A bioinformatics analysis of microbial diversity and its correlation with human lifestyle, diet, and health variables

The abundant impact of microbiota on human physiology suggests a need for exploration into their impact on human health and disease. The American Gut Project (AGP) was established to aggregate microbiome sequencing data as well as health, diet, and lifestyle metadata. This study proposes to identify taxonomic species and build a phylogenetic tree representation from the AGP participant sample collection as well as find their respective alpha and beta diversity of all metadata variables based on patient questionnaire data. Additionally, this study will involve a chimeric sequence extraction from the 16S rRNA sequences of the AGP. The expected results are hypothesized to identify the Actinobacteria’s Bifidobacterium and the Firmicutes’ Lactobacillus as dominant genera, as well as significant correlation between digestive or intestinal diseases and the microbial diversity due to pathogenic species often present in the microbiome. The dominant phyla were found to be Bacteroidetes, Firmicutes, and Proteobacteria. In contrast to predictions, the two dominant genera were found to be Bacteroides and Faecalibacterium. The subset of metadata variables that had a statistically significant correlation between both alpha and beta diversity were found which included variables relating to lifestyle habits, geographic location, diet habits, medical diagnoses, and environmental factors

Linkedin As A Learning Tool In Business Education

This article summarizes the existing research on social media as a learning tool in higher education and adds to the literature on incorporating social media tools into collegiate business education by suggesting specific course content areas of business where LinkedIn exercises and training can be incorporated.  LinkedIn as a classroom tool cannot only reinforce basic concepts, such as branding and relationship-building, but creative use of this tool can increase student engagement and collaboration and encourage students to begin building their professional networks, which can be vital in their career progression

Treating trauma-driven OCD with narrative exposure therapy alongside cognitive behavioural therapy

When post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) co-occurs with obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD), symptoms of the former can interfere with evidence-based treatment of the latter. As a result, exposure-based treatments are recommended for both OCD and PTSD, potentially facilitating a concurrent treatment approach. This case study describes the application of concurrent cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT including exposure and response prevention; ERP) for OCD and narrative exposure therapy to treat a patient whose PTSD symptoms of intrusive images of memories and hyperarousal were interfering with standard CBT (including ERP) treatment for OCD. Following this concurrent approach, the patient’s symptoms of OCD reduced to non-clinical levels and showed reliable improvement in PTSD symptoms. Whilst further methodologically robust research is required, this case study highlights that this approach may be beneficial to the treatment of OCD where PTSD symptoms are impacting on treatment

Pilot evaluation of a group stabilisation intervention for refugees and asylum seekers with PTSD

Background: Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is commonly experienced by asylum seekers and refugees (ASR). Evidence supports the use of cognitive behavioural therapy-based treatments, but not in group format for this population. However, group-based treatments are frequently used as a first-line intervention in the UK. Aims: This study investigated the feasibility of delivering a group-based, manualised stabilisation course specifically developed for ASR. The second aim was to evaluate the use of routine outcome measures (ROMs) to capture psychological change in this population. Method: Eighty-two participants from 22 countries attended the 8-session Moving On After Trauma (MOAT) group-based stabilisation treatment. PHQ-9, GAD-7, IES-R and idiosyncratic outcomes were administered pre- and post-intervention. Results: Seventy-one per cent of participants (n = 58) attended five or more of the treatment sessions. While completion rates of the ROMs were poor - measures were completed at pre- and post-intervention for 46% participants (n = 38) - a repeated-measures MANOVA indicated significant improvements in depression (p =.001, ηp2 =.262), anxiety (p =.000, ηp2 =.390), PTSD (p =.001, ηp2 =.393) and idiosyncratic measures (p =.000, ηp2 =.593) following the intervention. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence indicates that ASR who attended a low-intensity, group-based stabilisation group for PTSD experienced lower mental health scores post-group, although the lack of a comparison group means these results should be interpreted with caution. There are significant challenges in administering ROMs to individuals who speak many different languages, in a group setting. Nonetheless, groups have benefits including efficiency of treatment delivery which should also be considered.</p