Role and Perspectives of Inflammation and C-Reactive Protein (CRP) in Psychosis: An Economic and Widespread Tool for Assessing the Disease

Schizophrenia is a major psychotic disorder affecting nearly 23.6 million people globally and greatly impacting the cognitive and social functioning of individuals. Multiple risk factors, including genetic, environmental, and epigenetic factors have been identified. However, the exact mechanism by which some factors aid in the development of schizophrenia is still uncertain. Acute and/or long-standing inflammation has been implicated as both a cause and effect of schizophrenia. Heightened immune responses have been documented in large cohorts of individuals with schizophrenia. While not completely known, multiple hypotheses, such as disruption of the blood–brain barrier, alterations in the kynurenine/tryptophan pathway, and increased microglial activation, have been presented to correlate inflammation with schizophrenic symptoms. Measurement of C-reactive protein (CRP) is a commonly performed and inexpensive test on patients’ serum to determine levels of systemic inflammation in the body. Multiple studies have reported an elevated CRP level in different stages of schizophrenia, indicating its potential to be used as a viable biomarker in the diagnosis and monitoring of schizophrenia along with assessing treatment response to conventional and non-conventional treatment regimens. This review aims to evaluate the role of inflammation, in general, and CRP, in particular, in the pathogenesis of schizophrenia and its potential significance in diagnostic, therapeutic, and preventative approaches towards schizophrenia and psychosis.     

Dysregulated Metabolic Pathways in Subjects with Obesity and Metabolic Syndrome

Background: Obesity coexists with variable features of metabolic syndrome, which is associated with dysregulated metabolic pathways. We assessed potential associations between serum metabolites and features of metabolic syndrome in Arabic subjects with obesity. Methods: We analyzed a dataset of 39 subjects with obesity only (OBO, n = 18) age-matched to subjects with obesity and metabolic syndrome (OBM, n = 21). We measured 1069 serum metabolites and correlated them to clinical features. Results: A total of 83 metabolites, mostly lipids, were significantly different (p < 0.05) between the two groups. Among lipids, 22 sphingomyelins were decreased in OBM compared to OBO. Among non-lipids, quinolinate, kynurenine, and tryptophan were also decreased in OBM compared to OBO. Sphingomyelin is negatively correlated with glucose, HbA1C, insulin, and triglycerides but positively correlated with HDL, LDL, and cholesterol. Differentially enriched pathways include lysine degradation, amino sugar and nucleotide sugar metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, fructose and mannose metabolism, and galactose metabolism. Conclusions: Metabolites and pathways associated with chronic inflammation are differentially expressed in subjects with obesity and metabolic syndrome compared to subjects with obesity but without the clinical features of metabolic syndrome.     

Source term evaluation for the upgraded LEU Pakistan Research Reactor-1 under severe accidents

Evaluation of source term has been carried out for the upgraded LEU PARR-I system taken as a typical material test reactor (MTR). The modeling and simulation of release of radioactivity has been carried out by developing a Matlab based computer program which uses the ORIGEN2 code for core inventory calculations. For post 180 full-power days continuous operation, various accident scenarios, with instantaneous release of radioactivity to containment, have been considered including the startup, fuel loading, and loss-of-coolant accidents. For noble gases, iodine and for aerosols, the release rate studies have been carried out for the normal, emergency and for the isolation states of containment. The values of source term as well as that of containment retention factor show rapid increase followed by an approach towards saturation values as the exhaust rate values are increased. The isotope-dependency of the containment retention factor has been studied and the results indicate strong sensitivity for ⁸⁵Kr, ¹³⁷Xe, ¹³⁸Xe and ¹³⁸Cs towards exhaust rate values.     

Family tree of Markov models in systems biology

Motivated by applications in systems biology, a probabilistic framework based on Markov processes is proposed to represent intracellular processes. The formal relationships between different stochastic models referred to in the systems biology literature are reviewed. As part of this review, a novel derivation of the differential Chapman-Kolmogorov equation for a general multidimensional Markov process made up of both continuous and jump processes, is presented. First, the definition of a time-derivative for a probability density is focused, but placing no restrictions on the probability distribution, in particular, it is not assumed to be to be confined to a region that has a surface (on which the probability is zero). In this derivation, the master equation gives the jump part of the Markov process and the Fokker-Planck equation gives the continuous part. As a result, a 'family tree' for stochastic models in systems biology is sketched, providing explicit derivations of their formal relationship and clarifying assumptions involved.     

GABA (γ-aminobutyric acid), a non-protein amino acid counters the β-adrenergic cascade-activated oncogenic signaling in pancreatic cancer: a review of experimental evidence

GABA is a bioactive constituent of fruits, vegetables, cereals and is believed to play a role in defense against stress in plants. In animals, it acts as an inhibitory neurotransmitter in brain while also expressed in non-neuronal cells. Studies have implicated the regulator of fight or flight stress responses, β-AR signaling cascade, as mediators of cancer growth and progression in in vitro and in vivo models of pancreatic malignancies. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer mortality in western countries. This malignancy is generally unresponsive to conventional radio- and chemotherapy, resulting in mortality rate near 100% within 6 months of diagnosis. We review a series of experiments from our laboratory and those of others examining the contribution of this signaling network to pancreatic and other human malignancies. Stimulation of the β-adrenergic receptor by lifestyle and environmental factors, as well as a pre-existing risk of neoplasm, activates downstream effector molecules that lead to pro-oncogenic signaling and thereby aid cancer growth. GABAergic signaling mediated by the serpentine receptor GABA(B) acts as an antagonist to β-adrenergic cascade by intercepting adenylyl cyclase. These evidences enhance the pharmacological value of human diets rich in GABA for use as an adjuvant to standard therapies.     

Facile Synthesis of Fe3O4−SiO2 Nanocomposites for Wastewater Treatment

Water constitutes ≈70–90% of the organism's body by mass and is highly important for its survival. Water contains a variety of chemical contaminants introduced by various sectors, resulting in contamination that has a direct impact on the ecosystem. Various approaches are in practice to tackle these issues. Among these, semiconductor photocatalysis appears to be the cutting-edge technology for the degradation of wastewater contaminants. Herein, the fabrication of Fe₃O₄−SiO₂ nanocomposite via facile co-precipitation and Stober methods are reported. Various characterization techniques are employed for the structural elucidation, morphology, crystallinity, and stability of the as-prepared composite. The nanocomposite is employed in catalytic and photocatalytic applications toward the removal of methylene blue (MB) and methyl orange (MO) dyes from a comparative perspective. It is observed that the composite can remove about 93% of MB and 51% of MO within 7 and 6 h, respectively. These findings indicate that the nanocomposite has a higher MB removal effectiveness than the MO. This trend can be accredited to the difference in the chemical structure of both dyes. The nanocomposite is also evaluated for antioxidant and antileishmanial activity, and it is shown to be quite effective even at very low concentrations.     

Miniaturized modified circular patch monopole antenna on ceramic-polytetrafluroethylene composite material substrate

A 0.22λ×0.29λ×0.03λ miniaturized modified circular patch monopole antenna on high permittivity ceramic-Polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) composite material substrate is presented. The proposed antenna is designed and investigated using 3D full wave high frequency electromagnetic simulator and fabricated using printed circuit board (PCB) prototyping machine. Impedance bandwidths (Reflection coefficient <?10 dB) of 26.76 % (5.0–6.3 GHz), 5.3 % (9.1–9.6 GHz) and 3.6 % (10.7–11 GHz) have measured. Average gains of 0.9 dBi, 3.68 dBi and 3.63 dBi measured at first, second and third band correspondingly. 87.3 %, 88.5 % and 93.1 % radiation efficiencies have achieved at three resonant frequencies 5.6 GHz, 9.5 GHz and 10.9 GHz respectively. The measured symmetric and nearly consistent radiation pattern makes the proposed antenna suitable for C band and X band applications. In this letter, the effects of dielectric properties of substrate material and design parameters have studied.     

A novel AE source localization method using clustering detection to eliminate abnormal arrivals

Due to the significant effect of abnormal arrivals on localization accuracy, a novel acoustic emission (AE) source localization method using clustering detection to eliminate abnormal arrivals is proposed in the paper. Firstly, iterative weight estimation is utilized to obtain accurate equation residuals. Secondly, according to the distribution of equation residuals, clustering detection is used to identify and exclude abnormal arrivals. Thirdly, the AE source coordinate is recalculated with remaining normal arrivals. Experimental results of pencil-lead breaks indicate that the proposed method can achieve a better localization result with and without abnormal arrivals. The results of simulation tests further demonstrate that the proposed method possesses higher localization accuracy and robustness under different anomaly ratios and scales; even with abnormal arrivals as high as 30%, the proposed localization method still holds a correct detection rate of 91.85%.     

A potential electrolyte (Ce1-x CaxO2-δ) for fuel cells:Theoretical and experimental study

First-principles calculations are performed using density function theory to explore the effects of dopant Ca in ceria (Ce_1-xCa_xO_2-δ). The impact of oxygen vacancy on band gap and density of states is examined in doped ceria using generalized gradient approximations. Vacancy association and vacancy formation energies of the doped ceria are calculated to reveal the effect of dopant on ion conduction. The experimental study of the sample (Ce_0.875Ca_0.125O_2-δ) was performed to compare with the theoretical results. The obtained results from theoretical calculation and experimental techniques show that oxygen vacancy increases the volume, lattice constant (5.47315?Å) but decrease the band gap (1.72?eV) and bulk modulus. The dopant radius (1.173?Å) and lattice constant (5.4718?Å) are also calculated by equations which is close to the DFT lattice parameter. The result shows that oxygen vacancy shifts the density of states to lower energy region. Band gap is decreased due to shifting of valence states to conduction band. Vacancy formation shows a significance increase in density of states near the Fermi level. Density of states at Fermi level is proportional to the conductivity, so an increase in density of states near the Fermi level increases the conductivity. The experimental measured ionic conductivity is found to 0.095?S?cm^?1 at 600?°C. The microstructural studies is also reported in this work.