An exploratory study into Iraqi refugees\u27 resettlement experience in California\u27s Inland Empire

This study explored the resettlement services and supports given to Iraqi refugees in California\u27s Inland Empire and gave Iraqi refugees an opportunity to voice their opinions and concerns related to resettlement, It also provides guidance for future policies and services offered by resettlement agencies

Lessons Learned Managing Team Projects in a Pandemic: the Civil War and Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project

Group projects are hard in the best of times. The COVID-19 pandemic presents even more challenges of access to archival collections for patrons and researchers, as well as for the archivists and librarians who process and facilitate access to historical materials. In 2020, a hybrid team of both on-site and remote archivists, librarians, historians, and students began working to digitize, describe, transcribe, and annotate more than 20,000 documents for the Civil War & Reconstruction Governors of Mississippi Project (CWRGM). A collaboration between the Mississippi Department of Archives and History, the University of Southern Mississippi, and the Mississippi Digital Library, CWRGM provides free online access to the papers sent to and from Mississippi’s governors’ offices from 1859 to 1882. These records represent a diverse array of historical voices across categories of race, class, gender, and political allegiance. This session will outline the CWRGM project and the varied materials to which it provides access. The presenters will discuss the project’s workflow from metadata creation and review to file upload and transcription. Their presentation will highlight the technology used to create CWRGM and share how the team effectively communicates and stays organized virtually during the pandemic

The Effect of Oral Contraceptives on the Soprano Voice: an Exploratory Study

Several researchers have suggested that fluctuating estrogen levels may be responsible for certain physiological changes in the female body. The purpose of this study was to determine whether significant changes in the soprano voice quality occur due to the use of oral contraceptives

Paws with a Purpose: Evidence Supporting the Use of Animal Assisted Therapy to Improve Quality of Life in Adults with Psychiatric Diagnoses

Approximately 62.7 million Americans have a psychiatric diagnosis, including Alzheimer’s disease and mental disorders1,6. Adults who are diagnosed with these conditions experience a variety of limitations, including decreased quality of life4. Occupational Therapy (OT) has been shown to be an effective treatment to increase quality of life in adults with psychiatric diagnoses3. Occupational therapists working within the mental health field often need to use creative and innovative approaches to motivate their clients, including Animal-assisted therapy (AAT). AAT is a unique intervention approach that has the potential to improve a person’s emotional, physical, cognitive and social functioning5. In order to evaluate the efficacy of AAT to improve quality of life in adults with psychiatric diagnoses, a systematic literature review was conducted. Quality of life was operationally defined as functional ability and physical, emotional, and social well-being2. Electronic databases including CINAHL, Ovid Medline, PsycINFO, and Google Scholar were used to select peer-reviewed articles from 1995 to 2013. Predefined selection criteria were used to identify AAT studies, assessing quality of life for adults with psychiatric diagnoses. All investigators assessed and subsequently agreed on inclusion. A total of 228 publications were found; thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The purpose of this session is to present the current evidence supporting AAT and discuss future clinical implications for occupational therapy practice. The review process, definitions, and themes will be presented. The results describe AAT as a promising treatment intervention to improve quality of life in adults with psychiatric diagnoses. Animals have been found to increase social participation, decrease emotional and behavioral symptoms, and influence occupational performance by serving as “role models” for ADLs and related routines. Additionally, it is suggested that animals be used as a modality, with the therapist planning and guiding the treatment session. AAT may also be justified as a supplement to conventional therapy and pharmacological treatment approaches to increase quality of life for individuals with psychiatric diagnoses. To advance the knowledge of AAT in OT practice, continued research is necessary to develop specific, standardized AAT protocols, outline the role of OT in AAT, and establish credible results from high quality studies. References: National Institute of Mental Health. (n.d.). The numbers count: Mental disorders in america. Retrieved from http://www.nimh.nih.gov/health/publications/the-numbers-count-mental-disorders-in-america/index.shtml Cella, D. F. (1994). Quality of life: concepts and definition. Journal of pain and symptom management, 9(3), 186-192. Graff, M. J., Vernooij-Dassen, M. J., Thijssen, M., Dekker, J., Hoefnagels, W. H., & OldeRikkert, M. G. (2007). Effects of community occupational therapy on quality of life, mood, and health status in dementia patients and their caregivers: a randomized controlled trial. The Journals of Gerontology Series A: Biological Sciences and Medical Sciences, 62(9), 1002-1009. Lehman, A. F. (1983). The well-being of chronic mental patients: assessing their quality of life. Archives of General Psychiatry, 40(4), 369. Kanamori, M., Suzuki, M., Yamamoto, K., Kanda, M., Matsui, Y., Kojima, E., ... & Oshiro, H. (2001). A day care program and evaluation of animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for the elderly with senile dementia. American Journal of Alzheimer\u27s disease and other Dementias, 16(4), 234-239. Alzheimer\u27s Association. (2013). Alzheimer\u27s facts and figures. Retrieved from http://www.alz.org/alzheimers_disease_facts_and_figures.as

Learning Interpretable Dynamics from Images of a Freely Rotating 3D Rigid Body

In many real-world settings, image observations of freely rotating 3D rigid bodies, such as satellites, may be available when low-dimensional measurements are not. However, the high-dimensionality of image data precludes the use of classical estimation techniques to learn the dynamics and a lack of interpretability reduces the usefulness of standard deep learning methods. In this work, we present a physics-informed neural network model to estimate and predict 3D rotational dynamics from image sequences. We achieve this using a multi-stage prediction pipeline that maps individual images to a latent representation homeomorphic to $\mathbf{SO}(3)$, computes angular velocities from latent pairs, and predicts future latent states using the Hamiltonian equations of motion with a learned representation of the Hamiltonian. We demonstrate the efficacy of our approach on a new rotating rigid-body dataset with sequences of rotating cubes and rectangular prisms with uniform and non-uniform density.Comment: 8 pages, 7 figure

Kansas State DMC Assessment

The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act charges states to institute multipronged strategies not only to prevent delinquency but to improve the juvenile justice system and assure equal treatment of all youth. To successfully address Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC), the U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recommends a five-phase process, whereby jurisdictions: 1) identify whether disproportionality exists and the extent to which it exists at all contact stages of the juvenile justice system; 2) assess the contributing factors; 3) provide an intervention plan; 4) evaluate the efficacy of efforts to reduce DMC; and 5) monitor and track DMC trends over time to identify emerging critical issues and to determine whether there has been progress. The goal of this assessment is to identify the factors that contribute to DMC in the State of Kansas so that Kansas’ juvenile justice system stakeholders can design appropriate intervention strategies. To do this, DMC was examined at three key decision points: arrest, secure detention and case management placements. Because data were made available regarding juvenile intake and assessment (which intersect with both law enforcement and secure detention) this data point was also examined. Like many assessments of this type, we were limited by the availability and quality of data. However, the report and recommendations that follow identify ways in which Kansas can explore data-driven approaches to addressing the overrepresentation of minority youth in the Kansas juvenile justice system

Pregnancy and Mental Health Care Among Women Veterans Returning from Iraq and Afghanistan

Presentation looking at pregnancy and mental health care in the VA system. Documents a study examining the prevalence of pregnancy care and comparing the mental health diagnoses among pregnant and non-pregnant women in VA care. Then examining the degree to which pregnant veterans receive VA mental health care during their pregnancy. Concludes that pregnant women veterans using VA care have a substantial mental health burden

Nebraska State DMC Assessment

The Juvenile Justice Delinquency Prevention Act charges states to institute multipronged strategies not only to prevent delinquency but to improve the juvenile justice system and assure equal treatment of all youth. To successfully address Disproportionate Minority Contact (DMC), the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention recommends a five-phase process, whereby jurisdictions: 1) identify whether disproportionality exists and the extent to which it exists; 2) assess the contributing factors, examine minority overrepresentation and explain differences at all contact stages of the juvenile justice system; 3) provide an intervention plan; 4) evaluate the efficacy of efforts to reduce DMC; and 5) monitor and track DMC trends over time to identify emerging critical issues and to determine whether there has been progress. The goal of this assessment is to identify the factors that contribute to DMC so that Nebraska’s juvenile justice system stakeholders can design appropriate intervention strategies. Like many assessments of this type, we were limited by the availability and quality of data. However, the report and recommendations that follow identify ways in which Nebraska can: 1) improve its capacity to develop data-driven approaches to addressing DMC; 2) examine subjective discretion points for the purpose of removing the potential for implicit bias to impact decision making; and 3) implement best practices to improve the juvenile justice system

Comparison of year-of-exam- and age-matched estimates of heritability in the Framingham Heart Study data

Several different approaches can be used to examine generational and temporal trends in family studies. The measurement of offspring and parents can be made over a short period of time with parents and offspring having quite different ages, or measurements can be made at the same ages but with decades between parent and offspring measures. A third approach, used in the Framingham Heart Study, has repeated examinations across a broad range of age and time, and provides a unique opportunity to compare these approaches. Parents and offspring were matched both on (year of exam) and on age. Heritability estimates for systolic blood pressure, body mass index, height, weight, cholesterol, and glucose were obtained by regressing offspring on midparent values with and without adjustment for age. Higher estimates of heritability were obtained for age-matched than for year-of-exam-matched data for all traits considered. For most traits, estimates of the heritability of the change over time (slope) of the trait were near zero. These results suggest that the optimal design to identify genetic effects in traits with large age-related effects may be to measure parents and offspring at similar ages and not to rely on age-adjustment or longitudinal measures to account for these temporal effects