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Journal of materials chemistry / A 11(11), 5568 - 5583 (2023). doi:10.1039/D2TA09746J, Adsorbents able to uptake large amounts of gases within a narrow range of pressure, i.e., phase-change adsorbents, are emerging as highly interesting systems to achieve excellent gas separation performances with little energy input for regeneration. A recently discovered phase-change metal–organic framework (MOF) adsorbent is F4_MIL-140A(Ce), based on Ce$^{IV}$ and tetrafluoroterephthalate. This MOF displays a non-hysteretic step-shaped CO$_2$ adsorption isotherm, reaching saturation in conditions of temperature and pressure compatible with real life application in post-combustion carbon capture, biogas upgrading and acetylene purification. Such peculiar behaviour is responsible for the exceptional CO$_2$/N$_2$ selectivity and reverse CO$_2$/C$_2$H$_2$ selectivity of F4_MIL-140A(Ce). Here, we combine data obtained from a wide pool of characterisation techniques – namely gas sorption analysis, in situ infrared spectroscopy, in situ powder X-ray diffraction, in situ X-ray absorption spectroscopy, multinuclear solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy and adsorption microcalorimetry – with periodic density functional theory simulations to provide evidence for the existence of a unique cooperative CO$_2$ adsorption mechanism in F4_MIL-140A(Ce). Such mechanism involves the concerted rotation of perfluorinated aromatic rings when a threshold partial pressure of CO$_2$ is reached, opening the gate towards an adsorption site where CO$_2$ interacts with both open metal sites and the fluorine atoms of the linker., Published by RSC, London [u.a.]

Hot spring outflow channels provide geochemical gradients that are reflected in microbial community compositions. In many hot spring outflows, there is a distinct visual demarcation as the community transitions from predominantly chemotrophs to having visible pigments from phototrophs. It has been hypothesized that this transition to phototrophy, known as the photosynthetic fringe, is a result of the pH, temperature, and/or sulfide concentration gradients in the hot spring outflows. Here, we explicitly evaluated the predictive capability of geochemistry in determining the location of the photosynthetic fringe in hot spring outflows. A total of 46 samples were taken from 12 hot spring outflows in Yellowstone National Park that spanned pH values from 1.9 to 9.0 and temperatures from 28.9 to 92.2°C. Sampling locations were selected to be equidistant in geochemical space above and below the photosynthetic fringe based on linear discriminant analysis. Although pH, temperature, and total sulfide concentrations have all previously been cited as determining factors for microbial community composition, total sulfide did not correlate with microbial community composition with statistical significance in non-metric multidimensional scaling. In contrast, pH, temperature, ammonia, dissolved organic carbon, dissolved inorganic carbon, and dissolved oxygen did correlate with the microbial community composition with statistical significance. Additionally, there was observed statistical significance between beta diversity and the relative position to the photosynthetic fringe with sites above the photosynthetic fringe being significantly different from those at or below the photosynthetic fringe according to canonical correspondence analysis. However, in combination, the geochemical parameters considered in this study only accounted for 35% of the variation in microbial community composition determined by redundancy analysis. In co-occurrence network analyses, each clique correlated with either pH and/or temperature, whereas sulfide concentrations only correlated with individual nodes. These results indicate that there is a complex interplay between geochemical variables and the position of the photosynthetic fringe that cannot be fully explained by statistical correlations with the individual geochemical variables included in this study.

Supplemental material, sj-docx-1-anp-10.1177_00048674211038513 for Theory of mind and stereotypic behavior promote daily functioning in patients with schizophrenia by Margherita Bechi, Ahmad Abu-Akel, Giulia Agostoni, Mariachiara Buonocore, Marta Bosia, Francesca Martini and Roberto Cavallaro in Australian & New Zealand Journal of Psychiatry

Table S6. NMDS plot coordinates. The corresponding plot is displayed in Fig. 3a (DOCX 18 kb)

Additional file 1. Mutation prevalence heat map. Graphical representation of the overall prevalence of mutations in each patient of our series at baseline. Mutated in red, wild-type in green, yellow for normal expression level, orange for higher gene expression.

Table S5. Potential contaminants. Responding OTUs detected after amplification and sequencing of negative controls (nâ =â 5) without target Microcoleus bundles. (DOCX 17 kb)

Table S2. Taxonomic assignments and functional inference based on phylogenetic placement for aggregating (cyanosphere) OTUs in the cold desert (HSN). Table S3. Taxonomic assignments and functional inference based on phylogenetic placement for aggregating (cyanosphere) OTUs in the hot desert (FB). (DOCX 38 kb)

Table S4. Taxonomic assignment and functional inferences based on phylogenetic placement for segregating OTUs for both bulk soils (cold and hot deserts). Rows colored in yellow correspond to OTUs for which inferred function was consistent with segregation from M. vaginatus. (DOCX 192 kb)

Table S2. Taxonomic assignments and functional inference based on phylogenetic placement for aggregating (cyanosphere) OTUs in the cold desert (HSN). Table S3. Taxonomic assignments and functional inference based on phylogenetic placement for aggregating (cyanosphere) OTUs in the hot desert (FB). (DOCX 38 kb)

Table S1. Summary of SSU rRNA gene libraries analyzed from HSN and FB sample set and associated coverage and Îą-diversity indices. (DOCX 23 kb)

Table S4. Taxonomic assignment and functional inferences based on phylogenetic placement for segregating OTUs for both bulk soils (cold and hot deserts). Rows colored in yellow correspond to OTUs for which inferred function was consistent with segregation from M. vaginatus. (DOCX 192 kb)

Table S1. Summary of SSU rRNA gene libraries analyzed from HSN and FB sample set and associated coverage and Îą-diversity indices. (DOCX 23 kb)

Language and communication disruptions in schizophrenia are at the center of a large body of investigation. Yet, the remediation of such disruptions is still in its infancy. Here we targeted what is known to be one of the most damaged language domains in schizophrenia, namely pragmatics, by conducting a pragmatics-centered intervention with a randomized controlled trial design and assessing also durability and generalization. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study with these characteristics.Inspired by the Gricean account of natural language use, we tailored a novel treatment addressing the pragmatics of communication (PragmaCom) and we tested its efficacy in a sample of individuals with schizophrenia randomized to the experimental group or to an active control group. The primary outcome with respect to the efficacy of the PragmaCom was measured by changes in pragmatic abilities (as evaluated with the global score of the Assessment of Pragmatic Abilities and Cognitive Substrates test) from baseline to 12 weeks and at 3-month follow-up. The secondary outcome was measured by changes in metaphor comprehension, abstract thinking, and global functioning from baseline to 12 weeks and at 3-month follow-up.Relative to the control group, at post-test the PragmaCom group showed greater and enduring improvement in global pragmatic skills and in metaphor comprehension. At follow-up, these improvements persisted and the PragmaCom exerted beneficial effects also on functioning.Despite the limited sample size, we believe that these findings offer initial yet encouraging evidence of the possibility to improve pragmatic skills with a theoretically grounded approach and to obtain durable and clinically relevant benefits. We argue that it is time that therapeutic efforts embrace communicative dysfunctions in order to improve illness outcome.

Background Schizophrenia is a highly heterogeneous disorder, and despite extensive research progress approximately 30% of patients with schizophrenia show poor response to first-line antipsychotics, denoted as treatment-resistant schizophrenia (TRS). Meta-analytic evidence showed that clozapine is the most effective antipsychotic for TRS, although 40% of TRS patients do not respond even to clozapine (ultra-treatment-resistant schizophrenia -UTR). Recent studies indicated that TRS is neurobiologically and categorically distinct from treatment-responsive schizophrenia, being associated with elevated glutamate levels in the anterior cingulate cortex and unaltered striatal dopamine synthesis. Moreover, the striking majority of TRS patients do not respond to first-line antipsychotic therapy since disease onset and present more severe cognitive deficits since first episode of psychosis, further suggesting the presence of a distinct and more disrupted neurobiological substrate. It is widely known that cognitive impairment is a core feature of schizophrenia and determines a significant detrimental impact on long-term functional outcome, which represents the ultimate treatment goal. However, despite the central role of cognition in schizophrenia, to date no study has investigated longitudinal cognitive outcome among TRS patients. Based on these evidences, the aim of this study is to evaluate longitudinal cognitive trajectories in a sample of clinically stabilized patients with schizophrenia, stratified according to antipsychotic response. We hypothesized that treatment-resistance is associated with a more severe long-term cognitive decline. Methods We enrolled 93 patients with schizophrenia (DSM-V), stratified as follows: 32 first-line responders (FLR), 42 TRS and 19 UTR. Cognition was longitudinally assessed at baseline and at least after 6 years of follow-up (mean: 9.3±2.8 years) using the Brief Assessment of Cognition in Schizophrenia (BACS). From BACS subscores we calculated for each patient a Cognitive Index, as a measure of overall cognitive functioning. In order to quantify global cognitive functioning changes during the course of illness, we estimated effect size score for Cognitive Index using Cohen’s d. Finally, General linear Models (GLM) were performed with overall cognitive index effect size as dependent variable, treatment (FLR/TRS/UTR) as categorical variable and age, duration of illness and education as covariates. Results The first GLM (FLR vs TRS+UTR) showed a significant main effect of treatment (F=7.34, p=0.01), with worse cognitive outcome between resistant patients. Consistently, the second GLM (FLR/TRS/UTR) resulted significant as well (F=17.90, p Discussion This is the first study to longitudinally evaluate cognitive trajectories of patients with schizophrenia according to their antipsychotic response. We showed that treatment resistance is associated with a more severe cognitive decline, with worse outcome among UTR patients. These data suggest that greater severity of treatment resistance in schizophrenia is associated with greater cognitive impairment, possibly due to the presence of a distinct and more disrupted neurobiological substrate that affects both cognition and antipsychotic response. These findings further highlight the necessity of early individuation and tailored pharmacological treatment for TRS patients, in order to improve long-term clinical, cognitive and functional outcome.

Background Treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) affects up to 30% of patients with psychosis and is a major cause of disability. Although clozapine is the only indicated drug for TRS, it is largely underused, partially due to its life-threatening adverse effects (AEs) as agranulocytosis and myocarditis. However, clozapine treatment is also burdened by other AEs as constipation, hypersalivation, postural hypotension, tachycardia, metabolic abnormalities and weight gain. In recent years many efforts have been made to outline clinical and neurobiological characteristics of TRS. Although sex is one of the most relevant factors accountable for the clinical variability of schizophrenia, literature on sex differences in clozapine’s tolerability is still limited. Studies showed that women experience more often than men weight gain, hyperglycemia and constipation. Conversely, hypertension and dyslipidemia seem more frequent in men. Based on these premises, our study aimed to investigate sex differences in prevalence of clozapine’s chronic AEs in TRS patients. Methods We performed an observational cross-sectional study with TRS on 147 patients, 93 males and 54 females with at least two-year clozapine treatment. We assessed metabolic status and AEs by interviews, collection of clinical data (BMI, waist circumference, blood pressure and heart rate) and blood tests including lipid profile, fasting glucose and HbA1c. Chi-square analysis was used to investigate the association between sex and clozapine AEs (tachycardia, postural hypotension, constipation, hypersalivation and metabolic syndrome). Multiple logistic regression analyses were performed to further analyze the relationship between sex and AEs considering the role of possible confounding factors as plasmatic concentration, oral dosage, number of daily administration, age and duration of therapy. Results We found a higher prevalence of tachycardia in males (p=0.034, χ2=4.49) and of orthostatic hypotension (p=0.01, χ2=6.70) and constipation (p=0.01, χ2=6.45) in females. Logistic regressions showed that male sex was the only significant predictor of tachycardia (p=0.01), while female sex predicted hypotension (p=0.04) and constipation (p=0.03). Although no differences emerged for hypersalivation and metabolic syndrome (MetS), Chi-square showed significant differences in prevalence for two MetS criteria: hypertriglyceridemia (56.94% in men, 29.79% in women, p=0.003, χ2=8.43) and central obesity (83.33% in men, 97.44% in women, p=0.03, χ2=4.69). Discussion Consistent with previous literature, our study showed sex differences in prevalence of chronic clozapine’s AEs. Although perceived as minor AEs, hypotension, constipation and tachycardia could affect patient’s quality of life, cause treatment discontinuation or increase mortality. In particular, postural hypotension and tachycardia have been associated with an increased risk of all-cause death and cardiovascular events in the general population. Clozapine-related constipation can develop into full-blown ileus in up to 2.1% of cases, a higher, more durable and more dangerous risk than agranulocytosis. Finally, hypertriglyceridemia and central obesity are well known cardiovascular risk factors. Our study suggests clinicians should carefully monitor for clozapine’s AEs also considering sex, in order to early detect them, promptly treat them and prevent severe complications. Literature suggest some of the sex differences reported in schizophrenia may be due to the protective role of estrogens. Further studies, with a particular attention to hormonal status, could contribute to better understand the pathophysiology of sex differences in TRS and define a personalized therapeutic approach.