Bisphosphonates and Cardiac Electrophysiology: Should the Red Flag Be Raised Higher?

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/106704/1/jce12349.pd

Drug-induced atrial fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common cardiac arrhythmia that is associated with severe consequences, including symptoms, haemodynamic instability, increased cardiovascular mortality and stroke. While other arrhythmias such as torsades de pointes and sinus bradycardia are more typically thought of as drug induced, AF may also be precipitated by drug therapy, although ascribing causality to drug-associated AF is more difficult than with other drug-induced arrhythmias. Drug-induced AF is more likely to occur in patients with risk factors and co-morbidities that commonly co-exist with AF, such as advanced age, alcohol consumption, family history of AF, hypertension, thyroid dysfunction, sleep apnoea and heart disease. New-onset AF has been associated with cardiovascular drugs such as adenosine, dobutamine and milrinone. In addition, medications such as corticosteroids, ondansetron and antineoplastic agents such as paclitaxel, mitoxantrone and doxorubicin have been reported to induce AF. Whether bisphosphonate drugs are associated with new-onset AF remains controversial and requires further study. The potential contribution of specific drug therapy should be considered when patients present with new-onset AF

Field efficacy of Imidacloprid and Steinernema carpocapsae in a chitosan formulation against the Red Palm Weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) in Phoenix canariensis

BACKGROUND: The invasive red palm weevil, Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier), has become the major pest of palms in the Mediterranean Basin. Chemical control against this species is difficult because of its cryptic habits and is mainly based on the repeated application of large quantities of synthetic insecticides. The aim of this work has been to evaluate in the field the efficacy of imidacloprid (Confidor 240 OD) and Steinernema carpocapsae Weiser with chitosan (Biorend R Palmeras) as soil and stipe treatments respectively, alone or in combination, against this pest. RESULTS: All treatments significantly reduced the mean number of immature stages of R. ferrugineus per palm. However, there were no significant differences among the different treatments considered. Efficacies ranged from 83.8 to 99.7% for the mean number of immature stages found in the palms and resulted in a significant increase in palm survival compared with the untreated control (75.0–90.0% versus 16.5% respectively). CONCLUSION: Both imidacloprid and S. carpocapsae in a chitosan formulation proved highly effective against R. ferrugineus in the field, and their efficacies did not significantly change when used in combinatio

Treatment of Selective Mutism: Focus on Selective Serotonin Reuptake Inhibitors

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/90271/1/phco.28.2.214.pd

Predicting the Potential Worldwide Distribution of the Red Palm Weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) using Ecological Niche Modeling

This is the publisher's version, also available electronically from http://www.bioone.org/doi/abs/10.1653/024.095.0317.The red palm weevil (RPW), Rhynchophorus ferrugineus (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), ranks among the most important pests of various palm species. The pest originates from South and Southeast Asia, but has expanded its range dramatically since the 1980s. We used ecological niche modeling (ENM) approaches to explore its likely geographic potential. Two techniques, the Genetic Algorithm for Rule-set Prediction (GARP) and a maximum entropy approach (MaxEnt), were used. However, MaxEnt provided more significant results, with all 5 random replicate subsamples having P < 0.002 while GARP models failed to achieve statistical significance in 3 of 5 cases, in which predictions achieved probabilities of 0.07 < P < 0.10. The MaxEnt models predicted successfully the known distribution, including the single North American occurrence point of Laguna Beach, California, and various areas where the pest has been reported in North Africa, southern Europe, Middle East and South and Southeastern Asia. In addition, areas where the pest has not been yet reported were found to be suitable for invasion by RPW in sub-Saharan Africa, southern, central and northern America, Asia, Europe, and Oceania. Highly suitable areas in the United States of America were limited mostly to coastal California and southern Florida, while all Caribbean islands were found highly suitable for establishment and spread of the pest

An update of the Worldwide Integrated Assessment (WIA) on systemic insecticides. Part 2: impacts on organisms and ecosystems

New information on the lethal and sublethal effects of neonicotinoids and fipronil on organisms is presented in this review, complementing the previous WIA in 2015. The high toxicity of these systemic insecticides to invertebrates has been confirmed and expanded to include more species and compounds. Most of the recent research has focused on bees and the sublethal and ecological impacts these insecticides have on pollinators. Toxic effects on other invertebrate taxa also covered predatory and parasitoid natural enemies and aquatic arthropods. Little, while not much new information has been gathered on soil organisms. The impact on marine coastal ecosystems is still largely uncharted. The chronic lethality of neonicotinoids to insects and crustaceans, and the strengthened evidence that these chemicals also impair the immune system and reproduction, highlights the dangers of this particular insecticidal classneonicotinoids and fipronil. , withContinued large scale – mostly prophylactic – use of these persistent organochlorine pesticides has the potential to greatly decreasecompletely eliminate populations of arthropods in both terrestrial and aquatic environments. Sublethal effects on fish, reptiles, frogs, birds and mammals are also reported, showing a better understanding of the mechanisms of toxicity of these insecticides in vertebrates, and their deleterious impacts on growth, reproduction and neurobehaviour of most of the species tested. This review concludes with a summary of impacts on the ecosystem services and functioning, particularly on pollination, soil biota and aquatic invertebrate communities, thus reinforcing the previous WIA conclusions (van der Sluijs et al. 2015)

Have the Findings from Clinical Risk Prediction and Trials Any Key Messages for Safety Pharmacology?

Anti-arrhythmic drugs are a mainstay in the management of symptoms related to arrhythmias, and are adjuncts in prevention and treatment of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias. However, they also have the potential for pro-arrhythmia and thus the prediction of arrhythmia predisposition and drug response are critical issues. Clinical trials are the latter stages in the safety testing and efficacy process prior to market release, and as such serve as a critical safeguard. In this review, we look at some of the lessons to be learned from approaches to arrhythmia prediction in patients, clinical trials of drugs used in the treatment of arrhythmias, and the implications for the design of pre-clinical safety pharmacology testing.This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (FS/12/11/29289 and RG/15/15/31742 and facilitated by the NIHR Biomedical Research Centre at Barts

Behavioural finance in islamic finance, a new approach

Esta tesis evalúa los factores que afectan a la actitud y a la intención de los consumidores respecto a las finanzas islámicas en dos países diferentes. Asimismo, evalúa los factores que afectan a la autoeficacia y al rendimiento de los vendedores en los bancos islámicos, entre los que se incluye la exigencia del cliente. El primer capítulo resume la literatura de las finanzas conductuales y las finanzas conductuales islámicas, e identifica las lagunas de investigación y los objetivos de la tesis. El segundo capítulo usa un modelo teórico, basado en la teoría de la acción razonada para investigar los efectos de la actitud, la motivación religiosa, la concienciación, así como el servicio y la fijación de precios en la intención a la hora de utilizar la banca islámica entre la minoría musulmana en Barcelona, España. También determina el perfil de un potencial cliente bancario islámico dentro de esta minoría. La parte empírica se sirve de preguntas basadas en una encuesta, análisis de factores y regresión logística para analizar los datos. Los resultados revelan que la actitud, la motivación religiosa y la concienciación son factores importantes que influyen a la hora de decantarse por la banca islámica. El estudio también destaca el perfil del potencial cliente bancario islámico. La investigación muestra el potencial de los bancos islámicos en el mercado español, y la posibilidad de aumentar la concienciación en lo que respecta a la banca islámica. Asimismo, muestra que la banca islámica en España podría ayudar a la minoría musulmana a participar de manera efectiva en las actividades financieras, al mismo tiempo que resalta la importancia de beneficiar a las mujeres dentro de esta minoría y a ayudar a la sociedad estimulando a que el dinero no bancario fluya por el sector financiero. El estudio también destaca la importancia de las finanzas islámicas para las minorías musulmanas como método para apoyar su identidad religiosa. El tercer capítulo investiga los efectos de los siguientes factores: imagen, concienciación, cumplimiento de la ley islámica e individualismo, sobre la actitud e intención de los clientes a la hora de usar la banca islámica entre los usuarios de banca en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos, así como el papel mediador de la actitud en ese modelo, usando para ello un modelo teórico basado en el de Actitudes de Atributos Múltiples, la teoría de las acciones razonadas y la teoría del comportamiento razonado. La investigación se centrará en la encuesta de los clientes bancarios que viven en los Emiratos Árabes Unidos (EAU). Se utiliza el modelo de ecuaciones estructurales para analizar los datos. Los resultados muestran que la actitud y la concienciación afectan de una manera directa a la intención, mientras que la imagen, la concienciación, el cumplimiento de la Sharía y el individualismo afectan a la actitud directamente y a la intención, indirectamente, mediada por la actitud. El capítulo muestra, como resultado, la importancia del cumplimiento de la Sharía de los bancos, el individualismo de los clientes y la imagen del banco sobre la actitud y la intención, y ofrece sugerencias para que los bancos se beneficien de estos aspectos con el fin de ampliar su base de clientes. El estudio proporciona una idea sobre la toma de decisiones de los individuos y la importancia de un enfoque social por parte de los bancos cuando se anuncian. El último capítulo investigará la relación entre estos factores: imagen de la organización, esfuerzo de la concienciación, exigencia del cliente, autoeficacia y autoevaluación entre los vendedores de productos bancarios islámicos en los EAU, así como el papel mediador del esfuerzo de concienciación y autoeficacia en el modelo, usando para ello un modelo teórico basado en la teoría social cognitiva. El capítulo se centra en la encuesta realizada a los vendedores de productos bancarios islámicos en un banco mixto (un banco convencional con un departamento islámico) en los EAU. El investigador usa mínimos cuadrados parciales para analizar los datos, y los resultados muestran que la exigencia del cliente tiene un efecto positivo en el esfuerzo de concienciación a nivel de ventas, el esfuerzo de concienciación tiene un efecto positivo en la autoeficacia, la autoeficacia tiene un efecto positivo en el rendimiento, y la imagen afecta de forma positiva a la autoeficacia y al rendimiento de los vendedores. Asimismo, en este capítulo se destaca el papel mediador del esfuerzo de concienciación y autoeficacia en el modelo. El estudio muestra la importancia del esfuerzo de concienciación para lograr un rendimiento mejor, así como la importancia de abordar los requisitos del cliente en el entorno y el papel de la imagen de la organización en la aplicación de la autoeficacia y rendimiento de los vendedores.This Dissertation tests the factors affecting the attitude and intention of consumers toward Islamic finance in two different countries, it also tests the factors affecting the self-efficacy and performance of Salespersons in Islamic banks including customer demandingness. The first chapter summarises the literature of behavioural finance and Islamic Behavioural finance and identifies the gaps and aims of the thesis. The second chapter uses a theoretical model based on the theory of reasoned actions to investigate the effects of attitude, religious motivation, awareness, and service and pricing, on the intention to use Islamic banking among the Muslim minority in Barcelona - Spain. It also determines the profile of a potential Islamic banking customer among this minority. The empirical part uses survey-based questions, factor analysis and logit regression to analyse the data. The results show that attitude, religious motivation and awareness are all important factors affecting the intention to use Islamic banking. The study also highlights that the profile of a potential Islamic banking customer. The research shows the potential for Islamic banks in the Spanish market, and the possibility of raising awareness about Islamic banking. It also shows that Islamic banking in Spain could help the Muslim minority to participate effectively in financial activities and highlights the importance of empowering the women in this minority and help society by encouraging off-banking money to flow into the financial sector. The study also highlights the importance of Islamic finance for Muslim minorities as a method to support their religious identity. The third chapter investigates the effects of the following factors: image; awareness; Shariah compliance and individualism, on the attitude and intention of customers to use Islamic banking among Bank customers in UAE, and the mediating role of attitude in that model, using a theoretical model based on the Multi-Attribute Attitude Model, the theory of reasoned actions and the theory of planned behaviour. The research will focus on surveying bank customers living in UAE. Structural equation modelling will be used to analyse the data. Results show that attitude and awareness affect intention directly, while image, awareness, Shariah compliance and individualism affect attitude directly and affect intention indirectly mediated by attitude. The chapter resulted in showing the importance of Shariah compliance of banks, the individualism of customers and image of the bank on attitude and intention and provides suggestions for banks to benefit from these aspects to widen their customer base. The study provides an insight into individuals’ decision-making and the importance of a social approach by banks when advertising. The final chapter will investigate the relationship between the factors: organisation image, awareness effort, customer demandingness, self-efficacy and self-rated performance among salespersons of Islamic banking products in the UAE and the mediating role of awareness effort and self-efficacy in the model, using a theoretical model based on the social cognitive theory. The chapter focuses on surveying salespersons of Islamic banking products in a mixed bank (a conventional bank that has an Islamic department) in the UAE. The researcher uses partial least squares to analyse the data. The results show that customer demandingness positively affects awareness effort at the sales level, awareness effort positively affects self-efficacy, self-efficacy positively affects performance and image positively affects salespersons’ self-efficacy and performance. Furthermore, the chapter highlights the mediating role of awareness effort and self-efficacy in the model. The study shows the importance of awareness effort to achieve better performance as well as the importance of addressing the customer requirements in the environment and the role of the organisation image in enforcing salespersons’ self-efficacy and performance

The Pharmaceutical Industry: A Pharmacy Student\u27s Guide

Christian Egly is a fourth-year (P4) pharmacy student in the Purdue University College of Pharmacy. During his years at Purdue, he worked in labs performing bench research in clinical pharmacology and biochemistry. He plans to work in the pharmaceutical industry after graduation. During his fourth year, he completed rotations in business development at Kashiv Pharma, LLC, and was hired there for an internship in 2017. In the article, Christian describes his personal experiences at Kashiv Pharma, LLC, and how industry can positively affect patient communities