Several studies demonstrate that administration of doxorubicin results in cardiotoxicity, which eventually progresses to dilated cardiomyopathy. The present work aims to evaluate the early myocardial changes of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Male New Zealand white rabbits were injected intravenously, twice weekly for 8 weeks with doxorubicin (DOXO-HF) or with an equivolumetric dose of saline (CONTROL). Echocardiographic evaluation was performed, and myocardial samples were collected to evaluate myocardial cellular and molecular modifications. DOXO-HF group presented cardiac hypertrophy and higher LV cavity diameters, showing a dilated phenotype, but preserved ejection fraction. Concerning cardiomyocytes function, DOXO-HF group presented a trend towards increased active tension without significant differences in passive tension. Myocardial GSSG/GSH ratio and interstitial fibrosis were increased and Bax/Bcl-2 ratio presented a trend towards an increase, suggesting activation of apoptosis signaling pathways. The macromolecule titin shifted towards the more compliant isoform (N2BA), while the stiffer (N2B) was shown to be hypophosphorylated. Differential protein analysis, from aggregates-enriched fraction, through GeLC-MS/MS, revealed an increase in histidine-rich glycoprotein (HRG) fragment in DOXO-HF animals. This work describes novel and early myocardial effects of doxorubicin-induced cardiotoxicity. Thus, tracking these changes provides to be of extreme relevance for an early detection of cardiac damage (as soon as ventricular dilation becomes evident) before irreversible cardiac function deterioration occurs (reduced ejection fraction). Moreover it allows for the adjustment of the therapeutic approach and, thus, the prevention of cardiomyopathy progression.

In a dynamically changing social environment, humans have to face the challenge of prioritizing stimuli that compete for attention. In the context of social communication, the voice is the most important sound category. However, the existing studies do not directly address whether and how the salience of an unexpected vocal change in an auditory sequence influences the orientation of attention. In this study, frequent tones were interspersed with task-relevant infrequent tones and task-irrelevant infrequent vocal sounds (neutral, happy and angry vocalizations). Eighteen healthy college students were asked to count infrequent tones. A combined event-related potential (ERP) and EEG time–frequency approach was used, with the focus on the P3 component and on the early auditory evoked gamma band response, respectively. A spatial-temporal principal component analysis was used to disentangle potentially overlapping ERP components. Although no condition differences were observed in the 210–310 ms window, larger positive responses were observed for emotional than neutral vocalizations in the 310–410 ms window. Furthermore, the phase synchronization of the early auditory evoked gamma oscillation was enhanced for happy vocalizations. These findings support the idea that the brain prioritizes the processing of emotional stimuli, by devoting more attentional resources to salient social signals even when they are not task-relevant.

Remote laboratories have been developed to support the studentsâ?? learning and to reduce equipment costs. More and more, laboratories play an important role in engineering teaching, since they allow the connection between theory and practice. Actually, there is the necessity to change strategies and methodologies of education. The remote laboratories enable the access to all students anytime, anywhere because they are available on the Internet. This paper presents the firsts developments of an innovative laboratory in the bioengineering area: RePhyS. RePhyS will be a remote laboratory for use in biomedical and physiological systems studies in graduate and postgraduate levels. The user will be allowed to interact with the system parameters, and to control some system variables. This new lab will enable to produce, visualize and analyze, in real-time, results of practical experiences in order to improve studentsâ?? activity of learning, and it will provide with an enriched computing environment for sharing results and collaborations.