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Purification and characterization of anthocyanin from Irish wild blackberry: impact on color, composition, and antioxidant capacity
No full textThe extraction of anthocyanins from fruits and food waste using eco-friendly techniques has gained attention. This study, for the first time, used Amberlite XAD-7 resin to purify Irish wild blackberries, known for their high polyphenol and anthocyanin content. Ultrasound-assisted extraction (UAE) with 60% ethanol at 325 W for 7.5 min was employed. The crude extract (BCE) was purified with resin to remove impurities while retaining anthocyanins. The total phenolic content (TPC) was 9.35±0.07 mg GAE/g for BCE and 8.82±0.33 mg GAE/g for the purified extract (BPE). Total anthocyanin content (TAC) was 0.21±0.01 mg CYE/g for BCE and 0.15±0.01 mg CYE/g for BPE. HPLC identified cyanidin-3-glu?coside (C3G) as the dominant anthocyanin. The C3G concentration was 5.50±0.02 mg/g in BCE and 4.01±0.01 mg/g in BPE at 520 nm. Antioxidant capacity assessed via CUPRAC, FRAP, and DPPH assays showed significant differences between BCE and BPE in CUPRAC (25.13±1.09 mg AAE/g for BCE vs. 23.06±0.26 mg AAE/g for BPE), with no sig?nificant differences in FRAP and DPPH assays. Amberlite XAD-7 resin effectively removed impurities while preserving antioxidant capacity, making BPE a potential ingredient for pharmaceutical and food applications due to its concentrated anthocyanin content, thereby introducing a novel approach in the field.</p
Exploring the design, development, and implementation of a peer-led community café in mental health service provision: A qualitative descriptive study
No full textAims: To explore the design, development, and implementation of a peer-led community café to support people in mental health crisis from the perspectives of key stakeholders in Ireland. Design: Qualitative descriptive study. Methods: Twelve individuals representing the Community Café Operations Team and Senior Healthcare Management took part in a stakeholder convening or individual interview between February and July 2023 in Ireland. Data was analysed using Burnard's thematic content analysis framework, and findings were mapped onto the RE-AIM framework. This process was supported by the involvement of a person with lived experience who had previously utilised the Community Café as a customer. Results: Key findings identified in relation to the design, development and implementation of the Community Café included: person centredness, co-production, alternative service provision (out-of-hours), staff supports, challenges affecting sustainability, and governance issues. Conclusion: Close collaboration among healthcare services, practitioners, service users and community partners is essential in developing mental health services, prioritising co-production and person-centred service delivery. Key components include out-of-hours service provision, staff support, sustainability, and governance. By addressing these areas, healthcare systems can better meet the needs of service users on their recovery journey. Implications for the Profession and/or Patient Care: The findings generate new knowledge to inform the development of community and crisis cafes, improve service user outcomes, and support recovery. The results provide valuable insights into key stakeholder perspectives guiding the design, development, and implementation of peer-led community cafes, highlighting best practices to shape future initiatives. Impact: The study provides valuable insights for policy makers, service developers, and care recipients by highlighting lessons learned from designing, developing, and implementing a peer-led Community Café. It showcases best practice in co-producing a peer-led service to address both service user and service needs.</p
Indirect measures of social identities: implicit association tests assess self-categorization, match–mismatch paradigms distinguish identification from disidentification
No full textA social identity refers to (1) whether people consider a group to be an ingroup along with (2) the psychological meaning of that ingroup (Tajfel, 1978). Social identification and disidentification are two constructs that describe different natures of the psychological meaning of an ingroup. Besides self-reported measures, the Identity Implicit Association Test (identity IAT), and the Match-Mismatch Paradigm (MMP) are the most frequently used measures to assess social identity. In three studies (N = 87, N = 96, N = 137) we tested whether the MMP and identity IAT distinguish between social identification, non-identification, disidentification, and non-categorization. The findings indicate that the identity IAT mostly assesses self-categorization whereas the MMP is sensitive to the specific psychological meaning of an ingroup.</p
Mapping the landscape of mental health research through Google Trends: Bibliometric and thematic insights
No full textAim: The rise of Internet usage has introduced innovative methods for public health research, particularly using Google Trends to understand mental health issues. This study aims to conduct a comprehensive bibliometric and content analysis of research utilizing Google Trends for mental health. Methods: We conducted a literature search on Scopus focusing on peer‐reviewed articles from January 2010 to May 2024. Bibliometric analysis included descriptive statistics, bibliographic coupling, keyword co‐occurrence, and coauthorship networks. Qualitative content analysis identified themes in the study objectives. Results: The bibliometric analysis revealed an increase in publications post‐pandemic. The bibliographic coupling analysis identified the Journal of Medical Internet Research as central, with significant connections to journals like JMIR Public Health and Surveillance and BMC Public Health. Keyword co‐occurrence highlighted themes such as “mental health,” “COVID‐19,” “anxiety,” and “social media.” Author co‐citation and coauthorship analyses showed strong closely linked collaborations, with a few central authors leading the research. Coauthor country analysis revealed limited international collaborations, particularly involving the United States and the United Kingdom. Content analysis identified six major themes: economic and social impacts, mental health during public health emergencies, online behavior, specific conditions and treatments, public health policies, and psychological and social impacts. Conclusion: This study underscores the importance of Google Trends in mental health research, revealing key trends and thematic focuses. The findings contribute to understanding the current research landscape and offer a foundation for future studies leveraging digital tools for mental health insights.</p
Smooth endoplasmic reticulum aggregates in human oocytes are related to female infertility etiology and diminished reproductive outcomes
No full textSmooth endoplasmic reticulum aggregates (SERa) are a type of dysmorphism in oocytes derived from controlled ovarian stimulation (COS). The effect of SERa on assisted reproductive techniques (ART) outcomes is debatable. Based on some evidence, SERa-positive (SERa+) oocytes cause complications including newborn demise, and compromise the outcome of the unaffected oocytes of the same cycle. While other reports demonstrated equal developmental competence between SERa+and SERa-negative (SERa-) oocytes/cycles. We conducted a prospective cross-sectional study on 315 women candidates for ART and compared the outcome among SERa+ (N=73) and SERa- cycles (N=217). Furthermore, for the first time, we investigated the prevalence of SERa+cycles in women with various infertility etiologies. Our results indicated that SERa+patients presented higher levels of Estradiol on the day of ovulation triggering (p=0.02). Regarding the ART outcome, there were no differences in the number of retrieved oocytes, oocyte maturation and fertilization rates among the groups. However, the quality of the unaffected oocytes (p=0.03), the rates of day-3 top-quality embryos (p=0.01, and p=0.03 for grades A and B, respectively), and clinical pregnancy (p=0.05) in SERa+group were significantly reduced. Moreover, the prevalence of SERa+cycles gradually increased among endometriosis, POI/POR, PCOS, normal women, tubal factor, and idiopathic groups. Our study suggests that suboptimal situations such as elevated levels of Estradiol can increase the occurrence of SERa+oocytes. This suboptimal phenomenon can negatively influence the outcome of the cycle. Thus, optimization of COS, particularly in vulnerable groups such as women with idiopathic infertility may lower the SERa+cycle occurrence, improving the ART outcome.</p
Incorporating additional evidence as prior information to resolve non-identifiability in Bayesian disease modelcalibration: a tutorial
No full textDisease models are used to examine the likely impact of therapies, interventions, and public policy changes. Ensuring that these are well calibrated on the basis of available data and that the uncertainty in their projections is properly quantified is an important part of the process. The question of non-identifiability poses a challenge to disease model calibration where multiple parameter sets generate identical model outputs. For statisticians evaluating the impact of policy interventions such as screening or vaccination, this is a critical issue. This study explores the use of the Bayesian framework to provide a natural way to calibrate models and address non-identifiability in a probabilistic fashion in the context of disease modeling. We present Bayesian approaches for incorporating expert knowledge and external data to ensure that appropriately informative priors are specified on the joint parameter space. These approaches are applied to two common disease models: a basic susceptible-infected-susceptible (SIS) model and a much more complex agent-based model which has previously been used to address public policy questions in HPV and cervical cancer. The conditions that allow the problem of non-identifiability to be resolved are demonstrated for the SIS model. For the larger HPV model, an overview of the findings is presented, but of key importance is a discussion on how the non-identifiability impacts the calibration process. Through case studies, we demonstrate how informative priors can help resolve non-identifiability and improve model inference. We also discuss how sensitivity analysis can be used to assess the impact of prior specifications on model results. Overall, this work provides an important tutorial for researchers interested in applying Bayesian methods to calibrate models and handle non-identifiability in disease models.</p
Religious group membership and conspiracy beliefs influence vaccine uptake: Insights from 20 European countries
No full textReports of lower vaccine uptake within religious communities pose a significant public health challenge. While religious group membership is often associated with health benefits, recent research has revealed a paradox: it may also be linked to vaccine hesitancy. This study investigates how religious group membership may reduce COVID-19 vaccine uptake by exploring the role of enhanced conspiracy beliefs. In doing so, we examine these dynamics across individual and national contexts. Using data from 20 European countries (N = 31,681) collected during the 10th round of the European Social Survey (ESS10), multilevel structural equation modelling was employed to examine whether conspiracy beliefs mediated the link between religious group membership and COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Religious group membership was found to indirectly impact COVID-19 vaccine uptake through conspiracy beliefs. At the national level, countries with higher average levels of religious group membership exhibited greater conspiracy beliefs, which were associated with lower vaccine uptake. At the individual level, people who belonged to a religion were more likely to endorse conspiracy beliefs, which negatively predicted vaccine uptake. Our findings underscore the need to address conspiracy beliefs as a critical pathway linking religious group membership to COVID-19 vaccine uptake. Public health strategies should engage with religious leaders to foster trust and dispel misinformation, while promoting transparent and inclusive health communication. Such efforts can help bridge the gap between religious communities and public health initiatives ultimately improving vaccine uptake.</p
Rethinking knowledge systems in psychology: addressing epistemic hegemony and systemic obstacles in climate change studies
No full textClimate psychology has emerged as a critical field examining how individuals and societies perceive, respond to, and engage with the climate crisis. However, the discipline remains deeply influenced by Western epistemologies, which privilege individualistic, anthropocentric, and positivist approaches to knowledge production. This perspective paper critically examines how Western bias shapes the theoretical frameworks, methodological approaches, and policy implications within climate psychology, often to the exclusion of non-Western epistemologies, particularly those from Indigenous and Global South communities. We argue that dominant Western paradigms, rooted in individualism, cognitive-behavioral models, and human-exceptionalist perspectives, constrain the field’s ability to fully capture the complex, relational, and context-specific ways in which diverse populations engage with climate change. Moreover, the overreliance on quantitative and experimental methodologies systematically marginalizes Indigenous methodologies, such as storytelling, relational worldviews, and participatory research approaches, thereby limiting the inclusivity and ecological validity of climate psychology research. To address these limitations, we propose a decolonial approach to climate psychology, advocating for the integration of Indigenous epistemologies, pluralistic methodologies, and equitable research collaborations. By diversifying epistemic foundations and methodological tools, climate psychology can move beyond its Western biases, leading to more culturally responsive research and more e</p
Application of Raman spectroscopy and chemometrics in the mechanochemical synthesis of TIFSIX-3-Ni HUMs using twin screw extrusion
No full textHybrid ultra-microporous materials (HUMs) are a novel category of porous materials featuring a distinctive 3D structure composed of square lattice layers. In this study, HUMs was produced on a small scale using either solvothermal or ball milling synthesis methods. Building on the successful synthesis of HUMs via ball milling, twin-screw extrusion (TSE) appears to be a suitable method for large-scale and potentially continuous synthesis. The effect of process parameters, such as feeding rate, screw speed, barrel temperature, and liquid-to-solid ratio L/S (m/m), on the properties of the TIFSIX-3-Ni HUM was investigated. The results are presented in two sections: In the first section, we conducted a characterization and qualitative investigation to determine the crystallinity of the collected powder by analysing PXRD diffractograms. The second section involves a quantitative study using partial least squares (PLS) multi-variate analysis to measure the conversion rate of the HUM acquired. This was achieved by utilizing the most effective developed calibration model. The PXRD analysis revealed that the most favourable parameters for producing the HUM involve operating at 50 and 150 RPM, at L/S of 0.5 (m/v), and manually feeding. The highest yield of inactivated TIFSIX-3-Ni was 77.7 %, achieved using Raman spectroscopy combined with the PLS model for quantitative analysis This study marks the first successful continuous synthesis of HUMs and the development of a predictive model for process optimization.</p
Unravelling the atomic structure of a metal-covalent organic framework assembled from ruthenium metalloligands
No full textCovalent and metal-organic frameworks (COFs and MOFs) have shown great promise in light-driven processes mainly due to their ligand-to-metal charge-separation properties, as well as having access to a diverse range of photoactive metalloligands and organic linkers. However, both frameworks present individual drawbacks that can potentially be avoided by combining both systems (metal and covalent) to produce metal-covalent organic frameworks (MCOFs), exhibiting the advantages of both material types. Yet, due to their poor crystallinity, the understanding of the structure-properties relation of MCOFs remains unclear. Herein, we report photoactive linkers in the form of a [Ru(tpy)2] 2+ (tpy: 2,2′,6,2″-terpyridine) complex which covalently binds to a luminescent pyrene core to yield a new, photoactive Schiff-base MCOF. The structure, thermal, electronic, and optical properties of this novel material have been exhaustively characterized by a wide range of microscopy, spectroscopic, and computational methods. This combined experimental and computational work represents a significant step toward the fundamental understanding of the photoactive units within the framework, their hierarchical arrangement and interactions with substrates, which is essential for the future design of efficient photocatalytic materials.</p