The importance of both setting and intensity of physical activity in relation to non-clinical anxiety and depression

Physical activity is associated with good physical and mental health. Current recommendations suggest that people should achieve 30 minutes of moderate-intensity activity most days of the week to gain health benefits. This activity may be accumulated in leisure time, in active commuting, at work or in the home. Here we look at the cross-sectional relationship between physical activity and mental health as measured by the HADS anxiety and depression scores in a sample of 1,742 participants from a Scottish general population survey. The participants were men and women in three age cohorts aged around 24, 44 and 64 years who, in 1995, were interviewed face to face and also self-completed the HADS depression and anxiety scale. Respondents reported their levels of physical activity at work, in the home and in leisure time; the intensities of activity were also determined. Physical activity was related to depression scores but not to anxiety scores. There was no relationship between work physical activity and depression score. Among women, depression score increased with each additional episode of vigorous home activity. In both sexes, depression score decreased with each additional episode of vigorous leisure activity, but among men the decrease in depression score with moderate leisure activity was reversed if a lot of moderate activity was undertaken. We have found a variable relationship between depression scores and various settings for physical activity. Researchers, policymakers and practitioners who are interested in the relationship between physical activity and mental health should take into account the setting for activity as well as frequency, duration and intensity of activity

Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites (BORTAS) experiment: design, execution and science overview

We describe the design and execution of the BORTAS (Quantifying the impact of BOReal forest fires on Tropospheric oxidants over the Atlantic using Aircraft and Satellites) experiment, which has the overarching objective of understanding the chemical aging of air masses that contain the emission products from seasonal boreal wildfires and how these air masses subsequently impact downwind atmospheric composition. The central focus of the experiment was a two-week deployment of the UK BAe-146-301 Atmospheric Research Aircraft (ARA) over eastern Canada, based out of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Atmospheric ground-based and sonde measurements over Canada and the Azores associated with the planned July 2010 deployment of the ARA, which was postponed by 12 months due to UK-based flights related to the dispersal of material emitted by the Eyjafjallajökull volcano, went ahead and constituted phase A of the experiment. Phase B of BORTAS in July 2011 involved the same atmospheric measurements, but included the ARA, special satellite observations and a more comprehensive ground-based measurement suite. The high-frequency aircraft data provided a comprehensive chemical snapshot of pyrogenic plumes from wildfires, corresponding to photochemical (and physical) ages ranging from 45 sr 10 days, largely by virtue of widespread fires over Northwestern Ontario. Airborne measurements reported a large number of emitted gases including semi-volatile species, some of which have not been been previously reported in pyrogenic plumes, with the corresponding emission ratios agreeing with previous work for common gases. Analysis of the NOy data shows evidence of net ozone production in pyrogenic plumes, controlled by aerosol abundance, which increases as a function of photochemical age. The coordinated ground-based and sonde data provided detailed but spatially limited information that put the aircraft data into context of the longer burning season in the boundary layer. Ground-based measurements of particulate matter smaller than 2.5 μm (PM2.5) over Halifax show that forest fires can on an episodic basis represent a substantial contribution to total surface PM2.5

Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar (CRiB2): study protocol for a randomised controlled trial assessing efficacy and mechanisms of cognitive remediation therapy compared to treatment as usual

\ua9 2023, The Author(s).Background: A substantial proportion of people with bipolar disorder (BD) experience persistent cognitive difficulties associated with impairments in psychosocial functioning and a poorer disorder course. Emerging evidence suggests that cognitive remediation (CR), a psychological intervention with established efficacy in people with schizophrenia, can also benefit people with BD. Following a proof-of-concept trial showing that CR is feasible and potentially beneficial for people with BD, we are conducting an adequately powered trial in euthymic people with BD to 1) determine whether an individual, therapist-supported, computerised CR can reduce cognitive difficulties and improve functional outcomes; and 2) explore how CR exerts its effects. Methods: CRiB2 is a two-arm, assessor-blind, multi-site, randomised controlled trial (RCT) comparing CR to treatment-as-usual (TAU). Participants are people with a diagnosis of BD, aged between 18 and 65, with no neurological or current substance use disorder, and currently euthymic. 250 participants will be recruited through primary, secondary, tertiary care, and the community. Participants will be block-randomised (1:1 ratio, stratified by site) to continue with their usual care (TAU) or receive a 12-week course of therapy and usual care (CR + TAU). The intervention comprises one-on-one CR sessions with a therapist supplemented with independent cognitive training for 30–40 h in total. Outcomes will be assessed at 13- and 25-weeks post-randomisation. Efficacy will be examined by intention-to-treat analyses estimating between-group differences in primary (i.e., psychosocial functioning at week 25 measured with the Functional Assessment Short Test) and secondary outcomes (i.e., measures of cognition, mood, patient-defined goals, and quality of life). Global cognition, metacognitive skills, affect fluctuation, and salivary cortisol levels will be evaluated as putative mechanisms of CR through mediation models. Discussion: This study will provide a robust evaluation of efficacy of CR in people with BD and examine the putative mechanisms by which this therapy works. The findings will contribute to determining the clinical utility of CR and potential mechanisms of action. Trial registration: Cognitive Remediation in Bipolar 2 (CRiB2): ISRCTN registry: https://www.isrctn.com/ISRCTN10362331 . Registered 04 May 2022. Overall trial status: Ongoing; Recruitment status: Recruiting

A fully autonomous ozone, aerosol and nighttime water vapor lidar: a synergistic approach to profiling the atmosphere in the Canadian oil sands region

Lidar technology has been rapidly advancing over the past several decades. It can be used to measure a variety of atmospheric constituents at very high temporal and spatial resolutions. While the number of lidars continues to increase worldwide, there is generally a dependency on an operator, particularly for high-powered lidar systems. Environment and Climate Change Canada (ECCC) has recently developed a fully autonomous, mobile lidar system called AMOLITE (Autonomous Mobile Ozone Lidar Instrument for Tropospheric Experiments) to simultaneously measure the vertical profile of tropospheric ozone, aerosol and water vapor (nighttime only) from near the ground to altitudes reaching 10 to 15&thinsp;km. This current system uses a dual-laser, dual-lidar design housed in a single climate-controlled trailer. Ozone profiles are measured by the differential absorption lidar (DIAL) technique using a single 1&thinsp;m Raman cell filled with CO2. The DIAL wavelengths of 287 and 299&thinsp;nm are generated as the second and third Stokes lines resulting from stimulated Raman scattering of the cell pumped using the fourth harmonic of a Nd:YAG laser (266&thinsp;nm). The aerosol lidar transmits three wavelengths simultaneously (355, 532 and 1064&thinsp;nm) employing a detector designed to measure the three backscatter channels, two nitrogen Raman channels (387 and 607&thinsp;nm) and one cross-polarization channel at 355&thinsp;nm. In addition, we added a water vapor channel arising from the Raman-shifted 355&thinsp;nm output (407&thinsp;nm) to provide nighttime water vapor profiles. AMOLITE participated in a validation experiment alongside four other ozone DIAL systems before being deployed to the ECCC Oski-ôtin ground site in the Alberta oil sands region in November 2016. Ozone was found to increase throughout the troposphere by as much as a factor of 2 from stratospheric intrusions. The dry stratospheric air within the intrusion was measured to be less than 0.2&thinsp;g&thinsp;kg−1. A biomass burning event that impacted the region over an 8-day period produced lidar ratios of 35 to 65&thinsp;sr at 355&thinsp;nm and 40 to 100&thinsp;sr at 532. Over the same period the Ångström exponent decreased from 1.56±0.2 to 1.35±0.2 in the 2–4&thinsp;km smoke region.</p

Genome-wide analysis in UK Biobank identifies four loci associated with mood instability and genetic correlation with MDD, anxiety disorder and schizophrenia

Mood instability is a core clinical feature of affective and psychotic disorders. In keeping with the Research Domain Criteria approach, it may be a useful construct for identifying biology that cuts across psychiatric categories. We aimed to investigate the biological validity of a simple measure of mood instability and evaluate its genetic relationship with several psychiatric disorders, including major depressive disorder (MDD), bipolar disorder (BD), schizophrenia, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), anxiety disorder and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) of mood instability in 53,525 cases and 60,443 controls from UK Biobank, identifying four independently associated loci (on chromosomes 8, 9, 14 and 18), and a common single-nucleotide polymorphism (SNP)-based heritability estimate of ~8%. We found a strong genetic correlation between mood instability and MDD (r g = 0.60, SE = 0.07, p = 8.95 × 10−17) and a small but significant genetic correlation with both schizophrenia (r g = 0.11, SE = 0.04, p = 0.01) and anxiety disorders (r g = 0.28, SE = 0.14, p = 0.04), although no genetic correlation with BD, ADHD or PTSD was observed. Several genes at the associated loci may have a role in mood instability, including the DCC netrin 1 receptor (DCC) gene, eukaryotic translation initiation factor 2B subunit beta (eIF2B2), placental growth factor (PGF) and protein tyrosine phosphatase, receptor type D (PTPRD). Strengths of this study include the very large sample size, but our measure of mood instability may be limited by the use of a single question. Overall, this work suggests a polygenic basis for mood instability. This simple measure can be obtained in very large samples; our findings suggest that doing so may offer the opportunity to illuminate the fundamental biology of mood regulation

Impacts of an intense wildfire smoke episode on surface radiation, energy and carbon fluxes in southwestern British Columbia, Canada

A short, but severe, wildfire smoke episode in July 2015, with an aerosol optical depth (AOD) approaching 9, is shown to strongly impact radiation budgets across four distinct land-use types (forest, field, urban and wetland). At three of the sites, impacts on the energy balance are also apparent, while the event also appears to elicit an ecosystem response with respect to carbon fluxes at the wetland and a forested site. Greatest impacts on radiation and energy budgets were observed at the forested site where the role of canopy architecture and the complex physiological responses to an increase in diffuse radiation were most important. At the forest site, the arrival of smoke reduced both sensible and latent heat flux substantially but also lowered sensible heat flux more than the latent heat flux. With widespread standing water, and little physiological control on evapotranspiration, the impacts on the partitioning of turbulent fluxes were modest at the wetland compared to the physiologically dominated fluxes at the forested site. Despite the short duration and singular nature of the event, there was some evidence of a diffuse radiation fertilization effect when AOD was near or below 2. With lighter smoke, both the wetland and forested site appeared to show enhanced photosynthetic activity (a greater sink for carbon dioxide). However, with dense smoke, the forested site was a strong carbon source. Given the extensive forest cover in the Pacific Northwest and the growing importance of forest fires in the region, these results suggest that wildfire aerosol during the growing season potentially plays an important role in the regional ecosystem response to smoke and ultimately the carbon budget of the region.</p

Sexuality in the Therapeutic Relationship: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis of the Experiences of Gay Therapists

This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis in Journal of Gay & Lesbian Mental Health on 17/10/2014 date, available online: DOI: 10.1080/19359705.2014.957882Lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) clients have reported experiencing heterosexist/homophobic attitudes from heterosexual therapists, but this has seldom been discussed for gay therapists. Such experiences could impact the therapeutic process and a gay therapist’s willingness to self-disclose their sexuality. Self- disclosure of sexuality can be therapeutically beneficial for LGBTQ or heterosexual clients. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with seven gay male therapists and analyzed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis. Five themes emerged: affinity for work- ing with LGBTQ clients, heterosexual males’ resistance to the therapeutic process, the impact of homophobia within the therapeu- tic relationship, empathy through shared humanity, and utilizing therapist sexuality as a tool within the therapeutic relationship

Nucleation and condensational growth to CCN sizes during a sustained pristine biogenic SOA event in a forested mountain valley

The Whistler Aerosol and Cloud Study (WACS 2010), included intensive measurements of trace gases and particles at two sites on Whistler Mountain. Between 6–11 July 2010 there was a sustained high-pressure system over the region with cloud-free conditions and the highest temperatures of the study. During this period, the organic aerosol concentrations rose from &lt;1 μg m&lt;sup&gt;−3&lt;/sup&gt; to &amp;sim;6 μg m&lt;sup&gt;−3&lt;/sup&gt;. Precursor gas and aerosol composition measurements show that these organics were almost entirely of secondary biogenic nature. Throughout 6–11 July, the anthropogenic influence was minimal with sulfate concentrations &lt;0.2 μg m&lt;sup&gt;−3&lt;/sup&gt; and SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; mixing ratios &amp;approx; 0.05–0.1 ppbv. Thus, this case provides excellent conditions to probe the role of biogenic secondary organic aerosol in aerosol microphysics. Although SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt; mixing ratios were relatively low, box-model simulations show that nucleation and growth may be modeled accurately if &lt;i&gt;J&lt;/i&gt;&lt;sub&gt;nuc&lt;/sub&gt; = 3 × 10&lt;sup&gt;&amp;minus;7&lt;/sup&gt;[H&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;SO&lt;sub&gt;4&lt;/sub&gt;] and the organics are treated as effectively non-volatile. Due to the low condensation sink and the fast condensation rate of organics, the nucleated particles grew rapidly (2–5 nm h&lt;sup&gt;&amp;minus;1&lt;/sup&gt;) with a 10–25% probability of growing to CCN sizes (100 nm) in the first two days as opposed to being scavenged by coagulation with larger particles. The nucleated particles were observed to grow to &amp;sim;200 nm after three days. Comparisons of size-distribution with CCN data show that particle hygroscopicity (&amp;kappa;) was &amp;sim;0.1 for particles larger 150 nm, but for smaller particles near 100 nm the κ value decreased near midway through the period from 0.17 to less than 0.06. In this environment of little anthropogenic influence and low SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, the rapid growth rates of the regionally nucleated particles – due to condensation of biogenic SOA – results in an unusually high efficiency of conversion of the nucleated particles to CCN. Consequently, despite the low SO&lt;sub&gt;2&lt;/sub&gt;, nucleation/growth appear to be the dominant source of particle number

Trans-Pacific Transport of Saharan Dust to Western North America: A Case Study

The first documented case of long range transport of Saharan dust over a pathway spanning Asia and the Pacific to Western North America is described. Crustal material generated by North African dust storms during the period 28 February - 3 March 2005 reached western Canada on 13-14 March 2005 and was observed by lidar and sunphotometer in the Vancouver region and by high altitude aerosol instrumentation at Whistler Peak. Global chemical models (GEOS-CHEM and NRL NAAPS) confirm the transport pathway and suggest source attribution was simplified in this case by the distinct, and somewhat unusual, lack of dust activity over Eurasia (Gobi and Takla Makan deserts) at this time. Over western North America, the dust layer, although subsiding close to the boundary layer, did not appear to contribute to boundary layer particulate matter concentrations. Furthermore, sunphotometer observations (and associated inversion products) suggest that the dust layer had only subtle optical impact (Aerosol Optical Thickness (Tau(sub a500)) and Angstrom exponent (Alpha(sub 440-870) were 0.1 and 1.2 respectively) and was dominated by fine particulate matter (modes in aerodynamic diameter at 0.3 and 2.5microns). High Altitude observations at Whistler BC, confirm the crustal origin of the layer (rich in Ca(++) ions) and the bi-modal size distribution. Although a weak event compared to the Asian Trans-Pacific dust events of 1998 and 2001, this novel case highlights the possibility that Saharan sources may contribute episodically to the aerosol burden in western North America