A study of the knowledge, attitude and behavior among patients with psoriasis vulgaris during the COVID-19 lockdown period

Background: Patients with psoriasis may have been directly impacted by the COVID-19 lockdown and this may have had a significant effect on disease severity and treatment compliance. This study aims to investigate the knowledge, attitude and the behavioral practices of patients with psoriasis during the lockdown period.Methods: A self-assessed questionnaire was employed for the purpose of this study and was answered by 100 patients of clinically diagnosed psoriasis.Results: Although several patients were aware of their condition and its implications, a significant number of responders were found to have a faulty treatment compliance due to the COVID-19 lockdown.Conclusions: To our knowledge, this is the first study that evaluates the knowledge, attitude and behaviour during the COVID-19 lockdown period of individuals who have been clinically diagnosed with psoriasis. This study raises the possibility that the sustained psychosocial stress induced by the current pandemic can potentially lead to exacerbations or onset of common inflammatory skin conditions like psoriasis. The overall compliance to dermatologic therapy was slightly poor as there were frequent concerns regarding the safety of visiting a hospital or a doctor as well as possible financial constraints. As per this study, there is an urgent need to convey the right information about managing psoriasis during the COVID-19 pandemic among both the general population and patients alike.

SATCRIS

The workshops conducted in five countries of the SADCC region, described in this report, are the third in a series of workshops that the Library and Documentation Services Division at ICRISAT has conducted in Africa. The first set of workshops were held in four countries of West Africa in 1985 as part of the erstswhile project called Sorghum and Millets Information Center (SMIC). Response to these workshop indicated that endd-users (scientists, technicians, extensionists) of agricultural information in these countries did not oriented to using information as a resource in planning, research and development, and problem solving. The SMIC project was succeeded by a new project called the Semi-Arid Tropical Crops Information Service (SATCRIS) in 1986, and it was decided that an important objective of SATCRIS should be to promote its services in Africa through user-oriented workshops. Two sets of workshops were planned in the SATCRIS project. The first of these was held in three countries of Eastern Africa in 1988. The present report discusses the work done in the workshops conducted in five Southern African Dvelopment Cooridination Council (SADCC) countries. Two professional staff members of the Library and Documentation Services Division traveled to the five countries. The two-member team was joined at Zambia by the Regional Training Officer of the ICRISAT/SADCC program at Zimbabwe,and he traveled with the team from SATCRIS in India through Zambia,Zimbabwe, and Botswan

Workshops of SATCRIS in Botswana,Malawi, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe

The workshop conducted in five countries of the SADCC region, described in this report, are the third in a series of workshop that the Library and Documentation Services Division at ICRISAT has conducted in Africa. The first set of workshop was held in four countries of West Africa in 1985 on part of the erstwhile project called Sorghum and Millet Information Center (SMIC). Response to these workshops indicated end-users (scientists, technician, extensionists) of agriculture information in these countries did not have adequate access to scientific and technical information and were not oriented to using information as a resources in planning, research and development, and problem solving. The SMIC project was succeeded by a new project called the Semi-Arid Tropical Crops Information Service (SATCRIS) in 1986, and it was a decided that an important objective of SATCRIS should be to promote its services in Africa trough user-oridented worksho

Pricing of the SDI service at ICRISAT

The International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) provides a monthly SDI service to 364 users in over 50 countries The service costs about US $25,000 per year and is funded partly by a special project and partly by core funds. Cuts in core and project funds have forced the Institute to consider charging for the SDI service in order to offset as much as possible the cost of providing the service without hampering its accessibility to users who cannot pay This paper identifies potential user segments who can be charged for the service using criteria such as capacity to pay, purpose of seeking information (profit-making is public good), and availability of information services in the institution or country of users. It discusses different pricing objectives and pricing techniques, and describes the formula used to arrive at a price for users from the private sector

AGRIS Level II and the Information Services of Specialized Information Analysis Centers: The Case of Satcris and its SDI Services

The article describes the objectives of the Semi-Arid Tropical Crops Information Service (SATCRIS), a Specialized Information Analysis Center (SIAC) at the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT). Database design methodology at SATCRIS is described. Services are discussed. The evolution of the SDI service of SATCRIS from a manual service to the present automated service is described in detail, and a brief analysis is presented of the nature of the SDI clientele and the contribution of two global databases, viz. AGRIS and CABI, to the SATCRIS SDI service. Global attention is drawn to SIACs such as SATCRIS to enable better funding and coordination so that the objectives envisaged in AGRIS Level II are achieved

Photons in gapless color-flavor-locked quark matter

We calculate the Debye and Meissner masses of a gauge boson in a material consisting of two species of massless fermions that form a condensate of Cooper pairs. We perform the calculation as a function of temperature, for the cases of neutral Cooper pairs and charged Cooper pairs, and for a range of parameters including gapped quaisparticles, and ungapped quasiparticles with both quadratic and linear dispersion relations at low energy. Our results are relevant to the behavior of photons and gluons in the gapless color-flavor-locked phase of quark matter. We find that the photon's Meissner mass vanishes, and the Debye mass shows a non-monotonic temperature dependence, and at temperatures of order the pairing gap it drops to a minimum value of order sqrt(alpha) times the quark chemical potential. We confirm previous claims that at zero temperature an imaginary Meissner mass can arise from a charged gapless condensate, and we find that at finite temperature this can also occur for a gapped condensate.Comment: 22 pages, LaTeX; expanded discussion of temperature dependenc

Macrophage Subset Sensitivity to Endotoxin Tolerisation by Porphyromonas gingivalis

Macrophages (MΦs) determine oral mucosal responses; mediating tolerance to commensal microbes and food whilst maintaining the capacity to activate immune defences to pathogens. MΦ responses are determined by both differentiation and activation stimuli, giving rise to two distinct subsets; pro-inflammatory M1- and anti-inflammatory/regulatory M2- MΦs. M2-like subsets predominate tolerance induction whereas M1 MΦs predominate in inflammatory pathologies, mediating destructive inflammatory mechanisms, such as those in chronic P.gingivalis (PG) periodontal infection. MΦ responses can be suppressed to benefit either the host or the pathogen. Chronic stimulation by bacterial pathogen associated molecular patterns (PAMPs), such as LPS, is well established to induce tolerance. The aim of this study was to investigate the susceptibility of MΦ subsets to suppression by P. gingivalis. CD14hi and CD14lo M1- and M2-like MΦs were generated in vitro from the THP-1 monocyte cell line by differentiation with PMA and vitamin D3, respectively. MΦ subsets were pre-treated with heat-killed PG (HKPG) and PG-LPS prior to stimulation by bacterial PAMPs. Modulation of inflammation was measured by TNFα, IL-1β, IL-6, IL-10 ELISA and NFκB activation by reporter gene assay. HKPG and PG-LPS differentially suppress PAMP-induced TNFα, IL-6 and IL-10 but fail to suppress IL-1β expression in M1 and M2 MΦs. In addition, P.gingivalis suppressed NFκB activation in CD14lo and CD14hi M2 regulatory MΦs and CD14lo M1 MΦs whereas CD14hi M1 pro-inflammatory MΦs were refractory to suppression. In conclusion, P.gingivalis selectively tolerises regulatory M2 MΦs with little effect on pro-inflammatory CD14hi M1 MΦs; differential suppression facilitating immunopathology at the expense of immunity

Circulating Lipoproteins Are a Crucial Component of Host Defense against Invasive Salmonella typhimurium Infection

Contains fulltext : 79883.pdf (Publisher’s version ) (Open Access)BACKGROUND: Circulating lipoproteins improve the outcome of severe Gram-negative infections through neutralizing lipopolysaccharides (LPS), thus inhibiting the release of proinflammatory cytokines. METHODS/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Low density lipoprotein receptor deficient (LDLR-/-) mice, with a 7-fold increase in LDL, are resistant against infection with Salmonella typhimurium (survival 100% vs 5%, p<0.001), and 100 to 1000-fold lower bacterial burden in the organs, compared with LDLR+/+ mice. Protection was not due to differences in cytokine production, phagocytosis, and killing of Salmonella organisms. The differences were caused by the excess of lipoproteins, as hyperlipoproteinemic ApoE-/- mice were also highly resistant to Salmonella infection. Lipoproteins protect against infection by interfering with the binding of Salmonella to host cells, and preventing organ invasion. This leads to an altered biodistribution of the microorganisms during the first hours of infection: after intravenous injection of Salmonella into LDLR+/+ mice, the bacteria invaded the liver and spleen within 30 minutes of infection. In contrast, in LDLR-/- mice, Salmonella remained constrained to the circulation from where they were efficiently cleared, with decreased organ invasion. CONCLUSIONS: plasma lipoproteins are a potent host defense mechanism against invasive Salmonella infection, by blocking adhesion of Salmonella to the host cells and subsequent tissue invasion