Unaltered brain membranes after prolonged intake of highly oxidizable long-chain fatty acids of the (n-3) series

Feeding rats a diet enriched in n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (Menhaden oil) increased the content in eicosapentaenoic acid 20:5 n-3 of brain phospholipids. Conversely 22:4 n-6 was reduced. These changes were not associated with alterations in either vitamin E concentration or glutathione peroxidase and catalase activities in cerebrum and cerebellum. No increase in peroxidative damage was found. Interestingly the major very-long-chain fatty acids (22:6 n-3 and 22:5 n-3) were not affected.     

Stigma impact on Moroccan families of patients with schizophrenia.

OBJECTIVES: First, to explore whether in Morocco, a non-Western country, family members of patients with schizophrenia suffer from stigma and, if they do, which areas of their lives are most affected; and second, to explore family members' knowledge about the illness and their attitudes toward the patients. METHODS: The study was conducted among 100 family members accompanying patients with schizophrenia. We used a heteroquestionnaire that inquired about family members' and patients' sociodemographic data, family members' knowledge of the patients' illness, their attitudes and behaviours toward the patient, and their perception of stigma. RESULTS: Family members' mean age was 47.44 years, SD 12.83; 69% were women; 38% had no education; and 77% had no professional activity. Most families (76%) reported having no knowledge about the illness. However, the illness was considered to be incurable (39%), severe (37%), chronic (80%), and handicapping (48%) and was believed to be caused by drug use (25%), stressing life events (such as conflict or bereavement; 46%), sorcery (25%), organic disturbance (30%), or heredity (23%). We found that most of the families suffer from stigma and discrimination. A total of 86.7% reported they have hard lives because of the illness, and 72% reported psychological suffering caused by sleep and relationship disturbances and a poor quality of life. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, we found that Moroccan families of patients with schizophrenia suffer from stigma. We found the same results in European, In North American, and in some Arab and Islam countries. Despite the belief that traditional societies are more supportive of the weak and the sick, stigma is a major burden in addition to that of the illness.     

Melatonin ingestion before intradialytic exercise improves immune responses in hemodialysis patients

International Urology and Nephrology - The present study aimed to investigate the effects of melatonin (MEL) intake on systemic inflammation and immune responses during intradialytic exercise....     

Inclusion of elderly or frail patients in randomized controlled trials of targeted therapies for the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer: A systematic review

Treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer (mCRC) has been modified since the launching of targeted therapies. Colorectal cancer (CRC) is common in elderly patients; their representation in randomized controlled trials (RCTs) is thus crucial. This study aimed to evaluate and quantify the inclusion of elderly/frail patients in RCTs of targeted therapies in mCRC.A systematic review using Medline, Scopus, Cochrane Database and ISI Web of Science was performed to identify all phase II/III RCTs of bevacizumab, cetuximab, panitumumab, regorafenib and aflibercept in mCRC until January 2015. Two reviewers independently performed studies selection, and data extraction. The protocol was registered in Prospero (CRD42015016163).Among 1,369, identified publications, 54 RCTs were selected. Nine RCTs (17%) excluded elderly patients; median age of the included population was < 65 years old in 50 RCTs (93%). Twenty RCTs (37%) excluded frail patients, and many RCTs excluded patients with uncontrolled hypertension or heart failure, patients treated with specific drugs (mainly anticoagulants), and patients with inadequate creatinine clearance.Elderly/frail patients are underrepresented in RCTs studying targeted therapies in mCRC, and those elderly patients included in RCTs do not reflect well the general elderly population with mCRC because of the exclusion criteria. RCTs results concerning targeted therapies can be inferred only to relatively healthy elderly subjects.     

Exponential stability and stabilization of positive T-S fuzzy delayed systems

The analysis of positive nonlinear delayed systems is of great importance for many real-world applications. Such systems' stability and stabilization assessment is still an open topic, and there is limited literature on this field. Moreover, further convergence conditions should be considered for many experimental processes, such as exponential stability analysis, which is highly important. Considering the above, we deal in this study with the problem of exponential stability and stabilization of nonlinear fuzzy positive systems with delay. We establish exponential stability criteria using Lyapunov–Krasovskii functional (LKF) and a delay bi-decomposition approach for bounded and time-varying delayed systems. The obtained results are then extended to the exponential stabilization case. The control law is designed using Parallel distributed compensation (PDC). The proposed approach, formulated in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs), allows reducing the conservativeness of the delay-dependent conditions. A comparative study is presented to illustrate the superiority of our method. Moreover, simulation results for the two tanks process show the advantages of the proposed control design.