Relationships Between Sensory Processing, Temperament Characteristics for Effortful Control, and Executive Function in School-Age Children

Background: Sensory processing behaviors, the temperament characteristic for effortful control, and executive function promote self-regulation, activity engagement, and problem-solving. This study examined inter-relationships between executive function, effortful control, and sensory processing in school-aged children between 7 and 10.11 years of age. Method: Descriptive correlation research design was used to examine relationships of outcomes from three caregiver-reported, standardized questionnaires of behaviors related to sensory processing (Sensory Profile-2), effortful control (Temperament in Middle Childhood Questionnaire) and executive function (Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function-2) in daily activities (N = 19). Results: Data analysis using descriptive statistics and Spearman’s R revealed statistically significant (p-value \u3c .05) positive and negative correlations between constructs of executive function, effortful control, and sensory processing behaviors. Only positive correlations were found between sensory processing behaviors and executive function. Conclusion: Findings indicate that typical responses to sensory experiences were related to typical abilities for executive function and effortful control, whereas increased sensory reactivity was associated with decreased abilities for executive function and effortful control along with an increased expression of impulsivity, reduced attention, and decreased on-task behavior. Outcomes support the need to address sensory responsiveness and reactivity in the context to support behavior management for effortful control and executive function

Correlated dynamics of inclusions in a supported membrane

The hydrodynamic theory of heterogeneous fluid membranes is extended to the case of a membrane adjacent to a solid substrate. We derive the coupling diffusion coefficients of pairs of membrane inclusions in the limit of large separation compared to the inclusion size. Two-dimensional compressive stresses in the membrane make the coupling coefficients decay asymptotically as $1/r^2$ with interparticle distance $r$. For the common case, where the distance to the substrate is of sub-micron scale, we present expressions for the coupling between distant disklike inclusions, which are valid for arbitrary inclusion size. We calculate the effect of inclusions on the response of the membrane and the associated corrections to the coupling diffusion coefficients to leading order in the concentration of inclusions. While at short distances the response is modified as if the membrane were a two-dimensional suspension, the large-distance response is not renormalized by the inclusions.Comment: 15 page

Correlated particle dynamics in concentrated quasi-two-dimensional suspensions

We investigate theoretically and experimentally how the hydrodynamically correlated lateral motion of particles in a suspension confined between two surfaces is affected by the suspension concentration. Despite the long range of the correlations (decaying as 1/r^2 with the inter-particle distance r), the concentration effect is present only at short inter-particle distances for which the static pair correlation is nonuniform. This is in sharp contrast with the effect of hydrodynamic screening present in unconfined suspensions, where increasing the concentration changes the prefactor of the large-distance correlation.Comment: 13 page

Hydrodynamic interaction in quasi-two-dimensional suspensions

Confinement between two parallel surfaces is found, theoretically and experimentally, to drastically affect the hydrodynamic interaction between colloid particles, changing the sign of the coupling, its decay with distance and its concentration dependence. In particular, we show that three-body effects do not modify the coupling at large distances as would be expected from hydrodynamic screening.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure

PAYING FOR CHANGE: AN ETHICAL ARGUMENT FOR THE USE OF CONTINGENCY MANAGEMENT IN THE TREATMENT OF SUBSTANCE USE DISORDERS

The United States is facing a profoundly damaging crisis related to a substance use epidemic. Contingency management (CM) in tandem with standard therapies for substance use disorder (SUD) is a practical, yet largely unembraced, therapy for which an ethical imperative exists for its adoption. The efficacy of CM in promoting sustained abstinence across a wide array of SUDs has been well demonstrated. The upfront and maintenance costs of widely implementing a CM-based SUD treatment strategy will produce a substantial positive return on investment. The most potent barriers to widespread adoption of the addition of CM to SUD treatment strategies is rooted more in ethical objection to implementation than in pragmatic obstacles. Yet the foundation of these ethical objections lack sufficient force to render them dispositive. A review of the efficacy of CM, its cost/benefit ratio, and the tenuous nature of ethical objections will be explored. CM should be widely implemented as a more clinically efficacious and cost-efficient strategy for addressing the drug use crisis compared to current approaches. In addition, this therapy method, possibly the most successful adjunct to standard therapy to treat SUD, will aid the country as a whole in terms of societal benefits associated with effectively treating people struggling with substance misuse

An Algorithm for Strategic Continuation or Restriction of Asthma Medication Prior to Exercise Challenge Testing in Childhood Exercise Induced Bronchoconstriction

Exercise induced bronchial (EIB) constriction is a common and highly specific feature of pediatric asthma and should be diagnosed with an exercise challenge test (ECT). The impact of EIB in asthmatic children's daily lives is immense, considering the effects on both physical and psychosocial development. Monitoring childhood asthma by ECT's can provide insight into daily life disease burden and the control of asthma. Current guidelines for bronchoprovocation tests restrict both the use of reliever and maintenance asthma medication before an exercise challenge to prevent false-negative testing, as both have significant acute bronchoprotective properties. However, restricting maintenance medication before an ECT may be less appropiate to evaluate EIB symptoms in daily life when a diagnosis of asthma is well established. Rigorous of maintenance medication before an ECT according to guidelines may lead to overestimation of the real, daily life asthma burden and lead to an inappropiate step-up in therapy. The protection against EIB offered by the combined acute and chronic bronchoprotective effects of maintenance medication can be properly assessed whilst maintaining them. This may aid in achieving the goal of unrestricted participation of children in daily play and sports activities with their peers without escalation of therapy. When considering a step down in medication, a strategic wash-out of maintenance medication before an ECT aids in providing objective support of potential discontinuation of maintenance medication

Examining the Educational and Professional Learning Contexts where Occupational Therapy Practitioners Gained Competencies for Intraprofessional Collaboration

The findings described in this article are part of a broader scholarship of teaching and learning (SoTL) project examining competencies for intraprofessional practice. We identified the educational and professional learning contexts where occupational therapists and occupational therapy assistants developed competencies for intraprofessional collaboration. Practitioners were recruited via snowball sampling and responded to an online survey about competencies for intraprofessional practice. Respondents (N = 465) identified learning contexts that contributed to the development of each competency, selecting up to three choices: Class in Occupational Therapy or Occupational Therapy Assistant Program, Fieldwork, Formal Work Training, Work Experience, Continuing Education Course, and Other. Descriptive analysis showed that both occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistant respondents indicated Work Experience as the most often selected context where most competencies were developed. Occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistant respondents differed in the second and third most frequently selected contexts where competencies were developed. Chi square analyses found statistically significant differences (p \u3c .001) between occupational therapist and occupational therapy assistants for work experience and fieldwork as contexts for learning the competencies. Stepwise logistic regression analysis showed that occupational therapists had increased odds of endorsing Work Experience and Fieldwork compared with occupational therapy assistants. Given recent emphasis on intraprofessional education, findings may help inform design of competency-based learning experiences in educational and professional learning contexts

Enhanced dispersion interaction in confined geometry

The dispersion interaction between two point-like particles confined in a dielectric slab between two plates of another dielectric medium is studied within a continuum (Lifshitz) theory. The retarded (Casimir-Polder) interaction at large inter-particle distances is found to be strongly enhanced as the mismatch between the dielectric permittivities of the two media is increased. The large-distance interaction is multiplied due to confinement by a factor of $(33\gamma^{5/2}+13\gamma^{-3/2})/46$ at zero temperature, and by $(5\gamma^2+\gamma^{-2})/6$ at finite temperature, \gamma=\ein(0)/\eout(0) being the ratio between the static dielectric permittivities of the inner and outer media. This confinement-induced amplification of the dispersion interaction can reach several orders of magnitude.Comment: 4 page