Growth Hormone and Heart Failure: Implications for Patient Stratification, Prognosis, and Precision Medicine.

Heart failure (HF) remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. While standard treatments primarily target neurohormonal pathways, emerging evidence highlights the significant role of hormonal deficiencies, such as impaired growth hormone (GH) signaling, in HF progression and outcomes. GH is crucial for cardiovascular and skeletal muscle function, and its deficiency has been associated with worse prognosis.

Ghrelin: An Emerging Therapy for Heart Failure.

Objective: Ghrelin is emerging as a promising therapeutic option for heart failure (HF) due to its potent inotropic, anabolic, and cardioprotective properties. This review aims to critically examine the available clinical evidence on ghrelin therapy in HF, while also incorporating key findings from preclinical studies that support its therapeutic potential.

Methods: A comprehensive search was conducted in PubMed and the Cochrane Library up to September 15, 2024, using the keywords "heart failure" and "ghrelin.

Adipokines and Cardiometabolic Heart Failure with Preserved Ejection Fraction: A State-of-the-Art Review.

Background: Cardiometabolic heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is largely driven by obesity-related factors, including adipokines and bioactive peptides primarily secreted by the adipose tissue, such as leptin, adiponectin, and resistin. These molecules link metabolic dysregulation to cardiovascular dysfunction, influencing HFpEF progression and patient outcomes Methods: A comprehensive literature search was conducted in PubMed up to 20 November 2024, using keywords and MeSH terms, such as "HFpEF", "adipokines", "leptin", "adiponectin", and "resistin", yielding 723 results. Boolean operators refined the search, and reference lists of key studies were reviewed.

Advancing Cardiovascular Mortality Trend Analysis: A Machine Learning Approach to Predict Future Health Policy Needs.

This study investigates the forecasting of cardiovascular mortality trends in Greece's elderly population. Utilizing mortality data from 2001 to 2020, we employ two forecasting models: the Autoregressive Integrated Moving Average (ARIMA) and Facebook's Prophet model. Our study evaluates the efficacy of these models in predicting cardiovascular mortality trends over 2020-2030.

α-Synuclein oligomers potentiate neuroinflammatory NF-κB activity and induce Ca3.2 calcium signaling in astrocytes.

Background: It is now realized that Parkinson's disease (PD) pathology extends beyond the substantia nigra, affecting both central and peripheral nervous systems, and exhibits a variety of non-motor symptoms often preceding motor features. Neuroinflammation induced by activated microglia and astrocytes is thought to underlie these manifestations. α-Synuclein aggregation has been linked with sustained neuroinflammation in PD, aggravating neuronal degeneration; however, there is still a lack of critical information about the structural identity of the α-synuclein conformers that activate microglia and/or astrocytes and the molecular pathways involved.

Why do male nurses choose to work in foreign countries? A qualitative study on Chinese male nurses working in Japan.

Aim: This study aimed to examine foreign-educated male nurses' motivation to emigrate for work, as well as explore the contextual factors that shape their career trajectories.

Background: To that end, we interviewed Chinese male nurses working in Japan. No previous study has examined why male nurses seek employment abroad or the problems they face.

Contactless Respiration Monitoring Using Wi-Fi and Artificial Neural Network Detection Method.

Detecting respiration in a non-intrusive manner is beneficial not only for convenience but also for cases where the traditional ways cannot be applied. This paper presents a novel simple low-cost system where ambient Wi-Fi signals are acquired by a third-party tool (Nexmon) installed in a Raspberry Pi and is able to detect the respiration time domain waveform of a person. This tool was selected as it uses 80 MHz bandwidth of the Wi-Fi signal and supports the latest implementations that are widely used, such as 802.

Translation and cultural adaptation of the Greek integrated palliative care outcome scale (IPOS): challenges in a six-phase process.

Aim: To translate and culturally adapt IPOS to the Greek population.

Methods: A four phases- sequential study, which included verification of conceptual equivalence, double forward- backward translations and conceptual cognitive debriefing. Focus group interviews used 'think aloud' and 'verbal probing' techniques.

Assessment of Aggregated and Exosome-Associated α-Synuclein in Brain Tissue and Cerebrospinal Fluid Using Specific Immunoassays.

Even though it is currently well-established that α-synuclein aggregation is closely associated with the pathological events in Parkinson's disease (PD) and several other neurodegenerative disorders, collectively called synucleinopathies, the mechanistic link between α-synuclein aggregates and the onset and progression of neurodegeneration in these diseases remain unclear. The process of aggregation initiates from a structurally distorted monomer that gradually oligomerizes to generate a repertoire of fibrillar and oligomeric multimers that deposit within diseased cells in the brain. Total α-synuclein has been proposed as a potential biomarker in PD, but most of the studies do not discriminate between distinct α-synuclein conformers.

Beamforming with 1 × Conformal Arrays.

The rapid growth of wireless spectrum access through cellular and IoT devices, for example, requires antennas with more capabilities such as being conformal and self-adapting beamforming. In this paper, the adaptive beamforming patterns of microstrip patch antenna arrays on changing flexible (or conformal) curved surfaces are developed by deriving array coefficients based on the projection method that includes the mutual coupling between elements. A linear four-element microstrip patch antenna array is then embedded on two deformed conformal surfaces to investigate the projection method for desired beamforming patterns.

A Novel Meander Line Metamaterial Absorber Operating at 24 GHz and 28 GHz for the 5G Applications.

Fifth generation (5G) communication systems deploy a massive MIMO technique to enhance gain and spatial multiplexing in arrays of 16 to 128 antennas. In these arrays, it is critical to isolate the adjacent antennas to prevent unwanted interaction between them. Fifth generation absorbers, in this regard, are the recent interest of many researchers nowadays.

Stopping nucleot(s)ide analogues in non-cirrhotic HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B patients: HBsAg loss at 96 weeks is associated with low baseline HBsAg levels.

Background And Aims: Current guidelines recommend long-term nucleot(s)ide analogue (NA) therapy for patients with HBeAg-negative chronic hepatitis B (CHB). However, disease remission has been described after stopping NA therapy, as well as HBsAg loss.

Methods: We performed a prospective multi-centre cohort study of stopping NA therapy.

A Conformal Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna with Multiband and Wideband Characteristics.

A compact flexible multi-frequency antenna for smart portable and flexible devices is presented. The antenna consists of a coplanar waveguide-fed slotted circular patch connected to a rectangular secondary resonator (stub). A thin low-loss substrate is used for flexibility, and a rectangular stub in the feedline is deployed to attain wide operational bandwidth.

Tobacco use, smoking identities and pathways into and out of smoking among young adults: a meta-ethnography.

Background: This meta-ethnography investigates how young adults describe their tobacco use, smoking identities and pathways into and out of regular smoking, to inform future smoking prevention and harm reduction interventions.

Methods: Eight databases were systematically searched using keywords and indexed terms. Studies were included if they presented qualitative data from young adults aged 16-25 reporting smoking histories and/or smoking identities from countries culturally similar to the UK.

Palliative care interventions in intensive care unit patients.

Purpose: The integration of palliative care into intensive care units (ICUs) is advocated to mitigate physical and psychological burdens for patients and their families, and to improve end-of-life care. The most efficacious palliative care interventions, the optimal model of their delivery and the most appropriate outcome measures in ICU are not clear.

Methods: We conducted a systematic review of randomised clinical trials and observational studies to evaluate the number and types of palliative care interventions implemented within the ICU setting, to assess their impact on ICU practice and to evaluate differences in palliative care approaches across different countries.

Chemotherapy decision-making in advanced lung cancer: a prospective qualitative study.

Objective: To study how treatment decisions are made alongside the lung cancer clinical pathway.

Methods: A prospective, multicentre, multimethods, five-stage, qualitative study. Mediated discourse, thematic, framework and narrative analysis were used to analyse the transcripts.

Palliative care interventions in intensive care unit patients - a systematic review protocol.

Background: Even though data suggest that palliative care (PC) improves patient quality of life, caregiver burden, cost, and intensive care unit (ICU) length of stay, integration of PC in the ICU is far from being universally accepted. Poor understanding of what PC provides is one of the barriers to the widespread implementation of their services in ICU. Evidence suggests that the availability of specialist PC is lacking in most European countries and provided differently depending on geographical location.

Migration of Type III Secretion System Transcriptional Regulators Links Gene Expression to Secretion.

Many plant-pathogenic bacteria of considerable economic importance rely on type III secretion systems (T3SSs) of the Hrc-Hrp 1 family to subvert their plant hosts. T3SS gene expression is regulated through the HrpG and HrpV proteins, while secretion is controlled by the gatekeeper HrpJ. A link between the two mechanisms was so far unknown.

Symptom management, nutrition and hydration at end-of-life: a qualitative exploration of patients', carers' and health professionals' experiences and further research questions.

Background: Symptom management is an essential aspect of palliative and end-of-life care, but evidence suggests that patients' symptoms may not always be relieved, causing significant harm to patients and magnifying their relatives' distress. A growing body of evidence focuses on symptom management at the end-of-life, but research funding for palliative care remains disproportionately low. It is therefore crucial that research funding is targeted at areas of importance to patients and relatives.