Initial Glimpse Research Articles

An Examination of Episodic Future Thinking and Episodic Memory Among Suicidal and Nonsuicidal Adolescents

ABSTRACT Objective Suicidal individuals experience ambivalent states where they simultaneously consider death and the continuation of their lives. But we have little understanding of how suicidal individuals, particularly youth, mentally construct their future lives. To address this knowledge gap, we aimed to examine episodic future thinking and the related cognitive process of episodic memory among suicidal and nonsuicidal adolescents. Method We administered a performance-based measure of episodic future thinking to community-based adolescents (N = 176, 15–19 years; 69.3% female at birth, 57.1% identifying with a racial minoritized group) and examined the concurrent and predictive validity of details generated within an imagined future event in relation to suicidal ideation (SI; ranging from passive desire of wanting to be dead to active desire to kill oneself). Results Greater difficulty imagining discrete actions within an imagined positive future event was associated with past and subsequent SI, although these associations were largely accounted for by depressive symptoms. In contrast, greater difficulty imagining action-related details tied to either positive or negative future events predicted SI 6 months later controlling for symptoms of both anxiety and depression, SI history, and narrative style. Conclusions Findings from this study offer an initial glimpse into how suicidal adolescents imagine their future and may inform the design of interventions intended to promote a stronger desire for life than death.

Comprehensive School Physical Activity Programming in Dubai International Schools: A Mixed Methods Study

The purpose of this study was to examine comprehensive school physical activity program (CSPAP) policies and practices in interna-tional schools in Dubai, the United Arab Emirates. Following an ex-planatory-sequential mixed-methods research design, the researchers employed the Comprehensive School Physical Activity Program Policies and Practices Questionnaire (CSPAP-Q) and follow-up interviews to describe CSPAP implementation and explore implementation enablers and challenges. A convenience sample of physical education teachers (N=18) participated in the questionnaire, and seven of these teachers participated in individual interviews. Teachers’ responses to the ques-tionnaire indicated considerable heterogeneity and numerous gaps in existing school-based physical activity opportunities and promotion O'Reilly and Websterefforts. Interviews revealed three themes related to CSPAP implemen-tation: (a) time constraints in secondary schools, (b) facilities, and (c) location. This study provides an initial glimpse into whole-of-school physical activity programming in Dubai international schools.

A Preliminary National Survey of Accessible Features of Churches in the United States

Religious congregations have been inconsistent in their accessibility to and support of people with disabilities. Limited research has addressed the practices of churches in this area of inclusion. The purpose of this preliminary study was to better understand the landscape of congregational accessibility and explore the accessibility features presently offered in congregations. We randomly surveyed Christian churches in the United States. We analyzed responses from 127 churches using descriptive, correlational, and inferential statistics to determine which accessible features were reported more or less often and how congregational demographics mediated the number and type of accessibility features. Although most congregations offered multiple accessibility features, offerings varied widely. Streaming services, accessible seating, adequate lighting for people with low vision, and gluten-free eucharist elements were the features most commonly offered. Few congregations offered features that conveyed broader efforts to address accessibility. Most respondents indicated that multiple people with varied disabilities participated in their church, though frequency varied widely across types of disabilities. This study provides an initial glimpse into the accessibility practices of Christian churches in the United States. These findings highlight areas of potential reflection and response for churches aiming to support the full participation of people with disabilities.

Whole-of-school physical activity implementation in the context of the Dubai Fitness Challenge.

Physical activity (PA) promotion among school-aged youth is a global health priority. Recommendations for such promotion include implementing whole-of-school approaches that maximize resources across the school environment. This study examined schools' participation in an annual, government-led, and emirate-wide initiative in Dubai, called the Dubai Fitness Challenge, in which the goal is to accrue 30 minutes of PA every day for 30 days (as such, the initiative is colloquially referred to as "Dubai 30x30"). A mixed-methods design was employed for this study. Three schools were recruited using convenience sampling. Participants were 18 physical education teachers, 20 classroom teachers, 2 principals and 45 students. Data sources included surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, multinomial logistic regression, and open and axial coding to develop themes. School staff reported that most Dubai 30x30 activities were provided in physical education, at break times during school, and before and after school. Students reported that they mainly participated in Dubai 30x30 activities during physical education and occasionally participated in activities after school and on weekends. During school, students were more likely to reach higher PA intensity levels when they were in contexts other than the regular classroom setting. Among school staff, physical education teachers were most involved and classroom teachers were least involved in promoting Dubai 30x30. Parent engagement was high. Staff perceived that Dubai 30x30 brought the community together, but physical education teachers also indicated there was a lack of implementation guidance and they felt burdened. Participants believed Dubai 30x30 increased PA participation and helped to promote their schools. This study provides an initial glimpse into schools' participation in Dubai 30x30 and suggests that a whole-of-school PA lens is useful in gleaning information that could help to increase and optimize PA opportunities for students.

Exploring whether mental health crisis text conversations that include discussion of firearms differ from those without firearms

BackgroundFirearm violence represents a public health crisis in the United States. Yet, there is limited knowledge about how firearms are discussed in the context of mental health emergencies representing a major gap in the current research literature. This study addresses this gap by examining whether the content of mental health crisis text conversations that mention firearms differ from those that do not mention firearms in a large, unique dataset from a national crisis text line. MethodsWe examined data from over 3.2 million conversations between texters to Crisis Text Line and volunteer crisis counselors between September 2018 and July 2022. We used a study developed text classification machine learning algorithm that builds on natural language processing to identify and label whether crisis conversations mentioned firearms. We compared the frequency of psychosocial factors between conversations that mention firearms with those that did not. ResultsResults from a generalized linear mixed-effects model demonstrated that.conversations mentioning firearms more frequently were associated with suicide, racism, physical, sexual, emotional, and unspecified abuse, grief, concerns about a third party, substance use, bullying, gender and sexual identity, relationships, depression, and loneliness. Further, conversations mentioning firearms were less likely to be related to self-harm and eating/body image. ConclusionsThese results offer an initial glimpse of how firearms are mentioned in the context of acute mental health emergencies, which has been completely absent in prior literature. Our results are preliminary and help sharpen our understanding of contextual factors surrounding mental health emergencies where a firearm is mentioned.

Grounding evidence-based prevention within cultural context: promising effects of substance use prevention adapted for American Indian families

Background: Effective substance use prevention strategies are needed for American Indian (AI) youth, who face disproportionate risk for early substance use and consequently bear a disproportionate burden of health and developmental disparities related to early use. With few exceptions, significant advances in prevention science have largely excluded this population, leaving gaps in the evidence of effective practice. This paper builds on emerging efforts to address this gap, reporting first outcome findings from an evidence-based early substance use prevention program culturally adapted for young adolescents on a Northern Plains reservation. Methods: Using a community-based participatory approach, the Thiwáhe Gluwáš’akapi Program (TG, sacred home in which family is made strong) was developed by embedding cultural kinship teachings within the Strengthening Families Program for Parents and Youth 10-14 and aligning other elements of program content with local culture and context. Results: Results of pre and post comparisons of proximal program outcomes showed that youth reported significant improvements in parental communication about substance use, substance use resistance skills, stress management, family cohesion, and overall well-being. Adults reported improvements in a wide array of parenting behaviors and indicators of family dynamics. Conclusions: These findings provide an initial glimpse into the potential effects of the TG program and suggest that it holds promise for helping AI families address risks for youth substance use through positive impacts on modifiable risk and protective factors documented to influence early substance use.

Comparative Perspectives on the Depiction of Women in Ancient Vietnam and Korea’s Society: Focusing on the Analysis of Vietnam’s The Trial at the Dragon King’s Palace (in Truyen Ki Man Luc) and Korea’s The Tale of Lady Suro (in Samguk Yusa)

This paper is written by the writer’s understanding and analysis of Vietnamese and Korean social history in an effort to explore folklore and spiritual factors, specifically via an attempt to illuminate the similarity and differentiation of each factor. In this light, the paper offers an initial glimpse into the patterns through which Korean and Vietnamese people realized and deciphered natural phenomena in ancient times via Vietnam’s The Trial at the Dragon King Place (in Truyen Ki Man Luc) and Korea’s The Tale of Lady Suro (in Samguk Yusa). Most importantly, by examining the peculiar aspects of the two stories, the author also manages to imply an observation of the existence and role of women in Korea and Vietnam’s society in the past.

SPATIOTEMPORAL CHANGE OF LAND USE LAND COVER: A CASE STUDY OF NARAYANGANJ SADAR UPAZILA, BANGLADESH

Major cities of Bangladesh have been experiencing rapid urbanization and industrialization. These are incurring positive externalities to national economy at the expense of environmental degradation and deterioration of living environment. The ambivalent sequel of industrialization has made it necessary to study urban areas and monitor spatiotemporal changes to facilitate decision-making process regarding land use planning, resource distribution, priority setting for planning interventions. Thus, this study aims to classify land use land cover (LULC) of Narayanganj Sadar Upazila and detect spatiotemporal changes within the period of 2015 to 2020 using MLC algorithm based supervised classification method. To serve this purpose, sentinel-2 satellite imagery are used. The results derived from the study elicit an increase (24.14 acre) in industrial land in 2020 compared to 2015. Approximately 1,538-acres land transformed into built-up area in 2020. Decrease in vegetation (15.85%) and water body (7.65%) are also evident from the findings. The results of the study will be conducive to have an initial glimpse of the LULC changing trend in the study area due to rapid urbanization and thus, will be instrumental for performing further research.

Open access resources to support the first course in feedback, dynamics and control

The Technical Committees for Control Education of IFAC and IEEE have started a collaborative initiative to collect, curate, and disseminate high quality freely available resources that support instruction of the first control course for undergraduate students in engineering and applied sciences programs. An initial survey with limited distribution provided 64 resources that cover all topics in a typical introductory control curriculum. This paper gives an initial glimpse of the resources collected thus far. It also suggests possible ways for categorization and dissemination.

Competition or Collusion? How Presidents and the Senate Evade or Enforce Statutory Requirements for Ambassadorial Nominees

With each presidential transition and subsequent rush of presidential appointments, the long-running debate about presidential preferences and senatorial advice and consent becomes front-page news. The political science literature has long examined the nomination and confirmation process, especially for cabinet and judicial appointments, and a growing quantitative literature evaluates political and personal factors shaping that process. Yet we lack a systematic understanding of how ex ante statutory requirements, in addition to the ex post confirmation process, affect presidential choices and how senators might seek to enforce compliance with those requirements. Using a new dataset that combines ambassadorial nominee qualifications provided by the State Department to the Senate with nomination and confirmation data, this article provides an initial glimpse of the competing perspectives of presidents and senators on the bounds Congress can set for ambassadorial appointees’ characteristics. The evidence suggests that, instead of the interbranch competition set up by Article II’s checks on presidential appointments, collusion to maintain the status quo on ambassadorial appointments is less costly and more beneficial for both presidents and senators.

Library Responses During the Early Days of the Pandemic: A Bibliometric Study of the 2020 LIS Literature

As society emerges from an unprecedented pandemic that saw the closure of libraries, schools, and universities worldwide, the potential lasting impacts on institutions, professions, and communities can begin to be assessed. Through a bibliometric study of COVID-19-related library publishing, combined with thematic coding of article abstracts, this paper provides an initial glimpse into the impacts of the pandemic on library operations, services, collections, and the workforce. Two hundred thirty-seven journal articles published in 2020 about libraries and the pandemic were identified and analyzed. These articles indicate broad cross-sectoral, global impacts on libraries and librarianship. This analysis provides a baseline for future research on the lasting effects of the pandemic on the field.

Application of the Canadian Cardiovascular Society's heart failure guidelines in a heart function clinic

Keywords: Heart Failure, Guideline Adherence, Evidence Based-PracticePurpose: Heart failure is a significant diagnosis that poses serious mortality and morbidity risks. Many studies have assessed the efficacy of evidence-based guidelines in improving patient outcomes in the management of heart failure; however, there is limited data on how these guidelines are applied in clinical practice.Methods: A retrospective, cross-sectional approach was used to examine a physician’s adherence to the Canadian Cardiovascular Society’s (CCS) most recent practice guidelines on managing heart failure. Data was collected from electronic hospital health records and patient charts of patients enrolled in a heart function clinic. Qualitative and quantitative analyses were done to compare current clinical practices related to investigations, treatment, and follow-up to the guidelines.Results: A total of 37 patients met inclusion criteria for this study (n=37). The majority of patients were males, 81%, with an average age of 71 years, 10 medications with 5.5 comorbidities. Recommendations regarding wait times, frequency of follow-up, and blood work were met 97%, 78%, and 64% of participants, respectively with most patients being reassessed more frequently than the guideline recommendation. Medical therapy recommendations were met in over 70% of participants. All participants had EF assessments as frequently or more frequently than guideline requirements.Conclusion: Overall, the Heart Function Clinic practices assessed in this study align well with the current guidelines recommended by the CCS. Although this study is by no means comprehensive, it provides an initial glimpse into how practice guidelines may be applied in clinical practice and identifies areas where further work needs to be done.

Involuntary Childlessness at Work: Experiences of Emotion Work, Unfair Marginalization and Inadequacy

This article presents and analyzes experiences of involuntary childlessness at work and, through that, attempts to increase our understanding of emotional and silenced experiences in organizations. While primarily being an exploratory study with a purpose to get an initial glimpse into working life through involuntary childless individuals’ point of view, this article also engages with Arlie Hochschild’s (1979, 1983) conceptualization of emotion work to analyze experiences of involuntary childlessness at work. The empirical data used in this paper are mainly collected through an anonymous diary studies method in Finland, and thematically presented in this article in three segments where three categories of emotion work related to involuntary childlessness are analyzed and discussed. In addition to offering an initial glimpse of involuntary childlessness at work, this paper hence contributes with a demonstration and analysis of the multifaceted emotion work related to these experiences.

Autophagy in the uterine vessel microenvironment: Balancing vasoactive factors

Autophagy, which has the literal meaning of self-eating, is a cellular catabolic process executed by arrays of conserved proteins in eukaryotes. Autophagy is dynamically ongoing at a basal level, presumably in all cells, and often carries out distinct functions depending on the cell type. Therefore, although a set of common genes and proteins is involved in this process, the outcome of autophagic activation or deficit requires scrutiny regarding how it affects cells in a specific pathophysiological context. The uterus is a complex organ that carries out multiple tasks under the influence of cyclic changes of ovarian steroid hormones. Several major populations of cells are present in the uterus, and the interactions among them drive complex physiological tasks. Mouse models with autophagic deficits in the uterus are very limited, but provide an initial glimpse at how autophagy plays a distinct role in different uterine tissues. Herein, we review recent research findings on the role of autophagy in the uterine mesenchyme in mouse models.

Specialized Craniofacial Anatomy of a Titanosaurian Embryo from Argentina

The first dinosaur embryos found inside megaloolithid eggs from Auca Mahuevo, Patagonia, were assigned to sauropod dinosaurs that lived approximately 80 million years ago. Discovered some 25 years ago, these considerably flattened specimens still remain the only unquestionable embryonic remains of a sauropod dinosaur providing an initial glimpse into titanosaurian in ovo ontogeny. Here we describe an almost intact embryonic skull, which indicates the early development of stereoscopic vision, and an unusual monocerotic face for a sauropod. The new fossil also reveals a neurovascular sensory system in the premaxilla and a partly calcified braincase, which potentially refines estimates of its prenatal stage. The embryo was found in an egg with thicker eggshell and a partly different geochemical signature than those from the egg-bearing layers described in Auca Mahuevo. The cranial bones are comparably ossified as in previously described specimens but differ in facial anatomy and size. The new specimen reveals significant heterochrony in cranial ossifications when compared with non-sauropod sauropodomorph embryos, and demonstrates that the specialized craniofacial morphology preceded the postnatal transformation of the skull anatomy in adults of related titanosaurians.

Health Care Executive Perceptions of Hiring and Retention Practices of People With Disabilities: Results From Executive Focus Groups

The supply-side approach to providing services without taking into account employer practices has not been effective in achieving meaningful, competitive, and integrated employment outcomes for people with disabilities. This focus neglects the fact that disability and employment is a two-way process with businesses being accountable for such demand-side factors as establishing better hiring, retention, and advancement practices. To initiate the identification of effective employer practices, this article shares the results of two executive focus groups that were conducted in a large health care organization, across four individual hospitals, with a documented success rate of hiring and retaining people with disabilities (PWDs). The purpose of the focus groups was to explore executive perceptions of their organization’s success at integrating PWDs throughout their work force. Results are explored through five identified themes: (a) organizational mission guided decision-making concerning the employment of PWDs, (b) executives living the mission through their daily inclusive behaviors led to employing PWDs, (c) organizational values were important to employing PWDs, (d) the organization benefited from employment of PWDs, and (e) employing PWDs benefited organization staff and the surrounding community. The results of these executive focus groups provide an initial glimpse into the culture and practices of a highly effective organization.

Combination Androgen Receptor Inhibition and Docetaxel in Metastatic Castration-sensitive Prostate Cancer: The Next Step in First-line Treatment?

The addition of docetaxel and abiraterone to androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) heralded a new era in the first-line treatment of metastatic castration-sensitive prostate cancer (mCSPC). Following the success of these combination regimens, 3 new trials presented data on using enzalutamide or apalutamide in men with mCSPC, which showed similar success. These seminal trials collectively established the addition of docetaxel, enzalutamide, apalutamide, or abiraterone to ADT as standards in the upfront treatment of mCSPC. Notably, a subset of patients in these more recent trials were treated with a combination of docetaxel, ADT, and androgen receptor signaling inhibitors or maintenance androgen receptor signaling inhibitors after docetaxel and ADT that provided an initial glimpse into the efficacy of these triplet or maintenance strategies. We discuss the implications of these recent findings and place them in context of the current mCSPC treatment landscape.

Abstract 1673: In silico modeling of RNA binding domains (RBDs) of nucleolin and miRNA interactions

Abstract In eukaryotes, the stress-responsive RNA-binding phosphoprotein nucleolin (NCL) plays defined role/s in many critical cellular processes, including transcriptional and translational regulation of various non-coding and coding RNAs. The RNA binding domains (RBDs) in NCL varies in numbers (1 to 4) depending on the organism, and individual RBDs are more conserved in divergent species than within the same protein. NCL targets a diverse RNA species e.g. long-noncoding-RNA, rRNA, mRNA to control gene expression and is also implicated in dysregulation of miRNAs in a variety of cancers; NCL is often highly upregulated in tumors. Analyses of mRNA and miRNA transcriptomics suggest that NCL plays a direct role in biogenesis of certain oncogenic miRNA species; targeting NCL by aptamers reduces the expression of these miRNA as well as in vivo tumor load. However, there is a large gap in knowledge in understanding miRNA-NCL interactions. Full length NCL protein structure still remains unresolved limiting structural predictions. Available partial NCL-RBDs structures are inadequate in providing cues to the plethora of NCL functions, especially its ability to interact with many different species of RNA. Molecular phylogeny for NCL-RBDs remains elusive as does target specificity of NCL. The number of RBDs, which structural combinations of RBDs and the cellular conditions that trigger specific NCL-RNA interactions remain to be understood. We have used in silico tools to model NCL-RBDs to assess their interactions with different RNA species focusing on a subset of miRNAs whose biosynthesis is positively correlated with NCL levels in a variety of aggressive cancer types e.g. breast, lung, pancreas and prostate cancers. Here we present a combination of template-based and ab initio approaches to develop robust theoretical models of all 4 RBDs in tandem as well as 2 consecutive RBDs in different combinations, for human NCL. Development of such theoretical constructs is essential to address hypotheses pertaining to target specificity of NCL for different RNA species in the absence of complete structural information. Further, these refined models were used to probe binding affinities and specificities of various miRNAs using different docking algorithms that analyze protein-RNA interactions. Our results provide an initial glimpse into possible binding modes and RBD specificity of human NCL for different miRNA molecules. Our study is further enhanced by modeling and comparative analysis of RBDs from NCL homologs in different organisms that house a variable number of RBDs. The results from this molecular modeling study lay the groundwork for elaborating the detailed mechanism of NCL-miRNA interactions, the evolutionary basis of RNA-binding and need for the expansion of RBD units in higher organisms. Citation Format: Avdar San, Anjana D. Saxena, Shaneen Singh. In silico modeling of RNA binding domains (RBDs) of nucleolin and miRNA interactions [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting 2019; 2019 Mar 29-Apr 3; Atlanta, GA. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Res 2019;79(13 Suppl):Abstract nr 1673.

Distinctions among electroconvulsion- and proconvulsant-induced seizure discharges and native motor patterns during flight and grooming: quantitative spike pattern analysis in Drosophila flight muscles

In Drosophila, high-frequency electrical stimulation across the brain triggers a highly stereotypic repertoire of spasms. These electroconvulsive seizures (ECS) manifest as distinctive spiking discharges across the nervous system and can be stably assessed throughout the seizure repertoire in the large indirect flight muscles dorsal longitudinal muscles (DLMs) to characterize modifications in seizure-prone mutants. However, the relationships between ECS-spike patterns and native motor programs, including flight and grooming, are not known and their similarities and distinctions remain to be characterized. We employed quantitative spike pattern analyses for the three motor patterns including: (1) overall firing frequency, (2) spike timing between contralateral fibers, and (3) short-term variability in spike interval regularity (CV2) and instantaneous firing frequency (ISI−1). This base-line information from wild-type (WT) flies facilitated quantitative characterization of mutational effects of major neurotransmitter systems: excitatory cholinergic (Cha), inhibitory GABAergic (Rdl) and electrical (ShakB) synaptic transmission. The results provide an initial glimpse on the vulnerability of individual motor patterns to different perturbations. We found marked alterations of ECS discharge spike patterns in terms of either seizure threshold, spike frequency or spiking regularity. In contrast, no gross alterations during grooming and a small but noticeable reduction of firing frequency during Rdl mutant flight were found, suggesting a role for GABAergic modulation of flight motor programs. Picrotoxin (PTX), a known pro-convulsant that inhibits GABAA receptors, induced DLM spike patterns that displayed some features, e.g. left-right coordination and ISI−1 range, that could be found in flight or grooming, but distinct from ECS discharges. These quantitative techniques may be employed to reveal overlooked relationships among aberrant motor patterns as well as their links to native motor programs.

Expecting the initial glimpse: prior target knowledge activation or repeated search does not eliminate scene preview search benefits

ABSTRACTA brief glimpse of a scene can guide eye movements but it remains unclear how prior target knowledge influences early scene processing. Using the ‘flash-preview moving window’ (FPMW) paradigm to restrict peripheral vision during search, we manipulated whether target identity was presented before or after previews. Windowed search was more efficient following 250 ms scene previews, and knowing target identity beforehand further improved how search was initiated and executed. However, in Experiment 2 when targets were removed from scene previews, only the initiation of search continued to be modulated by prior activation of target knowledge. Experiment 3 showed that search benefits from scene previews are maintained even when repeatedly searching through the same type of scene for the same type of target. Experiment 4 replicated Experiment 3 whilst also controlling for differences in integration times. We discuss the flexibility of the FPMW paradigm to measure how the first glimpse affects search.