Isolated and Stressed? Examining the Effects of Management Communication in Alleviating Mental Health Symptoms during COVID-19.

The goal of this research was to assess the role of professional isolation on mental health symptoms via stress among employees working remotely due to COVID-19. Additionally, this research explored the interactive effect of management communication on the relationship between professional isolation and stress, and stress and mental health symptoms. In Study 1, behavior analysts who were working remotely as a result of the pandemic completed assessments of professional isolation, stress, and mental health symptoms at two points in time, separated by two weeks. Study 2 replicated and extended the findings from Study 1 in a sample of remote employees recruited from Amazon's Mechanical Turk using a three-wave design. Findings of both Study 1 and Study 2 suggested that stress mediated the relationship between professional isolation and mental health symptoms. Additionally, management communication buffered the association between stress and mental health symptoms in Study 2. Lastly, the indirect effect of professional isolation on mental health symptoms was stronger for those who received less communication from their management. The findings of these two studies expand our understanding of the mechanism and boundary condition through which professional isolation is related to mental health symptoms.

Impact of COVID-19 on the Applied Behavior Analysis Workforce: Comparison across Remote and Nonremote Workers.

With the abrupt transition to observing physical distancing as a result of COVID-19, applied behavior analysts were faced with the sudden need to modify their service delivery model, while at the same time managing personal difficulties brought about by the pandemic. The present article provides a description of the impact of COVID-19 on the behavior analyst workforce currently providing clinical services in the United States. We conducted a survey to assess work conditions, burnout, and productivity of behavior analysts at various certification levels. These data provide a snapshot of the impact of COVID-19 on the workforce. Overall, one third of the participants reported experiencing job insecurity, and almost half of participants reported decreased productivity and increased burnout, with remote workers more severely affected. Taken together, these factors could compromise the ability of behavior analysts to adequately provide services to their clients. We provide recommendations for behavioral health agencies for supporting staff during extreme situations such as a pandemic.

The Effect of a Mediation-Blocking Task on the Acquisition of Instructive Feedback Targets.

The inclusion of instructive feedback in discrete-trial training has been shown to increase the efficiency of learning. However, the behavioral mechanism underlying the effectiveness of this procedure has not yet been determined. Researchers have suggested that learners covertly self-echo the feedback, which mediates later responding. The present study sought to understand the role of self-echoics in the acquisition of untaught targets. Participants were directly taught to tact pictures, then given instructive feedback after the praise statement. The 3 experimental conditions were (a) a typical instructive feedback procedure; (b) a vocal mediation-blocking procedure, in which the participants were asked to engage in a competing vocal response immediately after the instructive feedback; and (c) a motor-distraction procedure, in which the participants were asked to engage in a motor response immediately after the instructive feedback. The inclusion of the vocal mediation-blocking task had little effect on the participants' ability to learn the instructive feedback targets for all 3 participants.

Increasing the mand repertoire of children with autism through the use of an interrupted chain procedure.

Mand training is an essential component of verbal behavior training for any individual who lacks this skill. The current study replicates and extends, with some procedural differences, the work of Hall and Sundberg (1987) by using an interrupted chain procedure to teach mands for missing items to children with autism. The participants were 3 children with autism, ranging between 5 and 8 years of age, who would regularly mand for a wide variety of reinforcers when they were present but would rarely mand for items that were not in sight (i.e., missing items). Participants were first taught to complete 3 behavior chains. Subsequently, the chains were interrupted by removing 1 item needed to complete each chain to contrive motivating operations (MOs) as a means of teaching mands for missing items. Following mand training incorporating vocal prompt and prompt fading procedures, all participants emitted unprompted mands for the missing items within the context of the trained chains and within the context of novel, untrained chains. After teaching mands for missing items, probes were conducted to test for untrained tact acquisition. All participants also demonstrated tact responses relative to the missing items as a result of the mand training.

Formate dehydrogenase--a biocatalyst with novel applications in organic chemistry.

In the field of industrial biocatalysis, formate dehydrogenase (FDH) is well established, in particular for its broad application in cofactor regeneration. Further applications have been limited by the enzyme's narrow range of substrates. These restrictions have been overcome now by the finding, that the enzyme is capable of selectively cleaving formic acid esters to the respective alcohol. Five homologous alkyl formates and phenyl formate as an aromatic ester were converted quantitatively by FDH from Candida boidinii in a batch reaction within 3 to 5 h. The substrates were turned irreversibly into carbon dioxide and the respective alcohol through hydride abstraction from the formyl group with full conversion. The mechanism shows parallels to hydrolysis reactions of the A(AC)1-type. K(M)-values and reactions rates of the tested formic acid esters display a tendency to higher conversion rates with increasing chain length. FDH emerged to be a superior deformylation catalyst compared to hydrolases as well as classical catalysts, as was shown by the selective deformylation of 1-acetoxy-4-formoxy butane (92%) and 1,3-bis(3-formoxypropyl)tetramethyldisiloxane. In particular its capability to distinguish between formic acid esters and non-formic acid esters renders the method particularly suitable for protective group chemistry. Furthermore the completeness of deformylation allows for converting substrates highly incompatible with aqueous media like siloxanes within a few hours.