Search results for "CURVE"
showing 10 items of 1693 documents
Long-term cardiac pro-B-type natriuretic peptide gene delivery prevents the development of hypertensive heart disease in spontaneously hypertensive r…
2011
Background— Diastolic dysfunction associated with high blood pressure (BP) leads to cardiac remodeling and fibrosis and progression to congestive heart failure. B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) has BP-lowering, antifibrotic, and antihypertrophic properties, which makes BNP an attractive agent for attenuating the adverse cardiac remodeling associated with hypertension. In the current study, we tested the effects of sustained cardiac proBNP gene delivery on BP, cardiac function, and remodeling in spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR). Methods and Results— We used the myocardium-tropic adeno-associated virus serotype 9 (AAV9) vector to achieve continuously enhanced cardiac rat proBNP expressi…
Adipose Stromal Vascular Fraction Improves Cardiac Function in Chronic Myocardial Infarction Through Differentiation and Paracrine Activity
2012
Fresh adipose-derived cells have been shown to be effective in the treatment of acute myocardial infarction (MI), but their role in the chronic setting is unknown. We sought to determine the long-term effect of the adipose derived-stromal vascular fraction (SVF) cell transplantation in a rat model of chronic MI. MI was induced in 82 rats by permanent coronary artery ligation and 5 weeks later rats were allocated to receive an intramyocardial injection of 107 GFP-expressing fresh SVF cells or culture media as control. Heart function and tissue metabolism were determined by echocardiography and 18F-FDG-microPET, respectively, and histological studies were performed for up to 3 months after t…
Cardiovascular imaging in the diagnosis and monitoring of cardiotoxicity: Role of echocardiography
2016
The evaluation by cardiovascular imaging of chemotherapy patients became a central topic in the last several years. The use of drugs for the treatment of cancers increased, and new molecules and protocols were developed to improve outcomes in these patients. Although, these novel approaches also produced a progressive increase in side effects, particularly myocardial dysfunction. Imaging of the heart was highly accurate in the early diagnosis of cancer therapeutics related-cardiac dysfunction. Echocardiography is the first-line method to assess ventricular function alterations, and it is required to satisfy the need for an early, easy and accurate diagnosis to stratify the risk of heart fai…
A strongly degenerate quasilinear elliptic equation
2005
Abstract We prove existence and uniqueness of entropy solutions for the quasilinear elliptic equation u - div a ( u , Du ) = v , where 0 ⩽ v ∈ L 1 ( R N ) ∩ L ∞ ( R N ) , a ( z , ξ ) = ∇ ξ f ( z , ξ ) , and f is a convex function of ξ with linear growth as ∥ ξ ∥ → ∞ , satisfying other additional assumptions. In particular, this class of equations includes the elliptic problems associated to a relativistic heat equation and a flux limited diffusion equation used in the theory of radiation hydrodynamics, respectively. In a second part of this work, using Crandall–Liggett's iteration scheme, this result will permit us to prove existence and uniqueness of entropy solutions for the corresponding…
Continuous separation and identification of neutronrich neptunium isotopes from heavy-ion reactions by means of the centrifuge system “sisak”
1986
Abstract Neutron-rich neptunium isotopes formed in direct transfer reactions between 136 Xe projectiles and targets of 244 Pu have been separated from other reaction products with the on-line liquid-liquid extraction system SISAK. A four-detector delay method was used to determine the half-lives of the previously unknown isotopes 243 Np and 244 Np. From the decay of the 287.4 keV γ-line a half-life of 1.8 ± 0.3 min was determined for 243 Np. From the decay curves of the γ-lines at 162.7 and 216.7 keV, which fit into the known level scheme of 244 Pu, a half-life of 2.5 ± 0.3 min results for 244 Np.
Quantification of GABA(A) receptor subunit mRNAs by non-radioisotopic competitive RT-PCR utilizing plate-based EIA methodology.
2000
We developed a non-radioisotopic quantitative competitive RT-PCR method for the measurement of gamma-aminobutyric acid (GABA) type A receptor subunit mRNA levels. The specificity of the method was optimized by the use of four subunit-specific oligonucleotides in the sequential steps: reverse transcription, polymerase chain reaction (PCR), and detection. The biotinylated PCR products were bound on streptavidin-coated microtiter plates allowing detection of the products using dinitrophenyl (DNP)-labeled probes and anti-DNP alkaline phosphatase conjugate. The method was set up for the six major cerebellar GABA(A) receptor subunits: alpha1; alpha6; beta2; beta3; gamma2 and delta. The method is …
Is there an environmental Kuznets curve for Spain? Fresh evidence from old data
2012
Abstract The information content of the environmental Kuznets curve (EKC) is subject to change over time and all the empirical modeling work that does not take into account the possible variations and instabilities may fail to explain the variations in the per-capita CO2 and per-capita income relationship. In this paper we consider the possibility that a linear cointegrated regression model with multiple structural changes would provide a better empirical description of the Spanish EKC during the period 1857–2007. Our methodology is based on instability tests recently proposed in Kejriwal and Perron (2008, 2010) as well as on cointegration tests developed in Arai and Kurozumi (2007) and Kej…
One-Year Quality of Life Trends in Early-Stage Lung Cancer Patients After Lobectomy
2020
Objective: Quality of Life (QoL) is an important predictor of patient's recovery and survival in lung cancer patients. The aim of the present study is to identify 1-year trends of lung cancer patients' QoL after robot-assisted or traditional lobectomy and investigate whether clinical (e.g., pre-surgery QoL, type of surgery, and perioperative complications) and sociodemographic variables (e.g., age) may predict these trends.Methods: An Italian sample of 176 lung cancer patients undergoing lobectomy completed the European Organization for Research and Treatment of Cancer (EORTC) Quality of Life Questionnaire—Core 30 (QLQ-C30) at the pre-hospitalization (t0), 30 days (t1), 4 months (t2), 8 mon…
Toward Biopredictive Dissolution for Enteric Coated Dosage Forms
2016
The aim of this work was to develop a phosphate buffer based dissolution method for enteric-coated formulations with improved biopredictivity for fasted conditions. Two commercially available enteric-coated aspirin products were used as model formulations (Aspirin Protect 300 mg, and Walgreens Aspirin 325 mg). The disintegration performance of these products in a physiological 8 mM pH 6.5 bicarbonate buffer (representing the conditions in the proximal small intestine) was used as a standard to optimize the employed phosphate buffer molarity. To account for the fact that a pH and buffer molarity gradient exists along the small intestine, the introduction of such a gradient was proposed for p…
Double Laser LIBS and micro-XRF spectroscopy applied to characterize materials coming from the Greek-Roman theater of Taormina
2009
The laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy (LIBS) is an applied physical technique that has shown, in recent years, its great potential for rapid qualitative analysis of materials. The possibility to implement a portable instrument that perform LIBS analysis makes this technique particularly useful for in situ analysis in the field of cultural heritages. The aim of this work is to compare the results, obtained by LIBS measurements with X-Ray Fluorescence (XRF) ones, on calcareous and refractory materials coming from the Greek-Roman theater of Taormina. Calibration curves for LIBS and XRF were obtained by measuring certified reference materials and using them as standards. LIBS measurements we…