The Benefits of Intergenerational Arts-Based Experiences for Older Adults: A Review of the Literature

Ageism is a prevalent, yet overlooked, force of prejudice in American society, which is precipitated by the widespread institutionalized segregation of individuals among their age groups. Older adults may experience feelings of isolation and worthlessness as they undergo major life changes that disrupt their former sense of self, such as retirement or movement into an assisted living facility. This literature review discusses the significance of applying intergenerational arts-based experiences for older adults with those of a younger generation. While both art therapy and intergenerational programs have shown to benefit older adults, there remains a gap in the literature of applying a combination of the two. The findings of past studies indicate that using art intergenerationally helps address ageism in society by exposing those of a younger generation to those in an older generation, and thereby addressing preconceived stereotypes. Intergenerational programs provide an opportunity for older adults to connect to their community and lift them out of isolation. Such programs also aid several areas of mental health for older adults, such as fostering their sense of identity, providing alternate and supplementary forms of communication, building new skills to serve life-long learning, and alleviating symptoms of depression

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The Experiences of Psychologists Working in Federal Policy Positions

The Experiences of Psychologists Working in Federal Policy Position

Working memory and study abroad: a study of memory and language gains

Study abroad is commonly thought to be the secret to success in learning a second language (L2). In fact, research has shown that learners who study abroad for a semester or a year tend to outperform their counterparts who stay home in various measures of linguistic development (Taguchi). However, short-term study abroad (i.e., 5-8 weeks), is more accessible due to financial and time constraints and thus has become the most popular study abroad program type in recent years (IIE, 2019). Interestingly, there are a limited number of studies in the field of second language acquisition that examine the effects of short-term study abroad experiences. Given this dearth of studies on short-term study abroad, we investigate gains in L2 learners\u27 linguistic knowledge after a five week program. In addition to short-term study abroad, we explore how working memory helps or hinders students’ ability to improve their language skills after a short journey abroad. This study aims to find out to what extent an individual’s working memory capacity helps them to improve their language skills during an experience of total language immersion. In this study, participants were students of Spanish at the elementary level, and they spent five weeks in Oviedo, Spain during the summer term. The preliminary results of this study (N = 8) suggest that there is a significant relationship between the Digit Span Task (which measures working memory capacity) and the change in performance on the Elicited Imitation Task (administered at the beginning and end of the program and measures language comprehension and production). In this study, we tentatively demonstrate the benefits of short-term study abroad programs in terms of linguistic development. Due to the small quantity of participants, it is necessary that we conduct more studies in the future to continue the studying of the benefits of short-term study experiences abroad. Institute of International Education. (2019). “Detailed Duration of U.S. Study Abroad, 2005/06-2017/18” Open Doors Report on International Exchange. Retrieved from http://www.iie.org/opendoors. Taguchi, N. (2011). The effect of L2 proficiency and study‐abroad experience on pragmatic comprehension. Language Learning, 61(3), 904-939

Health-Related Quality of Life and Health Literacy among Mexican American and Black American Youth in a Southern Border State

Among adults, health literacy and health-related quality of life are highly correlated constructs that are associated with tangible health outcomes. While the connection between these concepts and health outcomes among youth is still unclear, studying these factors among at-risk adolescent populations can provide researchers, policy-creators, and educators a quantifiable summary of the challenge they face in their efforts to reduce health disparities. The purpose of this study was to better understand the health of minority youth living in a Southern state near the US-Mexico border. Specifically, we sought to describe their health literacy and health-related quality of life, and identify how those concepts may be interrelated. Results indicated that our sample of primarily Mexican American and Black American youth living along the US-Mexico border may be struggling more than other known high-risk groups in terms of health literacy and health-related quality of life. Practical implications for families, schools, and border communities are discussed

Social Worker Integrated Care Competencies Scale (SICCS): Assessing Social Worker Clinical Competencies for Health Care Settings

Integrating physical and behavioral health services has the potential to reduce health disparities and service inequities among persons most at risk. However, clinical social workers in integrated health settings must possess relevant knowledge and skills to provide quality care to diverse populations. The Social Worker Integrated Care Competency Scale (SWICCS), developed to complement the Integrated and Culturally Relevant Care (ICRC) field education curriculum, measures students’ self-perceptions of knowledge and skills associated with providing behavioral health care. Three student cohorts (n = 38) completed the SWICCS three times during an integrated care field practicum. Results indicated a statistically significant increase in student knowledge and skills at each time point, with a large effect size (r = −.87). The SWICCS demonstrated utility in measuring and tracking social work student acquisition of knowledge and skills required for practice in integrated care environments

Identifying novel interaction partners of the exocyst member Sec8 in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe

The exocyst is a complex of proteins classically known for its role in tethering secretory vesicles during exocytosis, but it has since been shown to participate in a whole host of other cellular processes. Several human patients have been discovered in whom mutations in the exocyst appear to cause disease, but the underlying mechanisms are still poorly understood. This highlights an urgent need to better characterise these proteins. The exocyst complex is conserved in the fission yeast Schizosaccharomyces pombe, which is an ideal model eukaryote in which to examine conserved biological mechanisms. In this study, I used GFP-Trap combined with qualitative proteomics to reassess the role of exocyst component Sec8. Unexpectedly, this uncovered putative novel associations with both the nuclear envelope and the mitochondrial envelope. Using live-cell imaging, I further showed that cells expressing mutated Sec8 displayed altered mitochondrial morphology and a significant reduction in mitochondrial fusion. This indicates that Sec8 is somehow involved in mitochondrial distribution and dynamics, a role which has not been previously described. This may provide further insight into the role of the exocyst in both normal and pathological conditions

Effects of mastery criteria on skill maintenance

There is currently limited research detailing the effects of varying mastery criteria on skill maintenance for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Mastery criteria are used to determine whether a skill has been acquired and is typically based on a criterion of accuracy observed over a number of consecutive sessions. Results from a survey of BCBAs reveal that 80 percent accuracy across three consecutive therapy sessions is the most used mastery criteria (Richling, S. M., Williams, W. L., and Carr, J. E. (2019), which presumes that this criterion is a minimum standard for skill maintenance. However, there is currently no research on the effects of different mastery criteria on the maintenance of functional skills for children with ASD in a clinical setting. The goal of this study was to determine whether the often-used mastery criteria of 80 percent accuracy across three consecutive sessions is the mastery criteria that should be used in clinical practice when compared to other similar criteria by examining the maintenance of skills over time, across participants, skills, and mastery criteria. Specifically, this study examined whether the mastery criteria of 60, 80, or 100 percent accuracy across three consecutive sessions is efficient for maintaining a set of varying acquisitional skills for five weeks across participants in a clinical setting by measuring the number of sessions to obtain the mastery criterion and the percentage of loss of maintenance. Results from this study indicate that the 60 percent mastery criterion took fewer sessions to achieve mastery, generated a greater instructional efficiency, and demonstrated similar loss of maintenance to the 80 and 100 percent mastery criterion

A holistic study of the effect of the murine microbiome on metabolism and systemic inflammation using integrated molecular imaging technologies

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a multifactorial disease involving genetic susceptibility, impaired barrier function, alterations in the microbiome, and a dysfunctional immune response. Current therapeutic treatments are aimed at controlling symptoms; however, symptoms recur, and patients can become susceptible to infection, increasing the need for new treatments. There has been a growing interest in the role host-microbe interactions play in the development of IBD and many studies have uncovered distinct shifts in small molecule classes in patients compared to healthy controls. Microbial and host small molecules are able to interact with host immune cells and polarize them towards either a pro- or anti-inflammatory phenotype. This immunometabolism/ immunomodulation is an emerging concept that plays an important role in human health and disease. Furthermore, IBD patients frequently experience extraintestinal manifestations, commonly affecting organs such as the liver, lung, eyes, kidney, and spleen, and often results in a loss of proper function. The cause of systemic inflammation is still poorly understood; however, studies have suggested that small molecules originating from the intestinal bacterial community may play a role. Firstly, we aimed to discover small molecular changes in the intestine (ileum and colon) and systemic sites (liver and eye) in a mouse model after infection with an IBD associated pathobiont, adherent-invasive Escherichia coli (AIEC). We applied a powerful analytical technique known as mass spectrometry imaging (MSI) to map the spatial distribution and relative abundance of molecules across a sample surface in a label-free manner. This allows the distribution of known and unknown molecules including proteins, metabolites, and lipids to be determined. Our infectious mouse model revealed specific molecular changes across the different organs that were either microbial or host derived, and many play a role in the onset or perpetuation of inflammation. Despite, producing informative host-microbe interaction data, results of this proof-of-concept study were not fully reflective of human IBD. Therefore, we investigated metabolomic adaptation in intestinal and systemic sites in a dextran sodium sulphate (DSS) mouse model. This model has been shown to reflect human disease, including disrupted barrier function, microbial dysbiosis and immune cell dysregulation. MSI revealed 30 molecules in the colon, 88 molecules in the ileum, 239 molecules in the liver, 65 molecules in the spleen and 16 molecules in the kidney differed in abundance between DSS colitis and uninflamed control mice. This study confirmed the identity of some intestinal molecules including creatine, docosahexaenoic acid (DHA), and 1- methylnicotinamide (1-MNA). However, identifying the location and abundance of specific molecules does not provide an overall assessment of the tissue environment that may lead to inflammation. Therefore, we applied imaging mass cytometry (IMC) to tissue regions of interest (ROI), where molecules of interest had been located. IMC found markers such as CD4 and major histocompatibility complex class II (MHCII) were decreased in the inflamed ileum, whereas CD4 and others (e.g. NKp46, granzyme B) were increased in the inflamed colon compared to the control. Hence, our study combined two imaging technologies to gain a better understanding of how region-specific molecules may be influencing the immunological profile in the ileum, colon, and liver. Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is another inflammatory condition with a poorly understood aetiology and has been linked to IBD. We applied MSI and IMC to investigate metabolomic and immunological changes in a mouse model of RA, collagen induced arthritis (CIA). We found 9 molecules in the lung, 3 molecules in the kidney, 2 molecules in the liver, and 16 molecules in the spleen could differentiate between diseased and non-diseased mice. In the lung, only one molecule was increased in the diseased group compared to the control groups and was identified as lysophosphatidylcholine 18:0 (LysoPC 18:0). IMC revealed cells expressing the markers B220 and CD19 (B cells) were increased in the lung of CIA mice compared to controls. Therefore, LysoPC (18:0) may promote the recruitment of B cells in the lung. As microbes play an important role in immune priming and homeostasis, this study wanted to identify metabolomic and immune profile differences in mice with (specific pathogen free) and without (germ-free) a microbiome. MSI revealed 9 molecules in the colon, 1 molecule in the ileum, 255 molecules in the liver, 5 molecules in the spleen and kidney, and 6 molecules in the lung that discriminate between germ-free (GF) and specific pathogen free (SPF) mice. We were able to confirm the identity of two polyamine molecules, spermidine and spermine, that were decreased in the SPF liver compared to GF liver. In vitro experimentation showed that spermidine reduced the percentage of macrophages expressing MHCII in a dose dependent manner. Impaired macrophage MHCII expression has been linked to dysfunctional adaptive immune activation; thus, reducing spermidine might be a microbial adaptation to support the development of the adaptive immune response. This study highlights the usefulness of MSI and IMC as metabolomic and immunological discovery tools that can be used together to identify how molecules and cells within an environment may be interacting under different conditions. This allows us to hypothesise and test various host-microbe and immunometabolism mechanisms that may be implicated in inflammatory processes during IBD and RA