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An Overview of Research on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy
Get PDFThis review summarized recent systematic reviews and meta-analyses on randomized controlled trials evaluating ACT. Although the strength of evidence varies, overall there is plausible evidence for the efficacy of ACT for a wide range of areas including depression, anxiety disorders, obsessive-compulsive and related disorders, psychosis, substance use disorders, chronic pain, coping with chronic health conditions, obesity, stigma, and stress and burnout. ACT is also efficacious when delivered in digital self-help formats. Emerging evidence indicates the potential efficacy of ACT for children and adolescents and when applied across diverse populations. Reviews of mediation research indicate ACT works through increasing psychological flexibility
Voltage Scaled Low Power DNN Accelerator Design on Reconfigurable Platform
Get PDFThe exponential emergence of Field-Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) has accelerated research on hardware implementation of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs). Among all DNN processors, domain-specific architectures such as Google’s Tensor Processor Unit (TPU) have outperformed conventional GPUs (Graphics Processing Units) and CPUs (Central Processing Units). However, implementing low-power TPUs in reconfigurable hardware remains a challenge in this field. Voltage scaling, a popular approach for energy savings, can be challenging in FPGAs, as it may lead to timing failures if not implemented appropriately. This work presents an ultra-low-power FPGA implementation of a TPU for edge applications. We divide the systolic array of a TPU into different FPGA partitions based on the minimum slack value of different design paths of Multiplier Accumulators (MACs). Each partition uses different near-threshold (NTC) biasing voltages to run its FPGA cores. The biasing voltage for each partition is roughly calculated by the proposed static schemes. However, further calibration of biasing voltage is performed by the proposed runtime scheme. To overcome the timing failure caused by NTC, the MACs with higher minimum slack are placed in lower-voltage partitions, while the MACs with lower minimum slack paths are placed in higher-voltage partitions. The proposed architecture is implemented in a commercial platform, namely Vivado with Xilinx Artix-7 FPGA and academic platform VTR with 22 nm, 45 nm and 130 nm FPGAs. Any timing error caused by NTC can be caught by the Razor flipflop used in each MAC. The proposed voltage-scaled, partitioned systolic array can save 3.1% to 11.6% of dynamic power in Vivado and VTR tools, respectively, depending on the FPGA technology, partition size, number of partitions and biasing voltages. The normalized performance and accuracy of benchmark models running on our low-power TPU are very competitive compared to existing literature
Exploring the Connection Between Self-Efficacy and Preparedness Among First-year College Students
Get PDFThe goal of the American education system is to prepare students for college. I wondered, “Do students feel ready?” That question led me to investigate the literature on the development, implementation, and effectiveness of our current standards. The gap I found was that the standards do not address an important aspect of student achievement, that of student self-efficacy. Self-efficacy in writing helps students have the confidence to engage in the task of writing, regardless of the situation. I focused my study of student writing self-efficacy on one English 1010 class. I administered a self-efficacy evaluation in class and conducted a class discussion about preparedness and confidence as it relates to college writing. The results of the study show that students feel unprepared for specific tasks associated with academic writing
Self-Compassion and Body Image Inflexibility as Mediators of Outcomes in a Residential Eating Disorder Sample
Get PDFEating disorders are serious mental health conditions that are accompanied by negative health outcomes, high mortality rates, impaired functioning, and comorbid mental health conditions. Despite many empirically supported interventions for eating disorders, it remains one of the most challenging mental disorders to treat, as individuals often struggle to maintain treatment gains. One method of improving our understanding of effective eating disorder treatment is to identify important processes of change to target during therapy. The aim of the current study was to test two candidate mediators of disordered eating symptom change during residential treatment: self-compassion and body image inflexibility. In the present study, women and adolescent girls (N = 132) completed a battery of measures, including eating disorder severity, self-compassion, and body image inflexibility, at admission to and discharge from a residential eating disorder facility. Our results indicated that changes in body image inflexibility and self-compassion, specifically self-judgment, were both mediators between ED symptom severity from pre- to post-treatment. These results have potential treatment implications, pointing to the possible importance of targeting body image inflexibility, self-judgment, and self-compassion while treating eating disorders
Discussing Patient Emotions in Audiology: Provider Experiences With the Implementation Process of Hearing Loss Psychological Inflexibility Screenings
Get PDFPurpose: This study aimed to investigate barriers and facilitators experienced by clinical educators and graduate students when talking with patients about difficult emotions and thoughts related to their hearing.
Method: A longitudinal observational design was used, and an Implementation Research Logic Model guided the process. Five clinical educators and five graduate students participated in the study. Participants completed pre- and post-measures and attended individual debriefing sessions during the eight-month study period.
Results: Four themes emerged from the debriefing sessions: (1) learning process, (2) confidence (3) barriers, and (4) supervision. Participants described that the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Managing Child Hearing Loss (AAQ-MCHL) and Acceptance and Action Questionnaire-Adult Hearing Loss (AAQ-AHL) served as a reminder to ask about patients’ internal barriers and increased awareness of their discomfort in talking about patient emotions. Participants also described barriers and struggles related to supporting students in gaining counseling skills.
Conclusions: Screening for internal challenges helped clinicians remember to talk with patients about their difficult thoughts and emotions. Clinician hesitancy to engage in conversations with patients about their emotions can interfere with opportunities for patients to share their struggles, and with training student in these skills
Cocoa Polyphenols Modulate the Fecal Microbiome in a Mouse Model of Colitis, Independent of Basal Diet and Colon Inflammation
No full textChronic inflammation increases the risk of developing multiple chronic diseases, including cancer. The risk of developing colorectal cancer (CRC) specifically is increased in individuals who suffer from colitis, a characteristic of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). Diet is another risk factor for developing CRC, particularly an inflammation-promoting Western-type diet. Thus, supplementing a Western diet with functional foods containing anti-inflammatory polyphenols is a potential approach to decreasing CRC risk by reducing gut inflammation and altering gut microbiome profile. This study aimed to determine the effects of cocoa polyphenol (CP) supplementation on inflammation status and microbiome profile before, during, and after colitis when fed in the context of a healthy diet or a Western diet in a mouse model of colitis. We hypothesized that mice fed a Western diet would experience greater colon inflammation than mice consuming a healthy rodent diet and that this effect would be attenuated when a Western diet is supplemented with CPs. We further hypothesized that mice fed the cocoa-supplemented diet would have a differentiated microbiome profile than those eating a Western diet alone. A 2x2 factorial design was used to examine the effect of basal diet, in the form of either the AIN93G healthy rodent diet and the total Western diet (TWD), and the effect of CP consumption. The CP-supplemented diets contained 2.6% (w/w) CocoaViaTM Cardio Health Powder, a polyphenol-enriched supplement. The AOM/DSS model of colitis was used to induce inflammation. Supplementation with CP did not decrease colon inflammation when measured by disease activity index or histopathology but did alter fecal microbiome composition before disease induction and continued to affect the abundance of several rare taxa during chemically induced colitis and recovery. These results indicate that the ability of CPs to alter inflammatory pathways may not be strong enough in vivo to decrease clinical inflammation. However, consumption of CPs does alter microbiome profile and may affect other immune pathways in the colon that are related to cancer development. In conclusion, our results indicate that basal diet is the driving factor promoting inflammation, mucosal damage, and colitis symptoms in this model
Reinforcements of a Greater Sage-Grouse Population in Utah: Applications for Range-Wide and Local Conservation Translocation Efforts
Get PDFIn a small, isolated greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus) population in the Sheeprock Mountain Sage-Grouse Management Area (SGMA) located in Utah\u27s West Desert, peak male lek counts declined from 190 males in 2006 to 23 males in 2015. A collaborative effort across all federal, state, and local partners yielded 146 (40 male, 106 female) sage-grouse captured, marked with either a very-high frequency or global positioning systems (GPS) transmitter, and translocated into the Sheeprock sage-grouse management area between 2016 and 2019, complete with radiotelemetry monitoring during the spring and summers of 2016-2020 translocated individuals in addition to radiotelemetry monitoring of 39 (12 male, 27 female) resident Sheeprock sage-grouse. Coincident management efforts included extensive habitat restoration, predator control, and monitoring off-highway vehicle (OHV) recreation.
To evaluate the movements, habitat selection, demographics, and genetics of this population, I performed a behaviorally segmented, movement-based habitat selection analysis, an integrated population model (IPM) of the Sheeprock SGMA and the translocation source populations, and analyses quantifying allelic richness, allelic frequency, and genetic heterogeneity. Additionally, I evaluated the GPS transmitters\u27 performance to monitor the grouse, which is essential for quantifying and accounting for fix error for GPS-based spatial models. The probability of sage-grouse beginning in the exploratory phase at the time of release was marginally lower for adult males and females than yearlings. The analysis also suggested that to reduce post-release dispersal, practitioners should prioritize release sites to maximize the restricted state selection in areas closer to mesic habitat, higher elevation, and lower tree cover. The IPM predicted declining populations following translocations due to low recruitment, dictated by low chick survival, and estimated population abundance of 22 individuals (95% CI: 2 – 63) by 2027 by 2027. However, we also detected an increase in allelic richness and the potential for the increased admixture of the source population genetics in the reinforced population