Efficacy of solution-focused brief therapy versus case management for psychological distress in adolescents and young adults in a community-based youth mental health service in Singapore: protocol for a randomised controlled trial.

Introduction: There are insufficient scalable, evidence-based treatments to meet increasing mental health needs of young people. Offering interim, brief interventions for young persons with psychological distress can improve access to care and mitigate adverse effects of long waiting times. This study tests the efficacy of solution-focused brief therapy (SFBT), a strength-based, goal-directed intervention, in adolescents and young adults at a community-based youth mental health service in Singapore.

A multi-level analysis of motor and behavioural dynamics in 9-month-old preterm and term-born infants during changing emotional and interactive contexts.

Computational analysis of infant movement has significant potential to reveal markers of developmental health. We report two studies employing dynamic analyses of motor kinematics and motor behaviours, which characterise movement at two levels, in 9-month-old infants. We investigate the effect of preterm birth (< 33 weeks of gestation) and the effect of changing emotional and social-interactive contexts in the still-face paradigm.

Estimation of the wetting induced settlement of loess soils from the wetting soil-water characteristic curve.

Collapsible loess soils, known for their significant volume reduction upon the wetting, pose critical challenges in the geotechnical engineering. The estimation of the wetting-induced settlement is crucial for the foundation design and the determination of the negative skin friction on the pile. In this paper, a new method is proposed to estimate the wetting induced collapse from the wetting soil-water characteristic curve (SWCC) and the index properties of the loess soils.

Exploring cost reduction strategies for serum free media development.

Cultivated meat production offers solutions in addressing global food security and sustainability challenges. However, serum-free media (SFM) used in cultivating the cells are expensive, contributing to at least 50% of variable operating costs. This review explores technologies for cost-effective SFM, focusing on reducing cost from using growth factors and recombinant proteins, using affordable raw materials for basal media, and implementing cost-saving measures like media recycling and reducing waste build-up.

The natural history of paediatric trigger thumbs. A prospective cohort study.

The aim of this study was to report the natural history of paediatric trigger thumbs, determining the rate and factors predictive of spontaneous resolution. A total of 62 patients presenting with 79 thumbs locked in flexion were observed for a mean of 4.2 years.