Transdiagnostic interventions have been developed to address barriers to the dissemination of evidence-based psychological treatments, but only a few preliminary studies have compared these ...approaches with existing evidence-based psychological treatments.
To determine whether the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders (UP) is at least as efficacious as single-disorder protocols (SDPs) in the treatment of anxiety disorders.
From June 23, 2011, to March 5, 2015, a total of 223 patients at an outpatient treatment center with a principal diagnosis of panic disorder with or without agoraphobia, generalized anxiety disorder, obsessive-compulsive disorder, or social anxiety disorder were randomly assigned by principal diagnosis to the UP, an SDP, or a waitlist control condition. Patients received up to 16 sessions of the UP or an SDP for 16 to 21 weeks. Outcomes were assessed at baseline, after treatment, and at 6-month follow-up. Analysis in this equivalence trial was based on intention to treat.
The UP or SDPs.
Blinded evaluations of principal diagnosis clinical severity rating were used to evaluate an a priori hypothesis of equivalence between the UP and SDPs.
Among the 223 patients (124 women and 99 men; mean SD age, 31.1 11.0 years), 88 were randomized to receive the UP, 91 to receive an SDP, and 44 to the waitlist control condition. Patients were more likely to complete treatment with the UP than with SDPs (odds ratio, 3.11; 95% CI, 1.44-6.74). Both the UP (Cohen d, -0.93; 95% CI, -1.29 to -0.57) and SDPs (Cohen d, -1.08; 95% CI, -1.43 to -0.73) were superior to the waitlist control condition at acute outcome. Reductions in clinical severity rating from baseline to the end of treatment (β, 0.25; 95% CI, -0.26 to 0.75) and from baseline to the 6-month follow-up (β, 0.16; 95% CI, -0.39 to 0.70) indicated statistical equivalence between the UP and SDPs.
The UP produces symptom reduction equivalent to criterion standard evidence-based psychological treatments for anxiety disorders with less attrition. Thus, it may be possible to use 1 protocol instead of multiple SDPs to more efficiently treat the most commonly occurring anxiety and depressive disorders.
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT01243606.
Stable axial conformations generally exist only when the single bond's (axis') rotation was sterically hindered in solution. Herein, we firstly show that two stable conformations could be observed in ...solution by 1H and 13C NMR experiments when the single bond rotates freely. Its coalescence temperature was measured up to 120 °C when we took compound 13 as an example. The ratio of the two stable conformations was computed using quantum methods. The predicted results matched with the experimental results well. The conversion barrier between two conformers was estimated by potential energy scan (PES) and transition state (TS) calculations at the B3LYP/6-311 + G(d) level. Furthermore, its stereochemistry was also well studied by comparing theoretical electronic circular dichroism (ECD) spectra with the experimental one.
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Cycads are the most threatened group in the plant kingdom. Fire is identified as one of the major factors heightening cycad extinction risk. However, compared to South American cycads, we know little ...about how fire negatively affects the demography of African cycads. Here, we collected a snapshot of demographic data on the largest known population of South Africa’s cycad species, Encephalartos lanatus, in unburnt and regularly burnt habitats. We fitted several statistical models to investigate the effects of fire on the population structure of E. lanatus. First, we found that the population follows a ‘J’ structure with more adults than any other life stage. Contrary to popular belief, this ‘J’ structure may not necessarily imply the future of the population is at risk, given that E. lanatus is a long-lived species. Second, we found that the abundance of adults explains 25% of the abundance of seedlings but does not predict the abundance of suckers, perhaps suggesting the adults ensure preferential seedling rather than clonal recruitment. Third, irrespective of life stages, the subpopulation in fire-prone habitats is, in term of size, proportionately lower than the subpopulation in unburnt areas, suggesting that fire may negatively affect the dynamic of the population. However, fire is not linked to differences in sex ratio across the population; not only do fire-prone subpopulations have more cones, but they also tend to have more damaged cones than unburnt populations. Overall, although we raised some limitations of the present study, we also inferred that fire may shape the observed ‘J’ structure of the population of E. lanatus, but, contrary to traditional belief, the ‘J’ structure is not enough to raise concern about the future of the population. A population dynamics study is required to determine if the future of the population is at risk.
The influence of the feedstock type on the microbial communities involved in anaerobic digestion was investigated in laboratory-scale biogas reactors fed with different agricultural waste materials. ...Community composition and dynamics over 2 months of reactors’ operation were investigated by amplicon sequencing and profiling terminal restriction fragment length polymorphisms of 16S rRNA genes. Major bacterial taxa belonged to the
Clostridia
and
Bacteroidetes
, whereas the archaeal community was dominated by methanogenic archaea of the orders
Methanomicrobiales
and
Methanosarcinales
. Correlation analysis revealed that the community composition was mainly influenced by the feedstock type with the exception of a temperature shift from 38 to 55 °C which caused the most pronounced community shifts. Bacterial communities involved in the anaerobic digestion of conventional substrates such as maize silage combined with cattle manure were relatively stable and similar to each other. In contrast, special waste materials such as chicken manure or
Jatropha
press cake were digested by very distinct and less diverse communities, indicating partial ammonia inhibition or the influence of other inhibiting factors. Anaerobic digestion of chicken manure relied on syntrophic acetate oxidation as the dominant acetate-consuming process due to the inhibition of aceticlastic methanogenesis.
Jatropha
as substrate led to the enrichment of fiber-degrading specialists belonging to the genera
Actinomyces
and
Fibrobacter
.
The problem of link prediction has recently received increasing attention from scholars in network science. In social network analysis, one of its aims is to recover missing links, namely connections ...among actors which are likely to exist but have not been reported because data are incomplete or subject to various types of uncertainty. In the field of criminal investigations, problems of incomplete information are encountered almost by definition, given the obvious anti-detection strategies set up by criminals and the limited investigative resources. In this paper, we work on a specific dataset obtained from a real investigation, and we propose a strategy to identify missing links in a criminal network on the basis of the topological analysis of the links classified as marginal, i.e. removed during the investigation procedure. The main assumption is that missing links should have opposite features with respect to marginal ones. Measures of node similarity turn out to provide the best characterization in this sense. The inspection of the judicial source documents confirms that the predicted links, in most instances, do relate actors with large likelihood of co-participation in illicit activities.
Existing cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) or imaging (tau positron emission tomography) biomarkers for Alzheimer disease (AD) are invasive or expensive. Biomarkers based on standard blood test results would ...be useful in research, drug development, and clinical practice. Plasma neurofilament light (NFL) has recently been proposed as a blood-based biomarker for neurodegeneration in dementias.
To test whether plasma NFL concentrations are increased in AD and associated with cognitive decline, other AD biomarkers, and imaging evidence of neurodegeneration.
In this prospective case-control study, an ultrasensitive assay was used to measure plasma NFL concentration in 193 cognitively healthy controls, 197 patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 180 patients with AD dementia from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. The study dates were September 7, 2005, to February 13, 2012. The plasma NFL analysis was performed in September 2016.
Associations were tested between plasma NFL and diagnosis, Aβ pathologic features, CSF biomarkers of neuronal injury, cognition, brain structure, and metabolism.
Among 193 cognitively healthy controls, 197 patients with mild cognitive impairment, and 180 patients with AD with dementia, plasma NFL correlated with CSF NFL (Spearman ρ = 0.59, P < .001). Plasma NFL was increased in patients with MCI (mean, 42.8 ng/L) and patients with AD dementia (mean, 51.0 ng/L) compared with controls (mean, 34.7 ng/L) (P < .001) and had high diagnostic accuracy for patients with AD with dementia vs controls (area under the receiver operating characteristic curve, 0.87, which is comparable to established CSF biomarkers). Plasma NFL was particularly high in patients with MCI and patients with AD dementia with Aβ pathologic features. High plasma NFL correlated with poor cognition and AD-related atrophy (at baseline and longitudinally) and with brain hypometabolism (longitudinally).
Plasma NFL is associated with AD diagnosis and with cognitive, biochemical, and imaging hallmarks of the disease. This finding implies a potential usefulness for plasma NFL as a noninvasive biomarker in AD.
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