ENIGMA and global neuroscience: A decade of large-scale studies of the brain in health and disease across more than 40 countries

This review summarizes the last decade of work by the ENIGMA (Enhancing NeuroImaging Genetics through Meta Analysis) Consortium, a global alliance of over 1400 scientists across 43 countries, studying the human brain in health and disease. Building on large-scale genetic studies that discovered the first robustly replicated genetic loci associated with brain metrics, ENIGMA has diversified into over 50 working groups (WGs), pooling worldwide data and expertise to answer fundamental questions in neuroscience, psychiatry, neurology, and genetics. Most ENIGMA WGs focus on specific psychiatric and neurological conditions, other WGs study normal variation due to sex and gender differences, or development and aging; still other WGs develop methodological pipelines and tools to facilitate harmonized analyses of "big data" (i.e., genetic and epigenetic data, multimodal MRI, and electroencephalography data). These international efforts have yielded the largest neuroimaging studies to date in schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, major depressive disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder, substance use disorders, obsessive-compulsive disorder, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, autism spectrum disorders, epilepsy, and 22q11.2 deletion syndrome. More recent ENIGMA WGs have formed to study anxiety disorders, suicidal thoughts and behavior, sleep and insomnia, eating disorders, irritability, brain injury, antisocial personality and conduct disorder, and dissociative identity disorder. Here, we summarize the first decade of ENIGMA's activities and ongoing projects, and describe the successes and challenges encountered along the way. We highlight the advantages of collaborative large-scale coordinated data analyses for testing reproducibility and robustness of findings, offering the opportunity to identify brain systems involved in clinical syndromes across diverse samples and associated genetic, environmental, demographic, cognitive, and psychosocial factors

Preparation of ferroelectric bi-layered thin films using the modified polymeric precursor method

The modified polymeric precursor method was used to synthesize ferroelectric bismuth-layered compounds such as, SrBi2Ta2O9 (SBT) and SrBi2Nb2O9 (SBN). This method allows for the use of precursor reagents such as oxide, carbonate or nitrate as cation sources, with the additional advantage of not requiring special equipment for the synthesis. The films were deposited by spin coating on Pt/Ti/SiO2/Si(100) and SrTiO3(100) (STO) substrates and crystallized at temperatures between 700 and 800 °C in the case of SBT films and 650 °C to 750 °C in that of SBN films. The crystallographic and microstructural characterizations were carried out by X-ray diffraction (XRD), scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and atomic force microscopy (AFM). The ferroelectric and dielectric properties of the films indicate their applicability in ferroelectric memories and optical devices