A systematic review of digital interventions for smoking cessation in patients with serious mental illness.

Tobacco smoking is highly prevalent among patients with serious mental illness (SMI), with known deleterious consequences. Smoking cessation is therefore a prioritary public health challenge in SMI. In recent years, several smoking cessation digital interventions have been developed for non-clinical populations. However, their impact in patients with SMI remains uncertain. We conducted a systematic review to describe and evaluate effectiveness, acceptability, adherence, usability and safety of digital interventions for smoking cessation in patients with SMI. PubMed/MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, Web of Science, PsychINFO and the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialized Register were searched. Studies matching inclusion criteria were included and their information systematically extracted by independent investigators. Thirteen articles were included, which reported data on nine different digital interventions. Intervention theoretical approaches ranged from mobile contingency management to mindfulness. Outcome measures varied widely between studies. The highest abstinence rates were found for mSMART MIND (7-day point-prevalent abstinence: 16-40%). Let's Talk About Quitting Smoking reported greater acceptability ratings, although this was not evaluated with standardized measures. Regarding usability, Learn to Quit showed the highest System Usability Scale scores [mean (s.d.) 85.2 (15.5)]. Adverse events were rare and not systematically reported. Overall, the quality of the studies was fair to good. Digitally delivered health interventions for smoking cessation show promise for improving outcomes for patients with SMI, but lack of availability remains a concern. Larger trials with harmonized assessment measures are needed to generate more definitive evidence and specific recommendations.

Hermetic SuperGrain bags for controlling storage losses caused by Callosobruchus maculatus Fabricius (Coleoptera: Bruchinae) in stored mung bean (Vigna radiata).

Mung bean is highly susceptible to insect attack during storage. Hermetic storage is an effective technique to control insect damage. This study investigated the potential of the hermetic SuperGrain bag (SGB) for controlling bruchids during storage. The dry samples were packed in SGB infested with adult bruchids (SGB-I), SGB natural field infested (SGB-N), woven polypropylene bags (WPP-I and WPP-N) and kept at room temperature for 180 days. Oxygen (O2) and carbon dioxide (CO2) concentrations were measured at 15 days intervals. Moisture content, infestation level, seed damage and weight loss were determined at 60 days intervals. Seed colour, hardness, crude protein and fat contents were analysed before and after storage. The O2 level decreased to 10.09%, whereas the CO2 level increased to 8.87% in both SGB-I and SGB-N treatments. The moisture content of mung bean was maintained as onset storage in both SGB-N and SGB-I treatments, whereas reduced in WPP-N (9.26% db) and WPP-I (9.21% db). In SGB treatments, no significant bruchids were detected, but they increased drastically in WPP-N (52 ± 9) and WPP-I (377 ± 14). Seed damage (2-3%) and weight loss (0.8-1.0%) were recorded in both SGB-N and SGB-I. Conversely, seed damage reached 26.67 and 54.17%, corresponding to weight losses of 12.33 and 20.82% in WPP-N and WPP-I, respectively. Seed colour, hardness, crude protein and fat contents in SGBs showed no significant changes than in the WPP bags. The study illustrated that the SGB is an efficient hermetic device in protecting mung beans against bruchids attacks compared to the WPP bags.

Awareness of illness moderates self-assessment of psychotic symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Self-reports or patient-reported outcome measures are seldom used in psychosis due to concerns about the ability of patients to accurately report their symptomatology, particularly in cases of low awareness of illness. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of insight on the accuracy of self-reported psychotic symptoms using a computerized adaptive testing tool (CAT-Psychosis). METHODS: A secondary analysis of data drawn from the CAT-Psychosis development and validation study was performed. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale and the Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorders were administered by clinicians. Patients completed the self-reported version of the CAT-Psychosis. Patients were median-split regarding their insight level to compare the correlation between the two psychosis severity measures. A subgroup sensitivity analysis was performed only on patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders. RESULTS: A total of 159 patients with a psychotic disorder who completed both CAT-Psychosis and Scale of Unawareness of Mental Disorders were included. For the whole sample, CAT-Psychosis scores showed convergent validity with Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale ratings (r = 0.517, 95% confidence interval = [0.392, 0.622], p < 0.001). Insight was found to moderate this correlation (ß = -0.511, p = 0.005), yet agreement between both measures remained statistically significant for both high (r = 0.621, 95% confidence interval = [0.476, 0.733], p < 0.001) and low insight patients (r = 0.408, 95% confidence interval = [0.187, 0.589], p < 0.001), while psychosis severity was comparable between these groups (for Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale: U = 3057, z = -0.129, p = 0.897; disorganization: U = 2986.5, z = -0.274, p = 0.784 and for CAT-Psychosis: U = 2800.5, z = -1.022, p = 0.307). Subgroup of patients with schizophrenia spectrum disorders showed very similar results. CONCLUSIONS: Insight moderates the correlation between self-reported and clinician-rated severity of psychosis, yet CAT-Psychosis remains valid in patients with both high and low awareness of illness.

Influence of microwave drying on quality parameters of foamed Nagpur Mandarin (Citrus reticulata) juice.

In the world of industrial drying processes, foam mat microwave drying is a significant and valuable approach. Its advantages include increased drying effectiveness, preservation of product quality, energy and cost savings, flexibility in application, and improved safety. Development of Nagpur mandarin juice powder is tedious and time-consuming due to its bitter test and less total soluble solid, therefore the present research carried out with the process parameters for microwave drying include microwave power levels (180, 360, 540, 720, and 900 W) and drying bed thicknesses (2, 4, and 6 mm). Foamed juice is produced using soy protein isolate (2.10 %), GMS (2.75 %), CMC (1.75 %), and sugar (5.10 %), with whipping times of 8 min. Additional foaming agents include guar gum (0.45 %), soy protein isolate (3.30 %), and sugar (10 %) with whipping times of 6 min. The optimal conditions for drying Nagpur mandarin juice were determined through analysis using Design-Expert 11.0.4.1 software. These conditions include 540 W of microwave power, a drying bed thickness of 3 mm, and the use of a foaming agent comprising 2.10 % soy protein isolate, 2.75 % GMS, 1.75 % CMC, and 5.10 % sugar, with an 8-min whipping period. Under these optimized conditions, the resulting powder exhibited the following characteristics: color b value of 19.59, ΔE (change in color) of 6.24, acidity of 0.40 %, ascorbic acid content of 36.64 mg/100 g, water activity of 0.26, drying time (in minutes), and overall acceptability rating of 7.77. These findings highlight the effectiveness of the optimized process parameters in achieving desirable quality attributes for Nagpur mandarin juice powder production.

Psychological impact of COVID-19 Pandemic on dentists.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have an incessant out-turn on the people in every field in some or the other way. It has been reported that maximum number of deaths in the countries during this pandemic are caused due to a term called death anxiety or phobia. There are certain parameters such as anxiety, apprehension, depression which if influence a person can alter one's well-being. Objective: The steadfast intent of this review article is to narrate the psychological impact of this pandemic on dentists. The eloquence and emergence of this topic will alarm all the medicos and paramedics to have a check on this scenario. Methods: The article consists of detailed study from several articles from PubMed publications. Articles written only in English language were referred. Various keywords such as "Covid-19 pandemic" or "Psychological Impact" were used. Results: The Covid-19 Pandemic has adversely affected all of us physically as well as psychologically. This article signifies the psychological impact of this pandemic on dentists. Conclusion: The current studies that are carried out till date show an extensive impact on the psychology of the dental professionals. The following review article elaborates the importance of the same.

Effect of pandemic on DOTS treatment during COVID-19 lockdown- A cross-sectional study.

BACKGROUND: Tuberculosis (TB) is still the most common infectious disease globally, affecting 1.5 million people per year. Prior to COVID-19 outbreak, India was struggling with a rampant attack of Tuberculosis. With the surge of COVID-19 implementation of all national health programs including NTEP was disrupted. Prioritization of services, the challenges to reaching all types of communities and the role of stigmatization, and the possibility of increased disease transmission were few problems in the implementation of DOTS during the lockdown. AIM: To assess effect of pandemic on DOTS treatment during COVID-19 lockdown. METHODS: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 254 tuberculosis patients who were under DOTS during Covid-19 lockdown in Belagavi district. Participants who were on DOTS during 2019-2021 period. RESULT: Of 254 participants, only 5 (2.0%) were supervised while taking drugs, 67 (26.4%) of subject's empty blister packs were taken back by health personnel and 106 (41.7%) participants were regularly followed up for treatment by health department. The variables like gender, literacy status, socioeconomic status, and occupation were all significantly associated with hampered access to DOTS during the lockdown period at p < 0.05. CONCLUSION: This study concluded that the participants had hampered accessibilities to DOTS during lockdown.

A Digital Intervention Using Daily Financial Incentives to Increase Medication Adherence in Severe Mental Illness: Single-Arm Longitudinal Pilot Study.

BACKGROUND: Medication nonadherence is prevalent in severe mental illness and is associated with multiple negative outcomes. Mobile technology and financial incentives show promise to improve medication adherence; however, studies in mental health, especially with oral medications, are lacking. OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper is to assess the feasibility and effectiveness of offering financial incentives through a mobile app based on behavioral economics principles to improve medication adherence in severe mental illness. METHODS: A 10-week, single-arm longitudinal pilot study was conducted. Patients earned rewards in the context of app-based adherence incentives. The reward was split into biweekly payments made in increments of US $15, minus any US $2 per day penalties for missed check-ins. Time-varying effect modeling was used to summarize the patients' response during the study. RESULTS: A total of 25 patients were enrolled in this pilot study, of which 72% (n=18) were female, and 48% (n=12) were of a White racial background. Median age was 24 (Q1-Q3: 20.5-30) years. Participants were more frequently diagnosed with schizophrenia and related disorders (n=9, 36%), followed by major depressive disorder (n=8, 32%). App engagement and medication adherence in the first 2 weeks were higher than in the last 8 weeks of the study. At study endpoint, app engagement remained high (n=24, Z=-3.17; P<.001), but medication adherence was not different from baseline (n=24, Z=-0.59; P=.28). CONCLUSIONS: Financial incentives were effectively delivered using an app and led to high engagement throughout the study and a significantly increased medication adherence for 2 weeks. Leveraging behavioral economics and mobile health technology can increase medication adherence in the short term. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT04191876; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT04191876.

Psychological impact of Covid-19 pandemic on dentists.

Background: The Covid-19 pandemic seems to have an incessant out-turn on the people in every field in some or the other way. It has been reported that maximum number of deaths in the countries during this pandemic are caused due to a term called death anxiety or phobia. There are certain parameters such as anxiety, apprehension, depression which if influence a person can alter one's well-being. Objective: The steadfast intent of this review article is to narrate the psychological impact of this pandemic on dentists. The eloquence and emergence of this topic will alarm all the medicos and paramedics to have a check on this scenario. Methods: The article consists of detailed study from several articles from PubMed publications. Articles written only in English language were referred. Various keywords such as "Covid-19 pandemic" or "Psychological Impact" were used. Results: The Covid-19 Pandemic has adversely affected all of us physically as well as psychologically. This article signifies the psychological impact of this pandemic on dentists. Conclusion: The current studies that are carried out till date show an extensive impact on the psychology of the dental professionals. The following review article elaborates the importance of the same.

Development and Validation of a Computerized Adaptive Assessment Tool for Discrimination and Measurement of Psychotic Symptoms.

OBJECTIVE: Time constraints limit the use of measurement-based approaches in research and routine clinical management of psychosis. Computerized adaptive testing (CAT) can reduce administration time, thus increasing measurement efficiency. This study aimed to develop and test the capacity of the CAT-Psychosis battery, both self-administered and rater-administered, to measure the severity of psychotic symptoms and discriminate psychosis from healthy controls. METHODS: An item bank was developed and calibrated. Two raters administered CAT-Psychosis for inter-rater reliability (IRR). Subjects rated themselves and were retested within 7 days for test-retest reliability. The Brief Psychiatric Rating Scale (BPRS) was administered for convergent validity and chart diagnosis, and the Structured Clinical Interview (SCID) was used to test psychosis discriminant validity. RESULTS: Development and calibration study included 649 psychotic patients. Simulations revealed a correlation of r = .92 with the total 73-item bank score, using an average of 12 items. Validation study included 160 additional patients and 40 healthy controls. CAT-Psychosis showed convergent validity (clinician: r = 0.690; 95% confidence interval [95% CI]: 0.610-0.757; self-report: r = .690; 95% CI: 0.609-0.756), IRR (intraclass correlation coefficient [ICC] = 0.733; 95% CI: 0.611-0.828), and test-retest reliability (clinician ICC = 0.862; 95% CI: 0.767-0.922; self-report ICC = 0.815; 95%CI: 0.741-0.871). CAT-Psychosis could discriminate psychosis from healthy controls (clinician: area under the receiver operating characteristic curve [AUC] = 0.965, 95% CI: 0.945-0.984; self-report AUC = 0.850, 95% CI: 0.807-0.894). The median length of the clinician-administered assessment was 5 minutes (interquartile range [IQR]: 3:23-8:29 min) and 1 minute, 20 seconds (IQR: 0:57-2:09 min) for the self-report. CONCLUSION: CAT-Psychosis can quickly and reliably assess the severity of psychosis and discriminate psychotic patients from healthy controls, creating an opportunity for frequent remote assessment and patient/population-level follow-up.

Strains of Sarcocystis neurona exhibit differences in their surface antigens, including the absence of the major surface antigen SnSAG1.

A gene family of surface antigens is expressed by merozoites of Sarcocystis neurona, the primary cause of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM). These surface proteins, designated SnSAGs, are immunodominant and therefore excellent candidates for development of EPM diagnostics or vaccines. Prior work had identified an EPM isolate lacking the major surface antigen SnSAG1, thus suggesting there may be some diversity in the SnSAGs expressed by different S. neurona isolates. Therefore, a bioinformatic, molecular and immunological study was conducted to assess conservation of the SnSAGs. Examination of an expressed sequence tag (EST) database revealed several notable SnSAG polymorphisms. In particular, the EST information implied that the EPM strain SN4 lacked the major surface antigen SnSAG1. The absence of this surface antigen from the SN4 strain was confirmed by both Western blot and Southern blot. To evaluate SnSAG polymorphisms in the S. neurona population, 14 strains were examined by Western blots using monospecific polyclonal antibodies against the four described SnSAGs. The results of these analyses demonstrated that SnSAG2, SnSAG3, and SnSAG4 are present in all 14 S. neurona strains tested, although some variance in SnSAG4 was observed. Importantly, SnSAG1 was not detected in seven of the strains, which included isolates from four cases of EPM and a case of fatal meningoencephalitis in a sea otter. Genetic analyses by PCR using gene-specific primers confirmed the absence of the SnSAG1 locus in six of these seven strains. Collectively, the data indicated that there is heterogeneity in the surface antigen composition of different S. neurona isolates, which is an important consideration for development of serological tests and prospective vaccines for EPM. Furthermore, the diversity reported herein likely extends to other phenotypes, such as strain virulence, and may have implications for the phylogeny of the various Sarcocystis spp. that undergo sexual stages of their life cycle in opossums.

Velar morphological variants in oral submucous fibrosis: A comparative digital cephalometric study.

CONTEXT: Soft palate (velar) plays a significant role in various important functions in the head and neck region. Its diverse morphology is implicated in a variety of diseases. Knowledge about the varied morphological pattern of soft palate in oral submucous fibrosis (OSMF) patients can give us a clear understanding about disease progress in the oropharyngeal region for a proper diagnosis and also help the maxillofacial surgeon in successful structural and functional corrections associated with this disorder. AIM: (1) To evaluate the morphological variations of soft palate in OSMF patients using digital lateral cephalogram. (2) To assess the morphological variations of soft palate with respect to the different clinical stages of OSMF patients. SUBJECTS AND METHODS: A total number of 300 patients were included in the study (150 participants each in study and control group), evaluated clinically, and subjected for digital lateral cephalogram for evaluating velar morphological variants. STATISTICAL ANALYSIS: The data were statistically evaluated using SPSS 11.5 software with Student's t-test, Chi-square test, and ANOVA. RESULTS: Among Group I, 34 participants had Stage I OSMF, 90 participants had Stage II OSMF, and 26 participants had Stage III OSMF. Type I velar was commonly seen in Stage I OSMF, Type VI velar in Stage II OSMF, and Type III velar in Stage III OSMF. There was statistically highly significant decrease in anterior-posterior (AP) length and increase in width of superior-inferior (SI) measurement, as compared to the Group II. CONCLUSION: There was diminution in AP length and increase in SI measurement as the OSMF disease progressed.

Evaluation of serum uric acid levels in patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma.

BACKGROUND: Worldwide, oral carcinoma is one of the most prevalent cancers and is one of the most common causes of death. Toxicity by oxygen radicals has been suggested as an important cause of cancer. Several researchers have reported an association of plasma/serum uric acid with different cancers. AIM: The aim was to determine the serum uric acid level in patients with newly diagnosed oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) and then to compare and correlate it with those of normal subjects and also to determine the role of uric acid in the etiology of OSCC. MATERIALS AND METHODS: The study group included 41 OSCC patients and 40 age- and sex- matched healthy subjects as a control group. Estimation of serum urate concentration was determined enzymatically with a commercially available reagent. The data were statistically evaluated with Student's t-test and Chi-square test using SPSS 11.5 software. RESULTS: The mean serum uric acid levels were very low with the study group as compared to control group and were very highly significant (t = 4.14, P < 0.001). It was also found that risk of OSCC was more in a study group with low serum uric acid levels with tobacco intake. CONCLUSION: This study showed that serum uric acid was lower in oral cancer patients compared with healthy volunteers and low serum uric acid was associated with increased risk of oral cancer development.

Lead nitrate induced unallied expression of liver and kidney functions in male albino rats.

To determine the effects of lead where lead accumulates maximum (liver followed by kidney), liver and kidney functions were studied using low oral dose of lead nitrate for prolonged duration. Dose of 20 mg lead nitrate/kg body wt/day was used in male albino rats. AST and ALT levels altered independently. When ALT remained unaltered after 7 and 21 days of treatment, it is decreased by 13.21% after 14 days treatment. AST was marginally lowered after 7 days, increased after 14 days and increased marginally after 21 days. Bilirubin (conjugated, unconjugated and total) decreased after 7 and 14 days and increased after 21 days. Urea increase was directly proportional to duration. Creatinine remained unaltered.