The Dematerialization of the Craft Object: Performance Art and Contemporary Craft

Craft and performance art are both experiencing renewed significance within contemporary art. Correspondingly, practices, exhibitions, and works that combine features of both craft and performance art are appearing in the form of collaborative crafting, documentation of crafting events, live and public performance of craft work, and crafting as a tool for social and political projects. This thesis addresses the intersections of craft and performance art in select artworks and curatorial strategies from the exhibitions Common Threads at the Illingworth Kerr Gallery in Calgary (2007), She Will Always Be Younger Than Us at the Textile Museum of Canada in Toronto (2009), and Gestures of Resistance at the Museum of Contemporary Craft in Portland (2010). Centering on presentations that foreground the performance of crafting or craft-making as the central mode of the work, I argue that a comprehensive reading of these works must situate them not only within the history of craft, but also within the history and theories of performance art. By examining and drawing upon the history and strategies of performance art, this thesis proposes that the incorporation of performance art into craft calls into question the traditional view of craft as an object-centred practice. The notion of a dematerialized craft practice is considered in light of recent developments in craft theory that propose thinking about craft not as a set of objects or materials, but rather as form of knowledge or a as subject

Health-related quality of life aspects of the ‘Periodontitis prevalence in ulcerative colitis and Crohn's disease’ (PPCC) cohort

Aim: To assess whether oral health problems affect disease-specific quality of life (QoL) of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients, and vice versa, whether IBD affects oral-health-related QoL. Materials and Methods: Individuals reporting IBD and matched controls were surveyed on general anamnestic information, oral-health-related questions and the Oral Health Impact Profile (OHIP)-5. IBD patients were additionally surveyed on years since diagnosis, disease activity and severity as well as health-related QoL (Short Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire, sIBDQ). OHIP-5 and sIBDQ were defined as primary outcome parameters, and several predictors and confounders were used in adjusted univariable and multivariable regression analyses. Results: Answers from 1108 IBD patients and 3429 controls were analysed. Compared with controls, IBD patients reported significantly more frequently an oral impact on daily life and worse oral-health-related QoL, with Crohn's disease (CD) patients being more severely affected than ulcerative colitis (UC) patients. The diagnosis of UC and CD, having <20 teeth, severe periodontitis and stressful daily-life experience were associated with a higher prevalence of poor oral-health-related QoL. Among IBD patients, an impaired IBD-specific, health-related QoL was significantly associated with the diagnosis of CD and depression, IBD activity and severity, having <20 teeth, presence of oral lesions and stressful daily-life experience, while a longer time since diagnosis was significantly associated with an improved IBD-specific, health-related QoL. Conclusions: The results of the present study indicate, for the first time, that oral health problems are associated with an impairment of IBD-specific health-related QoL, and vice versa, IBD is associated with an impaired oral health-related QoL. This emphasizes the potential advantages of including dental professionals in the multi-disciplinary treatment teams of IBD patients

Follow-up of patients with functional bowel symptoms treated with a low FODMAP diet

AIM: To investigate patient-reported outcomes from, and adherence to, a low FODMAP diet among patients suffering from irritable bowel syndrome and inflammatory bowel disease. METHODS: Consecutive patients with irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) or inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and co-existing IBS fulfilling the ROME. criteria, who previously attended an outpatient clinic for low FODMAP diet (LFD) dietary management and assessment by a gastroenterologist, were invited to participate in a retrospective questionnaire analysis. The questionnaires were sent and returned by regular mail and gathered information on recall of dietary treatment, efficacy, symptoms, adherence, satisfaction, change in disease course and stool type, and quality of life. Before study enrolment all patients had to sign an informed written consent. RESULTS: One hundred and eighty patients were included, 131 (73%) IBS and 49 (27%) IBD patients. Median age was 43 years (range: 18-85) and 147 (82%) were females. Median follow-up time was 16 mo (range: 2-80). Eighty-six percent reported either partial (54%) or full (32%) efficacy with greatest improvement of bloating (82%) and abdominal pain (71%). The proportion of patients with full efficacy tended to be greater in the IBD group than in the IBS group (42% vs 29%, p = 0.08). There was a significant reduction in patients with a chronic continuous disease course in both the IBS group (25%, p < 0.001) and IBD group (23%, p = 0.002) along with a significant increase in patients with a mild indolent disease course of 37% (p < 0.001) and 23% (p = 0.002), respectively. The proportion of patients having normal stools increased with 41% in the IBS group (p < 0.001) and 66% in the IBD group (p < 0.001). One-third of patients adhered to the diet and high adherence was associated with longer duration of dietary course (p < 0.001). Satisfaction with dietary management was seen in 83 (70%) IBS patients and 24 (55%) IBD patients. Eighty-four percent of patients lived on a modified LFD, where some foods rich in FODMAPs were reintroduced, and 16% followed the LFD by the book without deviations. Wheat, dairy products, and onions were the foods most often not reintroduced by patients. CONCLUSION: These data suggest that a diet low in FODMAPs is an efficacious treatment solution in the management of functional bowel symptoms for IBS and IBD patients

Constraint methods for determining pathways and free energy of activated processes

Activated processes from chemical reactions up to conformational transitions of large biomolecules are hampered by barriers which are overcome only by the input of some free energy of activation. Hence, the characteristic and rate-determining barrier regions are not sufficiently sampled by usual simulation techniques. Constraints on a reaction coordinate r have turned out to be a suitable means to explore difficult pathways without changing potential function, energy or temperature. For a dense sequence of values of r, the corresponding sequence of simulations provides a pathway for the process. As only one coordinate among thousands is fixed during each simulation, the pathway essentially reflects the system's internal dynamics. From mean forces the free energy profile can be calculated to obtain reaction rates and insight in the reaction mechanism. In the last decade, theoretical tools and computing capacity have been developed to a degree where simulations give impressive qualitative insight in the processes at quantitative agreement with experiments. Here, we give an introduction to reaction pathways and coordinates, and develop the theory of free energy as the potential of mean force. We clarify the connection between mean force and constraint force which is the central quantity evaluated, and discuss the mass metric tensor correction. Well-behaved coordinates without tensor correction are considered. We discuss the theoretical background and practical implementation on the example of the reaction coordinate of targeted molecular dynamics simulation. Finally, we compare applications of constraint methods and other techniques developed for the same purpose, and discuss the limits of the approach

Low-FODMAP diet reduces irritable bowel symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

AIM To investigate the effect of a low-FODMAP diet on irritable bowel syndrome (IBS)-like symptoms in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). METHODS This was a randomised controlled open-label trial of patients with IBD in remission or with mild-to-moderate disease and coexisting IBS-like symptoms (Rome III) randomly assigned to a Low-FODMAP diet (LFD) or a normal diet (ND) for 6 wk between June 2012 and December 2013. Patients completed the IBS symptom severity system (IBS-SSS) and short IBD quality of life questionnaire (SIBDQ) at weeks 0 and 6. The primary end-point was response rates (at least 50-point reduction) in IBS-SSS at week 6 between groups; secondary end-point was the impact on quality of life. RESULTS Eighty-nine patients, 67 (75%) women, median age 40, range 20-70 years were randomised: 44 to LFD group and 45 to ND, from which 78 patients completed the study period and were included in the final analysis (37 LFD and 41 ND). There was a significantly larger proportion of responders in the LFD group (n = 30, 81%) than in the ND group (n = 19, 46%); (OR = 5.30; 95% CI: 1.81-15.55, P < 0.01). At week 6, the LFD group showed a significantly lower median IBS-SSS (median 115; inter-quartile range [IQR] 33-169) than ND group (median 170, IQR 91-288), P = 0.02. Furthermore, the LFD group had a significantly greater increase in SIBDQ (median 60, IQR 51-65) than the ND group (median 50, IQR 39-60), P < 0.01. CONCLUSION In a prospective study, a low-FODMAP diet reduced IBS-like symptoms and increased quality of life in patients with IBD in remission

I-CARE, a European Prospective Cohort Study Assessing Safety and Effectiveness of Biologics in Inflammatory Bowel Disease

Background and aims: There is a need to evaluate the benefit-risk ratio of current therapies in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients to provide the best quality of care. The primary objective of I-CARE (IBD Cancer and serious infections in Europe) was to assess prospectively safety concerns in IBD, with specific focus on the risk of cancer/lymphoma and serious infections in patients treated with anti-tumor necrosis factor and other biologic monotherapy as well as in combination with immunomodulators.. Methods: I-CARE was designed as a European prospective longitudinal observational multicenter cohort study to include patients with a diagnosis of Crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, or IBD unclassified established at least 3 months prior to enrollment. Results: A total of 10,206 patients were enrolled between March 2016 and April 2019, including 6169 (60.4%) patients with Crohn's disease, 3853 (37.8%) with ulcerative colitis, and 184 (1.8%) with a diagnosis of IBD unclassified. Thirty-two percent of patients were receiving azathioprine/thiopurines, 4.6% 6-mercaptopurine, and 3.2% methotrexate at study entry. At inclusion, 47.3% of patients were treated with an anti-tumor necrosis factor agent, 8.8% with vedolizumab, and 3.4% with ustekinumab. Roughly one-quarter of patients (26.8%) underwent prior IBD-related surgery. Sixty-six percent of patients had been previously treated with systemic steroids. Three percent of patients had a medical history of cancer prior to inclusion and 1.1% had a history of colonic, esophageal, or uterine cervix high-grade dysplasia.. Conclusions: I-CARE is an ongoing investigator-initiated observational European prospective cohort study that will provide unique information on the long-term benefits and risks of biological therapies in IBD patients

The LUCID study: living with ulcerative colitis; identifying the socioeconomic burden in Europe

Background Ulcerative colitis (UC) is an inflammatory bowel disease with increasing prevalence worldwide. Current treatment strategies place considerable economic and humanistic burdens on patients. The aim of this study was to determine the socioeconomic burden of UC in adult patients in European countries in a real-world setting. Methods In this retrospective, cross-sectional and observational pan-European study, patients with moderate or severe UC were assigned to ARM 1 and patients who had moderate or severe UC but achieved mild or remission status 12 months before index date (or clinical consultation date), were assigned to ARM 2. Clinical and medical resource use data were collected via electronic case report forms, and data on non-medical and indirect costs, and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) were collected via patient and public involvement and engagement (PPIE) questionnaires. Per-patient annual total costs per ARM and per country were calculated using the collated resource use in the last 12 months (between the start of the documentation period and patient consultation or index date) and country specific unit costs. Quality of life was described by arm and by country. Results In the physician-reported eCRF population (n = 2966), the mean annual direct medical cost was €4065 in ARM 1 (n = 1835) and €2935 in ARM 2 (n = 1131). In the PPIE population (ARM 1, n = 1001; ARM 2, n = 647), mean annual direct cost was €4526 in ARM 1 and €3057 in ARM 2, mean annual direct non-medical cost was €1162 in ARM 1 and €1002 in ARM 2, mean annual indirect cost was €3098 in ARM 1 and €2309 ARM 2, and mean annual total cost was in €8787 in ARM 1 and €6368 in ARM 2. HRQoL scores showed moderate to high burden of UC in both groups. Conclusions The cost and HRQoL burden were high in patients in both ARM 1 and ARM 2 indicating unmet needs in the UC active population