The Adaptation Needs of International Social Work Students: A Proposed Mentoring Approach

Given the increasing numbers of international social work students in the United States, it is incumbent upon social work faculty to understand their needs for appropriate support as they adjust to life as foreign-born students. This paper has two main goals. First, we discuss contributions and challenges faced by international social work students. Second, as a form of support, we propose a mentoring approach pairing retired social work professionals with international social work students and argue that this may provide a mutually beneficial experience for both. That is, this study identifies adaptation needs specific to international social work students, describes the proposed paired-mentoring approach, and discusses implications of this approach

Assessing the Impact of Social Support on Child Maltreatment Prevention among At-risk Mothers

This paper was designed to examine the effect of social support on child maltreatment among at-risk mothers. We also explored whether the association between the social support and child maltreatment was affected by the mother’s substance abuse history. This cross-sectional study utilized secondary data from LONGSCAN. The study sample (n = 335) was comprised primarily of impoverished African American mothers. Logistic regression analysis results showed social support reduced the likelihood of child maltreatment for both mothers who had histories of substance use and those who did not. Implications of the findings are further discussed. Keywords: child maltreatment, social support, mothers, substance use, stres

Small-Dollar Children\u27s Savings Accounts, Income, and College Outcomes

In this paper, we examine the relationship between children’s small-dollar savings accounts and college enrollment and graduation by asking three important research questions: (a) are children with savings of their own more likely to attend or graduate from college, (b) does dosage (having no account; having basic savings only; or having savings designated for school of less than $1,$1 to $499, or$500 or more) matter, and (c) is designating savings for school more predictive than having basic savings alone? We use propensity score weighted data from the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) and its supplements to create multi-treatment dosages of savings accounts and amounts to answer these questions separately for children from low- and moderate-income (LMI) (below $50,000; N = 512) and high-income (HI) ($50,000 or above; N = 345) households. We find that LMI children may be more likely to enroll in and graduate from college when they have small-dollar savings accounts with money designated for school. an LMI child with school savings of $1 to$499 before college age is more than three times more likely to enroll in college than an LMI child with no savings account and more than four and half times more likely to graduate. In addition, an LMI child with school savings of $500 or more is about five times more likely to graduate from college than a child with no savings account. Policy implications also are discussed

Dissociable Effects of Salience on Attention and Goal-Directed Action

SummaryEveryday behavior frequently involves encounters with multiple objects that compete for selection. For example, driving a car requires constant shifts of attention between oncoming traffic, rearview mirrors, and traffic signs and signals, among other objects. Behavioral goals often drive this selection process [1, 2]; however, they are not the sole determinant of selection. Physically salient objects, such as flashing, brightly colored hazard signs, or objects that are salient by virtue of learned associations with reward, such as pictures of food on a billboard, often capture attention regardless of the individual’s goals [3–6]. It is typically thought that strongly salient distractor objects capture more attention and are more disruptive than weakly salient distractors [7, 8]. Counterintuitively, though, we found that this is true for perception, but not for goal-directed action. In a visually guided reaching task [9–11], we required participants to reach to a shape-defined target while trying to ignore salient distractors. We observed that strongly salient distractors produced less disruption in goal-directed action than weakly salient distractors. Thus, a strongly salient distractor triggers suppression during goal-directed action, resulting in enhanced efficiency and accuracy of target selection relative to when weakly salient distractors are present. In contrast, in a task requiring no goal-directed action, we found greater attentional interference from strongly salient distractors. Thus, while highly salient stimuli interfere strongly with perceptual processing, increased physical salience or associated value attenuates action-related interference

THE EFFECTS OF PARENTS’ COLLEGE SAVINGS ON COLLEGE ATTENDANCE AMONG STUDENTS FROM FAMILIES WITH LOW-INCOMES: THE MEDIATING ROLE OF PARENT’S DISCUSSIONS ABOUT COLLEGE WITH THEIR CHILDREN

College savings are a promising strategy to pay for higher education, given the high college costs and inadequate financial aid available to students today. Asset theory suggests college savings have financial as well as psychological and social effects on children’s educational outcomes. This dissertation study focuses on the role of parent-child discussions about college as a potential mediator in the relationship between savings and college attendance. Also, the direct association between these discussions about attending college and children’s college expectations was examined. The Wisconsin Model of status attainment provides the organizing framework for this study as it encompasses the most important factors at key moments in an individual’s trajectory to educational attainment. The Education Longitudinal Study (2002) was utilized with the sample restricted to families with incomes at or below 185 percent of federal poverty guidelines. The total number of sample students is 3,997. Depending on the pattern of missing data, the deductive and multiple imputation approaches were applied. Since the outcome variable is polytomous, multinomial logistic regression analysis was used. To test mediation effects, both the Baron and Kenny approach and multiple mediation bootstrapping were employed. Results of this study suggest college savings are significantly and positively associated with parental college expectations, parent-child discussions about college, and two-year college attendance. Both parental expectations and college discussions mediate the relationship between savings and college attendance. These findings suggest college savings programs could be a promising strategy to help students access a post-secondary education. Social workers in school settings need to encourage families to develop college savings accounts by providing relevant information and connecting these families to financial service institutions. Another key finding is that discussions about attending college are associated with children’s own expectations and ultimate college attendance. Not all parents are comfortable talking with their children about going to college, especially without direct college experiences themselves. Developing programs to facilitate parent-child discussions about attending college is suggested so that social workers can help families to engage in productive discussions by providing communication guidelines and teaching parents’ ways to encourage their children without pressuring them.

Reducing the College Progress Gap Between Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) and High-Income (HI) Young Adults: Assets as an Understudied Form of Economic Capital

Reducing the College Progress Gap Between Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) and High-Income (HI) Young Adults: Assets as an Understudied Form of Economic Capita

Reducing the College Progress Gap Between Low- to Moderate-Income (LMI) and High-Income (HI) Young Adults

College progress identifies young adults who are “on course,” that is, those who are currently enrolled in, or who have a degree from, a two-year college or a four-year college. However, little is known about the impact of these factors on low-to-moderate-income (LMI) young adults. Findings suggest LMI young adults with school savings are two and half times more likely to be on course than LMI young adults without savings. Policies such as universal Child Development Accounts (CDAs) that can help adolescents accumulate savings may be a simple and effective strategy for helping to keep LMI young adults on course

Noninvasive photoacoustic identification of sentinel lymph nodes containing methylene blue in vivo in a rat model

Sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has become the standard method of axillary staging for patients with breast cancer and clinically negative axillae. Even though SLNB using both methylene blue and radioactive tracers has a high identification rate, it still relies on an invasive surgical procedure with associated morbidity. Axillary ultrasound has emerged as a diagnostic tool to evaluate the axilla, but it can only assess morphology and cannot specifically identify sentinel lymph nodes (SLNs). In this pilot study, we propose a noninvasive photoacoustic SLN identification system using methylene blue injection in a rat model. We successfully image a SLN with high optical contrast (146±41, standard deviation) and good ultrasonic resolution (∼500μm) in vivo. We also show potential feasibility for clinical applications by imaging 20- and 31-mm-deep SLNs in 3-D and 2-D, respectively. Our results suggest that this technology would be a useful clinical tool, allowing clinicians to identify SLNs noninvasively in vivo

Prevalence of sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in Korean adults: The Korean Sarcopenic Obesity Study (KSOS)

*Context:* Sarcopenic obesity (SO), a combination of excess weight and reduced muscle mass and/or strength, is suggested to be associated with an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. 
*Objectives:* To examine the prevalence and characteristics of Sarcopenic and SO defined by using different indices such as Appendicular Skeletal muscle Mass (ASM)/height^2^ and Skeletal Muscle Index (SMI (%): skeletal muscle mass (kg)/weight (kg) × 100) for Korean adults. 
*Methods:* 591 participants were recruited from the Korean Sarcopenic Obesity Study (KSOS) which is an ongoing prospective observational cohort study. Analysis was conducted in 526 participants (328 women, 198 men) who had complete data on body composition using Dual X-ray absorptiometry and computed tomography. 
*Results:* The prevalence of sarcopenia and SO increases with aging. Using two or more standard deviations (SD) of ASM/height^2^ below reference values from young, healthy adults as a definition of sarcopenia, the prevalence of sarcopenia and SO was 6.3% and 1.3% in men and 4.1% and 1.7% in women over 60 years of age. However, using two or more SD of SMI, the prevalence of sarcopenia and SO was 5.1% and 5.1% respectively in men and 14.2% and 12.5% respectively in women. As defined by SMI, subjects with SO had 3 times the risk of metabolic syndrome (OR = 3.03, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.26-7.26) and subjects with non-sarcopenic obesity had approximately 2 times the risk of metabolic syndrome (OR = 1.89, 95% CI = 1.18-3.02) compared with normal subjects. 
*Conclusion:* Obese subjects with relative sarcopenia were associated with a greater likelihood for metabolic syndrome. As Koreans were more obese and aging, the prevalence of SO and its impact on health outcomes are estimated to be rapidly grow. Further research is requested to establish the definition, cause and consequences of SO.
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