Oxidative Stress Markers in Hypertrophic Cardiomyopathy

Background and Objectives: Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) depends on the primary impairment of sarcomeres, but it can also be associated with secondary alterations in the heart related to oxidative stress. The present study aimed to examine oxidative-antioxidant disturbances in patients with HCM compared with control individuals. Materials and Methods: We enrolled 52 consecutive HCM patients and 97 controls without HCM. The groups were matched for age, body mass index, and sex. Peripheral blood was collected from all patients to determine the total antioxidant capacity (TAC), total oxidant status (TOS), lipid hydroperoxide (LPH), and malondialdehyde (MDA). The oxidative stress index (OSI) was defined as the ratio of the TOS level to the TAC level. Results: The median age was 52 years, and 58.4% were female. The area under the curve (AUC) indicated good predictive power for the TAC and TOS [AUC 0.77 (0.69–0.84) and 0.83 (0.76–0.90), respectively], as well as excellent predictive power for the OSI [AUC 0.87 (0.81–0.93)] for HCM detection. Lipid peroxidation markers also demonstrated good predictive power to detect HCM patients [AUCLPH = 0.73, AUCMDA = 0.79]. Conclusions: The TOS, the TAC, LPH levels, and MDA levels have good predictive power for HCM detection. The holistic assessment of oxidative stress by the OSI had excellent power and could identify patients with HCM.

Illuminating Transformative Learning/Assessment: Infusing Creativity, Reciprocity, and Care Into Higher Education

In this article, the authors speak to the paradox of assessing transformative learning (TL) in higher education. TL theory, developed by Jack Mezirow, is a theory of learning to describe the process of change in how individuals view the world based on previous experiences. Recognizing that the 10 phases of Mezirow’s TL theory are fluid and intertwined, three prominent aspects resonated within the individual narratives: the importance of a disorienting dilemma, the qualities of self-reflection, and liberatory actions. By exploring the complexities, challenges, and possibilities encountered in their classrooms, the shared narratives reveal how students were engaged in TL and embedded within are holistic assessment processes the authors enacted with learners. Throughout this dialogical narrative inquiry focused on assessment, the authors underwent their own TL in the presence of each other, confessing uncertainties and vulnerabilities, thus showcasing the potential to transform understanding with and through reciprocal learning.

Planning energy retrofits of historic buildings

This handbook follows the systematic approach outlined by the European standard EN 16883:2017 Guidelines for improving the energy performance of historic buildings. It describes how the standard can be applied in practice with chapters on heritage value assessment, building survey and holistic assessment of energy efficiency measures. The book draws on the experience from a team of international leading experts in the field of energy efficiency in historic building.

“The bloodiness and horror of it”

In this work, I explore pain descriptions by women who live with the life-altering gynaecological disease of endometriosis. This condition causes incapacitating pain, which tends to be dismissed and normalised as part of the female condition (Cumberbatch, 2019). My aim is to explore the general patterns of pain conceptualisation by women with endometriosis and outline how an in-depth examination of salient elements of narrative scenarios may contribute towards providing a comprehensive understanding of the pain experience. I first examine patterns of metaphorical pain collocates from a corpus generated from online forum contributions. Following this, I explore metaphorical scenarios of pain, focusing on stories that reference popular texts or genres from a conceptual integration perspective. I argue that the combination of metaphor analysis of naturally-occurring data and conceptual intertextuality and interdiscursivity analysis in the metaphorical scenarios of elicited data constitute a methodological niche that allows a holistic assessment of the pain that can potentially be used in consultations and may help tackle the alarming diagnosis delay of endometriosis, which is currently 7.5 years.