Sodium–glucose co‐transporter 2 inhibitors in heart failure: beyond glycaemic control. The position paper of the Heart Failure Association of the European Society of Cardiology

Heart failure (HF) is common and associated with a poor prognosis, despite advances in treatment. Over the last decade cardiovascular outcome trials with sodium–glucose co‐transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus have demonstrated beneficial effects for three SGLT2 inhibitors (empagliflozin, canagliflozin and dapagliflozin) in reducing hospitalisations for HF. More recently, dapagliflozin reduced the risk of worsening HF or death from cardiovascular causes in patients with chronic HF with reduced left ventricular ejection fraction, with or without type 2 diabetes mellitus. A number of additional trials in HF patients with reduced and/or preserved left ventricular ejection fraction are ongoing and/or about to be reported. The present position paper summarises recent clinical trial evidence and discusses the role of SGLT2 inhibitors in the treatment of HF, pending the results of ongoing trials in different populations of patients with HF

A morphological study on the venom apparatus of spider Larinioides cornustus (Araneae, Araneidae)

The morphological structure of the venom apparatus of Larinioides cornutus was studied using a scanning electron microscope(SEM). The Venom glands are situated in the anterior cephalic part of the prosoma, and each gland consists of a long cylindrical part and an adjoining duct, which terminates at the tip of the cheliceral fang. Each chelicera consists of 2 parts: a stout basal part covered by hair, and a movable fang. There are parallel grooves on the dorsal surface of the fang. The ventral surface has hollows like saw teeth. A venom pore is situated on the subterminal part of the fang. Below the fang, there is a cheliceral groove between the teeth. Each side of the groove is armed with cuticular teeth. Venom glands are small and similar to an aurbergine in shape. Each gland is surrounded by completely striated muscular fibers. The venom produced in the venom glands is ejected into the fang through the duct by contraction of these muscular fibers. © TÜBİTAK

Brand experience and consumer inspiration: The mediating role of openness to experience

The introduction of new technologies provides consumers with additional shopping opportunities and allow them to test new products. The study was conducted to determine the effects of brand experience on customer inspiration and behavioral intention and to establish the mediating role of openness to experience. The theoretical framework of the study resides in the theory of marketing and cognitive appraisal theory. Convenience sampling method and structural equation modelling were used within the study. The population of the study consists of customers who order from the online takeaway portal yemeksepeti.com. The data were gathered using questionnaires collected online in June, 2023. A total of 416 valid responses were received. Smart PLS 4 statistical program was used to test the hypotheses. As a result of the tests, it was found that brand experience has a positive effect on customer inspiration and openness to experience. It was also determined that openness to experience has a positive effect on customer inspiration by partially mediating the positive effect between brand experience and inspiration. Furthermore, the hypothesis that customer inspiration positively affects behavioral intention was also confirmed. The research will contribute to expanding the literature on consumer inspiration and openness to experience. Among possible directions for further research is to test the proposed model in relating industries or using statistical data from other countries

Cerebral blood flow measurements using arterial spin labeling

Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) is a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) method to map the cerebral blood flow (CBF). ASL present a non-invasive alternative to the contrast agent techniques used typically to study vascular and neuronal diseases such as stroke, arteriostenosis, schizophrenia, alzheimer, epilepsy …. ASL techniques are capable of providing quantitative information about local tissue blood flow by tracking the inflow of magnetically labeled arterial blood into an imaging slice. The delivery of the tagged water to each image voxel is measured. Because ASL is completely noninvasive, the tagging can be repeated many times to obtain a high signal-to-noise ratio (SNR). ASL produces perfusion maps of human brain with higher spatial and temporal resolution than any other existing technique. Furthermore, ASL has extensively been used to study brain function mostly simultaneously with the blood oxygenated level dependent (BOLD) signal. BOLD signal provide a high functional contrast to noise ratio, but the analysis and interpretation of BOLD contrast functional data is complicated by the fact that the MRI signal change is related to the underlying neuronal activation through CBF, CBV and oxidative metabolism (CMRO2). In contrast to baseline BOLD signal, baseline CBF measured using ASL provides valuable information of the brain’s respective state. In addition, ASL techniques are an important tool to study the physiological basis of functional neuroimaging techniques such as BOLD signal. In the study presented at the conference, we evaluated critically three different ASL sequences and compared established methods to determine absolute values of CBF from ASL data

Effects of salicylic acid pretreatment on the seed germination, seedling growth and leaf anatomy of barley under saline conditions

In this work, the effects of salicylic acid pretreatment on the seed germination, seedling growth (coleoptile percentage, radicle length, coleoptile length, radicle number and fresh weight) and leaf anatomy of barley under saline conditions were studied. In parallel with concentration rise, salt stress inhibited the germination and seedling growth of barley seeds. The inhibitive effect of salt on seed germination and seedling growth was alleviated in varying degrees, and dramatically, by salicylic acid pretreatment. On the other hand, it was determined that the mentioned plant growth regulator affected in different degrees on the various parameters of leaf anatomy of barley seedlings, and this difference was statistically important