The Impact of Therapeutic Recreation Through Ropes Courses and Teambuilding Activities

Each day people are suffering some type of a disorder - physically, emotionally, mentally, or psychologically. With every new discovery, invention, and generation, both positive and negative affect comes with it. In the 21st century, many individuals are under much pressure due to divorces, deaths, family dysfunctions, finances, cultural expectations, pollution, and high work demands. The basis of this research is to assess the benefits and impact of a ropes course and teambuilding activities have on participants, which leisure activity may potentially improve one’s health. The study was conducted at Chumash Challenge during the spring and summer of 2010 in San Luis Obispo, California. The Evaluator took 120 subjects and tested the benefits and impact of the ropes course and teambuilding activities. At the end of the study, results revealed that Chumash Challenge Ropes Course impacted the participants at an emotional and social level. The data revealed which activities had a great impact on the participants and which did not. Recommendations were made to Chumash Challenge of which activities to keep and the area to place more emphasis on. Leisure activity is highly affective in improving one’s health

PERCEPTIONS OF MENTAL HEALTH AMONG ASIAN PACIFIC ISLANDER COLLEGE STUDENTS

As part of the demands of higher education, college students undergo stressful events that have a negative impact on their mental health. Furthermore, Asian American Pacific Islander (API) Asian Pacific Islanders (API) face cultural and structural barriers that further influences individuals to ignore their mental well-being. Through interviews and surveys, this study aims to explore the current perceptions of mental health among API college students and the possible factors that prevent these students from addressing the mental health concerns through interviews obtaining student’s personal narratives. The findings are to enhance social work practice through becoming more culturally aware of the unique barriers that the API community faces

Examining the Bidirectional Associations between Parenting and Adolescent Coping in the Context of Exposure to Community Violence

Coping refers to all the strategies and processes that an individual uses to eliminate, reduce or tolerate stress (Lazarus & Folkman, 1984; Rosario et al., 2003). Within the general coping literature, research has observed that use of approach-oriented coping strategies is associated with positive psychosocial outcomes, and avoidant-oriented coping strategies is associated with negative psychosocial outcomes (e.g., Compas et al., 2001; Wadsworth & Compas, 2002). However, most of these studies have focused exclusively or predominantly on middle-class White participants (e.g., Compas et al., 2001; Wadsworth & Compas, 2002) which may limit the generalizability of these findings to other groups. Further, the usual pattern of findings for coping adaptiveness does not always generalize to contexts with high levels of uncontrollable and chronic stressors. Further, there is an important need to expand our knowledge on youth coping in the face of stress as well as the determinants of adolescent coping. Two culturally and contextually relevant parenting factors that are particularly important for the development of coping strategies in Black youth are involved, vigilant parenting and supportive, responsive parenting. Furthermore, given that Black youth are disproportionately exposed to community violence exposure, there is a pressing need to understand how violence exposure may impact the parent- child relationship among Black families in disinvested, urban communities. To address the gaps in the previous literature, the current study will examine the moderating role of exposure to community violence on the longitudinal associations among parenting and adolescent coping in Black families. Data for the current were derived from the Risky Contexts and Exposure to Community Violence study in a sample of 284 sixth graders (Mage=11.65 years, SD=0.70, 60% female). While much research on parent-child relationships focuses on the role that parents have on youth coping, the current study also highlights the importance of adolescent coping on parenting behaviors. Further, results from the current study emphasize the role of fathers’ support and responsiveness in youths’ problem focused coping. Finally, the current study observed three themes when examining exposure to community violence as a moderator of the associations between adolescent coping and parenting behaviors: 1) youth coping was associated with parental supportiveness and responsiveness, depending on whether youth reported exposure to community violence 2) when youth use problem focused coping, the likelihood of parents using involved and vigilant parenting may depend on whether youth have reported experiencing victimization, and 3) parents use involved and vigilant parenting strategies widely when youth engage in avoidant coping, though why parents utilize vigilant strategies may vary. A central thread across these findings emphasizes the importance of parental attunement to youth coping

Social support of romantic partners moderates cortisol response to stress

It is important to clearly define stress and social support in order to better understand how the body regulates when under stressful conditions because stress has implications for treatment and coping interventions. The widely known stress hormone cortisol is frequently used as an index of the body’s abilty to regulate itself during stress because cortisol has a profound impact on health and development. Consistently, strong evidence from research has found that social support from affiliated others serve as a buffer of stress, and certain types of social support may enhance stress regulation more than others. Self-report subjective measurements of stress can provide valuable information on saliency of the stressor, however the chance of response biases is possible due to a number of contributing factors that entails answering questionnaires. The same can be found for subjective social support self-report measurements. In addition to external factors of social support, recent research has found that oxytocin, known as the social bonding hormone, can also buffer the negative impact of stress and attenuate cortisol activity. Typically, when social support is provided, endogenous levels of oxytocin is increased in stressful moments. In this thesis study, I presented a theoretical model to examine moderating effects of different social support measures on the association between stress and cortisol levels in romanticly dating couples. The findings showed that perceived social support moderately buffered cortisol stress reactivity, while nonverbal behavioral support significantly buffered cortisol stress reactivity. Oxytocin reactivity and level of exposure only showed a trend effect on cortisol stress reactivity. Consummate love between the couples significantly buffered cortisol stress reactivity. The findings of this study gave empirical support for specific measures of social support in predicting cortisol reactivity to psychosocial stress in each of its own way

Antimicrobial and anti-inflammatory activity of chitosan-alginate nanoparticles: a targeted therapy for cutaneous pathogens.

Advances in nanotechnology have demonstrated potential application of nanoparticles (NPs) for effective and targeted drug delivery. Here we investigated the antimicrobial and immunological properties and the feasibility of using NPs to deliver antimicrobial agents to treat a cutaneous pathogen. NPs synthesized with chitosan and alginate demonstrated a direct antimicrobial activity in vitro against Propionibacterium acnes, the bacterium linked to the pathogenesis of acne. By electron microscopy (EM) imaging, chitosan-alginate NPs were found to induce the disruption of the P. acnes cell membrane, providing a mechanism for the bactericidal effect. The chitosan-alginate NPs also exhibited anti-inflammatory properties as they inhibited P. acnes-induced inflammatory cytokine production in human monocytes and keratinocytes. Furthermore, benzoyl peroxide (BP), a commonly used antiacne drug, was effectively encapsulated in the chitosan-alginate NPs and demonstrated superior antimicrobial activity against P. acnes compared with BP alone while demonstrating less toxicity to eukaryotic cells. Together, these data suggest the potential utility of topical delivery of chitosan-alginate NP-encapsulated drug therapy for the treatment of dermatologic conditions with infectious and inflammatory components

Radioligand binding analysis of α₂ adrenoceptors with [¹¹C]yohimbine in brain in vivo:Extended Inhibition Plot correction for plasma protein binding

Abstract We describe a novel method of kinetic analysis of radioligand binding to neuroreceptors in brain in vivo, here applied to noradrenaline receptors in rat brain. The method uses positron emission tomography (PET) of [11C]yohimbine binding in brain to quantify the density and affinity of α 2 adrenoceptors under condition of changing radioligand binding to plasma proteins. We obtained dynamic PET recordings from brain of Spraque Dawley rats at baseline, followed by pharmacological challenge with unlabeled yohimbine (0.3 mg/kg). The challenge with unlabeled ligand failed to diminish radioligand accumulation in brain tissue, due to the blocking of radioligand binding to plasma proteins that elevated the free fractions of the radioligand in plasma. We devised a method that graphically resolved the masking of unlabeled ligand binding by the increase of radioligand free fractions in plasma. The Extended Inhibition Plot introduced here yielded an estimate of the volume of distribution of non-displaceable ligand in brain tissue that increased with the increase of the free fraction of the radioligand in plasma. The resulting binding potentials of the radioligand declined by 50–60% in the presence of unlabeled ligand. The kinetic unmasking of inhibited binding reflected in the increase of the reference volume of distribution yielded estimates of receptor saturation consistent with the binding of unlabeled ligand

Crinum Latifolium Leave Extracts Suppress Immune Activation Cascades in Peripheral Blood Mononuclear Cells and Proliferation of Prostate Tumor Cells

Plants of the genus Crinum (Amaryllidaceae) are widely used in folk medicine in different tropical and subtropical regions around the world. The Indian species Crinum latifolium (L.) was traditionally used to treat rheumatism, fistula, tumors, earaches, rubefacient, tubercle and whitlow. In Vietnamese and Chinese traditional medicine Crinum latifolium preparations are used until nowadays because of their antiviral and antitumor properties. In this study, we demonstrate potent in vitro antioxidant activity of an aqueous Crinum latifolium extract by an oxygen radical absorbance capacity (ORAC) value of 1610 ± 150 μmol Trolox equivalents/g. Furthermore, significant anti-inflammatory effects of this extract were shown by its potential to suppress indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase (IDO) mediated tryptophan degradation in unstimulated- and mitogen-stimulated PBMC at IC50 doses of 241 ± 57 μg/ml and 92 ± 20 μg/ml, respectively. Concentrations of the immune activation marker neopterin were slightly diminished in unstimulated PBMC, whereas a dose-dependent inhibition of neopterin formation was observed in mitogen-stimulated PBMC (IC50 = 453 ± 86 μg/ml). Additionally, we measured also dose-dependent inhibitory effects of this aqueous Crinum latifolium extract on cell proliferation of highly metastatic human prostate carcinoma PC3 cells (IC50 = 4.5 ± 0.8 mg/ml), androgen-sensitive prostate adenocarcinoma LNCaP cells (IC50 =2.3 ± 0.1 mg/ml), and benign prostate hyperplasia BPH-1 cells (IC50 = 2.1 ± 0.04 mg/ml). We conclude that both effects, inhibition of tumor cell growth and recovery of immune functions, are important for the antitumor properties of Crinum latifolium

Factors Associated With Prolonged Length of Stay for Elective Hepatobiliary and Neurosurgery Patients: A Retrospective Medical Record Review

Background: Patients with prolonged length of hospital stay (LOS) not only increase their risks of nosocomial infections but also deny other patients access to inpatient care. Hepatobiliary (HPB) malignancies have some of highest incidences in East and Southeast Asia and the management of patients undergoing HPB surgeries have yet to be standardized. With improved neurosurgery techniques for intracranial aneurysms and tumors, neurosurgeries (NS) can be expected to increase. Elective surgeries account for far more operations than emergencies surgeries. Thus, with potentially increased numbers of elective HPB and NS, this study seeks to explore perioperative factors associated with prolonged LOS for these patients to improve safety and quality of practice. Methods: A retrospective cross-sectional medical record review study from January 2014 to January 2015 was conducted at a 1250-bed tertiary academic hospital in Singapore. All elective HPB and NS patients over 18　years old were included in the study except day and emergency surgeries, resulting in 150 and 166 patients respectively. Prolonged LOS was defined as above median LOS based on the complexity of the surgical procedure. The predictor variables were preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative factors. Student\u27s t-test and stepwise logistic regression analyses were conducted to determine which factors were associated with prolonged LOS. Results: Factors associated with prolonged LOS for the HPB sample were age and admission after 5　pm but for the NS sample, they were functional status, referral to occupational therapy, and the number of hospital-acquired infections. Conclusion: Our findings indicate that preoperative factors had the greatest association with prolonged LOS for HPB and NS elective surgeries even after adjusting for surgical complexity, suggesting that patient safety and quality of care may be improved with better pre-surgery patient preparation and admission practices