The association between salivary oxytocin, age, and puberty in children with and without OCD.

The oxytocin system has been thought to contribute to obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD). Few studies, only involving adults, have investigated this hypothesis and have found inconsistent results regarding oxytocin system activity and OCD. We investigated whether salivary oxytocin concentrations differed between children and adolescents with and without OCD and qualified our comparative analysis by investigating the possible covariates age, pubertal stage, and sex.

Brain stimulation with 40 Hz heterochromatic flicker extended beyond red, green, and blue.

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is associated with electrophysiological changes in the brain. Pre-clinical and early clinical trials have shown promising results for the possible therapy of AD with 40 Hz neurostimulation. The most notable findings used stroboscopic flicker, but this technique poses an inherent barrier for human applications due to its visible flickering and resulting high level of perceived discomfort.

A genome-wide association study of social trust in 33,882 Danish blood donors.

Social trust is a heritable trait that has been linked with physical health and longevity. In this study, we performed genome-wide association studies of self-reported social trust in n = 33,882 Danish blood donors. We observed genome-wide and local evidence of genetic similarity with other brain-related phenotypes and estimated the single nucleotide polymorphism-based heritability of trust to be 6% (95% confidence interval = (2.

Predicting obsessive-compulsive disorder episodes in adolescents using a wearable biosensor-A wrist angel feasibility study.

Introduction: Obsessive-compulsive disorders (OCD) are marked by distress, negative emotions, mental processes and behaviors that are reflected in physiological signals such as heart rate, electrodermal activity, and skin temperature. Continuous monitoring of physiological signals associated with OCD symptoms may make measures of OCD more objective and facilitate close monitoring of prodromal symptoms, treatment progress and risk of relapse. Thus, we explored the feasibility of capturing OCD events in the real world using an unobtrusive wrist worn biosensor and machine learning models.

Adverse events in cognitive behavioral therapy and relaxation training for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder: A mixed methods study and analysis plan for the TECTO trial.

Background: Knowledge on adverse events in psychotherapy for youth with OCD is sparse. No official guidelines exist for defining or monitoring adverse events in psychotherapy. Recent recommendations call for more qualitative and quantitative assessment of adverse events in psychotherapy trials.

A Wearable Artificial Intelligence Feedback Tool (Wrist Angel) for Treatment and Research of Obsessive Compulsive Disorder: Protocol for a Nonrandomized Pilot Study.

Background: Obsessive compulsive disorder (OCD) in youth is characterized by behaviors, emotions, physiological reactions, and family interaction patterns. An essential component of therapy involves increasing awareness of the links among thoughts, emotions, behaviors, bodily sensations, and family interactions. An automatic assessment tool using physiological signals from a wearable biosensor may enable continuous symptom monitoring inside and outside of the clinic and support cognitive behavioral therapy for OCD.

Molecular Representations in Machine-Learning-Based Prediction of PK Parameters for Insulin Analogs.

Therapeutic peptides and proteins derived from either endogenous hormones, such as insulin, or de novo design via display technologies occupy a distinct pharmaceutical space in between small molecules and large proteins such as antibodies. Optimizing the pharmacokinetic (PK) profile of drug candidates is of high importance when it comes to prioritizing lead candidates, and machine-learning models can provide a relevant tool to accelerate the drug design process. Predicting PK parameters of proteins remains difficult due to the complex factors that influence PK properties; furthermore, the data sets are small compared to the variety of compounds in the protein space.

Associations Between the Severity of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder and Vocal Features in Children and Adolescents: Protocol for a Statistical and Machine Learning Analysis.

Background: Artificial intelligence tools have the potential to objectively identify youth in need of mental health care. Speech signals have shown promise as a source for predicting various psychiatric conditions and transdiagnostic symptoms.

Objective: We designed a study testing the association between obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) diagnosis and symptom severity on vocal features in children and adolescents.

Family-based cognitive behavioural therapy versus family-based relaxation therapy for obsessive-compulsive disorder in children and adolescents: protocol for a randomised clinical trial (the TECTO trial).

Background: Cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT) is the recommended first-line treatment for children and adolescents with obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), but evidence concerning treatment-specific benefits and harms compared with other interventions is limited. Furthermore, high risk-of-bias in most trials prevent firm conclusions regarding the efficacy of CBT. We investigate the benefits and harms of family-based CBT (FCBT) versus family-based psychoeducation and relaxation training (FPRT) in youth with OCD in a trial designed to reduce risk-of-bias.

Can Machine Learning Models Predict Asparaginase-associated Pancreatitis in Childhood Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia.

Asparaginase-associated pancreatitis (AAP) frequently affects children treated for acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) causing severe acute and persisting complications. Known risk factors such as asparaginase dosing, older age and single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) have insufficient odds ratios to allow personalized asparaginase therapy. In this study, we explored machine learning strategies for prediction of individual AAP risk.

Exploring Movement Impairments in Patients With Parkinson's Disease Using the Microsoft Kinect Sensor: A Feasibility Study.

Current assessments of motor symptoms in Parkinson's disease are often limited to clinical rating scales. To develop a computer application using the Microsoft Kinect sensor to assess performance-related bradykinesia. The developed application () was tested in patients with Parkinson's disease and healthy controls.

A Catalytic Oxidative Quinone Heterofunctionalization Method: Synthesis of Strongylophorine-26.

The preparation of heteroatom-substituted p-quinones is ideally performed by direct addition of a nucleophile followed by in situ reoxidation. Albeit an appealing strategy, the reactivity of the p-quinone moiety is not easily tamed and no broadly applicable method for heteroatom functionalization exists. Shown herein is that Co(OAc) and Mn(OAc) ⋅2 H O act as powerful catalysts for oxidative p-quinone functionalization with a collection of O, N, and S nucleophiles, using oxygen as the terminal oxidant.

Identifying Drug-Drug Interactions by Data Mining: A Pilot Study of Warfarin-Associated Drug Interactions.

Background: Knowledge about drug-drug interactions commonly arises from preclinical trials, from adverse drug reports, or based on knowledge of mechanisms of action. Our aim was to investigate whether drug-drug interactions were discoverable without prior hypotheses using data mining. We focused on warfarin-drug interactions as the prototype.

Does correlated color temperature affect the ability of humans to identify veins?

In the present study we provide empirical evidence and demonstrate statistically that white illumination settings can affect the human ability to identify veins in the inner hand vasculature. A special light-emitting diode lamp with high color rendering index (CRI 84-95) was developed and the effect of correlated color temperature was evaluated, in the range between 2600 and 5700 K at an illuminance of 40±9  lx on the ability of adult humans to identify veins. It is shown that the ability to identify veins can, on average, be increased up to 24% when white illumination settings that do not resemble incandescent light are applied.

In silico modelling of permeation enhancement potency in Caco-2 monolayers based on molecular descriptors and random forest.

Structural traits of permeation enhancers are important determinants of their capacity to promote enhanced drug absorption. Therefore, in order to obtain a better understanding of structure-activity relationships for permeation enhancers, a Quantitative Structural Activity Relationship (QSAR) model has been developed. The random forest-QSAR model was based upon Caco-2 data for 41 surfactant-like permeation enhancers from Whitehead et al.

A sampling approach for predicting the eating quality of apples using visible-near infrared spectroscopy.

Background: Visible-near infrared spectroscopy remains a method of increasing interest as a fast alternative for the evaluation of fruit quality. The success of the method is assumed to be achieved by using large sets of samples to produce robust calibration models. In this study we used representative samples of an early and a late season apple cultivar to evaluate model robustness (in terms of prediction ability and error) on the soluble solids content (SSC) and acidity prediction, in the wavelength range 400-1100 nm.

Adverse effects on sexual development in rat offspring after low dose exposure to a mixture of endocrine disrupting pesticides.

The present study investigated whether a mixture of low doses of five environmentally relevant endocrine disrupting pesticides, epoxiconazole, mancozeb, prochloraz, tebuconazole and procymidone, would cause adverse developmental toxicity effects in rats. In rat dams, a significant increase in gestation length was seen, while in male offspring increased nipple retention and increased incidence and severity of genital malformations were observed. Severe mixture effects on gestation length, nipple retention and genital malformations were seen at dose levels where the individual pesticides caused no or smaller effects when given alone.

Effects of network resolution on topological properties of human neocortex.

Graph theoretical analyses applied to neuroimaging datasets have provided valuable insights into the large-scale anatomical organization of the human neocortex. Most of these studies were performed with different cortical scales leading to cortical networks with different levels of small-world organization. The present study investigates how resolution of thickness-based cortical scales impacts on topological properties of human anatomical cortical networks.

A method for comparison of growth media in objective identification of Penicillium based on multi-spectral imaging.

We consider the problems of using excessive growth media for identification and performing objective identification of fungi at the species level. We propose a method for choosing the subset of growth media, which provides the best discrimination between several fungal species. Furthermore, we propose the use of multi-spectral imaging as a means of objective identification.