Unorthodox Forms of Capital in Organizations: Positive Psychological Capital, Intellectual Capital and Social Capital

AbstractThe physical or financial values were regarded as capital value in the past, but nowadays alternative assets are also taken into consideration as capital. In this respect, intellectual assets are accepted as the primary source of competitive advantage (Boulton et al., 2000; Lev, 2001; Low, 2000). This study aims to investigate the effect of positive psychological capital on intellectual and social capital and the interrelationship among these three concepts. Beside this, the effect of social capital on intellectual capital is also investigated. In this context, the research was applied to managers and employees who work in various sectors and datas are gathered by a questionnaire form and the structural equation model was used to analyze them. At the end of study the interrelationships among these concepts and their effects to each are expected to provide a useful contribution to academicians, professionals and business life

Assessment of Inpatients in Trakya University Hospital in Terms of Informed Consent Indicated by Ministry of Health’S Patient Rights Regulations

DergiPark: 379044tmsjAims: The informed consent constitutes the legal validity of any medical intervention and treatment, and it provides the patient with information about the procedure. In this study, we aimed to assess the extent informed consent is being applied in Trakya University Hospital in accordance to Ministry of Health’s regulations.Methods: A data collecting form has been prepared with respect to Ministry of Health’s relevant regulations and it was applied to 78 inpatients. The form consists of 18 two-point statements and 4 questions towards the patient’s demographic profile. As for descriptive statistics, numbers and percentages have been used for the statements, thus arithmetic mean ± standard deviation (minimum-maximum) has been used for the questions, respectively.Results: Out of all included patients, 47 (60.3 %) participants did not have any knowledge about the Informed Consent Form, 24 (30.8%) did not sign the Form, 48 (61.5%) participants did not read the Form and 49 (62.8%) did not understand the Form.Conclusion: From the results of this study, it can be inferred that the extent patients are being informed is still not on intended levels and is not satisfactory. Informed Consent is still a topic to emphasize, improve and put into practice more effectivel

Combined metabolic activators improve cognitive functions in Alzheimer's disease patients: A randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase-II trial

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with metabolic abnormalities linked to critical elements of neurodegeneration. We recently administered combined metabolic activators (CMA) to the AD rat model and observed that CMA improves the AD-associated histological parameters in the animals. CMA promotes mitochondrial fatty acid uptake from the cytosol, facilitates fatty acid oxidation in the mitochondria, and alleviates oxidative stress. Methods: Here, we designed a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase-II clinical trial and studied the effect of CMA administration on the global metabolism of AD patients. One-dose CMA included 12.35 g L-serine (61.75%), 1 g nicotinamide riboside (5%), 2.55 g N-acetyl-L-cysteine (12.75%), and 3.73 g L-carnitine tartrate (18.65%). AD patients received one dose of CMA or placebo daily during the first 28 days and twice daily between day 28 and day 84. The primary endpoint was the difference in the cognitive function and daily living activity scores between the placebo and the treatment arms. The secondary aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of CMA. A comprehensive plasma metabolome and proteome analysis was also performed to evaluate the efficacy of the CMA in AD patients. Results: We showed a significant decrease of AD Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) score on day 84 vs day 0 (P = 0.00001, 29% improvement) in the CMA group. Moreover, there was a significant decline (P = 0.0073) in ADAS-Cog scores (improvement of cognitive functions) in the CMA compared to the placebo group in patients with higher ADAS-Cog scores. Improved cognitive functions in AD patients were supported by the relevant alterations in the hippocampal volumes and cortical thickness based on imaging analysis. Moreover, the plasma levels of proteins and metabolites associated with NAD + and glutathione metabolism were significantly improved after CMA treatment. Conclusion: Our results indicate that treatment of AD patients with CMA can lead to enhanced cognitive functions and improved clinical parameters associated with phenomics, metabolomics, proteomics and imaging analysis. Trial registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04044131 Registered 17 July 2019, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04044131

Combined metabolic activators improve metabolic functions in the animal models of neurodegenerative diseases

Background: Neurodegenerative diseases (NDDs), including Alzheimer's disease (AD) and Parkinson's disease (PD), are associated with metabolic abnormalities. Integrative analysis of human clinical data and animal studies have contributed to a better understanding of the molecular and cellular pathways involved in the progression of NDDs. Previously, we have reported that the combined metabolic activators (CMA), which include the precursors of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide and glutathione can be utilized to alleviate metabolic disorders by activating mitochondrial metabolism. Methods: We first analysed the brain transcriptomics data from AD patients and controls using a brain-specific genome-scale metabolic model (GEM). Then, we investigated the effect of CMA administration in animal models of AD and PD. We evaluated pathological and immunohistochemical findings of brain and liver tissues. Moreover, PD rats were tested for locomotor activity and apomorphine-induced rotation. Findings: Analysis of transcriptomics data with GEM revealed that mitochondrial dysfunction is involved in the underlying molecular pathways of AD. In animal models of AD and PD, we showed significant damage in the high-fat diet groups' brain and liver tissues compared to the chow diet. The histological analyses revealed that hyperemia, degeneration and necrosis in neurons were improved by CMA administration in both AD and PD animal models. These findings were supported by immunohistochemical evidence of decreased immunoreactivity in neurons. In parallel to the improvement in the brain, we also observed dramatic metabolic improvement in the liver tissue. CMA administration also showed a beneficial effect on behavioural functions in PD rats. Interpretation: Overall, we showed that CMA administration significantly improved behavioural scores in parallel with the neurohistological outcomes in the AD and PD animal models and is a promising treatment for improving the metabolic parameters and brain functions in NDDs.PoLiMeR Innovative Training Network ; SNIC ; ScandiBio Therapeutics ; ScandiBio Therapeutics and Knut ; Knut och Alice Wallenbergs Stiftels

Combined metabolic activators improve cognitive functions in Alzheimer’s disease patients: a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase-II trial

Background: Alzheimer’s disease (AD) is associated with metabolic abnormalities linked to critical elements of neurodegeneration. We recently administered\ua0combined metabolic activators (CMA) to the AD rat model and observed that CMA improves the AD-associated histological parameters in the animals. CMA promotes mitochondrial fatty acid uptake from the cytosol, facilitates fatty acid oxidation in the mitochondria, and alleviates oxidative stress. Methods: Here, we designed a randomised, double-blinded, placebo-controlled phase-II clinical trial and studied the effect of CMA administration on the global metabolism of AD patients. One-dose CMA included 12.35\ua0g L-serine (61.75%), 1\ua0g nicotinamide riboside (5%), 2.55\ua0g\ua0N-acetyl-L-cysteine (12.75%), and 3.73\ua0g L-carnitine tartrate (18.65%). AD patients received one dose of CMA or placebo daily during the first 28\ua0days and twice daily between day 28 and day 84. The primary endpoint was the difference in the cognitive function and daily living activity scores between the placebo and the treatment arms. The secondary aim of this study was to evaluate the safety and tolerability of CMA. A comprehensive plasma metabolome and proteome analysis was also performed to evaluate the efficacy of the CMA in AD patients. Results: We showed a significant decrease of AD Assessment Scale-cognitive subscale (ADAS-Cog) score on day 84 vs day 0 (P = 0.00001, 29% improvement) in the CMA group. Moreover, there was a significant decline (P = 0.0073) in ADAS-Cog scores (improvement of cognitive functions) in the\ua0CMA compared to the placebo group in patients with higher ADAS-Cog scores. Improved cognitive functions in AD patients were supported by the relevant alterations in the hippocampal volumes and cortical thickness based on imaging analysis. Moreover, the plasma levels of proteins and metabolites associated with NAD + and glutathione metabolism were significantly improved after CMA treatment. Conclusion: Our results indicate that treatment of AD patients with CMA can lead to enhanced cognitive functions and improved clinical parameters associated with phenomics, metabolomics, proteomics and imaging analysis. Trial registration\ua0ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04044131 Registered 17 July 2019, https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04044131

Triple Negative Breast Cancer

Triple-negative breast cancers (TNBC), characterized by absence of the estrogen receptor (ER) and progesterone receptor (PR) and lack of overexpression of human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 (HER2), have a poor prognosis. To overcome therapy limitations of TNBC, various new approaches are needed. This mini-review focuses on discovery of new targets and drugs which might offer new hope for TNBC patients