Can self-guided colouring improve university student wellbeing, mental health, and mindfulness?

Background: Mindfulness-based interventions can successfully improve wellbeing in young adults. Mindful colouring is an applied mindfulness practice and improves short-term wellbeing. Less evidence is available about the effectiveness of regular, self-guided colouring.

Prevalence of low vitamin D status in an urban district in Sri Lanka: a population-based study.

Background: Vitamin D deficiency (VDD) is conventionally associated with inadequate sunlight exposure. Ironically, recent evidence suggests a rising prevalence in urban areas of tropical regions like Sri Lanka, where comprehensive data are unavailable. This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of low vitamin D status in urban adults and its impact on serum calcium.

Factors affecting iron absorption and the role of fortification in enhancing iron levels.

Iron is an important micronutrient required for a number of biological processes including oxygen transport, cellular respiration, the synthesis of nucleic acids and the activity of key enzymes. The World Health Organization has recognised iron deficiency as the most common nutritional deficiency globally and as a major determinant of anaemia. Iron deficiency anaemia affects 40% of all children between the ages of 6 and 59 months, 37% of mothers who are pregnant and 30% of women between the ages of 15 and 49 years worldwide.

High Resolution Membrane Structures within Hybrid Lipid-Polymer Vesicles Revealed by Combining X-Ray Scattering and Electron Microscopy.

Hybrid vesicles consisting of phospholipids and block-copolymers are increasingly finding applications in science and technology. Herein, small angle X-ray scattering (SAXS) and cryo-electron tomography (cryo-ET) are used to obtain detailed structural information about hybrid vesicles with different ratios of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC) and poly(1,2-butadiene-block-ethylene oxide) (PBd -PEO , M  = 1800 g mol ). Using single particle analysis (SPA) the authors are able to further interpret the information gained from SAXS and cryo-ET experiments, showing that increasing PBd -PEO mole fraction increases the membrane thickness from 52 Å for a pure lipid system to 97 Å for pure PBd -PEO vesicles.

The Western Australia Olfactory Memory Test: Reliability and Validity in a Sample of Older Adults.

Objective: The Western Australia Olfactory Memory Test (WAOMT) is a newly developed test designed to meet a need for a comprehensive measure of olfactory episodic memory (OEM) for clinical and research applications.

Method: This study aimed to establish the psychometric properties of the WAOMT in a sample of 209 community-dwelling older adults. An independent sample of 27 test-naïve participants were recruited to assess test retest reliability (between 7 and 28 days).