[Influence of the treatment setting on the treatment of patients with rheumatoid arthritis or psoriatic arthritis within the delegation to rheumatological specialist assistants - A post hoc analysis of the StärkeR study].

Background: The StärkeR study has shown the non-inferiority of a team-based form of care with delegation to rheumatological specialist assistants (RFA) compared to standard care in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA).

Objective: Exploratory analyses regarding a possible influence of the treatment setting (specialist practice/outpatient clinic) on various outcome parameters in patients with RA or PsA in the context of delegation to RFA.

Material And Methods: Patients with RA or PsA and stable adjustment with low disease activity from 3 outpatient clinics and 14 rheumatological specialist practices that participated in the StärkeR study were included in this post hoc analysis.

Exploring accessibility, user experience and engagement of digital media among older patients with depression: a pilot and observational screening study protocol of the DiGA4Aged study.

Introduction: The prevalence of mental health problems is increasing worldwide, particularly in the vulnerable group of older people. The limited availability of therapists, long wait periods and increasing shortage of healthcare resources limit adequate care. As a result, digital applications are becoming more commonplace as an alternative to human therapists.

"Not" in the brain and behavior.

Negation is key for cognition but has no physical basis, raising questions about its neural origins. A new study in PLOS Biology on the negation of scalar adjectives shows that negation acts in part by altering the response to the adjective it negates.

Experimental and Machine-Learning-Assisted Design of Pharmaceutically Acceptable Deep Eutectic Solvents for the Solubility Improvement of Non-Selective COX Inhibitors Ibuprofen and Ketoprofen.

Deep eutectic solvents (DESs) are commonly used in pharmaceutical applications as excellent solubilizers of active substances. This study investigated the tuning of ibuprofen and ketoprofen solubility utilizing DESs containing choline chloride or betaine as hydrogen bond acceptors and various polyols (ethylene glycol, diethylene glycol, triethylene glycol, glycerol, 1,2-propanediol, 1,3-butanediol) as hydrogen bond donors. Experimental solubility data were collected for all DES systems.

Acoustic and language-specific sources for phonemic abstraction from speech.

Spoken language comprehension requires abstraction of linguistic information from speech, but the interaction between auditory and linguistic processing of speech remains poorly understood. Here, we investigate the nature of this abstraction using neural responses recorded intracranially while participants listened to conversational English speech. Capitalizing on multiple, language-specific patterns where phonological and acoustic information diverge, we demonstrate the causal efficacy of the phoneme as a unit of analysis and dissociate the unique contributions of phonemic and spectrographic information to neural responses.

[Positive experiences of specialist assistants and physicians with respect to the delegation research project StaerkeR : Evaluation of the training and experiences within the framework of this project].

Introduction: The delegation of medical services to rheumatology assistants (RFA) has proven to be safe and effective in the evaluation of the research project "StaerkeR". Afterwards, the experiences of the participating RFAs and rheumatologists with delegation were surveyed and discussed within the framework of an opinion research project.

Methods: At the end of the project, the participating RFAs and rheumatologists were surveyed via an online questionnaire (quantitative analysis) (21 questions for physicians and 44 questions for RFAs).

The Efficacy of Short-Term Bridging Strategies With High- and Low-Dose Prednisolone on Radiographic and Clinical Outcomes in Active Early Rheumatoid Arthritis: A Double-Blind, Randomized, Placebo-Controlled Trial.

Objective: In active early rheumatoid arthritis (RA), glucocorticoids are often used for bridging, due to the delayed action of methotrexate. This study was undertaken to compare the effect of 3 bridging strategies, including high-dose and low-dose prednisolone, on radiographic and clinical outcomes.

Methods: Adult RA patients from 1 rheumatology hospital and 23 rheumatology practices who presented with moderate/high disease activity were randomized (1:1:1) to receive 60 mg prednisolone (high-dose prednisolone [HDP]) or 10 mg prednisolone (low-dose prednisolone [LDP]) daily (tapered to 0 mg within 12 weeks) or placebo.

Long-range sequential dependencies precede complex syntactic production in language acquisition.

To convey meaning, human language relies on hierarchically organized, long-range relationships spanning words, phrases, sentences and discourse. As the distances between elements (e.g.

The Structured Delegation of Medical Care Services for Patients With Inflammatory Rheumatic Diseases.

Background: In some areas of Germany, there is a shortage of specialist physicians for patients with inflammatory rheumatic diseases. Delegating certain medical care services to qualified, specialized rheumatological assistants (SRAs) might be an effective way to supplement the available capacity for specialized medical care.

Methods: Patients under stable treatment for rheumatoid arthritis (RA) or psoriatic arthritis (PsA) were included in this trial, which was designed to demonstrate, in a first step, the non-inferiority of a form of care involving delegation of physicians' tasks to SRAs (team-based care), in comparison to standard care, with respect to changes in disease activity at one year.

Nurse-led care versus physician-led care in the management of rheumatoid arthritis and psoriatic arthritis (StaerkeR): study protocol for a multi-center randomized controlled trial.

Background: In Germany, the care of patients with inflammatory arthritis could be improved. Although specialized rheumatology nurses could take over substantial aspects of patient care, this hardly occurs in Germany. Thus, the aim of the study is to examine structured nursing consultation in rheumatology practices.

Home-Based Exercise Supported by General Practitioner Practices: Ineffective in a Sample of Chronically Ill, Mobility-Limited Older Adults (the HOMEfit Randomized Controlled Trial).

Objectives: To evaluate the effects a home-based exercise program delivered to ill and mobility-limited elderly individuals on physical function, physical activity, quality of life, fall-related self-efficacy, and exercise self-efficacy.

Design: Randomized controlled trial (ISRCTN Registry, Reg.-No.

Diurnal profiles of pedometer-determined physical activity in chronically ill and mobility-limited older adults: a cross-sectional study.

Background: The aim of this study was to analyze diurnal profiles of physical activity for community-dwelling adults aged 70 years and over, and to explore the moderating effect of sex, age, morbidity, mobility limitation, and season on physical activity throughout the day.

Methods: A sample of 149 primary health care patients (mean age 79.5 ± 5.

Endothelial cell-specific reactive oxygen species production increases susceptibility to aortic dissection.

Background: Increased production of reactive oxygen species (ROS) throughout the vascular wall is a feature of cardiovascular disease states, but therapeutic strategies remain limited by our incomplete understanding of the role and contribution of specific vascular cell ROS to disease pathogenesis. To investigate the specific role of endothelial cell (EC) ROS in the development of structural vascular disease, we generated a mouse model of endothelium-specific Nox2 overexpression and tested the susceptibility to aortic dissection after angiotensin II (Ang II) infusion.

Methods And Results: A specific increase in endothelial ROS production in Nox2 transgenic mice was sufficient to cause Ang II-mediated aortic dissection, which was never observed in wild-type mice.

Feasibility assessment of a novel selective peptide derivatization strategy for sensitivity enhancement for the liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry bioanalysis of protein therapeutics in serum.

Rationale: Sensitivity is one major challenge limiting the application of liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry (LC/MS/MS) methods for bioanalysis of proteins. A novel selective peptide derivatization (SPD) strategy was proposed to improve assay sensitivity. The main concept of the SPD strategy is to selectively derivatize surrogate peptides of the target protein in the digests, while not derivatizing the abundant background peptides, thereby improving the separation of target peptides during sample extraction and chromatography, and increasing the sensitivity.

Crucial roles of Nox2-derived oxidative stress in deteriorating the function of insulin receptors and endothelium in dietary obesity of middle-aged mice.

Background And Purpose: Systemic oxidative stress associated with dietary calorie overload plays an important role in the deterioration of vascular function in middle-aged patients suffering from obesity and insulin resistance. However, effective therapy is still lacking.

Experimental Approach: In this study, we used a mouse model of middle-aged obesity to investigate the therapeutic potential of pharmaceutical inhibition (apocynin, 5 mM supplied in the drinking water) or knockout of Nox2, an enzyme generating reactive oxygen species (ROS), in high-fat diet (HFD)-induced obesity, oxidative stress, insulin resistance and endothelial dysfunction.

N-{3-[Bis(2-hydroxy-ethyl)amino-meth-yl]-5-nitro-phen-yl}benzamide.

The title compound, C(18)H(21)N(3)O(5), was prepared by the reaction of 3-benzamido-5-nitro-benzyl methane-sulfonate with diethano-lamine and is an inter-mediate in the synthesis of DNA minor-groove-binding polybenzamide agents capable of being conjugated to additional biologically active species. The asymmetric unit contains two independent mol-ecules, which differ only in the orientations of the hydroxy-ethyl groups. In the crystal structure, inter-molecular N-H⋯O and O-H⋯O hydrogen bonds link mol-ecules into one-dimensional chains.