530 research outputs found
Venous Thromboembolism and Cerebrovascular Events in Patients with Giant Cell Arteritis: A Population-Based Retrospective Cohort Study
To investigate the incidence of venous thromboembolism (VTE) and cerebrovascular events in a community-based incidence cohort of patients with giant cell arteritis (GCA) compared to the general population. METHODS:
A population-based inception cohort of patients with incident GCA between January 1, 1950 and December 31, 2009 in Olmsted County, Minnesota and a cohort of non-GCA subjects from the same population were assembled and followed until December 31, 2013. Confirmed VTE and cerebrovascular events were identified through direct medical record review.
RESULTS:
The study population included 244 patients with GCA with a mean ± SD age at diagnosis of 76.2 ± 8.2 years (79% women) and an average length of follow-up of 10.2 ± 6.8 years. Compared to non-GCA subjects of similar age and sex, patients diagnosed with GCA had a higher incidence (%) of amaurosis fugax (cumulative incidence ± SE: 2.1 ± 0.9 versus 0, respectively; p = 0.014) but similar rates of stroke, transient ischemic attack (TIA), and VTE. Among patients with GCA, neither baseline characteristics nor laboratory parameters at diagnosis reliably predicted risk of VTE or cerebrovascular events.
CONCLUSION:
In this population-based study, the incidence of VTE, stroke and TIA was similar in patients with GCA compared to non-GCA subjects
Specialists in ancient trees are more affected by climate than generalists
Ancient trees are considered one of the most important habitats for biodiversity in Europe and North America. They support exceptional numbers of specialized species, including a range of rare and endangered wood-living insects. In this study, we use a dataset of 105 sites spanning a climatic gradient along the oak range of Norway and Sweden to investigate the importance of temperature and precipitation on beetle species richness in ancient, hollow oak trees. We expected that increased summer temperature would positively inïŹuence all wood-living beetle species whereas precipitation would be less important with a negligible or negative impact. Surprisingly, only oak-specialist beetles with a northern distribu- tion increased in species richness with temperature. Few specialist beetles and no generalist beetles responded to the rise of 4°C in summer as covered by our cli- matic gradient. The negative effect of precipitation affected more specialist species than did temperature, whereas the generalists remained unaffected. In summary, we suggest that increased summer temperature is likely to beneïŹt a few specialist beetles within this dead wood community, but a larger number of specialists are likely to decline due to increased precipitation. In addition, generalist species will remain unaffected. To minimize adverse impacts of climate change on this impor- tant community, long-term management plans for ancient trees are important
Prevalence and microbiological characteristics of clinically infected foot-ulcers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis: A retrospective exploratory study
Background: The prevalence of foot ulcers in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) has been reported at almost 10 %. These foot ulcers often occur at multiple sites and are reoccurring, with the potential risk of infection increased due to RA diagnosis and disease modifying medications. The objective of this study was to estimate the prevalence of clinical infection in foot-ulcers of patients with RA; describe the microbiological characteristics and investigate risk factors. Methods: Retrospective clinical data was collected for all patients attending a rheumatology foot ulcer clinic between 1st May 2012 and 1st May 2013: wound swab data was collected from those with clinical infection. Results: Twenty-eight patients with RA and foot-ulcers were identified; eight of these patients had clinical infection and wound swabs taken (29 %). Of these eight patients there were equal men and women, with median age 74 years, and average disease duration 22 years. Cardiovascular disease/peripheral-vascular disease (CVD/PVD) were reported in six patients, diabetes in two patients. Six patients were treated with disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drugs (DMARDs); three were on biologic medications and two on steroids. Five wound swabs cultured skin flora, one staphylococcus aureus, one had no growth after culture; and one was rejected due to labelling error. Conclusion: Almost a third of people with RA and foot ulcers attending clinic over one year had clinical infection, however microbiological analysis failed to isolate pathogens in six of seven wound swabs. This may be due to inaccurate diagnosis of ulcer infection or to issues with sampling, collection, transport, analysis or reporting. There was insufficient data to relate risk of clinical infection with risk factors. Further research is required to identify the most appropriate techniques for infection diagnosis, wound sampling and processing. Trial registration: Ethical approval was obtained from University of Leeds, Faculty of Medicine and Health (Reference number: SHREC/RP/349)
West-Nile virus replicon particles infect 293T cells expressing DC-SIGNR
West-Nile virus (WNV) is an arbovirus usually transmitted to humans via a mosquito vector. Infections commonly result in febrile symptoms while rare severe neuroinvasive cases may result in encephalitis or meningitis. Studies have shown that WNV infection efficiency is enhanced by expression of DC-SIGNR on target cells, which normally do not express DC-SIGNR. To investigate WNV tropism, we established 293T kidney epithelial cell lines that stably express vector, DC-SIGNR and mutants of DC-SIGNR that lack the entire carbohydrate-recognition domain (CRD) or lack the C-terminal half of the CRD. We demonstrate successful surface expression of DC-SIGNR and its mutants from stablytransfected 293T cells, but not vector-transfected 293T cells. Further, we show that monoclonal antibody 120604 which binds specifically to the DC-SIGNR CRD binds to DCSIGNR expressing 293T cells, but not to vector nor any of the DC-SIGNR mutants expressing cells. Virus replicon particles (VRPs), replication-incompetent viral particles containing necessary structural proteins for infection and a viral plasmid including a GFP reporter are used to safely and conveniently study viral entry. Entry assays using WNV (NY99) VRPs as well as a variant of WNV (NY99) which contains the beta-lactamase enzyme show significant entry into DC-SIGNR expressing cell lines, but not in controls that do not express DC-SIGNR. Additionally, we show that WNV VRPs do not enter DC-SIGNR expressing cells that lack the CRD or the C-terminal half of the CRD suggesting that the Cterminal half of the CRD is required for successful entry of WNV via DC-SIGNR. Future experiments may be able to shed light on which amino acids are required for entryhttps://openriver.winona.edu/urc2018/1057/thumbnail.jp
Recalibration of the insect evolutionary time scale using Monte San Giorgio fossils suggests survival of key lineages through the End-Permian Extinction
Insects are a highly diverse group of organisms and constitute more than half of all known animal species. They have evolved an extraordinary range of traits, from flight and complete metamorphosis to complex polyphenisms and advanced eusociality. Although the rich insect fossil record has helped to chart the appearance of many phenotypic innovations, data are scarce for a number of key periods. One such period is that following the End-Permian Extinction, recognized as the most catastrophic of all extinction events. We recently discovered several 240-million-year-old insect fossils in the Mount San Giorgio Lagerstatte (Switzerland-Italy) that are remarkable for their state of preservation (including internal organs and soft tissues), and because they extend the records of their respective taxa by up to 200 million years. By using these fossils as calibrations in a phylogenomic dating analysis, we present a revised time scale for insect evolution. Our date estimates for several major lineages, including the hyperdiverse crown groups of Lepidoptera, Hemiptera: Heteroptera and Diptera, are substantially older than their currently accepted post-Permian origins. We found that major evolutionary innovations, including flight and metamorphosis, appeared considerably earlier than previously thought. These results have numerous implications for understanding the evolution of insects and their resilience in the face of extreme events such as the End-Permian Extinction
The 12 Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS)
Recent years have seen a surge in psychological research on the relationship between political ideology (particularly conservatism) and cognition, affect, behaviour, and even biology. Despite this flurry of investigation, however, there is as yet no accepted, validated, and widely used multi-item scale of conservatism that is concise, that is modern in its conceptualisation, and that includes both social and economic conservatism subscales. In this paper the 12-Item Social and Economic Conservatism Scale (SECS) is proposed and validated to help fill this gap. The SECS is suggested to be an important and useful tool for researchers working in political psychology
Promoting social inclusion counting with everyone: Learning Communities and INCLUDâED
Fossilized Biophotonic Nanostructures Reveal the Original Colors of 47-Million-Year-Old Moths
Original structural colors reconstructed in fossil moths had a dual defensive function and illuminate the evolution of communication strategies in insects
Comparative morphology of the type-species of Isotes and Synbrotica(Coleoptera, Chrysomelidae, Galerucinae), with a new synonymy of species
Donât Tread on Me: Masculine Honor Ideology in the U.S. and Militant Responses to Terrorism
Using both college students and a national sample of adults, the authors report evidence linking the ideology of masculine honor in the U.S. with militant responses to terrorism. In Study 1, individualsâ honor ideology endorsement predicted, among other outcomes, open-ended hostile responses to a fictitious attack on the Statue of Liberty and support for the use of extreme counterterrorism measures (e.g., severe interrogations), controlling for right-wing authoritarianism, social dominance orientation, and other covariates. In Study 2, the authors used a regional classification to distinguish honor state respondents from nonhonor state respondents, as has traditionally been done in the literature, and showed that students attending a southwestern university desired the death of the terrorists responsible for 9/11 more than did their northern counterparts. These studies are the first to show that masculine honor ideology in the U.S. has implications for the intergroup phenomenon of peopleâs responses to terrorism.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
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