1,293 research outputs found
Internet-based CBT for depression with and without telephone tracking in a national helpline: randomised controlled trial
Get PDFBACKGROUND Telephone helplines are frequently and repeatedly used by individuals with chronic mental health problems and web interventions may be an effective tool for reducing depression in this population. AIM To evaluate the effectiveness of a 6 week, web-based cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) intervention with and without proactive weekly telephone tracking in the reduction of depression in callers to a helpline service. METHOD 155 callers to a national helpline service with moderate to high psychological distress were recruited and randomised to receive either Internet CBT plus weekly telephone follow-up; Internet CBT only; weekly telephone follow-up only; or treatment as usual. RESULTS Depression was lower in participants in the web intervention conditions both with and without telephone tracking compared to the treatment as usual condition both at post intervention and at 6 month follow-up. Telephone tracking provided by a lay telephone counsellor did not confer any additional advantage in terms of symptom reduction or adherence. CONCLUSIONS A web-based CBT program is effective both with and without telephone tracking for reducing depression in callers to a national helpline. TRIAL REGISTRATION Controlled-Trials.comISRCTN93903959.Funding for the trial was provided by an Australian Research Council Linkage Project Grant (LP0667970) (http://www.arc.gov.au/). LF is supported by an
Australian Postgraduate Award Industry scholarship. KG is supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (No. 525413) and HC is
supported by a National Health and Medical Research Council Fellowship (No. 525411)
Adherence to the MoodGYM program: Outcomes and predictors for an adolescent school-based population
Get PDFBackground
Program adherence has been associated with improved intervention outcomes for mental and physical conditions. The aim of the current study is to investigate adolescent adherence to an Internet-based depression prevention program in schools to identify the effect of adherence on outcomes and to ascertain the predictors of program adherence.
Methods
Data for the current study (N=1477) was drawn from the YouthMood Project, which was conducted to test the effectiveness of the MoodGYM program in reducing and preventing symptoms of anxiety and depression in an adolescent school-based population. The current study compares intervention effects across three sub-groups: high adherers, low adherers and the wait-list control condition.
Results
When compared to the control condition, participants in the high adherence intervention group reported stronger intervention effects at post-intervention and 6-month follow-up than participants in the low adherence group for anxiety (d=0.34ā0.39 vs. 0.11ā0.22), and male (d=0.43ā0.59 vs. 0.26ā0.35) and female depression (d=0.13ā0.20 vs. 0.02ā0.04). No significant intervention effects were identified between the high and low adherence groups. Being in Year 9, living in a rural location and having higher pre-intervention levels of depressive symptoms or self-esteem were predictive of greater adherence to the MoodGYM program.
Limitations
The program trialled is Internet-based and therefore the predictors of adherence identified may not generalise to face-to-face interventions.
Conclusions
The current study provides preliminary support for the positive relationship between program adherence and outcomes in a school environment. The identification of significant predictors of adherence will assist in identifying the type of user who will engage most with an online depression prevention program.ALC is supported by National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC)Fellowship 1013199, HC is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 525411, and KMG is supported by NHMRC Fellowship 42541
Saccades in the absence of binocular vision
Get PDFThe mechanism of suppression in strabismus is unclear and contribution of the suppressing eye to the generation of eye movements has received little attention. A
series of nine experiments tested how the strabismic eye contributes to saccade generation in the presence of suppression and also considered the effect of the strabismic eye in the presence of abnormal retinal correspondence (ARC). These data were compared with data from subjects with normal binocular single vision (BSV).
Chapters 2 and 3 describe the equipment,
laboratory set-up and testing of the equipment
used
in the thesis
for measuring eye movements, Skalar IRIS 6500 infrared limbal
tracker, and presenting stimuli
to each eye separately. The design of a novel method
for
dissociation of the eyes using
four liquid
crystal polymer shutters
is presented.
Chapter 4 compares
the characteristics of saccades made by subjects with normal BSV
(n=5) and strabismus
(n=8). The effect of distractors on saccades
is explored
in Chapter
5 in
subjects with normal BSV (n=5). The experiment documents the distractor
effect
produced
in the described laboratory set-up, and compares
it with that previously
reported
by Walker et al
(1997). This is investigated further by comparing the effect of
distractor presentations
to the dominant eye, non-dominant eye or both
eyes. There was
no difference in the effect on saccade
latency or gain with distractors
presented to the
dominant or non-dominant eye. The effect of binocular distractors on saccade gain was
greater
than monocular presentations.
Chapter 6
repeats
the experiment of Chapter 5 in
subjects with constant strabismus and
suppression
(n=6) and constant strabismus with ARC (n=2) and
found that distractors in
the strabismic eye did affect saccades however the
response differed from normal BSV.
This was
true even
though
it was shown that the distractor was not perceived by the
strabismic eye.
Chapter 7 investigates the influence of the central
fixation
target in the strabismic eye
on saccade generation by inducing disconjugate
saccade adaptation
in
subjects with
normal BSV (n=8) and constant strabismus and suppression
(n=6). The findings were
that
in the presence of suppression, disconjugate adaptation similar
to that in normal
BSV was possible.
The conclusion of
this thesis
is to suggest that information from the suppressed eye
is
available
to the saccadic system by either a sub-cortical pathway or processed cortically
without conscious awareness
New School Geographies: Engaging young people?
Get PDFIn 2003 school geography was in a state of crisis: enrolment in GCSE geography courses had fallen by a third over the previous eight years. In response, a radical new āpilotā geography GCSE course was designed and implemented in England. The GCSE was an attempt to rejuvenate a school subject that had become out of date, with little change to its content since the inauguration of the National Curriculum in 1988. With student-centred learning at its heart the GCSE aimed to make the subject much more exciting and relevant to young people.
The following thesis examines alternative pedagogical approaches to teaching school geography that draw on young peopleās experiences as citizens and consumers to make geography more relevant and interesting to them. Written as an unfolding story this multi-sited ethnography began by exploring the networks behind the pilot. This involved not only several different actors/groups of actors (including geography educators, academic geographers, geography teachers and school pupils) but also several different spaces (including schools, classrooms, organisation headquarters, working group meetings and publications). It moves on to examine how the GCSEās approaches to teaching, learning and assessing were being played out in practice and to what extent its aims, claims and intentions were being realised in the classroom. Through exploring the pilotās approach to the pedagogy of school geography my research became action-oriented in approach, and I became involved in co-creating critical, connective curriculum materials for the GCSE. The development of these new materials and teaching and learning strategies are situated within debates in human geography about critical pedagogy, young peopleās geographies and public geographies and the thesis forges links between these different theoretical strands. I conclude by asking what lessons can be learnt from the pilot GCSE and its implications for the role of geography within a wider educational context. Written autoethnographically to reflect the collaborative and iterative nature of my research my intention has been to critically engage with multiple publics who are involved in this area.Economic and Social Research Counci
Antioxidants and protein oxidation
Get PDFProteins are susceptible to oxidation by reactive oxygen species, where the type of damage induced is characteristic of the denaturing species. The induction of protein carbonyls is a widely applied biomarker, arising from primary oxidative insult. However, when applied to complex biological and pathological conditions it can be subject to interference from lipid, carbohydrate and DNA oxidation products. More recently, interest has focused on the analysis of specific protein bound oxidised amino acids. Of the 22 amino acids, aromatic and sulphydryl containing residues have been regarded as being particularly susceptible to oxidative modification, with L-DOPA from tyrosine, ortho-tyrosine from phenylalanine; sulphoxides and disulphides from methionine and cysteine respectively; and kynurenines from tryptophan. Latterly, the identification of valine and leucine hydroxides, reduced from hydroperoxide intermediates, has been described and applied. In order to examine the nature of oxidative damage and protective efficacy of antioxidants the markers must be thoroughly evaluated for dosimetry in vitro following damage by specific radical species. Antioxidant protection against formation of the biomarker should be demonstrated in vitro. Quantification of biomarkers in proteins from normal subjects should be within the limits of detection of any analytical procedure. Further to this, the techniques for isolation and hydrolysis of specific proteins should demonstrate that in vitro oxidation is minimised. There is a need for the development of standards for quality assurance material to standardise procedures between laboratories. At present, antioxidant effects on protein oxidation in vivo are limited to animal studies, where dietary antioxidants have been reported to reduce dityrosine formation during rat exercise training. Two studies on humans have been reported last year. The further application of these methods to human studies is indicated, where the quality of the determinations will be enhanced through inter-laboratory validation
Is the generation of neo-antigenic determinants by free radicals central to the development of autoimmune rheumatoid disease?
Get PDFBiomolecules are susceptible to many different post-translational modifications that have important effects on their function and stability, including glycosylation, glycation, phosphorylation and oxidation chemistries. Specific conversion of aspartic acid to its isoaspartyl derivative or arginine to citrulline leads to autoantibody production in models of rheumatoid disease, and ensuing autoantibodies cross-react with native antigens. Autoimmune conditions associate with increased activation of immune effector cells and production of free radical species via NADPH oxidases and nitric oxide synthases. Generation of neo-antigenic determinants by reactive oxygen and nitrogen species ROS and RNS) may contribute to epitope spreading in autoimmunity. The oxidation of amino acids by peroxynitrite, hypochlorous acid and other reactive oxygen species (ROS) increases the antigenicity of DNA, LDL and IgG, generating ligands for which autoantibodies show higher avidity. This review focuses on the evidence for ROS and RNS in promoting the autoimmune responses observed in diseases rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE). It considers the evidence for ROS/RNS-induced antigenicity arising as a consequence of failure to remove or repair ROS/RNS damaged biomolecules and suggests that an associated defect, probably in T cell signal processing or/or antigen presentation, is required for the development of disease
Power and representation: A postcolonial reading of global partnerships and teacher development through North-South study visits.
Get PDFpublication-status: Acceptedtypes: ArticleThis paper critically analyses the neoliberal discourse informing global education policy and practice. We use postcolonial theory to deconstruct the contexts for global educational partnerships, highlighting how issues of power and representation are central to their development and the learning that takes place within them. Teacher development through North-South study visits is one way of challenging teachersā worldviews, but these are not always effective. We argue that study visit courses, where learning is facilitated by differently knowledgeable others, have the potential to be more effective, but only if the courses are underpinned by postcolonial theory and informed by socio-cultural pedagogy
A grounded theory study:How nonātreatmentāseeking substance users make sense of their behaviour āI want to be me but I donāt know who me isā
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