Curcumin as a Stabilizer of Macrophage Polarization during Plasmodium Infection.

Malaria is a parasitic infection responsible for high morbidity and mortality rates worldwide. During the disease, phagocytosis of infected red blood cells by the macrophages induces the production of reactive oxygen (ROS) and nitrogen species (RNS), culminating in parasite death. Curcumin (CUR) is a bioactive compound that has been demonstrated to reduce the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines and chemokines produced by macrophages but to reduce parasitemia in infected mice. Hence, the main purpose of this study is to investigate whether curcumin may interfere with macrophage function and polarization after Plasmodium berghei infection in vitro. In our findings, non-polarized macrophage (M0), classically activated (M1), and alternatively activated (M2) phenotypes showed significantly increased phagocytosis of infected red blood cells (iRBCs) when compared to phagocytosis of uninfected red blood cells (RBCs) 3 h after infection. After 24 h, M1 macrophages exposed to RBCs + CUR showed greater elimination capacity when compared to macrophages exposed to iRBCs + CUR, suggesting the interference of curcumin with the microbicidal activity. Additionally, curcumin increased the phagocytic activity of macrophages when used in non-inflammatory conditions (M0) and reduced the inducible nitric oxide synthase (iNOS) and arginase activities in all macrophage phenotypes infected (M0, M1, and M2), suggesting interference in arginine availability by curcumin and balance promotion in macrophage polarization in neutral phenotype (M0). These results support the view of curcumin treatment in malaria as an adjuvant, promoting a balance between pro- and anti-inflammatory responses for a better clinical outcome.

Comparison of mastery criteria applied to individual targets and stimulus sets on acquisition of tacts, intraverbals, and listener responses.

Mastery criteria can be applied to individual targets or stimuli organized into sets. Wong et al. (2021) and Wong and Fienup (2022) found that participants who received special education services learned sight words more rapidly when an individual target mastery criterion was applied. The current study replicated and extended these findings across novel skills. Five participants with ASD received tact or intraverbal training in Experiment 1, and 2 participants with ASD received auditory-visual conditional discrimination training (AVCD) in Experiment 2. In both experiments, mastery criteria were applied to targets and stimulus sets to compare sessions to mastery. Results showed the target mastery criterion required fewer sessions of tact training for 3 of 5 participants and AVCD training for both participants. However, overselection of stimuli occurred for 20% of AVCD mastered targets, suggesting a false positive for acquisition of those targets. Maintenance was similar across conditions and experiments.

Replication of a skills assessment for auditory-visual conditional discrimination training.

Auditory-visual conditional discrimination training (e.g., receptive identification training, listener responses; AVCD) is ubiquitous in early intervention and special education programs. Nevertheless, some learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) do not appear to benefit from this training despite use of empirically validated treatments. To prevent exposure to extended training that does not lead to learning, a skills assessment that measures skills related to AVCD training will be useful for educators and practitioners. The current study replicated the skills assessment developed and evaluated by Kodak et al. (2015) with 8 participants with ASD who received behavior analytic intervention that included at least 1 goal related to AVCD training. Two of the 8 participants mastered all skills included in the assessment except scanning. In addition, 5 participants' responding failed to reach mastery during subsequent exposure to AVCD training, which further demonstrated the predictive utility of the skills assessment.

Tolerance of face coverings for children with autism spectrum disorder.

Healthcare professionals and government officials have advised the use of personal protective equipment, such as face masks and face shields, to assist with limiting the spread of the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19). Due to the prevalence of challenging behavior associated with other medical routines, the present study evaluated a treatment package composed of graduated exposure, prompts, reinforcement, and escape extinction on tolerance of wearing a face covering for up to 5 min for 12 children with ASD in a systematic replication of Cox et al. (2017) and Sivaraman et al. (2020). We also extended previous research by measuring generalization of face covering type (i.e., face shield) and the efficacy of a treatment extension for tolerating a face covering for up to 15 min during the participants' trial-based instruction and play periods.

Establishing equivalence-equivalence analogical relations via tact and listener training.

We investigated the role of verbal behavior on the emergence of analogy-type responding as measured via equivalence-equivalence relations. In Experiment 1, 8 college students learned to label arbitrary stimuli as, "vek," "zog," and "paf", and in Experiment 2, 8 additional participants learned to select these stimuli when hearing their names in an auditory-visual matching-to-sample (MTS) task. Experimenters tested for the emergence of relational tacts (i.e., "same" and "different") and equivalence-equivalence relations (analogy tests) via visual-visual MTS. Half of the participants were exposed to a think-aloud procedure. Even though they all passed analogy tests while tacting stimuli relationally, only participants exposed to tact training (Experiment 1) did so without the need for remediation. The results of these experiments confirm that individual discriminative and relational control of stimuli established through verbal behavior training is sufficient to produce equivalence-equivalence analogical responding, advancing the analysis of complex cognitive (problem-solving) phenomena.

Do Targets with Persistent Responses Affect the Efficiency of Instruction?

The efficacy and efficiency of instruction may be reduced as a result of persistent response patterns to targets. The current project exposed participants to tact training with one set of targets. Thereafter, the efficacy and efficiency of teaching different responses to the previously trained set of targets was compared to tact training with a novel set of targets. Results showed that targets with pre-established responses took longer to acquire than targets without pre-existing responses for both participants.

An evaluation of matrix training to teach college students piano notes and rhythms.

Twelve college students learned to tact the names of notes and rhythms and play them when presented with compound stimuli (visuals of notes and rhythms on a musical staff). In Experiment 1, we assessed generalization by presenting novel notes, rhythms, and compound stimuli not previously paired together. In the second experiment, we added a metronome that played at 60 beats per minute in all conditions for 3 out of 6 participants to ensure consistent tempo. Across both experiments, participants passed almost all posttests with the exception of tacting and playing in the presence of sound clips. Our data suggest that matrix training is an effective procedure to teach music skills to college students.

The effects of listener training on the development of analogical reasoning.

We evaluated the effects of listener training on the emergence of analogical reasoning, as measured via equivalence-equivalence and explored the role of verbal behavior when solving analogy-type tasks. We taught 18 college students to select component stimuli from 2 classes, labeled "vek" and "zog," and evaluated tacts and relational responding in the presence of baseline (AB and BC), symmetry (BA and CB), and transitivity (AC and CA) compounds. In Experiment 1, 5 out of 6 participants passed analogy tests, but none of them engaged in the relational tacts "same" and "different" during tact tests, possibly due to lack of instructional control. A change in instructions during Experiment 2 produced relational tacts in 4 of 6 participants, and 5 participants passed analogy tests. In Experiment 3, we implemented a talk-aloud procedure to determine if the participants were emitting relational tacts during analogy tests. All 6 participants tacted stimuli relationally and engaged in problem-solving statements to solve analogy tests. Results from these studies suggest that listener and speaker behavior in the form of relational tacts and other problem-solving statements influenced the participants' equivalence-equivalence performance.