Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) for the reduction of the self-stigma of mental disorders: the COMpassion for Psychiatric disorders, Autism and Self-Stigma (COMPASS) study protocol for a randomized controlled study

BACKGROUND

People with mental disorders face frequent stigmatizing attitudes and behaviors from others. Importantly, they can internalize such negative attitudes and thus self-stigmatize. Self-stigma is involved in diminished coping skills leading to social avoidance and difficulties in adhering to care. Reducing self-stigma and its emotional corollary, shame, is thus crucial to attenuate the negative outcomes associated with mental illness. Compassion-focused therapy (CFT) is a third-wave cognitive behavioral therapy that targets shame reduction and hostile self-to-self relationship and allows for symptom improvement while increasing self-compassion. Although shame is a prominent part of the concept of self-stigma, the efficacy of CFT has never been evaluated in individuals with high levels of self-stigma. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and acceptability of a group-based CFT program on self-stigma, compared to a psychoeducation program for self-stigma (Ending Self-Stigma) and to treatment as usual (TAU). We hypothesize that diminished shame and emotional dysregulation and increased self-compassion will mediate the relationship between self-stigma improvements post-therapy in the experimental group.

METHODS

This seven-center trial will involve 336 participants diagnosed with a severe mental illness and/or autism spectrum disorder and reporting high levels of self-stigma. Participants will be randomized into one of three treatment arms: 12 week-treatment of compassion-focused therapy (experimental arm), 12 week-treatment of Psychoeducation (active control arm), and TAU (treatment as usual-passive control arm). The primary outcome is the decrease of self-stigma scores on a self-report scale, i.e., ISMI, at 12 weeks. Secondary endpoints include sustainability of self-stigma scores (ISMI) and self-reported scores regarding target psychological dimensions, e.g., shame and emotional regulation, social functioning, and psychiatric symptoms. Assessments are scheduled at pretreatment, post-treatment (at 12 weeks), and at 6-month follow-up. Acceptability will be evaluated via (i) the Credibility and Expectancy Questionnaire at T0, (ii) the Consumer Satisfaction Questionnaire for Psychotherapeutic Services posttreatment and at 6-month follow-up, (iii) attendance, and (iv) dropout rates.

DISCUSSION

This study will evaluate the potential efficacy and acceptability of a group-based CFT program on the decrease of self-stigma and thereby contribute to the continuing development of evidence-based therapeutic interventions for the internalized stigma of mental and neurodevelopmental disorders.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

ClinicalTrials.gov NCT05698589. Registered on January 26, 2023.

1229 Standardising Consent for General Surgical Patients

Aim

Informed consent requires all material risks to be discussed, as per Montgomery vs Lanarkshire 2015. This audit was based on the latest RCS England guidelines on consenting patients. We aimed to assess our adherence and to introduce standardised procedure-specific consent stickers to ensure the highest standards of care, which were reproducible.

Method

We undertook two retrospective case note reviews of patients undergoing emergency and elective general surgery procedures from 01/01-15/06 and 01/10-30/11 in 2020. RCS Good Surgical Practice 3.5.1 “Consent” details the standards for this audit. We included patients undergoing appendicectomy, cholecystectomy, incision and drainage and hernia repair (inguinal, umbilical, and incisional). We did not audit laparotomy due to variability in procedural risks precluding a specific sticker and we excluded patients unable to give consent.

Results

Our initial audit of 82 patients highlighted the variability between practitioners in the material risk discussion. Different patients undergoing the same procedures were being consented differently with significant omissions. We designed procedure specific-consent stickers to be used when consenting to address this imbalance and made these stickers available on surgical wards. A re-audit of 50 patients showed increase from 41% to 88% in documentation of material risks. While only 34% of the audited consent forms featured the stickers, those forms that did have the stickers on had 100% material risk documentation.

Conclusions

We saw an improvement in material risk discussion by implementing procedure-specific consent stickers. This supports the growing need for standardising consent across General Surgery to reduce variability. We will next aim to design laparotomy stickers.

Improving Resident Self-Efficacy in Tracheostomy Management Using a Novel Curriculum

INTRODUCTION

Patients receiving pediatric tracheostomy have significant risk for mortality due to compromised airway. Timely management of airway emergencies in children with tracheostomies is an important clinical skill for pediatricians. We developed this curriculum to improve residents' self-efficacy with tracheostomy management.

METHODS

We collected baseline data on 67 residents from two hospitals while creating a blended curriculum with video-based instruction on routine tracheostomy change and team management of tracheostomy emergency. Forty residents enrolled in the curriculum. During an ICU rotation, they received face-to-face instruction on routine tracheostomy change in small groups, followed by assessment of managing a tracheostomy emergency during a simulation. A video completed prior to the simulation took 9 minutes, the routine tracheostomy change didactic session took 15 minutes, and the simulation instruction was completed in 10-15 minutes. We collected feedback on the effectiveness of the curriculum from the participants.

RESULTS

All 107 residents from the baseline and intervention groups completed the self-efficacy survey. The intervention group had significantly higher changes in scores across all self-efficacy domains than the baseline group. On the curriculum feedback survey, residents rated the curriculum very highly, between 4.4 and 4.8 on a 5-point Likert scale.

DISCUSSION

Our blended curriculum increased learners' self-efficacy and promoted learner competence in tracheostomy management. Residents scored more than 80% across all aspects of simulation assessment and reported higher self-efficacy scores following our curricular intervention.

NR4A2 haploinsufficiency is associated with intellectual disability and autism spectrum disorder

NR4A2, a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily, is involved in modulation of target gene transcription, regulating several developmental processes such as regulation of cellular homeostasis, neuronal development, inflammation and carcinogenesis. 2q24.1 deletions are extremely rare, and only 1 patient with a de novo deletion encompassing only NR4A2 gene was reported so far. We report 3 additional patients with a de novo deletion encompassing NR4A2: 2 patients have deletions encompassing only NR4A2 gene and 1 patient has a deletion including NR4A2 and the first exon of GPD2. Our patients presented a neurodevelopmental disorder including language impairment, developmental delay, intellectual disability and/or autism spectrum disorder. We suggest that NR4A2 haploinsufficiency is implicated in neurodevelopmental disorder with high penetrance.

An analysis of research priority-setting at the World Health Organization - how mapping to a standard template allows for comparison between research priority-setting approaches

Background

A review of research priorities completed by WHO technical units was undertaken. Results of the mapping were recorded in a database that was used to generate analysis and compare research priorities and the different methodological approaches used in their development.

Methods

A total of 116 documents were reviewed for this study. The documents were published between 2002 and 2017 by the technical programmes of WHO headquarters and deposited in the institutional repository, IRIS. Research priorities were extracted from documents into a standard template and mapped to a five-category research cycle type framework defined in the WHO Strategy on Research for Health covering research to describe the research problem, identifying the cause and risk factors, developing solutions and new interventions, understanding the barriers to implementation, and evaluation of the impact of response. Details of the research priority methods were recorded. A database with user interface was created using Microsoft Excel 2010.

Results

A total of 2145 research priorities were extracted from the 116 documents meeting the inclusion criteria. The priorities specifically address 73 diseases/health topics. The document types were 26% Report, 22% WHO Guideline, 26% Research Prioritisation publication and 11% Meeting Notes. The most widely reported method used to identify priorities was expert consultation. Expert consultation was used to identify 86% of the priorities categorised here, with 26% (561) reporting it as the sole method; 52% (1111) explicitly listed a literature review as contributing to the identification of priorities. When the 2145 priorities were categorised across the research cycle framework, the largest portion (43%) addressed implementation challenges. The database is published here under an open access licence.

Conclusion

Comparing research priorities between diseases/health topics requires standardisation and the research cycle type framework is one approach that can be applied across all the health topics found in public health. There is great variation in the use of research priority-setting methodology at WHO Headquarters. Therefore, a standard reporting approach, linked to established good practice, should be an area for future development by the WHO Global Health R&D Observatory. The database reported here can also be used to quickly access and analyse the research priorities for a specific health topic or to compare across a range of health topics.

Electronic supplementary material

The online version of this article (10.1186/s12961-018-0391-0) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Commentary

Historically, pathologists perform manual evaluation of H&E- or immunohistochemically-stained slides, which can be subjective, inconsistent, and, at best, semiquantitative. As the complexity of staining and demand for increased precision of manual evaluation increase, the pathologist’s assessment will include automated analyses (i.e., “digital pathology”) to increase the accuracy, efficiency, and speed of diagnosis and hypothesis testing and as an important biomedical research and diagnostic tool. This commentary introduces the many roles for pathologists in designing and conducting high-throughput digital image analysis. Pathology review is central to the entire course of a digital pathology study, including experimental design, sample quality verification, specimen annotation, analytical algorithm development, and report preparation. The pathologist performs these roles by reviewing work undertaken by technicians and scientists with training and expertise in image analysis instruments and software. These roles require regular, face-to-face interactions between team members and the lead pathologist. Traditional pathology training is suitable preparation for entry-level participation on image analysis teams. The future of pathology is very exciting, with the expanding utilization of digital image analysis set to expand pathology roles in research and drug development with increasing and new career opportunities for pathologists.

Resolving the Extragalactic γ-Ray Background above 50 GeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

The Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) Collaboration has recently released a catalog of 360 sources detected above 50 GeV (2FHL). This catalog was obtained using 80 months of data re-processed with Pass 8, the newest event-level analysis, which significantly improves the acceptance and angular resolution of the instrument. Most of the 2FHL sources at high Galactic latitude are blazars. Using detailed Monte Carlo simulations, we measure, for the first time, the source count distribution, dN/dS, of extragalactic γ-ray sources at E>50  GeV and find that it is compatible with a Euclidean distribution down to the lowest measured source flux in the 2FHL (∼8×10^{-12}  ph cm^{-2} s^{-1}). We employ a one-point photon fluctuation analysis to constrain the behavior of dN/dS below the source detection threshold. Overall, the source count distribution is constrained over three decades in flux and found compatible with a broken power law with a break flux, S_{b}, in the range [8×10^{-12},1.5×10^{-11}]  ph cm^{-2} s^{-1} and power-law indices below and above the break of α_{2}∈[1.60,1.75] and α_{1}=2.49±0.12, respectively. Integration of dN/dS shows that point sources account for at least 86_{-14}^{+16}% of the total extragalactic γ-ray background. The simple form of the derived source count distribution is consistent with a single population (i.e., blazars) dominating the source counts to the minimum flux explored by this analysis. We estimate the density of sources detectable in blind surveys that will be performed in the coming years by the Cherenkov Telescope Array.

Searching for Dark Matter Annihilation from Milky Way Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies with Six Years of Fermi Large Area Telescope Data

The dwarf spheroidal satellite galaxies (dSphs) of the Milky Way are some of the most dark matter (DM) dominated objects known. We report on γ-ray observations of Milky Way dSphs based on six years of Fermi Large Area Telescope data processed with the new Pass8 event-level analysis. None of the dSphs are significantly detected in γ rays, and we present upper limits on the DM annihilation cross section from a combined analysis of 15 dSphs. These constraints are among the strongest and most robust to date and lie below the canonical thermal relic cross section for DM of mass ≲100  GeV annihilating via quark and τ-lepton channels.

The potential for neonatal organ donation in a children's hospital

OBJECTIVE

Neonatal organ donation does not occur in the UK. Unlike in other European countries, Australasia and the USA death verification/certification standards effectively prohibit use of neurological criteria for diagnosing death in infants between 37 weeks' gestation and 2 months of age and therefore donation after neurological determination of death. Neonatal donation after circulatory definition of death is also possible but is not currently undertaken. There is currently no specific information about the potential neonatal organ donation in the UK; this study provides this in one tertiary children's hospital.

DESIGN

Retrospective mortality database, clinical document database and patient notes review.

SETTING

Neonatal and Paediatric Intensive Care in a tertiary children's hospital.

PATIENTS

Infants dying between 37 weeks' gestation and 2 months of age between 1 January 2006 and 31 October 2012. Potential assessed using current UK guidelines for older children and neonatal criteria elsewhere.

RESULTS

84 infants died with 45 (54%) identified as potential donors. 34 (40%) were identified as potential donors after circulatory definition of death and 11 (13%) were identified as being theoretical potential donors after neurological determination of death. 10 (12%) were identified as unlikely donors due to relative contraindications and 39 (46%) were definitely not potential donors.

CONCLUSIONS

With around 60 paediatric organ donors in the UK annually, there does appear significant potential for donation within the neonatal population. Reconsideration of current infant brain stem death guidelines is required to allow parents the opportunity of donation after neurological determination of death, together with mandatory training in organ donation for neonatal teams, which will also facilitate donation after circulatory definition of death.

Inferred cosmic-ray spectrum from Fermi large area telescope γ-ray observations of Earth's limb

Recent accurate measurements of cosmic-ray (CR) species by ATIC-2, CREAM, and PAMELA reveal an unexpected hardening in the proton and He spectra above a few hundred GeV, a gradual softening of the spectra just below a few hundred GeV, and a harder spectrum of He compared to that of protons. These newly discovered features may offer a clue to the origin of high-energy CRs. We use the Fermi Large Area Telescope observations of the γ-ray emission from Earth's limb for an indirect measurement of the local spectrum of CR protons in the energy range ∼90  GeV-6  TeV (derived from a photon energy range 15 GeV-1 TeV). Our analysis shows that single power law and broken power law spectra fit the data equally well and yield a proton spectrum with index 2.68±0.04 and 2.61±0.08 above ∼200  GeV, respectively.

A retrospective study on the unseen epidemic of road traffic injuries and deaths due to accidents in Mwanza City - Tanzania

BACKGROUNDS

Sixty percent of the global deaths and injuries occur in the developing world and mostly are due to Road traffic accidents (RTAs. looking at the etiological related factors which include, carelessness of the driver, condition of the vehicle or motorcycle, poor condition of roads, risky behavior of the driver, most of these factors can be prevented to some extent. This study therefore, determined the pattern of cases and deaths due to traffic road accidents in Mwanza City Tanzania.

METHODS

In this retrospective study, records, registers and case notes In the surgical ward and causality, medical records and central police station from 2008 to 2011 were used. The study focused on the two referral hospitals (Sekouture regional hospital and Bugando Medical Center).

RESULTS

There were 3450 cases due to accidents reported at both centers (Sekouture regional hospital and Bugando Medical Center of which 3224 (93.4%) had complete information for analysis.2225 (69%) were male and 999 (31%) were female, and the most affected group were male. Among the RTAs2809 cases (87%) were due to motor cycle accidents which were the leading cause of RTAs with case fatality rate of 5% while motor vehicle has case fatality rate of 24% which is 5 times that of motor cycle.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION

Among all RTAs the leading cause of injuries is Motor cycle traffic accidents followed by motor vehicle. RTAs are on increase particularly the motor cycle traffic accidents and has claimed a good number of innocent people's lives however most of them are preventable, therefore driving course to be introduced to motor cycle drivers with emphasize on the road posters signal, rules and regular checkup of their motor cycles especially commercial motor cycle.

Measurement of separate cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra with the fermi large area telescope

We measured separate cosmic-ray electron and positron spectra with the Fermi Large Area Telescope. Because the instrument does not have an onboard magnet, we distinguish the two species by exploiting Earth's shadow, which is offset in opposite directions for opposite charges due to Earth's magnetic field. We estimate and subtract the cosmic-ray proton background using two different methods that produce consistent results. We report the electron-only spectrum, the positron-only spectrum, and the positron fraction between 20 and 200 GeV. We confirm that the fraction rises with energy in the 20-100 GeV range. The three new spectral points between 100 and 200 GeV are consistent with a fraction that is continuing to rise with energy.

Constraining dark matter models from a combined analysis of Milky Way satellites with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are among the most promising targets for dark matter searches in gamma rays. We present a search for dark matter consisting of weakly interacting massive particles, applying a joint likelihood analysis to 10 satellite galaxies with 24 months of data of the Fermi Large Area Telescope. No dark matter signal is detected. Including the uncertainty in the dark matter distribution, robust upper limits are placed on dark matter annihilation cross sections. The 95% confidence level upper limits range from about 10(-26)  cm3  s(-1) at 5 GeV to about 5×10(-23)   cm3  s(-1) at 1 TeV, depending on the dark matter annihilation final state. For the first time, using gamma rays, we are able to rule out models with the most generic cross section (∼3×10(-26)  cm3  s(-1) for a purely s-wave cross section), without assuming additional boost factors.

Gamma-ray emission concurrent with the nova in the symbiotic binary V407 Cygni

Novae are thermonuclear explosions on a white dwarf surface fueled by mass accreted from a companion star. Current physical models posit that shocked expanding gas from the nova shell can produce x-ray emission, but emission at higher energies has not been widely expected. Here, we report the Fermi Large Area Telescope detection of variable gamma-ray emission (0.1 to 10 billion electron volts) from the recently detected optical nova of the symbiotic star V407 Cygni. We propose that the material of the nova shell interacts with the dense ambient medium of the red giant primary and that particles can be accelerated effectively to produce pi(0) decay gamma-rays from proton-proton interactions. Emission involving inverse Compton scattering of the red giant radiation is also considered and is not ruled out.

Spectrum of the isotropic diffuse gamma-ray emission derived from first-year Fermi Large Area Telescope data

We report on the first Fermi Large Area Telescope (LAT) measurements of the so-called "extragalactic" diffuse gamma-ray emission (EGB). This component of the diffuse gamma-ray emission is generally considered to have an isotropic or nearly isotropic distribution on the sky with diverse contributions discussed in the literature. The derivation of the EGB is based on detailed modeling of the bright foreground diffuse Galactic gamma-ray emission, the detected LAT sources, and the solar gamma-ray emission. We find the spectrum of the EGB is consistent with a power law with a differential spectral index gamma = 2.41 +/- 0.05 and intensity I(>100 MeV) = (1.03 +/- 0.17) x 10(-5) cm(-2) s(-1) sr(-1), where the error is systematics dominated. Our EGB spectrum is featureless, less intense, and softer than that derived from EGRET data.

Fermi large area telescope measurements of the diffuse gamma-ray emission at intermediate galactic latitudes

The diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission is produced by cosmic rays (CRs) interacting with the interstellar gas and radiation field. Measurements by the Energetic Gamma-Ray Experiment Telescope (EGRET) instrument on the Compton Gamma-Ray Observatory indicated excess gamma-ray emission greater, > or approximately equal to 1 GeV relative to diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission models consistent with directly measured CR spectra (the so-called "EGRET GeV excess"). The Large Area Telescope (LAT) instrument on the Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has measured the diffuse gamma-ray emission with improved sensitivity and resolution compared to EGRET. We report on LAT measurements for energies 100 MeV to 10 GeV and galactic latitudes 10 degrees < or = |b| < or = 20 degrees. The LAT spectrum for this region of the sky is well reproduced by a diffuse galactic gamma-ray emission model that is consistent with local CR spectra and inconsistent with the EGRET GeV excess.

Detection of high-energy gamma-ray emission from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae with Fermi

We report the detection of gamma-ray emissions above 200 megaelectron volts at a significance level of 17sigma from the globular cluster 47 Tucanae, using data obtained with the Large Area Telescope onboard the Fermi Gamma-ray Space Telescope. Globular clusters are expected to emit gamma rays because of the large populations of millisecond pulsars that they contain. The spectral shape of 47 Tucanae is consistent with gamma-ray emission from a population of millisecond pulsars. The observed gamma-ray luminosity implies an upper limit of 60 millisecond pulsars present in 47 Tucanae.

Measurement of the cosmic ray e+ +e- spectrum from 20 GeV to 1 TeV with the Fermi Large Area Telescope

Designed as a high-sensitivity gamma-ray observatory, the Fermi Large Area Telescope is also an electron detector with a large acceptance exceeding 2 m;{2} sr at 300 GeV. Building on the gamma-ray analysis, we have developed an efficient electron detection strategy which provides sufficient background rejection for measurement of the steeply falling electron spectrum up to 1 TeV. Our high precision data show that the electron spectrum falls with energy as E-3.0 and does not exhibit prominent spectral features. Interpretations in terms of a conventional diffusive model as well as a potential local extra component are briefly discussed.

The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope discovers the pulsar in the young galactic supernova remnant CTA 1

Energetic young pulsars and expanding blast waves [supernova remnants (SNRs)] are the most visible remains after massive stars, ending their lives, explode in core-collapse supernovae. The Fermi Gamma-Ray Space Telescope has unveiled a radio quiet pulsar located near the center of the compact synchrotron nebula inside the supernova remnant CTA 1. The pulsar, discovered through its gamma-ray pulsations, has a period of 316.86 milliseconds and a period derivative of 3.614 x 10(-13) seconds per second. Its characteristic age of 10(4) years is comparable to that estimated for the SNR. We speculate that most unidentified Galactic gamma-ray sources associated with star-forming regions and SNRs are such young pulsars.

Exclusive branching-fraction measurements of semileptonic tau decays into three charged hadrons, into phipi(-)nu tau, and into phi K(-)nu tau

Using a data sample corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 342 fb(-1) collected with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II electron-positron storage ring operating at a center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV, we measure B(tau(-)--> pi(-)pi(-)pi+nu(tau)(ex.K(S0))=(8.83+/-0.01+/-0.13)%, B(tau(-) -->K(-)pi(-)pi+nu tau(ex.K(S0))=(0.273+/-0.002+/-0.009)%, B(tau(-) -->K(-)pi(-)K+nu tau)=(0.1346+/-0.0010+/-0.0036)%, and B(tau(-) -->K(-)K(-)K+nu tau)=(1.58+/-0.13+/-0.12)x10;{-5}, where the uncertainties are statistical and systematic, respectively. These include significant improvements over previous measurements and a first measurement of B(tau(-) -->K(-)K(-)K+nu tau) in which no resonance structure is assumed. We also report a first measurement of B(tau(-) -->var phi(-)nu tau)=(3.42+/-0.55+/-0.25)x10(-5), a new measurement of B(tau(-) -->var phi K(-)nu tau)=(3.39+/-0.20+/-0.28)x10(-5) and a first upper limit on B(tau(-) -->K(-)K(-)K+nu tau(ex.var phi)).

Evidence of a broad structure at an invariant mass of 4.32 GeV/c2 in the reaction e+e- --> pi+pi-psi(2S) measured at BABAR

We present a measurement of the cross section of the process e(+)e(-)-->pi(+)pi(-)psi(2S) from threshold up to 8 GeV center-of-mass energy using events containing initial-state radiation, produced at the SLAC PEP-II e(+)e(-) storage rings. The study is based on 298 fb(-1) of data recorded with the BABAR detector. A structure is observed in the cross section not far above threshold, near 4.32 GeV. We also investigate the compatibility of this structure with the Y(4260) previously reported by this experiment.

Measurement of branching fractions and mass spectra of B-->Kpipigamma

We present a measurement of the partial branching fractions and mass spectra of the exclusive radiative penguin processes B-->Kpipigamma in the range m(Kpipi)<1.8 GeV/c(2). We reconstruct four final states: K(+)pi(-)pi(+)gamma, K(+)pi(-)pi(0)gamma, K(S)(0)pi(-)pi(+)gamma, and K(S)(0)pi(+)pi(0)gamma, where K(S)(0)-->pi(+)pi(-). Using 232 x 10(6) e(+)e(-)-->BB events recorded by the BABAR experiment at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy storage ring, we measure the branching fractions B(B(+)-->K(+)pi(-)pi(+)gamma)=[2.95+/-0.13(stat)+/-0.20(syst)] x 10(-5), B(B(0)-->K(+)pi(-)pi(0)gamma)=[4.07+/-0.22(stat)+/-0.31(syst)] x 10(-5), B(B(0)-->K(0)pi(+)pi(-)gamma)=[1.85+/-0.21(stat)+/-0.12(syst)] x 10(-5), and B(B(+)-->K(0)pi(+)pi(0)gamma)=[4.56+/-0.42(stat)+/-0.31(syst)] x 10(-5).

Measurement of the pseudoscalar decay constant fDs using charm-tagged events in e+e- collisions at square root s=10.58 GeV

Using 230.2 fb-1 of e+e- annihilation data collected with the BABAR detector at and near the peak of the Upsilon(4S) resonance, 489+/-55 events containing the pure leptonic decay Ds+-->micro;+numicro have been isolated in charm-tagged events. The ratio of partial widths Gamma(D+-->micro+numicro)/Gamma(Ds+-->phipi+) is measured to be 0.143+/-0.018+/-0.006 allowing a determination of the pseudoscalar decay constant fDs=(283+/-17+/-7+/-14) MeV. The errors are statistical, systematic, and from the Ds+-->phipi+ branching ratio, respectively.

Observation of decays B0-->Ds(*)+ pi- and B0-->Ds(*)- K+

We report the observation of decays B{0}-->D{s}{(*)+}pi- and B{0}-->D{s}{(*)-}K+ in a sample of 230 x 10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB[over] events recorded with the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+ e- storage ring. We measure the branching fractions B(B{0}-->D{s}{+}pi-)=(1.3+/-0.3(stat)+/-0.2(syst))x10(-5), B(B{0}-->D{s}{-} K+)=(2.5+/-0.4(stat)+/-0.4(syst))x10(-5), B(B{0}-->D{s}{*+}pi-)=(2.8+/-0.6(stat)+/-0.5(syst))x10(-5), and B(B{0}-->D{s}{*-}K+)=(2.0+/-0.5(stat)+/-0.4(syst))x10(-5). The significances of the measurements to differ from zero are 5, 9, 6, and 5 standard deviations, respectively. This is the first observation of B{0}-->D{s}{+}pi-, B{0}-->D{s}{*+}pi-, and B{0}-->D{s}{*-}K+ decays.

Search for lepton flavor violating decays tau(+/-) --> l(+/-)pi0, l(+/-)eta, l(+/-)eta'

A search for lepton flavor violating decays of the tau lepton to a lighter mass lepton and a pseudoscalar meson has been performed using 339 fb;{-1} of e;{+}e;{-} annihilation data collected at a center-of-mass energy near 10.58 GeV by the BABAR detector at the SLAC PEP-II storage ring. No evidence of a signal has been found, and upper limits on the branching fractions are set at the 10;{-7} level.

Vector-tensor and vector-vector decay amplitude analysis of B0-->phiK*0

We perform an amplitude analysis of the decays B(0)-->phiK*(2)(1430)(0), phiK*(892)(0), and phi(Kpi)(0)(S-wave) with a sample of about 384x10(6) BB[over ] pairs recorded with the BABAR detector. The fractions of longitudinal polarization f(L) of the vector-tensor and vector-vector decay modes are measured to be 0.853(-0.069+0.061)+/-0.036 and 0.506+/-0.040+/-0.015, respectively. Overall, twelve parameters are measured for the vector-vector decay and seven parameters for the vector-tensor decay, including the branching fractions and parameters sensitive to CP violation.

Measurement of the CP asymmetry and branching fraction of B0-->rho0K0

We present a measurement of the branching fraction and time-dependent CP asymmetry of B(0)-->rho0K0. The results are obtained from a data sample of 227x10(6) Upsilon(4S)-->BB decays collected with the BABAR detector at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B factory at Stanford Linear Accelerator Center. From a time-dependent maximum likelihood fit yielding 111+/-19 signal events, we find B(B(0)-->rho0K0)=(4.9+/-0.8+/-0.9)x10(-6), where the first error is statistical and the second systematic. We report the measurement of the CP parameters S(rho)(0)K(0)S=0.20+/-0.52+/-0.24 and C(rho)(0)K(0)S=0.64+/-0.41+/-0.20.