Periostin Predicts All-Cause Mortality in Male but Not Female End-Stage Renal Disease Patients on Hemodialysis.

Introduction: Periostin is a matricellular protein. Elevated serum concentrations of periostin have been reported in patients with various cardiovascular diseases, including heart failure. Patients with end-stage renal disease have a substantially increased risk for cardiovascular diseases.

Disease burden, clinical management and unmet treatment need of patients with moderate to severe atopic dermatitis; consensus statements, insights and practices from CERTADE (Central/Eastern EU, Russia, Turkiye AD Experts) Delphi panel.

Background: There is limited insight into the current disease burden and everyday clinical management of moderate-to- severe AD in Poland, Czechia, Russia, and Turkiye. Therefore, this study aimed to get information-driven insights regarding the current disease burden and clinical management of patients with moderate-to-severe AD with common and differentiating aspects of the patient journey and establish a consensus.

Methods: In this modified 2-round Delphi panel, 133 questions were asked in total to 27 dermatologists.

Screening of Astec® CHIRALDEX™ G-PN and LIPODEX™ D gas chromatography columns for enantioseparation of amphetamine derivatives.

Among different substance classes, New Psychoactive Substances (NPS) comprise chiral amphetamines for stimulant and empathic effects. There is little knowledge in terms of clinical studies about possibly different effects of the two enantiomers of novel amphetamine derivatives. For this reason, there is a big demand for enantioseparation method development of this new substance class.

LRBA, a BEACH protein mutated in human immune deficiency, is widely expressed in epithelia, exocrine and endocrine glands, and neurons.

Mutations in LRBA, a BEACH domain protein, cause severe immune deficiency in humans. LRBA is expressed in many tissues and organs according to biochemical analysis, but little is known about its cellular and subcellular localization, and its deficiency phenotype outside the immune system. By LacZ histochemistry of Lrba gene-trap mice, we performed a comprehensive survey of LRBA expression in numerous tissues, detecting it in many if not all epithelia, in exocrine and endocrine cells, and in subpopulations of neurons.

Characterizations of Kerr-de Sitter in arbitrary dimension from null infinity.

The Kerr and Kerr-de Sitter metrics share remarkable local geometric properties in four dimensions. Gibbons found a generalization of the Kerr-de Sitter metric to higher dimensions, to which the local characterization above cannot be applied. One viable approach to characterize this family is to understand the behaviour of these metrics at future null infinity.

A Narrative Review of Cytokine Networks: Pathophysiological and Therapeutic Implications for Inflammatory Bowel Disease Pathogenesis.

Inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) is a lifelong inflammatory immune mediated disorder, encompassing Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC); however, the cause and specific pathogenesis of IBD is yet incompletely understood. Multiple cytokines produced by different immune cell types results in complex functional networks that constitute a highly regulated messaging network of signaling pathways. Applying biological mechanisms underlying IBD at the single omic level, technologies and genetic engineering enable the quantification of the pattern of released cytokines and new insights into the cytokine landscape of IBD.

Role of phenotypic and transcriptomic plasticity in alpine adaptation of Arabidopsis arenosa.

Plasticity is an important component of the response of organism to environmental changes, but whether plasticity facilitates adaptation is still largely debated. Using transcriptomic and phenotypic data, we explored the evolution of ancestral plasticity during alpine colonization in Arabidopsis arenosa. We leveraged naturally replicated adaptation in four distinct mountain regions in Central Europe.

Selected Papers from the pHealth 2021 Conference, Genoa, Italy, 8-10 November 2021.

This Special Issue of the presents extended versions of selected contributions to pHealth 2021, the 18th International Conference on Wearable Micro and Nano Technologies for Personalized Health, held on 8-10 November 2021 in Genoa, Italy [...

Designing and Managing Advanced, Intelligent and Ethical Health and Social Care Ecosystems.

The ongoing transformation of health systems around the world aims at personalized, preventive, predictive, participative precision medicine, supported by technology. It considers individual health status, conditions, and genetic and genomic dispositions in personal, social, occupational, environmental and behavioral contexts. In this way, it transforms health and social care from art to science by fully understanding the pathology of diseases and turning health and social care from reactive to proactive.

Privacy and Trust in pHealth - Past, Present and Future.

From beginning to today, pHealth has been a data driven service that collects and uses personal health information (PHI) for personal health services and personalized healthcare. As a result, pHealth services use intensively ICT technology, sensors, computers and mathematical algorithms. In past, pHealth applications were focused to certain health or sickness related problem, but in today they use mobile devices, wireless networks, Web-technology and Cloud platforms.

Parallel Differentiation and Plastic Adjustment of Leaf Anatomy in Alpine Ecotypes.

Functional and structural adjustments of plants in response to environmental factors, including those occurring in alpine habitats, can result in transient acclimation, plastic phenotypic adjustments and/or heritable adaptation. To unravel repeatedly selected traits with potential adaptive advantage, we studied parallel (ecotypic) and non-parallel (regional) differentiation in leaf traits in alpine and foothill ecotypes of . Leaves of plants from eight alpine and eight foothill populations, representing three independent alpine colonization events in different mountain ranges, were investigated by microscopy techniques after reciprocal transplantation.

HIV treatment strategies across Central, Eastern and Southeastern Europe: New times, old problems.

Introduction: In the last decade, substantial differences in the epidemiology of, antiretroviral therapy (ART) for, cascade of care in and support to people with HIV in vulnerable populations have been observed between countries in Western Europe, Central Europe (CE) and Eastern Europe (EE). The aim of this study was to use a survey to explore whether ART availability and therapies have evolved in CE and EE according to European guidelines.

Methods: The Euroguidelines in Central and Eastern Europe (ECEE) Network Group conducted two identical multicentre cross-sectional online surveys in 2019 and 2021 concerning the availability and use of antiretroviral drugs (boosted protease inhibitors [bPIs], integrase inhibitors [INSTIs] and nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors [NRTIs]), the introduction of a rapid ART start strategy and the use of two-drug regimens (2DRs) for starting or switching ART.

Cryopreservation of apheresis platelets treated with riboflavin and UV light.

Background: Pathogen reduction technology (PRT) is increasingly used in the preparation of platelets for therapeutic transfusion. As the Czech Republic considers PRT, we asked what effects PRT may have on the recovery and function of platelets after cryopreservation (CP), which we use in both military and civilian blood settings.

Study Design And Methods: 16 Group O apheresis platelets units were treated with PRT (Mirasol, Terumo BCT, USA) before freezing; 15 similarly collected units were frozen without PRT as controls.

The MCP2 and the wrist plus two extensor compartments are the most affected and responsive joints/tendons out of the US7 score in patients with rheumatoid arthritis-an observational study.

Background: There is no international consensus on an optimal ultrasound score for monitoring of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) on patient-level yet. Our aim was to reassess the US7 score for the identification of the most frequently pathologic and responsive joint/tendon regions, to optimize it and contribute to an international consensus. Furthermore, we aimed to evaluate the impact of disease duration on the performance of the score.

Repeated colonization of alpine habitats by Arabidopsis arenosa viewed through freezing resistance and ice management strategies.

Success or failure of plants to cope with freezing temperatures can critically influence plant distribution and adaptation to new habitats. Especially in alpine environments, frost is a likely major selective force driving adaptation. In Arabidopsis arenosa (L.

Understanding the Gap Between Information Models and Realism-Based Ontologies Using the Generic Component Model.

The wide-spread use of Common Data Models and information models in biomedical informatics encourages assumptions that those models could provide the entirety of what is needed for knowledge representation purposes. Based on the lack of computable semantics in frequently used Common Data Models, there appears to be a gap between knowledge representation requirements and these models. In this use-case oriented approach, we explore how a system-theoretic, architecture-centric, ontology-based methodology can help to better understand this gap.

How a Service User Knows the Level of Privacy and to Whom Trust in pHealth Systems?

pHealth is a data (personal health information) driven approach that use communication networks and platforms as technical base. Often it' services take place in distributed multi-stakeholder environment. Typical pHealth services for the user are personalized information and recommendations how to manage specific health problems and how to behave healthy (prevention).

Defining a Reference Architecture for Transformed Health Ecosystems.

The paper discusses requirements and solutions for design and management of transformed health ecosystems. After introducing related definitions with reference to the transformation of health to P5 medicine, basics on systems, knowledge representation and management as well as system development processes and their formal representation/modelling from the perspectives of systems theory, theory of knowledge, languages and grammars are considered in some detail. As result, the ISO 23903 reference architecture is shortly introduced and compared with other existing approaches and standards.

Left ventricular unloading and the role of ECpella.

The main reason for the emergency implantation of venoarterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (VA-ECMO) is the restoration of adequate systemic perfusion, while protecting the failing heart and promoting myocardial recovery are equally important goals. Following initial haemodynamic stabilization and often the urgent revascularization of the culprit lesion, the clinical focus is then directed towards the most efficient strategy for cardioprotection. Frequent echocardiography measurements may help to estimate the degree of unwanted left ventricular (LV) overloading during VA-ECMO.

Why Interoperability at Data Level Is Not Sufficient for Enabling pHealth?

Multidisciplinary and highly dynamic pHealth ecosystems according to the 5P Medicine paradigm require careful consideration of systems integration and interoperability within the domains knowledge space. The paper addresses the different aspects or levels of knowledge representation (KR) and management (KM) from cognitive theories (theories of knowledge) and modeling processes through notation up to processing, tooling and implementation. Thereby, it discusses language and grammar challenges and constraints, but also development process aspects and solutions, so demonstrating the limitation of data level considerations.

Autonomous Systems and Artificial Intelligence in Healthcare Transformation to 5P Medicine - Ethical Challenges.

The paper introduces a structured approach to transforming healthcare towards personalized, preventive, predictive, participative precision (P5) medicine and the related organizational, methodological and technological requirements. Thereby, the deployment of autonomous systems and artificial intelligence is inevitably. The paper discusses opportunities and challenges of those technologies from a humanistic and ethical perspective.

International Assessment of DSM-5 and ICD-11 Personality Disorder Traits: Toward a Common Nosology in DSM-5.1.

Introduction: The DSM-5 Alternative Model of Personality Disorders (AMPD) and the ICD-11 classification of personality disorders (PD) are largely commensurate and, when combined, they delineate 6 trait domains: negative affectivity, detachment, antagonism/dissociality, disinhibition, anankastia, and psychoticism.

Objective: The present study evaluated the international validity of a brief 36-item patient-report measure that portrays all 6 domains simultaneously including 18 primary subfacets.

Methods: We developed and employed a modified version of the Personality Inventory for DSM-5 - Brief Form Plus (PID5BF+).

Circulating tumour-derived KRAS mutations in pancreatic cancer cases are predominantly carried by very short fragments of cell-free DNA.

Background: The DNA released into the bloodstream by malignant tumours· called circulating tumour DNA (ctDNA), is often a small fraction of total cell-free DNA shed predominantly by hematopoietic cells and is therefore challenging to detect. Understanding the biological properties of ctDNA is key to the investigation of its clinical relevance as a non-invasive marker for cancer detection and monitoring.

Methods: We selected 40 plasma DNA samples of pancreatic cancer cases previously reported to carry a KRAS mutation at the 'hotspot' codon 12 and re-screened the cell-free DNA using a 4-size amplicons strategy (57 bp, 79 bp, 167 bp and 218 bp) combined with ultra-deep sequencing in order to investigate whether amplicon lengths could impact on the capacity of detection of ctDNA, which in turn could provide inference of ctDNA and non-malignant cell-free DNA size distribution.