EuReCa ONE—27 Nations, ONE Europe, ONE Registry A prospective one month analysis of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest outcomes in 27 countries in Europe

AbstractIntroductionThe aim of the EuReCa ONE study was to determine the incidence, process, and outcome for out of hospital cardiac arrest (OHCA) throughout Europe.MethodsThis was an international, prospective, multi-centre one-month study. Patients who suffered an OHCA during October 2014 who were attended and/or treated by an Emergency Medical Service (EMS) were eligible for inclusion in the study. Data were extracted from national, regional or local registries.ResultsData on 10,682 confirmed OHCAs from 248 regions in 27 countries, covering an estimated population of 174 million. In 7146 (66%) cases, CPR was started by a bystander or by the EMS. The incidence of CPR attempts ranged from 19.0 to 104.0 per 100,000 population per year. 1735 had ROSC on arrival at hospital (25.2%), Overall, 662/6414 (10.3%) in all cases with CPR attempted survived for at least 30 days or to hospital discharge.ConclusionThe results of EuReCa ONE highlight that OHCA is still a major public health problem accounting for a substantial number of deaths in Europe.EuReCa ONE very clearly demonstrates marked differences in the processes for data collection and reported outcomes following OHCA all over Europe. Using these data and analyses, different countries, regions, systems, and concepts can benchmark themselves and may learn from each other to further improve survival following one of our major health care events

Guidelines for the use and interpretation of assays for monitoring autophagy (3rd edition)

In 2008 we published the first set of guidelines for standardizing research in autophagy. Since then, research on this topic has continued to accelerate, and many new scientists have entered the field. Our knowledge base and relevant new technologies have also been expanding. Accordingly, it is important to update these guidelines for monitoring autophagy in different organisms. Various reviews have described the range of assays that have been used for this purpose. Nevertheless, there continues to be confusion regarding acceptable methods to measure autophagy, especially in multicellular eukaryotes. For example, a key point that needs to be emphasized is that there is a difference between measurements that monitor the numbers or volume of autophagic elements (e.g., autophagosomes or autolysosomes) at any stage of the autophagic process versus those that measure fl ux through the autophagy pathway (i.e., the complete process including the amount and rate of cargo sequestered and degraded). In particular, a block in macroautophagy that results in autophagosome accumulation must be differentiated from stimuli that increase autophagic activity, defi ned as increased autophagy induction coupled with increased delivery to, and degradation within, lysosomes (inmost higher eukaryotes and some protists such as Dictyostelium ) or the vacuole (in plants and fungi). In other words, it is especially important that investigators new to the fi eld understand that the appearance of more autophagosomes does not necessarily equate with more autophagy. In fact, in many cases, autophagosomes accumulate because of a block in trafficking to lysosomes without a concomitant change in autophagosome biogenesis, whereas an increase in autolysosomes may reflect a reduction in degradative activity. It is worth emphasizing here that lysosomal digestion is a stage of autophagy and evaluating its competence is a crucial part of the evaluation of autophagic flux, or complete autophagy. Here, we present a set of guidelines for the selection and interpretation of methods for use by investigators who aim to examine macroautophagy and related processes, as well as for reviewers who need to provide realistic and reasonable critiques of papers that are focused on these processes. These guidelines are not meant to be a formulaic set of rules, because the appropriate assays depend in part on the question being asked and the system being used. In addition, we emphasize that no individual assay is guaranteed to be the most appropriate one in every situation, and we strongly recommend the use of multiple assays to monitor autophagy. Along these lines, because of the potential for pleiotropic effects due to blocking autophagy through genetic manipulation it is imperative to delete or knock down more than one autophagy-related gene. In addition, some individual Atg proteins, or groups of proteins, are involved in other cellular pathways so not all Atg proteins can be used as a specific marker for an autophagic process. In these guidelines, we consider these various methods of assessing autophagy and what information can, or cannot, be obtained from them. Finally, by discussing the merits and limits of particular autophagy assays, we hope to encourage technical innovation in the field

Seed weight of larch from different provenances (Larix decidua Mill.)

Samples of 66 autochthonous and 42 introduced provenances of Larix decidua were selected in respect of filled, empty and insect-attacked seeds vith the help of x-ray radiography. Thousand Grain Weight (TGW) was determined for each of the abore seed types within a sample. Seed was uniformly dewinged before weighing. Both these methodical aspects, namlely, the exact determination of the seed quality and the uniform dewinging of the material, are basic requirements for obtaining correct TGW values. In order to study the relationships between TGW and seed origin,the localities of the autochthonous provenances were divided into seven geographical regions: 1. Polish, 2. Sudetian, 3. Slovakian, 4. Rumanian, 5. Eastern Alpine, 6. Central Alpine, and 7. Western Alpine. The first four regions lie isolated from one another, whereas the remaining three form a continuous area of the Alpine larch. The average altitude of the regions 1-7 increases from east to west (excluding Rumanian larch). For TGW of larch, the following relationships have been found: (1) TGW values of filled seed lie between 3.73-10.81 grams. There is a direct relationship between the TGW and the average altitude of a region. The differences among the regions are gradual, i.e. the greater the difference betmeen the average altitutdes of two geographic regions, the farther apart lie the TGW values. The TGW for a particular altitude was found to be greater the higher the mountain massif in a region. (2) The TGW of empty seeds is about 70 per cent of that of filled ones. There was a tendency that with increasing altitude of the provenances, the relatire weight of the empty seeds also increased. (3) The TGW value of insect-attacked seeds was about 74.4 per cent of that of filled oncs. The insect-attacked seeds occurred chiefly in the provenances from low elevations. (4) The TGW values do not change even after the provenances have been introduced into other localities. Thus, TGW is genetically strongly fixed and only slightly modified by external factors. The following conclusions can be drawn from the results: The effectiveness of the various methods for separating the empty and the insect-attacked seeds from the filled ones can easily he checked by x-ray radiography. Of course, for practical purpose it is not necessary to remove empty seeds from the sample, if the density of sowing is estimated on the number of filled seeds. In view of the fact that TGW values of larch seed from different geographical regions are constant and specific, they could be used as a criterion for the identification of the origin of larch. However, the TGW variation among the regions has a c1inal character. which makes it difficult or impossible to determine the origin of provenance material lying on the boundary of two neighbouring regions. Chiefly in addition to other characters (e.g. form and size of cones, colour of flowers, etc. ), TGW can be useful for the identification of the origin of larch. For carrying out the identification test with the help of TGW, it is necessary to construct a standard TGW-frame for each region, based on a large and autochthonous seed material