Laser processing of printed copper interconnects on polymer substrates

With the increasing demand for integration of electronics embedded within devices there has been a consequent increase in the requirement for the deposition of electrically conductive materials to form connecting tracks on or within non-traditional substrate materials, such as temperature sensitive polymers, that may also have non-planar surfaces. In this work, micron scale copper powder based materials were deposited onto acrylic and glass substrates and then selectively laser processed to form electrically conductive copper tracks. Before deposition, the copper powder was chemically treated to remove the surface oxide and subsequently protected with a self-assembled monolayer coating. The copper was then patterned onto the substrate either as a dry powder confined within pre-formed grooves, or was combined with a binder to be printed as a paste. A CO2 laser was then used to heat the copper powder in air, leading to tracks that showed good electrical conductivity. At low laser power levels, the tracks appeared largely unchanged from the original material, but showed measureable conductivity. With higher laser power levels the tracks showed evidence of partial melting of the surface layers and further reductions in resistivity, to values approximately 30 times those of bulk copper, were obtained

CHAMP: Cognitive behaviour therapy for health anxiety in medical patients, a randomised controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Abnormal health anxiety, also called hypochondriasis, has been successfully treated by cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) in patients recruited from primary care, but only one pilot trial has been carried out among those attending secondary medical clinics where health anxiety is likely to be more common and have a greater impact on services. The CHAMP study extends this work to examine both the clinical and cost effectiveness of CBT in this population. METHOD/DESIGN: The study is a randomized controlled trial with two parallel arms and equal randomization of 466 eligible patients (assuming a 20% drop-out) to an active treatment group of 5-10 sessions of cognitive behaviour therapy and to a control group. The aim at baseline, after completion of all assessments but before randomization, was to give a standard simple explanation of the nature of health anxiety for all participants. Subsequently the control group was to receive whatever care might usually be available in the clinics, which is normally a combination of clinical assessment, appropriate tests and reassurance. Those allocated to the active treatment group were planned to receive between 5 and 10 sessions of an adapted form of cognitive behaviour therapy based on the Salkovskis/Warwick model, in which a set of treatment strategies are chosen aimed at helping patients understand the factors that drive and maintain health anxiety. The therapy was planned to be given by graduate research workers, nurses or other health professionals trained for this intervention whom would also have their competence assessed independently during the course of treatment. The primary outcome is reduction in health anxiety symptoms after one year and the main secondary outcome is the cost of care after two years. DISCUSSION: This represents the first trial of adapted cognitive behaviour therapy in health anxiety that is large enough to test not only the clinical benefits of treatment but also whether the cost of treatment is offset by savings from reduced use of other health services in comparison to the control group.Cognitive behaviour therapy for Health Anxiety in Medical Patients (CHAMP) TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN14565822

Protocol investigating the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of cognitive–behavioural therapy delivered remotely for unscheduled care users with health anxiety: randomised controlled trial

Background Health anxiety and medically unexplained symptoms cost the National Health Service (NHS) an estimated £3 billion per year in unnecessary costs with little evidence of patient benefit. Effective treatment is rarely taken up due to issues such as stigma or previous negative experiences with mental health services. An approach to overcome this might be to offer remotely delivered psychological therapy, which can be just as effective as face-to-face therapy and may be more accessible and suitable. Aims To investigate the clinical outcomes and cost-effectiveness of remotely delivered cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) to people with high health anxiety repeatedly accessing unscheduled care (trial registration: NCT02298036). Method A multicentre randomised controlled trial (RCT) will be undertaken in primary and secondary care providers of unscheduled care across the East Midlands. One hundred and forty-four eligible participants will be equally randomised to receive either remote CBT (6–12 sessions) or treatment as usual (TAU). Two doctoral research studies will investigate the barriers and facilitators to delivering the intervention and the factors contributing to the optimisation of therapeutic outcome. Results This trial will be the first to test the clinical outcomes and costeffectiveness of remotely delivered CBT for the treatment of high health anxiety. Conclusions The findings will enable an understanding as to how this intervention might fit into a wider care pathway to enhance patient experience of care

The MATISSE study: a randomised trial of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia.

RIGHTS : This article is licensed under the BioMed Central licence at http://www.biomedcentral.com/about/license which is similar to the 'Creative Commons Attribution Licence'. In brief you may : copy, distribute, and display the work; make derivative works; or make commercial use of the work - under the following conditions: the original author must be given credit; for any reuse or distribution, it must be made clear to others what the license terms of this work are.BACKGROUND: Art Therapy has been promoted as a means of helping people who may find it difficult to express themselves verbally engage in psychological treatment. Group Art Therapy has been widely used as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia but there have been few attempts to examine its effects and cost effectiveness has not been examined. The MATISSE study aims to evaluate the clinical and cost effectiveness of group Art Therapy for people with schizophrenia. METHOD/DESIGN: The MATISSE study is a three-arm, parallel group, pragmatic, randomised, controlled trial of referral to group Art Therapy plus standard care, referral to an attention control 'activity' group plus standard care, or standard care alone. Study participants were recruited from inpatient and community-based mental health and social care services at four centres in England and Northern Ireland. Participants were aged over 18 years with a clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia, confirmed by an examination of case notes using operationalised criteria. Participants were then randomised via an independent and remote telephone randomisation service using permuted stacked blocks, stratified by site. Art Therapy and activity groups were made available to participants once a week for up to 12 months. Outcome measures were assessed by researchers masked to allocation status at 12 and 24 months after randomisation. Participants and care givers were aware which arm of the trial participants were allocated to. The primary outcomes for the study are global functioning (measured using the Global Assessment of Functioning scale) and mental health symptoms (measured using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale) assessed at 24 months. Secondary outcomes were assessed at 12 and 24 months and comprise levels of group attendance, social function, satisfaction with care, mental wellbeing, and costs. DISCUSSION: We believe that this is the first large scale pragmatic trial of Art Therapy for people with schizophrenia. TRIAL REGISTRATION: Current Controlled Trials ISRCTN46150447.Published versio

Minocycline as a re-purposed anti-Wolbachia macrofilaricide: superiority compared with doxycycline regimens in a murine infection model of human lymphatic filariasis

Lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis are parasitic helminth diseases, which cause severe morbidities such as elephantiasis, skin disease and blindness, presenting a major public health burden in endemic communities. The anti-Wolbachia consortium (A·WOL: http://www.a-wol.com/) has identified a number of registered antibiotics that target the endosymbiotic bacterium, Wolbachia, delivering macrofilaricidal activity. Here we use pharmacokinetics/pharmacodynamics (PK/PD) analysis to rationally develop an anti-Wolbachia chemotherapy by linking drug exposure to pharmacological effect. We compare the pharmacokinetics and anti-Wolbachia efficacy in a murine Brugia malayi model of minocycline versus doxycycline. Doxycycline exhibits superior PK in comparison to minocycline resulting in a 3-fold greater exposure in SCID mice. Monte-Carlo simulations confirmed that a bi-daily 25–40 mg/Kg regimen is bioequivalent to a clinically effective 100–200 mg/day dose for these tetracyclines. Pharmacodynamic studies showed that minocycline depletes Wolbachia more effectively than doxycycline (99.51% vs. 90.35%) after 28 day 25 mg/Kg bid regimens with a more potent block in microfilarial production. PK/PD analysis predicts that minocycline would be expected to be 1.7 fold more effective than doxycycline in man despite lower exposure in our infection models. Our findings warrant onward clinical investigations to examine the clinical efficacy of minocycline treatment regimens against lymphatic filariasis and onchocerciasis

Group art therapy as an adjunctive treatment for people with schizophrenia: multicentre pragmatic randomised trial

Objectives To evaluate the clinical effectiveness of group art therapy for people with schizophrenia and to test whether any benefits exceed those of an active control treatment

Parent-of-origin-specific allelic associations among 106 genomic loci for age at menarche.

Age at menarche is a marker of timing of puberty in females. It varies widely between individuals, is a heritable trait and is associated with risks for obesity, type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular disease, breast cancer and all-cause mortality. Studies of rare human disorders of puberty and animal models point to a complex hypothalamic-pituitary-hormonal regulation, but the mechanisms that determine pubertal timing and underlie its links to disease risk remain unclear. Here, using genome-wide and custom-genotyping arrays in up to 182,416 women of European descent from 57 studies, we found robust evidence (P < 5 × 10(-8)) for 123 signals at 106 genomic loci associated with age at menarche. Many loci were associated with other pubertal traits in both sexes, and there was substantial overlap with genes implicated in body mass index and various diseases, including rare disorders of puberty. Menarche signals were enriched in imprinted regions, with three loci (DLK1-WDR25, MKRN3-MAGEL2 and KCNK9) demonstrating parent-of-origin-specific associations concordant with known parental expression patterns. Pathway analyses implicated nuclear hormone receptors, particularly retinoic acid and γ-aminobutyric acid-B2 receptor signalling, among novel mechanisms that regulate pubertal timing in humans. Our findings suggest a genetic architecture involving at least hundreds of common variants in the coordinated timing of the pubertal transition

Pornography addiction in adults: a systematic review of definitions and reported impact

Self-perceived pornography addiction (SPPA) has increasingly emerged as a concept in research and popular culture, and commentators warn of the reported negative impact that it can have. Despite this, “pornography addiction” is not a formally recognized disorder and there is disagreement among researchers regarding its definition or even its existence. Therefore, how SPPA is operationalized often varies, and this can significantly influence the conclusions made about its impact. This paper aimed to examine how SPPA is commonly operationalised, and its supposed impact, through a systematic review of quantitative and qualitative peer-reviewed literature. We found that SPPA is most frequently operationalized as excessive pornography use, and that reported negative consequences of SPPA included social isolation and relationship breakdowns. However, limitations within the primary studies reviewed (including lack of representative samples and inadequate measurements of SPPA) significantly limit the strength of the conclusions that can be drawn regarding the nature, phenomenology, or impact of self-perceived pornography addiction