Immunophenotype in orofacial granulomatosis with and without Crohn's disease

Objectives: The aim of this investigation was to characterise and compare the inflammatory infiltrates in patients with orofacial granulomatosis solely (OFG-S) and OFG with coexisting Crohn's disease (OFG+CD). Study Design: Biopsy specimens with granulomas were obtained from patients with OFG-S (n=11) and OFG+CD (n=11) and immunostained with antibodies against CD1a, CD3, CD4, CD8, CD11c, CD20, CD68 and mast cell tryptase, followed by quantitative analysis. Results: Analyses of the connective tissue revealed a significantly higher number of CD3- expressing T cells and CD11c-expressing dendritic cells in the connective tissue of patients with OFG-S compared to patients with OFG+CD. Mast cells displayed a high level of activation, although no significant difference was detected when comparing the two groups. Conclusions: The results show a different composition of the inflammatory infiltrate in patients with OFG-S compared to patients with OFG+CD. The present observations support that partly divergent immune mechanisms are involved in these two different subcategories of OFG

Parent-child relationships and offspring’s positive mental wellbeing from adolescence to early older age

We examined parent-child relationship quality and positive mental well-being using Medical Research Council National Survey of Health and Development data. Well-being was measured at ages 13–15 (teacher-rated happiness), 36 (life satisfaction), 43 (satisfaction with home and family life) and 60–64 years (Diener Satisfaction With Life scale and Warwick Edinburgh Mental Well-being scale). The Parental Bonding Instrument captured perceived care and control from the father and mother to age 16, recalled by study members at age 43. Greater well-being was seen for offspring with higher combined parental care and lower combined parental psychological control (p < 0.05 at all ages). Controlling for maternal care and paternal and maternal behavioural and psychological control, childhood social class, parental separation, mother’s neuroticism and study member’s personality, higher well-being was consistently related to paternal care. This suggests that both mother–child and father–child relationships may have short and long-term consequences for positive mental well-being

Morning concurrent track 2: Creation and correction of myths about global warming

MORNING CONCURRENT TRACK 2: CREATION AND CORRECTION OF MYTHS ABOUT GLOBAL WARMING Moderator Robert Futrell Student Union Room 211 Matthew Lachniet – Global Warming Misconceptions and Myths: Barriers and Opportunities for Communicating Climate Change Science to a Non-scientific Audience Abstract: Opinions on an anthropogenic influence in global warming abound. Within the non-scientific public, the strength of one’s opinion commonly seems to be in inverse proportion to their knowledge of climate science. One reason for this disconnect between reality and opinion is the persistence of many climate change myths in popular knowledge of global warming. These myths are regularly propagated in popular media and internet blogs, some of which appear to be driven more by ideology than a quest for truth about Nature. In the past, the desire to provide balance in media coverage of global warming at the expense of scientific accuracy has handed the soapbox to many with minority viewpoints that are not supported by all of the available scientific evidence. However, many of these myths contain an element of but have been misunderstood (at best) by the general public and misappropriated (at worst) by interest groups on all sides of ideological spectrum. This presentation will outline some of the common myths on global warming and how they can be used as opportunities in a teaching environment to enhance students’ understanding of global warming and climate science. Gale Sinatra, CarolAnne Kardash, Gita Taasoobshirazi, Doug Lombardi – College Students’ Understanding of and Reactions to Global Warming Abstract: The principles underlying global climate change involve a complex interconnection between many scientific concepts that are difficult for students to understand. This study examined whether persuasive texts would impact readers’ willingness to take mitigative action to reduce the impacts of human-induced climate change. College students participating in the study were randomly assigned to read a persuasive text about global warming or the same text accompanied by a persuasive image. Both groups showed statistically significant increases in their knowledge about global warming and their willingness to take action to reduce its effects. This research demonstrates that persuasive text can produce not only change in students’ thinking about a controversial topic like global climate change, but may also promote a willingness to take action. This is significant because in the case of this topic, a change in students’ knowledge may not be a sufficient criterion for successful learning. It may be as important to promote willingness in future generations to take efforts to reduce their individual impact on the environment. E. Michael Nussbaum – Global Warming and Middle School: An Argument-Based Intervention Abstract: As part of a semester-long intervention to teach middle school students to critically evaluate arguments, 60 sixth- and seventh- graders from a Las Vegas charter school in the Clark County School District discussed issues surrounding global climate change. The presentation will first describe the argument-based intervention used with the students and its effect on attitude change. Most students became accepting of the existence of global climate change and the need to develop alternative modes of transportation. The intervention also provided students with some opportunity to learn about science, political, geography, and economics in an integrated way, as well as an opportunity to develop critical and creative thinking. Second, the overall findings of the research study will be presented, concluding that the skill of “weighing values” may be a productive one to teach to middle school students. Third, some misconceptions that students retained will be described so that future instructional efforts may address them. Doug Lombardi – Students’ Perceptions about the Plausibility of Human Induced Climate Change Abstract: Students can develop robust misconceptions when encountering complex phenomena such as global climate change. For example, students cite short0term and local weather events as evidence to support or refute long‐term changes, and thereby display a fundamental misunderstanding about the distinctions between weather and climate. This confusion may impact perceptions of plausibility about scientific statements that implicate humans in worldwide increases in global temperatures and widespread melting of snow and ice. Additionally, the confusion between weather and climate may be related to a fundamental lack of understanding about deep time, a concept that spans several scientific content areas. This presentation will describe an ongoing study involving undergraduate students enrolled in introductory geoscience and geography courses. Currently, students are completing three surveys examining the relationships between student understanding of deep time and their confusion about the distinctions between weather and climate, as well as how these levels of understanding influence perceptions about the plausibility of human‐induced global climate change. This presentation will highlight preliminary results

Childhood environment and mental wellbeing at age 60-64 years: prospective evidence from the MRC National Survey for Health and Development:Prospective Evidence from the MRC National Survey of Health and Development

BackgroundMental wellbeing, conceptualised as positive affect, life satisfaction and realisation of needs that contribute to psychological growth, captures more than the absence of mental ill health. Several nations now aim to monitor and improve mental wellbeing. Whilst many studies document associations between adverse childhood experiences and mental disorders in adulthood, possible links between childhood experiences and adult mental wellbeing have so far received less attention.MethodsUsing data from 1976 men and women in the MRC National Survey for Health and Development, we investigated prospective associations between childhood socioeconomic and psychosocial environments and the Warwick Edinburgh Mental Wellbeing Scale, designed to capture both hedonic and eudaimonic facets of wellbeing, at age 60-64.ResultsWhilst there was no evidence that childhood socioeconomic circumstances were related to later wellbeing independently of other childhood experiences, elements of childrearing and parenting, parental health and adjustment, and childhood illness were related. More advantaged socioeconomic position was associated with greater wellbeing but this did not explain the links between these childhood exposures and adult wellbeing, suggesting alternative explanatory pathways should be considered.ConclusionsChildhood illness and family psychosocial environment are associated with mental wellbeing in early older age, with effects sizes that are larger or comparable to socioeconomic circumstances in adulthood. Initiatives to improve the nation’s mental wellbeing that include programmes targeted to supporting families and children may additionally have benefits that continue into older age

A study with special reference to Orofacial Granulomatosis and Crohn's disease

Orofacial granulomatosis (OFG) is a rare granulomatous disease primarily affecting children and adolescences causing lesions in the oral and facial regions such as lip/facial swelling, angular cheilitis, tag formation, mucosal ridges, cobblestone phenomenon and full thickness gingivitis. Crohn’s disease (CD), on the other hand, is a chronic inflammatory bowel disease presenting with intestinal inflammation that may involve any area of the gastrointestinal tract. The association between OFG and CD has been known for several decades as the two conditions share both clinical and histopathological features, but the exact connection is as yet unclear. Nodular tongue syndrome (NTS) is a unique clinical appearance seen in some paediatric liver recipients. In addition, they also develop OFG like features such as lip swelling, angular cheilitis, cobblestone phenomenon and hyperplastic gingiva. The overall scientific questions that were asked prior to the commencement of this thesis were (i) do CD and OFG represent distinctive disorders when they appear separately or in combination and (ii) do oral lesions seen in paediatric liver recipients stem from the same disease spectrum as orofacial granulomatosis? In the first and second study the clinical and histopathological features of patients with OFG solely (OFG-S) were compared with patients suffering from OFG and concomitant CD. The first study also included a genetic comparison of nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-containing protein 2 (NOD2) variations. The NOD2 protein acts as a bacterial sensor recognising muramyl dipeptide, which is a specific structure in the wall of Gram-positive and Gram-negative bacteria. In the third study, patients with CD+OFG were compared with a reference group of patients with only CD (CD-R) regarding clinical features. In the fourth study, children who had been subjected to solid organ transplantation and afterwards developed clinical features similar to OFG were investigated regarding the immune response. No significant differences in the clinical presentation of oral lesions between OFG-S and OFG+CD were found. However, the OFG-S patients perceived their overall discomfort, aesthetic problems and social discomfort as more severe than the OFG+CD patients. None of the patients with OFG carried any of the NOD2 variations whereas four out of the 12 patients with OFG+CD had a NOD2 variant (Arg702Trp). Immunohistochemical analyses revealed a significantly higher number of CD3-expressing T cells and CD11c-expressing dendritic cells in the connective tissue of patients with OFG-S compared to patients with OFG+CD. Mast cells displayed a high level of activation, although no significant difference was detected when comparing the two groups. The proportion of patients with intestinal inflammation in the upper gastrointestinal tract was significantly greater in the CD+OFG group compared to the CD-R group. Ileocolonic inflammation as well as granuloma formation was also significantly more common in the CD+OFG patients than in the CD-R group. In addition, perianal disease was more common in the patients with CD+OFG. NTS, which some paediatric liver recipients develop, is a longstanding clinical disorder representing swollen fungiform. The immunohistochemistry revealed an infiltrate composed positive T-cells, B-cells, macrophages and plasma cells, but no granulomas were found. One of the important clinical observations made in this thesis was that orofacial granulomatosis in conjunction with Crohn’s disease (CD+OFG) signals a more advanced disorder that may demand a more intensive treatment approach

Telomere length and physical performance at older ages: an individual participant meta-analysis

BACKGROUND: Telomeres are involved in cellular ageing and shorten with increasing age. If telomere length is a valuable biomarker of ageing, then telomere shortening should be associated with worse physical performance, an ageing trait, but evidence for such an association is lacking. The purpose of this study was to examine whether change in telomere length is associated with physical performance.METHODS: Using data from four UK adult cohorts (ages 53-80 years at baseline), we undertook cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. We analysed each study separately and then used meta-analytic methods to pool the results. Physical performance was measured using walking and chair rise speed, standing balance time and grip strength. Telomere length was measured by quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in whole blood at baseline and follow-up (time 1, time 2).RESULTS: Total sample sizes in meta-analyses ranged from 1,217 to 3,707. There was little evidence that telomere length was associated with walking speed, balance or grip strength, though weak associations were seen with chair rise speed and grip strength at baseline (p = 0.02 and 0.01 respectively). Faster chair rise speed at follow-up, was associated with a smaller decline in telomere length between time 1 and time 2 (standardised coefficient per SD increase 0.061, 95% CI 0.006, 0.115, p = 0.03) but this was consistent with chance (p =0.08) after further adjustment.CONCLUSIONS: Whereas shortening of leukocyte telomeres might be an important measure of cellular ageing, there is little evidence that it is a strong biomarker for physical performance

Immunohistopathology of the Newly Discovered Giant Papillae Tongue Disorder in Organ-Transplanted Children

Background. Giant papillae tongue disorder (GRID) is a newly discovered, long-lasting clinical disorder that may develop in organ-transplanted pediatric recipients. The key feature of this disorder is the unique tongue lesion, which comprises swollen fungiform papillae. The aim of this study was to characterize the immunohistopathology of this novel inflammatory condition. Methods. Six organ transplanted children with GRID were included in the study. Routine histopathology and immunohistochemical stainings for CD3, CD4, CD8, CD25, FOXP3, CD20, CD138, CD68, CD1a, CD15, CD23, and mast cell tryptase were performed. Results. Immunohistochemical analyses of the oral lesions revealed a subepithelial infiltrate that was primarily composed of CD3- and CD4-positive T cells, CD20-expressing B cells, macrophages, and CD138-positive plasma cells. The CD20-positive cells did not display the typical B cell morphology, having in general a more dendritic cell-like appearance. The CD138-expressing plasma cells were distinctly localized as a dense infiltrate beneath the accumulation of T cells and B cells. Increased numbers of CD1a-expressing Langerhans cells were detected both in the epithelium and connective tissue. Because no granulomas were observed and only single lesional eosinophils were detected, GPTD does not resemble a granulomatous or eosinophilic condition. Conclusions. We describe for the first time the immunopathological characteristics of a novel inflammatory disorder of the oral cavity, which may develop after solid organ transplantation in children

Childhood circumstances among members of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development who provided mental wellbeing data in 2006–11.

<p><b>Notes:</b> mean (sd) = mean (standard deviation)</p><p>Childhood circumstances among members of the MRC National Survey of Health and Development who provided mental wellbeing data in 2006–11.</p