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Background: Canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) is a hereditary, generally pruritic and predominantly T‐cell‐driven inflammatory skin disease, involving an interplay between skin barrier abnormalities, allergen sensitisation and microbial dysbiosis. The individual immunological response is predominantly against environmental allergens, including mite antigens; mould spores; and pollen from grasses, trees and weeds. Airborne pollens show fluctuating patterns during the year. Objective: The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the influence of local pollen concentrations and weather conditions on the clinical signs of atopic dogs, and to investigate any possible correlations with the results of intradermal testing (IDT). Materials and Methods: Thirty‐seven privately owned atopic dogs in Bavaria were surveyed from 1 April to 30 November 2021. Owners were asked to record pruritus using a validated Visual Analog Scale (PVAS) score and the weekly medication of their dog. Furthermore, weather data, including pollen count, rainfall, relative humidity, hours of sunshine and temperature from the dog's location were collected daily. Results: Of the evaluated parameters, only humidity and medication scores correlated positively with the PVAS scores of the atopic dogs. There was no correlation between specific pollen counts and PVAS scores of dogs with positive IDT reactions to that pollen. Conclusion and Clinical Relevance: The outcome of this study highlights the importance of a careful interpretation of positive IDT results in dogs with cAD and questions the validity of airborne pollen trap methodology in representing pollen exposure for dogs at ground level. Background – Canine atopic dermatitis (cAD) is a hereditary, generally pruritic and predominantly T‐cell‐driven inflammatory skin disease, involving an interplay between skin barrier abnormalities, allergen sensitisation and microbial dysbiosis. The individual immunological response is predominantly against environmental allergens, including mite antigens; mould spores; and pollen from grasses, trees and weeds. Airborne pollens show fluctuating patterns during the year. Objective – The aim of this prospective study was to evaluate the influence of local pollen concentrations and weather conditions on the clinical signs of atopic dogs, and to investigate any possible correlations with the results of intradermal testing (IDT). Conclusion and Clinical Relevance – The outcome of this study highlights the importance of a careful interpretation of positive IDT results in dogs with cAD and questions the validity of airborne pollen trap methodology in representing pollen exposure for dogs at ground level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

New mechanisms of generation of acoustic and electromagnetic soliton-like pulses in an optoelastic medium upon nonlinear nonresonant interaction of the polarization components of an electromagnetic field with acoustic oscillations in the medium are considered. It is shown that the acousto-electromagnetic interaction in such a system may lead to the formation of coherent soliton excitations in a thin crystal plate. It is found that a modulation instability occurs in an extended medium, which is caused by the spatial effects and leads to the generation of transverse sound waves. The evolution of a light field in a one-dimensional extended periodic optoelastic medium is also considered. It is shown that acoustic and electromagnetic solitons can be generated due to the mixing of direct and backward optical waves and their nonresonant interaction with a sound wave. © 2004 MAIK “Nauka / Interperiodica”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Self-induced transparency is analyzed for optical pulses interacting with a two-level system by solving an integrable system of evolution equations without using the slowly varying envelope approximation. A suitable modification of the inverse scattering method is developed to find soliton solutions. The characteristics of linearly and circularly polarized optical solitons (including those created in a laser) are compared. To assess the scope of the two-level model, the effects due to additional levels are analyzed in the adiabatic approximation. It is shown that these effects violate the integrability of the model and lead to loss of self-induced transparency for pulses with duration comparable to oscillation period. However, self-induced transparency is recovered in the quasi-monochromatic limit. Applications of the results are discussed. © 2004 MAIK “Nauka / Interperiodica”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Amplification of electromagnetic field pulses approximately one cycle in duration in multilevel media with an effective permanent dipole moment is studied theoretically without application of the approximation of slowly varying envelopes for the case of unidirectional propagation of the radiation. For three-level and quasi-two-level media, it is shown that the set of Maxwell–Schrödinger equations can be reduced to an integrable set of equations for an effective two-level medium. The presence of an (effective) permanent dipole moment of the medium was found to lead to new specific features of the amplification and control of the dynamics of field pulses. © 2003 MAIK “Nauka / Interperiodica”. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]