Retinal abnormalities associated with schizophrenia and bipolar disorder: a meta-analysis

INTRODUCTION: Schizophrenia (SZ) and bipolar disorder (BD) are neurodegenerative psychiatric disorders characterized by psychosis, cognitive impairment, and grey- and white-matter reductions in the brain. Non-invasive optical coherence tomography (OCT) has been increasingly utilized to investigate retinal abnormalities and their connections with underlying pathophysiology of psychiatric disorders. This thesis is a meta-analysis of current literature examining differences in retinal cytoarchitecture measured with OCT in patients with psychosis compared to controls. METHODS: In this meta-analysis, 38 articles were identified using PubMed and Google Scholar. Diagnostic groups were SZ only, BD only, psychosis spectrum disorder (PSD) only, psychosis proband (SZ, BD, and PSD combined), and healthy control (HC) eyes. Meta-analyses utilized fixed and random effects models when appropriate, and publication bias was identified and corrected for using trim-and-fill analysis. Meta-analyses and meta-regressions were with the ‘meta’ package in R (version 4.1.1). Results were reported as standardized mean differences (SMD) with 95% confidence intervals. RESULTS: A total of 3065 patient eyes (1664 SZ, 1189 BD, 212 PSD) and 3053 HC eyes were included in this meta-analysis. Compared to HCs, significant reductions were found in overall peripapillary RNFL thickness in BD and macular total retinal and mGCC thicknesses in proband, SZ, and BD groups. Overall, temporal, and inferior pRNFL thickness was significantly lower than controls in all patient groups except SZ, while superior and nasal pRNFL thickness was significantly lower than controls in proband and BD groups. Smaller significant reductions were also found in MV (except BD), mGCL-IPL volume, mGCL-IPL thickness (except BD), and foveal thickness (probands and PSD only). Finally, significant increases were seen in mOPL thickness (probands and PSD) and mINL volume (BD only). CONCLUSION: This meta-analysis builds upon previous literature in this field by incorporating recent OCT studies and examining both peripapillary and macular retinal regions with respect to psychotic disorders. Overall, this meta-analysis demonstrated both peripapillary and macular structural retinal abnormalities in people with psychosis compared to healthy controls. Specifically, the pRNFL, mGCC, and macular total retina thicknesses were widely shown to be decreased in association with psychosis

The Story of Here: A Graphic Guide to Holy Cross and College Hill

This illustrated guide captures the history of the section of Worcester where the College of the Holy Cross is located. Historical sources and imaginative interpretations based on historical research are combined to create a unique then and now approach and experience of double vision to tell the story of College Hill. This guide was a project of Montserrat Seminar 111N, taught by Prof. Sarah Luria in Spring 2020.https://crossworks.holycross.edu/hc_books/1051/thumbnail.jp

Bullying of medical students in Pakistan: a cross-sectional questionnaire survey.

Background: Several studies from other countries have shown that bullying, harassment, abuse or belittlement are a regular phenomenon faced not only by medical students, but also junior doctors, doctors undertaking research and other healthcare professionals. While research has been carried out on bullying experienced by psychiatrists and psychiatry trainees in Pakistan no such research has been conducted on medical students in this country. Methodology/Principal Findings: We conducted a cross-sectional questionnaire survey on final year medical students in six medical colleges of Pakistan. The response rate was 63%. Fifty-two percent of respondents reported that they had faced bullying or harassment during their medical education, about 28% of them experiencing it once a month or even more frequently. The overwhelming form of bullying had been verbal abuse (57%), while consultants were the most frequent (46%) perpetrators. Students who were slightly older, males, those who reported that their medical college did not have a policy on bullying or harassment, and those who felt that adequate support was not in place at their medical college for bullied individuals, were significantly more likely to have experienced bullying. Conclusion: Bullying or harassment is faced by quite a large proportion of medical students in Pakistan. The most frequent perpetrators of this bullying are consultants. Adoption of a policy against bullying and harassment by medical colleges, and providing avenues of support for students who have been bullied may help reduce this phenomenon, as the presence of these two was associated with decreased likelihood of students reporting having being bullied

Multiple novel prostate cancer susceptibility signals identified by fine-mapping of known risk loci among Europeans

Genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified numerous common prostate cancer (PrCa) susceptibility loci. We have fine-mapped 64 GWAS regions known at the conclusion of the iCOGS study using large-scale genotyping and imputation in 25 723 PrCa cases and 26 274 controls of European ancestry. We detected evidence for multiple independent signals at 16 regions, 12 of which contained additional newly identified significant associations. A single signal comprising a spectrum of correlated variation was observed at 39 regions; 35 of which are now described by a novel more significantly associated lead SNP, while the originally reported variant remained as the lead SNP only in 4 regions. We also confirmed two association signals in Europeans that had been previously reported only in East-Asian GWAS. Based on statistical evidence and linkage disequilibrium (LD) structure, we have curated and narrowed down the list of the most likely candidate causal variants for each region. Functional annotation using data from ENCODE filtered for PrCa cell lines and eQTL analysis demonstrated significant enrichment for overlap with bio-features within this set. By incorporating the novel risk variants identified here alongside the refined data for existing association signals, we estimate that these loci now explain ∼38.9% of the familial relative risk of PrCa, an 8.9% improvement over the previously reported GWAS tag SNPs. This suggests that a significant fraction of the heritability of PrCa may have been hidden during the discovery phase of GWAS, in particular due to the presence of multiple independent signals within the same regio

The Science Performance of JWST as Characterized in Commissioning

This paper characterizes the actual science performance of the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), as determined from the six month commissioning period. We summarize the performance of the spacecraft, telescope, science instruments, and ground system, with an emphasis on differences from pre-launch expectations. Commissioning has made clear that JWST is fully capable of achieving the discoveries for which it was built. Moreover, almost across the board, the science performance of JWST is better than expected; in most cases, JWST will go deeper faster than expected. The telescope and instrument suite have demonstrated the sensitivity, stability, image quality, and spectral range that are necessary to transform our understanding of the cosmos through observations spanning from near-earth asteroids to the most distant galaxies.Comment: 5th version as accepted to PASP; 31 pages, 18 figures; https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1538-3873/acb29

The James Webb Space Telescope Mission

Twenty-six years ago a small committee report, building on earlier studies, expounded a compelling and poetic vision for the future of astronomy, calling for an infrared-optimized space telescope with an aperture of at least $4m$. With the support of their governments in the US, Europe, and Canada, 20,000 people realized that vision as the $6.5m$ James Webb Space Telescope. A generation of astronomers will celebrate their accomplishments for the life of the mission, potentially as long as 20 years, and beyond. This report and the scientific discoveries that follow are extended thank-you notes to the 20,000 team members. The telescope is working perfectly, with much better image quality than expected. In this and accompanying papers, we give a brief history, describe the observatory, outline its objectives and current observing program, and discuss the inventions and people who made it possible. We cite detailed reports on the design and the measured performance on orbit.Comment: Accepted by PASP for the special issue on The James Webb Space Telescope Overview, 29 pages, 4 figure

Pediatric Window Falls: Not Just a Problem for Kids in High Rises

Abstract Background: Window falls are a frequent cause of injury (15/100 000) among Chicago preschool children. In Boston and New York, public health efforts have successfully decreased window fall injuries. Local data are needed to develop appropriate interventions for Chicago. Objective: To describe the housing characteristics and types of injuries among children who fell from windows treated in a Chicago pediatric trauma center. Methods: Children treated in a pediatric trauma center for injuries related to window falls between 1995 and 2002 were identified retrospectively. We reviewed family demographics, the circumstances of the fall, and types of injuries. Site visits were performed to determine the height and type of building and type of window where the fall took place. Results: The authors reviewed 90 cases; 55 were male. The median age was 2 years. Ninety eight percent of falls were reported to be from the third floor or lower. Site visits (n = 77) showed that 96% of the buildings were four storeys or lower. The median length of hospital stay was two days (range 0–24 days). The most common injuries were head trauma and extremity fractures. Three patients died, and an additional three patients were discharged to rehabilitation centers. Conclusions: Some window falls result in serious injury. In Chicago, most falls were from modest heights (2nd/3rd floor windows) in buildings of four or fewer storeys, rather than from “high rises”. Strategies to prevent window falls should be directed to the owners and occupants of this type of housing