“I Want to Learn from Them as Much as I Want Them to Learn from Me”: Finding a Balance of Coaching and Consulting Through the Analysis of a Literacy Coach’s Conversations

The purpose of this exploratory case study was to explore the ways in which one specialized literacy professional (SLP) navigated and reflected on coaching conversations with teachers. The participants for this study were one elementary school SLP and two classroom teachers at the same school. Coaching conversations the SLP held with teachers, the debriefing sessions that occurred after each conversation, and interviews with all participants were analyzed. Several themes emerged, including: the blended use of coaching and consulting, the ways in which the SLP built rapport with teachers, and the SLP’s manifestation of herself as a learner. SLPs who are just beginning to coach and instructors who teach university graduate courses that include coaching practices might benefit from reading about the work of this coach

A multi-stakeholder approach to the co-production of the research agenda for medicines optimisation

© The Author(s) 2021. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), and indicate if changes were made.BACKGROUND: Up to 50% of medicines are not used as intended, resulting in poor health and economic outcomes. Medicines optimisation is 'a person-centred approach to safe and effective medicines use, to ensure people obtain the best possible outcomes from their medicines'. The purpose of this exercise was to co-produce a prioritised research agenda for medicines optimisation using a multi-stakeholder (patient, researcher, public and health professionals) approach. METHODS: A three-stage, multiple method process was used including: generation of preliminary research questions (Stage 1) using a modified Nominal Group Technique; electronic consultation and ranking with a wider multi-stakeholder group (Stage 2); a face-to-face, one-day consensus meeting involving representatives from all stakeholder groups (Stage 3). RESULTS: In total, 92 research questions were identified during Stages 1 and 2 and ranked in order of priority during stage 3. Questions were categorised into four areas: 'Patient Concerns' [e.g. is there a shared decision (with patients) about using each medicine?], 'Polypharmacy' [e.g. how to design health services to cope with the challenge of multiple medicines use?], 'Non-Medical Prescribing' [e.g. how can the contribution of non-medical prescribers be optimised in primary care?], and 'Deprescribing' [e.g. what support is needed by prescribers to deprescribe?]. A significant number of the 92 questions were generated by Patient and Public Involvement representatives, which demonstrates the importance of including this stakeholder group when identifying research priorities. CONCLUSIONS: A wide range of research questions was generated reflecting concerns which affect patients, practitioners, the health service, as well the ethical and philosophical aspects of the prescribing and deprescribing of medicines. These questions should be used to set future research agendas and funding commissions.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio

Effects of Acute Ketamine Infusion on Visual Working Memory: Event-related Potentials

Background Working memory (WM) deficits are a core feature of schizophrenia. Electrophysiological studies suggest that impaired early visual processing may contribute to impaired WM in the visual domain. Abnormal N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor function has been implicated both in WM and in early visual processing deficits in schizophrenia. We investigated whether ketamine, a noncompetitive NMDA antagonist, would replicate in healthy volunteers the WM performance and early visual processing abnormalities we and others have reported in patients with schizophrenia. Methods Forty-four healthy volunteers were randomly assigned to receive intravenous ketamine or placebo. During infusion, the effects of ketamine were recorded using standardized psychiatric scales. Visual evoked potentials (P100 and P300 components) were recorded during performance of a delayed matching to sample task. Results Ketamine induced mild psychosis-like symptoms and impaired WM performance. It also significantly increased the P100 amplitude, while P300 amplitude decreased in a load-dependent manner. Amplitudes of P100 during retrieval correlated with cognitive performance only in the placebo group. Conclusions We confirmed previous studies showing that ketamine reproduces the impairment of WM performance and smaller P300 amplitudes observed in schizophrenia. However, ketamine increased visual P100 amplitude in contrast to our observation of reduced P100 amplitudes in established schizophrenia. The effects of ketamine on WM and P300 are likely to involve impaired NMDA function, as these receptors are implicated in changes of synaptic strength underlying associative learning and memory. Increased P100 amplitude may reflect the secondary disinhibition of cortical glutamate release that occurs after NMDA blockade

Microbial Interactions during Upper Respiratory Tract Infections

Competitive interactions between bacteria differ by number and species present; thus, vaccination and treatment strategies may alter nasopharyngeal flora and disease susceptibility

The incidence of unpleasant dreams after sub-anaesthetic ketamine

Ketamine is an N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA)receptor antagonist with psychotogenic effects and for whichthere are diverse reports of whether pleasant or unpleasantdreams result during anaesthesia, post-operatively or aftersub-anaesthetic use. The aim was to assess in healthy volunteers the incidence ofunpleasant dreams over the three nights after receiving asub-anaesthetic dose of ketamine, in comparison to placebo,and with retrospective home nightmare frequency as acovariate.Thirty healthy volunteers completed questionnairesabout retrospective home dream recall and were then giveneither ketamine or placebo. Ketamine resulted in significantly more meandream unpleasantness relative to placebo and caused athreefold increase in the odds ratio for the incidence of anunpleasant dream. The number of dreams reported over thethree nights did not differ between the groups. Theincidence of unpleasant dreams after ketamine use waspredicted by retrospectively assessed nightmare frequencyat home.Ketamine causes unpleasant dreams over thethree post-administration nights. This may be evidence of aresidual psychotogenic effect that is not found on standardself-report symptomatology measures or a result of disturbedsleep electrophysiology. The results have theoretical implications for the relationship between nightmares and schizotypy

Involvement of NMDA receptor complex in the anxiolytic-like effects of chlordiazepoxide in mice

In the present study, we demonstrated that low, ineffective doses of N-methyl-d-aspartic acid (NMDA) receptor antagonists [competitive NMDA antagonist, CGP 37849, at 0.312 mg/kg intraperitoneally (i.p.), antagonist of the glycineB sites, L-701,324, at 2 mg/kg i.p., partial agonist of glycineB sites, d-cycloserine, at 2.5 mg/kg i.p.] administered jointly with an ineffective dose of the benzodiazepine, chlordiazepoxide (CDP, 2.5 mg/kg i.p.), significantly increased the percentage of time spent in the open arms of the elevated plus-maze (index of anxiolytic effect). Furthermore, CDP-induced anxiolytic-like activity (5 mg/kg i.p.) was antagonized by NMDA (75 mg/kg i.p.) and by an agonist of glycineB sites of the NMDA receptor complex, d-serine [100 nmol/mouse intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.)]. The present study showed a positive interaction between γ-aminobutyric acid (GABA) and glutamate neurotransmission in the anxiolytic-like activity in the elevated plus-maze test in mice and this activity seems to particularly involve the NMDA receptors

The impact of sleep and psychiatric symptoms on alcohol consequences among young adults

OBJECTIVE: Independent lines of research have documented links between psychiatric symptoms and poor sleep quality, psychiatric symptoms and alcohol use, and alcohol use and poor sleep quality. The current study examined the synergistic effect of poor sleep quality and psychiatric symptoms on alcohol-related consequences in heavy-drinking young adults. METHOD: Matriculating college students reporting at least one heavy drinking episode over the first nine weeks of the semester (N = 385, 52% female) were categorized as experiencing ‘good’ (n = 280) versus ‘poor’ sleep quality (n = 105) and screening ‘positive’ (n = 203) or ‘negative’ (n = 182) for a psychiatric disorder. Sleep quality was assessed using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index; psychiatric diagnosis was assessed using the Psychiatric Diagnostic Screening Questionnaire; and alcohol-related consequences were assessed using the Brief Young Adult Alcohol Consequences Questionnaire. General linear models were used to examine the main effects and interaction between sleep quality and psychiatric symptoms on alcohol-related consequences. RESULTS: Sleep quality moderated the association between psychiatric screen and alcohol-related consequences among heavy-drinking college students, such that psychiatric symptoms were associated with more alcohol-related consequences in the context of poor sleep quality. CONCLUSIONS: The combination of poor sleep quality and psychiatric symptoms is associated with increased alcohol-related consequences among heavy-drinking college students. Given the significant interaction between these symptoms, healthcare providers are encouraged to screen for the presence of sleep and psychiatric disorders among heavy-drinking young adults and to provide empirically-supported treatments as appropriate

Glutamatergic regulation of cognition and functional brain connectivity:insights from pharmacological, genetic and translational schizophrenia research

The pharmacological modulation of glutamatergic neurotransmission to improve cognitive function has been a focus of intensive research, particularly in relation to the cognitive deficits seen in schizophrenia. Despite this effort there has been little success in the clinical use of glutamatergic compounds as procognitive drugs. Here we review a selection of the drugs used to modulate glutamatergic signalling and how they impact on cognitive function in rodents and humans. We highlight how glutamatergic dysfunction, and NMDA receptor hypofunction in particular, is a key mechanism contributing to the cognitive deficits observed in schizophrenia, and outline some of the glutamatergic targets that have been tested as putative procognitive targets for the disorder. Using translational research in this area as a leading exemplar, namely models of NMDA receptor hypofunction, we discuss how the study of functional brain network connectivity can provide new insight into how the glutamatergic system impacts on cognitive function. Future studies characterising functional brain network connectivity will increase our understanding of how glutamatergic compounds regulate cognition and could contribute to the future success of glutamatergic drug validation

Factors Associated with Revision Surgery after Internal Fixation of Hip Fractures

Background: Femoral neck fractures are associated with high rates of revision surgery after management with internal fixation. Using data from the Fixation using Alternative Implants for the Treatment of Hip fractures (FAITH) trial evaluating methods of internal fixation in patients with femoral neck fractures, we investigated associations between baseline and surgical factors and the need for revision surgery to promote healing, relieve pain, treat infection or improve function over 24 months postsurgery. Additionally, we investigated factors associated with (1) hardware removal and (2) implant exchange from cancellous screws (CS) or sliding hip screw (SHS) to total hip arthroplasty, hemiarthroplasty, or another internal fixation device. Methods: We identified 15 potential factors a priori that may be associated with revision surgery, 7 with hardware removal, and 14 with implant exchange. We used multivariable Cox proportional hazards analyses in our investigation. Results: Factors associated with increased risk of revision surgery included: female sex, [hazard ratio (HR) 1.79, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.25-2.50; P = 0.001], higher body mass index (fo

Personal responsibility and the role of self-identity in adolescents: a female regional Queensland perspective

The Abstract is currently unavailable, due to the thesis being under Embargo