Objectives: Loneliness is a modifiable risk factor for depression and dementia in older age. Validated interventions are needed to mitigate the impact of loneliness in older adults. Some evidence suggests that mindfulness meditation may reduce stress, improve mood and cognitive function, and may also impact loneliness per se. Many meditation apps offer an accessible way to meditate at home. However, robust research is needed to assess the benefits of meditation using this technology for older adults. Muse is a meditation app that analyzes brain signals during meditation and provides users with real-time neurofeedback on their level offocus.

Methods: We conducted a pilot, randomized controlled trial to establish the acceptability and feasibility of a remote, mindfulness intervention using Muse in older adults, and to obtain preliminary data on its impact on mood and cognition. Twenty-six adults reporting feeling lonely were enrolled and randomized to an 8-week Muse- based meditation (MM) or a brain- training active control (BT) program. The MM group completed meditation sessions with real- time neurofeedback and guided meditation sessions using Muse. The BT group completed cognitively challenging games on the commercially available Peak app and listened to podcasts. The groups were matched on the amount of interactions with study staff and total program duration. Outcome measures included standardized self-report scales of loneliness, stress, depression, well-being, quality of life, sleep disturbance, resilience, and mindfulness. Staff blinded to program assignment administered cognitive tasks of episodic memory, working memory, and sustained attention, as well as a breath counting task. Assessments were taken at Pre, Mid, and Post intervention, and after a 2-month and 4-month (4M) follow-upperiod.

Results: Participants found both programs engaging and the remote assessments were feasible. The MM group showed a greater improvement in depressive symptoms, and psychological andphysical QOL, compared to the BT group, at Post and at 4M.

Conclusions: A Muse-based mindfulness program is an acceptable and accessible intervention for older adults. A large-scale randomized trial is warranted to evaluate the efficacy of this intervention in this group.

Regional variation in the historic development of agricultural societies in South-west Asia is increasingly apparent. Recent investigations at the wetland site of Balıklı (c. 8300–7900 BC) provide new insights into the initial processes of sedentism in Central Anatolia and the interaction of early communities within local and larger-scale networks. Located near major obsidian sources, excellent architectural preservation and faunal and botanical records at Balıklı suggest cultural connections to the upper Middle Euphrates region, yet inhabitants of the site do not appear to have participated in the wider South-west Asian obsidian-exchange networks and largely relied on wild resources.

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Under enrollment of trials is a continued challenge in clinical research. In response, the Oregon Clinical and Translational Research Institute (OCTRI), the CTSA at Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU), launched a central resource, OCTRI Recruitment, to equip researchers with the knowledge and tools needed for recruitment success. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: OCTRI Recruitment focused programmatic development in response to the voice of OHSU researchers. In 2018, a qualitative assessment project, “Clinical Research Recruitment Methods at OHSU”, was launched, which included a survey (N=100) and optional interview (N=24), to determine recruitment method utilization and experience, along with opinions on the needs and culture of recruitment at OHSU. In 2022, as part of the same protocol project, a second survey was deployed (N=31), to determine changes in recruitment method use and to identify further recruitment challenges. OCTRI Recruitment also obtains continual informal input on perceived recruitment challenges and opportunities through engagement within the OHSU research team community. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: 2018 survey and interviews showed: many researchers relied on their clinic’s patient population for recruitment (74%); were unaware of available tools to recruit OHSU patients, especially informatics tools (5-22%); and were not aware of and minimally use methods to recruit outside OHSU (<40%). In response, OCTRI Recruitment developed and began recruitment consultations, guidance materials, and educational seminars. In 2022, survey results showed an increase in the use of informatics-based recruitment tools (2-14%+) and increased use of methods focused on individuals outside of OHSU (1-7%+). Additionally, a review of studies post OCTRI Recruitment consultation over three years (N=51) showed that of those studies, 40% increased enrollment numbers and 61% increased team’s confidence level post consult. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This approach to program creation allowed for a uniquely targeted development of services in response to the voice of OHSU researchers and recruitment challenges. Based on additional data, efforts have begun to address the recruitment challenges of a study opportunity website, participant compensation methods, and community-based recruitment.

Submicron-sized (~3–60 nm) powders of Al-substituted magnetite were synthesized in the laboratory by precipitation methods by mixing appropriate molar volumes FeCl2, FeCl3 and AlCl3 solutions and precipitating with 20% NH4OH. Precipitates were dialyzed for 48 hr to remove excess salts and then freeze-dried. The nominal Al mole fractions [Als = Al/(Al + Fe)] in the initial precipitate ranged from 0.001 to 0.42. Portions of the resulting powders were heated sequentially in air at 400° and 500°C. Powders were examined using X-ray diffraction (XRD), transmission electron microscopy (TEM), and visible and near-IR reflectance spectroscopy. Solubilities were determined in ammonium oxalate (pH = 3) and dithionite-citrate-bicarbonate (DCB) solutions. As determined by XRD, the mineralogy of precipitated powder samples was predominantly magnetite. Powders having Als > 0.20 contained minor goethite and a poorly crystalline iron oxide phase (ferrihydrite?), and powders having Als > 0.25 also contained gibbsite. The color of the magnetites was black throughout the range of Al-substitution. Powders heated to 400°C were reddish brown; Munsell colors ranged from 5R 2/2 to 10R 3/4 for Als from 0.1–41.5%, respectively. By XRD, these powders were maghemite, but hematite was also detected by Mössbauer spectroscopy. XRD and Mössbauer data indicate powders heated to 500°C are hematite; their Munsell colors are not noticeably different from the corresponding 400°C samples. Mean crystallite dimensions (MCDs) of the magnetite powders increase with the Al mole fraction from ~10 nm for Als = 0.001% to a maximum value of 35 nm for Als = 0.15 and decrease slightly with further increasing Al substitution. Heating magnetite powders to 400°C did not change the MCDs significantly. Heating to 500°C resulted in hematites having MCDs larger than those for corresponding precursor magnetites for Als < 0.10. The opposite is true for hematites derived from magnetites having Als > 0.10. For hematite powders with Als > 0.05, MCD decreased with increasing Al-substitution. Solubilities of powders in oxalate solutions were independent of Al content and decreased in the order unheated samples (mostly magnetite) >400°C-heated samples (maghemite + hematite) >500°C-heated samples (hematite). All powders dissolved completely in DCB. The low crystallinity of the magnetite powders and the presence of ferrous iron are responsible for their relatively high solubility in oxalate solutions.

The ability of dairy cows to discriminate between floors with a smooth epoxy resin surface or with surface-applied bauxite aggregates of mean diameters 0.5 mm, 1.2 mm or 2.5 mm (having coefficients of static friction of 0.35, 0.42, 0.49 and 0.74, respectively) was recorded when they were offered the opportunity to walk down paired floor surfaces to receive a food reward. Following training, one half of the cows were rewarded when they selected the floor with the greater friction and the other half were rewarded when they selected the floor with the least friction. The cows were able to distinguish between the different floor surfaces — even between surfaces with 0.5 mm and 1.2 mm aggregates, which humans found difficult to distinguish. Eight similar cows were then offered a choice of walking down passageways of paired floors with an equal reward at the end of each passageway. There were no consistent preferences for floor type, and when the reward was offered only on the side least favoured by each cow in the initial test, the random pattern of selection was still evident. A final choice test offered the cows the opportunity to traverse passageways of either wet concrete or concrete covered with excreta. All cows avoided the passageway with excreta completely, even when the reward was increased in this passageway and removed from the wet concrete passageway. This avoidance was attributed to the cows’ lack of contact with slurry, as they were at pasture for most of the day, in contrast to the cows used in previous work, which were housed in buildings with passageways covered in excreta and showed little avoidance behaviour of such passageways.

Guidelines for the housing of dairy cows do not address the provision of supplementary lighting in passageways, other than for inspection of the animals. Two experiments were conducted to investigate whether lighting passageways to various intensities influenced the locomotion of dairy cows. The first experiment compared the locomotion of dairy cows in a dark or lighted passageway as they walked back to their accommodation from milking. When the passageway was dark, the cows took shorter but more rapid steps - which probably increased their stability. In the second experiment, cows walked down a cubicle passageway to receive a food reward, with the light intensity in the building varying from 0-250 lux. Step length and stepping rate were recorded, as well as the angles of the cows’ leg joints (which were measured from video recordings). Once again, the cows increased their stepping rate in the dark, and this resulted in an increased walking rate, perhaps because they wished to return more rapidly to other members of their group and found the darkness aversive. In addition, the arcs of travel of the metacarpophalangeal joint and of the fore- and hindfeet angles to the floor were reduced in the dark, probably increasing the cows’ stability, and were greatest at 119 lux. The slowest walking rate was observed at 39 lux. Hence, the optimum illumination for dairy cow locomotion may lie approximately between 39 and 119 lux, as measured by our technique.

We conclude that during locomotion in dark passageways cows have to modify their walking behaviour significantly, so that the provision of at least a low level of lighting is desirable at night.

This Essay explores whether the African Court of Human and People's Rights’ (African Court) Registry and Legal Division have a similar expansive role in the dispute settlement mechanism as the World Trade Organization's (WTO) Secretariat. The African Court is the African Union's regional body for enforcing human rights. This Essay contributes to the scholarship on African international courts by testing the central arguments in Pauwelyn and Pelc's “Who Guards the ‘Guardians of the System’? The Role of the Secretariat in WTO Dispute Settlement”1 through a comparative analysis of the role of the Secretariat within the African Court.2 Despite the growing jurisprudence and influence of Africa's international courts, they continue to be neglected by mainstream scholarship of international courts and tribunals. This is evident in Pauwelyn and Pelc's article, which does not refer to any of Africa's seven international courts and tribunals. For that matter, the article makes no reference to any international tribunal outside Europe or the United States.3 Our analysis illustrates the fact that the influence of the African Court's Registry and Legal Division (Registry) in the process for dispute settlement is not as significant and concerning as that of the WTO Secretariat. As such, the influence of the Registry on the outcome of a case is significantly limited and does not raise any legitimacy crisis like the WTO. We attribute this disparity to the operational and structural disparities between the African Court and the WTO. In the following paragraphs, we examine each of the factors that Pauwelyn and Pelc raise concerning the influence of the WTO staff in WTO panel and Appellate Body proceedings4 in the context of the functions of the African Court Registry.