A qualitative case study investigating the graduation and job placement outcomes of college students with autism spectrum disorder : implications for higher education leaders

"July 2014."Dissertation Supervisor: Dr. Robert Watson.Includes vita.The purpose of this qualitative case study was to investigate the policies, procedures, and programs in place to encourage the graduation and job placement of college students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Data collection took place at Open Enrollment Midwestern University, a pseudonym, through document analysis and interviews. Document analysis focused on the policies relevant to students admitted with disabilities, specifically ASD. Interviews were held with current students with ASD, and administrators, faculty, and staff who directly or indirectly work with students with disabilities, specifically ASD. While most findings included data relevant to college students with disabilities in general, the primary focus was on college students with ASD. Prior studies are few and focus on the increase in the population of college students with ASD paired with the lack of services. A gap in research exists among the policies, procedures, and programs that may or may not be in place to ensure the graduation and job placement of college students with ASD. This study's findings revealed a lack of policies, procedures, and programs that encourage the graduation and job placement of college students with disabilities in general, including ASD. Findings also examine Project Stay, a federally funded program on college campuses that is exceeding their goals of graduating at-risk students, including students with disabilities such as ASD.Includes bibliographical references (pages 104-116)

Near-death experiences in cardiac arrest: implications for the concept of non-local mind

BACKGROUND: Near-death experiences (NDE) are vivid, realistic, and often deeply life-changing experiences occurring to people who have been physiologically or psychologically close to death. NDEs sometimes occur during cardiac arrest, in the absence of recordable brain activity. OBJECTIVE: To review prospective studies of cardiac arrest-induced NDEs and examine the implications of these studies for the concept of non-local mind. METHOD: PubMed was the main database used for this review. Key search terms included "cardiac arrest", "near-death experiences", "physiology of near-death experience", and "veridical out-of-body-experiences". RESULTS: Several prospective studies show an average incidence of cardiac arrest-induced NDE of 10%-20%, irrespective of sociodemographic status, sex, religion, or any consistent medical, physiological, or pharmacological measures. NDErs are more likely than non-NDErs to have positive life changes lasting many years following the experience. DISCUSSION: Physicalist theories of the mind cannot explain how NDErs can experience - while their hearts are stopped and brain activity is seemingly absent - vivid and complex thoughts, and acquire veridical information about objects or events remote from their bodies. NDE in cardiac arrest suggest that mind is non-local, i.e. it is not generated by the brain, and it is not confined to the brain and the body.CONTEXTO: Experiências de quase morte (EQM) são experiências vívidas, realísticas, que frequentemente promovem mudanças profundas na vida de pessoas que estiveram fisiológica ou psicologicamente próximas da morte. As EQM por vezes ocorrem durante uma parada cardíaca, na ausência de atividade cerebral detectável. OBJETIVO: Revisar os estudos prospectivos de EQM induzidas por paradas cardíacas e examinar as implicações desses estudos para o conceito de mente não local. MÉTODO: PubMed foi a principal base de dados utilizada para esta revisão. Os termos-chave da busca incluíram "parada cardíaca", "experiências de quase morte", "fisiologia da experiência de quase morte" e "experiências fora do corpo verídicas". RESULTADOS: Vários estudos prospectivos mostram incidência média de 10% a 20% de EQM induzidas por paradas cardíacas, independentemente de aspectos sociodemográficos, sexo, religião ou quaisquer parâmetros médicos, fisiológicos ou farmacológicos consistentes. Pessoas que passaram por EQM são mais propensas a mudanças de vida positivas que podem durar muitos anos após a experiência do que aquelas que não a tiveram. CONCLUSÕES: As teorias fisicalistas da mente não são capazes de explicar como pessoas que tiveram EQM podem vivenciar - enquanto seus corações estão parados e sua atividade cerebral aparentemente ausente - pensamentos vívidos e complexos e adquirir informações verídicas a respeito de objetos ou eventos distantes de seus corpos. As EQM em paradas cardíacas sugerem que a mente é não local, isto é, não é gerada pelo cérebro e não está confinada a ele ou ao corpo

Proceedings of the 3rd Biennial Conference of the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) 2015: advancing efficient methodologies through community partnerships and team science

It is well documented that the majority of adults, children and families in need of evidence-based behavioral health interventionsi do not receive them [1, 2] and that few robust empirically supported methods for implementing evidence-based practices (EBPs) exist. The Society for Implementation Research Collaboration (SIRC) represents a burgeoning effort to advance the innovation and rigor of implementation research and is uniquely focused on bringing together researchers and stakeholders committed to evaluating the implementation of complex evidence-based behavioral health interventions. Through its diverse activities and membership, SIRC aims to foster the promise of implementation research to better serve the behavioral health needs of the population by identifying rigorous, relevant, and efficient strategies that successfully transfer scientific evidence to clinical knowledge for use in real world settings [3]. SIRC began as a National Institute of Mental Health (NIMH)-funded conference series in 2010 (previously titled the “Seattle Implementation Research Conference”; $150,000 USD for 3 conferences in 2011, 2013, and 2015) with the recognition that there were multiple researchers and stakeholdersi working in parallel on innovative implementation science projects in behavioral health, but that formal channels for communicating and collaborating with one another were relatively unavailable. There was a significant need for a forum within which implementation researchers and stakeholders could learn from one another, refine approaches to science and practice, and develop an implementation research agenda using common measures, methods, and research principles to improve both the frequency and quality with which behavioral health treatment implementation is evaluated. SIRC’s membership growth is a testament to this identified need with more than 1000 members from 2011 to the present.ii SIRC’s primary objectives are to: (1) foster communication and collaboration across diverse groups, including implementation researchers, intermediariesi, as well as community stakeholders (SIRC uses the term “EBP champions” for these groups) – and to do so across multiple career levels (e.g., students, early career faculty, established investigators); and (2) enhance and disseminate rigorous measures and methodologies for implementing EBPs and evaluating EBP implementation efforts. These objectives are well aligned with Glasgow and colleagues’ [4] five core tenets deemed critical for advancing implementation science: collaboration, efficiency and speed, rigor and relevance, improved capacity, and cumulative knowledge. SIRC advances these objectives and tenets through in-person conferences, which bring together multidisciplinary implementation researchers and those implementing evidence-based behavioral health interventions in the community to share their work and create professional connections and collaborations

An Integrative Review of Scientific Evidence for Reconnective Healing

Abstract Background: Biofield therapies offer a novel, non-invasive approach to treating chronic diseases based on assessing and adjusting an individual's physiological and emotional responses through their bio-energetic field. Reconnective Healing™ (RH) is defined as: “…not just energy healing, but instead a more comprehensive spectrum of healing composed of energy, light, and information.” Objectives: Several biofield therapies, such as Reiki, Therapeutic Touch and Johrei, have already been reviewed in the literature but RH has received little attention even though it is taught and practiced worldwide. This review provides a critical assessment of RH as a healing modality. Methods: Scientific research articles published in peer-reviewed journals addressing RH were identified using relevant databases and archives. Information was extracted from each article that met selection criteria for evaluation of quality of reporting and design. This review summarizes and critically evaluates the five currently published peer-reviewed research papers involving RH and assesses whether RH provides consistent physiological outcomes between the studies. Results: These results, taken together, suggest: (i) exposure of a healer or healee to RH, either directly or indirectly, amplifies their degree of autonomic arousal and energy, (ii) RH can reduce pain and improve range of motion in people with shoulder limitations, and (iii) when individuals experience RH as a group, their autonomic nervous systems simultaneously show sudden similar responses consistent with the idea that RH is mitigated by entrainment of biofields. Conclusions: Since these studies are extremely varied in design it is not possible at this point to reach conclusions about the general effectiveness of RH. More clinical and physiological research performed on different populations under a range of conditions is needed in order to support this healthcare approach

Preliminary development and validation of a scale to measure universal love

The purpose of this research was to define the construct of universal love and to develop and validate the Universal Love Scale (ULS), the first tool to measure universal love. We define universal love as an experience of unity with others and the whole of existence, which is associated with behavioral, cognitive, emotional, and transcendental factors. The factor structure, validity, and reliability of the ULS were assessed across 2 studies with undergraduate students (N = 200 and N = 220). With respect to convergent validity, universal love was positively correlated with compassionate love for humanity, self-compassion, spiritual experiences, forgiveness, empathy, and altruism, and negatively correlated with narcissism. Discriminant validity was demonstrated through no correlation between universal love and ethnicity or social desirability. With respect to criterion validity, universal love was positively correlated with universal spiritual beliefs and experiences and psychological well-being, including life meaning, satisfaction with life, and positive affect, and negatively correlated with negative affect and aggression. Further, the ULS demonstrated internal consistency reliability. These results indicate that the ULS is a valid and reliable scale to measure universal love. Further research validating the ULS in a general sample population and populations theorized to be low or high in universal love is encouraged.This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

Toward a postmaterialist psychology: Theory, research, and applications

The majority of mainstream psychologists still adopt a materialist stance toward nature. They believe that science is synonymous with materialism; further, they are convinced that the view that mind and consciousness are simply by-products of brain activity is an incontrovertible fact that has been demonstrated beyond reasonable doubt. This is an incomplete view of what humans are. In this article, we review two categories of empirical evidence that support a shift toward a postmaterialist psychology. The first category of evidence includes mental events that seem to occur outside the spatial confines of the brain, whereas the second category includes mental events that seem to occur when the brain has ceased to function. Taken together, the two bodies of empirical evidence examined here indicate that the idea that the brain creates mind and consciousness is both incomplete and flawed. In the Discussion section, we argue that the transmission hypothesis of the mind-brain relationship can account for all the evidence presented in this article. We also discuss the emerging postmaterialist paradigm and its potential implications for the evolution of psychology.University of Arizona; Columbia University24 month embargo; published online: 3 March 2018This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]

The potential of nanoporous anodic aluminium oxide membranes to influence skin wound repair

Cells respond to changes in the environment by altering their phenotype. The ability to influence cell behavior by modifying their environment provides an opportunity for therapeutic application, for example, to promote faster wound healing in response to skin injury. Here, we have modified the preparation of an aluminium oxide template to generate large uniform membranes with differing nano-pore sizes. Epidermal cells (keratinocytes) and dermal cells (fibroblasts) readily adhere to these nanoporous membranes. The pore size appears to influence the rate of cell proliferation and migration, important aspects of cell behavior during wound healing. The suitability of the membrane to act as a dressing after a burn injury was assessed in vivo; application of the membrane demonstrated adherence and conformability to the skin surface of a pig, with no observed degradation or detrimental effect on the repair. Our results suggest that keratinocytes are sensitive to changes in topography at the nanoscale level and that this property may be exploited to improve wound repair after tissue injury

Embodied Mindfulness

In this paper, we review different definitions and operationalization of mindfulness according to both Buddhist tradition and western conceptualizations, namely mindfulness as defined in modern mindfulness-meditation programs and Langerian mindfulness. Additionally, we com- pare and contrast these different approaches and propose a common link between them through the theory of embodi- ment. Using evidence from neurobiology, we explicate the concept of embodied mindfulness and argue for its utility in the empirical study of mindfulness and its mechanisms of change. To conclude, we briefly discuss the implications of embodied mindfulness on research and clinical interventions