Role of Self-Efficacy and Experiential Training in Classroom Guidance Participation

According to the American School Counseling Association (ASCA) school counselors should be spending 15 to 45 percent of their time engaged in classroom guidance (ASCA, 2005; 2012). Yet there has been little research in the area classroom guidance and understanding what factors impact whether or not school counselors choose to engage in classroom guidance. This study explored whether factors like self-efficacy, experiential training, and a variety of demographic variables including previous teaching training were significantly correlated to the amount of classroom guidance performed. The study was a quantitative in nature and was a cross sectional, correlational, survey design. The ASCA membership was judged to be an ideal population to survey since the organization is focused on school counseling and has members across all 50 states. An invitation to participate in the study was sent to 4985 email addresses of ASCA members and stratified sampling was used to make participation representative across the four geographic regions. Additionally, this study introduced two new instruments, the first was a measure of self-efficacy related to classroom guidance and was based on previous classroom guidance research by Geltner, Cunningham, &;; Caldwell (2011). The second instrument measured experiential training in classroom guidance. From the 4985 requests sent out this study yielded 239 usable responses. The three significant factors related to the amount of classroom guidance performed were self-efficacy related to classroom guidance, school counseling level worked, and caseload. That self-efficacy related to classroom guidance was significant seems to indicate that when school counselors feel competent working in a classroom, they report actually engaging in more classroom guidance. In the second significant finding, school counselors working at the elementary level performed, on average, twice as much classroom guidance as their peers in the middle and high school levels. This finding is in line with previous school counseling literature that showed elementary school counselors are more likely to be practicing in the way they preferred (Scarbough &;; Culbreath, 2008; Scarborough &;; Luke, 2008). Lastly, the results indicated that as school counselors’ caseloads increase, school counselors are performing more classroom guidance. This is encouraging because it aligns with school counselor best practice (ASCA, 2005). While more research is needed to explore the areas of classroom guidance. This study provides a foundation to better understand some of the factors that influence school counselors’ willingness to engage in classroom guidance. This is especially important considering that classroom guidance plays an important role in any comprehensive developmental school counseling program

Crafting a Curriculum to Promote Adolescent Flourishing Through Photography

SeeingHappy, a nonprofit organization that seeks to use photography to enhance happiness and flourishing, tasked a team from the University of Pennsylvania to develop a well- being curriculum targeting adolescents. This curriculum, Happiness + photography, is rooted in evidence that suggests engagement in the arts and humanities, specifically photography, contributes to well-being through a variety of mechanisms, namely: creating, connecting, noticing, reframing, and storytelling. In addition to targeting adolescent students, the curriculum is geared toward educators for use in the classroom. Experiential learning and personal reflection are central in each lesson plan. With this curriculum in hand, SeeingHappy is positioned to develop further insights about the connections between photography, happiness, and human flourishing, and to make meaningful contributions to the emerging field of the positive humanities

Cord Blood-Derived Hematopoietic Stem/Progenitor Cells: Current Challenges in Engraftment, Infection, and Ex Vivo Expansion

Umbilical cord blood has served as an alternative to bone marrow for hematopoietic transplantation since the late 1980s. Numerous clinical studies have proven the efficacy of umbilical cord blood. Moreover, the possible immaturity of cells in umbilical cord blood gives more options to recipients with HLA mismatch and allows for the use of umbilical cord blood from unrelated donors. However, morbidity and mortality rates associated with hematopoietic malignancies still remain relatively high, even after cord blood transplantation. Infections and relapse are the major causes of death after cord blood transplantation in patients with hematopoietic diseases. Recently, new strategies have been introduced to improve these major problems. Establishing better protocols for simple isolation of primitive cells and ex vivo expansion will also be very important. In this short review, we discuss several recent promising findings related to the technical improvement of cord blood transplantation

The MGDO software library for data analysis in Ge neutrinoless double-beta decay experiments

The GERDA and Majorana experiments will search for neutrinoless double-beta decay of germanium-76 using isotopically enriched high-purity germanium detectors. Although the experiments differ in conceptual design, they share many aspects in common, and in particular will employ similar data analysis techniques. The collaborations are jointly developing a C++ software library, MGDO, which contains a set of data objects and interfaces to encapsulate, store and manage physical quantities of interest, such as waveforms and high-purity germanium detector geometries. These data objects define a common format for persistent data, whether it is generated by Monte Carlo simulations or an experimental apparatus, to reduce code duplication and to ease the exchange of information between detector systems. MGDO also includes general-purpose analysis tools that can be used for the processing of measured or simulated digital signals. The MGDO design is based on the Object-Oriented programming paradigm and is very flexible, allowing for easy extension and customization of the components. The tools provided by the MGDO libraries are used by both GERDA and Majorana.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, proceedings for TAUP201

Changing Hydrozoan Bauplans by Silencing Hox-Like Genes

Regulatory genes of the Antp class have been a major factor for the invention and radiation of animal bauplans. One of the most diverse animal phyla are the Cnidaria, which are close to the root of metazoan life and which often appear in two distinct generations and a remarkable variety of body forms. Hox-like genes have been known to be involved in axial patterning in the Cnidaria and have been suspected to play roles in the genetic control of many of the observed bauplan changes. Unfortunately RNAi mediated gene silencing studies have not been satisfactory for marine invertebrate organisms thus far. No direct evidence supporting Hox-like gene induced bauplan changes in cnidarians have been documented as of yet. Herein, we report a protocol for RNAi transfection of marine invertebrates and demonstrate that knock downs of Hox-like genes in Cnidaria create substantial bauplan alterations, including the formation of multiple oral poles (“heads”) by Cnox-2 and Cnox-3 inhibition, deformation of the main body axis by Cnox-5 inhibition and duplication of tentacles by Cnox-1 inhibition. All phenotypes observed in the course of the RNAi studies were identical to those obtained by morpholino antisense oligo experiments and are reminiscent of macroevolutionary bauplan changes. The reported protocol will allow routine RNAi studies in marine invertebrates to be established

Nitrate enhances skeletal muscle fatty acid oxidation via a nitric oxide-cGMP-PPAR-mediated mechanism.

BACKGROUND: Insulin sensitivity in skeletal muscle is associated with metabolic flexibility, including a high capacity to increase fatty acid (FA) oxidation in response to increased lipid supply. Lipid overload, however, can result in incomplete FA oxidation and accumulation of potentially harmful intermediates where mitochondrial tricarboxylic acid cycle capacity cannot keep pace with rates of β-oxidation. Enhancement of muscle FA oxidation in combination with mitochondrial biogenesis is therefore emerging as a strategy to treat metabolic disease. Dietary inorganic nitrate was recently shown to reverse aspects of the metabolic syndrome in rodents by as yet incompletely defined mechanisms. RESULTS: Herein, we report that nitrate enhances skeletal muscle FA oxidation in rodents in a dose-dependent manner. We show that nitrate induces FA oxidation through a soluble guanylate cyclase (sGC)/cGMP-mediated PPARβ/δ- and PPARα-dependent mechanism. Enhanced PPARβ/δ and PPARα expression and DNA binding induces expression of FA oxidation enzymes, increasing muscle carnitine and lowering tissue malonyl-CoA concentrations, thereby supporting intra-mitochondrial pathways of FA oxidation and enhancing mitochondrial respiration. At higher doses, nitrate induces mitochondrial biogenesis, further increasing FA oxidation and lowering long-chain FA concentrations. Meanwhile, nitrate did not affect mitochondrial FA oxidation in PPARα(-/-) mice. In C2C12 myotubes, nitrate increased expression of the PPARα targets Cpt1b, Acadl, Hadh and Ucp3, and enhanced oxidative phosphorylation rates with palmitoyl-carnitine; however, these changes in gene expression and respiration were prevented by inhibition of either sGC or protein kinase G. Elevation of cGMP, via the inhibition of phosphodiesterase 5 by sildenafil, also increased expression of Cpt1b, Acadl and Ucp3, as well as CPT1B protein levels, and further enhanced the effect of nitrate supplementation. CONCLUSIONS: Nitrate may therefore be effective in the treatment of metabolic disease by inducing FA oxidation in muscle.This work was kindly supported by a British Heart Foundation studentship to TA (FS/09/050). AJMu thanks the Research Councils UK for supporting his academic fellowship. LDR is supported by the Medical Research Council-Human Nutrition Research Elsie Widdowson Fellowship. AJMo thanks the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council for supporting her postdoctoral fellowship. MF acknowledges support from the Medical Research Council (G1001536). JLG thanks the Medical Research Council (MC_UP_A090_1006), the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BB/H013539/2) and British Heart Foundation for supporting work in his laboratory

Systematic review of antiepileptic drugs’ safety and effectiveness in feline epilepsy

Understanding the efficacy and safety profile of antiepileptic drugs (AEDs) in feline epilepsy is a crucial consideration for managing this important brain disease. However, there is a lack of information about the treatment of feline epilepsy and therefore a systematic review was constructed to assess current evidence for the AEDs’ efficacy and tolerability in cats. The methods and materials of our former systematic reviews in canine epilepsy were mostly mirrored for the current systematic review in cats. Databases of PubMed, CAB Direct and Google scholar were searched to detect peer-reviewed studies reporting efficacy and/or adverse effects of AEDs in cats. The studies were assessed with regards to their quality of evidence, i.e. study design, study population, diagnostic criteria and overall risk of bias and the outcome measures reported, i.e. prevalence and 95% confidence interval of the successful and affected population in each study and in total