Taxonomy and hierarchy of psychological abuse strategies in intimate partner relationships

This study focuses on the analysis from of a psychosocial perspective of the components of psychological abuse in intimate partner relationships. Following a review of studies on the subject, the main objective that emerged was the need for a new taxonomy of strategies of psychological abuse accompanied by the corresponding operational definitions. After the proposal of this new classification, a second objective emerged that consisted of submitting it for evaluation by a group of experts through a Delphi study, in which thirty-two experts from the academic and professional worlds participated. These experts were asked to assess the suitability of the system categories, and to grade quantitatively the severity of the impact made by each of the strategies on the global phenomenon of psychological abuse in couples. The results show that the experts ratified the new classification of strategies and their operational definitions, thus endorsing their content and construct validity. In addition, they classified the strategies based on their degree of severity; those of an emotional nature were considered the severest, followed by those related to the immediate context, with those of a cognitive type in third place, and lastly, the behavioural ones. Finally, we discuss the results, and their implications. Este estudio se centra en analizar los componentes del abuso psicológico en la violencia de pareja adulta y contra la mujer desde un enfoque psicosocial. Tras realizar una revisión de los estudios sobre el tema, se plantea como primer objetivo el proponer una nueva taxonomía de estrategias de abuso psicológico, acompañadas de sus respectivas definiciones operativas. A partir de esta nueva clasificación, se traza un segundo objetivo que se centra en someter esta clasificación al juicio de un grupo de expertos a través de un estudio Delphi, en el que han participado 32 expertos de los ámbitos académico - universitario y profesional. Estos expertos debían juzgar la adecuación del sistema de categorías, además de evaluar cuantitativamente la severidad que aporta cada una de las estrategias al fenómeno global del abuso psicológico en la pareja. Los resultados muestran que los expertos ratifican la nueva clasificación de estrategias y sus definiciones operativas, avalando así su validez de contenido y constructo. Además, jerarquizaron las estrategias de abuso, atribuyendo mayor severidad a las de tipo emocional, seguidas de las relacionadas con el contexto cercano, de las de tipo cognitivo y las de carácter conductual. Se discuten los resultados, sus limitaciones y las implicaciones que pueden derivarse de ellos

Development and validation of the scale of psychological abuse in intimate partner violence (EAPA-P)

Background: In the context of intimate partner violence, psychological abuse (PA) has progressively gained scientific relevance. Even so, a greater effort is needed to define and evaluate psychological intimate partner abuse. A new exhaustive and operative taxonomy of PA strategies leads to the contribution of a new evaluation instrument. Method: Participants were 101 women between 24 and 82 years old, who were abused by their partners and attended to in different municipal Catalan services, specialized in the topic. Results: The analyses have shown the suitability of a 19-item instrument divided into two factors: (1) direct PA strategies and (2) indirect PA strategies. The former includes strategies that affect the emotional, cognitive and behavioral dimension of the victim. The latter includes items that measure the amount of control and domination over the victim’s context. This scale has adequate psychometric properties in terms of score reliability and the validity of the relationship with other women’s health variables. Conclusions: The EAPA-P, created based on a new definition and taxonomy of the forms of PA, is presented as a valid instrument to detect and measure intimate partner PA

Cutaneous vasculitis in children: A nationwide epidemiological study in Spain [version 1; referees: 1 approved]

Background: Cutaneous vasculitis (CV) are a complex group of conditions in children, of which IgA vasculitis (IgAV) is the most common. The objectives of the current study are to describe the incidence of CV in Spain and to analyze the temporal trend in the last 11 years, as well as it seasonal distribution. Methods: Hospital discharges of patients aged 0-18 years with a diagnosis consistent with CV in Spain from 2005 to 2015 were collected from the Spanish National Institute of Statistics (INE) databases. Results: A total of 7304 patients from January 2005 to December 2015 were included; 6991 patients (95%) had a diagnosis of IgAV. The yearly incidence in the whole group was 7.7 per 100,000. Mean age at diagnoses was 6±3 years and 52% were male. The highest rate of admissions was found in the 5-9 year-old group, followed by those with 0-4 years of age (15.7 and 9.0 admissions per 100.000, respectively). Admissions due to CV followed an annual cyclic pattern, with the highest number of daily admissions during fall and winter months and the lowest number in summer months. There was an overall downwards trend of the number of hospital admissions during the period of study, in both males and females (p=0.01). Conclusions: We have estimated an incidence of a 7.7 cases per 100,000 CV in children in Spain. CV-related hospitalization rates have a marked seasonal pattern, with a peak in fall and winter and a nadir in summer months. Children between 5 and 9 years of age are most frequently affected. There is a decreasing trend in CV-related hospitalization, the causes of which should be further assessed

A novel 3-hydroxypropionic acid-inducible promoter regulated by the LysR-type transcriptional activator protein MmsR of Pseudomonas denitrificans

MmsR (33.3 kDa) is a putative LysR-type transcriptional activator of Pseudomonas denitrificans. With the help of 3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP), an important platform chemical, MmsR positively regulates the expression of mmsA, which encodes methylmalonylsemialdehyde dehydrogenase, the enzyme involved in valine degradation. In the present study, the cellular function of MmsR and its binding to the regulatory DNA sequence of mmsA expression were investigated both in vivo and in vitro. Transcription of the mmsA was enhanced >140-fold in the presence of 3-HP. In the MmsR-responsive promoter region, two operators showing dyad symmetry, designated O-1 and O-2 and centered at the -79 and -28 positions, respectively, were present upstream of the mmsA transcription start site. An electrophoretic mobility shift assay indicated that MmsR binds to both operator sites for transcription activation, probably in cooperative manner. When either O-1 or O-2 or both regions were mutated, the inducibility by the MmsR-3-HP complex was significantly reduced or completely removed, indicating that both sites are required for transcription activation. A 3-HP sensor was developed by connecting the activation of MmsR to a green fluorescent readout. A more than 50-fold induction by 25 mM 3-HP was observed

Rheumatic manifestations of infective endocarditis in non-addicts: a 12-year study

Infective endocarditis (IE) is due to a microbial infection of the heart valves or of the endocardium in close proximity to either congenital or acquired cardiac defects. This infection is associated with a high risk of complications. Rheumatic manifestations are known to be frequent complications of IE. Controversy, however, frequently exists about the actual incidence of these complications. This may be due to the small number of series describing the frequency and type of rheumatic manifestations, the absence of uniform criteria used for the diagnosis of IE, and the fact that some studies on rheumatic manifestations in IE have been described from tertiary referral centers, which implicates associated problems of referral bias and uncertainty of denominator population. To investigate further the incidence, clinical spectrum, and outcome of patients with IE and rheumatic manifestations, we examined the features of patients diagnosed with clinically definite IE according to the Duke classification criteria at the single reference hospital for a defined population in northwestern Spain during a 12-year period. Between 1987 and 1998, 100 consecutive patients had 110 episodes of clinically definite IE. Rheumatic manifestations were observed in 46 of the 110 episodes (41.8%). As in other western countries, they occurred more commonly in men aged in their 50s. The most frequent valve involved was the aortic (43.5%) followed by the mitral valve (30.4%). Myalgia was a frequent symptom. Peripheral arthritis, generally as monoarthritis, was clinically evident in 15 cases (13.6%), and sacroiliitis in 1 patient. Low back pain was described in 14 cases (12.7%). Septic discitis was observed in 2 cases, and biopsy-proved cutaneous leukocytoclastic vasculitis was found in 4 cases. Other conditions such as trochanteric bursitis and polymyalgia were observed in 2 and 1 case, respectively. Apart from a significantly higher frequency of hematuria and a trend to lower serum complement levels in patients with rheumatic complications, no differences in clinical features, laboratory tests, or microbiologic blood culture results were found between cases with IE with or without rheumatic manifestations. Also, although patients with rheumatic manifestations had more embolic complications, the inhospital mortality rate in patients with rheumatic manifestations was not significantly different from that of the rest of the patients. The present study supports the claim that rheumatic complications are frequent in patients with clinically definite IE from southern Europe. The presence of musculoskeletal or vasculitic manifestations may be of some help, as warning signs, for the recognition of patients with severe disease who require rapid diagnosis and therapy

Severe leukocytoclastic vasculitis secondary to the use of a naproxen and requiring amputation: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Leukocytoclastic vasculitis (also known as hypersensitivity vasculitis and cutaneous necrotizing vasculitis) can present with various manifestations, which often delays the diagnosis and treatment. In order to show the importance of the early recognition of leukocytoclastic vasculitis, we present a case which occurred secondary to the use of a common pharmaceutical, naproxen. We were unable to find a case of leukocytoclastic vasculitis secondary to naproxen in the literature.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We present the case of a 33-year-old African American woman with below the knee and bilateral digital gangrene from hypersensitivity vasculitis secondary to the non-steroidal anti-inflammatory medication naproxen.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>This is an original case report focusing on the rheumatologic management of leukocytoclastic vasculitis. However, other specialties, such as internal medicine, dermatology, infectious disease, general surgery and pathology, can gain valuable information by reviewing this case report. Reporting a case of leukocytoclastic vasculitis secondary to treatment with naproxen will advance our understanding of this disease etiology by adding yet another non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drug to the list of potential causes of leukocytoclastic vasculitis.</p

BAFF, APRIL and BAFFR on the pathogenesis of Immunoglobulin-A vasculitis

BAFF, APRIL and BAFF-R are key proteins involved in the development of B-lymphocytes and autoimmunity. Additionally, BAFF, APRIL and BAFFR polymorphisms were associated with immune-mediated conditions, being BAFF GCTGT>A a shared insertion-deletion genetic variant for several autoimmune diseases. Accordingly, we assessed whether BAFF, APRIL and BAFFR represent novel genetic risk factors for Immunoglobulin-A vasculitis (IgAV), a predominantly B-lymphocyte inflammatory condition. BAFF rs374039502, which colocalizes with BAFF GCTGT>A, and two tag variants within APRIL (rs11552708 and rs6608) and BAFFR (rs7290134 and rs77874543) were genotyped in 386 Caucasian IgAV patients and 806 matched healthy controls. No genotypes or alleles differences were observed between IgAV patients and controls when BAFF, APRIL and BAFFR variants were analysed independently. Likewise, no statistically significant differences were found in the genotype and allele frequencies of BAFF, APRIL or BAFFR when IgAV patients were stratified according to the age at disease onset or to the presence/absence of gastrointestinal (GI) or renal manifestations. Similar results were disclosed when APRIL and BAFFR haplotypes were compared between IgAV patients and controls and between IgAV patients stratified according to the clinical characteristics mentioned above. Our results suggest that BAFF, APRIL and BAFFR do not contribute to the genetic network underlying IgAV.Acknowledgements: We are indebted to the patients and healthy controls for their essential collaboration to this study. We also thank the National DNA Bank Repository (Salamanca) for supplying part of the control samples. This study was supported by European Union FEDER funds and `Fondo de Investigaciones Sanitarias´ (grant PI18/00042) from ‘Instituto de Salud Carlos III’ (ISCIII, Health Ministry, Spain). DP-P is a recipient of a Río Hortega programme fellowship from the ISCIII, co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF, `Investing in your future´) (grant number CM20/00006). SR-M is supported by funds of the RETICS Program (RD16/0012/0009) (ISCIII, co-funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)). VP-C is supported by a pre-doctoral grant from IDIVAL (PREVAL 18/01). BA-M is a recipient of a `López Albo´ Post-Residency Programme funded by Servicio Cántabro de Salud. LL-G is supported by funds from IDIVAL (INNVAL20/06). OG is staff personnel of Xunta de Galicia (Servizo Galego de Saude (SERGAS)) through a research-staff stabilization contract (ISCIII/SERGAS) and his work is funded by ISCIII and the European Union FEDER fund (grant numbers RD16/0012/0014 (RIER) and PI17/00409). He is beneficiary of project funds from the Research Executive Agency (REA) of the European Union in the framework of MSCA-RISE Action of the H2020 Programme, Project 734899—Olive-Net. RL-M is a recipient of a Miguel Servet type I programme fellowship from the ISCIII, cofunded by ESF (`Investing in your future´) (grant number CP16/00033)

Characterisation of a 3-hydroxypropionic acid-inducible system from Pseudomonas putida for orthogonal gene expression control in Escherichia coli and Cupriavidus necator

3-hydroxypropionic acid (3-HP) is an important platform chemical used as a precursor for production of added-value compounds such as acrylic acid. Metabolically engineered yeast, Escherichia coli, cyanobacteria and other microorganisms have been developed for the biosynthesis of 3-HP. Attempts to overproduce this compound in recombinant Pseudomonas denitrificans revealed that 3-HP is consumed by this microorganism using the catabolic enzymes encoded by genes hpdH, hbdH and mmsA. 3-HP-inducible systems controlling the expression of these genes have been predicted in proteobacteria and actinobacteria. In this study, we identify and characterise 3-HP-inducible promoters and their corresponding LysR-type transcriptional regulators from Pseudomonas putida KT2440. A newly-developed modular reporter system proved possible to demonstrate that PpMmsR/PmmsA and PpHpdR/PhpdH are orthogonal and highly inducible by 3-HP in E. coli (12.3- and 23.3-fold, respectively) and Cupriavidus necator (51.5- and 516.6-fold, respectively). Bioinformatics and mutagenesis analyses revealed a conserved 40-nucleotide sequence in the hpdH promoter, which plays a key role in HpdR-mediated transcription activation. We investigate the kinetics and dynamics of the PpHpdR/PhpdH switchable system in response to 3-HP and show that it is also induced by both enantiomers of 3-hydroxybutyrate. These findings pave the way for use of the 3-HP-inducible system in synthetic biology and biotechnology applications

Role of PTPN22 and CSK gene polymorphisms as predictors of susceptibility and clinical heterogeneity in patients with Henoch-Schönlein purpura (IgA vasculitis)

INTRODUCTION: To determine whether the PTPN22 (protein tyrosine phosphatase nonreceptor 22)/CSK (c-src tyrosine kinase) pathway is implicated in the susceptibility and clinical heterogeneity of Henoch-Schönlein purpura (HSP) in the largest series of Caucasian HSP patients ever assessed for genetic studies. METHODS: A set of 329 Spanish patients diagnosed with HSP fulfilling the American College of Rheumatology and the Michel et al. classification criteria and 515 sex and ethnically matched controls were recruited in this study. Two well-known CSK (CSK rs34933034 and CSK rs1378942) and two functional PTPN22 (PTPN22 rs2476601 (R620W) and PTPN22 rs33996649 (R263Q)) polymorphisms, previously associated with autoimmunity, were genotyped with TaqMan single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) genotyping assays. RESULTS: No significant differences in the genotype and allele frequencies between HSP patients and controls were observed when the CSK rs34933034, CSK rs1378942, PTPN22 rs2476601 (R620W) and PTPN22 rs33996649 (R263Q) polymorphisms were analyzed independently. In keeping with this observation, no significant differences were found when we assessed these polymorphisms combined conforming haplotypes. In addition, there were no differences in the allele or genotype frequencies when HSP patients were stratified according the age at disease onset, sex, presence of arthralgia/arthritis, nephritis or gastrointestinal manifestations. CONCLUSIONS: Our results do not support association between PTPN22/CSK and HSP