Effects of the COVID-19 lockdown on mental health in a UK student sample

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic and the resulting restrictions placed upon society have had a profound impact on both physical and mental health, particularly for young people. AIMS: The current study assesses the impact of COVID-19 on student mental health. METHOD: Four hundred and thirty four first year Undergraduate students completed a battery of self-report questionnaires (PHQ-P, GAD-7 and SAS-SV) to assess for depression, anxiety and mobile phone addiction respectively with data being collected over a 2 year period. The data from each year was compared (216 and 218 students respectively). RESULTS: A MANOVA revealed that COVID-19 had a significant impact on self-reported levels of depression, anxiety and smartphone addiction—which all significantly increased from the 2020 to the 2021 group. The percentage of students who had a score which warranted a classification of clinical depression increased from 30 to 44%, and for anxiety increased from 22 to 27%—those students who showed a comorbidity across the two rose from 12 to 21%. Smartphone addiction levels rose from 39 to 50%. Correlational analysis showed a significant relationship between Smartphone usage and depression and anxiety. CONCLUSIONS: This research suggests that COVID-19 has had a major impact upon student mental health, and smartphone addiction. The importance of identifying predictive factors of depression and anxiety is emphasised, and suggestions for intervention are discussed

Influences of environmental stressors on autonomic function in 12-month-old infants: understanding early common pathways to atypical emotion regulation and cognitive performance

Background Previous research has suggested that children exposed to more early‐life stress show worse mental health outcomes and impaired cognitive performance in later life, but the mechanisms subserving these relationships remain poorly understood. Method Using miniaturised microphones and physiological arousal monitors (electrocardiography, heart rate variability and actigraphy), we examined for the first time infants’ autonomic reactions to environmental stressors (noise) in the home environment, in a sample of 82 12‐month‐old infants from mixed demographic backgrounds. The same infants also attended a laboratory testing battery where attention‐ and emotion‐eliciting stimuli were presented. We examined how children's environmental noise exposure levels at home related to their autonomic reactivity and to their behavioural performance in the laboratory. Results Individual differences in total noise exposure were independent of other socioeconomic and parenting variables. Children exposed to higher and more rapidly fluctuating environmental noise showed more unstable autonomic arousal patterns overall in home settings. In the laboratory testing battery, this group showed more labile and short‐lived autonomic changes in response to novel attention‐eliciting stimuli, along with reduced visual sustained attention. They also showed increased arousal lability in response to an emotional stressor. Conclusions Our results offer new insights into the mechanisms by which environmental noise exposure may confer increased risk of adverse mental health and impaired cognitive performance during later life

CLIMATE CHANGE IMPACT ON MOUNTAIN BIODIVERSITY: A SPECIAL REFERENCE TO GILGIT-BALTISTAN OF PAKISTAN

Climate Change is not a stationary phenomenon; it moves from time to time, it represents a major threat to mountainous biodiversity and to ecosystem integrity. The present study is an attempt to identify the current knowledge gap and the effects of climate change on mountainous biodiversity, a special reference to the Gilgit-Baltistan is briefly reviewed. Measuring the impact of climate change on mountain biodiversity is quite challenging, because climate change interacts with every phenomenon of ecosystem. The scale of this change is so large and very adverse so strongly connected to ecosystem services, and all communities who use natural resources. This study aims to provide the evidences on the basis of previous literature, in particular context to mountain biodiversity of Gilgit-Baltistan (GB). Mountains of Gilgit-Baltistan have most fragile ecosystem and are more vulnerable to climate change. These mountains host variety of wild fauna and flora, with many endangered species of the world. There are still many gaps in our knowledge of literature we studied because very little research has been conducted in Gilgit-Baltistan about climate change particular to biodiversity. Recommendations are made for increased research efforts in future this including jointly monitoring programs, climate change models and ecological research. Understanding the impact of climate change particular to biodiversity of GB is very important for sustainable management of these natural resources. The Government organizations, NGOs and the research agencies must fill the knowledge gap, so that it will help them for policy making, which will be based on scientific findings and research based

Spatial and temporal dynamics of multidimensional well-being, livelihoods and ecosystem services in coastal Bangladesh.

Published onlineJournal ArticlePopulations in resource dependent economies gain well-being from the natural environment, in highly spatially and temporally variable patterns. To collect information on this, we designed and implemented a 1586-household quantitative survey in the southwest coastal zone of Bangladesh. Data were collected on material, subjective and health dimensions of well-being in the context of natural resource use, particularly agriculture, aquaculture, mangroves and fisheries. The questionnaire included questions on factors that mediate poverty outcomes: mobility and remittances; loans and micro-credit; environmental perceptions; shocks; and women's empowerment. The data are stratified by social-ecological system to take into account spatial dynamics and the survey was repeated with the same respondents three times within a year to incorporate seasonal dynamics. The dataset includes blood pressure measurements and height and weight of men, women and children. In addition, the household listing includes basic data on livelihoods and income for approximately 10,000 households. The dataset facilitates interdisciplinary research on spatial and temporal dynamics of well-being in the context of natural resource dependence in low income countries.The authors gratefully acknowledge the residents of Khulna and Barisal who gave up many hours of their time to be interviewed on multiple occasions. We are indebted to their generosity and patience. In addition we would like to acknowledge the important contribution of Tauhida Nasrin and colleagues at Associates for Community and Population Research and the team of enumerators who ensured the smooth implementation of the survey; Masfiqus Salehin and Rezaur Rahman at Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology, Munir Ahmed at Technological Assistance for Rural Advancement and Hamidul Huq at University of Liberal Arts Bangladesh for their assistance in defining the social-ecological systems; Mahin Al Nahian for his assistance in implementing the survey; Rakin Muhtadee Shihab for completing the final translation of the questionnaire to Bengali; Munir Ahmed, Abir Ahammad Talukdar and Ali Mohammad Rezaie for assistance with qualitative fieldwork and pretesting; Abul Kashem Mohammad Hasan at the Center for Environmental and Geographic Information Services and Muhammad Zahirul Haq at icddr,b for the GIS work. The survey was part of the project Assessing Health, Livelihoods, Ecosystem Services And Poverty Alleviation In Populous Deltas (Espa Deltas; Grant No. NE/J000892/1), part of the Ecosystem Services for Poverty Alleviation (ESPA) programme. The ESPA programme is funded by the Department for International Development, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Natural Environment Research Council. Helen Adams had full access to all the data in the study and takes responsibility for the integrity of the data and the accuracy of the data analysis

Antidiabetic principle from Eclipta prostrata

The methanol extract of the whole plant of Eclipta prostrata and one of its isolated compounds, eclalbasaponin II were administered to alloxan-induced diabetic rats for 28 and 7 consecutive days, respectively. During the study, a potent antidiabetic activity was observed. Blood sugar was significantly (p < 0.001) reduced by E. prostrata extract (300 mg/kg) and eclalbasaponin II (10 mg/kg), as compared to untreated diabetic rats. Analyses of alanine aminotransferase (ALT), aspartate aminotransferase (AST) and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) showed no significant (p < 0.001) hepatotoxicity by E. prostrata extractive in alloxan-induced diabetic rats when compared to the diabetic control rats.Colegio de Farmacéuticos de la Provincia de Buenos Aire

Multi-dimensional well-being associated with economic dependence on ecosystem services in deltaic social-ecological systems of Bangladesh

This is the final version. Available on open access from Springer via the DOI in this recordWhile the benefits humans gain from ecosystem functions and processes are critical in natural resource-dependent societies with persistent poverty, ecosystem services as a pathway out of poverty remain an elusive goal, contingent on the ecosystem and mediated by social processes. Here, we investigate three emerging dimensions of the ecosystem service-poverty relationship: economic contribution of provisioning ecosystem services to the household livelihood mix, social-ecological systems producing different bundles of ecosystem services and material wealth versus reported life satisfaction. We analyse these relationships in Bangladesh, using data from a bespoke 1586-household survey, stratified by seven social-ecological systems in the delta coastal region. We create poverty lines to ensure comparability with traditional poverty measures that overlook environmental factors and subjective measurements of well-being. We find that any contribution of ecosystem service-based income to the livelihood mix decreases the likelihood of the incidence of poverty, and of individuals reporting dissatisfaction. We find no relationship between the incidence of material poverty and the specific social-ecological systems, from agriculture to fishery-dominated systems. However, the probability of the household head being dissatisfied was significantly associated with social-ecological system. Individuals living in areas dominated by export-oriented shrimp aquaculture reported lower levels of life satisfaction as an element of their perceived well-being. These results highlight the need for social policy on poverty that accounts for the diversity of outcomes across social-ecological systems, including subjective as well as material dimensions of well-being. National poverty reduction that degrades ecosystem services can have negative implications for the subjective well-being of local populations.Natural Environment Research Council (NERC)Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC)Department for International Developmen

Redetermination of the crystal structure of (2E,4Z,13E,15Z)-3,5,14,16-tetramethyl-2,6,13,17-tetraazatricyclo[16.4.0.07,12]docosa-1(22),2,4,7,9,11,13,15,18,20-decaene, C22H24N4

C22H24N4, triclinic, P1 (no. 2), a = 9.217(4) Å, b = 9.774(4) Å,c = 10.843(4) Å, α = 96.770(2)°, β = 101.791(5)°, γ = 105.873(3)°, V = 903.9(6) Å3, Z = 2, Rgt(F) = 0.0391, wRref(F2) = 0.1069, T = 93(2) K

Redetermination of the crystal structure of bis[N,N′-ethylenebis(acetylacetoniminato)nickel(II)] sodium perchlorate, C24H36ClN4NaNi2O8

C24H36ClN4NaNi2O8, monoclinic, C2/c (no. 15), a = 19.5909(11) Å, b = 10.8023(6) Å, c = 14.5722(8) Å, β = 112.032(1)°, V = 2858.7(3) Å3, Z = 4, Rgt(F) = 0.0260, wRref(F2) = 0.0701, T = 93(2) K