An Adventure Therapy Mountain Bike Program for Middle School Students: A Pilot Study

Adolescence is a time of significant physical, mental, emotional, and social development marked by numerous transitions and challenges. Middle school is one of the earliest and perhaps first times of significant social and physical transition that impacts early adolescent development. As a result, schools are becoming a primary care setting for children and families to identify and address mental health needs. However, only 2% of school mental health services are provided by licensed professionals. Therefore, schools and service providers continue to seek out comprehensive modalities that can efficiently provide preventative and responsive interventions to students beyond individual and school counseling services. Adventure Therapy (AT) is an approach that mental health professionals in schools can use to foster mental health in students. The purpose of this dissertation is to test an adapted AT program for the school setting during the course of the academic semester to assist incoming middle schoolers adjusting to a new environment and navigate developmental transitions. A mountain bike specific program was created to assess the effectiveness of the kinesthetic activity along with the addition of AT concepts. The program was informed by a conceptual framework that integrates the EcoWellness holistic model of wellbeing with AT. The effects of an AT mountain bike program and a non-AT mountain bike program on middle school students’ perceptions of group climate (i.e. Engagement, Conflict, and Avoidance) and factors of resiliency (i.e. Optimism, Self-Efficacy, and Adaptability) were tested in this study using an experimental design. The program was implemented in a charter arts public school in Northwest Arkansas as an introduction to mountain biking course. An observed sample of 30 participants were used for the data analysis. The visual analysis of the profile plots indicated differences within and between groups on all outcome variables. However, further analyses using the mixed model for a two-group experimental design with repeated measures to test statistical significance yielded few differences. There were statistically significant effects for participant Engagement and Conflict based on the Group Climate Questionnaire (MacKenzie, 1983). The only statistically significant effect for resiliency factors was on Adaptability as measured by the Resiliency Scales for Children and Adolescents – Sense of Mastery. Despite the few statistically significant results, clinical significance indicates the treatment group saw a greater increase and sustainability in scaled rankings when compared to the comparison group. This pilot study sought to explore the effects of developing an AT program centered around a specific kinesthetic activity on group and individual participant outcomes. According to the literature review, this is one of the few studies that focuses on a specific kinesthetic activity, particularly mountain biking from an AT perspective. Additionally, this study informs research and clinical application for the development of an AT program with middle school students in a school setting. The outcomes of this program provide clinical and practical significance to inform the field of counseling and further the development of AT practices

Recommendations for the Role and Responsibilities of School-Based Mental Health Counselors

School counselors (SCs) are tasked with addressing the academic, career, and personal/social development of all students. As mental health issues experienced by school-aged children have increased, SCs have been unable to provide adequate mental health services. Because of barriers to receiving communitybased mental health services, school-based services are becoming increasingly necessary. In this article we propose that School-Based Mental Health Counselors (SBMHCs), specifically trained to work with schoolaged children and placed within a school setting, are appropriate for meeting students’ mental health needs. Although SBMHCs are not new to counseling, we make specific recommendations and suggestions for the training and practice of SBMHCs so that they can collaborate with SCs to meet the mental health needs of all students

Turtle Island: Working with Indigenous Grandparents and their Grandchildren in Group Counseling

Turtle Island is a culturally grounded psycho-educational group program for Indigenous early adolescents and their grandparents. It is designed to increase the inter-personal connection between Indigenous grandparents and grandchildren, facilitate the transmission of tribal/cultural values to future generations, improve a historically significant support system for Indigenous youth, and enhance greater awareness and feelings of connections with Nature. The authors present activities and processes to support clinicians and their consideration for working with Indigenous clients. All phases of implementation, from participant and facilitator recruitment to the concluding honoring feast, as well as group activities, process questions, and accompanying projects, are described in detail

Recommendations for Counselor Education and Supervision Programs to Improve Gatekeeping Processes Developed from Doctoral Student Experiences

The purpose of this qualitative study was to explore the experiences of eleven doctoral students at three CACREP accredited programs to address issues in counselor education and supervision programs and faculty face regarding gatekeeping. The information was used to develop and provide recommendations for gatekeeping procedures that can be implemented at the departmental and classroom levels. Ways programs can improve the training of doctoral students for gatekeeping roles and responsibilities, steps faculty can take to create an environment which supports gatekeeping at their institution, as well as support doctoral students as they grow into future gatekeepers of the profession are discussed

An Integrative Pedagogical Approach to Teaching Counseling Supervision

Counselor Education programs are required to prepare doctoral students to become supervisors, however there is both no single agreed upon pedagogy or method, as well as a seeming lack of culturally responsive pedagogy or teaching methods for instructing students in learning and developing supervision knowledge and skills in counseling supervision courses (Korcuska, 2016). The authors propose the integration of established pedagogical approaches to address students’ implicit and explicit bias in order to develop cultural competence and humility in becoming culturally responsive supervisors. The authors provide an overview of Critical Race, Feminist, and Experiential Learning theories and how these theories can be infused to enable Counselor Educators to teach future supervisors with a diverse blend of methods. A sample case study is provided

Effect of room temperature transport vials on DNA quality and phylogenetic composition of faecal microbiota of elderly adults and infants

Background: Alterations in intestinal microbiota have been correlated with a growing number of diseases. Investigating the faecal microbiota is widely used as a non-invasive and ethically simple proxy for intestinal biopsies. There is an urgent need for collection and transport media that would allow faecal sampling at distance from the processing laboratory, obviating the need for same-day DNA extraction recommended by previous studies of freezing and processing methods for stool. We compared the faecal bacterial DNA quality and apparent phylogenetic composition derived using a commercial kit for stool storage and transport (DNA Genotek OMNIgene GUT) with that of freshly extracted samples, 22 from infants and 20 from older adults. Results: Use of the storage vials increased the quality of extracted bacterial DNA by reduction of DNA shearing. When infant and elderly datasets were examined separately, no differences in microbiota composition were observed due to storage. When the two datasets were combined, there was a difference according to a Wilcoxon test in the relative proportions of Faecalibacterium, Sporobacter, Clostridium XVIII, and Clostridium XlVa after 1 week's storage compared to immediately extracted samples. After 2 weeks' storage, Bacteroides abundance was also significantly different, showing an apparent increase from week 1 to week 2. The microbiota composition of infant samples was more affected than that of elderly samples by storage, with significantly higher Spearman distances between paired freshly extracted and stored samples (

Common G-Quadruplex Binding Agents Found to Interact With i-Motif-Forming DNA: Unexpected Multi-Target-Directed Compounds

G-quadruplex (G4) and i-motif (iM) are four-stranded non-canonical nucleic acid structural arrangements. Recent evidences suggest that these DNA structures exist in living cells and could be involved in several cancer-related processes, thus representing an attractive target for anticancer drug discovery. Efforts toward the development of G4 targeting compounds have led to a number of effective bioactive ligands. Herein, employing several biophysical methodologies, we studied the ability of some well-known G4 ligands to interact with iM-forming DNA. The data showed that the investigated compounds are actually able to interact with both DNA in vitro, thus acting de facto as multi-target-directed agents. Interestingly, while all the compounds stabilize the G4, some of them significantly reduce the stability of the iM. The present study highlights the importance, when studying G4-targeting compounds, of evaluating also their behavior toward the i-motif counterpart

Differential branching fraction and angular analysis of the decay B0→K∗0μ+μ−

The angular distribution and differential branching fraction of the decay B 0→ K ∗0 μ + μ − are studied using a data sample, collected by the LHCb experiment in pp collisions at s√=7 TeV, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 1.0 fb−1. Several angular observables are measured in bins of the dimuon invariant mass squared, q 2. A first measurement of the zero-crossing point of the forward-backward asymmetry of the dimuon system is also presented. The zero-crossing point is measured to be q20=4.9±0.9GeV2/c4 , where the uncertainty is the sum of statistical and systematic uncertainties. The results are consistent with the Standard Model predictions

Opposite-side flavour tagging of B mesons at the LHCb experiment

The calibration and performance of the oppositeside flavour tagging algorithms used for the measurements of time-dependent asymmetries at the LHCb experiment are described. The algorithms have been developed using simulated events and optimized and calibrated with B + →J/ψK +, B0 →J/ψK ∗0 and B0 →D ∗− μ + νμ decay modes with 0.37 fb−1 of data collected in pp collisions at √ s = 7 TeV during the 2011 physics run. The oppositeside tagging power is determined in the B + → J/ψK + channel to be (2.10 ± 0.08 ± 0.24) %, where the first uncertainty is statistical and the second is systematic