The Impact of the Ketogenic Diet on Depression and Psychological Wellbeing: A Randomised Controlled Trial with Integrated Qualitative Analysis

Background and aims: There is evidence to suggest that a ketogenic diet (KD) may help to alleviate psychiatric symptoms, including depression, but this has not been studied extensively or compared directly to the impact of the more common low carbohydrate diet (LCD). The aim of this research was to understand the impact of a non-calorie-restricted low carbohydrate diet and ketogenic diet on depression and aspects of psychological well-being in those with either mild to moderate depressive symptoms or low or no depressive symptoms. Materials and methods: In a randomised control trial with quasi experimental design, participants with mild to moderate depressive symptoms and low depressive symptoms were randomised into either a LCD, a KD, or a control diet (diet as usual) generating a total of 6 participant groups. The dietary interventions (LCD and KD) were delivered through an online education platform for 12 weeks, followed by 12 weeks of unsupported continued diet. The control diet was maintained for a total of 6 weeks. Examinations at baseline (T0), day 1, week 6, week 12, and week 24 included questionnaires and psychological measures stress, anxiety, mental wellbeing, positive and negative affect, depression, self-compassion, social support, and body appreciation. Demographical data was also collected and analysed. Attrition rates were explored post intervention, and a qualitative thematic analysis was carried out on participants interview data following the KD to better understand their experience of the dietary intervention. Results: From study 1, the KD group saw no improvements in psychological wellbeing. The LCD group reported significant improvements in stress, anxiety, and negative affect after 12 weeks and in depressive symptoms after 24 weeks compared to the KD and control group. Significant improvements in positive affect, mental well-being and depressive symptoms were found in those with lower levels of body appreciation compared to those with higher levels, regardless of diet type. From study 2, dropout rates peaked during the 12-week intervention compared to post intervention and the end of the study at 24 weeks. Those with depressive symptoms were less likely to drop out of the study compared to those who were ‘healthy’. From the qualitative study 3, participants in the KD group experienced both physical and mental health improvements. They lost weight and experienced an increase in confidence, energy, and self-esteem. Some reported a renewed meaning and purpose in life. Conclusion: The ketogenic diet did not improve quantitatively measured depressive symptoms or aspects of psychological well-being from self-reported questionnaires. However, from interview data, improvements were experienced by those on the ketogenic diet suggesting that the diet worked for some. Reasons for this contradiction are explored and may be explained in part, by reviewing the intervention design. A low carbohydrate diet was found to improve some aspects of psychological well-being in those with mild to moderate depressive symptoms over 24 weeks. Adverse events experienced were mild and temporary, but retention of participants was challenging. Further well-designed randomised control trials are warranted to identify whether a ketogenic diet would improve psychological well-being in those with more severe depression akin to antidepressant efficacy

Visualizations for an Explainable Planning Agent

In this paper, we report on the visualization capabilities of an Explainable AI Planning (XAIP) agent that can support human in the loop decision making. Imposing transparency and explainability requirements on such agents is especially important in order to establish trust and common ground with the end-to-end automated planning system. Visualizing the agent's internal decision-making processes is a crucial step towards achieving this. This may include externalizing the "brain" of the agent -- starting from its sensory inputs, to progressively higher order decisions made by it in order to drive its planning components. We also show how the planner can bootstrap on the latest techniques in explainable planning to cast plan visualization as a plan explanation problem, and thus provide concise model-based visualization of its plans. We demonstrate these functionalities in the context of the automated planning components of a smart assistant in an instrumented meeting space.Comment: PREVIOUSLY Mr. Jones -- Towards a Proactive Smart Room Orchestrator (appeared in AAAI 2017 Fall Symposium on Human-Agent Groups

Dynamics and consequences of DNA looping by the FokI restriction endonuclease

Genetic events often require proteins to be activated by interacting with two DNA sites, trapping the intervening DNA in a loop. While much is known about looping equilibria, only a few studies have examined DNA-looping dynamics experimentally. The restriction enzymes that cut DNA after interacting with two recognition sites, such as FokI, can be used to exemplify looping reactions. The reaction pathway for FokI on a supercoiled DNA with two sites was dissected by fast kinetics to reveal, in turn: the initial binding of a protein monomer to each site; the protein–protein association to form the dimer, trapping the loop; the subsequent phosphodiester hydrolysis step. The DNA motion that juxtaposes the sites ought on the basis of Brownian dynamics to take ∼2 ms, but loop capture by FokI took 230 ms. Hence, DNA looping by FokI is rate limited by protein association rather than DNA dynamics. The FokI endonuclease also illustrated activation by looping: it cut looped DNA 400 times faster than unlooped DNA

Winter habitat selection by marsh tits Poecile palustris in a British woodland

Capsule: Radio-tracking and remote sensing showed Marsh Tits selected for English Oak Quercus robur trees within large winter home-ranges. Aims: To investigate winter habitat selection by Marsh Tits in a British wood, testing for preferences in tree species and woodland structure. Methods: Thirteen Marsh Tits were radio-tracked during the winter, and home-ranges were derived. Lidar and hyperspectral data were used to compare the vegetation structure and tree species composition of entire home-ranges and the core areas of intensive use within. Instantaneous sampling observations provided further information for tree species utilization. Results: The mean home-range was very large (39 ha, n=13). There were no significant differences in mean tree height, canopy closure, understorey height, or shrub volume between full home-ranges and the core areas of use. Core areas contained a significantly greater proportion of English Oak relative to availability in the full home-ranges. Instantaneous sampling confirmed that English Oak was used significantly more than other trees. Conclusion: Selection for English Oak during winter contrasted with previous studies of breeding territories, indicating that habitat usage varies seasonally and demonstrating the need for habitat selection studies throughout the year. Large home-ranges help to explain the Marsh Tit’s sensitivity to habitat fragmentation

Towards a conceptual framework demonstrating the effectiveness of audiovisual patient descriptions (patient video cases): a review of the current literature

Background: Technological advances have enabled the widespread use of video cases via web-streaming and online download as an educational medium. The use of real subjects to demonstrate acute pathology should aid the education of health care professionals. However, the methodology by which this effect may be tested is not clear. Methods: We undertook a literature review of major databases, found relevant articles relevant to using patient video cases as educational interventions, extracted the methodologies used and assessed these methods for internal and construct validity. Results: A review of 2532 abstracts revealed 23 studies meeting the inclusion criteria and a final review of 18 of relevance. Medical students were the most commonly studied group (10 articles) with a spread of learner satisfaction, knowledge and behaviour tested. Only two of the studies fulfilled defined criteria on achieving internal and construct validity. The heterogeneity of articles meant it was not possible to perform any meta-analysis. Conclusions: Previous studies have not well classified which facet of training or educational outcome the study is aiming to explore and had poor internal and construct validity. Future research should aim to validate a particular outcome measure, preferably by reproducing previous work rather than adopting new methods. In particular cognitive processing enhancement, demonstrated in a number of the medical student studies, should be tested at a postgraduate level

Calorimetric investigations of a series of energetic polyphosphazenes

Energetic, fluorinated, linear polyphosphazenes are currently under investigation as potential, high-density binders for new, polymer bonded explosive compositions. A series of such polymers was synthesised and the enthalpy of combustion of each member of the series was measured by static bomb calorimetry. This was performed after combusting appropriate secondary thermochemical standards to model the combustion stoichiometry of the heteroatoms nitrogen, fluorine and phosphorus. The water-soluble combustion products were identified and quantified using 19F NMR spectroscopy and Ion Chromatography. Since some of the combustion products are hydrolytically unstable, it was found necessary to stabilise the initial combustion product mixtures by using a buffer solution instead of pure water in the bomb, and then to determine the composition of the stabilised product mixtures in order to obtain meaningful values for the enthalpies of combustion and thence enthalpies of formation. The thermochemical measurements themselves were made with pure water in the bomb. The composition and structures of the various polyphosphazenes were correlated with their energies of combustion and enthalpies of formation. The latter were calculated using the latest CODATA values of enthalpy of formation of the combustion products. The ‘combustion’ of the polyphosphazenes under a nitrogen atmosphere was also investigated with the view to calculating the enthalpies of detonation of each member of the series. Three conference papers which include the results of this work have been published and are included in Appendices C-E.EThOS - Electronic Theses Online ServiceGBUnited Kingdo