Origin of Matter and the outside of the Universe

This short paper is to provide answer to the question what is there outside the Universe? If the Universe is expending, what does it expend into? An answer was provided, the universe is expanding into its complementary universe. If that is so, then what the complementary universe is? A new perception is provided that matter exist as a logical state. What is the logical state creating matter? This question is being answered by the relationship between the universe and its complementary universe satisfying the equilibrium equation that total matter of both universes, the inner universe (our universe) and the complementary universe (everything which is not the inner universe e.g. the outside universe), collapse into zero, i.e. no matter. Furthermore, the existence of matter out of void is a logical state resulted from the void existence

The logical perception of the pure consciousness

Does pure consciousness exist without being hooked to a physical mechanism (e.g. human body)? Can such claim be proven logically? The magnitude of asking this sort of question is similar to asking: Is it logical that matter exists out of the total void? The answer to both questions is yes. The aim of this paper is to show that, the existence of pure consciousness is a logical state, it is not energy, and it exists timelessly and can be experienced beyond the physical body. Furthermore, we show that pure consciousness (the soul) is a virtual junction on the metaphysical virtual net where each junction incorporates a set of cords of consciousness. The set can be limited, unlimited or uncountable. Cords of consciousness is treated as brain neural patterns and as such the brain can easily be manipulated by an external device which may transmit neural patterns in order to generate artificial scenes. A computation example was provided to elaborate the neural patterns and cords of consciousness. Finally, we discuss the opportunity rather than the possibility to visit the metaphysical virtual space. In that sense, if it is possible, should we grab the opportunity and expend our science beyond physics, into the metaphysics

Learning SO(3) Equivariant Representations with Spherical CNNs

We address the problem of 3D rotation equivariance in convolutional neural networks. 3D rotations have been a challenging nuisance in 3D classification tasks requiring higher capacity and extended data augmentation in order to tackle it. We model 3D data with multi-valued spherical functions and we propose a novel spherical convolutional network that implements exact convolutions on the sphere by realizing them in the spherical harmonic domain. Resulting filters have local symmetry and are localized by enforcing smooth spectra. We apply a novel pooling on the spectral domain and our operations are independent of the underlying spherical resolution throughout the network. We show that networks with much lower capacity and without requiring data augmentation can exhibit performance comparable to the state of the art in standard retrieval and classification benchmarks.Comment: Camera-ready. Accepted to ECCV'18 as oral presentatio

Clinical and familial correlates of tardive dyskinesia in India and Israel

Background: Antipsychotic drugs are widely used for the treatment of psychosis, especially schizophrenia. Their long-term use can result at times in serious side-effects such as Tardive Dyskinesia (TD). Since over 80% of schizophrenia sufferers (lifetime prevalence 1%) receive long-term antipsychotic drug treatment, the extent of the problem is potentially large. Increasing age is the most consistently demonstrated risk factor for TD. Aims: To assess effect of different clinical factors and demographic variables in India and Israel and sib pair concordance of Tardive Dyskinesia (TD) in India. Settings and Design: The study was conducted simultaneously among Indian and Israeli subjects: ascertainment was family-based in India and hospital-based in Israel. Methods and Material: In India the instruments used were: Diagnostic Interview for Genetic Studies (DIGS), Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS), and Simpson Angus Scale (SAS). The last three instruments were also used in Israel. Statistical Analysis: Regression analysis and Pearson's correlation. Results and Conclusions: TD symptoms were present in 40.4% of 151 Israeli subjects and 28.7% of 334 Indian subjects. While age at onset and total scores on PANSS were significant predictors of TD in both the samples, lower scores on the Global Assessment of Functioning Scale (GAF), diagnostic sub-group and male gender were significant predictors among Indians. There was no concordance of TD symptoms among 33 affected sib-pairs from India

Examining the synergistic effects of a cognitive control video game and a home-based, self-administered non-invasive brain stimulation on alleviating depression : the DiSCoVeR trial protocol

Funding Information: Open Access funding enabled and organized by Projekt DEAL. The DisCoVeR project is funded by ERA NET NEURON. The NEURON ‘Network of European Funding for Neuroscience Research is established under the organization of the ERA-NET ‘European Research Area Networks’ of the European Commission. National funding agencies are the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung [BMBF]) for LMU Munich, the Ministry of Health (MOH) for HUJI and Hadassah, the Swiss National Science Foundation (SNSF) for UNIGE and EPFL and the State Education and Development Agency (VIAA) of Latvia for RSU. Funding Information: This project was funded by the European Research Area Network (ERA-NET) NEURON 2018 Mental Disorders program. Publisher Copyright: © 2022, The Author(s).Enhanced behavioral interventions are gaining increasing interest as innovative treatment strategies for major depressive disorder (MDD). In this study protocol, we propose to examine the synergistic effects of a self-administered home-treatment, encompassing transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) along with a video game based training of attentional control. The study is designed as a two-arm, double-blind, randomized and placebo-controlled multi-center trial (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04953208). At three study sites (Israel, Latvia, and Germany), 114 patients with a primary diagnosis of MDD undergo 6 weeks of intervention (30 × 30 min sessions). Patients assigned to the intervention group receive active tDCS (anode F3 and cathode F4; 2 mA intensity) and an action-like video game, while those assigned to the control group receive sham tDCS along with a control video game. An electrode-positioning algorithm is used to standardize tDCS electrode positioning. Participants perform their designated treatment at the clinical center (sessions 1-5) and continue treatment at home under remote supervision (sessions 6-30). The endpoints are feasibility (primary) and safety, treatment efficacy (secondary, i.e., change of Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale (MADRS) scores at week six from baseline, clinical response and remission, measures of social, occupational, and psychological functioning, quality of life, and cognitive control (tertiary). Demonstrating the feasibility, safety, and efficacy of this novel combined intervention could expand the range of available treatments for MDD to neuromodulation enhanced interventions providing cost-effective, easily accessible, and low-risk treatment options.ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT04953208.publishersversionPeer reviewe

Considering Trauma Exposure in the Context of Genetics Studies of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder: A Systematic Review

Background: Posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) is a debilitating anxiety disorder. Surveys of the general population suggest that while 50-85% of Americans will experience a traumatic event in their lifetime, only 2-50% will develop PTSD. Why some individuals develop PTSD following trauma exposure while others remain resilient is a central question in the field of trauma research. For more than half a century, the role of genetic influences on PTSD has been considered as a potential vulnerability factor. However, despite the exponential growth of molecular genetic studies over the past decade, limited progress has been made in identifying true genetic variants for PTSD. Methods: In an attempt to aid future genome wide association studies (GWAS), this paper presents a systematic review of 28 genetic association studies of PTSD. Inclusion criteria required that 1) all participants were exposed to Criterion A traumatic events, 2) polymorphisms of relevant genes were genotyped and assessed in relation to participants’ PTSD status, 3) quantitative methods were used, and 4) articles were published in English and in peer-reviewed journals. In the examination of these 28 studies, particular attention was given to variables related to trauma exposure (e.g. number of traumas, type of trauma). Results: Results indicated that most articles did not report on the GxE interaction in the context of PTSD or present data on the main effects of E despite having data available. Furthermore, some studies that did consider the GxE interaction had significant findings, underscoring the importance of examining how genotypes can modify the effect of trauma on PTSD. Additionally, results indicated that only a small number of genes continue to be studied and that there were marked differences in methodologies across studies, which subsequently limited robust conclusions. Conclusions: As trauma exposure is a necessary condition for the PTSD diagnosis, this paper identifies gaps in the current literature as well as provides recommendations for how future GWAS studies can most effectively incorporate trauma exposure data in both the design and analysis phases of studies

No Association between PAWR Gene Polymorphisms and Tardive Dyskinesia in Schizophrenia Patients

Tardive dyskinesia (TD) is a hyperkinetic movement disorder associated with the prolonged use of antipsychotic drugs. Since prostate apoptosis response 4 (Par-4) is a key ligand of the dopamine D2 receptor, the Par-4 gene (PAWR) is a good candidate gene to study in the context of TD susceptibility. We examined the association between PAWR gene polymorphisms and TD. Three single nucleotide polymorphisms of PAWR were selected for the analysis: rs7979987, rs4842318, and rs17005769. Two hundred and eighty unrelated Korean schizophrenic patients participated in this study (105 TD and 175 non-TD patients). Genotype/allele-wise and haplotype-wise analyses were performed. There were no significant differences in genotype and allele frequencies between the two groups. Haplotype analysis also did not reveal a difference between the two groups. Within the limitations imposed by the size of the clinical sample, these findings suggest that PAWR gene variants do not significantly contribute to an increased risk of TD

Molecular Variation at the SLC6A3 Locus Predicts Lifetime Risk of PTSD in the Detroit Neighborhood Health Study

Recent work suggests that the 9-repeat (9R) allele located in the 3′UTR VNTR of the SLC6A3 gene increases risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, no study reporting this association to date has been based on population-based samples. Furthermore, no study of which we are aware has assessed the joint action of genetic and DNA methylation variation at SLC6A3 on risk of PTSD. In this study, we assessed whether molecular variation at SLC6A3 locus influences risk of PTSD. Participants (n = 320; 62 cases/258 controls) were drawn from an urban, community-based sample of predominantly African American Detroit adult residents, and included those who had completed a baseline telephone survey, had provided blood specimens, and had a homozygous genotype for either the 9R or 10R allele or a heterozygous 9R/10R genotype. The influence of DNA methylation variation in the SLC6A3 promoter locus was also assessed in a subset of participants with available methylation data (n = 83; 16 cases/67 controls). In the full analytic sample, 9R allele carriers had almost double the risk of lifetime PTSD compared to 10R/10R genotype carriers (OR = 1.98, 95% CI = 1.02–3.86), controlling for age, sex, race, socioeconomic status, number of traumas, smoking, and lifetime depression. In the subsample of participants with available methylation data, a significant (p = 0.008) interaction was observed whereby 9R allele carriers showed an increased risk of lifetime PTSD only in conjunction with high methylation in the SLC6A3 promoter locus, controlling for the same covariates. Our results confirm previous reports supporting a role for the 9R allele in increasing susceptibility to PTSD. They further extend these findings by providing preliminary evidence that a “double hit” model, including both a putatively reduced-function allele and high methylation in the promoter region, may more accurately capture molecular risk of PTSD at the SLC6A3 locus