Practical points of attention beyond instructions for use with the Zenith fenestrated stent graft.

Fenestrated stent grafting for endovascular repair (F-EVAR) aims to treat patients with abdominal aortic aneurysms that are unsuitable for standard EVAR because of a short or absent infrarenal neck. F-EVAR has been used initially in patients with higher surgical risk with pararenal abdominal aortic aneurysms, but F-EVAR is now increasingly considered a treatment alternative to open surgery in anatomically suitable patients. F-EVAR has benefitted from ongoing technical refinements and accumulating clinical experience but remains a relatively complex procedure. Correct indication, accurate preoperative planning, and meticulous execution are the key to long-term success. Considering the growing interest in F-EVAR worldwide, including the United States, we discuss current indications and provide advice for planning and technical execution on the basis of the senior authors' 13 years of experience

Nitrogen-doping of bulk and nanotubular TiO2 photocatalysts by plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition

Plasma-assisted atomic layer deposition (PA-ALD) was adopted to deposit TiO2-xNx ultrathin layers on Si wafers, calcined Ti foils and nanotubular TiO2 arrays. A range of N content and chemical bond configurations were obtained by varying the background gas (O2 or N2) during the Ti precursor exposure, while the N2/H2-fed inductively coupled plasma exposure time was varied between 2 and 20 s. On calcined Ti foils, a positive effect from N doping on photocurrent density was observed when O2 was the background gases with a short plasma exposure time (5 and 10 s). This correlated with the presence of interstitial N states in the TiO2 with a binding energy of 400 eV (Ninterst) as measured by X-ray photoelectron spectroscopy. A longer plasma time or the use of N2 as background gas resulted in formation of N state with a binding energy of 396 eV (Nsubst) and very low photocurrents. These Nsubst are linked to the presence of Ti3+, which act as detrimental recombination centers for photo-generated electron-hole pairs. On contrary, PA-ALD treated nanotubular TiO2 arrays show no variation of photocurrent density (with respect to the pristine nanotubes) upon different plasma exposure times and when the O2 recipe was adopted. This is attributed to constant N content in the PA-ALD TiO2-xNx, regardless of the adopted recipe

Restoring mitofusin balance prevents axonal degeneration in a Charcot-Marie-Tooth type 2A model

Mitofusin-2 (MFN2) is a mitochondrial outer-membrane protein that plays a pivotal role in mitochondrial dynamics in most tissues, yet mutations in MFN2, which cause Charcot-Marie-Tooth disease type 2A (CMT2A), primarily affect the nervous system. We generated a transgenic mouse model of CMT2A that developed severe early onset vision loss and neurological deficits, axonal degeneration without cell body loss, and cytoplasmic and axonal accumulations of fragmented mitochondria. While mitochondrial aggregates were labeled for mitophagy, mutant MFN2 did not inhibit Parkin-mediated degradation, but instead had a dominant negative effect on mitochondrial fusion only when MFN1 was at low levels, as occurs in neurons. Finally, using a transgenic approach, we found that augmenting the level of MFN1 in the nervous system in vivo rescued all phenotypes in mutant MFN2R94Q-expressing mice. These data demonstrate that the MFN1/MFN2 ratio is a key determinant of tissue specificity in CMT2A and indicate that augmentation of MFN1 in the nervous system is a viable therapeutic strategy for the disease