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Background: The Abbreviated Injury Scale (AIS) and Injury Severity Score (ISS) grade the severity of injuries and are useful for trauma audit and benchmarking. However, AIS coding is complex and requires specifically trained staff. A simple yet reliable scoring system is needed. The aim of this study was two-fold. First, to develop and validate a simplified AIS (sAIS) chart centred on the most frequent injuries for use by non-trained healthcare professionals. Second, to evaluate the diagnostic accuracy of the sAIS (index test) to calculate the simplified ISS (sISS) to identify major trauma, compared with the reference AIS (rAIS) to calculate the reference ISS (rISS). Methods: This retrospective study used data (2013–2014) from the Northern French Alps Trauma Registry to develop and internally validate the sAIS. External validation was performed with data from the Trauma Registry of Acute Care of Lausanne University Hospital, Switzerland (2019–2021). Both datasets comprised a random sample of 100 injured patients. Following the Standards for Reporting of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies 2015 guidelines, all patients completed the rAIS and the sAIS. The sISS and the rISS were calculated using the sAIS and the rAIS, respectively. Accuracy was evaluated with the mean difference between the sISS and the rISS and the Pearson correlation coefficient. A clinically relevant equivalence limit was set at ± 4 ISS points. Precision was analyzed using Bland-Altmann plots with 95% limits of agreement. Results: Accuracy was good. The mean ISS difference of 0.97 (95% CI, −0.03 to 1.97) in the internal validation dataset and − 1.77 (95% CI, − 3.04 to 0.50) in the external validation dataset remained within the equivalence limit. The Pearson correlation coefficient was 0.93 in the internal validation dataset (95% CI, 0.90–0.95) and 0.82 in the external validation dataset (95% CI, 0.75–0.88). The limits of agreement were wider than the predetermined relevant range. Conclusions: The sAIS is accurate, but slightly imprecise in calculating the ISS. The development of this scale increases the possibilities to use a scoring system for severely injured patients in settings with a reduced availability of the AIS. Trial registration: Retrospectively registered. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Animal-assisted interventions, such as the use of service dogs, represent an increasingly popular therapeutic avenue for youths with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Before engaging anyone in this type of intervention, it could be justified to assess their level of attraction to animals. However, this aspect is rarely documented, and no existing instrument suits the specific challenges of ASD clients and the reality of the clinical setting. This paper describes the use and preliminary validation of an observation-based assessment tool developed by the Mira Foundation to evaluate the level of attraction toward dogs. The 9-item scale has been used by the team throughout the evaluation process of 1,010 potential candidates for a service dog. It is designed to describe and quantify observed behaviors during a standardized encounter with a non-familiar dog. The participants were aged between 2 and 26 years old (mean age = 8.13, SD = 4.3 years) and 87% had an ASD diagnosis. A total of 323 participants were assessed by a second rater, which allowed for interrater reliability analyses on each item of the scale. The factorial structure of the scale was determined by applying an exploratory factor analysis (EFA) on one-half of the sample, followed by a cross-validation study consisting of a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) on the other half. Cronbach's alpha was used to assess internal consistency. Based on weighted kappa statistics, interrater reliability showed strong agreement for individual items (Kw between 0.66 and 0.85). A two-factor solution was produced with EFA and confirmed through CFA. A Cronbach's alpha of 0.89 when items from the first factor (attitude) were combined and 0.92 for the second factor (interaction) indicated good internal consistency for the identified subscales. These findings support the reliability of this assessment tool and its potential use in clinical and research domains. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on positive youth development and life skills in sport has gained considerable attention over the past decades. However, there is a lack of translated questionnaires examining youth development and life skills available to non-English researchers and practitioners. The purpose of this research project was to adapt in French two questionnaires and to accumulate validity evidence of these adaptations. The short form--Youth Experiences Survey for Sport and the Life Skills Scale for Sport were adapted using a procedure based on a transcultural validation methodology applied to psychological measures. This research comprises four studies, which led to the French adaptation and validation process of each questionnaire. In conclusion, the results obtained show that these adapted French questionnaires can now be used to evaluate the perceptions and lived experiences of French-speaking athletes regarding positive youth development and life skills in sport.

Climate change is bringing more frequent and intense droughts, reducing overall water availability and adversely affecting crops. There is a need to improve our understanding of the tissular and cellular adaptation mechanisms that are critical for plant water conservation strategies. Here, we have used NMR relaxometry in combination with microscopy and multi‐omic analysis to study the effects of progressive soil drought on winter oilseed rape (WOSR, Brassica napus L., cv. Aviso) leaves. This study reveals the structural and metabolic adjustments these leaves operate to maintain cell homeostasis. Our results are original in showing that the adaptive responses are altered in leaves at the onset of senescence, associated with changes in metabolic plasticity and mesophyll structures. Thus, long‐term responses in young leaves involving osmotic adjustment were combined with the maintenance of tissue hydration and cell growth, contributing to high survival and recovery capacity. For the first time, short‐term responses observed in early senescent‐old leaves were associated with early drought‐induced dehydration of the spongy layer. However, this dehydration was not followed by osmotic adjustment and did not allow maintenance of leaf tissue turgor. These findings open further studies on the genetic variability of drought responses related to identified short‐ and long‐term structural and metabolic plasticity traits in Brassica species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Characterisation of the structure and water status of leaf tissues is essential to the understanding of leaf hydraulic functioning under optimal and stressed conditions. Magnetic Resonance Imaging is unique in its capacity to access this information in a spatially resolved, non-invasive and non-destructive way. The purpose of this study was to develop an original approach based on transverse relaxation mapping by Magnetic Resonance Imaging for the detection of changes in water status and distribution at cell and tissue levels in Brassica napus leaves during blade development and dehydration. Results: By combining transverse relaxation maps with a classification scheme, we were able to distinguish specific zones of areoles and veins. The tissue heterogeneity observed in young leaves still occurred in mature and senescent leaves, but with different distributions of T2 values in accordance with the basipetal progression of leaf blade development, revealing changes in tissue structure. When subjected to severe water stress, all blade zones showed similar behaviours. Conclusion: This study demonstrates the great potential of Magnetic Resonance Imaging in assessing information on the structure and water status of leaves. The feasibility of in planta leaf measurements was demonstrated, opening up many opportunities for the investigation of leaf structure and hydraulic functioning during development and/or in response to abiotic stresses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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The inactive dephosphorylated and uncarboxylated form of the matrix Gla protein (dp-ucMGP) has been shown to be increased in plasma of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) patients. Our aim was to assess if the plasmatic level of dp-ucMGP could reflect disease endoscopic activity, presence of strictures and cumulative structural bowel damage in Crohn's disease (CD) patients. The plasmatic level of dp-ucMGP was measured in a monocentric cohort of prospectively recruited patients. The analysis was done by chemiluminescent immunoassay on blood samples collected the day of a planned ileocolonoscopy. In addition to classical clinical data (gender, age, body mass index (BMI), disease duration, current treatment), endoscopic data (disease location, Crohn's Disease Endoscopic Index of Severity (CDEIS), mucosal healing (MH), presence of 9 CD lesion types) and biological markers (faecal calprotectin and C-reactive protein (CRP)) were collected. The association between dp-ucMGP level and Lémann index was also investigated. Univariate linear regression was used to investigate the relationship between dp-ucMGP level and different parameters collected. A total of 82 ileocolonoscopies and dp-ucMGP assays were performed in 75 CD patients (45 females; 37 ileocolonic, 19 ileal and 19 colonic diseases) between October 2012 and November 2019. A total of 24 patients (29.3%) showed MH. The dp-ucMGP levels were not associated with MH, CDEIS, faecal calprotectin or CRP levels. Plasmatic dp-ucMGP levels increased significantly with age (p = 0.0032), disease duration (p = 0.0033), corticosteroids use (p = 0.019) and tended to increase in patients with intestinal strictures (p = 0.086) but not with the Lémann index. The significant increase of plasmatic dp-ucMGP levels with age, disease duration and the trend observed in patients with non-ulcerated strictures may suggest that this extracellular matrix protein could be a marker of tissue remodelling and physiological ageing of the gut. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]