scholarly journals Gsk3 Signalling and Redox Status in Bipolar Disorder: Evidence from Lithium Efficacy

2016 ◽  
Vol 2016 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Antonina Luca ◽  
Carmela Calandra ◽  
Maria Luca
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Glycogen Synthase ◽  
Redox Status ◽  
Common Denominator ◽  
Manual Selection ◽  
Therapeutic Tools ◽  
Complex Scenario ◽  
Molecular Bases ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of

Objective. To discuss the link between glycogen synthase kinase-3 (GSK3) and the main biological alterations demonstrated in bipolar disorder (BD), with special attention to the redox status and the evidence supporting the efficacy of lithium (a GSK3 inhibitor) in the treatment of BD.Methods. A literature research on the discussed topics, using Pubmed and Google Scholar, has been conducted. Moreover, a manual selection of interesting references from the identified articles has been performed.Results. The main biological alterations of BD, pertaining to inflammation, oxidative stress, membrane ion channels, and circadian system, seem to be intertwined. The dysfunction of the GSK3 signalling pathway is involved inallthe aforementioned “biological causes” of BD. In a complex scenario, it can be seen as the common denominator linking them all. Lithium inhibition of GSK3 could, at least in part, explain its positive effect on these biological dysfunctions and its superiority in terms of clinical efficacy.Conclusions. Deepening the knowledge on the molecular bases of BD is fundamental to identifying the biochemical pathways that must be targeted in order to provide patients with increasingly effective therapeutic tools against an invalidating disorder such as BD.

Neural network dysfunction in bipolar depression: clues from the efficacy of lamotrigine

2009 ◽  
Vol 37 (5) ◽  
pp. 1080-1084 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Large ◽  
Elena Di Daniel ◽  
Xingbao Li ◽  
Mark S. George
Keyword(s):  
Bipolar Disorder ◽  
Valproic Acid ◽  
Protein Kinase ◽  
Glycogen Synthase ◽  
Bipolar Depression ◽  
Inhibitory Effect ◽  
Mood Stabilizers ◽  
Mitogen Activated Protein Kinase ◽  
Facilitatory Effect

One strategy to understand bipolar disorder is to study the mechanism of action of mood-stabilizing drugs, such as valproic acid and lithium. This approach has implicated a number of intracellular signalling elements, such as GSK3β (glycogen synthase kinase 3β), ERK (extracellular-signal-regulated kinase)/MAPK (mitogen-activated protein kinase) or protein kinase C. However, lamotrigine does not seem to modulate any of these targets, which is intriguing given that its profile in the clinic differs from that of valproic acid or lithium, with greater efficacy to prevent episodes of depression than mania. The primary target of lamotrigine is the voltage-gated sodium channel, but it is unclear why inhibition of these channels might confer antidepressant efficacy. In healthy volunteers, we found that lamotrigine had a facilitatory effect on the BOLD (blood-oxygen-level-dependent) response to TMS (transcranial magnetic stimulation) of the prefrontal cortex. This effect was in contrast with an inhibitory effect of lamotrigine when TMS was applied over the motor cortex. In a follow-up study, a similar prefrontal specific facilitatory effect was observed in a larger cohort of healthy subjects, whereas valproic acid inhibited motor and prefrontal cortical TMS-induced BOLD response. In vitro, we found that lamotrigine (3–10 μM) enhanced the power of gamma frequency network oscillations induced by kainic acid in the rat hippocampus, an effect that was not observed with valproic acid (100 μM). These data suggest that lamotrigine has a positive effect on corticolimbic network function that may differentiate it from other mood stabilizers. The results are also consistent with the notion of corticolimbic network dysfunction in bipolar disorder.

About Determing the Microhardness of Composite Coatings

2021 ◽  
Vol 1037 ◽  
pp. 486-493
Author(s):  
Sergey Y. Zhachkin ◽  
Anatoly I. Zavrazhnov ◽  
Nikita A. Penkov ◽  
George V. Kudryavtsev ◽  
Paul V. Tsisarenko
Keyword(s):  
Composite Coating ◽  
Mechanical Treatment ◽  
Composite Coatings ◽  
Operational Parameters ◽  
Deposition Parameters ◽  
Cylinder Liners ◽  
High Degree ◽  
Applied Coating ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of

One of the fundamental tasks in restoring the operability of cylinder liners is the application of a composite coating with a predetermined microhardness value. The authors have developed a technology for applying composite coatings based on iron on cylindrical surfaces, which makes it possible to vary the physical, mechanical and operational parameters of the formed iron-containing coating due to the planned selection of the deposition parameters. This eliminates the need for mechanical treatment of the applied coating, which is the reason for the high degree of rejection parts that undergo the iron-on operation. Contact interaction of the working tool with the formed layer of the composite coating has a positive effect on the value of its roughness.

Safety Evaluation of Destination Lighting Treatment at Stop Controlled Cross-Intersections

2018 ◽  
Vol 2672 (16) ◽  
pp. 113-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Amrita Goswamy ◽  
Shauna Hallmark ◽  
Theresa Litteral ◽  
Michael Pawlovich
Keyword(s):  
Rural Areas ◽  
Negative Binomial ◽  
Safety Evaluation ◽  
Negative Binomial Regression ◽  
State Agencies ◽  
Crash Frequency ◽  
Binomial Regression ◽  
Manual Selection ◽  
Roadway Lighting ◽  
Selection Of

Intersection crashes during nighttime hours may occur because of poor driver visual cognition of conflicting traffic or intersection presence. In rural areas, the only source of lighting is typically provided by vehicle headlights. Roadway lighting enhances driver recognition of intersection presence and visibility of signs and markings. Destination lighting provides some illumination for the intersection but is not intended to fully illuminate all approaches. Destination lighting has been widely used in Iowa but the effectiveness has not been well documented. This study, therefore, sought to evaluate the effect on safety of destination lighting at rural intersections. As part of an extensive data collection effort, locations with destination/street lighting were gathered with the assistance of several state agencies. After manual selection of a similar number of control intersections, propensity score matching using the caliper width technique was used to match 245 treatments with 245 control sites. Negative binomial regression was used to evaluate crash frequency data. The presence of destination lighting at stop-controlled cross-intersections generally reduced the night-to-day crash ratio by 19%. The presence of treatment or destination lighting was associated with a 33%–39% increase in daytime crashes across all models but was associated with an 18%–33% reduction in nighttime crashes. Injuries in nighttime crashes decreased by 24% and total nighttime crashes reduced by 33%. Property damage crashes were reduced by 18%.

scholarly journals USE OF INTERNATIONAL SCIENTIFIC DATA BASES WEB OF SCIENCE AND SCOPUS FOR SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH AT AGRICULTURAL HIGHER EDUCATION INSTITUTIONS

2019 ◽  
pp. 83-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
Viktor MAZUR ◽  
Hanna PANTSYREVA ◽  
Kateryna MAZUR
Keyword(s):  
Higher Education ◽  
Web Of Science ◽  
Scientific Research ◽  
Field Research ◽  
Scientific Publication ◽  
Educational Institutions ◽  
The University ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of ◽  
Agrarian Institutions

In today's conditions of agrarian production in Ukraine, due to the rapid development of scientific and technological progress, a significant contribution belongs to scientific research based on world recognition, and publications in scientific journals indexed in the international science-computer databases of Web of Science and Scopus will lead to the possibility of modernization of modern science in agrarian institutions of higher education. It is established that realization of scientific researches in higher agricultural educational institutions is a prerequisite for increasing their competitiveness in the international scientific and educational space. So, agricultural universities, along with the implementation of their main function - educational - are engaged in field research and development of innovative research in the agrarian sector. Today, in our country, there is already an experience in defining scientific research and innovation priorities, but until now, the research of domestic scientists did not take into account the use of large-scale modern information capacities to determine the effectiveness of scientific activity. In this regard, the attraction of information technology in combination with the use of international science-computer databases Web of Science and Scopus in the agrarian sphere will significantly expand the scientific outlook of scientists. The aim of the study is to determine the main advantages of using the international science-computer databases Web of Science and Scopus for research in the agrarian sector and to provide suggestions for the search for data and selection of journals for their effective use in the research work of scientific and pedagogical workers of higher agrarian institutions. The information base of the study consists of the current legislation and normative acts of Ukraine, resolutions of the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine, official data of the State Statistics Service of Ukraine on scientific and innovative activities, data presented in the international science-computer databases of Web of Science and Scopus. Current issues of the transformation of the scientific system at the state and world levels, which have a positive effect on the level of provision of the research sphere in combination with the staffing component of the scientific and technological potential, remain relevant in modern conditions. Today, we are seeing a deepening of the integration of education and agrarian science within the university sector, which is due to the increasing importance of scientific research and training of agronomists-researchers of the proper level. It has been established that the publication of the results of laboratory-field research in scientific journals indexed in the science science of Web of Science and Scopus should become a promising direction and actively develop among scientific groups of young scientists, in particular, when performing scientific research in agronomy. At the present stage, the development of agrarian production is based not only on the achievements of agricultural sciences such as crop production, agriculture, ecology, fodder production, but also on a number of economic sciences. The studies have taken into account that the importance of research in agrarian science of this interaction is intensified in the conditions of structural transformations of the agricultural economy, as well as the provision of its innovative development, since the integrated interaction of agrarian production, science and agricultural education institutions has a positive effect. In this scientific work, the necessity of the development of science-based research in agrarian universities was determined and the world's bibliometric platforms Web of Science and Scopus were analyzed. It also proved expediency of carrying out scientific researches with the use of science-based studies on the basis of agrarian institutions of higher education. Under the international science and technology databases of Web of Science and Scopus, the criteria and standards necessary for the qualitative use of science in research are researched. Taking into account the results, the main criteria for the selection of science-computer platforms and their indicators were selected: the coverage of Ukrainian scientific publications and publications, the accuracy of data, including the veracity of the citation of the scientific publication, the filtering of excess data, the possibility of obtaining all information about the publication by author. The general characteristics of science-metric databases of Web of Science and Scopus (interface language, data volume, data source, science-metrics) were investigated and the main technical and functional characteristics were determined. Considered the availability of advanced search, the ability to communicate with scientists, the identification of a scientist, the possibility of a reference to a scientific publication. After analyzing specialized literature and sites for the development of international science-computer databases for further thorough research, the course of publications to readers in the Internet space was determined, which is related to the active participation of authors in the placement of scientific articles in such information systems as Google Scholar, ORCID, Research ID. Thus, in agrarian educational institutions, the availability of information and analytical activities in the context of complex changes in the information environment transforms the educational institution into a center of social communication, which is important for conducting research. In this regard, the involvement of information technology in conjunction with the use of international science-computer databases Web of Science and Scopus in the agrarian sphere will significantly expand the scientific outlook of scientists. Information provision of the scientific and educational process at the expense of publications of scientific articles of the corresponding level enhances the role of scientific and pedagogical workers in solving the problems faced by agrarian higher educational institutions at the present stage of development. Therefore, one of the priority directions of activity of scientific and pedagogical workers of agricultural higher educational institutions is the development of navigation functions in the world of science-computer systems in order to facilitate the transformation from the element of research into the participant of scientific and educational work and increase the scientific status of the university.

scholarly journals Possibilities of microemulsion application in rectal administration of indomethacin

2021 ◽  
Vol 68 (1) ◽  
pp. 94-97
Author(s):  
M. Špaglová ◽  
M. Čuchorová ◽  
M. Čierna ◽  
V. Mikušová ◽  
K. Bauerová ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Rectal Administration ◽  
Polysorbate 80 ◽  
Dialysis Tubing ◽  
Drug Solubilization ◽  
Routes Of Administration ◽  
Suppository Base ◽  
First Pass ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of

Abstract Rectal administration is a suitable route of administration for drugs that are either very irritating to the intestine (e.g., indomethacin) or are more effective when the first-pass effect in the liver is circumvented. Microemulsions are a tool for the improvement of penetration of sparingly soluble drugs. They are mainly used in topical and transdermal drug delivery. However, they find application also in other routes of administration, mainly due to their ability to solubilize sparingly soluble drugs. The selection of a suppository base depends on the physical properties of the drug. The study focused on evaluating the effect of the microemulsion as the solubilizer of sparingly soluble indomethacin in hydrophilic and lipophilic suppository bases compared with Polysorbate 80 as the excipient contained in the microemulsion. The reference suppositories were prepared by the traditional moulding technique from Adeps solidus or Macrogol suppository base without the previous drug solubilization. The microemulsion-based suppositories were prepared after the initial solubilization of the drug in the microemulsion or Polysorbate 80, followed by the addition of suppository base to maintain the same drug/solubilizer ratio. The suppositories were tested for softening time, hardness, and uniformity of mass. The dissolution test was performed using the dialysis tubing method in the basket apparatus. The amount of indomethacin released into the dissolution medium was determined spectrophotometrically at 320 nm. The results indicate that solubilization of indomethacin in the microemulsion had a positive effect on in vitro drug release but not as significant as in the case of Polysorbate 80 used alone. The enhancement ratio for Polysorbate 80 in Adeps suppositories was 2.9, for the microemulsion in Adeps suppositories was 1.1, and for Polysorbate 80 in Macrogol suppositories was 7.4 after 3 hours. The test of uniformity of mass had shown that all suppositories (reference, solubilizer-containing) are within the permitted limits. The softening time was reduced by adding the solubilizer to each type of suppository base.

scholarly journals Automatic Benchmark Generation Framework for Malware Detection

2018 ◽  
Vol 2018 ◽  
pp. 1-8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guanghui Liang ◽  
Jianmin Pang ◽  
Zheng Shan ◽  
Runqing Yang ◽  
Yihang Chen
Keyword(s):  
Initial Data ◽  
Malware Detection ◽  
Detection Methods ◽  
Small Data ◽  
Security Threats ◽  
Improved Genetic Algorithm ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Detection Model ◽  
Manual Selection ◽  
Selection Of

To address emerging security threats, various malware detection methods have been proposed every year. Therefore, a small but representative set of malware samples are usually needed for detection model, especially for machine-learning-based malware detection models. However, current manual selection of representative samples from large unknown file collection is labor intensive and not scalable. In this paper, we firstly propose a framework that can automatically generate a small data set for malware detection. With this framework, we extract behavior features from a large initial data set and then use a hierarchical clustering technique to identify different types of malware. An improved genetic algorithm based on roulette wheel sampling is implemented to generate final test data set. The final data set is only one-eighteenth the volume of the initial data set, and evaluations show that the data set selected by the proposed framework is much smaller than the original one but does not lose nearly any semantics.

scholarly journals Ruler Detection for Autoscaling Forensic Images

2014 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 9-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abhir Bhalerao ◽  
Gregory Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Spectral Analysis ◽  
Image Segmentation ◽  
Crime Scene ◽  
Poor Quality ◽  
Fingerprint Matching ◽  
Standard Measurement ◽  
Automated Method ◽  
Manual Selection ◽  
Measurement Units ◽  
Selection Of

The assessment of forensic photographs often requires the calibration of the resolution of the image so that accurate measurements can be taken of crime-scene exhibits or latent marks. In the case of latent marks, such as fingerprints, image calibration to a given dots-per-inch is a necessary step for image segmentation, preprocessing, extraction of feature minutiae and subsequent fingerprint matching. To enable scaling, such photographs are taken with forensic rulers in the frame so that image pixel distances can be converted to standard measurement units (metric or imperial). In forensic bureaus, this is commonly achieved by manual selection of two or more points on the ruler within the image, and entering the units of the measure distance. The process can be laborious and inaccurate, especially when the ruler graduations are indistinct because of poor contrast, noise or insufficient resolution. Here the authors present a fully automated method for detecting and estimating the direction and graduation spacing of rulers in forensic photographs. The method detects the location of the ruler in the image and then uses spectral analysis to estimate the direction and wavelength of the ruler graduations. The authors detail the steps of the algorithm and demonstrate the accuracy of the estimation on both a calibrated set of test images and a wide collection of good and poor quality crime-scene images. The method is shown to be fast and accurate and has wider application in other imaging disciplines, such as radiography, archaeology and surveying.

scholarly journals Genetic variability of yield and its contributing characters on CIMMYT maize inbreds under drought stress

2015 ◽  
Vol 39 (3) ◽  
pp. 419-426 ◽  
Author(s):  
Md Golam Azam ◽  
Umakanta Sarker ◽  
Maniruzzam ◽  
Bhagya Rani Banik
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Research ◽  
Block Design ◽  
Significant Negative Correlation ◽  
Path Coefficient ◽  
Contributing Factors ◽  
Randomized Block Design ◽  
Effective Selection ◽  
Ear Height ◽  
Positive Effect ◽  
Selection Of

This experiment was conducted in a randomized block design with three replications at Bangladesh Agricultural Research Institute, Gazipur-1701 during the rabi season of 2010 with 25 maize inbred lines. Correlation and path coefficient analysis were done for yield and some other traits. Genotypic variations were observed for ear height and grains/row. The highest broad sense heritability (h2b) was observed for yield/plant followed by ear height and 1000- grain weight. Maximum genetic advance in percentage of mean (GA) was recorded for yield/plant (92.652) and ear height (75.87). The yield/plant showed significant positive genotypic correlation (rg) with cob diameter (0.440) and grains/row (0.265). Significant negative correlation was observed between ear height and yield and also for days to 50% tasseling. The highest direct positive effect was obtained for rows/cob. These studies suggest that cob diameter, row per cob, grains/row and ear height were the most important yield contributing factors and an attempt should, therefore, be made for an effective selection of these traits. DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.3329/bjar.v39i3.21985 Bangladesh J. Agril. Res. 39(3): 419-426, September 2014

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