Rooted in Resilience: A Framework for the Integration of Well-Being in Teacher Education Programs

The process of teaching students is incredibly difficult. Oftentimes, the adversities of the profession sway highly effective teachers into social and emotional deficits, and eventually lead to burnout (Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011; Wisniewski & Gargiulo, 1997). Emotional depletion, burnout, and high attrition in the profession may be costly for the educational system – both financially and academically (Klusmann, Richter, & Lüdtke, 2016). We suggest that the key to preventing burnout, and cultivating flourishing students, is through the educators themselves. Educators who are taught, practice, and implement the skills of well-being at the onset of their careers are more likely to positively adapt and endure the adversities associated with the profession. Investigation of the current integration of well-being skills in teacher education programs suggests that teaching well-being is not prioritized and, therefore, not well included in the curriculum of teacher education programs. As a result, we suggest a framework for the reform of teacher education programs, which includes well-being accreditation standards, supporting domains, and sample courses. Planting a seed of resilience within teacher education programs may allow educators to build foundational practices and pedagogies based on the science of human flourishing. We hope that our research sparks conversations about the importance of prioritizing teacher well-being and resilience

Why do participants initiate free recall of short lists of words with the first list item? Toward a general episodic memory explanation.

Participants who are presented with a short list of words for immediate free recall (IFR) show a strong tendency to initiate their recall with the 1st list item and then proceed in forward serial order. We report 2 experiments that examined whether this tendency was underpinned by a short-term memory store, of the type that is argued by some to underpin recency effects in IFR. In Experiment 1, we presented 3 groups of participants with lists of between 2 and 12 words for IFR, delayed free recall, and continuous-distractor free recall. The to-be-remembered words were simultaneously spoken and presented visually, and the distractor task involved silently solving a series of self-paced, visually presented mathematical equations (e.g., 3 + 2 + 4 = ?). The tendency to initiate recall at the start of short lists was greatest in IFR but was also present in the 2 other recall conditions. This finding was replicated in Experiment 2, where the to-be-remembered items were presented visually in silence and the participants spoke aloud their answers to computer-paced mathematical equations. Our results necessitate that a short-term buffer cannot be fully responsible for the tendency to initiate recall from the beginning of a short list; rather, they suggest that the tendency represents a general property of episodic memory that occurs across a range of time scales.This is the accepted manuscript. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record. That's available from APA at http://psycnet.apa.org/journals/xlm/40/6/1551/

Can the effects of temporal grouping explain the similarities and differences between free recall and serial recall?

Temporal grouping can provide a principled explanation for changes in the serial position curves and output orders that occur with increasing list length in immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR). To test these claims, we examined the effects of temporal grouping on the order of recall in IFR and ISR of lists of between one and 12 words. Consistent with prior research, there were significant effects of temporal grouping in the ISR task with mid-length lists using serial recall scoring, and no overall grouping advantage in the IFR task with longer list lengths using free recall scoring. In all conditions, there was a general tendency to initiate recall with either the first list item or with one of the last four items, and then to recall in a forward serial order. In the grouped IFR conditions, when participants started with one of the last four words, there were particularly heightened tendencies to initiate recall with the first item of the most recent group. Moreover, there was an increased degree of forward-ordered transitions within groups than across groups in IFR. These findings are broadly consistent with Farrell's model, in which lists of items in immediate memory are parsed into distinct groups and participants initiate recall with the first item of a chosen cluster, but also highlight shortcomings of that model. The data support the claim that grouping may offer an important element in the theoretical integration of IFR and ISR.This is the author's accepted manuscript and will be under embargo until the 21st of October 2015. The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13421-014-0471-5

Reproducibility of methods required to identify and characterize nanoforms of substances

•Nanoforms (NFs) of a substance may be distinguished from one another through differences in their physicochemical properties. When registering nanoforms of a substance for assessment under the EU REACH framework, five basic descriptors are required for their identification: composition, surface chemistry, size, specific surface area and shape. To make the risk assessment of similar NFs efficient, a number of grouping frameworks have been proposed, which often require assessment of similarity on individual physicochemical properties as part of the group justification. Similarity assessment requires an understanding of the achievable accuracy of the available methods. It must be demonstrated that measured differences between NFs are greater than the achievable accuracy of the method, to have confidence that the measured differences are indeed real. To estimate the achievable accuracy of a method, we assess the reproducibility of six analytical techniques routinely used to measure these five basic descriptors of nanoforms: inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS), Thermogravimetric analysis (TGA), Electrophoretic light scattering (ELS), Brunauer–Emmett–Teller (BET) specific surface area and transmission and scanning electron microscopy (TEM and SEM). Assessment was performed on representative test materials to evaluate the reproducibility of methods on single NFs of substances. The achievable accuracy was defined as the relative standard deviation of reproducibility (RSDR) for each method. •Well established methods such as ICP-MS quantification of metal impurities, BET measurements of specific surface area, TEM and SEM for size and shape and ELS for surface potential and isoelectric point, all performed well, with low RSDR, generally between 5 and 20%, with maximal fold differences usually <1.5 fold between laboratories. Applications of technologies such as TGA for measuring water content and putative organic impurities, additives or surface treatments (through loss on ignition), which have a lower technology readiness level, demonstrated poorer reproducibility, but still within 5-fold differences. The expected achievable accuracy of ICP-MS may be estimated for untested analytes using established relationships between concentration and reproducibility, but this is not yet the case for TGA measurements of loss on ignition or water content. The results here demonstrate an approach to estimate the achievable accuracy of a method that should be employed when interpreting differences between NFs on individual physicochemical properties

Multiplexed identification, quantification and genotyping of infectious agents using a semiconductor biochip

The emergence of pathogens resistant to existing antimicrobial drugs is a growing worldwide health crisis that threatens a return to the pre-antibiotic era. To decrease the overuse of antibiotics, molecular diagnostics systems are needed that can rapidly identify pathogens in a clinical sample and determine the presence of mutations that confer drug resistance at the point of care. We developed a fully integrated, miniaturized semiconductor biochip and closed-tube detection chemistry that performs multiplex nucleic acid amplification and sequence analysis. The approach had a high dynamic range of quantification of microbial load and was able to perform comprehensive mutation analysis on up to 1,000 sequences or strands simultaneously in <2 h. We detected and quantified multiple DNA and RNA respiratory viruses in clinical samples with complete concordance to a commercially available test. We also identified 54 drug-resistance-associated mutations that were present in six genes of Mycobacterium tuberculosis, all of which were confirmed by next-generation sequencing

31st Annual Meeting and Associated Programs of the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC 2016) : part two

Background The immunological escape of tumors represents one of the main ob- stacles to the treatment of malignancies. The blockade of PD-1 or CTLA-4 receptors represented a milestone in the history of immunotherapy. However, immune checkpoint inhibitors seem to be effective in specific cohorts of patients. It has been proposed that their efficacy relies on the presence of an immunological response. Thus, we hypothesized that disruption of the PD-L1/PD-1 axis would synergize with our oncolytic vaccine platform PeptiCRAd. Methods We used murine B16OVA in vivo tumor models and flow cytometry analysis to investigate the immunological background. Results First, we found that high-burden B16OVA tumors were refractory to combination immunotherapy. However, with a more aggressive schedule, tumors with a lower burden were more susceptible to the combination of PeptiCRAd and PD-L1 blockade. The therapy signifi- cantly increased the median survival of mice (Fig. 7). Interestingly, the reduced growth of contralaterally injected B16F10 cells sug- gested the presence of a long lasting immunological memory also against non-targeted antigens. Concerning the functional state of tumor infiltrating lymphocytes (TILs), we found that all the immune therapies would enhance the percentage of activated (PD-1pos TIM- 3neg) T lymphocytes and reduce the amount of exhausted (PD-1pos TIM-3pos) cells compared to placebo. As expected, we found that PeptiCRAd monotherapy could increase the number of antigen spe- cific CD8+ T cells compared to other treatments. However, only the combination with PD-L1 blockade could significantly increase the ra- tio between activated and exhausted pentamer positive cells (p= 0.0058), suggesting that by disrupting the PD-1/PD-L1 axis we could decrease the amount of dysfunctional antigen specific T cells. We ob- served that the anatomical location deeply influenced the state of CD4+ and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In fact, TIM-3 expression was in- creased by 2 fold on TILs compared to splenic and lymphoid T cells. In the CD8+ compartment, the expression of PD-1 on the surface seemed to be restricted to the tumor micro-environment, while CD4 + T cells had a high expression of PD-1 also in lymphoid organs. Interestingly, we found that the levels of PD-1 were significantly higher on CD8+ T cells than on CD4+ T cells into the tumor micro- environment (p < 0.0001). Conclusions In conclusion, we demonstrated that the efficacy of immune check- point inhibitors might be strongly enhanced by their combination with cancer vaccines. PeptiCRAd was able to increase the number of antigen-specific T cells and PD-L1 blockade prevented their exhaus- tion, resulting in long-lasting immunological memory and increased median survival

Rooted in Resilience: A Framework for the Integration of Well-Being in Teacher Education Programs

The process of teaching students is incredibly difficult. Oftentimes, the adversities of the profession sway highly effective teachers into social and emotional deficits, and eventually lead to burnout (Spilt, Koomen, & Thijs, 2011; Wisniewski & Gargiulo, 1997). Emotional depletion, burnout, and high attrition in the profession may be costly for the educational system – both financially and academically (Klusmann, Richter, & Lüdtke, 2016). We suggest that the key to preventing burnout, and cultivating flourishing students, is through the educators themselves. Educators who are taught, practice, and implement the skills of well-being at the onset of their careers are more likely to positively adapt and endure the adversities associated with the profession. Investigation of the current integration of well-being skills in teacher education programs suggests that teaching well-being is not prioritized and, therefore, not well included in the curriculum of teacher education programs. As a result, we suggest a framework for the reform of teacher education programs, which includes well-being accreditation standards, supporting domains, and sample courses. Planting a seed of resilience within teacher education programs may allow educators to build foundational practices and pedagogies based on the science of human flourishing. We hope that our research sparks conversations about the importance of prioritizing teacher well-being and resilience. Keywords: resilience, teacher resilience, positive psychology, teacher well-being, pre-service teacher training, education reform, positive education, teacher educatio

Examining the relationship between immediate serial recall and immediate free recall: Common effects of phonological loop variables but only limited evidence for the phonological loop.

We examined the contribution of the phonological loop to immediate free recall (IFR) and immediate serial recall (ISR) of lists of between one and 15 words. Following Baddeley (1986, 2000, 2007, 2012), we assumed that visual words could be recoded into the phonological store when presented silently but that recoding would be prevented by concurrent articulation (CA; Experiment 1). We further assumed that the use of the phonological loop would be evidenced by greater serial recall for lists of phonologically dissimilar words relative to lists of phonologically similar words (Experiments 2A and 2B). We found that in both tasks, (a) CA reduced recall; (b) participants recalled short lists from the start of the list, leading to enhanced forward-ordered recall; (c) participants were increasingly likely to recall longer lists from the end of the list, leading to extended recency effects; (d) there were significant phonological similarity effects in ISR and IFR when both were analyzed using serial recall scoring; (e) these were reduced by free recall scoring and eliminated by CA; and (f) CA but not phonological similarity affected the tendency to initiate recall with the first list item. We conclude that similar mechanisms underpin ISR and IFR. Critically, the phonological loop is not strictly necessary for the forward-ordered recall of short lists on both tasks but may augment recall by increasing the accessibility of the list items (relative to CA), and in so doing, the order of later items is preserved better in phonologically dissimilar than in phonologically similar lists. © 2014 American Psychological Association

Chemical transformation and surface functionalisation affect the potential to group nanoparticles for risk assessment

A major challenge in nanomaterial environmental risk assessment is to identify whether different manufactured materials need to be assessed individually or if they can be grouped for assessments based on selected properties. To date, NPs are grouped on the basis that they are manufactured (e.g., pristine materials), but these are rarely present in the environment as many nanomaterials transform before and after entry into the environment. To assess how transformations change relative hazard and, therefore, the potential for grouping, we assessed the toxicity of silver nanoparticles (NPs) of varying sizes (20, 50 nm) and surface functionalisation (PVP, citrate) in their metallic and sulphidised forms to Caenorhabditis elegans in a standard medium lacking organic matter and in extracted soil pore water. The metallic Ag NPs showed only small variations in toxicity, with citrate functionalisation reducing potency and small citrate NPs being least toxic. The toxicity of sulphidised particles was lower than for the pristine forms in all cases, however relative differences among the transformed materials were greater than for the metallic forms. Exposure in soil pore water further reduced toxicity of the citrate, but not PVP functionalised NPs. Overall, transformation reduced citrate functionalised NP toxicity in a size dependent manner, whereas PVP coating preserved similarities across sizes and transformations. Thus despite similar toxicity of the pristine materials, grouping of NPs with a similar coating independent of size appeared only possible for materials with the more persistent PVP surface coating and then only when transformations were first considered