Personal recovery self-report outcome measures in serious mental illness: A systematic review of measurement properties.

BACKGROUND: Personal recovery represents a paradigm shift in mental healthcare. Validated self-report outcome measures (PROMs) are needed to facilitate the transformation towards recovery-oriented practices and services. Objectives were to identify published measures and analyze their measurement properties using a standardized methodology. METHODS: Following the COSMIN guidelines, we conducted a systematic review of personal recovery PROMs in serious mental illness. The MEDLINE, PMC, PsycINFO, PsycARTICLES, PBSC and Scopus electronic databases were searched for articles published between May 2012 and February 2024. Full-text articles from a previous systematic review were also examined. RESULTS: 91 studies were included in the review, describing 25 PROMs. Ten of them had not been identified in previous reviews. Quality of evidence was globally poor for most PROM measurement properties. Very little evidence was found for cross-cultural validity, measurement invariance, measurement error and criterion validity. The Recovery Assessment Scale and Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery showed the strongest evidence for sufficient psychometric data on a wide range of measurement properties. CONCLUSIONS: Several personal recovery measures are now available. While research is still needed to enhance their validity on some psychometric properties, the current tools appear sufficient to cover most research and clinical needs.

Characterizing personal recovery in severe mental illness: French psychometric validation of the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR-Fr).

OBJECTIVE: The support of the personal recovery of people with lived experience of mental illness is a major issue in clinical practice. Thus, a valid instrument to assess personal recovery is needed. The present study aimed to validate the French translation of the 22-item Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery (QPR-Fr). METHOD: A convenience sample of 222 participants reporting a severe mental illness diagnosis was recruited online. Psychometric properties of the QPR-Fr were evaluated. A confirmatory factor analysis was conducted for structural validity. Internal consistency and test-retest reliability were assessed. To test for convergent validity, we conducted multiple linear regression analysis to explore the QPR-Fr associations with psychological distress and the CHIME framework (with Connectedness, Hope and optimism about the future, Identity, Meaning in life, and Empowerment) proxy measures (perceived social support, hope, self-esteem, quality of life, and empowerment). RESULTS: An adequate fit was found for a 19-item unidimensional factor structure. Internal consistency was excellent. Test reliability was good. The QPR-Fr total score was significantly positively associated with quality of life, hope, self-esteem, and social support satisfaction and negatively associated with psychological distress. No significant association was found with social support availability nor with empowerment. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: This study provides additional data to support the cross-cultural validity of the Questionnaire about the Process of Recovery. The QPR-Fr is a valid and reliable tool to assess personal recovery. Practitioners could use the QPR-Fr to assess personal recovery in collaboration with people with lived experience. Convergent validity with CHIME proxy measures supports the validity of the CHIME framework in a French cultural context. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Directivity of horns mounted in finite enclosures: A multimodal formulation.

The beamwidth is a primary directivity metric for the design of a constant directivity horn. To date, investigations on this property have predominantly been restricted to the half-space radiation or idealized geometries. This paper examines the beamwidth behavior of an axisymmetric horn mounted in a finite cylindrical enclosure by proposing an elegant multimodal solution to the far-field directivity pattern. The variation of beamwidth is examined for the frequency, dimensions of the enclosure, and shape of the horn. At low frequencies, a fitted model is proposed to precisely depict the intrinsic beam narrowing governed by the enclosure diffraction. The asymptotic behavior of the beamwidth is explored as the flange width increases. In the high-frequency range, the horn profile is a determinant of the directivity characteristics. We report the possibility of extending the bandwidth of a constant directivity horn by leveraging the enclosure diffraction effects. The proposed analytical method is highly accurate and much faster than the finite element method for wideband analysis. It allows for an arbitrary velocity distribution at the mouth of the horn and incorporates idealized flange configurations such as an infinite baffle, a zero-thickness closed baffle, and an infinitely long enclosure as limit cases.

Macrophage mediators and mechanisms in cardiovascular disease.

Macrophages are major players in myocardial infarction (MI) and atherosclerosis, two major cardiovascular diseases (CVD). Atherosclerosis is caused by the buildup of cholesterol-rich lipoproteins in blood vessels, causing inflammation, vascular injury, and plaque formation. Plaque rupture or erosion can cause thrombus formation resulting in inadequate blood flow to the heart muscle and MI. Inflammation, particularly driven by macrophages, plays a central role in both atherosclerosis and MI. Recent integrative approaches of single-cell analysis-based classifications in both murine and human atherosclerosis as well as experimental MI showed overlap in origin, diversity, and function of macrophages in the aorta and the heart. We here discuss differences and communalities between macrophages in the heart and aorta at steady state and in atherosclerosis or upon MI. We focus on markers, mediators, and functional states of macrophage subpopulations. Recent trials testing anti-inflammatory agents show a major benefit in reducing the inflammatory burden of CVD patients, but highlight a necessity for a broader understanding of immune cell ontogeny and heterogeneity in CVD. The novel insights into macrophage biology in CVD represent exciting opportunities for the development of novel treatment strategies against CVD.

Promoting Intimate Relationships in Mental Illness: A Systematic Review of Interventions.

Although persons with Serious Mental Illness (SMI) express a need for intimate relations with others, they still suffer from a severe lack of social participation in this domain. However, these unmet needs have received little attention until recently. This study reviews interventions that aim to facilitate the development and the maintenance of intimate relationships (IR) of persons with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder and major depression. A systematic review following PRISMA guidelines was conducted. Studies published in Scopus, PubMed, EBSCO (Psych INFO, Psych ARTICLES, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection) from January 1, 2000, to December, 2021, were screened. The search using terms referring to "schizophrenia", "bipolar disorder", "major depression", "IR" and "interventions" revealed 11 studies. Among them, 10 reported interventions for persons with depression, including 9 for couple therapy. Most interventions targeted satisfaction with couple relationships as the main therapeutic objective. Heterogeneity in study design precludes any firm conclusions about their efficacy. Interestingly, only one intervention focused on single persons interested in developing IR. The results highlight the lack of interventions: (i) aimed at promoting IR, (ii) designed for single persons, and (iii) targeting persons with psychotic disorders. This result may reflect the persisting stigmatization of persons with psychotic disorders, and the taboo associated with the IR and sexuality of persons with mental illness. Further studies are needed to develop inclusive interventions promoting the development of IR in persons with mental illness.

Maximum directivity of flanged open-ended waveguides.

Directional beams have extensive applications in communication and sound reproduction. This paper investigates the theoretical maximum directivity of infinitely flanged open-ended waveguides and the radiation pattern synthesis. We derive a rigorous solution for the maximum directivity factor of a flanged aperture with arbitrary shape by projecting its surface velocity on the waveguide modes, enabling the creation of a directional beam in any desired direction. We present case studies for a three-dimensional circular waveguide and a bidimensional waveguide. The theoretical beam that is obtained in a subspace spanned by all the propagating modes can then be synthesized by a group of incident modes or a point-source array within the waveguide. The optimality of the beam is demonstrated by comparing it with Gaussian shaded modes radiated from the waveguide. If the evanescent modes are taken into account, the maximum directivity factor increases with considerable loss to the radiation efficiency. Nevertheless, the optimum aperture velocity dominated by its evanescent components is capable of precise beam steering in extreme directions and could be useful for designing material-filled horns. Our work provides benchmark directivity factors and patterns for the practical design of horn antennas. In addition, we present a generalized form of Bouwkamp's impedance theorem.

IL-17A-producing CD8+ T cells promote PDAC via induction of inflammatory cancer-associated fibroblasts.

OBJECTIVE: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterised by an abundant desmoplastic stroma composed of cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) and interspersed immune cells. A non-canonical CD8+ T-cell subpopulation producing IL-17A (Tc17) promotes autoimmunity and has been identified in tumours. Here, we evaluated the Tc17 role in PDAC. DESIGN: Infiltration of Tc17 cells in PDAC tissue was correlated with patient overall survival and tumour stage. Wild-type (WT) or Il17ra-/- quiescent pancreatic stellate cells (qPSC) were exposed to conditional media obtained from Tc17 cells (Tc17-CM); moreover, co-culture of Tc17-CM-induced inflammatory (i)CAF (Tc17-iCAF) with tumour cells was performed. IL-17A/F-, IL-17RA-, RAG1-deficient and Foxn1nu/nu mice were used to study the Tc17 role in subcutaneous and orthotopic PDAC mouse models. RESULTS: Increased abundance of Tc17 cells highly correlated with reduced survival and advanced tumour stage in PDAC. Tc17-CM induced iCAF differentiation as assessed by the expression of iCAF-associated genes via synergism of IL-17A and TNF. Accordingly, IL-17RA controlled the responsiveness of qPSC to Tc17-CM. Pancreatic tumour cells co-cultured with Tc17-iCAF displayed enhanced proliferation and increased expression of genes implicated in proliferation, metabolism and protection from apoptosis. Tc17-iCAF accelerated growth of mouse and human tumours in Rag1-/- and Foxn1nu/nu mice, respectively. Finally, Il17ra-expressed by fibroblasts was required for Tc17-driven tumour growth in vivo. CONCLUSIONS: We identified Tc17 as a novel protumourigenic CD8+ T-cell subtype in PDAC, which accelerated tumour growth via IL-17RA-dependent stroma modification. We described a crosstalk between three cell types, Tc17, fibroblasts and tumour cells, promoting PDAC progression, which resulted in poor prognosis for patients.

Exceptional Points of PT-Symmetric Reflectionless States in Complex Scattering Systems.

We investigate experimentally and analytically the coalescence of reflectionless (RL) states in symmetric complex wave-scattering systems. We observe RL exceptional points (EPs), first with a conventional Fabry-Perot system for which the scattering strength within the system is tuned symmetrically and then with single- and multichannel symmetric disordered systems. We confirm that an EP of the parity-time (PT)-symmetric RL operator is obtained for two isolated quasinormal modes when the spacing between central frequencies is equal to the decay rate into incoming and outgoing channels. Finally, we leverage the transfer functions associated with RL and RL-EP states to implement first- and second-order analog differentiation.

Improved multimodal formulation of the wave propagation in a 3D waveguide with varying cross-section and curvature.

An efficient method is proposed to solve the multimodal wave propagation within a three-dimensional waveguide bounded by a hard wall with varying cross section and curvature. This is achieved by first turning the original problem, in a complex-shaped waveguide, into a cylindrical waveguide with unit radius, by means of an adapted and flexible geometrical transformation. Then supplementary modes are defined to enrich the standard modal basis that is usually considered in such methods and to help restore the right boundary condition. It is shown through various numerical applications that the introduction of these supplementary modes, whatever the complexity of the waveguide geometry, significantly enhances the multimodal method, notably by increasing its convergence rate, whether one's aim is to solve the wavefield or the scattering problem.

Immunotherapeutic Strategies in Cancer and Atherosclerosis-Two Sides of the Same Coin.

The development and clinical approval of immunotherapies has revolutionized cancer therapy. Although the role of adaptive immunity in atherogenesis is now well-established and several immunomodulatory strategies have proven beneficial in preclinical studies, anti-atherosclerotic immunotherapies available for clinical application are not available. Considering that adaptive immune responses are critically involved in both carcinogenesis and atherogenesis, immunotherapeutic approaches for the treatment of cancer and atherosclerosis may exert undesirable but also desirable side effects on the other condition, respectively. For example, the high antineoplastic efficacy of immune checkpoint inhibitors, which enhance effector immune responses against tumor cells by blocking co-inhibitory molecules, was recently shown to be constrained by substantial proatherogenic properties. In this review, we outline the specific role of immune responses in the development of cancer and atherosclerosis. Furthermore, we delineate how current cancer immunotherapies affect atherogenesis and discuss whether anti-atherosclerotic immunotherapies may similarly have an impact on carcinogenesis.

Sensitivity to losses and defects of the symmetry-induced transmission enhancement through diffusive slabs.

We inspect the robustness to absorption and to symmetry defects of the symmetry-induced broadband enhancement through opaque barriers in disordered slabs. The sensitivity of this phenomenon to symmetry defects is found to be strongly related to the distance from to barrier to the nearest defect, and, following, we propose a probabilistic model to estimate the conductance of a medium with an arbitrary number of randomly distributed defects. Also, the conductance enhancement is shown to be robust to absorption in the disordered medium, though being of course weakened. For sufficiently opaque barriers, the conditions of an optimal enhancement are mainly driven by the absorption length of the medium.

Hybridized Love Waves in a Guiding Layer Supporting an Array of Plates with Decorative Endings.

This study follows from Maurel et al., Phys. Rev. B 98, 134311 (2018), where we reported on direct numerical observations of out-of-plane shear surface waves propagating along an array of plates atop a guiding layer, as a model for a forest of trees. We derived closed form dispersion relations using the homogenization procedure and investigated the effect of heterogeneities at the top of the plates (the foliage of trees). Here, we extend the study to the derivation of a homogenized model accounting for heterogeneities at both endings of the plates. The derivation is presented in the time domain, which allows for an energetic analysis of the effective problem. The effect of these heterogeneous endings on the properties of the surface waves is inspected for hard heterogeneities. It is shown that top heterogeneities affect the resonances of the plates, hence modifying the cut-off frequencies of a wave mathematically similar to the so-called Spoof Plasmon Polariton (SPP) wave, while the bottom heterogeneities affect the behavior of the layer, hence modifying the dispersion relation of the Love waves. The complete system simply mixes these two ingredients, resulting in hybrid surface waves accurately described by our model.

Formation and development of the male copulatory organ in the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum involves a metamorphosis-like process.

Spiders have evolved a unique male copulatory organ, the pedipalp bulb. The morphology of the bulb is species specific and plays an important role in species recognition and prezygotic reproductive isolation. Despite its importance for spider biodiversity, the mechanisms that control bulb development are virtually unknown. We have used confocal laser scanning microscopy (CLSM) and diffusible iodine-based contrast-enhanced micro computed tomography (dice-µCT) to study bulb development in the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum. These imaging technologies enabled us to study bulb development in situ, without the use of destructive procedures for the first time. We show here that the inflated pedipalp tip in the subadult stage is filled with haemolymph that rapidly coagulates. Coagulation indicates histolytic processes that disintegrate tibia and tarsus, similar to histolytic processes during metamorphosis in holometabolous insects. The coagulated material contains cell inclusions that likely represent the cell source for the re-establishment of tarsus and tibia after histolysis, comparable to the histoblasts in insect metamorphosis. The shape of the coagulated mass prefigures the shape of the adult tarsus (cymbium) like a blueprint for the histoblasts. This suggests a unique role for controlled coagulation after histolysis in the metamorphosis-like morphogenesis of the male pedipalp.

Broadband-Enhanced Transmission through Symmetric Diffusive Slabs.

We report on a significant and broadband enhancement of the transmission through an opaque barrier, when placed between symmetric diffusive disordered slabs. The transmission enhancement is accompanied by a bimodal distribution of the transmission eigenvalues, and, for a given transmittance of the barrier, it finds an optimal value for a particular length of the disordered slabs. A simple model allows us to quantify the scalings between the parameters that show that the stronger the barrier, the stronger the maximum possible enhancement. The sensitivity to symmetry defects is also explored, displaying potential interest for wave based sensing.

A perforated anodised aluminium slide for improved specimen clearing and imaging for confocal laser scanning microscopy.

OBJECTIVE: The bleaching, clearing and handling of tiny specimens with soft tissue and cuticular components for confocal laser scanning microscopy is difficult, because after cuticle bleaching and tissue clearing the specimens are virtually invisible. We have adjusted the design of the specimen container described by Smolla et al. (Arthropod Struct Dev 43:175-81, 2014) to handle tiny specimens. RESULTS: We describe a perforated and anodised aluminium slide that was designed to hold the distal tips of the pedipalp appendages of the spider Parasteatoda tepidariorum during clearing, and that can then be used directly for confocal laser scanning microscopy. We believe that this slide design will be helpful for others who want to visualise specimens between 500 and 800 µm with confocal laser scanning microscopy.

Modeling of the multimodal radiation from an open-ended waveguide.

The multimodal radiation from the open end of a cylindrical waveguide with arbitrary wall thickness is solved by deriving algebraic solutions of the radiation impedance matrix, without restrictive hypothesis on the frequency range. The basic idea of the method is to turn the original unbounded problem into the problem of a cylindrical waveguide embedded in an infinite waveguide with an annular perfectly matched layer (PML) on its wall. Then, using a multimodal formalism of the guided wave propagation and a complex coordinate stretching PML, algebraic expressions are derived for the continuity and radiation conditions in this coupled system.

Modal method for the 2D wave propagation in heterogeneous anisotropic media.

A multimodal method based on a generalization of the admittance matrix is used to analyze wave propagation in heterogeneous two-dimensional anisotropic media. The heterogeneity of the medium can be due to the presence of anisotropic inclusions with arbitrary shapes, to a succession of anisotropic media with complex interfaces between them, or both. Using a modal expansion of the wave field, the problem is reduced to a system of two sets of first-order differential equations for the modal components of the field, similar to the system obtained in the rigorous coupled wave analysis. The system is solved numerically, using the admittance matrix, which leads to a stable numerical method, the basic properties of which are discussed. The convergence of the method is discussed, considering arrays of anisotropic inclusions with complex shapes, which tend to show that Li's rules are not concerned within our approach. The method is validated by comparison with a subwavelength layered structure presenting an effective anisotropy at the wave scale.

Wave propagation in a waveguide containing restrictions with circular arc shape.

A multimodal method is used to analyze the wave propagation in waveguides containing restrictions (or corrugations) with circular arc shapes. This is done using a geometrical transformation which transforms the waveguide with complex geometry in the real space to a straight waveguide in the transformed space, or virtual space. In this virtual space, the Helmholtz equation has a modified structure which encapsulates the complexity of the geometry. It is solved using an improved modal method, which was proposed in a paper by A. Maurel, J.-F. Mercier, and S. Félix [Proc. R. Soc. A 470, 20130743 (2014)], that increases the accuracy and convergence of usual multimodal formulations. Results show the possibility to solve the wave propagation in a waveguide with a high density of circular arc shaped scatterers.

Three-dimensional parabolic equation model for low frequency sound propagation in irregular urban canyons.

A three-dimensional wide-angle parabolic equation (3DPE) is used to model low frequency sound propagation in irregular urban canyons at low computational cost. This one-way wave equation is solved using the Alternating Direction Implicit method. A finite difference scheme adapted to the geometry of the urban environment is then developed. Abrupt variations of the street width are treated as a single scattering problem using the Kirchhoff approximation. Numerical results are compared with experimental data obtained on a scale model of a street. Comparisons show the ability of the 3DPE model to provide reliable transmitted fields even for large irregularities.

Local transformation leading to an efficient Fourier modal method for perfectly conducting gratings.

We present an efficient Fourier modal method for wave scattering by perfectly conducting gratings (in the two polarizations). The method uses a geometrical transformation, similar to the one used in the C-method, that transforms the grating surface into a flat surface, thus avoiding to question the Rayleigh hypothesis; also, the transformation only affects a bounded inner region that naturally matches the outer region; this allows applying a simple criterion to select the ingoing and outgoing waves. The method is shown to satisfy reciprocity and energy conservation, and it has an exponential rate of convergence for regular groove shapes. Besides, it is shown that the size of the inner region, where the solution is computed, can be reduced to the groove depth, that is, to the minimal computation domain.