Comparing In-The-Moment Skill Coaching Effects from Tailored Versus Non-Tailored Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Mobile Apps in a Non-Clinical Sample

Mobile apps are promising for teaching how to practice psychological skills in high-risk and in vivo momentary situations, but there has been minimal research on the immediate effects of app-based skill coaching on mental health in-the-moment. This study analyzed the mobile app data in a non-clinical sample of 39 adults participating in a larger randomized controlled trial, with participants randomized to an acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) mobile app that tailors skill coaching based on in-the-moment variables (n = 17) or an app that provides randomly selected skill coaching (n = 22). Data was collected before and after each ACT skill coaching session on proximal outcome (depression, anxiety, engagement in meaningful activity) and ACT process variables. Multilevel models indicated significant immediate improvements on average following ACT skill coaching sessions on all proximal outcome and ACT process variables, although with relatively small effects ranging between .17 and .27 SD units change. Larger immediate pre-to- post effects from ACT coaching sessions were found for anxiety, experiential avoidance, and cognitive fusion in the tailored app versus random app condition. Overall, results suggest an ACT app can have immediate, in-the-moment effects on psychological functioning, which may be enhanced by tailoring skills to current context

Evaluating an adjunctive mobile app to enhance psychological flexibility in acceptance and commitment therapy

The primary aims of this study were to evaluate the feasibility and potential efficacy of a novel adjunctive mobile app designed to enhance the acquisition, strengthening, and generalization of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) skills being taught in therapy. A sample of 14 depressed/anxious clients receiving ACT used the ACT Daily app for two weeks in a pre-post, open trial design. Participants reported a high degree of program satisfaction. Clients significantly improved over the two-week period on depression and anxiety symptoms as well as a range of psychological inflexibility measures. Analyses of mobile app data indicated effects of ACT Daily skill coaching on in-the-moment measures of inflexibility and symptoms, with unique effects found for acceptance and mindfulness. Adjunctive ACT mobile apps appear promising in enhancing therapy effects on psychological inflexibility and outcomes. A tailored skill coaching approach like ACT Daily based on randomly prompted assessments may be especially promising

Examining the Relationships Between Acculturation Orientations, Perceived and Actual Norms, and Drinking Behaviors of Short-Term American Sojourners in Foreign Environments

As little research has examined factors influencing increased and heavy drinking behavior among American sojourners abroad, this study was designed to examine how acculturation orientations (i.e., separation versus assimilation), host country per capita drinking rates, and perceptions about the drinking behavior among other sojourners and natives in the host country predicted alcohol risk abroad. A sample of 216 American college students completing study abroad programs completed a pre-abroad questionnaire to document their pre-abroad drinking levels, followed by a post-return questionnaire to assess drinking while abroad, acculturation orientations and perceived norms of drinking behavior within the foreign environment. A dichotomous variable was created to compare United States (U.S.) per capita drinking rates with those of the host country. Hierarchical repeated-measures ANOVAs examined the changes in drinking from pre-abroad to abroad levels. Participants studying in countries with higher drinking rates than the U.S. and those with higher perceptions about the drinking behavior in the country increased their drinking to a greater extent. Those with higher separation acculturation orientations and greater perceptions drank at heavier levels while abroad. Participants with a greater assimilation orientation and higher perceptions about native drinking, as well as those with a greater separation orientation and higher perceptions about other students’ alcohol use drank the heaviest while abroad. These findings have implications for future preventive work with American students and other sojourning groups to promote pre-abroad knowledge of more accurate drinking norms and greater engagement in the culture to potentially prevent increased and heavier drinking

An Ecological Momentary Assessment Study Investigating the Function of Hoarding

This study examined the function of hoarding behaviors and the relations between hoarding and a series of cognitive and affective processes in the moment using ecological momentary assessment. A matched-groups design was used to compare college students with higher hoarding symptoms (n = 31) and matched controls (n = 29). The two groups did not differ in what function they reported acquiring served, and positive automatic reinforcement was the most commonly reported function in both groups. Engaging in hoarding-relevant behaviors did not predict change in positive or negative affect when controlling for previous affect. Emotional reactivity and experiential avoidance in the moment were both elevated in the higher hoarding group compared to controls, while momentary mindfulness and negative affect differentiation were lower. Overall, these findings support the importance of emotion regulation processes in hoarding. They also suggest individuals may not be successfully regulating affect in the moment with hoarding behaviors, despite efforts to do so. It may be useful to evaluate processes such as striving for positive affect in hoarding disorder in the future

Tailoring Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Skill Coaching In-The-Moment Through Smartphones: Results from a Randomized Controlled Trial

There is growing evidence for the efficacy of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) interventions delivered through smartphones, but research has not yet focused on how to optimize such interventions. One benefit of mobile interventions is the ability to adapt content based on in-the-moment variables. The current randomized controlled trial evaluated whether an ACT app that tailored skill coaching based on in-the-moment ecological momentary assessments (EMAs) would be more efficacious than the same app where skill coaching was random or an EMA-only condition. A sample of 69 adults interested in using a self-help app were randomized to one of three app conditions and used the app for the following four weeks. Results indicated equivalently high user satisfaction with the tailored versus random apps. Participants used the EMA-only app the most and the tailored app the least, but overall adherence was adequate. Participants in the tailored app improved significantly more on psychological distress and positive mental health relative to the random app and EMA-only conditions. However, no differences were found between the random app and EMA-only conditions on outcomes. Between group differences over time were also found on psychological inflexibility, but this appeared to be primarily due to a lower rate of improvement in the random app condition relative to both tailored and EMA-only. Overall, these results suggest that tailoring ACT skill coaching based on in-the-moment variables leads to greater efficacy

The Effects of Age, Exposure History and Malaria Infection on the Susceptibility of Anopheles Mosquitoes to Low Concentrations of Pyrethroid

Chemical insecticides are critical components of malaria control programs. Their ability to eliminate huge numbers of mosquitoes allows them to swiftly interrupt disease transmission, but that lethality also imposes immense selection for insecticide resistance. Targeting control at the small portion of the mosquito population actually responsible for transmitting malaria parasites to humans would reduce selection for resistance, yet maintain effective malaria control. Here, we ask whether simply lowering the concentration of the active ingredient in insecticide formulations could preferentially kill mosquitoes infected with malaria and/or those that are potentially infectious, namely, old mosquitoes. Using modified WHO resistance-monitoring assays, we exposed uninfected Anopheles stephensi females to low concentrations of the pyrethroid permethrin at days 4, 8, 12, and 16 days post-emergence and monitored survival for at least 30 days to evaluate the immediate and long-term effects of repeated exposure as mosquitoes aged. We also exposed Plasmodium chabaudi- and P. yoelii-infected An. stephensi females. Permethrin exposure did not consistently increase mosquito susceptibility to subsequent insecticide exposure, though older mosquitoes were more susceptible. A blood meal slightly improved survival after insecticide exposure; malaria infection did not detectably increase insecticide susceptibility. Exposure to low concentrations over successive feeding cycles substantially altered cohort age-structure. Our data suggest the possibility that, where high insecticide coverage can be achieved, low concentration formulations have the capacity to reduce disease transmission without the massive selection for resistance imposed by current practice

Knockout of the dhfr-ts Gene in Trypanosoma cruzi Generates Attenuated Parasites Able to Confer Protection against a Virulent Challenge

Chagas disease is the clinical manifestation of the infection produced by the flagellate parasite Trypanosoma cruzi and currently there is no vaccine to prevent this disease. Therefore, different approaches or alternatives are urgently needed. Vaccination with live attenuated parasites has been used effectively in mice to reduce parasitemia and histological damage. However, the use of live parasites as inmunogens is controversial due to the risk of reversion to a virulent phenotype. In this work we genetically manipulated a naturally attenuated strain of T. cruzi in order to produce parasites with impaired replication and infectivity, using the mutation as a safety device against reversion to virulence. We show that genetically modified parasites display a lower proliferation rate in vitro and induced almost undetectable levels of T. cruzi specific CD8+ T cells when injected in mice. Furthermore, the immune response induced by these live mutant parasites confers protection against a subsequent virulent infection even a year after the original immunization

A Combination of Preliminary Electroweak Measurements and Constraints on the Standard Model, 2002

his note presents a combination of published and preliminary electroweak results from the four LEP collaborations and the SLD collaboration which were prepared for the 2002 summer conferences. Averages from Z resonance results are derived for hadronic and leptonic cross sections, the leptonic forward-backward asymmetries, the tau polarisation asymmetries, the b-bbar and c-cbar partial widths and forward-backward asymmetries and the q-qbar charge asymmetry. Above the Z resonance, averages are derived for di-fermion cross sections and forward-backward asymmetries, photon-pair, W-pair, Z-pair single-W and single-Z cross sections, electroweak gauge boson couplings, W mass and width and W decay branching ratios. The main changes with respect to the experimental results presented in summer 2001 are updates to the Z-pole heavy flavour results from SLD and LEP, and new combinations of results above the Z pole. A new investigation of the interference of photon and Z-boson exchange is presented. For the first time, colour reconnection and Bose-Einstein correlation analyses in W-pair production are combined. The results are compared with precise electroweak measurements from other experiments, notably the recent final result on the electroweak mixing angle determined in neutrino-nucleon scattering by the NuTeV collaboration. The parameters of the Standard Model are evaluated, first using the combined LEP electroweak measurements, and then using the full set of electroweak results