Factors in the psychosocial work environment of staff are associated with satisfaction with care among older persons receiving home care services.

Older persons in Sweden are increasingly encouraged to continue living at home and, if necessary, be supported by home care services (HCS). Studies have examined whether the work environment of staff has an impact on the experiences and well-being of older persons in residential care facilities, but few have examined such associations in HCS. This study examined associations between home care staff's perceptions of their psychosocial work environment and satisfaction with care among older people receiving HCS.

Preclinical Markers in Inflammatory Bowel Disease. A Nested Case-Control Study.

Background: Our objective was to determine if patients who later develop inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) show signs of increased inflammatory activity in plasma measured with high sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), calprotectin, and albumin before the clinical onset of IBD.

Methods: We identified 96 subjects who later developed IBD (70 ulcerative colitis [UC] and 26 Crohn's disease [CD]). High sensitivity CRP, calprotectin, and albumin were analyzed in frozen plasma, donated from cases and sex-age matched controls 1-15 years before diagnosis.

Elevated Faecal Calprotectin in Patients with a Normal Colonoscopy: Does It Matter in Clinical Practice? A Retrospective Observational Study.

Introduction: Faecal calprotectin (FC) is commonly used as a diagnostic tool for patients with gastrointestinal (GI) symptoms. However, there is uncertainty in daily clinical practice how to interpret an elevated FC in patients with a normal colonoscopy. We investigated if patients with a normal colonoscopy but with an elevated FC more often were diagnosed with a GI disease in a 3-year follow-up period.

Antigen-specific B cell depletion for precision therapy of mucosal pemphigus vulgaris.

Desmoglein 3 chimeric autoantibody receptor T cells (DSG3-CAART) expressing the pemphigus vulgaris (PV) autoantigen DSG3 fused to CD137-CD3ζ signaling domains, represent a precision cellular immunotherapy approach for antigen-specific B cell depletion. Here, we present definitive preclinical studies enabling a first-in-human trial of DSG3-CAART for mucosal PV. DSG3-CAART specifically lysed human anti-DSG3 B cells from PV patients and demonstrated activity consistent with a threshold dose in vivo, resulting in decreased target cell burden, decreased serum and tissue-bound autoantibodies, and increased DSG3-CAART engraftment.

On the mark: genetically engineered immunotherapies for autoimmunity.

Current therapies for autoimmunity cause significant morbidity and mortality. Adoptive immunotherapy using genetically engineered T cells has led to durable remissions of B cell leukemias and lymphomas, raising the question of whether the approach can be modified to target autoreactive B and T cells to induce durable remissions of autoimmunity. Here we review antigen-specific approaches to modify immune cells to treat autoimmune disease.

Improved monitoring of inflammatory activity in patients with ulcerative colitis by combination of faecal tests for haemoglobin and calprotectin.

Faecal calprotectin (FC) tests and faecal immunological tests (FIT) for haemoglobin have been used to monitor disease activity in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) but used alone they have some limitation concerning the predictive ability. We aimed to test if an FC test used in combination with FIT could improve the predictive ability. Consecutive out-patients with UC ( = 93) who were admitted for colonoscopy completed a single faecal sample before the start of bowel preparation.

The Impact of Leadership and Psychosocial Work Environment on Recipient Satisfaction in Nursing Homes and Home Care.

This study examines the association between nursing assistants' assessment of leadership, their psychosocial work environment, and satisfaction among older people receiving care in nursing homes and home care. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted with nursing assistants ( = 1,132) and people receiving care ( = 1,535) in 45 nursing homes and 21 home care units. Direct leadership was associated with the psychosocial work environment in nursing homes and home care.

Proton pump inhibitor use is associated with elevated faecal calprotectin levels. A cross-sectional study on subjects referred for colonoscopy.

Objectives: Faecal Calprotectin (FC) is a sensitive marker for gut inflammation. However, slightly elevated FC levels are also common in subjects without inflammation. We investigated the association between FC and clinical factors including concomitant use of medical therapy in patients with a normal colonoscopy.

The Association Between Psychosocial Work Environment and Satisfaction With Old Age Care Among Care Recipients.

This study examines the association between nursing assistants' perceptions of their psychosocial work environment and satisfaction among older people receiving care in nursing homes and home care. Cross-sectional surveys were conducted among people receiving care ( = 1,535) and nursing assistants ( = 1,132) in 45 nursing homes and 21 home care units within municipal old-age care. Better psychosocial work environment was related to higher satisfaction in old-age care among the recipients.

The clinical course after glucocorticoid treatment in patients with inflammatory bowel disease is linked to suppression of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal axis: a retrospective observational study.

Background: Adrenal insufficiency (AI) secondary to treatment with glucocorticoids (GCs) is common in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), but little is known about the relationship between AI and the clinical course in IBD. The aim of the study was to compare the clinical course in IBD patients with normal adrenal function versus patients with subnormal adrenal function.

Methods: A retrospective observational study on 63 patients with IBD who had performed a low-dose short Synacthen test (LDSST) (1 μg) immediately (1-7 days) after a standard course of GCs.

Specialized Representations of Value in the Orbital and Ventrolateral Prefrontal Cortex: Desirability versus Availability of Outcomes.

Advantageous foraging choices benefit from an estimation of two aspects of a resource's value: its current desirability and availability. Both orbitofrontal and ventrolateral prefrontal areas contribute to updating these valuations, but their precise roles remain unclear. To explore their specializations, we trained macaque monkeys on two tasks: one required updating representations of a predicted outcome's desirability, as adjusted by selective satiation, and the other required updating representations of an outcome's availability, as indexed by its probability.

Discovery of putative breast cancer antigens using an integrative platform of genomics-driven immunoproteomics.

Recent advances in cancer immuno-therapeutics such as checkpoint inhibitors, chimeric antigen-receptor T cells, and tumor infiltrating T cells (TIL) are now significantly impacting cancer patients in a positive manner. Although very promising, reports indicate no more than 25% of cases result in complete remission. One of the limitations of these treatments is the identity of putative cancer antigens in each patient, as it is technically challenging to identify cancer antigens in a rapid fashion.

Safety of azathioprine and 6-mercaptopurine in patients with inflammatory bowel disease naïve to thiopurine treatment .

Objectives: To determine if 6-mercaptopurine (MP) is better tolerated than azathioprine (AZA) as the initial thiopurine treatment in patients suffering from inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Switching patients with IBD from AZA to MP is advocated in patients intolerant to AZA. However, no study has determined if MP is more suited than AZA as a first-line treatment for patients who are naïve to thiopurine treatment.

Integrative proteomics, genomics, and translational immunology approaches reveal mutated forms of Proteolipid Protein 1 (PLP1) and mutant-specific immune response in multiple sclerosis.

In order to gain mechanistic insights into multiple sclerosis (MS) pathogenesis, we utilized a multi-dimensional approach to test the hypothesis that mutations in myelin proteins lead to immune activation and central nervous system autoimmunity in MS. Mass spectrometry-based proteomic analysis of human MS brain lesions revealed seven unique mutations of PLP1; a key myelin protein that is known to be destroyed in MS. Surprisingly, in-depth genomic analysis of two MS patients at the genomic DNA and mRNA confirmed mutated PLP1 in RNA, but not in the genomic DNA.

Mapping the Interactome of a Major Mammalian Endoplasmic Reticulum Heat Shock Protein 90.

Up to 10% of cytosolic proteins are dependent on the mammalian heat shock protein 90 (HSP90) for folding. However, the interactors of its endoplasmic reticulum (ER) paralogue (gp96, Grp94 and HSP90b1) has not been systematically identified. By combining genetic and biochemical approaches, we have comprehensively mapped the interactome of gp96 in macrophages and B cells.

Patients with longstanding ulcerative colitis in remission do not have more irritable bowel syndrome-like symptoms than controls.

Background: Irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) is more common in patients with ulcerative colitis (UC) than expected. The prevalence of IBS in patients with UC with longstanding disease is not known. We investigated the prevalence of IBS-like symptoms in patients with UC in remission and longstanding disease in comparison to control subjects.

Are the Affordable Care Act Restrictions Warranted? A Contemporary Statewide Analysis of Physician-Owned Hospitals.

Background: The Affordable Care Act placed a moratorium on physician-owned hospital (POH) expansion. Concern exists that POHs increase costs and target healthier patients. However, limited historical data support these claims and are not weighed against contemporary measures of quality and patient satisfaction.

Leadership and the psychosocial work environment in old age care.

Aims And Objectives: To study leadership factors and their associations with psychosocial work environmental among nursing assistants who are engaged in old age care and to analyse (i) differences in the assessment of leadership factors and the assessment of psychosocial work environmental in nursing homes and home help services and (ii) the association between the psychosocial work environment and factors that are related to leadership in nursing homes and home help services.

Background: Leadership factors are an important element of the psychosocial work environment in old age care. The physical distance between leaders and nursing assistants is larger in home help services than in nursing homes.

Large-scale proteomic characterization of melanoma expressed proteins reveals nestin and vimentin as biomarkers that can potentially distinguish melanoma subtypes.

Melanoma is an aggressive type of skin cancer, which accounts for only 4% of skin cancer cases but causes around 75% of skin cancer deaths. Currently, there is a limited set of protein biomarkers that can distinguish melanoma subtypes and provide an accurate prognosis of melanoma. Thus, we have selected and profiled the proteomes of five different melanoma cell lines from different stages of progression in comparison with a normal melanocytes using tandem mass spectrometry.

The influence of stiffness of implant-abutment connection on load-deflection ratios of a screw-retained stiff cantilever beam. 3-D measurements in vitro.

Aim: The purpose of this in vitro study was to investigate the influence of degree of stiffness of implant-abutment connection of a Brånemark implant system on load- deflection ratios in three dimensions of the beam-end of a screw-retained stiff cantilever beam when subjected to vertically directed loads.

Material And Methods: Two different implant-abutment connections were tested; welded and screw-retained. One of the abutments (EsthetiCone 2.

Janus-like opposing roles of CD47 in autoimmune brain inflammation in humans and mice.

Comparison of transcriptomic and proteomic data from pathologically similar multiple sclerosis (MS) lesions reveals down-regulation of CD47 at the messenger RNA level and low abundance at the protein level. Immunohistochemical studies demonstrate that CD47 is expressed in normal myelin and in foamy macrophages and reactive astrocytes within active MS lesions. We demonstrate that CD47(-/-) mice are refractory to experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE), primarily as the result of failure of immune cell activation after immunization with myelin antigen.

Tub bathing improves thermoregulation of the late preterm infant.

Objective: To compare body temperature of the late preterm infant after 24 hours of life at three time points before and after immersion tub bathing or sponge bathing. We hypothesized that late preterm infants achieve significantly improved thermoregulation when bathed by immersion tub bath compared to traditional sponge bathing.

Design: This study was a randomized controlled trial.

A novel type of dental tube implant for areas with limited bone height. Clinical and radiographic data from three patients with 5-year follow-up.

Background: Alternative implant designs may reduce the need for complicated and costly bone augmentation procedures in situations with limited bone height.

Purpose: Wide dental tube implants have been manufactured and tested in three patients and followed for 5 years to evaluate if such implants are capable to support fixed prosthetic constructions with good prognosis in areas with limited bone height.

Materials And Methods: Four machined-tube implants with a height of 6 mm, an outer diameter of 7.