Tech-assisted peer therapy effective for perinatal depression in lower income countries

University of Liverpool

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

A University of Liverpool study conducted in rural Pakistan in partnership with the Human Development Research Foundation and the Health Services Academy has demonstrated the effectiveness of a novel, technology-assisted intervention for perinatal depression.

Perinatal mental health is one of the most pressing and under-addressed global health challenges, particularly in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). This research, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), will help to address this global priority.

One in four women in LMICs suffers from perinatal depression, a condition linked to disability, maternal suicide, and long-term developmental harm to children. Despite decades of concern voiced by child development experts and human rights advocates, access to effective treatment remains poor, with a treatment gap estimated between 75% and 90% in these settings.

In response to this urgent need, University researchers developed an innovative intervention that combines peer-delivered cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) with a co-produced digital app. The intervention leverages the lived experience of local mothers from the community with no formal healthcare training, to deliver support. This complements a culturally adapted, animated digital platform. The Technology-assisted Peer-delivered Thinking Healthy Programme (THP-TAP) app automates key CBT elements using avatars and storytelling to ensure consistent quality and reliability, while peers focus on human interaction, delivering empathy, encouragement, and vital social support.

The results, now published in Nature Medicine, show this novel intervention to be as effective as standard cognitive behaviour therapy in treating perinatal depression, with women receiving the peer-delivered intervention experiencing significantly greater reductions in depressive symptoms at three months postnatal.

Atif Rahman, Professor of Child Psychiatry and Global Mental Health at the University of Liverpool said: “Our research shows that combining human empathy with technological innovation can deliver effective mental health care even in resource-constrained settings. This offers a fresh perspective on how we approach maternal mental health in LMICs.”

The model offers several advantages for scale-up. By using peer mothers as co-therapists, the intervention taps into a sustainable human resource. The App ensures that essential therapeutic content is delivered accurately without constant specialist supervision. Moreover, the intervention was found to be cost-effective and culturally acceptable, with high uptake and no evidence that stigma deterred participation.

Importantly, the study is believed to be the first to demonstrate the robust effectiveness of a lived-experience peer and digital App working in tandem as co-therapists for perinatal depression in a low-resource setting. Researchers believe the model holds promise for closing the quality gap that has long hindered task-sharing approaches in global mental health.

As LMICs continue to grapple with the severe shortage of mental health specialists, this innovation could offer a scalable, affordable, and community-driven solution to one of the most urgent threats to maternal and child health.

This research was funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), using international development funding from the UK Government to support Global Health Research.

The paper, ‘Technology-assisted cognitive-behavioural therapy for perinatal depression delivered by lived-experience peers: a cluster-randomized noninferiority trial’ is published in Nature Medicine: https://www.nature.com/articles/s41591-025-03655-1

---

Journal

Nature Medicine

Subject of Research

People

 

Scientists make water-repellent breakthrough to replace toxic ‘forever chemicals’

University of Bristol

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

A team of international scientists has invented a substitute for synthetic chemicals, called PFAS (perfluoroalkyl substances), which are widely used in everyday products despite being hazardous to health and the environment.

Until now, it was believed fluorine – the element in such products which forms a highly effective barrier between substances like air and water, making them water repellent – could not easily be replaced because of its unique properties.

But scientists, from the University of Bristol in the UK, Hirosaki University, Japan, and Université Côte d’Azur, France have discovered that the unique ‘bulky’ attribute of fluorine, which makes it especially good at filling space, can actually be replicated in a different, non-toxic form.

Co-lead author Professor Julian Eastoe, from the University of Bristol’s School of Chemistry, said: “From fire-fighting foam to furniture, food packaging and cookware, to make-up and toilet tissue, PFAS products are everywhere. Despite the risks to human health, and the fact they don’t degrade, perfluoroalkyl substances persist in the environment, finding an alternative with comparable properties has proven elusive. But after many years of intensive research, we’ve made a great breakthrough.”

The results of their discovery are published in a study, which unpacks the chemical structure of PFAS and pinpoints the characteristic ‘bulkiness’ they sought to replicate in a safer form. It also demonstrates how non-fluorinated components, containing only non-toxic carbon and hydrogen, could be equally effective replacements.

Prof Eastoe said: “Through extensive experimentation, it turns out these ‘bulky’ fragments feature in other common chemical systems like fats and fuels. So we took those principles and created modified chemicals, which have these positive attributes and are also much safer.

“Using our specialised laboratories for chemical synthesis, we substituted the fluorine in PFAS with certain groups containing only carbon and hydrogen. The whole process has taken about 10 years and the implications are very significant not least because PFAS is used in so many different products and situations.”

The researchers now plan on using these principles discovered in the lab to design commercially viable versions of PFAS substitutes.

Co-author Professor Frédéric Guittard, from the Université Côte d’Azur, Nice said: “These new results are of great interest for industrial and academic researchers. We are now working with companies in France and China to bring these ideas to market.”  

---

Journal

Journal of Colloid and Interface Science

Article Title

‘New fluorine-free low surface energy surfactants and surfaces’

 

In Guatemala, painted altar found at Tikal adds new context to mysterious Maya history

A newly discovered altar, buried near the center of the ancient Maya city of Tikal, is shedding new light on the 1,600-year-old tensions between Tikal and the central Mexican capital of Teotihuacan

Brown University

Facebook

XLinkedIn
MessageWhatsAppEmail

PROVIDENCE, R.I. [Brown University] — Just steps from the center of Tikal, a 2,400-year-old Maya city in the heart of modern-day Guatemala, a global team of researchers including scholars from Brown University have unearthed a buried altar that could unlock the secrets of a mysterious time of upheaval in the ancient world.

The altar, built around the late 300s A.D., is decorated with four painted panels of red, black and yellow depicting a person wearing a feathered headdress and flanked by shields or regalia. The face has almond-shaped eyes, a nose bar and a double earspool. It closely resembles other depictions of a deity dubbed the “Storm God” in central Mexico.

In a study released on Tuesday, April 8, in Antiquity, the Brown researchers, along with co-authors from across the United States and Guatemala, argue that the painted altar wasn’t the work of a Maya artist. Instead, they believe it was created by a highly skilled artisan trained at Teotihuacan — the formidable ancient power whose seat was located 630 miles west, outside modern-day Mexico City.

“It’s increasingly clear that this was an extraordinary period of turbulence at Tikal,” said Stephen Houston, a professor of social science, anthropology, and history of art and architecture at Brown, who co-authored the paper. “What the altar confirms is that wealthy leaders from Teotihuacan came to Tikal and created replicas of ritual facilities that would have existed in their home city. It shows Teotihuacan left a heavy imprint there.”

Even before discovering the altar, Houston and colleagues knew the Maya interacted with Teotihuacan for centuries before their relationship became closer.

Founded in about 850 B.C., Tikal existed for generations as a small city with little influence before ballooning into a dynasty around 100 A.D. Archaeologists have evidence that Tikal and the much more powerful Teotihuacan began interacting regularly about two centuries later. What seemed at first to be a casual trading relationship, Houston said, quickly became something more contentious.

“It’s almost as if Tikal poked the beast and got too much attention from Teotihuacan,” Houston said. “That’s when foreigners started moving into the area.”

An ancient coup d’etat

Houston said that over several decades, scholars have collected mounting evidence of a less-than-friendly relationship. The research started in the 1960s, when archaeologists found a cut and mutilated stone with well-preserved text describing the conflict in broad terms. 

Thanks to the stone’s text, they learned that “around A.D. 378, Teotihuacan was essentially decapitating a kingdom,” Houston said. “They removed the king and replaced him with a quisling, a puppet king who proved a useful local instrument to Teotihuacan.”

Decades later, using light detection and ranging (LiDAR) technology, the Brown scholars and several colleagues discovered a scaled-down replica of the Teotihuacan citadel just outside the center of Tikal, buried under what archaeologists believed were natural hills. The discovery suggested that in the years leading up to its overthrow, Teotihuacan’s presence in the Maya city probably involved an element of occupation or surveillance.

Co-author Andrew Scherer, a professor of anthropology and of archaeology and the ancient world at Brown and director of the Joukowsky Institute for Archaeology and the Ancient World, said the altar was built right around the time of the coup. He said the altar’s meticulously painted exterior isn’t the only evidence of the capital’s heavy-handed presence: Inside the altar, the archaeologists found a child buried in a seated position, a rare practice at Tikal but common at Teotihuacan. They also found an adult interred with a dart point made of green obsidian; Scherer said the material and design of the dart point are distinct to Teotihuacan.

The fact that the altar and the area around it was later buried, Scherer said, cements the research team’s theory that Teotihuacan’s presence left Tikal forever changed and even scarred.

“The Maya regularly buried buildings and rebuilt on top of them,” Scherer said. “But here, they buried the altar and surrounding buildings and just left them, even though this would have been prime real estate centuries later. They treated it almost like a memorial or a radioactive zone. It probably speaks to the complicated feelings they had about Teotihuacan.”

Power begets power

“Complicated” is an apt way to describe Tikal’s collective memory of the Teotihuacan coup, Houston said. The event may have shaken Tikal to its core, but it ultimately made the kingdom more powerful: Over the next few centuries, Tikal rose to yet greater heights, becoming a nearly unmatched dynasty before eventually declining around 900 A.D., along with the rest of the Maya world.

“There’s a kind of nostalgia about that time, when Teotihuacan was at the height of its power and taking increasing interest in the Maya,” Houston said. “It’s something exalted for them; they looked back on it almost wistfully. Even when they were in decline, they were still thinking about local politics in context of that contact with central Mexico.”

As they uncover more details about the contentious story of Teotihuacan and Tikal, Houston and Scherer said they’re both struck by how familiar it sounds: An all-powerful empire spots paradise and decides to plunder its riches.

“Everyone knows what happened to the Aztec civilization after the Spanish arrived,” Houston said. “Our findings show evidence that that’s a tale as old as time. These powers of central Mexico reached into the Maya world because they saw it as a place of extraordinary wealth, of special feathers from tropical birds, jade and chocolate. As far as Teotihuacan was concerned, it was the land of milk and honey.” 

Along with Houston and Scherer, authors of the study include Edwin Román Ramírez, Lorena Paiz Aragón, Alejandrina Corado Ochoa, Cristina García Leal and Rony E. Piedrasanta Castellanos of the Proyecto Arqueológico del Sur de Tikal; Angelyn Bass of the University of New Mexico; Thomas G. Garrison and David Stuart of the University of Texas at Austin; and Heather Hurst of Skidmore College. Funding for the research came in part from the PACUNAM Lidar Initiative and the Hitz Foundation.

---

Journal

Antiquity

DOI

10.15184/aqy.2025.3 

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

A Teotihuacan altar at Tikal, Guatemala: central Mexican ritual and elite interaction in the Maya Lowlands

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 

Urinals without splashback

PNAS Nexus

LinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

Three-dimensional renderings of urinals. From left to right: Duchamp’s “La Fontaine,” a contemporary commercial model, Cornucopia, and Nautilus.

view more 

Credit: Thurairajah et al

A urinal designed to avoid urine splashback on the user and the floor will improve sanitation, bathroom cleanliness, and user experience.

Urinal designs have not materially changed in over a century. The style of urinal that was elevated to the status of artistic landmark by Marcel Duchamp in his 1917 dada art piece “La Fontaine” would not look out of place in today’s public restrooms. Use of a typical public urinal often results in splatter of urine outside the confines of the device—onto the floor and, most unpleasantly, onto the user, a situation that creates costly messes to clean and risks transmitting disease. Zhao Pan, Kaveeshan Thurairajah, and colleagues calculated that when the flow of urine impinges on the surface of the fixture at 30◦ or less, splashback is greatly reduced. Experimental results confirmed this. The authors then designed urinals by solving differential equations, dubbed Cornucopia and Nautilus, which have impinging angles at or below 30◦ across their entire area. The Nautilus design has an additional advantage: it fits a range of urination heights, making it easier for children and people who use wheelchairs to use. According to the authors, if the 56 million urinals in public restrooms in the US were replaced with the Nautilus, it would prevent one million liters of urine from splashing onto the floor each day.

Urine angles [VIDEO] | 

A high-speed video depicting the tests used to measure the critical angle. Three impinging angles are shown (left to right: 90◦,60◦, and 30◦, respectively).

Credit

Thurairajah et al.

Journal

PNAS Nexus

Article Title

Splash-free urinals for global sustainability and accessibility: Design through physics and differential equations

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

 

Climate change and globalization raise risks from crop pests

University of Exeter

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

Climate change and globalisation are driving a surge in threats to crops from insects and mites, researchers say.

Rising temperatures are enabling pests to move further from the equator and to higher ground, while increased trade is accelerating the spread of invasive species.

Meanwhile, intensification of agriculture is weakening natural pest control, making outbreaks more frequent and severe.

The research team – including the universities of Hebei and Exeter, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences – call for urgent action to address threats to crop production.

“We need better pest monitoring, predictive models, and climate-smart management strategies to safeguard staple crops such as wheat, rice, maize and soybean from increasing pest risks,” said co-author Professor Dan Bebber, from the University of Exeter.

“About 40% of global crop production is currently lost to pests and diseases, creating a major challenge for global food security.

“We reviewed evidence on the impact of crop pests and found that overall risks are increasing – with greater numbers of pests, more annual generations, longer activity seasons and the area inhabited by pest species increasing.

“This is mainly due to global warming reducing cold limitations for pests, and declining biodiversity reducing biocontrol (predators killing pests).”

The paper also notes that extreme climate events, such as heatwaves and droughts, sometimes trigger unexpected pest outbreaks.

The findings suggest that crop pests are likely to increase most in high latitudes – temperate places further from the equator where crops such as wheat, maize and rice are grown.

The paper also includes specific strategies for crop and pest management in response to ongoing and projected changes.

The paper, published in the journal Nature Reviews Earth & Environment, is entitled: “Crop pest responses to global change: a synthesis.”

---

Journal

Nature Reviews Earth & Environment

DOI

10.1038/s43017-025-00652-3 

Article Title

Crop pest responses to global changes in climate and land management

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025

Global poverty and the cost of a healthy diet

Research team led by Göttingen University challenges conventional poverty metrics

University of Göttingen

Facebook

XLinkedInWeChatBlueskyMessageWhatsAppEmail

 

image: 

 

Representation of the proportion of people in each country considered poor according to the metric developed by this research

view more 

Credit: Adapted from the publication: Stehl, J. et al., Food Policy, DOI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102849; licensed under CC BY 4.0

Two billion people globally suffer from moderate to severe food insecurity and widespread micronutrient deficiencies. This contrasts with 654 million people who are classified as extremely poor according to the World Bank’s US$2.15 per day International Poverty Line (IPL). Current poverty measures overlook a crucial aspect of human well-being: adequate nutrition. In collaboration with Misereor, a research team from the University of Göttingen has developed a new way of assessing poverty that incorporates the affordability of healthy diets in addition to other basic needs. According to these metrics, in 2022 between 2.3 and 2.9 billion people globally lived in poverty. The study is published in the journal Food Policy.

 

The researchers combined specific data from individual countries about the cost of a basic healthy diet – based on dietary guidelines – with consumption data from 145 countries to assess global poverty. Their study also highlights significant regional differences. While according to the World Bank, two-thirds of the world’s poor reside in sub-Saharan Africa, the proposed way to assess poverty indicates that over one-third are in South Asia, with sub-Saharan Africa following close behind. Moreover, according to traditional metrics, regions elsewhere account for only 7% of global poverty, but between 29% and 35% when assessed using this new approach – with East Asia and the Pacific alone representing 10% to 19% of the world’s poor.

 

“There are billions of people who are not classified as extremely poor by current standards, yet they cannot afford food for adequate nutrition and other basic needs, overlooking the long-term health consequences of malnutrition,” explains Jonas Stehl, PhD Researcher at Göttingen University’s Development Economics Research Group and first author of the study. “To achieve better targeting of resources, the World Bank should reconsider their approach to measure poverty.”

 

Original publication: Stehl J, Depenbusch L, Vollmer S “Global poverty and the cost of a healthy diet”, Food Policy 2025. DoI: 10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102849

 

Contact:

 

Jonas Stehl

University of Göttingen

Development Economics Research Group/Centre for Modern Indian Studies

Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Email: jonas.stehl@uni-goettingen.de

www.uni-goettingen.de/de/jonas+stehl/652057.html

 

Professor Sebastian Vollmer

University of Göttingen

Waldweg 26, 37073 Göttingen, Germany

Development Economics Research Group/Centre for Modern Indian Studies

Email: svollmer@uni-goettingen.de

www.uni-goettingen.de/en/prof-dr-sebastian-vollmer/450695.html

---

Journal

Food Policy

DOI

10.1016/j.foodpol.2025.102849 

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Global poverty and the cost of a healthy diet

Article Publication Date

8-Apr-2025