Remission of psychosis in treatment-resistant schizophrenia following a seizure: A case report

The authors report a case of treatment-resistant schizophrenia in a 22-year-old woman, who, despite multiple trials of antipsychotics, did not respond to treatment. Clozapine treatment was initiated, but the patient\u27s symptoms did not remit until after she had a clozapine-induced seizure. The authors discuss the importance in considering that electroconvulsive therapy may be effective in reducing positive and negative symptoms in patients suffering from treatment-resistant schizophrenia

Contamination profile of aflatoxin M1 residues in milk supply chain of Sindh, Pakistan

Aflatoxin M1 (AFM1) is a potent carcinogen, teratogen and mutagen found in the milk when lactating animals consume feed contaminated with aflatoxin B1 (AFB1). In the present study, the contamination of AFM1 was evaluated in the milk supply chain of the province of Sindh, Pakistan. For the broader profiling of targeted toxin, enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) was used for the determination of AFM1 in both branded and non-branded milk samples. The results showed that 96.43% of samples (81 out of 84) were contaminated with AFM1 in the range of 0.01–0.76 μg/L. The average contamination level was 0.38 μg/L. The determined values of AFM1 in the collected milk samples were above the standard limit of the European Commission while 70% of the samples exceeded levels established by United States regulations. According to these results, the estimated daily intake of AFM1 for adults was determined as 3.1 ng/kg of body weight per day

Improvement of Requirement Elicitation Process through Cognitive Psychology

Proper requirement elicitation is necessary for client satisfaction along with the overall project success, but requirement engineers face problems in understanding user requirements and the users of the required system fail to make requirement engineering team understand what they actually want. It is then responsibility of requirement engineers to extract proper requirements. This paper discusses how to use cognitive psychology and learning style models (LSM) to understand the psychology of clients. Moreover, it also discusses usage of proper elicitation technique according to one’s learning style and gather the right requirements

Relationship between cerebrospinal fluid protein level and electrophysiologic abnormalities in the acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy variant of Guillain-Barré syndrome

Objective: Guillain-Barré syndrome (GBS) is an autoimmune disease characterized by weakness in limbs or cranial nerve innervated muscles. Acute inflammatory demyelinating polyradiculoneuropathy (AIDP) is the most common variant. Electrophysiologic abnormalities and elevated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) protein are frequently present in AIDP, but the relationship between these two parameters is not well known. We aimed to fill this gap by studying this relationship.Methods: This was a prospective cross-sectional study conducted for two years in the Department of Neurology, Dr. Ruth K. M. Pfau Civil Hospital, Karachi, Pakistan. All 90 adult patients with the AIDP variant of GBS were selected. Nerve conduction studies were performed to determine the degree of demyelination through the four electrophysiologic demyelination criteria. The CSF sample was sent to lab immediately after lumbar puncture. SPSS version 20.0 was used. The CSF protein level was measured with mean ±SD. Demyelination criteria were measured in frequency and percentages. Chi-square test was applied to a number of demyelination criteria and T-test/ANOVA was applied on mean CSF protein level.Results: We found a mean CSF protein of 37.41 mg/dl (±3.69) with one demyelination criterion, 81.87 mg/dl (±17.39) with two demyelination criteria, 119.75 mg/dl (±31.42) with three demyelination criteria, and 134.00 mg/dl (±42.87) with four demyelination criteria (P-value <0.001). Conclusion: This study demonstrates a significant relationship between CSF protein levels and degree of demyelination in the AIDP variant of GBS. This is an under-researched area in GBS and this study adds favorably to limited data in this regard

Tartaric acid assisted in-situ growth of CuO nanostructures over ITO substrate for the electrocatalytic detection of Sudan I

The study explores the potential of newly developed ITO based electrode for the electro-catalytic detection of Sudan I. The ITO based electrode utilizes a dense layer of 2D CuO nanostructures as an effective electron-transfer facilitator which promotes the electro-catalytic sensing of Sudan I in aqueous solution. The in-situ growth of CuO nanostructures was achieved using simple hydrothermal route with the assistance of tartaric acid utilized as an effective template. The in-situ grown layer comprises of 2D CuO nanostructures with morphological features similar to flowers composed of sharp-flake like features. The electro-catalytic oxidation of Sudan I over the described electrode system demonstrated low-over potential value and excellent working stability with good analytical linearity in the range of 0.001-1.56 mu M. The ITO based electrode was found highly selective and sensitive towards Sudan I with limit of detection determined to be 1.2 x 10(-4) mu M (S/N = 3)

In-situ engineered MXene-TiO2/BiVO4 hybrid as an efficient photoelectrochemical platform for sensitive detection of soluble CD44 proteins

Interfacial charge-carrier recombination is a bottle-neck issue restricting photoelectrochemical biosensors advancement in the wearable clinical electronics. In this study, we propose a simple approach to construct a highly efficient photoactive heterojunction capable of functioning as an active substrate in PEC biosensing of CD44 proteins. Taking the advantage of high photocatalytic activity of BiVO4, and biocompatible yet conductive 2D-Ti3C2Tx nanosheets, a workable heterojunction was constructed between in-situ formed TiO2 from the partially oxidized Ti3C2Tx and lysine functionalized BiVO4 (TiO2/MX-BiVO4). The interfacial arrangement was ideal for promoting fast charge transfer from photo-excited BiVO4 and TiO2 to Ti3C2Tx, constructing an energy level-cascade that permits minimal charge-carrier recombination besides robust photocatalytic redox activity. The PEC biosensor relies on the ligand-protein interaction, where hyaluronic acid was directly immobilized over TiO2/MX-BiVO4 based on the interactions between carboxyl of lysine and amino moieties of hyaluronic acid. The PEC biosensor response depends on the inhibition in the measured photo-oxidation current of mediator species, i. e., ascorbic acid after the addition of CD44 proteins. The superior photo-activity, and robust heterojunction arrangement, produced a sensitive signal capable of recognizing CD44 in the wide concentration window of 2.2 x 10(-4) ng mL(-1) to 3.2 ng niL(-1) with a low-detection limit of 1.4 x 10(-2) pg mL(-1). The strong interaction between lysine functionalized BiVO4 and hyaluronic acid enabled biosensor to exhibit robust antifouling characteristics towards similar proteins such as PSA and NSE. The quantification of CD44 protein from real-blood serum samples further confirmed the biosensor's reliability for clinical application

NiWO4-induced partial oxidation of MXene for photo-electrochemical detection of prostate-specific antigen

MXene-based hybrid composites are gaining substantial attention due to their impressive chemical and electronic characteristics. Herein, an in-situ engineered heterojunction is constructed using partially-oxidised Ti3C2Tx sheets and photo-active NiWO4 nanoparticles (NPs). The NiWO4 NPs were used to induce partial surface oxidation of Ti3C2Tx, resulting in the formation of a Ti3C2Tx-TiO2/NiWO4 hybrid composite (MX-NiWO4). The electrocatalytic and photo-electrochemical (PEC) characteristics of MX-NiWO4 were studied in reference to the reduced graphene oxide-NiWO4 (rGO-NiWO4) and H2O2-treated Ti3C2Tx (MX-H2O2) hybrids. The MX-NiWO4, based on its in-situ driven configuration, constructed an ideal interfacial arrangement for the electrocatalytic mechanism-based PEC immuno-sensing of prostate-specific antigens (PSA). The developed PEC biosensor was capable of detecting PSA, over a wide detection range of 1.2 fg.mL(-1) to 0.18 mg.mL(-1), with a detection limit of 0.15 fg.mL(-1). The synergic integration of Ti3C2Tx with photo-active NiWO4 offers a superior signal response and practical applicability when used for the quantification of PSA from human saliva samples, anticipating the hybrid's promising future in clinical detection