A stratified treatment algorithm in psychiatry: a program on stratified pharmacogenomics in severe mental illness (Psych-STRATA): concept, objectives and methodologies of a multidisciplinary project funded by Horizon Europe.

Schizophrenia (SCZ), bipolar (BD) and major depression disorder (MDD) are severe psychiatric disorders that are challenging to treat, often leading to treatment resistance (TR). It is crucial to develop effective methods to identify and treat patients at risk of TR at an early stage in a personalized manner, considering their biological basis, their clinical and psychosocial characteristics. Effective translation of theoretical knowledge into clinical practice is essential for achieving this goal.

Spermidine alleviates depression via control of the stress response.

Depression is a stress-associated disorder, and it represents a major global health issue. Its pathophysiology is complex and remains insufficiently understood, with current medications often showing limited efficacy and undesirable side effects. Here, we identify imbalanced polyamine levels and dysregulated autophagy as key components of the acute stress response in humans, and as hallmarks of chronic stress and depressive disorders.

No evidence for inequity aversion in non-human animals: a meta-analysis of accept/reject paradigms.

Disadvantageous inequity aversion (IA), a negative response to receiving less than others, is a key building block of the human sense of fairness. While some theorize that IA is shared by species across the animal kingdom, others argue that it is an exclusively human evolutionary adaptation to the selective pressures of cooperation among non-kin. Essential to this debate is the empirical question of whether non-human animals are averse towards unequal resource distributions.

Comparative educational effectiveness of AI generated images and traditional lectures for diagnosing chalazion and sebaceous carcinoma.

Sebaceous carcinoma is difficult to distinguish from chalazion due to their rarity and clinicians' limited experience. This study investigated the potential of AI-generated image training to improve diagnostic skills for these eyelid tumors compared to traditional video lecture-based education. Students from Orthoptics, Optometry, and Vision Research (n = 55) were randomly assigned to either an AI-generated image training group or a traditional video lecture group.

Microvascular disease and severe COVID-19 outcomes in UKBiobank participants with diabetes.

Aims: Early in the COVID-19 pandemic, evidence emerged suggesting that people with diabetic retinopathy (DR) or other microvascular diseases had greater risk of severe short-term outcomes. This study evaluated longer-term outcomes, providing more generalisable evidence.

Methods: We identified a cohort of UKBiobank participants with diabetes and retrieved their diagnostic codes for a variety of microvascular diseases, complications of diabetes and systemic comorbidities.

SLOctolyzer: Fully Automatic Analysis Toolkit for Segmentation and Feature Extracting in Scanning Laser Ophthalmoscopy Images.

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to introduce SLOctolyzer: an open-source analysis toolkit for en face retinal vessels in infrared reflectance scanning laser ophthalmoscopy (SLO) images.

Methods: SLOctolyzer includes two main modules: segmentation and measurement. The segmentation module uses deep learning methods to delineate retinal anatomy, and detects the fovea and optic disc, whereas the measurement module quantifies the complexity, density, tortuosity, and caliber of the segmented retinal vessels.

The development of Picture Comprehension Across Early Environments: Evidence From Urban and Rural Toddlers in Western Kenya.

Early childhood researchers frequently use learning materials and assessments involving pictures, across different cultures and contexts. However, there is variation in when and how children across cultures and contexts begin to understand and learn from pictures. While children growing up in high-income contexts often have more experience with picture books and other kinds of two-dimensional visual symbols, children growing up in low-income, rural contexts in low- and middle-income countries often have less experience with pictures and other kinds of visual symbols.

Axon demyelination and degeneration in a zebrafish model of hereditary spastic paraplegia.

Hereditary spastic paraplegias (HSPs) are a diverse set of neurological disorders characterized by progressive spasticity and weakness in the lower limbs caused by damage to the axons of the corticospinal tract. More than 88 genetic mutations have been associated with HSP, yet the mechanisms underlying these disorders are not well understood. We replicated the pathophysiology of one form of HSP known as spastic paraplegia 15 (SPG15) in zebrafish.

A framework for a low-cost system of automated gate control in assays of spatial cognition in fishes.

Automation of experimental setups is a promising direction in behavioral research because it can facilitate the acquisition of data while increasing its repeatability and reliability. For example, research in spatial cognition can benefit from automated control by systematic manipulation of sensory cues and more efficient execution of training procedures. However, commercial solutions are often costly, restricted to specific platforms, and mainly focused on the automation of data acquisition, stimulus presentation, and reward delivery.

Using eye tracking to evaluate the impact of smartphone-delivered attentional bias modification training for smokers.

Attentional bias modification (ABM) has been proposed to treat tobacco use disorder by reducing attentional bias (AB) to smoking-related cues. We sought to determine the extent to which AB to smoking cues, as measured by eye-tracking technology, was sensitive to multisession ABM among treatment-seeking adult smokers. The participants ( = 203; 74 women) completed 13 days of daily ABM or sham training using a smartphone, followed by 8 weeks of nicotine replacement therapy and cessation counseling.

Anti-T-lymphocyte globulin (ATLG) compared to post-transplant cyclophosphamide as GvHD prophylaxis in ALL patients undergoing allogeneic stem cell transplantation.

We retrospectively analyzed high-risk ALL patients in CR1 receiving total body irradiation based conditioning regimen with ATLG (n = 74) or PTCy (n = 73) for GVHD prophylaxis. The 3-year OS and LFS were similar in both groups: 65 and 60% in the ATLG group and 64 and 67% in the PTCy group (p = 0.9 and 0.

Applicability of Oculomics for Individual Risk Prediction: Repeatability and Robustness of Retinal Fractal Dimension Using DART and AutoMorph.

Purpose: To investigate whether fractal dimension (FD)-based oculomics could be used for individual risk prediction by evaluating repeatability and robustness.

Methods: We used two datasets: "Caledonia," healthy adults imaged multiple times in quick succession for research (26 subjects, 39 eyes, 377 color fundus images), and GRAPE, glaucoma patients with baseline and follow-up visits (106 subjects, 196 eyes, 392 images). Mean follow-up time was 18.

Choroidalyzer: An Open-Source, End-to-End Pipeline for Choroidal Analysis in Optical Coherence Tomography.

Purpose: To develop Choroidalyzer, an open-source, end-to-end pipeline for segmenting the choroid region, vessels, and fovea, and deriving choroidal thickness, area, and vascular index.

Methods: We used 5600 OCT B-scans (233 subjects, six systemic disease cohorts, three device types, two manufacturers). To generate region and vessel ground-truths, we used state-of-the-art automatic methods following manual correction of inaccurate segmentations, with foveal positions manually annotated.

Organic matter degradation in the deep, sulfidic waters of the Black Sea: insights into the ecophysiology of novel anaerobic bacteria.

Background: Recent studies have reported the identity and functions of key anaerobes involved in the degradation of organic matter (OM) in deep (> 1000 m) sulfidic marine habitats. However, due to the lack of available isolates, detailed investigation of their physiology has been precluded. In this study, we cultivated and characterized the ecophysiology of a wide range of novel anaerobes potentially involved in OM degradation in deep (2000 m depth) sulfidic waters of the Black Sea.

Taking a shortcut: what mechanisms do fish use?

Path integration is a powerful navigational mechanism whereby individuals continuously update their distance and angular vector of movement to calculate their position in relation to their departure location, allowing them to return along the most direct route even across unfamiliar terrain. While path integration has been investigated in several terrestrial animals, it has never been demonstrated in aquatic vertebrates, where movement occurs through volumetric space and sensory cues available for navigation are likely to differ substantially from those in terrestrial environments. By performing displacement experiments with Lamprologus ocellatus, we show evidence consistent with fish using path integration to navigate alongside other mechanisms (allothetic place cues and route recapitulation).

Connected in Bad Times and in Good Times: Empathy Induces Stable Social Closeness.

Humans need social closeness to prosper. There is evidence that empathy can induce social closeness. However, it remains unclear how empathy-related social closeness is formed and how stable it is as time passes.

Contrast Agents Based on Human Serum Albumin and Nitroxides for H-MRI and Overhauser-Enhanced MRI.

In cancer diagnostics, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) uses contrast agents to enhance the distinction between the target tissue and background. Several promising approaches have been developed to increase MRI sensitivity, one of which is Overhauser dynamic nuclear polarization (ODNP)-enhanced MRI (OMRI). In this study, a macromolecular construct based on human serum albumin and nitroxyl radicals (HSA-NIT) was developed using a new synthesis method that significantly increased the modification to 21 nitroxide residues per protein.

Retinal Fractal Dimension Is a Potential Biomarker for Systemic Health-Evidence From a Mixed-Age, Primary-Care Population.

Purpose: To investigate whether fractal dimension (FD), a retinal trait relating to vascular complexity and a potential "oculomics" biomarker for systemic disease, is applicable to a mixed-age, primary-care population.

Methods: We used cross-sectional data (96 individuals; 183 eyes; ages 18-81 years) from a university-based optometry clinic in Glasgow, Scotland, to study the association between FD and systemic health. We computed FD from color fundus images using Deep Approximation of Retinal Traits (DART), an artificial intelligence-based method designed to be more robust to poor image quality.

Disagreement reduces overconfidence and prompts exploration in young children.

Can the experience of disagreement lead young children to reason in more sophisticated ways? Across two preregistered studies, four- to six-year-old US children (N = 136, 50% female, mixed ethnicities, data collected 2020-2022) experienced either a disagreement or an agreement with a confederate about a causal mechanism after being presented with ambiguous evidence. We measured (1) children's confidence in their belief before and after the (dis)agreement, and (2) how long children searched for information about the correct answer. Disagreement, especially with an expert (Experiment 2), reduced overconfidence and prompted children to search longer for information, compared to agreement.

Using artificial intelligence to improve human performance: efficient retinal disease detection training with synthetic images.

Background: Artificial intelligence (AI) in medical imaging diagnostics has huge potential, but human judgement is still indispensable. We propose an AI-aided teaching method that leverages generative AI to train students on many images while preserving patient privacy.

Methods: A web-based course was designed using 600 synthetic ultra-widefield (UWF) retinal images to teach students to detect disease in these images.

Anger and disgust shape judgments of social sanctions across cultures, especially in high individual autonomy societies.

When someone violates a social norm, others may think that some sanction would be appropriate. We examine how the experience of emotions like anger and disgust relate to the judged appropriateness of sanctions, in a pre-registered analysis of data from a large-scale study in 56 societies. Across the world, we find that individuals who experience anger and disgust over a norm violation are more likely to endorse confrontation, ostracism and, to a smaller extent, gossip.

C MRI of hyperpolarized pyruvate at 120 µT.

Nuclear spin hyperpolarization increases the sensitivity of magnetic resonance dramatically, enabling many new applications, including real-time metabolic imaging. Parahydrogen-based signal amplification by reversible exchange (SABRE) was employed to hyperpolarize [1-C]pyruvate and demonstrate C imaging in situ at 120 µT, about twice Earth's magnetic field, with two different signal amplification by reversible exchange variants: SABRE in shield enables alignment transfer to heteronuclei (SABRE-SHEATH), where hyperpolarization is transferred from parahydrogen to [1-C]pyruvate at a magnetic field below 1 µT, and low-irradiation generates high tesla (LIGHT-SABRE), where hyperpolarization was prepared at 120 µT, avoiding magnetic field cycling. The 3-dimensional images of a phantom were obtained using a superconducting quantum interference device (SQUID) based magnetic field detector with submillimeter resolution.