Internet-based psychoeducation for bipolar disorder: a qualitative analysis of feasibility, acceptability and impact

<p>Background: In a recent exploratory randomised trial we found that a novel, internet-based psychoeducation programme for bipolar disorder (Beating Bipolar) was relatively easy to deliver and had a modest effect on psychological quality of life. We sought to explore the experiences of participants with respect to feasibility, acceptability and impact of Beating Bipolar.</p> <p>Methods: Participants were invited to take part in a semi-structured interview. Thematic analysis techniques were employed; to explore and describe participants’ experiences, the data were analysed for emerging themes which were identified and coded.</p> <p>Results: The programme was feasible to deliver and acceptable to participants where they felt comfortable using a computer. It was found to impact upon insight into illness, health behaviour, personal routines and positive attitudes towards medication. Many participants regarded the programme as likely to be most beneficial for those recently diagnosed.</p> <p>Conclusions: An online psychoeducation package for bipolar disorder, such as Beating Bipolar, is feasible and acceptable to patients, has a positive impact on self-management behaviours and may be particularly suited to early intervention. Alternative (non-internet) formats should also be made available to patients.</p&gt

Vulnerability of low-arsenic aquifers to municipal pumping in Bangladesh

Sandy aquifers deposited >12,000 years ago, some as shallow as 30 m, have provided a reliable supply of low-arsenic (As) drinking water in rural Bangladesh. This study concerns the potential risk of contaminating these aquifers in areas surrounding the city of Dhaka where hydraulic heads in aquifers >150 m deep have dropped by 70 m in a few decades due to municipal pumping. Water levels measured continuously from 2012 to 2014 in 12 deep (>150 m), 3 intermediate (90-150 m) and 6 shallow (<90 m) community wells, 1 shallow private well, and 1 river piezometer show that the resulting drawdown cone extends 15-35 km east of Dhaka. Water levels in 4 low-As community wells within the 62-147 m depth range closest to Dhaka were inaccessible by suction for up to a third of the year. Lateral hydraulic gradients in the deep aquifer system ranged from 1.7 × 10-4 to 3.7 × 10-4 indicating flow towards Dhaka throughout 2012-2014. Vertical recharge on the edge of the drawdown cone was estimated at 0.21 ± 0.06 m/yr. The data suggest that continued municipal pumping in Dhaka could eventually contaminate some relatively shallow community wells

Locked and loading megathrust linked to active subduction beneath the Indo-Burman Ranges

The Indo-Burman mountain rangesmarkthe boundary between the Indian and Eurasian plates, north of the Sumatra–Andaman subduction zone. Whether subduction still occurs along this subaerial section of the plate boundary, with 46mm/yr of highly oblique motion, is contentious. About 21mm/yr of shear motion is taken up along the Sagaing Fault, on the eastern margin of the deformation zone. It has been suggested that the remainder of the relative motion is taken up largely or entirely by horizontal strike-slip faulting and that subduction has stopped. Here we present GPS measurements of plate motions in Bangladesh, combined with measurements from Myanmar and northeast India, taking advantage of a more than 300 km subaerial accretionary prism spanning the Indo-Burman Ranges to the Ganges–Brahmaputra Delta. They reveal 13–17mm/yr of plate convergence on an active, shallowly dipping and locked megathrust fault. Most of the strike-slip motion occurs on a few steep faults, consistent with patterns of strain partitioning in subduction zones. Our results strongly suggest that subduction in this region is active, despite the highly oblique plate motion and thick sediments. We suggest that the presence of a locked megathrust plate boundary represents an underappreciated hazard in one of the most densely populated regions of the world

Terrestrial water load and groundwater fluctuation in the Bengal Basin

Groundwater-level fluctuations represent hydraulic responses to changes in groundwater storage due to aquifer recharge and drainage as well as to changes in stress that include water mass loading and unloading above the aquifer surface. The latter ‘poroelastic’ response of confined aquifers is a well-established phenomenon which has been demonstrated in diverse hydrogeological environments but is frequently ignored in assessments of groundwater resources. Here we present high-frequency groundwater measurements over a twelve-month period from the tropical, fluvio-deltaic Bengal Aquifer System (BAS), the largest aquifer in south Asia. The groundwater level fluctuations are dominated by the aquifer poroelastic response to changes in terrestrial water loading by processes acting over periods ranging from hours to months; the effects of groundwater flow are subordinate. Our measurements represent the first direct, quantitative identification of loading effects on groundwater levels in the BAS. Our analysis highlights the potential limitations of hydrogeological analyses which ignore loading effects in this environment. We also demonstrate the potential for employing poroelastic responses in the BAS and across other tropical fluvio-deltaic regions as a direct, in-situ measure of changes in terrestrial water storage to complement analyses from the Gravity and Climate Experiment (GRACE) mission but at much higher resolution

Subsidence and Tectonics of Atlantic Type Continental Margins

The sediments which accumulate at a continental margin following intial rifting represent a load on the lithosphere which should sag due to its weight. Backstripping studies in which sediment, as well as water, loads are removed from a margin during different geological intervals of time have now been carried out at both relatively young and old continental margins. These studies show that a number of factors affect the subsidence and tectonics of margins which include eustasy, the flexural strength of the basement, compaction and palaeobathymetry. The most likely other contributor to the observed subsidence is thermal contraction, following stretching of the margin at the time of initial rifting. Simple stretching models appear to be able to explain the exponential character of the tectonic subsidence of margin although a number of problems still remain. The most important of these are the relative proportion of syn and pre-rift to post-rift sediments and the amount of crustal thinning across the margin

TECTONIC SUBSIDENCE, FLEXURE AND GLOBAL CHANGES OF SEA-LEVEL

Tectonic models for the evolution of passive continental margins predict that following rifting, sediments should progressively onlap basement at the edge of a margin as the lithosphere cools and increases its flexural rigidity with age. The pattern of modelled onlap is strikingly similar to that used by Vail and colleagues to estimate sea-level rise through geological time. This similarity suggests that major portions of stratigraphical sequences at margins may have a tectonic, rather than eustatic, control. The patterns of onlap used by Vail and colleagues may be widespread, however, because several widely separated passive margins rifted at similar times, but they are unlikely to be worldwide. © 1982 Nature Publishing Group

Parution - « Reconnaissance et légitimité en français »

Carnets : revue électronique d’études françaises (IIe série, nº 9, 2017 - volume intégral) Dir. Maria de Jesus Cabral; ed. Ana Paiva Morais, Margarida Esperança Pina, Teresa Almeida http://ler.letras.up.pt/site/default.aspx?qry=id05id1428id2748&sum=sim Table des matières Documento (.pdf) Introduction Ana Paiva Morais, Margarida Esperança Pina, Teresa Almeida Documento (.pdf) Querelles et légitimations : quand le spectre de la mort de la littérature hante les débats Alain Viala Documento (.p..