European Surveillance System on Contact Allergies (ESSCA): results with the European baseline series, 2013/14.

Background: Contact allergy is a common condition and can severely interfere with daily life or professional activities. Due to changes in exposures, such as introduction of new substances, new products or formulations and regulatory intervention, the spectrum of contact sensitization changes.

Objective: To evaluate the current spectrum of contact allergy to allergens present in the European baseline series (EBS) across Europe.

Interspecies Interactions between and .

The facultative anaerobic polymorphic fungus and the strictly anaerobic Gram-positive bacterium are two opportunistic pathogens residing in the human gut. While a few studies have focused on the prevalence of in -infected patients, the nature of the interactions between these two microbes has not been studied thus far. In the current study, both chemical and physical interactions between and were investigated.

Utilization of healthcare services and renewal of health insurance membership: evidence of adverse selection in Ghana.

Background: Utilization of healthcare in Ghana's novel National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) has been increasing since inception with associated high claims bill which threatens the scheme's financial sustainability. This paper investigates the presence of adverse selection by assessing the effect of healthcare utilization and frequency of use on NHIS renewal.

Method: Routine enrolment and utilization data from 2008 to 2013 in two regions in Ghana was analyzed.

Genome interrogation for novel salinity tolerant Arabidopsis mutants.

Soil salinity is becoming an increasingly large problem in agriculture. In this study, we have investigated whether a capacity to withstand salinity can be induced in the salinity sensitive plant species Arabidopsis thaliana, and whether it can be maintained in subsequent generations. To this end, we have used zinc finger artificial transcription factor (ZF-ATFs) mediated genome interrogation.

Cognition in relation to independency in older, comorbid stroke patients in a stroke unit.

Objective: The objective of this study was to ascertain if cognition helps to predict functional outcome in older comorbid stroke patients with severe loss of independence.

Design: This is a cross-sectional study.

Subjects: The subjects of this study are patients who have suffered a stroke and who rehabilitated in the nursing homes' rehabilitation units and patients (n = 160) (mean age: 77; SD: 9.

Mass spectrometric real-time monitoring of an enzymatic phosphorylation assay using internal standards and data-handling freeware.

Rationale: Continuous-flow reaction detection systems (monitoring enzymatic reactions with mass spectrometry (MS)) lack quantitative values so far. Therefore, two independent internal standards (IS) are implemented in a way that the online system stability can be observed, quantitative conversion values for substrate and product can be obtained and they can be used as mass calibration standards for high MS accuracy.

Methods: An application previously developed for the MS detection of peptide phosphorylation by cAMP-dependent protein kinase A (PKA) (De Boer et al.

Expression of the ZNT1 Zinc Transporter from the Metal Hyperaccumulator Noccaea caerulescens Confers Enhanced Zinc and Cadmium Tolerance and Accumulation to Arabidopsis thaliana.

Prompt regulation of transition metal transporters is crucial for plant zinc homeostasis. NcZNT1 is one of such transporters, found in the metal hyperaccumulator Brassicaceae species Noccaea caerulescens. It is orthologous to AtZIP4 from Arabidopsis thaliana, an important actor in Zn homeostasis.

Regime Switching Modeling of Substance Use: Time-Varying and Second-Order Markov Models and Individual Probability Plots.

A linear latent growth curve mixture model with regime switching is extended in 2 ways. Previously, the matrix of first-order Markov switching probabilities was specified to be time-invariant, regardless of the pair of occasions being considered. The first extension, time-varying transitions, specifies different Markov transition matrices between each pair of occasions.

Victimisation in adults with severe mental illness: prevalence and risk factors.

Background: Patients with a severe mental illness (SMI) are more likely to experience victimisation than the general population.

Aims: To examine the prevalence of victimisation in people with SMI, and the relationship between symptoms, treatment facility and indices of substance use/misuse and perpetration, in comparison with the general population.

Method: Victimisation was assessed among both randomly selected patients with SMI (n = 216) and the general population (n = 10 865).

Renal cancer seeding metastases following retroperitoneoscopic-assisted cryoablation: A case report.

Nephron-sparing laparoscopy is the standard surgical treatment for clinical T1a renal tumours. However, the laparoscopic technique brings in its specific oncological safety concerns. Seeding metastases are reported: peritoneal metastases, port-tract metastases, and (sub-) cutaneous metastases.

Retirement and cognitive development in the Netherlands: Are the retired really inactive?

This paper uses longitudinal data to analyze the relation between retirement and cognitive development in the Netherlands. Controlling for individual fixed effects and lagged cognition, we find that retirees face lower declines in their cognitive flexibility than those who remain employed, which appears to be persistent 6 years after retirement. However, the information processing speed of low-educated retirees declines faster.

A new DBS card with spot sizes independent of the hematocrit value of blood.

Background: DBS cards have been a big promise for decades. However, blood with low hematocrit (Ht) values results on regular cellulose-based DBS cards in larger spot sizes, compared with blood with high Ht-values. A new material has been developed to solve this problem.

Experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis is a good model of multiple sclerosis if used wisely.

Although multiple sclerosis is a uniquely human disease, many pathological features can be induced in experimental autoimmune encephalomyelitis (EAE) models following induction of central nervous system-directed autoimmunity. Whilst it is an imperfect set of models, EAE can be used to identify pathogenic mechanisms and therapeutics. However, the failure to translate many treatments from EAE into human benefit has led some to question the validity of the EAE model.

Risk of Criminal Victimisation in Outpatients with Common Mental Health Disorders.

Background: Crime victimisation is a serious problem in psychiatric patients. However, research has focused on patients with severe mental illness and few studies exist that address victimisation in other outpatient groups, such as patients with depression. Due to large differences in methodology of the studies that address crime victimisation, a comparison of prevalence between psychiatric diagnostic groups is hard to make.

Both the concentration and redox state of glutathione and ascorbate influence the sensitivity of arabidopsis to cadmium.

Background And Aims: Cadmium (Cd) is a non-essential trace element that elicits oxidative stress. Plants respond to Cd toxicity via increasing their Cd-chelating and antioxidative capacities. They predominantly chelate Cd via glutathione (GSH) and phytochelatins (PCs), while antioxidative defence is mainly based on the use and recycling of both GSH and ascorbate (AsA), complemented by superoxide dismutase (SOD) and catalase (CAT).

Early colonizers of unoccupied habitats represent a minority of the soil bacterial community.

In order to understand (re-)colonization of microhabitats and bacterial succession in soil, it is important to understand which members of soil bacterial communities are most motile in the porous soil matrix. To address this issue, we carried out a series of experiments in sterilized soil microcosms. Using two different model strains, Pseudomonas fluorescens strain Pf0-1 and Collimonas fungivorans strain Ter331, we first determined the influence of nutrient availability on bacterial expansion rates.

Narcissism, Bullying, and Social Dominance in Youth: A Longitudinal Analysis.

A few previous studies have shown that narcissistic traits in youth are positively associated with bullying. However, research examining the developmental relationship between narcissism and bullying is lacking. Moreover, it is unclear whether narcissists constitute a homogeneous group and whether the bullying of narcissistic youth results in establishing social dominance over peers.

Optimisation of Healthcare Contracts: Tensions Between Standardisation and Innovation: Comment on "Competition in Healthcare: Good, Bad or Ugly?".

An important determinant of health system performance is contracting. Providers often respond to financial incentives, despite the ethical underpinnings of medicine, and payers can craft contracts to influence performance. Yet contracting is highly imperfect in both single-payer and multi-payer health systems.

Tic related local field potentials in the thalamus and the effect of deep brain stimulation in Tourette syndrome: Report of three cases.

Objective: Three patients with intractable Tourette syndrome (TS) underwent thalamic deep brain stimulation (DBS). To investigate the role of thalamic electrical activity in tic generation, local field potentials (LFP), EEG and EMG simultaneously were recorded.

Methods: Event related potentials and event related spectral perturbations of EEG and LFP, event related cross-coherences between EEG/LFP and LFP/LFP were analyzed.

Measurement invariance within and between individuals: a distinct problem in testing the equivalence of intra- and inter-individual model structures.

We address the question of equivalence between modeling results obtained on intra-individual and inter-individual levels of psychometric analysis. Our focus is on the concept of measurement invariance and the role it may play in this context. We discuss this in general against the background of the latent variable paradigm, complemented by an operational demonstration in terms of a linear state-space model, i.

Varying sun protection of young children by migrant and Australian-born mothers.

Objective: To compare sun protection by Australian-born and migrant mothers of three-year-old children.

Methods: Australian-born and migrant mothers taking part in the Environments for Healthy Living prospective birth-cohort study were asked standard questions about their child's sun protection. Children were given a skin cancer susceptibility score based on grandparents' ethnic origin.

Spinal cord stimulation and pain relief in painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy: a prospective two-center randomized controlled trial.

Objective: Painful diabetic peripheral neuropathy (PDPN) is a common complication of diabetes mellitus. Unfortunately, pharmacological treatment is often partially effective or accompanied by unacceptable side effects, and new treatments are urgently needed. Small observational studies suggested that spinal cord stimulation (SCS) may have positive effects.

Self-regulation, ego depletion, and inhibition.

Inhibition is a major form of self-regulation. As such, it depends on self-awareness and comparing oneself to standards and is also susceptible to fluctuations in willpower resources. Ego depletion is the state of reduced willpower caused by prior exertion of self-control.

Differential response of Arabidopsis leaves and roots to cadmium: glutathione-related chelating capacity vs antioxidant capacity.

This study aims to uncover the spatiotemporal involvement of glutathione (GSH) in two major mechanisms of cadmium (Cd)-induced detoxification (i.e. chelation and antioxidative defence).