Improving Adherence and Clinical Outcomes in Self-Guided Internet Treatment for Anxiety and Depression: A 12-Month Follow-Up of a Randomised Controlled Trial

Background: A recent paper reported the outcomes of a study examining a new self-guided internet-delivered treatment, the Wellbeing Course, for symptoms of anxiety or depression. This study found the intervention resulted in significant symptom reductions. It also found that automated emails increased treatment completion and clinical improvements in a subsample with elevated anxiety and depression. Aims: To examine the clinical outcomes and the effect of automated emails at 12 months post-treatment. Method: Participants, who were randomly allocated to a Treatment Plus Automated Emails Group (TEG; n = 100), a standard Treatment Group (TG; n = 106) or delayed-treatment Waitlist Control Group (Control; n = 51), were followed up at 12 months post-treatment. Eighty-one percent, 78% and 87% of participants in the TEG, TG and treated Waitlist Control Group provided symptom data at 12-month follow-up, respectively. The primary outcome measures were the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 Item Scale (PHQ-9) and the Generalized Anxiety Disorder-7 Item Scale (GAD-7).Results: Significant improvements in symptoms of anxiety and depression were observed over time in both the TEG and TG (Fs >69, ps .05), and were associated with large effect sizes. No statistically significant differences in symptoms were found between the TEG and TG at post-treatment, 3-month or 12-month follow-up. Previously reported symptom differences between TEG and TG participants with comorbid symptoms were no longer present at 12-month follow-up (ps >.70).Conclusions: The overall benefits of the Wellbeing Course were sustained at 12-month follow-up. Although automated emails facilitated Course completion and reductions in symptoms for participants with comorbid anxiety and depression from pre-post treatment, these differences were no longer observed at 12-month follow-up. The results indicate that automated emails promote more rapid treatment response for people with elevated and comorbid symptoms, but may not improve longer term outcomes

Evaluation of chloroform/methanol extraction to facilitate the study of membrane proteins of non-model plants

Membrane proteins are of great interest to plant physiologists because of their important function in many physiological processes. However, their study is hampered by their low abundance and poor solubility in aqueous buffers. Proteomics studies of non-model plants are generally restricted to gel-based methods. Unfortunately, all gel-based techniques for membrane proteomics lack resolving power. Therefore, a very stringent enrichment method is needed before protein separation. In this study, protein extraction in a mixture of chloroform and methanol in combination with gel electrophoresis is evaluated as a method to study membrane proteins in non-model plants. Benefits as well as disadvantages of the method are discussed. To demonstrate the pitfalls of working with non-model plants and to give a proof of principle, the method was first applied to whole leaves of the model plant Arabidopsis. Subsequently, a comparison with proteins extracted from leaves of the non-model plant, banana, was made. To estimate the tissue and organelle specificity of the method, it was also applied on banana meristems. Abundant membrane or lipid-associated proteins could be identified in both tissues, with the leaf extract yielding a higher number of membrane proteins

Molecular and cytological characterization of the global Musa germplasm collection provides insights into the treasure of banana diversity

© 2016, The Author(s). Bananas (Musa spp.) are one of the main fruit crops grown worldwide. With the annual production reaching 144 million tons, their production represents an important contribution to the economies of many countries in Asia, Africa, Latin-America and Pacific Islands. Most importantly, bananas are a staple food for millions of people living in the tropics. Unfortunately, sustainable banana production is endangered by various diseases and pests, and the breeding for resistant cultivars relies on a far too small base of genetic variation. Greater diversity needs to be incorporated in breeding, especially of wild species. Such work requires a large and thoroughly characterized germplasm collection, which also is a safe depository of genetic diversity. The largest ex situ Musa germplasm collection is kept at the International Transit Centre (ITC) in Leuven (Belgium) and currently comprises over 1500 accessions. This report summarizes the results of systematic cytological and molecular characterization of the Musa ITC collection. By December 2015, 630 accessions have been genotyped. The SSR markers confirmed the previous morphological based classification for 84% of ITC accessions analyzed. The remaining 16% of the genotyped entries may need field verification by taxonomist to decide if the unexpected classification by SSR genotyping was correct. The ploidy level estimation complements the molecular data. The genotyping continues for the entire ITC collection, including newly introduced accessions, to assure that the genotype of each accession is known in the largest global Musa gene bank. Open Access ispartof: Biodiversity and Conservation vol:26 issue:4 pages:801-824 status: publishe