miR-133 and miR-30 regulate connective tissue growth factor: implications for a role of microRNAs in myocardial matrix remodeling.

The myocardium of the failing heart undergoes a number of structural alterations, most notably hypertrophy of cardiac myocytes and an increase in extracellular matrix proteins, often seen as primary fibrosis. Connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) is a key molecule in the process of fibrosis and therefore seems an attractive therapeutic target. Regulation of CTGF expression at the promoter level has been studied extensively, but it is unknown how CTGF transcripts are regulated at the posttranscriptional level.

Learning effects of thematic peer-review: a qualitative analysis of reflective journals on spiritual care.

This study describes the learning effects of thematic peer-review discussion groups (Hendriksen, 2000. Begeleid intervisie model, Collegiale advisering en probleemoplossing, Nelissen, Baarn.) on developing nursing students' competence in providing spiritual care.

Encephalopathy and MRI abnormalities in fat embolism syndrome: a case report.

Background: Fat embolization and fat embolism syndrome are poorly understood complications of skeletal trauma. Fat embolism syndrome is a clinical diagnosis, and patients typically present with a classic triad of petechial rash, pulmonary distress, and neurologic dysfunction. The incomplete form of the syndrome (i.

The effectiveness of an educational programme for nursing students on developing competence in the provision of spiritual care.

Aim: To determine the effects of a course for nursing students on developing competence in spiritual care and the factors that might influence the effects.

Background: Studies suggest that role preparation in nursing for spiritual care is poor. For the assessment of competence, few or no explicit competency framework or assessment tools seemed to be used.

Direct observation of chaperone-induced changes in a protein folding pathway.

How chaperone interactions affect protein folding pathways is a central problem in biology. With the use of optical tweezers and all-atom molecular dynamics simulations, we studied the effect of chaperone SecB on the folding and unfolding pathways of maltose binding protein (MBP) at the single-molecule level. In the absence of SecB, we find that the MBP polypeptide first collapses into a molten globulelike compacted state and then folds into a stable core structure onto which several alpha helices are finally wrapped.

Aspects of spirituality concerning illness.

The spiritual dimension of illness, health and care may be seen as a unique aspect in addition to the physical, mental and social dimension. This contribution describes experiences of patients, nurses and hospital chaplains in relation to the spiritual aspects of being ill. Qualitative research was performed with the design of a focus group study, consisting of 13 focus groups with a total of 67 participants.

Risk of bilateral visual impairment in individuals with amblyopia: the Rotterdam study.

Background: The excess risk of bilateral visual impairment (BVI; bilateral visual acuity <0.5) among individuals with amblyopia is an argument for screening for amblyopia, but data are scarce.

Methods: The risk was estimated by determining the incidence of BVI in the Rotterdam Study, a population-based cohort of subjects aged 55 years or over (n = 5220), including 192 individuals with amblyopia (3.

Solving the Kadanoff-Baym equations for inhomogeneous systems: application to atoms and molecules.

We implement time propagation of the nonequilibrium Green function for atoms and molecules by solving the Kadanoff-Baym equations within a conserving self-energy approximation. We here demonstrate the usefulness of time propagation for calculating spectral functions and for describing the correlated electron dynamics in a nonperturbative electric field. We also demonstrate the use of time propagation as a method for calculating charge-neutral excitation energies, equivalent to highly advanced solutions of the Bethe-Salpeter equation.

Lysosomal integral membrane protein 2 is a novel component of the cardiac intercalated disc and vital for load-induced cardiac myocyte hypertrophy.

The intercalated disc (ID) of cardiac myocytes is emerging as a crucial structure in the heart. Loss of ID proteins like N-cadherin causes lethal cardiac abnormalities, and mutations in ID proteins cause human cardiomyopathy. A comprehensive screen for novel mechanisms in failing hearts demonstrated that expression of the lysosomal integral membrane protein 2 (LIMP-2) is increased in cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure in both rat and human myocardium.

Exclusion of active Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex infection with the T-SPOT.TB assay.

The present brief report describes four cases with mycobacterial infection and negative T-SPOT.TB tests. This test proved to be a useful tool to help rule out the diagnosis of active Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection and could therefore prevent unnecessary or inappropriate therapy.

Spiritual care: implications for nurses' professional responsibility.

Aim: This paper aimed to gain insight into the spiritual aspects of nursing care within the context of health care in the Netherlands and to provide recommendations for the development of care in this area and the promotion of the professional expertise of nurses.

Background: International nursing literature suggests that caregivers are expected to pay attention to spiritual aspects of patient care. In Dutch nursing literature, the spiritual dimension is increasingly becoming a focus of attention.

SecA supports a constant rate of preprotein translocation.

In Escherichia coli, secretory proteins (preproteins) are translocated across the cytoplasmic membrane by the Sec system composed of a protein-conducting channel, SecYEG, and an ATP-dependent motor protein, SecA. After binding of the preprotein to SecYEG-bound SecA, cycles of ATP binding and hydrolysis by SecA are thought to drive the stepwise translocation of the preprotein across the membrane. To address how the length of a preprotein substrate affects the SecA-driven translocation process, we constructed derivatives of the precursor of the outer membrane protein A (proOmpA) with 2, 4, 6, and 8 in-tandem repeats of the periplasmic domain.

Imatinib attenuates end-organ damage in hypertensive homozygous TGR(mRen2)27 rats.

Imatinib specifically inhibits receptor tyrosine kinase signaling and is clinically used to treat leukemia. Receptor tyrosine kinases not only mediate tumor growth but also initiate adverse signaling in heart failure. We investigated whether imatinib, by inhibiting the platelet-derived growth factor receptor-beta (PDGFRbeta), prevents cardiac and renal damage in TGR(mRen2)27 (Ren2) rats.

Dietary intake of antioxidants and risk of age-related macular degeneration.

Context: Age-related macular degeneration (AMD) is the most prevalent cause of irreversible blindness in developed countries. Recently, high-dose supplementation with beta carotene, vitamins C and E, and zinc was shown to slow the progression of AMD.

Objective: To investigate whether regular dietary intake of antioxidants is associated with a lower risk of incident AMD.

A physical model for the longitudinal polarizabilities of polymer chains.

The aim of this work is to provide a physical model to relate the polarizability per unit cell of oligomers to that of their corresponding infinite polymer chains. For this we propose an extrapolation method for the polarizability per unit cell of oligomers by fitting them to a physical model describing the dielectric properties of polymer chains. This physical model is based on the concept of a dielectric needle in which we assume a polymer chain to be well described by a cylindrically shaped nonconducting rod with a radius much smaller than its length.

A-type lamins are essential for TGF-beta1 induced PP2A to dephosphorylate transcription factors.

Diseases caused by mutations in lamins A and C (laminopathies) suggest a crucial role for A-type lamins in different cellular processes. Laminopathies mostly affect tissues of mesenchymal origin. As transforming growth factor-beta1 (TGF-beta1) signalling impinges on the retinoblastoma protein (pRB) and SMADs, we tested the hypothesis that lamins modulate cellular responses to TGF-beta1 signalling, via the regulation of these transcription factors in mesenchymal cells.

Self-consistent solution of the Dyson equation for atoms and molecules within a conserving approximation.

We have calculated the self-consistent Green's function for a number of atoms and diatomic molecules. This Green's function is obtained from a conserving self-energy approximation, which implies that the observables calculated from the Green's functions agree with the macroscopic conservation laws for particle number, momentum, and energy. As a further consequence, the kinetic and potential energies agree with the virial theorem, and the many possible methods for calculating the total energy all give the same result.

Retinal vessel diameters and the risk of incident age-related macular disease: the Rotterdam Study.

Purpose: To study the relationship between retinal vessel diameters and incident age-related macular disease (iAMD).

Design: Prospective population-based cohort study.

Participants: Persons (55 years and older) from the Rotterdam Study, who participated at the baseline (1990-1993) and 1 of 2 follow-up examinations (1993-1994 and 1997-1999).

Efficacy of the Epley maneuver for posterior canal BPPV: a long-term, controlled study of 81 patients.

We assessed the efficacy of the Epley maneuver (canalith repositioning) in a study of 81 patients with posterior semicircular canal benign paroxysmal positional vertigo (BPPV). A group of 61 patients underwent the maneuver, while a control group of 20 patients received no therapy. All patients were evaluated at 1 and 6 months.

Causes of incident visual field loss in a general elderly population: the Rotterdam study.

Objective: To determine the incidence and causes of visual field loss (VFL) in a general elderly population.

Methods: Central visual fields of both eyes were examined with suprathreshold perimetry in 3761 persons aged 55 years or older and free of VFL at baseline from the population-based Rotterdam Study. Goldmann perimetry was performed to confirm suprathreshold VFL.

Nursing competencies for spiritual care.

Aim: This paper aims to answer the question: What competencies do professional nurses need to provide spiritual care?

Background: Nursing literature from The Netherlands shows little clarity on the qualities that nurses require to provide spiritual care. Although the international literature provides some practical guidance, it is far from conclusive on the required qualities of nurses.

Method: A qualitative literature review was conducted to draw together information from the nursing literature in order to formulate nursing competencies.

Thrombospondin-2 is essential for myocardial matrix integrity: increased expression identifies failure-prone cardiac hypertrophy.

Cardiac hypertrophy can lead to heart failure (HF), but it is unpredictable which hypertrophied myocardium will progress to HF. We surmised that apart from hypertrophy-related genes, failure-related genes are expressed before the onset of failure, permitting molecular prediction of HF. Hearts from hypertensive homozygous renin-overexpressing (Ren-2) rats that had progressed to early HF were compared by microarray analysis to Ren-2 rats that had remained compensated.

Risk factors for incident age-related macular degeneration: pooled findings from 3 continents.

Objective: To examine risk factors for incident age-related macular degeneration (AMD) after combining data from 3 population-based cohort studies.

Design: Population-based cohort study.

Population: A population of 9523 adults (age range, 43-95 years at baseline) living in Australia, The Netherlands, and the United States who participated in a baseline examination and a follow-up examination on average 5 or 6 years later.

Is medication use associated with the incidence of early age-related maculopathy? Pooled findings from 3 continents.

Objective: To investigate whether there is an association between the use of medication and the incidence of early age-related maculopathy (ARM).

Design: Pooled data from 3 prospective, population-based cohort studies.

Participants: Subjects without early and late ARM at baseline who participated in the follow-up of the Beaver Dam Eye Study (n = 3012), the Rotterdam Study (n = 3434), and the Blue Mountains Eye Study (n = 2203).

Comparison of first-line antiretroviral therapy with regimens including nevirapine, efavirenz, or both drugs, plus stavudine and lamivudine: a randomised open-label trial, the 2NN Study.

Background: The 2NN Study was a randomised comparison of the non-nucleoside reverse-transcriptase inhibitors (NNRTI) nevirapine and efavirenz.

Methods: In this multicentre, open-label, randomised trial, 1216 antiretroviral-therapy-naive patients were assigned nevirapine 400 mg once daily, nevirapine 200 mg twice daily, efavirenz 600 mg once daily, or nevirapine (400 mg) and efavirenz (800 mg) once daily, plus stavudine and lamivudine, for 48 weeks. The primary endpoint was the proportion of patients with treatment failure (less than 1 log(10) decline in plasma HIV-1 RNA in the first 12 weeks or two consecutive measurements of more than 50 copies per mL from week 24 onwards, disease progression [new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention grade C event or death], or change of allocated treatment).