Microindentation of fresh soft biological tissue: A rapid tissue sectioning and mounting protocol.

Microindentation of fresh biological tissues is necessary for the creation of 3D biomimetic models that accurately represent the native extracellular matrix microenvironment. However, tissue must first be precisely sectioned into slices. Challenges exist in the preparation of fresh tissue slices, as they can tear easily and must be processed rapidly in order to mitigate tissue degradation.

Clinical research stakeholders' experiences of clinical research during COVID-19: a qualitative study.

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic created a complex high-risk clinical research environment with clinical research activities significantly impacted. Clinical research stakeholders adapted rapidly to new clinical practices; PPE, infection control policies, all while engaging with a more unwell patient demographic. The aim of this study is to explore the experiences of conducting clinical research during COVID-19 with clinical research stakeholders.

Differential Impact of Central Venous Catheters versus Arteriovenous Fistulae on Quality of Life among Irish Haemodialysis Patients.

Background: Arteriovenous fistulae (AVF) have superior clinical outcomes compared with central venous catheters (CVC) among patients undergoing hemodialysis (HD). Yet, there is increasing recognition that health-related quality of life (HRQoL) may be more important to patients than survival and that differences may exist between AVF and CVCs in this regard. This study compared HRQoL between AVF and CVC in an Irish cohort.

On the association between circulating biomarkers and atherosclerotic calcification in a cohort of arterial disease participants.

Background And Aims: Atherosclerotic calcification is a powerful predictor of cardiovascular disease. This study aims to determine whether circulating levels of a local/systemic calcification inhibitor or a marker of bone formation correlate with measures of coronary or extracoronary calcification.

Methods And Results: Clinical computed tomography (CT) was performed on 64 arterial disease participants undergoing carotid and lower extremity endarterectomy.

Correlating Ex Vivo Carotid Calcification Measurements With Cerebrovascular Symptoms: A Proof-of-Concept Study.

Background And Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine the ability of ex vivo derived Agatston, Volume, and Density-Volume calcium scores or calcium density measurements to differentiate between carotid plaques based on preoperative cerebrovascular symptomatology.

Methods: Thirty-eight carotid plaques were acquired from standard endarterectomy. Micro-computed tomography was performed on the ex vivo samples.

A Feasibility and Acceptability Trial of Social Cognitive Therapy in Early Psychosis Delivered Through a Virtual World: The VEEP Study.

Background: Addressing specific social cognitive difficulties is an important target in early psychosis and may help address poor functional outcomes. However, structured interventions using standard therapy settings including groups suffer from difficulties in recruitment and retention.

Aims: To address these issues, we aimed to modify an existing group social cognitive intervention entitled 'Social Cognition and Interaction Training' (SCIT) to be delivered through a virtual world environment (Second Life ©).

Memory flexibility training for autobiographical memory as an intervention for maintaining social and mental well-being in older adults.

Autobiographical memory specificity (AMS) reduces with increasing age and is associated with depression, social problem-solving and functional limitations. However, ability to switch between general and specific, as well as between positive and negative retrieval, may be more important for the strategic use of autobiographical information in everyday life. Ability to switch between retrieval modes is likely to rely on aspects of executive function.

Improving specific autobiographical memory in older adults: impacts on mood, social problem solving, and functional limitations.

Older adults have difficulty recalling specific autobiographical events. This over-general memory style is a vulnerability factor for depression. Two groups receiving interventions that have previously been successful at reducing over-general memory in depressed populations were compared to a control group.

Supplementation of a high-carbohydrate breakfast with barley beta-glucan improves postprandial glycaemic response for meals but not beverages.

There is growing support for the protective role of soluble fibre in type II diabetes. Soluble fibre beta-glucan found in cereal products including oats and barley may be the active component. There is evidence of postprandial blunting of blood glucose and insulin responses to dietary carbohydrates when oat soluble fibre is supplemented into the diet but few trials have been carried out using natural barley or enriched barley beta-glucan products.

Frequent feeding delays the gastric emptying of a subsequent meal.

To assess the suitability of the 13C-octanoic acid breath test for measuring gastric emptying in circumstances other than the post-absorptive state, a preliminary study was performed where 6 hourly spaced isoenergetic meals preceded the determination of gastric emptying of a subsequent 2 MJ meal. Emptying was measured in three individuals on four separate occasions, with a reproducibility of 8%. A crossover study was then conducted to test the hypothesis that meal frequency can modulate the gastric emptying of a subsequent meal, with the potential to influence appetite regulation.

Effect of high-fat meals and fatty acid saturation on postprandial levels of the hormones ghrelin and leptin in healthy men.

Objective: Ghrelin and leptin play a role in control of food intake and adiposity but mechanisms regulating these hormones in man are poorly defined and evidence that dietary fats may have adverse effects is inconclusive. We investigated whether high-fat meals, which differed in saturated fatty acid (SFA) content acutely modified these hormones.

Design: Randomised, double-blind, crossover trial.

Measuring the cost, effectiveness, and cost-effectiveness of orthodontic care.

Aim: To determine the relative effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of orthodontic treatment per case in one "fee for item" and two different types of salaried orthodontic clinics.

Subjects And Methods: This prospective study recruited a random sample of six self-employed orthodontists (fee-for-item) and six orthodontists from both hospital and community clinics (salaried services). One hundred patients were followed to completion of orthodontic care.

Demonstration of a hyperglycemia-driven pathogenic abnormality of copper homeostasis in diabetes and its reversibility by selective chelation: quantitative comparisons between the biology of copper and eight other nutritionally essential elements in normal and diabetic individuals.

We recently showed that treatment with the Cu(II)-selective chelator, trientine, alleviates heart failure in diabetic rats, improves left ventricular hypertrophy in humans with type 2 diabetes, and increases urinary Cu excretion in both diabetic rats and humans compared with nondiabetic control subjects. In this study, we characterized the homeostasis of Cu and eight other nutritionally essential elements in diabetes under fully residential conditions in male subjects with type 2 diabetes and age-matched control subjects. We then probed elemental balance with oral trientine in a parallel-group, placebo-controlled study in these subjects.

Regeneration of the heart in diabetes by selective copper chelation.

Heart disease is the major cause of death in diabetes, a disorder characterized by chronic hyperglycemia and cardiovascular complications. Although altered systemic regulation of transition metals in diabetes has been the subject of previous investigation, it is not known whether changed transition metal metabolism results in heart disease in common forms of diabetes and whether metal chelation can reverse the condition. We found that administration of the Cu-selective transition metal chelator trientine to rats with streptozotocin-induced diabetes caused increased urinary Cu excretion compared with matched controls.

The effect of the dietary supplement, Chitosan, on body weight: a randomised controlled trial in 250 overweight and obese adults.

Context: Chitosan, a deacetylated chitin, is a widely available dietary supplement purported to decrease body weight and serum lipids through gastrointestinal fat binding. Although evaluated in a number of trials, its efficacy remains in dispute.

Objective: To evaluate the efficacy of chitosan for weight loss in overweight and obese adults.

Delayed gastric emptying in the obese: an assessment using the non-invasive (13)C-octanoic acid breath test.

Aim: Much of the controversy surrounding the correlation between obesity and gastric emptying lies in the inconsistency of methodology and analysis. This study was designed to overcome some of the discrepancies encountered in previous studies and to test the hypothesis that obese individuals have altered gastric emptying compared to lean individuals.

Methods: Gastric emptying was measured using the (13)C-octanoic acid breath test in 16 lean and 16 obese women pair-matched for age.

Evaluating the cost-effectiveness of orthodontic provision.

The assessment of orthodontic provision is important to determine if treatment was necessary and undertaken appropriately. The ICON objectively quantifies orthodontic treatment need, complexity and outcome and is a valuable occlusal index in the assessment effectiveness of orthodontic care. It is possible to develop cost-effectiveness models by analysing the costs and effectiveness of orthodontic treatment.

Leptin does not respond to 48 h fat deposition or mobilization in women.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that acute responses of plasma leptin concentration to energy balance manipulation are mediated by fat flux.

Design: Ten healthy women aged 31-63 y, mass 48-113.5 kg, fat mass 8.

Effects of inactivity and diet composition on human energy balance.

Objectives: To investigate the influences of inactivity and dietary macronutrient composition on energy and fat balance and to look for interactions between them.

Design: Two-day measurements of energy expenditure and substrate oxidation on five occasions; ad libitum food intake from diets of 35% and 60% energy as fat, with and without imposed activity, and a fixed overfeeding at 35% fat with free activity.

Subjects: Eight normal-weight male volunteers.

Relationship between respiratory muscle strength, nutritional status, and lung volume in cystic fibrosis and asthma.

We measured static inspiratory and expiratory pressures (PImax and PEmax) in 29 patients with asthma for comparison with a previously reported group of 25 patients with cystic fibrosis (CF) and 80 normal control subjects. The purpose of the study was to assess the relationship between respiratory muscle strength, nutritional status, lung volumes, and training effect of the increased work of breathing in patients with chronic air-flow limitation. PEmax was similar in the asthma group, CF group, and normal control subjects despite a significant degree of malnutrition in the CF group (mean body mass percentile (BMP), 78 versus 107% in the asthma group, p less than 0.