Diagnostic performance of FibroTest, SteatoTest and ActiTest in patients with NAFLD using the SAF score as histological reference

BACKGROUND: Blood tests of liver injury are less well validated in non‐alcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) than in patients with chronic viral hepatitis. AIMS: To improve the validation of three blood tests used in NAFLD patients, FibroTest for fibrosis staging, SteatoTest for steatosis grading and ActiTest for inflammation activity grading. METHODS: We pre‐included new NAFLD patients with biopsy and blood tests from a single‐centre cohort (FibroFrance) and from the multicentre FLIP consortium. Contemporaneous biopsies were blindly assessed using the new steatosis, activity and fibrosis (SAF) score, which provides a reliable and reproducible diagnosis and grading/staging of the three elementary features of NAFLD (steatosis, inflammatory activity) and fibrosis with reduced interobserver variability. We used nonbinary‐ROC (NonBinAUROC) as the main endpoint to prevent spectrum effect and multiple testing. RESULTS: A total of 600 patients with reliable tests and biopsies were included. The mean NonBinAUROCs (95% CI) of tests were all significant (P < 0.0001): 0.878 (0.864–0.892) for FibroTest and fibrosis stages, 0.846 (0.830–0.862) for ActiTest and activity grades, and 0.822 (0.804–0.840) for SteatoTest and steatosis grades. FibroTest had a higher NonBinAUROC than BARD (0.836; 0.820–0.852; P = 0.0001), FIB4 (0.845; 0.829–0.861; P = 0.007) but not significantly different than the NAFLD score (0.866; 0.850–0.882; P = 0.26). FibroTest had a significant difference in median values between adjacent stage F2 and stage F1 contrarily to BARD, FIB4 and NAFLD scores (Bonferroni test P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with NAFLD, SteatoTest, ActiTest and FibroTest are non‐invasive tests that offer an alternative to biopsy, and they correlate with the simple grading/staging of the SAF scoring system across the three elementary features of NAFLD: steatosis, inflammatory activity and fibrosis

Exploring practice-research networks for critical professional learning

This paper discusses the contribution that practice-research networks can make to support critical professional development in the Learning and Skills sector in England. By practice-research networks we mean groups or networks which maintain a connection between research and professional practice. These networks stem from the philosophy of practitioner and action research in education. We use two examples both from higher and further education in England where continuing professional development has become a mandatory requirement for teachers in the Further Education (FE) sector. Our examples suggest that critical professional development can occur and although we are able to begin to identify some of the ways that these networks operate it is less clear which appropriate theories should support our work. The second part of the paper therefore explores some theoretical perspectives that focus on networks operating as systems. We discuss Actor Network Theory and Activity Theory which show how networks are populated by individuals with agency and suggest that a helpful way to contextualise the benefits of networks is provided by the concept of expansive learning providing a different understanding of how professional learning and development take place

Virtual laboratories : comparability of real and virtual environments for environmental psychology

Virtual environments have the potential to become important new research tools in environment behavior research. They could even become the future (virtual) laboratories, if reactions of people to virtual environments are similar to those in real environments. The present study is an exploration of the comparability of research findings in real and virtual environments. In the study, 101 participants explored an identical space, either in reality or in a computer-simulated environment. Additionally, the presence of plants in the space was manipulated, resulting in a 2 (environment) ?? 2 (plants) between-subjects design. Employing a broad set of measurements, we found mixed results. Performances on size estimations and a cognitive mapping task were significantly better in the real environment. Factor analyses of bipolar adjectives indicated that, although four dimensions were similar for both environments, a fifth dimension of environmental assessment—termed arousal—was absent in the virtual environment. In addition, we found significant differences on the scores of four of the scales. However, no significant interactions appeared between environment and plants. Experience of and behavior in virtual environments have similarities to that in real environments, but there are important differences as well. We conclude that this is not only a necessary, but also a very interesting research subject for environmental psychology

The multicomponent medication Spascupreel attenuates stress-induced gut dysfunction in rats

Background Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is a common disorder worldwide. It is characterized by abdominal pain/discomfort and changes in bowel habits. Due to the multifactorial pathophysiology and the heterogeneity of IBS patients, appropriate treatment of IBS is still a challenge. Spascupreel (SP-11), as a multicomponent medication, has the potential to modulate multiple pathophysiological pathways simultaneously. Therefore, the objective of the current study was to investigate the effects of oral SP-11 treatment on stress-induced changes of peripheral and central functions in a rat model mimicking human IBS. Methods Naive Wistar rats were treated with SP-11 (0.9 tab/kg) or NaCl 0.9% by oral gavage for 4 days before 2-hour partial restraint stress (PRS) procedure. Twenty minutes after PRS, central and peripheral stress-induced changes affecting IBS were assessed. These include the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis response through plasma ACTH and corticosterone measurements, visceral pain in response to colorectal distension, gut permeability, colonic mast cell number, and sensitization as well as gut transit time. Results Treatment with SP-11 reduced the HPA axis activation in response to PRS. At the gut level, a reduction in colonic hypersensitivity to colorectal distension, a normalization of gut transit time acceleration, a reduced mast cell sensitization, and a trend toward reduced gut hyperpermeability were observed. Conclusions These data suggest that stress-induced IBS signs can be reduced using SP-11 in rats. The observed effects and the good tolerability of the drug make SP-11 an innovative candidate in the management of IBS

Towards Open Resources Using Services (TORUS)

L'obiettivo del progetto TORUS è quello di creare sinergie tra le scienze ambientali e il cloud computing per il processing di big-Data, per la preparazione di futuri programmi di formazione, e di progetti di ricerca in collaborazione con aziende private. In particolare l'attività è rivolta al trasferimento delle competenze tecnologiche nel campo del cloud computing e del processing di Big-Data acquisiti nell'ambito della fisica sperimentale alle scienze ambientali

Century-Long Warming Trends in the Upper Water Column of Lake Tanganyika

Lake Tanganyika, the deepest and most voluminous lake in Africa, has warmed over the last century in response to climate change. Separate analyses of surface warming rates estimated from in situ instruments, satellites, and a paleolimnological temperature proxy (TEX86) disagree, leaving uncertainty about the thermal sensitivity of Lake Tanganyika to climate change. Here, we use a comprehensive database of in situ temperature data from the top 100 meters of the water column that span the lake's seasonal range and lateral extent to demonstrate that long-term temperature trends in Lake Tanganyika depend strongly on depth, season, and latitude. The observed spatiotemporal variation in surface warming rates accounts for small differences between warming rate estimates from in situ instruments and satellite data. However, after accounting for spatiotemporal variation in temperature and warming rates, the TEX86 paleolimnological proxy yields lower surface temperatures (1.46 °C lower on average) and faster warming rates (by a factor of three) than in situ measurements. Based on the ecology of Thaumarchaeota (the microbes whose biomolecules are involved with generating the TEX86 proxy), we offer a reinterpretation of the TEX86 data from Lake Tanganyika as the temperature of the low-oxygen zone, rather than of the lake surface temperature as has been suggested previously. Our analyses provide a thorough accounting of spatiotemporal variation in warming rates, offering strong evidence that thermal and ecological shifts observed in this massive tropical lake over the last century are robust and in step with global climate change