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Boosting positive mood in medical and emergency personnel during the COVID-19 pandemic: preliminary evidence of efficacy, feasibility and acceptability of a novel online ambulatory intervention
No full textObjectives: The aim of this project was to test the efficacy of a brief and novel online ambulatory intervention aimed at supporting psychological health and well-being for medical personnel and first responders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Methods: Interested participants, n=28, actively employed as medical personnel, support staff and emergency responders, in the Midwestern USA in May-June of 2020, provided informed consent and were randomised to complete either low-dose or high-dose intervention, one time daily for 1 week via smartphone application. Each daily intervention included expressive writing, adaptive emotion regulation activity and (one vs two) positive emotion-generation activities, lasting 3-6 min a day. Ratings of negative and positive emotion were provided before and after each activity daily. Analyses tested compliance, acceptability, as well as efficacy at increasing positive emotion and decreasing negative emotion with each use and across time.
Results: The results indicated a 13% increase in positive emotion, t(25)=2.01, p=0.056; and decrease in negative emotion by 44%, t(25)=-4.00, p=0.001 across both doses. However, there was a clear advantage for individuals in the high-dose condition as daily boosts in positive emotion were significantly greater (an additional 9.4%) B=0.47, p=0.018. Overall, compliance was good. Acceptability ratings were good for those who completed the follow-up assessment.
Conclusion: Front-line personnel, including medical staff and emergency responders, are experiencing unprecedented psychological stress during the COVID-19 pandemic. This investigation suggests both feasibility and efficacy for a brief, daily, ambulatory intervention which could provide essential psychological support to individuals at risk in the workplace.</p
Playing across the social zone: Animal Crossing, gaming communities and connectedness in a time of crisis
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/14365/83865-thumbnail.jpgThis proposal focuses on the multifaceted interplay between video games, connectiveness, and online communities in a time of emergency; COVID-19 has presented challenges for teenagers, forcing them to re-mediate their interactions with peers. Digital entertainment has been frequently accused to be a bearer of negative attitudes and anti-social behaviors, but there is also relevant evidence about how video games can foster bonding and inclusion. Nevertheless, updated lenses are needed for understanding the impact of the pandemic on playing and vice versa; in other words, video games can become a lens through which we can understand how teenagers and young adults experience and see the world around them, especially during these turbulent times. Moreover, video games are increasingly experienced in multiple ways, from watching live shows on Twitch.tv to discussing games on Reddit; as such, this additional layer must be investigated too for situating the impact of gaming practices on social and individual schemes. This article intends to provide a snapshot of how this medium can be used as a catalyst for social research, looking at its consumption but also at the social halo it conveys. More specifically, an ethnographic approach has been chosen for providing an intensive analysis of how the acclaimed video game Animal Crossing was perceived and used as a socializing tool by a teenager.</p
Physicians and Duty During a Pandemic: A Response
No full textAfter reading Dr. Alpert\u27s commentary, we suspect art inspires life but not consistently with historical fact. Duty to serve, a hallmark of professional medicine, is not always exhibited during pandemics. The perception is that physicians provided care to others without personal regard in pandemics. Yet, Camus\u27s physician did not view himself as heroic. Rieux stated “there is no question of heroism in all this. It\u27s a matter of common decency” and it was about “giving people a chance,” trying to alleviate suffering (p. 278).
Since the mid-1980s, medical historians have accepted the Zuger-Miles hypothesis, arguing there was no “strong or constant” tradition of physicians rendering care in epidemics because of a sense of professional responsibility. Most physicians treated patients who sought help often at great cost and personal risk. Other physicians fled in time of plague. During yellow fever and cholera outbreaks, physicians refused to visit patients who were acutely ill. Overtreatment with dangerous and ineffective therapies was worse than abandonment. Some physicians acted on the basis of monetary or contractual agreements. Other physicians became itinerant: “frequently bills were set up upon their doors and written, ‘here is a doctor to be let’ . . . several of those physicians were fain for a while to sit still and look about them, or . . . remove their dwellings, and set up in a new place and among new acquaintance” (p. 361).
Modern debate over physician duty occurred during the century-old Spanish influenza pandemic wherein more than 600 US civilian physicians died. Recent concerns about duty have occurred during the HIV, SARS, Ebola, and current COVID19 outbreak. Hundreds of health care workers in West Africa died during the Ebola outbreak, and numerous health care workers have succumbed during the current pandemic.
Even with social and organizational changes in modern medicine, with conflicting duties and roles for physicians in complex economic and contractual settings, the Zuger-Miles hypothesis is confirmed. We were heartened by selfless efforts of house staff in the current pandemic, placing patient care and duty above personal and family obligations. We witnessed fear of contagion among providers—translated into refusal to provide care but also translated into significant morbidity and mortality for providers. Colleagues reported feeling sidelined; physicians wanted to do more. We heard concerns regarding institutional exploitation: the duty to do more. Physician duty and obligations toward patients should not be exploited, placing physicians at risk and in circumstances considered morally, psychologically, or physically unacceptable. Our observations confirm that duty during pandemics is not a heroic, dichotomous, individual choice but rather a complex, nuanced decision, influenced by conflicting, competing, and overlapping goals, moral obligations, and institutional and contractual concerns.
Camus\u27s Plague reminds physicians that dead rats are everywhere—epidemics, wars, and natural disasters—creating refugees, illness, and untold human suffering. Despite social, political, and scientific progress, these threats persist and repeat. Camus\u27s physician protagonist compiles his chronicle so that he can “bear witness in favor of those plague-stricken people; so that some memorial of the injustice and outrage done them might endure; and to state quite simply what we learn in a time of pestilence” (p. 278). Camus\u27s protagonist continues to remind physicians of the duty to care for patients and of pandemic lessons from history.</p
Ohio History Spring 2021
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/12619/83419-thumbnail.jpgOHIO HISTORY
Contents for Volume 128, Number 1, Spring 2021
Contributors ...... 6
The “Messenger of the Day of Redemption”: Epidemic Cholera, Kingdom-Building, and the Power of Print Narrative
Geoffrey Lybeck ...... 7
Henry Charles Howells: Transatlantic Reformer
Henry Coggeshall Howells IV ...... 29
Three Early Water-Powered Mills in Northwest Greene County, Ohio, and Their Impacts on the Landscape
David Nolin ...... 51
Leviathan in Chains: The Short-Lived Federalization of the Ohio Penitentiary
Sarah E. Paxton ...... 67
Jim Tully “Remembers” Jack London
Louise E. Wright ...... 86
Book Reviews ...... 99
On the cover: Depiction of the Drummond Gristmill, ca. 1840. (Original artwork by Ann Geise.) See page 59.</p
Molecular conformation of bent-core molecules affected by chiral side chains dictates polymorphism and chirality in organic nano- and microfilaments
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/14391/83901-thumbnail.jpgThe coupling between molecular conformation and chirality is a cornerstone in the construction of supramolecular helical structures of small molecules across various length scales. Inspired by biological systems, conformational preselection and control in artificial helical molecules, polymers, and aggregates has guided various applications in optics, photonics, and chiral sorting among others, which are frequently based on an inherent chirality amplification through processes such as templating and self-assembly. The so-called B4 nano- or microfilament phase formed by some bent-shaped molecules [1-5] is an exemplary case for such chirality amplification across length scales, best illustrated by the formation of distinct nano- or microscopic chiral morphologies controlled by molecular conformation. Introduction of one or more chiral centers in the aliphatic side chains led to the discovery of homochiral helical nanofilament, helical microfilament, and heliconical-layered nanocylinder morphologies. Herein, we demonstrate how a priori calculations of the molecular conformation affected by chiral side chains are used to design bent-shaped molecules that self-assemble into chiral nano- and microfilament as well as nanocylinder conglomerates despite the homochiral nature of the molecules. Furthermore, relocation of the chiral center leads to formation of helical as well as flat nanoribbons. Self-consistent data sets from polarized optical as well as scanning and transmission electron microscopy, thin film and solution circular dichroism spectropolarimetry, and synchrotron-based X-ray diffraction experiments support the progressive and predictable change in morphology controlled by structural changes in the chiral side chains. The formation of these morphologies is discussed in light of the diminishing effects of molecular chirality as the chain length increases or as the chiral center is moved away from the core-chain juncture. The type of phase (B1-columnar or B4) and morphology of the nano- or microfilaments generated can further be controlled by sample treatment conditions such as by the cooling rate from the isotropic melt or by the presence of an organic solvent in the ensuing colloidal dispersions. We show that these nanoscale morphologies can then organize into a wealth of two- and three-dimensional shapes and structures ranging from flower blossoms to fiber mats formed by intersecting flat nanoribbons.
References:
[1] L. Li, M. Salamonczyk, A. Jakli, T. Hegmann, Small 2016, 12, 3944.
[2] L. Li, M. Salamonczyk, S. Shadpour, C. Zhu, A. Jakli, T. Hegmann, Nat Commun 2018, 9, 714.
[3] S. Shadpour, A. Nemati, N. J. Boyd, L. Li, M. E. Prévôt, S. L. Wakerlin, J. P. Vanegas, M. Salamończyk, E. Hegmann, C. Zhu, M. R. Wilson, A. I. Jákli, T. Hegmann, Materials Horizons 2019, 6, 959.
[4] S. Shadpour, A. Nemati, J. Liu, T. Hegmann, ACS Appl Mater Interfaces 2020, 12, 13456.
[5] S. Shadpour, A. Nemati, M. Salamonczyk, M. E. Prevot, J. Liu, N. J. Boyd, M. R. Wilson, C. Zhu, E. Hegmann, A. I. Jakli, T. Hegmann, Small 2020, 16, e1905591.</p
Pooling of Nasopharyngeal (NP) Swab Samples to Overcome Global Shortage of rRT-PCR COVID-19 Test Kits
No full textThe global outbreak and rapid spread of SARS-CoV-2 created an urgent need for large scale testing of populations. There is a demand for high throughput testing protocols that can be used for efficient and rapid testing of clinical specimens. We evaluated a pooled-PCR protocol for testing nasopharyngeal swabs using known positive/negative and untested clinical samples that were assigned to pools of 5 or 10. Six-hundred and thirty (630) samples were used in this study. Individual positive samples with Ct values as high as 33 could be consistently detected when pooled with 4 negative samples (pool of 5) and individual positive samples with Ct values up to 31 could be consistently detected when pooled with 9 negative samples (pool of 10). Pooling of up to 5 samples can be employed in laboratories for the diagnosis of COVID-19 for efficient utilization of resources, rapid screening of a greater number of people, and faster reporting of test results.</p
Can feedback, correct, and incorrect worked examples improve numerical magnitude estimation precision?
No full textWe investigated whether three interventions - studying incorrect worked examples, studying correct worked examples, or receiving feedback - improved children\u27s 0-1,000 (Experiment 1) and adults\u27 1 thousand-1 billion (Experiment 2) number-line estimation precision relative to a no intervention control group. At pretest, participants estimated numbers on number lines (without feedback or examples) and judged their confidence in each estimate. They were then assigned to an intervention group, completed intervention trials, and then estimated numbers and judged their confidence at posttest. Children\u27s and adults\u27 confidence judgments did not increase from pretest to posttest. However, consistent with prior research, feedback improved children\u27s and adults\u27 estimation precision from pretest-to-posttest. Importantly, studying correct worked examples also improved precision, but studying incorrect worked examples did not. Although not all children benefited from training, those who did were able to transfer their knowledge to a number-categorization task. Adults in the feedback group were also able to transfer their learning. These outcomes highlight benefits of studying worked examples for improving children\u27s and adults\u27 estimation precision, but to obtain benefits, corrective feedback must be included.</p
Effects of Construal Level on Responses to Ambiguous Health Information about Alcohol Consumption
No full textInformation about the health effects of alcohol consumption can be ambiguous (i.e., lacking in reliability, credibility, or adequacy) and thus may promote maladaptive health behavior. Guided by Construal Level Theory and a conceptual taxonomy of uncertainty in health care, we tested the hypothesis that manipulating construal level would promote adaptive responses to ambiguous health information. We examined the effects of ambiguous health information about alcohol on health cognitions, message responses, and intentions, as well as whether manipulating construal moderated these effects. Alcohol users (n = 135, M-ag(e) = 20.15, 68.9% female) were randomly assigned to either a high-level or low-level construal task and then to read either an ambiguous or unambiguous health communication about the health effects of alcohol. Participants responded similarly to ambiguous health information as they did to unambiguous health information and participants in a high-level construal did not generally report differences compared with those in a low-level construal. Findings suggest that ambiguous health information might not always lead to maladaptive effects. More research is needed to examine moderators of the relationship between ambiguous health information and health outcomes, as well as to understand how and when using construal manipulations are effective in different health contexts.</p
Research Needed for COVID-19 for the Home Care Setting
No full textHospitals have been greatly impacted by COVID-19, but research by Rowe et al. (2020) suggests that home healthcare agencies have also been dealing with effects of COVID-19 since early in the pandemic. To date, the focus of research and education has been on providing effective hospital-based care, understanding stressors experienced by healthcare providers, identifying and treating complications of the virus, preventing morbidity and mortality, and developing a safe and effective vaccine. There is a critical need for additional research on the care of community dwelling patients with COVID-19 and to establish home-based protocols for infection prevention and control in the home.</p
Detection of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) by SERS-based immunomagnetic optofluidic device
No full texthttps://kent-islandora.s3.us-east-2.amazonaws.com/node/14388/83895-thumbnail.jpgThe isolation and characterization of circulating tumor cells (CTCs) has great potential for non-invasive biopsy. In this study, a surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS) method was developed using magnetic nanoparticles and a solid SERS-active substrate integrated with an external field-assisted microfluidic device to efficiently isolate CTCs from blood samples. A new SERS substrate was used, developed by physically modifying the surface with a femtosecond laser, sputtering the active SERS layer and chemically modifying the surface with anti-EpCAM antibodies. Magnetic nanoparticles (Fe2O3) were coated with SERS active metal and then modified with para-mercaptobenzoic acid (p-MBA), which acts simultaneously as a Raman reporter and a linker with anti-EpCAM antibodies. The sensitive immune recognition of tumor cells is aided by the introduction of a controlled external magnetic field into the microfluidic chip. The integration of the SERS-active platform and p-MBA labeled immuno-Ag@Fe2O3 nanostructures with the microfluidic device ensures lower demand for samples and analytes, precise operation, increases the reproducibility of spectral responses and enables miniaturization and portability of the presented approach. We used four target tumor cell lines with relatively large (human prostate metastatic adenocarcinoma cells (LNCaP)), medium (adenocarcinomic human alveolar basal epithelial cells (A549)), weak (human prostate tumor line (PC3)) and no expression of EpCAM (tumor cells) cervical cancer (HeLa)) to estimate the detection limits on the basis of constructed calibration curves blood samples from lung cancer patients were used to validate the developed method.[1]
M. Czaplicka, K. Niciński, A. Nowicka, T. Szymborski i A. Kamińska, Cancers, 2020, 12 (3315), 1-21.
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