Crying Without Tears:Dimensions of Crying and Relations With Ocular Dryness and Mental Well-Being in Patients With Sjogren's Syndrome

This study examined dimensions of crying and its relations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients with Sjogren's syndrome, a systemic autoimmune disease with dryness as primary symptom. Three-hundred patients with Sjogren's syndrome completed questionnaires on crying, dryness, and well-being. The crying questionnaire revealed four dimensions: "Cryability" (comprising both crying sensibility and ability to cry), Somatic consequences, Frustration, and Suppression. Compared to 100 demographically-matched control participants from the general population, patients scored low on Cryability and high on Somatic consequences and Frustration. The crying dimensions generally showed significant but weak associations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients. This is the first quantitative study indicating that crying problems are more common in patients with Sjogren's syndrome than in the general population. Perhaps, patients who experience problems with crying could be helped to rely on other ways of expressing emotions than crying in tear-inducing situations.</p

Integrating expert feedback on the spot in a time-efficient explorative CT scanning workflow for cultural heritage objects

Computed Tomography (CT) has proven itself as a powerful technique for analysing the internal structure of cultural heritage objects. The process followed by conservators and technical art historians for investigating an object is explorative: each time a new question is asked based on the outcome of the previous investigation. This workflow however conflicts with the static nature of CT imaging, where the planning, execution and image analysis for a single CT scan can take days, or even weeks. A new question often requires conducting a new experiment, repeating the process of planning, execution and image analysis. This means that the time that is needed to complete the investigation is often longer than originally anticipated. In addition, it brings up more practical challenges such as the transportation of the object, facility availability and dependence on the imaging operator, as well as the cost of running additional experiments. A much needed interactive imaging process, where the user can adapt the CT scanning process based on the insights discovered on the spot, is hard to accomplish. Therefore, in this paper we show how a time-efficient explorative workflow can be created for CT investigation of art objects, where the object can be inspected in 3D while still in the scanner, and based on the observations and the resulting new questions, the scanning procedure can be iteratively refined. We identify the technical requirements for a CT scanner that can address the diversity in cultural heritage objects (size, shape, material composition), and the need for adaptive steering of the scanning process required for an explorative workflow. Our approach has been developed through the interdisciplinary research projects The See-Through Museum and Impact4Art. We demonstrate the key concepts by showing results of art objects scanned at the FleX-ray Laboratory at CWI, Amsterdam

Reliable change assessment with practice effects in sport concussion research: a comment on Hinton‐Bayre

In his comments on our previous article, Hinton‐Bayre advocates the use of the regression based approach in most cases of determining reliable change. This article comments on Hinton‐Bayre's argument, discusses cases where the regression method might not be the preferred method, and presents adjustments that make the method more generally preferable

Line trajectory X-ray tomography for dendrochronology of large wooden objects

Abstract. Computational Tomography (CT) is a powerful non-invasive 3D imaging technique for cultural heritage research, as the interior of art-historical objects can be investigated by virtually slicing through the object. An application is dendrochronology (i.e. tree-ring research), in which wooden objects are dated by measuring their tree rings and comparing this series with reference chronologies anchored in time. The more tree rings in a series, the higher the chances to obtain a date. Tree rings are not always accessible for measuring on the transverse surface of art-historical objects such as panel paintings and sculptures. In these cases, CT imaging can provide access to the internal tree rings patterns. Most art-historical wooden objects are too large to fit or fully rotate in a medical or lab-based CT scanner. However, for dendrochronological research only one (virtual) cut through the wood is needed, not a full 3D reconstruction. Here we propose a novel line trajectory scan, in which the object is moved sideways between source and detector and very limited angle data is collected. By choosing the orientation of the tree rings approximately parallel to the source-detector axis, they can be visualised sharply in one slice using an iterative reconstruction method. We will demonstrate both the data collection method and the associated algorithms for tomography-based dendrochronology of large wooden objects with the line trajectory scan

Crying Without Tears : Dimensions of Crying and Relations With Ocular Dryness and Mental Well-Being in Patients With Sjögren's Syndrome

This study examined dimensions of crying and its relations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients with Sjögren's syndrome, a systemic autoimmune disease with dryness as primary symptom. Three-hundred patients with Sjögren's syndrome completed questionnaires on crying, dryness, and well-being. The crying questionnaire revealed four dimensions: "Cryability" (comprising both crying sensibility and ability to cry), Somatic consequences, Frustration, and Suppression. Compared to 100 demographically-matched control participants from the general population, patients scored low on Cryability and high on Somatic consequences and Frustration. The crying dimensions generally showed significant but weak associations with ocular dryness and mental well-being in patients. This is the first quantitative study indicating that crying problems are more common in patients with Sjögren's syndrome than in the general population. Perhaps, patients who experience problems with crying could be helped to rely on other ways of expressing emotions than crying in tear-inducing situations

Serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate levels and laboratory and clinical parameters indicating expression of disease are not associated with fatigue, well-being and functioning in patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome

Objective. The aim of this study was to compare serum dehydroepiandrosterone sulphate (DHEAS) levels and clinical and laboratory parameters reflecting expression of disease between female patients with primary Sjogren's syndrome (pSS) and age-matched healthy women and to examine in pSS patients the correlation of these variables with fatigue, well-being, and functioning. Methods. Comparisons were made between 60 female pSS patients and 60 age-matched healthy women. We assessed questionnaire scores of general fatigue, depressed mood, mental wellbeing, and physical functioning, tear production (Schirmer I test), tender point counts, serum DHEAS level, haemoglobin concentration, erythrocyte sedimentation rate, and serum immunoglobulin G. Results. As compared to healthy participants, patients had more fatigue and depressed mood, reduced well-being and functioning, more dryness and pain, lower serum DHEAS levels, and more expression of disease as reflected by laboratory assessments (p Conclusion. The high prevalence of fatigue and reduced functioning in pSS patients might suggest a mediating role of generalised autoimmune processes. In the present study, clinical observations and laboratory assessments are not correlated with persistent fatigue and reduced functioning. Our results suggest that treatment of fatigue, wellbeing, and functioning, should target other variables than those examined in this study, preferably psychological variables or perhaps specific immunologic parameters