Application of Dialectical Behaviour Therapy in treating common psychiatric disorders: study protocol for a scoping review

Introduction Dialectical behaviour therapy (DBT) is a well-known intervention for treating borderline personality disorder, and has been increasingly adapted for other disorders. Standard DBT consists of four treatment modes, delivered over a year. Adaptations to DBT include changes to modes of delivery, treatment length, and skills modules taught to clients, or incorporating interventions from other evidence-based therapies. There is a need to synthesise existing evidence on DBT so that stakeholders-clinicians, researchers and policymakers-can understand how it has been provided for various psychiatric conditions, and whether it has been effective. Methods and analysis This study proposes a scoping review conducted according to Arksey and O'Malley's (2005) procedures, to map and summarise the literature on DBT interventions for treating a range of psychiatric concerns. Electronic databases (ie, the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, PubMed, PsycINFO, SCOPUS, EBSCOhost and ProQuest Dissertations and Theses), conference proceedings and the US National Institutes of Health Ongoing Trial Register will be searched for intervention studies that involve a control or comparison group, and that report quantitative data on pre/post-measures for psychiatric symptom severity. The initial search was conducted on 18 September 2020, and data charting has not commenced. An update will be performed in September 2022, pending this protocol's publication. Data charting will collect individual studies' characteristics, methodology and reported findings. Outcomes will be reported by following the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses guidelines for Scoping Reviews. Ethics and dissemination No ethical approval is required for this study. The goal of dissemination is to keep DBT stakeholders abreast on latest updates in clinical applications of DBT. Findings from this research are intended to inform a more specific topic of study (eg, a meta-analysis), to further aid in the development of DBT interventions for psychiatric populations

Pomegranate extract supplementation on neuromuscular performance during resistance exercise

Dietary nitrate supplementation has been shown to improve skeletal muscle function during high-velocity and high-power contractions due to its high nitrate levels; however, there is limited data examining its potential in exercise requiring these movements, such as resistance exercise. Nitrate supplementation has been studied extensively as beetroot juice, but its poor taste severely limits its application. Pomegranate extract (POM) may be an alternative nitrate source due to its superior taste, high nitrate content, and additional antioxidants but has yet to be explored. The purpose of the present study is two-fold: 1) to determine the nitrate concentration in POM; and 2) to examine the effect of POM supplementation on neuromuscular performance during resistance exercise. In phase 1, the concentration of nitrate in commercially available pomegranate products was quantified to guide dosing regimens for phase 2. During Phase 2, in a double-blind, randomized, crossover design, 15 healthy recreationally active males and females will arrive to the laboratory for 5 visits over 3-4 weeks. Participants will perform a one repetition maximum test followed by a familiarization to the protocol. Following this, participants will perform 3 experimental conditions by consuming: 1) empty capsules containing negligible nitrate (PL); 2) a conventional dose of nitrate (POM-NORM, 9 mmol of nitrate); and 3) a high dose of nitrate (POM-HIGH, 13.5 mmol of nitrate) ~2.5 hours prior to exercise testing. During experimental visits, a resting blood draw will be obtained, then subjects will perform a protocol for determining power during countermovement jumps, kneeling countermovement pushups, and back squats. Muscle power will be determined by using a force plate and linear transducer. Results for Phase 1 of the study showed that POM extract contained 2.2 mmol of nitrate per gram of the 200 mg/mL extract. Therefore, it is recommended that participants ingest 6 capsules for 9 mmol of nitrate or 9 capsules for 13.5 mmol of nitrate. Phase 2 is in the data collection phase and ongoing

A representation of Malaysian Malay women identity from a systemic functional perspective

Employing a systemic functional analysis of two selected stories written by two different Malay women writers, namely Dina Zaman and Karina Bahrin, this paper investigates the perception of Malay women from two contrasting settings, the metropolitan Kuala Lumpur and a kampong in Terengganu. The study explores the social cultural identity of Malay women within a linguistic context based on an analysis of thematic choice derived from the Hallidayan notion of grammar. In And She Became an Angel (Dina Zaman), suggesting a subordinated female identity in a Malay kampong context, findings derived from the clausal analysis concluded that the main protagonist, Mandak successfully transcended herself from a victimized role into a heroin at the end of the story. She eventually had become an angel in a fire to embrace the only one thing of her life. However, in A Subtle Degree of Restraint (Karina Bahrin), Elena and Badariah, the two representations of new Malay women living in the cosmopolitan Kuala Lumpur, encountered subtle feelings of deprivation in their contrasting life conditions through either marriage or barrenness. Applying a Hallidayan framework that looks at thematic choice in the system of Theme and Rheme and the System of Transitivity, this paper justifies its findings from the distribution and the experiential elements of thematic choices in the two short stories from a linguistic spectrum. It also signifies a refreshing approach on literary studies in the MLE

Digital watermarking scheme for QR code security

QR code image digital watermarking with tamper localization and exact recovery using multi-level authentication. Automated calculation of watermark detection result and better visualization of tamper detection and QR code image recovery results

Integrative Gene Set Analysis: Application to Platinum Pharmacogenomics

Integrative genomics has the potential to uncover relevant loci, as clinical outcome and response to chemotherapies are most likely not due to a single gene (or data type) but rather a complex relationship involving genetic variation, mRNA, DNA methylation, and copy number variation. In addition to this complexity, many complex phenotypes are thought to be controlled by the interplay of multiple genes within the same molecular pathway or gene set (GS). To address these two challenges, we propose an integrative gene set analysis approach and apply this strategy to a cisplatin (CDDP) pharmacogenomics study involving lymphoblastoid cell lines for which genome-wide SNP and mRNA expression data was collected. Application of the integrative GS analysis implicated the role of the RNA binding and cytoskeletal part GSs. The genes LMNB1 and CENPF, within the cytoskeletal part GS, were functionally validated with siRNA knockdown experiments, where the knockdown of LMNB1 and CENPF resulted in CDDP resistance in multiple cancer cell lines. This study demonstrates the utility of an integrative GS analysis strategy for detecting novel genes associated with response to cancer therapies, moving closer to tailored therapy decisions for cancer patients.National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI GM61388)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI CA140879)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI GM86689)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI CA130828)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI CA138461)National Institutes of Health (U.S.) (NIH/NCI CA102701)Mayo Foundation for Medical Education and Researc

HLA class I-redirected anti-tumour CD4+T-cells require a higher TCR binding affinity for optimal activity than CD8+T-cells

CD4+ T helper cells are a valuable component of the immune response towards cancer. Unfortunately, natural tumour-specific CD4+ T-cells occur in low frequency, express relatively low affinity T-cell receptors (TCRs) and show poor reactivity towards cognate antigen. In addition, the lack of human leukocyte antigen (HLA) class II expression on most cancers dictates that these cells are often unable to respond to tumour cells directly. These deficiencies can be overcome by transducing primary CD4+ T-cells with tumour-specific HLA class I-restricted TCRs prior to adoptive transfer. The lack of help from the coreceptor CD8 glycoprotein in CD4+ cells might result in these cells requiring a different optimal TCR binding affinity. Here we compared primary CD4+ and CD8+ T-cells expressing wildtype and a range of affinity-enhanced TCRs specific for the HLA A*0201-restricted NY-ESO-1- and gp100 tumour antigens. Our major findings are: (i) redirected primary CD4+ T-cells expressing TCRs of sufficiently high affinity exhibit a wide range of effector functions, including cytotoxicity, in response to cognate peptide; and, (ii) optimal TCR binding affinity is higher in CD4+ T-cells than CD8+ T-cells. These results indicate that the CD4+ T-cell component of current adoptive therapies using TCRs optimised for CD8+ T-cells is below par and that there is room for substantial improvement. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved