Hypnotic suggestibility is unaffected by a challenging inhibitory task or mental exhaustion

Executive functioning is paramount to the successful exertion of inhibitory control over automatic impulses and desires. Despite disagreements in determining the exact mechanisms responsible for hypnosis, many theories involve the use of, or alterations in, frontal processing and top-down executive functioning. The present study sought to explore this relationship by examining whether a transient state of reduced inhibitory control influences susceptibility to hypnosis. Specifically, participants completed a color naming task designed to place differing demands on inhibitory control processes before experiencing a hypnotic induction and four suggestions. Bayesian analysis indicated substantial evidence that the prior exertion of inhibitory control processes does not influence subsequent susceptibility to hypnotic suggestion. The study provides evidence that inhibitory impairment, often experienced by those with a range of disorders (such as anxiety and depression), should not affect receptiveness to hypnotic procedures

Gender, Graduate School Stage, and the Impostor Phenomenon

The impostor phenomenon (IP) includes five central factors: (a) a sense of fraudulence or phoniness; (b) a fear of failure and discovery; (c) compensatory perfectionism (i.e., procrastination and/or over-preparation); (d) interpersonal anxiety; and (e) externalized success and/or discounted positive feedback. After the final stage, the process starts over with reinforced vigor, creating a self-reinforcing cycle in which success is associated with psychological suffering. IP was initially used to describe the reports of high-achieving women, but recent studies have shown that IP is experienced across genders. Additionally, while graduate school is an achievement-oriented environment with many characteristics that could promote IP, it has never been studied within graduate students specifically. The current investigation assessed graduate student endorsements of IP across genders (i.e., female and male) and graduate school stages (i.e., incoming and established students). Though the hypotheses were not supported, the results led to multiple areas of future study that could help explain the unexpected findings and promote graduate student well-being and success

Susceptibility to unconscious influences is unaffected by a challenging inhibitory task or mental exhaustion

Unconscious influences have been demonstrated in a variety of behavioural contexts, however, a key question remains – to what extent do such influences vary with our changing mental states? We examine whether a prior inhibitory challenge increases susceptibility to subliminal priming in a stem completion task employing neutral (Experiment 1) and reward salient terms (Experiment 2). Results show stem completions to be significantly influenced by unconscious priming, and the challenging inhibitory task (the Stroop) to be significantly more mentally exhausting than the control task. However, neither the degree of inhibitory challenge, trait self-control, nor task-related mental exhaustion significantly influenced unconscious priming. Bayesian analysis provides strong evidence that prior inhibitory challenge does not affect susceptibility to unconscious priming. The study supports the conclusion that unconscious processing can be independent of consciously experienced mental states and provides reassurance that inhibitory impairment, common to mood disorders, should not increase susceptibility to unconscious influences

Rhode Island’s Health Equity Zones: Addressing Local Problems with Local Solutions

The Rhode Island Department of Health (RIDOH) describes the strategies and infrastructure it has developed to fund its placed-based initiatives to address the social determinants of health to eliminate health disparities. Using a data driven and community-led approach, RIDOH funded 10 local collaboratives, each with its own, geographically-defined “Health Equity Zone,” or “HEZ,” and, to support the collaboratives, created a new “Health Equity Institute,” a “HEZ Team” of 9 seasoned project managers, and direct lines of communications between these assets and the Office of the Director of Health

Ariel - Volume 10 Number 1

Executive Editors Madalyn Schaefgen David Reich Business Manager David Reich News Editors Medical College Edward Zurad CAHS John Guardiani World Mark Zwanger Features Editors Meg Trexler Jim O\u27Brien Editorials Editor Jeffrey Banyas Photography and Sports Editor Stuart Singer Commons Editor Brenda Peterso

Towards a 'Community for Practice'—A Narrative Analysis of the Evolution of Higher Education Scholars

In higher education (HE), collaborative activities that revolve around a core idea, practice, or knowledge base, such as learning circles, communities of practice or inquiry, peer observation, and peer-assisted teaching, are known to support professional learning. This paper explores the experiences of eight HE scholars from Australia and New Zealand, across four years, as they recognized a new means of collaborative professional development that transcends known approaches and extends beyond an immediate focal point. The group originally formed to support the development of HE fellowship applications, but evolved to what they now consider a community for practice (CfP), where the purpose of collaboration has changed to meet the unique learning needs of each member. During their four years of collaboration, meeting discussions were recorded, and individual and community narrative reflections about participation in the group were created. A thematic analysis of these collective data sources revealed the group’s evolution, and the authors draw on their experiences to tell their story with an aim to enhance professional learning in HE. The study highlights that individuals’ distinct and varied needs can be developed and supported through scholarly, collegial engagements such as a CfP, which does not necessarily require an immediate point of practice

Development of 2-(4-pyridyl)-benzimidazoles as PKN2 chemical tools to probe cancer

Kinases are signalling proteins which have proven to be successful targets for the treatment of a variety of diseases, predominantly in cancers. However, only a small proportion of kinases (<20%) have been investigated for their therapeutic viability, likely due to the lack of available chemical tools across the kinome. In this work we describe initial efforts in the development of a selective chemical tool for protein kinase N2 (PKN2), a relatively unexplored kinase of interest in several types of cancer. The most successful compound, 5, has a measured IC50 of 0.064 μM against PKN2, with ca. 17-fold selectivity over close homologue, PKN1

EverGraze: A Partnership between Researchers, Farmers and Advisors to Deliver Effective Grassland Management

The profitable and sustainable management of livestock production from grassland systems is challenging and it can be difficult to develop a research structure that addresses farmer’s needs and has acceptable rigour and on-ground impact. This paper describes the attributes of research, development and extension (RD&E) programs that are required for a successful partnership between researchers, farmers and advisors. Insights are provided from the EverGraze program that designed, tested and implemented farming systems based on perennial pastures across southern Australia. With this project farmers and advisors were involved in setting research direction, designing experiments, providing strategic guidance over the management of the systems experiments and then the synthesis of regionally applicable key messages. This involvement ensured the relevance of the research and aided in the extension and uptake of the information. The result has been an effective partnership between researchers, farmers and advisors that had a high level of impact across the high rainfall zone (HRZ) of southern Australia, with 1950 farmers or ~8% of those in the HRZ documented as having changed practice over an area of 816,000 ha over a five year period (2009 to 2014)