Evidence for a shared etiological mechanism of psychotic symptoms and obsessive-compulsive symptoms in patients with psychotic disorders and their siblings

The prevalence of obsessive-compulsive disorder in subjects with psychotic disorder is much higher than in the general population. The higher than chance co-occurrence has also been demonstrated at the level of subclinical expression of both phenotypes. Both extended phenotypes have been shown to cluster in families. However, little is known about the origins of their elevated co-occurrence. In the present study, evidence for a shared etiological mechanism was investigated in 3 samples with decreasing levels of familial psychosis liability: 987 patients, 973 of their unaffected siblings and 566 healthy controls. The association between the obsessive-compulsive phenotype and the psychosis phenotype c.q. psychosis liability was investigated. First, the association was assessed between (subclinical) obsessive-compulsive symptoms and psychosis liability. Second, in a cross-sib cross-trait analysis, it was examined whether (subclinical) obsessive-compulsive symptoms in the patient were associated with (subclinical) psychotic symptoms in the related unaffected sibling. Evidence was found for both associations, which is compatible with a partially shared etiological pathway underlying obsessive-compulsive and psychotic disorder. This is the first study that used a cross-sib cross-trait design in patients and unaffected siblings, thus circumventing confounding by disease-related factors present in clinical samples

Collection of human and environmental data on pesticide use in Europe and Argentina: Field study protocol for the SPRINT project

Current farm systems rely on the use of Plant Protection Products (PPP) to secure high productivity and control threats to the quality of the crops. However, PPP use may have considerable impacts on human health and the environment. A study protocol is presented aiming to determine the occurrence and levels of PPP residus in plants (crops), animals (livestock), humans and other non-target species (ecosystem representatives) for exposure modelling and impact assessment. To achieve this, we designed a cross-sectional study to compare conventional and organic farm systems across Europe. Environmental and biological samples were/are being/will be collected during the 2021 growing season, at 10 case study sites in Europe covering a range of climate zones and crops. An additional study site in Argentina will inform the impact of PPP use on growing soybean which is an important European protein-source in animal feed. We will study the impact of PPP mixtures using an integrated risk assessment methodology. The fate of PPP in environmental media (soil, water and air) and in the homes of farmers will be monitored. This will be complemented by biomonitoring to estimate PPP uptake by humans and farm animals (cow, goat, sheep and chicken), and by collection of samples from non-target species (earthworms, fish, aquatic and terrestrial macroinvertebrates, bats, and farm cats). We will use data on PPP residues in environmental and biological matrices to estimate exposures by modelling. These exposure estimates together with health and toxicity data will be used to predict the impact of PPP use on environment, plant, animal and human health. The outcome of this study will then be integrated with socio-economic information leading to an overall assessment used to identify transition pathways towards more sustainable plant protection and inform decision makers, practitioners and other stakeholders regarding farming practices and land use policy

Search for eccentric black hole coalescences during the third observing run of LIGO and Virgo

Despite the growing number of confident binary black hole coalescences observed through gravitational waves so far, the astrophysical origin of these binaries remains uncertain. Orbital eccentricity is one of the clearest tracers of binary formation channels. Identifying binary eccentricity, however, remains challenging due to the limited availability of gravitational waveforms that include effects of eccentricity. Here, we present observational results for a waveform-independent search sensitive to eccentric black hole coalescences, covering the third observing run (O3) of the LIGO and Virgo detectors. We identified no new high-significance candidates beyond those that were already identified with searches focusing on quasi-circular binaries. We determine the sensitivity of our search to high-mass (total mass M>70 M⊙) binaries covering eccentricities up to 0.3 at 15 Hz orbital frequency, and use this to compare model predictions to search results. Assuming all detections are indeed quasi-circular, for our fiducial population model, we place an upper limit for the merger rate density of high-mass binaries with eccentricities 0<e≤0.3 at 0.33 Gpc−3 yr−1 at 90\% confidence level

Search for gravitational-lensing signatures in the full third observing run of the LIGO-Virgo network

Gravitational lensing by massive objects along the line of sight to the source causes distortions of gravitational wave-signals; such distortions may reveal information about fundamental physics, cosmology and astrophysics. In this work, we have extended the search for lensing signatures to all binary black hole events from the third observing run of the LIGO--Virgo network. We search for repeated signals from strong lensing by 1) performing targeted searches for subthreshold signals, 2) calculating the degree of overlap amongst the intrinsic parameters and sky location of pairs of signals, 3) comparing the similarities of the spectrograms amongst pairs of signals, and 4) performing dual-signal Bayesian analysis that takes into account selection effects and astrophysical knowledge. We also search for distortions to the gravitational waveform caused by 1) frequency-independent phase shifts in strongly lensed images, and 2) frequency-dependent modulation of the amplitude and phase due to point masses. None of these searches yields significant evidence for lensing. Finally, we use the non-detection of gravitational-wave lensing to constrain the lensing rate based on the latest merger-rate estimates and the fraction of dark matter composed of compact objects

Ultralight vector dark matter search using data from the KAGRA O3GK run

Among the various candidates for dark matter (DM), ultralight vector DM can be probed by laser interferometric gravitational wave detectors through the measurement of oscillating length changes in the arm cavities. In this context, KAGRA has a unique feature due to differing compositions of its mirrors, enhancing the signal of vector DM in the length change in the auxiliary channels. Here we present the result of a search for U(1)B−L gauge boson DM using the KAGRA data from auxiliary length channels during the first joint observation run together with GEO600. By applying our search pipeline, which takes into account the stochastic nature of ultralight DM, upper bounds on the coupling strength between the U(1)B−L gauge boson and ordinary matter are obtained for a range of DM masses. While our constraints are less stringent than those derived from previous experiments, this study demonstrates the applicability of our method to the lower-mass vector DM search, which is made difficult in this measurement by the short observation time compared to the auto-correlation time scale of DM

Multilevel linear regression estimates with sibling SIS-R scores for positive psychotic experiences as dependent variable and patient dichotomous YBOCS scores (> = 16 vs. <16) as independent variable.

<p>Associations from multilevel linear regression equations, expressed as B (95% CI), p</p><p>* Adjusted for confounders sex, level of education, IQ, marital status,</p><p>**Additionally adjusted for age</p><p>**Additionally adjusted for use of antidepressants, use of antipsychotics.</p><p>Multilevel linear regression estimates with sibling SIS-R scores for positive psychotic experiences as dependent variable and patient dichotomous YBOCS scores (> = 16 vs. <16) as independent variable.</p

Associations between OCS and sibling status psychosis liability.

<p>Controls = reference = 0; sibling of patient = 1</p><p>Associations are from multilevel logistic regression analysis, expressed in odds ratios; OR (95% CI:), p</p><p>Associations between OCS and sibling status psychosis liability.</p

Descriptives of study population.

<p>Descriptives of study population.</p

Prevalence of OCS in function of 3-level psychosis liability (status).

<p>Clinical OCS: YBOCS>9. Broad OCS: YBOCS>0. * Differences in prevalence between distinct psychosis liability groups are all significant.</p