Tropical forests are approaching critical temperature thresholds.

The critical temperature beyond which photosynthetic machinery in tropical trees begins to fail averages approximately 46.7 °C (Tcrit)1. However, it remains unclear whether leaf temperatures experienced by tropical vegetation approach this threshold or soon will under climate change. Here we found that pantropical canopy temperatures independently triangulated from individual leaf thermocouples, pyrgeometers and remote sensing (ECOSTRESS) have midday peak temperatures of approximately 34 °C during dry periods, with a long high-temperature tail that can exceed 40 °C. Leaf thermocouple data from multiple sites across the tropics suggest that even within pixels of moderate temperatures, upper canopy leaves exceed Tcrit 0.01% of the time. Furthermore, upper canopy leaf warming experiments (+2, 3 and 4 °C in Brazil, Puerto Rico and Australia, respectively) increased leaf temperatures non-linearly, with peak leaf temperatures exceeding Tcrit 1.3% of the time (11% for more than 43.5 °C, and 0.3% for more than 49.9 °C). Using an empirical model incorporating these dynamics (validated with warming experiment data), we found that tropical forests can withstand up to a 3.9 ± 0.5 °C increase in air temperatures before a potential tipping point in metabolic function, but remaining uncertainty in the plasticity and range of Tcrit in tropical trees and the effect of leaf death on tree death could drastically change this prediction. The 4.0 °C estimate is within the 'worst-case scenario' (representative concentration pathway (RCP) 8.5) of climate change predictions2 for tropical forests and therefore it is still within our power to decide (for example, by not taking the RCP 6.0 or 8.5 route) the fate of these critical realms of carbon, water and biodiversity3,4.

Mental health of help-seeking outpatients pre and post COVID-19: A real-world data, multicentre study.

OBJECTIVE: A great deal of research addresses the mental health implications of the COVID-19 pandemic for the general population. Little is known about the implications for mental health of help-seeking outpatients and for the effectiveness of mental health services. The present study investigated the mental health and treatment response of help-seeking outpatients before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. METHOD: Routine outcome monitoring data from 3706 clients in the United States and Northern Europe was analysed using multilevel modelling with global subjective well-being as the dependent variable. RESULTS: As opposed to before the pandemic, during the pandemic, well-being scores were significantly higher at intake and improvement throughout treatment was significantly smaller in the US sample, while both were comparable in the EU sample. CONCLUSION: Although there is also evidence of less effective treatments since the pandemic, no conclusive picture emerges that portrays the impact of the pandemic on mental health as uniform. More research is needed to elucidate the impact of the pandemic on the help-seeking population.

Spatial covariation in nutrient enrichment and fishing of herbivores in an oceanic coral reef ecosystem.

Both natural and anthropogenic stressors are increasing on coral reefs, resulting in large-scale loss of coral and potential shifts from coral- to macroalgae-dominated community states. Two factors implicated in shifts to macroalgae are nutrient enrichment and fishing of reef herbivores. Although either of these factors alone could facilitate establishment of macroalgae, reefs may be particularly vulnerable to coral-to-algae phase shifts in which strong bottom-up forcing from nutrient enrichment is accompanied by a weakening of herbivore control of macroalgae via intense fishing. We explored spatial heterogeneity and covariance in these drivers on reefs in the lagoons of Moorea, French Polynesia, where the local fishery heavily targets herbivorous fishes and there are spatially variable inputs of nutrients from agricultural fertilizers and wastewater systems. Spatial patterns of fishing and nutrient enrichment were not correlated at the two landscape scales we examined: among the 11 interconnected lagoons around the island or among major habitats (fringing reef, mid-lagoon, back reef) within a lagoon. This decoupling at the landscape scale resulted from patterns of covariation between enrichment and fishing that differed qualitatively between cross-shore and long-shore directions. At the cross-shore scale, nutrient enrichment declined but fishing increased from shore to the crest of the barrier reef. By contrast, nutrient enrichment and fishing were positively correlated in the long-shore direction, with both increasing with proximity to a pass in the barrier reef. Contrary to widespread assumptions in the scientific literature that human coastal population density correlates with impact on marine ecosystems and that fishing effort declines linearly with distance from the shore, these local stressors produced a complex spatial mosaic of reef vulnerabilities. Our findings support spatially explicit management involving the control of anthropogenic nutrients and strategic reductions in fishing pressure on herbivores by highlighting specific areas to target for management actions.

Use of Psychics for Stress and Emotional Problems: A Descriptive Survey Comparison with Conventional Providers and Informal Helpers.

Conventional mental health treatments do not meet the needs of all who seek help: some consult informal and alternative providers. Researching the use and perceived benefits of these non-conventional sources of help may contribute to understanding help-seeking behavior and inform mental health policy. We explored the experiences of people consulting psychics (a type of alternative provider) for mental health needs, through comparisons with experiences of people consulting conventional and informal providers. An online survey sought feedback on help seeking for stress or emotional problems from 734 adults who had consulted a psychologist or counsellor; doctor or psychiatrist who prescribed medication; friend or family member; or psychic or similar alternative provider. Analyses included descriptive and inferential statistics and content analysis of textual responses. Problems were commonly described in symptom or disorder terminology with considerable overlap across groups. Content analysis of reasons for choice of helper identified four main categories-functional, reasoned, emotional, and passive-which differed significantly across groups (Cramer's V = 0.26), with consulting psychics predominantly a reasoned choice. Ratings of overall effectiveness of help by those consulting psychics were greater than for the three other groups (d = 0.31 to 0.42), with very few adverse outcomes in any group. Help seeking for stress or emotional problems includes consultations with psychics or similar alternative providers, with self-reported outcomes better than for conventional providers. Further research is warranted to establish whether psychic consultations may serve a useful public health function.

Caribbean reefs of the Anthropocene: Variance in ecosystem metrics indicates bright spots on coral depauperate reefs.

Dramatic coral loss has significantly altered many Caribbean reefs, with potentially important consequences for the ecological functions and ecosystem services provided by reef systems. Many studies examine coral loss and its causes-and often presume a universal decline of ecosystem services with coral loss-rather than evaluating the range of possible outcomes for a diversity of ecosystem functions and services at reefs varying in coral cover. We evaluate 10 key ecosystem metrics, relating to a variety of different reef ecosystem functions and services, on 328 Caribbean reefs varying in coral cover. We focus on the range and variability of these metrics rather than on mean responses. In contrast to a prevailing paradigm, we document high variability for a variety of metrics, and for many the range of outcomes is not related to coral cover. We find numerous "bright spots," where herbivorous fish biomass, density of large fishes, fishery value, and/or fish species richness are high, despite low coral cover. Although it remains critical to protect and restore corals, understanding variability in ecosystem metrics among low-coral reefs can facilitate the maintenance of reefs with sustained functions and services as we work to restore degraded systems. This framework can be applied to other ecosystems in the Anthropocene to better understand variance in ecosystem service outcomes and identify where and why bright spots exist.

The Child Outcome Rating Scale: validating a four-item measure of psychosocial functioning in community and clinic samples of children aged 10-15.

Psychosocial functioning is considered an important and valued outcome in relation to young people's mental health as a construct distinct from psychiatric symptomology, especially in the light of an increasing focus on transdiagnostic approaches. Yet, the level of psychosocial functioning is rarely directly asked of young people themselves, despite the widespread recognition that the young person's perspective is valuable and is often at odds with those of other reporters, such as parents or professionals. One possible reason for this is that the field lacks a clear agreed tool to capture this information in a non-burdensome way. To begin to address this gap, this paper describes psychometric analysis of the Child Outcome Rating Scale (CORS), a brief and highly accessible self-report measure of young people's psychosocial functioning already used extensively by mental health professionals around the world but with only limited data on psychometric robustness. Using large community (n = 7822) and clinic (n = 2604) samples, we explore the factor structure, construct validity, internal consistency, differential item functioning, and sensitivity of the CORS. We found that the CORS stands up to psychometric scrutiny, having found satisfactory levels of reliability, validity, and sensitivity in this sample. We also found that the CORS is suitable for use with young people as old as 15 years old. That the CORS has been found to be psychometrically robust while being highly feasible (brief, simple, easy to administer) for use in busy clinical settings, combined with the fact that the CORS has already been widely adopted by clinicians and young people, suggests CORS may be an important tool for international use.

Does the working alliance mediate the effect of routine outcome monitoring (ROM) and alliance feedback on psychotherapy outcomes? A secondary analysis from a randomized clinical trial.

Little is known about the mechanisms through which routine outcome monitoring (ROM) influences psychotherapy outcomes. In this secondary analysis of data from a randomized clinical trial (Brattland et al., 2018), we investigated whether the working alliance mediated the effect of the Partners for Change Outcome Monitoring System (PCOMS), a ROM system that provides session-by-session feedback on clients' well-being and the alliance. Adult individuals (N = 170) referred for hospital-based outpatient mental health treatment were randomized to individual psychotherapy either with the PCOMS ROM system, or without (treatment as usual [TAU]). Treatment was provided by the same therapists (N = 20) in both conditions. A multilevel mediation model was developed to test if there was a significant indirect effect of ROM on client impairment at posttreatment through the alliance at 2 months' treatment controlled for first-session alliance. Alliance ratings increased more from session 1 to 2 months' treatment in the ROM than TAU condition, and alliance increase was associated with less posttreatment impairment. A significant indirect effect of ROM on treatment outcomes through alliance increase (p = .043) explained an estimated 23.0% of the effect of ROM on outcomes. The results were consistent with a theory of the alliance as one mechanism through which ROM works. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

In pursuit of truth: A critical examination of meta-analyses of cognitive behavior therapy.

OBJECTIVE: Three recent meta-analyses have made the claim, albeit with some caveats, that cognitive-behavioral treatments (CBT) are superior to other psychotherapies, in general or for specific disorders (e.g., social phobia). METHOD: The purpose of the present article was to examine four issues in meta-analysis that mitigate claims of CBT superiority: (a) effect size, power, and statistical significance, (b) focusing on disorder-specific symptom measures and ignoring other important indicators of psychological functioning, (c) problems inherent in classifying treatments provided in primary studies into classes of treatments, and (d) the inclusion of problematic trials, which biases the results, and the exclusion of trials that fail to find differences among treatments. RESULTS: When these issues are examined, the effects demonstrating the superiority of CBT are small, nonsignificant for the most part, limited to targeted symptoms, or are due to flawed primary studies. CONCLUSION: Meta-analytic evidence for the superiority of CBT in the three meta-analysis are nonexistent or weak.

As good as it gets? Therapy outcomes of trainees over time.

There is a paucity of empirical studies that demonstrate psychotherapy trainees improve at assisting their clients' therapy outcomes over time. We examined whether trainees (i.e., practicum, predoctoral interns, and postdoctoral fellows) improved in their clients' therapy outcomes over time. We examined 114 trainees (i.e., who were trainees for the first client in the database) and had over 12 months of client outcome data (M = 45.31 months). At the start of their time in our database, about half of the participants (48.2%) were predoctoral interns, 42.1% were practicum students, and 9.6% were postdoctoral fellows. Collectively, they treated 2,991 clients (M = 26 clients per trainee). Clients completed the Behavioral Health Measure, which assesses general psychological functioning (i.e., well-being, symptom distress, and life functioning), as a measure of therapy outcomes. Trainees demonstrated small-sized growth in their clients' outcomes over time (d = 0.04 per year); however, this growth was moderated by client severity. That is, trainees demonstrated growth over time in working with clients who were less distressed (d = -0.13 to 0.10 over time), but there was no change over time for trainees when working with more distressed clients (d = 0.67 to .65 over time). The results were consistent across trainee level (i.e., practicum, predoctoral intern, postdoctoral fellow), yet trainees varied in their patterns of growth. Psychotherapy training has a small, but positive, effect on trainees' ability to foster positive outcomes with their clients over time. (PsycINFO Database Record

Do psychotherapists improve with time and experience? A longitudinal analysis of outcomes in a clinical setting.

OBJECTIVE: Psychotherapy researchers have long questioned whether increased therapist experience is linked to improved outcomes. Despite numerous cross-sectional studies examining this question, no large-scale longitudinal study has assessed within-therapist changes in outcomes over time. METHOD: The present study examined changes in psychotherapists' outcomes over time using a large, longitudinal, naturalistic psychotherapy data set. The sample included 6,591 patients seen in individual psychotherapy by 170 therapists who had on average 4.73 years of data in the data set (range = 0.44 to 17.93 years). Patient-level outcomes were examined using the Outcome Questionnaire-45 and a standardized metric of change (prepost d). Two-level multilevel models (patients nested within therapist) were used to examine the relationship between therapist experience and patient prepost d and early termination. Experience was examined both as chronological time and cumulative patients seen. RESULTS: Therapists achieved outcomes comparable with benchmarks from clinical trials. However, a very small but statistically significant change in outcome was detected indicating that on the whole, therapists' patient prepost d tended to diminish as experience (time or cases) increases. This small reduction remained when controlling for several patient-level, caseload-level, and therapist-level characteristics, as well as when excluding several types of outliers. Further, therapists were shown to vary significantly across time, with some therapists showing improvement despite the overall tendency for outcomes to decline. In contrast, therapists showed lower rates of early termination as experience increased. CONCLUSIONS: Implications of these findings for the development of expertise in psychotherapy are explored. (PsycINFO Database Record

Implementing routine outcome monitoring in clinical practice: benefits, challenges, and solutions.

This article reviews the benefits, obstacles, and challenges that can hinder (and have hindered) implementation of routine outcome monitoring in clinical practice. Recommendations for future routine outcome assessment efforts are also provided. Spanning three generations, as well as multiple developed tools and approaches, the four authors of this article have spent much of their careers working to address these issues and attempt to consolidate this learning and experience briefly here. Potential "elephants in the room" are brought into the discussion wherever relevant, rather than leaving them to obstruct silently the field's efforts. Some of these topics have been largely ignored, yet must be addressed if we are to fulfill our promise of integrating science and practice. This article is an attempt to identify these important issues and start an honest and open dialogue.

Reduced impact logging minimally alters tropical rainforest carbon and energy exchange.

We used eddy covariance and ecological measurements to investigate the effects of reduced impact logging (RIL) on an old-growth Amazonian forest. Logging caused small decreases in gross primary production, leaf production, and latent heat flux, which were roughly proportional to canopy loss, and increases in heterotrophic respiration, tree mortality, and wood production. The net effect of RIL was transient, and treatment effects were barely discernable after only 1 y. RIL appears to provide a strategy for managing tropical forest that minimizes the potential risks to climate associated with large changes in carbon and water exchange.

Cardiopulmonary Bypass in a Patient with Factor XII Deficiency.

The performance of cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB) in the factor XII-deficient patient is challenging in that the normal method for monitoring anticoagulation is ineffective as a result of an impaired contact activation system. We report the case of a factor XII-deficient patient who underwent surgical revascularization on CPB. His factor XII level was replenished with fresh-frozen plasma immediately before surgery. This management strategy lowered the baseline activated clotting time (ACT) to near normal, providing a meaningful ACT value for CPB. Factor XII is also a key component in the fibrinolytic system and its deficiency is associated with increased thrombosis. Because the factor XII level quickly returns to baseline postoperatively, perioperative care must include strategies to avoid postoperative thromboembolic events.

Effect size calculations for the clinician: methods and comparability.

OBJECTIVE: The measurement of clinical change via single-group pre-post effect size has become increasingly common in psychotherapy settings that collect practice-based evidence and engage in feedback-informed treatment. Different methods of calculating effect size for the same sample of clients and the same measure can lead to wide-ranging results, reducing interpretability. METHOD: Effect sizes from therapists-including those drawn from a large web-based database of practicing clinicians-were calculated using nine different methods. RESULTS: The resulting effect sizes varied significantly depending on the method employed. Differences between measurement methods routinely exceeded 0.40 for individual therapists. CONCLUSIONS: Three methods for calculating effect sizes are recommended for moderating these differences, including two equations that show promise as valid and practical methods for use by clinicians in professional practice.

Measurement-based care professional practice guideline: Fine, but guidelines do not make good therapy.

Boswell et al. (2022) persuasively make the case for and propose professional practice guidelines (PPG) for measurement-based care (MBC). Although the evidence for MBC is robust, implementing MBC effectively in practice requires skills and processes not discussed in the PPG. We discuss five problems with the PPG for MBC: The "what's in a name?" problem, lack of actionable actions problem, the stopwatch problem, the stock market problem, and looking for the keys under the light problem. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Diagnosis, evaluation and follow-up of asymptomatic microhematuria (AMH) in adults: AUA guideline.

PURPOSE: The purpose of this guideline is to provide a clinical framework for the diagnosis, evaluation and follow-up of asymptomatic microhematuria. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A systematic literature review using the MEDLINE® database was conducted to identify peer reviewed publications relevant to the definition, diagnosis, evaluation and follow-up for AMH. The review yielded 191 evidence-based articles, and these publications were used to create the majority of the guideline statements. There was insufficient evidence-based data for certain concepts; therefore, clinical principles and consensus expert opinions were used for portions of the guideline statements. RESULTS: Guideline statements are provided for diagnosis, evaluation and follow-up. The panel identified multiphasic computed tomography as the preferred imaging technique and developed guideline statements for persistent or recurrent AMH as well as follow-up. CONCLUSIONS: AMH is only diagnosed by microscopy; a dipstick reading suggestive of hematuria should not lead to imaging or further investigation without confirmation of three or greater red blood cells per high power field. The evaluation and follow-up algorithm and guidelines provide a systematic approach to the patient with AMH. All patients 35 years or older should undergo cystoscopy, and upper urinary tract imaging is indicated in all adults with AMH in the absence of known benign causation. The imaging modalities and physical evaluation techniques are evolving, and these guidelines will need to be updated as the effectiveness of these become available. Please visit the AUA website at http://www.auanet.org/content/media/asymptomatic_microhematuria_guideline.pdf to view this guideline in its entirety.

Foraging ecology of critically endangered Eastern Pacific hawksbill sea turtles (Eretmochelys imbricata) in the Gulf of California, Mexico.

The Eastern Pacific hawksbill sea turtle population is one of the most endangered of all sea turtle species. Here, we examine the foraging ecology of 47 hawksbill turtles (40.5-90.3 cm CCL, mean = 54.1 ± 10.1 cm) around Isla San José, Gulf of California, Mexico by integrating information from passive acoustic telemetry, behavior recordings, fecal analysis, and habitat surveys. Tagged hawkbill turtles exhibited high site fidelity over months and years (tracking duration 1-1490 days, mean = 255 ± 373 days) to the location and benthic habitat where individuals were initially caught. Diet was dominated by benthic invertebrates and algae including sponges, algae, tunicates, and mangrove roots. The mean percent cover of these benthic food items was significantly greater in the mangrove estuary than in adjacent rocky and sandy reef habitats. The Isla San José foraging ground is a high-use area for hawksbills and should be granted national protection status.

Spanish Versions of the Outcome Rating Scale and the Session Rating Scale: Normative Data, Reliability, and Validity.

Routine outcome monitoring (ROM) uses standardized measures to both track and inform mental health service delivery. Use of ROM has been shown to improve the outcome of psychotherapy when applied to different types of patients. The present research was designed to determine the reliability and validity of the Outcome Rating Scale (ORS) and the Session Rating Scale (SRS) in a sample of Spanish patients. After a controlled process of translation into the Spanish that is spoken and written in Spain (i.e., in Europe, as distinct from, e.g., Latin American Spanish), both measures were completed by patients of an outpatient mental health unit during eight sessions of psychotherapy. Sixty mental health patients filled out the ORS and 59 the SRS. In addition, the ORS was completed by 33 people who constituted the non-clinical sample. The cut-off of the ORS was 24.52 points, and the Reliable Change Index (RCI) was 9.15 points. ORS and SRS scores exhibited excellent internal consistency. The temporal stability of the SRS was adequate. The convergent and discriminant validity of the two measures were adequate. Regarding the factorial validity of the ORS and the SRS, in the third psychotherapy session, confirmatory factor analyses evidenced the existence of a unifactorial model. The predictive validity of SRS was acceptable. The ORS was sensitive to changes in patients' symptoms. In conclusion, compared to the original English versions of the ORS and SRS measures, the Spanish versions of the measures are also reliable and valid.

Routine monitoring of therapeutic alliance to predict treatment engagement in a Veterans Affairs substance use disorders clinic.

Measurement-based care (MBC) can improve mental health treatment outcomes and is a priority within the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA). However, to date, MBC efforts within the VA have focused on assessment of psychological symptoms to the exclusion of psychotherapy process variables such as the therapeutic alliance that may predict treatment response. This quality improvement project involved the implementation of routine monitoring of alliance within a VA substance use disorder (SUD) clinic predominantly serving veterans with serious mental illness. Alliance ratings were provided by 98 veterans following group therapy sessions. Low alliance ratings were used by the clinicians (n = 4) leading the groups (n = 9) as opportunities to discuss veterans' treatment experience and increase engagement. Using multilevel models that accounted for the nested nature of the data and veteran demographics, alliance ratings showed a small increase over time (B = 0.075, p < .001, f2 = 0.033). In addition, maximum alliance rating (i.e., patients' highest rating of alliance across all observations) was significantly but modestly associated with attendance at both MBC group sessions and all SUD-related visits in the 3 months following the initial alliance rating (Bs = 0.96 and 1.79; ps = .006 and .004; f2s = 0.079 and 0.088, respectively). Average alliance rating, however, was not associated with treatment attendance (ps > .050). Findings suggest that assessment of alliance is feasible within a VA SUD clinic and may provide information signaling risk for disengagement that could be used for increasing treatment engagement. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).