Publications by authors named "B L Bentley"

Article Synopsis
  • Mental health has worsened significantly around the world since COVID-19, with anxiety and depression rates increasing by 25% during the first year of the pandemic, adding to the existing burden of over 1 billion people with mental disorders.
  • The shortage of mental health providers and disrupted services during the pandemic highlight the need for innovative solutions, particularly through technology, to tackle these rising mental health crises.
  • However, challenges like inconsistent patient protection measures hinder the effectiveness of technological approaches, prompting a discussion on how the global community can better address mental health issues going forward.
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Invasive species with native ranges spanning strong environmental gradients are well suited for examining the roles of selection and population history in rapid adaptation to new habitats, providing insight into potential evolutionary responses to climate change. The Atlantic oyster drill (Urosalpinx cinerea) is a marine snail whose native range spans the strongest coastal latitudinal temperature gradient in the world, with invasive populations established on the US Pacific coast. Here, we leverage this system using genome-wide SNPs and environmental data to examine invasion history and identify genotype-environment associations indicative of local adaptation across the native range, and then assess evidence for allelic frequency shifts that would signal rapid adaptation within invasive populations.

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Mental health is deteriorating far and fast globally post-COVID. Though there were already over one billion people living with mental disorders pre-pandemic, in the first year of COVID-19 alone, the prevalence of anxiety and depression soared by 25% worldwide. In light of the chronic shortages of mental health resources and talents, along with disruptions of available health services caused by pandemic-related restrictions, technology is widely believed to hold the key to addressing the rising mental health crises.

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Article Synopsis
  • People are living longer globally, but longer life doesn't always mean better health as age-related diseases can greatly affect health and quality of life.
  • It's important to create systems that categorize and stage these age-related issues to understand the healthcare and socioeconomic needs of aging populations.
  • A recent meeting in Cardiff gathered 150 experts who agreed on three main criteria to classify age-related pathologies, which will help in addressing these health challenges effectively.
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