Psychosocial Interventions for the Enhancement of Psychological Resources among Dyslexic Adults: A Systematic Review

Dyslexic employees are likely to be more at risk of low levels of personal resources because of their cognitive makeup compared to their non-dyslexic counterparts. Low personal resources, in turn, may lead to low employability because of difficulties in positively facing transitions. This research aimed to systematically review evidence on interventions for improving psychological resources in dyslexic adults. We searched Scopus, ERIC EBSCOhost, PsycINFO, Social Science Citation Index Web of Science, and Universe up to May 2020. We also examined the reference lists of published studies. We included studies that compared any intervention format against no intervention, any other intervention considered as a comparator by the authors, or that had no control group. Participants were dyslexic adults aged minimum 18 years old. We included four studies with 278 participants. Studies were run in the UK, Sweden, and Finland. Two studies involved a control group, and two studies were observational. Interventions varied between studies in intensity, duration, and format (individual and small groups). Risk of bias was unclear for most risk criteria. Findings from this review show that there is initial evidence suggesting initiatives can be effective in supporting a set of personal resources, i.e., self-confidence, organization, time, and stress-management, which are important in allowing dyslexic adults\u2019 positive adjustment in the workplace. Yet, more studies are needed to improve outcome assessment and study design

Gait Pathway in Subcortical Vascular Dementia and in Alzheimer’s Disease

Gait impairment, worse equilibrium scores and falls are associated with leukoaraiosis, as widely recognised [1-6]. In Binswanger\u2019s disease with a severe leukoaraiosis gait disorders are clearly evident while patients with mild periventricular changes may present subclinical forms of gait disorders, as proposed by some authors (see data in [7]). Gait disorders in the elderly are particularly relevant, since they can influence the loss of functional independence and death [8]. As anticipated, cerebral small vessel disease (both white matter lesions and lacunar infarcts) correlates with gait parameters: stride length and a lower gait velocity [8]. Most importantly, subcortical vascular lesions seem to increase the possibility of falls, even if clear evidences are still lacking [9-11]. Walking difficulties in Alzheimer\u2019s disease are well described [12]: patients show slow and irregular steps, difficulties in turning and avoiding obstacles [13, 14]. These disturbances have been described also in patients free from extrapyramidal, ataxic, paretic signs, and clinically relevant musculoskeletal impairments [12, 14]. Moreover, Alzheimer\u2019s disease patients have a worse balance [12, 14, 15] and a higher risk of falls compared with matched controls [16, 17]. The prevalence of gait abnormalities varies widely across the studies (from 8.7% [18] to over 90% [19]); this can be explained because of different inclusion criteria and/or assessment procedures. These observations have been confirmed by studies demonstrating that patients with Alzheimer\u2019s disease walk more slowly compared to healthy controls [12] and these gait problems have been interpreted as manifestations of the extrapyramidal deficits (well-known to affect 12\u201328% of Alzheimer patients), or as side effects of drug treatment (e.g. neuroleptic agents) [20]. Since a overt walking problems and trunk movement alterations can be seen also in absence of extrapyramidal signs, it has been proposed that some Alzheimer\u2019s disease patients may present \u201cfrontal gait disorder\u201d, a syndrome coterminous with gait apraxia [21, 15]. The lack of a standardised instrument to assess gait has been implicated as a possible cause for the low frequency of reports on the topic. Since the walking assessment cannot discriminate between walking disorders caused by gait apraxia and other neurological causes of walking difficulty, there has been the necessity to exclude alternative causes of walking abnormalities in Alzheimer\u2019s disease (overt extrapyramidal impairments or other concurrent neurological diseases); in order to assess gait capacity, a new test has been proposed and a large proportion of the sample (40%) scored below cut off, even if the percentage of severely impaired was smaller. Although the possibility of right\u2013left confusion, working memory deficits, and problems with verbal comprehension was minimised by demonstrating the items, the complexity of some of them might have contributed to inflating the proportion of patients performing poorly. Even though, the presence of associated vascular pathology in a few patients also cannot account for the outcome. Neuroradiological signs of white matter changes were reported in three of the 24 patients (22.5%) in the Della Sala et al.\u2019s study [12], who scored below cut off in the assessment of walking skills. Therefore, in a well-defined population suffering from subcortical vascular dementia and Alzheimer\u2019s disease (standing from a neurological, clinical, and radiological criteria), we tried to explore gait, balance and equilibrium alterations, and a behavioral complex symptom, such as apathy, even considering precipitant factors, such as concomitant pathologies and consequent therapies. We now present an extension of the work, with a speculation on what we observed for a two-year follow-up

The Intertwined Relationship Between Job Crafting, Work-Related Positive Emotions, and Work Engagement. Evidence from a Positive Psychology Intervention Study

The present study examines the impact of a positive psychology intervention on job crafting, positive emotions and work engagement. A sample of 43 employees working in a public organisation received a three day-long resource-based intervention grounded on meaningfulness and practical exercises. Results showed that the intervention had a positive effect on job crafting, positive job-related affective well-being and work engagement. Moreover, findings from a mediation model show that the intervention was effective in sustaining work engagement resulting from experienced positive emotions, which in turn resulted from job crafting behaviours. To the best of our knowledge, this study is the first investigating the intertwined relationships between job crafting behaviours, positive emotions in the workplace, and work engagement. Moreover, our findings provide evidence of the effectiveness of the proposed positive psychology intervention to support work engagement resulting from proactive adjustment to the work environment and the positive emotions deriving from it

Reviewing psychological facets of workplace innovation

In this article, we discuss the potential advantages of taking a work and organisational psychology (WOP) perspective on Workplace Innovation (WPI). WPI represents a construct that can be applied at different organisational levels and be considered from multiple inter-related perspectives. Accordingly, this contribution takes a systemic perspective on WPI. Such an approach suggests that multiple disciplines have something to contribute to our understanding of WPI and this contribution aims to show how research in WPI can benefit from a WOP perspective. Accordingly, a main goal of this article is to recognise how organisational and work-related dynamics influence the effectiveness of WPI practices, an issue that will be examined by means of recent WPI studies analysed from a WOP perspective. In doing so, we seek to encourage perspectives on WPI and research in WOP to be merged, in order to promote a deeper investigation of the predictors and consequences of WPI, as well as a greater understanding of factors influencing the effectiveness of WPI practices

Herpes simplex virus type 2 infection increases human immunodeficiency virus type 1 entry into human primary macrophages

Epidemiological and clinical data indicate that genital ulcer disease (GUD) pathogens are associated with an increased risk of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) acquisition and/or transmission. Among them, genital herpes simplex virus type 2 (HSV-2) seems to play a relevant role. Indeed, the ability of HSV-2 to induce massive infiltration at the genital level of cells which are potential targets for HIV-1 infection may represent one of the mechanisms involved in this process. Here we show that infection of human primary macrophages (MDMs) by HSV-2 results in an increase of CCR5 expression levels on cell surface and allows higher efficiency of MDMs to support entry of R5 HIV-1 strains. This finding could strengthen, at the molecular level, the evidence linking HSV-2 infection to an increased susceptibility to HIV-1 acquisition

Turning bad into good: How resilience resources protect organizations from demanding work environments

An organization\u2019s survival and its performance are often connected to employees\u2019 well-being, which in intensive work conditions can be compromised by employee exhaustion. To date, the last economic crisis has forced several companies to downsize and leave the remaining employees facing higher job demands and vulnerability toward job exhaustion. The present study investigates whether resilience together with other personal resources can function as a psychological shield through a mediation and/or moderation process that mitigate the emergence of burnout. Based on a sample of employees from three different Italian companies (N\u2009=\u2009208), our results confirmed that \u201cresilience resources\u201d (i.e., resilience, self-efficacy, self-regulation) mediated the relationship between job demands, exhaustion, and task performance (i.e., energetic process). These results suggest that organizational environments characterized by challenging demands are likely to foster the development of resilience resources to cope with the emergence of potentially harming processes

Grit or Honesty-Humility? New Insights into the Moderating Role of Personality between the Health Impairment Process and Counterproductive Work Behavior

It is acknowledged that chronic job demands may be depleting workers’ stamina resulting in burnout conditions and ultimately causing further health problems. This relation, known as health impairment process, has recently been considered as a possible explanation for the emergence of counterproductive work behavior (CWB). The present work aims to examine the role of two personality traits (i.e., Grit and Honesty–Humility) in this process. The results, based on a sample of 208 private service sector employees, confirm the presence of a fully mediated process and show how Honesty–Humility positively moderates the relationship between job demands and exhaustion, whereas Grit has a negative effect on the relation between exhaustion and CWB. Implications for assessment procedure and hiring decisions are discussed

Early putamen hypertrophy and ongoing hippocampus atrophy predict cognitive performance in the first ten years of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis

Background The first years of relapsing-remitting multiple sclerosis (RRMS) constitute the most vulnerable phase for the progression of cognitive impairment (CImp), due to a gradual decrease of compensatory mechanisms. In the first 10 years of RRMS, the temporal volumetric changes of deep gray matter structures must be clarified, since they could constitute reliable cognitive biomarkers for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic purposes. Methods Forty-five cognitively asymptomatic patients with RRMS lasting 64\u200910 years, and with a brain MRI performed in a year from the neuropsychological evaluation (Te-MRI), were included. They performed the Brief International Cognitive Assessment battery for MS. Thirty-one brain MRIs performed in the year of diagnosis (Td-MRI) and 13 brain MRIs of age- and sex-matched healthy controls (HCs) were also included in the study. The relationships between clinical features, cognitive performances, and Te- and Td-MRI volumes were statistically analyzed. Results Cognitively preserved (CP) patients had significantly increased Td-L-putamen (P\u2009=\u20090.035) and Td-R-putamen volume (P\u2009=\u20090.027) with respect to cognitively impaired (CI) ones. CI patients had significantly reduced Te-L-hippocampus (P\u2009=\u20090.019) and Te-R-hippocampus volume (P\u2009=\u20090.042) compared, respectively, with Td-L-hippocampus and Td-R-hippocampus volume. Td-L-putamen volume (P\u2009=\u20090.011) and Te-L-hippocampus volume (P\u2009=\u20090.023) were independent predictors of the Symbol Digit Modalities Test score in all patients (r2\u2009=\u20090.31, F\u2009=\u20096.175, P\u2009=\u20090.001). Conclusion In the first years of RRMS, putamen hypertrophy and hippocampus atrophy could represent promising indices of cognitive performance and reserve, and become potentially useful tools for diagnostic, prognostic, and therapeutic purposes

The NOTECHS+: A Short Scale Designed for Assessing the Non-technical Skills (and more) in the Aviation and the Emergency Personnel

This research presents the development of a short scale named “NOTECHS+” to measure the Non-Technical Skills (i.e., NOTECHS: Cooperation, Leadership and Managerial skills, Decision-Making, and Situational Awareness), Resilience and Emotion Regulation, in a sector that comprises the aviation and the emergency personnel: the Helicopter Emergency Medical Service (HEMS). The design process of the scale was carried out starting from a review on the behavioral markers used to detect the NOTECHS. Moreover, 70 interviews with HEMS experts have been conducted with the aim of developing Resilience and Emotion Regulation items by considering the different professional profiles (e.g., pilots, nurses, physicians, etc.) which compose the HEMS. Through a pre-assessment procedure, a Q-Sort test was performed on a sample of students (n = 30) to test the logical principles, but also intelligibility and clarity, of the items developed. Once the instrument was defined, 211 participants from the HEMS sector were surveyed to test the theoretical model behind the NOTECHS+ instrument. First exploratory and then confirmatory analysis yielded results that suggested that the 18 items selected conform to a bi-factor model composed of three skill-dimensions: Social skills (i.e., Cooperation, and Leadership and Managerial skills), Cognitive skills (i.e., Decision-Making and Situational Awareness) and Emotional skills (i.e., Resilience and Emotional Regulation). Finally, the study ends with a discussion on the results obtained, including practical implications on assessment and training based on this novel instrument