Mental health interventions for university students: A critical review of literature

Being a student, the high intensity of events within a university setting creates significant levels of stress, which may also be associated with mental health conditions such as depression and anxiety. This review aims to examine the impact of mental health interventions on mental health challenges among university students. A comprehensive literature search in Google Scholar, Academic Search Complete, PsycINFO, and APA. Thirty-two articles were included in the review from the database searched according to the PRISMA criteria. Eligible articles were appraised using Critical Appraisal Skills Programme (CASP) tools. In total, 14 randomised controlled trials and 19 cross-sectional studies with the intervention were included. Only eleven studies reported racial/ethnic characteristics of participants, and most of the studies (60%) involved female participants. Evidence indicates that cognitive-behavioural therapy applied in different modalities is a major effective therapy to reduce depression, anxiety, and suicidal symptoms and increase well-being. This review identified the effectiveness of mental health interventions on depression and anxiety among university students. The review highlighted the disparity of ethnic minority representation in mental health intervention studies; hence it is suggested that future research should incorporate elements of ethnic minorities in mental health interventions

Examining the profound effects of COVID19 on mental health: A comprehensive systematic review on anxiety and depression

The COVID-19 pandemic has presented challenges to humanity, economically and in health and wellbeing. The associated limited social isolation and lifestyle changes has increased the risk for mental health services, especially among vulnerable people. This highlights the need for mental health services, burden that already stretch the health systems. This review presents an exposition on COVID-19 and mental health, and ways to minimise, and possibly prevent, their effect on the psychological well-being of those people. We searched four databases (Academic Search Complete, CINAHL Plus, PsycINFO and PsycARTICLES) using specific search terms and eligibility criteria. Of the 33 included studies, 31 were quantitative, and one qualitative and mixed method each. The studies were analysed using thematic narrative synthesis that resulted in three main themes: (a) the internal and external influences on COVID-19 behaviour, (b) the impact of COVID-19 on health and well-being and (c) the coping strategies used. Since COVID-19 will exist for the foreseeable future, understanding its impact on health and mental well-being and the coping techniques to be adopted are important now than ever. This study contributes to such an understanding along with suggestions regarding ways to minimise the impact of COVID-19 on mental health using context-appropriate strategies

Protecting biodiversity and economic returns in resource-rich tropical forests.

In pursuit of socioeconomic development, many countries are expanding oil and mineral extraction into tropical forests. These activities seed access to remote, biologically rich areas, thereby endangering global biodiversity. Here we demonstrate that conservation solutions that effectively balance the protection of biodiversity and economic revenues are possible in biologically valuable regions. Using spatial data on oil profits and predicted species and ecosystem extents, we optimise the protection of 741 terrestrial species and 20 ecosystems of the Ecuadorian Amazon, across a range of opportunity costs (i.e. sacrifices of extractive profit). For such an optimisation, giving up 5% of a year's oil profits (US$221 million) allows for a protected area network that retains of an average of 65$ 1.7 billion), and uses only marginally less land, to achieve equivalent levels of ecological protection. Applying spatial statistics to remotely sensed, historic deforestation data, we further focus the optimisation to areas most threatened by imminent forest loss. We identify Emergency Conservation Targets: areas that are essential to a cost-effective conservation reserve network and at imminent risk of destruction, thus requiring urgent and effective protection. Governments should employ the methods presented here when considering extractive led development options, to responsibly manage the associated ecological-economic trade-offs and protect natural capital. Article Impact Statement: Governments controlling resource extraction from tropical forests can arrange production and conservation to retain biodiversity and profits. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved

Model order reduction approaches for infinite horizon optimal control problems via the HJB equation

We investigate feedback control for infinite horizon optimal control problems for partial differential equations. The method is based on the coupling between Hamilton-Jacobi-Bellman (HJB) equations and model reduction techniques. It is well-known that HJB equations suffer the so called curse of dimensionality and, therefore, a reduction of the dimension of the system is mandatory. In this report we focus on the infinite horizon optimal control problem with quadratic cost functionals. We compare several model reduction methods such as Proper Orthogonal Decomposition, Balanced Truncation and a new algebraic Riccati equation based approach. Finally, we present numerical examples and discuss several features of the different methods analyzing advantages and disadvantages of the reduction methods

Intrarenal Resistance Index as a Prognostic Parameter in Patients with Liver Cirrhosis Compared with Other Hepatic Scoring Systems

Background and Aims: Patients with advanced liver cirrhosis who develop renal dysfunction have a poor prognosis. Elevated intrarenal resistance indices (RIs) due to renal vascular constriction have been described before in cirrhotic patients. In the current study, we prospectively investigated the course of intrarenal RIs and compared their prognostic impact with those of the Model for End-Stage Liver Disease (MELD) and the Child-Pugh scores. Methods: Sixty-three patients with liver cirrhosis underwent a baseline visit which included a sonographic examination and laboratory tests. Forty-four patients were prospectively monitored. The end points were death or survival at the day of the follow-up visit. Results: In 28 patients, a follow-up visit was performed after 22 8 months (group 1). Sixteen patients died during follow-up after 12 8 months (group 2). Group 2 patients showed a significantly higher baseline RI (0.76 +/- 0.05) than group 1 patients (RI = 0.72 +/- 0.06; p < 0.05). As shown by receiver operating characteristic analysis, the RI and the MELD score achieved similar sensitivity and specificity {[}area under the curve (AUC): 0.722; 95% confidence interval (95% CI): 0.575-0.873 vs. AUC: 0.724; 95% CI: 0.575-0.873, z = 0.029, n.s.] in predicting survival and were superior to the Child-Pugh score (AUC: 0.677; 96% Cl: 0.518-0.837). Conclusion: The RI is not inferior in sensitivity and specificity to the MELD score. Cirrhotic patients with elevated RIs have impaired short- and long-term survival. The RI may help identify high-risk patients that require special therapeutic care. Copyright (C) 2012 S. Karger AG, Base

The effects of interface morphology on Schottky barrier heights: a case study on Al/GaAs(001)

The problem of Fermi-level pinning at semiconductor-metal contacts is readdressed starting from first-principles calculations for Al/GaAs. We give quantitative evidence that the Schottky barrier height is very little affected by any structural distortions on the metal side---including elongations of the metal-semiconductor bond (i.e. interface strain)---whereas it strongly depends on the interface structure on the semiconductor side. A rationale for these findings is given in terms of the interface dipole generated by the ionic effective charges.Comment: 5 pages, latex file, 2 postscript figures automatically include

Border Avoidance: Necessary Regularity for Coefficients and Viscosity Approach

Motivated by the result of invariance of regular-boundary open sets in \cite{CannarsaDaPratoFrankowska2009} and multi-stability issues in gene networks, our paper focuses on three closely related aims. First, we give a necessary local Lipschitz-like condition in order to expect invariance of open sets (for deterministic systems). Comments on optimality are provided via examples. Second, we provide a border avoidance (near-viability) counterpart of \cite{CannarsaDaPratoFrankowska2009} for controlled Brownian diffusions and piecewise deterministic switched Markov processes (PDsMP). We equally discuss to which extent Lipschitz-continuity of the driving coefficients is needed. Finally, by applying the theoretical result on PDsMP to Hasty's model of bacteriophage (\cite{hasty\_pradines\_dolnik\_collins\_00}, \cite{crudu\_debussche\_radulescu\_09}), we show the necessity of explicit modeling for the environmental cue triggering lysis

Extremely fast triplet formation by charge recombination in a Nile Red/fullerene flexible dyad

A donor/acceptor dyad was obtained by linking Nile Red and fullerene to a calix[4]arene scaffold. The dyad was spectroscopically characterized, both with steady-state and ultrafast transient absorption experiments, as well as with electrochemical and spectroelectrochemical techniques. We demonstrate extremely fast and efficient formation of a long-lived excited triplet localized on the fullerene moiety in this system, occurring in about 80 ps in toluene and 220 ps in chloroform. The mechanism of this process is investigated and discussed. The spectroscopic and electrochemical characterization suggests the occurrence of electron transfer from Nile Red to fullerene, leading to the formation of a charge-separated state. This state lives very briefly and, because of the small interaction between the electron donor and acceptor, promotes a singlet/triplet state mixing, inducing charge recombination and efficient triplet formation

Injury-experienced satellite cells retain long-term enhanced regenerative capacity

Background: Inflammatory memory or trained immunity is a recently described process in immune and non-immune tissue resident cells, whereby previous exposure to inflammation mediators leads to a faster and stronger responses upon secondary challenge. Whether previous muscle injury is associated with altered responses to subsequent injury by satellite cells (SCs), the muscle stem cells, is not known. Methods: We used a mouse model of repeated muscle injury, in which intramuscular cardiotoxin (CTX) injections were administered 50&nbsp;days apart in order to allow for full recovery of the injured muscle before the second injury. The effect of prior injury on the phenotype, proliferation and regenerative potential of satellite cells following a second injury was examined in vitro and in vivo by immunohistochemistry, RT-qPCR and histological analysis. Results: We show that SCs isolated from muscle at 50&nbsp;days post-injury (injury-experienced SCs (ieSCs)) enter the cell cycle faster and form bigger myotubes when cultured in vitro, compared to control SCs isolated from uninjured contralateral muscle. Injury-experienced SCs were characterized by the activation of the mTORC 1 signaling pathway, suggesting they are poised to activate sooner following a second injury. Consequently, upon second injury, SCs accumulate in greater numbers in muscle at 3 and 10&nbsp;days after injury. These changes in SC phenotype and behavior were associated with accelerated muscle regeneration, as evidenced by an earlier appearance of bigger fibers and increased number of myonuclei per fiber at day 10 after the second injury. Conclusions: Overall, we show that skeletal muscle injury has a lasting effect on SC function priming them to respond faster to a subsequent injury. The ieSCs have long-term enhanced regenerative properties that contribute to accelerated regeneration following a secondary challenge