Summary
Background
The Simplified Psoriasis Index (SPI) is a three‐domain assessment measure for psoriasis, including separate indicators of current severity (SPI‐s), psychosocial impact (SPI‐p), and ...past history and interventions (SPI‐i). There are two complementary versions available designed for completion by a health professional (proSPI) or by patient self‐assessment (saSPI). The validity and reliability of the proSPI vs. saSPI have already been demonstrated in adults. To date, validated severity measures for paediatric psoriasis do not exist.
Objectives
To validate the current severity (SPI‐s) and psychosocial impact (SPI‐p) domains of the proSPI and saSPI in children and adolescents with psoriasis.
Methods
All patients aged < 18 years with plaque psoriasis visiting the dermatology outpatient department of Radboud University Medical Center, the Netherlands, between September 2013 and April 2014 were asked to complete Dutch versions of the saSPI and the Children's Dermatology Life Quality Index (CDLQI). The original English versions of the proSPI and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) were completed by the physician at the same visit.
Results
In total, 113 patients (median age 12·0 years, range 4–17) were included. There was a close correlation between the proSPI‐s and PASI (r = 0·87), which was higher than between the saSPI‐s and PASI (r = 0·69). The correlation between the SPI‐p and CDLQI was 0·78. The full range of scores was utilized in both proSPI‐s and SPI‐p, although the highest saSPI‐s score was 30 (maximum 50).
Conclusions
In paediatric psoriasis, the proSPI and saSPI are shown to be valid and usable. The SPI‐s and SPI‐p can be readily introduced into routine clinical practice.
What's already known about this topic?
Validated severity measures do not exist for psoriasis in children and adolescents.
The Simplified Psoriasis Index (SPI) is a summary measure of psoriasis, with separate domains for current severity and psychosocial impact.
Its validity and reliability has been demonstrated in adults in professionally assessed (proSPI) and patient self‐assessment (saSPI) versions.
What does this study add?
Both the proSPI and saSPI are valid for use in children and can be readily introduced into routine practice.
The objective of this work is to asses the sorption of metalaxyl applied as a copper oxychloride (CO)-metalaxyl formulation, for a set of selected soils devoted to vineyards. The method involved ...batch incubation of soils suspended with a commercial copper oxychloride–metalaxyl-based fungicide in 0.01
M CaCl
2. Afterwards, the metalaxyl concentration remaining in solution was determined by high-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The amount of dissolved metalaxyl in the fungicide suspension depends mainly on the soil pH, its potential acidity, and the cation exchange capacity. Of the approx. 20% metalaxyl retained by the solid colloids, the effect of organic matter colloids in soils (15–20
mg
kg
−1) had a poor contribution (six times lower) than the copper oxychloride colloids (40%, w/w) in the commercial fungicide formulation (100–130
mg
kg
−1). When comparing these retention data with the behaviour of metalaxyl used as a technical grade fungicide of about 100% purity (10–15
mg
kg
−1 in solids), it is clear that the commercial formulation increases a 30% retention of metalaxyl by soil (15–20
mg
kg
−1 in solids). The overall effect of the metalaxyl formulation plus soil show values of 10 times higher retention than technical grade-metalaxyl plus soil. Commercial formulation can decrease the mobility of soluble metalaxyl in agricultural soils with regard to the expected values obtained from batch studies using analytical grade-metalaxyl. Therefore, the effect of surfactants should be considered in the assessment of water contamination by the pesticides used in agriculture.
In elastic media, finite-difference (FD) implementations of free-surface (FS) boundary conditions on partly staggered grid (PSG) use the highly dispersive vacuum formulation (VPSG). The FS boundary ...is embedded into a “vacuum” grid layer (null Lame’s constants and negligible density values) where the discretized equations of motion allow computing surface displacements. We place a new set of compound (stress-displacement) nodes along a planar FS and use unilateral mimetic FD discretization of the zero-traction conditions for displacement computation (MPSG). At interior nodes, MPSG reduces to standard VPSG methods and applies fourth-order centered FD along cell diagonals for staggered differentiation combined with nodal second-order FD in time. We perform a dispersion analysis of these methods on a Lamb’s problem and estimate dispersion curves from the phase difference of windowed numerical Rayleigh pulses at two FS receivers. For a given grid sampling criterion (e.g., six or ten nodes per reference S wavelength
λ
S
), MPSG dispersion errors are only a quarter of the VPSG method. We also quantify root-mean-square (RMS) misfits of numerical time series relative to analytical waveforms. MPSG RMS misfits barely exceed 10 % when nine nodes sample the minimum S wavelength
λ
MIN
S
in transit (along distances
∼
145
λ
MIN
S
). In same tests, VPSG RMS misfits exceed 70 %. We additionally compare MPSG to a consistently fourth-order mimetic method designed on a standard staggered grid. The latter equates the former’s dispersion errors on grids twice denser and shows higher RMS precision only on grids with six or less nodes per
λ
MIN
S
.
The cellular mechanisms that underlie impaired brain function during phenylketonuria (PKU), the most common biochemical cause of mental retardation in humans, remain unclear. Acute application of ...L-Phe at concentrations observed in the PKU brain depresses glutamatergic synaptic transmission but does not affect GABA receptor activity in cultured neurons. If these depressant effects of L-Phe take place in the PKU brain, then chronic impairment of the glutamate system, which may contribute to impaired brain function, could be detected as changes in postsynaptic glutamate receptors. This hypothesis was tested by using a combination of liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry, patch-clamp, radioligand binding and western blot approaches in forebrain tissue from heterozygous and homozygous (PKU) Pahenu2 mice. Brain concentrations of L-Phe were nearly six-fold greater in PKU mice (863.12 ± 17.96 µmol/kg) than in their heterozygous counterparts (149.32 ± 10.23 µmol/kg). This concentration is significantly higher than the KB of 573 µM for L-Phe to compete for N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptors. Receptor binding experiments with 3HMK-801 showed significant up-regulation of NMDA receptor density in PKU mice. Consistent with the depressant effects of L-Phe, expression of NMDA receptor NR2A and (RS)–amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazolepropionic acid (AMPA) receptor Glu1 and Glu2/3 subunits was significantly increased, whereas expression of the NR2B subunit was decreased. There was no change in GABA α1 subunit expression. Given the role of the glutamatergic system in brain development and function, these changes may, at least in part, explain the brain disorders associated with PKU.
Tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF
α) and lymphotoxin alpha (LT
α) induce pleiotropic cellular effects through low-affinity 55 kDa type-1 receptors (TNFR1, CD120a) and high-affinity 75 kDa type-2 ...receptors (TNFR2, CD120b). Both cytokines have potent biological effects on glial cells and are strongly implicated in the pathology of central nervous system (CNS) demyelinating diseases. However, to date, neither constitutive nor cytokine-induced TNFR expression by glial cells have been definitively characterized. We therefore characterized TNF receptors at the molecular, protein, and functional levels in rat astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes. Northern blotting demonstrated that all three types of glia constitutively transcribed a single TNFR1 mRNA. IFN
γ increased transcript levels in all three types of glia, but TNF
α increased levels only in oligodendrocytes. Microglia constitutively transcribed three distinct TNFR2 mRNAs, levels of which were increased by either IFN
γ or TNF
α. In contrast, astrocytes and oligodendrocytes constitutively transcribed nearly undetectable levels of TNFR2 mRNAs, and levels were not affected by IFN
γ, TNF
α, or oligodendrocyte maturation. Immunocytochemical staining of glial cells corroborated Northern data by demonstrating that glia express a parallel pattern of TNFR proteins on their cell surfaces. In co-cultures of microglia plated atop irradiated astrocytes, human TNF
α (which, on mouse cells, binds TNFR1 exclusively) induced microglial cell proliferation, whereas murine TNF
α (which binds both TNFRs) did not. Collectively, the data show that microglia, a primary source of TNF
α at CNS inflammatory sites, express both TNFR1 and TNFR2, whereas astrocytes and oligodendrocytes, whose embryological origin differs from that of microglia, predominantly express TNFR1. TNF
α increases expression of TNFR1 by oligodendrocytes whereas it increases expression of TNFR2 by microglia. Microglia proliferation data suggest that signals transduced through TNFR2 directly or indirectly inhibit signals transduced through TNFR1. Different patterns of TNFR expression by glia at sites of CNS inflammation may be critical in determining whether TNF has activational, proliferative, or cytotoxic effects on these cells.
People with osteoarthritis (OA) frequently report that their joint pain is influenced by weather conditions. This study aimed to examine whether there are differences in perceived joint pain between ...older people with OA who reported to be weather-sensitive versus those who did not in six European countries with different climates and to identify characteristics of older persons with OA that are most predictive of perceived weather sensitivity.
Baseline data from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) were used. ACR classification criteria were used to determine OA. Participants with OA were asked about their perception of weather as influencing their pain. Using a two-week follow-up pain calendar, average self-reported joint pain was assessed (range: 0 (no pain)-10 (greatest pain intensity)). Linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses and an independent t-test were used. Analyses were adjusted for several confounders.
The majority of participants with OA (67.2%) perceived the weather as affecting their pain. Weather-sensitive participants reported more pain than non-weather-sensitive participants (M = 4.1, SD = 2.4 versus M = 3.1, SD = 2.4; p < 0.001). After adjusting for several confounding factors, the association between self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain remained present (B = 0.37, p = 0.03). Logistic regression analyses revealed that women and more anxious people were more likely to report weather sensitivity. Older people with OA from Southern Europe were more likely to indicate themselves as weather-sensitive persons than those from Northern Europe.
Weather (in)stability may have a greater impact on joint structures and pain perception in people from Southern Europe. The results emphasize the importance of considering weather sensitivity in daily life of older people with OA and may help to identify weather-sensitive older people with OA.
Celotno besedilo
Dostopno za:
DOBA, IZUM, KILJ, NUK, PILJ, PNG, SAZU, SIK, UILJ, UKNU, UL, UM, UPUK
Numerical and approximate analytical solutions for the compact layer growth kinetics in a pure iron solid cylinder, during a plasma nitriding process, are obtained. The numerical simulations of the ...model are performed by using a front tracking finite difference scheme and the heat balance integral method. We propose a model where the main assumption is to consider a diffusion zone of constant thickness, which is solved for cylindrical symmetries. We present results for the time evolution of the compound layer, where the obtained solutions from both methods are consistent with the expected behaviour in the asymptotic time limit and experimental data from other authors.
We present ground-penetrating radar (GPR)—based volume calculations, with associated error estimates, for eight glaciers on Wedel Jarlsberg Land, southwestern Spitsbergen, Svalbard, and compare them ...with those obtained from volume-area scaling relationships. The volume estimates are based upon GPR ice-thickness data collected during the period 2004–2013. The total area and volume of the ensemble are 502.91 ± 18.60 km2 and 91.91 ± 3.12 km3, respectively. The individual areas, volumes, and average ice thickness lie within 0.37–140.99 km2, 0.01–31.98 km3, and 28–227 m, respectively, with a maximum recorded ice thickness of 619 ± 13 m on Austre Torellbreen. To estimate the ice volume of unsurveyed tributary glaciers, we combine polynomial cross-sections with a function providing the best fit to the measured ice thickness along the center line of a collection of 22 surveyed tributaries. For the time-to-depth conversion of GPR data, we test the use of a glacierwide constant radio-wave velocity chosen on the basis of local or regional common midpoint measurements, versus the use of distinct velocities for the firn, cold ice, and temperate ice layers, concluding that the corresponding volume calculations agree with each other within their error bounds.
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