Teaching health science students foundation motivational interviewing skills: use of motivational interviewing treatment integrity and self-reflection to approach transformative learning

© 2015 Schoo et al. Open Access This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license, and indicate if changes were made. The Creative Commons Public Domain Dedication waiver (http:// creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/) applies to the data made available in this article, unless otherwise stated.BACKGROUND: Many undergraduate and graduate-entry health science curricula have incorporated training in motivational interviewing (MI). However, to effectively teach skills that will remain with students after they graduate is challenging. The aims of this study were to find out self-assessed MI skills of health students and whether reflecting on the results can promote transformative learning. METHODS: Thirty-six Australian occupational therapy and physiotherapy students were taught the principles of MI, asked to conduct a motivational interview, transcribe it, self-rate it using the Motivational Interviewing Treatment Integrity (MITI) tool and reflect on the experience. Student MI skills were measured using the reported MITI subscores. Student assignments and a focus group discussion were analysed to explore the student experience using the MITI tool and self-reflection to improve their understanding of MI principles. RESULTS: Students found MI challenging, although identified the MITI tool as useful for promoting self-reflection and to isolate MI skills. Students self-assessed their MI skills as competent and higher than scores expected from beginners. CONCLUSIONS: The results inform educational programs on how MI skills can be developed for health professional students and can result in transformative learning. Students may over-state their MI skills and strategies to reduce this, including peer review, are discussed. Structured self-reflection, using tools such as the MITI can promote awareness of MI skills and compliment didactic teaching methods