Counselor Professional Identity Development: Narratives from a Professional Event

The goal of a one-day professional event was to enhance counselor professional identity (CPI) development through a panel discussion on CPI, professional and career information in sessions and booths, and networking breaks to connect Master’s students, doctoral students, and counseling professionals. Narrative analysis of eight interviews with event attendees, event leaders, and event speakers (i.e., practicing counselors) revealed themes of commitment, community, defining my professional self, and ambiguity and affirmation. Implications for best practices in CPI development and future research are discussed

Counselor Professional Identity Development: Narratives from a Professional Event

The goal of a one-day professional event was to enhance counselor professional identity (CPI) development through a panel discussion on CPI, professional and career information in sessions and booths, and networking breaks to connect Master’s students, doctoral students, and counseling professionals. Narrative analysis of eight interviews with event attendees, event leaders, and event speakers (i.e., practicing counselors) revealed themes of commitment, community, defining my professional self, and ambiguity and affirmation. Implications for best practices in CPI development and future research are discussed

Addressing Heterosexism: Student Narratives of a Guided Imagery Activity

A published guided imagery (GI) offers an innovative active learning tool for teaching about heterosexism in counselor education. A literature review precedes the description of a critical narrative inquiry of students’ experiences with the GI activity. A sample of 19 students in two sections of a counseling course recounted stories of their GI experience in individual written reflections and focus group interviews. Findings describe individual and collective meaning-making, resulting in three themes about their struggles, insights, and perspectives of themselves and their personal and professional worlds. Implications for counselor education professionals include conceptualization and implementation of guided imagery for active learning and important considerations for managing students’ emotional and cognitive reactions

Involving adolescents with intellectual disability in the adaptation of self-reported subjective well-being measures:participatory research and methodological considerations

BACKGROUND: The measurement of subjective well-being is challenging with samples of adolescents with intellectual disability (ID) given the cognitive and linguistic difficulties they face in comprehending standardised measures, and as such is primarily based on proxy reports. The lack of appropriate tools needs to be addressed so that adolescents with ID can self-report on their own well-being. The current study reports on the use of participatory research methods to adapt and modify two standardised self-report measures of subjective well-being suitable for completion by adolescents with ID. METHOD: Two special schools were recruited for this study. At each school, staff (n = 15) and pupils aged 11-17 years (n = 35) participated. A series of co-design workshops were conducted to adapt two standardised subjective well-being measures: Kidscreen-10 and short-form Warwick-Edinburgh Mental Well-being Scale. RESULTS: Specific aspects for measure adaption were identified: simplifying the item wording and phrasing; inclusion of pictorial communication symbols and visual prompts to represent the meaning of items; changing of tense of questions from past to present; asking questions rather than statements; reducing 5-point Likert scales to 3-point or dichotomous; presenting one item at a time during administration; and developing alternate formats of the survey to ensure inclusivity. CONCLUSIONS: This paper illustrates the value of using participatory research methods when working alongside adolescents with ID and offers methodological, as well as practical, guidance in the context of adapting subjective self-report measures for this target group, serving as a guide to fellow researchers and clinicians interested in modifying or developing self-report measures for adolescents with ID

Protocol for a systematic review exploring the psychometric properties of self-report health-related quality of life and subjective wellbeing measures used by adolescents with intellectual disabilities

BACKGROUND: Whilst there are studies that have systematically reviewed the psychometric properties of quality of life measures for children and young people with intellectual disabilities, these narrowly focus on disease or health conditions. The objective of this planned systematic review is therefore to collate, summarise, and critically appraise the psychometric properties of self-report health-related quality of life (HRQoL) and subjective wellbeing measures used by adolescents (aged 11-16) with an intellectual disability. METHODS: We designed and registered a study protocol for a systematic review of studies which explores the psychometric properties of self-report HRQoL and subjective wellbeing measures used by adolescents with intellectual disabilities. Electronic databases including PsycINFO, CINAHL, MEDLINE, and ERIC will be searched using predefined search terms to identify relevant studies. Quantitative and mixed-methods studies, and studies published in peer-reviewed journals or grey literature, will be included. Review papers, editorials, and case studies will be excluded. Eligible studies should identify self-report measures which assess HRQoL and subjective wellbeing among adolescents with intellectual disabilities. The methodological quality of the included studies will be assessed by applying the COSMIN Risk of Bias checklist. The quality of the evidence (i.e. the total body of evidence used for the overall ratings on each psychometric property of an instrument) will be evaluated in accordance with the modified GRADE guidelines. DISCUSSION: This systematic review will be among the first to systematically explore the psychometric properties of self-report HRQoL and subjective wellbeing measures used by adolescents with intellectual disabilities. By providing evidence-based knowledge about measures being used in HRQoL and subjective wellbeing research amongst this population, and more importantly how reliable and valid these measures are, the most suitable for use will be identified. Our findings will be of potential interest to clinicians, researchers, and service providers who need information about the methodological quality and the characteristics of measures to make informed decisions about the most reliable and valid tool for a specific purpose. The findings from this study will contribute to the knowledge surrounding available and appropriate measures to use for measuring HRQoL and subjective wellbeing of adolescents with intellectual disabilities, which are necessary to inform intervention development and future health policy. SYSTEMATIC REVIEW REGISTRATION: The protocol has been registered at the International Prospective Register of Systematic Reviews (PROSPERO). The registration number is CRD42021231697

The spatial and temporal distribution of foehn winds on the Larsen C ice shelf, Antarctica

The Antarctic Peninsula (AP) was the fastest warming region on earth during the 20th century. The eastern side of the Peninsula is typically 5-10K colder than at equivalent latitudes on the western side. Despite this cooler climate, a number of ice shelves have collapsed in the last two decades. In 1995 Larsen A collapsed, shortly followed by Larsen B in 2002. Larsen C Ice Shelf (LCIS), the largest remaining ice shelf, is now showing evidence of potential destabilisation, including melt ponding and rift acceleration. The `hydrofracture mechanism’ suggests that percolation of melt water into crevasses allows them to deepen and extend to the ice shelf base, which leads to destabilisation. Advection of warm, dry air onto the ice shelf from foehn winds is partly responsible for the melt water. Investigating foehn winds over LCIS was one aim of the Orographic Flow and Climate of the Antarctic Peninsula (OFCAP) project. The aim of this research is to investigate the spatial distribution and frequency of the foehn winds, and assess their impact on the LCIS. To investigate this, near-surface observational data at six locations is combined with archived regional model output at 5km horizontal-resolution from the Antarctic Mesoscale Prediction System (AMPS). A novel semi-automatic algorithm has been developed to detect foehn winds from near-surface observations. A relatively new algorithm has been adapted for use over the AP, to detect foehn conditions from the AMPS output. Foehn characteristics over the ice shelf have been identified to create a mini-climatology of the location and occurrence of foehn winds from 2009 to 2012. Foehn conditions have been observed as far south as ~68S for the first time. Foehn events are most frequent in spring, when over 50% of days can experience the warm, dry winds. The average length of foehn events is approximately 12 hours, but they can occur in quick succession to have a longer-lasting effect. Some of the spatial features within the foehn flow were investigated further using high-resolution (1.5km) Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. Foehn jets, hydraulic jumps and localised foehn enhancement were simulated by WRF in four case studies. The presence of a statically-stable cold pool over the ice shelf appears to reduce the propagation of foehn air, and interrupt the near-surface signal. When foehn winds occur in late spring they prompt earlier melt onset, increase the number of melt days and lengthen the melt season. Foehn-induced surface melting has been observed over 130km from the mountains. This research has highlighted the potential destabilising effect of foehn winds, which may provide an insight into the stability of the LCIS

Modelling the urban heat island in Birmingham, UK at the neighbourhood scale

Cities have higher peak temperatures compared to surrounding rural areas. The urban-rural surface air temperature difference is known as the urban heat island (UHI). As extreme heat exposure can lead to adverse health effects, information on UHI characteristics of cities is important for future urban climate planning strategies. This study applied the ADMS-Urban Temperature and Humidity model to investigate the key processes driving the UHI in Birmingham, UK, at the neighbourhood scale. This model was configured with a range of input datasets (such as meteorological data, landuse data, building data, anthropogenic heat sources etc) and run on the University of Birmingham’s BlueBEAR HPC. This urban climate modelling was evaluated against the temperature measurement datasets from UK Met Office and Weather Underground. The spatiotemporal variations of surface air temperature in Birmingham, UK were captured by this model. This modelling study can be further applied to explore the impacts of local urban head island mitigation strategies

The Calibration of the WISE W1 and W2 Tully-Fisher Relation

In order to explore local large-scale structures and velocity fields, accurate galaxy distance measures are needed. We now extend the well-tested recipe for calibrating the correlation between galaxy rotation rates and luminosities -- capable of providing such distance measures -- to the all-sky, space-based imaging data from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) W1 ($3.4\mu$m) and W2 ($4.6\mu$m) filters. We find a linewidth to absolute magnitude correlation (known as the Tully-Fisher Relation, TFR) of $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W1} = -20.35 - 9.56 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.54 magnitudes rms) and $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W2} = -19.76 - 9.74 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.56 magnitudes rms) from 310 galaxies in 13 clusters. We update the I-band TFR using a sample 9% larger than in Tully & Courtois (2012). We derive $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k}_I = -21.34 - 8.95 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (0.46 magnitudes rms). The WISE TFRs show evidence of curvature. Quadratic fits give $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W1} = -20.48 - 8.36 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5) + 3.60 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)^2$ (0.52 magnitudes rms) and $\mathcal{M}^{b,i,k,a}_{W2} = -19.91 - 8.40 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5) + 4.32 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)^2$ (0.55 magnitudes rms). We apply an I-band -- WISE color correction to lower the scatter and derive $\mathcal{M}_{C_{W1}} = -20.22 - 9.12 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ and $\mathcal{M}_{C_{W2}} = -19.63 - 9.11 (\log W^i_{mx} - 2.5)$ (both 0.46 magnitudes rms). Using our three independent TFRs (W1 curved, W2 curved and I-band), we calibrate the UNION2 supernova Type Ia sample distance scale and derive $H_0 = 74.4 \pm 1.4$(stat) $\pm\ 2.4$(sys) kms$^{-1}$ Mpc$^{-1}$ with 4% total error.Comment: 22 page, 21 figures, accepted to ApJ, Table 1 data at http://spartan.srl.caltech.edu/~neill/tfwisecal/table1.tx