Unsatisfactory responses to major depressive disorder (MDD) therapeutics available necessitated up-to-date treatment approaches. This study sought to investigate the efficacy and tolerability of ...adjunctive l-theanine, a green tea constituent with neuropsychotropic effects, for MDD.
Sixty MDD (DSM-5) patients were equally assigned to receive sertraline (100 mg/d) plus either l-theanine (200 mg/d) or matched placebo in a six-week randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled study. The participants were assessed using the Hamilton depression rating scale (HDRS) at baseline and weeks 2, 4, and 6. Changes in scores, early improvement, response and remission rates, and adverse events were compared between the groups.
Twenty-five participants in each group, a total of 50 patients, completed the study. All baseline characteristics were similar between the groups. The general linear model repeated-measures analysis demonstrated a significant time-treatment interaction effect for HDRS during the trial (p-value = 0.014), indicating more remarkable symptom improvement in the l-theanine group. A greater reduction in HDRS scores was observed in the l-theanine group from baseline to weeks 2, 4, and 6 (p-values = 0.02, 0.03, and 0.01, respectively). All patients responded to sertraline plus l-theanine until week 6. l-theanine was superior to placebo regarding response to treatment and remission rates at week 6 (p-values = 0.05 and 0.02, respectively). The frequency of side effects was comparable between the groups.
The small sample size and short study period were the limitations.
l-theanine adjunct to sertraline outperforms placebo in treating MDD in a safe manner. Further long-term, large-scale studies are recommended to confirm this evidence.
•l-theanine is an amino acid found naturally in green tea, black tea, and mushrooms.•It is beneficial and tolerable in depression, obtained from a gold-standard design.•l-theanine has been reported to modulate GABA, serotonin, and dopamine levels.•It may also exert effects through the glutamatergic and neuroimmune mechanisms.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Enterocystoplasty is the most commonly used treatment for bladder reconstruction. However, it has some major complications. In this study, we systematically reviewed the alternative techniques for ...enterocystoplasty using different scaffolds. A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed, Embase, and Cochrane Library, and a total of 10 studies were included in this study. Five different scaffolds were evaluated, including small intestinal submucosa (SIS), biodegradable scaffolds seeded with autologous bladder muscle and urothelial cells, dura mater, human cadaveric bladder acellular matrix graft, and bovine pericardium. The overall results revealed that bladder reconstruction using regenerative medicine is an excellent alternative method to enterocystoplasty regarding the improvement of bladder capacity, bladder compliance, and maximum detrusor pressure; however, more large-scale studies are required.
Advanced Virgo is the project to upgrade the Virgo interferometric detector of gravitational waves, with the aim of increasing the number of observable galaxies (and thus the detection rate) by three ...orders of magnitude. The project is now in an advanced construction phase and the assembly and integration will be completed by the end of 2015. Advanced Virgo will be part of a network, alongside the two Advanced LIGO detectors in the US and GEO HF in Germany, with the goal of contributing to the early detection of gravitational waves and to opening a new window of observation on the universe. In this paper we describe the main features of the Advanced Virgo detector and outline the status of the construction.
Rationale
Inadequate responses to current schizophrenia treatments have accelerated research into novel therapeutic approaches.
Objectives
This study investigated the efficacy and tolerability of ...adjunctive L-theanine, an ingredient with neuroimmunomodulatory and neuroprotective properties, for chronic schizophrenia.
Methods
Eighty chronic schizophrenia inpatients were equally assigned to receive risperidone (6 mg/day) plus either L-theanine (400 mg/day) or matched placebo in this 8-week, randomized, parallel-group, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial. The participants were assessed using the Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) by recording the results of subscales at baseline and weeks 4 and 8 to measure treatment efficacy. Additionally, the participants were assessed for the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS) and adverse events, including the Extrapyramidal Symptom Rating Scale (ESRS).
Results
Sixty patients, 30 in each group, were included in the analyses. All baseline demographic and clinical characteristics were comparable between the groups (
p
-values > 0.05). The reduction rates from baseline to endpoint in negative, general psychopathology, and total scores of PANSS were greater in the L-theanine group (
p
-values = 0.03, 0.01, and 0.04, respectively). Regarding general psychopathology scores, the reduction in the L-theanine group was also greater until week 4 (
p
-value < 0.01). The time × treatment interaction effect was significant on negative (
p
-value = 0.03), general psychopathology (
p
-value < 0.01), and total (
p
-value = 0.04) scores of PANSS, indicating additional improvements in the L-theanine group. The HDRS and side effects were comparable between the groups (
p
-values > 0.05).
Conclusions
L-Theanine adjunct to risperidone safely and tolerably outperformed adjunctive placebo for schizophrenia, and promising evidence indicated its effects on primary negative symptoms, which need to be scrutinized in further studies.
Trial registration
The study protocol was registered and published prospectively in the Iranian Registry of Clinical Trials (
http://www.irct.ir
; registration number: IRCT20090117001556N133) on 2020–12-12.
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EMUNI, FIS, FZAB, GEOZS, GIS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, MFDPS, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, SBMB, SBNM, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK, VKSCE, ZAGLJ
Bipolar disorder (BD) is associated with increased morbidity/mortality. Adverse outcome prediction might help with the management of patients with BD.
We systematically reviewed the performance of ...machine learning (ML) studies in predicting adverse outcomes (relapse or recurrence, hospital admission, and suicide-related events) in patients with BD. Demographic, clinical, and neuroimaging-related poor outcome predictors were also reviewed. Three databases (PubMed, Scopus, and Web of Science) were explored from inception to July 2023.
Eighteen studies, accounting for >30,000 patients, were included. Support vector machine, decision trees, random forest, and logistic regression were the most frequently used ML algorithms. ML models' area under the receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve (AUC), sensitivity, and specificity ranged from 0.71 to 0.98, 72.7–92.8 %, and 59.0–95.2 % for relapse/recurrence prediction (4 studies (3 on relapses and 1 on recurrences). The corresponding values were 0.78–0.88, 21.4–100 %, and 77.0–99.7 % for hospital admissions (3 studies, 21,266 patients), and 0.71–0.99, 44.4–97.9 %, and 38.9–95.0 % for suicide-related events (10 studies, 5558 patients). Also, one study addressed a combination of the interest outcomes. Adverse outcome predictors included early onset BD, BD type I, comorbid psychiatric or substance use disorder, circadian rhythm disruption, hospitalization characteristics, and neuroimaging parameters, including increased dynamic amplitude of low-frequency fluctuation, decreased frontolimbic functional connectivity and aberrant dynamic functional connectivity in corticostriatal circuitry.
ML models can predict adverse outcomes of BD with relatively acceptable performance measures. Future studies with larger samples and nested cross-validation validation should be conducted to reach more reliable results.
•Adverse outcome prediction aids in the management of patients with BD.•We reviewed studies assessing ML models in predicting relapses/recurrences, hospitalizations, and suicide-related events in BD.•ML predicts adverse outcomes of BD with various performance measures across different models.•Future research is needed to integrate this knowledge into the clinical management of in BD.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Aims
Enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli serotype O157:H7 as a major human pathogen is responsible for food borne outbreaks, bloody diarrhoea, haemorrhagic colitis and haemolytic uraemic syndrome and ...even death. In this study, the antibacterial activity of the Zataria multiflora essential oil (ZMEO) and nanoliposome‐encapsulated ZMEO was evaluated on the pathogenicity of E. coli O157:H7.
Methods and Results
The minimum inhibitory concentrations (MIC) of essential oil (EO) were determined against the bacterium before and after encapsulation into nanoliposome. Then, the effect of subinhibitory concentrations was evaluated on Shiga toxin 2 (Stx2) production. The effect of free and nanoliposomal EO was also studied on the gene expression of Stx2 by real‐time PCR. It was found that inhibitory activity of EO was improved after incorporation into nanoliposomes (P < 0·05). The MIC of free EO against E. coli O157:H7 was 0·03% (v/v), while this value decreased to 0·015%, after encapsulation of EO into nanoliposomes. Furthermore, subinhibitory concentrations of liposomal EO (50 and 75% MIC) had significantly higher inhibitory effect on Stx2 titre than its free form (P < 0·05). Sub‐MICs of nanoencapsulated EO also showed a better activity in reduction of Stx2A gene expression than free EO. Using 75% MIC of nanoliposomal EO, the relative transcriptional level of Stx2A gene was decreased from 0·721 to 0·646.
Conclusions
The findings of present study suggest that application of nanoliposomes can improve the antibacterial effect of EOs like ZMEO.
Significance and Impact of the Study
Due to the enhancement of antimicrobial activity, nanoencapsulation of plant EOs and extracts may increase their commercial application not only in food area but also in the pharmaceutics, cosmetics and health products.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
Based on three anisotropic yield functions including Karafillis–Boyce (K–B), Yld96 and Yld2011, directional normalized uniaxial yield stresses, directional r-value and forming limit curve (FLC) for ...AA3104-H19 aluminum alloy under plane stress condition are numerically investigated in this article. Moreover, considering the through-thickness normal stress effect the forming limit diagram (FLD), stress-based forming limit diagram (FLSD) and extended forming limit stress diagram (XFLSD) is also studied theoretically based on Yld2011 yield criterion and modified Marciniak–Kuczynski (M–K) model. The nonlinear equations set are solved through employing Newton–Raphson numerical method to calculate limiting strains. The anisotropic plastic behavior and FLC of AA3104-H19 predicted by Yld2011 yield criterion are in good agreement with experimental data and are more accurate than those of K–B and Yld96 yield functions. In addition, according to FLD, the formability of sheet metal increases by applying the through-thickness normal stress. The effects of strain rate at quasi-static condition and temperature are theoretically investigated on the FLD of AA3104 aluminum alloy. The positive temperature sensitivity and negative strain rate sensitivity are observed of FLD of AA3104.
•Yield stresses, r-value and FLD for AA3104-H19 are investigated by employing the K-B, Yld96 and Yld2011 criterions.•The M–K model is modified by considering the through-thickness normal stress.•Based on the Yld2011 yield criterion, the effect of through-thickness normal stress is studied on the FLD, FLSD and XFLSD.•The anisotropic plastic behavior and FLC of AA3104-H19 predicted by Yld2011 is in good agreement with experimental data.•The FLD of AA3104 exhibits the negative strain rate sensitivity and positive temperature sensitivity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZRSKP
The absolute measurement of the Earth angular rotation rate with ground-based instruments becomes challenging if the 1 part in
10
9
of precision has to be obtained. This threshold is important for ...fundamental physics and for geodesy, to investigate effects of General Relativity and Lorentz violation in the gravity sector and to provide the fast variation of the Earth rotation rate. High sensitivity Ring Laser Gyroscopes (RLG) are currently the only promising technique to achieve this task in the near future, but their precision has been so far limited by systematics related to the laser operation. In this paper we analyze two different sets of observations, each of them three days long. They were obtained from the G ring laser at the Geodetic Observatory Wettzell. The applied method has been developed for the GINGERINO ring laser in order to identify and extract the laser systematics. For the available data sets the residuals show mostly white noise behavior and the Allan deviation drops below 1 part in
10
9
after an integration time of about
10
4
s.
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DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
We report on the measurements performed with relativistic ions from Be to Fe, at the Fragment Separator (FRS) of the GSI Helmholtzzentrum für Schwerionenforschung in Darmstadt, to test the ...performance of charge-sensitive detectors that were designed to separate – via multiple dE/dx measurements – fully stripped nuclei of cosmic origin in the experiment CALET. The latter is a space mission by the Japanese Space Agency (JAXA) scheduled to be launched to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2013. The CALET instrument is managed by an international collaboration and it is scheduled to take data for 5 years on the Exposure Facility (JEM-EF) of the Japanese module KIBO on the ISS.
The aim of the test was to accurately measure the response of the scintillator to different nuclear species and parametrize the saturation of the scintillation light in order to assess the impact of this effect on the charge resolution of the instrument.
► Charge identification of relativistic cosmic nuclei. ► Saturation of scintillation light from ionization by heavy nuclei. ► Charge resolution with scintillators with high Z ionizing radiation.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK
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