Comparison of the Protective Effect of Salvia officinalis and Rosmarinus officinalis Infusions Against Hepatic Damage Induced by Hypotermic-Ischemia in Wistar Rats.

We aimed to evaluate, in this study, the effect of Rosmarinus officinalis L. and Salvia officinalis L. in the amelioration of liver hypothermic conservation in male wistar rats. Livers from each rat were collected and preserved for 24 h at 4 °C in a Krebs solution with or without increasing doses of sage or rosemary infusions (25, 50, and 100 mg/mL). Liver hypothermic conservation induced a decrease in the activity of superoxide dismutase, catalase, and glutathione peroxidase and a significant increase in lipid peroxidation. S. officinalis L. infusion at 25 mg/mL normalized this oxidative disturbance but appears toxic at 50 and 100 mg/mL due to the presence of large amount of pyrogallol which contribute to the cytoplasmic alteration of hepatocytes. The addition of different doses of R. officinalis L. infusion induced an increase in catalase and glutathione peroxidase activities and a decrease in lipid peroxidation with an amelioration of cellular architecture. In conclusion, increasing doses of R. officinalis L. infusion protect against hepatic hypotermic-ischemia while S. officinalis L. infusion could have an hepatoprotective role when administrated at lower dose.

Social Behavior and Impairments in Social Cognition Following Traumatic Brain Injury.

OBJECTIVES: The negative effect of changes in social behavior following traumatic brain injury (TBI) are known, but much less is known about the neuropsychological impairments that may underlie and predict these changes. The current study investigated possible associations between post-injury behavior and neuropsychological competencies of emotion recognition, understanding intentions, and response selection, that have been proposed as important for social functioning. METHODS: Forty participants with TBI and 32 matched healthy participants completed a battery of tests assessing the three functions of interest. In addition, self- and proxy reports of pre- and post-injury behavior, mood, and community integration were collected. RESULTS: The TBI group performed significantly poorer than the comparison group on all tasks of emotion recognition, understanding intention, and on one task of response selection. Ratings of current behavior suggested significant changes in the TBI group relative to before the injury and showed significantly poorer community integration and interpersonal behavior than the comparison group. Of the three functions considered, emotion recognition was associated with both post-injury behavior and community integration and this association could not be fully explained by injury severity, time since injury, or education. CONCLUSIONS: The current study confirmed earlier findings of associations between emotion recognition and post-TBI behavior, providing partial evidence for models proposing emotion recognition as one of the pre-requisites for adequate social functioning. (JINS, 2017, 23, 400-411).

Performance of ultralow-dose CT with iterative reconstruction in lung cancer screening: limiting radiation exposure to the equivalent of conventional chest X-ray imaging.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the detection rate of pulmonary nodules in ultralow-dose CT acquisitions. MATERIALS AND METHODS: In this lung phantom study, 232 nodules (115 solid, 117 ground-glass) of different sizes were randomly distributed in a lung phantom in 60 different arrangements. Every arrangement was acquired once with standard radiation dose (100 kVp, 100 references mAs) and once with ultralow radiation dose (80 kVp, 6 mAs). Iterative reconstruction was used with optimized kernels: I30 for ultralow-dose, I70 for standard dose and I50 for CAD. Six radiologists examined the axial 1-mm stack for solid and ground-glass nodules. During a second and third step, three radiologists used maximum intensity projection (MIPs), finally checking with computer-assisted detection (CAD), while the others first used CAD, finally checking with the MIPs. RESULTS: The detection rate was 95.5 % with standard dose (DLP 126 mGy*cm) and 93.3 % with ultralow-dose (DLP: 9 mGy*cm). The additional use of either MIP reconstructions or CAD software could compensate for this difference. A combination of both MIP reconstructions and CAD software resulted in a maximum detection rate of 97.5 % with ultralow-dose. CONCLUSION: Lung cancer screening with ultralow-dose CT using the same radiation dose as a conventional chest X-ray is feasible. KEY POINTS: • 93.3 % of all lung nodules were detected with ultralow-dose CT. • A sensitivity of 97.5 % is possible with additional image post-processing. • The radiation dose is comparable to a standard radiography in two planes. • Lung cancer screening with ultralow-dose CT is feasible.

The Robben Island Diversity Experience: It's about the Journey, Not the RIDE.

The Robben Island diversity experience (RIDE), a conference using a group relations training model, was held annually from 2000 to 2013, (with RIDE not taking place in 2004). During RIDE, underlying, unconscious, and covert South African diversity dynamics are studied as they manifest among managers and officials in the fields of change, diversity management, transformation, and human resources management. The participants (staff and membership) of the conference collectively form a temporary organisation in which they explore unconscious dynamics and processes as they relate to dealing with diversity challenges. A qualitative, analytic auto-ethnographic research approach was used to elicit data. The data consisted of different sets of process notes compiled during my involvement in RIDE (2000 to 2014). Thematic analysis was used to analyse and interpret the data to allow insights into diversity dynamics. The findings suggest that in the early events RIDE citizens displayed a preoccupation with race which was expressed through attempts to re-organise the race hierarchy in the unconscious, and the need to form good-enough relationships with old enemies through searching for the absent white-man. In more recent years it became evident that groups are reluctant to explore differences of organisational position and socio-economic status in racial sameness. The experimentation with leadership within and across race groups and gender was a preoccupation of members in a more recent RIDE. Further, the marginalisation of women, through the intersection between diversity characteristics, also became apparent. It seems that through RIDE as a container, the consultants as containers, and the willingness of the participants to engage with their diversity challenges, more diversity dynamics have become accessible to the RIDE citizens. This understanding of diversity dynamics can be used in South African and international organisations by researchers, consultants, and managers to enhance their understanding of diversity dynamics in organisations and inform the nature of the different diversity management initiatives implemented in these organisations.

The consequences of a weight-centric approach to healthcare: A case for a paradigm shift in how clinicians address body weight.

Current healthcare is weight-centric, equating weight and health. This approach to healthcare has negative consequences on patient well-being. The aim of this article is to make a case for a paradigm shift in how clinicians view and address body weight. In this review, we (1) address common flawed assumptions in the weight-centric approach to healthcare, (2) review the weight science literature and provide evidence for the negative consequences of promoting dieting and weight loss, and (3) provide practice recommendations for weight-inclusive care.

Women Leaders Transcending the Demands of Covid-19: A Positive Psychology 2.0 Perspective.

This article explores selected speeches of three global women leaders during the time of the Covid-19 pandemic from positive psychology perspectives. It focuses on speeches to address and manage the pandemic of global women leaders, such as Angela Merkel (Germany), Jacinda Ardern (New Zealand), and Tsai Ing-Wen (Taiwan). This study explores the question what global women leaders' leadership actions and responses are and how they address their nations with regard to the four pillars of PP2.0 and the PURE model during Covid-19. The study uses a post-modernist qualitative research design. It is anchored in the hermeneutical-phenomenological research paradigm, using leadership theories and PP2.0 as a lens to explore and understand their strengths with regard to the Covid-19 pandemic. The authors use thematic analysis to analyse the selected speeches made by the three women leaders at the onset of the pandemic in Germany, New Zealand and Taiwan. The study contributes to improve the understanding of global women leadership during Covid-19. Conclusions are drawn. Recommendations will be made accordingly.

Resveratrol, a red wine polyphenol, attenuates ethanol-induced oxidative stress in rat liver.

The involvement of oxidative stress in the pathogenesis of alcoholic diseases in the liver has been repeatedly confirmed. Resveratrol, a natural phytoalexin present in grape skin and red wine possesses a variety of biological activities including antioxidant. This study was conducted to evaluate whether resveratrol has a preventive effect on the main indicators of hepatic oxidative status as an expression of the cellular damage caused by free radicals, and on antioxidant defence mechanism during chronic ethanol treatment. Wistar rats were treated daily with 35% ethanol solution (3 g/kg/day i.p.) during 6 weeks and fed basal diet or basal diet containing 5 g/kg resveratrol. Control rats were treated with i.p. saline and fed basal diet. Experimentally, chronic ethanol administration leads to hepatotoxicity as monitored by the increase in the level of hepatic marker enzymes and the appearance of fatty change, necrosis, fibrosis and inflammation in liver sections. Ethanol also enhanced the formation of MDA in the liver indicating an increase in lipid peroxidation, a major end-point of oxidative damage, and caused drastic alterations in antioxidant defence systems. Particularly the activities of hepatic superoxide dismutase (SOD), glutathione peroxidase (GPx) and catalase (CAT) were found reduced by ethanol treatment while glutathione reductase (GR) activity was unchanged. Dietary supplementation with resveratrol during ethanol treatment inhibited hepatic lipid peroxidation and ameliorated SOD, GPx and CAT activities in the liver. Conclusively, we can suggest that resveratrol could have a beneficial effect in inhibiting the oxidative damage induced by chronic ethanol administration, which was proved by the experiments that we conducted on rats.

Grape seed and skin extract protects against bleomycin-induced oxidative stress in rat lung.

INTRODUCTION: Lung fibrosis is a common side effect of the chemotherapeutic agent bleomycin and current evidence suggests that reactive oxygen species play a key role in the development of lung injury. We examined whether grape seed and skin extract (GSSE), a polyphenolic mixture exhibiting antioxidant properties, is able to protect against bleomycin-induced lung oxidative stress and injury. METHODS: Rats were pre-treated during three weeks either with vehicle (ethanol 10% control) or GSSE (4g/kg), then administered with a single high dose bleomycin (15mg/kg) at the 7th day. RESULTS: Bleomycin increased lung lipoperoxidation, carbonylation and decreased antioxidant enzyme activities as catalase (CAT), superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione peroxidase (GPx). Bleomycin also induced copper depletion from the lung and iron accumulation within the lung, but had no effect on either zinc nor manganese. Correlatively bleomycin decreased the copper associated enzyme tyrosinase, increased the zinc dependent lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) and did not affect the manganese dependent glutamine synthetase. GSSE efficiently counteracted almost all bleomycin-induced oxidative stress, biochemical and morphological changes of lung tissue. CONCLUSION: Data suggest that GSSE exerts potent antioxidant properties that could find potential application in the protection against bleomycin-induced lung fibrosis.