A Constructivist Approach to Promoting Spiritual Competencies in Counselor Trainees

Spirituality has been documented as both a positive and negative influence in the counseling process. Despite this evidence, counselor education programs are not consistently training their students to competently address the role of spirituality in counseling. This study examined the effect of a 2.5 hour, five-activity model on spiritual competency levels of counseling interns. The constructivist activity model positively increased overall spiritual competency scores of participants as well as in five out of six competency foci. This study also found that students who scored higher on a Personal Spiritual and Religious Practices scale tended to have larger increases in their spiritual competency scores after participation in the activity model

Erie v. Tompkins: A Geography Lesson

The United States Supreme Court, in 1938, deciding the case of Erie Railroad Co. v. Tompkins, held that a federal court in a diversity of citizenship case must apply state law rather than federal law to the controversy. The Court subsequently held in 1941, in Klaxon Co. v. Stentor Electric Mfg. Co., Inc., that the Erie case necessitated a ruling that a federal court, sitting solely on the basis of diversity jurisdiction, had to use the conflict of law rules of the state in which it was sitting in determining which state\u27s law was applicable to the controversy. Eight years later, a ruling in Woods v. Interstate Realty Co., clearly announced that because of the Erie case, a federal court had to close its doors to a diversity of citizenship action, if the state in which it was sitting had a statute consistent with the United States Constitution which closed the doors of that state\u27s courts to the same action

Book Reviews

THE TRIAL OF JACK RUBY. By John Kaplan and Jon Waltz. BASIC PROTECTION FOR THE TRAFFIC VICTIM. (A Blueprint for Reforming Automobile Insurance.) By Robert E. Keeton and Jeffrey O\u27Connell

His Dream of Passion: Reflections on the work of Lee Strasberg and his influence on British Actor Training (Part Two)

A previous article for Stanislavski Studies (Vol. 4, No 1, 47-62) explored and examined the impact of Lee Strasberg’s Emotion Memory technique and assessed its influence on contemporary approaches to British actor training. This second ‘companion’ article reflects on a much broader range of Strasbergian training techniques in order, initially, to examine their efficacy and to highlight the extent to which they have been absorbed and adapted by acting teachers working in a British training context. Often viewed as a controversial figure - both in the United Kingdom and in the United States - Strasberg’s approach has frequently been vilified and dismissed. This is particularly true of his interpretation of Stanislavski’s Emotion Memory technique. Whereas the earlier article sought to arrive at an informed and balanced view of his deployment of this technique, what follows is an attempt to review other aspects of Strasberg’s work so as to evaluate the coherence and credibility of the assumptions on which his approach was based and to test whether his work remains appropriate and viable in British training environments today. His work on Relaxation, Concentration and Sense Memory will be examined alongside his development of the Private Moment, Song and Dance and Animal exercises. What, if anything, can we learn from Strasberg’s Method-based approach to actor training and how might we begin to consider the impact and unity of his work as a whole as opposed to focusing almost exclusively on his early work on Emotion Memory

Purification of human C5a des arg by immunoadsorbent and molecular sieve chromatography

Human C5a des arg was isolated from complement-activated serum by immunoadsorption followed by Sephadex G-75 chromatography. C5a des arg obtained by this 2-step procedure was shown to be immunologically identical to C5a des arg purified by a conventional multi-step method, homogeneous on SDS-polyacrylamide gels, and biologically active. Although this technique yields approximately the same amount of C5a des arg/liter of activated serum as that obtained by conventional methods, its simplicity and relative rapidity make it a practical alternative.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/23892/1/0000131.pd

A specific Enzyme-Linked Immunosorbent Assay (ELISA) for the determination of human C5a antigen

An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay has been developed to detect human C5a antigen. This ELISA methodology has been shown to be a highly sensitive technique capable of detecting C5a antigen concentrations below 10 ng/ml. The microELISA technique used in this study is specific for human C5a and C5a des arg (C5a antigen) but not for human C5. Conditions to establish sensitivity and specificity are outlined in this report.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/25112/1/0000545.pd

Preliminary Evidence for an Association Between the Composition of the Gut Microbiome and Cognitive Function in Neurologically Healthy Older Adults

Objectives: Dysbiosis of the gut microbiome is implicated in numerous human health conditions. Animal studies have linked microbiome disruption to changes in cognitive functioning, although no study has examined this possibility in neurologically healthy older adults. Methods: Participants were 43 community-dwelling older adults (50-85 years) that completed a brief cognitive test battery and provided stool samples for gut microbiome sequencing. Participants performing ≥ 1 SD below normative performance on two or more tests were compared to persons with one or fewer impaired scores. Results: Mann Whitney U tests revealed different distributions of Bacteroidetes (p = .01), Firmicutes (p = .02), Proteobacteria (p = .04), and Verrucomicrobia (p = .003) between Intact and Impaired groups. These phyla were significantly correlated with cognitive test performances, particularly Verrucomicrobia and attention/executive function measures. Conclusions: The current findings suggest that composition of the gut microbiome is associated with cognitive test performance in neurologically healthy older adults. Future studies are needed to confirm these findings and explore possible mechanisms. (JINS, 2017, 23, 700-705

A preliminary examination of gut microbiota, sleep, and cognitive flexibility in healthy older adults

Objectives Inadequate sleep increases the risk for age-related cognitive decline and recent work suggests a possible role of the gut microbiota in this phenomenon. Partial sleep deprivation alters the human gut microbiome, and its composition is associated with cognitive flexibility in animal models. Given these findings, we examined the possible relationship among the gut microbiome, sleep quality, and cognitive flexibility in a sample of healthy older adults. Methods Thirty-seven participants (age 64.59 ± 7.54 years) provided a stool sample for gut microbial sequencing and completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index and Stroop Color Word Test as part of a larger project. Results Better sleep quality was associated with better Stroop performance and higher proportions of the gut microbial phyla Verrucomicrobia and Lentisphaerae. Stroop Word and Color-Word performance correlated with higher proportions of Verrucomicrobia and Lentisphaerae. Partial correlations suggested that the relationship between Lentisphaerae and Stroop Color-Word performance was better accounted for by sleep quality; sleep quality remained a significant predictor of Color-Word performance, independent of the Lentisphaerae proportion, while the relationship between Lentisphaerae and Stroop performance was non-significant. Verrucomicrobia and sleep quality were not associated with Stroop Word performance independent of one another. Conclusions The current findings suggest a possible relationship among sleep quality, composition of the gut microbiome, and cognitive flexibility in healthy older adults. Prospective and experimental studies are needed to confirm these findings and determine whether improving microbiome health may buffer against sleep-related cognitive decline in older adults