Using 360-degree videos for virtual reality exposure in CBT for panic disorder with agoraphobia: a feasibility study.

BACKGROUND: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is an effective treatment for panic disorder with agoraphobia (PDA). However, implementation of some of the procedures involved, particularly in vivo exposure, can be time consuming and taxing for routine health care services. CBT with exposure taking place in virtual reality (VR-CBT) is a more time-efficient option and has shown promising results in the treatment of PDA. However, VR-CBT requires expensive equipment and appropriate virtual environments, which historically has been costly and cumbersome to produce. Thus, access to VR-CBT has been sparse in regular care environments. AIMS: The aim of this study was to investigate whether VR-CBT using filmed virtual environments produced with a low-cost 360-degree film camera can be a feasible and acceptable treatment for PDA when implemented in a primary care context. METHOD: This was an open feasibility trial with a within-group design, with assessments conducted at pre-test, post-test, and 6-month follow-up. Participants (n = 12) received a 10-12 week treatment programme of VR-CBT and PDA-related symptoms were assessed by the primary outcome measure The Mobility Inventory for Agoraphobia (MIA) and the Panic-Disorder Severity Scale-Self Rated (PDSS-SR). RESULTS: The results showed that treatment satisfaction was high and participants were significantly improved on PDA-related measures at post-treatment and at 6-month follow-up with large effect sizes (Cohen's d range = 1.46-2.82). All 12 participants completed the treatment. CONCLUSIONS: These findings suggest that VR-CBT with 360-degree video virtual environments delivered to primary care patients with PDA is feasible, acceptable, and potentially efficacious.

Occupancy versus colonization-extinction models for projecting population trends at different spatial scales.

Understanding spatiotemporal population trends and their drivers is a key aim in population ecology. We further need to be able to predict how the dynamics and sizes of populations are affected in the long term by changing landscapes and climate. However, predictions of future population trends are sensitive to a range of modeling assumptions. Deadwood-dependent fungi are an excellent system for testing the performance of different predictive models of sessile species as these species have different rarity and spatial population dynamics, the populations are structured at different spatial scales, and they utilize distinct substrates. We tested how the projected large-scale occupancies of species with differing landscape-scale occupancies are affected over the coming century by different modeling assumptions. We compared projections based on occupancy models against colonization-extinction models, conducting the modeling at alternative spatial scales and using fine- or coarse-resolution deadwood data. We also tested effects of key explanatory variables on species occurrence and colonization-extinction dynamics. The hierarchical Bayesian models applied were fitted to an extensive repeated survey of deadwood and fungi at 174 patches. We projected higher occurrence probabilities and more positive trends using the occupancy models compared to the colonization-extinction models, with greater difference for the species with lower occupancy, colonization rate, and colonization:extinction ratio than for the species with higher estimates of these statistics. The magnitude of future increase in occupancy depended strongly on the spatial modeling scale and resource resolution. We encourage using colonization-extinction models over occupancy models, modeling the process at the finest resource-unit resolution that is utilizable by the species, and conducting projections for the same spatial scale and resource resolution at which the model fitting is conducted. Further, the models applied should include key variables driving the metapopulation dynamics, such as the availability of suitable resource units, habitat quality, and spatial connectivity.

Evaluating citizen science data for forecasting species responses to national forest management.

The extensive spatial and temporal coverage of many citizen science datasets (CSD) makes them appealing for use in species distribution modeling and forecasting. However, a frequent limitation is the inability to validate results. Here, we aim to assess the reliability of CSD for forecasting species occurrence in response to national forest management projections (representing 160,366 km2) by comparison against forecasts from a model based on systematically collected colonization-extinction data. We fitted species distribution models using citizen science observations of an old-forest indicator fungus Phellinus ferrugineofuscus. We applied five modeling approaches (generalized linear model, Poisson process model, Bayesian occupancy model, and two MaxEnt models). Models were used to forecast changes in occurrence in response to national forest management for 2020-2110. Forecasts of species occurrence from models based on CSD were congruent with forecasts made using the colonization-extinction model based on systematically collected data, although different modeling methods indicated different levels of change. All models projected increased occurrence in set-aside forest from 2020 to 2110: the projected increase varied between 125% and 195% among models based on CSD, in comparison with an increase of 129% according to the colonization-extinction model. All but one model based on CSD projected a decline in production forest, which varied between 11% and 49%, compared to a decline of 41% using the colonization-extinction model. All models thus highlighted the importance of protected old forest for P. ferrugineofuscus persistence. We conclude that models based on CSD can reproduce forecasts from models based on systematically collected colonization-extinction data and so lead to the same forest management conclusions. Our results show that the use of a suite of models allows CSD to be reliably applied to land management and conservation decision making, demonstrating that widely available CSD can be a valuable forecasting resource.

Simulations of lipid vesicle rupture induced by an adjacent supported lipid bilayer patch.

Using a simple phenomenological model of a lipid bilayer and a surface, simulations were performed to study the bilayer-induced vesicle rupture probability as a vesicle adsorbs adjacently to a bilayer patch already adsorbed on the surface. The vesicle rupture probability was studied as a function of temperature, vesicle size, and surface-bilayer interaction strength. From the simulation data, estimates of the apparent activation energy for bilayer-induced vesicle rupture were calculated, both for different vesicle sizes and for different surface-bilayer interaction strengths.

Crescimento maxilar e mandibular após alteraçäo do modo respiratório / Mandibular and maxillary growth after changed mode of breathing

Foram estudados a quantidade e a direçäo do crescimento maxilar e mandibular em 38 crianças durante os 5 anos pós-adenoidectomia para correçäo de uma obstruçäo nasofaringeana severa. A quantidade de crescimento mandibular medida entre os pontos gnático inicial e gnático pós-adenoidectomia em radiografias superpostas foi significantemente maior no grupo submetido à adenoidectomia do que no grupo controle pareado. Nos meninos a diferença foi 3,8 mm (p,001) e nas meninas a diferença foi 2,5 mm (p,01). Os meninos também mostraram uma tendência de um crescimento maior na maxila quando os pontos subnasal foram medidos (1,2 mm,p 0,05). Näo detectamos diferença na direçäo do crescimento maxilar entre os indivíduos submetidos à adenoidectomia e o grupo controle