Initiation of Antipsychotics During the First Year After First-Episode Psychosis: A Population-Based Study.

Background: Antipsychotics are recommended after first-episode psychosis. Knowledge on the current use patterns in real-world settings is thus important to inform clinical practice. We aimed to describe antipsychotic initiation during 1 year after first-episode psychosis and its associated factors.

Composition-dependent band structure parameters and band-gap bowing effect in a caesium lead mixed halide system: a cyclic voltammetry investigation.

Cyclic voltammetry techniques have been employed to study the effect of halide substitution on the band edge parameters and band gap bowing effect in the case of CsPbX [X = I, Br, Cl] perovskite nanocrystals (PNCs). A series of compositions, CsPbI, CsPb(I-Br), CsPbBr, CsPb(Br-Cl) and CsPbCl, have been prepared by a hot injection method. From powder XRD and HR-TEM analysis, the formation of a highly crystalline, cubic phase of the perovskite having size in the range from 7-20 nm has been confirmed.

Removal of hydrocarbon pollutants from refinery wastewater using N-hexadecylchitosan as an efficient adsorptive platform.

The negative impact of refinery wastewater is of great concern to the aquatic, terrestrial, and aerial environment. In this study, N-hexadecylchitosan (NHDC) was successfully synthesized to deal with low mechanical strength, poor adsorption capacity, and limited selectivity of native chitosan. The NHDC was characterized by fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-Ray diffraction analysis (XRD) to study its composition, morphology, and structural attributes.

The epidemiology of major depression among adults in Norway: an observational study on the concurrence between population surveys and registry data - a NCDNOR project.

Background: Mental health problems, and major depression in particular, are important public health issues. Following trends in the prevalence of major depression is difficult because of the costs and complications of diagnostic interviews and general population self-report health surveys. Scandinavian countries, however, have several central, population-based health registries.

Small Cell Lung Cancer in Norway: Patterns of Care by Health Region and Survival Trends.

Introduction/background: There has been a marked survival improvement for patients with non-small-cell lung cancer. We describe the national trends in characteristics and survival, and geographical differences in diagnostic workup, treatment, and survival for patients with small-cell lung cancer (SCLC).

Materials And Methods: Patients registered with SCLC at the Cancer Registry of Norway in 2002 to 2022 were included.

An evolutionary timeline of the oxytocin signaling pathway.

Oxytocin is a neuropeptide associated with both psychological and somatic processes like parturition and social bonding. Although oxytocin homologs have been identified in many species, the evolutionary timeline of the entire oxytocin signaling gene pathway has yet to be described. Using protein sequence similarity searches, microsynteny, and phylostratigraphy, we assigned the genes supporting the oxytocin pathway to different phylostrata based on when we found they likely arose in evolution.

Inherited physical capacity: Widening divergence from young to adult to old.

Cardiorespiratory performance segregates into rat strains of inherited low- and high-capacity runners (LCRs and HCRs); during adulthood, this segregation remains stable, but widens in senescence and is followed by segregated function, health, and mortality. However, this segregation has not been investigated prior to adulthood. We, therefore, assessed cardiorespiratory performance and cardiac cell (cardiomyocyte) structure-function in 1- and 4-month-old LCRs and HCRs.

Conduct disorder - a comprehensive exploration of comorbidity patterns, genetic and environmental risk factors.

Conduct disorder (CD), a common mental disorder in children and adolescents, is characterized by antisocial behavior. Despite similarities with antisocial personality disorder (ASPD) and possible diagnostic continuity, CD has been shown to precede a range of adult-onset mental disorders. Additionally, little is known about the putative shared genetic liability between CD and adult-onset mental disorders and the underlying gene-environment interplay.

A Comparative Analysis of Orthotopic and Subcutaneous Pancreatic Tumour Models: Tumour Microenvironment and Drug Delivery.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a challenging malignancy, mainly due to its resistance to chemotherapy and its complex tumour microenvironment characterised by stromal desmoplasia. There is a need for new strategies to improve the delivery of drugs and therapeutic response. Relevant preclinical tumour models are needed to test potential treatments.

Lipid Biomarker Research in Bipolar Disorder: A Scoping Review of Trends, Challenges, and Future Directions.

Bipolar disorder (BD) is a disabling disorder with heterogeneous symptom profiles and trajectories. Like many other neuropsychiatric disorders, clinical decision making related to diagnoses and choice of treatment is based on clinical assessments alone, and risk prediction for treatment success or resistance at an individual level remains sparse. An enormous effort to add biological markers to this risk prediction is ongoing.

Treatment of Liver Metastases With Focused Ultrasound and Microbubbles in Patients With Colorectal Cancer Receiving Chemotherapy.

Objective: Pre-clinical trials have obtained promising results that focused ultrasound (FUS) combined with microbubbles (MBs) increases tumor uptake and the therapeutic effect of drugs. The aims of the study described here were to investigate whether FUS and MBs could improve the effect of chemotherapy in patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer and to investigate the safety and feasibility of using FUS + MBs.

Methods: We included 17 patients with liver metastases from colorectal cancer, selected two lesions in each patient's liver and randomized the lesions for, respectively, treatment with FUS + MBs or control.

Associations Between Symptoms of Premenstrual Disorders and Polygenic Liability for Major Psychiatric Disorders.

Importance: Premenstrual disorders are heritable, clinically heterogenous, with a range of affective spectrum comorbidities. It is unclear whether genetic predispositions to affective spectrum disorders or other major psychiatric disorders are associated with symptoms of premenstrual disorders.

Objective: To assesss whether symptoms of premenstrual disorders are associated with the genetic liability for major psychiatric disorders, as indexed by polygenic risk scores (PRSs).

The sphingolipids ceramide and inositol phosphorylceramide protect the Leishmania major membrane from sterol-specific toxins.

The accessibility of sterols in mammalian cells to exogenous sterol-binding agents has been well-described previously, but sterol accessibility in distantly related protozoa is unclear. The human pathogen Leishmania major uses sterols and sphingolipids distinct from those used in mammals. Sterols in mammalian cells can be sheltered from sterol-binding agents by membrane components, including sphingolipids, but the surface exposure of ergosterol in Leishmania remains unknown.

Extent and reproduction of coastal species on plastic debris in the North Pacific Subtropical Gyre.

We show that the high seas are colonized by a diverse array of coastal species, which survive and reproduce in the open ocean, contributing strongly to its floating community composition. Analysis of rafting plastic debris in the eastern North Pacific Subtropical Gyre revealed 37 coastal invertebrate taxa, largely of Western Pacific origin, exceeding pelagic taxa richness by threefold. Coastal taxa, including diverse taxonomic groups and life history traits, occurred on 70.

Ultrasound and Microbubbles Increase the Uptake of Platinum in Murine Orthotopic Pancreatic Tumors.

Objective: Currently available cytotoxic treatments have limited effect on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) because desmoplastic stroma limits drug delivery. Efforts have been made to overcome these barriers by drug targeting the tumor microenvironment. Results so far are promising, but without clinical impact.

Evolution of the digital operating room: the place of video technology in surgery.

Purpose: The aim of this review was to collate current evidence wherein digitalisation, through the incorporation of video technology and artificial intelligence (AI), is being applied to the practice of surgery. Applications are vast, and the literature investigating the utility of surgical video and its synergy with AI has steadily increased over the last 2 decades. This type of technology is widespread in other industries, such as autonomy in transportation and manufacturing.

Building medication for opioid use disorder prescriber capacity during the opioid epidemic: Prescriber recruitment trends and methods.

Introduction: Physicians are a critical clinical resource for patient care. Yet physician recruitment has been considerably understudied, particularly in substance use disorder (SUD) settings. This study proposes a conceptual model called the "Physician Recruitment Descriptive Factors Framework" to investigate the role of environmental, organizational, and individual factors in the use of physician recruitment strategies.

Opening the "black box" of organizational coaching for implementation.

Background: Organizational coaching to promote the implementation of evidence-informed interventions is becoming more popular in healthcare organizations. In order to open the "black box" of coaching for implementation, we first developed, then tested the rigor and utility of a model of coaching for implementation.

Methods: Interviews with nine experienced coaches were conducted and inductively coded to develop a model of coaching for implementation.

Deciphering the Molecular Mechanism and Function of Pore-Forming Toxins using Leishmania major.

Understanding the function and mechanism of pore-forming toxins (PFTs) is challenging because cells resist the membrane damage caused by PFTs. While biophysical approaches help understand pore formation, they often rely on reductionist approaches lacking the full complement of membrane lipids and proteins. Cultured human cells provide an alternative system, but their complexity and redundancies in repair mechanisms make identifying specific mechanisms difficult.

The Use and Complications of Halo Gravity Traction in Children with Scoliosis.

Scoliosis is one of the most frequent spine deformities encountered in children and is regularly discovered after 15 years of age with a girls to boys ratio of 2:1. Vertebral arthrodesis involves both short and long term complications. Neurological complications consist of nerve root injuries, cauda equina or spinal cord deficit.

Enhancing Use of Medications for Opioid Use Disorder Through External Coaching.

Objective: This randomized controlled trial tested whether external coaching influences addiction treatment providers' utilization of medications to treat opioid use disorder (MOUDs).

Methods: This study recruited 75 unique clinical sites in Florida, Ohio, and Wisconsin, including 61 sites in specialty treatment agencies and 14 behavioral health sites within health systems. The trial used external coaching to increase use of MOUDs in the context of a learning collaborative and compared it with no coaching and no learning collaborative (control condition).