Study protocol of a randomized controlled trial evaluating home treatment with peer support for acute mental health crises (HoPe).

Background: Home treatment (HT) is a treatment modality for patients with severe mental illness (SMI) in acute mental crises. It is frequently considered equivalent to psychiatric inpatient treatment in terms of treatment outcome. Peer Support (PS) means that people with lived experience of a mental illness are trained to support others on their way towards recovery.

Proof of Concept of Integrated Load Measurement in 3D Printed Structures.

Currently, research on structural health monitoring systems is focused on direct integration of the system into a component or structure. The latter results in a so-called smart structure. One example of a smart structure is a component with integrated strain sensing for continuous load monitoring.

Improving mutation screening in familial hematuric nephropathies through next generation sequencing.

Alport syndrome is an inherited nephropathy associated with mutations in genes encoding type IV collagen chains present in the glomerular basement membrane. COL4A5 mutations are associated with the major X-linked form of the disease, and COL4A3 and COL4A4 mutations are associated with autosomal recessive and dominant forms (thought to be involved in 15% and 1%-5% of the families, respectively) and benign familial hematuria. Mutation screening of these three large genes is time-consuming and expensive.

Atopy, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and peak flow variability in children with mild occasional wheezing.

Background: Children who suffer from recurrent wheezy episodes are often promptly classified as asthmatic. The aim of this study was to evaluate a population of mild wheezy children with repeatedly normal spirometric tests at rest for atopy, bronchial hyperresponsiveness, and peak expiratory flow variability.

Methods: Thirty nine children aged 6-16 years with 1-12 wheezy attacks during the previous year were recruited from a community paediatric primary health care clinic serving an urban Israeli population.

Shigella lipopolysaccharide antibodies in pediatric populations.

Shigellosis is the most common cause of bacterial dysentery. To study the specific immunity to the two major groups causing shigellosis, we assayed antibodies to lipopolysaccharide (LPS) by enzyme-linked immunoadsorbent assay to both Shigella sonnei and Shigella flexneri 2a serotypes in the following populations: (1) women immediately after delivery and their infants to assess the transfer of passive immunity by placenta and the presence of secretory antibodies in breast milk; (2) children of different ages; and (3) the kinetics of antibody production in pediatric patients, who had culture-proved shigellosis. The sera of these women showed variable concentrations of antibodies of all three isotypes to LPS of S.