Diversity of Activities, Emotions, and Pleasant Events and Their Associations With Mental and Cognitive Health

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the structure of our daily lives. One of the most significant changes is a limited opportunity to engage in face-to-face social interactions and enjoy diverse daily activities. This raises a public health concern, because diverse experiences are critical sources of health by increasing social integration, cognitive reserve, and psychological resources. Recently, two lines of research have consistently shown that activity diversity or emodiversity is associated with multiple health outcomes. However, still more integrated efforts are needed to better understand diversity of daily experiences in various aspects and their contributions to health. This symposium brings together different endeavors towards understanding how diversity of daily experiences – activity diversity, emodiversity, and variety in positive experiences – are associated with health and well-being across adulthood. The topic of this symposium is timely to discuss potential prevention approaches to protect population well-being as the pandemic evolves. Paper 1 examines activity diversity (breadth and evenness of daily activity participation) and how it is related to positive and negative emodiversity (rich and balanced emotional experiences) differently by age groups. Paper 2 investigates the longitudinal relationship between activity variety across cognitive, physical, and social domains and cognitive functioning. Paper 3 examines variety in pleasant events and its associations with mental health outcomes. Paper 4 examines whether and how negative emodiversity is associated with mental illness during COVID-19. The discussant, Dr. David Almeida will integrate key findings from these studies, discuss their theoretical and methodological contributions, and consider opportunities for future research.

P-EGS11 The Theatre Training Checklist: A Toolkit to Revive Post Pandemic Operative Training

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant negative impact on operative surgical training, with trainee logbook numbers reduced by more than 50% compared to 2019. The operating theatre is expensive, costing approximately £1200 per hour to run. It is a crucial learning environment for many different trainees: anaesthetists, surgeons, operation department practitioners and surgical first assistants. For individuals to achieve their training requirements, the operating theatre as a training environment must be shared between all trainees. This requires excellent teamwork and leadership. The recovery phase of the COVID-19 pandemic is a unique opportunity to adopt novel training strategies. Methods The Theatre Training Checklist is a simple framework that aims to facilitate awareness, understanding, coordination and cooperation of training for all members of the team (Figure 1). It is a practical strategy that can be adopted in any setting. Usually, trainers discuss informally with their trainees about their individual Skills, Experience, Expectationsand what is Achievable in a planned theatre list (SEEA). However, there currently is limited opportunity to discuss this between different disciplines and the wider team. This tool aims to refine communication, optimize training, manage expectations and ensure equity across the board. The checklist has been introduced and trialed locally. Results The checklist is completed at the start of the list during the theatre brief. It identifies all trainees and their specific needs within the operating theatre session to the whole team. An agreed strategy is developed on how to achieve identified training goals (figure 2). Sometimes it may not be possible to allow a trainee to perform a particular procedure. However, other opportunities for training in theatre exist, such as: patient positioning, choice of equipment, types of techniques, discussions around consenting and complications etc. Feedback undertaken from the multiprofessional team after local trialing of the checklist has been positive. Conclusions The Theatre Training Checklist aims to create dialogue and shared understanding of training needs among all parties within the operating theatre. The Theatre Training Checklist Toolkit is available for use and consists of the checklist tool and an instructional video. The Theatre Training checklist is being piloted in some centers and we hope to have the opportunity to present some early findings at AUGIS 2021.

Disrupting Othering by Fostering Light-Bulb Moments in Immersive Practical Experiences

Fully immersive experiences (i.e., practica, internships, clinicals) with older adults are one successful strategy to reduce ageist beliefs among students, as long as the experiences are high quality and students are given an opportunity to reflect on their observations, feelings, and application of classroom knowledge. Representing a more intensive level of engagement than single-session interviews or multisession intergenerational activities, such experiences are not without challenges. Instructors are not present on-site continually (or at all) to observe what the student is seeing or doing, therefore providing limited opportunity to recognize and reframe situations that may reinforce the “othering” of older adults. Through creating carefully curated reflection prompts and assessment strategies (such as eportfolios), this presenter will discuss how instructors can ensure students completing practica, internships, and clinicals recognize the breadth and diversity of aging experiences, engage ethically and appropriately with older adults in non-ageist ways, and avoid reinforcing “othering” and ageism.

Using Salivary Biomarkers for Stress Assessment in Offshore Saturation Diving: A Pilot Study

Health monitoring during offshore saturation diving is complicated due to restricted access to the divers, the desire to keep invasive procedures to a minimum, and limited opportunity for laboratory work onboard dive support vessels (DSV). In this pilot study, we examined whether measuring salivary biomarkrers in samples collected by the divers themselves might be a feasible approach to environmental stress assessment. Nine saturation divers were trained in the passive drool method for saliva collection and proceeded to collect samples at nine time points before, during, and after an offshore commercial saturation diving campaign. Samples collected within the hyperbaric living chambers were decompressed and stored frozen at −20°C onboard the DSV until they were shipped to land for analysis. Passive drool samples were collected without loss and assayed for a selection of salivary biomarkers: secretory immunoglobulin A (SIgA), C-reactive protein (CRP), tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukins IL-6, IL-8, IL-1β, as well as cortisol and alpha-amylase. During the bottom phase of the hyperbaric saturation, SIgA, CRP, TNF-α, IL-8 and IL-1β increased significantly, whereas IL-6, cortisol and alpha-amylase were unchanged. All markers returned to pre-dive levels after the divers were decompressed back to surface pressure. We conclude that salivary biomarker analysis may be a feasible approach to stress assessment in offshore saturation diving. The results of our pilot test are consonant with an activation of the sympathetic nervous system related to systemic inflammation during hyperbaric and hyperoxic saturation.

Performance Composition of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Motets: Hypotheses and Discussions

Relevance and scientific novelty of the selected topic of the research. The issues of the performance of J. S. Bach's motets has not been considered in Ukrainian musicology before, and in creative practice it has been decided unequivocally: choirs sang motets a cappella. However, in the world practice of motets today there are three variants of performance: in addition to singing unaccompanied, motets are performed with basso continuo (organ), as well as with basso continuo accompanied by instruments that duplicate choral parts (colla parte). The revision of performance approaches in world concert practice took place in parallel and, apparently, due to scientific achievements in the history of music, source studies and related fields. Cognitive was the discussion of the performance of Bach's motets, which for a long time (since 1904) unfolded in the Germanspeaking musicological environment. A thorough analysis of the historical context, the text of the motets, the connection with the performing practice, and on the other hand — the limited opportunity to get acquainted with German-language materials determine the relevance of this article, which systematizes the arguments and counterarguments of this controversy. The aim of the article is to consider the arguments of German scientists (Konrad Ameln, Klaus Hofmann, Alfred Heuss and others) on the tradition of performances of motets by J. S. Bach, to draw the attention of the performing and scientific community to the possibility of the existence of different versions of the performing composition in these works; emphasize the need for a performing search in the field of baroque music, in particular, in those aspects, which in the classicalromantic tradition are considered unambiguously fixed in the musical text. The following methods were used in the study: historical (analysed the dynamics of changes in the performing tradition of Bach's motets), the method of generalization (based on the study of musicological literature generalized arguments in favour of three types of performing motets). Main results and conclusions. Based on the analysis of information from German-language musicological research, it is stated that in the time of Bach there were three types of performance for his motets: 1) a cappella, 2) with basso continuo, 3) with basso continuo and instruments colla parte. Arguments for each type are systematized depending on whether they come from the study of historical context (external) or based on the study of the original musical text of motets (internal). It is noted that the plurality of variants of the performance composition allowed in today's practice should be realized by the conductor, who should not unconditionally accept the performance version proposed in the motets edition as the only correct one. The choice of performance is made by the conductor depending on the specifics of the performance situation.

Crystal structure of Arabidopsis thaliana HPPK/DHPS, a bifunctional enzyme and target of the herbicide asulam

Herbicides are vital for modern agriculture, but their utility is threatened by genetic or metabolic resistance in weeds as well as heightened regulatory scrutiny. Of the known herbicide modes of action, 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin synthase (DHPS) which is involved in folate biosynthesis, is targeted by just one commercial herbicide, asulam. A mimic of the substrate para-aminobenzoic acid, asulam is chemically similar to sulfonamide antibiotics - and while still in widespread use, asulam has faced regulatory scrutiny. With an entire mode of action represented by just one commercial agrochemical, we sought to improve the understanding of its plant target. Here we solve a 2.6 Å resolution crystal structure for Arabidopsis thaliana DHPS that is conjoined to 6-hydroxymethyl-7,8-dihydropterin pyrophosphokinase (HPPK) and reveal a strong structural conservation with bacterial counterparts at the sulfonamide-binding pocket of DHPS. We demonstrate asulam and the antibiotics sulfacetamide and sulfamethoxazole have herbicidal as well as antibacterial activity and explore the structural basis of their potency by modelling these compounds in mitochondrial HPPK/DHPS. Our findings suggest limited opportunity for the rational design of plant selectivity from asulam and that pharmacokinetic or delivery differences between plants and microbes might be the best approaches to safeguard this mode of action.

Smarter Safer Homes Solution to Support Older People Living in Their Own Homes through Enhanced Care Models: Methodologies for a Stratified Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND An ageing population, accompanied by the prevalence of age-related diseases, present significant burden to health systems. This is exacerbated by an increasing shortage of aged care staff due to existing workforce entering their retirement and fewer young people being attracted to work in aged care. In line with consumer preferences and potential cost-efficiencies, government and aged care providers are increasingly seeking options to move care and support to the community or home, as opposed to residential care facilities. However, compared to residential care, home environments may provide limited opportunity for monitoring patients progression/decline in functioning and therefore limited opportunity to provide timely intervention. To address this, the Smarter Safer Homes (SSH) platform was designed to enable self-monitoring and/or management, and to provide aged care providers with support to deliver their services. The platform uses open Internet of Things (IoT) communication protocols to easily incorporate commercially available sensors into the system. OBJECTIVE Our research aims to detail the benefits of utilising the SSH platform as a service in its own right as well as a complimentary service to more traditional/historical service offerings in aged care. It is anticipated to validate the capacity and benefits of the SSH platform to enable older people to self-manage, and aged care service providers to support their clients to live functionally and independently in their own home, for as long as possible. METHODS A single-blinded, stratified, 12-month randomized controlled trial with participants recruited from three aged care providers, in Queensland, Australia. The study aimed to recruit 200 people, including 145 people from metropolitan- and 55 from regional areas. Participants were randomised to the intervention group (having SSH platform installed to assist age care service providers to monitor and provide timely supports) and the control group (receiving their usual aged care services from providers). Data on community care, health and social related quality of life, health service utilization, care giver burden and user experience of both groups were collected at the start, the middle (6 month) and the end of the trial (12 month). RESULTS The trial recruited its first participant in April 2019, and finished data collection of the last participant in November 2020. The study also received participants’ health service data from government data resources in June 2021. CONCLUSIONS A crisis is looming to support the ageing population. Digital solutions, such as the SSH platform, has the potential to address this crisis and support aged care in the home and community. The outcomes of this study could improve and support the delivery of aged care services and provide better quality of life to older Australians in various geographical locations. CLINICALTRIAL Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry (ANZCTR) - ACTRN12618000829213

Community perception of heritage values regarding a global monument in Ghana: Implications for sustainable heritage management

Purpose Scholarly discourses regarding heritage values for sustainable heritage management abound in heritage literature but appear elitist as they tend to exclude the perspectives of the people at the lower echelons of society. The study explored the values ascribed to a global heritage monument by the people living around a global heritage site in Ghana and the implications of their perceptual values for sustainable heritage management. Design/methodology/approach This study used the qualitative design. It was guided by Costin’s heritage values, community attachment theory and values-based approach to heritage management. Data was gathered from the local people living close to the heritage site, and the staff of Museums and Monuments Board at the heritage site. Data were gathered through focus group discussions and in-depth interviews and analysed using the thematic approach and most significant stories. Findings The results revealed that the local people were aware of the economic, aesthetic, historic, symbolic and informational values of the heritage monument but showed little attachment to the monument. The main reasons for the low attachment were the limited opportunity for them to participate in the management of the monument, and the limited opportunity for direct economic benefits from the heritage asset. Research limitations/implications A comprehensive understanding of heritage monument management that reflects the perspectives and values of the local people is imperative. Practical implications United Nations Education, Scientific and Cultural Organisation and Ghana Museums and Monuments Board could consider a more community-inclusive heritage management framework that takes cognizance of local values and perspectives to ensure sustainable heritage management and development. Social implications The values and perspectives of the local community matter in heritage management. The heritage authorities need to engage more with the community people and educate them on the best practices regarding the sustainable management of World Heritage Sites. Originality/value This paper argues that the management of global heritage sites should not be elitist in orientation and character. It should respect the principle of community participation for inclusive development.

Gather.town: An opportunity for self-paced learning in a synchronous, distance-learning environment

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced Higher Education to adopt distance-learning approaches in traditionally face-to-face and practical-based fields such as the Health and Life sciences. Such an abrupt change to distance-learning contexts brings a variety of challenges to student learning communities, and ensuring key skills are effectively transferred. Chief among these is the limited opportunity students have to discuss their individual needs with their educators and peers in a synchronous manner. Proximity-based video-conferencing platforms such as gather.town can offer a unique opportunity for learners to interact with educators as well as pre-developed materials in a self-paced manner to tailor the teaching experience, and develop these relationships in a distance-learning context. In this case study the concepts of statistical analysis and the use of the data analysis software R is introduced to 38 University students using the online platform gather.town. With the use of private spaces, pre-recorded videos, and demonstrators, students are trained in both the concepts and practical skills to undertake data analysis in a self-paced manner. Both students and demonstrators provide their opinions on the effectiveness of the platform, and identify its benefits, preferring it to alternative online systems such as MS Teams for their educational sessions.

‘You can’t just put somebody in a situation with no armour’. An ethnographic exploration of the training and support needs of homecare workers caring for people living with dementia

Background Homecare workers carry out complex work with people living with dementia, while under-supported, undervalued and undertrained. In this ethnographic study, we explore the skills, training and support needs of homecare workers supporting people living with dementia. Research Design and Methods We conducted 82 interviews with people living with dementia ( n = 11), family caregivers ( n = 22), homecare staff ( n = 30) and health and social care professionals ( n = 19) and conducted 100-hours of participant observations with homecare workers ( n = 16). We triangulated interview and observational findings and analysed data thematically. Results We developed four themes: 1) ‘Navigating the homecare identity and role’: describing challenges of moving between different role identities and managing associated expectations, 2) ‘Developing and utilising relational and emotional skills’: boundaries between caring and getting emotionally involved felt blurred and difficult to manage, 3) ‘Managing clients who resist care’: homecare workers experienced clients’ reactions as challenging and felt “thrown to the wolves” without sufficient training, and 4) ‘Drawing on agency and team support’: homecare work could be isolating, with no shared workplace, busy schedules and limited opportunity for peer support. Discussion and Implications It is important that training and support for homecare workers addresses the relational, emotional and rights-based aspects of the role. Where a flexible, responsive, person-centred service is required, corresponding training and support is needed, alongside organisational practices, taking account of the broader context of the homecare sector.