Factors Influencing Occupational Therapists’ Choice in Work Settings

There are a multitude of settings for newly graduated occupational therapists (OTs) to work. According to The American Occupational Therapy Association (AOTA), the majority of OTs work in direct client intervention instead of indirect or administration, consultation, or research roles (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2019). The top work settings for direct client interventions in occupational therapy (OT) are currently long-term care and skilled nursing facilities, freestanding outpatient centers, hospitals with acute and inpatient care, and school settings, with 74%, 70.4%, 70%, and 60.8% of the OTs working in those settings working, respectively (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2019). In addition, work setting trends for OTs from 2000 to 2014 show that of the occupational therapists surveyed, two thirds of them primarily work in three settings – hospitals, schools, and long-term or skilled nursing facilities (LTC/SNF), showing that those were the most common settings in which OTs work (American Occupational Therapy Association, 2019). The least common setting for OTs was in the community. While there are statistics telling which direct client intervention settings are the most and least popular, there is little research regarding the reasons as to why OTs choose the settings they work in, whether it be personal or relating to the job and setting itself. There is also little research on why the top work settings are at the top. There is however some research focusing on the factors contributing to job satisfaction which may help to inform the potential reasoning behind choosing and staying in a specific OT workplace setting

Loss of RAF kinase inhibitor protein is involved in myelomonocytic differentiation and aggravates RAS-driven myeloid leukemogenesis

RAS-signaling mutations induce the myelomonocytic differentiation and proliferation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. Moreover, they are important players in the development of myeloid neoplasias. RAF kinase inhibitor protein (RKIP) is a negative regulator of RAS-signaling. As RKIP loss has recently been described in RAS-mutated myelomonocytic acute myeloid leukemia, we now aimed to analyze its role in myelomonocytic differentiation and RAS-driven leukemogenesis. Therefore, we initially analyzed RKIP expression during human and murine hematopoietic differentiation and observed that it is high in hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells and lymphoid cells but decreases in cells belonging to the myeloid lineage. By employing short hairpin RNA knockdown experiments in CD34+ umbilical cord blood cells and the undifferentiated acute myeloid leukemia cell line HL-60, we show that RKIP loss is indeed functionally involved in myelomonocytic lineage commitment and drives the myelomonocytic differentiation of hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells. These results could be confirmed in vivo, where Rkip deletion induced a myelomonocytic differentiation bias in mice by amplifying the effects of granulocyte macrophage-colony-stimulating factor. We further show that RKIP is of relevance for RAS-driven myelomonocytic leukemogenesis by demonstrating that Rkip deletion aggravates the development of a myeloproliferative disease in NrasG12D-mutated mice. Mechanistically, we demonstrate that RKIP loss increases the activity of the RAS-MAPK/ERK signaling module. Finally, we prove the clinical relevance of these findings by showing that RKIP loss is a frequent event in chronic myelomonocytic leukemia, and that it co-occurs with RAS-signaling mutations. Taken together, these data establish RKIP as novel player in RAS-driven myeloid leukemogenesis

A multi-country test of brief reappraisal interventions on emotions during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic has increased negative emotions and decreased positive emotions globally. Left unchecked, these emotional changes might have a wide array of adverse impacts. To reduce negative emotions and increase positive emotions, we tested the effectiveness of reappraisal, an emotion-regulation strategy that modifies how one thinks about a situation. Participants from 87 countries and regions (n = 21,644) were randomly assigned to one of two brief reappraisal interventions (reconstrual or repurposing) or one of two control conditions (active or passive). Results revealed that both reappraisal interventions (vesus both control conditions) consistently reduced negative emotions and increased positive emotions across different measures. Reconstrual and repurposing interventions had similar effects. Importantly, planned exploratory analyses indicated that reappraisal interventions did not reduce intentions to practice preventive health behaviours. The findings demonstrate the viability of creating scalable, low-cost interventions for use around the world

Universal Preschool: It’s Impact on Children’s Development

The debate on children\u27s development is a hot topic no matter what the age. As of right now parents, schools, and educational systems are debating specifically the importance of children\u27s education in the preschool system. Those in favor of preschool education believe that it benefits those families that come from lower-income backgrounds as well as improving the child\u27s social skills and giving them access to environments different than what they have at home. Those opposed believe that universal preschool is primarily targeted to low-income families, and would not benefit people of a higher economic class. In addition, they also believe that because public schools around the US are failing they see no reason to support preschools, and use taxpayers\u27 money on a service they might not use. This poster will explore the pros and cons of mandatory universal preschool

miR-181a Modulation of ERK-MAPK Signaling Sustains DC-SIGN Expression and Limits Activation of Monocyte-Derived Dendritic Cells.

DC-SIGN+ monocyte-derived dendritic cells (mo-DCs) play important roles in bacterial infections and inflammatory diseases, but the factors regulating their differentiation and proinflammatory status remain poorly defined. Here, we identify a microRNA, miR-181a, and a molecular mechanism that simultaneously regulate the acquisition of DC-SIGN expression and the activation state of DC-SIGN+mo-DCs. Specifically, we show that miR-181a promotes DC-SIGN expression during terminal mo-DC differentiation and limits its sensitivity and responsiveness to TLR triggering and CD40 ligation. Mechanistically, miR-181a sustains ERK-MAPK signaling in mo-DCs, thereby enabling the maintenance of high levels of DC-SIGN and a high activation threshold. Low miR-181a levels during mo-DC differentiation, induced by inflammatory signals, do not support the high phospho-ERK signal transduction required for DC-SIGNhi mo-DCs and lead to development of proinflammatory DC-SIGNlo/-mo-DCs. Collectively, our study demonstrates that high DC-SIGN expression levels and a high activation threshold in mo-DCs are linked and simultaneously maintained by miR-181a

Size-Resolved Sea Spray Aerosol Particles Studied by Vibrational Sum Frequency Generation

We present vibrational sum frequency generation (SFG) spectra of the external surfaces and the internal interfaces of size-selected sea spray aerosol (SSA) particles generated at the wave flume of the Scripps Hydraulics Laboratory. Our findings support SSA particle models that invoke the presence of surfactants in the topmost particle layer and indicate that the alkyl chains of surfactant-rich SSA particles are likely to be disordered. Specifically, the SFG spectra suggest that across the range of sizes studied, surfactant-rich SSA particles contain CH oscillators that are subject to molecular orientation distributions that are broader than the narrow molecular distribution functions associated with well-ordered and well-aligned alkyl chains. This result is consistent with the interpretation that the permeability of organic layers at SSA particle surfaces to small reactive and nonreactive molecules may be substantial, allowing for much more exchange between reactive and nonreactive species in the gas or the condensed phase than previously thought. The SFG data also suggest that a one-component model is likely to be insufficient for describing the SFG responses of the SSA particles. Finally, the similarity of the SFG spectra obtained from the wave flume microlayer and 150 nm-sized SSA particles suggests that the SFG active CH oscillators in the topmost layer of the wave flume and the particle accumulation mode may be in similar chemical environments. Needs for additional research activities are discussed in the context of the results presented