Songs of Eden

Songs of Eden is a collection of short poems that were written during the Spring of 2021 semester as an individual study under the direction of Dr. Teresa Kennedy. The course itself was titled “Songs of the Fall” and fell under the category of ENGL 491. The name of the individual study is a nod to both the fall of man, and the tradition of epic poetry. As such, the project itself centers around the opening chapters of Genesis, focalizing on the persons of Adam and Eve. The work is divided into two main sections, each written from the perspective of these two biblical figures. In order to inform the theological dimension of the Songs of Eden, the author consulted works by St. Augustine of Hippo, Origen, Philo of Alexandria, Irenaeus, and the opening chapters of Genesis. The artwork featured in the background is portions of the 1504 engraving Adam and Eve by Albrecht Dürer

Links Between Mental Health and Employment Outcomes among Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder

Problem: Mental health outcomes related to Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have been extensively researched, although most research in the area is on children with ASD. Studies on adults with ASD are scarcer. More specifically, studies that analyze the association between mental health and work-life balance (WLB) as well as mental health and job satisfaction (JS) among employed adults with ASD is limited. The purpose of this study was to analyze the association between mental health and WLB among adults with ASD, the association between mental health and perceived JS among adults with ASD, and whether or not ASD severity moderates these associations. Methods Methods: A Qualtrics survey was distributed via online platforms and communication with organizations with a focus on ASD. A 3-item measure for work-life balance (Haar et al., 2014) and a 5-item measure for job satisfaction (Judge et al., 2005) were used. Anxiety and depression were assessed using sum scores of the General Anxiety Disorder-7 and the Patient Health Questionnaire-9, respectively. Additionally, the Autism Spectrum Quotient (AQ) was used to assess the severity of ASD in participants (Baron-Cohen et al., 2001). Data cleaning and analysis were performed using SPSS Statistics. Results Results: Linear regression models were used to analyze the associations between the predictor variables (i.e., anxiety and depression) and the outcome variables (i.e., work/life balance and job satisfaction). All analyses controlled for age, sex, race, education, income, and number of hours worked weekly. There was a significant, negative association between depression and job satisfaction. No other significant associations were found. Linear regression models were run again after stratifying the sample by ASD severity. About 13% met the threshold for clinically significant ASD traits based on AQ score. A significant, negative association was found between depression and WLB among adults with clinically significant ASD traits. No other significant associations were found in the stratified sample. Implications/Conclusions Implications/Conclusions: The results of this study suggest a negative link between depression and employment outcomes among adults living with Autism Spectrum Disorder. While depression was associated with decreased job satisfaction among adults with ASD, depression was associated with decreased work/life balance among adults with clinically significant ASD. Efforts to support mental health, employment opportunities, and job success among adults with ASD remain an important area of focus

Effects of Decentering and Non-judgement on Body Dissatisfaction and Negative Affect Among Young Adult Women

This dataset provides cross-sectional, quantitative data from 330 female participants aged 18–35 years with respect to demographics (age, gender, ethnicity, BMI, experience with mindfulness, meditation, or contemplative prayer); self-reported trait mindfulness, weight and shape concerns, and difficulties in emotion regulation; and self-reported state body dissatisfaction (weight dissatisfaction, shape dissatisfaction, appearance dissatisfaction) and negative affect at 3 timepoints (baseline, post-media exposure, and final [after engaging in a strategy focused on decentering, non-judgement, or rest]). It also includes qualitative data files that specify participants' self-reported thoughts and behaviour during the strategy, how participants responded to any negative thoughts and feelings, how participants might use the strategy in everyday life, and any further comments about taking part in the study. One qualitative file contains the raw data only, and the other includes our codes and rationale for rating each participant with respect to their degree of adherence to the strategy instructions.This dataset was created through online data collection using Qualtrics. Demographics and trait/state variables were assessed using validated self-report measures and visual analogue scales.Microsoft Word and SPSS Statistics software is required to view the data

Predicting Future Weight Status From Measurements Made In Early Childhood: A Novel Longitudinal Approach Applied To Millennium Cohort Study Data

Background/objective: There are reports that childhood obesity tracks into later life. Nevertheless, some tracking statistics, e.g. correlations, do not quantify individual agreement, while others, e.g. diagnostic test statistics, can be difficult to translate into practice. We aimed to employ a novel analytic approach, based on ordinal logistic regression, to predict weight status of 11-year-old children from measurements at age 5.Subjects/methods: UK 1990 growth references were used to generate clinical weight status categories of 12 076 children enrolled in the Millennium Cohort Study. Using ordinal regression, we derived the predicted probability (percent chances) of an 11-year-old child becoming underweight, normal weight, overweight, obese and severely obese from their weight status category at age 5.Results: The chances of becoming obese (including severely obese) at age 11 were 5.7% (95% CI: 5.2% to 6.2%) for a normal weight 5-year-old and 32.3% (29.8% to 34.8%) for an overweight 5-year-old. An obese 5-year-old child had a 68.1% (63.8% to 72.5%) chance of remaining obese at 11 years. Severely obese 5-year-old children had a 50.3% (43.1% to 57.4%) c 50 hance of remaining severely obese. There were no substantial differences between sexes. Non-deprived obese 5- year-old boys had a lower probability of remaining obese than deprived obese boys: -21.8% (-40.4% to -3.2%). This association was not observed in obese 5-year-old girls, in whom the non-deprived group had a probability of remaining obese 7% higher (-15.2% to 29.2%). The sex difference in this interaction of deprivation and baseline weight status was therefore -28.8% (-59.3% to 1.6%).Conclusions: We have demonstrated that ordinal logistic regression can be an informative approach to predict the chances of a child changing to, or from, an unhealthy weight status. This approach is easy to interpret and could be applied to any longitudinal dataset with an ordinal outcome

Does Age-Related Stereotype Threat Affect Older Adults' Recognition of Emotion?

Emotion recognition is a cognitive ability that has been demonstrated to decline with age. Older adults (aged over 60) are consistently poorer than young adults (aged 18-30) at recognising anger, fear, sadness, and happiness. However, it is possible that such age differences have been exaggerated by a phenomenon known as age-related stereotype threat, whereby raising negative stereotypes about aging leads older adults to perform worse on relevant tasks. For instance, reminding older adults of stereotypes about age-related cognitive decline impairs their memory recall performance. There is reason to think that older adults’ recognition of emotions might be another cognitive ability that is compromised by stereotype threat. This idea was tested over three studies. In Study 1, young and older adults were exposed to a stereotype threat manipulation that implied either that 1) older adults or 2) young adults are expected to have inferior emotion recognition ability. A control condition (3) involved no allusion to age differences in emotion recognition. Participants completed a basic facial emotion recognition task and a task that involved identifying mental states expressed by eyes, in addition to measures of self-reported threat concerns and state anxiety. It was hypothesised that stereotype threat would lead older adults (but not young adults) to experience increased stereotype threat concerns and anxiety, which in turn, would impair older adults’ emotion recognition performance. Contrary to expectations, the stereotype threat manipulation did not lead older adults to experience increased threat concerns or state anxiety. Interestingly, young adults did report feeling more stereotype-threatened and anxious by the implication that their age group is typically worse at recognising emotions. Neither age group experienced impairments in their recognition of facial expressions or mental states. These findings raised questions about whether or not lay people actually believe that emotion recognition declines with age. Study 2 aimed to explore the current stereotypes about young and older adults’ emotion recognition abilities, in addition to their cognitive and social competencies. The results showed that, contrary to empirical evidence, lay people believe that older adults are equal to, or even better, than young adults at recognising emotions. Further, whereas participants believe older adults’ social competency to be comparable to that of young adults, they believe older adults’ cognitive ability to be inferior. Consequently, Study 3 involved framing an emotion recognition task as assessing either cognitive ability (believed to decline with age), social ability (believed to remain stable with age), or general abilities. It was hypothesised that older adults (but not young adults) would experience the greatest threat concerns when the task was framed as assessing cognitive ability, which, in turn, would impair their emotion recognition accuracy. Indeed, there was no effect of condition on young adults’ threat concerns or emotion recognition. As expected, older adults reported significantly greater threat concerns when the emotion recognition task was framed as assessing cognitive ability, compared to the other conditions. However, older adults’ emotion recognition accuracy remained unchanged, suggesting that the recognition of emotions may be one cognitive ability that is unaffected by stereotype threat effects

The impact of teaching an inquiry-based scheme of work on pupils’ attainment and critical thinking skills; and on the pupils’ and teachers’ perceptions of inquiry-based teaching in science.

This research was conducted to test the researcher’s view that when pupils learn science through inquiry-based teaching strategies, they improve their understanding of the subject and develop critical thinking skills. Although there is much research into inquiry-based teaching and learning, definitions are varied, and as such this research developed its own on which to base the intervention. Research into critical thinking skills focuses on older adolescents and young people, and therefore assessing 12-13 year olds, as in this research, is infrequent. Quantitative and qualitative data was collected using a quasi-experimental format. Data for pupils’ attainment and critical thinking scores were collected both pre- and post-intervention, and this was analysed alongside perceptions of inquiry-based teaching stated in pupil and teacher focus groups. The intervention was a three-topic scheme of work taught to half of the cohort with the other half being taught the same content but using their teachers’ normal approach. The intervention was written by the researcher and was based on research into the strategies termed inquiry-based following the literature review. It was found that there were no gains in attainment for pupils being taught using the intervention rather than the normal style of teaching compared to the control group. Gains in critical thinking were found in the treatment group but were not significant, and therefore, it was concluded the inquiry-based teaching did not have a positive effect on either pupils’ understanding of science or their critical thinking skills. Pupils’ perceptions highlighted that they did not enjoy the group work, open-ended nature of inquiry-based learning, and missed the structure of creating a set of notes. Teachers believed that pupils’ critical thinking skills would improve using inquiry-based techniques, but that pupils required more training in the skills needed to make this type of learning successful for this to take place

Inclusion and participation of children with epilepsy in schools: Views of young people, school staff and parents

OBJECTIVE: To gain an understanding of the views of children with epilepsy, their parents and staff regarding inclusion and participation of children with epilepsy in school. METHODS: During the study period, 136 children with 'active' epilepsy (taking anti-seizure Medications (ASMs) for epilepsy), were identified in the study area and of these 68 (50% of those eligible) families agreed to participate. Children (n = 20) with 'active epilepsy' their parents (n = 68) and staff (n = 56) were interviewed or completed surveys. The quantitative data were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi-square analyses. The answers to open questions were analysed using thematic analyses. RESULTS: Staff in mainstream schools were more concerned about the child's attendance than staff in special schools (p = 0.008).Parents and school staff cited a number of negative aspects of the child's attendance difficulties including social-emotional and academic aspects. The majority of parents and staff felt that young people with epilepsy were included in school to the same extent as peers. Parents were however, significantly less likely than staff to agree that children were included in all playground activities (p = 0.045). Parents of children in special schools were more likely to agree that their child was included in school than parents of children attending mainstream schools (p = 0.041). Thematic analysis revealed that parents felt that their child could be excluded in school due to staff decisions, child's own choice and peer led exclusion. The majority of children (64%) and parents (56%) agreed that the child with epilepsy was restricted from doing things their peers could do because of their epilepsy. While more than half of children with epilepsy (63%) reported that they had been bullied, most did not attribute this bullying to having epilepsy. Parents were more likely to agree that their child was bullied because of their epilepsy (p = 0.035) and non-epilepsy reasons than staff (p<0.001). Parents of children with epilepsy attending mainstream schools were more likely to agree that their child was bullied because of their epilepsy (p = 0.017) and non-epilepsy reasons (p = 0.026), compared to parents of children with epilepsy attending special schools. CONCLUSIONS: School attendance difficulties for children with epilepsy can contribute to academic and social-emotional difficulties. Most parents and teachers feel that children with epilepsy are included in classroom activities to the same extent as peers. Children with epilepsy and their parents believe that they are more restricted in non-classroom activities compared with their peers. Difficulties with participation, friendships and bullying for children with epilepsy may be due to presence of other conditions as opposed to epilepsy per se. There is a need to increase understanding of the wide ranging impact of epilepsy on school life in order to enhance attendance and inclusion and to reduce bullying

Consistency of metabolic responses and appetite sensations under postabsorptive and postprandial conditions

The present study aimed to investigate the reliability of metabolic and subjective appetite responses under fasted conditions and following consumption of a cereal-based breakfast. Twelve healthy, physically active males completed two postabsorption (PA) and two postprandial (PP) trials in a randomised order. In PP trials a cereal based breakfast providing 1859 kJ of energy was consumed. Expired gas samples were used to estimate energy expenditure and fat oxidation and 100 mm visual analogue scales were used to determine appetite sensations at baseline and every 30 min for 120 min. Reliability was assessed using limits of agreement, coefficient of variation (CV), intraclass coefficient of correlation and 95% confidence limits of typical error. The limits of agreement and typical error were 292.0 and 105.5 kJ for total energy expenditure, 9.3 and 3.4 g for total fat oxidation and 22.9 and 8.3 mm for time-averaged AUC for hunger sensations, respectively over the 120 min period in the PP trial. The reliability of energy expenditure and appetite in the 2 h response to a cereal-based breakfast would suggest that an intervention requires a 211 kJ and 16.6 mm difference in total postprandial energy expenditure and time-averaged hunger AUC to be meaningful, fat oxidation would require a 6.7 g difference which may not be sensitive to most meal manipulations