Physical health in young males and risk of chronic musculoskeletal, cardiovascular, and respiratory diseases by middle age: A population-based cohort study.

Background: Cardiovascular, respiratory, and musculoskeletal disease are among the leading causes of disability in middle-aged and older people. Health and lifestyle factors in youth have known associations with cardiovascular or respiratory disease in adulthood, but largely unknown associations with musculoskeletal disease.

Methods And Findings: We included approximately 40,000 18-year-old Swedish males, who completed their conscription examination in 1969 to 1970, followed up until age of 60 years.

Regression to the mean for physical function and quality of life in clinical trials for symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To estimate the size of regression to the mean (RTM) for common patient-reported outcomes in trials for knee osteoarthritis (OA).

Design: Longitudinal cohort study; we included participants of the Osteoarthritis Initiative who fulfilled typical inclusion criteria for enrolment in a trial. These included: age 40-79 years, symptomatic knee OA, Kellgren-Lawrence grade 2-3, use of pain medication more than half the days of a month in past 12 months, numerical rating scale pain of 4 to 9.

Multi-centre modified Delphi exercise to identify candidate items for classifying early-stage symptomatic knee osteoarthritis.

Objective: To generate a list of candidate items potentially useful for discriminating individuals with Early-stage Symptomatic Knee Osteoarthritis (EsSKOA) from those with other conditions and from established osteoarthritis (OA), and to reduce this list based on expert consensus.

Design: We conducted a three-round online international modified Delphi exercise with OA clinicians and researchers ("OA experts"). In Round 1, participants reviewed 84 candidate items and nominated additional item(s) potentially useful for EsSKOA classification; those nominated by ≥3 participants were added.

Shared genetic factors between osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease may underlie common etiology.

Osteoarthritis is one of the most common musculoskeletal diseases and increases the risk of severe cardiovascular disease, like heart attack and stroke. In some individuals, osteoarthritis and cardiovascular disease will co-occur. This co-occurrence might be due to shared risk factors, for example high age, lifestyle factors and/or a shared genetic liability for the two diseases.

Alkaline Earth Bismuth Fluorides as Fluoride-Ion Battery Electrolytes.

Fluoride-ion batteries have several potential advantages over lithium-ion batteries. Materials development is still needed, however, to realize electrolytes with sufficiently high anion conductivity and compatibility with anode and cathode layers. Fluoride compounds are difficult to synthesize directly as single crystals but can be realized from oxide film precursors via topotactic chemistry techniques.