Recommendations to encourage participation of individuals from diverse backgrounds in psychiatric genetic studies

We present innovative research practices in psychiatric genetic studies to ensure representation of individuals from diverse ancestry, sex assigned at birth, gender identity, age, body shape and size, and socioeconomic backgrounds. Due to histories of inappropriate and harmful practices against marginalized groups in both psychiatry and genetics, people of certain identities may be hesitant to participate in research studies. Yet their participation is essential to ensure diverse representation, as it is incorrect to assume that the same genetic and environmental factors influence the risk for various psychiatric disorders across all demographic groups. We present approaches developed as part of the Eating Disorders Genetics Initiative (EDGI), a study that required tailored approaches to recruit diverse populations across many countries. Considerations include research priorities and design, recruitment and study branding, transparency, and community investment and ownership. Ensuring representation in participants is costly and funders need to provide adequate support to achieve diversity in recruitment in prime awards, not just as supplemental afterthoughts. The need for diverse samples in genetic studies is critical to minimize the risk of perpetuating health disparities in psychiatry and other health research. Although the EDGI strategies were designed specifically to attract and enroll individuals with eating disorders, our approach is broadly applicable across psychiatry and other fields

On Cartesian trees and range minimum queries

We present new results on Cartesian trees with applications in range minimum queries and bottleneck edge queries. We introduce a cache-oblivious Cartesian tree for solving the range minimum query problem, a Cartesian tree of a tree for the bottleneck edge query problem on trees and undirected graphs, and a proof that no Cartesian tree exists for the two-dimensional version of the range minimum query problem.Israel Science Foundation (grant no. 35/05)Danish National Research Foundation. Center for Massive Data Algorithmics (MADALGO)Yahoo! Inc