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Endomyocardial biopsy (EMB) is an invasive procedure, globally most often used for the monitoring of heart transplant rejection. In addition, EMB can have an important complementary role to the clinical assessment in establishing the diagnosis of diverse cardiac disorders, including myocarditis, cardiomyopathies, drug-related cardiotoxicity, amyloidosis, other infiltrative and storage disorders, and cardiac tumors. Improvements in EMB equipment and the development of new techniques for the analysis of EMB samples has significantly improved the diagnostic precision of EMB. The present document is the result of the Trilateral Cooperation Project between the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology, Heart Failure Society of America, and the Japanese Heart Failure Society. It represents an expert consensus aiming to provide a comprehensive, up-to-date perspective on EMB, with a focus on the following main issues: (1) an overview of the practical approach to EMB, (2) an update on indications for EMB, (3) a revised plan for heart transplant rejection surveillance, (4) the impact of multimodality imaging on EMB, and (5) the current clinical practice in the worldwide use of EMB.

Amphiphilic antimicrobial polymers have attracted considerable interest as structural mimics of host defense peptides (HDPs) that provide a broad spectrum of activity and do not induce bacterial-drug resistance. Likewise, surface engineered polymeric-brush-tethered HDP is considered a promising coating strategy that prevents infections and endows implantable materials and medical devices with antifouling and antibacterial properties. While each strategy takes a different approach, both aim to circumvent limitations of HDPs, enhance physicochemical properties, therapeutic performance, and enable solutions to unmet therapeutic needs. In this review, we discuss the recent advances in each approach, spotlight the fundamental principles, describe current developments with examples, discuss benefits and limitations, and highlight potential success. The review intends to summarize our knowledge in this research area and stimulate further work on antimicrobial polymers and functionalized polymeric biomaterials as strategies to fight infectious diseases.

This study explores the development of commercial weather services in Europe over the past 40 years. The market is traced from its very low levels in the 1970s to its present size of ∼ €300 million per annum (excluding aviation). Ways in which growth in the European weather market has been affected by government policies relating to the organization of weather services and the philosophical argument over the status of ‘public sector information’ (PSI), the improvements in weather forecast quality and the advent of mobile web technology are discussed. Despite some significant growth among the private sector providers, the current structure of the European commercial weather market on the supply side restrains its overall development and the ability of both the private and public sectors to stimulate and meet the market needs. It is pointed out that, as a consequence of the present governmental policies in many European countries, there are emerging risks to the overall meteorological infrastructure and data quality, while in the commercial weather sector of the economy there has been and remains a clear loss of economic value to central exchequers. Ways to improve this position are proposed.