The Sociotype of Dermatological Patients: Assessing the Social Burden of Skin Disease

Skin diseases can be the cause of a significant psychosocial burden. However, tools to screen for social interaction difficulties and diminished social networks that affect the wellbeing and mental health of the individual have not been sufficiently developed. This study is based on the sociotype approach, which has recently been proposed as a new theoretical construct implemented in the form of an ad hoc questionnaire that examines the social bonding structures and relational factors. A pilot study was conducted in Alcañiz Hospital (Spain), with a study population of 159 dermatology patients. The results showed that in both subjective estimates concerning family, friends, work, and acquaintances, and in quantitative aspects, such as social contacts, duration of conversations, and moments of laughter, there were significant differences between the sample regarding diagnostic severity, dermatological diseases, and gender. The sociotype questionnaire (SOCQ) is a useful tool to screen for social difficulties in dermatological patients

The Cost of Loneliness: Assessing the Social Relationships of the Elderly via an Abbreviated Sociotype Questionnaire for inside and outside the Clinic

Gauging the social relationships of the elderly is a significant sociometric research subject and a deep biomedical concern-particularly after the COVID-19 pandemic. It is imperative for facultatives in primary care, for geriatric clinics, and for social care services. In this respect, this article explores the validity of an abbreviated version of the Sociotype Questionnaire (SOCQ), a tool previously developed by the authors for assessing the social relationships of the general population, now specifically addressed to the elderly population. The aim is to construct a 4-item dichotomous scale (SOCG-4) out of the 12 items of the original scale of the SOCQ, so that it can serve to discriminate among the patients in primary care and the geriatric clinic, helping the facultative to find those in need of social care or of psychosocial intervention. The population data have been obtained from a series of previous studies on social relationships in different segments of the elderly population (Ntotal = 915). The resulting abbreviated version of SOCG-4 was extracted by means of confirmatory factor analysis, with the congruence, validity, and relationship with the determinants as close to optimal. The significant correlations with SOCQ (0.82), UCLA (-0.55), Barthel (0.40), and other relevant tests are obtained. The test was also put to trial in a pilot study, being applied to 150 subjects via phone surveys, home visiting, and geriatric clinic-it becomes particularly useful for assessing the social relationships in geriatric clinic use. The 4-item Geriatric Sociotype scale (SOCG-4) appears as a valid measurement instrument for use in the clinic and in other social care instances

The psychosocial burden of hand eczema: Data from a European dermatological multicentre study

Background: The essential physical role, visibility and social importance of the hands place a major psychological burden on patients with hand eczema. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the psychological, social and clinical characteristics of patients with hand eczema, in particular the prevalences of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and comorbidities. Materials and methods: Data on patients with hand eczema were analysed from a large European multicentre study conducted with dermatology outpatients from 13 countries. Groups of patients and controls were compared to analyse the psychological burden of hand eczema. Results: Female patients with hand eczema had higher Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) scores for anxiety (n = 86, median = 7.0) than controls (n = 900, median = 5.0, P =.02), and for depression (median = 4.0) than controls (3.0, P 1, P =.038, P <.001, and P <.001, respectively]. The median Dermatology Life Quality Index score was 7.0 (n = 68). Discussion: This study identifies a specific psychological burden experienced by hand eczema patients, highlighting the need for focused psychosocial interventions. Physicians in particular should be aware of the need to identify anxiety and depression in female patients.SCOPUS: ar.jinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Use of Laughter for the Detection of Parkinson&rsquo;s Disease: Feasibility Study for Clinical Decision Support Systems, Based on Speech Recognition and Automatic Classification Techniques

Parkinson&rsquo;s disease (PD) is an incurable neurodegenerative disorder which affects over 10 million people worldwide. Early detection and correct evaluation of the disease is critical for appropriate medication and to slow the advance of the symptoms. In this scenario, it is critical to develop clinical decision support systems contributing to an early, efficient, and reliable diagnosis of this illness. In this paper we present a feasibility study for a clinical decision support system for the diagnosis of PD based on the acoustic characteristics of laughter. Our decision support system is based on laugh analysis with speech recognition methods and automatic classification techniques. We evaluated different cepstral coefficients to identify laugh characteristics of healthy and ill subjects combined with machine learning classification models. The decision support system reached 83% accuracy rate with an AUC value of 0.86 for PD&ndash;healthy laughs classification in a database of 20,000 samples randomly generated from a pool of 120 laughs from healthy and PD subjects. Laughter could be employed for the efficient and reliable detection of PD; such a detection system can be achieved using speech recognition and automatic classification techniques; a clinical decision support system can be built using the above techniques. Significance: PD clinical decision support systems for the early detection of the disease will help to improve the efficiency of available and upcoming therapeutic treatments which, in turn, would improve life conditions of the affected people and would decrease costs and efforts in public and private healthcare systems

Lithium-Ion battery solid electrolytes based on poly(vinylidene fluoride)-metal thiocyanate ionic liquid blends

Solid polymer electrolytes (SPEs) are required to improve battery safety through the elimination of the liquid electrolyte solution in current batteries. This work reports on the development of an SPE based on poly(vinylidene fluoride), PVDF, with the magnetic ionic liquid (MIL)1-butyl-3-methylimidazolium cobalt(II) isothiocyanate, [BMIM]2[(SCN)4Co], and its battery cycling behavior at room temperature. The addition of MIL in filler contents up to 40wt.%, to the PVDF polymer matrix does not affect the compact morphology of the samples obtained by solvent casting. The polar β-phase of PVDF increases with increasing MIL content, whereas the degree of crystallinity, thermal degradation temperature and mechanical properties of the MIL/PVDF blends decrease with increasing MIL content. The ionic conductivity of the MIL/PVDF blends increases both with temperature and MIL content, showing a highest ionic conductivity of 7 × 10-4 mS.cm-1 at room temperature for the MIL/PVDF blend with 40wt. % of MIL. The cathodic half-cells prepared with this blend as SPE show good reversibility and excellent cycling behavior at different C-rates, with a discharge capacity of 80 mAh.g-1 at C/10- rate with 99% of coulombic efficiency. The developed magnetic SPE is suitable for the next generation of sustainable lithium-ion batteries with excellent performance at room temperature, which performance can be further tuned by an external magnetic field.The authors thank the Fundac ? a ? o para a Cie ? ncia e Tecnologia (FCT) for financial support under the framework of Strategic Funding UIDB/04650/2020, UID/FIS/04650/2020, UID/EEA/04436/2020, and UID/QUI/0686/2020 and under projects POCI-01-0145-FEDER-028157, MIT-EXPL/TDI/0033/2021 , POCI-01-0247-FEDER-046985, and PTDC/FIS- MAC/28157/2017 funded by national funds through FCT and by the ERDF through the COMPETE2020 ? Programa Operacional Competitividade e Internacionalizac ? a ? o (POCI) . The authors also thank the FCT for financial support under grants 2021.08158.BD (J.P.S.) , SFRH/BD/140842/2018 (J.C.B.) , SFRH/BPD/121526/2016 (D.M.C.) and FCT investigator contracts CEECIND/00833/2017 (R.G.) and 2020.04028.CEECIND (C.M.C.) . Financial support from the Basque Government Industry Department under the ELKAR- TEK program is acknowledged. The authors thank for technical and human support provided by SGIker (UPV/EHU/ERDF, EU)

Study of neuron survival on polypyrrole-embedded single-walled carbon nanotube substrates for long-term growth conditions

Cultures of primary embryonic rat brain hippocampus neurons with supporting glia cells were carried out on different substrates containing polypyrrole (PPy) and/or single-walled carbon nanotubes (SWCNTs). Neuron adhesion, neurites and dendrites branching elongation, and development of neuron networks on substrates were followed by phase-contrast optical microscopy and quantified to state cell survival and proliferation. Suspensions of as-grown and purified SWCNTs were sprayed on a glass coverslips and PPy/SWCNTs were deposited by potentiodynamic electrochemical deposition. Cell neurotoxicity revealed by neuron death was very high for purified SWCNTs substrates in good agreement with [3-(4,5-dimethylthiazol-2-yl)-2,5-diphenyltetrazolium bromide] (MTT) test showing lower viability on SWCNTs containing substrates compared with PPy-substrates and control samples probably due to the metal content and the carboxylic groups introduced during the purification. It is interesting to highlight that neurons grown on PPy-substrates adhere developing neurites and branching dendrites earlier even than on control cultures. On subsequent days the neurons are able to adapt to nanotube substrates developing neuron networks for 14-day cultures with similar patterns of complexity for control, PPy and PPy/SWCNT substrates. PPy/SWCNT substrates show a lower impedance value at frequencies under 1 Hz. We have come to the conclusion that glia cells and PPy added to the culture medium and substrates respectively, improve in some degree nanotube biocompatibility, cell adhesion and hence cell viability.J. Hernández-Ferrer acknowledges the Spanish National Research Council (CSIC) for his JAE-Doc contract.Peer reviewe

The psychosocial burden of hand eczema: Data from a European dermatological multicentre study

Background: The essential physical role, visibility and social importance of the hands place a major psychological burden on patients with hand eczema. Objectives: The aim of this study was to identify the psychological, social and clinical characteristics of patients with hand eczema, in particular the prevalences of depression, anxiety, suicidal ideation, and comorbidities. Materials and methods: Data on patients with hand eczema were analysed from a large European multicentre study conducted with dermatology outpatients from 13 countries. Groups of patients and controls were compared to analyse the psychological burden of hand eczema. Results: Female patients with hand eczema had higher Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS) scores for anxiety (n = 86, median = 7.0) than controls (n = 900, median = 5.0, P = .02), and for depression (median = 4.0) than controls (3.0, P 1, P = .038, P < .001, and P < .001, respectively]. The median Dermatology Life Quality Index score was 7.0 (n = 68). Discussion: This study identifies a specific psychological burden experienced by hand eczema patients, highlighting the need for focused psychosocial interventions. Physicians in particular should be aware of the need to identify anxiety and depression in female patients. Keywords: anxiety; depression; hand eczema; outpatients; psychosocial burden; quality of life; sex differences; stress