The data on intermittent systemic corticosteroid therapy for asthma exacerbation, clinically called a “short burst,” is limited. This study aimed to investigate the characteristics of patients with frequent systemic corticosteroid bursts for asthma in real clinical practice.

Consecutive patients who regularly visited our hospital for asthma treatment between January 2019 and December 2020 were reviewed. The number of systemic corticosteroid bursts during the past 1 year was collected, and those with frequent bursts (≥2 times/year) were defined as the Frequent group.

Data on 236 patients were analyzed. Among them, 5.5% (95% confidence interval 3.2-9.2%) were in the Frequent group. In the Frequent group, 23% of patients had no unplanned visits, and 38% experienced at least one corticosteroid burst without visiting a physician (self-medication). One-third of patients did not undertake high-dose inhaled corticosteroid treatment, and three-fourths of patients did not undertake long-acting muscarinic antagonist treatment. Low pulmonary function and increased blood eosinophils were independently associated with the Frequent group (adjusted odds ratio = 0.73, 95% confidence interval 0.55-0.99,

 = 0.039, per 10% predicted increase in a forced expiratory volume in 1 s; adjusted odds ratio = 1.15, 95% confidence interval 1.02-1.29,

 = 0.025, per 100/μL increase in blood eosinophils).

There was a certain rate of frequent corticosteroid bursts in real clinical practice. It is important to determine the actual condition, as some patients experienced “hidden” frequent bursts and have the option to reinforce the treatment.

There was a certain rate of frequent corticosteroid bursts in real clinical practice. It is important to determine the actual condition, as some patients experienced “hidden” frequent bursts and have the option to reinforce the treatment.Nutritional programming (NP) is considered a promising approach that can counteract the negative effects of dietary plant protein (PP) by introducing PP to fish in the early developmental stages. Therefore the objective of our study was to assess the effect of NP on PP utilization and the gut microbiome in zebrafish Danio rerio. The study included four treatment groups (1) a positive control group that received a fishmeal (FM) diet throughout the entire trial (+ control); (2) a negative control group that received PP diet throughout the entire trial (- control); (3) an NP group that received dietary PP during the larval stage followed by FM-based diet during the juvenile stage and PP diet again during a PP challenge in the grow-out phase (NP-PP); and (4) an FM-group that received FM-based diet during the larval and juvenile stages and was challenged with a PP diet during the grow-out phase (NP-FM). During the PP challenge, the NP-PP group achieved the highest weight gain compared to the (-) control and NP-FM groups. The relative abundance of certain phyla such as Chloroflexi, Planctomycetes, and Bacteroidetes presented higher values in some groups at early juvenile stage. The fish gut microbiome also presented differences throughout the study.This study investigates the level of toxic trace elements (TTE) in the rhizosphere soil and tissues of five native plants and their phytoextraction/phytostabilization potential growing in Maharlu Lake wetland, in Southern Iran. The study anticipated by determination of 11 potentially TTE concentrations (As, Cd, Co, Cr, Cu, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Pb, and Zn) in the soil, soil extract, and the plants’ dry matter (root and shoot). Pollution index (PI), pollution load index (PLI), bioconcentration factor (BCF), bioaccumulation coefficient (BAC), and translocation factor (TF) were applied in the study. Two main results were pointed out in this study. Firstly, the result of pollution indexing and total and phyto-availability concentrations of TTE showed that some of them in the rhizosphere soil are problematic in the Maharlu wetland, in particular for Mo, Pb, Zn, and As. Secondly, the result of the correlation coefficients and phytoremediation indexing revealed that TTE accumulation in the plant tissues, not only depends on the concentration in the soil extract but is also plant-specific. Selleckchem UNC 3230 Moreover, the results suggested that Halopeplis sp. has the potential for phytoextraction of Cd and Mo in the contaminated wetlands. Novelty statement This manuscript addresses the toxic trace elements concentration in rhizosphere soil and tissues of five native plants and their phytoextraction/phytostabilization potential Maharlu wetland in southern Iran.The own-age bias refers to the observation that face recognition is typically superior for own-age faces compared with other-age faces. We investigated this bias in Korsakoff patients, as well as its relationship with social contact and episodic memory. Korsakoff patients and age-matched controls were exposed to older faces (own-age faces) and younger faces (other-age faces). In the recognition phase, they were invited to decide whether faces had been exposed in the encoding phase or not. Results revealed an own-age bias in control participants (i.e., high recognition of older than for younger faces), but not in Korsakoff patients (i.e., similar recognition of older and younger faces). Furthermore, both Korsakoff’s syndrome and controls reported more social contact with old than with young individuals. Recognition of younger and older faces in Korsakoff patients was significantly correlated with episodic performance but not with social contact with younger and older people. We conclude that the lack of own-age bias in Korsakoff’s syndrome is related rather to compromise of episodic memory than to diminished social contact with younger adults.

To study differences between men and women in physical activity (PA) and health-related quality of life (HRQoL) before and after participating in a supported osteoarthritis (OA) self-management programme.

A prospective observational study using data from a Swedish National Quality Register. Patients recorded between 2008 and 2013 with hip and/or knee OA with data at baseline, at 3 and 12months follow-up (

 = 7628) were included. Outcome measures were patient-reported PA and HRQoL (EQ-5D-3L).

A greater proportion of men (

 = 0.002) changed to being physically active ≥150 min/week at 3months follow-up. The proportion of women being physically active ≥150 min/week was larger than for men at baseline (

 = 0.003) and at follow-up at 12months (

 = 0.035). Women reported lower HRQoL than men at baseline (

 < 0.001), at follow-up at 3 (

 < 0.001) and 12months (

 = 0.010). There were no differences between men and women in change in HRQoL at 3 (

 = 0.629) and 12months (

 = 0.577) follow-up.

This study showed differences between men and women in PA and HRQoL before and after participating in a supported OA self-management programme.