Schizophrenia patients always show cognitive impairment, which is proved to be related to hypo-connectivity or hyper-connectivity. Further, individuals with an ultra-high risk for psychosis also show abnormal functional connectivity-related cognitive impairment, especially in the alpha rhythm. Thus, the identification of functional networks is essential to our understanding of the disorder. We investigated the resting-state functional connectivity of the alpha rhythm measured by electroencephalography (EEG) to reveal the relation between functional network and clinical symptoms. The participants included 28 patients with first-episode schizophrenia (FES), 28 individuals with ultra-high risk for psychosis (UHR), and 28 healthy controls (HC). After the professional clinical symptoms evaluation, all the participants were instructed to keep eyes closed for 3-min resting-state EEG recording. The 3-min EEG data were segmented into artefact-free epochs (the length was 3 s), and the functional connectivity of the alpha phase was estimated using the phase lag index (PLI), which measures the phase differences of EEG signals. The FES and UHR groups displayed increased resting-state PLI connectivity compared with the HC group [F(2,74) = 10.804, p < 0.001]. Significant increases in the global efficiency, the local efficiency, and the path length were found in the FES and UHR groups compared with those of the HC group. FES and UHR showed an increased degree of connectivity compared with HC. The degree of the left occipital lobe area was higher in the UHR group than in the FES group. The hypothesis of disconnection is confirmed. Furthermore, differences between the UHR and FES group were found, which is valuable for producing clinical significance before the onset of schizophrenia.

Background Adequate bowel preparation is essential for a high-quality colonoscopy. Many randomized controlled trials (RCTs) have investigated bowel preparation protocols, including split-dose and low-volume regimens. However, RCTs are conducted in an ideal, controlled setting, and translation of trial results to clinical practice is challenging. In this study, we compared the quality of bowel preparations of real-world patients from clinical practice with those enrolled in several prospective trials. Methods Bowel preparation quality, defined by the Ottawa Bowel Preparation Scale (OBPS), from four RCTs and one prospective trial were compared with two observational diary studies. Bowel preparations were polyethylene glycol preparation (PEG) or sodium picosulfate plus magnesium citrate (P/MC) taken via traditional or split-dose timing regimen. Age, sex, average number of bowel movements per day, comorbidities, colonoscopy indication and colonoscopy completion rates were also collected. Results Patients enrolled in prospective trials had a better OBPS by one point when compared with those in observational clinical practice studies (P&lt;0.049), after controlling for age, sex, colonoscopy indication and type of bowel preparation used. We also found that each 10-year increase in age was associated with a 0.2 point increase in OBPS (P=0.008), and men were associated with a 0.5 increase in OBPS when compared with women P=0.014). Conclusion Patients from clinical practice have higher OBPS than prospective trial patients. Increased age and male sex were also associated with increased OBPS. We believe increased patient motivation and education around bowel preparation regimen plays an important role in the success of bowel preparations.