The heart failure specialists of tomorrow: a network for young cardiovascular scientists and clinicians

The "Heart failure specialists of Tomorrow" (HoT) group gathers young researchers, physicians, basic scientists, nurses and many other professions under the auspices of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology. After its foundation in 2014, it has quickly grown to a large group of currently 925 members. Membership in this growing community offers many advantages during, before, and after the 'Heart Failure and World Congress on Acute Heart Failure'. These include: eligibility to receive travel grants, participation in moderated poster sessions and young researcher and clinical case sessions, the HoT walk, the career cafe, access to the networking opportunities, and interaction with a large and cohesive international community that constantly seeks multinational collaborations.Peer reviewe

Striatal interneurons in dissociated cell culture

In addition to the well-characterized direct and indirect projection neurons there are four major interneuron types in the striatum. Three contain GABA and either parvalbumin, calretinin or NOS/NPY/somatostatin. The fourth is cholinergic. It might be assumed that dissociated cell cultures of striatum (typically from embryonic day E18.5 in rat and E14.5 for mouse) contain each of these neuronal types. However, in dissociated rat striatal (caudate/putamen, CPu) cultures arguably the most important interneuron, the giant aspiny cholinergic neuron, is not present. When dissociated striatal neurons from E14.5 Sprague–Dawley rats were mixed with those from E18.5 rats, combined cultures from these two gestational periods yielded surviving cholinergic interneurons and representative populations of the other interneuron types at 5 weeks in vitro. Neurons from E12.5 CD-1 mice were combined with CPu neurons from E14.5 mice and the characteristics of striatal interneurons after 5 weeks in vitro were determined. All four major classes of interneurons were identified in these cultures as well as rare tyrosine hydroxylase positive interneurons. However, E14.5 mouse CPu cultures contained relatively few cholinergic interneurons rather than the nearly total absence seen in the rat. A later dissection day (E16.5) was required to obtain mouse CPu cultures totally lacking the cholinergic interneuron. We show that these cultures generated from two gestational age cells have much more nearly normal proportions of interneurons than the more common organotypic cultures of striatum. Interneurons are generated from both ages of embryos except for the cholinergic interneurons that originate from the medial ganglionic eminence of younger embryos. Study of these cultures should more accurately reflect neuronal processing as it occurs in the striatum in vivo. Furthermore, these results reveal a procedure for parallel culture of striatum and cholinergic depleted striatum that can be used to examine the function of the cholinergic interneuron in striatal networks

Heart Failure in Lebanon: A Review of the Literature

This research aimed to provide a comprehensive overview of the current literature on heart failure (HF) management in Lebanon and identify the implications for policy, practice, education, and research. The design of this research was a systematic review following preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines. Da-tabases were searched using the search terms “heart failure” and “Lebanon” and associated MeSH terms. The abstracts of the selected articles were examined independently by two researchers; the sample characteristics, HF indices, and results of the included studies were extracted. Key findings and trends were synthesized. Eleven papers were reviewed with 2,774 participants (mean age = 57.98, SD = 13.09 years, and the majority [n = 1,494, 53.85%] were male). Over one-third reported having coronary artery disease, and half had hypertension. The mean ejection fraction was 47.28% (SD = 10.44), and the mean length of hospital stay was 7.97 days (SD = 10.28). Self-care was a common theme showing varying but low scores, especially in the self-management subscale. The findings of this study outline the unique characteristics of the population with HF in a Middle Eastern country. These characteristics should be considered when planning interventions in countries facing geopolitical instability in the context of population aging and the rise of noncommunicable diseases

Real Promise or False Hope: DOE's Title XVII Loan Guarantee

While the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 expanded the DOE loan guarantee program to include certain "shovel-ready" projects, and appropriated $6 billion to cover the credit subsidy cost associated with these projects, it failed to resolve some of the most pressing problems facing the program. Here are some recommendations that may finally get some shovels in the ground.