Risk and protective factors for release in outpatients with schizophrenia

eposterWe aim to determine risk and protective factors influencing relapse incidence in outpatient with schizophrenia. A longitudinal, observational study was done with outpatients with schizophrenia (F20) or schizoaffective disorder (F25)(DMS-IV and ICD-10), without hospitalization during the previous 6 months. The patients were consecutively included into the study to received oral (O-A) or long-acting injectable (depot-A) antipsychotics. Clinical stage evolution, compliance, efficacy and safety assessments (including PANSS, CGI-SSI, hospitalization rates, and adverse events) were recorded before and after 6 and 12 months of treatment. Results: 60 outpatients (aged 34.5±8.9, male 73%), 75% schizophrenia and 25% schizoaffective disorder diagnosis, 68.3% fewer than 15 years of schizophrenia evolution, 76.7% fewer than 5 times previous hospitalizations were treated with O-A (41.7%) or depot-A (58.3%) antipsychotics for at least one year. Depot-A treated patients showed a significant higher compliance compared to O-A patients during the all following time, lower PANSS (total, positive and negative) scores and CGI-SSI score (p<0.01), and a delayed relapse incidence and re-hospitalization to more than 1 year in the 48% of patients (relapse % depot/% oral) after 6 months 22.9%/52.0%, and after 12 months 48.6%/4.0%. Conclusion: There were protective factors which delayed relapse incidence in schizophrenia: Use of sustained-release preparations, family support. There were risk factors for occurrence of relapse in schizophrenia: cocaine, heroin and alcohol consumption, absence of family support, greater severity of patients assessed through CGI-SI, male sex, age older than 25 years and long-term evolution of the disorder.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Tensions Between the Resource Damage and the Private Benefits of Appropriation in the Commons

This study examines appropriation decisions in a linear appropriation game setting with variations in the resource damage from appropriation and simultaneous variations in the resource damage and the opportunity cost of conservation, where the ratio of these two variables is held constant. In symmetric and asymmetric group contexts, subjects make decisions without feedback from a menu of seven decision situations. In summary, individual appropriation levels are found to be inversely correlated with the ratio of marginal resource damage from appropriation to the marginal private benefit of appropriation and no significant differences are observed in individual appropriation levels across treatments where this ratio is equal. Moreover, among subjects facing the same marginal incentives, no significant differences are found between decisions of subjects in symmetric and asymmetric groups. Finally, using forecasts of others’ appropriation decisions; we find evidence of both a direct effect from changes in marginal monetary incentives and an indirect effect associated with changes in subjects’ first order beliefs of the appropriation decisions of others. These findings are consistent with previous evidence for public goods games supporting the relevance of the marginal per-capita return and conditional reciprocity in explaining variations in cooperation levels

Appropriation in the commons: variations in the opportunity costs of conservation

This study examines individual and group behavior in a linear appropriation game setting. Subjects make decisions from a menu of eight games, without feedback. Four treatment conditions vary the magnitude of the opportunity cost of conservation, including symmetric and asymmetric treatments. A parallel set of four treatments implement the same parameter variations in a setting where probabilistic degradation of the commons is linked to group appropriation. Thus, this setting introduces uncertainty in the value of the opportunity cost of appropriation. In summary, subjects respond systematically to changes in the marginal incentives and to the possibility of degradation. These responses are shown to be related to a direct effect of changes in marginal monetary incentives and to an indirect effect associated with changes in subjects’ first order beliefs of the appropriation decisions of others

The class of all 3-valued natural conditional variants of RM3 that are Plumwood Algebras

Valerie Plumwood introduced in "Some false laws of logic" a series of arguments on how the rules Exported Syllogism, Disjunctive Syllogism, Commutation, and Exportation are not acceptable. Based on this we define the class of Plumwood algebras - logical matrices that do not verify any of these theses. Afterwards we provide conditional variants of the characteristic matrix of the logic RM3 that are also Plumwood algebras. These matrices are given an axiomatization based on First Degree Entailment and are endowed with Belnap-Dunn Semantics. Finally we provide results of Soundness and Completeness in the strong sense for each of the defined variants

A data envelopment analysis of the impact of European funds on environmental indicators

The European Union (EU) has launched two regional investment programs of European Funds (FE) in the last decade. One covers the period of 2007 to 2013, and the second from 2014 to 2020. Among the goals contained in FE regulations is that of achieving sustainable growth through the conversion of fossil energy production systems to renewable energy. This research has had a goal to determine whether the countries of the Eurozone maintain homogeneous levels of efficiency in the use of these resources to improve the levels of environmental quality related to the use of this type of energy. The adopted research method for efficiency analyses was Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA). Findings revealed that the efficiency in the use of renewable energies is very uneven among the analyzed countries and that these differences are maintained throughout the analyzed period. These results suggest that the criteria for the distribution of the funds should be modified. The current distribution is mainly based on the per capita income of the countries and/or regions. In this way, compliance with the European Green Pact approved in September 2020 would be guaranteed

Impact of H2/CH4 blends on the flexibility of micromix burners applied to industrial combustion systems

The present paper investigates the feasibility of using H2/CH4 fuel blends in micromix-type burners applied to industrial combustion systems. The micromix burner concept, characterised by the formation of miniaturised and compact turbulent diffusion flames, was developed for gas turbine hydrogen burners showing low NOx emissions (below 10 ppm) without flashback risk, which represent the main issues when using pure hydrogen or hydrogen enriched natural gas blends as fuel, making it a promising concept to be applied in industrial burners. The study was carried out through numerical CFD simulations, accounting for detailed chemistry calculations of turbulent micromix flames and previously validated through experimental measurements in a laboratory-scale micromix burner prototype. The resulting flow, temperature and exhaust emission characteristics for three H2/CH4 fuel blends with H2 content of 90, 75 and 60% respectively were analysed and discussed for air–fuel equivalence ratios at λ=1.8 and 1.6 (lower than the well-characterised air–fuel equivalence ratios in micromix gas turbine burners at λ=2.5 and closer to current industrial burners), considering an energy density of 14 MW/m2 bar. Numerical results showed low fuel flexibility for industrial-scale micromix burners, with still low NOx emissions (12–85 ppm) but relatively high CO emissions (448–4970 ppm) for the considered blends and λ values. The lowest CO emissions were given together with jet penetration phenomena, ruling out the feasibility of these design points due to the greater importance of the latter phenomenon.Provincial Council of Bizkaia within the Technology Transfer Programme 2021,co-financed by EGEF, Basque Governmen

Differential Proteoglycan Expression in Atherosclerosis Alters Platelet Adhesion and Activation

\ua9 2024 by the authors.Proteoglycans are differentially expressed in different atherosclerotic plaque phenotypes, with biglycan and decorin characteristic of ruptured plaques and versican and hyaluronan more prominent in eroded plaques. Following plaque disruption, the exposure of extracellular matrix (ECM) proteins triggers platelet adhesion and thrombus formation. In this study, the impact of differential plaque composition on platelet function and thrombus formation was investigated. Platelet adhesion, activation and thrombus formation under different shear stress conditions were assessed in response to individual proteoglycans and composites representing different plaque phenotypes. The results demonstrated that all the proteoglycans tested mediated platelet adhesion but not platelet activation, and the extent of adhesion observed was significantly lower than that observed with type I and type III collagens. Thrombus formation upon the rupture and erosion ECM composites was significantly reduced (p &lt; 0.05) compared to relevant collagen alone, indicating that proteoglycans negatively regulate platelet collagen responses. This was supported by results demonstrating that the addition of soluble biglycan or decorin to whole blood markedly reduced thrombus formation on type I collagen (p &lt; 0.05). Interestingly, thrombus formation upon the erosion composite displayed aspirin sensitivity, whereas the rupture composite was intensive to aspirin, having implications for current antiplatelet therapy regimes. In conclusion, differential platelet responses and antiplatelet efficacy are observed on ECM composites phenotypic of plaque rupture and erosion. Proteoglycans inhibit thrombus formation and may offer a novel plaque-specific approach to limit arterial thrombosis