Normative productivity of the global vegetation

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The biosphere models of terrestrial productivity are essential for projecting climate change and assessing mitigation and adaptation options. Many of them have been developed in connection to the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program (IGBP) that backs the work of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). In the end of 1990s, IGBP sponsored release of a data set summarizing the model outputs and setting certain norms for estimates of terrestrial productivity. Since a number of new models and new versions of old models were developed during the past decade, these normative data require updating.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Here, we provide the series of updates that reflects evolution of biosphere models and demonstrates evolutional stability of the global and regional estimates of terrestrial productivity. Most of them fit well the long-living Miami model. At the same time we call attention to the emerging alternative: the global potential for net primary production of biomass may be as high as 70 PgC y^-1, the productivity of larch forest zone may be comparable to the productivity of taiga zone, and the productivity of rain-green forest zone may be comparable to the productivity of tropical rainforest zone.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The departure from Miami model's worldview mentioned above cannot be simply ignored. It requires thorough examination using modern observational tools and techniques for model-data fusion. Stability of normative knowledge is not its ultimate goal – the norms for estimates of terrestrial productivity must be evidence-based.</p

Urinary orosomucoid: a new marker of cardiovascular risk in psoriatic patients?

Bal&aacute;zs N&eacute;meth,1,2&nbsp;Iv&aacute;n P&eacute;ter,1 Imre Boncz,1 Anna Jagicza,1 Istv&aacute;n Kiss,2 &Aacute;gnes Csergő,2 Tam&aacute;s Kőszegi,3,4&nbsp;P&eacute;ter Kust&aacute;n,3,4&nbsp;Iv&aacute;n G Horv&aacute;th,5 Z&eacute;n&oacute; Ajtay1,51Dermatology Unit, Zsigmondy Vilmos SPA Hospital, Hark&aacute;ny, Hungary; 2Department of Public Health Medicine, Medical School, University of P&eacute;cs, P&eacute;cs, Hungary; 3Department of Laboratory Medicine, Medical School, University of P&eacute;cs, P&eacute;cs, Hungary; 4J&aacute;nos Szent&aacute;gothai Research Centre, University of P&eacute;cs, P&eacute;cs, Hungary; 5Heart Institute, Medical School, University of P&eacute;cs, P&eacute;cs, HungaryPurpose: Psoriasis is one of the most common lifelong lasting dermatologic diseases. According to the latest studies, psoriatic patients have a higher risk of developing cardiovascular diseases. Psoriasis is considered as a systemic inflammatory disease. Several oxidative stress markers have been shown to be elevated in psoriasis. However, a panel of biomarkers has not been used yet. This study was aimed at exploring the connection between a panel of biomarkers (C-reactive protein, asymmetric dimethylarginine, uric acid, total antioxidant capacity, malondialdehyde, and orosomucoid [ORM]) and cardiovascular risk in psoriatic patients.Patients and methods: The inclusion criterion was the onset of psoriasis with skin lesions. Exclusion criteria were impaired renal function (eGFR&lt;60 mL/min/1.73 m2,), acute inflammations (urinary, respiratory, skin inflammation, etc), autoimmune disorders (rheumatoid arthritis, systemic lupus erythematosus, or inflammatory bowel disease), and any kind of biological antipsoriatic treatment. Patients with a medical history of myocardial infarction, coronary heart disease, stroke, transient ischemic attack, and carotid artery stenosis were also excluded. Biomarkers were measured by routine procedures, ELISA and HPLC. QRISK&reg;2-2017 was used to assess 10-year risk of cardiovascular disease development. Psoriasis severity was measured by the Psoriasis Area and Severity Index.Results: One hundred and fourteen psoriatic patients were enrolled. Only urinary orosomucoid and urinary orosomucoid/urinary creatinine (u-ORM/u-CREAT) ratio showed significant correlation with QRISK score (u-ORM, r=0.245; u-ORM/u-CREAT, r=0.309). When comparing mild psoriatic patients to moderate psoriatic patients, significant differences could only be found in u-ORM and u-ORM/u-CREAT ratio.Conclusion: There seems to be a connection between urinary ORM and cardiovascular risk. U-ORM and u-ORM/u-CREAT ratio could be used as an indicator of low-grade inflammation in mild and moderate psoriasis. However, it is the 10-year follow-up of cardiovascular events that will determine the usefulness of this biomarker panel.Keywords: psoriasis, orosomucoid, oxidative stress, C-reactive protein, biomarker, cardiovascular ris

Proposal for a Short Version of the Beck Hopelessness Scale Based on a National Representative Survey in Hungary.

In our study we assessed the frequency of reported hopelessness and suicide attempts in the national representative survey Hungarostudy 2002. The randomly selected sample consisted of 14,000 individuals over the age of 18. We created a short version of the widely used Beck Hopelessness Scale for screening purposes in suicide prevention. The short version of the BHS consists of four items and has high internal consistency (Cronbach's alpha = 0.85). Moreover, we conducted an investigation into psychological, somatic, sociological and socio-economic as well as cultural variables that show a positive or negative correlation with hopelessness and important predictors of suicide. The following psychological variables showing a positive correlation with hopelessness were identified: dysfunctional attitudes, exhaustion, psychological distress, hostility, lack of life goals and inability to cope emotionally. Sense of coherence, social support, perceived self-efficiency, subjective well-being and problem-solving coping showed a negative correlation with hopelessness. Concerning the relationship between hopelessness and suicide attempts, we found that participants who attempted suicide in the last year scored higher (mean = 4.86) than participants who attempted suicide more than 3 years ago (mean = 3.57). These results indicate that applying the short version of the BHS could be very useful in general practice and in psychiatric care