Individual and area-level risk factors for suicidal ideation and attempt in people with severe depression

INTRODUCTION: Previous research has identified several risk factors that are strongly associated with suicidal behavior in patients with severe depression. However, the effects of area-level characteristics on suicidal ideation and attempt in this population remain unclear. METHODS: The Clinical Record Interactive Search (CRIS) database was used to identify 2587 patients with severe depression who received secondary mental health services from the Camden & Islington NHS Foundation Trust. Stepwise multivariable logistic regression models were used to examine associations between socio-demographic characteristics, clinical variables, area-level measures, and suicidal ideation and attempt as separate outcomes. RESULTS: Both suicidal ideation and attempts were common among this cohort of severely depressed individuals (70.5% and 37.7%, respectively). While several individual socio-demographic and clinical characteristics were associated with both outcomes, particularly past psychiatric admission (suicidal ideation: adjusted OR=2.86, 95% CI: 2.26-3.62; suicide attempt: adjusted OR=4.00, 95% CI: 3.30-4.89), neither social deprivation nor ethnic density (measured at the area-level) was associated with risk for either outcome. LIMITATIONS: Data were not collected specifically for research purposes and hence information on some potential confounders was not available. Additionally, information was restricted to individuals who accessed secondary mental health services in a defined catchment area and period. The study therefore does not take into account individuals who did not access mental health services. CONCLUSIONS: The variation in risk for suicidal ideation and attempt among severely depressed individuals is explained by differences in individual socio-demographic and clinical characteristics, most notably past psychiatric admission and substance misuse, and not by area-level measures

Transmit Power Minimization for MIMO Systems of Exponential Average BER with Fixed Outage Probability

This document is the Accepted Manuscript version of the following article: Dian-Wu Yue, and Yichuang Sun, ‘Transmit Power Minimization for MIMO Systems of Exponential Average BER with Fixed Outage Probability’, Wireless Personal Communications, Vol. 90 (4): 1951-1970, first available online on 20 June 2016. Under embargo. Embargo end date: 20 June 2017. The final publication is available at Springer via https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2Fs11277-016-3432-4This paper is concerned with a wireless multiple-antenna system operating in multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) fading channels with channel state information being known at both transmitter and receiver. By spatiotemporal subchannel selection and power control, it aims to minimize the average transmit power (ATP) of the MIMO system while achieving an exponential type of average bit error rate (BER) for each data stream. Under the constraints on each subchannel that individual outage probability and average BER are given, based on a traditional upper bound and a dynamic upper bound of Q function, two closed-form ATP expressions are derived, respectively, which can result in two different power allocation schemes. Numerical results are provided to validate the theoretical analysis, and show that the power allocation scheme with the dynamic upper bound can achieve more power savings than the one with the traditional upper bound.Peer reviewe

Self-harm, Unintentional Injury, and Suicide in Bipolar Disorder During Maintenance Mood Stabilizer Treatment: A UK Population-Based Electronic Health Records Study

Importance: Self-harm is a prominent cause of morbidity in patients with bipolar disorder and is strongly associated with suicide. There is evolving evidence that lithium use may reduce suicidal behavior, in addition to concerns that the use of anticonvulsants may increase self-harm. Information is limited about the effects of antipsychotics when used as mood stabilizer treatment. Rates of unintentional injury are poorly defined in bipolar disorder, and understanding drug associations with this outcome may shed light on mechanisms for lithium's potential antisuicidal properties through reduction in impulsive aggression. Objective: To compare rates of self-harm, unintentional injury, and suicide in patients with bipolar disorder who were prescribed lithium, valproate sodium, olanzapine, or quetiapine fumarate. Design, Setting, and Participants: This investigation was a propensity score (PS)-adjusted and PS-matched longitudinal cohort study in a nationally representative UK sample using electronic health records data collected between January 1, 1995, and December 31, 2013. Participants included all patients diagnosed as having bipolar disorder who were prescribed lithium, valproate, olanzapine, or quetiapine as maintenance mood stabilizer treatment. Main Outcomes and Measures: The primary outcome was any form of self-harm. Secondary outcomes were unintentional injury and suicide. Results: Of the 14 396 individuals with a diagnosis of BPD, 6671 were included in the cohort, with 2148 prescribed lithium, 1670 prescribed valproate, 1477 prescribed olanzapine, and 1376 prescribed quetiapine as maintenance mood stabilizer treatment. Self-harm rates were lower in patients prescribed lithium (205; 95% CI, 175-241 per 10 000 person-years at risk [PYAR]) compared with those prescribed valproate (392; 95% CI, 334-460 per 10 000 PYAR), olanzapine (409; 95% CI, 345-483 per 10 000 PYAR), or quetiapine (582; 95% CI, 489-692 per 10 000 PYAR). This association was maintained after PS adjustment (hazard ratio [HR], 1.40; 95% CI, 1.12-1.74 for valproate, olanzapine, or quetiapine vs lithium) and PS matching (HR, 1.51; 95% CI, 1.21-1.88). After PS adjustment, unintentional injury rates were lower for lithium compared with valproate (HR, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.10-1.58) and quetiapine (HR, 1.34; 95% CI, 1.07-1.69) but not olanzapine. The suicide rate in the cohort was 14 (95% CI, 9-21) per 10 000 PYAR. Although this rate was lower in the lithium group than for other treatments, there were too few events to allow accurate estimates. Conclusions and Relevance: Patients taking lithium had reduced self-harm and unintentional injury rates. This finding augments limited trial and smaller observational study results. It supports the hypothesis that lithium use reduces impulsive aggression in addition to stabilizing mood

Use of partial least squares regression to impute SNP genotypes in Italian Cattle breeds

Background The objective of the present study was to test the ability of the partial least squares regression technique to impute genotypes from low density single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP) panels i.e. 3K or 7K to a high density panel with 50K SNP. No pedigree information was used. Methods Data consisted of 2093 Holstein, 749 Brown Swiss and 479 Simmental bulls genotyped with the Illumina 50K Beadchip. First, a single-breed approach was applied by using only data from Holstein animals. Then, to enlarge the training population, data from the three breeds were combined and a multi-breed analysis was performed. Accuracies of genotypes imputed using the partial least squares regression method were compared with those obtained by using the Beagle software. The impact of genotype imputation on breeding value prediction was evaluated for milk yield, fat content and protein content. Results In the single-breed approach, the accuracy of imputation using partial least squares regression was around 90 and 94% for the 3K and 7K platforms, respectively; corresponding accuracies obtained with Beagle were around 85% and 90%. Moreover, computing time required by the partial least squares regression method was on average around 10 times lower than computing time required by Beagle. Using the partial least squares regression method in the multi-breed resulted in lower imputation accuracies than using single-breed data. The impact of the SNP-genotype imputation on the accuracy of direct genomic breeding values was small. The correlation between estimates of genetic merit obtained by using imputed versus actual genotypes was around 0.96 for the 7K chip. Conclusions Results of the present work suggested that the partial least squares regression imputation method could be useful to impute SNP genotypes when pedigree information is not available

Wake response to an ocean-feedback mechanism: Madeira Island case study

This discussion focused on the numerical study of a wake episode. The Weather Research and Forecasting model was used in a downscale mode. The current literature focuses the discussion on the adiabatic dynamics of atmospheric wakes. Changes in mountain height and consequently on its relation to the atmospheric inversion layer should explain the shift in wake regimes: from a 'strong-wake' to a 'weak-wake' scenario. Nevertheless, changes in SST variability can also induce similar regime shifts. Increase in evaporation, contributes to increase convection and thus to an uplift of the stratified atmospheric layer, above the critical height, with subsequent internal gravity wave activity.Comment: Under review proces

Two-orbital SU(N) magnetism with ultracold alkaline-earth atoms

Fermionic alkaline-earth atoms have unique properties that make them attractive candidates for the realization of novel atomic clocks and degenerate quantum gases. At the same time, they are attracting considerable theoretical attention in the context of quantum information processing. Here we demonstrate that when such atoms are loaded in optical lattices, they can be used as quantum simulators of unique many-body phenomena. In particular, we show that the decoupling of the nuclear spin from the electronic angular momentum can be used to implement many-body systems with an unprecedented degree of symmetry, characterized by the SU(N) group with N as large as 10. Moreover, the interplay of the nuclear spin with the electronic degree of freedom provided by a stable optically excited state allows for the study of spin-orbital physics. Such systems may provide valuable insights into strongly correlated physics of transition metal oxides, heavy fermion materials, and spin liquid phases.Comment: 15 pages, 10 figures. V2: extended experimental accessibility and Kondo sections in the main text (including new Fig. 5b) and in the Methods; reorganized other parts; added reference

Reversible Keap1 inhibitors are preferential pharmacological tools to modulate cellular mitophagy

Mitophagy orchestrates the autophagic degradation of dysfunctional mitochondria preventing their pathological accumulation and contributing to cellular homeostasis. We previously identified a novel chemical tool (hereafter referred to as PMI), which drives mitochondria into autophagy without collapsing their membrane potential (ΔΨm). PMI is an inhibitor of the protein-protein interaction (PPI) between the transcription factor Nrf2 and its negative regulator, Keap1 and is able to up-regulate the expression of autophagy-associated proteins, including p62/SQSTM1. Here we show that PMI promotes mitochondrial respiration, leading to a superoxide-dependent activation of mitophagy. Structurally distinct Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors promote mitochondrial turnover, while covalent Keap1 modifiers, including sulforaphane (SFN) and dimethyl fumarate (DMF), are unable to induce a similar response. Additionally, we demonstrate that SFN reverses the effects of PMI in co-treated cells by reducing the accumulation of p62 in mitochondria and subsequently limiting their autophagic degradation. This study highlights the unique features of Keap1-Nrf2 PPI inhibitors as inducers of mitophagy and their potential as pharmacological agents for the treatment of pathological conditions characterized by impaired mitochondrial quality control

Search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum in pp collisions at √ s = 8 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Results of a search for new phenomena in final states with an energetic jet and large missing transverse momentum are reported. The search uses 20.3 fb−1 of √ s = 8 TeV data collected in 2012 with the ATLAS detector at the LHC. Events are required to have at least one jet with pT > 120 GeV and no leptons. Nine signal regions are considered with increasing missing transverse momentum requirements between Emiss T > 150 GeV and Emiss T > 700 GeV. Good agreement is observed between the number of events in data and Standard Model expectations. The results are translated into exclusion limits on models with either large extra spatial dimensions, pair production of weakly interacting dark matter candidates, or production of very light gravitinos in a gauge-mediated supersymmetric model. In addition, limits on the production of an invisibly decaying Higgs-like boson leading to similar topologies in the final state are presente

The influence of caffeine on energy content of sugar-sweetened beverages : the caffeine–calorie effect

Background/Objectives: Caffeine is a mildly addictive psychoactive chemical and controversial additive to sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). The objective of this study is to assess if removal of caffeine from SSBs allows co-removal of sucrose (energy) without affecting flavour of SSBs, and if removal of caffeine could potentially affect population weight gain. Subjects/Methods: The research comprised of three studies; study 1 used three-alternate forced choice and paired comparison tests to establish detection thresholds for caffeine in water and sucrose solution (subjects, n ¼ 63), and to determine if caffeine suppressed sweetness. Study 2 (subjects, n ¼ 30) examined the proportion of sucrose that could be co-removed with caffeine from SSBs without affecting the flavour of the SSBs. Study 3 applied validated coefficients to estimate the impact on the weight of the United States population if there was no caffeine in SSBs. Results: Detection threshold for caffeine in water was higher (1.09±0.08 mM) than the detection threshold for caffeine in sucrose solution (0.49 ± 0.04 mM), and a paired comparison test revealed caffeine significantly reduced the sweetness of sucrose (Po0.001). Removing caffeine from SSBs allowed co-removal of 10.3% sucrose without affecting flavour of the SSBs, equating to 116 kJ per 500 ml serving. The effect of this on body weight in adults and children would be 0.600 and 0.142 kg, which are equivalent to 2.08 and 1.10 years of observed existing trends in weight gain, respectively. Conclusion: These data suggest the extra energy in SSBs as a result of caffeine's effect on sweetness may be associated with adult and child weight gain