• Kok Hatcher posted an update 7 hours, 7 minutes ago

    After one-year storage, the content of lime oil in the films decreased, causing a reduction of the antimicrobial activity of the materials produced. However, the films still possessed antibacterial activity against S. aureus 6538P.Background and objectives multiple sclerosis (MS) is a chronic demyelinating disorder of the CNS with a variable course and disability progression. The latter may be prevented with disease-modifying therapy (DMT). Initial misdiagnosis may postpone the use of DMT. There are no studies to explore whether initial misdiagnosis is indeed associated with a higher rate of reaching disability in MS patients. We aimed to investigate the association between initial misdiagnosis and reaching disability milestones in relapsing-remitting MS (RR-MS) patients. Materials and methods Data from 128 RR-MS patients were retrospectively reviewed. EDSS 4 and EDSS 6 were chosen as disability milestones as those associated with a significant decrease in ambulation. Survival analysis was used, and Kaplan-Meier curves were generated to investigate how initial misdiagnosis affects reaching the defined milestones. Results 53 patients (41.4%, 31 females, 22 males) were initially misdiagnosed. Initially misdiagnosed patients had a lesser risk of reaching EDSS 4 up to 11 years and EDSS 6 up to 22 years from the onset than non-misdiagnosed patients (p = 0.22 and p = 0.25 correspondingly). Median time to reaching EDSS 4 and 6 was eight years (95% CI 0.0-17.6) and 10 years (95% CI 4.25-20.75) in misdiagnosed and three years (95% CI 0.0-20.0 years) and five years (95% CI 0.0-13.73 years) in non-misdiagnosed patients correspondingly. Conclusions Initially misdiagnosed RR-MS patients tended to reach disability milestones later than non-misdiagnosed ones, which might reflect an intrinsically milder disease. Individuals presenting with mild or non-specific symptoms suspicious of MS, must be deliberately managed.In Western populations, the caffeine intake of young adults has received significant attention in the research literature; our knowledge in other societies remained limited. The objective of this research is to quantify the amount of ingested caffeine and how this is related to measures of physical and mental health in a Bahraini population. A semi-quantitative food frequency questionnaire was used to estimate caffeine intake from coffee, tea, cocoa, soft drinks, energy drinks, chocolates, and over-the-counter medications. Associations between caffeine intake, demographic variables and 25 symptoms measured using the Hopkins Symptoms Checklist-25 were examined. A convenience sample of university students in Bahrain (n = 727) was surveyed. Caffeine, in any form, was consumed by 98% of students. Mean daily caffeine consumption was 268 mg/day, with males consuming more than females. Coffee was the main source of caffeine intake, followed by black tea and energy drinks. Participants consuming 400 mg/day or more showed a statistically and significantly twice as high risk for five symptoms, these were headaches, spells of terror or panic, feeling trapped or caught, worrying too much about things, and having feelings of worthlessness. The prevalence of caffeine intake among university students in Bahrain is high. The overall mean intake of caffeine from all sources by university students was within levels considered to be acceptable by many dietary recommendations. High caffeine intake was associated with an anxiogenic effect in the surveyed students.The Euganean Thermal District (Italy) represents the oldest and largest thermal center in Europe, and its therapeutic mud is considered a unique product whose beneficial effects have been documented since Ancient Roman times. Mud properties depend on the heat and electrolytes of the thermal water, as well as on the bioactive molecules produced by its biotic component, mainly represented by cyanobacteria. The investigation of the healing effects of compounds produced by the Euganean cyanobacteria represents an important goal for scientific validation of Euganean mud therapies and for the discovering of new health beneficial biomolecules. In this work, we evaluated the therapeutic potential of exopolysaccharides (EPS) produced by Phormidium sp. ETS05, the most abundant cyanobacterium of the Euganean mud. find more Specifically, Phormidium EPS resulted in exerting anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution activities in chemical and injury-induced zebrafish inflammation models as demonstrated using specific transgenic zebrafish lines and morphometric and expression analyses. Moreover, in vivo and in vitro tests showed no toxicity at all for the EPS concentrations tested. The results suggest that these EPS, with their combined anti-inflammatory and pro-resolution activities, could be one of the most important therapeutic molecules present in the Euganean mud and confirm the potential of these treatments for chronic inflammatory disease recovery.Personality has been hypothesized to act as antecedent as well as an outcome of workplace bullying. Still, investigations on the longitudinal relationship between bullying and personality are scarce. We investigated the relationship between accumulated exposure to bullying at work and subsequent changes in psychological hardiness. Additionally, we examined whether hardiness predicted subsequent exposure to bullying. The data were based on the Survey of Shiftwork, Sleep, and Health (SUSSH), a cohort study with annual surveys among Norwegian nurses. The participants who completed standardized instruments measuring exposure to bullying behavior at T1 (2008/09) to T4 (2012) and psychological hardiness at T1 (2008/09) and T5 (2012) were included (n = 938). The results showed that accumulated exposure to bullying (sum of exposure from T1-T4) was associated with reduced psychological hardiness at T5, adjusted for age, sex, and hardiness at baseline (β = -0.16, t = -5.70, p less then 0.001). Accumulated exposure to bullying behaviors explained 2.3% of the change in hardiness. Less hardy individuals experienced higher levels of subsequent exposure to bullying behaviors, adjusted for age, sex, and bullying at baseline (β = -0.04, t = -2.21 p less then 0.05). Long-term accumulated exposure to bullying behaviors seemed to be a stronger predictor for changes in hardiness as compared to hardiness in predicting exposure to bullying.