Relationships Between Depressive Symptoms, Other Psychological Symptoms, and Quality of Life.

Depressive disorders are common, heterogeneous conditions involving physical and psychological symptoms, and substantial impairment in quality of life (QoL). However, relationships between depressive symptoms and QoL are poorly understood, and little research has directly compared relationships between subtypes of depressive symptoms, other psychological symptoms and QoL. This research aimed to examine how symptoms of depression and other mental health conditions are related to QoL. Participants (N=559) completed the World Health Organization Quality of Life - BREF questionnaire, demographic information, the Brief Symptom Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory II, and the Depression, Anxiety and Stress Scales. Relationships between psychological symptoms and QoL were assessed using correlations and linear multiple regressions. QoL was inversely related to all types of psychopathology. Depressive symptoms were the strongest predictors of lower overall QoL. Both somatic and psychological depressive symptoms negatively predicted QoL, with somatic symptoms being stronger predictors. Conclusions: While many types of psychological symptoms were negatively correlated with QoL, depressive symptoms, particularly somatic symptoms, were the strongest predictors of impaired QoL. These findings provide new information about specific relationships between symptom profiles and QoL which may lead to greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms and to improved interventions.

Cortisol, oxytocin, and quality of life in major depressive disorder.

PURPOSE: Quality of life (QoL) is greatly impaired in major depressive disorder (MDD). These impairments are not fully accounted for by symptom severity, may persist beyond depressive episodes, and are a risk factor for poor outcomes. MDD is often associated with prominent neuroendocrine changes and increased risk of chronic disease. However, there is a lack of research examining whether biological factors are related to QoL in MDD. This research examined relationships between cortisol, oxytocin, symptom severity, and QoL in MDD. METHODS: Sixty adults meeting DSM-5 criteria for MDD and 60 healthy controls provided morning plasma samples which were analysed for cortisol and oxytocin levels, and completed measures of QoL and psychopathology. RESULTS: Participants with MDD had lower QoL than controls. Cortisol correlated negatively with overall QoL and all QoL domains. Oxytocin correlated positively with overall QoL, and Psychological and Social-Relationships domains. Additionally, cortisol levels were inversely related to psychological QoL, and oxytocin was positively related to social QoL, after controlling for symptom severity and demographic variables. CONCLUSIONS: This study provides novel evidence linking neuroendocrine pathways to particular domains of QoL in MDD. The results indicate that activity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis is linked to poor psychological QoL, and that oxytocin is important to social QoL, independently of severity of psychopathology. Biopsychosocial approaches to QoL associated with mental health conditions may lead to greater understanding of the underlying mechanisms and to improved, tailored interventions.

16S rRNA gene sequencing is a non-culture method of defining the specific bacterial etiology of ventilator-associated pneumonia.

Ventilator-associated pneumonia (VAP) is an acquired respiratory tract infection following tracheal intubation. The most common hospital-acquired infection among patients with acute respiratory failure, VAP is associated with a mortality rate of 20-30%. The standard bacterial culture method for identifying the etiology of VAP is not specific, timely, or accurate in identifying the bacterial pathogens. This study used 16S rRNA gene metagenomic sequencing to identify and quantify the pathogenic bacteria in lower respiratory tract and oropharyngeal samples of 55 VAP patients. Sequencing of the 16S rRNA gene has served as a valuable tool in bacterial identification, particularly when other biochemical, molecular, or phenotypic identification techniques fail. In this study, 16S rRNA gene sequencing was performed in parallel with the standard bacterial culture method to identify and quantify bacteria present in the collected patient samples. Sequence analysis showed the colonization of multidrug-resistant strains in VAP secretions. Further, this method identified Prevotella, Proteus, Aquabacter, and Sphingomonas bacterial genera that were not detected by the standard bacterial culture method. Seven categories of bacteria, Streptococcus, Neisseria, Corynebacterium, Acinetobacter, Staphylococcus, Pseudomonas and Klebsiella, were detectable by both 16S rRNA gene sequencing and standard bacterial culture methods. Further, 16S rRNA gene sequencing had a significantly higher sensitivity in detecting Streptococcus and Pseudomonas when compared to standard bacterial culture. Together, these data present 16S rRNA gene sequencing as a novel VAP diagnosis tool that will further enable pathogen-specific treatment of VAP.

Effects of electroacupuncture combined with bladder training on the bladder function of patients with neurogenic bladder after spinal cord injury.

Neurogenic bladder is a common complication of spinal cord injury and results in urinary bladder dysfunction through lost control of micturition, or urination. Although several treatment options exist, the efficacies of many of these treatments are unknown. In particular, electroacupuncture and bladder training have had some success as individual treatments. The aim of this study was to explore effects of electroacupuncture combined with bladder training on bladder function of patients with neurogenic bladder after spinal cord injury (SCI) above the sacral segment. Forty-two patients with neurogenic bladder after SCI were evenly divided into two groups (n=21) and given only bladder function training (control group) or electroacupuncture combined with bladder function training (treatment group). Urodynamic changes, IPSS score, and therapeutic efficacy were compared between groups pre- and post-treatment. After either treatment, patients had higher bladder volume and bladder compliance, but lower residual urine volume, bladder pressure, rectal pressure, and detrusor pressure, compared to pre-treatment (P<0.05). Compared to controls, treatment group patients had significantly increased bladder volume and bladder compliance, but significantly decreased residual urine volume, bladder pressure, rectal pressure, and detrusor pressure (P<0.05). Treatment group patients had lower IPSS scores post-treatment (P<0.05) and better therapeutic efficacy (P<0.05) than control group patients. Altogether, our results suggest that electroacupuncture combined with bladder function training can clinically improve bladder function of patients with neurogenic bladder after SCI above the sacral segment.

Removal of microcystin-LR and microcystin-RR by graphene oxide: adsorption and kinetic experiments.

Graphene oxide (GO) was employed in the present study for removal of two commonly occurring algal toxins, microcystin-LR (MC-LR) and microcystin-RR (MC-RR), from water. The adsorption performance of GO was compared to that of commercially available activated carbon. Further, adsorption experiments were conducted in the presence of other environmental pollutants to understand the matrix effects of contaminated water on the selective adsorption of MC-LR and MC-RR onto GO. The environmental pollutants addressed in this study included different anions (nitrate NO3-, nitrite NO2-, sulphate SO4(2-), chloride (Cl(-)), phosphate PO4(3-) and fluoride (F(-))) and cations (sodium (Na(+)), potassium (K(+)), magnesium (Mg(2+)) and calcium (Ca(2+))). GO showed very a high adsorption capacity of 1700 µg/g for removal of MC-LR and 1878 µg/g for MC-RR while the maximum adsorption capacity obtained with the commercial activated carbon was 1481.7 µg/g and 1034.1 µg/g for MC-LR and MC-RR, respectively. The sorption kinetic experiments revealed that more than 90% removal of both MC-LR/RR was achieved within 5 min for all the doses studied (500, 700 and 900 µg/L). GO could be reused as an adsorbent following ten cycles of adsorption/desorption with no significant loss in its adsorption capacity.

High mobility, printable, and solution-processed graphene electronics.

The ability to print graphene sheets onto large scale, flexible substrates holds promise for large scale, transparent electronics on flexible substrates. Solution processable graphene sheets derived from graphite can form stable dispersions in solutions and are amenable to bulk scale processing and ink jet printing. However, the electrical conductivity and carrier mobilities of this material are usually reported to be orders of magnitude poorer than that of the mechanically cleaved counterpart due to its higher density of defects, which restricts its use in electronics. Here, we show that by optimizing several key factors in processing, we are able to fabricate high mobility graphene films derived from large sized graphene oxide sheets, which paves the way for all-carbon post-CMOS electronics. All-carbon source-drain channel electronics fabricated from such films exhibit significantly improved transport characteristics, with carrier mobilities of 365 cm(2)/(V.s) for hole and 281 cm(2)/(V.s) for electron, measured in air at room temperature. In particular, intrinsic mobility as high as 5000 cm(2)/(V.s) can be obtained from such solution-processed graphene films when ionic screening is applied to nullify the Coulombic scattering by charged impurities.