Alcohol assessment and feedback by email for university students: main findings from a randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Brief interventions can be efficacious in changing alcohol consumption and increasingly take advantage of the internet to reach high-risk populations such as students. AIMS: To evaluate the effectiveness of a brief online intervention, controlling for the possible effects of the research process. METHOD: A three-arm parallel groups design was used to explore the magnitude of the feedback and assessment component effects. The three groups were: alcohol assessment and feedback (group 1); alcohol assessment only without feedback (group 2); and no contact, and thus neither assessment nor feedback (group 3). Outcomes were evaluated after 3 months via an invitation to participate in a brief cross-sectional lifestyle survey. The study was undertaken in two universities randomising the email addresses of all 14 910 students (the AMADEUS-1 study, trial registration: ISRCTN28328154). RESULTS: Overall, 52% (n = 7809) of students completed follow-up, with small differences in attrition between the three groups. For each of the two primary outcomes, there was one statistically significant difference between groups, with group 1 having 3.7% fewer risky drinkers at follow-up than group 3 (P = 0.006) and group 2 scoring 0.16 points lower than group 3 on the three alcohol consumption questions from the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT-C) (P = 0.039). CONCLUSIONS: This study provides some evidence of population-level benefit attained through intervening with individual students

Alcohol assessment & feedback by e-mail for university student hazardous and harmful drinkers: study protocol for the AMADEUS-2 randomised controlled trial.

BACKGROUND: Alcohol is responsible for a large and growing proportion of the global burden of disease, as well as being the cause of social problems. Brief interventions are one component of comprehensive policy measures necessary to reduce these harms. Brief interventions increasingly take advantage of the Internet to reach large numbers of high risk groups such as students. The research literature on the efficacy and effectiveness of online interventions is developing rapidly. Although many studies show benefits in the form of reduced consumption, other intervention studies show no effects, for reasons that are unclear. Sweden became the first country in the world to implement a national system in which all university students are offered a brief online intervention via an e-mail. METHODS/DESIGN: This randomized controlled trial (RCT) aims to evaluate the effectiveness of this national system comprising a brief online intervention among university students who are hazardous and harmful drinkers. This study employs a conventional RCT design in which screening to determine eligibility precedes random allocation to immediate or delayed access to online intervention. The online intervention evaluated comprises three main components; assessment, normative feedback and advice on reducing drinking. Screening is confined to a single question in order to minimise assessment reactivity and to prevent contamination. Outcomes will be evaluated after 2 months, with total weekly alcohol consumption being the primary outcome measure. Invitations to participate are provided by e-mail to approximately 55,000 students in 9 Swedish universities. DISCUSSION: This RCT evaluates routine service provision in Swedish universities via a delay in offer of intervention to the control group. It evaluates effects in the key population for whom this intervention has been designed. Study findings will inform the further development of the national service provision. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ISRCTN02335307

The mirror-neuron system and observational learning: Implications for the effectiveness of dynamic visualizations.

Van Gog, T., Paas, F., Marcus, N., Ayres, P., & Sweller, J. (2009). The mirror-neuron system and observational learning: Implications for the effectiveness of dynamic visualizations. Educational Psychology Review, 21, 21-30.Learning by observing and imitating others, has long been recognized as constituting a powerful learning strategy for humans. Recent findings from neuroscience research, more specifically, on the mirror-neuron system, begin to provide insight into the neural bases of learning by observation and imitation. These findings are discussed here, along with their potential consequences for the design of instruction, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of dynamic vs. static visualizations

Revaluating “Germany’s worst street”. Commercial gentrification on Leipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße?

Leipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße in Germany is currently discussed from different points of view. Ethnicity, crime, but also urban growth and revaluation processes are in the center of the discourse. As one of the city’s high streets, the Eisenbahnstraße and its two surrounding quarters show changes in the commercial structure, which are claimed to be gentrification processes. This paper aims to analyze both the process by using the concept of commercial gentrification and its local perception. This is done by mapping current commercial uses in the retail, service and gastronomy sector, categorizing them, and comparing them to secondary data. Apart from that, local stakeholder’s perspectives are evaluated based on 16 structured interviews conducted with shop owners on the one hand, and a survey among 105 passersby on the street on the other hand. The material indicates that the Eisenbahnstraße is currently in an initial phase of commercial gentrification. This is displayed by diversification of supply and demand structures, represented by the arrival of new potential customers, but also by a diversification of business concepts. Apart from that, commercial activities experience a strong increase in the area and have led to spatial dispersion from the high street to neighboring roads. We argue that Leipzig’s Eisenbahnstraße follows partially the East German gentrification path, as until now no displacement is identified, but the case also stands out due to the important role of ethnicity in commercial structures

The mirror-neuron system and observational learning: Implications for the effectiveness of dynamic visualizations.

Learning by observing and imitating others, has long been recognized as constituting a powerful learning strategy for humans. Recent findings from neuroscience research, more specifically, on the mirror-neuron system, begin to provide insight into the neural bases of learning by observation and imitation. These findings are discussed here, along with their potential consequences for the design of instruction, focusing in particular on the effectiveness of dynamic vs. static visualizations

Das Leben findet einen Weg : Erzeugung von Wasserstoff durch Mikroorganismen

[no abstract available

Reduced Creatine Kinase B Activity in Multiple Sclerosis Normal Appearing White Matter

Background: Two studies using 31 P-magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS) reported enhanced phosphocreatine (PCr) levels in normal appearing white matter (NAWM) of subjects with multiple sclerosis (MS), but this finding could not be properly explained. Methodology/Principal Findings: We performed 31 P-MRS and 1 H-MRS in the NAWM in 36 subjects, including 17 with progressive MS, 9 with benign MS, and 10 healthy controls. Compared to controls, PCr/b-ATP and PCr/total 31 P ratios were significantly increased in subjects with progressive MS, but not with benign MS. There was no correlation between PCr ratios and the N-acetylaspartate/creatine ratio, suggesting that elevated PCr levels in NAWM were not secondary to axonal loss. In the central nervous system, PCr is degraded by creatine kinase B (CK-B), which in the white matter is confined to astrocytes. In homogenates of NAWM from 10 subjects with progressive MS and 10 controls without central nervous system disease, we measured CK-B levels with an ELISA, and measured its activity with an enzymatic assay kit. Compared to controls, both CK-B levels and activity were decreased in subjects with MS (22.41 versus 46.28 mg/ml; p = 0.0007, and 2.89 versus 7.76 U/l; p,0.0001). Conclusions/Significance: Our results suggest that PCr metabolism in the NAWM in MS is impaired due to decreased CK-B levels. Our findings raise the possibility that a defective PCr metabolism in astrocytes might contribute to the degeneratio

Addressing concerns about smoking cessation and mental health: theoretical review and practical guide for healthcare professionals

Smoking rates in people with depression and anxiety are twice as high as in the general population, even though people with depression and anxiety are motivated to stop smoking. Most healthcare professionals are aware that stopping smoking is one of the greatest changes that people can make to improve their health. However, smoking cessation can be a difficult topic to raise. Evidence suggests that smoking may cause some mental health problems, and that the tobacco withdrawal cycle partly contributes to worse mental health. By stopping smoking, a person's mental health may improve, and the size of this improvement might be equal to taking antidepressants. In this article we outline ways in which healthcare professionals can compassionately and respectfully raise the topic of smoking to encourage smoking cessation. We draw on evidence-based methods such as cognitive–behavioural therapy (CBT) and outline approaches that healthcare professionals can use to integrate these methods into routine care to help their patients stop smoking

Process and Drying Behavior Toward Higher Drying Rates of Hard Carbon Anodes for Sodium‐Ion Batteries with Different Particle Sizes: An Experimental Study in Comparison to Graphite for Lithium‐Ion‐Batteries

Sodium-ion batteries are considered to be one of the most promising postlithium batteries on the verge of commercialization. The electrode processing is expected to be similar to lithium-ion batteries. However, the producibility and material processing challenges of potential electrode materials for anodes and cathodes are poorly understood. For industrial electrode production, a deep understanding of the processing of electrode materials with different particle morphologies is of great importance. In particular, the correlation between the process conditions and the electrode properties needs to be investigated further to understand the complex interactions between the battery slurry materials, the binder system, the drying process, and the microstructure formation. One promising anode material is hard carbon. The water-based processing of hard carbon slurries presented in this article shows that the drying behavior is strongly interconnected with the particle size and particle interactions in the drying electrode. This study shows that all the hard carbons investigated do not exhibit binder migration at moderate drying rates. Even at very high drying rates (9 g m−2 s−1, 12 s drying time), an increase in adhesion force of up to 39% is observed for comparatively smaller particles compared to the adhesion force at lower drying rate