Online self-compassion training to improve the wellbeing of youth with chronic medical conditions: protocol for a randomised control trial

Background Chronic medical conditions (CMCs) affect up to 35% of children and adolescents. Youth with chronic medical conditions are at an increased risk of psychological distress and reduced health-related quality of life, and report rates of mental illness up to double that of their physically healthy peers. Accessible, evidence-based interventions for young people with chronic illness are urgently required to improve their mental health and daily functioning. Self-compassion involves taking a mindful, accepting approach to difficult experiences, being aware that one is not alone in one’s suffering, and being kind and understanding with oneself during challenging times. Self-compassion shares strong associations with mental health outcomes among young people and preliminary work indicates that interventions that build self-compassion have the potential to substantially improve youth mental health. Self-compassion is also associated with better physical and mental health outcomes among individuals living with CMCs. While face-to-face self-compassion training is available, there are several barriers to access for youth with CMCs. Online self-compassion training potentially offers an accessible alternative for this high-risk group. Methods Self-Compassion Online (SCO) is a self-compassion program that has been tested with a non-clinical adult group. For the proposed trial, a reference group of youth (16–25 years) with chronic illness reviewed the program and proposed adaptations to improve its suitability for youth with chronic illness. In alignment with the SPIRIT Checklist, this paper outlines the protocol for a CONSORT-compliant, single-blind randomised controlled trial to test the efficacy of the adapted program, relative to a waitlist control, for improving self-compassion, wellbeing, distress, emotion regulation, coping and quality of life among young Australians with CMCs. Mechanisms of action and feasibility of SCO will be analysed using quantitative data and participant interviews, respectively. Finally, cost-utility will be analysed using health-related quality of life data. Discussion The SCO program could provide a scalable solution for improving psychological outcomes and quality of life among youth with chronic illness. The proposed trial will be the first to determine its efficacy for improving these outcomes, relative to waitlist control. Trial registration The trial was registered on the Australian New Zealand Clinical Trials Registry on the 11th April 2019, ACTRN12619000572167

Economic evaluations of interventions to optimize medication use in older adults with polypharmacy and multimorbidity: A systematic review

Purpose: To conduct a systematic review of the economic impact of interventions intended at optimizing medication use in older adults with multimorbidity and polypharmacy. Methods: We searched Ovid-Medline, Embase, CINAHL, Ageline, Cochrane, and Web of Science, for articles published between 2004 and 2020 that studied older adults with multi-morbidity and polypharmacy. The intervention studied had to be aimed at optimizing medication use and present results on costs. Results: Out of 3,871 studies identified by the search strategy, eleven studies were included. The interventions involved different provider types, with a majority described as a multidisciplinary team involving a pharmacist and a general practitioner, in the decision-making process. Interventions were generally associated with a reduction in medication expenditure. The benefits of the intervention in terms of clinical outcomes remain limited. Five studies were cost-benefit analyses, which had a net benefit that was either null or positive. Cost-utility and cost-effectiveness analyses resulted in incremental cost-effectiveness ratios that were generally within the willingness-to-pay thresholds of the countries in which the studies were conducted. However, the quality of the studies was generally low. Omission of key cost elements of economic evaluations, including intervention cost and payer perspective, limited interpretability. Conclusion: Interventions to optimize medication use may provide benefits that outweigh their implementation costs, but the evidence remains limited. There is a need to identify and address barriers to the scaling-up of such interventions, starting with the current incentive structures for pharmacists, physicians, and patients

Effects of female mating status and age on fecundity, longevity and sex ratio in Trichogramma minutum (Hymenoptera: Trichogrammatidae)

Effects of female mating status and age of Trichogramma minutum Riley on its fecundity, longevity and offspring sex ratio were detennined in the laboratory, using eggs of the variegated cutworm as hosts. Although the mating status of female T. minutum did not affect their total fecundity significantly (P > 0.05), mated and unmated females showed different allocations of progeny. Mated females deposited significantly more eggs (P < 0.05) than those unmated on the first day of exposure to hosts. On subsequent days, however, unmated females parasitized significantly more hosts (P < 0.05) than those mated. Mated females laid 82.4% of their total fecundity on the first day of oviposition, whereas unmated females laid 58.3%. The number of eggs parasitized by both groups of females decreased significantly (P < 0.05) with parasitoid age. Unmated females lived longer (P < 0.05) than their mated counterparts. No significant differences (P> 0.05) in clutch size (the number of parasitoid offspring produced per parasitized host) and emergence rate were found between the offspring of mated and unmated female parasitoids. The sex ratio of the offspring of mated females changed significantly (P < 0.05) with maternal age: younger females produced a higher proportion of daughters than did older parasitoids. Unmated females produced male offspring only

Neuroanatomical substrates accounting for the effect of present hedonistic time perspective on risk preference: The mediating role of the right posterior parietal cortex

The preference for taking risk troubles people across multiple domains including health, economics, and social well-being. Prior research has demonstrated that risk preference can be influenced by time perspective (TP). However, little is known about the neural substrates underlying the effect of TP on risk preference. Here, we used a voxel-based morphometry (VBM) method across two samples to address this question. In Sample 1, the behavioral results showed a positive correlation between present hedonistic TP (PHTP) and gambling rate (the index of risk preference), indicating the higher PHTP, the greater the preference for risk. Subsequently, the whole-brain VBM results found that gambling rate was negatively correlated with the gray matter (GM) volume of a cluster in the right posterior parietal cortex (rPPC). The PHTP score was also negatively related to the GM volume of another cluster in the rPPC. We then examined an overlapping region in the rPPC using a conjunction analysis method. The GM volume of this overlapping brain region was related to both PHTP score and gambling rate. Finally, the mediation analysis found that the GM volume of overlapping region in rPPC played a role in explaining the effect of PHTP on risk preference. This result was also reproduced and validated in another independent sample. Taken together, our findings manifest that the structural variation of rPPC can account for the influence that PHTP has upon the risk preference

Report of the GDR working group on the R-parity violation

This report summarizes the work of the "R-parity violation group" of the French Research Network (GDR) in Supersymmetry, concerning the physics of supersymmetric models without conservation of R-parity at HERA, LEP, Tevatron and LHC and limits on R-parity violating couplings from various processes. The report includes a discussion of the recent searches at the HERA experiment, prospects for new experiments, a review of the existing limits, and also theoretically motivated alternatives to R-parity and a brief discussion on the implications of R-parity violation on the neutrino masses.Comment: 60 pages, LaTeX, 22 figures, 2 table

The relationship between individual differences in spontaneous self-affirmation and affect associated with self-weighing

We investigate whether the tendency to self-affirm in response to threat is associated with how people feel when they weigh themselves. People who were preoccupied with their weight anticipated feeling less negative (Studies 1a and 1b) and felt less negative (Study 2) when self-weighing if they typically affirmed their strengths. Study 3 experimentally manipulated self-affirmation. Although this intervention prompted affirmation of strengths it did not influence how participants felt when they subsequently weighed themselves. Together, the findings suggest that the tendency to spontaneously affirm strengths, but not values or social relations, is associated with the psychological outcomes of self-weighing and thus provide the basis for understanding how such individual differences might moderate how people respond in other self-evaluative contexts

Sideband Cooling Micromechanical Motion to the Quantum Ground State

The advent of laser cooling techniques revolutionized the study of many atomic-scale systems. This has fueled progress towards quantum computers by preparing trapped ions in their motional ground state, and generating new states of matter by achieving Bose-Einstein condensation of atomic vapors. Analogous cooling techniques provide a general and flexible method for preparing macroscopic objects in their motional ground state, bringing the powerful technology of micromechanics into the quantum regime. Cavity opto- or electro-mechanical systems achieve sideband cooling through the strong interaction between light and motion. However, entering the quantum regime, less than a single quantum of motion, has been elusive because sideband cooling has not sufficiently overwhelmed the coupling of mechanical systems to their hot environments. Here, we demonstrate sideband cooling of the motion of a micromechanical oscillator to the quantum ground state. Entering the quantum regime requires a large electromechanical interaction, which is achieved by embedding a micromechanical membrane into a superconducting microwave resonant circuit. In order to verify the cooling of the membrane motion into the quantum regime, we perform a near quantum-limited measurement of the microwave field, resolving this motion a factor of 5.1 from the Heisenberg limit. Furthermore, our device exhibits strong-coupling allowing coherent exchange of microwave photons and mechanical phonons. Simultaneously achieving strong coupling, ground state preparation and efficient measurement sets the stage for rapid advances in the control and detection of non-classical states of motion, possibly even testing quantum theory itself in the unexplored region of larger size and mass.Comment: 13 pages, 7 figure

Implicit Reasons for Disclosure of the Use of Complementary Health Approaches (CHA): a Consumer Commitment Perspective

Background: Disclosure of the use of complementary health approaches (CHA) is an important yet understudied health behaviour with important implications for patient care. Yet research into disclosure of CHA has been atheoretical and neglected the role of health beliefs. Purpose: Using a consumer commitment model of CHA use as a guiding conceptual framework, the current study tests the hypotheses that perceived positive CHA outcomes (utilitarian values) and positive CHA beliefs (symbolic values) are associated with disclosure of CHA to conventional-care providers in a nationally representative US sample. Methods: From a sample of 33,594 with CHA use information from the 2012 National Health Interview Survey (NHIS), a subsample of 7,348 who used CHA within the past 12 months was analysed. The 2012 NHIS is a cross-sectional survey of the non-institutionalized US adult population, which includes the most recent nationally representative CHA use data. Results: The 63.2 % who disclosed CHA use were older, less educated, and had visited a health-care provider in the past year. Weighted logistic regression analyses controlling for demographic variables revealed that those who disclosed were more likely to report experiencing positive psychological (improved coping and well-being) and physical outcomes (better sleep, improved health) from CHA, and hold positive CHA-related beliefs. Conclusions: CHA users who perceive physical and psychological benefits from CHA use, and who hold positive attitudes towards CHA are more likely to disclose their CHA use. Findings support the relevance of a consumer commitment perspective for understanding CHA disclosure, and suggest CHA disclosure as an important proactive health behaviour that warrants further attention

Radiation hardness qualification of PbWO4 scintillation crystals for the CMS Electromagnetic Calorimeter

This is the Pre-print version of the Article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - Copyright @ 2010 IOPEnsuring the radiation hardness of PbWO4 crystals was one of the main priorities during the construction of the electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at CERN. The production on an industrial scale of radiation hard crystals and their certification over a period of several years represented a difficult challenge both for CMS and for the crystal suppliers. The present article reviews the related scientific and technological problems encountered

Intercalibration of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS experiment at start-up

Calibration of the relative response of the individual channels of the barrel electromagnetic calorimeter of the CMS detector was accomplished, before installation, with cosmic ray muons and test beams. One fourth of the calorimeter was exposed to a beam of high energy electrons and the relative calibration of the channels, the intercalibration, was found to be reproducible to a precision of about 0.3%. Additionally, data were collected with cosmic rays for the entire ECAL barrel during the commissioning phase. By comparing the intercalibration constants obtained with the electron beam data with those from the cosmic ray data, it is demonstrated that the latter provide an intercalibration precision of 1.5% over most of the barrel ECAL. The best intercalibration precision is expected to come from the analysis of events collected in situ during the LHC operation. Using data collected with both electrons and pion beams, several aspects of the intercalibration procedures based on electrons or neutral pions were investigated