The Inventory of Complicated Grief—A Systematic Psychometric Review and Conceptual Replication Study of the Structural Validity

The Inventory of Complicated Grief (ICG) is a commonly used self-report measure in psycho-oncology, best supportive care, and palliative medicine. However, existing validation studies yielded conflicting results regarding the structural validity. This study provides a psychometric review and conceptual replication of the ICG latent structure to test the hypothesis that existing studies overfit unreliable sources of variance, which overshadow the unidimensionality of the ICG. All proposed latent models identified in the psychometric review were tested in a series of confirmatory and exploratory structural equation models. Specifically, at least five to six latent intercorrelated factors were necessary to reach acceptable model fit. However, a general CG factor accounted for most variance and ICG sum scores showed predictable associations with anxiety and depressive symptoms, which suggests that the ICG is essentially unidimensional. There are indications that other measures of pathological grief show similar inconsistencies. Overall, potentially emerging subfacets of the ICG should not be interpreted as distinct “symptom clusters.” If time constraints are an issue as is often the case in clinical research, complicated grief may just be measured by a reduced item set without a significant loss of information or complexity

Photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac in wastewater using ironceramic composites

The photocatalytic degradation of diclofenac in model aqueous solution is investigated. The surface of composites were correlated with photocatalytic activity. Adsorption activity of the composites is related to the presence of surface active sites. The degradation under UV irradiation and photo-Fenton process using ironceramic composites is more effective than direct photolysis

Структура, механические свойства и особенности поведения при деформации пористой керамики на основе диоксида циркония

Пористая керамика находит широкое применение в качестве огнеупорного материала, фильтров и материалов медицинского назначения в качестве остеозамещающих элементов (эндопротезов). В полученном материале, с развитой поровой структурой, под нагрузкой происходит мартенситное превращение из тетрагональной в моноклинную фазу. Это должно способствовать повышению вязкости разрушения, а также надежности и долговечности пористой керамики, в условиях, например, мало- и многоцикловой усталости.The porous ceramics finds broad application as a refractory material, filters and medical materials as osteosubstaining elements (endoprostheses). In the received material, with the developed porous structure, under loading there is a martensitic transformation from tetragonal into a monoclinic phase. It has to promote increase in fracture toughness and also reliability and durability of porous ceramics, under conditions such as low and multi-cycle fatigue

Phosphonate as a Stable Zinc-Binding Group for "Pathoblocker" Inhibitors of Clostridial Collagenase H (ColH)

Microbial infections are a significant threat to public health, and resistance is on the rise, so new antibiotics with novel modes of action are urgently needed. The extracellular zinc metalloprotease collagenase H (ColH) from Clostridium histolyticum is a virulence factor that catalyses tissue damage, leading to improved host invasion and colonisation. Besides the major role of ColH in pathogenicity, its extracellular localisation makes it a highly attractive target for the development of new antivirulence agents. Previously, we had found that a highly selective and potent thiol prodrug (with a hydrolytically cleavable thiocarbamate unit) provided efficient ColH inhibition. We now report the synthesis and biological evaluation of a range of zinc‐binding group (ZBG) variants of this thiol‐derived inhibitor, with the mercapto unit being replaced by other zinc ligands. Among these, an analogue with a phosphonate motif as ZBG showed promising activity against ColH, an improved selectivity profile, and significantly higher stability than the thiol reference compound, thus making it an attractive candidate for future drug development

Patient preference regarding assessment of clinical follow-up after percutaneous coronary intervention: the PAPAYA study

Aims: To keep patients in long-term clinical follow-up programmes after percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), knowledge of the patient-preferred mode for follow-up assessment is crucial. We systematically assessed patient preference, and explored potential relationships with age and gender.Methods and results: In the prospective, observational PAPAYA study (ClinicalTrials.gov: NCT02189070), 2,566 patients, treated by PCI between June 2008 and May 2012, were invited to participate in a postal survey on the patient-preferred mode (postal questionnaire, telephone or e-mail consultation) and frequency of follow-up assessment. A total of 1,797 (70.0%) patients responded. The vast majority preferred completing postal questionnaires (1,248 [69.9%]) as compared to telephone (240 [13.4%]) or e-mail-based approaches (227 [12.7%]) (p<0.001). With increasing age, there was a gradual decline in preference for e-mail (p<0.001); the youngest patients (≤60 years) preferred e-mail-based follow-up more often than the oldest (21.1% vs. 3.1%). Nevertheless, 79.9% of the youngest preferred to be approached in ways other than by e-mail. Women more often preferred approaches other than e-mail (94.1% vs. 87.3%, p<0.001).Conclusions: Patients showed a distinct preference for completing postal questionnaires rather than being approached by telephone or e-mail. Younger patients accepted e-mail-based follow-up more often, but the majority of the youngest patients still preferred approaches other than by e-mail - See more at: http://www.pcronline.com/eurointervention/ahead-of-print/201510-06/patient-preference-regarding-assessment-of-clinical-follow-up-after-percutaneous-coronary-intervention-the-papaya-study

TCT-588 2-Year Clinical Outcome of the Randomized, Multicenter DUTCH PEERS (TWENTE II) Trial, Comparing Cobalt-Chromium Zotarolimus-Eluting Resolute Integrity Stents and Platinum-Chromium Everolimus-Eluting Promus Element Stents in “All-Comer” Patients

Background: The multicenter, prospective, randomized, single-blinded, investigator-initiated DUTCH PEERS (TWENTE II) “All Comers” Trial demonstrated at 1-year follow-up the non-inferiority of third-generation Resolute Integrity zotarolimus-eluting stents (Medtronic Vascular, Santa Rosa, CA) versus Promus Element everolimus-eluting stents (Boston Scientific, Natick, MA), based on a similar incidence of the primary endpoint target vessel failure (TVF), a composite of cardiac death, target vessel revascularization (TVR), or myocardial infarction (MI). No other follow-up data beyond 12 months have been published from a randomized head-to-head comparison of both stents. Methods: In 4 study centers in the Netherlands, 1,811 patients were 1:1 randomly assigned to treatment with one of both stents. Patients with any clinical syndrome, any lesion type, and any number of lesions or vessels to be treated were included. Study monitoring and clinical event adjudication were performed by two independent Dutch contract research organizations (Diagram, Zwolle, and Cardialysis, Rotterdam, respectively). Results: DUTCH PEERS examines an all-comer patient population that included 59% of patients with acute coronary syndromes (20% of all patients presented with an acute STEMI) and 66% of patients with complex target lesions. We will compare for both stent groups the 2-year incidence of TVF (primary endpoint) and various secondary endpoints, including individual components of the primary endpoint, the incidence of stent thrombosis, and other composite endpoints, such as target lesion failure, major adverse cardiac events, and the patient-oriented composite endpoint. In addition, we will report the outcome of patients with longitudinal stent deformation after discontinuation of dual anti-platelet therapy. Conclusions: Clinical outcome of the DUTCH PEERS trial at 2-year follow-up will be presented

Forward K+ production in subthreshold pA collisions at 1.0 GeV

K+ meson production in pA (A = C, Cu, Au) collisions has been studied using the ANKE spectrometer at an internal target position of the COSY-Juelich accelerator. The complete momentum spectrum of kaons emitted at forward angles, theta < 12 degrees, has been measured for a beam energy of T(p)=1.0 GeV, far below the free NN threshold of 1.58 GeV. The spectrum does not follow a thermal distribution at low kaon momenta and the larger momenta reflect a high degree of collectivity in the target nucleus.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Reproducibility of volumetric intravascular ultrasound radiofrequency-based analysis of coronary plaque composition in vivo

Intravascular ultrasound radiofrequency (RF-IVUS) data permit the analysis of coronary plaque composition in vivo and is used as an endpoint of ongoing pharmacological intervention trials. We assessed the reproducibility of volumetric RF-IVUS analyses in mild-to-moderately diseased atherosclerotic human coronary arteries in vivo. A total of 9,212 IVUS analyses on cross-sectional IVUS frames was performed to evaluate the reproducibility of volumetric RF-IVUS measurements in 33 coronary segments with a length of 27 ± 7 mm. For vessel, lumen, and plaque + media volume the relative measurement differences (P = NS for all) were (A = intraobserver comparison, same pullback) −0.40 ± 1.0%; −0.48 ± 1.4%; −0.35 ± 1.6%, (B = intraobserver comparison, repeated pullback) −0.42 ± 1.2%; −0.52 ± 1.8%; −0.43 ± 4.5% (C = interobserver comparison, same pullback) 0.71 ± 1.8%; 0.71 ± 2.2%, and 0.89 ± 5.0%, respectively. For fibrous, fibro-lipidic, calcium, and necrotic-core volumes the relative measurement differences (P = NS for all) were (A) 0.45 ± 2.1%; −1.12 ± 4.9%; −0.84 ± 2.1%; −0.22 ± 1.8%, (B) 1.40 ± 4.1%; 1.26 ± 6.7%; 2.66 ± 7.4%; 0.85 ± 4.4%, and (C) −1.60 ± 4.9%; 3.85 ± 8.2%; 1.66 ± 7.5%, and −1.58 ± 4.7%, respectively. Of note, necrotic-core volume showed on average the lowest measurement variability. Thus, in mild-to-moderate atherosclerotic coronary artery disease the reproducibility of volumetric compositional RF-IVUS measurements from the same pullback is relatively high, but lower than the reproducibility of geometrical IVUS measurements. Measurements from repeated pullbacks and by different observers show acceptable reproducibilities; the volumetric measurement of the necrotic-core shows on average the highest reproducibility of the compositional RF-IVUS measurement