G.T. MSRS On-Line Calculator Targeting the Early Diagnosis of Mixed Affective States: the Multicenter Study Project Design on the Approbation and Validity of the Three Language Versions of the Rating Scale.

BACKGROUND: Mixed affective states (MS) are often misdiagnosed by the clinicians and lead to the inappropriate treatment strategies contributing to the severe forms, poor outcome with higher rates of comorbid conditions and worse remission quality in affective and bipolar disorders, as well as to a decreased psychosocial functioning of these patients. The development of reliable tools for the MS assessments or so called the phenomenon of mixity in affective disorders, is still an unmet need of psychiatric research and clinical practice. In this paper, we present PC program "Multilingual IBM-PC on-line calculator for early diagnosis of the mixed affective states" based on the Giuseppe Tavormina Mixed States Rating Scale (G.T. MSRS) (Russian, English, Italian language versions) created by the ICERN group using programming language JavaScript, working for such operation systems (OS) as Windows, Linux, MacOs, Android, iOS, and aims to contribute to the accurate assessment of the presence and severity of the mixed states among affective disorders. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: The G.T. Mixed States Rating Scale on-line calculator consists of 11 items which evaluate various aspects of MS in patients with major depression, bipolar or recurrent depressive disorder. A total score is automatically calculated, considering the type of affective temperament according to the Akiskal's and Tavormina's schemas, thus, the specific sub-groups of MS are differentiated based on the ranges: Medium-light (2-6), Medium (7-12), and High (13-19) Mixity level. The study will enroll 330 participants during two (three months follow-up) visits (110 native speakers in each of the three languages) of both genders aged from 18 till 55 y.o. with the diagnoses of depressive episodes, major depression, bipolar or recurrent depressive disorder according to the DSM-5 criteria. Assessments will be provided by the two investigators (second one will be blinded to the G.T. MSRS results obtained by the first researcher), based on the use of DSM-5 clinical interview, Young Mania Rating Scale, Montgomery-Åsberg Depression Rating Scale, Clinical Global Impression - Severity scale (CGI-S), Clinical Global Impression - Improvement scale (CGI-I), Patient Global Impression of Change (PGIC). RESULTS: The study will assess the agreement between the diagnostic category/clinical impression and the on-line G.T. MSRS calculator use results, its test-retest reliability, and diagnosis stability for further assessment of the on-line G.T. MSRS calculator validity and clinical utility. Secondary variables will evaluate internal reliability and such statistical analyses as Cronbach's alpha, Cohen's Kappa, biserial correction, and agreement between initial and follow-up diagnoses. CONCLUSIONS: Current multicenter validation study of the on-line G.T. MSRS calculator will enhance the understanding of the mixity phenomenon and its clinical implication, aiming to improve the treatment strategies to manage the course of mental disorder, quality of life and psychosocial functioning in patients with affective (bipolar) disorders, accompanied by MS, and a clinical recommendation for the routine administration of the user-friendly on-line G.T. MSRS version in clinical practice.

Post-COVID Neuropsychiatric Complications in Children and Adolescents: a Study Design for Early Diagnosis and Treatment Using Innovative Technologies.

BACKGROUND: The COVID-19 pandemic has had significant impacts on the child and adolescent population, with long-term consequences for physical health, socio-psychological well-being, and cognitive development, which require further investigation. We herein describe a study design protocol for recognizing neuropsychiatric complications associated with pediatric COVID-19, and for developing effective prevention and treatment strategies grounded on the evidence-based findings. METHODS: The study includes two cohorts, each with 163 participants, aged from 7 to 18 years old, and matched by gender. One cohort consisted of individuals with a history of COVID-19, while the other group presents those without such a history. We undertake comprehensive assessments, including neuropsychiatric evaluations, blood tests, and validated questionnaires completed by parents/guardians and by the children themselves. The data analysis is based on machine learning techniques to develop predictive models for COVID-19-associated neuropsychiatric complications in children and adolescents. RESULTS: The first model is focused on a binary classification to distinguish participants with and without a history of COVID-19. The second model clusters significant indicators of clinical dynamics during the follow-up observation period, including the persistence of COVID-19 related somatic and neuropsychiatric symptoms over time. The third model manages the predictors of discrete trajectories in the dynamics of post-COVID-19 states, tailored for personalized prediction modeling of affective, behavioral, cognitive, disturbances (academic/school performance), and somatic symptoms of the long COVID. CONCLUSIONS: The current protocol outlines a comprehensive study design aiming to bring a better understanding of COVID-19-associated neuropsychiatric complications in a population of children and adolescents, and to create a mobile phone-based applications for the diagnosis and treatment of affective, cognitive, and behavioral conditions. The study will inform about the improved management of preventive and personalized care strategies for pediatric COVID-19 patients. Study results support the development of engaging and age-appropriate mobile technologies addressing the needs of this vulnerable population group.

Virtual Reality-Based Interventions for Treating Depression in the Context of COVID-19 Pandemic: Inducing the Proficit in Positive Emotions as a Key Concept of Recovery and a Path Back to Normality.

BACKGROUND: During the COVID-19 pandemic as much as 40% of the global population reported deterioration in depressive mood, whereas 26% experienced increased need for emotional support. At the same time, the availability of on-site psychiatric care declined drastically because of the COVID-19 preventive social restriction measures. To address this shortfall, telepsychiatry assumes a greater role in mental health care services. Among various on-line treatment modalities, immersive virtual reality (VR) environments provide an important resource for adjusting the emotional state in people living with depression. Therefore, we reviewed the literature on VR-based interventions for depression treatment during the COVID-19 pandemic. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: We searched the PubMed and Scopus databases, as well as the Internet, for full-length articles published during the period of 2020-2022 citing a set of following key words: "virtual reality", "depression", "COVID-19", as well as their terminological synonyms and word combinations. The inclusion criteria were: 1) the primary or secondary study objectives included the treatment of depressive states or symptoms; 2) the immersive VR intervention used a head-mounted display (HMD); 3) the article presented clinical study results and/or case reports 4) the study was urged by or took place during the COVID-19-associated lockdown period. RESULTS: Overall, 904 records were retrieved using the search strategy. Remarkably, only three studies and one case report satisfied all the inclusion criteria elaborated for the review. These studies included 155 participants: representatives of healthy population (n=40), a case report of a patient with major depressive disorder (n=1), patients with cognitive impairments (n=25), and COVID-19 patients who had survived from ICU treatment (n=89). The described interventions used immersive VR scenarios, in combination with other treatment techniques, and targeted depression. The most robust effect, which the VR-based approach had demonstrated, was an immediate post-intervention improvement in mood and the reduction of depressive symptoms in healthy population. However, studies showed no significant findings in relation to both short-term effectiveness in treatment of depression and primary prevention of depressive symptoms. Also, safety issues were identified, such as: three participants developed mild adverse events (e.g., headache, "giddiness", and VR misuse behavior), and three cases of discomfort related to wearing a VR device were registered. CONCLUSIONS: There has been a lack of appropriately designed clinical trials of the VR-based interventions for depression since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Moreover, all these studies had substantial limitations due to the imprecise study design, small sample size, and minor safety issues, that did not allow us making meaningful judgments and conclude regarding the efficacy of VR in the treatment of depression, taking into account those investigations we have retrieved upon the inclusion criteria of our particularistic review design. This may call for randomized, prospective studies of the short-term and long-lasting effect of VR modalities in managing negative affectivity (sadness, anxiety, anhedonia, self-guilt, ignorance) and inducing positive affectivity (feeling of happiness, joy, motivation, self-confidence, viability) in patients suffering from clinical depression.

Formation of a Complex Topologies of SAW-Based Inertial Sensors by Laser Thin Film Local Evaporation.

Originally, sensors based on surface acoustic waves are fabricated using photolithography, which becomes extremely expensive when a small series or even single elements are needed for the research. A laser thin film local evaporation technique is proposed to substitute the photolithography process in the production of surface acoustic wave based inertial sensors prototypes. To estimate its potential a prototype of a surface acoustic wave gyroscope sensing element was fabricated and tested. Its was shown that the frequency mismatch is no more than 1%, but dispersion of the wave on small inertial masses leads to a spurious parasitic signal on receiving electrodes. Possible ways of its neglecting is discussed.

bis-Nitrile and bis-Dialkylcyanamide Platinum(II) Complexes as Efficient Catalysts for Hydrosilylation Cross-Linking of Siloxane Polymers.

cis- and trans-Isomers of the platinum(II) nitrile complexes [PtCl2(NCR)2] (R = NMe2, N(C5H10), Ph, CH2Ph) were examined as catalysts for hydrosilylation cross-linking of vinyl-terminated polydimethylsiloxane and trimethylsilyl-terminated poly(dimethylsiloxane-co-ethylhydrosiloxane) producing high quality silicone rubbers. Among the tested platinum species the cis-complexes are much more active catalysts than their trans-congeners and for all studied platinum complexes cis-[PtCl2(NCCH2Ph)2] exhibits the best catalytic activity (room temperature, c = 1.0 × 10(-4) mol/L, τpot-life 60 min, τcuring 6 h). Although cis-[PtCl2(NCCH2Ph)2] is less active than the widely used Karstedt's catalyst, its application for the cross-linking can be performed not only at room temperature (c = 1.0 × 10(-4) mol/L), but also, more efficiently, at 80 °C (c = 1.0 × 10(-4)-1.0 × 10(-5) mol/L) and it prevents adherence of the formed silicone rubbers to equipment. The usage of the cis- and trans-[PtCl2(NCR)2] complexes as the hydrosilylation catalysts do not require any inhibitors and, moreover, the complexes and their mixtures with vinyl- and trimethylsilyl terminated polysiloxanes are shelf-stable in air. Tested catalysts do not form colloid platinum particles after the cross-linking.

Screening properties of four mesoscale smoothed charge models, with application to dissipative particle dynamics.

We extend our previous study [J. Chem. Phys. 138, 204907 (2013)] to quantify the screening properties of four mesoscale smoothed charge models used in dissipative particle dynamics. Using a combination of the hypernetted chain integral equation closure and the random phase approximation, we identify regions where the models exhibit a real-valued screening length, and the extent to which this agrees with the Debye length in the physical system. We find that the second moment of the smoothed charge distribution is a good predictor of this behaviour. We are thus able to recommend a consistent set of parameters for the models.

Screening properties of Gaussian electrolyte models, with application to dissipative particle dynamics.

We investigate the screening properties of Gaussian charge models of electrolyte solutions by analysing the asymptotic behaviour of the pair correlation functions. We use a combination of Monte Carlo simulations with the hyper-netted chain integral equation closure, and the random phase approximation, to establish the conditions under which a screening length is well defined and the extent to which it matches the expected Debye length. For practical applications, for example, in dissipative particle dynamics, we are able to summarise our results in succinct rules-of-thumb which can be used for mesoscale modeling of electrolyte solutions. We thereby establish a solid foundation for future work, such as the systematic incorporation of specific ion effects.