2270 research outputs found
Sort by
FDA Approval of Cobenfy: A New Therapeutic Option for Schizophrenia
Full text linkSchizophrenia is a complex illness characterized by behavioral, emotional, and cognitive dysfunctions. Common symptoms include hallucinations, delusions, cognitive decline, and social withdrawal. The disorder is related to structural brain abnormalities, neurotransmitter imbalances, and a combination of genetic and environmental elements, and affects about 24 million individuals globally. Currently, two medication classes are most commonly used to treat schizophrenia. These medications are first-generation antipsychotics (FGAs) and second-generation antipsychotics (SGAs). Due to the side effect profiles that both medication classes carry, research is being conducted for new drug classes.
Cobenfy (xanomeline/trospium chloride), also known investigationally as KarXT, is a new class of medication for schizophrenia that may offer patients another option for treatment, especially those who did not respond to traditional medications. Cobenfy utilizes two active ingredients, the dosage of which can be titrated up or down to provide the best benefit for patients while minimizing potential side effects. This drug combination is unique in that it works by targeting muscarinic receptors peripherally and centrally, instead of relying on dopamine signaling. This reduces the risk of extrapyramidal symptoms and metabolic side effects that are commonly seen with the FGAs and SGAs. Cobenfy received Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval after the EMERGENT trial series and is currently approved for the treatment of schizophrenia in adult patients
Spravato® FDA-Approved as Monotherapy for Adults with Treatment-Resistant Depression
No full textTreatment-resistant depression (TRD) is a challenging and possibly life-threatening condition that affects millions of people worldwide. Patients with major depressive disorder (MDD) are diagnosed with TRD once they have tried and failed to respond to two antidepressant treatments at the maximum dose for a full trial of six to eight weeks. Most traditional antidepressant therapies work by increasing the levels of monoamine neurotransmitters such as dopamine, serotonin, and norepinephrine in the brain. These medications have a delayed onset of action, ranging from two to eight weeks, and often fail to relieve depressive symptoms in a patient with TRD. Therefore, targeting alternative neurotransmitters is crucial when developing treatments for TRD. Esketamine, the active component of Spravato®, primarily targets the major excitatory neurotransmitter glutamate and is a non-competitive N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor antagonist. It is formulated as a nasal spray, allowing for rapid absorption of the medication which leads to a faster onset. It has previously been utilized as an adjunct therapy to traditional antidepressants to help relieve patients of their depressive symptoms. However, Spravato® was recently FDA-approved in 2025 as monotherapy for adults with TRD. In clinical trials, Spravato® showed statistically significant improvement of depressive symptoms and indicated that it is safe to use as monotherapy to treat TRD. Although Spravato® has shown to be an effective agent in the treatment of TRD, it is associated with many adverse effects, including an increase in blood pressure, sedation, dissociation, and potential for abuse. Spravato® is available for use via the Risk Evaluation and Mitigation Strategy (REMS) program and thus must also be monitored closely during administration by a health professional. Despite the challenges associated with the use of Spravato®, it is at the forefront of bringing relief to patients suffering from TRD. Importantly, pharmacists can play a critical role in monitoring and educating patients using Spravato to ensure optimal outcomes in patients suffering from TRD.s
Heartbleed: A Case Study on the Minor Bug that Caused a Massive Security Vulnerability
No full textTechnology has been substantially evolving throughout the 21st century with a generous range of software that improve and increase the efficiency of everyday tasks. With new opportunities and discoveries in the computing world to use for the welfare of the people comes the antithesis of malicious attackers looking to prey on vulnerabilities. One of the most relevant examples of a seemingly small bug that cost millions of dollars and sensitive information is the Heartbleed vulnerability in 2014. Heartbleed is a security vulnerability in OpenSSL, a library that is the key to encrypting information on the web and protecting the data of millions across the globe. Through a request of information, a memory buffer of the size of data requested would be allocated. However, software engineers mistakenly omitted a statement to ensure the information returned truly matched the size requested. Hackers found that with a heartbeat, or a request of information from a web server, they could utilize the vulnerability to request and access more data than they were authorized to, essentially making the request “bleed”. Thus, sensitive data such as passwords, banking information, or social security numbers were discovered by the wrong hands through a small bug in the system. Researching the timeline, detrimental effects, and methods of mitigating damage of the Heartbleed vulnerability is necessary to prevent future losses due to unsecure coding practices. A small bug can be all the difference between a safe internet browser experience and thousands of users’ confidential information being leaked to the internet
The Effects of Lavender Essential Oil Inhalation on Heart Rate Recovery and EEG Patterns in College Students Post Exercise-Induced Stress
No full textLimited research has investigated the impact of lavender essential oil on heart rate (HR) and electroencephalogram (EEG) recovery from stress among college students, ages 18-24. In this study, 36 college participants (18 male; 18 female) induced stress by physical exercise that increased heart rate to over 100 bpm for at least 10 seconds. Baseline heart rate and EEG activity (alpha and beta waves) were measured prior to exercise and immediately after a 2-3 minute lavender oil exposure. The lavender group inhaled 5 drops (0.1 mL/drop) of lavender oil on a cotton ball 5 cm away from the nose. Heart rate recovery time (expressed as % difference from pre-stress condition) and EEG amplitude and frequency were analyzed between control (n=18; M=9; F=9) and lavender (n=18; M=9; F=9) groups. Percent difference of experimental (10.59%) and control (25.66%) for heart rate recovery indicated the lavender group returned closer to baseline. Two-way t-test identified alpha amplitude with significant difference between experimental and control groups, 5 minutes post-exercise and initially post-inhalation (
Shadows of Prejudice: The History of the Right to Counsel and the Strickland\u27s Pursuit of Justice3 Amidst Forgotten Witnesses and Disregarded Evidence
Full text linkIn the United States’ criminal justice system, persistent problems with ineffective legal representation reveal significant systemic issues and injustices, underscoring the urgent need for meaningful reform. This paper argues that the United States’ criminal justice system faces deep-rooted problems due to ineffective legal representation, as evidenced by the evolution of the right to counsel, the challenges posed by the Strickland standard, and contemporary criticisms of legal defense practices. Through an analysis of historical developments, landmark legal decisions, and case studies, it becomes evident that meaningful reform is essential to address systemic injustices and ensure the constitutional guarantee of effective assistance of counsel for all defendants, especially in capital cases
Investigating design canvases’ impact on student performance
No full textFirst-year engineering (FYE) programs are important to a student’s academic development but lack universal learning objectives and course outcomes. FYE courses commonly introduce students to the university and profession while also covering professional and engineering skills. At Ohio Northern University (ONU), students practice problem framing and solving skills by utilizing problem framing canvases that guide them through initial steps of a design process. Four canvases help the students identify an opportunity statement, stakeholders, and design specifications. The canvases were initially developed at ONU to encourage FYE students to support engineering problem framing and to enable a user-centered and informed design. While the canvases are theorized to aid the design process, their direct impact on students’ education development is still being investigated.
This study aims to understand how the problem framing canvases impact FYE students in their introductory engineering courses. Approximately twenty-five volunteer students, placed into small groups based on a range of factors, completed study activities. The groups completed a set of canvases based on a design prompt and the artifacts were evaluated using a predeveloped rubric. Students were given the opportunity to express their opinions about the design canvases and FYE course in focus groups. Researchers conducted study activities at both the beginning and end of the 2024 spring semester.
Researchers observed and analyzed a variance in student group performance based on the grouping factors. Students provided critical feedback in the focus groups that is being used to refine the canvases to promote a streamlined design process
EEG-Based Brain-Computer Interface for Stroke Rehabilitation: Analyzing Motor Imagery and Neural Activation in a Public Dataset
No full textThis project investigates the use of a non-invasive brain-computer interface (BCI) to support motor function recovery following a stroke, with a focus on comparing relevant biomarkers of progress between BCI-assisted rehabilitation and standard stroke rehabilitation.
The research involves a proposal for implementing a BCI protocol in which stroke survivors utilize motor imagery tasks to control a virtual or robotic exoskeleton arm. To enhance the analytical component of this study, publicly available electroencephalography (EEG) datasets on stroke rehabilitation and BCI will be analyzed. This approach strengthens the foundation of the research proposal by effectively “pilot testing” the proposed methods with existing data.
EEG datasets are sourced from BNCI Horizon 2020 and PhysioNet, which provide extensive records of stroke patients performing motor tasks using an exoskeleton robotic arm. These datasets serve as benchmarks for comparing cortical activation patterns in stroke patients undergoing BCI-assisted rehabilitation versus those following standard rehabilitation protocols. EEG signals will be analyzed using Python-MNE, with preprocessing steps including artifact removal, signal filtering, and epoch segmentation. Feature extraction will focus on event-related desynchronization and event-related synchronization within the mu and beta frequency bands, as these are key indicators of motor-related brain activity.
Following signal processing, biomarkers will be correlated with existing clinical scores to assess how neurophysiological changes correspond with functional motor recovery. This analysis aims to provide insights into the effectiveness of BCI-based interventions in stroke rehabilitation compared to traditional rehabilitation approaches
A High-Performance Hardware Design for Computing Bézout’s Coefficients Using Extended Stein’s Algorithm
No full textBézout\u27s Coefficients are critical mathematical constructs in cryptography, particularly for public key cryptographic applications requiring increasingly large keys. As software-based methods for calculating these coefficients approach their performance limits, hardware implementations present a promising alternative for faster and more efficient computation. This paper proposes a scalable 64-bit hardware implementation for the computation of Bėzout\u27s coefficients using a previously proposed Extended Stein’s Algorithm Implementation which replaces the multiplication and division operations found in Extended Euclid\u27s Algorithm with addition and binary shift operations. The algorithm uses a Controller and Datapath approach with the aim of shifting hardware complexity from the Datapath to the control logic, thus shortening the critical path and improving performance. The hardware implementation efficiency is evaluated, its advantages and limitations are discussed. The results demonstrate that the proposed implementation achieves efficient computation of Bézout’s coefficients with a minimum clock period of 8 ns when synthesized on a Basys 3 Artix-7 FPGA. The design effectively balances performance and resource utilization, requiring 1628 LUTs and 535 FFs while maintaining scalability for larger bit sizes. This work establishes a foundation for future research into hardware accelerated cryptographic computations, particularly in applications requiring fast modular inverses and efficient key generation.
Index Terms – Bézout\u27s Coefficients, Binary Euclid, Hardware Implementation, Modular Inversion
First Nation Children Human Rights Violations and Attempted Solutions
No full textThe Indigenous populations of Canada have experienced years of human rights violations according to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The Indigenous population in Canada is known as First Nation. The children of the First Nation populations have experienced violations against First and Second generation of human rights. The violations include child exploitation, such as discrimination in welfare systems, residential schools, and improper living conditions. A comparative analysis was then conducted between the treatment of First Nation people of Canada and the Indigenous population of the United States in attempted solutions to resolve the human rights violations