Abstract This systematic review sets out to give a comprehensive overview of the cytokine profile at the onset of psychosis un-confounded by medication. We aim to provide insight into the early ...pathophysiological process of psychosis and areas for future research of potential biomarkers able to chart the extent of illness or effectiveness of treatment. Following PRISMA guidelines, a systematic primary search identified 4638 citations, 4651 studies were retrieved and screened, and 23 studies met the inclusion criteria (published in English before June 2013, patients with neuroleptic naive first episode psychosis, and assessed circulating cytokines). These reported 570 patients, 683 healthy control subjects, and 20 cytokine/cytokine receptors. Papers that contained sufficient stratified data were included in a random-effects pooled effect size meta-analysis. Highly significant effect sizes were found for elevated IL-1β, sIL-2r, IL-6, and TNF-α. Non-significant effect size estimates were obtained for IL-2, IL-4, and IFN-γ. Thus, we found significant elevation in pro-inflammatory cytokine levels in the serum of patients with medication-naive first episode psychosis. This adds to the evidence of a pro-inflammatory immune deregulation in schizophrenia and suggests these cytokines should be the focus for further research in biomarkers of progress and extent of illness. Future studies should focus on the medication-naive group at the early stages of illness with numbers large enough to allow for the control of other potential confounding factors.
•We examined the effects of smartphone use for work late at night on next day behavior.•Across two experience sampling studies, smartphone use reduced daily work engagement via sleep and ...depletion.•The effects of smartphone use were unique from those of other technology use.
Smartphones have become a prevalent technology as they provide employees with instant access to work-related information and communications outside of the office. Despite these advantages, there may be some costs of smartphone use for work at night. Drawing from ego depletion theory, we examined whether smartphone use depletes employees’ regulatory resources and impairs their engagement at work the following day. Across two studies using experience sampling methodology, we found that smartphone use for work at night increased depletion the next morning via its effects on sleep. Morning depletion in turn diminished daily work engagement. The indirect effects of smartphone use on depletion and engagement the next day were incremental to the effects of other electronic devices (e.g., computer, tablet, and television use). We also found some support that the negative effects of morning depletion on daily work engagement may be buffered by job control, such that depletion impairs work engagement only for employees who experience low job control.
The emergence of multidrug-resistant bacteria and the limited availability of new antibiotics are of increasing clinical concern. A compounding factor is the ability of microorganisms to form ...biofilms (communities of cells encased in a protective extracellular matrix) that are intrinsically resistant to antibiotics. Enterococcus faecalis is an opportunistic pathogen that readily forms biofilms and also has the propensity to acquire resistance determinants via horizontal gene transfer. There is intense interest in the genetic basis for intrinsic and acquired antibiotic resistance in E. faecalis, since clinical isolates exhibiting resistance to multiple antibiotics are not uncommon. We performed a genetic screen using a library of transposon (Tn) mutants to identify E. faecalis biofilm-associated antibiotic resistance determinants. Five Tn mutants formed wild-type biofilms in the absence of antibiotics but produced decreased biofilm biomass in the presence of antibiotic concentrations that were subinhibitory to the parent strain. Genetic determinants responsible for biofilm-associated antibiotic resistance include components of the quorum-sensing system (fsrA, fsrC, and gelE) and two glycosyltransferase (GTF) genes (epaI and epaOX). We also found that the GTFs play additional roles in E. faecalis resistance to detergent and bile salts, maintenance of cell envelope integrity, determination of cell shape, polysaccharide composition, and conjugative transfer of the pheromone-inducible plasmid pCF10. The epaOX gene is located in a variable extended region of the enterococcal polysaccharide antigen (epa) locus. These data illustrate the importance of GTFs in E. faecalis adaptation to diverse growth conditions and suggest new targets for antimicrobial design.
Drawing from recent research advances indicating the harmful effects of insomnia on negative affect, job satisfaction, self-control, organizational citizenship behavior, and interpersonal deviance, ...we hypothesized that treating insomnia with Internet based cognitive behavior therapy for insomnia would lead to improvements in these outcomes. In a field experiment with a randomized wait-list control group, we found that treatment had a beneficial direct effect on negative affect, job satisfaction, and self-control. Moreover, the effect of treatment on job satisfaction was mediated by negative affect. We were not able to detect a direct effect of treatment on organizational citizenship behavior or interpersonal deviance. However, treatment had a beneficial indirect effect on organizational citizenship behavior through the mediators of negative affect and job satisfaction, and a beneficial indirect effect on interpersonal deviance through the mediator of self-control. These results move the applied psychology literature on insomnia beyond simply pointing out problematic effects of employee insomnia to providing evidence of a partial solution to such effects.
The justice literature has paid considerable attention to the beneficial effects of fair behaviors for recipients of such behaviors. It is possible, however, that exhibiting fair behaviors may come ...at a cost for actors. In this article, we integrate ego depletion theory with organizational justice research in order to examine the consequences of justice behaviors for actors. We used an experience-sampling method in a sample of managerial employees to examine the relations of performing procedural justice and interpersonal justice behaviors with subsequent changes in actors' regulatory resources. Our results indicate that procedural justice behaviors are draining, whereas interpersonal justice behaviors are replenishing for actors. Depletion, in turn, adversely affected the performance of citizenship behavior, and depletion mediated relations of justice behavior with citizenship. Furthermore, 2 traits that impact self-regulatory skills-extraversion and neuroticism-moderated the replenishing effects of engaging in interpersonal justice behaviors. We conclude by discussing implications and avenues for future research.
The vast and yet largely unexplored family of graphene materials has great potential for future electronic devices with novel functionalities. The ability to engineer the electrical and optical ...properties in graphene by chemically functionalizing it with a molecule or adatom is widening considerably the potential applications targeted by graphene. Indeed, functionalized graphene has been found to be the best known transparent conductor or a wide gap semiconductor. At the same time, understanding the mechanisms driving the functionalization of graphene with hydrogen is proving to be of fundamental interest for energy storage devices. Here we discuss recent advances on the properties and applications of chemically functionalized graphene.
Species composition, abundance and biodiversity of the South African estuarine invertebrate fauna are known to show marked differentials between seagrass beds and adjacent unvegetated sands in ...enclosed estuarine/marine bays. Such differentials were investigated at four disparate localities in a bay lacking the callianassid bioturbation of other local sites. Here there were no such marked or consistent differences: <50% of differentials were statistically significant, with seagrass showing the lower, not higher, level in half of those. Overall, faunal abundance was lower in seagrass in the ratio of 0.64 : 1, whilst species density was higher but only by 1.13 to 1. Seagrass assemblages at a given locality were more similar to those of the adjacent bare sand than they were to seagrass assemblages at other localities, and likewise in respect of those in the bare sand. This suggests that marked differentials, where they occur, may result not from any supposed favourability of seagrass as a habitat but from the operation of processes within the unvegetated-sediment compartment of the system.
•We examined seagrass vs bare-sediment biodiversity in the absence of bioturbation.•Seagrass supported fewer not more animals than unvegetated sediment.•Species was slightly greater in the seagrass but varied markedly from site to site.•Seagrass sites were more similar to adjacent sands than to other seagrass sites.•And likewise unvegetated sediment sites.
Among the many ambitious decarbonization goals globally, the US intends grid decarbonization by 2035, requiring 1 TW of installed photovoltaics (PV), up from ~110 GW in 2021. This unprecedented ...global scale-up will stress existing PV supply chains with increased material and energy demands. By 2050, 1.75 TW of PV in the US cumulatively demands 97 million metric tonnes of virgin material and creates 8 million metric tonnes of life cycle waste. This analysis leverages the PV in Circular Economy tool (PV ICE) to evaluate two circular economy approaches, lifetime extension and closed-loop recycling, on their ability to reduce virgin material demands and life cycle wastes while meeting capacity goals. Modules with 50-year lifetimes can reduce virgin material demand by 3% through reduced deployment. Modules with 15-year lifetimes require an additional 1.2 TW of replacement modules to maintain capacity, increasing virgin material demand and waste unless >90% of module mass is closed-loop recycled. Currently, no PV technology is more than 90% closed-loop recycled. Glass, the majority of mass in all PV technologies and an energy intensive component with a problematic supply chain, should be targeted for a circular redesign. Our work contributes data-backed insights prioritizing circular PV strategies for a sustainable energy transition.
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Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
In the context of established and emerging injection drug use epidemics, there is a need to prevent and avert injection drug use. We tested the hypothesis that an individual motivation and skills ...building counselling, adapted and enhanced from Hunt's Break the Cycle intervention targeting persons currently injecting drugs would lead to reduction in injection initiation-related behaviours among PWID in Tallinn, Estonia. For this quasi-experimental study, pre-post outcome measures included self-reported promoting behaviours (speaking positively about injecting to non-injectors, injecting in front of non-injectors, offering to give a first injection) and injection initiation behaviours (assisting with or giving a first injection) during the previous 6 months. Of 214 PWID recruited, 189 were retained (88.3%) for the follow-up at 6 months. The proportion of those who had injected in front of non-PWID significantly declined from 15.9% to 8.5%, and reporting assisting with 1st injection from 6.4% to 1.06%. Of the current injectors retained in the study, 17.5% reported not injecting drugs at the follow up. The intervention adapted for the use in the setting of high prevalence of HIV and relatively low prevalence of injection assisting, tested proved to be effective and safe.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
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