Global, segmental, and layer-specific two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography immediately after acute myocardial infarction as a predictive tool to assess myocardial viability and scar size.

Aim: The identification of myocardial scar is key in clinical decision-making after acute myocardial infarction (AMI). However, the gold standard that is cardiac magnetic resonance imaging (CMR) encounters limitations in terms of availability. Two-dimensional speckle tracking echocardiography (2D-STE) may be an accessible alternative in detecting scar and assessing scar transmurality.

A qualitative study on redefining normality in relatives of patients with advanced cancer.

Objective: To obtain insight into adaptation processes of redefining normality and its influencing factors in relatives of patients with advanced cancer.

Methods: An exploratory qualitative study among relatives of patients with advanced cancer was conducted. Participants were purposively recruited.

Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) treatment in the medical setting: a systematic review.

Literature points towards the potential benefits of the application of Eye Movement and Desensitization Processing (EMDR)-therapy for patients in the medical setting, with cancer and pain being among the domains it is applied to. The field of applying EMDR-therapy for patients treated in the medical setting has evolved to such an extent that it may be challenging to get a comprehensive overview. This systematic literature review aims to evaluate the use and effectiveness of Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing (EMDR) therapy in patients treated in the medical setting.

Cancer centre information and support services and patient needs: participatory action research study.

Objectives: Clear information and supportive care are necessary for oncology patients and their relatives to manage the disease (trajectory). Centres for information and support aim to address their needs by offering informal and non-medical formal services. This study evaluated whether the centres' services offered meet the needs of its visitors, and whether there is interest for these among oncology patients treated at affiliated hospitals.

Psychosocial screening instruments to assist support consultants in patients with cancer.

Objectives: Around 30% of patients with cancer suffer from psychosocial problems requiring formal care; however, these problems are often not identified. Support consultants may play a role in identifying these problems. This study investigates the feasibility of using validated screening instruments to assist support consultants in identifying psychosocial problems.

Unmet care needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives: multicentre observational study.

Objectives: The care needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives change throughout the disease trajectory. This study focused on the care-related problems and needs of patients with advanced cancer and their relatives. This was done from the perspective of centres for information and support.

Evaluation of centers for information and support combining formal and informal care for patients with cancer: a systematic review of the literature.

Purpose: Clear information and supportive care are necessary for patients with cancer to effectively manage their condition. Traditionally, healthcare professionals offer information and support via the so-called formal care route. In addition, research has found favorable effects of informal care provided by volunteer programs and informal "walk-in support centers.

Buccal Mucosa Cells as a Potential Diagnostic Tool to Study Onset and Progression of Arrhythmogenic Cardiomyopathy.

In arrhythmogenic cardiomyopathy (ACM) pathogenic variants are found in genes encoding desmosomal proteins and in non-desmosomal genes, such as (, p.Arg14del variant). Previous research showed that plakoglobin protein levels and localization in the cardiac tissue of ACM patients, and p.

A combined CaMKII inhibition and mineralocorticoid receptor antagonism via eplerenone inhibits functional deterioration in chronic pressure overloaded mice.

In the diseased and remodelled heart, increased activity and expression of Ca calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), an excess of fibrosis, and a decreased electrical coupling and cellular excitability leads to disturbed calcium homeostasis and tissue integrity. This subsequently leads to increased arrhythmia vulnerability and contractile dysfunction. Here, we investigated the combination of CaMKII inhibition (using genetically modified mice expressing the autocamtide-3-related-peptide (AC3I)) together with eplerenone treatment (AC3I-Epler) to prevent electrophysiological remodelling, fibrosis and subsequent functional deterioration in a mouse model of chronic pressure overload.

Emerging molecular therapies targeting myocardial infarction-related arrhythmias.

Cardiac disease is the leading cause of death in the developed world. Ventricular arrhythmias associated with myocardial ischaemia and/or infarction are a major contributor to cardiovascular mortality, and require improved prevention and treatment. Drugs, devices, and radiofrequency catheter ablation have made important inroads, but have significant limitations ranging from incomplete success to undesired toxicities and major side effects.

Calmodulin/CaMKII inhibition improves intercellular communication and impulse propagation in the heart and is antiarrhythmic under conditions when fibrosis is absent.

Aim: In healthy hearts, ventricular gap junctions are mainly composed by connexin43 (Cx43) and localize in the intercalated disc, enabling appropriate electrical coupling. In diseased hearts, Cx43 is heterogeneously down-regulated, whereas activity of calmodulin/calcium-calmodulin protein kinase II (CaM/CaMKII) signalling increases. It is unclear if CaM/CaMKII affects Cx43 expression/localization or impulse propagation.

New antiarrhythmic targets to control intracellular calcium handling.

Sudden cardiac death due to ventricular arrhythmias is a major problem. Drug therapies to prevent SCD do not provide satisfying results, leading to the demand for new antiarrhythmic strategies. New targets include Ca(2+)/Calmodulin-dependent protein kinase II (CaMKII), the Na/Ca exchanger (NCX), the Ryanodine receptor (RyR, and its associated protein FKBP12.

Odour reduction strategies for biosolids produced from a Western Australian wastewater treatment plant: results from Phase I laboratory trials.

This study investigated sources of odours from biosolids produced from a Western Australian wastewater treatment plant and examined possible strategies for odour reduction, specifically chemical additions and reduction of centrifuge speed on a laboratory scale. To identify the odorous compounds and assess the effectiveness of the odour reduction measures trialled in this study, headspace solid-phase microextraction gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (HS SPME-GC-MS) methods were developed. The target odour compounds included volatile sulphur compounds (e.

Effect of skeletal muscle Na(+) channel delivered via a cell platform on cardiac conduction and arrhythmia induction.

Background: In depolarized myocardial infarct epicardial border zones, the cardiac sodium channel is largely inactivated, contributing to slow conduction and reentry. We have demonstrated that adenoviral delivery of the skeletal muscle Na(+) channel (SkM1) to epicardial border zones normalizes conduction and reduces induction of ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation. We now studied the impact of canine mesenchymal stem cells (cMSCs) in delivering SkM1.

SkM1 and Cx32 improve conduction in canine myocardial infarcts yet only SkM1 is antiarrhythmic.

Aims: Reentry accounts for most life-threatening arrhythmias, complicating myocardial infarction, and therapies that consistently prevent reentry from occurring are lacking. In this study, we compare antiarrhythmic effects of gene transfer of green fluorescent protein (GFP; sham), the skeletal muscle sodium channel (SkM1), the liver-specific connexin (Cx32), and SkM1/Cx32 in the subacute canine infarct.

Methods And Results: Immediately after ligation of the left anterior descending artery, viral constructs were implanted in the epicardial border zone (EBZ).

Reduced Cx43 expression triggers increased fibrosis due to enhanced fibroblast activity.

Background: Arrhythmogenic ventricular remodeling is hallmarked by both reduced gap junction expression and increased collagen deposition. We hypothesized that reduced connexin43 (Cx43) expression is responsible for enhanced fibrosis in the remodeled heart, resulting in an arrhythmogenic substrate. Therefore, we investigated the effect of normal or reduced Cx43 expression on the formation of fibrosis in a physiological (aging) and pathophysiological (transverse aortic constriction [TAC]) mouse model.

Determination of odour threshold concentration ranges for some disinfectants and disinfection by-products for an Australian panel.

Taste-and-odour complaints are a leading cause of consumer dissatisfaction with drinking water. The aim of this study was to determine odour threshold concentration ranges and descriptors, using a Western Australian odour panel, for chlorine, bromine, chlorine added to bromide ions, the four major regulated trihalomethanes (THMs), and combined THMs. An odour panel was established and trained to determine odour threshold concentration ranges for odorous compounds typically found in drinking water at 25 degrees C, using modified flavour profile analysis (FPA) techniques.

Crystal structure of the FMN-binding domain of human cytochrome P450 reductase at 1.93 A resolution.

The crystal structure of the FMN-binding domain of human NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase (P450R-FMN), a key component in the cytochrome P450 monooxygenase system, has been determined to 1.93 A resolution and shown to be very similar both to the global fold in solution (Barsukov I et al., 1997, J Biomol NMR 10:63-75) and to the corresponding domain in the 2.

Towards a molecular understanding of phase separation in the lens: a comparison of the X-ray structures of two high Tc gamma-crystallins, gammaE and gammaF, with two low Tc gamma-crystallins, gammaB and gammaD.

gamma-Crystallins, although closely related in sequence, show intriguing differences in their temperature-dependent interactions: those that have a high or intermediate Tc for phase separation are cryoproteins whereas low Tc gamma-crystallins are not. To address the molecular basis of phase separation, X-ray crystallography has been used to define the structural differences between high and low Tc gamma-crystallins. A pre-requisite for this study was to clarify the assignment of bovine gene sequences to bovine gamma-crystallin proteins used for biophysical measurements.

Structure of bovine eye lens gammaD (gammaIIIb)-crystallin at 1.95 A.

The crystal structure of bovine lens gammaIIIb-crystallin at 2.5 A resolution previously reported was interpreted using a consensus sequence derived from related vertebrate sequences on the assumption that gammaIIIb-crystallin derived from the gammaC-crystallin gene. It has recently been shown that gammaIIIb is a product of the bovine gammaD gene.

Crystallization and preliminary X-ray diffraction studies of human cytochrome P450 reductase.

The two functional domains of a cloned human fibroblast NADPH-cytochrome P450 reductase have been expressed in Escherichia coli and purified on the milligram scale for crystallization studies. One domain contains the cofactor FMN-binding site and the other contains the binding sites for cofactor FAD and substrate NADPH. Crystals of both domains have been obtained by the microbatch method.

The X-ray structures of two mutant crystallin domains shed light on the evolution of multi-domain proteins.

We use protein engineering and crystallography to simulate aspects of the early evolution of beta gamma-crystallins by observing how a single domain oligomerizes in response to changes in a sequence extension. The crystal structure of the C-terminal domain of gamma beta-crystallin with its four-residue C-terminal extension shows that the domain does not form a symmetric homodimer analogous to the two-domain pairing in beta gamma-crystallins. Instead the C-terminal extension now forms heterologous interactions with other domains leading to the solvent exposure of the natural hydrophobic interface with a consequent loss in protein solubility.