Strange-Face-in-the-Mirror Illusion and Schizotypy During Adolescence

Patients with schizophrenia can sometimes report strange face illusions when staring at themselves in the mirror; such experiences have been conceptualized as anomalous self-experiences that can be experienced with a varying degree of depersonalization. During adolescence, anomalous self-experiences can also be indicative of increased risk to develop schizophrenia-spectrum disorders. To date however, the Mirror-Gazing test (MGT), an experimentally validated experiment to evaluate the propensity of strange face illusions in nonclinical and clinical adults, has yet to be investigated in an adolescent sample. The first goal of the present study was to examine experimentally induced self-face illusions in a nonclinical sample of adolescents, using the MGT. The second goal was to investigate whether dimensions of adolescent trait schizotypy were differentially related to phenomena arising during the MGT. One hundred and ten community adolescents (59 male) aged from 12 to 19 years (mean age = 16.31, SD age = 1.77) completed the MGT and Schizotypal Personality Questionnaire. The results yielded 4 types of strange face illusions; 2 types of illusions (slight change of light/color [20%] and own face deformation [45.5%]) lacked depersonalization-like phenomena (no identity change), while 2 other types (vision of other identity [27.3%], and vision of non-human identity [7.3%]) contained clear depersonalization-like phenomena. Furthermore, the disorganization dimension of schizotypy associated negatively with time of first illusion (first press), and positively with frequency of illusions during the MGT. Statistically significant differences on positive and disorganized schizotypy were found when comparing groups on the basis of degree of depersonalization-like phenomena (from slight color changes to non-human visions). Similarly to experimentally induced self-face illusions in patients with schizophrenia, such illusions in a group of nonclinical adolescents present significant associations to schizotypy dimension

CIDER: Collaborative Interior Design in Extended Reality

Despite significant efforts dedicated to exploring the potential applications of collaborative mixed reality, the focus of the existing works is mostly related to the creation of shared virtual/mixed environments resolving concurrent manipulation issues rather than supporting an effective collaboration strategy for the design procedure. For this reason, we present CIDER, a system for the collaborative editing of 3D augmented scenes allowing two or more users to manipulate the virtual scene elements independently and without unexpected changes. CIDER is based on the use of "layers" encapsulating the state of the environment with private layers that can be edited independently and a global one collaboratively updated with "commit" operations. Using this system, implemented for the HoloLens 2 headsets and supporting multiple users, we performed a user test on a realistic interior design task, evaluating the general usability and comparing two different approaches for the management of the atomic commit: forced (single-phase) and voting (requiring consensus), analyzing the effects of this choice on the collaborative behavior

Demo: gesture based interaction with the Hololens 2

Gesture recognition is one of the default interaction modalities in many XR applications, although the gesture types recognized by many applications is typically limited to few static poses. In this demo we show that a recent network-based solution for online, sliding window, gesture classification from hand pose streams (On-Off deep Multi-View Multi-Task) can be used for the simultaneous detection and recognition of heterogeneous gestures, including dynamic coarse and fine grained ones, enabling interaction designers to create novel ways to perform interactive tasks that can be applied to different domains

Integration of Extended Reality with a Cyber-Physical Factory Environment and its Digital Twins

In this paper, we present an example of complete integration of eXtended Reality technologies within a demonstration laboratory showcasing Industry 4.0/5.0 compliant machinery in realistic scenarios of use. We describe the design choices and the implementation of the augmented and virtual reality applications developed and potentially usable to support different real-world tasks, featuring advanced gesture-based interaction modes. We also describe the optimized communication architecture used to synchronize data between the cyber-physical factory environment with all its components, its industrial digital twin, and the augmented and virtual replica of the factory. Example tasks supported with the tools in public demonstrations allow users wearing Microsoft HoloLens 2 or Meta Quest 2 headsets to monitor the status of the prototype production line and operate on it, locally or remotely. An example video showing the applications is available in the supplementary material

Measurements of the pp → ZZ production cross section and the Z → 4ℓ branching fraction, and constraints on anomalous triple gauge couplings at √s = 13 TeV

Four-lepton production in proton-proton collisions, pp -> (Z/gamma*)(Z/gamma*) -> 4l, where l = e or mu, is studied at a center-of-mass energy of 13 TeV with the CMS detector at the LHC. The data sample corresponds to an integrated luminosity of 35.9 fb(-1). The ZZ production cross section, sigma(pp -> ZZ) = 17.2 +/- 0.5 (stat) +/- 0.7 (syst) +/- 0.4 (theo) +/- 0.4 (lumi) pb, measured using events with two opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs produced in the mass region 60 4l) = 4.83(-0.22)(+0.23) (stat)(-0.29)(+0.32) (syst) +/- 0.08 (theo) +/- 0.12(lumi) x 10(-6) for events with a four-lepton invariant mass in the range 80 4GeV for all opposite-sign, same-flavor lepton pairs. The results agree with standard model predictions. The invariant mass distribution of the four-lepton system is used to set limits on anomalous ZZZ and ZZ. couplings at 95% confidence level: -0.0012 < f(4)(Z) < 0.0010, -0.0010 < f(5)(Z) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(4)(gamma) < 0.0013, -0.0012 < f(5)(gamma) < 0.0013

Differences in pregnancy metabolic profiles and their determinants between White European and South Asian women:Findings from the Born in Bradford Cohort

There is widespread metabolic disruption in women upon becoming pregnant. South Asians (SA) compared to White Europeans (WE) have more fat mass and are more insulin-resistant at a given body mass index (BMI). Whether these are reflected in other gestational metabolomic differences is unclear. Our aim was to compare gestational metabolic profiles and their determinants between WE and SA women. We used data from a United Kingdom (UK) cohort to compare metabolic profiles and associations of maternal age, education, parity, height, BMI, tricep skinfold thickness, gestational diabetes (GD), pre-eclampsia, and gestational hypertension with 156 metabolic measurements in WE (n = 4072) and SA (n = 4702) women. Metabolic profiles, measured in fasting serum taken between 26&ndash;28 weeks gestation, were quantified by nuclear magnetic resonance. Distributions of most metabolic measures differed by ethnicity. WE women had higher levels of most lipoprotein subclasses, cholesterol, glycerides and phospholipids, monosaturated fatty acids, and creatinine but lower levels of glucose, linoleic acid, omega-6 and polyunsaturated fatty acids, and most amino acids. Higher BMI and having GD were associated with higher levels of several lipoprotein subclasses, triglycerides, and other metabolites, mostly with stronger associations in WEs. We have shown differences in gestational metabolic profiles between WE and SA women and demonstrated that associations of exposures with these metabolites differ by ethnicity

Peripandemic outcomes of infants treated for sentinel congenital heart diseases in England and Wales

Background: Infants with congenital heart disease (CHD) are clinically vulnerable to cardiac deteriorations and intercurrent infections. We aimed to quantify the impact of health system disruptions during the COVID-19 pandemic, on their clinical outcomes and whether these differed by socioeconomic and ethnic subgroups. // Methods: In this population-based cohort study, we used linked electronic healthcare datasets from England and Wales to identify infants with nine sentinel CHDs born and undergoing intervention in 2018–2022. The outcomes of cardiac intervention timing, infant mortality and hospital care utilisation, were described by birth eras, and risk factors were explored using multivariable regression. // Results: Of 4900 included infants, 1545 (31.5%) were born prepandemic (reference), 1175 (24.0%) in the transition period, 1375 (28.0%) during restrictions and 810 (16.5%) postrestrictions. The casemix was hypoplastic left heart syndrome (195; 3.9%), functionally univentricular heart (180; 3.7%), transposition (610; 13.5%), pulmonary atresia (290; 5.9%), atrioventricular septal defect (590; 12.1%), tetralogy of Fallot (820; 16.7%), aortic stenosis (225; 4.6%), coarctation (740; 15.1%) and ventricular septal defect (1200; 24.5%). Compared with prepandemic, there was no evidence for delay in treatment procedures in transition, restrictions or postrestrictions eras. Infant mortality increased for those born in the transition period, adjusted OR 1.60 (95% CI 1.06, 2.42) p=0.01, but not in restrictions or postrestrictions. The days spent at home were similar with birth in transition and restrictions, but fewer for postrestrictions, adjusted days difference −2 (95% CI −4, 0), p=0.05. Outcomes did not vary by pandemic birth era according to social characteristics. There was higher infant mortality in the deprived versus non-deprived binary category (adjusted OR 1.56 (95% CI 1.11, 2.18), p=0.004) and there were fewer days spent at home for the most versus least deprived neighbourhood quintile (adjusted difference −4 (95% CI −6, –2), p<0.001). // Conclusions: Specialist care for infants with CHD during the pandemic, in terms of pathway procedure timing and healthcare contacts, was not compromised. Increased healthcare utilisation postpandemic and heath inequality based on socioeconomic status require further evaluation

Surgical-PEARL protocol:a multicentre prospective cohort study exploring aetiology, management and outcomes for patients with congenital anomalies potentially requiring surgical intervention

INTRODUCTION: Congenital anomalies affect over 2% of pregnancies. Surgical advances have reduced mortality and improved survival for patients with congenital anomalies potentially requiring surgical (CAPRS) intervention. However, our understanding of aetiology, diagnostic methods, optimal management, outcomes and prognostication is limited. Existing birth cohorts have low numbers of individual heterogenous CAPRS. The Surgical Paediatric congEnital Anomalies Registry with Long term follow-up (Surgical-PEARL) study aims to establish a multicentre prospective fetal, child and biological parent cohort of CAPRS. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: From 2022 to 2027, Surgical-PEARL aims to recruit 2500 patients with CAPRS alongside their biological mothers and fathers from up to 15 UK centres. Recruitment will be antenatal or postnatal dependent on diagnosis timing and presentation to a recruitment site. Routine clinical data including antenatal scans and records, neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) records, diagnostic and surgical data and hospital episode statistics will be collected. A detailed biobank of samples will include: parents’ blood and urine samples; amniotic fluid if available; children’s blood and urine samples on admission to NICU, perioperatively or if the child has care withdrawn or is transferred for extracorporeal membrane oxygenation; stool samples; and surplus surgical tissue. Parents will complete questionnaires including sociodemographic and health data. Follow-up outcome and questionnaire data will be collected for 5 years. Once established we will explore the potential of comparing findings in Surgical-PEARL to general population cohorts born in the same years and centres. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: Ethical and health research authority approvals have been granted (IRAS Project ID: 302251; REC reference number 22/SS/0004). Surgical-PEARL is adopted onto the National Institute for Health Research Clinical Research Network portfolio. Findings will be disseminated widely through peer-reviewed publication, conference presentations and through patient organisations and newsletters. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: ISRCTN12557586