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

Pathophysiology and Pharmacology of Chronic Myeloid Leukemia

Chronic myelogenous leukemia is a hematopoietic stem cell tumor that accounts for 15% - 20% of all leukemia cases. Diagnosis of the disease is by physical exam, complete blood counts, peripheral blood smear, bone marrow aspiration, cytochemistry, imaging and genetic analysis. The final diagnosis of CML is performed by finding the genetic translocation, t(9;22), the Philadelphia Chromosome (Ph) which form a BCR-ABL fusion oncogen. A new biological treatment that inhibits this chromosome, BCR-ABL tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs), alters the outcome of CML patients from one with shortened life expectancy to a long-term survival. New generation of TKIs were introduced in the last few years, including nilotinib, dasatinib, bosutinib, and ponatinib; all which have a better and faster responses. Many clinical trials are still ongoing and we are eagerly awaiting results. Epidemiology, the Philadelphia chromosome, clinical phases, monitoring techniques, and treatments (including TKIs, chemotherapy, interferon alpha, and stem cell transplantation) of CML are reviewed in my thesis.MSc/MAáltalános orvosango

The Role of Adolescents’ Personal and Social Resources in Achieving Desired Emotional and Behavioral Outcomes during an Anxiety-Provoking Pandemic Outbreak

Considering adolescents’ developmentally driven stressors and social needs, they may be particularly vulnerable to the anxiety associated with the public health and economic crises due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Furthermore, they may have difficulty following the mandated contagion prevention directives. The current study focused on the role of adolescents’ positive personal resources (self-control, hope) and environmental resources (peer support) in two desired outcomes during the COVID-19 outbreak: wellbeing (i.e., maintaining/increasing positivity ratio) and contagion prevention behaviors (i.e., increasing handwashing). Path analysis was conducted using online survey data collected from a representative sample of 651 Israeli adolescents (ages 13–17). Positive resources were found to be both positively intercorrelated and negatively correlated with pandemic-related anxiety and positively with increased handwashing. Self-control correlated positively with social support, which, in turn, correlated positively with the positivity ratio (i.e., more positive than negative affects) and pandemic-related anxiety. Self-control and pandemic-related anxiety both correlated positively with increased prevention behavior. This study highlights the vital role of positive resources in achieving desired psychological and behavioral outcomes for adolescents during the anxiety-provoking pandemic. Beyond its theoretical innovation, this study offers practical value by focusing on malleable variables that could be the focus of dedicated interventions

The sources of extreme precipitation predictability; the case of the ‘Wet’ Red Sea Trough

Extreme precipitation events inflict detrimental socio-economic impacts in the Eastern Mediterranean. These are mainly associated with Mediterranean cyclones or the ‘Wet’ Red Sea Trough (WRST). The region's weather forecasters consider the second challenging to forecast, even just a few days in advance. Here, we study the dynamic and thermodynamic factors influencing the intrinsic predictability of WRST events. With this aim, we combine insights from traditional atmospheric analysis techniques, Lagrangian air-parcel backward trajectories, and dynamical systems theory. The latter describes atmospheric states via their local dimension (d) and inverse persistence (θ), which inform us of the intrinsic predictability of the atmosphere in phase space. We compare WRST events of low (upper decile of d and θ) with high (lower decile of d and θ) predictability. We argue that low-predictability events display a significantly different atmospheric pattern. Moreover, the low-predictability events show significantly higher daily precipitation rates, more extensive spatial spread, and greater precipitation variability among events than more predictable ones. On average, low predictability events are initiated by two distinct moisture sources with different water vapor content. We conclude that the dynamical systems framework may become a valuable tool to improve the forecast of extreme precipitation events associated with the WRST by providing a priori information on their intrinsic predictability. We foresee successfully implementing such a framework for other extreme weather events and regions

Efficient Collection of Light from Colloidal Quantum Dots with a Hybrid Metal–Dielectric Nanoantenna

We introduce a hybrid metal–dielectric nanoantenna consisting of a metallic bullseye nanostructure and a dielectric waveguide layer, for directing the photon emission of embedded colloidal nanocrystal quantum dots. This structure overcomes the intrinsic losses of plasmonic nanoantennas on one hand and is much more scalable than dielectric nanoantennas on the other. The experimental results demonstrate a very low divergence angle beam, allowing a collection efficiency of 30% of the quantum dot emission into a numerical aperture of 0.55. The experimental results are well reproduced by numerical simulations, which predict a maximal collection efficiency larger than 25% directly into a single mode fiber having a numerical aperture of 0.12 without the need for any additional optics. Such hybrid nanoantennas can significantly improve the performance of quantum dot based devices, from displays to single-photon sources