Mental Health Initiatives Must Be Based Upon the Preferences of Young Adults

Canadian young adults rely more on informal sources of support for mental health, particularly young men. Research and practice need to address young adult’s distinct mental health literacy.York's Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

Weight gain and psychiatric treatment: is there as role for green tea and conjugated linoleic acid?

Dietary supplement use is widespread in developed nations. In particular, patients who utilize mental health services also report frequent consumption of dietary supplements, often in relation to management of adverse events and specifically weight gain. Weight gain induced by psychotropic medications can further compound psychological distress and negatively influence compliance. Here we report on four cases of social anxiety disorder treated with the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine. Self-administration of conjugated linoleic acid and green tea extract may have influenced objective anthropomorphic measurements; each patient had an unexpected decrease in total body fat mass, a decrease in body fat percentage and an increase in lean body mass. Since weight gain is a common and undesirable side-effect with psychiatric medications, our observation strongly suggests the need for controlled clinical trials using these agents

How Do Young Adults Prefer to Access Mental Health Information?

KT strategies for sharing mental health information need to include both active and passive options for young adults. This includes the use of both old and new media tools.York’s Knowledge Mobilization Unit provides services and funding for faculty, graduate students, and community organizations seeking to maximize the impact of academic research and expertise on public policy, social programming, and professional practice. It is supported by SSHRC and CIHR grants, and by the Office of the Vice-President Research & Innovation. [email protected] www.researchimpact.c

Chemogenomics identifies acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase as a target for malaria treatment and prevention

We identify the Plasmodium falciparum acetyl-coenzyme A synthetase (PfAcAS) as a druggable target, using genetic and chemical validation. In vitro evolution of resistance with two antiplasmodial drug-like compounds (MMV019721 and MMV084978) selects for mutations in PfAcAS. Metabolic profiling of compound-treated parasites reveals changes in acetyl-CoA levels for both compounds. Genome editing confirms that mutations in PfAcAS are sufficient to confer resistance. Knockdown studies demonstrate that PfAcAS is essential for asexual growth, and partial knockdown induces hypersensitivity to both compounds. In vitro biochemical assays using recombinantly expressed PfAcAS validates that MMV019721 and MMV084978 directly inhibit the enzyme by preventing CoA and acetate binding, respectively. Immunolocalization studies reveal that PfAcAS is primarily localized to the nucleus. Functional studies demonstrate inhibition of histone acetylation in compound-treated wild-type, but not in resistant parasites. Our findings identify and validate PfAcAS as an essential, druggable target involved in the epigenetic regulation of gene expression

Weight gain and psychiatric treatment: is there as role for green tea and conjugated linoleic acid?

Abstract Dietary supplement use is widespread in developed nations. In particular, patients who utilize mental health services also report frequent consumption of dietary supplements, often in relation to management of adverse events and specifically weight gain. Weight gain induced by psychotropic medications can further compound psychological distress and negatively influence compliance. Here we report on four cases of social anxiety disorder treated with the atypical antipsychotic quetiapine. Self-administration of conjugated linoleic acid and green tea extract may have influenced objective anthropomorphic measurements; each patient had an unexpected decrease in total body fat mass, a decrease in body fat percentage and an increase in lean body mass. Since weight gain is a common and undesirable side-effect with psychiatric medications, our observation strongly suggests the need for controlled clinical trials using these agents

Coronal Heating as Determined by the Solar Flare Frequency Distribution Obtained by Aggregating Case Studies

Flare frequency distributions represent a key approach to addressing one of the largest problems in solar and stellar physics: determining the mechanism that counter-intuitively heats coronae to temperatures that are orders of magnitude hotter than the corresponding photospheres. It is widely accepted that the magnetic field is responsible for the heating, but there are two competing mechanisms that could explain it: nanoflares or Alfv\'en waves. To date, neither can be directly observed. Nanoflares are, by definition, extremely small, but their aggregate energy release could represent a substantial heating mechanism, presuming they are sufficiently abundant. One way to test this presumption is via the flare frequency distribution, which describes how often flares of various energies occur. If the slope of the power law fitting the flare frequency distribution is above a critical threshold, $\alpha=2$ as established in prior literature, then there should be a sufficient abundance of nanoflares to explain coronal heating. We performed $>$600 case studies of solar flares, made possible by an unprecedented number of data analysts via three semesters of an undergraduate physics laboratory course. This allowed us to include two crucial, but nontrivial, analysis methods: pre-flare baseline subtraction and computation of the flare energy, which requires determining flare start and stop times. We aggregated the results of these analyses into a statistical study to determine that $\alpha = 1.63 \pm 0.03$. This is below the critical threshold, suggesting that Alfv\'en waves are an important driver of coronal heating.Comment: 1,002 authors, 14 pages, 4 figures, 3 tables, published by The Astrophysical Journal on 2023-05-09, volume 948, page 7