Drug-microbiota interactions and treatment response: Relevance to rheumatoid arthritis

Knowledge about associations between changes in the structure and/or function of intestinal microbes (the microbiota) and the pathogenesis of various diseases is expanding. However, interactions between the intestinal microbiota and different pharmaceuticals and the impact of these on responses to treatment are less well studied. Several mechanisms are known by which drug-microbiota interactions can influence drug bioavailability, efficacy, and/or toxicity. This includes direct activation or inactivation of drugs by microbial enzymes which can enhance or reduce drug effectiveness. The extensive metabolic capabilities of the intestinal microbiota make it a hotspot for drug modification. However, drugs can also influence the microbiota profoundly and change the outcome of interactions with the host. Additionally, individual microbiota signatures are unique, leading to substantial variation in host responses to particular drugs. In this review, we describe several known and emerging examples of how drug-microbiota interactions influence the responses of patients to treatment for various diseases, including inflammatory bowel disease, type 2 diabetes and cancer. Focussing on rheumatoid arthritis (RA), a chronic inflammatory disease of the joints which has been linked with microbial dysbiosis, we propose mechanisms by which the intestinal microbiota may affect responses to treatment with methotrexate which are highly variable. Furthering our knowledge of this subject will eventually lead to the adoption of new treatment strategies incorporating microbiota signatures to predict or improve treatment outcomes

Review of Freud’s Psychoanalysis Approach to Literary Studies

The purpose of this review article is to identify theories of Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freud that play major roles in interpreting literary works. Psychoanalysis is among one of the modern theories used in literary analysis. Whether psychoanalysis has close connection with literature or not has been most controversial issues for many readers and least appreciated. In spite of being one of famous approach for interpreting literary text, it has become one of the mechanisms for interpreting hidden meaning of the text. The finding of this paper revealed Psychoanalysis is not simply branch of medicine, it has helped and is used to understand various fields as philosophy, culture, religion and first and for most used in literature. It also revealed that there is similarities and controversial issues between Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud’s theories of psychoanalytical criticism. Id, which is part of human personality playing a major role in forming literary work for its repressed behaviors, laid in unconscious mind. The human actions which are suppressed feelings because of superego and can be expressed with the help of Ego which balance the conflict between id and superego in the right time in form of dreams, art, literary work and slip of tongue.  Psychoanalysis approach is used to analyze piece of art by investigating closely the author and his/her life and literary work for providing evidence in analyzing, one or more of the character’s behavior and inspiration, the audience’ appealing and motivation to which react more closely or less unconsciously and the text for examining the role of language and symbolism in the work.      &#x0D;  </jats:p

Effects of Storytelling on Improving EFL Students’ Critical Thinking and Reading Comprehension

The purpose of this study is to find the effects of storytelling (ST) on improving critical thinking and reading comprehension of EFL students at Kandahar University. The design of the study was quasi-experimental with critical thinking and reading comprehension pre and posttests. Total 27 Afghan EFL students were selected based on their performance on Placement test.  The participants of experimental group listened to their teacher telling the story. In order to find the improvement and different between these variables is significant the Paired Sample T-Test was administrated and the result indicates that there is significant improvement in post-tests in areas of reading comprehension and critical thinking in group of storytelling. However, improvement is higher in reading comprehension section than critical thinking. </jats:p