Cryotherapy with liquid nitrogen has been established as the first-line treatment for pediatric patients with viral warts. Cold-induced urticaria (CU) is a rare skin reaction triggered by cold ...stimuli. We present the case of a pediatric patient with viral warts who developed CU after receiving cryotherapy.
The purpose of this study is to analyze the effects of a game-based learning (GBL) program on the classroom climate and engagement of high schools in socially deprived communities in Spain.
The study ...included 277 students from two secondary schools located in Southern Spain, situated in Zones in Need of Social Transformation. Sampling was non-probabilistic and accidental, based on the accessibility of the school and the willingness of the management and teaching staff to participate in the GBL program. The study employed a control group and two experimental groups (cooperative games group only and cooperative and competitive games group) to compare pre-test and post-test data in both groups. The Brief Class Climate Scale and Engagement Inventory, validated in academic literature, were used as assessment instruments.
The study used a series of ANOVA tests to compare the experimental groups with the control group. The results indicated statistically significant changes in all study variables. In all cases, the experimental groups demonstrated greater benefits than the control group.
The study findings reveal that games can provide significant benefits to students, regardless of whether they are cooperative or competitive. The study provides evidence of the benefits of GBL in high schools located in socially deprived communities in Spain.
Reverse remodeling is a clinically relevant endpoint in heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Rho-kinase (ROCK) signaling cascade activation correlates with cardiac remodeling and ...left ventricular (LV) systolic dysfunction in HFrEF patients. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is effective in HFrEF, especially when there is a left bundle block, as this treatment may stimulate reverse remodeling, thereby improving quality of life and prolonging survival for patients with this severe condition. Here, we evaluate the hypothesis that ROCK activation is reduced after effective CRT in HFrEF.
ROCK activation in circulating leukocytes was evaluated in 28 HFrHF patients, using Western blot (myosin light chain phosphatase subunit 1 phosphorylation, MYPT1p/t), before and three months after initiation of CRT. LV systolic function and remodeling were assessed by echocardiography.
Three months after CRT, LV ejection fraction increased an average of 14.5% (
< 0.001) in 13 patients (responders), while no change was observed in 15 patients (non-responders). End-systolic diameter decreased 16% (
< 0.001) in responders, with no change in non-responders. ROCK activation in PBMCs decreased 66% in responders (
< 0.05) but increased 10% in non-responders (NS). LV end-diastolic diameter was also 5.2 mm larger in non-responders vs. responders (
= 0.058). LV ejection fraction, systolic diameter, and ROCK activation levels were similar in both groups at baseline.
In HFrEF patients, 3 months of effective CRT induced reverse myocardial remodeling, and ROCK activation was significantly decreased in circulating leukocytes. Thus, decreased ROCK activation in circulating leukocytes may reflect reverse cardiac remodeling in patients with heart failure.
Escape rooms and breakout are learning strategies that can facilitate motivation of learning through challenges. In these strategies, students must work as a team and use their reasoning, knowledge, ...and skills to solve puzzles and challenges related to the content of the curriculum, allowing them to solve the game in a limited time. The aim of this study was to determine the effects of the implementation of an escape room on classroom flow, academic performance, school motivation, and prosocial and antisocial behaviours with higher students in a Special Education master’s degree course. The quantitative results show a significant improvement in classroom flow, academic performance, and classroom climate, and a better score in prosocial and antisocial behaviours. The qualitative findings provide a better understanding of these results, and support the conclusion that the use of escape rooms is fun and motivating for students, and facilitates their learning achievement.
Abstract
To study the relationship between urinary total polyphenol excretion (TPE) in adolescents and ideal cardiovascular (CVH) metrics. 1151 adolescents aged 12.04 (0.46) years participating in ...the SI! Program for Secondary Schools were selected based on the availability of urine samples and information required to assess CVH metrics. Data on health behaviours (smoking status, body mass index, physical activity, and healthy diet) and health factors (blood pressure, total cholesterol, and blood glucose) were used to calculate the CVH metrics. TPE in urine was analysed by a Folin-Ciocalteu method after solid-phase extraction. Associations between TPE (categorized into tertiles) and CVH metrics (total and separate scores) were assessed using multilevel mixed-effect regression models. Higher TPE levels were associated with higher (healthier) CVH scores and ideal smoking status (OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.10; 1.87,
p
value = 0.007), physical activity (OR 1.12, 95% CI 1.02; 1.23,
p
value = 0.022) and total cholesterol (OR 1.78, 95% CI 1.16; 2.73,
p
value = 0.009) after multivariate adjustment. An association between TPE and total CVH scores was observed only in boys. Girls with higher TPE had higher rates of ideal total cholesterol and blood pressure. According to our findings, higher urinary TPE is related to better CVH scores, with relevant differences in this association by gender.
Aging is associated with a high risk for cardiovascular disease. The relation of obesity and risk of cardiovascular events appears to be more closely linked to certain clinical or metabolic ...phenotypes than to obesity itself. Our aim was to establish whether aging influenced the metabolic phenotypes regarding to cardiovascular risk, evaluated by changes in the intima media thickness-common carotid (IMT-CC), in coronary heart disease (CHD) patients.
In this cross-sectional study, 1002 CHD patients were studied at entry from the CORDIOPREV study. We performed carotid ultrasound assessment to obtain their IMT-CC values. Carotid atherosclerosis was considered to exist if IMT-CC > 0.7 mm.
Age determined a higher IMT-CC, regardless metabolic phenotype (all p < 0.05). Metabolically healthy non-obese (MHNO) aged< 60 showed a lesser prevalence for carotid atherosclerotic disease than metabolically sick non-obese (MSNO) and obese (MSO), while MHNO aged≥60 only showed less prevalence for the disease than the MSO. Carotid atherosclerosis associated with age, sex, impaired fasting glucose (IFG), hypertension and high sensitivity C-reactive protein (hsCRP). However, in patients aged< 60, it associated with sex and IFG and in the age ≥ 60 group, with hypertension and hsCRP.
Our results suggest that CHD patients aged≥60 are less metabolic flexible compared to patients aged< 60. Thus, MHO patients aged≥60 show the same risk of suffering carotid atherosclerosis as those with metabolic disease, while MHO patients aged< 60 show lower risk than MSO. This fact indicates the need to focus on therapeutic strategies in order to modify those parameters related to obesity and metabolic inflexibility in patients with CHD before entering old age.
The main instruments used to assess frailty are the Fried frailty phenotype and the Fatigue, Resistance, Ambulation, Illnesses, and Loss of Weight (FRAIL) scale. Both instruments contain items that ...must be obtained in a personal interview and cannot be used with an electronic medical record only.
To develop and internally validate a prediction model, based on a points system and integrated in an application (app) for Android, to predict frailty using only variables taken from a patient's clinical history.
A cross-sectional observational study undertaken across the Valencian Community, Spain.
A sample of 621 older patients was analysed from January 2017 to May 2018. The main variable was frailty measured using the FRAIL scale. Candidate predictors were: sex, age, comorbidities, or clinical situations that could affect daily life, polypharmacy, and hospital admission in the last year. A total of 3472 logistic regression models were estimated. The model with the largest area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) was selected and adapted to the points system. This system was validated by bootstrapping, determining discrimination (AUC), and calibration (smooth calibration).
A total of 126 (20.3%) older people were identified as being frail. The points system had an AUC of 0.78 and included as predictors: sex, age, polypharmacy, hospital admission in the last year, and diabetes. Calibration was satisfactory.
A points system was developed to predict frailty in older people using parameters that are easy to obtain and recorded in the clinical history. Future research should be carried out to externally validate the constructed model.
Background and Purpose
ApTOLL is an aptamer selected to antagonize toll‐like receptor 4 (TLR4), a relevant actor for innate immunity involved in inflammatory responses in multiple sclerosis (MS) and ...other diseases. The currently available therapeutic arsenal to treat MS is composed of immunomodulators but, to date, there are no (re)myelinating drugs available in clinics. In our present study, we studied the effect of ApTOLL on different animal models of MS.
Experimental Approach
The experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) model was used to evaluate the effect of ApTOLL on reducing the inflammatory component. A more direct effect on oligodendroglia was studied with the cuprizone model and purified primary cultures of murine and human oligodendrocyte precursor cells (OPCs) isolated through magnetic‐activated cell sorting (MACS) from samples of brain cortex. Also, we tested these effects in an ex vivo model of organotypic cultures demyelinated with lysolecithin (LPC).
Key Results
ApTOLL treatment positively impacted the clinical symptomatology of mice in the EAE and cuprizone models, which was associated with better preservation plus restoration of myelin and oligodendrocytes in the demyelinated lesions of animals. Restoration was corroborated on purified cultures of rodent and human OPCs.
Conclusion and Implications
Our findings reveal a new therapeutic approach for the treatment of inflammatory and demyelinating diseases such as MS. The molecular nature of the aptamer exerts not only an anti‐inflammatory effect but also neuroprotective and remyelinating effects. The excellent safety profile demonstrated by ApTOLL in animals and humans opens the door to future clinical trials in MS patients.
Growth charts for Mexican children with Down syndrome Flores Arizmendi, Karla Adney; García De La Puente, Silvestre; González Navarro, Mauricio ...
American journal of medical genetics. Part A,
04/2022, Letnik:
188, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
We present the results of a prospective, observational, descriptive, cross-sectional study performed on a Mexican population of 1867 children, aged 0-18 years, with Down syndrome (DS), observed ...between 2013 and 2019. A total of 9968 measurements of height, weight, and head circumference, as well as calculation of body mass index (BMI) were used to create growth charts and tables of percentiles. Growth curves were elaborated using Cole's LMS method. The mean weight and length at birth did not differ by sex: the weight was 2750 g for boys and 2710 g for girls (p > 0.05), and the length was 48.2 cm for boys and 47.9 cm for girls (p > 0.05). The mean final height at 18 years was different by sex: 149.6 cm for boys and 141.2 cm for girls. The average BMI at 18 years was 24.2 kg/m
for boys and 21.9 kg/m
for girls. In a comparison with U.S. growth charts, we find that the Mexican population has lower height and weight. These are the first growth curves for the Mexican population with DS. They can be used by health care providers to optimize preventive care by monitoring children with DS for the early identification of factors that affect individual growth.
Studies on spatiotemporal pattern of population abundance predict that close populations should exhibit a high level of synchrony, reflected in a parallel time variation of at least one demographic ...parameter. We tested this prediction for two threatened species of Procellariiformes sharing similar life history traits: the European Storm Petrel (Hydrobates pelagicus) and the Balearic Shearwater (Puffinus mauretanicus). Within each species, we compared adult survival, proportion of transients (breeders that do not settle), and average productivity at two neighboring colonies. Physical and environmental features (e.g., food availability) of the breeding sites were similar. However, while Balearic Shearwater colonies were free of predators, aerial predators occurred especially in one colony of the European Storm Petrel. Despite this difference, we found similar results for the two species. A high proportion of transient birds was detected in only one colony of each species, ranging between 0.00—0.38 and 0.10—0.63 for the petrels and shearwaters, respectively. This seems to be an emergent feature of spatially structured populations of seabirds, unrelated to colony size or predator pressure, that can have important demographic consequences for local population dynamics and their synchrony. Local survival of resident birds was different at each colony, an unexpected result, especially for predator-free colonies of Balearic Shearwater. Productivity varied between the two colonies of European Storm Petrels, but not between the two colonies of Balearic Shearwaters. We demonstrated that within each species, several demographic parameters were colony specific and sufficiently different to generate short-term asynchronous dynamics. Our findings suggest that, in spatially structured populations, local factors, such as predation or small-scale habitat features, or population factors, such as individual quality or age structure, can generate unexpected asynchrony between neighboring populations.
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