Success/failure condition influences attribution of control, negative affect, and shame among patients with depression in Singapore

Abstract Background There remains a paucity of research on control attribution and depression within Asian populations. This study examines: (1) Success/Failure condition as a moderator between depression and negative affect or shame, and (2) differences in control attribution between patients with depression and healthy controls in Singapore. Methods Seventy one patients with depression and 71 healthy controls went through a digit-span memory task where they were randomized into either the Success or Failure condition. Participants in the Success condition had to memorize and recall 5-digit strings, while participants in the Failure condition did the same for 12-digit strings. They then completed self-report measures of negative affect, shame, and attribution of control. One-way ANCOVA was performed to examine task condition as a moderator of association between mental health status and post-task negative affect or shame. Test of simple effects was carried out on significant interactions. Sign test and Mann-Whitney U test were employed to investigate differences in attribution of control. Results Mental health status and Success/Failure condition had significant effects on reported negative affect and shame. Healthy controls reported less post-task negative affect and shame in the Success than in the Failure condition while patients with depression reported similar levels of post-task negative affect and shame in both conditions. However, these differences were not significant in the test of simple effects. In addition, healthy controls felt a stronger sense of personal control in success than in failure and were more likely to blame external factors in failure than in success. Conversely, patients with depression were more inclined to credit external factors in success than in failure and ascribed greater personal control in failure than in success. Conclusion The results suggest that successful conditions may not necessitate the reduction of negative affect in Asians with depression, indicating possible cultural variation in affective states as a result of control attribution and the importance of attending to these variations in designing psychological intervention for Asians. Further studies are required to gather more evidence on control attributions in different contexts and study other cognitive mechanisms related to depression in the Asian population

A systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials on choice of central venous access device for delivery of chemotherapy

Ensuring reliable central venous access with the fewest complications is vital for cancer patients receiving chemotherapy. A systematic review and network meta-analysis was conducted to compare the safety, quality of life, and cost-effectiveness of different types of central venous access devices (CVADs) for patients receiving chemotherapy

A randomized controlled trial of a brain-computer interface based attention training program for ADHD

Objective : The use of brain-computer interface in neurofeedback therapy for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is a relatively new approach. We conducted a randomized controlled trial (RCT) to determine whether an 8-week brain computer interface (BCI)-based attention training program improved inattentive symptoms in children with ADHD compared to a waitlist-control group, and the effects of a subsequent 12-week lower-intensity training. Study design : We randomized 172 children aged 6–12 attending an outpatient child psychiatry clinic diagnosed with inattentive or combined subtypes of ADHD and not receiving concurrent pharmacotherapy or behavioral intervention to either the intervention or waitlist-control group. Intervention involved 3 sessions of BCI-based training for 8 weeks, followed by 3 training sessions per month over the subsequent 12 weeks. The waitlist-control group received similar 20-week intervention after a wait-time of 8 weeks. Results : The participants’ mean age was 8.6 years (SD = 1.51), with 147 males (85.5%) and 25 females (14.5%). Modified intention to treat analyzes conducted on 163 participants with at least one follow-up rating showed that at 8 weeks, clinician-rated inattentive symptoms on the ADHD-Rating Scale (ADHD-RS) was reduced by 3.5 (SD 3.97) in the intervention group compared to 1.9 (SD 4.42) in the waitlist-control group (between-group difference of 1.6; 95% CI 0.3 to 2.9 p = 0.0177). At the end of the full 20-week treatment, the mean reduction (pre-post BCI) of the pooled group was 3.2 (95% CI 2.4 to 4.1). Conclusion : The results suggest that the BCI-based attention training program can improve ADHD symptoms after a minimum of 24 sessions and maintenance training may sustain this improvement. This intervention may be an option for treating milder cases or as an adjunctive treatment.NMRC (Natl Medical Research Council, S’pore)Published versio

Recent Progress and Perspectives of Bifunctional Oxygen Reduction/Evolution Catalyst Development for Regenerative Anion Exchange Membrane Fuel Cells

Regenerative anion exchange membranes fuel cells (AEMFCs) have been widely considered as energy conversion and storage devices due to their low cost and high-energy storage capacity, especially when integrated with renewable resources. However, the oxygen electrode reactions have long been one of the primary limiting factors of regenerative AEMFCs due to their sluggish kinetics and resulting high overpotentials. To date, nanoparticles of platinum-group metals (PGMs) have been primary applied as catalysts because they are widely believed to simultaneously lower the thermodynamic and kinetic barriers of the oxygen reduction and evolution reactions (ORR and OER), which occur at a single electrode in unitized regenerative fuel cells (URFCs). However, the high-cost and scarcity of PGMs have recently shifted more researchers’ attention to nanostructured transition metal oxide-based non-PGM catalysts as alternatives for regenerative AEMFCs. Based on a theoretical analysis of the ORR/OER mechanism, the rate limiting steps of this reversible reaction pair has differing catalytic requirements, which make it challenging to develop effective bifunctional electrocatalysts with single active sites. Therefore, this review focuses on the development of ORR/OER dual active site nanostructured catalysts using transition metals or metal oxides that have been developed in recent years. Experimental evidence is critically collected from the literature to provide the perspectives of morphology, valence, electronic structure, energy band, etc. The second part of this review summarizes different methods to synthesize hybrid structures with advanced carbon materials, which compensates for the poor electrical conductivity that most pure transition metal oxides lack. Different mechanisms for improved activity at hetero-atomic interfaces are compared and analyzed. Furthermore, reversible ORR/OER electrocatalyst durability requirements are discussed for industrial implementation of regenerative AEMFCs, and promising pathways for future catalyst design are proposed