Psychosocial Outcomes in Children with Cleft Lip and/or Palate: Associations of Demographic, Cleft Morphologic, and Treatment-Related Variables.

Objective: To determine associations of demographic, morphologic, and treatment protocol parameters with quality of life (QoL), appearance/speech satisfaction, and psychological adjustment.

Design: Observational study utilizing retrospective report of protocol variables and current outcome variables.

Setting: Six North American cleft treatment clinics.

Discrepancies Between Osteoporotic Fracture Evaluations in Men Based on German (DVO) Osteoporosis Guidelines or the FRAX Score.

Introduction: Established scores estimate 10-year fracture risk in osteoporosis to assist with treatment recommendations. This study compared the risk probabilities of major osteoporotic and hip fractures calculated by the FRAX tool with those of the DVO score, established in German-speaking countries.

Material And Methods: This seven-year retrospective study analyzed data of 125 male patients (mean age: 59.

Preparing for future challenges in risk assessment in the European Union.

In light of the new EU policy targets (e.g., Farm to Fork strategy) and the revised legal framework (Transparency Regulation), the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) needs to invest further in preparedness in regulatory and communication science for food safety.

Screening for Academic Risk Among Students With Cleft Lip and/or Palate: Patterns of Risk and Qualities of Effective Tools.

This study evaluated the effectiveness of academic screening measures in relation to parent-reported diagnoses. Multicenter, retrospective cohort study including structured interviews, questionnaires, and chart reviews. Six North American cleft centers.

A Multisite Study Investigating Child and Parent Proxy Reported Quality of Life in Children With Cleft Lip and/or Palate.

This observational, multisite cohort study explored health-related quality of life (HRQoL) in children with cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P), including interrater agreement and ratings for this group relative to clinical cutoff scores and published means for healthy and chronically ill children. Participants (338 children ages 8-10 years, 45.9% male and their parents, 82.

The Influence of Conventional Treatment on Symptoms and Complaints in Patients With Chronic Postsurgical Hypoparathyroidism.

Quality of life (QoL) is impaired in patients with chronic hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT). With a recently developed specific patient questionnaire, the 28-item Hypoparathyroid Patient Questionnaire (HPQ 28), we were able to demonstrate an effect of laboratory parameters on symptoms and complaints identified by scales and items of the HPQ 28. Here, we evaluated the effect of conventional treatment modalities on QoL using this specific questionnaire.

Retrospective Evaluation of Number of Surgeries and Parent Ratings of Academic and Behavioral Functioning Among Children With Isolated Oral Clefts.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to evaluate possible relationships between number of surgeries and parent ratings of academic functioning among children with isolated oral clefts.

Design: Multicenter, retrospective cohort study including structured interviews, questionnaires, and chart reviews.

Setting: Completion of questionnaires occurred during clinical visits at 6 different cleft centers across North America.

Quantification of Symptom Load by a Disease-Specific Questionnaire HPQ 28 and Analysis of Associated Biochemical Parameters in Patients With Postsurgical Hypoparathyroidism.

In hypoparathyroidism (HypoPT), patients suffer severely from reduced quality of life. The complexity of HypoPT demands a disease-specific control instrument to characterize symptom load. We employed a newly developed disease-specific Hypoparathyroid Patient Questionnaire (the HPQ 40/28) to investigate and quantify HypoPT patients' complaints and contributing factors.

The HPQ-Development and First Administration of a Questionnaire for Hypoparathyroid Patients.

Hypoparathyroidism patients suffer a variety of complaints often leading to reduced quality of life. Currently, no specific standard instrument exists to measure corresponding disease manifestations. We therefore aimed to develop a disease-characteristic questionnaire for hypoparathyroid patients.

The Americleft Psychosocial Outcomes Project: A Multicenter Approach to Advancing Psychosocial Outcomes for Youth With Cleft Lip and Palate.

Cleft lip and/or palate (CL/P) are among the most common of all birth defects. Habilitation requires multiple surgeries and other therapies throughout childhood and adolescence. While multidisciplinary care is recommended, there is a great deal of variation in treatment protocols for this condition.

Dental Impacts on Health-related Quality of Life of Children with Orofacial Clefts.

Purpose: Children with orofacial clefts experience risks for psychosocial and behavioral problems, making it important to evaluate for negative impacts on health-related quality of life. The purpose of this study was to evaluate health-related quality of life (HRQOL) and surgical history to determine if these measures correlated with caries and/or behavior during dental treatment.

Methods: Data for this retrospective study were obtained for children encountered between March 2011 and August 2013.

Bullying in medically fragile youth: a review of risks, protective factors, and recommendations for medical providers.

Bullying is a common child and adolescent phenomenon that has concurrent and long-term implications for victims' psychological, psychosomatic, social, and academic functioning. Youth with chronic illnesses are at increased risk for being bullied, but few studies have evaluated specific risk and protective factors for medically fragile youth. Despite recommendations by the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Society for Adolescent Medicine that pediatric health care providers should contribute to bullying prevention and intervention efforts, researchers also have yet to identify the best ways for providers to intervene with medically fragile youth.

Caloric restriction increases serum testosterone concentrations in obese male subjects by two distinct mechanisms.

The concentration of serum testosterone is mainly regulated by the testicular function, which is under control of the central hypothalamic-pituitary-gonadal axis. A certain amount of testosterone is converted into β-estradiol by adipose tissue. Obesity in men is often associated with decreased androgen levels.

Human risk assessment of heavy metals: principles and applications.

Humans are exposed to a number of "heavy metals" such as cadmium, mercury and its organic form methylmercury, uranium, lead, and other metals as wel as metalloids, such as arsenic, in the environment, workplace, food, and water supply. Exposure to these metals may result in adverse health effects, and national and international health agencies have methodologies to set health-based guidance values with the aim to protect the human population. This chapter introduces the general principles of chemical risk assessment, the common four steps of chemical risk assessment: hazard identification, hazard characterization, exposure assessment, risk characterization, and toxicokinetic and toxicity aspects.

Characterizing long-term hydrologic-response and sediment-transport for the R-5 catchment.

Recently there have been several calls to establish long-term data collection networks to monitor near-surface hydrologic response and landscape evolution. The focus of this paper is a long-term dataset from the International Hydrologic Decade (1965-1974). The small upland catchment, known as R-5, located near Chickasha, Olahoma, has been the subject of considerable attention within the event-based hydrologic modeling community for more than 30 yr.

Data requirements for risk assessment of furan in food.

Furan is an organic, volatile compound used in various chemical-manufacturing industries. Headspace gas chromatography is the analytical method of choice for obtaining reliable results on its occurrence. The presence of furan in some food items has been known since the late 1970s, but a US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) survey published in 2004 revealed the occurrence of furan in a broad variety of canned and jarred foods, including baby food, that undergo heat treatment.

[Task and function of the European Food Safety Authority].

In 2002, the European Commission and the European Parliament established the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). The provisional seat of the new Authority is Brussels and the final seat of the authority will be Parma, Italy. EFSA's main task is to carry out risk assessment and to provide independent scientific advice on all matters linked to food and feed safety.

Identification of a novel mutation in the arginine vasopressin-neurophysin II gene in familial central diabetes insipidus.

Familial central diabetes insipidus is an inherited disease of predominant autosomal dominant trait characterized by a deficiency of arginine vasopressin. The arginine vasopressin-neurophysin II ( AVP-NPII) gene consists of three exons and is located on chromosome 20p13 encoding for the precursor protein of AVP. We investigated two Caucasian families with a typical autosomal dominant trait of familial central diabetes insipidus, defined by deficiency of arginine vasopressin.

The tumor suppressor protein menin interacts with NF-kappaB proteins and inhibits NF-kappaB-mediated transactivation.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 is an autosomal dominant tumor syndrome. Manifestations include neoplasms of the parathyroid glands, enteropancreatic neuroendocrine cells, and the anterior pituitary gland. The MEN1 tumor suppressor gene encodes menin, a 610 amino acid nuclear protein without sequence homology to other proteins.

Identification and characterization of JunD missense mutants that lack menin binding.

Menin, the product of the MEN1 tumor suppressor gene, binds to the AP1 transcription factor JunD and represses JunD transcriptional activity. The effects of human or mouse JunD missense mutations upon menin interaction were studied by random and alanine scanning mutagenesis of the menin binding region of JunD (amino acids 1-70). JunD mutant proteins were tested for menin binding in a reverse yeast two-hybrid assay, and for transcriptional regulation by menin in AP1-reporter assays.

Five cases with central diabetes insipidus and hypogonadism as first presentation of neurosarcoidosis.

Objectives: We retrospectively reviewed 5 patients with neurosarcoidosis, who all presented with central diabetes insipidus and hypogonadism.

Design: This was a single-centre, retrospective analysis of 5 cases with a minimum follow-up of 2 years.

Methods: Case analysis included clinical, biochemical, and endocrinological evaluation and frequent CT/MRI scans of involved organs as primary evaluation and in response to immunosuppressive therapy.

Genotype/phenotype correlation of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 gene mutations in sporadic gastrinomas.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) gene mutations are reported in some gastrinomas occurring in patients without MEN1 as well as in some other pancreatic endocrine tumors (PETs). In some inherited syndromes phenotype-genotype correlations exist for disease severity, location, or other manifestations. The purpose of the present study was to correlate mutations of the MEN1 gene in a large cohort of patients with sporadic gastrinomas to disease activity, tumor location, extent, and growth pattern.