Current Practices in LC-MS Untargeted Metabolomics: A Scoping Review on the Use of Pooled Quality Control Samples.

Untargeted metabolomics is an analytical approach with numerous applications serving as an effective metabolic phenotyping platform to characterize small molecules within a biological system. Data quality can be challenging to evaluate and demonstrate in metabolomics experiments. This has driven the use of pooled quality control (QC) samples for monitoring and, if necessary, correcting for analytical variance introduced during sample preparation and data acquisition stages. Described herein is a scoping literature review detailing the use of pooled QC samples in published untargeted liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (LC-MS) based metabolomics studies. A literature query was performed, the list of papers was filtered, and suitable articles were randomly sampled. In total, 109 papers were each reviewed by at least five reviewers, answering predefined questions surrounding the use of pooled quality control samples. The results of the review indicate that use of pooled QC samples has been relatively widely adopted by the metabolomics community and that it is used at a similar frequency across biological taxa and sample types in both small- and large-scale studies. However, while many studies generated and analyzed pooled QC samples, relatively few reported the use of pooled QC samples to improve data quality. This demonstrates a clear opportunity for the field to more frequently utilize pooled QC samples for quality reporting, feature filtering, analytical drift correction, and metabolite annotation. Additionally, our survey approach enabled us to assess the ambiguity in the reporting of the methods used to describe the generation and use of pooled QC samples. This analysis indicates that many details of the QC framework are missing or unclear, limiting the reader's ability to determine which QC steps have been taken. Collectively, these results capture the current state of pooled QC sample usage and highlight existing strengths and deficiencies as they are applied in untargeted LC-MS metabolomics.

Understanding the impact of eating disorders: using the reflecting team as a learning strategy for students.

This article outlines how the application of a reflecting team from systemic family therapy practice was used as a learning strategy for a postgraduate programme for healthcare students. The programme was designed to increase the students' skills, knowledge and awareness of the needs of people with eating disorders, and their families. There were some benefits to this learning strategy. Students reported that the use of a reflecting team enabled them to gain a deep understanding of the emotional impact of eating disorders on individuals and their carers. However, as this method of learning was new to the students, they needed some initial instruction on the approach. During the programme of study, it became evident that the health professionals were deeply affected by the experiences of people with eating disorders. This would suggest that possibly it was the presence of the sufferers themselves as part of the reflecting team that provided the pivotal learning opportunity, rather than the reflecting team per se.

Solution-focused approach therapy for mental health nursing students.

Solution-focused therapy is a model of therapy that builds on the client's strengths, is future-focused and can be generally offered as a brief intervention. It can be used across multiple clinical settings and is not limited to being useful for clients accessing mental health services. Learning the underlying principles and developing a foundation level of skill in the approach was found to be achievable in an undergraduate nursing course, with students reporting an increase in their knowledge of the model and confidence in basic therapeutic skills in just one day of training. In this paper, we introduce the solution-focused approach in relation to nursing practice. We describe the template used for the training day offered to undergraduate mental health nurses. Students reported that this method of learning a therapeutic approach was helpful and increased both their knowledge and skill base.