The UniWellbeing course: A randomised controlled trial of a transdiagnostic internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students with symptoms of anxiety and depression

AbstractAnxiety and depression are prevalent among university students and many universities offer psychological services to assist students. Unfortunately, students can experience barriers that prevent access to these services and many university services experience difficulties meeting demand. The present pragmatic randomised controlled trial examined the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of a transdiagnostic and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students seeking help with anxiety and depression. Participants were randomly allocated to either a treatment group (n=30) or a waitlist-control group (n=23). The treatment group received weekly contact with a therapist, via telephone or a secure messaging system, as well as automated emails that guided their progress through the programme. Significant reductions were found on standard measures of anxiety (Cohen's d=0.66; 95% CI: 0.13 to 1.17) and depression (Cohen's d=0.81; 95% CI: 0.27 to 1.32) among the treatment group participants, but no significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at post-treatment. However, more pronounced reductions were found among treatment group participants with clinical level symptoms of anxiety (Cohen's d=1.33; 95% CI: 0.62 to 1.99) and depression (Cohen's d=1.59; 95% CI: 0.81 to 2.30), who reported significantly lower levels of symptoms than control group participants at post-treatment. These reductions were maintained at 3-month follow-up and participants rated the intervention as acceptable. The results provide preliminary support for the potential of iCBT for university students with anxiety and depression. However, larger scale implementation trials considering a broader range of outcomes are required.Trial registrationAustralian and New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry: ACTRN12612000212853

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals <1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Thresholds for adding degraded tropical forest to the conservation estate

Logged and disturbed forests are often viewed as degraded and depauperate environments compared with primary forest. However, they are dynamic ecosystems1 that provide refugia for large amounts of biodiversity2,3, so we cannot afford to underestimate their conservation value4. Here we present empirically defined thresholds for categorizing the conservation value of logged forests, using one of the most comprehensive assessments of taxon responses to habitat degradation in any tropical forest environment. We analysed the impact of logging intensity on the individual occurrence patterns of 1,681 taxa belonging to 86 taxonomic orders and 126 functional groups in Sabah, Malaysia. Our results demonstrate the existence of two conservation-relevant thresholds. First, lightly logged forests (68%) of their biomass removed, and these are likely to require more expensive measures to recover their biodiversity value. Overall, our data confirm that primary forests are irreplaceable5, but they also reinforce the message that logged forests retain considerable conservation value that should not be overlooked

Use of Cyclic Ion Mobility Spectrometry (cIM)-Mass Spectrometry to Study the Intramolecular Transacylation of Diclofenac Acyl Glucuronide

1-β-O-Acyl-glucuronides (AGs) are common metabolites of carboxylic acid-containing xenobiotics, including, e.g., many nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs). They are of concern to regulatory authorities because of the association of these metabolites with the hepatotoxicity that has resulted in drug withdrawal. One factor in assessing the potential risk posed by AGs is the rate of transacylation of the biosynthetic 1-β-O-acyl form to the 2-, 3-, and 4-O-acyl isomers. While transacylation can be measured using 1H NMR spectroscopy or liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS), the process can be time consuming and involve significant method development. The separation of these positional isomers by ion mobility spectrometry (IMS) has the potential to allow their rapid analysis, but conventional instruments lacked the resolving power to do this. Prediction of the collision cross section (CCS) using a machine learning model suggested that greater IMS resolution might be of use in this area. Cyclic IMS was evaluated for separating mixtures of isomeric AGs of diclofenac and was compared with a conventional ultraperformance liquid chromatography (UPLC)-MS method as a means for studying transacylation kinetics. The resolution of isomeric AGs was not seen using a conventional traveling wave IMS device; however, separation was seen after several passes around a cyclic IMS. The cyclic IMS enabled the degradation of the 1-β-O-acyl-isomer to be analyzed much more rapidly than by LC-MS. The ability of cyclic IMS to monitor the rate of AG transacylation at different pH values, without the need for a prior chromatographic separation, should allow high-throughput, real-time, monitoring of these types of reactions

The UniWellbeing course: A randomised controlled trial of a transdiagnostic internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students with symptoms of anxiety and depression

Anxiety and depression are prevalent among university students and many universities offer psychological services to assist students. Unfortunately, students can experience barriers that prevent access to these services and many university services experience difficulties meeting demand. The present pragmatic randomised controlled trial examined the preliminary efficacy and acceptability of a transdiagnostic and internet-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) programme for university students seeking help with anxiety and depression. Participants were randomly allocated to either a treatment group (n = 30) or a waitlist-control group (n = 23). The treatment group received weekly contact with a therapist, via telephone or a secure messaging system, as well as automated emails that guided their progress through the programme. Significant reductions were found on standard measures of anxiety (Cohen's d = 0.66; 95% CI: 0.13 to 1.17) and depression (Cohen's d = 0.81; 95% CI: 0.27 to 1.32) among the treatment group participants, but no significant differences were found between the treatment and control groups at post-treatment. However, more pronounced reductions were found among treatment group participants with clinical level symptoms of anxiety (Cohen's d = 1.33; 95% CI: 0.62 to 1.99) and depression (Cohen's d = 1.59; 95% CI: 0.81 to 2.30), who reported significantly lower levels of symptoms than control group participants at post-treatment. These reductions were maintained at 3-month follow-up and participants rated the intervention as acceptable. The results provide preliminary support for the potential of iCBT for university students with anxiety and depression. However, larger scale implementation trials considering a broader range of outcomes are required

Hierarchical cluster of probes mapping to the KEGG pathway “Metabolism of xenobiotics by cytochrome p450”.

<p>Heat map color is relative to the median intensity for each probe: red is increased, blue is decreased, log₂ scale.</p

Two-dimensional hierarchical cluster analysis of 391 probes differentially expressed in 29 samples collected from spring and summer 2010 (pre- and post-oiling) (p<0.01, fold change ≥1.5).

<p>Spring Chandeleur Sound (boxed) animals cluster with the summer expression profiles. Heat map color is relative to the median intensity for each probe: red is increased, blue is decreased, log₂ scale.</p

Samples included in microarray analysis.

<p>*pre oil-exposure</p><p>** possible exposure; all others post-exposure</p><p>Samples included in microarray analysis.</p

Seasonal Variation in the Skin Transcriptome of Common Bottlenose Dolphins (<i>Tursiops truncatus - Fig 2 </i>) from the Northern Gulf of Mexico

<p>A. Principal component analysis on all 94 microarrays shows complete separation of winter samples from all others, with no apparent segregation according to location. B. Unsupervised hierarchical cluster analysis of the normalized array data similarly shows complete separation of winter samples from the warmer seasons.</p