Objective: Despite a long history of interest in personality traits and psychosis, the association between personality traits and psychotic experiences in the general population is not yet well understood. One possible factor that could influence the degree of distress from psychotic experiences is emotion regulation. The purpose of this study was to explore whether the association between personality and psychotic symptoms is already apparent in non-clinical youth as well as the mediating role of emotion regulation strategies between personality traits and psychotic experiences.Methods: Three thousand one hundred and forty seven college students were surveyed via self-report questionnaires measuring the Five-Factor model of personality, emotion regulation strategies, and psychotic experiences.Results: Neuroticism was found to be significantly positively correlated with psychotic experiences, while Extraversion, Openness, Agreeableness, and Conscientiousness were found to be significantly negatively correlated. Both the suppression and reappraisal strategies mediated the relationship between personality traits and psychotic experiences.Conclusion: Our findings suggest that youth with certain personality traits are more likely to have psychotic experiences. The reappraisal emotion regulation strategy could serve as a protective factor against the distress of psychotic experiences.

BackgroundHigh rates of non-psychotic psychopathological symptoms have been observed in clinical population at clinical high risk (CHR) for psychosis. These comorbid disorders affected the baseline functional level of CHR patients. However, little is known about the comorbid mental disorder in CHR individuals in non-clinical adolescent population. This study aimed to investigate the comorbid mental disorder in non-clinical CHR adolescents and the impact on attenuated psychosis symptoms (APS) as well as clinical outcome.MethodsThe sample consisted of 32 CHR students, who were screened from 2,800 university students. CHR status was evaluated with the Structured Interview of Prodromal Syndromes, comorbid mental disorder diagnoses with the International Neuropsychiatric Interview.ResultsIn the CHR sample, 46.9% was found at least one non-psychotic comorbid mental disorder. The CHR participants presenting comorbid mental disorder had significantly more severity of APS than those without comorbid mental disorders, and the remission rate at 6-month follow-up is significantly higher in the individuals without comorbid mental disorders at baseline.ConclusionIn the non-clinical sample of individuals at CHR, non-psychotic comorbid mental disorders are common and anxiety disorder is most frequent. Copresence of anxiety and/or depression is related to higher level of attenuated psychotic symptoms and unfavorable clinical outcome at 6-month follow-up. Assessment and intervention in anxiety and depression for non-clinical CHR adolescents are suggested.

ObjectivePercutaneous balloon compression (PBC) is a minimally invasive treatment for trigeminal neuralgia (TG) with a favorable cost-effectiveness ratio, but this technique has a steep learning curve. This study presents our initial clinical experience of robot-assisted PBC using a neurosurgical robot on six consecutive patients with TG.MethodsWe fixed the patient's head with a skull clamp and connected it with the linkage arms of a Sinovation® neurosurgical robot, which was then registered using four bone fiducials by the robotic pointer. The puncture needle was positioned at the entry point on the skin using a robotic arm and advanced to the target point after the skin had been incised with a pointed surgical blade. This procedure was repeated for a second trajectory. A balloon was then advanced and inflated using 0.3 ml of a contrast agent. Upon injection of 0.6 ml contrast agent, the ganglion was kept compressed for 120 s. After removal of the balloon and puncture needle, compression of the face was performed to achieve hemostasis.ResultsAll patients achieved immediate pain relief following PBC. No permanent or severe complications were registered, and there was no pain recurrence in any of the patients during the follow-up period.ConclusionsDespite requiring a longer time for preoperative preparation, robot-assisted PBC provided a high degree of accuracy and safety, and it can also shorten the learning curve for surgeons unfamiliar with PBC. Robot-assisted surgical approaches should be further developed and adopted for PBC.

Microwave is a form of electromagnetic radiation with one meter to the one-millimeter range. It has the excellent capacity to carry a lot of information and is a good choice to deal with data crisis. It can be used in many fields, and the development of microwave technology is being studied extensively. Microwaves can be used in scientific research, and the structure of the internal substances can be analyzed according to the different degrees of microwave absorption by different substances. Also, the microwave physiotherapy instrument created by microwave technology can kill some diseased cells and play a therapeutic role. This thesis will discuss and introduce some basic knowledge and equipment of transmission line theory, waveguide theory and microwave chemistry, to have a basic understanding of microwave technology. The results show that microwaves should have optical characteristics, skin effects, and other properties. Antennas, radars, transmission lines, and remote sensing measurement applications are all related to these characteristics