Patients with schizophrenia experiences varying clinical courses in the symptoms and up to 30-60% of patients with schizophrenia do not respond sufficiently to antipsychotics. Treatment-resistant Schizophrenia (TRS) can have several reasons, including early onset, nonadherence to oral medication regimens, and persistent negative symptoms known as deficit syndrome. Patients with TRS experience frequent exacerbations, leading to the need for higher doses of antipsychotics to achieve a clinical result.

Recently, dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) and tardive dyskinesia (TD), both of which could be caused by inappropriate pharmacotherapy, as typified by excessive dosages of antipsychotics, have also been presumed relevant to TRS. Several lines of evidence suggest that both DSP and withdrawal psychosis are closely linked to the supersensitivity of dopamine D2 receptors; this could be caused by a potent blockade of the receptors by antipsychotics. Indeed our study recently has found that patients with DSP are overlapped with the concept of treatment-resistance, and these patients can be recovered by long-acting injectable form, via amelioration of Dopamine supersensitivity state. However, it was also observed that one group did not improve at the clinical symptomatic level, despite the presence of DSP.

Here, we try to verify relation in patients with treatment-resistant schizophrenia between several classes of antipsychotics or clinical symptoms and treatment process with oral antipsychotics after the initiation of RLAI. This study is a naturalistic, one-arm design with a 12-month observation period of a moderate sample size (N=115).

Although treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is a highly heterogeneous disorder, an established and efficacious treatment for those patients to date is pharmacotherapy with clozapine. Dopamine supersensitivity psychosis (DSP) is characterized by profound unstable positive symptoms and tardive dyskinesia, and its mechanism is related to up-regulation of dopamine D2 receptors (DRD2) which can be induced by long-term treatment with antipsychotics. Patients with DSP take generally excessive high dosages of neuroleptics and thus meet easily the criteria of TRS. A drug with secure and stable pharmacokinetic, which can keep an appropriate blockade of DRD2, may contribute to amelioration and prevention of the dopamine supersensitivity state. Risperidone long-acting injection (RLAI) is a candidate agent which meets this hypothesis.

The COllaborative project of Development of Anthropometrical measures in Twins (CODATwins) project is a large international collaborative effort to analyze individual-level phenotype data from twins in multiple cohorts from different environments. The main objective is to study factors that modify genetic and environmental variation of height, body mass index (BMI, kg/m2) and size at birth, and additionally to address other research questions such as long-term consequences of birth size. The project started in 2013 and is open to all twin projects in the world having height and weight measures on twins with information on zygosity. Thus far, 54 twin projects from 24 countries have provided individual-level data. The CODATwins database includes 489,981 twin individuals (228,635 complete twin pairs). Since many twin cohorts have collected longitudinal data, there is a total of 1,049,785 height and weight observations. For many cohorts, we also have information on birth weight and length, own smoking behavior and own or parental education. We found that the heritability estimates of height and BMI systematically changed from infancy to old age. Remarkably, only minor differences in the heritability estimates were found across cultural–geographic regions, measurement time and birth cohort for height and BMI. In addition to genetic epidemiological studies, we looked at associations of height and BMI with education, birth weight and smoking status. Within-family analyses examined differences within same-sex and opposite-sex dizygotic twins in birth size and later development. The CODATwins project demonstrates the feasibility and value of international collaboration to address gene-by-exposure interactions that require large sample sizes and address the effects of different exposures across time, geographical regions and socioeconomic status.

To characterise the dissemination patterns of uropathogenic Escherichia coli (UPEC) in a community, we conducted a study utilising molecular and fundamental descriptive epidemiology. The subjects, consisted of women having community-acquired acute urinary tract infection (UTI), were enrolled in the study from 2011 to 2012. UPEC isolates were subjected to antibacterial-susceptibility testing, O serogrouping, phylotyping, multilocus-sequence typing with phylogenetic-tree analysis and pulsed-field-gel electrophoresis (PFGE). From the 209 unique positive urinary samples 166 UPEC were isolated, of which 129 were fully susceptible to the tested antibiotics. Of the 53 sequence types (STs), the four most prevalent STs (ST95, ST131, ST73 and ST357) accounted for 60% of all UPEC strains. Antimicrobial resistance was less frequently observed for ST95 and ST73 than for the others. A majority of rare STs and a few common STs constituted the diversity pattern within the population structure, which was composed of the two phylogenetically distinct clades. Eleven genetically closely related groups were determined by PFGE, which accounted for 42 of the 166 UPEC isolates, without overt geo-temporal clustering. Our results indicate that a few major lineages of UPEC, selected by unidentified factors, are disseminated in this community and contribute to a large fraction of acute UTIs.

Diet, obesity and adipokines play important roles in diabetes and CVD; yet, limited studies have assessed the relationship between diet and multiple adipokines. This cross-sectional study assessed associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines in Mexican Americans. The cohort included 1128 participants (age 34·7±8·2 years, BMI 29·5±5·9 kg/m2, 73·2 % female). Dietary intake was assessed by 12-month food frequency questionnaire. Adiposity was measured by BMI, total percentage body fat and percentage trunk fat using dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry. Adiponectin, apelin, C-reactive protein (CRP), dipeptidyl peptidase-4 (DPP-IV), IL-1β, IL-1ra, IL-6, IL-18, leptin, lipocalin, monocyte chemo-attractant protein-1 (MCP-1), resistin, secreted frizzled protein 4 (SFRP-4), SFRP-5, TNF-α and visfatin were assayed with multiplex kits or ELISA. Joint multivariate associations between diet, adiposity and adipokines were analysed using canonical correlations adjusted for age, sex, energy intake and kinship. The median (interquartile range) energy intake was 9514 (7314, 11912) kJ/d. Overall, 55 % of total intake was accounted for by carbohydrates (24 % from sugar). A total of 66 % of the shared variation between diet and adiposity, and 34 % of diet and adipokines were explained by the top canonical correlation. The diet component was most represented by sugar-sweetened beverages (SSB), fruit and vegetables. Participants consuming a diet high in SSB and low in fruits and vegetables had higher adiposity, CRP, leptin, and MCP-1, but lower SFRP-5 than participants with high fruit and vegetable and low SSB intake. In Mexican Americans, diets high in SSB but low in fruits and vegetables contribute to adiposity and a pro-inflammatory adipokine profile.

Hyperbolic polariton modes are highly appealing for a broad range of applications in nanophotonics, including surfaced enhanced sensing, sub-diffractional imaging, and reconfigurable metasurfaces. Here we show that attenuated total reflectance (ATR) micro-spectroscopy using standard spectroscopic tools can launch hyperbolic polaritons in a Kretschmann–Raether configuration. We measure multiple hyperbolic and dielectric modes within the naturally hyperbolic material hexagonal boron nitride as a function of different isotopic enrichments and flake thickness. This overcomes the technical challenges of measurement approaches based on nanostructuring, or scattering scanning near-field optical microscopy. Ultimately, our ATR approach allows us to compare the optical properties of small-scale materials prepared by different techniques systematically.

The purpose of this report is to describe the appropriate use of indices relating to crystallinity, such as the ‘crystallinity index’, the ‘Hinckley index’, the ‘Kü bler index’, and the ‘Árkai index’. A ‘crystalline’ solid is defined as a solid consisting of atoms, ions, or molecules packed together in a periodic arrangement. A ‘crystallinity index’ is purported to be a measure of crystallinity, although there is uncertainty about what this means (see below). This report discusses briefly the nature of order, disorder and crystallinity in phyllosilicates and discusses why the use of a ‘crystallinity index’ should be avoided. If possible, it is suggested that indices be referred to using the name of the author who originally described the parameter, as in ‘Hinckley index’ or ‘Kübler index’, or in honour of a researcher who investigated the importance of the parameter extensively, as in ‘Árkai index’.

Thermal transformations of kaolinite were studied by 29Si- and 27Al-MAS/NMR and ESR techniques. In metakaolin, Si is still dominantly in the Q3 state (three Si atoms bonded to an Si-O4 tetrahedron) and Al detectable by NMR is in both 4-coordination and 6-coordination. Coordination polyhedra around Al or Fe replacing Al are much distorted. Metakaolin crystallizes into γ-alumina and mullite exothermically at ∼980°C, this crystallization being preceded by a faint endothermic reaction. The latter is due to segregation of SiO2 and Al2O3, which results in an increase of Si in the Q4 state and an increase of 6-coordinated Al2O3.

Elemental behaviour, during the process of weathering of glazed sekishu roof-tiles affected by Lecidea s.lat. sp. (a crustose lichen), was investigated using optical and fluorescence microscopy, field emission scanning electron microscopy (FE-SEM) and transmission electron microscopy. Sekishu roof tiles have an opaque reddish brown glaze on their surfaces which consist of an alkali feldspar-type X-ray amorphous glass recrystallized at 1200°C. Optical and fluorescence microscopy revealed the presence of corrosion pits (at a depth of ∼50 μm) at the lichen-glaze interface. Elemental mapping by FE-SEM identified the concentrations of Ti and Fe in the section of the glazed tile analysed. The behaviour of C was correlated with those elements, suggesting the possibility of biomineralization.

The mineralogy of the glazed surfaces of Japanese sekishu roof tiles covered by a crustose lichen – Lecidella asema (Nyl.) Knoph & Hertel – was investigated using transmission electron microscopy (TEM). The study sought to identify the Ti-Fe mineral observed as a low concentration of Ti and Fe in a previous study of the glazed surfaces of the same roof tile. The TEM analysis revealed that: (1) a thin layer of the Ti-Fe mineral pseudobrookite exists on the glaze surface; (2) the pseudobrookite consists of well-ordered single crystals, continuously and widely distributed on the glaze surface.

High-iron bustamite and apatite occur as subhedral large crystals up to 1 to 2 cm wide and 10 cm long in close association with spessartine in the disseminated sphalerite- and galena-bearing diopside-roepperite-calcite skarn at the New Broken Hill Consolidated mine (N.B.H.S.), New South Wales, Australia. Complete chemical analyses of the minerals have been made, together with physical, optical, and X-ray studies.