Patient-reported outcome measures to assess mental and physical health status, functionality, and quality of life in patients with major depression or schizophrenia.

Background: Patient-reported outcomes measures (PROMs) are standardized self-administered tools that assess the patient's opinion on the level of health, quality of life, and disability among other aspects. The objective of this study was to gather information on physical and mental health in patients with major mental illness using PROMs.

Methods: This was an observational, naturalistic, prospective study carried out in adult stabilized outpatients attended at nine Adult Mental Health Centers in Barcelona, Spain.

Crucial role of biosensors in the detection of helminth biomarkers in public health programmes.

Helminthiases are highly prevalent but neglected infections that affect more than 1·5 billion people worldwide. Considering the worldwide prevalence of helminthiases, WHO has declared them a public health concern since 2001, necessitating rigorous control and elimination efforts. However, only a few reliable point-of-care diagnostic tests are available for assessing the effectiveness of public health interventions targeting helminthiases, thus increasing the risk of suboptimal outcomes, misallocation of resources, and emergence of drug-resistant helminths.

Decoding Pulmonary Embolism: Pathophysiology, Diagnosis, and Treatment.

Pulmonary Embolism (PE) is a life-threatening condition initiated by the presence of blood clots in the pulmonary arteries, leading to severe morbidity and mortality. Underlying mechanisms involve endothelial dysfunction, including impaired blood flow regulation, a pro-thrombotic state, inflammation, heightened oxidative stress, and altered vascular remodeling. These mechanisms contribute to vascular diseases stemming from PE, such as recurrent thromboembolism, chronic thromboembolic pulmonary hypertension, post-thrombotic syndrome, right heart failure, and cardiogenic shock.

Perspective of patients with first-episode psychosis, their relatives, and mental health professionals on the design and usability of an app in clinical practice.

Aim: Therapeutic non-compliance remains the main difficulty for people with psychotic disorders, standing around 50% in people with schizophrenia. Lack of treatment adherence, either partial or total, to medication has economic and clinical consequences. E-health technologies may be a promising therapeutic tool to improve adherence, with the subsequent reduction in clinical and economic burden.

α4-α5 Helices on Surface of KRAS Can Accommodate Small Compounds That Increase KRAS Signaling While Inducing CRC Cell Death.

KRAS is the most frequently mutated oncogene associated with the genesis and progress of pancreatic, lung and colorectal (CRC) tumors. KRAS has always been considered as a therapeutic target in cancer but until now only two compounds that inhibit one specific KRAS mutation have been approved for clinical use. In this work, by molecular dynamics and a docking process, we describe a new compound (P14B) that stably binds to a druggable pocket near the α4-α5 helices of the allosteric domain of KRAS.

Identification of the most vulnerable populations in the psychosocial sphere: a cross-sectional study conducted in Catalonia during the strict lockdown imposed against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Design And Objectives: A cross-sectional study to evaluate the impact of COVID-19 on the psychosocial sphere in both the general population and healthcare workers (HCWs).

Methods: The study was conducted in Catalonia (Spain) during the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic when strict lockdown was in force. The study population included all people aged over 16 years who consented to participate in the study and completed the survey, in this case a 74-question questionnaire shared via social media using snowball sampling.

[Towards a partnership-based care approach to adolescence].

The transition from child psychiatry to adult psychiatry is difficult. The need to reinforce this 'bridge' between the services is clear. A system focused on the assessment and orientation of adolescents, set up a year ago by Lille-Métropole public mental health service, aims to favour collaboration on a local level between the different players from the social, medical and educational sector working with young people aged between 12 and 21 in order to facilitate this transition.

Three-factor model of premorbid adjustment in a sample with chronic schizophrenia and first-episode psychosis.

Background: The dimensionality of premorbid adjustment (PA) has been a debated issue, with attempts to determine whether PA is a unitary construct or composed of several independent domains characterized by a differential deterioration pattern and specific outcome correlates.

Aims: This study examines the factorial structure of PA, as well as, the course and correlates of its domains.

Method: Retrospective study of 84 adult patients experiencing first-episode psychosis (FEP) (n=33) and individuals with schizophrenia (SCH) (n=51).

Fungal permeable reactive barrier to remediate groundwater in an artificial aquifer.

Biobarriers, as permeable reactive barriers (PRBs), are a common technology that mainly uses bacteria to remediate groundwater in polluted aquifers. In this study, we propose to use Trametes versicolor, a white-rot fungus, as the reactive element because of its capacity to degrade a wide variety of highly recalcitrant and xenobiotic compounds. A laboratory-scale artificial aquifer was constructed to simulate groundwater flow under real conditions in shallow aquifers.

Cognitive correlates of verbal memory and verbal fluency in schizophrenia, and differential effects of various clinical symptoms between male and female patients.

Background: Impairment of higher cognitive functions in patients with schizophrenia might stem from perturbation of more basic functions, such as processing speed. Various clinical symptoms might affect cognitive efficiency as well. Notably, previous research has revealed the role of affective symptoms on memory performance in this population, and suggested sex-specific effects.

Spanish validation of the Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS-S).

Background: The Premorbid Adjustment Scale (PAS) has been the most widely used scale to quantify premorbid status in schizophrenia, coming to be regarded as the gold standard of retrospective assessment instruments.

Aims: To examine the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the PAS (PAS-S).

Method: Retrospective study of 140 individuals experiencing a first episode of psychosis (n=77) and individuals who have schizophrenia (n=63), both adult and adolescent patients.

Optimisation of the operational conditions of trichloroethylene degradation using Trametes versicolor under quinone redox cycling conditions using central composite design methodology.

Extracellular radicals produced by Trametes versicolor under quinone redox cycling conditions can degrade a large variety of pollutant compounds, including trichloroethylene (TCE). This study investigated the effect of the agitation speed and the gas-liquid phase volume ratio on TCE degradation using central composite design (CCD) methodology for a future scale-up to a reactor system. The agitation speed ranged from 90 to 200 rpm, and the volume ratio ranged from 0.

The synthesis of androstane brassinosteroid analogues with alpha-azido acid ester groups in position 17beta.

Androstane brassinosteroid analogues with alpha-azido acid ester groups in position 17beta were synthesized from 2alpha,3alpha,17beta-trihydroxy-5alpha-androstan-6-one after the protection of the 2alpha,3alpha-diols upon treatment with the corresponding alpha-azido acid and the subsequent deprotection of the diol grouping. Six new castasterone analogues were prepared. The biological activities were evaluated in two bioassays: a rice lamina inclination test and bean second internode bioassays.

Depressive comorbidity in personality disorders.

Introduction: We aimed to investigate the nature of the associations between PD clusters and MDs, functionality and mental health services use.

Methods: This is a case register study of all cases with a diagnosis of PD detected clinically in a well-defined area in the province of Barcelona covered by 7 Community Mental Health Teams. DSM-IV diagnoses were established by fully trained psychiatrists.

An empirical study of psychosocial and clinical correlates of delusional disorder: the DELIREMP study.

Objective: We aim to describe psychosocial and clinical correlates of delusional disorder (DD) and its types. This approach is important because most knowledge on DD does not come from empirical data collected using a validated systematic research method.

Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in a sample of 86 patients fulfilling DSM-IV criteria for DD as established using the SCID-I.

Do needs, symptoms or disability of outpatients with schizophrenia influence family burden?

Background: Most needs of outpatients with schizophrenia are met by the family. This could cause high levels of family burden. The objective of this study is to assess the relationship between the patients' needs and other clinical and disability variables and the level of family burden.

Validation in Spanish population of the family objective and subjective burden interview (ECFOS-II) for relatives of patients with schizophrenia.

Introduction: The family burden experienced by caregivers of people with schizophrenia is one of the most relevant consequences of this disorder. This paper aims to show the validity and reliability of the Spanish version of the Family Burden Interview Schedule (FBIS) designed to assess objective and subjective family burden for people with schizophrenia.

Design: cross sectional study.

Four symptom dimensions in outpatients with schizophrenia.

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the dimensional structure of the Positive and Negative Symptoms Scale (PANSS) to identify the psychopathological profiles of outpatients with schizophrenia.

Method: Two hundred and thirty-one persons with schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) were randomly selected from a register that included all patients under treatment in 5 mental health care centers in Spain. Patients were evaluated with a sociodemographic and clinical questionnaire, the PANSS, the Disability Assessment Scale short version, and the Global Assessment Functioning Scale.

Neurocognitive performance and negative symptoms: are they equal in explaining disability in schizophrenia outpatients?

Objective: The aim of this study is to assess if cognitive variables and symptom dimensions can predict disability in a sample of outpatients with schizophrenia.

Method: A cross-sectional sample of 113 individuals with a diagnosis of schizophrenia (DSM-IV criteria) was selected from a computerized register of five Community Mental Health Centers. Patients were assessed by two trained psychologists, with a neuropsychological battery comprising measures for verbal memory, attention, operative memory and abstraction and flexibility functions.

Unusual Reactivity of (Vinylimino)phosphoranes and Their Utility in the Preparation of Pyridine and Dihydropyridine Derivatives.

New reactions of (vinylimino)phosphoranes with aldehydes involving an initial nucleophilic attack of the beta-carbon atom of the vinyl side chain on the carbonyl carbon atom are reported. Iminophosphorane 4 derived from ethyl beta-azidoacrylate reacts with substituted cinnamyl aldehydes to give a mixture of 2-arylpyridine and 4-styryldihydropyridine derivatives, whereas the reaction with substituted benzaldehydes provides 4-aryldihydropyridine derivatives. However, the iminophosphorane 16 derived from the diethyl azidofumarate reacts with cinnamyl aldehydes through the expected aza-Wittig fashion to give 4-arylpyridine derivatives after dehydrogenation of the resulting dihydropyridine.

Study on the mutagenicity of nifurtimox and eight derivatives with the L-arabinose resistance test of Salmonella typhimurium.

The mutagenicity of nifurtimox (nfx) and 8 nfx analogues has been investigated with the L-arabinose forward-mutation assay of Salmonella typhimurium. The nfx analogues tested were obtained by replacing the 3-methyl-4-yl-tetrahydro-1,4-thiazine-1,1-dioxide group of the parent compound with the following other groups: indazol-1-yl (1); pyrazol-1-yl (2); benzimidazol-1-yl (3); 1,2,4-triazol-4-yl (4); 1-methyl-3-methylthio-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl-5-thione (5); 3,5-bis(methylthio)-1,2,4-triazol-4-yl (6); 1-adamantyl (7); 4,6-diphenylpyridin-1-yl-2-one (8). The mutagenic activity of each chemical was determined by the standard plate-incorporation test, in the presence or absence of the S9 activation mixture.