Rationale
Clozapine has proven to be superior to other antipsychotic drugs in the treatment of schizophrenia but is under-prescribed due to its potentially severe side effects. Clozapine-induced ...sialorrhea (CIS) is a frequent and extremely uncomfortable side effect, which remains understudied.
Objectives
To examine the prevalence of diurnal and nocturnal CIS in a sample of patients treated with clozapine, and to evaluate its impact on quality of life.
Methods
We conducted a cross-sectional, observational study of 130 patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders treated with clozapine. The prevalence of CIS was evaluated via specific sialorrhea scales. None of the patients included in the study was receiving a specific treatment for hypersalivation during the study period. Possible associations between sialorrhea and clinical and quality of life variables were analyzed.
Results
Of 130 subjects, 120 (92.3%) suffered from CIS. Eighty-one (62.31%) suffered from diurnal CIS, 115 (88.56%) from nocturnal CIS, and 85 (65.38%) suffered from both. Significant positive associations between quality of life and diurnal CIS (
B
= 0.417;
p
= 2.1e − 6,
R
2
= 0.156) and nocturnal CIS (
B
= 0.411;
p
= 7.7e − 6,
R
2
= 0.139) were detected. Thirty per cent of the subjects reported a moderate to severe negative impact of sialorrhea on their quality of life.
Conclusions
The present study suggests that CIS is highly prevalent in patients with schizophrenia and has an important impact on quality of life in one-third of our sample. Therefore, the inclusion of a systematic evaluation and treatment of CIS in standard clinical practice is highly recommended.
Trial registration
Clinical Trials (
https://clinicaltrials.gov
) under reference NCT04197037.
Soybean aphid, Aphis glycines Matsumura, a pest of soybean, Glycine max (L.) Merr., and native of Asia, invaded North America sometime before 2000 and rapidly became the most significant insect pest ...of soybean in the upper Midwest. Plant resistance, a key component of integrated pest management, has received significant attention in the past decade, and several resistance (Rag) genes have been identified. However, the efficacy of Rag (Resistance to Aphis glycines) genes in suppressing aphid abundance has been challenged by the occurrence of soybean aphids capable of overcoming Rag gene-mediated resistance. Although the occurrence of these Rag virulent biotypes poses a serious threat to effective and sustainable management of soybean aphid, little is known about the current abundance of biotypes in North America. The objective of this research was to determine the distribution of Rag virulent soybean aphids in Wisconsin. Soybean aphids were collected from Wisconsin during the summers of 2012 and 2013, and assayed for Rag1, Rag2, and Rag1 + 2 virulence using no-choice tests in a greenhouse. One clone from Monroe County in 2012 reacted like biotype 4, three clones in different counties in 2013 responded like biotype 2, and eight others expressed varying degrees of Rag virulence. Rag virulence in 2013 was observed in aphids from 33% of the sampled sites and was accounted for by just 4.5% of sampled clones, although this is likely a conservative estimate. No-choice test results are discussed in light of current questions on the biology, ecology, and population genetics of soybean aphid.
Fibromyalgia (FM) is a generalized, widespread chronic pain disorder affecting 2.7% of the general population. In recent years, different studies have observed a strong association between FM and ...psychological trauma. Therefore, a trauma-focused psychotherapy, such as eye movement desensitization and reprocessing (EMDR), combined with a non-invasive brain stimulation technique, such as multifocal transcranial current stimulation (MtCS), could be an innovative adjunctive treatment option. This double-blind randomized controlled trial (RCT) analyzes if EMDR therapy is effective in the reduction of pain symptoms in FM patients and if its potential is boosted with the addition of MtCS.
Forty-five patients with FM and a history of traumatic events will be randomly allocated to Waiting List, EMDR + active-MtCS, or EMDR + sham-MtCS. Therapists and patients will be kept blind to MtCS conditions, and raters will be kept blind to both EMDR and MtCS. All patients will be evaluated at baseline, post-treatment, and follow-up at 6 months after post-treatment. Evaluations will assess the following variables: sociodemographic data, pain, psychological trauma, sleep disturbance, anxiety and affective symptoms, and wellbeing.
This study will provide evidence of whether EMDR therapy is effective in reducing pain symptoms in FM patients, and whether the effect of EMDR can be enhanced by MtCS.
ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04084795 . Registered on 2 August 2019.
ABSTRACT
Line-of-sight effects in strong gravitational lensing have long been treated as a nuisance. However, it was recently proposed that the line-of-sight shear could be a cosmological observable ...in its own right, if it is not degenerate with lens model parameters. We first demonstrate that the line-of-sight shear can be accurately measured from a simple simulated strong lensing image with per cent precision. We then extend our analysis to more complex simulated images and stress test the recovery of the line-of-sight shear when using deficient fitting models, finding that it escapes from degeneracies with lens model parameters, albeit at the expense of the precision. Lastly, we check the validity of the tidal approximation by simulating and fitting an image generated in the presence of many line-of-sight dark matter haloes, finding that an explicit violation of the tidal approximation does not necessarily prevent one from measuring the line-of-sight shear.
Understanding the novel ecological interactions that result from biological invasions is a critical issue in modern ecology and evolution as well as pest management. Introduced herbivorous insects ...may interact with native plants and indigenous natural enemies, creating novel tri‐trophic interactions. To help predict the potential outcomes of novel interactions, we investigated the behavioural and physiological responses of an indigenous generalist parasitoid (Habrobracon gelechiae) to an introduced generalist herbivore (the light brown apple moth, Epiphyas postvittana) and its new host plants in California. We first examined the parasitoid's host location and acceptance on a range of nine common host plants of the moth representing distinctly different geographic origins and morphologies (to examine the effect of a known toxic plant on the parasitoid's performance, an additional toxic plant species was also tested that the moth consumes in the laboratory but does not naturally attack). The parasitoid was able to locate the host larvae on all plants equally well, although clutch size was affected by host plant. We then determined fitness of the moth and the parasitoid on four representative plants. The moth larvae suffered higher mortality and a slower developmental rate on the known toxic plant than on the other three plants, but the parasitoid's fitness correlates did not differ between the host food plants. These results show a high level of plasticity in the indigenous generalist parasitoid in its ability to exploit the exotic host on a wide range of host plants, generating an invasion‐driven novel tri‐trophic interaction.
We analyse three interacting vacuum dark energy models with the aim of exploring whether the H0 and σ8 tensions can be simultaneously resolved in such models. We present the first ever derivation of ...the covariant gauge-invariant perturbation formalism for the interacting vacuum scenario, and, for the sub-class of geodesic cold dark matter models, connect the evolution of perturbation variables in this approach to the familiar cosmological observables. We show how H0 and σ8 evolve in three interacting vacuum models: firstly, a simple linear coupling between the vacuum and cold dark matter; secondly, a coupling which mimics the behaviour of a Chaplygin gas; and finally a coupling which mimics the Shan–Chen fluid dark energy model. We identify, if any, the regions of parameter space which would correspond to a simultaneous resolution of both tensions in these models. When constraints from observational data are added, we show how all the models described are constrained to be close to their ΛCDM limits.
Soybean aphids, Aphis glycines Matsumura, depend on long-distance, wind-aided dispersal to complete their life cycle. Despite our general understanding of soybean aphid biology, little is explicitly ...known about dispersal of soybean aphids between winter and summer hosts in North America. This study compared genotypic diversity of soybean aphids sampled from several overwintering locations in the Midwest and soybean fields in Ohio and Wisconsin to test the hypothesis that these overwintering locations are sources of the soybean colonists. In addition, air parcel trajectory analyses were used to demonstrate the potential for long-distance dispersal events to occur to or from these overwintering locations. Results suggest that soybean aphids from overwintering locations along the Illinois—Iowa border and northern Indiana—Ohio are potential colonists of soybean in Ohio and Wisconsin, but that Ohio is also colonized by soybean aphids from other unknown overwintering locations. Soybean aphids in Ohio and Wisconsin exhibit a small degree of population structure that is not associated with the locations of soybean fields in which they occur, but that may be related to specific overwintering environments, multiple introductions to North America, or spatial variation in aphid phenology. There may be a limited range of suitable habitat for soybean aphid overwintering, in which case management of soybean aphids may be more effective at their overwintering sites. Further research efforts should focus on discovering more overwintering locations of soybean aphid in North America, and the relative impact of short- and long-distance dispersal events on soybean aphid population dynamics.
Soybean aphid (
Matsumura) is a pest of soybean in the northern Midwest whose migratory patterns have been difficult to quantify. Improved knowledge of soybean aphid overwintering sites could ...facilitate the development of control efforts with exponential impacts on aphid densities on a regional scale. In this preliminary study, we explored the utility of variation in stable isotopes of carbon and nitrogen to distinguish soybean aphid overwintering origins. We compared variation in bulk
C and
N content in buckthorn (
L.) and soybean aphids in Wisconsin, among known overwintering locations in the northern Midwest. Specifically, we looked for associations between buckthorn and environmental variables that could aid in identifying overwintering habitats. We detected significant evidence of correlation between the bulk
C and
N signals of soybean aphids and buckthorn, despite high variability in stable isotope composition within and among buckthorn plants. Further, the
N signal in buckthorn varied predictably with soil composition. However, lack of sufficient differentiation of geographic areas along axes of isotopic and environmental variation appears to preclude the use of carbon and nitrogen isotopic signals as effective predictors of likely aphid overwintering sites. These preliminary data suggest the need for future work that can further account for variability in
C and
N within/among buckthorn plants, and that explores the utility of other stable isotopes in assessing likely aphid overwintering sites.
Dynamic modelling of power plants is fundamental to control system design and performance studies. This paper describes a nonlinear power plant model built by physical principles and neural network ...models by identification of the physical model. Every effort has been made to improve accuracy of the physical model without increasing its complexity. Practical aspects of neural network modelling for selecting testing data of the self-unbalancing system are investigated to ensure sufficient perturbations covering proper dynamic and load conditions. As an example, the generic modelling strategies are applied to a 200
MW oil-fired drum-type boiler–turbine–generator unit. The simulation results of the neural network and physical models are compared both at the trained and untrained conditions. It is shown that the accuracy of artificial neural network models depends greatly on the training data and is satisfactory within normal operating scope.
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