Long-Term Cellulose Enrichment Selects for Highly Cellulolytic Consortia and Competition for Public Goods.

The complexity of microbial communities hinders our understanding of how microbial diversity and microbe-microbe interactions impact community functions. Here, using six independent communities originating from the refuse dumps of leaf-cutter ants and enriched using the plant polymer cellulose as the sole source of carbon, we examine how changes in bacterial diversity and interactions impact plant biomass decomposition. Over up to 60 serial transfers (∼8 months) using Whatman cellulose filter paper, cellulolytic ability increased and then stabilized in four enrichment lines and was variable in two lines.

Joint-Venture Ambulatory Surgery Centers: The Perfect Partnership.

Background: Ambulatory surgery growth has increased in the last few decades as ambulatory surgery centers have been shown to succeed in cost efficiencies through their smaller size and breadth, specialization of care, and ability to quickly participate in perioperative process improvement and education.

Methods: A 5-year retrospective fiscal review was performed for all Northwell Health-physician ambulatory surgery center joint ventures. The outcome measures studied included model of ownership, specialty types, and gross revenue.

A Feasibility Study of Primary Care Liaisons: Linking Older Adults to Community Resources.

Introduction: Programs and services available through the aging services network can help community-dwelling older adults to age in place but are often not discussed in routine primary care. The primary care liaison was developed as a novel integration intervention to address this disconnect.

Methods: Employed by an Area Agency on Aging, primary care liaisons performed outreach to primary care with the goal of raising awareness of community-based programs, resources, and services available to older adults and their caregivers and facilitating referrals.

Editor's Choice - Nationwide Analysis of Patients Undergoing Iliac Artery Aneurysm Repair in the Netherlands.

Objective: The new 2019 guideline of the European Society for Vascular Surgery (ESVS) recommends consideration for elective iliac artery aneurysm (eIAA) repair when the iliac diameter exceeds 3.5 cm, as opposed to 3.0 cm previously.

Effects of physical exercise programs on cognitive function in Parkinson's disease patients: A systematic review of randomized controlled trials of the last 10 years.

Background: Given the relative importance of cognitive impairment, there was considerable interest in identifying the cognitive profile of PD patients, in order to ensure specific and appropriate therapeutic interventions.

Purpose: To determine the effects of physical exercise programs on cognitive function in PD patients, compared with the control group.

Data Sources: Medline, Cochrane, Scopus, PEDro and Web of Science (last searched in September 2016).

LEDGIN-mediated Inhibition of Integrase-LEDGF/p75 Interaction Reduces Reactivation of Residual Latent HIV.

Persistence of latent, replication-competent Human Immunodeficiency Virus type 1 (HIV-1) provirus is the main impediment towards a cure for HIV/AIDS (Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndrome). Therefore, different therapeutic strategies to eliminate the viral reservoirs are currently being explored. We here propose a novel strategy to reduce the replicating HIV reservoir during primary HIV infection by means of drug-induced retargeting of HIV integration.

Hospital-acquired Anemia in Critically Ill Dogs and Cats: A Multi-Institutional Study.

Background: Hospital-acquired anemia is commonly described in people but limited information currently is available regarding its prevalence in animals.

Hypothesis/objectives: Assess the prevalence of hospital-acquired anemia in hospitalized critically ill dogs and cats, and examine its relationship with phlebotomy practices, transfusion administration, and survival to discharge.

Animals: Eight hundred and fifty-one client-owned animals (688 dogs and 163 cats).

Second generation imaging of nuclear/cytoplasmic HIV-1 complexes.

The ability to visualize fluorescent HIV-1 particles within the nuclei of infected cells represents an attractive tool to study the nuclear biology of the virus. To this aim we recently developed a microscopy-based fluorescent system (HIV-IN-EGFP) that has proven valid to efficiently visualize HIV-1 complexes in the nuclear compartment and to examine the nuclear import efficiency of the virus. The power of this method to investigate viral events occurring between the cytoplasmic and the nuclear compartment is further shown in this study through the analysis of HIV-IN-EGFP in cells expressing the TRIMCyp restriction factor.

Hypocalcemia and hypovitaminosis D in dogs with induced endotoxemia.

Background: Hypocalcemia is a documented electrolyte disturbance in people and animals with sepsis, but its mechanism is poorly understood.

Objective: To investigate mechanisms of hypocalcemia in dogs with experimentally induced endotoxemia.

Animals: Six healthy mixed breed dogs were included in this nonrandomized, placebo-controlled, crossover study.

Mechanistic insights into the translocation of full length HIV-1 Tat across lipid membranes.

The mechanism of how full length Tat (aa 1-86) crosses artificial lipid membranes was elucidated by means of fluorescence spectroscopy and fluorescence microscopy. It was shown that full length Tat (aa 1-86) neither forms pores in large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) nor in giant unilamellar vesicles (GUVs) composed of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC). In contrast, an N-terminally truncated Tat protein (aa 35-86) that lacks the structurally defined proline- and cysteine-rich region as well as the highly conserved tryptophan residue at position 11 generates pores in artificial POPC-membranes, through which a water-soluble dye up to a size of 10kDa can pass.

Cost-effectiveness of screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm in the Netherlands and Norway.

Background: The aim of this study was to determine the cost-effectiveness of ultrasound screening for abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men aged 65 years, for both the Netherlands and Norway.

Methods: A Markov model was developed to simulate life expectancy, quality-adjusted life-years, net health benefits, lifetime costs and incremental cost-effectiveness ratios for both screening and no screening for AAA. The best available evidence was retrieved from the literature and combined with primary data from the two countries separately, and analysed from a national perspective.

Genome-wide association study identifies a sequence variant within the DAB2IP gene conferring susceptibility to abdominal aortic aneurysm.

We performed a genome-wide association study on 1,292 individuals with abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAAs) and 30,503 controls from Iceland and The Netherlands, with a follow-up of top markers in up to 3,267 individuals with AAAs and 7,451 controls. The A allele of rs7025486 on 9q33 was found to associate with AAA, with an odds ratio (OR) of 1.21 and P = 4.

Association of the TGF-beta receptor genes with abdominal aortic aneurysm.

Abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) is a multifactorial condition. The transforming growth factor beta (TGF-beta) pathway regulates vascular remodeling and mutations in its receptor genes, TGFBR1 and TGFBR2, cause syndromes with thoracic aortic aneurysm (TAA). The TGF-beta pathway may be involved in aneurysm development in general.

HIV-1 Nef perturbs artificial membranes: investigation of the contribution of the myristoyl anchor.

Nef, an accessory protein from human immunodeficiency virus type 1, is critical for optimal viral replication and pathogenesis. Here, we analyzed the influence of full-length myristoylated and nonmyristoylated Nef on artificial lipid bilayers composed of 1-palmitoyl-2-oleoyl-sn-glycero-3-phosphocholine (POPC). By means of cosedimentation assays, we found that neither nonmyristoylated nor myristoylated Nef stably binds to POPC unilamellar vesicles.

[Echographic screening of the abdominal aorta in older men is useful].

Ultrasound detection of abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) in men aged 65 years or older meets the WHO criteria for screening. Evidence shows a 50% reduction of AAA-related mortality and the costs per life-year gained are acceptable. AAA-screening is not only recommended in the USA and UK but in the Netherlands as well.

Abnormalities in myocardial perfusion after surgical correction of pulmonary atresia with intact ventricular septum.

We describe the results of myocardial perfusion scintigraphy performed 4 to 15 years after surgery in 12 patients with pulmonary atresia and intact ventricular septum. We used single photon emission computed tomography after injection of technetium Tc-99m tetrofosmin at submaximal exercise test. The patients, 7 girls and 5 boys, with a mean age of 11 years, and a range from 6 to 19 years, had either undergone biventricular repair, in 5 cases, or univentricular palliation in the remaining 7.

Human umbilical vein versus heparin-bonded polyester for femoro-popliteal bypass: 5-year results of a prospective randomized multicentre trial.

Purpose: To compare long-term patency of Heparin-Bonded Dacron (HBD) and Human Umbilical Vein (HUV) vascular prostheses in above-knee femoro-popliteal bypass surgery.

Design: A prospective randomized multi-centre clinical trial.

Patients And Methods: Femoro-popliteal bypasses were performed in 129 patients between 1996 and 2001.

Elongation of peroxisomes as an indicator for efficient dynamin-like protein 1 knock down in mammalian cells.

RNA interference has become a valuable tool to identify and investigate proteins involved in the formation of peroxisomes. We demonstrate that the elongation of peroxisomes serves as an excellent indicator for efficient knock down of dynamin-like protein 1 (DLP1) in mammalian cells. We took advantage of the silencing-dependent morphological changes of peroxisomes to compare different transfection methods and show that a single transfection of DLP1 siRNA by electroporation is sufficient to effectively silence DLP1.

Mass screening on abdominal aortic aneurysm in men aged 60 to 65 years in The Netherlands. Impact on life expectancy and cost-effectiveness using a Markov model.

Objectives: To predict the costs and effects on life expectancy of an AAA screening programme.

Methods: A Markov model was designed to compare the effects of a single screening for a cohort of men 60-65 years with the current no screening strategy. The following health states were distinguished: no AAA, unknown small AAA, follow-up small AAA, unknown large AAA, repaired AAA, rejected large AAA and death.

[Haemangiomas and congenital vascular malformations: their classification and diagnosis].

Mulliken and Glowacki's classification of peripheral blood- and lymph-vessel abnormalities is based on their clinical course and cellular characteristics, and is therefore clear to and readily usable by the practising physician. In order to make the diagnostic process more accessible, the Haemangiomas and Congenital Vascular Malformations Nijmegen working group has developed a system of diagnostic guidelines on the basis of this classification. The anamnesis should be directed at the following six distinguishing characteristics: presence of the anomaly at birth, growth, involution, change in volume, pain and outflow.

Measuring the costs of primary care education in the ambulatory setting.

In 1995, the authors obtained cost, operations, and educational activity data from 98 ambulatory care sites across the United States in which primary care teaching was occurring and compared those data with the corresponding data from 84 ambulatory care sites where no teaching was going on. The teaching sites in the sample were found to have 24-36% higher operating costs than the non-teaching sites. This overall difference in costs is approximately the same difference in costs earlier estimated for university teaching hospitals compared with non-teaching hospitals.

[The regional explantation team: an important contribution to organ procurement for transplantation in the Netherlands].

If organ donations concern not only the kidneys, but also the liver, pancreas and, sometimes, the heart and (or) lungs, several surgical removal teams, often from different (foreign) transplantation centres, may be involved. This has created organizatory problems resulting in loss of organs for transplantation. In the Nijmegen area since October 1994 a removal team has been active that in the regional donor hospital removes all abdominal organs from the donor on behalf of the various transplantation centres.

Understanding the costs of ambulatory care training.

While patient care has been shifting to the ambulatory setting, the education of health care professionals has remained essentially hospital-based. One factor discouraging the movement of training into community-based ambulatory settings is the lack of understanding of what the costs of such training are and how these costs might be offset. The authors describe a model for ambulatory care training that makes it easier to generalize about to quantify its educational costs.

High prevalence of abdominal aortic aneurysm in a primary care screening programme.

Background: The mortality rate associated with ruptured abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA) remains high. The objective of this study was to assess the feasibility of population screening for AAA.

Methods: In an area with a mixed rural and industrialized population of 60000 inhabitants, all 23 general practitioners (GPs) participated.