The stress-vulnerability model has been repeatedly highlighted in relation to the risk, onset and course of psychosis, and has been independently studied in clinical high-risk (CHR) and first-episode psychosis (FEP) populations. Notable in this literature, however, is that there are few studies directly comparing markers of stress response across progressive stages of illness. Here we examined the psychobiological response to the Trier Social Stress Test in 28 CHR (mean age 19.1) and 61 FEP (age 23.0) patients, in order to understand the stage(s) or trajectories in which differences in subjective stress or physiological response occur. The overall clinical sample had greater perceived stress and blunted cortisol (FEP + CHR, n = 89, age 21.7) compared with healthy controls (n = 45, age 22.9). Additional analyses demonstrated elevated heart rate and systolic blood pressure in FEP compared with CHR, but there were no further differences in physiological parameters (cortisol, heart rate, or blood pressure) between stage- or trajectory-based groups. Together, this suggests that individual stress response markers may differentially emerge at particular stages en route to psychosis – and demonstrates how stage-based analyses can shed light on the emergence and evolution of neurobiological changes in mental illness.

We construct, for any set of primes $S$, a triangulated category (in fact a stable $\infty$-category) whose Grothendieck group is $S^{-1}\mathbf{Z}$. More generally, for any exact $\infty$-category $E$, we construct an exact $\infty$-category $S^{-1}E$ of equivariant sheaves on the Cantor space with respect to an action of a dense subgroup of the circle. We show that this $\infty$-category is precisely the result of categorifying division by the primes in $S$. In particular, $K_{n}(S^{-1}E)\cong S^{-1}K_{n}(E)$.

This paper discusses the concept and parameter design of a robust stair-climbing compliant modular robot, capable of tackling stairs with overhangs. Geometry modifications of the periphery of the wheels of our robot helped in tackling overhangs. Along with establishing a concept design, the robust design parameters are set to minimize performance variations. The Grey-based Taguchi method is applied to provide an optimal setting for the design parameters of the robot. The robot prototype is shown to have successfully scaled stairs of varying dimensions, with overhang, thus corroborating the analysis performed.

In this paper, we review the history of the concept of neuroplasticity as it relates to the understanding of neuropsychiatric disorders, using schizophrenia as a case in point. We briefly review the myriad meanings of the term neuroplasticity, and its neuroscientific basis. We then review the evidence for aberrant neuroplasticity and metaplasticity associated with schizophrenia as well as the risk for developing this illness, and discuss the implications of such understanding for prevention and therapeutic interventions. We argue that the failure and/or altered timing of plasticity of critical brain circuits might underlie cognitive and deficit symptoms, and may also lead to aberrant plastic reorganization in other circuits, leading to affective dysregulation and eventually psychosis. This “dysplastic” model of schizophrenia can suggest testable etiology and treatment-relevant questions for the future.

Recently, there has been increasing focus on prevention of mental illness, early intervention and the promotion of mental health. The social determinants of health and public health approaches are considered key. Early intervention has focused on psychotic disorders but prevention has not. This may in part reflect the fact that public health planners do not have a clear model for how social determinants influence the risk of developing a psychotic illness. Drawing on biological, genetic and epidemiologic evidence regarding the relationship between social risk factors and psychosis, this paper outlines a conceptual framework for understanding how individual and ecological factors contribute and interact to modulate the risk of developing psychotic illness. The framework asserts that there are four dimensions: individual factors; ecological factors; the interaction between individual and ecological factors; and time. It may help those considering interventions to understand the multilevel and multifactorial effects of social factors on the aetiology of psychotic illness, to develop targeted strategies for the prevention of psychotic illness and serve as a template for the assessment of initiatives.

One of the major challenges affecting the performance of Npn AlGaN/GaN heterojunction bipolar transistors (HBTs) is the high base access resistance, which is comprised of the base contact resistance and the base bulk resistance. A novel concept is proposed to reduce the base access resistance in Npn AlGaN/GaN HBTs by employing polarization-enhanced contacts and selective epitaxial growth of the base and emitter. In addition, this technique reduces the exposed base surface area, which results in a lower surface recombination current. Such a structure would enable better performance of AlGaN/GaN HBTs in terms of higher current gain and a lower offset voltage. Theoretical calculations on polarization-enhanced contacts predict p-type specific contact resistance lower than 10-5 Ωcm2. Experimental results using transmission line measurement (TLM) technique yield specific contact resistances of 5.6×10-4 Ωcm2 for polarization-enhanced p-type contacts and 7.8×10-2 Ωcm2 for conventional p-type contacts.

Diode ideality factors of 2.0–8.0 have been reported in GaN-based p-n junctions. These values are much higher than the expected values of 1.0–2.0 as per the Sah-Noyce-Shockley theory. We propose a fundamentally new model for the high ideality factors obtained in GaN-based diodes. This model is based on the effect of moderately doped unipolar heterojunctions as well as metal–semiconductor junctions in series with the p-n junction. A relation for the effective ideality factor of a system of junctions is developed. A detailed experimental study is performed on diodes fabricated from two different structures, a bulk GaN p-n junction structure and a p-n junction structure incorporating a p-type AlGaN/GaN superlattice. Bulk GaN p-n junction diode displays an ideality factor of 6.9, whereas the one with the superlattice structure displays an ideality factor of 4.0. In addition, device simulation results further strengthen the model by showing that moderately doped unipolar heterojunctions are rectifying and increase the effective ideality factor of a p-n junction structure.