Looking in the Rearview Mirror and to the Road Ahead on Dementia & Living Well

The number of Americans living with Alzheimer's and all other dementias continues to increase. Most of them will need long-term and community-based services as the disease progresses. While medical research is making advances, there is more work to be done to ensure that every person receives care that is person-centered and allows them to live with dignity and respect.

Technology, the flipped classroom, and exigent paradigm shifts or being forced into the present

Princeton University, including the various language programs it offers, has intentionally resisted distance learning for decades, primarily out of a desire to concentrate on the residential undergraduate educational experience. In New Jersey, USA, state-level restrictions and institutional decisions resulted in the closure of campus instructional spaces from the halfway point of the 2020 spring semester through the end of the 2020-2021 academic year, with further precautions, mitigations, and flexible responses throughout the following academic year, including but not limited to frequent reversion to remote instruction during periods of high incidence, interior masking requirements, and social distancing when possible in classroom spaces. For the past six years, I have also redesigned, expanded, and aligned our second-year German program with the first year, which is based on a high-frequency core vocabulary and the development of contextual reading strategies, among other approaches (for a detailed description of approach, form, and function, see Oberlin, in press). Of the many tools and approaches considered during this frantic and bewildering week, one stands out: the application of outside-of-class student-to-student communication via Zoom or other video-conferencing technologies with written follow-up to fulfill a number of desiderata: (1) that students speak more in an alternate assignment format given the realities of affective and technological hurdles while using video conferencing software;(2) that they are provided with an unsupervised opportunity to speak in an effort to reduce anxiety;(3) that self-scheduled partner work might offer flexibility necessary during home-based study and the various complications and distractions that entails, particularly during a period of ongoing disruptions;and (4) that a written response to this oral communication would generate classroom discussion, deepen engagement with materials, and present instructors with another avenue for teacher-student feedback and the assessment of sentence- or paragraph-level writing.

Creating Co-Curricular Activist Writing Projects for Students in Writing Programs: The Case of the Neurodiversity Celebration Collaborative (NCC)

Context The NCC originally came into being through calls from various corners for more attention to the unmet mental health needs of college students and students with autism (Beiter et al.;Bruffaerts et al.;Lipson et al.;PinderAmake;Storrie et al.) as well as calls from disability activists for more space to support, highlight, and celebrate disabled and neurodiverse persons and the rich diversity they bring to our campuses (Dwyer et al.;Clouder et al.;Sachs;Yergeau). Through strategic research and advocacy, we will evaluate current mental health resources on and off campus, create appreciation versus sympathy for cognitive differences, bring to light inconsistencies and inaccuracies in the literature, establish appropriate forums of disclosure for students, and ultimately help constitute a more connected and understanding campus climate that celebrates neurodiversity as an integral part of any functioning university and its surrounding community. [...]most recently during the 2021-2022 academic year, the group held an event in which they discussed the concept of neurodiversity itself with a wider audience. Establishing student leaders is a crucial step in moving the faculty member out of the leadership role and making it clear to students that they have agency and the final say in how things will go.

TL,DR - Improving handover through the use of an integrated electronic discharge proforma in neurocritical care

Introduction: Effective handover between treating clinical teams is an important part of communication in the care of patients leaving the intensive care environment.1 This can be even more vital in neurocritical care, where patients may be unable to communicate their own history due to neurological deficits and whose families are unable to visit due to COVID. These patients often have had complex neurosurgical interventions and ongoing complex MDT discussion due to the nature of their illness. Handover needs to represent this. Furthermore, as a specialist tertiary centre, many patients leave the unit as repatriations to other intensive care units. In these situations, it is even more important for good handover to contain the relevant and succinct information for ongoing care. Objective(s): We aim to improve the quality of handover from the intensive care team to ward teams at a specialist neurocritical care centre through the use of an electronic discharge proforma integrated into the electronic patient record (EpicCare Epic Systems Corporation). This is a system that has only recently been introduced locally and has required modification for the intensive care environment. Method(s): We performed a retrospective cohort study of documented transfer of care (TOC) summaries for patients entering the ICU in a month-long period. 67 patient admissions were identified as possible candidates with 11 cases excluded as not meeting criteria. The TOC summaries of suitable cases were compared to standards set by the Faculty of Intensive Care Medicine and Intensive Care Society and criteria tailored to the neuro-intensive care environment. Following this, we implemented a curated discharge proforma for all patients leaving intensive care. Through the use of smart lists and specific prompts, we aim to improve compliance with the guidelines and improve the quality of TOC. The project is currently ongoing and we aim to repeat the analysis in March 2022 to review if there has been improved compliance. Result(s): Compliance for the first round of discharges was variable. There was generally good quality information on the summary of stay of the patient (96%) and ongoing plan for the care of the patient (88%). However, documentation of the rehabilitation needs (32%), psychological needs (14%), communication needs (16%), safeguarding issues (4%), and resuscitation and escalation status of the patient was suboptimal (4%). Documentation of verbal handover to the parent team (25%) and critical care outreach team (45%) was mixed. Conclusion(s): Here we present the use of an electronic discharge proforma to improve the quality of handover in patients leaving the intensive care environment. While the study is ongoing, we show that currently local patient handover is often incomplete with a lack of detail in the TOC summary and poor verbal communication between teams. Through the use of this proforma, we aim to improve the quality of this handover and improve the continuity of care for patients leaving the neuro-intensive care unit.

Assessment of oral communication skills of chemistry department students in polymer chemistry courses at online learning

Online learning should ensure that students' oral communication skills remain good. This study aimed to determine the oral communication skills of chemistry department students in polymer chemistry courses at online learning based on differences in gender and study program. The research design was quantitative descriptive. The data collection tool was an observation sheet about the assessment of oral communication skills collected during presentation activities. The sample was 73 students. Data were analyzed utilizing a one-way analysis of variance test. The findings reveal that students' oral communication skills based on gender have differences, but the difference was not significant. The oral communication skills of male students are higher than female students. There was a significant difference in students' verbal communication skills based on study programs. Chemistry students' oral communication skills have higher than chemistry education students. The implications of the research results are described.

2022 CCCC Chair's Letter

Hassel officially started his service as an elected CCCC officer on Dec 23, 2019, but for four years prior to that, he was an ex officio member of the CCCC Executive Committee (EC) by virtue of his role as editor of Teaching English in the Two-Year College. The editors of four of the college-level NCTE publications (TETYC, College Composition and Communication, Forum: Issues about Part-Time and Contingent Faculty, and the Studies in Writing and Rhetoric book series) are invited to attend meetings and participate in deliberations about issues affecting governance of the organization but do not have voting rights. During the nearly five years of service prior to his official elected role, he had many opportunities to observe how CCCC governance works (or doesn't): how committees and task forces are formed, appointed, and charged;how committees are constituted;how decisions are made;how nomination and election processes are conducted for the EC and other elected groups, such as the Nominating Committee. He even served on a subcommittee of the EC: the Subcommittee on Committees that produced the User's Guide to CCCC.

The Impacts of Social and Political Upheaval on Older Adults' Sexuality: A Call to Action

Sexuality educator and author Jane Fleishman discusses the need to focus on sexual pleasure instead of sexual dysfunction for older adults. She exhorts her readers to notice the impact of current political and social upheaval, the pandemic, the recent Dobbs decision, and the concomitant racial violence, climate change, political crises, technological divides, as well as the healthcare system's inconsistencies, which have laid bare disparities, particularly for vulnerable older adults. She encourages scholars, researchers, students, and policy makers to embrace the intersections, develop new tools, and focus on marginalized populations.

Dialog chatbot as an interactive online tool in enhancing ESP vocabulary learning

PurposeBased on an experimental study on English for Specific Purposes (ESP) students, at the Business Department at the University of Bisha, the purpose of the study is to examine the effect of chatbot use on learning ESP in online classrooms during COVID-19 and find out how Dialogflow chabot can be a useful and interactive online platform to help ESP learners in learning vocabulary well.Design/methodology/approachThe research paper is based on an experimental study of two groups, an experiential group and a controlled group. Two tests were carried out. Pre-tests and post-test of vocabulary knowledge were conducted for both groups to explore the usefulness of using the Dialogflow chatbot in learning ESP vocabulary. A designed chatbot content was prepared and included all the vocabulary details related to words' synonyms and a brief explanation of words' meanings. An informal interview is another tool used in the study. The purpose of using the interview with the participants was to elicit more data from the participants about using the chatbot and about how and in what aspects chatbot using the conversational program was useful and productive.FindingsThe findings of the study explored that the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary. That was clear as the results showed that the students who used the chatbot Dialogflow in the experimental group outperformed their counterparts in the control group.Research limitations/implicationsThe study displays an important pedagogical implication as the use of chatbots could be applied in several settings to improve language learning in general or learning ESP courses in particular. Chatbot creates an interesting environment to foster build good interactions where negotiation of meaning takes place clearly seems to be of great benefit to help learners advance in their L2 lexical development.Originality/valueExamining and exploring whether the use of chatbots plays a major role in enhancing and learning ESP vocabulary in English as Foreign Language setting.

Communicable (Literature and Medicine 2013–2018)

People joke about "the before times," but they're not wrong. 2020 is an especially distorting lens, in part I think because things too easily relegated to peripheral vision came suddenly into shockingly clear focus: medical things, sociopolitical things, the fact of human health as an interconnected biocultural compound. Since 2020, surely no one can argue that it's possible to understand health without thinking about history and justice, or to understand disease without thinking about economics and rhetoric. Disease spread by invisible entities through a community or across the globe, exacerbated by social structures, controlled (or not) through public health measures, and made sense of (or not) by cultural rhetorics. Because infection is of course always metaphorical: something has an effect on something else by entering it, by infiltrating or invading it, or instilling itself into it. (Perhaps the positive antonym would be inspires, which we don't use for microbes, though it certainly implies inhalation?) In any case, literature-and-medicine always has in it that tension between invisible pathogens and communicable ideas. Health and suffering are unjustly distributed;health care is practiced within powerfully oppressive social structures;public health is a contradiction in terms when those structures go unquestioned, or when those who speak for it use their words less effectually than they might.

The National Peculiarities of Coronavirus-Related Social Advertising in Russia and China

The relevance of the global problem of confronting the coronavirus infection has made it possible for a whole scholarly direction to appear, i. e. the COVID humanities. This has brought together scholars from different countries who study the social, psychological, and linguistic behaviour of people in the new crisis. Its philological branch appeals to linguistic issues during the struggle against COVID-19. This article deals with the reflection of the pandemic in Russian and Chinese social advertising. Comparative analysis reveals a thematic similarity between the advertisements of the two countries. Social advertising as an effective tool of interaction between the country and its population has become a natural platform for educational hygiene and dissemination of scholarly knowledge about people's behaviour during the pandemic. In addition, advertising in Russia and China is a powerful mobilisation resource for ensuring social solidarity, promoting a common collective destiny, expressing gratitude to doctors who are perceived as heroes of our time, and raising the level of collectivist culture that facilitates the implementation of anti-COVID measures. At the same time, the thematic similarity of advertisements released in the two countries has a different national meaning. Chinese advertisements demonstrate a high degree of ideologisation and figurativeness. The material of Russian advertisements studied makes it possible to trace the use of linguo-creative techniques at different stages of the pandemic and the development of shock methods for influencing the target audience. China's special place as the epicenter of the spread of the new virus has caused China-specific topics to appear (support for Wuhan and appeals to the population to abstain from consuming wild animal meat).

Congregational Care: Philosophical Reflection on a Case Study

Congregational care strengthens relationships and supports spiritual growth. This article establishes groundwork for developing congregational care at First Baptist in Edmonton (FBC) by introducing a spiritual needs approach to engage people in conversation and by using a Spiritual Styles Assessment that has 36 questions to foster communication among congregational members. The article has four parts. The first introduces the congregation and a list of spiritual needs. The second part includes information about the Spiritual Styles Assessment and spirituality research. Parts three and four describe attitudes, skills and practices that enhance communicative action by helping people talk together and practice radical welcome as a foundation for congregational care. The purpose for establishing a foundation for congregational care is to suggest a way forward for a congregation that faces significant differences in values, beliefs, expectations, personal experience, and faith assumptions, even among people who have known each other for years. FBC is trying to find ways to reach understanding and offer care to all who enter the Sanctuary. The purpose of the article is to reflect philosophically on what congregants need from each other as signs of respect, inclusion and caring. The article outlines attitudes, skills, and practices that create communicative communities that are capable of nurturing congregational care by developing human understanding based on faith experience and communicative action.

Survey of Home Cleaning Practices With Noninvasive Ventilation Equipment

Purpose:Home noninvasive ventilation (NIV) equipment is often observed to be dirty, potentially increasing patients' risk of respiratory infection. This study aimed to describe the cleaning practices of home NIV patients. Method(s):This single-site, cross-sectional, observational study surveyed 100 patients from the respiratory failure clinic regarding cleaning instructions, cleaning habits, barriers, and motivators to cleaning. Open-ended responses were analyzed with basic content analysis and closed categorical responses with frequencies and percentages. Result(s):Of 100 participants, 77% responded. Cleaning instructions most commonly recalled included cleaning with soapy water for masks (26/47, 55%), head straps (19/47, 40%), and tubing (21/47, 45%);vinegar solution for humidifiers (9/39, 23%);and replacing filters (14/39, 36%). Fourteen respondents reported barriers to cleaning, including forgetfulness (7/14, 50%) and physical difficulties (6/14, 43%). Commonly reported cleaning practices included soapy water to soak masks (28/77, 36%) and tubing (35/77, 46%), weekly masks (34/77, 44%) and tubing cleaning (29/77, 38%), vinegar solution to clean humidifiers for the 36 humidifier users (15/36, 44%), monthly humidifier cleaning (13/36, 36%), and monthly filter cleaning/replacement (36/77, 47%). Conclusion(s):Few respondents could recall specific instructions about when and how to clean their equipment. Many reported routine cleaning, with varied methods and frequencies. Our results will inform future NIV equipment cleaning educational package design.Copyright © Cardiovascular and Pulmonary Section, APTA.

Collaborative Learning: A Design Challenge for Teachers

This study, focused on collaborative learning approaches, aims to contribute to our understanding of whether and how teachers propose these kinds of activities in their daily practice. Particularly, this study aims to explore teachers' behaviour when designing such activities for their learners with respect to different learning settings (i.e., face-to-face and/or blended settings vs. fully online settings). With reference to fully online settings, the Emergency Remote Teaching that took place during the COVID-19 outbreak is used as a reference case. The results of a self-reported survey of Italian teachers (N = 268) are presented. Our conclusions indicate that Italian teachers do propose collaborative learning activities to some extent in face-to-face and/or blended settings as well as in fully online settings, with statistically significant differences both in reference to the approaches adopted and to the (technological) tools used. Nonetheless, the data also indicate that teachers' design decisions are not always in line with recommendations widely proposed by the collaborative learning research community.

Pastoral Care and Mental Health in Post-Pandemic South Africa: A Narrative Review Exploring New Ways to Serve Those in Our Care

COVID-19 has had severe consequences for congregants worldwide. During the period of lockdown regulations, congregants were isolated from pastoral care when such care was most needed. Social distancing, wearing masks, and other regulations changed how we worshiped, fellowshipped, discipled, counselled, comforted, and loved those in our care. The role of pastoral care as a pillar of mental well-being became overwhelmingly evident as the dying, the grieving, the physically and mentally ill, the abused, the starving, the destitute, and the vulnerable were isolated and alienated. The pandemic has had untold consequences on congregant mental health, especially in resource-poor contexts in South Africa, where adequate psychological services cannot cope with needs. This article uses the narrative approach to explore the possible role pastoral care can play in addressing the exacerbation of mental health issues post-pandemic in South Africa. The state of psychological services in South Africa is explored in order to contextualise the need for innovative ideas to address the complexity of mental health issues in South Africa. Recommendations are made for how pastoral care may be utilised to alleviate the mental health crisis that has emerged following the pandemic at an individual and community level. Hopefully, this article will foster critical dialogue between theological and psychological scholarship for the purposes of alleviating the complex mental health issues that persist in South Africa and have been exacerbated by the pandemic.

Value of content analysis and verbal-communicative research method in studying the features of the course of acute respiratory disease novel COVID-19 in children

The purpose — to study the peculiarities of the course of COVID-19 according to data of content analysis and the verbal-communicative method among children with SARS-CoV-2 infection. Materials and methods. The study of features of the course of COVID-19 among children was carried out using two methods: content analysis of 54 medical records of inpatients and a verbal-communicative method by surveying 53 patients with further subsequent comparative evaluation of these methods. SARS-CoV-2 infection was diagnosed by an express method with the TESTSEALABS testing kit. Verification of SARS-CoV-2 infection was carried out by detection of SARS-CoV-2 RNA by PCR. The data of both methods included age, sex, epidemiologi-cal history, complaints, assessment of the general condition, clinical manifestations, forms of the course of the disease, etc. Results. A comparative assessment of the two research methods showed that the verbal-communicative method, in comparison with the content analysis, made it possible to study in detail the features of the course of disease among children. In particular, the study found that the fever in most patients was remitting (significantly increased in the evening), lasting more than 5 days or more. Infants most often had pulmonary manifestations: cough, difficult breathing through the nose, shortness of breath at rest, fever, intermittent sucking of the breast or refusal of it, crying, restlessness;in isolated cases — febrile convulsions. In early and preschool age, in addition to pulmonary manifestations, the equivalent of anosmia/ageusia — «bad food» was detected;high frequency of gastrointestinal (abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, acetonuria) and skin manifestations (covid cheilitis, injected sclera, papulo-vesicular rash, covid fingers). A milder course of the disease took place in junior and senior school age. In high school age, headache, musculoskeletal pain/ache, sore throat, hoarseness of voice, anosmia, ageusia were the most often noted — which resembled the course of COVID-19 in adults. Conclusions. A comparative assessment of content analysis and the verbal communicative method confirmed that in medical practice, for the in-depth study of features of the course of COVID-19, these two methods should be used in combination as complementary and mutually clarifying. The research was carried out in accordance with the principles of the Helsinki Declaration. The study protocol was approved by the Local Ethics Committee of the participating institution. The informed consent of the patient was obtained for conducting the studies. No conflict of interests was declared by the authors. © 2022, Group of Companies Med Expert, LLC. All rights reserved.

Empathetic Conversation in the Library

One of the most challenging aspects of the pandemic was the limited ability to gather socially and connect with others in person. This was especially difficult for many of the students, who were isolated and disconnected from others in their rural community. To address this issue, Gilbert designed a project that focused on creating spaces for engagement and conversation, using literature as a lens to explore the human experience. In essence, students were invited to bring their lunches to the school library (it usually isn't used as a place to eat) to join them in conversations. They would weave in books they had in the library, but it was not at all necessary for them to have read the books before the conversations.

Cultural milieu and group-rules in an elaborated account of metacontingencies: Conceptual analysis and an illustration in a covid-19 psychological support project

The elaborated account of the metacontingency explicitly incorporated the role of antecedent events (with the concept of cultural milieu or cultural-organizational milieu) and verbal behavior (clearly related to what was termed group-rule generation). We argue that the cultural milieu encompasses two functionally distinct entities: antecedent environmental variables affecting the culturant (the organization members' activities)-what we termed cultural antecedents;and variables affecting the selecting environment or the consumer practices (members external to the organization responsible for producing cultural consequences)-what we termed selecting environment variables. Besides that, we propose that group-rule generation is not an element of a metacontingency distinct from the culturant, but that it describes verbal components of the interlocking behavioral contingencies;and that these verbal components are not present in all culturants but are especially important in more complex ones. We illustrate this conceptual analysis with reference to a COVID-19 psychological support project undertaken at a public university in Brazil and conclude by suggesting theoretical and methodological implications. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)