Micromorphological changes and mechanism associated with wet ball milling of Pinus radiata substrate and consequences for saccharification at low enzyme loading.

In this work, substrates prepared from thermo-mechanical treatment of Pinus radiata chips were vibratory ball milled for different times. In subsequent enzymatic hydrolysis, percent glucan conversion passed through a maximum value at a milling time of around 120min and then declined. Scanning electron microscopy revealed breakage of fibers to porous fragments in which lamellae and fibrils were exposed during ball milling.

Novel regulation of equlibrative nucleoside transporter 1 (ENT1) by receptor-stimulated Ca2+-dependent calmodulin binding.

Equilibrative nucleoside transporters (ENTs) facilitate the flux of nucleosides, such as adenosine, and nucleoside analog (NA) drugs across cell membranes. A correlation between adenosine flux and calcium-dependent signaling has been previously reported; however, the mechanistic basis of these observations is not known. Here we report the identification of the calcium signaling transducer calmodulin (CaM) as an ENT1-interacting protein, via a conserved classic 1-5-10 motif in ENT1.

Deaths following prehospital safety incidents: an analysis of a national database.

Introduction: Ensuring patient safety in the prehospital environment is difficult due to the unpredictable nature of the workload and the uncontrolled situations that care is provided in. Studying previous safety incidents can help understand risks and take action to mitigate them. We present an analysis of safety incidents related to patient deaths in ambulance services in England.

The Association Between Chronic Pain and Cardiac Disease: A Cross-sectional Population Study.

Objectives: Chronic pain may increase the risk of cardiac disease, but the extent to which confounding variables account for this association has yet to be satisfactorily established. This study aims to examine the possibility of an independent association between these 2 variables.

Methods: We applied logistic regression analysis to data from 8596 adults surveyed in a population study of the health of the population of England.

Fluorescence-Detected Linear Dichroism of Wood Cell Walls in Juvenile Serbian Spruce: Estimation of Compression Wood Severity.

Fluorescence-detected linear dichroism (FDLD) microscopy provides observation of structural order in a microscopic sample and its expression in numerical terms, enabling both quantitative and qualitative comparison among different samples. We applied FDLD microscopy to compare the distribution and alignment of cellulose fibrils in cell walls of compression wood (CW) and normal wood (NW) on stem cross-sections of juvenile Picea omorika trees. Our data indicate a decrease in cellulose fibril order in CW compared with NW.

How safe is primary care? A systematic review.

Importance: Improving patient safety is at the forefront of policy and practice. While considerable progress has been made in understanding the frequency, causes and consequences of error in hospitals, less is known about the safety of primary care.

Objective: We investigated how often patient safety incidents occur in primary care and how often these were associated with patient harm.

Can Patient Safety Incident Reports Be Used to Compare Hospital Safety? Results from a Quantitative Analysis of the English National Reporting and Learning System Data.

Background: The National Reporting and Learning System (NRLS) collects reports about patient safety incidents in England. Government regulators use NRLS data to assess the safety of hospitals. This study aims to examine whether annual hospital incident reporting rates can be used as a surrogate indicator of individual hospital safety.

A cross-sectional mixed methods study protocol to generate learning from patient safety incidents reported from general practice.

Introduction: Incident reports contain descriptions of errors and harms that occurred during clinical care delivery. Few observational studies have characterised incidents from general practice, and none of these have been from the England and Wales National Reporting and Learning System. This study aims to describe incidents reported from a general practice care setting.

Harms from discharge to primary care: mixed methods analysis of incident reports.

Background: Discharge from hospital presents significant risks to patient safety, with up to one in five patients experiencing adverse events within 3 weeks of leaving hospital.

Aim: To describe the frequency and types of patient safety incidents associated with discharge from secondary to primary care, and commonly described contributory factors to identify recommendations for practice.

Design And Setting: A mixed methods analysis of 598 patient safety incident reports in England and Wales related to 'Discharge' from the National Reporting and Learning System.

Xylem parenchyma cell walls lack a gravitropic response in conifer compression wood.

Cell wall fluorescence and immunocytochemistry demonstrate that xylem parenchyma cell walls do not show changes in structure and composition related to gravitropic response comparable to those of tracheids, even when they have lignified secondary cell walls. Tracheid cell walls in compression wood have altered composition and structure which generates the strain responsible for correction of stem lean as part of the gravitropic response of woody plants. Xylem parenchyma cell walls vary among conifer species and can be lignified secondary walls (spruce) or unlignified primary walls (pine).

Cisplatin induced sensory neuropathy is prevented by vascular endothelial growth factor-A.

Increased patient survival is a mark of modern anti-cancer therapy success. Unfortunately treatment side-effects such as neurotoxicity are a major long term concern. Sensory neuropathy is one of the common toxicities that can arise during platinum based chemotherapy.

Vascular endothelial growth factor-A165b prevents diabetic neuropathic pain and sensory neuronal degeneration.

Diabetic peripheral neuropathy affects up to half of diabetic patients. This neuronal damage leads to sensory disturbances, including allodynia and hyperalgesia. Many growth factors have been suggested as useful treatments for prevention of neurodegeneration, including the vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) family.

Pediatric immunization-related safety incidents in primary care: A mixed methods analysis of a national database.

Background: Children are scheduled to receive 18-20 immunizations before their 18th birthday in England and Wales; this approximates to 13 million vaccines administered per annum. Each immunization represents a potential opportunity for immunization-related error and effective immunization is imperative to maintain the public health benefit from immunization. Using data from a national reporting system, this study aimed to characterize pediatric immunization-related safety incident reports from primary care in England and Wales between 2002 and 2013.

A Hyaluronan-Based Injectable Hydrogel Improves the Survival and Integration of Stem Cell Progeny following Transplantation.

The utility of stem cells and their progeny in adult transplantation models has been limited by poor survival and integration. We designed an injectable and bioresorbable hydrogel blend of hyaluronan and methylcellulose (HAMC) and tested it with two cell types in two animal models, thereby gaining an understanding of its general applicability for enhanced cell distribution, survival, integration, and functional repair relative to conventional cell delivery in saline. HAMC improves cell survival and integration of retinal stem cell (RSC)-derived rods in the retina.

Detection of wood cell wall porosity using small carbohydrate molecules and confocal fluorescence microscopy.

A novel approach to nanoscale detection of cell wall porosity using confocal fluorescence microscopy is described. Infiltration of cell walls with a range of nitrophenyl-substituted carbohydrates of different molecular weights was assessed by measuring changes in the intensity of lignin fluorescence, in response to the quenching effect of the 4-nitrophenyl group. The following carbohydrates were used in order of increasing molecular weight; 4-nitrophenyl β-D-glucopyrano-side (monosaccharide), 4-nitrophenyl β-D-lactopyranoside (disaccharide), 2-chloro-4-nitrophenyl β-D-maltotrioside (trisaccharide), and 4-nitrophenyl α-D-maltopentaoside (pentasaccharide).

A novel method for delivering ramped cooling reveals rat behaviours at innocuous and noxious temperatures: A comparative study of human psychophysics and rat behaviour.

Background: Thermal sensory testing in rodents informs human pain research. There are important differences in the methodology for delivering thermal stimuli to humans and rodents. This is particularly true in cold pain research.

Differential contributions of A- and C-nociceptors to primary and secondary inflammatory hypersensitivity in the rat.

Primary hyperalgesia is characterized by increased responsiveness to both heat and mechanical stimulation in the area of injury. By contrast, secondary hyperalgesia is generally associated with increased responses to mechanical but not heat stimuli. We tested the hypothesis that sensitization in secondary hyperalgesia is dependent on the class of peripheral nociceptor (C- or A-nociceptor) rather than the modality of stimulation (mechanical vs heat).

Effect of pretreatment on arabinoxylan distribution in wheat bran.

Arabinoxylan is one of the potential key products of a wheat bran based biorefinery. To develop a suitable process for the isolation of arabinoxylans, the effect of different processing approaches needs to be determined. In this work, chemical analysis was supplemented by immunolocalization of arabinoxylan by confocal microscopy, which proved valuable in the assessment of cell-structural changes occurring upon different chemical and mechanical bran treatments.

Comparison of Nottingham Prognostic Index and Adjuvant Online prognostic tools in young women with breast cancer: review of a single-institution experience.

Objective: Accurately predicting the prognosis of young patients with breast cancer (<40 years) is uncertain since the literature suggests they have a higher mortality and that age is an independent risk factor. In this cohort study we considered two prognostic tools; Nottingham Prognostic Index and Adjuvant Online (Adjuvant!), in a group of young patients, comparing their predicted prognosis with their actual survival.

Setting: North East England

Participants: Data was prospectively collected from the breast unit at a Hospital in Grimsby between January 1998 and December 2007.

Intrathecal reboxetine suppresses evoked and ongoing neuropathic pain behaviours by restoring spinal noradrenergic inhibitory tone.

The descending noradrenergic (NAergic) projection to the spinal cord forms part of an endogenous analgesic system. After nerve injury, a localised failure in this compensatory system has been implicated as a permissive factor in the development of neuropathic sensitisation. We investigated whether restoring descending NAergic tone with intrathecal reboxetine can oppose the development of the neuropathic pain phenotype after tibial nerve transection (TNT).

Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor-A165b Is Protective and Restores Endothelial Glycocalyx in Diabetic Nephropathy.

Diabetic nephropathy is the leading cause of ESRD in high-income countries and a growing problem across the world. Vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A) is thought to be a critical mediator of vascular dysfunction in diabetic nephropathy, yet VEGF-A knockout and overexpression of angiogenic VEGF-A isoforms each worsen diabetic nephropathy. We examined the vasculoprotective effects of the VEGF-A isoform VEGF-A165b in diabetic nephropathy.

Errors in the management of cardiac arrests: an observational study of patient safety incidents in England.

Objective: The aim of this qualitative study is to better understand the types of error occurring during the management of cardiac arrests that led to a death.

Methods: All patient safety incidents involving management of cardiac arrests and resulting in death which were reported to a national patient safety database over a 17-month period were analysed. Structured data from each report were extracted and these together with the free text, were subjected to content analysis which was inductive, with the coding scheme emerged from continuous reading and re-reading of incidents.