Hydrogels for Cardiac Restorative Support:Relevance of Gelation Mechanisms for Prospective Clinical Use

Purpose of Review: Cardiac tissue regenerative strategies have gained much traction over the years, in particular those utilizing hydrogels. With our review, and with special focus on supporting post-myocardial infarcted tissue, we aim to provide insights in determining crucial design considerations of a hydrogel and the implications these could have for future clinical use. Recent Findings: To date, two hydrogel delivery strategies are being explored, cardiac injection or patch, to treat myocardial infarction. Recent advances have demonstrated that the mechanism by which a hydrogel is gelated (i.e., physically or chemically cross-linked) not only impacts the biocompatibility, mechanical properties, and chemical structure, but also the route of delivery of the hydrogel and thus its effect on cardiac repair. Summary: With regard to cardiac regeneration, various hydrogels have been developed with the ability to function as a delivery system for therapeutic strategies (e.g., drug and stem cells treatments), as well as a scaffold to guide cardiac tissue regeneration following myocardial infarction. However, these developments remain within the experimental and pre-clinical realm and have yet to transition towards the clinical setting.</p

Doctor-patient differences in risk and time preferences: a field experiment

We conduct a framed field experiment among patients and doctors to test whether the two groups have similar risk and time preferences. We elicit risk and time preferences using multiple price list tests and their adaptations to the healthcare context. Risk and time preferences are compared in terms of switching points in the tests and the structurally estimated behavioural parameters. We find that doctors and patients significantly differ in their time preferences: doctors discount future outcomes less heavily than patients. We find no evidence that doctors and patients systematically differ in their risk preferences in the healthcare domain

A distributed topology information system for optical networks based on the semantic web

The research networking community has embraced novel network architectures to provide e-Science applications with dedicated connections instead of shared links. IP and optical services converge in these new infrastructures to form hybrid networks. Lightpaths are the services offered to clients in the optical portion of the network. They are chosen because they guarantee the appropriate QoS in terms of bandwidth and latency. NDL-the Network Description Language-is a data model offering users and providers of lightpaths with a common ontology to describe topology information of hybrid optical networks. The strength of NDL is that it supports a wide range of applications, including pathfinding, visualisation and asset management, via the definition of a common data model to exchange network descriptions. Since NDL is based on the Semantic Web techniques, it is straightforward to relate NDL with application-specific ontologies. In this paper we present the current status of the NDL schemas and its use in several applications

School health in Europe:a review of workforce expenditure across five countries

Background: Most European countries have implemented a form of school health services (SHS) to provide young children and adolescents with various types of healthcare. No estimations on SHS expenditure for European countries have been published until now. We estimated SHS workforce expenditure in Europe, expected to serve as the main driver of school healthcare costs. Methods: Using two networks of experts on healthcare provision for children we contacted various country representatives to provide data on the number of professionals working in SHS and salaries. These data were used, together with publicly available data, to estimate annual SHS workforce expenditure on the national level. Results: We received sufficient data for five European countries, and estimated the SHS workforce expenditure. Nurses were the most widely reported professionals working in this field, followed by doctors and psychologists. Our SHS expenditure estimations ranged from 43,000 for Estonia to 195,300 in Norway (per 1000 pupils). For Norway, Estonia, Finland and Iceland, school nurses were the main drivers of SHS expenditure, mainly due to their large numbers, while in Austria, school doctors played the largest role in SHS expenditure. Conclusions: We estimated the spending on SHS workforce for five European countries, which comprises relatively minor parts of total healthcare spending (0.16 to 0.69%). Many questions regarding SHS spending in Europe remain, due to a general lack of data on national levels

Transition between Two Oscillation Modes

A model for the symmetric coupling of two self-oscillators is presented. The nonlinearities cause the system to vibrate in two modes of different symmetries. The transition between these two regimes of oscillation can occur by two different scenarios. This might model the release of vortices behind circular cylinders with a possible transition from a symmetric to an antisymmetric Benard-von Karman vortex street.Comment: 12 pages, 0 figure

Distinct RNA profiles in subpopulations of extracellular vesicles: apoptotic bodies, microvesicles and exosomes

Introduction: In recent years, there has been an exponential increase in the number of studies aiming to understand the biology of exosomes, as well as other extracellular vesicles. However, classification of membrane vesicles and the appropriate protocols for their isolation are still under intense discussion and investigation. When isolating vesicles, it is crucial to use systems that are able to separate them, to avoid cross-contamination. Method: EVs released from three different kinds of cell lines: HMC-1, TF-1 and BV-2 were isolated using two centrifugation-based protocols. In protocol 1, apoptotic bodies were collected at 2,000&#x00D7;g, followed by filtering the supernatant through 0.8 &#x00B5;m pores and pelleting of microvesicles at 12,200&#x00D7;g. In protocol 2, apoptotic bodies and microvesicles were collected together at 16,500&#x00D7;g, followed by filtering of the supernatant through 0.2 &#x00B5;m pores and pelleting of exosomes at 120,000&#x00D7;g. Extracellular vesicles were analyzed by transmission electron microscopy, flow cytometry and the RNA profiles were investigated using a Bioanalyzer&#x00AE;. Results: RNA profiles showed that ribosomal RNA was primary detectable in apoptotic bodies and smaller RNAs without prominent ribosomal RNA peaks in exosomes. In contrast, microvesicles contained little or no RNA except for microvesicles collected from TF-1 cell cultures. The different vesicle pellets showed highly different distribution of size, shape and electron density with typical apoptotic body, microvesicle and exosome characteristics when analyzed by transmission electron microscopy. Flow cytometry revealed the presence of CD63 and CD81 in all vesicles investigated, as well as CD9 except in the TF-1-derived vesicles, as these cells do not express CD9. Conclusions: Our results demonstrate that centrifugation-based protocols are simple and fast systems to distinguish subpopulations of extracellular vesicles. Different vesicles show different RNA profiles and morphological characteristics, but they are indistinguishable using CD63-coated beads for flow cytometry analysis

SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infections after COVID-19 vaccination in patients with inflammatory bowel disease:a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background: Patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) have an attenuated serologic response to COVID-19 vaccination. It is unclear whether an impaired immune response in vaccinated IBD patients impacts the susceptibility to SARS-CoV-2 infection and occurrence of severe COVID-19. Objectives:To evaluate SARS-CoV-2 breakthrough infection rates and the disease course of COVID-19 in vaccinated IBD patients. Design: A systematic literature search and meta-analysis was performed. Data sources and methods: The search was performed in Embase, Medline, Web of Science Core Collection, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials and CINAHIL. The articles were independently screened and selected by two reviewers. A random-effects model was used to calculate the pooled relative risk for breakthrough infections in vaccinated IBD patients and controls. Results: A total of 16 studies were included, with study periods ranging from January 2020 to October 2021 and follow-up time from 3 weeks to 6 months. The breakthrough infection rates range from 0 to 37.4% in vaccinated IBD patients. The disease course of COVID-19 was generally mild, with low hospitalization and mortality rates (0–8.7% and 0–4.3%, respectively). Vaccinated IBD patients had a significantly lower relative risk of breakthrough infection rate compared to unvaccinated controls (risk ratio: 0.07, 95% CI: 0.03–0.18). No difference was observed between IBD patients and non-IBD controls, and between partially and fully vaccinated IBD patients. The impact of immunosuppressive therapy on breakthrough infection rates differs between studies. Most studies showed no impact from immunosuppressive treatment, anti-tumour necrosis factor alpha or corticosteroids and other biologics; one study reported higher rates for patients treated with infliximab versus vedolizumab. Conclusion: Vaccination is effective to prevent COVID-19 infections in patients with IBD. Breakthrough infections do occur, but the disease course is generally mild. Available data seem to suggest a declining trend of breakthrough infections during calendar time. Registration: The protocol was published in the PROSPERO database (CRD42021292853).</p

Human Bocavirus and KI/WU Polyomaviruses in Pediatric Intensive Care Patients

We evaluated the prevalence of human bocavirus and KI and WU polyomaviruses in pediatric intensive care patients with and without lower respiratory tract infection (LRTI). The prevalence of these viruses was 5.1%, 0%, and 2.6%, respectively, in children with LRTI and 4.8%, 4.8%, and 2.4%, respectively, in those without LRTI