Campbell and Cochrane evidence on promoting cognitive capacity across the life course: a mapping review

Background: Cognitive capacity and function affect daily activities, independence, and overall well-being across the life course. Objective: To map and synthesize evidence on interventions that measured cognitive capacity at any life stage across the life course from Cochrane and Campbell systematic reviews. Design: Mapping review Methods: The Cochrane and Campbell libraries were searched up to 1 May 2024 for systematic reviews of interventions that measured cognitive capacity across all ages. Data on interventions and outcomes were coded using the International Classification of Function (ICF) and the International Classification of Health Interventions (ICHI). We coded for equity characteristics using PROGRESS-Plus. Methodological quality was assessed with AMSTAR2. Results: We included 34 Campbell and 31 Cochrane reviews, with over half (55%) rated as high quality. Most reviews (80%) included studies from high-income countries, with only 12% including studies from low-income countries. Of the 30 reviews that planned a subgroup analysis across equity characteristics, only eight did so. Most reviews included multiple age groups (63%), but none evaluated differences in cognitive outcomes across more than two age categories. Practical support interventions (60%) and intellectual function outcomes (51%) were most common; however, the interventions and outcomes varied at different life stages, reflecting a focus on development in younger ages and on maintaining cognitive function or prevention of decline in older ages. Conclusion: This work highlights the need for a comprehensive life course approach to cognitive interventions, incorporating equity considerations and age-appropriate outcome measures

Natascha Niekamp - Thesis submitted in partial fulfilment of the degree of Doctor of Clinical Psychology (DClinPsych)

Systematic Review of the Literature (SRL)Title: Psychological risk factors for the development of Female Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder (GPPPD): A Systematic Review of the LiteratureIntroduction: Female Genito-Pelvic Pain/Penetration Disorder (GPPPD) is a multifactorial condition with a significant impact on quality of life. This systematic review examines predisposing psychological risk factors contributing to the development of GPPPD using a diathesis-stress framework. Objectives: To synthesise evidence on psychological risk factors that predate the onset of GPPPD symptoms. Methods: A systematic search of CINAHL, PsycINFO, Medline, and PubMed databases identified studies published 1987-2025. Eligibility was restricted to quantitative studies examining psychological factors predating GPPPD symptom onset in individuals with a clinical diagnosis. Risk of bias was assessed using the Downs and Black checklist. A narrative synthesis was conducted adhering to SWiM and PRISMA guidelines. Results: Thirty-five studies were included, comprising longitudinal, case-control, and cross-sectional designs. Abuse history emerged as the most extensively studied risk factor, with significant associations primarily reported for sexual abuse. Early genital pain experiences, such as during coitarche, as well as relating to dysmenorrhea and painful tampon use, were identified as potential contributors to anticipatory pain responses. Parenting styles characterised by overprotection and authoritarianism were linked to GPPPD through potential early attachment disruptions. Experiences of otherness, including childhood gender nonconformity and acculturation challenges, were associated with heightened vulnerability to GPPPD. The overall quality of the research was low to medium. Conclusion: This review underscores the multifactorial nature of GPPPD, highlighting the interplay between early psychological vulnerabilities and subsequent stressors. Integrating findings within the diathesis-stress framework, this review emphasises the importance of further large-scale and longitudinal research grounded in theory to inform care pathways and effective therapeutic strategies. Service Improvement Project (SIP)Title: Understanding the benefits and limitations of sharing lived experiences of mental health difficulties between students and tutors at the Oxfordshire Recovery College Purpose: Recovery Colleges embody the philosophy of peer support and expertise by experience. Tutors who teach psychoeducational content about mental health at the Oxfordshire Recovery College (ORC) may have personal lived experience of mental health difficulties which they share with students where appropriate. Students are encouraged to respond and relate to personal stories. At the ORC, this process has received positive anecdotal feedback but has never been explored systematically. This project aimed to fill this gap. Methodology: The project had three phases: 1) A tutor survey, 2) A focus group with stakeholders to co-design the interview schedule, and 3) Qualitative interviews. Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis was used to explore the lived experience of students attending Oxfordshire Recovery College courses. Findings: Based on the findings, three superordinate themes were generated: 1) Recovery College - stepping into a different world; 2) Tutors on a pedestal; and 3) Being on a journey - a deeply human experience. All superordinate themes had two subordinate themes. Implications: Recommendations were made to the service based on the project findings. These recommendations included making changes to tutor recruitment and training procedures as well as to the student induction. Training material and new content for tutor recruitment and the student induction were designed based on the findings. Future projects may formally trial and evaluate the proposed procedures. Originality: This was the first qualitative evaluation of experiences at the ORC. Theoretically Driven Research Project (TDRP)Psychosexual pain causes significant psychological distress, yet research has focused primarily on physiological mechanisms. This study examined whether self-objectification predicts poorer sexual functioning through two factors, body surveillance and appearance anxiety, in women with sexual pain. A cross-sectional case-control study included 125 participants (60 patients, 65 healthy controls). Self-report measures assessed self-objectification, body surveillance, appearance anxiety, and sexual functioning. The study design included expert by experience involvement. Group comparisons indicated that women with psychosexual pain conditions reported significantly higher self-objectification than controls, but no differences in body surveillance or appearance anxiety. Mediation analyses for those women presenting with sexual pain showed that appearance anxiety significantly mediated the relationship between self-objectification and sexual functioning, whereas body surveillance did not. Findings suggest that appearance anxiety, rather than body surveillance, links self-objectification to clinical female sexual pain. Future intervention studies may benefit from further integrating Sensate Focus Therapy and Mindfulness to address appearance-related distress in women with sexual pain. This was the first study to empirically explore all components of Objectification Theory in a clinical group of women with sexual pain. Adjustments to the model have been proposed. Findings require replication and may be tested in populations with other sexual dysfunctions

The genome sequence of the Jersey Tiger moth, <i>Euplagia quadripunctaria</i> (Poda, 1761)

We present a genome assembly from an individual male specimen of Euplagia quadripunctaria (Jersey Tiger; Arthropoda; Insecta; Lepidoptera; Erebidae). The genome sequence has a total length of 668.40 megabases. Most of the assembly (99.6%) is scaffolded into 31 chromosomal pseudomolecules, including the Z sex chromosome. The mitochondrial genome has also been assembled and is 15.48 kilobases in length

A Contemporary Multifaceted Insight into the Association Between Diabetes Mellitus and Diverticular Disease: An Update About Geriatric Syndrome

Introduction: Diverticular disease, once considered a rare geriatric gastrointestinal condition, has now become a prevalent disorder associated with increased morbidity and healthcare costs. The spectrum of complications from diverticular disease ranges from incidental findings to more serious issues such as bleeding and diverticulitis. Symptomatic diverticular disease represents a significant economic burden in the western world. Diabetes mellitus is a major global health issue. As global aging accelerates, geriatric syndromes such as diabetes mellitus (DM) and diverticular disease (DD) are becoming increasingly prevalent. Understanding their interplay is critical, particularly within the geriatric population. Both conditions are linked to lifestyle, dietary habits, and changes in gut physiology. Additionally, age-related alterations in the gut microbiome and immune system make this association more complex, contributing to morbidity and healthcare burdens in older adults. The primary aim of this review is to provide an update on the association between diabetes mellitus and diverticular disease. Methods: This narrative review explores the association between diabetes mellitus and diverticular disease. Relevant articles were identified by searching major databases. Results: Risk factors for diverticular disease include insulin resistance, diabetes mellitus, smoking, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, lack of physical activity, a low-fibre diet, and a high-carbohydrate diet. These risk factors are also associated with the development of diabetes mellitus. Major population studies indicate that diabetes can either increase the risk of diverticular disease or have a neutral impact. A complication of diabetes mellitus includes impaired intestinal peristalsis and enteric nervous system dysfunction, which can ultimately lead to the formation of intestinal diverticula. High-calorie foods low in fibre are a staple in the diets of many type 2 diabetes mellitus patients, contributing to gut dysbiosis. A detrimental consequence of dysbiosis is a breach in the protective intestinal barrier, which promotes the development of diverticulosis. Conclusions: Diabetes mellitus may be associated with diverticular disease, and the risk factors that contribute to diabetes mellitus can also be linked to diverticular disease. Further studies are needed to explore the complex relationship between diabetes mellitus and diverticular disease

Times of hope? An ethnography of student politics in Oxford and Cologne

Student activism around climate justice, demilitarisation and decolonisation raises questions about what kind of space students understand the university to be and what kind of university students are moving towards. Drawing upon ethnographic fieldwork with students in Oxford and Cologne in 2021/2022, in this thesis I address how students reflect on and understand their activism, and how the specific university context shapes their political practices. I explore whether students see the university as a political space, what it is that makes them understand it as a political space, and how they see themselves as actors in this space. Engaging with Rosa’s theory of resonance and Arendt’s relational concept of the political, I conceptualise the polit¬ical as both arising and expressing itself through various forms of relationships. I argue that student politics can be seen as an expression of a resonant relationship to the university and as an attempt of a joint, dialogic shaping of the university. I discover student activists’ strategic use of the temporal and spatial specificities of the uni¬versity by engaging in prefigurative political practices. Here, I locate a double immediacy regarding both the students' perception of political issues that are negotiated at the university and that concern them, and their political practices that aim at immediate change. I also detect the repeated movement towards each other as fundamental to the political practices of my interlocutors. Conceptualising hope as collective political act and engaging with Ahmed’s affect theory, I explore the connection between attachment, political practices, and hope. Encountering hope as efficacious, I discover here the movement of opening up new spaces and possibilities as inherent to the political practices of student activists. I ultimately argue that students, through their political practices, exploit, demand, negotiate, and widen the university’s potential to be a resonant space of participation, codetermination, and democratic decision making

Quantum information meets high-energy physics: input to the update of the European strategy for particle physics

Some of the most astonishing and prominent properties of Quantum Mechanics, such as entanglement and Bell nonlocality, have only been studied extensively in dedicated low-energy laboratory setups. The feasibility of these studies in the high-energy regime explored by particle colliders was only recently shown and has gathered the attention of the scientific community. For the range of particles and fundamental interactions involved, particle colliders provide a novel environment where quantum information theory can be probed, with energies exceeding by about 12 orders of magnitude those employed in dedicated laboratory setups. Furthermore, collider detectors have inherent advantages in performing certain quantum information measurements and allow for the reconstruction of the state of the system under consideration via quantum state tomography. Here, we elaborate on the potential, challenges, and goals of this innovative and rapidly evolving line of research and discuss its expected impact on both quantum information theory and high-energy physics

Comparing apples and oranges in youth depression treatments? A quantitative critique of the evidence base and guidelines

Objectives: Should a young person receive psychotherapy or medication for their depression and on what evidence do we base this decision? In this paper, we test the factors across modalities that may influence comparability between medication and psychotherapy trials. Methods: We included 92 randomised controlled trials (RCTs) of psychotherapy and medication for child and adolescent depression (mean age 4–18 years). Using meta-analyses, we compared (a) participant characteristics and (b) trial characteristics in medication and psychotherapy trials. Lastly, we examined whether psychotherapy controls are well-matched to active conditions. Results: Participants in medication RCTs had higher depression severity and were more frequently male compared with psychotherapy RCTs. There was a dramatic difference in the within-subject improvement due to placebo (SMD=−1.9 (95% CI: −2.1 to −1.7)) vs. psychotherapy controls (SMD=−0.6 (95% CI: −0.9 to −0.3)). Within psychotherapy RCTs, control conditions were less intensive on average than active conditions. Conclusions: Medication and psychotherapy RCTs differ on fundamental participant and methodological characteristics, thereby raising questions about their comparability. Psychotherapy controls often involve little therapist contact and are easy-to-beat comparators. These findings cast doubt on the confidence with which psychotherapy is recommended for youth depression and highlight the pressing need to improve the evidence base

ATClean: A Novel Method for Detecting Low-luminosity Transients and Application to Pre-explosion Counterparts from SN 2023ixf

In an effort to search for faint sources of emission over arbitrary timescales, we present a novel method for analyzing forced photometry light curves in difference imaging from optical surveys. Our method “ATLAS Clean,” or ATClean, utilizes the reported fluxes, uncertainties, and fits to the point-spread function (PSF) from difference images to quantify the statistical significance of individual measurements. We apply this method to control light curves across the image to determine whether any source of flux is present in the data for a range of specific timescales. From ATLAS o-band imaging at the site of the Type II supernova (SN) 2023ixf in M101 from 2015–2023, we show that this method accurately reproduces the 3σ flux limits produced from other, more computationally expensive methods. We derive limits for emission on timescales of 5 days and 80–300 days at the site of SN 2023ixf, which are 19.8 and 21.3 mag, respectively. The latter limits rule out variability for unextinguished red supergiants with initial masses >22 M⊙, comparable to the most luminous predictions for the SN 2023ixf progenitor system. We also compare our limits to short-timescale outbursts, similar to those expected for Type IIn SN progenitor stars or the Type II SN 2020tlf, and rule out outburst ejecta masses of >0.021 M⊙, much lower than the inferred mass of circumstellar matter around SN 2023ixf in the literature. In the future, these methods can be applied to any forced photometry on difference imaging from other surveys, such as Rubin optical imaging

Building evidence‐based interventions to improve staff well‐being in paediatric critical care using the behaviour change wheel

Background: Research has demonstrated that staff working in Paediatric Critical Care (PCC) experience high levels of burnout, post‐traumatic stress and moral distress. There is very little evidence of how this problem could be addressed. Aim: To develop evidence‐based, psychologically informed interventions designed to improve PCC staff well‐being that can be feasibility tested on a large scale. Study Design: The Behaviour Change Wheel (BCW) framework guided systematic development of the interventions. This process was informed by a review of existing well‐being initiatives and a survey of PCC staff's awareness and uptake of initiatives identified. Results: Together with empirical evidence, the BCW process produced two bespoke ‘SWell’ (Staff Wellbeing) interventions tailored for delivery in UK PCC units. The two group‐based interventions, Mad‐Sad‐Glad and Wellbeing Images involve the Behaviour Change Techniques (BCTs) of self‐belief, social support, feedback and monitoring. These BCTs align closely with the psychological concepts of self‐efficacy, self‐regulation and the psychological theory of how to thrive. Conclusions: Tailored, evidence‐based, psychologically informed SWell (Staff Wellbeing) interventions are likely to be feasible and have the potential of making significant differences to individual staff members and the PCC workforce as a whole. Associated investments in the psychological health of the workforce and time to prioritize well‐being interventions are required for change to occur and be maintained. Relevance to Clinical Practice: The SWell (Staff Wellbeing) interventions could impact directly on the well‐being of PCC staff and their ability to thrive in the workplace. Indirectly, they could reduce staff attrition, sickness absence and improve patients' and families' experiences of care