Publications

For goal-directed movements like throwing darts or shooting a soccer penalty, the optimal location to aim depends on the endpoint variability of an individual. Currently, there is no consensus on whether people can optimize their movement planning based on information about their motor variability. Here, we tested the role of different types of feedback for movement planning under risk. We measured saccades toward a bar that consisted of a reward and a penalty region. Participants either received error-based feedback about their endpoint or reinforcement feedback about the resulting reward. We additionally manipulated the feedback schedule to assess the role of feedback frequency and whether feedback focusses on individual trials or a group of trials. Participants with trial-by-trial reinforcement feedback performed best. They were less loss-aversive, had the least endpoint deviation from optimality, and showed more consistent performance at the group level. This combination of reduced between-participant variability and the improved alignment with optimality suggests that reinforcement feedback about a single movement is particularly effective to optimize movement planning under risk.

PURPOSE: Early lesions caused by age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are imaged by optical coherence tomography (OCT) in unprecedented detail. Most probably, however, the sampling plane of an OCT scan meets a given lesion noncentrally, and the observed sizes of its diameter, cross-sectional area, and volume must be stereologically corrected.

METHODS: Stereological corrections are obtained by a simulation procedure, which is applied to the leading scans in a consecutive sample of 100 early AMD participants.

RESULTS: Mean corrections for lesion diameter, cross-sectional area and volume amount to +9.1%, +32.0%, and +46.6%, respectively. After correction, AMD stage classifications with respect to the 125-µm diameter cutpoint had to be changed for seven participants.

CONCLUSIONS: Simulation results confirm that for lesions pictured and measured in OCT scans - regardless of the accuracy of OCT imaging - stereological correction of observed sizes is compelling and unavoidable.

TRANSLATIONAL RELEVANCE: Categorial AMD classifications based on observed OCT data must be reexaminated after stereological correction.

PURPOSE: This study aimed to investigate whether 40-Hz light flicker could modulate the expression of major histocompatibility complex class II (MHC-II) and enhance the clearance of amyloid-β (Aβ) deposition.

METHODS: We examined retinal MHC-II expression via RNA sequencing, immunofluorescence, and western blotting in mice 8 weeks, 9 months, and 18 to 20 months old. Retinal metabolic waste accumulation was induced by intravitreal and subretinal injections of Aβ oligomers. The impact of 40-Hz flicker on MHC-II expression, microglial activation, and retinal function was evaluated using immunofluorescence, western blotting, dot immunobinding assay, electroretinography, and optokinetic reflex (OKR) testing. Minocycline was used to inhibit microglial activity.

RESULTS: The 40-Hz light flicker upregulated MHC-II expression in the retinas of aged mice. MHC-II⁺ microglia accumulated along retinal veins and exhibited increased numbers and enlarged morphology in the subretinal space. Following intravitreal or subretinal Aβ injection, 40-Hz flicker enhanced microglial activation, further upregulated MHC-II expression, promoted Aβ clearance, and improved electroretinogram responses and OKR performance. These effects were abolished by minocycline treatment.

CONCLUSIONS: We observed that 40-Hz light flicker enhances retinal microglial clearance of Aβ oligomers by upregulating MHC-II expression. These findings support 40-Hz light flicker as a non-invasive therapeutic strategy for age-related retinal disorders by promoting metabolic waste clearance.

Los síntomas mixtos, que combinan elementos maníacos e hipomaníacos con características depresivas, constituyen una dimensión central y frecuente de los trastornos del ánimo. Desde las primeras descripciones de Kraepelin y Weygandt hasta las formulaciones actuales, las definiciones diagnósticas han oscilado entre criterios muy restrictivos y aproximaciones dimensionales más amplias. La introducción del especificador "con síntomas mixtos" en el DSM-5 representó un avance, aunque persisten limitaciones notables, como la exclusión de síntomas solapados (irritabilidad, distracción, agitación psicomotora). Revisiones sistemáticas recientes estiman que la prevalencia de características mixtas alcanza al 18 % de los episodios depresivos mayores, al 33 % de los episodios depresivos bipolares y al 35 % de los episodios maníacos o hipomaníacos. Estos cuadros se asocian con mayor riesgo suicida, evolución más grave y menor respuesta terapéutica. En los últimos años, la evidencia farmacológica más robusta proviene de ensayos con antipsicóticos de segunda generación, destacándose lumateperona, lurasidona, ziprasidona, cariprazina y olanzapina/fluoxetina. En contraste, litio, valproato y lamotrigina carecen de estudios específicos en episodios depresivos con características mixtas, y la monoterapia antidepresiva sigue sin respaldo suficiente. Esta revisión integra los antecedentes históricos, los hallazgos epidemiológicos y la evidencia terapéutica más reciente, subrayando la necesidad de consensos diagnósticos más sensibles y de ensayos controlados a largo plazo que orienten la práctica clínica.

This research analyzes the content and performance of the public relations tactic of press conferences published on the World Health Organization's YouTube® channel during the coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic. This study examined 3,506 videos-focusing on 142 press conferences published between May 27, 2020, and May 5, 2023-and their audience impact and engagement correlations. In contrast, nonpress conference videos, spanning from the channel's inception up to the data collection date (March 16, 2024), were analyzed as a benchmark for evaluating the performance of press conferences. Moreover, the 13 most-viewed press conferences were qualitatively analyzed using framing theory to determine their dominant frames and sentiments. The analysis revealed that audiences who perceive a risky situation are willing to watch longer videos, post more comments than on other videos, and emit negative or neutral frames when they feel gaps in the official information.

The critical importance of access to water has been recognized both nationally and internationally. In the United States, the National Infrastructure Protection Plan and other planning documents highlight the potentially dire public health implications of impacts on public water systems. According to the Fifth National Climate Assessment, safe and reliable potable water supplies are at risk due to climate change, flooding, drought, and sea level rise, and such risks are expected to increase going forward. Internationally, the Sustainable Development Goals include ensuring availability and sustainability of water and sanitation. Despite this fact, acute shocks and long-term stressors may cause contamination or otherwise limit access to safe drinking water. The Federal Emergency Management Agency's Community Lifelines approach encompasses access to water and other necessities, and requires emergency managers to take a whole-community approach to response and recovery. However, preparedness and mitigation efforts have not historically taken this same approach. Recent water crises, such as the ones in Flint, Michigan, and Jackson, Mississippi, have shown a disconnect between water system managers and emergency managers. Inclusive emergency management demands consideration of both current and future needs, and consideration of Community Lifelines, regardless of the circumstances surrounding the adverse event. The recent saltwater intrusion threat along the lower Mississippi River in southeast Louisiana has provided yet another example of vulnerability in the drinking water sector and the intersection of emergency management and public health.

Environmental disasters are inherently political phenomena, shaped by systemic inequalities and entrenched power dynamics. This article analyzes how the securitization paradigm and slow violence frameworks explain the disproportionate impact of Hurricane Katrina on marginalized communities. While the territorial securitization paradigm focuses on reactionary military preparedness, it fails to address the long-term systemic issues-such as racism, socioeconomic inequality, and inadequate -infrastructure-that exacerbate vulnerability to environmental events. Using qualitative case study analysis, this article draws on federal reports, congressional records, academic literature, and media sources to examine structural neglect and racialized disaster response, and it draws parallels between Hurricanes Katrina and Maria. The disproportionate impact of Katrina on New Orleans' Black and low-income communities underscores the intersection of structural violence, slow violence, and environmental vulnerability. By reframing environmental security within the context of systemic inequities, this article calls for a renewed focus on resilience-building measures and inclusive disaster planning to address the root causes of vulnerability and mitigate future disasters.

This study highlights spatial responses and displacements following Hurricane Michael by analyzing X® (formerly known as Twitter) data across various states in the United States over a multitude of periods, regions, and demographic characteristics. This study finds that the top three states damaged by the hurricane (Florida, Georgia, and North Carolina) show a significantly higher proportion of tweets during the hurricane week than the prehurricane and post-hurricane weeks. Furthermore, people's responses on social network services have some similar and dissimilar characteristics compared to the census data. For instance, Hispanics show significantly low responses to the hurricane event in all the three states compared to other races/ethnicities, as reflected in the census data. Finally, the gender and region variables play an important role in displacements within the binary logistic regression model, whereas the race/ethnicity and age variables are not related to displacements. To be specific, females show 0.4 times more displacements than males, and Georgia and North Carolina exhibit 1.3 and 0.8 times more displacements than Florida.

Flooding is the deadliest and most damaging natural hazard worldwide. Despite efforts to make communities more flood-resilient, global flood impacts are on the rise due to ongoing climate change. Amid the expected increase in the intensity and frequency of flood disasters, there is an urgent need to understand the roles of network governance in ensuring coordinated efforts in response to floods. The goal of this study is to examine interorganizational coordination and collaboration in the aftermath of the New South Wales (NSW) Floods in Australia in 2022. Specifically, this study addresses two primary research questions: (1) Which agencies coordinated and collaborated during the response to the NSW Floods? (2) What were the characteristics of the interorganizational coordination system in response to the NSW Floods in 2022? This study uses Natural Language Processing techniques to extract relevant information from the NSW Government (2022) Flood Inquiry Report and the NSW Legislative Council Report (2022) to answer the research questions. The findings indicate that several agencies played a critical coordinating role and collaborated during the response to the NSW Floods. In addition, the analysis of the collaborative networks indicates strong connections between certain entities and weak or absent connections among other entities in the response network. These results provide valuable insights into the relationships and thematic focus of flood-related policies in Australia and underscore the need for enhanced collaboration and coordination among key stakeholders, including government agencies, to ensure a unified and effective approach to flood resilience.

Computer simulation modeling provides significant value in enhancing emergency preparedness policies for schools, businesses, and outdoor events. This is especially true for complex and unpredictable events like active shooter scenarios, which are difficult to physically replicate due to their diversity in terms of circumstances, venues, and challenges. Active shooter events can occur under various circumstances and take place in a wide range of venues including schools, offices, and outdoor events and create a wide range of unique challenges. According to a 2017 study, 15 percent of human-caused mass casualty incidents with over 10 fatalities are mass shootings. Therefore, our work focused on adding injury type, blood loss related to the function of placement of gunshot wounds, and time lapse from injury. These additional parameters significantly improve active shooter event simulation and changes the paradigm established by currently available simulations where the victims are either "killed" or "unaffected." This traditional binary approach is unsuitable when the timeliness of interventions is of concern and does not help improve emergency preparedness and emergency response protocols. In a previous work, the authors demonstrated how simulating physiological decline can be quantified, improve realism, and lead to response protocol improvement. The current work proposes a model for simulated mitigation of gunshot wound injuries, which complements the previously presented exsanguination model. To simulate injury and blood loss mitigation, a number of data sources were consulted to quantify the blood outflow and how it can be limited by different measures, as well as the time required to apply them and their individual effectiveness. This work summarizes the findings and provides a practical guide for implementation. In an additional work, the authors provide a reference implementation in a software library for AnyLogic®. That research focused on the simulation of the initial injury, its mitigation, and the time for critical care transport during the proverbial golden hour of trauma. The human body is complex; the circulatory system alone has several compensatory mechanisms and a wide range of variability in every organism. In addition, the way it responds to coagulating agents and other blood loss control techniques may vary between different organisms and humans. In this work, the authors focus on the primary effectors of those variables and introduce a limited set of mitigations for a relatively short-term simulation. While the model is imperfect, it creates a common ground for further simulation work where different researchers can converge on a known unified deterministic model, allowing them to control that variable while testing hypotheses about other parts of the emergency response. Furthermore, by increasing fidelity, this model can help assess the effects of bystander volunteer hemorrhage control, medical first response, and critical care transport times.