Search

Arterial hypertension represents the most frequent cardiovascular risk factor that is associated with cardiac remodeling. Hypertensive heart disease was defined by the presence of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and diastolic dysfunction, and it has been diagnosed by echocardiography in everyday clinical practice. Interstitial myocardial fibrosis is the underlying cause of hypertension-induced cardiac remodeling, and it could not be visualized with different echocardiographic methods. Cardiac magnetic resonance (CMR) and its methods such as late gadolinium enhancement, and T1 mapping provides qualitative and quantitative assessment of interstitial myocardial fibrosis in hypertensive patients. Furthermore, CMR can provide differentiation of LVH between hypertensive patients and cardiomyopathies (hypertrophic or Fabry disease). Timely diagnosis of cardiac impairment and early treatment is essential because regression of LVH could be achieved with adequate treatment. Diffuse cardiac fibrosis in hypertensive patients might be an underlying mechanism that explains the increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality in this population. Future longitudinal investigations are necessary to determine causal relationship between diffuse fibrosis and cardiovascular outcome in these patients. The aim of this review is to summarize the current knowledge regarding CMR techniques and their potential usage in patients with hypertensive heart disease.

Fabrication strategies for TiO2 nanotube (NT) electrodes were optimised with an aim to improve the understanding of the material attributes required for enhanced areal capacity without compromising rate capability and cycling stability in these alternative high-rate anodes for Li ion batteries. The investigation considered the effects of: i) the geometry of the current collecting scaffolds (planar or foam); ii) crystallographic structure of TiO2 (amorphous or crystalline); and iii) NT geometry arising from use of different anodisation conditions. By optimising the three strategies concurrently, we were able to demonstrate amorphous TiO2 NT electrodes on a Ti foam current collector with not only a high areal capacity of 507 μAh cm−2 (recorded at 50 μA cm−2) but also improved rate capability (retained a capacity of 347 μAh cm−2 at 5 mA cm−2) and long-term cycling stability (capacity retention of 83% after 2000 cycles). This achievement of high areal capacity, rate capacity and cycling stability, which is superior to that reported previously, is attributed to the combined higher surface area of the foams, faster Li ion diffusion in the amorphous TiO2 compared to crystalline TiO2 and improved electronic conductivity and structural stability of the NTs enabled by limiting NT lengths.

Sodium/sulfur (Na/S) batteries are actively studied due to their low cost and potential energy density. Improvements have been achieved in the room temperature Na/S batteries during the last decades, however still with low practical capacity and unstable cycling performance. We hereby report a semi-liquid Na/polysulfide (Na/PS) cell with unique microscale intertwined carbon/polymer sponges to alleviate sulfur loss during cycling. The as-prepared highly cross-linked structure not only facilitates mass transfer but provides functional reservoir to entrap polysulfides. The Na/PS batteries with low electrolyte/sulfur (E/S) ratio (∼4.05 μL/mg) retain 375 mA h/g capacity after 200 cycles. More importantly, the interlinked sponge with high sulfur loading (e.g. 1.9 mg/cm2) restricts the decay rate of open-circuit voltage to only 0.04‰ per hour, which overcomes the severe self-discharge behavior observed in many Na/S cells. The highly cross-linked sponge therefore is an efficient approach to addressing the notorious challenges of Na/PS batteries.

The interface at the metal oxide-carbon hybrid heterojunction is the source to the well-known "synergistic effect" in catalysis. Understanding the structure-function properties is key for designing more advanced catalyst-support systems. Using a model Mn III -O x single-layer catalyst on carbon, we herein report a full elucidation to the catalytic synergism at the hybrid heterojunction in the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR). The successful fabrication of the single-layer catalyst from bottom-up is fully characterized by the X-ray absorption fine structure and high-resolution transmission electron microscopy. For oxygen electrocatalysis over this model hybrid heterostructure, our results, from both theory and experiment, show that the synergistic ORR truly undergoes a cooperated two-step electrocatalysis with catalytic promotion (ΔE onset = 60 mV) near the heterojunction and over the single-layer catalyst through an interfacial electronic interplay, rather than an abstruse transition towards a one-step dissociative pathway. Finally, we report a superior peroxide-reducing activity of 432.5 mA cm -2 mg (M)-1 over the Mn III -O x single-layer.

Synthetic nano/micromotors are a burgeoning class of materials with vast promise for applications ranging from environmental remediation to nanomedicine. The motility of these motors is generally controlled by the concentration of accessible fuel, and therefore, engineering speed-regulation mechanisms, particularly using biological triggers, remains a continuing challenge. Here, control over the movement of superassembled porous framework micromotors via a reversible, biological-relevant pH-responsive regulatory mechanism is demonstrated. Succinylated β-lactoglobulin and catalase are superassembled in porous framework particles, where the β-lactoglobulin is permeable at neutral pH. This permeability allows the fuel (H 2 O 2 ) to access catalase, leading to autonomous movement of the micromotors. However, at mild acidic pH, succinylated β-lactoglobulin undergoes a reversible gelation process, preventing the access of fuel into the micromotors where the catalase resides. To one's knowledge, this study represents the first example of chemically driven motors with rapid, reversible pH-responsive motility. Furthermore, the porous framework significantly enhances the biocatalytic activity of catalase, allowing ultralow H 2 O 2 concentrations to be exploited at physiological conditions. It is envisioned that the simultaneous exploitation of pH and chemical potential of such nanosystems could have potential applications as stimulus-responsive drug delivery vehicles that benefit from the complex biological environment.

Morphological engineering of nanosized transitional metal oxides shows great promise for performance improvement, yet limited efforts have been attempted to engineer the atomic structure. Oxygen vacancy (VO) can boost charge transfer leading to enhanced performance; yet excessive VO may impair the conductivity. Herein, tungsten oxide is atomically tailored by incorporating nitrogen heteroatoms into the oxygen vacancies. The efficient nitrogen-filling into the oxygen vacancies is evidenced by the electron paramagnetic resonance spectroscopy and X-ray absorption spectroscopy. The coordinated N atoms play a crucial role in facilitating the charge transfer and maintaining efficient lithium-ion diffusion. Consequently, the tungsten oxide with N-filled oxygen vacancies exhibits superior lithium-ion storage performance.

A non-persistent radical precursor, N-hydroxyphthalimide (NHPI), is reported as a low-cost, high-potential organic cathode in a binary electrolyte for a semi-aqueous redox battery. A highly reversible NHPI-phthalimide N-oxyl (PINO) radical redox couple at +1.30 VNHE is demonstrated, providing a 1.15 V rechargeable battery with an attractive >85% voltage efficiency when coupled with anthraquinone-2-sulfonic acid (AQS).

This journal is © The Royal Society of Chemistry. Developing a highly efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst for both the oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) remains significant for metal-air battery progress. Among all candidates, non-precious transition metal composite materials with the appropriate components and nanostructures are promising for the ORR and OER. Herein, a composite comprising a CoMn alloy coated with N-doped carbon and MnO is synthesized by a facile strategy involving the annealing of a Prussian blue analogue. The derived heterogeneous composite includes the benefits of a CoMn alloy, N-doped carbon and MnO, giving a low onset potential (0.91 V), positive half-wave potential (0.76 V) and large limiting current density (5.8 mA cm-2). The enhanced ORR activity can be attributed to the optimal surface electronic configuration of the alloy, which facilitates intermediate dissociation, in combination with heterojunctions, which favor charge transfer from the alloy and oxide. In addition, the electrocatalyst displays promising activity for the OER with an onset potential of 1.53 V and a low potential of 1.65 V at 10 mA cm-2, highlighting its prospect as an efficient bifunctional electrocatalyst.

The storage and conversion of the surplus electricity generated by photovoltaic (PV) cells call for efficient electrochemical devices, such as water electrolyzers and metal-air batteries. Catalyst materials are normally the key in determining the efficiency of these devices, as the electrochemical processes involved are normally sluggish in reaction kinetics. Herein, we found that by encapsulating Ni, Co and Fe alloyed cores inside graphitic carbon shells (NiCoFe@C), a versatile catalyst material can be obtained, showing decent activity towards the oxygen evolution reaction (OER), oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) and hydrogen evolution reaction (HER). The encapsulation of the NiCoFe alloyed core induces the electronic structure change of the outer graphitic carbon shell, which tunes the binding strength of reaction intermediates thereby improving the catalytic activity.

Polysulfide-based organic battery systems have demonstrated great potential for large scale energy storage, but are restricted by the cost and the flammability of the organic solvents. It would be ideal to establish the aqueous-based polysulfide electrochemistry to enable cost-effective stationary energy storage. However, the sluggish reaction kinetics of polysulfide placed a serious fundamental barrier to implementation. Here we developed hydrophilic tannic acid modified WS2 nanosheets as polysulfide conversion electrocatalysts in alkaline aqueous solutions. The tannic acid not only acted as a negatively-charged surfactant to effectively delaminate the bulk WS2 sheets, but also functionalised the delaminated WS2 nanosheets through the attachment of tannic acid functional groups, resulting in greatly improved hydrophilicity. Using graphene as the conductive support, the tannic acid-modified hydrophilic WS2 nanosheets demonstrated a promoting electrocatalytic activity for polysulfide oxidation and reduction in aqueous solution. The incorporation of tannic acid imposed the collective interactions between polysulfide and the WS2 nanosheets via the hydrophilic molecules and the polar surfaces. With a 0.5 M Li2S2 electrolyte, the graphene and modified WS2 mixture gave an areal specific capacity of 0.37 mAh cm−2, compared to 0.27 mAh cm−2 for the pure graphene.

There has been intensive concentration and effort on addressing the notorious challenges of Li-S batteries with respect to polysulphide utilization and lithium dendrite inhibition. However, the search for and optimisation of a Li-metal-free full cell design remain relatively premature in terms of the generic synchronous approach to improve the anode/cathode stability while balancing the anode/cathode capacity. We hereby report a parallel interface engineering (PIE) strategy to enhance the full-cell performance of the Li-ion polysulphide battery. Very importantly, this PIE strategy allows the use of a Li-metal-free anode and a LiNO3-free electrolyte. The cell-level improvement is attributable to more efficient and uniform lithium sulphide deposition on the chemically uniform surfaces of the carbon cathode and suppressed growth of dendritic species on the Li-Al alloy anode with an implantable solid-electrolyte interphase. Quantitative electrochemical alloying for anode fabrication allows increased lithium utilization relative to the total anode capacity. The PIE strategy represents a facile approach to address the troublesome issues of Li-S batteries at the full cell level.

Sodium-ion capacitors (SICs) can effectively combine high energy density with high power density, and are especially appropriate for high-power demanding applications of large-scale stationary energy storage. Surface-induced pseudocapacitive charge storage based on porous or nano carbon materials is regarded as the most promising candidate for SICs. Unfortunately, their ultralow packing densities severely restrict their practical applications. A novel approach toward ultrafast high-volumetric SICs based on folded-graphene electrodes has already been demonstrated and showed quite competitive performance. In this work, it is further proved that oxygen functional groups and folded texture are two key elements for high-volumetric sodium storage of folded-graphene electrodes. Through a simple and controllable method, of thermal treatment in inert atmosphere, both the oxygen functional groups and folded texture can be quantitatively manipulated to better investigate the individual contribution and mutual interplay. It is illustrated that oxygen functional groups are crucial to superior capacitive sodium storage while folded texture is not only the origin for high-volumetric sodium storage but also beneficial for both capacitive and additional diffusion-controlled sodium storage. Inspired by above-mentioned conclusion, more rational designs and effective preparation of advanced structure and novel materials can be realized to better promote the development of high-volumetric SICs.

Developing highly efficient and earth-abundant electrocatalysts for the oxygen evolution reaction (OER) is critical in overall water splitting technology. Among all transition-metal-based materials, NiFe-based electrocatalysts have been regarded as the most promising substitute to commercial noble metals in alkaline conditions. To overcome their leaching problem and improve intrinsic stability without compromising activity, we report a NiFe alloy covered with a discrete N-doped graphitic shell for the OER. The alloy core@discrete graphitic shell structure exhibits enhanced OER activity and stability with a low onset potential of 1.48 V, reduced overpotential of 320 mV@10 mA cm−1, and small Tafel slope value of 41 mV dec−1, which is superior to Ir/C. It is believed that the nitrogen doping, a discrete graphitic shell, and a mesoporous structure work in harmony to enhance the OER performance.

The increasing public awareness of the energy crisis since the 1970s has promoted the ongoing development of energy conversion and storage systems. As a supplement to photovoltaics, photoelectrochemical cells (PECs) are among the promising solar electricity generation systems. However, the intrinsic intermittence of sunlight can never guarantee continuous electricity supply. Therefore, PECs are being developed to convert solar energy to chemical energy in the forms of fuels such as H2 and other organic chemicals. However, this technology requires massive storage systems for the solar fuels/chemicals, and complementary conversion systems for electricity generation from the solar fuels. Redox flow batteries (RFBs) are capable of large-scale real-time electricity storage and conversion. Both PECs and RFBs have been investigated for more than three decades, yet the integration of these two systems has not reached maturity. Hence, this review aims to give a critical overview of the state-of-the-art progress in solar redox flow batteries, from the aspects of the working mechanism, device engineering, and performance evaluation.

Self-assembly of 3D reduced graphene oxide (rGO) sponges has received increasing attention in recent years. By far, chemical reduction, hydrothermal treatment, template-directed chemical vapor deposition, and electrodeposition are the typical methods. Herein, the utilization of zinc nanoparticles as a reducing agent to fabricate 3D rGO sponges is reported. The relative negative standard electrode potential of zinc to graphene oxide (GO) allowed the spontaneous formation of the rGO−Zn hydrogel. Zinc-free 3D rGO sponges were recovered by acid leaching of the zinc species and freeze-drying. This room-temperature electroless gelation is dependent on pH. The structure and electrochemical performance of the as-synthesized rGO sponges were determined by the mass ratio of Zn to GO. Comprehensive physical and chemical characterizations were utilized to understand the 3D structure evolution of the rGO sponges. The rGO sponge, with an optimized texture, showed high capacitance and good stability in 1 m H2SO4 electrolyte.

Photovoltaic (PV) systems can exhibit rapid variances in their power output due to irradiance changes which can destabilise an electricity grid. This paper presents a quantitative comparison of the suitability of different electrochemical energy storage system (ESS) technologies to provide ramp-rate control of power in PV systems. Our investigations show that, for PV systems ranging from residential rooftop systems to megawatt power systems, lithium-ion batteries with high energy densities (up to 600 Wh L−1) require the smallest power-normalised volumes to achieve the ramp rate limit of 10% min−1 with 100% compliance. As the system size increases, the ESS power-normalised volume requirements are significantly reduced due to aggregated power smoothing, with high power lithium-ion batteries becoming increasingly more favourable with increased PV system size. The possibility of module-level ramp-rate control is also introduced, and results show that achievement of a ramp rate of 10% min−1 with 100% compliance with typical junction box sizes will require ESS energy and power densities of 400 Wh L−1 and 2300 W L−1, respectively. While module-level ramp-rate control can reduce the impact of solar intermittence, the requirement is challenging, especially given the need for low cost and long cycle life.

Solid polymer electrolytes are of rapidly increasing importance for the research and development of future safe batteries with high energy density. The diversified chemistry and structures of polymers allow the utilization of a wide range of soft structures for all-polymer solid-state electrolytes. With equal importance is the hybrid solid-state electrolytes consisting of both “soft” polymeric structure and “hard” inorganic nanofillers. The recent emergence of the re-discovery of many two-dimensional layered materials has stimulated the booming of advanced research in energy storage fields, such as batteries, supercapacitors, and fuel cells. Of special interest is the mass transport properties of these 2D nanostructures for water, gas, or ions. This review aims at the current progress and prospective development of hybrid polymer-inorganic solid electrolytes based on important 2D materials, including natural clay and synthetic lamellar structures. The ion conduction mechanism and the fabrication, property and device performance of these hybrid solid electrolytes will be discussed.

© 2018 American Chemical Society. The charge-storage kinetics of amorphous TiO x nanotube electrodes formed by anodizing three-dimensional porous Ti scaffolds are reported. The resultant electrodes demonstrated not only superior storage capacities and rate capability to anatase TiO x nanotube electrodes but also improved areal capacities (324 μAh cm -2 at 50 μA cm -2 and 182 μAh cm -2 at 5 mA cm -2 ) and cycling stability (over 2000 cycles) over previously reported TiO x nanotube electrodes using planar current collectors. Amorphous TiO x exhibits very different electrochemical storage behavior from its anatase counterpart as the majority of its storage capacity can be attributed to capacitive-like processes with more than 74 and 95% relative contributions being attained at 0.05 and 1 mV s -1 , respectively. The kinetic analysis revealed that the insertion/extraction process of Li + in amorphous TiO x is significantly faster than in anatase structure and controlled by both solid-state diffusion and interfacial charge-transfer kinetics. It is concluded that the large capacitive contribution in amorphous TiO x originates from its highly defective and loosely packed structure and lack of long-range ordering, which facilitate not only a significantly faster Li + diffusion process (diffusion coefficients of 2 × 10 -14 to 3 × 10 -13 cm 2 s -1 ) but also more facile interfacial charge-transfer kinetics than anatase TiO x .

In this work, we demonstrate the assembly of oxidised carbon nanohybrids (oCNHs) with a commercial cellulose membrane for solid-state supercapacitors. The oCNHs–cellulose membranes were prepared by filtering a water dispersion of oCNHs through the cellulose membrane. The oCNHs were derived from carbon nanotubes via a modified Hummer’s method and contained both closed tubes and unzipped tubes, which indicated a hybrid geometrical structure. The solid-state supercapacitor based on the oCNHs–cellulose membranes showed a high areal capacitance of ~75 mF/cm2 at a low scan rate (5 mV/s) and excellent stability for 1,000 cycles.

© 2016 by the authors; licensee MDPI. The inevitable diffusion of vanadium ions across the membrane can cause considerable capacity loss and temperature increase in vanadium redox flow batteries (VRFBs) over long term operation. Reliable experimental data of the permeability rates of vanadium ions are needed for membrane selection and for use in mathematical models to predict long-term behavior. In this paper a number of ion exchange membranes were selected for detailed evaluation using a modified approach to obtain more accurate permeation rates of V2+, V3+, VO2+and VO2+ions. Three commercial ion exchange membranes - FAP450, VB2 and F930 - are investigated. The obtained diffusion coefficients are then employed in dynamic models to predict the thermal behavior under specific operating conditions. The simulation results prove that smaller and more balanced permeability rates of V2+and VO2+ions are more important to avoid large temperature increases in the cell stack during stand-by periods at high states-of-charge with pumps off.

Background: Expression of the meningioma-associated protein (MAC30) was increased in several types of tumors, including esophageal, gastric and colon tumors, compared to normal tissue. MAC30 expression levels gradually increased from normal colorectal mucosa to primary colorectal cancer and colorectal cancer spreading to the lymph nodes. MAC30 expression was related to survival in patients with colorectal cancer. However, there is no study on MAC30 in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC). Methods: Therefore, MAC30 expression in OSCC was investigated and possible associations of MAC30 expression with clinicopathological variables in OSCC have been analyzed. MAC30 expression was immunohistochemically examined in 20 normal oral mucosa and 43 OSCC specimens. Results: Expression levels of MAC30 in the cytoplasm markedly increased from normal oral epithelial cells to primary OSCC. Strong cytoplasmic staining was significantly higher in primary OSCC compared to normal oral mucosa samples (51 vs. 20%, p = 0.019). Furthermore, MAC30 expression levels in primary tumors of patients with lymph node metastasis exceeded levels in those without metastasis (65 vs. 35%, p = 0.048), and MAC30 expression in poorly differentiated tumors was higher than in well-differentiated ones (90 vs. 39%, p = 0.005). Conclusion: Overexpression of MAC30 in the cytoplasm of OSCC may predict nodal metastasis and poor differentiation., Original Publication:BY Yan, DW Wang, ZL Zhu, YH Yang, MW Wang, DS Cui, Hong Zhang and Xiao-Feng Sun, Overexpression of MAC30 in the Cytoplasm of Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma Predicts Nodal Metastasis and Poor Differentiation, 2010, Chemotherapy, (56), 6, 424-428.http://dx.doi.org/10.1159/000317582Copyright: S. Karger AGhttp://www.karger.com

BACKGROUND: Inherited cardiac arrhythmia susceptibility contributes to sudden death during infancy and may contribute to perinatal and neonatal mortality, but the molecular basis of this risk and the relationship to genetic disorders presenting later in life is unclear. We studied the functional and pharmacological properties of a novel de novo cardiac sodium channel gene (SCN5A) mutation associated with an extremely severe perinatal presentation of long-QT syndrome in unrelated probands of different ethnicity. METHODS AND RESULTS: Two subjects exhibiting severe fetal and perinatal ventricular arrhythmias were screened for SCN5A mutations, and the functional properties of a novel missense mutation (G1631D) were determined by whole-cell patch clamp recording. In vitro electrophysiological studies revealed a profound defect in sodium channel function characterized by approximately 10-fold slowing of inactivation, increased persistent current, slowing of recovery from inactivation, and depolarized voltage dependence of activation and inactivation. Single-channel recordings demonstrated increased frequency of late openings, prolonged mean open time, and increased latency to first opening for the mutant. Subjects carrying this mutation responded clinically to the combination of mexiletine with propranolol and survived. Pharmacologically, the mutant exhibited 2-fold greater tonic and use-dependent mexiletine block than wild-type channels. The mutant also exhibited enhanced tonic (2.4-fold) and use-dependent block ( approximately 5-fold) by propranolol, and we observed additive effects of the 2 drugs on the mutant. CONCLUSIONS: Our study demonstrates the molecular basis for a malignant perinatal presentation of long-QT syndrome, illustrates novel functional and pharmacological properties of SCN5A-G1631D, which caused the disorder, and reveals therapeutic benefits of propranolol block of mutant sodium channels in this setting

BACKGROUND: Mutations in genes responsible for the congenital long-QT syndrome, especially SCN5A, have been identified in some cases of sudden infant death syndrome. In a large-scale collaborative genetic screen, several SCN5A variants were identified in a Norwegian sudden infant death syndrome cohort (n=201). We present functional characterization of 7 missense variants (S216L, R680H, T1304M, F1486L, V1951L, F2004L, and P2006A) and 1 in-frame deletion allele (delAL586-587) identified by these efforts. METHODS AND RESULTS: Whole-cell sodium currents were measured in tsA201 cells transiently transfected with recombinant wild-type or mutant SCN5A cDNA (hH1) coexpressed with the human beta1 subunit. All variants exhibited defects in the kinetics and voltage dependence of inactivation. Five variants (S216L, T1304M, F1486L, F2004L, and P2006A) exhibited significantly increased persistent sodium currents (range, 0.5% to 1.7% of peak current) typical of SCN5A mutations associated with long-QT syndrome. These same 5 variants also displayed significant depolarizing shifts in voltage dependence of inactivation (range, 5 to 14 mV) and faster recovery from inactivation, but F1486L uniquely exhibits a depolarizing shift in the conductance-voltage relationship. Three alleles (delAL586-587, R680H, and V1951L) exhibited increased persistent current only under conditions of internal acidosis (R680H) or when expressed in the context of a common splice variant (delQ1077), indicating that they have a latent dysfunctional phenotype. CONCLUSIONS: Our present results greatly expand the spectrum of functionally characterized SCN5A variants associated with sudden infant death syndrome and provide further biophysical correlates of arrhythmia susceptibility in this syndrome.

BACKGROUND: The hypothesis that some cases of sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS) could be caused by long-QT syndrome (LQTS) has been supported by molecular studies. However, there are inadequate data regarding the true prevalence of mutations in arrhythmia-susceptibility genes among SIDS cases. Given the importance and potential implications of these observations, we performed a study to more accurately quantify the contribution to SIDS of LQTS gene mutations and rare variants. METHODS AND RESULTS: Molecular screening of 7 genes (KCNQ1, KCNH2, SCN5A, KCNE1, KCNE2, KCNJ2, CAV3) associated with LQTS was performed with denaturing high-performance liquid chromatography and nucleotide sequencing of genomic DNA from 201 cases diagnosed as SIDS according to the Nordic Criteria, and from 182 infant and adult controls. All SIDS and control cases originated from the same regions in Norway. Genetic analysis was blinded to diagnosis. Mutations and rare variants were found in 26 of 201 cases (12.9%). On the basis of their functional effect, however, we considered 8 mutations and 7 rare variants found in 19 of 201 cases as likely contributors to sudden death (9.5%; 95% CI, 5.8 to 14.4%). CONCLUSIONS: We demonstrated that 9.5% of cases diagnosed as SIDS carry functionally significant genetic variants in LQTS genes. The present study demonstrates that sudden arrhythmic death is an important contributor to SIDS. As these variants likely modify ventricular repolarization and QT interval duration, our results support the debated concept that an ECG would probably identify most infants at risk for sudden death due to LQTS either in infancy or later on in life

Particularly interesting new cysteine-histidine rich protein (PINCH), an adapter protein involved in integrin and growth factor signalling, is up-regulated in the stroma of colorectal, breast, prostate, lung and skin cancer. Strong stromal immunostaining for PINCH is an independent prognostic indicator for reduced survival in colorectal cancer, suggesting that PINCH is involved in the signalling that promotes tumour progression. Since no study on PINCH has been carried out in oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC), this study aimed to determine PINCH expression in OSCC and its clinicopathological significance. PINCH protein expression was examined by immunohistochemistry in 20 normal oral mucosa and in 57 OSCC specimens, The frequency of strong PINCH immunostaining was higher in tumour-associated stroma of OSCC (37%) as compared to normal oral mucosa (10%) (p=0.02). Strong PINCH stromal immunostaining predicted nodal metastasis: 19/26 (73%) OSCC cases with nodal metastasis had strong PINCH immunostaining compared to 9/31 (29%) cases without nodal metastasis (p=0.02). The PINCH expression in OSCC was more intense in stroma at the invasive edge than in intratumoural stroma. In conclusion, the up-regulation of PINCH protein in stroma may be involved in promoting invasion and metastasis in OSCC.