47 research outputs found
Use of an interactive obesity treatment approach in individuals with severe mental illness: Feasibility, acceptability, and proposed engagement criteria
BACKGROUND: Digital and mobile health interventions are increasingly being used to support healthy lifestyle change, including in certain high-risk populations such as those with severe mental illnesses (SMIs). Life expectancy in this population lags 15 years behind counterparts in the general population, primarily due to obesity-related health conditions.
OBJECTIVE: We tested the feasibility and usability of a 12-week interactive obesity treatment approach (iOTA) to adults with chronic SMIs (depression, bipolar disorder and schizophrenia spectrum disorder) receiving treatment in community settings. The iOTA incorporates short message service (SMS) text messages to supplement monthly in-person health coaching.
METHODS: Factors hypothesized to be associated with weight change were illness severity and treatment engagement. Severe psychiatric symptoms were defined as baseline Clinical Global Impression severity score of \u3e5. Criterion engagement was defined as a text messaging response rate \u3e80% during the first 4 weeks of treatment. Disordered eating, assessed with the Loss of Control Over Eating Scores, was also evaluated. Participants provided qualitative data, further informing assessment of intervention feasibility, usability, and acceptability.
RESULTS: A total of 26 participants were enrolled. The mean age was 48.5 (SD 15.67) years; 40% (10/26) were Black and 60% (15/26) female. Participants with lower symptom severity and adequate engagement demonstrated significantly decreased weight (F
CONCLUSIONS: These results demonstrate the feasibility of delivering an adapted iOTA to SMI patients receiving care in community settings and suggest testable criteria for defining sufficient treatment engagement and psychiatric symptom severity, two factors known to impact weight loss outcomes. These important findings suggest specific adaptations may be needed for optimal treatment outcomes in individuals with SMI
Adaptation of a mobile interactive obesity treatment approach for early severe mental illness: Protocol for a mixed methods implementation and pilot randomized controlled trial
BACKGROUND: Obesity is common in individuals with severe mental illness (SMI), contributing to a significantly shortened lifespan when compared to the general population. Available weight loss treatments have attenuated efficacy in this population, underscoring the importance of prevention and early intervention.
OBJECTIVE: Here, we describe a type 1 hybrid study design for adapting and pilot-testing an existing mobile health intervention for obesity prevention in individuals with early SMI and Class I or early-stage obesity, defined as a BMI of 30-35.
METHODS: An existing, evidence-based interactive obesity treatment approach using low-cost, semiautomated SMS text messaging was selected for adaptation. Community mental health clinics and Clubhouse settings in Eastern Missouri and South Florida were identified to participate. This study has the following 3 aims. First, using the Enhanced Framework for Reporting Adaptations and Modifications to Evidence-based interventions, contextual aspects of the clinical and digital treatment environments are identified for adaptation, considering 5 main stakeholder groups (clinical administrators, prescribing clinicians, case managers, nurses, and patients). Following a 2-week trial of unadapted SMS text messaging, Innovation Corps methods are used to discover needed intervention adaptations by stakeholder group and clinical setting. Second, adaptations to digital functionality and intervention content will be made based on themes identified in aim 1, followed by rapid usability testing with key stakeholders. A process for iterative treatment adaptation will be developed for making unplanned modifications during the aim 3 implementation pilot study. Individuals working in partner community mental health clinics and Clubhouse settings will be trained in intervention delivery. Third, in a randomized pilot and feasibility trial, adults with 5 years or less of treatment for an SMI diagnosis will be randomized 2:1 to 6 months of an adapted interactive obesity treatment approach or to an attentional control condition, followed by a 3-month extension phase of SMS text messages only. Changes in weight, BMI, and behavioral outcomes, as well as implementation challenges, will be evaluated at 6 and 9 months.
RESULTS: Institutional review board approval for aims 1 and 2 was granted on August 12, 2018, with 72 focus group participants enrolled; institutional review board approval for aim 3 was granted on May 6, 2020. To date, 52 participants have been enrolled in the study protocol.
CONCLUSIONS: In this type 1 hybrid study design, we apply an evidence-based treatment adaptation framework to plan, adapt, and feasibility test a mobile health intervention in real-world treatment settings. Resting at the intersection of community mental health treatment and physical health promotion, this study aims to advance the use of simple technology for obesity prevention in individuals with early-stage mental illness.
TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03980743; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03980743.
INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/42114
Limits to Rest-Frame Ultraviolet Emission From Far-Infrared-Luminous z~6 Quasar Hosts
We report on a Hubble Space Telescope search for rest-frame ultraviolet
emission from the host galaxies of five far-infrared-luminous
quasars and the hot-dust free quasar SDSS J0005-0006. We perform 2D
surface brightness modeling for each quasar using a Markov-Chain Monte-Carlo
estimator, to simultaneously fit and subtract the quasar point source in order
to constrain the underlying host galaxy emission. We measure upper limits for
the quasar host galaxies of mag and mag, corresponding to
stellar masses of . These stellar mass limits are
consistent with the local - relation. Our flux limits
are consistent with those predicted for the UV stellar populations of
host galaxies, but likely in the presence of significant dust
( mag). We also detect a total of up
to 9 potential quasar companion galaxies surrounding five of the six
quasars, separated from the quasars by 1.4''-3.2'', or 8.4-19.4 kpc, which may
be interacting with the quasar hosts. These nearby companion galaxies have UV
absolute magnitudes of -22.1 to -19.9 mag, and UV spectral slopes of
-2.0 to -0.2, consistent with luminous star-forming galaxies at .
These results suggest that the quasars are in dense environments typical of
luminous galaxies. However, we cannot rule out the possibility that
some of these companions are foreground interlopers. Infrared observations with
the James Webb Space Telescope will be needed to detect the quasar
host galaxies and better constrain their stellar mass and dust content.Comment: 22 pages, 13 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap
PEARLS: Low Stellar Density Galaxies in the El Gordo Cluster Observed with JWST
A full understanding of how unusually large "Ultra Diffuse Galaxies" (UDGs)
fit into our conventional understanding of dwarf galaxies remains elusive,
despite the large number of objects identified locally. A natural extension of
UDG research is the study of similar galaxies at higher redshift to establish
how their properties may evolve over time. However, this has been a challenging
task given how severely systematic effects and cosmological surface brightness
dimming inhibit our ability to study low-surface brightness galaxies at
high-. Here, we present an identification of low stellar surface density
galaxies (LDGs), likely the progenitors of local UDGs, at moderate redshift
with deep near-IR observations of the El Gordo cluster at with JWST.
By stacking 8 NIRCAM filters, we are able to achieve an apparent surface
brightness sensitivity of mag arcsec, faint enough to be
complete to the bright end of the LDG population. Our analysis identifies
significant differences between this population and local UDGs, such as their
color and size distributions, which suggest that UDG progenitors are bluer and
more extended at high- than at . This suggests that multiple
mechanisms are responsible for UDG formation and that prolonged transformation
of cluster dwarfs is not a primary UDG formation mechanism at high-.
Furthermore, we find a slight overabundance of LDGs in El Gordo, and, in
contrast to findings in local clusters, our analysis does not show a deficit of
LDGs in the center of El Gordo, implying that tidal destruction of LDGs is
significant between and .Comment: Resubmitted to ApJ after minor revision
JWST NIRCam Photometry: A Study of Globular Clusters Surrounding Bright Elliptical Galaxy VV 191a at z=0.0513
James Webb Space Telescope NIRCam images have revealed 443 globular cluster
(GC) candidates around the elliptical galaxy VV 191a. NIRCam
broadband observations are made at 0.9-4.5 m using filters F090W, F150W,
F356W, and F444W. Using photometry, the data is analyzed to present
color-magnitude diagrams (CMDs) that suggest a fairly uniform population of
GCs. Color histograms show a unimodal color distribution that is well fit by a
single Gaussian, using color to primarily trace the metallicity. The findings
show the sample's globular cluster luminosity function (GCLF) does not reach
the turnover value and is, therefore, more luminous than what is typically
expected, with an absolute AB magnitude, mag, reaching
within nearly one magnitude of the classical turnover value. We attribute this
to the completeness in the sample. Models show that the mass estimate of the
GCs detected tends to be more massive, reaching upward of . However, the results show that current GC models do not quite align
with the data. We find that the models appear to be bluer than the JWST data in
the reddest (F356W-F444W) filters and redder than the data in the bluest
(F090W-F150W) filters and may need to be revised to improve the modeling of
near-IR colors of old, metal-poor stellar populations.Comment: 11 pages, 7 figure
EPOCHS VII: Discovery of high redshift () AGN candidates in JWST ERO and PEARLS data
We present an analysis of a sample of robust high redshift galaxies selected
photometrically from the `blank' fields of the Prime Extragalactic Areas for
Reionization Science (PEARLS) survey and Early Release Observations (ERO) data
of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) with the aim of selecting candidate
high redshift active galactic nuclei (AGN). Sources were identified from the
parent sample using a threefold selection procedure, which includes spectral
energy distribution (SED) fitting to identify sources that are best fitted by
AGN SED templates, a further selection based on the relative performance of AGN
and non-AGN models, and finally morphological fitting to identify compact
sources of emission, resulting in a purity-oriented procedure. Using this
procedure, we identify a sample of nine AGN candidates at , from
which we constrain their physical properties as well as measure a lower bound
on the AGN fraction in this redshift range of \%. As this is an
extreme lower limit due to our focus on purity and our SEDs being calibrated
for unobscured Type 1 AGN, this demonstrates that AGN are perhaps quite common
at this early epoch. The rest-frame UV colors of our candidate objects suggest
that these systems are potentially candidate obese black hole galaxies (OBG),
or AGN with very little galaxy component. We also investigate emission from our
sample sources from fields overlapping with Chandra and VLA surveys, allowing
us to place X-ray and 3 GHz radio detection limits on our candidates. Of note
is a candidate source exhibiting an abrupt morphological shift in
the reddest band as compared to the bluer bands, indicating a potential merger
or an unusually strong outflow.Comment: Submitted to MNRAS, 12 pages, 11 figures, typos correcte
Magellanic System Stars Identified in the SMACS J0723.3-7327 JWST ERO Images
We identify 68 distant stars in JWST/NIRCam ERO images of the field of galaxy
cluster SMACS J0723.3-7327 (SMACS 0723). Given the relatively small
() angular separation between SMACS 0723 and the Large
Magellanic Cloud, it is likely that these stars are associated with the LMC
outskirts or Leading Arm. This is further bolstered by a spectral energy
distribution analysis, which suggests an excess of stars at a physical distance
of kpc, consistent with being associated with or located behind the
Magellanic system. In particular, we find that the overall surface density of
stars brighter than 27.0 mag in the field of SMACS 0723 is 2.3 times that
of stars in a blank field with similar galactic latitude (the North Ecliptic
Pole Time Domain Field), and that the density of stars in the SMACS 0723 field
with SED-derived distances consistent with the Magellanic system is 7.3
times larger than that of the blank field. The candidate stars at these
distances are consistent with a stellar population at the same distance modulus
with [Fe/H] and an age of Gyr. On the assumption that all
of the 68 stars are associated with the LMC, then the stellar density of the
LMC at the location of the SMACS 0723 field is stars kpc,
which helps trace the density of stars in the LMC outskirts.Comment: Submitted to ApJ, comments welcom
PEARLS: A Potentially Isolated Quiescent Dwarf Galaxy with a TRGB Distance of 31 Mpc
A wealth of observations have long suggested that the vast majority of
isolated classical dwarf galaxies (- M) are currently
star-forming. However, recent observations of the large abundance of
"Ultra-Diffuse Galaxies" beyond the reach of previous large spectroscopic
surveys suggest that our understanding of the dwarf galaxy population may be
incomplete. Here we report the serendipitous discovery of an isolated quiescent
dwarf galaxy in the nearby Universe, which was imaged as part of the PEARLS GTO
program. Remarkably, individual red-giant branch stars are visible in this
near-IR imaging, suggesting a distance of Mpc, and a wealth of archival
photometry point to an sSFR of yr. Spectra obtained
with the Lowell Discovery Telescope find a recessional velocity consistent with
the Hubble Flow and km/s separated from the nearest massive galaxy in
SDSS, suggesting that this galaxy was either quenched from internal mechanisms
or had a very high-velocity interaction with a nearby massive galaxy in the
past. This analysis highlights the possibility that many nearby quiescent dwarf
galaxies are waiting to be discovered and that JWST has the potential to
identify them.Comment: Submitted to ApJ Letters. Comments welcome
Are JWST/NIRCam color gradients in the lensed z=2.3 dusty star-forming galaxy El Anzuelo due to central dust attenuation or inside-out galaxy growth?
Gradients in the mass-to-light ratio of distant galaxies impede our ability
to characterize their size and compactness. The long-wavelength filters of
's NIRCam offer a significant step forward. For galaxies at Cosmic Noon
(), this regime corresponds to the rest-frame near-infrared, which is
less biased towards young stars and captures emission from the bulk of a
galaxy's stellar population. We present an initial analysis of an extraordinary
lensed dusty star-forming galaxy (DSFG) at behind the
cluster (), named ("The Fishhook") after its partial
Einstein-ring morphology. The FUV-NIR SED suggests an intrinsic star formation
rate of and dust attenuation , in line with other DSFGs on the star-forming main sequence. We develop a
parametric lens model to reconstruct the source-plane structure of dust imaged
by the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array, far-UV to optical light
from , and near-IR imaging with 8 filters of /NIRCam, as part of
the Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science (PEARLS)
program. The source-plane half-light radius is remarkably consistent from m, despite a clear color gradient where the inferred galaxy center is
redder than the outskirts. We interpret this to be the result of both a
radially-decreasing gradient in attenuation and substantial spatial offsets
between UV- and IR-emitting components. A spatial decomposition of the SED
reveals modestly suppressed star formation in the inner kiloparsec, which
suggests that we are witnessing the early stages of inside-out quenching.Comment: 29 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables. Accepted for publication in Ap
JWST's PEARLS: TN J1338-1942 -- I. Extreme jet triggered star-formation in a z=4.11 luminous radio galaxy
We present the first JWST observations of the z = 4.11 luminous radio galaxy TN J1338–1942, obtained as part of the ‘Prime Extragalactic Areas for Reionization and Lensing Science’ (‘PEARLS’) project. Our NIRCam observations, designed to probe the key rest-frame optical continuum and emission line features at this redshift, enable resolved spectral energy distribution modelling that incorporates both a range of stellar population assumptions and radiative shock models. With an estimated stellar mass of log10(M/M) ∼ 10.9, TN J1338–1942 is confirmed to be one of the most massive galaxies known at this epoch. Our observations also reveal extremely high equivalent-width nebular emission coincident with the luminous AGN jets that is best fit by radiative shocks surrounded by extensive recent star formation. We estimate the total star-formation rate (SFR) could be as high as ∼ 1600 M yr−1 , with the SFR that we attribute to the jet induced burst conservatively 500 M yr−1. The mass-weighted age of the star-formation, tmass < 4 Myr, is consistent with the likely age of the jets responsible for the triggered activity and significantly younger than that measured in the core of the host galaxy. The extreme scale of the potential jet-triggered star-formation activity indicates the potential importance of positive AGN feedback in the earliest stages of massive galaxy formation, with our observations also illustrating the extraordinary prospects for detailed studies of high-redshift galaxies with JWST.KJD acknowledges funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the Marie Skłodowska-Curie grant agreement number 892117 (HIZRAD) and support from the STFC through an Ernest Rutherford Fellowship (grant number ST/W003120/1). RAW, SHC, and RAJ acknowledge support from NASA JWST Interdisciplinary Scientist grants NAG5-12460, NNX14AN10G, and 80NSSC18K0200 from GSFC. Work by CJC acknowledges support from the European Research Council (ERC) Advanced Investigator Grant EPOCHS (788113). BLF thanks the Berkeley Center for Theoretical Physics for their hospitality during the writing of this paper. MAM acknowledges the support of a National Research Council of Canada Plaskett Fellowship, and the Australian Research Council center of Excellence for All Sky Astrophysics in 3 Dimensions (ASTRO 3D), through project number CE17010001. CNAW acknowledges funding from the JWST/NIRCam contract NASS-0215 to the University of Arizona. TAH is supported by an appointment to the NASA Postdoctoral Program (NPP) at NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, administered by Oak Ridge Associated Universities under contract with NASA.Peer reviewe