Spotting Zika spots: descriptive features of the rash used in 66 published cases

Clinical and Experimental Dermatology, EarlyView.

Rituximab for the treatment of autoimmune subepidermal blistering diseases

Dermatologic Therapy, EarlyView.

Total and available metal concentrations in soils from six long-term fertilization sites across China

Abstract

Approximately 19% of agricultural soils in China are contaminated by heavy metals. However, the effects of agricultural management practices on soil contamination are not well understood. Taking advantage of six long-term (23–34 years) field sites across China, this study examined the effects of different agricultural fertilization treatments, including control (no fertilization), inorganic nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium fertilization (NPK), manure fertilization (M), and NPK plus manure fertilization (NPKM), on the total and available metal concentrations in soils. The results showed that after 23–34 years of fertilization, the M and NPKM treatments significantly increased the total concentration of cadmium (Cd), copper (Cu), and zinc (Zn) in soils compared with the concentrations measured for the control and NPK treatments. In contrast, the fertilization treatments had almost no influence on soil lead (Pb) and nickel (Ni) concentrations. The results of analysis via diffusive gradients in thin films demonstrated that long-term sheep or cattle manure fertilization increased the available metals, especially Cd, Cu, and Zn, but long-term swine manure application decreased the available metals, except for Cu and Zn, in soils. Further analysis revealed that the manure source, soil pH level, and biogeochemical properties of metals affected the availability of Cd, Cu, Pb, Zn, and Ni in soils. Collectively, organic fertilizers had the potential to reduce metal uptake by crops, but caution should be taken to reduce metal concentrations in manure.

Nuclear magnetic resonance-based metabolomic investigation reveals metabolic perturbations in PM 2.5 -treated A549 cells

Abstract

Exposure to PM_2.5 is associated with an increased risk of lung diseases, and oxidative damage is the main reason for PM_2.5-mediated lung injuries. However, little is known about the early molecular events in PM_2.5-induced lung toxicity. In the present study, the metabolites in PM_2.5-treated A549 cells were examined via a robust and nondestructive nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR)-based metabolic approach to clarify the molecular mechanism of PM_2.5-induced toxicity. NMR analysis revealed that 12 metabolites were significantly altered in PM_2.5-treated A549 cells, including up-regulation of alanine, valine, lactate, ω-6 fatty acids, and citrate and decreased levels of gamma-aminobutyric acid, acetate, leucine, isoleucine, D-glucose, lysine, and dimethylglycine. Pathway analysis demonstrated that seven metabolic pathways which included alanine, aspartate and glutamate metabolism, aminoacyl-tRNA biosynthesis, taurine and hypotaurine metabolism, arginine and proline metabolism, starch and sucrose metabolism, valine, leucine and isoleucine biosynthesis, and tricarboxylic acid cycle were mostly influenced. Our results indicate that NMR technique turns out to be a simple and reliable method for exploring the toxicity mechanism of air pollutant.

Arthroderma chiloniense sp. nov. isolated from human stratum corneum: description of a new Arthroderma species

Mycoses, Volume 0, Issue ja, -Not available-.

Early P2X7R-dependent activation of microglia during the asymptomatic phase of autoimmune encephalomyelitis

Abstract

Microglia-mediated neuroinflammation accompanies many central nervous system (CNS) diseases, including multiple sclerosis (MS), and is strongly dependent on the purinergic P2X7 receptor. The nature of the inflammatory response in MS is studied for decades indicating, that proinflammatory microgliosis is involved in advanced stages of MS and is associated with active tissue damage and neurological dysfunctions. Evidence on the role of microgliosis in initial stages of the disease is scarce. Thus, in the present study, we investigated the time course of microglial activation in rat brain subjected to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) which is the animal model of MS. We show that activation of microglia occurs in brains of immunized rats at a very early stage of EAE, well before the development of neurological symptoms of the disease. Enhanced immunoreactivity of microglia/macrophage-specific protein Iba-1, together with morphological features of microgliosis, was identified beginning at day 4 post immunization. Concomitantly, microglial expression of P2X7R was also examined. Moreover, our results reveal that administration of Brilliant Blue G, an antagonist of P2X7R, delays the onset of the disease and partially inhibits development of neurological symptoms in EAE rats. Blockage of P2X7R significantly reduces activation of microglia as confirmed by decreased Iba-1 immunoreactivity and suppresses neuroinflammation in EAE rat brains, as indicated by decreased protein levels of investigated proinflammatory cytokines: IL-1β, IL-6 and TNF-α. Our results indicate that microglia are involved in inducing neuroinflammation at a very early stage of MS/EAE via a P2X7R-dependent mechanism.

Longstanding history of verrucous tumors on both lower legs

JDDG: Journal der Deutschen Dermatologischen Gesellschaft, EarlyView.

Gender as an Independent Risk Factor for the Components of Metabolic Syndrome Among Individuals Within the Normal Range of Body Mass Index

Metabolic Syndrome and Related Disorders, Ahead of Print.

Markov-switching vector autoregressive neural networks and sensitivity analysis of environment, economic growth and petrol prices

Abstract

The paper aims at evaluating the nonlinear and complex relations between CO₂ emissions, economic development, and petrol prices to obtain new insights regarding the shape of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) in the USA and in the UK in addition to introducing a newly proposed nonlinear approach. Within this respect, the paper has three purposes: the first one is to combine the multilayer perceptron neural networks (MLP) with Markov-switching vector autoregressive (MS-VAR) type nonlinear models to obtain the MS-VAR-MLP model. The second is to utilize one of the largest datasets in the literature covering the 1871–2016 period, a long span of data starting from the late eighteenth century. Since the emission, economic development, and petrol price relation is subject to nonlinearity and trajectory changes due to many historical events, the development of the MS-VAR-MLP model is a necessity to contribute to the ongoing debate regarding the shape of the EKC curve and the stability of the relation. The third purpose is to develop the MS-VAR-MLP-based regime-dependent sensitivity analysis, which eases the visual interpretation of the nonlinear causal relationships, which are allowed to have asymmetric interactions in different phases of the expansionary and recessionary periods of the business cycles. Our results provide clear deviations from the findings in the literature: (i) the shape of the EKC curve cannot be assumed to be stable and is subject to regime dependency, nonlinearity, and magnitude dependency; (ii) the forecast results suggest that incorporation of regime switching and neural networks provide significant improvement over the MS-VAR counterpart; and (iii) for both USA and UK and for the 1871–2016 period, the positive impacts of economic growth on emissions cannot be rejected for the majority of the phases of the business cycles; however, the magnitude of this effect is at various degrees. In addition, the incorporation of petrol price provides significant findings considering its effects on emission and economic growth rates. The analysis suggest clear deviations from the expected shape of the EKC curve and puts forth the necessity to utilize more complex empirical methodologies to evaluate the EKC since the emissions-economic development relation is more complex than it was assumed. Following these findings, several policy recommendations are provided. Lastly, the proposed MS-VAR-MLP methodology is compared with the MS-VAR model and various advantages and disadvantages are enumerated.

Different pathways of nitrogen and phosphorus regeneration mediated by extracellular enzymes in temperate lakes under various trophic state

Abstract

Several Italian and Chinese temperate lakes with soluble reactive phosphorus concentrations < 0.015 mg L⁻¹ were studied to estimate nitrogen and phosphorus regeneration mediated by microbial decomposition and possible different mechanisms driven by prevailing oligo- or eutrophic conditions. Leucine aminopeptidase (LAP), beta-glucosidase (GLU) and alkaline phosphatase (AP), algal, and bacterial biomass were related to trophic and environmental variables. In the eutrophic lakes, high algal and particulate organic carbon concentrations stimulated bacterial respiration (> 20 μg C L⁻¹ h⁻¹) and could favor the release of inorganic phosphorus. High extracellular enzyme activities and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria abundance in sediments accelerated nutrient regeneration. In these conditions, the positive GLU-AP relationship suggested the coupling of carbon and phosphorus regeneration; an efficient phosphorus regeneration and high nitrogen levels (up to 0.067 and 0.059 mg L⁻¹ NH₄ and NO₃ in Italy; 0.631 and 1.496 mg L⁻¹ NH₄ and NO₃ in China) led to chlorophyll a peaks of 14.9 and 258.4 μg L⁻¹ in Italy and China, respectively, and a typical algal composition. Conversely, in the oligo-mesotrophic lakes, very low nitrogen levels (in Italy, 0.001 and 0.005 mg L⁻¹ NH₄ and NO₃, respectively, versus 0.053 and 0.371 mg L⁻¹ in China) induced high LAP, while low phosphorus (33.6 and 46.3 μg L⁻¹ total P in Italy and China, respectively) led to high AP. In these lakes, nitrogen and phosphorus regeneration were coupled, as shown by positive LAP-AP relationship; however, the nutrient demand could not be completely met without the supply from sediments, due to low enzymatic activity and phosphorus solubilizing bacteria found in this compartment.

The role of renewable and non-renewable energy consumption in CO 2 emissions: a disaggregate analysis of Pakistan

Abstract

The energy sector has become the largest contributor to greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Among these GHG emissions, most threatening is CO₂ emission which comes from the consumption of fossil fuels. This empirical work analyzes the roles of renewable energy consumption and non-renewable energy consumption in CO₂ emissions in Pakistan. The empirical evidence is based on an auto-regressive distributive lag (ARDL) model of data from 1970 to 2016. The disaggregate analysis reveals that renewable energy consumption has an insignificant impact on CO₂ emission in Pakistan and that, in the non-renewable energy model, natural gas and coal are the main contributors to the level of pollution in Pakistan. Economic growth positively contributes to CO₂ emission in the renewable energy model but not in the non-renewable energy model. Policies that emphasize the contribution of renewable energy to economic growth and that add more clean energy into the energy mix are suggested.

MicroRNA-340 inhibits squamous cell carcinoma cell proliferation, migration and invasion by downregulating RhoA

Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) originates from the malignant transformation of epidermal keratinocyte with over 250,000 incidences in the United States every year [1,2]. The risk factors of SCC mainly include exposure to UV radiation, chemical carcinogens and immunosuppression [3]. Specifically, the patients who received immunosuppressive therapy, such as organ transplant recipients (OTRs), are at an increasing risk of SCC. While most sporadic SCCs can be cured by surgery and/or radiation therapy, the OTR-derived SCCs are characterized by a high frequency of metastasis, greatly contributing to the patients' mortality [4–6].

Cross-Sectional Survey on Disease Severity in Japanese Patients with Harlequin Ichthyosis/Ichthyosis: Syndromic Forms and Quality-of-Life Analysis in a Subgroup

Congenital ichthyoses (CIs) are a group of genetic disorders caused by mutations in genes involved in skin barrier functions. Patients with CI clinically suffer from persistent scaling and hyperkeratosis that are often associated with erythema from birth or the neonatal period.

Association between itch and cancer in 16,925 pruritus patients: Experience at a tertiary care center

Pruritus has been associated with underlying malignancy. This article provides a comprehensive analysis of the association between pruritus and a diverse array of malignancies, with additional stratification by race, Knowledge of these associations can guide clinicians in pursuing malignancy workup for patients with unexplained pruritus

Myofibroblastic sarcoma: Clinicopathologic features and experience from a sarcoma tertiary referral center

Background: Myofibroblastic sarcomas (MS) are rare malignancies characterized histologically by spindled cells with myofibroblastic differentiation. There is no common consensus on optimal management with surgery and adjuvant chemoradiotherapy yielding variable results.

Associations of Religious Upbringing With Subsequent Health and Well-Being From Adolescence to Young Adulthood: An Outcome-Wide Analysis

Abstract

In the present study, we prospectively examined the associations of religious involvement in adolescence (including religious service attendance and prayer or meditation) with a wide array of psychological well-being, mental health, health behavior, physical health, and character strength outcomes in young adulthood. Longitudinal data from the Growing Up Today Study were analyzed using generalized estimating equations. Sample sizes ranged from 5,681 to 7,458, depending on outcome; the mean baseline age was 14.74 years, and there were 8–14 years of follow-up (1999 to either 2007, 2010, or 2013). Bonferroni correction was used to correct for multiple testing. All models were controlled for sociodemographic characteristics, maternal health, and prior values of the outcome variables whenever data were available. Compared with no attendance, at least weekly attendance of religious services was associated with greater life satisfaction and positive affect, a number of character strengths, lower probabilities of marijuana use and early sexual initiation, and fewer lifetime sexual partners. Analyses of prayer or meditation yielded similar results. Although decisions about religion are not shaped principally by health, encouraging service attendance and private practices in adolescents who already hold religious beliefs may be meaningful avenues of development and support, possibly leading to better health and well-being.

Trajectory of Postconcussive Symptoms 12-Months Post-Deployment in Soldiers with and without Mild Traumatic Brain Injury - Warrior STRONG Study

Abstract

Postconcussive symptoms are believed to resolve in days or months in most instances for civilian injuries, though recent evidence suggests that recovery may be slower for injuries sustained during military deployment. The present study is based on a cohort of recently deployed soldiers from two US Army military bases (Fort Carson and Fort Bragg, followed from 2009-2015). Soldiers with and without a recent history of a deployment mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) were evaluated within days of return and at 3, 6, and 12-months. Those with mTBI were more likely than non-mTBI to endorse one or more postconcussive symptoms at a severe and or very severe level (47% vs. 21% baseline; aRR=1.7 95% CI: 1.51,1.93 all-time points) and remained significant after adjusting for PTSD (aRR=1.34 95%CI: 1.41,1.82). Prevalence and relative risks (for three of most common baseline symptoms remained constant over time: sleep problems (RR=2.19), forgetfulness (RR=2.56), irritability (RR=2.73). The pattern was slightly different for headache, decreasing from RR=3.44 at baseline to RR=3.26 at 12 months, due to increased prevalence of headache in those without mTBI. . The prevalence of clinically relevant postconcussive symptoms remained relatively constant over one year of follow-up, whether or not symptoms were associated with concussion. Service members with recent mTBI reported more symptoms than non-mTBI at all time-points.

The Causal Effect of Education on Tooth Loss: Evidence from UK Schooling Reforms

Abstract

Associations between education and oral health have frequently been reported, but until now there is no causal evidence. Exploiting exogenous variation in years of schooling due to 1947 and 1972 reforms in mandatory schooling in the UK; we examined the causal relationship between education and tooth loss in older age. A cross-sectional study was conducted using data from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing (waves 3, 5 and 7). A Two-Stage Least Squares instrumental variables approach was employed. 5,667 respondents (average age = 67.8; 44.4% were men) were included in the analyses, of which 819 (14.5%) had no teeth. The schooling reforms increased years of education by an average of 0.624 years (95% CI: 0.412, 0.835). For respondents born within +/−6 years from the pivotal cohorts, a one-year increment of education causally reduced edentulism by 9.1 (95% CI: 1.5, 16.8) % points. The effects were stronger for the 1947 reform than for the 1972 reform. Results were robust against broadening the cohort bandwidth and functional form of the cohort trend. The findings suggest oral health later in life improves in return to investments in school education.

Cohort Differences in Cognitive Impairment and Cognitive Decline among Mexican-Americans Aged 75 and Older

Abstract

Research suggests the prevalence and incidence of cognitive impairment among older adults is decreasing. This analysis used data from nine waves (1993-2016) of the Hispanic Established Populations for the Epidemiologic Study of the Elderly to assess the cognitive status and cognitive decline for two cohorts of Mexican-Americans aged ≥75 in 1993/94 versus 2004/05. Logistic regression, joint longitudinal-survival models, and illness-death models for interval-censored data were used to examine cohort differences in the odds of prevalent cognitive impairment, trajectories of cognitive decline, and the risk for 10-year incident cognitive impairment, respectively. Results indicated that compared to the 1993/94 Cohort, the 2004/05 Cohort had higher odds for prevalent cognitive impairment (odds ratio: 2.51, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.92, 3.29), particularly among participants with <4 years of education (odds ratio:2.99 95% CI: 2.14, 4.18). Conversely, the 2004/05 Cohort exhibited significantly slower rates of cognitive decline (βˆ: 0.50, 95% CI: 0.39, 0.62) and had a significantly lower risk for incident cognitive impairment (hazard ratio: 0.75, 95% CI: 0.62, 0.91) compared to the 1993/94 Cohort. This analysis provides mixed results for cohort trends in the cognitive health of older Mexican-Americans. Continued research is needed to identify risk factors that contribute to these population-level trends.

The population-level impacts of excluding norovirus infected food workers: a mathematical modeling study

Abstract

Norovirus is the leading cause of acute gastroenteritis and of foodborne disease in the United States. The Food and Drug Administration recommends foodworkers infected with norovirus be excluded from work while symptomatic and 48 hours after their symptoms subside. Compliance with this recommendation is not ideal and the population-level impacts of changes in foodworker compliance have yet to be quantified. We aimed to assess population impacts of varying degrees of compliance with the current recommendation through a compartmental model. We modeled the number and proportion of symptomatic norovirus cases averted in the U.S. population, by specific age ranges (0–4 year-olds, 5–17 year-olds, 18–64 year-olds, and 65+ year-olds), under various scenarios of foodworker exclusion (i.e., proportion compliant and days of post-symptomatic exclusion) compared to a referent scenario, which assumes 66.6̅% of norovirus symptomatic foodworkers and 0% of post-symptomatic foodworkers are excluded. Overall, we estimated 6.0 million norovirus cases have already been avoided annually under the referent scenario and 6.7 million (28%) more cases may be avoided through 100% compliance with the current recommendations. Substantial population-level benefits were predicted from improved compliance in exclusion of norovirus infected foodworkers – benefits that may be realized through policies or programs incentivizing self-exclusion.