Wilder wellbeing evaluation

The post-intervention evaluation of the Wilder Wellbeing programme, based on historical data and respondent questionnaire and artistic expression feedback, provides valuable insights into the programme's impact. Several key themes emerged that underscored the positive effects of the programme on respondents' wellbeing. These themes include enhanced nature connection, improved recovery, boosted mental wellbeing, increased enjoyment, and alignment with the Five Ways to Wellbeing. The Wilder Wellbeing programme offers a cost-effective mental health intervention. With a cost of £250 per weekly session for up to 12 participants, it amounts to approximately £20.83 per person per week. When compared to other clinical interventions, Wilder Wellbeing proves to be more affordable. It is notably cheaper than NHS behavioural activation and counselling/psychotherapy, though slightly more expensive than NHS group mindfulness-based cognitive therapy. However, one advantage of Wilder Wellbeing is its accessibility and shorter waiting times compared to the NHS, where patients may have to wait up to 18 weeks to access mental health services

Evaluation of Ecology Island Project

Ecology Island is an open-ended nature-based intervention programme which has been running in Dartford, Kent since 2017. It is funded by Kent County Council Suicide Prevention Programme and managed by North-west Kent Countryside Partnership with support from North Kent Mind. The evaluation has demonstrated significant positive impacts on the mental health and wellbeing of respondents facing mental health struggles. Through a comprehensive assessment involving questionnaires and artistic expression, the findings reveal a range of emotional and psychological benefits, including heightened relaxation, cheerfulness, confidence, and a sense of usefulness, among participants. The artistic expression pieces provide unique perspectives, illustrating experience of Ecology Island as a space for reflection, nature connection, and social interaction. The evaluation demonstrates the cost-effectiveness of Ecology Island when compared to traditional clinical interventions. The programme has shown promise in addressing diverse wellbeing needs, offering participants a structured routine, and contributing to the alleviation of social isolation

Caught between a Rock and a Hard Place: Harmonizing Victim Confidentiality Rights with Children\u27s Best Interests

In State ex rel. Hope House, Inc. v. Merrigan, the Missouri Supreme Court examined Missouri Revised Statutes Section 210.140, 5 which eliminates legally recognized privileged communications where there is evidence of child abuse or neglect, and attempted to resolve it with Section 455.220,6 which establishes strict confidentiality for residents of domestic violence shelters. 7 Although Section 210.140 has previously been the subject of litigation, this case was the first time the court concurrently dealt with Section 455.220 and attempted to harmonize two conflicting statutes that ultimately could have a tremendous effect on the children involved. This Note will examine the potential impact of the court\u27s ruling on battered women, their children, and the shelters trying to help these victims. This Note will also weigh the benefits and detriments of allowing victims\u27 records to be kept confidential, even when children are involved and the potential for child abuse is present

E. coli F1 -ATPase: Site-directed mutagenesis of the β-subunit

AbstractResidues βGlu-181 and βGlu-192 of E. coli F1-ATPase (the DCCD-reactive residues) were mutated to Gln. Purified βGln-181 F1 showed 7-fold impairment of ‘unisite’ Pi formation from ATP and a large decrease in affinity for ATP. Thus the β-181 carboxyl group in normal F1 significantly contributes to catalytic site properties. Also, positive catalytic site cooperativity was attenuated from 5 × 104- to 548-fold in βGln-181 F1. In contrast, purified βGln-192 F1 showed only 6-fold reduction in ‘multisite’ ATPase activity. Residues βGly-149 and βGly-154 were mutated to Ile singly and in combination. These mutations, affecting residues which are strongly conserved in nucleotide-binding proteins, were chosen to hinder conformational motion in a putative ‘flexible loop’ in β-subunit. Impairment of purified F1-ATPase ranged from 5 to 61%, with the double mutant F1 less impaired than either single mutant. F1 preparations containing βIle-154 showed 2-fold activation after release from membranes, suggesting association with F0 restrained turnover on F1 in these mutants

Training opportunities in thoracic ultrasound for respiratory trainees: are current guidelines practical?

Respiratory trainees in the UK face challenges in meeting current Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) Level 1 training requirements for thoracic ultrasound (TUS) competence, specified as attending 'at least one session per week over a period of no less than 3 months, with approximately five scans per session performed by the trainee (under supervision of an experienced practitioner)'. We aimed to clarify where TUS training opportunities currently exist for respiratory registrars.This is an Open Access article. Click on the Publisher URL to access the full-text

Lower Bounds and Series for the Ground State Entropy of the Potts Antiferromagnet on Archimedean Lattices and their Duals

We prove a general rigorous lower bound for $W(\Lambda,q)=\exp(S_0(\Lambda,q)/k_B)$, the exponent of the ground state entropy of the $q$-state Potts antiferromagnet, on an arbitrary Archimedean lattice $\Lambda$. We calculate large-$q$ series expansions for the exact $W_r(\Lambda,q)=q^{-1}W(\Lambda,q)$ and compare these with our lower bounds on this function on the various Archimedean lattices. It is shown that the lower bounds coincide with a number of terms in the large-$q$ expansions and hence serve not just as bounds but also as very good approximations to the respective exact functions $W_r(\Lambda,q)$ for large $q$ on the various lattices $\Lambda$. Plots of $W_r(\Lambda,q)$ are given, and the general dependence on lattice coordination number is noted. Lower bounds and series are also presented for the duals of Archimedean lattices. As part of the study, the chromatic number is determined for all Archimedean lattices and their duals. Finally, we report calculations of chromatic zeros for several lattices; these provide further support for our earlier conjecture that a sufficient condition for $W_r(\Lambda,q)$ to be analytic at $1/q=0$ is that $\Lambda$ is a regular lattice.Comment: 39 pages, Revtex, 9 encapsulated postscript figures, to appear in Phys. Rev.

Rheumatoid synovial fluid interleukin-17-producing CD4 T cells have abundant tumor necrosis factor-alpha co-expression, but little interleukin-22 and interleukin-23R expression

Introduction\ud Th17 cells have been implicated in the pathogenesis of rheumatoid arthritis (RA). The aim of this study was to systematically analyse the phenotype, cytokine profile and frequency of interleukin-17 (IL-17) producing CD4-positive T cells in mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood, synovial fluid and synovial tissue of RA patients with established disease, and to correlate cell frequencies with disease activity. \ud \ud Methods\ud Flow cytometry was used to analyse the phenotype and cytokine production of mononuclear cells isolated from peripheral blood (PBMC) (n = 44), synovial fluid (SFMC) (n = 14) and synovium (SVMC) (n = 10) of RA patients and PBMC of healthy controls (n = 13). \ud \ud Results\ud The frequency of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells was elevated in RA SFMC compared with RA PBMC (P = 0.04). However, the frequency of this population in RA SVMC was comparable to that in paired RA PBMC. The percentage of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells coexpressing tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) was significantly increased in SFMC (P = 0.0068). The frequency of IFNγ-producing CD4 T cells was also significantly higher in SFMC than paired PBMC (P = 0.042). The majority of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells coexpressed IFNγ. IL-17-producing CD4 T cells in RA PBMC and SFMC exhibited very little IL-22 or IL-23R coexpression. \ud \ud Conclusions\ud These findings demonstrate a modest enrichment of IL-17-producing CD4 T cells in RA SFMC compared to PBMC. Th17 cells in SFMC produce more TNFα than their PBMC counterparts, but are not a significant source of IL-22 and do not express IL-23R. However, the percentage of CD4 T cells which produce IL-17 in the rheumatoid joint is low, suggesting that other cells may be alternative sources of IL-17 within the joints of RA patients. \ud \u

Identification of a cytokine network sustaining neutrophil and Th17 activation in untreated early rheumatoid arthritis

© 2010 Cascão et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.Introduction: Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic inflammatory autoimmune disease characterized by sustained synovitis. Recently, several studies have proposed neutrophils and Th17 cells as key players in the onset and perpetuation of this disease. The main goal of this work was to determine whether cytokines driving neutrophil and Th17 activation are dysregulated in very early rheumatoid arthritis patients with less than 6 weeks of disease duration and before treatment (VERA). Methods: Cytokines related to neutrophil and Th17 activation were quantified in the serum of VERA and established RA patients and compared with other very early arthritis (VEA) and healthy controls. Synovial fluid (SF) from RA and osteoarthritis (OA) patients was also analyzed. Results: VERA patients had increased serum levels of cytokines promoting Th17 polarization (IL-1b and IL-6), as well as IL-8 and Th17-derived cytokines (IL-17A and IL-22) known to induce neutrophil-mediated inflammation. In established RA this pattern is more evident within the SF. Early treatment with methotrexate or corticosteroids led to clinical improvement but without an impact on the cytokine pattern. Conclusions: VERA patients already display increased levels of cytokines related with Th17 polarization and neutrophil recruitment and activation, a dysregulation also found in SF of established RA. 0 Thus, our data suggest that a cytokine-milieu favoring Th17 and neutrophil activity is an early event in RA pathogenesis.This work was supported by a grant from Sociedade Portuguesa de Reumatologia/Schering-Plough 2005. RAM and RC were funded by Fundação para a Ciência e a Tecnologia (FCT) SFRH/BD/30247/2006 and SFRH/BD/40513/2007, respectively. MMS-C was funded by Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship PERG-2008-239422 and a EULAR Young Investigator Award

Pregnancy outcomes in women with cardiovascular disease: evolving trends over 10 years in the ESC Registry Of Pregnancy And Cardiac disease (ROPAC)

Aims Reducing maternal mortality is a World Health Organization (WHO) global health goal. Although maternal deaths due to haemorrhage and infection are declining, those related to heart disease are increasing and are now the most important cause in western countries. The aim is to define contemporary diagnosis-specific outcomes in pregnant women with heart disease. Methods and results From 2007 to 2018, pregnant women with heart disease were prospectively enrolled in the Registry Of Pregnancy And Cardiac disease (ROPAC). Primary outcome was maternal mortality or heart failure, secondary outcomes were other cardiac, obstetric, and foetal complications. We enrolled 5739 pregnancies; the mean age was 29.5. Prevalent diagnoses were congenital (57%) and valvular heart disease (29%). Mortality (overall 0.6%) was highest in the pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH) group (9%). Heart failure occurred in 11%, arrhythmias in 2%. Delivery was by Caesarean section in 44%. Obstetric and foetal complications occurred in 17% and 21%, respectively. The number of high-risk pregnancies (mWHO Class IV) increased from 0.7% in 2007–2010 to 10.9% in 2015–2018. Determinants for maternal complications were pre-pregnancy heart failure or New York Heart Association >II, systemic ejection fraction <40%, mWHO Class 4, and anticoagulants use. After an increase from 2007 to 2009, complication rates fell from 13.2% in 2010 to 9.3% in 2017. Conclusion Rates of maternal mortality or heart failure were high in women with heart disease. However, from 2010, these rates declined despite the inclusion of more high-risk pregnancies. Highest complication rates occurred in women with PAH

Exact T=0 Partition Functions for Potts Antiferromagnets on Sections of the Simple Cubic Lattice

We present exact solutions for the zero-temperature partition function of the $q$-state Potts antiferromagnet (equivalently, the chromatic polynomial $P$) on tube sections of the simple cubic lattice of fixed transverse size $L_x \times L_y$ and arbitrarily great length $L_z$, for sizes $L_x \times L_y = 2 \times 3$ and $2 \times 4$ and boundary conditions (a) $(FBC_x,FBC_y,FBC_z)$ and (b) $(PBC_x,FBC_y,FBC_z)$, where $FBC$ ($PBC$) denote free (periodic) boundary conditions. In the limit of infinite-length, $L_z \to \infty$, we calculate the resultant ground state degeneracy per site $W$ (= exponent of the ground-state entropy). Generalizing $q$ from ${\mathbb Z}_+$ to ${\mathbb C}$, we determine the analytic structure of $W$ and the related singular locus ${\cal B}$ which is the continuous accumulation set of zeros of the chromatic polynomial. For the $L_z \to \infty$ limit of a given family of lattice sections, $W$ is analytic for real $q$ down to a value $q_c$. We determine the values of $q_c$ for the lattice sections considered and address the question of the value of $q_c$ for a $d$-dimensional Cartesian lattice. Analogous results are presented for a tube of arbitrarily great length whose transverse cross section is formed from the complete bipartite graph $K_{m,m}$.Comment: 28 pages, latex, six postscript figures, two Mathematica file