Memory Reconsolidation and Alcohol Use Disorder: Intravenous Infusion of Ketamine to Alleviate Addictive Symptoms in Alcohol Use Disorder Diagnoses

According to the National Institute of Health, substance use disorder in the United States in 2021 caused nearly 106,000 deaths and an annual healthcare and criminal justice expenditure of roughly $200 billion, however, only 10% of diagnoses receive proper treatment. This is primarily due to the lack of previous research in addictive studies as well as the lack of accessibility to resources and proper treatments. Current treatments for alcohol use disorder range from medications and behavioral therapies, such as acamprosate, naltrexone, and cognitive behavior therapy. Much of these treatments consist of reconditioning the brain to associate alcohol with a negative outcome, demotivating the patient to consume alcohol. Recent studies propose ketamine as an effective treatment method due to its anesthetic properties and its potential to interfere with the association between alcohol consumption and its transient effects. In this study, the researcher investigated the extent to which current treatments are able to modify neural pathways to alleviate alcoholic associations as well as the benefits of providing treatment specifically during the memory reconsolidation period rather than providing treatment alone. It was concluded that ketamine would offer a longer onset of effects when administered immediately after alcoholic desire was stimulated in patients, signifying that it is a more effective treatment than other current treatments.https://scholarscompass.vcu.edu/uresposters/1448/thumbnail.jp

Effects of n-acetylcysteine amide in preventing/treating cataracts

Cataract, the opacification of an eye lens, is a common pathological abnormality of the lens accounting for approximately 50% of all blindness. The only effective treatment currently available for a cataract is the surgical removal of the affected lens and replacement with an artificial lens for the restoration of vision. Although, cataract surgery is considered to be a very successful procedure in terms of visual outcome, the cost of surgery, need for trained personnel and surgeons, and postsurgical complications, limit the worldwide availability and accessibility of this procedure. Hence, alternative preventive and treatment procedures are worthy of investigation. The lens depends on a balanced redox state for maintaining its transparency, and a high content of glutathione (GSH) in the lens is believed to play a key role in doing so. Several studies have reported that oxidative stress plays an important role in the etiology of cataract development and, therefore, the present study has sought to evaluate the efficacy of a thiol antioxidant, (R) -N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA), in preventing/reversing cataracts. To investigate NACA\u27s ability to provide therapeutic benefits for cataracts, three different experimental models were utilized. The first was an ex-vivo cataract model, where culturing the rat lenses in dexamethasone resulted in posterior cataracts. The second was an in vivo mouse model, where injection of acetaminophen caused cataracts. The third model was a rat in vivo model where injection of sodium selenite generated nuclear cataracts. Treatment with NACA in each model helped to decrease the severity of cataracts. In summary, the results from this study suggest that NACA can potentially be developed into a promising therapeutic option for prevention and reversal of cataract formation --Abstract, page iii

Melanoma classification using deep transfer learning

Melanoma is the most lethal type of skin cancer, despite the fact that individuals who are discovered early have a decent chance of recovering. A few creators have looked at various strategies to deal with programmed location and conclusion using design recognition and AI technology. Anticipating an infection so that it does not spread It is often helpful when doctors can diagnose an illness early on and spread throughout the body. Early disease detection is quite difficult due to the small number of screening populations. Whatever the case, it will take time to determine if it is harmless or hazardous. Assume the afflicted person sees a critical specialist for analysis, unaware that the critical specialist's knowledge has resulted in a cancerous development. This is where AI and deep learning technologies become a vital component of an effective mechanised determination framework, which might help doctors forecast infections much more swiftly and even ordinary people analyse a sickness. Our study endeavour addresses the issues of increased clinical expenditures associated with discovery, lower Precision in recognition and the manual discovery framework's mobility. System for Detecting Malignant Growths in Melanoma is a deep learning-based predictive model that leverages thermoscope pictures

Prevention and Reversal of Selenite-Induced Cataracts by N-Acetylcysteine Amide in Wistar Rats

Background: The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of N-acetylcysteine amide (NACA) eye drops in reversing the cataract formation induced by sodium selenite in male Wistar rat pups. Methods: Forty male Wistar rat pups were randomly divided into a control group, an N-acetylcysteine amide-only group, a sodium selenite-induced cataract group, and a NACA-treated sodium selenite-induced cataract group. Sodium selenite was injected intraperitoneally on postpartum day 10, whereas N-acetylcysteine amide was injected intraperitoneally on postpartum days 9, 11, and 13 in the respective groups. Cataracts were evaluated at the end of week 2 (postpartum day 14) when the rat pups opened their eyes. N-acetylcysteine amide eye drops were administered beginning on week 3 until the end of week 4 (postpartum days 15 to 30), and the rats were sacrificed at the end of week 4. Lenses were isolated and examined for oxidative stress parameters such as glutathione, lipid peroxidation, and calcium levels along with the glutathione reductase and thioltransferase enzyme activities. Casein zymography and Western blot of m-calpain were performed using the water soluble fraction of lens proteins. Results: Morphological examination of the lenses in the NACA-treated group indicated that NACA was able to reverse the cataract grade. In addition, glutathione level, thioltransferase activity, m-calpain activity, and m-calpain level (as assessed by Western blot) were all significantly higher in the NACA-treated group than in the sodium selenite-induced cataract group. Furthermore, sodium selenite- injected rat pups had significantly higher levels of malondialdehyde, glutathione reductase enzyme activity, and calcium levels, which were reduced to control levels upon treatment with NACA. Conclusions: The data suggest that NACA has the potential to significantly improve vision and decrease the burden of cataract-related loss of function. Prevention and reversal of cataract formation could have a global impact. Development of pharmacological agents like NACA may eventually prevent cataract formation in high-risk populations and may prevent progression of early-stage cataracts. This brings a paradigm shift from expensive surgical treatment of cataracts to relatively inexpensive prevention of vision loss

Does increasing the number of inseminations per cycle increase the probability of conception? a randomized trial comparing single versus double intrauterine insemination

Background: Intrauterine insemination (IUI) remains an inexpensive, non-invasive, and effective first-line artificial insemination technique. The technique of IUI has evolved through various innovations since the time Cohen published the first report of IUI in 1962, and the success rate increased from 5% to >20%. The success of IUI depends upon several factors; two such prognostic factors are the timing and frequency of insemination.  The objective of this study was to compare the effectiveness of single versus double intrauterine insemination.Methods: This prospective randomized study was carried out in 130 patients with male factor infertility, PCOS and unexplained infertility. Patients were randomly assigned into two groups. In the first group of 65 patients, single IUI was applied at 36 to 40 hours after HCG administration, to the other 65 patients in the second group, double IUIs were applied at 12 to 16 hours and 36 to 40 hours after HCG administration. The primary end-point of the study was to compare the clinical pregnancy rate between the two groups.Results: The overall pregnancy rate was 18.46% (12/65) for single IUI group and 30.76% (20/65) for double IUI group. There was a no statistically significant difference between single and double IUI groups (p=0.16).Conclusions: This study did find a higher pregnancy rate following double IUI; however, the difference was not statistically significant. Further, larger sample size studies are required to determine if double IUI increases the pregnancy rate

Is there a perfect protocol for patients with low ovarian reserve: a retrospective study comparing antagonist or agonist protocol in patients with low ovarian reserve

Background: The high prevalence of infertility has made it a major healthcare problem in the present era. A majority of patients presenting with infertility have poor ovarian reserve (POR). Patients with POR are challenging to treat due to reduced treatment success and high cycle cancellation rate as there is no uniform definition and treatment protocol for these patients. The present retrospective study was performed to compare the pregnancy outcome between a long agonist protocol and flexible antagonist protocol in patients with POR. Patients with AMH ≤1.5 ng/mL and AFC ≤4 was included in the study. Controlled ovarian hyperstimulation is the basis of any in vitro fertilisation (IVF) procedure. There is no universally accepted ideal stimulation protocol for patients with POR, and it remains a challenge.Methods: This was a retrospective study covering the period from May 2019 to March 2020. Ninety-nine patients with low ovarian reserve (AMH ≤1.5 ng/mL and AFC ≤4) were included in the study. The patients underwent GnRH agonist/GnRH antagonist stimulation protocol using recombinant FSH. Demographic characteristics like age, BMI, duration of infertility was comparable. Total days of stimulation, total Gonadotropin dose used and clinical pregnancy rate in both the protocols was analyzed. Difference between the two groups was considered statistically significant at p-value <0.05.Results: Fifty-three patients underwent antagonist stimulation protocol and forty-six long agonist protocol. The clinical pregnancy rate was 37.7% (20/53) and 32.6% (15/46) in antagonist and agonist protocol respectively (p-value=0.5983). Pregnancy rate was higher in the antagonist group but the difference was not statistically significant.Conclusions: Antagonist protocol could marginally increase pregnancy rate in patients with low ovarian reserve. However, patients with poor ovarian reserve require a tailor-made protocol

Health Impact Assessment (HIA): a comparative case study of Sri Lanka and Wales: what can a developing country learn From the Welsh HIA system?

The health impact assessment (HIA) is increasingly recognized around the world as an effective governance tool to incorporate Health in All Policies to address the wider determinants of health. However, it is still poorly recognized and practiced in many developing countries, including Sri Lanka, where its applicability is most appropriate considering the complexity of social determinants of health and inequalities. This comparative case study aimed to explore the barriers for implementation of HIA in Sri Lanka in the areas of supportive policy framework, institutional infrastructure, capacity-building, and multi-sectoral collaboration and to compare them with a successful HIA system in a developed country (Wales) with a view toward identifying the “best practices” applicable in a developing country context. The case study revealed that there is an emerging government commitment in Sri Lanka to embrace the Health in All Policies approach and much potential in the health system to develop a centrally dedicated expert team with peripheral counterparts and multi-sectoral collaboration, which were the primary pillars of success in the Welsh system. However, there is a great need for capacity-building and for development of country-specific tools, which would facilitate the establishment and sustainability of HIA processes in Sri Lanka

FASTER AND ACCURATE MATCHING TECHNIQUE FOR PALMPRINT IDENTIFICATION

This paper presents the palmprint identification based on 2D and 3D palmprint matching methods. The methods are more efficetive, less extraction time, less matching time and accurate for palmprint matching. Firstly, we remove noises from palmprint images using hybrid median filter methods. Secondly,In 3D palmprint matching follow two arguments and proposed a  new method for palmprint features. The proposed method has better perfomance and also significantly reduce the templete size. This method of 3D shape palmprint to either convex or concave. The experimental results shows that the better palmprint matching, more accurate and less extract time features compare to existing methods

Activate or inhibit? Implications of autophagy modulation as a therapeutic strategy for Alzheimer’s disease

Neurodegenerative diseases result in a range of conditions depending on the type of proteinopathy, genes affected or the location of the degeneration in the brain. Proteinopathies such as senile plaques and neurofibrillary tangles in the brain are prominent features of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Autophagy is a highly regulated mechanism of eliminating dysfunctional organelles and proteins, and plays an important role in removing these pathogenic intracellular protein aggregates, not only in AD, but also in other neurodegenerative diseases. Activating autophagy is gaining interest as a potential therapeutic strategy for chronic diseases featuring protein aggregation and misfolding, including AD. Although autophagy activation is a promising intervention, over-activation of autophagy in neurodegenerative diseases that display impaired lysosomal clearance may accelerate pathology, suggesting that the success of any autophagy-based intervention is dependent on lysosomal clearance being functional. Additionally, the effects of autophagy activation may vary significantly depending on the physiological state of the cell, especially during proteotoxic stress and ageing. Growing evidence seems to favour a strategy of enhancing the efficacy of autophagy by preventing or reversing the impairments of the specific processes that are disrupted. Therefore, it is essential to understand the underlying causes of the autophagy defect in different neurodegenerative diseases to explore possible therapeutic approaches. This review will focus on the role of autophagy during stress and ageing, consequences that are linked to its activation and caveats in modulating this pathway as a treatment