A community-based group-guided self-help intervention for low mood and stress: study protocol for a randomized controlled trial

<br>Background: Depression is a mental health condition which affects millions of people each year, with worldwide rates increasing. Cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) is recommended in the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE) guidelines for the treatment of depression. However, waiting lists can cause delays for face-to-face therapy. Also a proportion of people decline to present for help through the health service – the so-called treatment gap. Self-referral to CBT using community-based group interventions delivered by a voluntary sector organization may serve to resolve this problem. The aim of this randomized controlled trial (RCT) is to determine the efficacy of such a guided CBT self-help course, the ‘Living Life to the Full’ (LLTTF) classes delivered by the charity Action on Depression (AOD). The primary outcome is level of depression at 6 months assessed using the patient health questionnaire-9 (PHQ9) depression scale. Secondary measures include levels of anxiety and social functioning.</br> <br>Methods/design: Participants with symptoms of low mood will be recruited from the community through newspaper adverts and also via the AOD website. Participants will receive either immediate or delayed access to guided CBT self-help classes - the eight session LLTTF course. The primary endpoint will be at 6 months at which point the delayed group will be offered the intervention. Levels of depression, anxiety and social functioning will be assessed and an economic analysis will be carried out.</br> <br>Discussion: This RCT will test whether the LLTTF intervention is effective and/or cost-effective. If the LLTTF community-based classes are found to be cost effective, they may be helpful as both an intervention for those already seeking care in the health service, as well as those seeking help outside that setting, widening access to psychological therapy.</br&gt

Consumer trust and confidence: Some recent ideas in the literature

This is a post-print version of the article. The official published version can be accessed from the link below - © IWA Publishing 2008This paper reflects on two recent debates in the consumer literature on trust that have implications for consumer relations in the water industry. The first concerns an important yet seldom made distinction between trust and confidence. The second concerns when and how trust is related to acceptance of, for example, new tariffs or new technologies, and it challenges the conventional view that trust is usually a precursor of acceptance. New conceptual models addressing these debates are described and their implications for future water-related consumer research are discussed as are potential implications for industry relationships with consumers

Relaxation to magnetohydrodynamics equilibria via collision brackets

Metriplectic dynamics is applied to compute equilibria of fluid dynamical systems. The result is a relaxation method in which Hamiltonian dynamics (symplectic structure) is combined with dissipative mechanisms (metric structure) that relaxes the system to the desired equilibrium point. The specific metric operator, which is considered in this work, is formally analogous to the Landau collision operator. These ideas are illustrated by means of case studies. The considered physical models are the Euler equations in vorticity form, the Grad-Shafranov equation, and force-free MHD equilibria.Comment: Conference Proceeding (Theory of Fusions Plasmas, 2018), 9 pages, 8 figure

Hamiltonian closures for fluid models with four moments by dimensional analysis

Fluid reductions of the Vlasov-Amp{\`e}re equations that preserve the Hamiltonian structure of the parent kinetic model are investigated. Hamiltonian closures using the first four moments of the Vlasov distribution are obtained, and all closures provided by a dimensional analysis procedure for satisfying the Jacobi identity are identified. Two Hamiltonian models emerge, for which the explicit closures are given, along with their Poisson brackets and Casimir invariants

Derivation of reduced two-dimensional fluid models via Dirac's theory of constrained Hamiltonian systems

We present a Hamiltonian derivation of a class of reduced plasma two-dimensional fluid models, an example being the Charney-Hasegawa-Mima equation. These models are obtained from the same parent Hamiltonian model, which consists of the ion momentum equation coupled to the continuity equation, by imposing dynamical constraints. It is shown that the Poisson bracket associated with these reduced models is the Dirac bracket obtained from the Poisson bracket of the parent model

A discontinuous Galerkin method for the Vlasov-Poisson system

A discontinuous Galerkin method for approximating the Vlasov-Poisson system of equations describing the time evolution of a collisionless plasma is proposed. The method is mass conservative and, in the case that piecewise constant functions are used as a basis, the method preserves the positivity of the electron distribution function and weakly enforces continuity of the electric field through mesh interfaces and boundary conditions. The performance of the method is investigated by computing several examples and error estimates associated system's approximation are stated. In particular, computed results are benchmarked against established theoretical results for linear advection and the phenomenon of linear Landau damping for both the Maxwell and Lorentz distributions. Moreover, two nonlinear problems are considered: nonlinear Landau damping and a version of the two-stream instability are computed. For the latter, fine scale details of the resulting long-time BGK-like state are presented. Conservation laws are examined and various comparisons to theory are made. The results obtained demonstrate that the discontinuous Galerkin method is a viable option for integrating the Vlasov-Poisson system.Comment: To appear in Journal for Computational Physics, 2011. 63 pages, 86 figure

Bringing remote sensing technology to the user community

The procedures and services available for educating and training potential users of remote sensing technology are discussed along with approaches for achieving an in-house capability for the analysis of remotely sensed data using numerical techniques based on pattern recognition principles. Cost estimates are provided where appropriate

Copyright literacy in the UK: Understanding library and information professionals’ experiences of copyright

This chapter reports on research to investigate the “copyright literacy” of librarians in the UK. Based on a survey and focus groups, undertaken following reform of copyright legislation in the UK in 2014, it originated from a European study. The research highlights gaps in knowledge, identifies training requirements in the sector, and suggests library and information science (LIS) qualifications and continuing professional development (CPD) need to address a greater range of topics related to copyright and intellectual property rights. The data also suggests that copyright is a source of anxiety for many librarians. Following the survey, a follow-up qualitative study was undertaken, using phenomenography as a way of exploring in detail librarians’ varying experiences of copyright. The chapter concludes by discussing how copyright might form a key component of the wider digital and information literacies taught by librarians. It also discusses how games based learning might be a valuable approach to copyright education