Experiential Learning in Industrial/Organizational Psychology: A Case Study

Experiential learning is considered a powerful tool for learning in college. Community-based research is one type of experiential learning that has been used to learn research skills in a variety of social science disciplines. The current case study was conducted as an experiential learning research project. A team of six students and a professor from a small Midwestern college conducted community-based research with a large agribusiness company headquartered near the college. The goal of the project was to create an effective employee-selection process for this firm and to provide an effective learning experience for students. This included development of a situational judgment test, cognitive ability testing, and personality assessment. The article focuses on steps taken to organize a community- based research project, the steps required to develop an effective selection process, and an evaluation of the experience from students, the community partners, and faculty

Inhomogeneous Gravity

We study the inhomogeneous cosmological evolution of the Newtonian gravitational 'constant' G in the framework of scalar-tensor theories. We investigate the differences that arise between the evolution of G in the background universes and in local inhomogeneities that have separated out from the global expansion. Exact inhomogeneous solutions are found which describe the effects of masses embedded in an expanding FRW Brans-Dicke universe. These are used to discuss possible spatial variations of G in different regions. We develop the technique of matching different scalar-tensor cosmologies of different spatial curvature at a boundary. This provides a model for the linear and non-linear evolution of spherical overdensities and inhomogeneities in G. This allows us to compare the evolution of G and \dot{G} that occurs inside a collapsing overdense cluster with that in the background universe. We develop a simple virialisation criterion and apply the method to a realistic lambda-CDM cosmology containing spherical overdensities. Typically, far slower evolution of \dot{G} will be found in the bound virialised cluster than in the cosmological background. We consider the behaviour that occurs in Brans-Dicke theory and in some other representative scalar-tensor theories.Comment: 15 pages, 15 figures. Submitted to MNRAS. References adde

Functional Status, Quality of Life, and Long-Term Survival in a Cohort of Women with Breast Cancer and Heart Failure: Results of the Medicare Health Outcomes Survey

The aging population and marked growth of chronic non-communicable disease pose new challenges for the United States healthcare system. Breast cancer survivors with complex chronic conditions are a growing population. Of particular interest are women with chronic heart failure, a progressive, life-limiting condition that affects approximately one third of breast cancer survivors aged 65 and older. Despite the high prevalence of heart failure in this population, little is known about the implications of chronic heart failure for patient outcomes in breast cancer survivors. The purpose of this dissertation research is to examine health-related quality of life (HRQOL), functional status, and survival in a cohort of older women with two complex chronic conditions: breast cancer and heart failure. This dissertation consists of three parts: 1) a concept analysis to examine the concept of cardiotoxic heart failure in breast cancer survivors; 2) a cross-sectional, population-based study to evaluate the relationship between heart failure diagnosis and patient-reported functional status and HRQOL among breast cancer survivors; and 3) a retrospective cohort study to examine the association between heart failure diagnosis and long-term survival among older women with breast cancer. These results will establish the foundation for future prospective research by identifying clinical subgroups of breast cancer survivors at greatest risk for adverse sequelae associated with heart failure, as well as identifying deficits in HRQOL or functional status to target for future intervention. This dissertation provides crucial data to inform a research program focused on management of complex chronic conditions in women, specifically the notable number of breast cancer survivors who also live with chronic heart failure.PHDNursingUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136979/1/joharr_1.pd

Impact of Adverse Childhood Events on the Psychosocial Functioning of Children Affected by Parental HIV in Rural China

Introduction: Children affected by parental HIV are more likely than unaffected peers to experience trauma and are at-risk for negative psychological and social outcomes. This study aimed to examine the relationship between adverse childhood events and psychosocial functioning among children affected by parental HIV. Methods: A total of 790 children ages 6–17 from Henan, China were enrolled in a longitudinal, randomized controlled trial of a resilience-based psychosocial intervention. At baseline, children reported on numerous psychosocial factors, including trauma exposure, symptoms of anxiety and depression, and peer social functioning. We used linear regression analysis to test the direct effect of trauma exposure on peer social functioning. We then tested whether depression and anxiety symptoms served as two potential parallel mediators in the association between trauma exposure and peer social functioning. Results: Trauma exposure was significantly associated with poor peer social functioning (β = −0.10, p = 0.005) when controlling for key covariates. When depression and anxiety symptoms were added to the model, the association between trauma exposure and peer social functioning became nonsignificant. Instead, there were significant indirect effects from trauma exposure to peer social functioning via depression (β = −0.06, 95%CI[−0.09, −0.03]) and anxiety (β = −0.02, 95%CI[−0.04, −0.00]). Conclusion: This study is among the first to link trauma exposure to peer social functioning deficits for children affected by parental HIV and demonstrates that symptoms of anxiety and depression mediate this relationship. Findings underscore the need for comprehensive psychosocial support for children affected by HIV, including screening for trauma exposure and mental health disorders

Minority Health Disparities in a 21st-century Pandemic: A Comprehensive Report of Project Research Focused on New York

The COVID-19 pandemic has exacted a starkly unequal toll on New Yorkers of color – both in terms of the virus itself and the accompanying social and economic impacts of the pandemic. These are not separate issues. They stem from the structural racism embedded in American society. While our work begins by establishing a statistical baseline for how the virus’s unequal toll played out in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic in New York, any analysis of these disparities that looks solely at hospitalizations and deaths misses a tremendous piece of this tragic and preventable story. Minority health disparities have always existed in the United States. But COVID-19 has exposed and exacerbated these disparities in ways policymakers cannot ignore; doing so would mean accepting inequity with life and death consequences. The COVID-19 pandemic also exposed gaps in existing knowledge about the causes of these inequities and, more important, how to end them. We need, for example, more and better data about the toll of the virus in New York’s Indigenous communities and Indigenous communities more generally. Additionally, our work suggests important differences exist in the way different minority groups experience the progression of the disease.More work is needed to fully explore those differences and their causes, particularly as they relate to additional minority communities in New York. This project has been an important initial step toward filling some of these gaps and identifying interventions that, by necessity, must be informed by and rooted in community experiences and insight. The University at Albany began this project at the direction of Gov. Andrew Cuomo with extreme urgency at the height of the most serious public health emergency New York has faced in a century. That urgency led to the creation of a new health equity research ecosystem at UAlbany that will long outlast this project and continue to produce new knowledge, insights, and recommendations to combat future public health threats we have yet to even imagine. The trauma inflicted on New Yorkers by the COVID-19 pandemic cannot be undone. But university researchers and government policymakers should jointly pledge to do everything in their power not to allow the lessons learned from COVID-19’s unequal path across New York to go unheeded

Different hydrogen-bonded chains in the crystal structures of three alkyl N-[(E )-1-(2-benzylidene-1-methylhydrazinyl)-3- hydroxy-1-oxopropan-2-yl]carbamates

Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Beyond Detection: Investing in Practical and Theoretical Applications of Emotion + Visualization

Emotion is a dynamic variable that modulates how we perceive, reason about, and interact with our environment. Recent studies have established that emotion’s influence carries to data analysis and visualization, impacting performance in ways both positive and negative. While we are still in the infancy of understanding the role emotion plays in analytical contexts, advances in physiological sensing and emotion research have raised the possibility of creating emotion-aware systems. In this position paper, we argue that it is critical to consider the potential advances that can be made even in the face of imperfect sensing, while we continue to address the practical challenges of monitoring emotion in the wild. To underscore the importance of this line of inquiry, we highlight several key challenges related to detection, adaptation, and impact of emotional states for users of data visualization systems, and motivate promising avenues for future research in these areas

Effect of Osteopathic Manipulative Treatment in Patients with Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS): A Literature Review

Postural Orthostatic Tachycardia Syndrome (POTS) is characterized by autonomic dysregulation resulting in diminished blood flow and excessive tachycardia. POTS has been scarcely studied in the clinical setting. A review of literature generated only four articles, only one of which met the established criteria. A follow up study to evaluate the effect of OMT on the quality of life for patients with POTS is planned. The hypothesis is that osteopathic manipulation plays a role in the management of POTS, as patients should experience improvement in their symptoms and their overall quality of life

Acute Flavanol Supplementation Improves the Attenuated Cerebral Vasodilatory Capacity in Young African Americans

African Americans (AA) have increased risk for cerebral vascular disease including stroke, Alzheimer’s disease, or dementia relative to Caucasian Americans (CA). Our recent study found that AA have attenuated cerebral vasodilatory response to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia when compared with CA. Thus, we hypothesized that acute flavanol intake restores blunted cerebral responses in AA. Fourteen healthy college-aged AA and 14 age- and sex-matched CA participants were studied. A four-parameter logistic regression was used for curve fitting the responses of cerebral vascular conductance (%CVCi) relative to changes in end-tidal carbon dioxide concentration. In AA, there were significant improvements in total range of changes in %CVCi (a) and the maximum increase in %CVCi (y0) with flavanol beverage (a; pre: 46.4 ± 16 vs. post: 64.4 ± 19 %CVCi; P = 0.007, y0; pre: 151.1 ± 18 vs. post: 166.0 ± 22 %CVCi; P = 0.002); however, there were no differences in a and y0 with placebo (a; pre: 52.5 ± 19 vs. post: 51.7 ± 17 %CVCi; P = 0.35, y0; pre: 156.2 ± 20 vs. post: 151.3 ± 17 %CVCi; P = 0.26). In CA, no differences in a and y0 with flavanol (a; pre: 73.7 ± 18 vs. post: 71.7 ± 22 %CVCi; P = 0.70, y0; pre: 175.7 ± 20 %CVCi vs. post: 175.6 ± 22 %CVCi; P = 0.99) or placebo (a; pre: 75.7 ± 15 vs. post: 80.1 ± 20 %CVCi; P = 0.24, y0; pre: 177.4 ± 21 %CVCi vs. post: 180.6 ± 25 %CVCi; P = 0.45) were observed. In conclusion, acute flavanol supplementation increases the total range of changes in cerebral vascular conductance as well as maximum vascular conductance in AA, effectively abolishing the ethnic-related difference in cerebral vasodilatory capacity in response to rebreathing-induced hypercapnia

Distinguishing Oceans of Water from Magma on Mini-Neptune K2-18b

Mildly irradiated mini-Neptunes have densities potentially consistent with them hosting substantial liquid-water oceans ("Hycean" planets). The presence of CO2 and simultaneous absence of ammonia (NH3) in their atmospheres has been proposed as a fingerprint of such worlds. JWST observations of K2-18b, the archetypal Hycean, have found the presence of CO2 and the depletion of NH3 to 4 μm region, where CO2 and CO features dominate: magma ocean models suggest a systematically lower CO2/CO ratio than estimated from free-chemistry retrieval, indicating that deeper observations of this spectral region may be able to distinguish between oceans of liquid water and magma on mini-Neptunes