William Fan

This is an evaluation study of a pilot multicomponent program with animal-assisted therapy (AAT) for socially withdrawn youth with or without mental health problems in Hong Kong. There were fifty-six participants. Decreased level of social anxiety, and increased levels of perceived employability and self-esteem across two withdrawn groups were observed. When comparing those who did and did not receive the AAT component(s), however, AAT did not seem to have additional impacts on outcomes. The qualitative data collected through interviews with ten participants reflected that the AAT component was attractive because the nonhuman animals made them feel respected and loved. This pilot study showed that a multicomponent program with a case management model correlated with increased levels of self-esteem and perceived employability, and a decreased level of social interaction anxiety. In addition, using nonhuman animals in a social service setting appears to be a good strategy to engage difficult-to-engage young people.

© 2015 American Chemical Society.Near-infrared dye-sensitized upconversion nanoparticles can broaden the absorption range and boost upconversion efficiency of UCNPs. Here, we achieved significantly enhanced upconversion luminescence in dye-sensitized core/active shell UCNPs via the doping of ytterbium ions in the UCNP shell, which bridged the energy transfer from the dye to the UCNP core. As a result, we synergized the two most practical upconversion booster effectors to amplify upconversion efficiency. We demonstrated two biomedical applications using these UCNPs. By using dye-sensitized core/active shell UCNP embedded poly polymer implantable systems, we successfully shifted the optogenetic neuron excitation window to a biocompatible and deep tissue penetrable 800 nm wavelength. Furthermore, UCNPs were water-solubilized with Pluronic F127 with high upconversion efficiency and can be imaged in a mouse model.