Inflammatory bowel diseases(IBDs), particularly Crohn's disease(CD) and ulcerative colitis(UC), are associated with a variety of extra-intestinal manifestations(EIMs).About 36% of IBD patients have at least one EI...Inflammatory bowel diseases(IBDs), particularly Crohn's disease(CD) and ulcerative colitis(UC), are associated with a variety of extra-intestinal manifestations(EIMs).About 36% of IBD patients have at least one EIM, which most frequently affect the joints, skin, eyes and the biliary tract.The EIMs associated with IBD have a negative impact on patients with UC and CD, and the resolution of most of them parallels that of the active IBD in terms of timing and required therapy;however, the clinical course of EIMs such as axial arthritis, pyoderma gangrenosum, uveitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis is independent of IBD activity.The peripheral and axial arthritis associated with IBD have traditionally been treated with simple analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, sulfasalazine, methotrexate, local steroid injections and physiotherapy, but the introduction of biological response modifi ers such as tumor necrosis factor-α blockers, has led to further improvements.展开更多
A model based on a thermodynamic approach is proposed for predicting the dynamics of communicable epidemics assumed to be governed by controlling eforts of multiple scales so that an entropy is associated with the sys...A model based on a thermodynamic approach is proposed for predicting the dynamics of communicable epidemics assumed to be governed by controlling eforts of multiple scales so that an entropy is associated with the system.All the epidemic details are factored into a single and time-dependent coefcient,the functional form of this coefcient is found through four constraints,including notably the existence of an inflexion point and a maximum.The model is solved to give a log-normal distribution for the spread rate,for which a Shannon entropy can be defined.The only parameter,that characterizes the width of the distribution function,is uniquely determined through maximizing the rate of entropy production.This entropy-based thermodynamic(EBT)model predicts the number of hospitalized cases with a reasonable accuracy for SARS in the year 2003.This EBT model can be of use for potential epidemics such as avian influenza and H7N9 in China.展开更多
文摘Inflammatory bowel diseases(IBDs), particularly Crohn's disease(CD) and ulcerative colitis(UC), are associated with a variety of extra-intestinal manifestations(EIMs).About 36% of IBD patients have at least one EIM, which most frequently affect the joints, skin, eyes and the biliary tract.The EIMs associated with IBD have a negative impact on patients with UC and CD, and the resolution of most of them parallels that of the active IBD in terms of timing and required therapy;however, the clinical course of EIMs such as axial arthritis, pyoderma gangrenosum, uveitis, and primary sclerosing cholangitis is independent of IBD activity.The peripheral and axial arthritis associated with IBD have traditionally been treated with simple analgesics, non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, steroids, sulfasalazine, methotrexate, local steroid injections and physiotherapy, but the introduction of biological response modifi ers such as tumor necrosis factor-α blockers, has led to further improvements.
文摘A model based on a thermodynamic approach is proposed for predicting the dynamics of communicable epidemics assumed to be governed by controlling eforts of multiple scales so that an entropy is associated with the system.All the epidemic details are factored into a single and time-dependent coefcient,the functional form of this coefcient is found through four constraints,including notably the existence of an inflexion point and a maximum.The model is solved to give a log-normal distribution for the spread rate,for which a Shannon entropy can be defined.The only parameter,that characterizes the width of the distribution function,is uniquely determined through maximizing the rate of entropy production.This entropy-based thermodynamic(EBT)model predicts the number of hospitalized cases with a reasonable accuracy for SARS in the year 2003.This EBT model can be of use for potential epidemics such as avian influenza and H7N9 in China.