Fibrous composite material for textile heart valve design: in vitro assessment.

With over 150,000 implantations performed over the world, transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) has become a surgical technique, which largely competes with open surgery valve replacement for an increasing number of patients. The success of the procedure favors the research toward synthetic valve leaflet materials as an alternative to biological tissues, whose durability remains unknown. In particular, fibrous constructions have recently proven to be durable in vivo over a 6-month period of time in animal sheep models.

What factors influence health professionals to use decision aids for Down syndrome prenatal screening?

Background: Health professionals are expected to engage pregnant women in shared decision making to help them make informed values-based decisions about prenatal screening. Patient decision aids (PtDAs) foster shared decision-making, but are rarely used in this context. Our objective was to identify factors that could influence health professionals to use a PtDA for decisions about prenatal screening for Down syndrome during a clinical pregnancy follow-up.

In for a penny, in for a pound: the effect of pre-engaging healthcare organizations on their subsequent participation in trials.

Background: Participant recruitment in clinical trials is often challenging. Building partnerships with healthcare organizations during proposal development facilitates access to the community and may influence its subsequent organization participation and participant recruitment. We aimed to assess how pre-engaging directors of homecare organizations influenced organization participation in a subsequent trial.

Decision aids that support decisions about prenatal testing for Down syndrome: an environmental scan.

Background: Prenatal screening tests for Down syndrome (DS) are routine in many developed countries and new tests are rapidly becoming available. Decisions about prenatal screening are increasingly complex with each successive test, and pregnant women need information about risks and benefits as well as clarity about their values. Decision aids (DAs) can help healthcare providers support women in this decision.

Inhibition of Protein Kinases AKT and ERK1/2 Reduce the Carotid Body Chemoreceptor Response to Hypoxia in Adult Rats.

The carotid body is the main mammalian oxygen-sensing organ regulating ventilation. Despite the carotid body is subjected of extensive anatomical and functional studies, little is yet known about the molecular pathways signaling the neurotransmission and neuromodulation of the chemoreflex activity. As kinases are molecules widely involved in motioning a broad number of neural processes, here we hypothesized that pathways of protein kinase B (AKT) and extracellular signal-regulated kinases ½ (ERK1/2) are implicated in the carotid body response to hypoxia.

Dietitians' Perspectives on Interventions to Enhance Adherence to Dietary Advice for Chronic Diseases in Adults.

Purpose: To assess dietitians' perspectives on the importance and applicability of interventions to enhance adherence to dietary advice for preventing and managing chronic diseases in adults in the Canadian context.

Methods: Based on a Cochrane systematic review, we identified 8 promising interventions for enhancing adherence to dietary advice: behavioural contracts, exchange lists, feedback based on self-monitoring, individualized menu suggestions, multiple interventions, portion size awareness, telephone follow-up, and videos. Thirty-two dietitians then completed a 3-round Delphi study by responding to an electronic questionnaire asking them to rate the importance and applicability in their practice of the 8 interventions on a 7-point Likert scale.

The vectorial transport of salts and water is crucial for respiratory epithelial cell lines.

Primary culture of respiratory epithelial cells is useful to study the pathophysiology of respiratory diseases. However, such primary culture has been very limited because of its high dependence on the availability of biopsies and the long time required to reach confluence. Therefore, cell lines are an alternative to primary cultures because they reach confluence faster and some can maintain their differentiation abilities.

Exploration of shared decision-making processes among dieticians and patients during a consultation for the nutritional treatment of dyslipidaemia.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) holds great potential for improving the therapeutic efficiency and quality of nutritional treatment of dyslipidaemia by promoting patient involvement in decision making. Adoption of specific behaviours fostering SDM during consultations has yet to be studied in routine dietetic practice.

Objective: Using a cross-sectional study design, we aimed to explore both dieticians' and patients' adoption of SDM behaviours in dietetic consultations regarding the nutritional treatment of dyslipidaemia.

Chocolate flavanols and skin photoprotection: a parallel, double-blind, randomized clinical trial.

Background: Solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation has deleterious effects on the skin, including sunburn, photoaging and cancer. Chocolate flavanols are naturally-occurring antioxidant and anti-inflammatory molecules that could play a role in preventing cutaneous UV damage. We investigated the influence of 12-week high-flavanol chocolate (HFC) consumption on skin sensitivity to UV radiation, measured by minimal erythema dose (MED).

Consumption of chocolate in pregnant women and risk of preeclampsia: a systematic review.

Background: Previous studies have been limited in reporting the association between chocolate consumption, measured by interviewer-administered questionnaire or serum theobromine, a biomarker for cocoa, and risk of preeclampsia, and have showed somewhat conflicting results.

Methods/design: A systematic review of observational and experimental studies will be carried out. We will examine PubMed, Embase, and the entire Cochrane Library.

Core competencies for shared decision making training programs: insights from an international, interdisciplinary working group.

Shared decision making is now making inroads in health care professionals' continuing education curriculum, but there is no consensus on what core competencies are required by clinicians for effectively involving patients in health-related decisions. Ready-made programs for training clinicians in shared decision making are in high demand, but existing programs vary widely in their theoretical foundations, length, and content. An international, interdisciplinary group of 25 individuals met in 2012 to discuss theoretical approaches to making health-related decisions, compare notes on existing programs, take stock of stakeholders concerns, and deliberate on core competencies.

Cost-effectiveness of the management of rh-negative pregnant women.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the most cost-effective option to prevent alloimmunization against the Rh factor.

Methods: A virtual population of Rh-negative pregnant women in Quebec was built to simulate the cost-effectiveness of preventing alloimmunization. The model considered four options: (1) systematic use of anti-D immunoglobulin; (2) fetal Rh(D) genotyping; (3) immunological determination of the father's Rh type; (4) mixed screening: immunological determination of the father's Rh type, followed if positive by fetal Rh(D) genotyping.

Using plethysmography to determine erythropoietin's impact on neural control of ventilation.

The evaluation of respiratory parameters often requires the use of anesthetics (that depress the neural -network controlling respiration), and/or ways to restrain the animal's mobility (that produces a stress-dependent increase of respiration). Consequently, the establishment of plethysmography represented an invaluable technique in respiratory physiology. Plethysmography, indeed, allows the assessment of ventilatory parameters on living, unanesthetized, and unrestrained animals.

Interventions to enhance adherence to dietary advice for preventing and managing chronic diseases in adults.

Background: It has been recognized that poor adherence can be a serious risk to the health and wellbeing of patients, and greater adherence to dietary advice is a critical component in preventing and managing chronic diseases.

Objectives: To assess the effects of interventions for enhancing adherence to dietary advice for preventing and managing chronic diseases in adults.

Search Methods: We searched the following electronic databases up to 29 September 2010: The Cochrane Library (issue 9 2010), PubMed, EMBASE (Embase.

Characterization of Fragile X Mental Retardation Protein granules formation and dynamics in Drosophila.

FMRP is an evolutionarily conserved protein that is highly expressed in neurons and its deficiency causes fragile X mental retardation syndrome. FMRP controls the translation of target mRNAs in part by promoting their dynamic transport in neuronal RNA granules. We have previously shown that high expression of mammalian FMRP induces formation of granules termed FMRP granules.

Using field notes to evaluate competencies in family medicine training: a study of predictors of intention.

Background: Documenting feedback during clinical supervision using field notes (FN) is a recommended competency-based evaluation strategy that will require changes in the culture of medical education. This study identified factors influencing the intention to adopt FN in family medicine training, using the theory of planned behaviour.

Methods: This mixed-methods study involved clinical teachers (CT) and residents from two family medicine units.

Synthesis, biological evaluation, and structure-activity relationships of novel substituted N-phenyl ureidobenzenesulfonate derivatives blocking cell cycle progression in S-phase and inducing DNA double-strand breaks.

Twenty-eight new substituted N-phenyl ureidobenzenesulfonate (PUB-SO) and 18 N-phenylureidobenzenesulfonamide (PUB-SA) derivatives were prepared. Several PUB-SOs exhibited antiproliferative activity at the micromolar level against the HT-29, M21, and MCF-7 cell lines and blocked cell cycle progression in S-phase similarly to cisplatin. In addition, PUB-SOs induced histone H2AX (γH2AX) phosphorylation, indicating that these molecules induce DNA double-strand breaks.

Erythropoietin and its antagonist regulate hypoxic fictive breathing in newborn mice.

Clinical use of erythropoietin in adult and newborn patients has revealed its involvement in neuroprotection, neurogenesis, and angiogenesis. More recently, we showed in adult mouse, that brain erythropoietin interacts with the major brainstem centers associated with respiration to enhance the ventilatory response to acute and chronic conditions of physiological hypoxia (e.g.

Macrophage migration inhibitory factor antagonist blocks the development of endometriosis in vivo.

Endometriosis, a disease of reproductive age women, is a major cause of infertility, menstrual disorders and pelvic pain. Little is known about its etiopathology, but chronic pelvic inflammation is a common feature in affected women. Beside symptomatic treatment of endometriosis-associated pain, only two main suboptimal therapeutic approaches (hormonal and invasive surgery) are generally recommended to patients and no specific targeted treatment is available.

Identification of genes regulated by the EWS/NR4A3 fusion protein in extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma.

Approximately 75 % of extraskeletal myxoid chondrosarcoma tumors (EMC) harbor a t(9;22) chromosome translocation generating an EWS/NR4A3 fusion protein that is thought to be instrumental in the tumoral process. Current evidence suggests that one function of the fusion protein is to overexpress target genes. We have generated an in vitro human cellular model in which the fusion protein is expressed in mesenchymal bone marrow stem cells.

Assessing patients' involvement in decision making during the nutritional consultation with a dietitian.

Background: Shared decision making (SDM) represents an interesting approach to optimize the impact of dietary treatment, but there is no evidence that SDM is commonly integrated into diet-related health care.

Objective: To assess the extent to which dietitians involve patients in decisions about dietary treatment.

Methods: We audiotaped dietitians conducting nutritional consultations with their patients, and we transcribed the tapes verbatim.

Substituted phenyl 4-(2-oxoimidazolidin-1-yl)benzenesulfonamides as antimitotics. Antiproliferative, antiangiogenic and antitumoral activity, and quantitative structure-activity relationships.

The importance of the bridge linking the two phenyl moieties of substituted phenyl 4-(2-oxoimidazolidin-1-yl)benzenesulfonates (PIB-SOs) was assessed using a sulfonamide group, which is a bioisostere of sulfonate and ethenyl groups. Forty one phenyl 4-(2-oxoimidazolidin-1-yl)benzenesulfonamide (PIB-SA) derivatives were prepared and biologically evaluated. PIB-SAs exhibit antiproliferative activities at the nanomolar level against sixteen cancer cell lines, block the cell cycle progression in G(2)/M phase, leading to cytoskeleton disruption and anoikis.