Effects of hemodialysis on circulating adrenomedullin concentrations in patients with end-stage renal disease

To characterize the determinants of circulating levels of adrenomedullin (AM), the plasma levels of this peptide were measured in 58 patients with end-stage renal disease on hemodialysis, Predialysis plasma levels of AM were more than twice as high in patients on hemodialysis as compared to controls. In hemodialysis patients with heart failure (NYHA classes II-IV) or hypertensive HD patients plasma levels of AM were significantly higher than in patients with end-stage renal disease only. Plasma levels of AM were clot altered immediately by hemodialysis but decreased significantly 14-20 h after hemodialysis, AM plasma levels before hemodialysis and 14-20 h after hemodialysis were correlated with the corresponding mean arterial pressure

A new strategy for finite element computations involving moving boundaries and interfaces-The deforming-spatial-domain/space-time procedure: II. Computation of free-surface flows, two-liquid flows, and flows with drifting cylinders

New finite element computational strategies for free-surface flows, two-liquid flows, and flows with drifting cylinders are presented. These strategies are based on the deforming spatial-domain/spacetime (DSD/ST) procedure. In the DSD/ST approach, the stabilized variational formulations for these types of flow problem are written over their space-time domains. One of the important features of the approach is that it enables one to circumvent the difficulty involved in remeshing every time step and thus reduces the projection errors introduced by such frequent remeshings. Computations are performed for various test problems mainly for the purpose of demonstrating the computational capability developed for this class of problems. In some of the test cases, such as the liquid drop problem, surface tension is taken into account. For flows involving drifting cylinders, the mesh moving and remeshing schemes proposed are convenient and reduce the frequency of remeshing

Massively parallel finite element simulation of compressible and incompressible flows

We present a review of where our research group stands in parallel finite element simulation of flow problems on the Connection Machines, an effort that started for our group in the fourth quarter of 1991. This review includes an overview of our work on computation of flow problems involving moving boundaries and interfaces, such as free surfaces, two-liquid interfaces, and fluid-structure and fluid-particle interactions. With numerous examples, we demonstrate that, with these new computational capabilities, today we are at a point where we routinely solve practical flow problems, including those in 3D and those involving moving boundaries and interfaces. We solve these problems with unstructured grids and implicit methods, with some of the problem sizes exceeding 5 000 000 equations, and with computational speeds up to two orders of magnitude higher than what was previously available to us on the traditional vector supercomputers

Ce-L3-XAS study of the temperature dependence of the 4f occupancy in the Kondo system Ce2Rh3Al9

We have used temperature dependent x-ray absorption at the Ce-L3 edge to investigate the recently discovered Kondo compound Ce2Rh3Al9. The systematic changes of the spectral lineshape with decreasing temperature are analyzed and found to be related to a change in the $4f$ occupation number, n_f, as the system undergoes a transition into a Kondo state. The temperature dependence of $n_f$ indicates a characteristic temperature of 150K, which is clearly related with the high temperature anomaly observed in the magnetic susceptibility of the same system. The further anomaly observed in the resistivity of this system at low temperature (ca. 20K) has no effect on n_f and is thus not of Kondo origin.Comment: 7 pages, three figures, submitted to PR

Suppression of ferromagnetism in CeSi_1.81 under temperature and pressure

We have studied the pressure dependence of the magnetization of single crystalline CeSi_1.81. At ambient pressure ferromagnetism develops below T_C = 9.5 Below ~ 5 K an additional shoulder in low-field hysteresis loops and a metamagnetic crossover around 4 T suggest the appearance of an additional magnetic modulation to the ferromagnetic state. The suppression of the magnetic order in CeSi_1.81 as function of temperature at ambient pressure and as function of pressure at low temperature are in remarkable qualitative agreement. The continuous suppression of the ordered moment at p ~ 13.1 kbar suggests the existence of a ferromagnetic quantum critical point in this material.Comment: 9 pages, 9 figures, to be published in Physical Review

A new mixed preconditioning method based on the clustered element-by-element preconditioners

We describe a new mixed preconditioning method for finite element computations. In the clustered element-by-element (CEBE) preconditioning, the elements are merged into clusters, and the preconditioners are defined as series products of cluster level matrices. The (cluster companion) CC preconditioners are based on companion meshes associated with different levels of clustering. For each level of clustering, we construct a CEBE preconditioner and an associatedC C preconditioner. Because these two preconditioners complement each other, when they are mixed, they give better performance. Our numerical tests, for two- and three-dimensional problems governed by the Poisson equation, show that the mixed CEBE/CC preconditioning results in convergence rates which are significantly better than those obtained with the best of the CEBE and CC methods

Diagnostic Yield of Genetic Testing in Young Athletes with T-wave Inversion.

Background -T-wave inversion (TWI) is common in patients with cardiomyopathy. However, up to 25% of athletes of African/Afro-Caribbean descent (black athletes) and 5% of white athletes also have TWI of unclear clinical significance despite comprehensive clinical evaluation and long-term follow-up. The aim of this study was to determine the diagnostic yield from genetic testing, beyond clinical evaluation, when investigating athletes with TWI. Methods -We investigated 50 consecutive asymptomatic black and 50 white athletes aged 14-35-years-old with TWI and a normal echocardiogram who were referred to a UK tertiary center for cardiomyopathy and sports cardiology. Subjects underwent exercise testing, 24-hour ECG, signal-averaged ECG, cardiac magnetic resonance imaging, and a blood-based analysis of a comprehensive 311 gene panel for cardiomyopathies including hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy, dilated cardiomyopathy, left ventricular non-compaction, and ion channel disorders such as long QT syndrome and Brugada syndrome. Results -In total, 21 athletes (21%) were diagnosed with cardiac disease on the basis of comprehensive clinical investigations. Of these, 8 (38.1%) were gene positive (MYPBC3, MYH7, GLA, and ACTC1 genes) and 13 (61.9%) were gene negative. Of the remaining 79 athletes (79%), 2 (2.5%) were gene positive (TTR and SCN5A genes) in the absence of a clinical phenotype. The prevalence of newly diagnosed cardiomyopathy was higher in white athletes compared with black athletes (30.0% vs. 12%, P=0.027). Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy accounted for 90.5% of all clinical diagnoses. All black athletes and 93.3% of white athletes with a clinical diagnosis of cardiomyopathy or a genetic mutation capable of causing cardiomyopathy exhibited lateral TWI as opposed to isolated anterior or inferior TWI; the genetic yield of diagnoses from lateral TWI was 14.0%. Conclusions -Up to 10% of athletes with TWI revealed mutations capable of causing cardiac disease. Despite the substantial cost, the positive diagnostic yield from genetic testing was one-half of that from clinical evaluation (10% vs. 21%) and contributed to additional diagnoses in only 2.5% of athletes with TWI in the absence of a clear clinical phenotype, making it of negligible use in routine clinical practice

Performance of the EUDET-type beam telescopes

Test beam measurements at the test beam facilities of DESY have been conducted to characterise the performance of the EUDET-type beam telescopes originally developed within the EUDET project. The beam telescopes are equipped with six sensor planes using MIMOSA26 monolithic active pixel devices. A programmable Trigger Logic Unit provides trigger logic and time stamp information on particle passage. Both data acquisition framework and offline reconstruction software packages are available. User devices are easily integrable into the data acquisition framework via predefined interfaces. The biased residual distribution is studied as a function of the beam energy, plane spacing and sensor threshold. Its standard deviation at the two centre pixel planes using all six planes for tracking in a 6\,GeV electron/positron-beam is measured to be (2.88\,\pm\,0.08)\,\upmu\meter.Iterative track fits using the formalism of General Broken Lines are performed to estimate the intrinsic resolution of the individual pixel planes. The mean intrinsic resolution over the six sensors used is found to be (3.24\,\pm\,0.09)\,\upmu\meter.With a 5\,GeV electron/positron beam, the track resolution halfway between the two inner pixel planes using an equidistant plane spacing of 20\,mm is estimated to (1.83\,\pm\,0.03)\,\upmu\meter assuming the measured intrinsic resolution. Towards lower beam energies the track resolution deteriorates due to increasing multiple scattering. Threshold studies show an optimal working point of the MIMOSA26 sensors at a sensor threshold of between five and six times their RMS noise. Measurements at different plane spacings are used to calibrate the amount of multiple scattering in the material traversed and allow for corrections to the predicted angular scattering for electron beams