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Mind nature:A virtual reality nature therapy for reducing anxiety and negative mood in university students
Get PDFThe mental health of young adults, particularly university students, has become a global concern. Nature-based interventions have shown promise in alleviating anxiety and negative emotions. This study explored the effectiveness of Virtual Reality (VR)-based nature therapy in reducing anxiety, negative mood, and stress while enhancing mindfulness among university students. A three-armed randomised controlled trial was conducted. Two hundred thirty-six students with anxiety symptoms were randomly assigned to either a VR intervention group, a placebo control group, or an inactive control group after the baseline assessment. We developed a VR intervention system called Mind Nature, featuring nature-based activities such as planting, observing natural environments, rowing across the water, and personal reflection, all accompanied by mindful audio guidance within a fully immersive 360-degree, three-dimensional VR environment. The placebo control group engaged in a VR sports game using a VR headset, while the control group received no intervention. Each session lasted approximately 30 minutes. Anxiety, mood, stress, mindfulness, and nature-relatedness were measured three times: pre- and post-intervention and at a 2-week follow-up. Results revealed significant group-time interaction effects, with greater reductions in anxiety, negative affect, and stress in the VR intervention group compared to the placebo and control groups. This study highlights the effectiveness of VR-based nature therapy and its potential as an effective and convenient mental health intervention for university students, offering a promising complement to traditional therapeutic approaches
Assimilation of Ground and Satellite Magnetic Observations Unravels the Ionospheric, Magnetospheric, and Induced Fields During the May and October 2024 Geomagnetic Storms
Get PDFThe geomagnetic storms of May and October 2024 were the strongest storms of solar cycle 25, with the index as low as −412 nT and auroras down to low latitudes. To investigate these extreme events, we developed a global magnetic field model of magnetospheric, ionospheric, and Earth-induced contributions obtained by assimilating magnetic observations. To leverage both ground observatory and multi-satellite magnetic data from the Swarm, CryoSat-2, GRACE-FO, and MSS-1 satellites, we used a new modeling approach to separate the magnetospheric and ionospheric sources, and to model both external and the Earth-induced fields with a 1-hr time resolution. The high spatio-temporal resolution of the model enables investigating the coupling between the mid-latitude ionospheric and magnetospheric field sources during all phases of the geomagnetic storms. The model reveals the total magnetic field disturbance at satellite and ground altitudes, providing critical input for space weather and a more accurate representation of the geomagnetic field
Inclusion: Every teacher's responsbility:Reflecting on developing the National Framework for Inclusion 3rd edition
Get PDFThis paper discusses the development of the National Framework for Inclusion 3rd edition. This is a key publication for educators both in Scotland and globally, written by members of the Scottish Universities Inclusion Group (suig). This structured reflective resource, which is underpinned by the principles of Inclusive Pedagogical Approaches in Action, encourages educators to reflect on and consider their inclusive practice. A series of questions, reflecting current priorities and changes in Scottish education and society, align directly with the General Teaching Council for Scotland (gtcs) Professional Standards for Teachers. The paper considers the Framework’s underpinning principles, reflects on the collaborative five-step process followed by the writing group, and provides examples of how the Framework is being used in innovative teacher education practice. In using the ACToolkit change model to guide the development work, this paper also makes a new contribution to the fields of educational change and inclusive practice
Palaeohistology and life history of the early Palaeocene taeniodont Conoryctes comma (Mammalia: Eutheria)
Get PDFThe life histories of Palaeocene mammals are poorly known, but may have been central to their success in diversifying across terrestrial ecosystems after the end-Cretaceous extinction. Among these mammalian groups, the eutherian Taeniodonta are particularly enigmatic, with few modern analogues and no living descendants, despite being one of the only lineages to apparently traverse the Cretaceous-Palaeogene (K-Pg) boundary. Here, we investigate the life history of an early Palaeocene taeniodont, Conoryctes comma, based on a multi-individual, multi-element sample. Nearly all elements sampled exhibit similar osteohistological architecture, with a small internal zone of compacted coarse cancellous bone surrounded by an internal cortex of periosteally derived fibrolamellar bone of variable thickness, and an outer cortex of lamellar bone. The well-vascularized fibrolamellar complex in the limb bones, lacking cyclical growth marks, is indicative of overall rapid growth to near adult body size. Cyclical growth marks are present in the outer cortex after the transition to slow-growing lamellar bone, but not in the inner cortex, suggesting sexual maturity was reached in 1 year. In some elements, an internal non-cyclical growth mark shares histological similarities with weaning marks in living mammals and other contemporary Palaeocene mammals, and occurred at the body size predicted for this transition in therian mammals. The unusual presence of compacted coarse cancellous bone near the midshafts of multiple limb bones may be related to cortical thickening, and is similar to the arrangement described in some fossorial mammals, supporting previous assertions of this lifestyle in Conoryctes. Altogether, these palaeohistological signals suggest a life history in C. comma similar to living eutherians, despite uncertainty about whether it is within crown Placentalia or a close outgroup. Thus, our data are consistent with an early origin of placental-like reproductive strategies in their eutherian ancestors, although this attribute was likely shared more broadly among Mesozoic mammal lineages prior to the end-Cretaceous extinction.</p
Cluster and survival analysis of UK biobank data reveals associations between physical multimorbidity clusters and subsequent depression
Get PDFBackgroundMultimorbidity, the co-occurrence of two or more conditions within an individual, is a growing challenge for health and care delivery as well as for research. Combinations of physical and mental health conditions are highlighted as particularly important. Here, we investigated associations between physical multimorbidity and subsequent depression. Methods We performed a clustering analysis upon physical morbidity data for UK Biobank participants aged 37–73. Of 502,353 participants, 142,005 had linked general practice data with at least one baseline physical condition. Following stratification by sex (77,785 women; 64,220 men), we used four clustering methods and selected the best-performing based on clustering metrics. We used Fisher’s Exact test to determine significant over-/under-representation of conditions within each cluster. Amongst people with no prior depression, we used survival analysis to estimate associations between cluster-membership and time to subsequent depression diagnosis. Results Our results show that the k-modes models perform best, and the over-/under-represented conditions in the resultant clusters reflect known associations. For example, clusters containing an overrepresentation of cardiometabolic conditions are amongst the largest (15.5% of whole cohort, 19.7% of women, 24.2% of men). Cluster associations with depression vary from hazard ratio 1.29 (95% confidence interval 0.85–1.98) to 2.67 (2.24–3.17), but almost all clusters show a higher association with depression than those without physical conditions. Conclusions We show that certain groups of physical multimorbidity may be associated with a higher risk of subsequent depression. However, our findings invite further investigation into other factors, such as social considerations, which may link physical multimorbidity with depression.</p
Wolbachia Host Shifts and Widespread Occurrence of Reproductive Manipulation Loci in European Butterflies
Get PDFABSTRACT Wolbachia is the most frequent bacterial endosymbiont of arthropods and nematodes. Although it is mostly vertically transmitted, from parent to offspring through the egg cytoplasm, horizontal transfer of Wolbachia is thought to be common over evolutionary timescales. However, the relative frequency of each transmission mechanism has not been studied systematically in closely related species. Additionally, while Wolbachia is generally regarded as a reproductive manipulator, it is unclear how frequently the symbiont induces such effects. In this study, we investigated the presence, phenotypes and phylogenetic relationships among Wolbachia strains in whole genome sequence data for 18 European butterfly sister-species pairs. We find that sister-species share Wolbachia strains more often than random species pairs and that the probability of strain sharing is higher for younger pairs of host species, especially those with greater range overlap. We also find that split times between Wolbachia strains that infect the same sister-species pair generally pre-date host divergence, ruling out co-divergence in favour of horizontal transfer. However, some strains are younger than the mitochondrial split times of their hosts, so introgressive transfer cannot be ruled out in some cases. In addition, all newly assembled Wolbachia genomes contained putative homologues of genes associated with cytoplasmic incompatibility and male killing. This supports the potential for reproductive manipulation in Wolbachia strains infecting European butterflies, which until now was only inferred from mitochondrial diversity patterns. Our results show that horizontal and introgressive transfer of Wolbachia are frequent even between recently speciated host taxa, suggesting the symbiont's turnover rate is higher than had been inferred previously from surveys of distantly related hosts
Semiparametric efficient estimation of small genetic effects in large-scale population cohorts
Get PDFPopulation genetics seeks to quantify DNA variant associations with traits or diseases, as well as interactions among variants and with environmental factors. Computing millions of estimates in large cohorts in which small effect sizes and tight confidence intervals are expected, necessitates minimizing model-misspecification bias to increase power and control false discoveries. We present TarGene, a unified statistical workflow for the semi-parametric efficient and double robust estimation of genetic effects including k-point interactions among categorical variables in the presence of confounding and weak population dependence. k-point interactions, or Average Interaction Effects (AIEs), are a direct generalization of the usual average treatment effect (ATE). We estimate genetic effects with cross-validated and/or weighted versions of Targeted Minimum Loss-based Estimators (TMLE) and One-Step Estimators (OSE). The effect of dependence among data units on variance estimates is corrected by using sieve plateau variance estimators based on genetic relatedness across the units. We present extensive realistic simulations to demonstrate power, coverage, and control of type I error. Our motivating application is the targeted estimation of genetic effects on trait, including two-point and higher-order gene-gene and gene-environment interactions, in large-scale genomic databases such as UK Biobank and All of Us. All cross-validated and/or weighted TMLE and OSE for the AIE k-point interaction, as well as ATEs, conditional ATEs and functions thereof, are implemented in the general purpose Julia package TMLE.jl. For high-throughput applications in population genomics, we provide the open-source Nextflow pipeline and software TarGene which integrates seamlessly with modern high-performance and cloud computing platforms.</p
Regulating sustainability:The interplay of laws, policies, norms, and design in sustainable CSCW
Get PDFThis one-day workshop explores how encounters with regulatory aspects, before, during and after design, can shape the production of more sustainable futures. Within CSCW and Sustainable HCI, there have been repeated calls to develop more systemic approaches to design that include the political, institutional, and infrastructural aspects underpinning technology-mediated interventions towards sustainability. This workshop targets these calls by drawing attention to the methodological, analytical, and design challenges of considering regulatory and policy-making aspects that can shape both the design and the processes of designing digital technologies. It will be an opportunity to bring together CSCW, Sustainability, Law and other interested scholars, representatives of public institutions, environmental collectives, and diverse actors interested in investigating the "knots" of relations between technology designs, regulatory aspects, and sustainable practices. We plan to accept up to twenty contributions and run the workshop on-site
Single and double faecal immunochemical test strategies are effective in risk stratification for patients with symptoms of per rectal bleeding suggestive of colorectal cancer
Get PDFTheory and computation of thermal-field emission from semiconductors
Get PDFSemiconducting field emitters present some interesting features (e.g., self-limited electron emission) for both scientific interest and industrial applications. The analysis of experimental results and device design has been restrained by the lack of accurate 3D models for the simulation of thermal-field emission from semiconductors. Here, we review and correct the equations of field emission from semiconductors and include them to expand GETELEC (General Tool for Electron Emission Calculations). Our method covers all electron emission regimes (field, thermal, and intermediate), aiming to maximize the calculation accuracy while minimizing the computational cost. GETELEC-2.0 is able to reproduce the characteristic non-linear I-V curves in Fowler–Nordheim coordinates obtained from semiconductors, giving insights about their nature, as well as providing an explanation to the lack of experimental observation of the field emitted valence band electrons from semiconductors
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