Therapeutic effect of adjunctive N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) on symptoms of chronic schizophrenia: A double-blind, randomized clinical trial

Abstract Background Schizophrenia is one of the most disabling psychiatric syndromes with the prevalence of 1% in the general population. Despite availability of various antipsychotics, negative symptoms and cognitive impairment are difficult to treat. In addition antipsychotic monotherapy is not effective in most of these patients. Current evidence indicates the roles of glutamatergic system in this disorder. N-acetyl cysteine (NAC) also increases extracellular glutamate. This study was conducted to evaluate the clinical effects of oral NAC as an add-on to maintenance medication for the treatment of chronic schizophrenia. Materials and methods This 12-week, double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled, clinical trial was performed to determine the effectiveness of 1200 mg N-acetyl cysteine as an adjunctive treatment with conventional antipsychotic medications in 84 patients with chronic schizophrenia. The subjects were evaluated with the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS), Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), and a standard neuropsychological screening test. Data were analyzed with SPSS-16 software. Results NAC-treated patients showed significantly improvement in the positive (F = 5.47, P = 0.02) and negative (F = 0.20, df = 1) PANSS subscale. Also the general and total PANSS score of NAC group declined over times whilst it was increased for placebo group. Regarding cognitive functions, improvement was observed in some explored areas, such as attention, short-term and working memory, executive functioning and speed of processing. There was no significant difference between the 2 groups in the frequency of adverse effects. Conclusion The present study detected improvement in positive, negative, general and total psychopathology symptoms as well as cognitive performance with NAC treatment. It is also well-tolerated, safe and easy-to-use agent as an effective therapeutic strategy to improve outcome in schizophrenia treatment. Keywords N-acetyl cysteine Schizophrenia Cognitive impairment Positive and negative symptoms scale (PANSS) Glutamatergic syste

Effectiveness of planned teaching programme on practice of post natal exercises among mothers who have undergone lower segment cesarean section

Background: To assess the effectiveness of planned teaching programme on practice of post natal exercises among mothers who have undergone Lower segment cesarean section (L.S.C.S) in selected hospital at Bangalore.Methods: compare the practice scores of postnatal exercises among LSCS mothers between control group and experimental group.Results: Results shows that in post test the control group had inadequate practice score with a mean of 16.33%, standard deviation of 9.44 and mean percentage of 19.60 % where as in post test the experimental group there was a significant mean practice score gain of 39.84 % and standard deviation of 12.58 and mean percentage 79.67 % with a differences of 60.07 %.Conclusions: Significant difference was found between control and experimental group practice score of mothers in all areas of post natal exercises

Changes in biochemical and physiological responses of common carp, Cyprinus carpio L. after long-term exposure to Pb (II)

In this study, the chronic toxic effects of Pb (II) on common carp, Cyprius carpio were investigated using several biomarkers at different levels of biological functions for assessing changes in ecosystem quality. In a bioassay,common carp juveniles were individually exposed to different dose of heavy metal, Pb II (0, 0.45, 0.89, 1.34 mg.l-1) for 28 days. Morphological indices such as hepatosomatic index, condition factor and lipid peroxidation (LPO) level and also the activities of superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT) were measured. These results indicated that there was significant lower condition factor in fish exposed to the highest concentration of Pb (p<0.05). The activity of hepatic antioxidant enzymes (SOD & CAT) and LPO level was significantly elevated after long-term exposure to higher concentration of Pb (p<0.05). Briefly, our findings suggested that common carp exposed to lead, develop oxidative stress, hence long-term exposure to higher concentrations of Pb could seriously affect the health status of fish

Identification of a novel cassette array in integron-bearing Helicobacter pylori strains isolated from Iranian patients

Helicobacter pylori as the second most common cause of gastric cancer in the world infects approximately half of the developed countries population and 80 of the population living in developing countries. Integrons as genetic reservoirs play major roles in dissemination of antimicrobial resistance genes. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first study to report carriage of class 1 and 2 integrons and associated gene cassettes in H. pylori isolates from Iran. This cross-sectional study was conducted in Tehran among 110 patients with H. pylori infection. Antimicrobial susceptibility testing (AST) for H. pylori strains were assessed by the micro broth dilution method. Class 1 and 2 integrons were detected using PCR. In order to determine gene cassettes, amplified fragments were subjected to DNA sequencing of both amplicon strands. The prevalence of resistance to clarithromycin, metronidazole, clarithromycin, tetracycline, amoxicillin, rifampin, and levofloxacin were 68.2 (n=75), 25.5 (n=28), 24.5 (n=27), 19.1 (n=21), 18.2 (n=20) and 16.4 (n=18), respectively. Frequency of multidrug resistance among H. pylori isolates was 12.7. Class 2 integron was detected in 50 (45.5) and class 1 integron in 10 (9.1) H. pylori isolates. The most predominant gene cassette arrays in class 2 integronbearing H. pylori were included sat-era-aadA1, dfrA1-sat2-aadA1, blaoxa2 and, aadB whereas common gene cassette arrays in class 1 integron were aadB-aadA1-cmlA6, aacA4, blaoxa2, and catB3. The high frequency of class 2 integron and multidrug resistance in the present study should be considered as a warning for clinicians that continuous surveillance is necessary to prevent the further spread of resistant isolates

Risk measurement in the global supply chain using monte-carlo simulation

Abstract Nowadays, logistics and supply chain management (SCM) is critical to compete in the current turbulent markets. In addition, in the global context, there are many uncertainties which affect on the market. One of the most important risks is supplier disruption. The first step to cope with these uncertainties is quantifying them. In this regard many researches have focused on the problem but measurement of the risk in the global SCM is yet a challenge. In the uncertain conditions, simulation is a good tool to study the system. This paper aims to study a global supply chain with related risks and measurement of the risks using simulation. Global aspects considered in the paper are: 1-currency exchange rate, 2-extended leadtime for abroad supplies, 3-regional and local uncertainties. In this regard, two popular risk measurement approaches (VaR and CVaR) are used in the simulation of uncertainties in the global supply chain. Results showed that adopting risk averse behavior to cope with the uncertainties leads to the lower stockouts and also higher costs

Controllable reactor based hybrid HVDC breaker

© 2020 BMJ Publishing Group. All rights reserved. Short circuit fault occurrence in high-voltage DC (HVDC) systems causes extremely high currents in a fast raising time that does not experience current zero-crossing. To protect HVDC systems/grids against fault current, fast HVDC breaker is an essential equipment. This study presents the design procedure of a novel HVDC breaker based on solid-state controllable reactor which is able to reduce the fault current's rate of rise and fault current amplitude to less than grid nominal current in the breaking process. The main achievement of the proposed HVDC breaker is that not only breaker does not encounter fault current, but also none of the series HVDC equipment is influenced by the fault. The designed breaker performance is studied by PSCAD/EMTPS, and then the simulation results are validated by the developed laboratory experimental setup