DOES CARDIAC REHABILITATON IMPROVE HEALTH RELATED QUALITY OF LIFE?

Backgrounds: The integration of EQ-5D questionnaire in the standard core set of utilized outcome measures may be useful aiming at a whole evaluation of cardiac rehabilitation improvements. Objectives: To investigate the effect of a cardiac rehabilitation program on HRQoL and other health-related information. Methods: Data are collected in a Northern Italy Cardiac Rehabilitation Institute. A longitudinal survey approach will be adopted, and a sample of about 250 patients with heart failure will be recruited before 30 June 2006. The questionnaires, distributed to every patient before and after cardiac rehabilitation, include both information about socio-demographic characteristics and a medical statement with diagnosed pathology, NYHA gravity class, risk factors, ECO, and Walking Test. Patient\u2019s anxiety and depression are tested with the Schedule A-D of CBA-2.0. The self-perceived health-status is evaluated with the EQ-5D questionnaire. Results: Analysis on disposable data (92 patients) show that the overall VAS mean value increases significatively after rehabilitation period. Health status perception after and before rehabilitation was analysed observing EQ-5D profile and VAS scores. Analysing correspondence between profiles and VAS scores, it results that an improvement of reported profile doesn\u2019t correspond with a VAS increase of the same intensity. Conclusions: The observed rehabilitation therapy provides significant advantages in quality of life both considering VAS Score and EQ-5D problems frequency, although the variations of the two aspects are not fully correlated

Multidisciplinary characterization of melanin pigments from the black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus

Melanin is a natural pigment present in almost all biological group, and is composed by indolic polymers and characterized by black-brown colorization. Furthermore, it is one of the pigments produced by extremophiles including those living in Antarctic desert, and are mainly involved in their protection from high UV radiation, desiccation, salinity and oxidation. Previous studies have shown that melanized species have an increase capability to survive high level of radiation compared to the non-melanized counterpart. Understanding the molecular composition of fungal melanin could help to understand this peculiar capability. Here, we aimed to characterize melanin pigment extracted from the Antarctic black fungus Cryomyces antarcticus, which is a good test model for radioprotection researches, by studying its chemical properties and spectral data. Our results demonstrated that, in spite having a specific type of melanin as the majority of fungi, the fungus possess the ability to produce both DHN and DOPA melanins, opening interesting scenario for the protection role against radiation. Researches on fungal melanin have a huge application in different field, including radioprotection, bioremediation and biomedical applications

The Educational Experiment Xenogriss: Growth and Regeneration of Xenopus laevis Tadpoles on the ISS

The Italian Space Agency, within the frame of the mission \u201cBeyond\u201d has promoted the "YiSS\u2014Youth ISS Science" competi-tion, to involve secondary school students in the process of conception and execution of a space experiment. The XENOG-RISS experiment was selected by the Italian Space Agency to fly onboard the ISS. The project foresees an active involve-ment of students into a multi-disciplinary activity aimed at studying the effect of microgravity on growth and regeneration processes, using an animal model (Xenopus laevis) that allows both processes to be observed simultaneously. The project involves the preparation of a Xenopus laevis tadpole culture within a Xenopus Experiment Unit (XEU). The XEU has been integrated into a powered metallic sealed container called Biokon. The activation on the ISS ensured the feeding of the tadpoles, the recirculation of water and the acquisition of images. The control electronics, including the acquisition system, was designed and realized by the students under teacher supervision in collaboration with engineers from Kayser Italia. The integration process of the experiment onboard the ISS was provided by the UTISS Team (Argotec/Telespazio) that supported safety evaluation, requirements verification, payload manifesting, delivery, operations and recovery. The facility has been launched with Space-X CRS-19 and recovered after 30 days. The information derived from this experiment will help to understand the mechanisms underlying the effect of microgravity upon the processes of growth, repair and regeneration of tissues. A better knowledge of these processes is important in defining protocols for the management of traumatic injuries, wounds and chronic ulcers both in Space and on Earth