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Background\ud \ud Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory disease that is not well understood. The HS core outcome set calls for a patient global assessment (PtGA), for which measures are limited.\ud Objectives\ud \ud Our aim is to assess the validity, reliability, and responsiveness of a candidate single‐item PtGA for HS‐specific health‐related quality of life (HRQOL).\ud Methods\ud \ud Cognitive debriefing interviews were conducted with HS patients in Denmark (DK) and the United States (US). Field testing was conducted via a cross‐sectional observational study with adults with HS in the US and DK. The candidate PtGA item, demographic items, and multiple patient‐reported scales including the Hidradenitis Suppurativa Quality of Life (HiSQOL), Dermatology Life Quality Index (DLQI), numerical rating scale (NRS) for pain were concurrently administered to evaluate convergent and known‐groups validity. The scales with a single‐item assessment of change were administered again 24‐72 hours later to evaluate reliability and responsiveness.\ud Results\ud \ud After cognitive debriefing, the candidate PtGA for HS‐specific HRQOL was finalized with five response levels. Convergent validity of the PtGA was supported with significant correlations with the HiSQOL score r = 0.79 [95CI: 0.75‐0.82] and DLQI (r = 0.78, [95CI: 0.74‐0.82]). The PtGA displayed known‐groups validity with the DLQI score bands based on significance of an analysis of variance (p

Background: A needs assessment for patients with hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) will support advancements in multidisciplinary care, treatment, research, advocacy, and philanthropy. Objective: To evaluate unmet needs from the perspective of HS patients. Methods: Prospective multinational survey of patients between October 2017 and July 2018. Results: Before receiving a formal HS diagnosis, 63.7% (n = 827) of patients visited a physician ≥5 times. Mean delay in diagnosis was 10.2 ± 8.9 years. Patients experienced flare daily, weekly, or monthly in 23.0%, 29.8%, and 31.1%, respectively. Most (61.4% [n = 798]) rated recent HS-related pain as moderate or higher, and 4.5% described recent pain to be the worst possible. Access to dermatology was rated as difficult by 37.0% (n = 481). Patients reported visiting the emergency department and hospital ≥5 times for symptoms in 18.3% and 12.5%, respectively. An extreme impact on life was reported by 43.3% (n = 563), and 14.5% were disabled due to disease. Patients reported a high frequency of comorbidities, most commonly mood disorders. Patients were dissatisfied with medical or procedural treatments in 45.9% and 34.6%, respectively. Limitations: Data were self-reported. Patients with more severe disease may have been selected. Conclusion: HS patients have identified several critical unmet needs that will require stakeholder collaboration to meaningfully address. © 2019 American Academy of Dermatology, Inc.

Summary Results of clinical trials are the most important information source for generating external clinical evidence. The use of different outcomes across trials, which investigate similar interventions for similar patient groups, significantly limits the interpretation, comparability and clinical application of trial results. Core outcome sets (COSs) aim to overcome this limitation. A COS is an agreed standardized collection of outcomes that should be measured and reported in all clinical trials for a specific clinical condition. The Core Outcome Set Initiative within the Cochrane Skin Group (CSG-COUSIN) supports the development of core outcomes in dermatology. In the second CSG-COUSIN meeting held in 2017, 11 COS development groups working on skin diseases presented their current work. The presentations and discussions identified the following overarching methodological challenges for COS development in dermatology: it is not always easy to define the disease focus of a COS; the optimal method for outcome domain identification and level of detail needed to specify such domains is challenging to many; decision rules within Delphi surveys need to be improved; appropriate ways of patient involvement are not always clear. In addition, there appear to be outcome domains that may be relevant as potential core outcome domains for the majority of skin diseases. The close collaboration between methodologists in the Core Outcome Set Initiative and the international Cochrane Skin Group has major advantages for trialists, systematic reviewers and COS developers.

The information paradox in the quantum evolution of black holes is studied within the framework of the AdS/CFT correspondence. The unitarity of the CFT strongly suggests that all information about an initial state that forms a black hole is returned in the Hawking radiation. The CFT dynamics implies an information retention time of order the black hole lifetime. This fact determines many qualitative properties of the non-local effects that must show up in a semi-classical effective theory in the bulk. We argue that no violations of causality are apparent to local observers, but the semi-classical theory in the bulk duplicates degrees of freedom inside and outside the event horizon. Non-local quantum effects are required to eliminate this redundancy. This leads to a breakdown of the usual classical-quantum correspondence principle in Lorentzian black hole spacetimes., 16 pages, harvmac, reference added, minor corrections

Above the Hagedorn energy density closed fundamental strings form a long string phase. The dynamics of weakly interacting long strings is described by a simple Boltzmann equation which can be solved explicitly for equilibrium distributions. The average total number of long strings grows logarithmically with total energy in the microcanonical ensemble. This is consistent with calculations of the free single string density of states provided the thermodynamic limit is carefully defined. If the theory contains open strings the long string phase is suppressed., 13 pages, no figures, uses LaTex, some errors in equations have been corrected, NSF-ITP-94-83, UCSBTH-94-30

Using Wigner transforms of Green functions, we discuss non-equilibrium generalizations of spectral functions and occupation numbers. We develop methods for computing time-dependent spectral functions in conformal field theories holographically dual to thin-shell AdS-Vaidya spacetimes.