Background The Community Assessment of Psychic Experiences-Positive 15-items scale (CAPE-15) is another brief, valid screening tool used to identify people at high risk of psychosis in the community. This study examined the reliability and validity of the Korean version of the CAPE-15 in university students. Methods This study had two stages: initial screening with self-report questionnaires including the CAPE-15, and semi-structured interviews to investigate the instrument’s diagnostic validity. The initial screening involved 1,749 college students. The modified Korean version of Prodromal Questionnaire-16 item (mKPQ-16) was also administered. The criteria for ultra-high risk (UHR) of psychosis in the Comprehensive Assessment of At-Risk Mental States (CAARMS) were the gold standard for diagnosis. Results Twelve of the interviewed subjects met the CAARMS criteria for UHR of psychosis. The area under the receiver operating characteristic curve was highest (0.936) for the CAPE-15 distress score (p<0.001). The use of 6 as the cutoff for the CAPE-15 distress score resulted in the best balance of sensitivity (91.7%) and specificity (85.2%), with a favorable positive predictive value of 32.4%. The coefficients of correlation between the CAPE-15 and mKPQ-16 were significant. Discussion This study showed that the CAPE-15 is a good screening instrument for use in community and school settings. In particular, the better validity of the CAPE-15 suggests that it is a promising alternative to other brief self-report screening tools that are currently used to detect UHR. This validation of a questionnaire with a small number of items may make it feasible to screen large numbers of young adults in the community and shorten the duration of untreated psychosis through prompt early intervention.

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Background Obesity in patients with schizophrenia have important effects on metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease, mortality, quality of life and treatment compliance. There is a growing interest in recognizing and intervening this problem. In this study, we aimed to explore the associations of food craving and eating pattern on weight gain and psychiatric characteristics in patients with first-episode psychosis. Methods We analyzed data from clinical cohort of first-episode psychosis. To exclude compounding effects of antipsychotics, we included patients who took one of amisulpride, paliperidone, and aripiprazole and whose duration of treatment was 3 months or less. The degree of food craving was measured by General Food Craving Questionnaire-Trait (G-FCQ-T). Psychiatric characteristics were investigated by Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale, Yale-Brown Obsessive Compulsive Scale (YBOCS), Beck Depression Inventory (BDI), Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale (SES), and Perceived Stress Scale (PSS). Weight was measured at baseline and 3 months. Associations between the G-FCQ-T and other measures including weight gain for 3 months were analyzed by gender. Results A total of 180 patients with first-episode psychosis were enrolled in this analysis. In male patients, the G-FCQ-T score was significantly associated with scores on the YBOCS and SES. In female patients, the G-FCQ-T score was significantly associated with the BDI, PSS, baseline body weight and weight gain for 3 months Discussion This study demonstrated the associations of food craving with depression, perceived stress, and weight gain in female patients and with obsessive compulsive symptoms and self-esteem in male patients. These results suggest various moderators impact weight gain and food craving in patients with first-episode psychosis.

Background Duration of Untreated Psychosis (DUP) is one of the important factors that affect the prognosis of schizophrenia. This study aimed to investigate the effects of personality trait and family relationships on delayed treatment of schizophrenia. Methods The subjects were 169 patients diagnosed with first-episode schizophrenia. It is a prospective study examined the socio-demographic factors with positive and negative syndrome (PANSS) and social occupational function (SOFAS). Personality trait was investigated with the Big Five Inventory (BFI-10) and family cohesion was investigated with the Family Adaptability and Cohesion Evaluation Scales-III (FACES-III). The DUP was defined as the time period from the appearance of the first psychotic symptoms for more than several days to the time when antipsychotic treatment began. Groups were divided according to the median value of the DUP. Results The average DUP was 12.0 months and the median value was 3.0 months. In long DUP group, age is significantly older, the PANSS score was significantly higher and the SOFAS score was significantly lower. Logistic regression analysis showed that long DUP was associated with the conscientiousness of the BFI-10 (OR = 2.175, p = 0.004) and lower level of family cohesion of FACES-III (OR = 0.930, p = 0.025). Discussion As a result of the study, treatment delay of psychosis was associated with lower cohesion and adaptability of family function and the tendency of the personality with conscientiousness. These suggest that the role of the family in accessing mental health services is important when the initial symptoms of schizophrenia develop.

a b s t r a c tRecently, a high temperature (HT) once through long tube (OT-LT) MSF has been considered for a large scale thermal desalination plant with high energy efficiency (i.e., high performance ratio (PR)). This study has been conducted as a 4-year collaboration project between Saline Water Conversion Corporation (SWCC) and Doosan Heavy Industries & Construction which was started in June 2012 and scheduled to be finished by June 2016. In this study, a HT OT-LT MSF pilot plant was designed with 20 stages and built in SWCC-Desalination Technology Research Institute (DTRI), Jubail, KSA. The OT-LT MSF pilot plant was operated to optimize dosing rate of newly developed antiscalant at the top brine temperature (TBT) of 130°C and to evaluate the viability of HT OT-LT MSF technology from scale and corrosion issue. As a result of the first optimization experiments, the dosing rate of new antiscalant was optimized based on visual inspection, chemical analysis, and heat transfer measurement. Also, one month operation has been carried out to validate the stable operation of HT OT-LT MSF without scale formation, which shows a stable and successful operation with the optimized dosing rate. Also, a techno-economic analysis was conducted to evaluate levelized cost of water (LCOW) of high capacity HT OT-LT MSF using a detailed thermal and economic model. It reveals that the HT OT-LT MSF has significant improvement in HTC and reduction in CAPEX, and OPEX, leading to LCOW saving of 16% compared with Brine Recycle Cross Tube (BR-CT) MSF. Furthermore, a long term corrosion test for five months has been carried out in the absence of a deaerator as an on-going research, which is expected that corrosion risk can be verified at high temperature operation (130°C) and adequate selection of corrosion resistive materials can be available. Accordingly, HT OT-LT MSF can be considered as a competitive future large capacity and high energy efficiency desalination plant.