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Personal need for structure as a protective factor on beliefs and coping with COVID‐19: A crowd‐sourced multicultural exploration

AbstractA pre‐registered, crowd‐sourced, multicultural study assessed how the personal need for structure (PNFS) predicted perceptions, behaviors, and coping mechanisms in response to the COVID‐19 pandemic. Collaborators, invited to collect online survey data through Psi Chi's Network for International Collaborative Exchange crowd‐sourcing initiative (Edlund et al., 2019), recruited approximately 100 participants across 22 data‐collection locations (final N = 4620). Participants completed randomized online surveys, which inquired about an individual's PNFS, and current perceptions, behaviors and knowledge surrounding the pandemic. Results indicated that individuals with higher PNFS fared better at navigating the rules and restrictions that came with the pandemic. Specifically, and contrary to hypotheses, higher PNFS positively predicted knowledge of COVID‐19 and support for government restrictions and negatively predicted belief in pandemic misinformation. Additionally, PNFS significantly positively predicted the use of problem and emotion‐focused coping strategies and did not predict dysfunctional coping mechanisms. Our findings emphasize the role individual differences play in navigating the pandemic, and future research should evaluate PNFS in light of COVID‐19 and in relation to other behavioral and psychological outcomes.

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Estimating the effects of an anti-racist intervention on campus administrators’ beliefs about racial equity and justice: a quasi-experimental study

PurposeThe purpose of this study is to measure the impact of a novel anti-racist educational video-based intervention designed by the author, with advice from leading experts, on campus administrators’ prevailing beliefs, philosophies and practices about racial equity and justice. A single research question guided the project: what effect, if any, does an anti-racist educational intervention have on college administrators’ awareness, beliefs and knowledge about race (i.e. racial ideologies), equity-mindedness and justice, compared to peers in two control groups?Design/methodology/approachThis paper is based on a study that employs a quasi-experimental approach, using a pre- and post-test design, to assess the impact of a brief video intervention on college administrators’ awareness, beliefs, and knowledge about anti-racism generally and racial ideologies, equity-mindedness and justice orientations specifically.FindingsMultivariate analyses suggest the efficacy and effectiveness of the novel anti-racist educational video-based intervention in increasing campus administrators’ racial consciousness, empathy, understanding and equity-mindedness, although no effect was found for justice orientations.Practical implicationsAs colleges and universities continue to work toward creating inclusive and equitable workspaces and learning environments, this study suggests that targeted interventions can be used to promote important values and beliefs among campus administrators. Specifically, video-based interventions may be useful tools for staff development programs, implicit bias trainings, diversity and inclusion initiatives, graduate education courses, leadership fellowships, upskilling and micro-credentials, to name a few.Originality/valueThis paper fills an identified need to study anti-racism among campus administrators, the efficacy of scalable interventions that can be easily adapted or integrated into existing campus/staff programming and ways to foster anti-racist awareness, knowledge and actions.

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Steady-state intracellular pH and recovery from NH3/NH4+-induced intracellular acid loads in primary cultures of rat hippocampal neurons and astrocytes

Intracellular pH (pH i ) homeostasis is of vital importance because pH i fluctuations alter the net charge on intracellular weak acids and bases (e.g., amino-acid residues of proteins, metabolic intermediates, solutes like inorganic phosphate), and can result in cellular dysfunction. The rate of pH i change (dpH i /dt) is determined by the balance between acid loading (e.g., metabolic production of H + , influx of H + , efflux of HCO 3 − via transmembrane proteins of the SLC4 family) and acid extrusion (e.g., efflux of H + via Na-H exchangers in the SLC9 family, influx of HCO 3 − by members of the SLC4 family). A powerful approach for studying pH i regulation is to impose an acute intracellular acid load using the NH 4 + /NH 3 prepulse technique, and then assess dpH i /dt during the subsequent pH i recovery. Using two such prepulses and recoveries (twin pulses), one can compare 2 experimental conditions. The goal of the present study is to develop a data-analysis approach that facilitates a meaningful presentation of all twin-pulse experiments in a data set. Using primary cultures (~2 weeks) of embryonic (E18–E20) rat hippocampal neurons and astrocytes on coverslips, we loaded cells with the ratiometric pH-sensitive fluorescent dye BCECF, subjected the cells to twin NH 4 + /NH 3 pulses, and calibrated BCECF at the end of each experiment with nigericin at pH=7.0. A standard 12-point nigericin calibration curve allowed us to compute pH i vs. time. Because we studied cells in 21% O 2 but the nominal absence of CO 2 /HCO 3 − , the pH i recoveries mainly reflect Na-H exchange. We fitted the pH i -recovery time course with a double exponential (DExp) to reduce bias. Nevertheless, in both neurons and astrocytes plots of dpH i /dt vs. pH i appeared rather linear, indicating that the pH i recoveries were “quasi” single exponential (SExp). To exploit the near-linearity, for each pH i recovery, we fitted the plot of dpH i /dt vs pH i with a line, the slope of which is the quasi-single exponential rate constant (kqSExp), and the x-intercept of which is the asymptotic pH i of the recovery. We summarize the twin pH i recoveries from individual cells as miniature plots (“thumbnails”) in which we display, for each recovery, both the dpH i /dt values (from the DExp fit of pH i vs. time) vs. pH i and the line of best fit for these dpH i /dt values vs. pH i . A single figure can replicate such twin-pulse experiments from many dozens of cells, so that a reader, at a glance, can surmise the essentials of each pH i recovery. The present work provides background data for additional work in which we studied pH i recoveries at a reduced [O 2 ], with or without CO 2 /HCO 3 − . R01 NS018400, R01 HL160857, R01 DK128315 This is the full abstract presented at the American Physiology Summit 2023 meeting and is only available in HTML format. There are no additional versions or additional content available for this abstract. Physiology was not involved in the peer review process.

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Novel approach to analyzing steady‐state intracellular pH and the recovery from NH4+ ‐induced acidosis in rat hippocampal neurons and astrocytes

Optimal function in the brain, especially in hippocampus—an area involved in learning and memory—requires tight regulation of intracellular pH (pHi) within neurons and neuroglial. The Na‐H exchangers (NHEs) are the major family of acid/base proteins involved in regulating pHi in the absence of CO2/HCO3. In the present study, we used the pH‐sensitive dye BCECF to examine the regulation of steady‐state pHi and the recovery of pHi from NH4+ ‐induced intracellular acid loads in HC neurons and astrocytes, co‐cultured from embryonic (E18‐20) Sprague Dawley rats, and studied in CO2/HCO3 −‐free HEPES buffered (“HEPES”) solutions. After at least 14‐days in a CO2/HCO3 – incubator, cells were removed, loaded with BCECF, and placed in a recording chamber with flowing HEPES. At the beginning of each experiment, we measured pHi (checkpoint A) after allowing pHi to stabilize for 5 minutes (checkpoint C), and reported mean “initial pHi”/SEM for neurons as 7.351/0.0597; N=37 (astrocytes: 7.189/0.0118, N=25) the value at checkpoint C = (pHi)C. After using the twin paired NH4+ ‐pulse protocol to acid load cells, we find that—after the pHi recovery from the first acid load—the average neuronal steady‐state pHi (now at checkpoint E; (pHi)E) is 6.953/0.0601(astrocytes: 7.037/0.0081). After the second NH4+ pulse the neuronal steady‐state pHi (now at checkpoint F; (pHi)F) in neurons is 6.937/0.010 (astrocytes: 7.020/0.0062). The recovery from acidosis is fit with a double exponential (DExp) which we replot as dpHi/dt vs pHi. With this traditional approach, dpHi/dt, the fit as it approaches the asymptotic pHi, becomes slightly non‐linear. To exploit the mainly linearity portion of the dpHi/dt vs. pHi plot (from the DExp fit) of the double exponential, we fit these dpHi/dt vs. pHi points with a DExp with a quasi‐ single exponential (SExp) to produce a quasi–single‐exponential rate constant (kqSExp) measured as dpH/dt. This analysis—when transformed to the pHi vs. time domain—generally produces a very good fit to the original pHi vs. time data. The mean kqSExp1 in neurons is 0.0054/ 0.0008 (astrocytes: 0.0107/0.0002) whereas the mean kqSExp2 in neurons is 0.0055/0.0008 (astrocytes: 0.0010/0.0003). We summarize the twin pHi recoveries from individual experiments in which we display as thumbnails the quasi–single‐exponential dpHi/dt line segments that represent the pHi recoveries from the first and second NH3/NH4+ pulses. These new analytical approaches may ultimately provide mechanistic insight into cell‐to‐cell heterogeneity of pHi regulation in the nervous system.

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