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BackgroundThe Health Brain Initiative (HBI), established by University of Miami's Comprehensive Center for Brain Health (CCBH), follows racially/ethnically diverse older adults without dementia living in South Florida. With dementia prevention and brain health promotion as an overarching goal, HBI will advance scientific knowledge by developing novel assessments and non-invasive biomarkers of Alzheimer's disease and related dementias (ADRD), examining additive effects of sociodemographic, lifestyle, neurological and biobehavioral measures, and employing innovative, methodologically advanced modeling methods to characterize ADRD risk and resilience factors and transition of brain aging.MethodsHBI is a longitudinal, observational cohort study that will follow 500 deeply-phenotyped participants annually to collect, analyze, and store clinical, cognitive, behavioral, functional, genetic, and neuroimaging data and biospecimens. Participants are ≥50 years old; have no, subjective, or mild cognitive impairment; have a study partner; and are eligible to undergo magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Recruitment is community-based including advertisements, word-of-mouth, community events, and physician referrals. At baseline, following informed consent, participants complete detailed web-based surveys (e.g., demographics, health history, risk and resilience factors), followed by two half-day visits which include neurological exams, cognitive and functional assessments, an overnight sleep study, and biospecimen collection. Structural and functional MRI is completed by all participants and a subset also consent to amyloid PET imaging. Annual follow-up visits repeat the same data and biospecimen collection as baseline, except that MRIs are conducted every other year after baseline.Ethics and expected impactHBI has been approved by the University of Miami Miller School of Medicine Institutional Review Board. Participants provide informed consent at baseline and are re-consented as needed with protocol changes. Data collected by HBI will lead to breakthroughs in developing new diagnostics and therapeutics, creating comprehensive diagnostic evaluations, and providing the evidence base for precision medicine approaches to dementia prevention with individualized treatment plans.

Abstract Background Amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI) is considered a risk state for the development of dementia due to Alzheimer’s disease. It is also a period in which interventions may be most effective in slowing progression to dementia. Computerized cognitive training and increased physical activity have shown to be among the most promising interventions. However, current evidence from randomized controlled trials comparing cognitive training, physical activity, and an active control is inconsistent. Furthermore, the neural mechanisms underlying these interventions are currently unclear. Methods The objective of the current pilot study is to explore the feasibility of a trial investigating the impact of computerized cognitive training, yoga, and an active control intervention (wellness education) in individuals with aMCI by conducting a group-randomized, multisite, parallel, three-arm pilot study. We will establish preliminary effect sizes regarding the association of each intervention with neuroimaging and cognitive and participant-reported measures. We also aim to estimate the strength of association between the various outcomes. The current trial aims to recruit 75 people with aMCI and their 75 cognitively healthy care partners through clinics and senior care facilities. The initial intervention will last 10 days and will consist of 1 h daily of the assigned intervention i.e., (yoga, computerized cognitive training, or wellness education) combined with 1 h of memory compensation training and 1 h of support groups. Twenty-five participants will be group-randomized to each arm using a random number generator. Study staff and participants will be kept blind until recruitment is complete for each group. After the initial two-week intervention, participants will continue the assigned intervention for 24 weeks. Outcome measures are: functional connectivity and cerebral perfusion as assessed by magnetic resonance imaging; cognition; daily functioning; mood; anxiety; self-efficacy; caregiver burden; quality of life; and study feasibility including recruitment and retention rates. Discussion This pilot trial aims to investigate the feasibility of a trial studying the impact of computerized cognitive training, yoga, and an active control intervention in persons with aMCI on MRI-based functional connectivity and cerebral perfusion as well as cognition, daily functioning, mood, anxiety, and quality of life and feasibility? Trial registrations ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT03095170. Registered on 23 March 2017.

Purpose: Burnout has been shown to develop due to chronic stress or distress, which has negative implications for both physical and mental health and well-being. Burnout research originated in the “caring-professions.” However, there is a paucity of research which has focused specifically on how job demands, resources and personal characteristics affect burnout among practitioner psychologists.Methods: This PRISMA review (Moher et al., 2009) involved searches of key databases (i.e., Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS and Google Scholar) for articles published prior to 1st January, 2017. Articles concerning the prevalence and cause(s) of burnout in applied psychologists, that were published in the English language were included. Both quantitative and qualitative investigative studies were included in the review. The Crowe Critical Appraisal Tool (CCAT; Crowe, 2013) was used to appraise the quality of each paper included in this review. An inductive content analysis approach (Thomas, 2006) was subsequently conducted in order to identify the developing themes from the data.Results: The systematic review comprised 29 papers. The most commonly cited dimension of burnout by applied psychologists was emotional exhaustion (34.48% of papers). Atheoretical approaches were common among the published articles on burnout among applied psychologists. Workload and work setting are the most common job demands and factors that contribute to burnout among applied psychologists, with the resources and personal characteristics of research are age and experience, and sex the most commonly focused upon within the literature.Conclusions: The results of the current review offers evidence that burnout is a concern for those working in the delivery of psychological interventions. Emotional exhaustion is the most commonly reported dimension of burnout, with job and personal characteristics and resources also playing important roles in the development of burnout in the mental health care profession. Finally, tentative recommendations for those within the field of applied psychology.

Thefts and robberies may be traumatizing experiences for employees. The aim of this study is to explore to what extent experiencing robberies and/or thefts at work affect workers' mental health, coping-self-efficacy, social support seeking, workload and job satisfaction. Drawing on Conservation of Resources theory, this research contributes to our understanding of the psychological sequelae of robbery and theft for employees working in small businesses. The few studies on the effects of robberies and thefts in the past have predominantly focused on bank employees. A sample of Italian tobacconists and jewelers completed an anonymous self-report questionnaire examining the experience of robbery and/or theft, social support seeking (Coping Orientation to Problem Experienced scale, COPE-IV), psycho-somatic well-being (General Health Questionnaire, GHQ-12), job satisfaction (a single item). Victims of thefts and/or robberies reported their PTSD symptoms (Impact of Event- Revised 6, IES-R-6) and trauma-related coping self-efficacy (Coping Self-Efficacy scale, CSE-7), based on the last event (N = 319). Descriptive analyses, ANOVA, ANCOVA and multiple regressions analyses have been carried out. The results indicated that victims of thefts and robberies experienced greater workload, higher psycho-physical complaints and greater tendency to seek social support in comparison with their non-affected counterparts. They additionally experienced more post-traumatic symptomatology and perceived lower coping self-efficacy, when compared to those who experienced thefts “only.” Multiple regression analyses revealed that CSE was positively related to job satisfaction, although the presence of psycho-physical symptoms was the main predictor of job satisfaction among both non-affected and affected employees. PTSD was not an independent predictor of job satisfaction. In sum, robberies and/or thefts exposure undermines differently workers' well-being.

Evidence suggests that individual variability in lifetime exposures influences how cognitive performance changes with advancing age. Brain maintenance and cognitive reserve are theories meant to account for preserved performance despite advancing age. These theories differ in their causal mechanisms. Brain maintenance predicts more advantageous lifetime exposures will reduce age-related neural differences. Cognitive reserve predicts that lifetime exposures will not directly reduce these differences but minimize their impact on cognitive performance. The present work used moderated-mediation modeling to investigate the contributions of these mechanisms at explaining variability in cognitive performance among a group of 39 healthy younger (mean age (standard deviation) 25.9 (2.92) and 45 healthy older adults (65.2 (2.79)). Cognitive scores were computed using composite measures from three separate domains (speed of processing, fluid reasoning, and memory), while their lifetime exposures were estimated using education and verbal IQ measures. T1-weighted MR images were used to measure cortical thickness and subcortical volumes. Results suggest a stronger role for cognitive reserve mechanisms in explaining age-related cognitive variability: even with age-related reduced gray matter, individuals with greater lifetime exposures could perform better given their quantity of brain measures.