Author Correction: Structural phase transition in NH4F under extreme pressure conditions
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Investigating dopaminergic abnormalities in schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis with normative modelling and multisite molecular neuroimaging
Molecular neuroimaging techniques, like PET and SPECT, offer invaluable insights into the brain’s in-vivo biology and its dysfunction in neuropsychiatric patients. However, the transition of molecular neuroimaging into diagnostics and precision medicine has been limited to a few clinical applications, hindered by issues like practical feasibility, high costs, and high between-subject heterogeneity of neuroimaging measures. In this study, we explore the use of normative modelling (NM) to identify individual patient alterations by describing the physiological variability of molecular functions. NM potentially addresses challenges such as small sample sizes and diverse acquisition protocols typical of molecular neuroimaging studies. We applied NM to two PET radiotracers targeting the dopaminergic system ([11C]-(+)-PHNO and [18F]FDOPA) to create a reference-cohort model of healthy controls. The models were subsequently utilized on different independent cohorts of patients with psychosis in different disease stages and treatment outcomes. Our results showed that patients with psychosis exhibited a higher degree of extreme deviations (~3-fold increase) than controls, although this pattern was heterogeneous, with minimal overlap of extreme deviations topology (max 20%). We also confirmed that striatal [18F]FDOPA signal, when referenced to a normative distribution, can predict treatment response (striatal AUC ROC: 0.77–0.83). In conclusion, our results indicate that normative modelling can be effectively applied to molecular neuroimaging after proper harmonization, enabling insights into disease mechanisms and advancing precision medicine. In addition, the method is valuable in understanding the heterogeneity of patient populations and can contribute to maximising cost efficiency in studies aimed at comparing cases and controls.
Legacies of temperature fluctuations promote stability in marine biofilm communities
The increasing frequency and intensity of extreme climate events are driving significant biodiversity shifts across ecosystems. Yet, the extent to which these climate legacies will shape the response of ecosystems to future perturbations remains poorly understood. Here, we tracked taxon and trait dynamics of rocky intertidal biofilm communities under contrasting regimes of warming (fixed vs. fluctuating) and assessed how they influenced stability dimensions in response to temperature extremes. Fixed warming enhanced the resistance of biofilm by promoting the functional redundancy of stress-tolerance traits. In contrast, fluctuating warming boosted recovery rate through the selection of fast-growing taxa at the expense of functional redundancy. This selection intensified a trade-off between stress tolerance and growth further limiting the ability of biofilm to cope with temperature extremes. Anticipating the challenges posed by future extreme events, our findings offer a forward-looking perspective on the stability of microbial communities in the face of ongoing climatic change.
Measurement of phospholipid lateral diffusion at high pressure by in situ magic-angle spinning NMR spectroscopy
The development of experimental methodologies that enable investigations of biochemistry at high pressure promises to yield significant advances in our understanding of life on Earth and its origins. Here, we introduce a method for studying lipid membranes at thermodynamic conditions relevant for life at deep sea hydrothermal vents. Using in situ high pressure magic-angle spinning solid state nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (NMR), we measure changes in the fluidity of model microbial membranes at pressures up to 28 MPa. We find that the fluid-phase lateral diffusion of phospholipids at high pressure is significantly affected by the stoichiometric ratio of lipids in the membrane. Our results were facilitated by an accessible pressurization strategy that we have developed to enable routine preparation of solid state NMR rotors to pressures of 30 MPa or greater.
Deconfined quantum critical point lost in pressurized SrCu2(BO3)2
The deconfinement quantum critical point (DQCP), a paradigm beyond the Landau-Ginzburg-Wilson framework to classify states of matters, has been attracting extensive attention over the past two decades. Experimentally, SrCu2(BO3)2 plays key roles in verifying the DQCP between an antiferromagnetic (AF) Néel phase and a plaquette-singlet (PS) phase. However, the verification of the DQCP of the PS-AF transition lies in 2.4 – 3.1 GPa, which is unreachable previously due to technical limitations. Here, through the advanced high-pressure heat capacity measurements, we demonstrate that the PS-AF phase transition of SrCu2(BO3)2 at zero field is clearly first-order. Our result clarifies the two-decade-long debates about this key issue and resonates nicely with recent theoretical consensus that the previously predicted DQCPs in representative models are actually first-order transitions. Besides, the PS and AF phases transit at the same pressure-temperature point, a bi-critical point found in frustrated magnets.
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