Intervention of Mindfulness with Students to Identify Mental Health Problems and Enhance Coping Strategies

When mental health care is delayed, a young person may have more difficulty in academia and social situations. Therefore, it is important to reach young people to provide them with the skills to deal with stressors and mental health issues. The purpose of this project is to use mindfulness techniques to increase mental health literacy (MHL) and strengthen coping skills which can possibly assist students in building resilience to cope with stressors. By utilizing available mental health resources and learning coping skills, there can be a drastic change in the trajectory of a young persons’ life who struggles with stressors otherwise it can lead to further mental health problems

COVID-19 and globalization

The world is experiencing a major pandemic caused by SARS-CoV-2, the Coronavirus causing COVID-19. This disease first entered the human population in Hubei province, China, in mid-November 2019 and manifested in Wuhan, the largest metropolitan area of Hubei, when a cluster of patients were admitted to hospital with a ‘severe pneumonia of unknown cause’ in early December. Although humanity has survived previous pandemics by infectious agents, the present one is unprecedented in its capacity to take advantage of modern globalization allowing for massive transborder spread at a surprising speed. When writing these lines, the pandemic affects 181 countries and territories, with around 1,084,000 infected subjects, more than 58,000 deaths and 225,000 recovered patients, according to the Johns Hopkins University

Generating EQ-5D-5L health utility scores from BASDAI and BASFAI : A mapping study in patients with axial spondyloarthritis using longitudinal UK registry data

Acknowledgments: We are grateful to the staff of the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Axial Spondyloarthritis. Claudia Zabke, Maureen Heddle, Nafeesa Nazlee and Barry Morris, and to the recruiting staff at the clinical centres, details of which are available at: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/iahs/research/epidemiology/spondyloarthritis.php#panel1011 Funding/Support: The British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Ankylosing. Spondylitis (BSRBR-AS) is funded by the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), which in turn has received funding from the manufacturers of the biologic therapies included in the study (Abbvie, Pfizer and UCB). Pharmaceutical companies providing funds to BSR do not have a role in the oversight of the study, but they do receive advance notice of publications on which they can comment. They do not have access to the data collected but can request analyses of the data, for which additional funds are provided.Peer reviewedPostprin

Generating EQ-5D-5L health utility scores from BASDAI and BASFI : a mapping study in patients with axial spondyloarthritis using longitudinal UK registry data

Acknowledgements We are grateful to the staff of the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Axial Spondyloarthritis. Claudia Zabke, Maureen Heddle, Nafeesa Nazlee and Barry Morris, and to the recruiting staff at the clinical centres, details of which are available at: https://www.abdn.ac.uk/iahs/research/epidemiology/spondyloarthritis.php#panel1011. Funding The British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Ankylosing. Spondylitis (BSRBR-AS) is funded by the British Society for Rheumatology (BSR), which in turn has received funding from the manufacturers of the biologic therapies included in the study (Abbvie, Pfizer and UCB). Pharmaceutical companies providing funds to BSR do not have a role in the oversight of the study, but they do receive advance notice of publications on which they can comment. They do not have access to the data collected but can request analyses of the data, for which additional funds are provided.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Generating EQ-5D-5L health utility scores from BASDAI and BASFI:a mapping study in patients with axial spondyloarthritis using longitudinal UK registry data

BACKGROUND: Preference-based health-state utility values (HSUVs), such as the EuroQol five-dimensional questionnaire (EQ-5D-5L), are needed to calculate quality-adjusted life-years (QALYs) for cost-effectiveness analyses. However, these are rarely used in clinical trials of interventions in axial spondyloarthritis (axSpA). In these cases, mapping can be used to predict HSUVs. OBJECTIVE: To develop mapping algorithms to estimate EQ-5D-5L HSUVs from the Bath Ankylosing Disease Activity Index (BASDAI) and the Bath Ankylosing Spondylitis Functional Index (BASFI). METHODS: Data from the British Society for Rheumatology Biologics Register in Ankylosing Spondylitis (BSRBR-AS) provided 5122 observations with complete BASDAI, BASFI, and EQ-5D-5L responses covering the full range of disease severity. We compared direct mapping using adjusted limited dependent variable mixture models (ALDVMMs) and optional inclusion of the gap between full health and the next feasible value with indirect response mapping using ordered probit (OPROBIT) and generalised ordered probit (GOPROBIT) models. Explanatory variables included BASDAI, BASFI, and age. Metrics to assess model goodness-of-fit and performance/accuracy included Akaike and Bayesian information criteria (AIC/BIC), mean absolute error (MAE) and root mean square error (RMSE), plotting predictive vs. observed estimates across the range of BASDAI/BASFI and comparing simulated data with the original data set for the preferred/best model. RESULTS: Overall, the ALDVMM models that did not formally include the gap between full health and the next feasible value outperformed those that did. The four-component mixture models (with squared terms included) performed better than the three-component models. Response mapping using GOPROBIT (no squared terms included) or OPROBIT (with squared terms included) offered the next best performing models after the three-component ALDVMM (with squared terms). Simulated data of the preferred model (ALDVMM with four-components) did not significantly underestimate uncertainty across most of the range of EQ-5D-5L values, however the proportion of data at full health was underrepresented, likely due in part to model fitting on a small number of observations at this point in the actual data (4%). CONCLUSIONS: The mapping algorithms developed in this study enabled the generation of EQ-5D-5L utilities from BASDAI/BASFI. The indirect mapping equations reported for the EQ-5D-5L facilitate the calculation of the EQ-5D-5L utility scores using other UK and country-specific value sets. SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s10198-022-01429-x

Modulation of endoglin expression in islets of langerhans by VEGF reveals a novel regulator of islet endothelial cell function

Background: endoglin/CD105 is an auxiliary receptor for transforming growth factor-? with established roles in vascular remodelling. It has recently been shown that heterozygous endoglin deficiency in mice decreases insulin secretion in an animal model of obesity, highlighting a potential role for endoglin in the regulation of islet function. We have previously identified two different populations of endoglin expressing cells in human and mouse islets which are: (i) endothelial cells (ECs) and (ii) islet mesenchymal stromal cells. The contribution of islet EC endoglin expression to islet development and sensitivity to VEGF is unknown and is the focus of this study.Results: in vitro culture of mouse islets with VEGF164 for 48 h increased endoglin mRNA levels above untreated controls but VEGF did not modulate VEGFR2, CD31 or CD34 mRNA expression or islet viability. Removal of EC-endoglin expression in vivo reduced islet EC area but had no apparent effect on islet size or architecture.Conclusion: EC-specific endoglin expression in islets is sensitive to VEGF and plays partial roles in driving islet vascular development, however such regulation appears to be distinct to mechanisms required to modulate islet viability and siz