Despite the sustained theoretical and empirical interest over the past 40years in the association between life events and suicidal ideation and behavior, the literature in this area has yet to be ...systematically reviewed. The current article provides a comprehensive review of the empirical literature pertaining to life events in relation to at least one aspect of suicidal ideation and behavior (i.e., suicidal ideation, plans, attempts, degree of suicidal intent, medical severity of attempt, repeat versus first lifetime attempt status, and death by suicide). A total of 95 articles meeting inclusion criteria were identified by a literature search using Medline and PsycINFO. Evidence for an association between negative life events and suicidal ideation and behavior was generally consistent, with strongest support found for more severe than with less severe forms of suicidal ideation and behavior. Support for an inverse relation between positive events and suicidal ideation and behavior was generally lacking. Although there is general support for life stressors as a risk factor for suicidal ideation and behavior, interpretation of these findings is constrained by methodological limitations prevalent in much of the literature, particularly in the case of suicidal ideation and suicide plans. Recommendations for future research are provided.
•Provides a systematic review of life events and suicidal ideation and behavior•The relation with stressors was stronger for severe forms of ideation and behavior.•The relation with positive events was weak for suicidal ideation and behavior.•Several important methodological limitations characterize much of the literature.
Providing adaptive features and personalized support by considering students' learning styles in computer‐assisted learning systems has high potential in making learning easier for students in terms ...of reducing their efforts or increasing their performance. In this study, the navigational behaviour of students in an online course within a learning management system was investigated, looking at how students with different learning styles prefer to use and learn in such a course. As a result, several differences in the students' navigation patterns were identified. These findings have several implications for improving adaptivity. First, they showed that students with different learning styles use different strategies to learn and navigate through the course, which can be seen as another argument for providing adaptivity. Second, the findings provided information for extending the adaptive functionality in typical learning management systems. Third, the information about differences in navigational behaviour can contribute towards automatic detection of learning styles, helping in making student modeling approaches more accurate.
Summary
Background
TCS (topical corticosteroids) are the first‐line drug in the treatment of oral lichen planus (OLP). However, the value of topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCI) including tacrolimus, ...pimecrolimus and ciclosporin for OLP is still controversial.
Objectives
To compare the efficacy and safety of TCI vs. TCS for OLP.
Methods
The authors searched PubMed, Embase, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials, Web of Science and four Chinese databases from 1950 to May 2018. The randomized controlled trials comparing TCI and TCS for OLP reported at least one of the following outcomes: improvement of clinical signs and/or symptoms, relapse, blood levels of TCI and adverse events.
Results
Twenty‐one trials involving 965 patients were included in the analysis. For the treatment of OLP (3–8 weeks), TCI including tacrolimus, pimecrolimus and ciclosporin were similar to TCS in efficacy. Tacrolimus–TCS resulted in similar outcomes, with relapse at 3 weeks to 6 months. Blood levels of TCI were usually undetectable. In addition, tacrolimus showed a statistically higher incidence of local adverse events than TCS for short‐term treatment. A few systemic adverse events occurred in the tacrolimus and ciclosporin groups, but they were not serious.
Conclusions
The evidence for tacrolimus (n = 12), pimecrolimus (n = 3) and ciclosporin (n = 6) demonstrated that treatment with TCI may be an alternative approach when OLP does not respond to the standard protocols. Tacrolimus 0·1% should be the first drug of choice when selecting TCI for short‐term treatment in recalcitrant OLP. Further well‐designed trials are warranted to evaluate the long‐term efficacy and safety of TCI.
What's already known about this topic?
The main topical drug for oral lichen planus (OLP) is topical corticosteroids (TCS).
Patients with OLP who are not responsive to TCS or are at risk of adverse events from TCS need other alternative drugs.
Topical calcineurin inhibitors (TCI), including tacrolimus, pimecrolimus and ciclosporin, have become a hot topic in a variety of mucocutaneous immune‐mediated diseases.
What does this study add?
TCI including tacrolimus, pimecrolimus and ciclosporin were similar to TCS in efficacy for the short‐term treatment of OLP.
The local adverse events of tacrolimus were higher than with TCS. A few systemic adverse events were reported with TCI, but they were all tolerable and not serious.
The limited evidence for pimecrolimus (three trials) and ciclosporin (six trials) requires further studies to evaluate the short‐term and long‐term efficacy and safety of TCI compared with TCS.
Linked Comment: Thongprasom. Br J Dermatol 2019; 181:1120.
Plain language summary available online
Abstract
Aqueous polysulfide/iodide redox flow batteries are attractive for scalable energy storage due to their high energy density and low cost. However, their energy efficiency and power density ...are usually limited by poor electrochemical kinetics of the redox reactions of polysulfide/iodide ions on graphite electrodes, which has become the main obstacle for their practical applications. Here, CoS
2
/CoS heterojunction nanoparticles with uneven charge distribution, which are synthesized in situ on graphite felt by a one-step solvothermal process, can significantly boost electrocatalytic activities of I
−
/I
3
−
and S
2−
/S
x
2−
redox reactions by improving absorptivity of charged ions and promoting charge transfer. The polysulfide/iodide flow battery with the graphene felt-CoS
2
/CoS heterojunction can deliver a high energy efficiency of 84.5% at a current density of 10 mA cm
−2
, a power density of 86.2 mW cm
−2
and a stable energy efficiency retention of 96% after approximately 1000 h of continuous operation.
TiAl alloys are lightweight, show decent corrosion resistance and have good mechanical properties at elevated temperatures, making them appealing for high-temperature applications. However, ...polysynthetic twinned TiAl single crystals fabricated by crystal-seeding methods face substantial challenges, and their service temperatures cannot be raised further. Here we report that Ti-45Al-8Nb single crystals with controlled lamellar orientations can be fabricated by directional solidification without the use of complex seeding methods. Samples with 0° lamellar orientation exhibit an average room temperature tensile ductility of 6.9% and a yield strength of 708 MPa, with a failure strength of 978 MPa due to the formation of extensive nanotwins during plastic deformation. At 900 °C yield strength remains high at 637 MPa, with 8.1% ductility and superior creep resistance. Thus, this TiAl single-crystal alloy could provide expanded opportunities for higher-temperature applications, such as in aeronautics and aerospace.
The pseudotumor cerebri syndrome (PTCS) may be primary (idiopathic intracranial hypertension) or arise from an identifiable secondary cause. Characterization of typical neuroimaging abnormalities, ...clarification of normal opening pressure in children, and features distinguishing the syndrome of intracranial hypertension without papilledema from intracranial hypertension with papilledema have furthered our understanding of this disorder. We propose updated diagnostic criteria for PTCS to incorporate advances and insights into the disorder realized over the past 10 years.
•A meta-analysis of prebiotic and probiotic trials for depression and anxiety.•Prebiotics did not differ from placebo for depression or anxiety.•Probiotics yielded small but significant effects for ...depression and anxiety.•Probiotic effects were larger for clinical than community samples for depression.•More studies of clinical samples are needed fully to evaluate therapeutic potential.
With growing interest in the gut microbiome, prebiotics and probiotics have received considerable attention as potential treatments for depression and anxiety. We conducted a random-effects meta-analysis of 34 controlled clinical trials evaluating the effects of prebiotics and probiotics on depression and anxiety. Prebiotics did not differ from placebo for depression (d = −.08, p = .51) or anxiety (d = .12, p = .11). Probiotics yielded small but significant effects for depression (d = −.24, p < .01) and anxiety (d = −.10, p = .03). Sample type was a moderator for probiotics and depression, with a larger effect observed for clinical/medical samples (d = −.45, p < .001) than community ones. This effect increased to medium-to-large in a preliminary analysis restricted to psychiatric samples (d = −.73, p < .001). There is general support for antidepressant and anxiolytic effects of probiotics, but the pooled effects were reduced by the paucity of trials with clinical samples. Additional randomized clinical trials with psychiatric samples are necessary fully to evaluate their therapeutic potential.
The fast penetration of electrification in rural areas calls for the development of competitive decentralized approaches. A promising solution is represented by low-cost and compact integrated solar ...flow batteries; however, obtaining high energy conversion performance and long device lifetime simultaneously in these systems has been challenging. Here, we use high-efficiency perovskite/silicon tandem solar cells and redox flow batteries based on robust BTMAP-Vi/N
-TEMPO redox couples to realize a high-performance and stable solar flow battery device. Numerical analysis methods enable the rational design of both components, achieving an optimal voltage match. These efforts led to a solar-to-output electricity efficiency of 20.1% for solar flow batteries, as well as improved device lifetime, solar power conversion utilization ratio and capacity utilization rate. The conceptual design strategy presented here also suggests general future optimization approaches for integrated solar energy conversion and storage systems.
Immunotherapy has revolutionized cancer therapy, largely attributed to the success of immune-checkpoint blockade. However, there are subsets of patients across multiple cancers who have not shown ...robust responses to these agents. A major impediment to progress in the field is the availability of faithful mouse models that recapitulate the complexity of human malignancy and immune contexture within the tumor microenvironment. These models are urgently needed across all malignancies to interrogate and predict antitumor immune responses and therapeutic efficacy in clinical trials. Herein, we seek to review pros and cons of different cancer mouse models, and how they can be used as platforms to predict efficacy and resistance to cancer immunotherapies.
Although immunotherapy has shown substantial benefit in the treatment of a variety of malignancies, a key hurdle toward the advancement of these therapies is the availability of immunocompetent preclinical mouse models that recapitulate human disease. Here, we review the evolution of preclinical mouse models and their utility as coclinical platforms for mechanistic interrogation of cancer immunotherapies.
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