Evaluation of comfort gloves made of semipermeable and textile materials in patients with hand dermatoses: Results of a controlled multicenter intervention study (ProTection II).

Background: Comfort gloves are used in the management of hand dermatoses.

Objectives: To compare the acceptance and tolerability of comfort gloves made of different materials in patients with hand dermatoses and their effects on skin lesions.

Methods: In a prospective multicenter study, 284 patients with hand dermatoses were invited to wear either a cotton glove (COT) or a semipermeable Sympatex glove underneath a cotton glove (SYM/COT) for two subsequent phases of 19 consecutive nights each.

Occupational UV-Exposure is a Major Risk Factor for Basal Cell Carcinoma: Results of the Population-Based Case-Control Study FB-181.

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the role of occupational and nonoccupational ultraviolet (UV)-exposure concerning the development of basal cell carcinoma (BCC).

Methods: We undertook a population-based multicenter case-control study. Patients with first incident BCC (n = 836) were propensity score matched by age and sex to controls without skin cancer (n = 836).

Is ultraviolet exposure acquired at work the most important risk factor for cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma? Results of the population-based case-control study FB-181.

Background: Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) is one of the most frequent types of cancer constituting a significant public health burden. Prevention strategies focus on limiting ultraviolet (UV) exposure during leisure time. However, the relative impact of occupational and nonoccupational UV exposure for SCC occurrence is unclear.

Generation and functional analysis of human TNF-α/iNOS-producing dendritic cells (Tip-DC).

Background: A unique type of CD11c(pos) dendritic cells (DC) is abundant in inflamed tissue, for example, in chronic inflammatory skin diseases. Due to their remarkable production of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α and inducible NO synthase (iNOS), these cells have been referred to as TNF and iNOS-producing DC (Tip-DC). While Tip-DC have been mainly characterized in murine models of infection, functional data about their human counterpart are lacking.

Long-range corrected density functional theory study on static second hyperpolarizabilities of singlet diradical systems.

Within the spin-unrestricted density functional theory (DFT) the long-range correction (LC) scheme combined with the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr exchange-correlation functional, referred to as LC-UBLYP method, has been applied to the calculation of the second hyperpolarizability (gamma) of open-shell singlet diradical systems of increasing complexity and has demonstrated good performance: (i) for the simplest H(2) dissociation model, the gamma values calculated by the LC-UBLYP method significantly overshoot the full configuration interaction result but reproduce qualitatively the evolution of gamma as a function of the diradical character, (ii) for small singlet diradical 1,3-dipole systems, the diradical character dependence of gamma determined by the UCCSD and UCCSD(T) reference methods is reproduced semiquantitatively by the LC-UBLYP method except in the small diradical character region, where the spin-unrestricted solutions coincide with spin-restricted solutions, (iii) the LC-UBLYP method also closely reproduces the UCCSD(T) results on the diradical character dependence of gamma of the p-quinodimethane model system, particularly in the intermediate and large diradical character regions, whereas it shows an abrupt change for a diradical character (y) close to 0.2 originating from the triplet instability, (iv) the reliability of LC-UBLYP to reproduce reference coupled cluster results on open-shell singlet systems with intermediate and large diradical characters has also been substantiated in the case of gamma of 1,4-bis-(imidazol-2-ylidene)-cyclohexa-2,5-diene (BI2Y), then (v), for real systems built from a pair of phenalenyl radicals separated by a conjugated linker, the LC-UBLYP results have been found to closely match the UBHandHLYP values-which, for small systems are in good agreement with those obtained using correlated molecular orbital methods-whereas the UB3LYP results can be much different. These results are not only important from the viewpoint of an efficient determination of the nonlinear optical properties of open-shell singlet systems, but also from the viewpoint of defining new challenges for elaborating improved exchange-correlation functionals.

Calculation of electric dipole (hyper)polarizabilities by long-range-correction scheme in density functional theory: a systematic assessment for polydiacetylene and polybutatriene oligomers.

The long-range correction (LC) for treating electron exchange in density functional theory, combined with the Becke-Lee-Yang-Parr (BLYP) exchange-correlation functional, was used to determine (hyper)polarizabilities of polydiacetylene/polybutatriene oligomers. In comparison with coupled-cluster calculations including single and double excitations as well as a perturbative treatment of triple excitations, our values indicate that the tendency of conventional functionals to result in a catastrophic overshoot for these properties is alleviated but not eliminated. No clear-cut preference for LC-BLYP over Hartree-Fock values is obtained.

Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis of Staphylococcus aureus isolates from atopic patients revealing presence of similar strains in isolates from children and their parents.

Skin colonization with Staphylococcus aureus is often associated with atopic dermatitis, and staphylococcal enterotoxins have been implicated in the etiology of atopic disease. In this study, the colonization of patients with atopic dermatitis and their parents was investigated in order to evaluate the possibility of intrafamiliar transmission. S.

Molecular basis of atopic dermatitis.

Purpose Of Review: Atopic dermatitis is a common chronic inflammatory skin disease and there are numerous publications on this topic. This review will focus on developments in understanding the molecular basis of atopic dermatitis while considering the genetic background, skin barrier impairment, immune system deviation and microbial superinfections.

Recent Findings: Atopic dermatitis is a complex genetic disease in which gene-gene and gene-environment interactions play a key role.

Simulation of photoelectron spectra with anharmonicity fully included: Application to the X 2A2<--X 1A1 band of furan.

Using a new unconventional procedure for calculating Franck-Condon factors with anharmonicity fully included the X 2A2<--X 1A1 band in the photoelectron spectrum of furan (and deuterated furan) was simulated at the second-order perturbation theory level. All 21 vibrational modes were considered but, in the end, only 4 are required to accurately reproduce the spectrum. Except for our own recent work on ethylene such calculations have been previously limited to tri- or tetraatomic molecules.

Mammalian defensins: structures and mechanism of antibiotic activity.

Antibiotic peptides are important effector molecules in host-parasite interactions throughout the living world. In vertebrates, they function in first-line host defense by antagonizing a wide range of microbes including bacteria, fungi, and enveloped viruses. The antibiotic activity is thought to be based on their cationic, amphipathic nature, which enables the peptides to impair vital membrane functions.