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Peduncluar hallucinosis is a rare neurological disorder characterized by visual hallucinations, often described to be vivid and dream-like. While the exact pathophysiology has yet to be elucidated, most cases to date have suggested an etiology stemming from lesions to the thalamus or midbrain. Here presented is a case of a 54-year-old female with peduncular hallucinosis secondary to a pontine cavernoma hemorrhage in the setting of essential hypertension. The patient's vivid visual and auditory hallucinations aligned temporally with the lesion's discovery and resolved after pharmaceutical treatment. This case represents a rare form of peduncular hallucinosis secondary to a pontine cavernoma hemorrhage leading to vasospasm in the arteries feeding the brainstem.

Since the development of antipsychotic drugs in the 1950s, a variety of studies and case reports have been published that suggest an association between exposure to typical antipsychotics and venous thromboembolisms (VTE). Therefore, when starting treatment with antipsychotics, especially low-potency typical antipsychotics and clozapine, health-care providers must account for the patient’s existing VTE risk factors.

In this case report, the authors describe the development of a pulmonary embolism associated with use of chlorpromazine in the treatment of an acute manic episode in a 51-year-old female patient with bipolar disorder type 1.

The patient was brought to the emergency room by the police on a legal hold for bizarre behaviors at a bus stop, which included incessantly yelling at bystanders. The patient was found to have disorganized thoughts, poor sleep, rapid speech, labile mood, distractibility, auditory hallucinations and grandiose delusions. During the course of her stay, the patient received extensive IM chlorpromazine for extreme agitation, in addition to chlorpromazine 200 mg IM Q8H, which was later decreased to chlorpromazine 100 mg chlorpromazine IM/PO Q8H. On day 4 of the treatment, the patient experienced difficulty breathing, hypoxia and tachycardia and was found to have bilateral expiratory wheezes. CT angiography showed sub-segmental pulmonary embolus and the patient was transferred to MICU service. The patient was then intubated and started on heparin by the medical team. Over the course of the next day, her respiratory distress resolved and the patient was extubated.

It is possible that chlorpromazine may indeed increase VTEs, and there are various physiological postulations regarding the mechanism of action. However, multiple confounding variables existed in the authors’ report, including venous stasis and the use of restraints, tobacco and valproic acid. Each of these variables has been shown to increase VTE occurrence. Further controlled studies are necessary to identify the true relationship between antipsychotics and VTEs.

This study investigates (1) whether democratization drives sovereign credit ratings (SCR) changes (the “democratic advantage”) or whether SCR changes affect democratization, (2) whether the degree of democratization in sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries affects the associations and (3) whether the associations are significantly affected by resource dependence.

This study investigates the effects of SCR changes on democracy in 22 SSA countries over the period of 2000–2020 VEC Granger causality/block exogeneity Wald tests, and impulse responses and variance decomposition analyses with Cholesky ordering and Monte Carlo standard errors in a panel VECM framework.

The full sample impulse responses find that a SCR shock has a long-run detrimental effect on the democracy and political rights but only a short-run positive impact on civil liberties. Among the sub-samples, it is found that the extent of natural resource dependence does not affect the magnitude of SCR shocks on democratization mentioned above but it is found that a SCR shock affects long-run democracy in SSA countries that are relatively more democratic but is more likely to drive democratic deepening in less democratic SSA countries. The full sample variance decompositions further finds that the variance of SCR to a political rights shock outweighs the effects of all the macroeconomic factors, whereas in more diversified SSA countries, the variances of SCR are much greater for democracy and political rights shocks, which suggests that democratization and political rights in diversified SSA economies are severely affected by SCR changes. In the case of the high and low democracy sub-samples, it is found that the variance of SCR in the relatively higher democracy sub-sample is greater than in the low democracy sub-sample.

These results have three implications for democratization in SSA. First, the effect of a SCR change is not a democratically agnostic and impacts political rights to a greater extent than civil liberties. Second, SCR changes have the potential to spark a negative cycle in SSA countries whereby a downgrade leads to a deterioration in socio-political stability coupled with increased financial economic constraints that in turn drive further downgrades and macroeconomic hardship. Finally, SCR changes are potentially detrimental for democracy in more democratic SSA countries but democratically supportive in less democratic SSA countries. Thus, SSA countries that are relatively politically sophisticated are more exposed to the effects of SCR changes, whereas less politically sophisticated SSA countries can proactively shape their SCRs by undertaking political reforms.

This study is the first to examine the associations between SCR and democracy in SSA. This is critical literature for the Africa’s scholarly work given that the debate on unfair rating actions and claims of subjective rating methods is ongoing.

This study aims to examine Public Knowledge Project (PKP) Open Journal Systems (OJS) for its overall web accessibility and compliance with the Federal Electronic and Information Technology Accessibility and Compliance Act, also known as Section 508.

Twenty-one individual web pages in the CSUN test instance of PKP’s OJS version 2.4.0 used in three back-end journal development user roles were examined using three web-accessibility tools (WAVE, Fangs, Functional Accessibility Evaluator). Errors in accessibility were then logged and mapped to specific Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) criteria.

In all, 202 accessibility errors were reported across the 21 OJS pages selected for testing. Because of this, the OJS cannot be efficiently utilized by assistive technologies and therefore does not pass the minimal level of acceptability as described in the WCAG 2.0. However, the authors found that the types of errors reported in this study could be simply and effectively remedied.

Further studies will need to corroborate, on a larger scale, the problems of accessibility found in the specific pages. Only three user roles were examined; other roles will need to be analyzed for their own problems with accessibility. Finally, although specific errors were noted, most can be easily fixed.

There is an important need for accessible software design. In the case of CSUN, one of the campus partners will be better served by improving the web accessibility of the authors’ online open access journals.

Although many studies and analyses of Section 508 compliance of front-facing web resources have been conducted, very few appear to address the back-end of such tools. This is the first to examine what problems in accessibility journal users with disabilities might encounter as OJS system administrators, journal managers or journal editors.

This review provides an overview of recent advances in electrochemical sensors for analyte detection in saliva, highlighting their potential applications in diagnostics and health care. The purpose of this paper is to summarize the current state of the field, identify challenges and limitations and discuss future prospects for the development of saliva-based electrochemical sensors.

The paper reviews relevant literature and research articles to examine the latest developments in electrochemical sensing technologies for saliva analysis. It explores the use of various electrode materials, including carbon nanomaterial, metal nanoparticles and conducting polymers, as well as the integration of microfluidics, lab-on-a-chip (LOC) devices and wearable/implantable technologies. The design and fabrication methodologies used in these sensors are discussed, along with sample preparation techniques and biorecognition elements for enhancing sensor performance.

Electrochemical sensors for salivary analyte detection have demonstrated excellent potential for noninvasive, rapid and cost-effective diagnostics. Recent advancements have resulted in improved sensor selectivity, stability, sensitivity and compatibility with complex saliva samples. Integration with microfluidics and LOC technologies has shown promise in enhancing sensor efficiency and accuracy. In addition, wearable and implantable sensors enable continuous, real-time monitoring of salivary analytes, opening new avenues for personalized health care and disease management.

This review presents an up-to-date overview of electrochemical sensors for analyte detection in saliva, offering insights into their design, fabrication and performance. It highlights the originality and value of integrating electrochemical sensing with microfluidics, wearable/implantable technologies and point-of-care testing platforms. The review also identifies challenges and limitations, such as interference from other saliva components and the need for improved stability and reproducibility. Future prospects include the development of novel microfluidic devices, advanced materials and user-friendly diagnostic devices to unlock the full potential of saliva-based electrochemical sensing in clinical practice.