The Effect of a Personalized Playlist on Older Adults with Dementia

Dementia is a disease that corrodes one’s cognitive abilities such as their memory, affecting around 5million people in the United States. While there is currently no treatment available to cure dementia,music therapy was found effective to help reduce its symptoms. Based on the Music and Memoryprogram, this study is aimed to examine the impact of listening to a personalized music playlist onobservable behavior, memory, and mood of older adults with dementia. The Music and Memory programwas applied to 6 older adults with dementia at a Retirement Center in Northwest Ohio. The findingsindicated that listening to a personalized playlist had a positive outcome on improving moods anddecreasing disruptive behavior of participants, with more increased eye contact, smiling, face relaxation,and responsiveness. This study suggests that personalized music is an effective intervention tool;therefore, social workers should take on the roles of educators, evaluators, brokers, and advocators inapplying Music and Memory program to clients with dementia

The Effect of Marriage verses Cohabitation on Sexual Communication in Latino, African American, and Caucasian Adults

This study focuses on the effect of communication on sexual relationship satisfaction when comparing cohabiting couples with married couples. Communication is an important part of relational and sexual satisfaction. Research was conducted using scholarly journal articles and quantitative data from questionnaires. Fifty-four questionnaires were completed by males and females that were at least forty years, married or cohabitating, and identified as Latino, African American, or Caucasian. The data from the questionnaires found that both heterosexual and homosexual couples in domestic partnerships had better sexual communication than those who were married. People from diverse backgrounds can relate to the data collected because marriage and sexual communication are relevant to people all over the worl

Inhibition of T Cell Receptor Signal Transduction by Tyrosine Kinase–interacting Protein of Herpesvirus saimiri

T cells play a central role in orchestrating immunity against pathogens, particularly viruses. Thus, impairing T cell activation is an important strategy employed by viruses to escape host immune control. The tyrosine kinase–interacting protein (Tip) of the T lymphotropic Herpesvirus saimiri (HVS) is constitutively present in lipid rafts and interacts with cellular Lck tyrosine kinase and p80 endosomal protein. Here we demonstrate that, due to the sequestration of Lck by HVS Tip, T cell receptor (TCR) stimulation fails to activate ZAP70 tyrosine kinase and to initiate downstream signaling events. TCR ζ chains in Tip-expressing T cells were initially phosphorylated to recruit ZAP70 molecule upon TCR stimulation, but the recruited ZAP70 kinase was not subsequently phosphorylated, resulting in TCR complexes that were stably associated with inactive ZAP70 kinase. Consequently, Tip expression not only markedly inhibited TCR-mediated intracellular signal transduction but also blocked TCR engagement with major histocompatibility complexes on the antigen-presenting cells and immunological synapse formation. These results demonstrate that a lymphotropic herpesvirus has evolved a novel mechanism to deregulate T cell activation to disarm host immune surveillance. This process contributes to the establishment and maintenance of viral latency

Gender Differences in the Relationships between Perceived Stress, Eating Behaviors, Sleep, Dietary Risk, and Body Mass Index

Background: Obesity is a growing epidemic among university students, and the high levels of stress reported by this population could contribute to this issue. Singular relationships between perceived stress; engagement in restrained, uncontrolled, and emotional eating; sleep; dietary risk; and body mass index (BMI) have been reported in the current body of literature; however, these constructs interact with each other, and the complex relationships among them are infrequently examined. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to explore the complex relationships between these constructs using mediation and moderation analyses stratified by gender. Methods: A cross-sectional study, enrolling university students from the United States (U.S.), the Netherlands, South Korea, Malaysia, Ireland, Ghana, and China, was conducted between October 2020 and January 2021 during the COVID-19 pandemic. Perceived stress; maladaptive eating behaviors including restrained, uncontrolled, and emotional eating; sleep duration and quality; dietary risk; and BMI were assessed using validated questionnaires, which were distributed through an online platform. Results: A total of 1392 students completed the online survey (379 male, 973 female, and 40 who self-identified as “other”). Uncontrolled and emotional eating mediated the relationship between perceived stress and dietary risk for both males and females; higher sleep quality weakened this relationship among female students but not males. Emotional eating mediated the relationship between perceived stress and BMI for both males and females, but higher sleep quality weakened this relationship only among females. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that students in higher education are likely to benefit from interventions to reduce uncontrolled and emotional eating. Programs that improve sleep quality, especially during highly stressful periods, may be helpful

Non-Human Primate Model of Kaposi's Sarcoma-Associated Herpesvirus Infection

Since Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus (KSHV or human herpesvirus 8) was first identified in Kaposi's sarcoma (KS) lesions of HIV-infected individuals with AIDS, the basic biological understanding of KSHV has progressed remarkably. However, the absence of a proper animal model for KSHV continues to impede direct in vivo studies of viral replication, persistence, and pathogenesis. In response to this need for an animal model of KSHV infection, we have explored whether common marmosets can be experimentally infected with human KSHV. Here, we report the successful zoonotic transmission of KSHV into common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus, Cj), a New World primate. Marmosets infected with recombinant KSHV rapidly seroconverted and maintained a vigorous anti-KSHV antibody response. KSHV DNA and latent nuclear antigen (LANA) were readily detected in the peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMCs) and various tissues of infected marmosets. Remarkably, one orally infected marmoset developed a KS-like skin lesion with the characteristic infiltration of leukocytes by spindle cells positive for KSHV DNA and proteins. These results demonstrate that human KSHV infects common marmosets, establishes an efficient persistent infection, and occasionally leads to a KS-like skin lesion. This is the first animal model to significantly elaborate the important aspects of KSHV infection in humans and will aid in the future design of vaccines against KSHV and anti-viral therapies targeting KSHV coinfected tumor cells

A STUDY OF OPTIMISM, COPING STRATEGY, AND PSYCHOLOGICAL QUALITY OF LIFE AMONG WHITE, KOREAN, AND AFRICAN AMERICAN FEMALE OLDER ADULTS

This cross-sectional, cross-cultural, and quantitative study examined the association between coping strategies and psychological quality of life (QOL), considering optimism among three ethnic female older adult groups. A total of 373 community-dwelling female older adults over age 65, including 124 White Americans, 124 Korean Americans and 125 African Americans residing in Columbia, South Carolina and Augusta, Georgia in the United States completed the questionnaire via face-to face interview. Factorial ANOVA regarding race and coping strategies revealed that religion was the most frequent coping strategy among all ethnic groups. White Americans and Korean Americans frequently used problem-focused copings (e.g., active coping and planning) and adaptive emotional-focused copings (e.g., positive reframing and acceptance), while African Americans employed adaptive emotional-focused copings and avoidant copings (e.g., self-distraction and venting). Eight coping strategies (e.g., active coping, planning, positive reframing, religion, denial, venting, behavioral disengagement, and self-blame) were significantly related to optimism (p Regarding race and quality of life, five QOL subscales (e.g., QOL life enjoyment, QOL life meaning, QOL bodily appearance, QOL self-satisfaction, and QOL sum) were significantly different (p \u3c .001). African Americans had the highest QOL mean score in the five subscales, followed by White Americans and Korean Americans. Relating optimism to quality of life, all QOL subscales were significantly (p Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that sufficient income and optimism were commonly important for the QOL of female older adults. Each ethnic group reported different coping strategies, which impacted their QOL differently. For White Americans, social support, education, acceptance, and venting were related to their QOL. For Korean Americans, living arrangements, being a caregiver, planning, and self-blame were associated with their QOL. For African Americans, living arrangements, humor, behavior-disengagement, and self-blame were associated with their QOL. These findings suggest that social work practitioners need to understand protective coping among female older adults in different ethnic groups to help them improve their quality of life

Science education in the key of gentle empiricism

Let’s begin this thinking about science education at the beginning: with the very meaning of science education. Science education may mean instructing in or learning about scientific information, knowledge, and methods in various disciplines. The goal here would be to equip our students with requisite knowledge and skills to become scientists, technicians, and science and technology educators. Our current system of science education is replete with this way of teaching science. And we need this form of education to cultivate future generations of scientists, technicians, and workers in science-related careers

Ethical-Ecological Holism in Science Pedagogy: In Honor of Sea Urchins

In this chapter, we explore the unquestioned use and killing of animals in biological education, through a mixed-methods study involving narrative inquiry, poetic inquiry, and essay composition. Based on our results, we call for a shift to a more ethical-ecological holistic framework for science pedagogy. We argue that, for this shift to occur, we need to critically re-examine the foundational philosophical basis of, as well as accompanying psychological work that goes into, the de-animated and desacralized empiricist worldview. We also propose to re-animate, and to reclaim a sacred perception of, the world through aesthetic and contemplative practices alongside scientific investigations