An Exploratory Evaluation of Implementing a Rapid-response Online Mental Health Service During the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study from India.

Objectives: Strict social distancing and lockdown measures imposed to curb transmission during the early phase of the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic posed challenges to people's psychological wellbeing, limited access to social support, and disrupted routine mental health service delivery. In response, a consortium of mental health stakeholders from Goa, India launched the COVIDAV program, which provided pro-bono virtual psychiatric and counselling consultations across India through an online platform. This study describes the acceptability and feasibility of the program from the perspective of various stakeholders.

Elucidating the signal for contact guidance contained in aligned fibrils with a microstructural-mechanical model.

Despite its importance in physiological processes and tissue engineering, the mechanism underlying cell contact guidance in an aligned fibrillar network has defied elucidation due to multiple interdependent signals that such a network presents to cells, namely, anisotropy of adhesion, porosity and mechanical behaviour. A microstructural-mechanical model of fibril networks was used to assess the relative magnitudes of these competing signals in networks of varied alignment strength based on idealized cylindrical pseudopods projected into the aligned and orthogonal directions and computing the anisotropy of metrics chosen for adhesion, porosity and mechanical behaviour: cylinder-fibre contact area for adhesion, persistence length of pores for porosity and total force to displace fibres from the cylindrical volume as well as network stiffness experienced upon cylinder retraction for mechanical behaviour. The signals related to mechanical anisotropy are substantially higher than adhesion and porosity anisotropy, especially at stronger network alignments, although their signal to noise (S/N) values are substantially lower.

Ex Vivo Mechanical Tests and Multiscale Computational Modeling Highlight the Importance of Intramural Shear Stress in Ascending Thoracic Aortic Aneurysms.

Ascending thoracic aortic aneurysms (ATAAs) are anatomically complex in terms of architecture and geometry, and both complexities contribute to unpredictability of ATAA dissection and rupture in vivo. The goal of this work was to examine the mechanism of ATAA failure using a combination of detailed mechanical tests on human tissue and a multiscale computational model. We used (1) multiple, geometrically diverse, mechanical tests to characterize tissue properties; (2) a multiscale computational model to translate those results into a broadly usable form; and (3) a model-based computer simulation of the response of an ATAA to the stresses generated by the blood pressure.

Emergent structure-dependent relaxation spectra in viscoelastic fiber networks in extension.

Viscoelasticity plays an important role in the mechanical behavior of biological tissues undergoing dynamic loading. Exploring viscoelastic relaxation spectra of the tissue is essential for predicting its mechanical response. Most load-bearing tissues, however, are also composed of networks of intertwined fibers and filaments of, e.

Multiscale modelling of the human lumbar facet capsular ligament: analysing spinal motion from the joint to the neurons.

Due to its high level of innervation, the lumbar facet capsular ligament (FCL) is suspected to play a role in low back pain (LBP). The nociceptors in the lumbar FCL may experience excessive deformation and generate pain signals. As such, understanding the mechanical behaviour of the FCL, as well as that of its underlying nerves, is critical if one hopes to understand its role in LBP.

Multiscale model of fatigue of collagen gels.

Fatigue as a mode of failure becomes increasingly relevant with age in tissues that experience repeated fluctuations in loading. While there has been a growing focus on the mechanics of networks of collagen fibers, which are recognized as the predominant mechanical components of soft tissues, the network's fatigue behavior has received less attention. Specifically, it must be asked (1) how the fatigue of networks differs from that of its component fibers, and (2) whether this difference in fatigue behaviors is affected by changes in the network's architecture.

Isotropic Failure Criteria Are Not Appropriate for Anisotropic Fibrous Biological Tissues.

The von Mises (VM) stress is a common stress measure for finite element models of tissue mechanics. The VM failure criterion, however, is inherently isotropic, and therefore may yield incorrect results for anisotropic tissues, and the relevance of the VM stress to anisotropic materials is not clear. We explored the application of a well-studied anisotropic failure criterion, the Tsai–Hill (TH) theory, to the mechanically anisotropic porcine aorta.

Failure of the Porcine Ascending Aorta: Multidirectional Experiments and a Unifying Microstructural Model.

The ascending thoracic aorta is poorly understood mechanically, especially its risk of dissection. To make better predictions of dissection risk, more information about the multidimensional failure behavior of the tissue is needed, and this information must be incorporated into an appropriate theoretical/computational model. Toward the creation of such a model, uniaxial, equibiaxial, peel, and shear lap tests were performed on healthy porcine ascending aorta samples.

Automatic Segmentation of Mechanically Inhomogeneous Tissues Based on Deformation Gradient Jump.

Variations in properties, active behavior, injury, scarring, and/or disease can all cause a tissue's mechanical behavior to be heterogeneous. Advances in imaging technology allow for accurate full-field displacement tracking of both in vitro and in vivo deformation from an applied load. While detailed strain fields provide some insight into tissue behavior, material properties are usually determined by fitting stress-strain behavior with a constitutive equation.

The effectiveness of a home care program for supporting caregivers of persons with dementia in developing countries: a randomised controlled trial from Goa, India.

Objectives: To develop and evaluate the effectiveness of a home based intervention in reducing caregiver burden, promoting caregiver mental health and reducing behavioural problems in elderly persons with dementia.

Methodology And Principal Findings: This was a randomised controlled trial in which the person with dementia-caregiver dyad was randomly allocated either to receive the intervention immediately or to a waiting list group which received the intervention after 6 months. It was carried out in communities based in two talukas (administrative blocks) in Goa, India.

Geriatric patients attending tertiary care psychiatric hospital.

This retrospective study aimed to explore the Socio-demographic characteristics and clinical profile of patients aged 60 years and above, attending psychiatric services for the first time at the Institute of Psychiatry and Human Behaviour, Goa during 1993-1998. Hospital case files of six hundred and ninety-eight patients formed the study sample. Preliminary analysis revealed that 70% of the sample was between 60-69 years.

Influence of lateral posture on sweating: does posture alter the sympathetic outflow to the sweat glands?

Our unpublished observation that a lateral decubitus posture influences the pattern of sweating was systematically tested by measuring galvanic skin resistance (GSR). Changes in the GSR between two electrodes placed on skin was used to quantify the degree of sweating. In the lateral posture, sweating is inhibited on the lower half and stimulated on the upper half and reversal of the lateral posture induces sweating on the opposite half of the body.

A comparative study of the driving effects of dextroamphetamine and yogic meditation on muscle control for the performance of balance on balance board.

The work is aimed to compare the relative strength of dextroamphetamine and yogic meditation on the performance of 3 different groups of medical students to concentrate on the task to balance on a balance board. Group A subjects were mediators, group B subjects were given orally 5 and 10 mg of dextroamphetamine in a capsule, 1 hr prior to the test. Group C subjects were given same capsule but with lactose in place of the drug (placebo).

Effects of medial septal stimulation & its blockade with atropine on hippocampal rhythmical slow activity in free-moving rabbits.

The influence of the medial septal nucleus (MSN) on hippocampal rhythmical slow activity (RSA) was investigated in hunger motivated free-moving rabbits. Single unit activity of 29 CA3 dorsal hippocampal neurones was studied under two paradigms viz., electrical stimulation (3v/1msec/5Hz) and chemical blockade of atropine-sensitive medial septal cells (dose of 5 micrograms in 5 microliters).

Quantitative evaluation of muscle relaxation induced by Kundalini yoga with the help of EMG integrator.

The present work is aimed to quantify the degree of relaxation of muscle under the effects of Kundalini Yoga with the help of EMG integrator. The data collected from 8 individuals (4 males 4 females) on the degree of muscle relaxation at the end of meditation revealed a significantly decreased muscle activity amounting to 58% of the basal level in both the sexes.

Effect of dorsal hippocampal lesion compared to dorsal hippocampal blockade by atropine on reference memory in vision deprived rats.

In order to study the primacy of the hippocampus in place learning function 24 male adult albino rats were hippocampally-lesioned in dorsal hippocampus involving fornical damage (group I); sham operated for comparison with group I (group II); cannulated for instillation of atropine sulphate in the same loci as group I (group III); and cannulated for instillation of saline which served as control for group III (group IV). All the animals were enucleated and their reference memory (long-term memory) was tested, using open 4-arm radial maze. There was loss of reference memory in groups I and III.

Four-arm radial open maze (FAROM) as a tool for assessing the effect of atropine in spatial memory of the rats.

Place learning behaviour for working (short term) memory and reference (long term) memory is studied with the Four-arm radial open maze (FAROM) in 18 rats divided equally in three groups. In group I, 0.5 mg of atropine was injected intra-peritoneally 30 minutes before the trial.

Study of photic versus non-photic cues as entrainers of circadian running activity in rats.

Though relative dominance of photic/non-photic cues on rodent circadian running activity is known, the exclusive role of non-photic entrainers in rats deprived of photic entrainers is not demonstrated and hence present work using retino-hypothalamic pathway blocked male rats (n = 10) was initiated. Blocking is done by enucleation of eyeballs. Circadian running activity is studied before enucleation and after enucleation towards instinctual social cues, food, water and sexual cues provided in activity cage.

Measure of motivational drive for hoarding in laboratory rats.

The drive for hoarding food pellets was studied in adult female rats kept on restricted food schedule, by using varying current strength applied through the metal grid. It was observed that the rats maintained higher hoarding score at proestrus and lowest at diestrus at all strengths of currents used in the experiment indicating stronger drive at proestrus.

Significance of spatial and temporal dysfunction exhibited by enhanced running activity in hippocampally-lesioned rats.

The present work is designed to study the role of Hippocampus in the control of circadian running activity of rats subject to discrete lesions in ventral hippocampus and having free access to the cues namely food, water, male rat and female rat provided in maze-cum-activity cage indigenously prepared for recording open field behavioral activities. The study was done with 8 male adult albino rats. Those in which lesion was confirmed to be located in antero-ventral hippocampus, exhibited marked increase in running activity with disruption of running activity pattern.

Water as entrainer of circadian running activity in rat.

The present work is designed to study the competing influence of periodic presentation of water on the running activity of the rat having free access to the cues fulfilling his instinctual drives, namely, food, water, male rat and primed female. Seven male, adult albino rats were used for the study. The 24 hour activity shift patterns of the incentive drives for food, water, male rat and primed female were recorded with the help of a maze-cum-activity cage with an automatic recording system fabricated in the laboratory, and under different schedules of periodic presentation of water.

Maze-cum-activity cage with automatic recording system for evaluation of circadian incentive drives in rats.

Maze-cum-activity cage is devised in order to record the activity shift patterns of incentive drive of rats. The main features of this instrument are its low cost, simplicity or recording system and evaluation of time shift patterns of the activity when animal is moving for preferential cues such as food, water socio-sexual environment provided in the cage during a 24 hour period.