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Copyright of Impossibilia: Revista Internacional de Estudios Literarios is the property of Impossibilia: Revista Internacional de Estudios Literarios and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Evidence on the impact of MCS on pediatric heart transplant survival is still scarce related to congenital heart disease patients including univentricular physiology as well as the risk factors for complications. We performed a retrospective review of all urgent pediatric (aged ≤16 years) HT from 2004 to 2014 in the Spanish Pediatric Heart Transplant Registry Group. Patients were stratified into two groups: urgent 0 (MCS at HT) and urgent 1 (non‐MCS at HT). The primary outcome measure was post‐transplant survival; secondary outcome measures were complications and absence of infections and rejection during the first post‐transplant year. One hundred twenty‐one pediatric patients underwent urgent HT, 58 (47.9%) urgent 0 and 63 (52%) urgent 1. There were 30 (24.8%) deaths: 12 in the urgent 0 group and 18 in the urgent 1 group, P = n.s. Regarding the type of MCS, patients on ECMO had the highest rate of complications (80%) and mortality (40%). Patients in the urgent 1 group showed a higher risk of hospital re‐admission for infection during the first year after transplantation (OR 2.31 [1.1‐4.82]), P =.025. We did not identify a risk factor for mortality. MCS does not impact negatively on survival after HT. However, there is a significant increase in 30‐day and 1‐year mortality and complications in ECMO patients compared with VAD patients. Infants, congenital heart disease, and PediMACS were not found to be risk factors for mortality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To assess if the alteration of neuromuscular properties of knee extensors muscles during heavy exercise co-vary with the SCV ( V ̇ O 2 slow component), eleven healthy male participants completed an incremental ramp test to exhaustion and five constant heavy intensity cycling bouts of 2, 6, 10, 20 and 30 minutes. Neuromuscular testing of the knee extensor muscles were completed before and after exercise. Results showed a significant decline in maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) torque only after 30 minutes of exercise (−17.01% ± 13.09%; p < 0.05) while single twitch (PT), 10 Hz (P10), and 100 Hz (P100) doublet peak torque amplitudes were reduced after 20 and 30 minutes (p < 0.05). Voluntary activation (VA) and M-wave were not affected by exercise, but significant correlation was found between the SCV and PT, MVC, VA, P10, P100, and P10/P100 ratio, respectively (p < 0.015). Therefore, because the development of the SCV occurred mainly between 2–10 minutes, during which neuromuscular properties were relatively stable, and because PT, P10 and P100 were significantly reduced only after 20-30 minutes of exercise while SCV is stable, a temporal relationship between them does not appear to exist. These results suggest that the development of fatigue due to alterations of neuromuscular properties is not an essential requirement to elicit the SCV. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this article is to analyse the costs of responsible governance on the national political establishment of the Eurozone in the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis. Our analysis tests two main hypotheses. First, we argue that financial crises like the one unleashed by the global financial meltdown of 2008 have an asymmetric impact on the electoral records of establishment parties depending on whether the countries affected by the financial crisis were financially intervened in or not. Our second hypothesis states that externally imposed austerity affects Left and Right national establishment parties differently. By choosing to act responsibly, that is, assuming the conditions of the intervention, the establishment Left pays a much larger electoral price than the one paid by the establishment Right under the same circumstances. To test our argument, we use a panel data set of 12 countries from the Eurozone in the period between 1999 (stage III of the monetary union) and 2015 that contains 54 country-election-year observations. Our findings show strong support for our two hypotheses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

To investigate the influence of different metabolic muscle fiber profiles on the emergence of the slow component of oxygen uptake ( V ˙ O 2 SC), 12 habitually active males completed four sessions of different combinations of work-to-work transition exercises up to severe intensity. Each transition was modeled to analyze the different kinetic parameters. Using a new approach, combining Henneman’s principle and superposition principle, a reconstructed kinetics was built by temporally aligning the start of each new transition and summing them. The primary phase time constant significantly slowed and the gain at the end (GainEnd) significantly increased when transitions started from a higher intensity (p < 0.001). Kinetic parameters from the reconstructed curve ( V ˙ O 2 baseline , time delay of primary phase, V ˙ O 2 End and GainEnd) were not significantly different from one transition to severe exercise. These results suggest that the appearance of the V ˙ O 2 SC is at least related to, if not the result of, the different metabolic properties of muscle fibers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Human skeletal muscle is composed of a functional and metabolic continuum of slow (Type I) and fast fibers (IIa and IIx). Hybrid fibers co‐expressing different myosin heavy chains are also present and seem to be more prominent in aging muscle. Their role is debated; hybrid fibers were reported either in a transitional state, between slow and fast fibers, or as fixed individual entities. This study examined the fate of hybrid fibers with an endurance exercise intervention in an elderly sedentary population. Methods: Twenty‐two sedentary healthy elderly men and women underwent a 16‐week supervised endurance exercise intervention. Eighteen endurance‐trained age‐ and gender‐matched volunteers served as controls. Fiber type distribution was determined by immunohistochemistry on vastus lateralis muscle biopsies pre‐intervention and post‐intervention. Results: A total of 13840 fibers were analyzed. At baseline, a Type II dominant fiber profile was observed compared with the control group, with more Type IIa (P = 0.0301) and Type IIx fibers (P = 0.0328). Hybrid fibers represented almost 5% of total muscle fibers in both groups. There was no significant difference between groups (I–IIa, P = 0.6719 and IIa–IIx, P = 0.0998). Intervention triggered qualitative dynamics towards an increase in Type I, and decrease in Type II fibers, paralleled by an increase in I–IIa hybrids (P = 0.0301). Conclusions: The present study is, to our knowledge, the first to examine hybrid muscle fiber type adaptations to an endurance exercise intervention in the elderly. Hybrid fiber proportions did not differ between chronic sedentary state and chronic endurance‐trained state. Exercise intervention increased Type I–IIa hybrid fibers along with shift dynamics in other fiber types suggesting the contribution of hybrid fiber to a fast‐to‐slow fiber type transition, eventually serving as intermediate reservoir from one monomorphic myosin heavy chain expressing fiber type to another. This finding favours the transitional theory regarding hybrid muscle fibers and exercise, crucial to understanding reversible mechanisms of sarcopenia and development of prevention measures. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary: Objective: Research findings on the relationship between serum androgens and adipose tissue in older females are inconsistent. We aimed to clarify the relationship using state‐of‐the‐art techniques to evaluate associations between body fat distribution and plasma testosterone (T) levels in older postmenopausal women. Design: Observational, cross‐sectional study of healthy, community dwelling postmenopausal women. Patients and Measurements: Postmenopausal women (60‐80 years old) were included in this study. Overall body composition was evaluated by dual‐energy X‐ray absorptiometry. Abdominal and thigh fat depots were measured by magnetic resonance imaging. Circulating T concentrations were analysed by liquid chromatography‐tandem mass spectrometry. Results: Thirty‐five women (66.6 ± 0.8 years) participated in this study. T levels were positively associated with clinical proxy measures of adiposity including weight (ρ = 0.39), BMI (ρ = 0.43) and waist circumference (ρ = 0.39) (all P < 0.05). Fat mass and % body fat were correlated with T levels (ρ = 0.42 and 0.38 respectively, both P < 0.05). T correlated with overall and superficial abdominal fat (ρ = 0.34 and 0.37 respectively, both P < 0.05) but not with visceral adipose tissue. T increased with greater thigh fat (ρ = 0.49, P < 0.05) in both superficial and deep depots (ρ = 0.50 and 0.35 respectively, both P < 0.05). Conclusion: Our results suggest that postmenopausal women with higher circulating T levels have both higher regional and overall body adiposity. These findings underscore the sexual dimorphism in the relationship between serum androgen levels and adiposity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Revista Prisma Social is the property of Revista Prisma Social and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Scholarly research on the emergence of anew politicsagenda of democratic regeneration, driven by the electoral growth of challenger parties, has focused the analysis primarily at the national and supranational levels, leaving the subnational level underexplored. This article contributes to filling this gap through a comparative analysis of party competition in peripheral regions of Italy, Spain and Great Britain during the European Great Recession. UsingRegional Manifestos Projectdata, it shows that the regionalisation of the state and the presence of a centre‒periphery cleavage represent no obstacle when it comes to responding to a change of preferences among the electorate. The transformation of political spaces in the aftermath of the Great Recession is happening as much at the regional as at the national level. At the same time, the political relevance of challenger parties and the diversity of regional responses contradict the alleged secondary nature of regional dynamics. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Background: Hepatitis B virus (HBV) chronic infection affects up to 240 million people in the world and it is a common cause of cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). HBV covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) plays an essential role in HBV persistence and replication. Current pharmacological treatment with nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) may suppress HBV replication with little or no impact on cccDNA, hence lifelong treatment is required in the vast majority of patients. Clearances of intrahepatic cccDNA and/or HBsAg are critical endpoints for future antiviral therapy in chronic HBV. Recent promising developments targeting different molecular HBV life cycle steps are being pre-clinically tested or have moved forward in early clinical trials.Methods: We review the current state of the art of these pharmacological developments, mainly focusing on efficacy and safety results, which are expected to lay the ground for future HBV eradication. An inclusive literature search on new treatments of HBV using the following electronic databases: Pubmed/MEDLINE, AMED, CINAHL and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Full-text manuscripts and abstracts published over the last 12 years, from 2005 to March 2011 were reviewed for relevance and reference lists were crosschecked for additional applicable studies regarding new HBV antiviral treatment.Results: HBV entry inhibitors, HBV core inhibitors, HBV cccDNA transcripts RNA interference, HBV cell apoptosis inducers, HBV RNA, viral proteins and DNA knock down agents, HBV release inhibitors, anti-sense nucleosides, exogenous interferon stimulation, interferon response stimulation and HBV therapeutic vaccines were reviewed.Conclusion: This review will provide readers with an updated vision of current and foreseeable therapeutic developments in chronic hepatitis B. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article it is argued that citizens take into account the degree of a government's political autonomy to implement particular policies when expressing their views on satisfaction with democracy (SWD) but, in order to do so, they need to perceive it. When citizens directly observe the external constraints that reduce their government's autonomy, then variations in levels of regime satisfaction may no longer be exclusively about government performance - as widely argued by political economists - but also about democratic choice. The argument develops after comparing the existing scenarios in the Eurozone before and after the Great Recession. Citizens only began to perceive their own lack of choice to decide between policy alternatives when the sovereign debt crisis broke out in May 2010, the date of the first Greek bail-out. It is then when citizens started to update their beliefs about the functioning of democracy as a system in which alternative policies can be adopted as bail-out deals were signed between national governments from the Euro periphery and the Troika. This updating process towards the way democracy works explains the increasing gap in the levels of SWD between bailed-out economies and the rest of the countries in the Eurozone. Empirical confirmation for this claim is found after analysing Eurobarometer surveys from 2002 to 2014 and using a two-step difference-in-difference analysis that combines individual and aggregate data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our main objective in this article is to disentangle the diverse components of peripheral parties' 'issue packages' and to show the different ways in which a peripheral party can present its nationalist credentials according to the strategic needs imposed by each particular context. Against one stream of literature that sees peripheral parties as single-issue or niche parties, we use manifesto data to demonstrate that peripheral parties do not limit their issue appeal to just one dimension of competition. On the contrary, as strategic and vote-maximising parties, they have a highly diversified issue portfolio. We also argue that the centre-periphery dimension has a complex issue structure that allows peripheral parties to offer attractive moderate images without renouncing their nationalist identity. For our analysis, we use the Regional Manifestos Project data on peripheral parties' manifestos in Spain and the United Kingdom (Convergence and Union, Catalonian Republican Left, Basque Nationalist Party, EH-Bildu, Galician Nationalist Block, Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru) in their respective last regional elections (2011-2012). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article demonstrates that regional branches of national parties do not limit regional election campaigns to regional issues. On the contrary, they nationalize regional elections (i.e., emphasize national-level issues in regional campaigns) as an electoral strategy to win votes. The empirical evidence comes from the quantitative content analysis of regional-level manifestos of the two main national parties in Spain, PP, and PSOE, between 1998 and 2015. The percentage of references to the national government is taken as an indicator of nationalization. We find that parties nationalize regional elections under two situations: when the national co-partisans are in office enjoying high levels of popularity or when the national co-partisans are in opposition and the nationally governing party is unpopular. These findings contribute to a better understanding of the role of national parties in subordinating the regional arena to the national one in federal and decentralized states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report a case of a 12-yr-old boy referred to our unit with congenital generalized lipodystrophy and dilated cardiomyopathy related to a lamin gene mutation. He progressively developed end-stage heart failure and was referred for heart transplant evaluation. The patient's lipid profile, glucose level, and renal function were normal, and vascular retinopathy was ruled out. He underwent orthotopic bicaval HT and had an uneventful recovery. He was discharged home two wk after surgery with good graft function. During follow-up, he developed hyperglycemia and dyslipidemia, which were controlled by increasing leptin dose and starting oral antidiabetic drugs. The patient is currently doing well two yr after transplantation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article has two objectives. Firstly, we test the theoretical assumptions about the repertoire of party strategies in a two-dimensional political space presented in the introduction to this special issue. We use a new dataset that content-analyzes electoral parties’ manifestos for regional elections in Spain and Great Britain (the Regional Manifestos Project) in order to see how well the theoretically-derived strategies approximate what parties in regional elections really do. Secondly, we develop tentative explanations of parties’ strategies: Which parties are more likely to use what type of strategy and under what circumstances? After running a multinomial logistic model we find that, in contrast to the niche party thesis, regionalist parties strategize simultaneously along the territorial and the economic dimensions of competition, while state-wide parties react to the presence of regionalist opponents by incorporating the territorial dimension into the agenda. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although there is growing research interest in populist radical right (PRR) parties in Western Europe, little attention has been paid to the case of Spain – a country where these parties are almost non-existent or irrelevant from an electoral and political point of view. In a nutshell, we maintain that in contemporary Spain there is real demand for PRR parties, but three supply-side factors are impeding their electoral breakthrough and persistence: the cleavage structure of the country, the strategy of competition of the mainstream right and the electoral system. At the same time, we postulate that at least in the case of Spain the Great Recession has not improved the electoral odds of the PRR as such but rather facilitated the emergence of leftist populist forces. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Recerca is the property of Universitat Jaume I and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the relationship between internal governance structure and financial performance of listed Spanish companies. The effectiveness of the board of directors is analyzed through the use of different variables: size, composition, duality, number of annual meetings and busyness of the directors. The financial performance is measured by return on assets (ROA), return on equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q. Design/methodology/approach – Our study is addressed through the use of a multi-theoretical approach followed by an empirical analysis. Schematic literature review serves as a basis for setting our hypotheses. We conduct the empirical part of the study by applying these to the listed companies in the Madrid Stock Exchange. An econometric model (multiple regression) is used to test the relation between board structure and financial performance. Findings – Empirical: We conclude that in the three estimated models, two of the dependent variables, ROE and ROA, have an explanatory value. The relationship between the number of the boards of directors’ meetings and performance has proved to be negative. Theoretical: Ample literature on corporate governance leads to two conclusions: First, corporative–financial relations must be studied by a multi-theoretical approach. Second, future research must be made only on specific studies coincident with the majority of their characteristics (country, type of firm, type of statistical model […]). Research limitations/implications – Future research will try to cover gaps, expanding this study in both space and time. Practical implications – The number of Spanish companies’ boards meetings is very high. As shown in our study, holding more than one meeting a month does not guarantee greater financial returns; the board can effectively establish its strategic lines of business by meeting up to 12 times per year. Social implications – The results show a negative relationship between ROE and the number of meetings, which may be linked to the country’s business culture, which traditionally has a higher number of annual meetings when compared to neighboring countries. Perhaps, this is an indicative symptom of the inefficiency associated with the Spanish system. Originality/value – Theoretical review is performed with two aims: first, to establish our research hypotheses, and second, to reflect on future research by fine-tuning the abundant previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We propose a methodology for measuring political parties' centre–periphery preferences and positions. The proposal is based on an extension of the Manifesto Project's methodology that allows us to analyse manifestos in multi-level settings (i.e. manifestos written for sub- and supra-state electoral arenas). This adaptation requires extending the Manifesto classification scheme to include territorial preferences together with policy preferences specific to each electoral level. It has two major objectives: on the one hand, it allows us to apply content analysis to manifestos written for all possible electoral levels; on the other, it measures parties' centre–periphery preferences beyond the widely used and uninformative categories of ‘centralization/decentralization’ and ‘nationalism’. We have applied our methodology to Spanish state-level and regional-level manifestos between 2009 and 2012 with encouraging results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Using data from the Comparative Manifestos Project, we compare the policy positions of left and right parties with regard to immigration across 18 West European countries between 1975 and 2005. We test two main hypotheses: First, we expect that mainstream parties will exploit anti-immigrant sentiments in the electorate regardless of extreme right competition. This would indicate that the extreme Right is not the only driving force behind the recent ‘anti-immigrant turn’ of electoral politics in Western Europe. Second, we expect the mainstream Left to become increasingly critical towards immigration as its mainstream and/or extreme right competitors intensify their populist rhetoric. Being ‘tough’ on immigration is thus not a prerogative of the Right. We conclude that the impact of the extreme Right on the electoral behaviour of mainstream right parties has been overstated in previous studies. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Copyright of Matronas Profesion is the property of Ediciones Mayo and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

OBJECTIVES:Patients with hepatitis C virus (HCV) cirrhosis are difficult to treat and have a high risk of liver decompensation or hepatocellular carcinoma. We sought to identify factors that could predict treatment response.METHODS:Collaborating centers (n=26) provided data for patients (n=568) with HCV cirrhosis undergoing treatment with peginterferon-α plus ribavirin (RBV). Univariate and multivariate analyses were used to evaluate factors predicting treatment outcomes.RESULTS:Sustained viral response (SVR) in naive patients was 30.7%, with no significant differences between centers. Median follow-up was 35 months (range: 1-81). Factors predicting SVR were: non-genotype 1 (odds ratio (OR)=4.183; 95% confidence interval (CI): 2.353-7.438) overall dose and ≥80% of the scheduled time of treatment (OR=3.177; 95% CI: 1.752-5.760); serum γ-glutamyl transpeptidase (GGT) <76 IU per ml (OR=4.092; 95% CI: 2.418-6.927); baseline viral load <6 × 105 (OR=2.597; 95% CI: 1.583-4.262); absence of ultrasound signs of portal hypertension (OR=2.067; 95% CI: 1.26-3.39). No patient with a HCV-RNA decline <1 log10 at week 4 achieved SVR. Event-free survival at 5 years was 91% in patients with SVR vs. 59% in non-responders (P<0.001). Overall survival in patients with SVR was 98% vs. 86% in non-responders (P=0.005). Independent factors predicting events were absence of SVR (hazard ratio (HR)=2.66; 95% CI: 1.32-5.54), baseline serum albumin <3.9 g per 100 ml (HR=3.06; 95% CI: 1.81-5.15), presence of esophageal varices on endoscopy (HR=2.489; 95% CI: 1.546-4). Improved outcome was more evident in responders with less advanced disease at baseline.CONCLUSIONS:SVR can be achieved in approximately one-third of patients with HCV-related cirrhosis. SVR independently reduces the likelihood of clinical decompensation and improves survival. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Meningococcal disease remains one of the most important infectious causes of death in industrialized countries. The highly diverse clinical presentation and prognosis of Neisseria meningitidis infections are the result of complex host genetics and environmental interactions. We investigated whether mitochondrial genetic background contributes to meningococcal disease (MD) susceptibility. Methodology/Principal Findings: Prospective controlled study was performed through a national research network on MD that includes 41 Spanish hospitals. Cases were 307 paediatric patients with confirmed MD, representing the largest series of MD patients analysed to date. Two independent sets of ethnicity-matched control samples (CG1 [N = 917]), and CG2 [N = 616]) were used for comparison. Cases and controls underwent mtDNA haplotyping of a selected set of 25 mtDNA SNPs (mtSNPs), some of them defining major European branches of the mtDNA phylogeny. In addition, 34 ancestry informative markers (AIMs) were genotyped in cases and CG2 in order to monitor potential hidden population stratification. Samples of known African, Native American and European ancestry (N = 711) were used as classification sets for the determination of ancestral membership of our MD patients. A total of 39 individuals were eliminated from the main statistical analyses (including fourteen gypsies) on the basis of either non-Spanish self-reported ancestry or the results of AIMs indicating a European membership lower than 95%. Association analysis of the remaining 268 cases against CG1 suggested an overrepresentation of the synonym mtSNP G11719A variant (Pearson's chi-square test; adjusted P-value = 0.0188; OR [95% CI] = 1.63 [1.22-2.18]). When cases were compared with CG2, the positive association could not be replicated. No positive association has been observed between haplogroup (hg) status of cases and CG1/CG2 and hg status of cases and several clinical variants. Conclusions: We did not find evidence of association between mtSNPs and mtDNA hgs with MD after carefully monitoring the confounding effect of population sub-structure. MtDNA variability is particularly stratified in human populations owing to its low effective population size in comparison with autosomal markers and therefore, special care should be taken in the interpretation of seeming signals of positive associations in mtDNA case-control association studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article is an exploratory analysis of the efficacy of parliamentary representation as a means to moderate ethnic conflict in new democracies. The authors agree with many others that the interests of a minority ethnic group are better protected when the group has access to decision makers, can block harmful government policies and veto potentially damaging decisions. Parliamentary representation, however, does not always allow for an effective representation of those who are not in government. Seats in the legislature may be of little use in a parliament where the executive dominates the policy process at all stages. This article focuses on the new democracies of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union between 1990 and 2000. The authors use the number of parliamentary seats obtained by minority ethnic parties as their main independent variable and the MAR ethnic protest and rebellion scores as their dependent variables. In addition, they employ the system of government (i.e., parliamentary versus presidential) as a proxy indicator of the degree of influence that parliamentary parties have over decision making. A cross-section-time-series regression analysis shows that the ameliorative effect of parliamentary representation over ethnic conflict is stronger in those legislatures where the ethnic group has effective influence over decision making. It is also shown that representation within national parliaments has no ameliorative effects over violent secessionist conflicts. When the ethnic minority's demands are too radical, parliamentary representation is simply an inadequate instrument. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aortico-left ventricular tunnel (ALVT) is a rare congenital paravalvar communication between the aorta and the left ventricle. This anomaly has been associated with the right coronary artery (RCA) arising directly from the tunnel. Surgical repair of this later condition is challenging and is usually undertaken by closure of the ventricular and aortic ends of the tunnel and transfer of the RCA. Regardless of the surgical technique, development of early and late aortic regurgitation (AR) remains a concern. We report a neonate with ALVT and the RCA coming off the tunnel that was successfully managed by closure of both ends of the tunnel, reinforcement of the annulus with autologous pericardium, and leaving the RCA perfused by way of the tunnel. After 6 months of follow-up, no AR has been shown on echocardiography. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Healthy ageing interventions encompass regular exercise to prevent mitochondrial dysfunction, key player in sarcopenia pathogenesis. Mitochondrial biogenesis has been well documented, but mitochondrial remodelling in response to exercise training is poorly understood. Here we investigated fusion, fission and mitophagy before and after an exercise intervention in older adults. Methods: Skeletal muscle biopsies were collected from 22 healthy sedentary men and women before and after 4 months of supervised training. Eight lifelong trained age‐ and gender‐matched volunteers served as positive controls. Transmission electron microscopy was used to estimate mitochondrial content. Western blotting and qRT‐PCR were used to detect changes in specific proteins and transcripts. Results: After intervention, mitochondrial content increased to levels of controls. While enhancement of fusion was prevalent after intervention, inhibition of fission and increased mitophagy were dominant in controls. Similarly to PARKIN, BCL2L13 content was higher in controls. The observed molecular adaptations paralleled long‐term effects of training on physical fitness, exercise efficiency and oxidative capacity. Conclusions: This study describes distinct patterns of molecular adaptations in human skeletal muscle under chronic exercise training. After 16 weeks of exercise, the pattern was dominated by fusion to increase mitochondrial content to the metabolic demands of exercise. In lifelong exercise, the pattern was dominated by mitophagy synchronized with increased fusion and decreased fission, indicating an increased mitochondrial turnover. In addition to these temporally distinct adaptive mechanisms, this study suggests for the first time a specific role of BCL2L13 in chronic exercise that requires constant maintenance of mitochondrial quality. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Meningococcal disease (MD) remains an important infectious cause of life threatening infection in both industrialized and resource poor countries. Genetic factors influence both occurrence and severity of presentation, but the genes responsible are largely unknown. We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) examining 5,440,063 SNPs in 422 Spanish MD patients and 910 controls. We then performed a meta-analysis of the Spanish GWAS with GWAS data from the United Kingdom (combined cohorts: 897 cases and 5,613 controls; 4,898,259 SNPs). The meta-analysis identified strong evidence of association (P-value ≤ 5 × 10−8) in 20 variants located at the CFH gene. SNP rs193053835 showed the most significant protective effect (Odds Ratio (OR) = 0.62, 95% confidence interval (C.I.) = 0.52-0.73; P-value = 9.62 × 10−9). Five other variants had been previously reported to be associated with susceptibility to MD, including the missense SNP rs1065489 (OR = 0.64, 95% C.I.) = 0.55-0.76, P-value = 3.25 × 10−8). Theoretical predictions point to a functional effect of rs1065489, which may be directly responsible for protection against MD. Our study confirms the association of CFH with susceptibility to MD and strengthens the importance of this link in understanding pathogenesis of the disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the case of a 67-year-old woman who complained of painful, swollen ankles. Topics discussed include the possible cause of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) muscle oedema, the factor that makes histopathological confirmation essential, and the implication of the absence of muscle fibre necrosis in the biopsy.

A correction to the article "Peginterferon Plus Ribavirin and Sustained Virological Response in HCV-Related Cirrhosis: Outcomes and Factors Predicting Response," regarding the incorrect affiliation of its author Ricard Solá is presented.