Sex-differential effects of olanzapine vs. aripiprazole on glucose and lipid metabolism in first-episode schizophrenia

Objective: To compare sex difference in metabolic effect of olanzapine versus aripiprazole on schizophrenia. Methods: A twelve-week prospective open-label cohort study to compare four subgroups according to first-episode schizophrenia patients’ type of drug usage and sex: female aripiprazole (n = 11), male aripiprazole (n = 11), female olanzapine (n = 10), and male olanzapine (n = 11) for body mass index, fasting serum triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and fasting glucose. Results: Aripiprazole may be associated with weight gain in female patients with low-baseline weight. Aripiprazole may have an adverse effect of weight and favorable effects of circulating glucose and lipid on female over male schizophrenia patients. The aripiprazole–induced changes in glucose and lipid may be independent of body fat storage, especially for female schizophrenia patients. Olanzapine may have adverse effects of weight, glucose and lipid profiles on female over male schizophrenic patients. Discussion: Our findings fill the gap in knowledge and provide a sex-specific guidance to psychiatrist better tailoring treatment to individual sex-differential characteristics and a key clue to understand the sex-differential mechanism of antipsychotics-induced metabolic dysfunction

Kerr-Sen Black Hole as Accelerator for Spinning Particles

It has been proved that arbitrarily high-energy collision between two particles can occur near the horizon of an extremal Kerr black hole as long as the energy $E$ and angular momentum $L$ of one particle satisfies a critical relation, which is called the BSW mechanism. Previous researchers mainly concentrate on geodesic motion of particles. In this paper, we will take spinning particle which won't move along a timelike geodesic into our consideration, hence, another parameter $s$ describing the particle's spin angular momentum was introduced. By employing the Mathisson-Papapetrou-Dixon equation describing the movement of spinning particle, we will explore whether a Kerr-Sen black hole which is slightly different from Kerr black hole can be used to accelerate a spinning particle to arbitrarily high energy. We found that when one of the two colliding particles satisfies a critical relation between the energy $E$ and the total angular momentum $J$, or has a critical spinning angular momentum $s_c$, a divergence of the center-of-mass energy $E_{cm}$ will be obtained.Comment: Latex,17 pages,1 figure,minor revision,accepted by PR

Factors related to children’s caries: a structural equation modeling approach

BACKGROUND: Dental caries among preschool children is highly prevalent in many less-developed countries. METHODS: A model which explored the factors related to children’s dental caries was tested in this study using structural equation modeling. Caregivers of children aged 5 years were surveyed on their socioeconomic status, and their oral health knowledge, attitudes and practices. In addition, information on their children’s oral health practices, dental insurance and dental service utilization were collected. Examination of caries was conducted on all children who returned fully completed questionnaires. RESULTS: The results showed that socioeconomic factors influenced children’s oral health practices through the impact of caregivers’ oral health knowledge and practices; that caregivers’ oral health knowledge affected children’s oral health practices through the influence of caregivers’ oral health attitudes and practices; and finally, that children’s oral health practices were linked directly to their caries. CONCLUSION: The findings have important applications for promoting policies aimed at advancing children’s oral health