Suchergebnisse

Treatment resistant schizophrenia (TRS) is a severely disabling disorder, which decreases dramatically the quality of life and overall functionality, while it increases the rate of hospital admissions and overall healthcare costs. The main objective of this research was to evaluate the risk factors for TRS in a group of patients based on a retrospective analysis. The secondary objective was to design an algorithm for initial evaluation in patients with schizophrenia, in order to detect the candidates at risk for developing TRS. Medical charts and consultation records of all patients aged between 18 and 30, diagnosed with TRS, evaluated during 1-year in our department, were selected for analysis. The most significant risk factors for TRS found in univariate model were younger age at schizophrenia onset, male gender, living in rural areas, co-morbid drug dependence, lower therapeutic adherence, and premorbid personality disorder. Marginally significant were higher Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) scores at previous admissions, higher scores on PANSS negative symptoms sub-scale, and lower educational background. In the multivariate model, TRS was still significantly predicted.

Source at http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.1415371. ; There has been increasing concern recently in ensuring that public funding for science and innovation creates truly public benefits. This has emerged at a time of an uneasy feeling emerging in society that it is private corporations and patent holders that reap the rewards, particularly in new drugs which may be generally unaffordable despite being 'discovered' by public funding (Gronde et al., 2017). Barry Bozeman's work about public value failure highlights the sense that 'the public voice' has been suppressed in scientific decision-making primarily oriented towards delivering technological advances (Bozeman, 2002). Indeed, contemporary world's complexity makes it hard for researchers working on narrow technologically focused questions can comprehend how their results will be used once their ideas have left the laboratory. This raises the question of whether funding can function as a governance instrument to encourage this wider reflective practice, to ensure that scientists take all reasonable measures to use their privileged positions to benefit society?

Computational fluid and particle dynamics simulations (CFPD) are of paramount importance for studying and improving drug effectiveness. Computational requirements of CFPD codes involves high-performance computing (HPC) resources. For these reasons we introduce and evaluate in this paper system software techniques for improving performance and tolerate load imbalance on a state-of-the-art production CFPD code. We demonstrate benefits of these techniques on both Intel- and Arm-based HPC clusters showing the importance of using mechanisms applied at runtime to improve the performance independently of the underlying architecture. We run a real CFPD simulation of particle tracking on the human respiratory system, showing performance improvements of up to 2X, keeping the computational resources constant. ; This work is partially supported by the Spanish Government (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project (TIN2015-65316-P), by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-1414), and by the European Mont-Blanc projects (288777, 610402 and 671697). ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (author's final draft)

Computational fluid and particle dynamics simulations (CFPD) are of paramount importance for studying and improving drug effectiveness. Computational requirements of CFPD codes involves high-performance computing (HPC) resources. For these reasons we introduce and evaluate in this paper system software techniques for improving performance and tolerate load imbalance on a state-of-the-art production CFPD code. We demonstrate benefits of these techniques on both Intel- and Arm-based HPC clusters showing the importance of using mechanisms applied at runtime to improve the performance independently of the underlying architecture. We run a real CFPD simulation of particle tracking on the human respiratory system, showing performance improvements of up to 2X, keeping the computational resources constant. ; This work is partially supported by the Spanish Government (SEV-2015-0493), by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Technology project (TIN2015-65316-P), by the Generalitat de Catalunya (2017-SGR-1414), and by the European Mont-Blanc projects (288777, 610402 and 671697). ; Peer Reviewed ; Postprint (author's final draft)

Phenolic derivatives are among the most important contaminants present in the environment. These compounds are used in several industrial processes to manufacture chemicals such as pesticides, explosives, drugs and dyes. They also are used in the bleaching process of paper manufacturing. Apart from these sources, phenolic compounds have substantial applications in agriculture as herbicides, insecticides and fungicides.\nHowever, phenolic compounds are not only generated by human activity, but they are also formed naturally, e.g., during the decomposition of leaves or wood. As a result of these applications, they are found in soils and sediments and this often leads to wastewater and ground water contamination. Owing to their high toxicity and persistence in the environment, both, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the European Union have included some of them in their lists of priority pollutants.Current standard methods of phenolic compounds analysis in water samples are based on liquid–liquid extraction (LLE) while Soxhlet extraction is the most used technique for isolating phenols from solid matrices. ; 320 ; 298 ; 1,738 ; Q3

In recent years, thanks to the progress of electronics and computing, it is possible to process a large volume of clinical data. As a result of this scenario, real world data (RWD) are gaining enormous relevance. RWD are the data, whose origin is the usual clinical practice, used to make medical decisions about drugs or medical practice. This research is aimed to study the current situation of RWD in Spain. To achieve this objective, we have assessed the data sources on which these are fed. We have also analyzed the main publications based on RWD. Our findings are: firstly, both records and databases as well as medical histories have a high level of computerization and have also a great deal of information to be used for research; and secondly, the scientific studies carried out are of a great quality, but society is not aware of the importance RWD have and there is discoordination between the Autonomies and the Government. Keywords: RWD, clinical data, medical decisions, practical decisions, medical histories

Cannabis legalization is coming to Canada in 2018. The Liberal government in Canada has promised to follow through on their campaign policy of legalizing cannabis after seeing a strong demand from the public for a change in drug laws. The troubling reality is that it has taken the Canadian government a suspiciously long time to draft legislation that continues to operate off an ambiguous, speculative, and unsubstantiated framework. The present paper argues that CBC and CTV News are agenda setting outlets in the context of cannabis legalization in Canada. To understand our moral order, this paper explores the media representation of laws, rules, and regulations being drafted and the research being conducted for cannabis legalization. The proposed legislation excludes critical information every Canadian citizen needs to know about the cannabis hemp plant, information that empowers the public, discredits the government's discourse on cannabis, and threatens the agendas of many corporations and industries. ; Not peer reviewed ; Cannabis hemp, cannabis, corporatization, villainization, risk, evidence, legalization, Canada

Racial Passages: Central American Migrants and the Condition of Non-Belonging examines the link between U.S. hemispheric dominance and Mexican settler-colonial power. Through an examination of the lives and experiences of Central American migrants, I demonstrate that the exploitation and policing of Central American subjects by Mexican state agents reinforces and furthers the U.S.'s imperial, political, and economic reach Mexico's southern border, simultaneously facilitating the Mexican nation-state's enforcement of its own physical and discursive borders. The collusion between the U.S. and Mexican governments in their respective and shared wars on drugs and terror results in dire consequences for displaced Central Americans. Rooted within the intellectual genealogies of decolonial epistemologies and anti-imperial social movements focused on the relation between US imperialism and Mexican, as well as Central American, colonial nation-building practices, Racial Passages maps the discursive and physical violence on Central American populations, highlighting historical continuities of colonial systems that produce hyper-vulnerable Central American subjects outside of space and time.

This essay reviews the following works:In Harm's Way: the Dynamics of Urban Violence. By Javier Auyero and María Fernanda Berti. Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2015. Pp. xi + 239. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 9780691164779.Violence at the Urban Margins. Edited by Javier Auyero, Philippe Bourgois, and Nancy Scheper-Hughes. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Pp. vii + 323. $24.95 paper. ISBN: 9780190221454.Bruno: Conversations with a Brazilian Drug Dealer. By Robert Gay. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2015. Pp. ix + 219. $23.95 paper. ISBN: 9780822358497.The Spectacular Favela: Violence in Modern Brazil. By Erika Robb Larkins. Oakland: University of California Press, 2015. Pp. xi + 231. $29.95 paper. ISBN: 9780520282773.Cities, Business, and the Politics of Urban Violence in Latin America. By Eduardo Moncada. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press, 2016. Pp. vii + 219. $65.00 cloth. ISBN: 9780804794176.Living with Insecurity in a Brazilian Favela: Urban Violence and Daily Life. By R. Ben Penglase. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press. 2014. Pp. ix + 197. $26.95 paper. ISBN: 9780813565439.

Pharmacy services are one of the health services in hospitals that are expected to meet minimum service standards. So that one way to meet minimum service standards is to adjust the accuracy of pharmaceutical services with minimum service standards set by the government. The waiting time for concoction services is the time for patients to submit their prescriptions to receive concoction drugs with a minimum standard set of ≤ 60 minutes. The purpose of this study was to find out the factors that caused the length of prescription services for BPJS poly pediatric concoctions at the Medika Dramaga Hospital, Bogor. This research is a survey research using a quantitative approach and supported by qualitative. The results showed that the average waiting time for concoction prescription services at the Dramaga Medika Hospital in Bogor with a sample of 134 sheets of pediatrician's prescription concoction of 62.29 minutes consisted of: powder, capsules, syrup and ointment. This has not fulfilled the Decree of the Minister of Health No.129 / Menkes / SK / II / 2008.

Blinatumomab is the first-and-only Food and Drug Administration (FDA)-approved cluster of differentiation (CD) 19-directed CD3 bispecific T-cell engager (BiTE(®)) immunotherapy. It is currently FDA approved for the treatment of adults and children with Philadelphia chromosome-positive (Ph+) and Philadelphia chromosome-negative (Ph−) relapsed/refractory (R/R) B-cell precursor acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL) and B-cell precursor ALL with minimal residual disease. Similarly, initial marketing authorization for blinatumomab in the European Union was granted for the treatment of adults with Ph− R/R B-cell precursor ALL. The benefits of treating R/R B-cell precursor ALL patients with blinatumomab include increased overall survival, more favorable hematologic remission and molecular response rates, and a lower incidence rate of selected adverse events when compared with standard-of-care chemotherapy. The key risks associated with blinatumomab treatment include cytokine release syndrome, neurotoxicity, and medication errors. Here, we review the benefits and risks of blinatumomab treatment and describe how these risks can be mitigated.

Biosimilar products are already approved and marketed in several countries. The Food and Drug Administration has approved ten different biosimilars, and the European Medicines Agency has approved 40. Even though this scenario has provided important experience with biosimilar products, there are still challenges and unanswered questions. Up to now, a good amount of knowledge has been gathered in order to support the importance of the totality of evidence and the construction of a biosimilarity exercise for regulatory approval. In addition, the extrapolation of indications has been proved viable when a careful analysis is performed. The models for clinical trials and the use of the most sensible populations have been extensively discussed, and there is apparent homogeneity in manufacturer choices for study designs. However, some challenges remain. The lack of regulatory harmony, especially concerning naming, the marketed intended copies, the interchangeability, and the biosimilars in orphan diseases are some of those and are the focus of discussion in this review.

The Ending Eclampsia Project seeks to increase access to quality, underutilized interventions and commodities for the prevention, detection, and management of pre-eclampsia and eclampsia (PE/E), including promoting correct use of antihypertensive drugs and magnesium sulphate (MgSO4). This final report details the findings of a qualitative study that explored health system bottlenecks that prevent access to quality maternal and newborn health care in two Kenyan counties, Kakamega and Kitui, with a specific focus on PE/E. The study explored policy implementation gaps in Kenya's newly devolved county government structure, to:1) assess the policy and health system environment for PE/E diagnosis, referral, and treatment, including potential supply-chain bottlenecks, 2) investigate similarities and differences in PE/E knowledge, attitudes, and care-seeking behaviors among providers, women, and community members, and 3) generate lessons for scaling up proven underutilized PE/E interventions more effectively. A desk review of relevant Kenyan policies was conducted in addition to eight focus group discussions and 114 in-depth interviews with policymakers and program implementers.

India, like many developing countries, only recently began to grant pharmaceutical product patents. Indian patent law includes a provision, Section 3(d), which tries to limit grant of "secondary" pharmaceutical patents, i.e. patents on new forms of existing molecules and drugs. Previous research suggests the provision was rarely used against secondary applications in the years immediately following its enactment, and where it was, was redundant to other aspects of the patent law, raising concerns that 3(d) was being under-utilized by the Indian Patent Office. This paper uses a novel data source, the patent office's first examination reports, to examine changes in the use of the provision. We find a sharp increase over time in the use of Section 3(d), including on the main claims of patent applications, though it continues to be used in conjunction with other types of objections to patentability. More surprisingly, see a sharp increase in the use of the provision against primary patent applications, contrary to its intent, raising concerns about potential over-utilization.

Homelessness is a global burden. It is estimated that 100 million people are homeless worldwide according to United Nation estimates in the year of 2005. It is a major issue in developing nation such as India. The 2011 census counts there are 449,761 houseless households/ families and 17,73,040 homeless people in India - 52.9 % in urban areas, and 47.1% in rural areas. Homelessnesss is multifactorial in origin. Some of common reasons are poverty, drug addiction, natural disaster and war, family problem and unemployment. Homeless people are very fragile, physically and mentally, they prone to victim of physical and social assault. We need to recognize homelessness as a major public health problem and attempt to target this group for special care in order to promote equity in health system as part of Sustainable Development Goals. The Government should undertake physical upgradation of informal settlements including different types of slum areas; unidentified, identified, recognised, notified and unauthorised housing accompanied by the providing access to roads and basic amenities like electricity, water supply and sanitation.