Arts-based interventions for people living with dementia: Measuring ‘in the moment’ wellbeing with the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales

Background: There is growing acknowledgement for the need to move beyond exclusive biomedical understandings of dementia and also focus on how to improve the lives and wellbeing of people living with dementia. A mounting body of research advocates for the benefits of arts-based interventions for this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the links between multiple components of arts-based interventions and subjective wellbeing in order to help assess if these activities might contribute to meaningful community-based dementia care initiatives. Methods: Using previously collected data across different intervention sites, a within- and between- participants design was used that assessed wellbeing through the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales (CWS) in people with mild-to-moderate dementias (N = 201) who participated in various community arts-based interventions (ABI). Data were analysed using non-parametric statistical analyses and bootstrapped moderation models. Results: Increases in subjective wellbeing were associated with all forms of ABI. Co-creative sessions significantly strengthened the relationship between number of sessions attended and overall wellbeing as well as optimism. No significant moderating effect was observed between number of sessions attended and carer presence. Conclusions: In the largest study of its kind to date to assess wellbeing using arts activities in a community-based dementia sample, findings support the use and acceptability of the CWS as a measurement tool for people with early-to-middle stages of dementia and suggest that the CWS can reliably measure wellbeing in this population. In addition, the positive effect of arts-based interactions on specific aspects of wellbeing were found, which provide a better understanding of the conditions under which these effects can be prolonged and sustained. Further research is needed to better understand the environmental, social, and psychological mechanisms through which these improvements operate

Quantitative Determination of Temperature in the Approach to Magnetic Order of Ultracold Fermions in an Optical Lattice

We perform a quantitative simulation of the repulsive Fermi-Hubbard model using an ultracold gas trapped in an optical lattice. The entropy of the system is determined by comparing accurate measurements of the equilibrium double occupancy with theoretical calculations over a wide range of parameters. We demonstrate the applicability of both high-temperature series and dynamical mean-field theory to obtain quantitative agreement with the experimental data. The reliability of the entropy determination is confirmed by a comprehensive analysis of all systematic errors. In the center of the Mott insulating cloud we obtain an entropy per atom as low as 0.77k(B) which is about twice as large as the entropy at the Neel transition. The corresponding temperature depends on the atom number and for small fillings reaches values on the order of the tunneling energy

Anomalous Expansion of Attractively Interacting Fermionic Atoms in an Optical Lattice

Strong correlations can dramatically modify the thermodynamics of a quantum many-particle system. Especially intriguing behaviour can appear when the system adiabatically enters a strongly correlated regime, for the interplay between entropy and strong interactions can lead to counterintuitive effects. A well known example is the so-called Pomeranchuk effect, occurring when liquid 3He is adiabatically compressed towards its crystalline phase. Here, we report on a novel anomalous, isentropic effect in a spin mixture of attractively interacting fermionic atoms in an optical lattice. As we adiabatically increase the attraction between the atoms we observe that the gas, instead of contracting, anomalously expands. This expansion results from the combination of two effects induced by pair formation in a lattice potential: the suppression of quantum fluctuations as the attraction increases, which leads to a dominant role of entropy, and the progressive loss of the spin degree of freedom, which forces the gas to excite additional orbital degrees of freedom and expand to outer regions of the trap in order to maintain the entropy. The unexpected thermodynamics we observe reveal fundamentally distinctive features of pairing in the fermionic Hubbard model.Comment: 6 pages (plus appendix), 6 figure

Arts-based interventions for people living with dementia: Measuring ‘in the moment’ wellbeing with the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales [version 1; peer review: awaiting peer review]

BACKGROUND: There is growing acknowledgement for the need to move beyond exclusive biomedical understandings of dementia and also focus on how to improve the lives and wellbeing of people living with dementia. A mounting body of research advocates for the benefits of arts-based interventions for this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the links between multiple components of arts-based interventions and subjective wellbeing in order to help assess if these activities might contribute to meaningful community-based dementia care initiatives. METHODS: Using previously collected data across different intervention sites, a within- and between- participants design was used that assessed wellbeing through the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales (CWS) in people with mild-to-moderate dementias (N = 201) who participated in various community arts-based interventions (ABI). Data were analysed using non-parametric statistical analyses and bootstrapped moderation models. RESULTS: Increases in subjective wellbeing were associated with all forms of ABI. Co-creative sessions significantly strengthened the relationship between number of sessions attended and overall wellbeing as well as optimism. No significant moderating effect was observed between number of sessions attended and carer presence. CONCLUSIONS: In the largest study of its kind to date to assess wellbeing using arts activities in a community-based dementia sample, findings support the use and acceptability of the CWS as a measurement tool for people with early-to-middle stages of dementia and suggest that the CWS can reliably measure wellbeing in this population. In addition, the positive effect of arts-based interactions on specific aspects of wellbeing were found, which provide a better understanding of the conditions under which these effects can be prolonged and sustained. Further research is needed to better understand the environmental, social, and psychological mechanisms through which these improvements operate

Arts-based interventions for people living with dementia: Measuring ‘in the moment’ wellbeing with the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales [version 2; peer review: 1 approved]

Background: There is growing acknowledgement for the need to move beyond exclusive biomedical understandings of dementia and also focus on how to improve the lives and wellbeing of people living with dementia. A mounting body of research advocates for the benefits of arts-based interventions for this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the links between multiple components of arts-based interventions and subjective wellbeing in order to help assess if these activities might contribute to meaningful community-based dementia care initiatives. Methods: Using previously collected data across different intervention sites, a within- and between- participants design was used that assessed wellbeing through the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales (CWS) in people with mild-to-moderate dementias (N = 201) who participated in various community arts-based interventions (ABI). Data were analysed using non-parametric statistical analyses and bootstrapped moderation models. Results: Increases in subjective wellbeing were associated with all forms of ABI. Co-creative sessions significantly strengthened the relationship between number of sessions attended and overall wellbeing as well as optimism. No significant moderating effect was observed between number of sessions attended and carer presence. Conclusions: In the largest study of its kind to date to assess wellbeing using arts activities in a community-based dementia sample, findings support the use and acceptability of the CWS as a measurement tool for people with early-to-middle stages of dementia and suggest that the CWS can reliably measure wellbeing in this population. In addition, the positive effect of arts-based interactions on specific aspects of wellbeing were found, which provide a better understanding of the conditions under which these effects can be prolonged and sustained. Further research is needed to better understand the environmental, social, and psychological mechanisms through which these improvements operate

Arts-based interventions for people living with dementia: Measuring ‘in the moment’ wellbeing with the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales [version 3; peer review: 2 approved]

Background: There is growing acknowledgement for the need to move beyond exclusive biomedical understandings of dementia and also focus on how to improve the lives and wellbeing of people living with dementia. A mounting body of research advocates for the benefits of arts-based interventions for this population. The purpose of this study was to explore the links between multiple components of arts-based interventions and subjective wellbeing in order to help assess if these activities might contribute to meaningful community-based dementia care initiatives. // Methods: Using previously collected data across different intervention sites, a within- and between- participants design was used that assessed wellbeing through the Canterbury Wellbeing Scales (CWS) in people with mild-to-moderate dementias (N = 201) who participated in various community arts-based interventions (ABI). Data were analysed using non-parametric statistical analyses and bootstrapped moderation models. // Results: Increases in subjective wellbeing were associated with all forms of ABI. Co-creative sessions significantly strengthened the relationship between number of sessions attended and overall wellbeing as well as optimism. No significant moderating effect was observed between number of sessions attended and carer presence. // Conclusions: In the largest study of its kind to date to assess wellbeing using arts activities in a community-based dementia sample, findings support the use and acceptability of the CWS as a measurement tool for people with early-to-middle stages of dementia and suggest that the CWS can reliably measure wellbeing in this population. In addition, the positive effect of arts-based interactions on specific aspects of wellbeing were found, which provide a better understanding of the conditions under which these effects can be prolonged and sustained. Further research is needed to better understand the environmental, social, and psychological mechanisms through which these improvements operate

Higher spin currents in the critical O(N) vector model at 1/N 2

We calculate the anomalous dimensions of higher spin singlet currents in the critical O(N) vector model at order 1/N-2. The results are shown to be in agreement with the four-loop perturbative computation in phi(4) theory in 4-2 epsilon dimensions. It is known that the order 1/N anomalous dimensions of higher-spin currents happen to be the same in the Gross-Neveu and the critical vector model. On the contrary, the order 1/N-2 corrections are different. The results can also be interpreted as a prediction for the two-loop computation in the dual higher-spin gravity