Research Ready: a student-initiated workshop model for developing foundational research skills.

Travel restrictions, pandemics, economic downturn, and increasing costs in organizing workshops all impact on face-to-face training of undergraduates planning to undertake research. The inability to obtain basic, first-hand information regarding research in practice causes undue stress for students and leads to unrealistic expectations regarding research projects. Here, we describe how a student initiated online workshop, co-designed by a group of undergraduate leaders in conjunction with a panel of international academic researchers, and enabled the delivery of an introductory workshop on research training to meet student needs.

Effects of Subtypes of Child Maltreatment on CRP in Adulthood.

In order to evaluate the effects of specific forms of childhood maltreatment (CM) upon adult C-reactive protein (CRP) concentrations, and to further describe the potentially confounding role that recent life stress and depression hold in that relationship, 221 participants from rural Australia ( age = 44yr, SD = 17.8yr) completed self-report questionnaires and provided a blood sample. There were no sex differences in any variables across the 91 males and 130 females, but depression status did confound the association between global CM and CRP.

The physical and mental health effects of housing homeless people: A systematic review.

Housing is a significant determinant of health and is widely accepted as a key solution to address some of the health disparities that exist among the homeless. It is estimated that 150 million people worldwide are homeless, and approximately 1.8 billion lack adequate housing.

Physiological, psychosocial, and environmental factors in depression among autistic girls.

Autism Spectrum Disorder and depression are often co-occurring in young people. However, despite the association between these two disorders, and the fact that females have a higher prevalence of depression than males in the general population, there is little reported evidence regarding the correlates of depression in young autistic females. Several physiological (age, menarche, HPA-axis responses), psychological (social anxiety), and environmental or genetic (mothers' depression) factors were tested for their contribution to depression severity in a sample of 53 autistic girls aged 6 yr to 17 yr.

The association between cortisol:C-reactive protein ratio and depressive fatigue is a function of CRP rather than cortisol.

Purpose: Hormonal and inflammatory factors have been suggested as potentially influencing depressive state and depressive symptoms, but rarely compared for their relative contribution to these states and to specific depressive symptoms. This study examined cortisol:C-reactive protein (CRP) ratio, plus cortisol and CRP separately, as correlates of global depression and fatigue-related depression.

Patients And Methods: One hundred and twenty-six community volunteers from rural Australia provided saliva and serum samples, and also completed a depression inventory.

Dyadic coping and the cortisol:CRP ratio: How marital stress influences physiological state.

Although previous data indicate that dyadic coping is associated with Hypothalamic-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA-axis and C-reactive protein (CRP) separately, no study has reported on the ratio between these two systems and dyadic coping, despite this index of physiological homeostasis being associated with physical health and depression. Forty-eight community volunteers who were either married (n = 36) or cohabiting (n = 12) provided saliva and serum samples, and also completed a dyadic coping inventory. There was a significant inverse correlation between cortisol:CRP ratio and dyadic coping, but only for married participants.

Background cortisol versus social anxiety as correlates of HPA-axis recovery from stress in boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) show dysregulation of the expected Hypothalamus-Pituitary-Adrenal (HPA) axis and elevated cortisol responses to stress and response patterns, but little has been reported regarding their recovery from stress in terms of cortisol concentrations. This response was investigated in a sample of 32 young males with ASD aged between 9 and 18 years (M = 14.3 yr, SD = 2.

Associations between stress and depression symptom profiles vary according to serotonin transporter polymorphism in rural Australians.

Purpose: Depression remains difficult to treat in all cases, and further investigation of the role of genetic and environmental factors may be valuable. This study was designed to investigate the association between the short (s) versus non-short (non-s) 5HTTLPR variants, presence of childhood stressors and recent life stressors, and depression, and to do so at two levels that would expose the associations between total depression scores and also individual depression items.

Materials And Methods: Two hundred and forty-nine volunteers from one of the Australian Electoral Office electorates covering a large rural land area completed a series of questionnaires about childhood and recent life stress and depression, and provided a buccal cell sample for genotyping the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism into versus non- carriers.

Comparing a genetic and a psychological factor as correlates of anxiety, depression, and chronic stress in men with prostate cancer.

Purpose: Some prostate cancer (PCa) patients become clinically anxious or depressed after diagnosis and treatment. Some also show the physiological signs of chronic stress. However, there are currently no data describing how these particular patients might be identified at intake.

Does psychological resilience buffer against the link between the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism and depression following stress.

The comparative strength of the 5-HTTLPR polymorphism as a 'predictor' of depression after major stress, versus the 'protective' effect of psychological resilience (PR) against depression after major stress, was tested in a homogeneous sample of older men who had all received a diagnosis and treatment for prostate cancer. Results supported the association between PR and lower depression after stress, but did not support the association between the 5-HTTLPR and elevated depression after stress. Examination of PR at scale, factor, and item level identified the specific PR-related behaviour that was the most powerful predictor of low depression.

Limitations in the inverse association between psychological resilience and depression in prostate cancer patients experiencing chronic physiological stress.

Objective: To investigate the effect of chronic stress as measured in cortisol concentrations upon the association between psychological resilience (PR) and depression in prostate cancer (PCa) patients.

Methods: A total of 104 men with PCa completed inventories on PR, depression, and background factors, plus gave a sample of their saliva for cortisol assay.

Results: The inverse correlation between PR and depression was present only for PCa patients with low or moderate concentrations of salivary cortisol (when classified as more than 1.