Short-Term Secondary Effects of a School-Based Drug Prevention Program: Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial of the Brazilian Version of DARE’s Keepin’ it REAL

Prevention Science - This study aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of the drug and violence resistance educational program (PROERD) on short-term secondary outcomes, such as intentions to use...     

Minimum clinically important difference of the health-related quality of life scales in adult spinal deformity calculated by latent class analysis: is it appropriate to use the same values for surgical and nonsurgical patients?

BACKGROUND CONTEXT

Health-related quality of life (HRQOL) parameters have been shown to be reliable and valid in patients with adult spinal deformity (ASD). Minimum clinically important difference (MCID) has become increasingly important to clinicians in evaluating patients with a threshold of improvement that is clinically relevant.

Pancreatic Panniculitis Associated with Allograft Pancreatitis and Rejection in a Simultaneous Pancreas–Kidney Transplant Recipient

Pancreatic panniculitis is an uncommon condition that can occur in association with pancreatic disease. We present a case of pancreatic panniculitis in a female pancreas-kidney transplant recipient 5 months post-transplant. The patient was on standard immunosuppressive medications and had acute rejection of her renal allograft. The diagnosis of allograft pancreatitis and rejection presenting with pancreatic panniculitis was supported clinically, histopathologically and by laboratory and imaging data. This is the fourth case of pancreatic panniculitis occurring in a transplant recipient and the first in a simultaneous pancreas-kidney transplant recipient. It is also the first case associated with allograft rejection. Clinicians should be aware that pancreatic panniculitis may be a manifestation of underlying allograft pancreatic disease.     

Longitudinal gradient coil optimization in the presence of transient eddy currents.

The switching of magnetic field gradient coils in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) inevitably induces transient eddy currents in conducting system components, such as the cryostat vessel. These secondary currents degrade the spatial and temporal performance of the gradient coils, and compensation methods are commonly employed to correct for these distortions. This theoretical study shows that by incorporating the eddy currents into the coil optimization process, it is possible to modify a gradient coil design so that the fields created by the coil and the eddy currents combine together to generate a spatially homogeneous gradient that follows the input pulse. Shielded and unshielded longitudinal gradient coils are used to exemplify this novel approach. To assist in the evaluation of transient eddy currents induced within a realistic cryostat vessel, a low-frequency finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method using the total-field scattered-field (TFSF) scheme was performed. The simulations demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for optimizing longitudinal gradient fields while taking into account the spatial and temporal behavior of the eddy currents.     

Interaction of a plasminogen activator proteinase, LV-PA with human alpha2-macroglobulin.

Lachesis venom plasminogen activator (LV-PA) is a 33-kDa serine proteinase isolated from bushmaster (Lachesis muta muta) snake venom, which activates the fibrinolytic system in vitro. This study has examined the effect of the plasma proteinase inhibitor alpha2-macroglobulin (alpha2-M) towards LV-PA and compares it with the effect on tissue type plasminogen activator (t-PA). The proteolytic activity of LV-PA alone or previously incubated with human plasminogen (Plg) on the large molecular mass protein substrates, dimethylcasein (DMC) and fibrinogen (Fg) was completely inhibited by human alpha2-M. However, the synthetic peptides Tos-Gly-Pro-Lys-pNA and H-D-Pro-Phe-Arg-pNA (S-2302) were hydrolyzed with almost no reduction in rate. At pH 7.4 and 37 degrees C the proteinase (0.15 microM over 15 min) interacted with alpha2-M, and each mole of alpha2-M bound 2 mol of enzyme. Sodium dodecyl sulfate gel electrophoresis of reduced samples showed that the interaction of alpha2-M with either LV-PA or t-PA preincubated with Plg resulted in the formation of approximately 90 kDa fragments and high molecular mass complexes (Mr 180 kDa), generated by the incubation mixture (LV-PA or t-PA) and Plg. The data suggest that LV-PA is a direct-type PA and its fibrinolytic effect can be reduced by alpha2-M in vivo.     

Surviving crack: a qualitative study of the strategies and tactics developed by Brazilian users to deal with the risks associated with the drug

Background  

Due to marginalization, trafficking violence, conflicts with the police and organic and social psychological problems associated with the drug, crack is one of the most devastating drugs currently in use. However, there is evidence that some users manage to stay alive and active while using crack cocaine for many years, despite the numerous adversities and risks involved with this behavior. In this context, the aim of the present study was to identify the strategies and tactics developed by crack users to deal with the risks associated with the culture of use by examining the survival strategies employed by long-term users.