Digitization of the Australian Parliamentary Debates, 1998-2022.

Public knowledge of what is said in parliament is a tenet of democracy, and a critical resource for political science research. In Australia, following the British tradition, the written record of what is said in parliament is known as Hansard. While the Australian Hansard has always been publicly available, it has been difficult to use for the purpose of large-scale macro- and micro-level text analysis because it has only been available as PDFs or XMLs. Following the lead of the Linked Parliamentary Data project which achieved this for Canada, we provide a new, comprehensive, high-quality, rectangular database that captures proceedings of the Australian parliamentary debates from 1998 to 2022. The database is publicly available and can be linked to other datasets such as election results. The creation and accessibility of this database enables the exploration of new questions and serves as a valuable resource for both researchers and policymakers.

Autism spectrum disorder and congenital heart disease: a narrative review of the literature.

Individuals born with congenital heart disease (CHD) are at an increased risk of developing neurodevelopmental disorders. Despite this, studies are limited in their investigation of autism spectrum disorder in the context of CHD. This review provides an overview of the literature examining autism spectrum disorder in CHD and discusses strengths, limitations, and future directions. Recent efforts have been made to extrapolate the association between CHD and symptoms of autism. Findings suggest that the core features of autism spectrum disorder are also implicated in children with CHD, namely social-cognitive weaknesses, pragmatic language differences, and social problems. Compared to norm-referenced samples, separate studies have identified divergent and overlapping neuropsychological profiles among both patient groups, yet there are no studies directly comparing the two groups. There is emerging evidence of prevalence rates of autism diagnosis in CHD showing an increased odds of having autism spectrum disorder among children with CHD relative to the general population or matched controls. There also appears to be genetic links to this overlap, with several genes identified as being tied to both CHD and autism. Together, research points to potentially shared underlying mechanisms contributing to the pathophysiology of neurodevelopmental, neuropsychological, and clinical traits in CHD and autism spectrum disorder. Future investigation delineating profiles across these patient populations can fill a significant gap in the literature and aid in treatment approaches to improve clinical outcomes.

A Resilience-Building App to Support the Mental Health of Health Care Workers in the COVID-19 Era: Design Process, Distribution, and Evaluation.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in increased strain on health care systems and negative psychological effects on health care workers (HCWs). This is anticipated to result in long-term negative mental health effects on the population, with HCWs representing a particularly vulnerable group. The scope of the COVID-19 pandemic necessitates the development of a scalable mental health platform to provide services to large numbers of at-risk or affected individuals. The Mount Sinai Health System in New York City was at the epicenter of the pandemic in the United States. OBJECTIVE: The Center for Stress, Resilience, and Personal Growth (CSRPG) was created to address the current and anticipated psychological impact of the pandemic on the HCWs in the health system. The mission of the Center is to support the resilience and mental health of employees through educational offerings, outreach, and clinical care. Our aim was to build a mobile app to support the newly founded Center in its mission. METHODS: We built the app as a standalone digital platform that hosts a suite of tools that users can interact with on a daily basis. With consideration for the Center's aims, we determined the overall vision, initiatives, and goals for the Wellness Hub app, followed by specific milestone tasks and deliverables for development. We defined the app's primary features based on the mental health assessment and needs of HCWs. Feature definition was informed by the results of a resilience survey widely distributed to Mount Sinai HCWs and by the resources offered at CSRPG, including workshop content. RESULTS: We launched our app over the course of two phases, the first phase being a "soft" launch and the second being a broader launch to all of Mount Sinai. Of the 231 HCWs who downloaded the app, 173 (74.9%) completed our baseline assessment of all mental health screeners in the app. Results from the baseline assessment show that more than half of the users demonstrate a need for support in at least one psychological area. As of 3 months after the Phase 2 launch, approximately 55% of users re-entered the app after their first opening to explore additional features, with an average of 4 app openings per person. CONCLUSIONS: To address the mental health needs of HCWs during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Wellness Hub app was built and deployed throughout the Mount Sinai Health System. To our knowledge, this is the first resilience app of its kind. The Wellness Hub app is a promising proof of concept, with room to grow, for those who wish to build a secure mobile health app to support their employees, communities, or others in managing and improving mental and physical well-being. It is a novel tool offering mental health support broadly.

Changes in Autism Nosology: The Social Impact of the Removal of Asperger's Disorder from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual for Mental Disorders, Fifth Edition (DSM-5).

This study examined the perception of an ASD label compared to Asperger's syndrome or no diagnosis. Seventy-one undergraduates read an adapted vignette (Ohan et al. J Autism Dev Disord 45:3384-3389, 2015) about an undergraduate with ASD, Asperger's Syndrome, or No Diagnosis. Participants also completed questionnaires. More positive ratings emerged for the Asperger's and ASD labels than No Diagnosis in low contact scenarios, particularly when involving greater social versus professional interaction. In contrast, more positive ratings emerged for the Asperger's compared to the ASD and No Diagnosis on high contact items. Ratings between low and high contact items differed only for ASD. Results demonstrate the impact of diagnostic labels across social contexts and support the need for education surrounding changes in nosology.

A Preliminary Study on the Functional Benefits of Computerized Working Memory Training in Children With Pediatric Bipolar Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder.

Twenty-nine pediatric patients (age range, 10-16 years) with working memory (WM) deficits, including children with pediatric bipolar disorder (PBD) with and without attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) comorbidity and children with ADHD, underwent a Cogmed WM training program. For both patient groups, WM performance on Cogmed tasks and on the Digit Span test improved significantly after training. Moreover, the PBD group improved on Trails Making Test A and on the Inhibition Scale, the Behavior Regulation Index, and the Global Executive Composite of the Behavioral Rating Inventory of Executive Function. The ADHD group improved significantly on the Trails Making Test B, the Spatial Span Test, and the Reading Fluency Test of the Woodcock-Johnson III, as well as on depressive symptoms. The present findings suggest that working memory training is beneficial not only in youths with ADHD but also in youths with PBD. They also show evidence of near and far transfer of WM improvement in these patients, although in different ways for the two patient groups. Future studies examining the mechanisms of cognitive remediation in pediatric patients will aid in creating tailored illness-specific cognitive interventions.