Advancing Team Cohesion: Using an Escape Room as a Novel Approach

Objective: An escape room was used to study teamwork and its determinants, which have been found to relate to the quality and safety of patient care delivery. This pilot study aimed to explore the value of an escape room as a mechanism for improving cohesion among interdisciplinary healthcare teams. Methods: This research was conducted at a nonprofit medical center in Southern California. All participants who work on a team were invited to participate. Authors employed an interrupted within-subjects design, with two pre- and post- escape room questionnaires related to two facets of group cohesion: (belonging – (PGC-B) and morale (PGC-M)). Participants rated their perceptions of group cohesion before, after, and one-month after the escape room. The main outcome measures included PGC-B/M. Results: Sixty-two teams participated (n 280 participants) of which 31 teams (50%) successfully “escaped” in the allotted 45 minutes. There was a statistically significant difference in PGC between the three time periods, F(4, 254) 24.10, p \u3c .001; Wilks’ K .725; partial g2 .275. Results indicated significantly higher scores for PGC immediately after the escape room and at the one-month follow-up compared to baseline. Conclusions: This work offers insights into the utility of using an escape room as a team building intervention in interprofessional healthcare teams. Considering the modifiability of escape rooms, they may function as valuable team building mechanisms in healthcare. More work is needed to determine how escape rooms compare to more traditional team building curriculums

Impaired recollection of visual scene details in adults with autism spectrum conditions.

Subtle memory deficits observed in autism spectrum conditions (ASC) have often been characterized as reflecting impaired recollection and it has been proposed that a relational binding deficit may underlie the recollection impairment. However, subjective recollection and relational binding have not been measured within the same task in ASC to date and it is unclear whether a relational binding deficit can provide a full account of recollection impairments in ASC. Relational memory has also not been compared with item memory when the demands of the 2 tasks are comparable. To assess recollection, relational memory, and item memory within a single task in ASC, 24 adults with ASC and 24 typically developed adults undertook a change detection memory task that assessed recollection of item-specific and spatial details. Participants studied rendered indoor and outdoor scenes and, in a subsequent recognition memory test, distinguished scenes that had not changed from those that had either undergone an item change (a different item exemplar) or a relational (spatial) change, which was followed by a subjective recollection judgment. The ASC group identified fewer item changes and spatial changes, to a similar degree, which was attributable to a specific reduction in recollection-based recognition relative to the control group. These findings provide evidence that recollection deficits in ASC may not be driven entirely by a relational binding deficit.This research was supported by a James S. McDonnell Scholar Award to J.S.S., an Economic and Social Research Council Award to R.A.C., and Leverhulme Trust Visiting Professorship and Parke Davis Exchange Fellowship Awards to C.R.This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from he American Psychological Association via http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/abn000007

In the beginning: Role of autonomy support on the motivation, mental health and intentions of participants entering an exercise referral scheme

Self-determination theory (Deci & Ryan, 2000, Intrinsic motivation and self-determination in human behaviour. New York: Plenum Publishing) highlights the impact autonomy supportive environments can have on exercise motivation and positive health outcomes. Yet little is known about whether differential effects occur as a function of which significant other is providing this support. Further, no research has examined the relationship between motivation and the social environment with participants’ mental health and intentions to be physically active before entering an exercise intervention. Study participants were 347 British adults who were about to start an exercise referral scheme. Regression analyses revealed that the effects of autonomy support on mental health and physical activity intentions differed as a function of who provided the support (offspring, partner or physician), with the offspring having the weakest effects. A structural model was supported, indicating that autonomy support and more autonomous regulations led to more positive mental health outcomes and stronger intentions to be physically active. Knowledge of the social environmental and personal motivation of those about to commence an exercise programme can provide important insights for professionals supporting such efforts

The White Dwarf Population in NGC 1039 (M34) and the White Dwarf Initial-Final Mass Relation

We present the first detailed photometric and spectroscopic study of the white dwarfs (WDs) in the field of the ~225 Myr old (log tau_cl = 8.35) open cluster NGC 1039 (M34) as part of the ongoing Lick-Arizona White Dwarf Survey. Using wide-field UBV imaging, we photometrically select 44 WD candidates in this field. We spectroscopically identify 19 of these objects as WDs; 17 are hydrogen-atmosphere DA WDs, one is a helium-atmosphere DB WD, and one is a cool DC WD that exhibits no detectable absorption lines. We find an effective temperature (T_eff) and surface gravity (log g) for each DA WD by fitting Balmer-line profiles from model atmospheres to the observed spectra. WD evolutionary models are then invoked to derive masses and cooling times for each DA WD. Of the 17 DAs, five are at the approximate distance modulus of the cluster. Another WD with a distance modulus 0.45 mag brighter than that of the cluster could be a double-degenerate binary cluster member, but is more likely to be a field WD. We place the five single cluster member WDs in the empirical initial-final mass relation and find that three of them lie very close to the previously derived linear relation; two have WD masses significantly below the relation. These outliers may have experienced some sort of enhanced mass loss or binary evolution; however, it is quite possible that these WDs are simply interlopers from the field WD population. Eight of the 17 DA WDs show significant CaII K absorption; comparison of the absorption strength with the WD distances suggests that the absorption is interstellar, though this cannot be confirmed with the current data.Comment: 24 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in the Astronomical Journal. Figures 1, 2 and 3 reduced in resolutio

Reducing the Carbon Footprint of Academic Conferences:The Example of the American Society of Tropical Medicine and Hygiene

Contains fulltext : 227446.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access

Spitzer 24 um Images of Planetary Nebulae

Spitzer MIPS 24 um images were obtained for 36 Galactic planetary nebulae (PNe) whose central stars are hot white dwarfs (WDs) or pre-WDs with effective temperatures of ~100,000 K or higher. Diffuse 24 um emission is detected in 28 of these PNe. The eight non-detections are angularly large PNe with very low H-alpha surface brightnesses. We find three types of correspondence between the 24 um emission and H-alpha line emission of these PNe: six show 24 um emission more extended than H-alpha emission, nine have a similar extent at 24 um and H-alpha, and 13 show diffuse 24 um emission near the center of the H-alpha shell. The sizes and surface brightnesses of these three groups of PNe and the non-detections suggest an evolutionary sequence, with the youngest ones being brightest and the most evolved ones undetected. The 24 um band emission from these PNe is attributed to [O IV] 25.9 um and [Ne V] 24.3 um line emission and dust continuum emission, but the relative contributions of these three components depend on the temperature of the central star and the distribution of gas and dust in the nebula.Comment: 24 pages, 8 figures, to appear in the Astronomical Journal, September issue. Relace previous file; two references are added and typos are correcte

A protocol for rapid and parallel isolation of myocytes and non-myocytes from multiple mouse hearts.

This protocol features parallel isolation of myocytes and non-myocytes from murine hearts. It was designed with considerations for (1) time required to extract cardiac cells, (2) cell viability, and (3) protocol scalability. Here, a peristaltic pump and 3D-printed elements are combined to perfuse the heart with enzymes to dissociate cells. Myocytes and non-myocytes extracted using this protocol are separated by centrifugation and/or fluorescence-activated cell sorting for use in downstream applications including single-cell omics or other bio-molecular analyses. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to McLellan et al. (2020)

Amenability of groups and GG-sets

This text surveys classical and recent results in the field of amenability of groups, from a combinatorial standpoint. It has served as the support of courses at the University of G\"ottingen and the \'Ecole Normale Sup\'erieure. The goals of the text are (1) to be as self-contained as possible, so as to serve as a good introduction for newcomers to the field; (2) to stress the use of combinatorial tools, in collaboration with functional analysis, probability etc., with discrete groups in focus; (3) to consider from the beginning the more general notion of amenable actions; (4) to describe recent classes of examples, and in particular groups acting on Cantor sets and topological full groups

Exploring common stressors in physical education

Daily stressors, or hassles, refer to the everyday environmental demands that constitute a threat or challenge, or exceed an individual’s biological or psychological capacities (Cohen et al., 1995). Increasing evidence suggests that daily stressors have a significant impact on adolescents’ educational outcomes, for example, performance, wellbeing and negative attitudes toward school, however there is limited research examining the concept of common stressors in PE lessons. As early-adolescence is a developmental period associated with decreased engagement in PE, it is important to identify the environmental stressors that may be associated with increased disengagement. The study comprised 54 secondary school students and six PE teachers from five schools in the English Midlands. Semi-structured focus groups were conducted and a thematic analysis was applied to interview transcripts. Three higher order themes were identified from the data: the social environment, the physical and organisational environment, and the performance environment. Common stressors within the social environment included, interpersonal transactions between peers, differences in effort levels during PE, and working outside one’s peer group. Stressors within the physical and organisational environment consisted of, environmental situations within the changing facilities and the availability of activities. Finally, performance environment stressors included, situations involving the difficult acquisition of physical skills, and situations where physical appearance and physical competencies were exposed. The study extends previous findings by identifying potentially threatening and frustrating, environmental demands that have not been identified in the previous literature. The current study is the first to explore the typical stressors that are experienced by students in PE

Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems: Cold Outer Disks Associated with Sun-like stars

We present the discovery of debris systems around three solar mass stars based upon observations performed with the Spitzer Space Telescope as part of a Legacy Science Program, ``the Formation and Evolution of Planetary Systems'' (FEPS). We also confirm the presence of debris around two other stars. All the stars exhibit infrared emission in excess of the expected photospheres in the 70 micron band, but are consistent with photospheric emission at <= 33 micron. This restricts the maximum temperature of debris in equilibrium with the stellar radiation to T < 70 K. We find that these sources are relatively old in the FEPS sample, in the age range 0.7 - 3 Gyr. Based on models of the spectral energy distributions, we suggest that these debris systems represent materials generated by collisions of planetesimal belts. We speculate on the nature of these systems through comparisons to our own Kuiper Belt, and on the likely planet(s) responsible for stirring the system and ultimately releasing dust through collisions. We further report observations of a nearby star HD 13974 (d =11 pc) that is indistinguishable from a bare photosphere at both 24 micron and 70 micron. The observations place strong upper limits on the presence of any cold dust in this nearby system (L_IR/L_* < 10^{-5.2}).Comment: 31 pages, 9 figures, accepted for publication in Ap