Intro to Community-Engaged Research & Service-Learning

Definitions of community engagement, research, and service-learning. Benefits of utilizing service-learning at VCU, such as increased graduation rate, building professional skills, addressing social problems, engaging faculty with community experts, and creating opportunities for faculty led community-engaged research

Community Engagement Institute 2017

Agenda documenting time and dates of speaker presentations. Presentations varied from topics surrounding higher education, community-engaged research, service learning, collaboration between education and communities, and community-academic partner spotlights

Enhancing the acute psychological benefits of green exercise: An investigation of expectancy effects

Objective Exercising in the presence of a natural environment (termed green exercise) appears to provide addition benefits compared to indoor exercise. We assessed the impact of a green exercise promotional video on the acute psychological benefits of green-outdoor and indoor exercise. Design Participants were randomly assigned to one of four groups. Two groups undertook green exercise (with one of these groups watching a green exercise promotional video). The other two groups undertook indoor exercise (with one of these groups watching the promotional video). The green-outdoor and indoor exercise conditions were created to replicate those of a previous study (Rogerson, Gladwell, Gallagher, & Barton, 2016b). The promotional video was designed to highlight benefits of green exercise and was used to manipulate expectations of acute green exercise. Method Participants (N = 60) completed 15-min of moderate-intensity cycling, with self-esteem, vigour (dependent variables), and attitudes (manipulation check) assessed pre- and post-activity. Measures of physical activity and green exercise levels were also recorded at baseline. Results The findings suggest that green exercise elicits greater psychological benefits than indoor exercise, and those benefits can be increased via expectancy modification. In contrast, the same expectancy modification suppressed the psychological benefits of cycling indoors. Conclusions A promotional video can further enhance the affective response to green exercise. This may help to encourage future physical activity participation holding great promise for researchers, practitioners and policy makers

Pedagogies of power:Media Artefacts as Public Pedagogy for Women’s Leadership Development

This article extends the idea of media artefacts as educational resources by examining web-based materials, specifically women’s ‘Power Lists’, to deepen understandings regarding media artefacts’ role in informing women’s leadership learning and development. Women’s underrepresentation in senior leadership roles places leadership development under scrutiny to develop theoretically informed frameworks that draw attention to gendered power relations in organisations. This article addresses this concern by drawing on cultural theory to theorize media artefacts as forms of public pedagogy. The pedagogic framework proposed presents a distinctive addition to leadership education methods that attend to the socio-cultural and recognise the significance of informal learning to leadership learning. Recognising media artefacts’ pedagogic role enables individuals to examine in more detail the gendered nature of the social values and norms that inform leadership discourse, and how these values and norms are promoted, reproduced and sustained through media artefacts

The development of three questionnaires to assess beliefs about green exercise

Green exercise is physical activity that takes place in the presence of natural environments. Despite the promising evidence of the benefits, little is known about how individuals’ thoughts and feelings influence participation in green exercise and subsequent outcomes. The aim of the current research was to develop questionnaires using the Theory of Planned Behaviour as a framework that could both directly and indirectly assess attitudes, subjective norms and perceived behaviour control, along with intention toward green exercise. Confirmatory factor analyses confirmed that the indirect, direct, and intention measures all had good overall model fits when tested on a refinement (n = 253) and validation (n = 230) sample. The questionnaires will contribute towards helping to better understanding individuals’ beliefs about green exercise, how these influence behaviour, and ultimately to enable the development of effective interventions promoting green exercise

Assessing Differences between Early and Later Adopters of Accountable Care Organizations Using Taxonomic Analysis

Objective. To compare early and later adopters of the accountable care organization (ACO) model, using the taxonomy of larger, integrated system; smaller, physician-led; and hybrid ACOs. Data sources. The National Survey of ACOs, Waves 1 and 2. Studydesign. Clusteranalysisusingthetwo-stepclusteringapproach,validatedusing discriminant analysis. Wave 2 data analyzed separately to assess differences from Wave 1 and then data pooled across waves. Findings. Compared to early ACOs, later adopter ACOs included a greater breadth of provider group types and a greater proportion self-reported as integrated delivery systems. When data from the two time periods were combined, a three-cluster solution similar to the original cluster solution emerged. Of the 251 ACOs, 31.1 percent were larger, integrated system ACOs; 45.0 percent were smaller physician-led ACOs; and 23.9 percent were hybrid ACOs—compared to 40.1 percent, 34.0 percent, and 25.9 percent from Wave 1 clusters, respectively. Conclusions. While there are some differences between ACOs formed prior to August 2012 and those formed in the following year, the three-cluster taxonomy appears to best describe the types of ACOs in existence as of July 2013. The updated taxonomy can be used by researchers, policy makers, and health care organizations to support evaluation and continued development of ACOs

Deficits in episodic future thinking following acute alcohol consumption

Rationale Acute alcohol consumption adversely affects many cognitive abilities, including episodic memory and executive functioning. However, no study to date has tested whether these acute effects of alcohol also extend to episodic future thinking (EFT). This is a surprising omission given that EFT refers to the ability to imagine oneself experiencing the future, a highly adaptive ability that has been implicated in many important functional behaviours. EFT is also thought to impose demands on episodic memory and executive control. Objectives The current study was designed to provide the first test of whether a moderate dose of alcohol influences EFT and whether any observed EFT difficulties are secondary to broader problems in episodic memory and executive functioning. Sex differences in EFT following acute alcohol consumption were also examined. Methods One hundred and twenty-four healthy adult social drinkers were recruited and randomly assigned to either the alcohol (n = 61) or placebo (n = 63) condition. Participants were administered a dose of 0.6 g/kg alcohol or a matched placebo drink. Results Relative to the placebo condition, EFT was impaired by acute alcohol consumption. This impairment was underpinned by broader difficulties with episodic memory, but not executive functioning. There were no sex differences in EFT performance following acute alcohol use. Conclusion These data provide novel insights into the effects of acute alcohol consumption on EFT and the broader cognitive mechanisms that contribute to these difficulties. The results are discussed in relation to their implications for understanding many of the maladaptive behaviours commonly associated with acute alcohol use

Human Vault Nanoparticle Targeted Delivery of Antiretroviral Drugs to Inhibit Human Immunodeficiency Virus Type 1 Infection.

"Vaults" are ubiquitously expressed endogenous ribonucleoprotein nanoparticles with potential utility for targeted drug delivery. Here, we show that recombinant human vault nanoparticles are readily engulfed by certain key human peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC), predominately dendritic cells, monocytes/macrophages, and activated T cells. As these cell types are the primary targets for human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) infection, we examined the utility of recombinant human vaults for targeted delivery of antiretroviral drugs. We chemically modified three different antiretroviral drugs, zidovudine, tenofovir, and elvitegravir, for direct conjugation to vaults. Tested in infection assays, drug-conjugated vaults inhibited HIV-1 infection of PBMC with equivalent activity to free drugs, indicating vault delivery and drug release in the cytoplasm of HIV-1-susceptible cells. The ability to deliver functional drugs via vault nanoparticle conjugates suggests their potential utility for targeted drug delivery against HIV-1