Dyadic adjustment, family coping, body image, quality of life and psychological morbidity in patients with psoriasis and their partners

Background Psoriasis is an incurable and chronic disease that includes unpredictable periods of remission and relapse requiring long-term therapy. Purpose This paper focuses on the relationship among family coping, psychological morbidity, body image, dyadic adjustment and quality of life in psoriatic patients and their partners. Method One hundred and one patients with psoriasis and 78 partners comprised the sample. They were regular users of the Dermatology Service of a Central Northern hospital in Portugal and a private dermatology clinic. Patients with psoriasis were assessed on anxiety, depression, body image, quality of life, dyadic adjustment and family coping. Partners were assessed on the same measures except body image and quality of life. Results A positive relationship among dyadic adjustment, psychological morbidity and family coping in patients and their partners was found. Also, patients with lower levels of quality of life had partners with higher levels of depressive and anxious symptoms. Better dyadic adjustment predicted family coping in the psoriatic patient. High levels of dyadic adjustment in patients and low partners’ trait anxiety predicted better dyadic adjustment in partners. Conclusion The results highlight the importance of incorporating family variables in psychological interventions in psoriasis’ care, particularly family coping and dyadic adjustment as well as the need for psychological intervention to focus both on patients and partners

Drying colloidal systems: laboratory models for a wide range of applications

The drying of complex fluids provides a powerful insight into phenomena that take place on time and length scales not normally accessible. An important feature of complex fluids, colloidal dispersions and polymer solutions is their high sensitivity to weak external actions. Thus, the drying of complex fluids involves a large number of physical and chemical processes. The scope of this review is the capacity to tune such systems to reproduce and explore specific properties in a physics laboratory. A wide variety of systems are presented, ranging from functional coatings, food science, cosmetology, medical diagnostics and forensics to geophysics and art

Studies at the liquid-air interface : a powerful toolbox to study interactions between biomolecules

International audienceMonolayers on a Langmuir trough constitute a great biomimetic model to characterize protein-protein or protein-lipid interaction, where the physical state of the interfacial layer is completely controlled. We present here three studies performed on monolayers, with a wide panel of experimental (optical, spectroscopical, rheological) techniques. i) Surface properties and conformation of Nephila clavipes Spider recombinant silk proteins (MaSpI and MaSp2) was studied at the air-water interface: we show that the mechanism of assembly of both proteins is different, although both proteins share the same sequence pattern and a close hydrophobicity. They both exhibit a certain propensity to form b-sheets that may be important for the efficiency of the natural spinning process. ii) The dystrophin molecular organization and its anchoring in a lipidic environment depend on the rod fragment used and on the lipid nature. Moreover the interaction is guided by the lateral surface pressure. This lipid packing variation is essential to understand the role of the dystrophin during compression-extension cycle of the muscle membrane. iii) We evidence that non additive behavior of mixtures of food globular proteins leads to enhanced foaming properties or to self assembled objects

Topological rearrangements and surface rheology: a multi-scale approach on dairy proteins foams

International audienceThe main destabilisation processes in aqueous foams are liquid drainage, coalescence and disproportionation. Due to their amphiphilic nature, proteins can reduce surface tension ϒ, increase liquid phase viscosity and form a visco-elastic interfacial film surrounding the gas bubbles. A correlation is believed to exist between surface rheology of the protein interfacial film and foam stability. Indeed, surface rheology on protein films helps the understanding of foam stability. Two kinds of surface deformation may be applied on a single planar protein film, shearing and expansion/compression (or dilatation). The dilatational elasticity modulus must be larger than 2ϒ to prevent disproportionation. A higher surface shear viscosity is correlated with a better stability against drainage. More generally, higher surface shearing modulus improved stability. However, full understanding still is a challenge because of foam complexity. Foams have confined interstices and spontaneous dynamic rearrangements happen, which cannot be reproduced using only single planar interfaces. Thus, the goal of this work is to bring a multi-scale approach by combining dynamical T1 topological rearrangements of protein films to interfacial rheology measurements.T1 rearrangements occur spontaneously during a foam lifetime or as it flows inside a pipe for example. For small-molecular-weight surfactants, their kinetics have been shown to be an important parameter for the foam stability. In the present work, we aimed at studying the relationship between the rheology of protein interfacial films and the kinetics of T1 rearrangements in protein foams.Two dairy commercial products were studied, sodium caseinate and whey protein isolate (WPI). They differ by their molecular structure and surface rheological properties. Purified β-Lactoglobulin, the main protein in WPI, has also been evaluated. Links between T1, surface rheology and foaming properties will be discussed

L'alimentation de complément du jeune enfant après la dévaluation du franc CFA: deux études de cas en milieu urbain, au Congo et au Sénégal.

Developing countries frequently see their currency depreciated to varying degrees. The consequences of such monetary disturbances on the nutrition of young children are not well known, though children are the most vulnerable in nutritional terms. One year after the 50% devaluation of the CFA Franc (communauté financière africaine, "African Financial Community"), which took place on 12 January 1994 simultaneously in fourteen countries, nine of which are on the UNDP list of least developed countries, we wanted to find out the long-term effects of the devaluation, and the strategies that families had adopted to cope with it. In Brazzaville, Congo, in December 1994, an epidemiological survey was conducted on a representative sample of 893 children between the ages of 4 and 12 months in two districts, and indicators of child nutrition were established. A comparable survey had been conducted in December 1993, before the devaluation. In Senegal, in the absence of a previous survey which could be used in comparison, a qualitative survey using RAP methodology, was conducted in January 1995 in two towns near the capital. In three districts in each of these towns, a cluster of ten plots was chosen at random and surveyed, with a combination of semi-structured individual interviews with mothers (n = 60) and group interviews with all the women together (n = 6). The information was put together with interviews of 25 local traders selling food. In the Congo, comparison of the two surveys shows that the practice of breast-feeding had hardly changed, nor had the age at which baby food was introduced (90% of children of 4-5 months take semi-solid and solid foods); on the other hand, more children are being given the ordinary family meal earlier, at 6-9 months. The proportion of baby foods based on commercially imported flour has fallen (from 32% in 1993 to 18% in 1994), and has been replaced with local products based on maize; this change is more marked among poorer families. The low nutritional value of such preparations is in part compensated by the addition of sugar, though less milk is added (28% in 1994 as opposed to 43% in 1993). In Senegal, mothers do not seem to have changed their breast-feeding practices either, the age at which baby foods are introduced, or the number of times they are provided daily. The most important change is the drop in quality of food given to children, and the poorer family food for the older children. The partial switch from imported products to local produce was an expected consequence of devaluation; it is clearly confirmed here for nutrition of young children, with the consequent loss of nutritional quality (a reduction in energy density and in nutrients). The first thing needed is, therefore, an improvement in local manufacture of food supplements of good nutritional quality, for young children. Mothers also complain of the increased difficulty in managing a family diet so as to take account of economic needs, cultural values and nutrition. They therefore criticize a number of nutritional education messages that are clearly no longer appropriate to the new economic context. Finally the fact that young children are getting poorer quality nutrition is worrying for the future: if it lasts, the nutritional status of children will deteriorate; whenever possible, monitoring must be established so that measures can be taken when necessary to forestall any dramatic deterioration that would endanger the health of the children

Mycoplasma genitalium screening in a specialized French unit: A retrospective study

International audienceOBJECTIVE: Mycoplasma genitalium (MG) infection accounts for 10-35% of non-gonococcal non-chlamydial (NGNC) urethritis. However, given that most people infected with MG do not develop symptoms and that antimicrobial resistance is increasing worldwide, there is no evidence of any benefits of screening asymptomatic individuals. We conducted this study to describe MG screening practices and outcomes at a French Sexually Transmitted Infections (STI) center in which MG testing was performed selectively and multiplex assays were not carried out [i.e., simultaneous screening for Chlamydia trachomatis (CT), Neisseria gonorrhoeae (NG), and MG]. METHODS: A retrospective, observational, single-center study was conducted at the STI unit of Saint-Louis Hospital in Paris. The records of all patients undergoing MG testing from January 1st, 2017, to December 31st, 2018, were reviewed. The primary aim of the study was to describe and evaluate the proportion of MG-positive (MG+) patients among those tested. Secondary objectives were determination of the prevalence of MG+ status among symptomatic patients, risk factors associated with MG infection, and therapeutic modalities and efficacy. RESULTS: Two hundred and forty-nine patients underwent MG testing, 28 (11%) of whom were positive (MG+). The prevalence of MG+ status among symptomatic NGNC patients was 12%. HIV-positive (HIV+) status was significantly associated with MG+ status in univariate and multivariate analyses (Odds Ratio=7.3, 95% Confidence Interval 1.3-41.7; P=0.02). Twenty-three patients (85%) received antibiotics. Eighteen (67%) received azithromycin for 5 days, but 7 had clinical resistance. No quinolone resistance was reported. CONCLUSION: Despite unavailability of multiplex testing at our facility, which led to targeted-only screening for MG, its relatively high local prevalence is in keeping with what is generally observed at similar facilities across the world, where use of multiplex tests enables systematic screening for MG alongside NG and CT. This reinforces the current recommendations in Europe, France and the US against systematic MG testing or treatment in asymptomatic patients

New approach for the characterisation of dairy protein foams stability

The main destabilisation processes in aqueous foams are liquid drainage, coalescence and disproportionation. In food sciences, the measurement of protein foam stability integrates all of them in a “global stability” and a challenge is to correlate foam stability to film interfacial properties. However, foam stability is complex because each of these mechanisms contributes to the foam lifetime and may occur simultaneously. Thus, understanding the respective relation of these mechanisms to interfacial properties may help to understand foam stability. Several methods have been developed to study foam stability, essentially for low-molecular-weight (LMW) surfactants. First, electrical conductivity measurements of foams as a function of height and time (A) may be converted into liquid fraction 835 f11 using an empirical relationship. When drainage is the only instability phenomenon, the variation of the liquid fraction 835 f11 within a foam as a function of time follows a power-law: 835 f11∝ 835 c61− 835 efc where α, the drainage rate, is related to interfacial mobility (A. Saint-Jalmes and D. Langevin, Journal of Physics: Condensed Matter 14 (40): 9397-9412, 2002). Foam stability is also related to structural dynamics and to the aptitude of films to resist to topological rearrangements, which may lead to coalescence. T1 rearrangements happen spontaneously during the foam lifetime and their film relaxation time (B) is related to surface properties (A.L Biance, A. Delbos and O. Pitois, Physical Review Letters 106 (6), 2011). Thus, the goal of this work is to adapt methodologies essentially applied to LMW surfactants to macromolecules such as dairy proteins and to enlighten multiple dimensions of protein foam stability. Whey protein isolate (WPI) and purified β-Lactoglobulin, the main protein in WPI, have been evaluated. The impact of protein modifications has been also studied. Links between global stability, drainage rate, coalescence and film relaxation time will be discusse

Equation of state and structure of highly concentrated globular protein solutions

In food technology, proteins are classically subject to operations leading to high local concentrations (membrane filtration, drying, stabilization of dispersed systems through the formation of dense interfacial films). However, few studies have for now been conducted on the behaviour of globular proteins in “highly crowded” situations, despite interesting observations in some cases and a growing interest in the subject [1,2]. Our goal is to study the crowding of proteins in an extended concentrIn food technology, proteins are classically subject to operations leading to high local concentrations (membrane filtration, drying, stabilization of dispersed systems through the formation of dense interfacial films). However, few studies have for now been conducted on the behaviour of globular proteins in “highly crowded” situations, despite interesting observations in some cases and a growing interest in the subject [1,2]. Our goal is to study the crowding of proteins in an extended concentration range, up to volume fractions about 0.5, using highly concentrated solutions obtained via the osmotic stress method [3]. Recently, this method has been used to study the behaviour of milk casein micelles upon concentration [4]. Equations of state, which relate concentration and osmotic pressure, were established for two well-known globular proteins, lysozyme and ovalbumin, in different charge and ionic strength conditions. We then conducted a SAXS study of the structure of the highly concentrated lysozyme and ovalbumin samples. We showed that the structure of the samples, depending on the protein, the charge and the range of interactions, underwent drastic structural changes and phase transitions upon concentration. In this communication, we will discuss the equations of state obtained for lysozyme and ovalbumin, then the structural properties of crowded lysozyme and ovalbumin as determined by SAXS studies, in the light of the molecular structure and physico-chemical properties of these two proteins, as well as the general behaviour and interaction properties of proteins