The BASES expert statement in safeguarding in the sport sciences.

Within the context of sport and exercise science, safeguarding concerns a professional obligation to protect all parties (for example the client, athlete and/or self) from maltreatment or harm (Mountjoy et al., 2016). Safeguarding should embrace relational (others), individual (self) and organisational (culture) considerations. The understanding of physical, emotional and social well-being and freedom from discrimination are the focus of safeguarding education. In this expert statement we provide information in three key areas: 1) a brief summary of the research themes and findings surrounding maltreatment in sport; 2) a discussion of safeguarding within the sport and exercise profession and finally; 3) recommendations for sport and exercise scientists on matters of safeguarding

Automated Ex Situ Assays of Amyloid Formation on a Microfluidic Platform.

Increasingly prevalent neurodegenerative diseases are associated with the formation of nanoscale amyloid aggregates from normally soluble peptides and proteins. A widely used strategy for following the aggregation process and defining its kinetics involves the use of extrinsic dyes that undergo a spectral shift when bound to β-sheet-rich aggregates. An attractive route to carry out such studies is to perform ex situ assays, where the dye molecules are not present in the reaction mixture, but instead are only introduced into aliquots taken from the reaction at regular time intervals to avoid the possibility that the dye molecules interfere with the aggregation process. However, such ex situ measurements are time-consuming to perform, require large sample volumes, and do not provide for real-time observation of aggregation phenomena. To overcome these limitations, here we have designed and fabricated microfluidic devices that offer continuous and automated real-time ex situ tracking of the protein aggregation process. This device allows us to improve the time resolution of ex situ aggregation assays relative to conventional assays by more than one order of magnitude. The availability of an automated system for tracking the progress of protein aggregation reactions without the presence of marker molecules in the reaction mixtures opens up the possibility of routine noninvasive study of protein aggregation phenomena.Financial support from the Frances and Augustus Newman Foundation, the BBSRC, the EPSRC, the ERC and the Swiss National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged.This is the final version of the article. It first appeared from Elsevier via http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.bpj.2015.11.352

Detection of the infrared aurora at Uranus with Keck-NIRSPEC

Near infrared (NIR) wavelength observations of Uranus have been unable to locate any infrared aurorae, despite many attempts to do so since the 1990s. While at Jupiter and Saturn, NIR investigations have redefined our understanding of magnetosphere ionosphere thermosphere coupling, the lack of NIR auroral detection at Uranus means that we have lacked a window through which to study these processes at Uranus. Here we present NIR Uranian observations with the Keck II telescope taken on the 5 September 2006 and detect enhanced $\text{H}_{\text{3}}^{\text{+}}$ emissions. Analysing temperatures and column densities, we identify an 88\% increase in localized $\text{H}_{\text{3}}^{\text{+}}$ column density, with no significant temperature increases, consistent with auroral activity generating increased ionization. By comparing these structures against the $\text{Q}_{\text{3}}^{\text{mp}}$ magnetic field model and the Voyager 2 ultraviolet observations, we suggest that these regions make up sections of the northern aurora.Comment: 12 pages, 3 main figures, 2 extended data figures. Nat Astron (2023

Genetic Overlap Profiles of Cognitive Ability in Psychotic and Affective Illnesses: A Multisite Study of Multiplex Pedigrees

Background: Cognitive impairment is a key feature of psychiatric illness, making cognition an important tool for exploring of the genetics of illness risk. It remains unclear which measures should be prioritized in pleiotropy-guided research. Here, we generate profiles of genetic overlap between psychotic and affective disorders and cognitive measures in Caucasian and Hispanic groups. Methods: Data were from 4 samples of extended pedigrees (N = 3046). Coefficient of relationship analyses were used to estimate genetic overlap between illness risk and cognitive ability. Results were meta-analyzed. Results: Psychosis was characterized by cognitive impairments on all measures with a generalized profile of genetic overlap. General cognitive ability shared greatest genetic overlap with psychosis risk (average endophenotype ranking value [ERV] across samples from a random-effects meta-analysis = 0.32), followed by verbal memory (ERV = 0.24), executive function (ERV = 0.22), and working memory (ERV = 0.21). For bipolar disorder, there was genetic overlap with processing speed (ERV = 0.05) and verbal memory (ERV = 0.11), but these were confined to select samples. Major depressive disorder was characterized by enhanced working and face memory performance, as reflected in significant genetic overlap in 2 samples. Conclusions: There is substantial genetic overlap between risk for psychosis and a range of cognitive abilities (including general intelligence). Most of these effects are largely stable across of ascertainment strategy and ethnicity. Genetic overlap between affective disorders and cognition, on the other hand, tends to be specific to ascertainment strategy, ethnicity, and cognitive test battery

Searching for Imaging Biomarkers of Psychotic Dysconnectivity

Background: Progress in precision psychiatry is predicated on identifying reliable individual-level diagnostic biomarkers. For psychosis, measures of structural and functional connectivity could be promising biomarkers given consistent reports of dysconnectivity across psychotic disorders using magnetic resonance imaging. Methods: We leveraged data from four independent cohorts of patients with psychosis and control subjects with observations from approximately 800 individuals. We used group-level analyses and two supervised machine learning algorithms (support vector machines and ridge regression) to test within-, between-, and across-sample classification performance of white matter and resting-state connectivity metrics. Results: Although we replicated group-level differences in brain connectivity, individual-level classification was suboptimal. Classification performance within samples was variable across folds (highest area under the curve [AUC] range = 0.30) and across datasets (average support vector machine AUC range = 0.50; average ridge regression AUC range = 0.18). Classification performance between samples was similarly variable or resulted in AUC values of approximately 0.65, indicating a lack of model generalizability. Furthermore, collapsing across samples (resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging, N = 888; diffusion tensor imaging, N = 860) did not improve model performance (maximal AUC = 0.67). Ridge regression models generally outperformed support vector machine models, although classification performance was still suboptimal in terms of clinical relevance. Adjusting for demographic covariates did not greatly affect results. Conclusions: Connectivity measures were not suitable as diagnostic biomarkers for psychosis as assessed in this study. Our results do not negate that other approaches may be more successful, although it is clear that a systematic approach to individual-level classification with large independent validation samples is necessary to properly vet neuroimaging features as diagnostic biomarkers

Genetic influences on externalizing psychopathology overlap with cognitive functioning and show developmental variation

Background: Questions remain regarding whether genetic influences on early life psychopathology overlap with cognition and show developmental variation. Methods: Using data from 9,421 individuals aged 8-21 from the Philadelphia Neurodevelopmental Cohort, factors of psychopathology were generated using a bifactor model of item-level data from a psychiatric interview. Five orthogonal factors were generated: anxious-misery (mood and anxiety), externalizing (attention deficit hyperactivity and conduct disorder), fear (phobias), psychosis-spectrum, and a general factor. Genetic analyses were conducted on a subsample of 4,662 individuals of European American ancestry. A genetic relatedness matrix was used to estimate heritability of these factors, and genetic correlations with executive function, episodic memory, complex reasoning, social cognition, motor speed, and general cognitive ability. Gene × Age analyses determined whether genetic influences on these factors show developmental variation. Results: Externalizing was heritable (h2 = 0.46, p = 1 × 10-6), but not anxious-misery (h2 = 0.09, p = 0.183), fear (h2 = 0.04, p = 0.337), psychosis-spectrum (h2 = 0.00, p = 0.494), or general psychopathology (h2 = 0.21, p = 0.040). Externalizing showed genetic overlap with face memory (ρg = -0.412, p = 0.004), verbal reasoning (ρg = -0.485, p = 0.001), spatial reasoning (ρg = -0.426, p = 0.010), motor speed (ρg = 0.659, p = 1x10-4), verbal knowledge (ρg = -0.314, p = 0.002), and general cognitive ability (g)(ρg = -0.394, p = 0.002). Gene × Age analyses revealed decreasing genetic variance (γg = -0.146, p = 0.004) and increasing environmental variance (γe = 0.059, p = 0.009) on externalizing. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment may be a useful endophenotype of externalizing psychopathology and, therefore, help elucidate its pathophysiological underpinnings. Decreasing genetic variance suggests that gene discovery efforts may be more fruitful in children than adolescents or young adults

Expert statement on safeguarding in the sport and exercise sciences (Revised).

Within the context of the sport and exercise sciences, the practice of safeguarding concerns that of a professional obligation to protect all parties (for example the client, athlete and/or self) from abuse or harm. Safeguarding should embrace relational (others), individual (self) and organisational (culture) considerations. The understanding of physical, emotional and social well-being and freedom from discrimination are the focus of typical safeguarding education. In this Expert Statement we provide information in three key areas: 1) a brief summary of the research themes and findings surrounding abuse in sport; 2) a discussion of safeguarding within the sport and exercise profession and finally; 3) recommendations for sport and exercise scientists on matters of safeguarding

Reflecting back and forwards: The ebb and flow of peer-reviewed reflective practice research in sport

Researchers in sport have claimed that reflective practice is important for competent practice. Evidence supporting this claim is sparse, highly theoretical and located within a variety of domains. The aim of this study was to assimilate and analyse the last 12 years of reflective practice literature within the sport domain in order to identify new areas of inquiry, emerging trends with regard to findings or methodology, and to identify implications for future research and practice. A sample of 68 papers published between 2001 and 2012 was examined, and investigated for the research locations, data collection methods utilised, and the professions and communities involved. The paper concludes with some suggestions for future research