34039 Maintenance of skin clearance in a long-term open-label study of fixed-combination halobetasol propionate and tazarotene lotion for psoriasis in participants with prior use of topical treatments

Background: Most patients with psoriasis are dissatisfied with their current treatment, primarily because of limited effectiveness. This post hoc subgroup analysis evaluated long-term efficacy and safety of fixed-combination halobetasol propionate (0.01%) and tazarotene (0.045%) lotion (HP/TAZ) in participants with use of topical corticosteroid (TCS; 137/550 [24.9%]) or other antipsoriatic topical medications (51/550 [9.3%]) before entry in an open-label study of HP/TAZ (NCT02462083). Methods: Participants in the open-label study received HP/TAZ once daily. At week 8, participants who achieved treatment success (investigator’s global assessment [IGA] score of 0 or 1) stopped treatment and were reevaluated monthly through 52 weeks; those who did not achieve treatment success continued HP/TAZ. Twenty-four continuous weeks of treatment were allowed if participants achieved ≥1-grade improvement in IGA from baseline at week 12, with monthly reevaluation. If at any point the condition intensified to IGA ≥2, HP/TAZ was resumed, otherwise, HP/TAZ was discontinued. Results: From weeks 8 to 52, similar treatment success rates were achieved by participants with prior use of TCS (range, 20.0%-40.0%) or other topicals (range, 21.1%-53.8%). Mean affected body surface area at baseline was 5.7% and 5.5%, respectively, and decreased to 3.8% and 2.4%, respectively, at week 52. Percentage of participants who maintained disease control for 29 to 85 days after HP/TAZ cessation was comparable. Rates of adverse events were similar between groups. Conclusions: Regardless of the type of previous topical therapy, participants with prior use of topical medications maintained skin clearance with HP/TAZ over 52 weeks

More than just 'stressful'? Testing the mediating role of fatigue on the relationship between job stress and occupational crashes of long-haul truck drivers

Introduction: Recent evidence consistently highlights the adverse work environment of long-haul professional drivers, whose task structure typically involves the performance of extensive shifts, driving under stressful working conditions. In this regard, job stress and fatigue - that are highly prevalent in this workforce - seem to play a crucial role in explaining this group's negative traffic safety outcomes. The aim of this study was to assess whether work-related fatigue is a mechanism that mediates the relationship between job stress, health indicators and occupational traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers (LHTD). Methods: The data used in this study were collected from 521 Spanish long-haul truck drivers (97% males) from all 17 regions of Spain, with a mean age of 47 years. Results: Utilizing structural equation models (SEM), it was found that work-traffic crashes of long-haul truck drivers could be explained through work-related fatigue that exerts a full mediation between job stress (job strain), health-related factors and traffic crashes suffered during the previous two years. Discussion: Overall, the findings of this research support that a) stressful working conditions and health issues of drivers have significant effects on traffic crashes, and b) fatigue is a mechanism relating stress-related factors and work-traffic crashes of long-haul drivers. This study highlights the need of stress- and fatigue-management policies and interventions, in order to reduce the crash risk of long-haul truck drivers

Measuring job stress in transportation workers: psychometric properties, convergent validity and reliability of the ERI and JCQ among professional drivers

Background The accumulated evidence has shown how professional drivers are, in psychosocial terms, among the most vulnerable workforces, and how their crashes (some of them preceded by stressful working conditions) constitute both an occupational and public health concern. However, there is a clear lack of validated tools for measuring stress and other key hazardous issues affecting transport workers, and most of the existing ones, frequently generic, do not fully consider the specific features that properly describe the work environment of professional driving. This study assessed the psychometric properties, convergent validity and consistency of two measures used for researching occupational stress among professional drivers: the Siegrist's ERI (Effort-Reward Imbalance Inventory) and Karasek's JCQ (Job Content Questionnaire). Methods We examined the data collected from 726 Spanish professional drivers. Analyses were performed using Structural Equation Models, thus obtaining basic psychometric properties of both measures and an optimized structure for the instruments, in addition to testing their convergent validity. Results The results suggest that the abbreviated versions of ERI (10 items) and JCQ (20 items) have clear dimensional structures, high factorial weights, internal consistency and an improved fit to the task's dynamics and hazards, commonly faced by of professional drivers; a short set of items with low psychometrical adjustment was excluded, and the root structure of the questionnaires was kept. Conclusions This study supports the value and reliability of ERI-10 and JCQ-20 for measuring job stress among professional drivers. Also, there is a high consistency between both measures of stress, even though they belong to different theoretical conceptions of the phenomenon. In practical settings, these instruments can be useful for occupational researchers and practitioners studying stress-related issues from the perspective of human factors

Essential¿but also vulnerable? Work intensification, effort/reward imbalance, fatigue and psychological health of Spanish cargo drivers during the COVID-19 pandemic

Objective: This study investigates the combined effect of the Effort/Reward Imbalance (ERI) model of stress and work intensification within the context of the COVID-19 pandemic on the psychological health (general and work-related fatigue, and psychological strain) of cargo drivers, one of the most demanded workforces during the first year of this pandemic. Methods: For this cross-sectional research, the data provided by n = 1,013 professional drivers from the different 17 autonomous communities (regions) of Spain were analyzed. Participants answered a questionnaire composed of the short version of the Effort Reward Imbalance (ERI) questionnaire, a Work Intensification Scale (WIS) designed for this study, the fatigue subscale of the Checklist Individual Strength (CIS), the Need for Recovery after Work Scale (NFR), and the General Health Questionnaire (GHQ). Results: Hierarchical regression analyses show that both (ERI and work intensification) models significantly predict driver's fatigue and psychological strain. The effect of work intensification exists above and beyond the effect of effort/reward imbalance, which has been previously related to the safety performance of cargo drivers. Conclusions: These findings suggest that the ERI and work intensification models can be complementarily used, especially in scenarios introducing substantial changes in the work environment, such as the COVID-19 crisis. Also, the results of this study support the need to intervene in the working conditions of professional drivers in order to improve their psychological health and well-being during both pandemic and post-pandemic times, as crisis-related management interventions are necessar

Automatic linguistic reporting of customer activity patterns in open malls

In this work, we present a complete system to produce an automatic linguistic reporting about the customer activity patterns inside open malls, a mixed distribution of classical malls joined with the shops on the street. These reports can assist to design marketing campaigns by means of identifying the best places to catch the attention of customers. Activity patterns are estimated with process mining techniques and the key information of localization. Localization is obtained with a parallelized solution based on WiFi fingerprint system to speed up the solution. In agreement with the best practices for human evaluation of natural language generation systems, the linguistic quality of the generated report was evaluated by 41 experts who filled in an online questionnaire. Results are encouraging, since the average global score of the linguistic quality dimension is 6.17 (0.76 of standard deviation) in a 7-point Likert scale. This expresses a high degree of satisfaction of the generated reports and validates the adequacy of automatic natural language textual reports as a complementary tool to process model visualization. © 2021, The Author(s)

27874 Correlation of itch response to roflumilast cream with disease severity and patient-reported outcomes in patients with chronic plaque psoriasis

Roflumilast cream is a nonsteroidal, selective phosphodiesterase-4 inhibitor in development for plaque psoriasis (PsO). A Phase 2b, double-blinded trial randomized adults with PsO (2-20% body surface area) to once daily roflumilast 0.3%, roflumilast 0.15%, or vehicle for 12 weeks (NCT03638258). Throughout the trial, itch and its impact were evaluated via patient reported outcomes (PROs): Worst Itch Numeric Rating Scale (WI–NRS), Itch related Sleep Loss (IRSL), and Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI). This posthoc analysis reports correlation of WI–NRS with other PROs and with disease severity. Overall, 331 patients were randomized (109 to roflumilast 0.3%, 113 to 0.15%, and 109 to vehicle). At baseline, the mean WI–NRS score was 5.87. Throughout the trial, both roflumilast doses showed similar improvements in WI–NRS starting at Week 2 and were significantly superior to vehicle (P ≤.002). At baseline, Pearson correlation coefficients (PCCs) for WI–NRS and Psoriasis Area and Severity Index (PASI) were 0.189, 0.282, 0.205 for roflumilast 0.3%, roflumilast 0.15%, and vehicle, respectively (P ≤.033 for all correlations); for WI–NRS and IRSL: 0.548, 0.646, 0.652 (P ˂.001); for WI–NRS and DLQI: 0.445, 0.617, 0.422 (P ˂.001). At Week 8, PCCs for WI–NRS and PASI were 0.420, 0.409, 0.365 (P ˂.001); for WI–NRS and IRSL: 0.673, 0.725, 0.696 (P ˂.001); for WI–NRS and DLQI: 0.607, 0.823, 0.529. Treatment with roflumilast resulted in rapid and robust improvement in the severity of itch associated with PsO. Itch response to roflumilast was independent of disease severity and positively correlated with patient-reported sleep loss and quality of life improvement

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.Open access funding provided by Max Planck Society. This project has received funding by the European Research Council under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under grant agreements no. 803147-RESOLUTION (to S.T.), no. 771234-PALEoRIDER (to W.H.), no. 864358 (to K.M.), no. 724703 and no. 101019659 (to K.H.). K.H. is also supported by the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG FOR 2237). E.A. has received funding from the Van de Kamp fonds. PACEA co-authors of this research benefited from the scientific framework of the University of Bordeaux’s IdEx Investments for the Future programme/GPR Human Past. A.G.-O. is supported by a Ramón y Cajal fellowship (RYC-2017-22558). L. Sineo, M.L. and D.C. have received funding from the Italian Ministry of University and Research (MUR) PRIN 2017 grants 20177PJ9XF and 20174BTC4R_002. H. Rougier received support from the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences of CSUN and the CSUN Competition for RSCA Awards. C.L.S. and T. Saupe received support from the European Union through the European Regional Development Fund (project no. 2014-2020.4.01.16-0030) and C.L.S. received support from the Estonian Research Council grant PUT (PRG243). S. Shnaider received support from the Russian Science Foundation (no. 19-78-10053).Peer reviewe

Healthcare workers hospitalized due to COVID-19 have no higher risk of death than general population. Data from the Spanish SEMI-COVID-19 Registry

Aim To determine whether healthcare workers (HCW) hospitalized in Spain due to COVID-19 have a worse prognosis than non-healthcare workers (NHCW). Methods Observational cohort study based on the SEMI-COVID-19 Registry, a nationwide registry that collects sociodemographic, clinical, laboratory, and treatment data on patients hospitalised with COVID-19 in Spain. Patients aged 20-65 years were selected. A multivariate logistic regression model was performed to identify factors associated with mortality. Results As of 22 May 2020, 4393 patients were included, of whom 419 (9.5%) were HCW. Median (interquartile range) age of HCW was 52 (15) years and 62.4% were women. Prevalence of comorbidities and severe radiological findings upon admission were less frequent in HCW. There were no difference in need of respiratory support and admission to intensive care unit, but occurrence of sepsis and in-hospital mortality was lower in HCW (1.7% vs. 3.9%; p = 0.024 and 0.7% vs. 4.8%; p<0.001 respectively). Age, male sex and comorbidity, were independently associated with higher in-hospital mortality and healthcare working with lower mortality (OR 0.211, 95%CI 0.067-0.667, p = 0.008). 30-days survival was higher in HCW (0.968 vs. 0.851 p<0.001). Conclusions Hospitalized COVID-19 HCW had fewer comorbidities and a better prognosis than NHCW. Our results suggest that professional exposure to COVID-19 in HCW does not carry more clinical severity nor mortality

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

: Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This&nbsp;ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean&nbsp;culture, and with&nbsp;the following Magdalenian culture&nbsp;that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers,&nbsp;who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants

Palaeogenomics of Upper Palaeolithic to Neolithic European hunter-gatherers

Publisher Copyright: © 2023, The Author(s).Modern humans have populated Europe for more than 45,000 years1,2. Our knowledge of the genetic relatedness and structure of ancient hunter-gatherers is however limited, owing to the scarceness and poor molecular preservation of human remains from that period3. Here we analyse 356 ancient hunter-gatherer genomes, including new genomic data for 116 individuals from 14 countries in western and central Eurasia, spanning between 35,000 and 5,000 years ago. We identify a genetic ancestry profile in individuals associated with Upper Palaeolithic Gravettian assemblages from western Europe that is distinct from contemporaneous groups related to this archaeological culture in central and southern Europe4, but resembles that of preceding individuals associated with the Aurignacian culture. This ancestry profile survived during the Last Glacial Maximum (25,000 to 19,000 years ago) in human populations from southwestern Europe associated with the Solutrean culture, and with the following Magdalenian culture that re-expanded northeastward after the Last Glacial Maximum. Conversely, we reveal a genetic turnover in southern Europe suggesting a local replacement of human groups around the time of the Last Glacial Maximum, accompanied by a north-to-south dispersal of populations associated with the Epigravettian culture. From at least 14,000 years ago, an ancestry related to this culture spread from the south across the rest of Europe, largely replacing the Magdalenian-associated gene pool. After a period of limited admixture that spanned the beginning of the Mesolithic, we find genetic interactions between western and eastern European hunter-gatherers, who were also characterized by marked differences in phenotypically relevant variants.Peer reviewe