Teaching Online Group Counseling Skills in an On-Campus Group Counseling Course

Counselors are increasingly incorporating digital modalities into their practices. As such, counseling students must be trained to provide such types of counseling within their degree programs. This article outlines an example curriculum for an on-campus group counseling class wherein students receive training and participate in an online, videoconferencing process group

A Pilot Survey of the Integration of Technology into Counseling Practice

A random sample of 218 American Counseling Association members responded to a survey related to the integration of technology into the field of counseling pertaining to perceptions of possible barriers and benefits to providing online counseling. Results indicate that 11% of respondents currently provide some type of online counseling and that less than 20% of respondents would consider providing online counseling. Respondents identified both potential barriers and benefits of online counseling indicating that while counselors can recognize benefits to online counseling, they are still wary of potential challenges. Implications for the counseling field and future research directions are discussed

Eating with a Purpose:Consumer Response to Functional Food Health Claims in Conflicting Versus Complementary Information Environments

Marketers of food products have recently introduced a variety of “functional foods” that promise consumers improvements in targeted physiological functions. However, despite the proliferation of functional food health claims promising more than basic nutrition, little is known about consumer responses to these claims, particularly in information environments in which inconsistent information may be available about the efficacy of a particular functional ingredient

Seasonal Changes in Sleep Duration in African American and African College Students Living In Washington, D.C.

Duration of nocturnal melatonin secretion, a marker of “biological night” that relates to sleep duration, is longer in winter than in summer in patients with seasonal affective disorder (SAD), but not in healthy controls. In this study of African and African American college students, we hypothesized that students who met criteria for winter SAD or subsyndromal SAD (S-SAD) would report sleeping longer in winter than in summer. In addition, based on our previous observation that Africans report more “problems” with change in seasons than African Americans, we expected that the seasonal changes in sleep duration would be greater in African students than in African American students. Based on Seasonal Pattern Assessment Questionnaire (SPAQ) responses, African American and African college students in Washington, D.C. (N = 575) were grouped into a winter SAD/S-SAD group or a no winter diagnosis group, and winter and summer sleep length were determined. We conducted a 2 (season) × 2 (sex) × 2 (ethnicity) × 2 (winter diagnosis group) ANCOVA on reported sleep duration, controlling for age. Contrary to our hypothesis, we found that African and African American students with winter SAD/S-SAD report sleeping longer in the summer than in the winter. No differences in seasonality of sleep were found between African and African American students. Students with winter SAD or S-SAD may need to sacrifice sleep duration in the winter, when their academic functioning/efficiency may be impaired by syndromal or subsyndromal depression, in order to meet seasonally increased academic demands

Ploidy Variation in Multinucleate Cells Changes Under Stress

Ploidy variation is found in contexts as diverse as solid tumors, drug resistance in fungal infection, and normal development. Altering chromosome or genome copy number supports adaptation to fluctuating environments but is also associated with fitness defects attributed to protein imbalances. Both aneuploidy and polyploidy can arise from multinucleate states after failed cytokinesis or cell fusion. The consequences of ploidy variation in syncytia are difficult to predict because protein imbalances are theoretically buffered by a common cytoplasm. We examined ploidy in a naturally multinucleate fungus, Ashbya gossypii. Using integrated lac operator arrays, we found that chromosome number varies substantially among nuclei sharing a common cytoplasm. Populations of nuclei range from 1N to \u3e4N, with different polyploidies in the same cell and low levels of aneuploidy. The degree of ploidy variation increases as cells age. In response to cellular stress, polyploid nuclei diminish and haploid nuclei predominate. These data suggest that mixed ploidy is tolerated in these syncytia; however, there may be costs associated with variation as stress homogenizes the genome content of nuclei. Furthermore, the results suggest that sharing of gene products is limited, and thus there is incomplete buffering of ploidy variation despite a common cytosol

Variability of Dosing and Number of Medications Needed to Achieve Adequate Sedation in Mechanically Ventilated Pediatric Intensive Care Patients.

Children admitted to the pediatric intensive care unit (PICU) often require multiple medications to achieve comfort and sedation. Although starting doses are available, these medications are typically titrated to the desired effect. Both oversedation and undersedation are associated with adverse events. The aim of this retrospective study was to evaluate cumulative medication burden necessary to achieve comfort in patients in the PICU and determine relevant predictors of medication needs. In order to account for all of the sedative medications, z-scores were used to assess the population average dose of each medication and compare each patient day to this population average. Sedation regimens for 130 patients in the PICU were evaluated. Mean overall infusion rates of fentanyl, morphine, and hydromorphone were 1.67 ± 0.81 µg/kg/hour, 0.12 ± 0.08 mg/kg/hour, and 17.84 ± 13.4 µg/kg/hour, respectively. The mean infusion rate of dexmedetomidine was 0.59 ± 0.28 µg/kg/hour, and midazolam was 0.14 ± 0.1 mg/kg/hour. Summation z-sores were used to rank the amount of sedation medication needed to achieve comfort for each individual patient for his/her PICU stay in relation to the entire sample. Patient age, weight, and length of mechanical ventilation were all significant predictors of sedation requirement. This study will provide data necessary to develop a model of cumulative medication burden needed to achieve appropriate sedation in this population. This descriptive model in appropriately ranking patients based on sedative needs is the first step in exploring potential genetic factors that may provide an insight into homing in on the appropriate sedation regimen

A Brief Smoking Cessation Intervention for Heavy Drinking Smokers: Treatment Feasibility and Acceptability

Approximately 20–25% of regular smokers report heavy drinking. Abstinent smokers are five times as likely to experience a smoking lapse during drinking episodes. Current efforts seek to improve treatments for this subgroup of heavy-drinking smokers. This study tested the feasibility and acceptability of addressing alcohol use in a brief, single session smoking cessation intervention (SMK+A) compared to smoking cessation counseling only (SMK); these interventions were grounded in a motivational interview framework and included personalized feedback, decisional balance, quit day setting, and tailored skills building (e.g., breathing techniques, coping with urges, dealing with social pressures) to maintain abstinence. Descriptive outcomes included reported helpfulness of intervention skills, readiness to change scores, and feasibility of participant recruitment and retention. We also assessed 7-day point prevalence of smoking cessation, and smoking and drinking reduction at 1-month follow-up. Participants (N = 22) were community-based treatment-seeking daily smokers (≥5 cigarettes/day) who were also heavy drinkers (≥14 drinks/week for men, ≥ 7 drinks/week for women; or ≥5 drinks on one episode in past week for men, ≥4 for women). Twenty five percent of interested individuals were eligible after initial phone screen, and all randomized participants were retained through follow up. All skills demonstrated high acceptability (i.e., rated between moderately and very helpful), and a significant proportion of participants in each condition reported taking action to reduce cigarette smoking and/or alcohol use at 1-month post-quit. Three participants in each condition (27.3%) attained bioverified (CO ≤ 4 parts per million and cotinine ≤ 3 ng/mL) smoking quit at follow-up. Given the modified intervention's acceptability and flexibility, larger studies may help to elucidate this intervention's effects on readiness to change, smoking cessation, and alcohol reduction

ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries.

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Reflections: Students\u27 Tribute to Stan Kuczaj (1950-2016)

On April 14th, 2016, Animal Behavior and Cognition lost its Editor-in-Chief. But the scientific community and the friends and colleagues of Stanley ‘Stan’ Kuczaj III lost so much more. As many know, Stan began his career in Developmental Psychology, making enormous contributions in the area of language development, but became best known for his many innovative contributions in the area of marine mammal behavior. Stan founded Animal Behavior and Cognition because he was deeply passionate about research with a broad range of topics concerning animal behavior, animal cognition, and animal welfare. He was equally passionate about the idea that science should be accessible to all, and that accessibility should not come at a financial burden to researchers. The current editorial team is committed to carrying on Stan’s vision for the journal, and we believe that its continuation will pay homage to Stan as a researcher, and as a leader within the scientific community. However, for the next few pages, we wish to pay special tribute to Stan as a mentor, as this role was perhaps the one that was most pivotal in defining who he was as a scientist, colleague, and friend. We take comfort in the fact that Stan’s memory will live on in the legacy of his mentees, many of whom became cherished friends and colleagues. Below you will find reflections from several of these former students who were given the difficult task of trying to summarize the most meaningful aspect of Stan’s influence on their personal and professional development. Although no few words could summarize the impact of someone as enigmatic as Stan, we hope that these reflections will contribute to a full and nuanced tribute to the man he was