Native chick laminin-4 containing the beta 2 chain (s-laminin) promotes motor axon growth.

After denervation of muscle, motor axons reinnervate original synaptic sites. A recombinant fragment of the synapse specific laminin beta 2 chain (s-laminin) was reported to inhibit motor axon growth. Consequently, a specific sequence (leucine-arginine-glutamate, LRE) of the laminin beta 2 chain was proposed to act as a stop signal and to mediate specific reinnervation at the neuromuscular junction (Porter, B.E., J. Weis, and J.R. Sanes. 1995. Neuron. 14:549-559). We demonstrate here that native chick laminin-4, which contains the beta 2 chain and is present in the synaptic basement membrane, does not inhibit but rather promotes motor axon growth. In native heterotrimeric laminin, the LRE sequence of the beta 2 chain is found in a triple coiled-coil region that is formed by all three subunits. We show here that the effect of LRE depends on the structural context. Whereas a recombinant randomly coiled LRE peptide indeed inhibited outgrowth by chick motoneurons, a small recombinant triple coiled-coil protein containing this sequence did not

Managing atrial fibrillation in the global community: The European perspective.

Atrial fibrillation is a common, global problem, with great personal, economic and social burdens. As populations age it increases in prevalence and becomes another condition that requires careful chronic management to ensure its effects are minimised. Assessment of the risk of stroke using well established risk prediction models is being aided by modern computerised databases and the choice of drugs to prevent strokes is ever expanding to try and improve the major cause of morbidity in AF. In addition, newer drugs for controlling rhythm are available and guidelines are constantly changing to reflect this. As well as medications, modern techniques of electrophysiology are becoming more widely embraced worldwide to provide more targeted treatment for the underlying pathophysiology. In this review we consider these factors to concisely describe how AF can be successfully managed

Bose-Einstein Condensates in Strongly Disordered Traps

A Bose-Einstein condensate in an external potential consisting of a superposition of a harmonic and a random potential is considered theoretically. From a semi-quantitative analysis we find the size, shape and excitation energy as a function of the disorder strength. For positive scattering length and sufficiently strong disorder the condensate decays into fragments each of the size of the Larkin length ${\cal L}$. This state is stable over a large range of particle numbers. The frequency of the breathing mode scales as $1/{\cal L}^2$. For negative scattering length a condensate of size ${\cal L}$ may exist as a metastable state. These finding are generalized to anisotropic traps

The Star Cluster Population of M51: II. Age distribution and relations among the derived parameters

We use archival Hubble Space Telescope observations of broad-band images from the ultraviolet (F255W-filter) through the near infrared (NICMOS F160W-filter) to study the star cluster population of the interacting spiral galaxy M 51. We obtain age, mass, extinction, and effective radius estimates for 1152 star clusters in a region of ~7.3 × 8.1 kpc centered on the nucleus and extending into the outer spiral arms. In this paper we present the data set and exploit it to determine the age distribution and relationships among the fundamental parameters (i.e. age, mass, effective radius). We show the critical dependence of the age distribution on the sample selection, and confirm that using a constant mass cut-off, above which the sample is complete for the entire age range of interest, is essential. In particular, in this sample we are complete only for masses above 5× 104~M? for the last 1 Gyr. Using this dataset we find: i) that the cluster formation rate seems to have had a large increase ~50-70 Myr ago, which is coincident with the suggested second passage of its companion, NGC 5195; ii) a large number of extremely young (<10 Myr) star clusters, which we interpret as a population of unbound clusters of which a large majority will disrupt within the next ~10 Myr; and iii) that the distribution of cluster sizes can be well approximated by a power-law with exponent, -? = -2.2 ± 0.2, which is very similar to that of Galactic globular clusters, indicating that cluster disruption is largely independent of cluster radius. In addition, we have used this dataset to search for correlations among the derived parameters. In particular, we do not find any strong trends between the age and mass, mass and effective radius, nor between the galactocentric distance and effective radius. There is, however, a strong correlation between the age of a cluster and its extinction, with younger clusters being more heavily reddened than older clusters

Two heads are better than one: The association between condom decision-making and condom use errors and problems

This is an open access article - Copyright @ 2008 BMJ Publishing GroupObjectives: This exploratory study compared the frequency of condom use errors and problems between men reporting that condom use for penile–vaginal sex was a mutual decision compared with men making the decision unilaterally. Methods: Nearly 2000 people completed a web-based questionnaire. A sub-sample of 660 men reporting that they last used a condom for penile–vaginal sex (within the past three months) was analysed. Nine condom use errors/problems were assessed. Multivariate analyses controlled for men’s age, marital status, and level of experience using condoms. Results: Men’s unilateral decision-making was associated with increased odds of removing condoms before sex ended (adjusted odds ratio (AOR) 2.51, p=0.002), breakage (AOR 3.90, p=0.037), and slippage during withdrawal (AOR 2.04, p=0.019). Men’s self-reported level of experience using condoms was significantly associated with seven out of nine errors/problems, with those indicating less experience consistently reporting more errors/problems. Conclusions: Findings suggest that female involvement in the decision to use condoms for penile–vaginal sex may be partly protective against some condom errors/problems. Men’s self-reported level of experience using condoms may be a useful indicator of the need for education designed to promote the correct use of condoms. Education programmes may benefit men by urging them to involve their female partner in condom use decisions.Funding for this project was provided by the Canada Research Chair in Social Justice and Sexual Health at the University of Windsor, and the Rural Center for AIDS/STD Prevention and The Kinsey Institute for Research in Sex, Gender, and Reproduction at Indiana University

Use of hospital services by age and comorbidity after an index heart failure admission in England: an observational study

© Published by the BMJ Publishing Group Limited.Objectives To describe hospital inpatient, emergency department (ED) and outpatient department (OPD) activity for patients in the year following their first emergency admission for heart failure (HF). To assess the proportion receiving specialist assessment within 2â €...weeks of hospital discharge, as now recommended by guidelines. Design Observational study of national administrative data. Setting All acute NHS hospitals in England. Participants 82â €...241 patients with an index emergency admission between April 2009 and March 2011 with a primary diagnosis of HF. Main outcome measures Cardiology OPD appointment within 2â €...weeks and within a year of discharge from the index admission; emergency department (ED) and inpatient use within a year. Results 15.1% died during the admission. Of the 69â €...848 survivors, 19.7% were readmitted within 30â €...days and half within a year, the majority for non-HF diagnoses. 6.7% returned to the ED within a week of discharge, of whom the majority (77.6%) were admitted. The two most common OPD specialties during the year were cardiology (24.7% of the total appointments) and anticoagulant services (12.5%). Although half of all patients had a cardiology appointment within a year, the proportion within the recommended 2â €...weeks of discharge was just 6.8% overall and varied by age, from 2.4% in those aged 90+ to 19.6% in those aged 18-45 (p<0.0001); appointments in other specialties made up only some of the shortfall. More comorbidity at any age was associated with higher rates of cardiology OPD follow-up. Conclusions Patients with HF are high users of hospital services. Postdischarge cardiology OPD follow-up rates fell well below current National Institute for Health and Care Excellence guidelines, particularly for the elderly and those with less comorbidity

Oxetanes: Recent Advances in Synthesis, Reactivity and Medicinal Chemistry

The 4-membered oxetane ring has been increasingly exploited for its behaviors, i.e. influence on physicochemical properties as a stable motif in medicinal chemistry, and propensity to undergo ring opening reactions as a synthetic intermediate. These applications have driven numerous studies into the synthesis of new oxetane derivatives. This review takes an overview of the literature for the synthesis of oxetane derivatives, concentrating on advances in the last 5 years up to the end of 2015. These methods are clustered by strategy for preparation of the ring (Sections 3 and 4), and further derivatisation of preformed oxetane-containing building blocks (Sections 5-7). Examples of the use of oxetanes in medicinal chemistry are reported, including a collation of oxetane derivatives appearing in recent patents for medicinal chemistry applications. Finally examples of oxetane derivatives in ring opening and ring expansion reactions are described

Spatial targeting of infectious disease control: identifying multiple, unknown sources

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