Prosocial Behaviour and Antibiotic Resistance:Evidence from a Discrete Choice Experiment

Introduction: The health of a community depends on the health of its individuals; therefore, individual health behaviour can implicitly affect the health of the entire community. This is particularly evident in the case of infectious diseases. Because the level of prosociality in a community might determine the effectiveness of health programmes, prosocial behaviour may be a crucial disease-control resource. This study aimed to extend the literature on prosociality and investigate the role of altruism in antibiotic decision making. Methods: A discrete choice experiment was conducted to assess the influence of altruism on the general public’s preferences regarding antibiotic treatment options. The survey was completed by 378 Swedes. Latent class analysis models were used to estimate antibiotic treatment characteristics and preference heterogeneity. A three-class model resulted in the best model fit, and altruism significantly impacted preference heterogeneity. Results: Our findings suggest that people with higher altruism levels had more pronounced preferences for treatment options with lower contributions to antibiotic resistance and a lower likelihood of treatment failure. Furthermore, altruism was statistically significantly associated with sex, education, and health literacy. Conclusions: Antibiotic awareness, trust in healthcare systems, and non-discriminatory priority setting appear to be structural elements conducive to judicious and prosocial antibiotic behaviour. This study suggests that prosocial messages could help to decrease the demand for antibiotic treatments.</p

A Rare Case of Intestinal Obstruction due to Taenia Saginata

Abstract: Intestinal obstruction may be duo to various mechanical or functional reasons. Worms, especially Ascaris worms are one of the mechanical reasons of intestinal obstruction. Obstruction due to Taenia saginata is a rare phenomenon. Here we report a case of intestinal obstruction due to Taenia saginata infection in a 30 year-old male patient undergoing laparatomy with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. The cause of intestinal obstruction was unknown initially, but during milking of intestinal contents through naso- gastric tube a Taenia saginata worm was accidentally detected in the tube. Keywords: Intestinal obstruction, Taenia saginat

A Rare Case of Intestinal Obstruction due to Taenia Saginata

Abstract: Intestinal obstruction may be duo to various mechanical or functional reasons. Worms, especially Ascaris worms are one of the mechanical reasons of intestinal obstruction. Obstruction due to Taenia saginata is a rare phenomenon. Here we report a case of intestinal obstruction due to Taenia saginata infection in a 30 year-old male patient undergoing laparatomy with the diagnosis of intestinal obstruction. The cause of intestinal obstruction was unknown initially, but during milking of intestinal contents through naso- gastric tube a Taenia saginata worm was accidentally detected in the tube. Keywords: Intestinal obstruction, Taenia saginat

Effect of cinnamon supplementation on blood pressure and anthropometric parameters in patients with type 2 diabetes: A systematic review and meta-analysis of clinical trials

Background and aims: The present systematic review and meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effect of cinnamon supplementation on blood pressure and anthropometric indices in patients with type 2 diabetes. Methods: PubMed, Embase, Scopus, Web of Science and Cochrane Library were systematically searched to find relevant records up to 22 August 2019. Standard mean difference (SMD) and 95 confidence interval (CI) were used to evaluate the effect of cinnamon supplementation on the outcomes of this study. In the case of heterogeneity, fixed and random effect models were used. The obtained data were analyzed by Stata 13. After excluding irrelevant records, 9 eligible articles were included. Results: This meta-analysis found a significant reduction in systolic blood pressure (SBP) (SMD: �0.532, 95 CI: -1.032, �0.033, P = 0.037) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (SMD: �0.681, 95% CI: -1.297, �0.065, P = 0.030) of patients with type 2 diabetes following cinnamon supplementation. Based on the results of the present study, cinnamon supplementation had no significant effect on the body weight (BW) (SMD: �0.309, 95% CI: -0.793, 0.175, P = 0.211), body mass index (BMI) (SMD: �0.550, 95% CI: -1.244, 0.144, P = 0.120). and waist circumference (WC) (SMD: �0.235, 95% CI: -0.518, 0.047, P = 0.103). Conclusions: Cinnamon supplementation significantly decreased SBP and DBP of patients with type 2 diabetes. Although cinnamon intake caused changes in anthropometric parameters, the observed changes were not statistically significant. © 2020 Diabetes Indi

Retraction notice to �A survey of the secondary exposure to organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides and the impact of preventive factors in female villagers� Chem. 240 (2020) 124887(S0045653519321265)(10.1016/j.chemosphere.2019.124887)

This article has been retracted: please see Elsevier Policy on Article Withdrawal (https://www.elsevier.com/about/our-business/policies/article-withdrawal). This article has been retracted at the request of the authors and Editor-in-Chief. This paper has been retracted because the authors have found numerous errors in their method used for the analysis of the various pesticides. The extent of the errors is too large to make a simple correction possible. © 2020 Elsevier Lt

A survey of the secondary exposure to organophosphate and organochlorine pesticides and the impact of preventive factors in female villagers

Organophosphates (OPs) and organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) are two main types of pesticides that are widely used worldwide, and their toxicities have been reported in high-risk individuals, such as farmers and their wives. The aim of this study was to evaluate the levels of mentioned pesticides in farmers' wives (FWs) and compare them with the control group; we also aimed to assess the effect of personal health factors on the biochemical parameters. This case-control study was conducted on two FWs and control groups, consisting of 124 and 62 individuals, respectively. Serum levels of OCPs were measured using gas chromatography (GC) method. In addition, the activity of acetylcholine esterase (AChE), total antioxidant capacity (TAC), and serum levels of malondialdehyde (MDA) were evaluated in all participants. Additionally, the observance of personal health guidelines was assessed. Serum levels of OCPs in the FWs group were significantly higher than the controls. In addition, AChE activity in FWs was significantly lower than the controls. Moreover, it was found that higher levels of education lead to a better observation of most individual health guidelines, which results in reducing the biological adverse effects of pesticides. The results of this study indicated that the use of OCPs, as an illegal pesticide with known toxic and carcinogenic effects, has spread to southern Iran, which may have biological toxic effects. Also, observing the personal health points significantly reduced these complications and it is, therefore, recommended that more attention should be paid to this issue. Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved

Medicinal plant compounds as promising inhibitors of coronavirus (COVID-19) main protease:an in silico study

The novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) has spread rapidly across the globe and has involved more than 215 countries and territories. Due to a lack of effective therapy or vaccine, urgent and concerted efforts are needed to identify therapeutic targets and medications. COVID-19 main protease represents a major target for drug treatment to inhibit viral function. The present study sought to evaluate medicinal plant compounds as potential inhibitors of the COVID-19 main protease using molecular docking and molecular dynamic analysis. The PDB files of COVID-19 main protease and some medicinal plant compounds were retrieved from the Protein Data Bank (http://www.rcsb.org) and Pubchem server, respectively. The Gromacs software was used for simulation studies, and molecular docking analysis was done using Autodock 4.2. The COVID-19 main protease simulation, compared with some phytochemicals docked to the COVID-19 main protease, were analyzed. Glabridin, catechin, and fisetin had the greatest tendency to interact with the COVID-19 main protease by hydrogen and hydrophobic interactions. Docking of these phytochemicals to COVID-19 main protease led to an increase in the radius of gyration (Rg), decrease in the Root mean square fluctuation (RMSF), and induced variation in COVID-19 main protease secondary structure. The high tendency interaction of glabridin, catechin, and fisetin to COVID-19 main protease induced conformational changes on this enzyme. These interactions can lead to enzyme inhibition. This simulated study indicates that these phytochemicals may be considered as potent inhibitors of the viral protease; however, more investigations are required to explore their potential medicinal use