-
Jensen Rosales posted an update 1 week, 2 days ago
The provision of mental health care for people living in low- and middle-income countries presents a particularly complex problem because of fractured service availability and provision, widespread stigma associated with mental illness, and the economic burden inherent in conventional mental health service delivery. People with serious mental illness in these settings are among the most marginalized in their societies and are at risk of becoming increasingly powerless in the face of top-down, service-oriented systems. Innovative intersectoral approaches that are based on asset development and entrepreneurism and that embrace the power of peer-driven networks hold promise to effect transformative and meaningful change.
People who are incarcerated experience social exclusion and have higher rates of mental and substance use disorders than the general population. Prisons are not suitable for treating mental illness, and understanding how the profile of prison populations changes provides essential information for correctional service planning. This study examined changes in the prevalence of mental and substance use disorders among people admitted to provincial prisons in British Columbia (BC), Canada.
The study included all people admitted to any of the 10 provincial prisons in BC from 2009 through 2017 (N=47,117). Using the Jail Screening Assessment Tool, a validated intake screening tool designed for rapid identification of mental health needs, the authors calculated the period prevalence (by calendar year) of mental health needs, substance use disorders, and drug use.
The proportion of people with co-occurring mental health needs and substance use disorders increased markedly per year, from 15% in 2009 to 32% in 201eople with multifaceted and complex mental health care needs.Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major public health crisis affecting approximately 25% of the world’s population. The spectrum of NAFLD ranges from bland steatosis to steatohepatitis with fibrosis; eventual development of cirrhosis in a subgroup of patients now represents the leading indication for liver transplant in women and in individuals older than 65. The development of noninvasive liver disease assessment tools has led to substantial progress in the diagnosis of NAFLD. learn more Patients with NAFLD are at increased risk of cardiometabolic disease, which should therefore be an important part of the therapeutic approach. This review focuses on diagnosis and risk stratification of NAFLD across the full spectrum of disease, including important considerations in the approach to patients with cirrhosis.Neurons in the organum vasculosum of the lamina terminalis (OVLT) sense extracellular NaCl and angiotensin II concentrations to regulate body fluid homeostasis and arterial blood pressure. Lesion of the anteroventral third ventricular region or OVLT attenuates multiple forms of neurogenic hypertension. link2 However, the extent by which OVLT neurons directly regulate sympathetic nerve activity to produce hypertension is not known. Therefore, the present study tested this hypothesis by using a multi-faceted approach including optogenetics, single-unit and multifiber nerve recordings, and chemogenetics. First, optogenetic activation of OVLT neurons in conscious Sprague-Dawley rats (250-400 g) produced frequency-dependent increases in arterial blood pressure and heart rate. These responses were not altered by the vasopressin receptor antagonist (β-mercapto-β,β-cyclopentamethylenepropionyl1,O-me-Tyr2,Arg8)-vasopressin but eliminated by the ganglionic blocker chlorisondamine. Second, optogenetic activation of OVLT neurons significantly elevated renal, splanchnic, and lumbar sympathetic nerve activity. Third, single-unit recordings revealed optogenetic activation of the OVLT significantly increased the discharge of bulbospinal, sympathetic neurons in the rostral ventrolateral medulla. Lastly, chronic chemogenetic activation of OVLT neurons for 7 days significantly increased 24-hour fluid intake and mean arterial blood pressure. When the 24-hour fluid intake was clamped at baseline intakes, chemogenetic activation of OVLT neurons still produced a similar increase in arterial blood pressure. Neurogenic pressor activity assessed by the ganglionic blocker chlorisondamine was greater at 7 days of OVLT activation versus baseline. Collectively, these findings indicate that acute or chronic activation of OVLT neurons produces a sympathetically mediated hypertension.Molecular photoswitches can under certain conditions be used to store solar energy in the so-called molecular solar thermal storage systems, which is an interesting technology for renewable energy solutions. The current investigations focus on the performance of seven different density functional theory (DFT) methods (B3LYP, CAM-B3LYP, PBE0, M06-2X, ωB97X-D, B2PLYP, and PBE0DH) when predicting geometries and thermochemical properties of the [2.2.2]-bicyclooctadiene (BOD) photoswitch. We find that all of the investigated DFT methods provide geometries that are in good agreement with those obtained using coupled cluster singles and doubles (CCSD) calculations. The dependence on the employed basis set is not large when predicting geometries. With respect to the thermochemical properties, we find that the M06-2X, CAM-B3LYP, PBE0, and ωB97X-D functionals all predict thermochemical properties that are in good agreement with the results of the CCSD, the CCSD including perturbative triples (CCSD(T)), and the explicitly correlated CCSD-F12 and CCSD(T)-F12 models. Lastly, for energy calculations, we tested the newly developed fourth-order cluster perturbation theory singles and doubles CPS(D-4) model, which in this study provides energy differences that are of CCSD and sometimes also CCSD(T) quality at a relatively low cost. We find that the CPS(D-4) model is an excellent choice for further investigation of BOD derivatives because accurate energies can be obtained routinely using this methodology. From the results, we also note that the predicted storage energies and storage energy densities for the BOD photoswitch are very large compared to other molecular solar thermal storage systems and that these systems could be candidates for such applications.For nanostructures in advanced electronic and plasmonic systems, a single-crystal structure with controlled orientation is essential. However, the fabrication of such devices has remained challenging, as current nanofabrication methods often suffer from either polycrystalline growth or the difficulty of integrating single crystals with substrates in desired orientations and locations to create functional devices. Here we report a thermomechanical method for the controlled growth of single-crystal nanowire arrays, which enables the simultaneous synthesis, alignment, and patterning of nanowires. Within such diffusion-based thermomechanical nanomolding (TMNM), the substrate material diffuses into nanosized cavities under an applied pressure gradient at a molding temperature of ∼0.4 times the material’s melting temperature. Vertically grown face-centered cubic (fcc) nanowires with the [110] direction in an epitaxial relationship with the (110) substrate are demonstrated. The ability to control the crystal structure through the substrate takes TMNM a major step further, potentially allowing all fcc and body-centered cubic (bcc) materials to be integrated as single crystals into devices.To develop new antifungal agents against phytopathogenic fungi, a series of citral-thiazolyl hydrazine derivatives were designed, synthesized, and characterized by FT-IR, 1H NMR, 13C NMR, and HRMS. Antifungal activity results showed that most synthetic compounds exhibited broad-spectrum antifungal activities against six phytopathogenic fungi in vitro. Notably, compounds b and c15 exhibited remarkable antifungal activity against Colletotrichum gloeosprioides, Rhizoctonia solani, Phytophthora nicotianae var. link3 nicotianae, Diplodia pinea, Colletotrichum acutatum, and Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. niveum, which were all superior to the positive control tricyclazole. Structure-activity relationship (SAR) studies demonstrated that introducing electron-withdrawing groups such as F on the benzene ring exhibited outstanding antifungal activities against all the tested fungi. Furthermore, compound b could effectively control rice sheath blight and showed higher curative activities against R. solani than validamycin·bacillus in vivo. In addition, the in vitro cytotoxicity results indicated that compound b possessed moderate cytotoxicity activity, and all citral-thiazolyl hydrazine derivatives exhibited lower or no cytotoxicity to the LO2 and HEK293 cell lines. In addition, the acute oral toxicity test showed that compound b had moderate toxicity (level II) with an LD50 value of 310 mg/kg bw (95% confidence limit 175-550 mg/kg bw). Finally, a preliminary action mechanism study showed that causing obvious malformation of mycelium and increasing cell membrane permeability are two of the potential mechanisms by which compound b exerts antifungal activity. The present work indicates that some of these derivatives may serve as novel potential fungicides, and compound b is expected to be the leading structure for the development of new antifungal agents.Androgen receptor (AR) has proved to be a vital drug target for treating prostate cancer. Here, we reported the discovery of a novel AR antagonist 92 targeting the AR ligand-binding pocket, but distinct from the marketed drug enzalutamide (Enz), 92 demonstrated inhibition on the AR ligand-binding domain (LBD) dimerization, which is a novel mechanism reported for the first time. First, a novel hit (26, IC50 = 5.57 μM) was identified through virtual screening based on a theoretical AR LBD dimer bound with the Enz model. Then, guided by molecular modeling, 92 was discovered with 32.7-fold improved AR antagonistic activity (IC50 = 0.17 μM). Besides showing high bioactivity and safety, 92 can inhibit AR nuclear translocation. Furthermore, 92 inhibited the formation of the AR LBD dimer, possibly through attenuating the hydrogen-bonding network between the two monomers. This interesting finding would pave the way for the discovery of a new class of AR antagonists.Here, we enhanced the popular yeast display method by multiple rounds of DNA and protein engineering. We introduced surface exposure-tailored reporters, eUnaG2 and DnbALFA, creating a new platform of C and N terminal fusion vectors. The optimization of eUnaG2 resulted in five times brighter fluorescence and 10 °C increased thermostability than UnaG. The optimized DnbALFA has 10-fold the level of expression of the starting protein. Following this, different plasmids were developed to create a complex platform allowing a broad range of protein expression organizations and labeling strategies. Our platform showed up to five times better separation between nonexpressing and expressing cells compared with traditional pCTcon2 and c-myc labeling, allowing for fewer rounds of selection and achieving higher binding affinities. Testing 16 different proteins, the enhanced system showed consistently stronger expression signals over c-myc labeling. In addition to gains in simplicity, speed, and cost-effectiveness, new applications were introduced to monitor protein surface exposure and protein retention in the secretion pathway that enabled successful protein engineering of hard-to-express proteins.