Covid Proposal

Student generated description: “A children\u27s book that will inform them of the virus. It will have pictures showing them to wash their hands, keep their mask, and making sure they are safe while keeping others safe. It will also include exercises to keep them calm and entertained with more than electronics. This will keep their minds very fresh and keep up with the creativity

Mindfulness Meditation and Child Birth

The practice of mindfulness meditation offers a variety of benefits. These benefits include stress and anxiety reduction, overwhelmed feelings, irritability, worry, and chronic pain. There have been many studies that support this practice and confirm this to be true. Dr. Adrienne Brown a clinical psychologist also confirms the benefits mindfulness meditation has on childbirth. Mindfulness is an insight into habitual thinking, and power to alleviate stress and suffering. There are numerous mindfulness techniques people use. During childbirth one of these techniques include Lamaze breathing. This is a natural labor and childbirth method that focuses on breathing and relaxation. The focus of mindfulness meditation and child labor is to limit stress, anxiety, fear, and labor pain during the birthing process

N-acetylcysteine for smoking cessation among dual users of tobacco and cannabis: Protocol and rationale for a randomized controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Tobacco and cannabis co-use is a growing public health problem. The synergistic effects of cannabis and nicotine on neurobiological systems that mediate reward and shared environmental cues reinforcing use may make tobacco smoking cessation more difficult. N-acetylcysteine (NAC), an FDA-approved medication and over-the-counter supplement, has shown promise in animal studies and randomized controlled trials (RCTs) in reducing tobacco and cannabis craving and use. NACs potential efficacy in treating addiction may be attributable to its central nervous system effects in reducing excessive glutamatergic activity, oxidative stress, and inflammation. To date, no RCT has examined NAC for smoking cessation among dual users of tobacco and cannabis. METHOD: In a double-blind, placebo-controlled RCT, we will examine NAC for smoking cessation among dual users of tobacco and cannabis. Sixty adult cigarette-cannabis co-users are randomized to receive NAC 3600 mg per day or placebo over 8 weeks. Participants in both groups receive 8 weekly cognitive behavioral therapy sessions addressing smoking cessation and cannabis reduction. Outcomes are assessed at Weeks 0, 4, 8, and 12. Primary aims are to determine NACs efficacy in decreasing cigarette craving, nicotine dependence, and use; and cannabis craving and use. Exploratory aims include examination of changes in neurocognition with NAC and their potential mediational effects on cigarette and cannabis use outcomes. CONCLUSION: Results will inform smoking cessation treatment among dual users of tobacco and cannabis. CLINICALTRIALS: gov Identifier: NCT04627922

Artistic and Scholarly Sessions: Good, Better, Best: How ARC, State Farm, and Local Non-Profits Empower Students to “Get Stuff Done” in the Community Partnership Program

April 2, 2016; 9:30–10 am The Action Research Center and State Farm have partnered with non-profts for the past 10 years to provide a unique and innovative dual internship experience for Illinois Wesleyan students. The Community Partnership Program (CPP) puts students at the intersection of corporations, non-profts, and the community, leading to innovative community development. Presenters: Bevin Cowie ’10, Action Research Center Coordinator Adam Garcia ’16, CPP 2015 Intern and State Farm Employee Student Respondents: Brianna Piro ’17, psychology & sociology double majorTia Patsavas ’16, English-writing major The presentation slides are available for viewing below and may be downloaded above. The students\u27 responses will be linked here when possible. A video of the presentation is available at https://youtu.be/ZRuSUUKImUE?list=PLiP9aNdnuG5V6X5QHlYT_Tzp1VdFioLfqhttps://digitalcommons.iwu.edu/jensen_inauguration/1014/thumbnail.jp

Ultra-long-acting removable drug delivery system for HIV treatment and prevention

Non-adherence to medication is an important health care problem, especially in the treatment of chronic conditions. Injectable long-acting (LA) formulations of antiretrovirals (ARVs) represent a viable alternative to improve adherence to HIV/AIDS treatment and prevention. However, the LA-ARV formulations currently in clinical trials cannot be removed after administration even if adverse events occur. Here we show an ultra-LA removable system that delivers drug for up to 9 months and can be safely removed to stop drug delivery. We use two pre-clinical models for HIV transmission and treatment, non-human primates (NHP) and humanized BLT (bone marrow/liver/thymus) mice and show a single dose of subcutaneously administered ultra-LA dolutegravir effectively delivers the drug in both models and show suppression of viremia and protection from multiple high-dose vaginal HIV challenges in BLT mice. This approach represents a potentially effective strategy for the ultra-LA drug delivery with multiple possible therapeutic applications

A developmental approach to diversifying neuroscience through effective mentorship practices: perspectives on cross-identity mentorship and a critical call to action.

Many early-career neuroscientists with diverse identities may not have mentors who are more advanced in the neuroscience pipeline and have a congruent identity due to historic biases, laws, and policies impacting access to education. Cross-identity mentoring relationships pose challenges and power imbalances that impact the retention of diverse early career neuroscientists, but also hold the potential for a mutually enriching and collaborative relationship that fosters the mentee\u27s success. Additionally, the barriers faced by diverse mentees and their mentorship needs may evolve with career progression and require developmental considerations. This article provides perspectives on factors that impact cross-identity mentorship from individuals participating in Diversifying the Community of Neuroscience (CNS)-a longitudinal, National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) R25 neuroscience mentorship program developed to increase diversity in the neurosciences. Participants in Diversifying CNS were comprised of 14 graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and early career faculty who completed an online qualitative survey on cross-identity mentorship practices that impact their experience in neuroscience fields. Qualitative survey data were analyzed using inductive thematic analysis and resulted in four themes across career levels: (1) approach to mentorship and interpersonal dynamics, (2) allyship and management of power imbalance, (3) academic sponsorship, and (4) institutional barriers impacting navigation of academia. These themes, along with identified mentorship needs by developmental stage, provide insights mentors can use to better support the success of their mentees with diverse intersectional identities. As highlighted in our discussion, a mentor\u27s awareness of systemic barriers along with active allyship are foundational for their role

Resolving Intravoxel White Matter Structures in the Human Brain Using Regularized Regression and Clustering

The human brain is a complex system of neural tissue that varies significantly between individuals. Although the technology that delineates these neural pathways does not currently exist, medical imaging modalities, such as diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI), can be leveraged for mathematical identification. The purpose of this work is to develop a novel method employing machine learning techniques to determine intravoxel nerve number and direction from dMRI data. The method was tested on multiple synthetic datasets and showed promising estimation accuracy and robustness for multi-nerve systems under a variety of conditions, including highly noisy data and imprecision in parameter assumptions