Realcare: recovery after lung resection: study design and preliminary results

Physical activity is considered beneficial for recovery of physical fitness, symptoms of fatigue and distress, and quality of life following lung resection. However, till now there is insufficient insight in the recovery and relevance of physical activity in this process as most studies so far rely on subjective information from questionnaires to capture level of physical activity.\ud Our results show that on average patients experience a complete recovery of health status at six months post surgery to pre-surgery levels. Next to that, higher levels of daily activity were associated with better health status. \ud Interestingly, part of NSCLC patients deploy below-average physical activity. \ud A next step would be to investigate whether ambulant monitoring of both symptoms and daily activity optimizes recovery of health status after lung resection

The R.V. Pelagia pre-drilling site survey at the Rockall and Porcupine cold water coral mounds provinces, European Atlantic margin. The CARBONATE project, ESF EuroMARC program

From 30 September to 22 October 2007 a cruise with the Royal NIOZ research vessel Pelagia was carried out within the framework of the ESF (EuroMARC) project CARBONATE. The goal of this cruise was to complete the existing data set of carbonate mounds present at the European Atlantic margin in order to be able to choose suitable coring sites to drill complete top to base sections through the carbonate mounds with the MeBo drilling device. This is a remotely operated drill that is placed at the sea floor and capable of drilling sediment cores with a maximum length of 85 metres. The drilling cruise, with the Irish research vessel Celtic Explorer, is planned to take place in the summer of 2008.During the Pelagia cruise 5 carbonate mound provinces were visited. The mounds were selected based on two main criteria:the mound provinces should represent different stages in mound developmentit must be possible to penetrate the mounds from top to base with the MeBo (expected maximum sequence thickness in the order of 75 m)The first area that was visited is located at the SE Rockall Bank margin. These mounds are characterised by abundant living cold water corals at their top. The second mound province that was visited is located at the SW Rockall Bank. Initially a large mound cluster known as Franken Mound was chosen for detailed studies. This mound, as well as smaller mounds in the vicinity, is dominated by dead corals and it is considered to be in what is often called the retirement stage. At theWand N margin of the Porcupine Bank two areas were visited. Most of the mounds occur as isolated structures. Only limited amounts of living cold water corals are present. The mounds in the last area that was visited are also referred to as the Magellan Mounds. This is a group of small (<100 m) mounds located in the Porcupine Seabight. These mounds are mostly fully buried and thus represent the final stage of mound development.At all sites a multibeam bathymetric survey was carried out. Subsequently a benthic lander was deployed which was equipped for a period of 2 to 4 days to measure near bed hydrography and sediment transport. This was followed by seismic and video surveys.The initial results of the cruise indicate that at all proposed drilling sites carbonate mounds with a total thickness that can be penetrated by the MeBo are present. The video observations did not reveal the presence of any rough terrain that may hamper the positioning of the MeBo at the seabed

Co-creation of an ICT-supported cancer rehabilitation application for resected lung cancer survivors: design and evaluation

Background Lung cancer (LC) patients experience high symptom burden and significant decline of physical fitness and quality of life following lung resection. Good quality of survivorship care post-surgery is essential to optimize recovery and prevent unscheduled healthcare use. The use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) can improve post-surgery care, as it enables frequent monitoring of health status in daily life, provides timely and personalized feedback to patients and professionals, and improves accessibility to rehabilitation programs. Despite its promises, implementation of telehealthcare applications is challenging, often hampered by non-acceptance of the developed service by its end-users. A promising approach is to involve the end-users early and continuously during the developmental process through a so-called user-centred design approach. The aim of this article is to report on this process of co-creation and evaluation of a multimodal ICT-supported cancer rehabilitation program with and for lung cancer patients treated with lung resection and their healthcare professionals (HCPs). Methods A user-centered design approach was used. Through semi-structured interviews (n = 10 LC patients and 6 HCPs), focus groups (n = 5 HCPs), and scenarios (n = 5 HCPs), user needs and requirements were elicited. Semi-structured interviews and the System Usability Scale (SUS) were used to evaluate usability of the telehealthcare application with 7 LC patients and 10 HCPs. Results The developed application consists of: 1) self-monitoring of symptoms and physical activity using on-body sensors and a smartphone, and 2) a web based physical exercise program. 71 % of LC patients and 78 % of HCPs were willing to use the application as part of lung cancer treatment. Accessibility of data via electronic patient records was essential for HCPs. LC patients regarded a positive attitude of the HCP towards the application essential. Overall, the usability (SUS median score = 70, range 35–95) was rated acceptable. Conclusions A telehealthcare application that facilitates symptom monitoring and physical fitness training is considered a useful tool to further improve recovery following surgery of resected lung cancer (LC) patients. Involvement of end users in the design process appears to be necessary to optimize chances of adoption, compliance and implementation of telemedicine

Anthropogenic influence on sediment transport in the Whittard Canyon, NE Atlantic

Unusual peaks in turbidity were detected in two branches of the Whittard Canyon in June 2013. Enhanced nepheloid layers (ENLs) were defined as layers with concentrations of suspended particulate matter exceeding those of nepheloid layers typically observed in a given region. Here, ENLs had peaks in turbidity and elevated suspended particulate matter concentrations exceeding ~1 mg L−1 with the largest ENLs measuring between ~2–8mg L−1. The ENLs measured ~100–260m in vertical height and were detected inwater depths of between 640 and 2880 m. Vessel Monitoring System data showed that high spatial and temporal activity of potential bottom trawling vessels coincided with the occurrence of the ENLs. Molar C/N ratios of the suspended organic material from the ENLs showed a high degree of degradation. Regular occurrences of such events are likely to have implications for increased sediment fluxes, burial of organic carbon and alteration of benthic and canyon ecosystems

The RAB3-RIM Pathway Is Essential for the Release of Neuromodulators

Neurons secrete neuromodulators/neuropeptides from dense-core vesicles (DCVs) by a largely unknown mechanism. Persoon et al. identify RAB3 and RIM1/2 as essential factors. RAB3’s indispensable role is the first distinct feature of DCV secretion as compared to synaptic vesicle secretion

dOCRL maintains immune cell quiescence in Drosophila by regulating endosomal traffic

Lowe Syndrome is a developmental disorder characterized by eye, kidney, and neurological pathologies, and is caused by mutations in the phosphatidylinositol-5-phosphatase OCRL. OCRL plays diverse roles in endocytic and endolysosomal trafficking, cytokinesis, and ciliogenesis, but it is unclear which of these cellular functions underlie specific patient symptoms. Here, we show that mutation of Drosophila OCRL causes cell-autonomous activation of hemocytes, which are macrophage-like cells of the innate immune system. Among many cell biological defects that we identified in docrl mutant hemocytes, we pinpointed the cause of innate immune cell activation to reduced Rab11-dependent recycling traffic and concomitantly increased Rab7-dependent late endosome traffic. Loss of docrl amplifies multiple immune-relevant signals, including Toll, Jun kinase, and STAT, and leads to Rab11-sensitive mis-sorting and excessive secretion of the Toll ligand Spåtzle. Thus, docrl regulation of endosomal traffic maintains hemocytes in a poised, but quiescent state, suggesting mechanisms by which endosomal misregulation of signaling may contribute to symptoms of Lowe syndrome