1,444 research outputs found
Inhibition of Trophoblast-Induced Spiral Artery Remodeling Reduces Placental Perfusion in Rat Pregnancy.
Rats harboring the human angiotensinogen and human renin genes develop preeclamptic features in pregnancy. The preeclamptic rats exhibit a deeper trophoblast invasion associated with a reduced resistance index by uterine
Doppler. Doxycycline inhibits matrix metalloproteinase activity. We tested the hypothesis that matrix metalloproteinase inhibition reduces trophoblast invasion with subsequent changes in placental perfusion. Preeclamptic and pregnant control Sprague-Dawley rats were treated with doxycycline (30 mg/kg of body weight orally) from gestational day 12 until day 18. Placental perfusion was assessed using a micromarker contrast agent. The animals were euthanized on day 18 of pregnancy; biometric data were acquired, and trophoblast invasion was analyzed. Doxycycline resulted in intrauterine growth retardation and lighter placentas in both groups. Maternal body weight was not affected. As shown earlier, preeclamptic rats exhibited a deeper endovascular trophoblast invasion. However, doxycycline treatment reduced trophoblast invasion in the preeclamptic rats. The physiological spiral artery remodeling, as assessed by the deposition of fibrinoid and α-actin in the spiral artery contour, was significantly reduced by doxycycline. The vascularity index, as assessed by perfusion measurement of the placenta, was reduced after doxycycline treatment in preeclamptic rats. Thus, matrix metalloproteinase inhibition with doxycycline leads to reduced trophoblast invasion and associated reduced placental perfusion. These studies are the first to show that reducing trophoblast-induced vascular remodeling decreases subsequent placental perfusion. Our model allows the study of dysregulated trophoblast invasion and vascular remodeling in vivo to gain important insights into preeclampsia-related mechanisms
Characterization of three new condensation particle counters for sub-3 nm particle detection during the Helsinki CPC workshop : the ADI versatile water CPC, TSI 3777 nano enhancer and boosted TSI 3010
In this study we characterized the performance of three new particle counters able to detect particles smaller than 3 nm during the Helsinki condensation particle counter (CPC) workshop in summer 2016: the Aerosol Dynamics Inc. (ADI; Berkeley, USA) versatile water condensation particle counter (vWCPC), TSI 3777 nano enhancer (TSI Inc., Shoreview, USA) and modified and boosted TSI 3010-type CPC from Universite Blaise Pascal called a B3010. The performance of all CPCs was first measured with charged tungsten oxide test particles at temperature settings which resulted in supersaturation low enough to not detect any ions produced by a radioactive source. Due to similar measured detection efficiencies, additional comparison between the 3777 and vWCPC were conducted using electrically neutral tungsten oxide test particles and with positively charged tetradodecylammonium bromide. Furthermore, the detection efficiencies of the 3777 and vWCPC were measured with boosted temperature settings yielding supersaturation which was at the onset of homogeneous nucleation for the 3777 or confined within the range of liquid water for the ADI vWCPC. Finally, CPC-specific tests were conducted to probe the response of the 3777 to various inlet flow relative humidities, of the B3010 to various inlet flow rates and of the vWCPC to various particle concentrations. For the 3777 and vWCPC the measured 50% detection diameters (d50s) were in the range of 1.3-2.4 nm for the tungsten oxide particles, depending on the particle charging state and CPC temperature settings, between 2.5 and 3.3 nm for the organic test aerosol, and in the range of 3.2-3.4 nm for tungsten oxide for the B3010.Peer reviewe
Incidence and prognosis of dysnatraemia in critically ill patients: Analysis of a large prevalence study
Background: The objective of this study is to assess the impact of dysnatraemia on mortality among intensive care unit (ICU) patients in a large, international cohort. Material and methods: Analysis of the Extended Prevalence of Infection in Intensive Care (EPIC II) study, a 1-day (8 May 2007) worldwide multicenter, prospective point prevalence study. Hyponatraemia was categorized as mild (130-134 mM/L), moderate (125-129 mM/L) or severe ( 155 mM/L). Patients with normal serum sodium (135-145 mM/L) constituted the reference group. The main outcome was hospital mortality. Analysis was conducted separately for patients admitted on the study day (25·8%) and those already present on the ICU (74·2%). Results: Serum sodium was measured in 13 276 of the 13 796 patients (96·2%). A total of 3815 patients (28·7%) had dysnatraemia: 12·9% with hyponatraemia and 15·8% with hypernatraemia. The prevalence of dysnatraemia was significantly greater in patients already present on the ICU prior to the study day than for those just admitted (13·1% vs. 12·3% for hyponatraemia and 17·1% vs. 12·1% for hypernatraemia, both P < 0·001). Hospital mortality rates were higher in patients with dysnatraemia than in those with normal sodium levels and were directly related to the severity of hypo- and hypernatraemia. This association between dysnatraemia and mortality was similar in infected and noninfected patients (P = 0·061). Conclusions: Dysnatraemia is more frequent during the ICU stay than on the day of admission. Dysnatraemia in the ICU - even mild - is an independent predictor of increased hospital mortality
Enhancement of the Deuteron-Fusion Reactions in Metals and its Experimental Implications
Recent measurements of the reaction d(d,p)t in metallic environments at very
low energies performed by different experimental groups point to an enhanced
electron screening effect. However, the resulting screening energies differ
strongly for divers host metals and different experiments. Here, we present new
experimental results and investigations of interfering processes in the
irradiated targets. These measurements inside metals set special challenges and
pitfalls which make them and the data analysis particularly error-prone. There
are multi-parameter collateral effects which are crucial for the correct
interpretation of the observed experimental yields. They mainly originate from
target surface contaminations due to residual gases in the vacuum as well as
from inhomogeneities and instabilities in the deuteron density distribution in
the targets. In order to address these problems an improved differential
analysis method beyond the standard procedures has been implemented. Profound
scrutiny of the other experiments demonstrates that the observed unusual
changes in the reaction yields are mainly due to deuteron density dynamics
simulating the alleged screening energy values. The experimental results are
compared with different theoretical models of the electron screening in metals.
The Debye-H\"{u}ckel model that has been previously proposed to explain the
influence of the electron screening on both nuclear reactions and radioactive
decays could be clearly excluded.Comment: 22 pages, 12 figures, REVTeX4, 2-column format. Submitted to Phys.
Rev. C; accepte
Semi-Hard Scattering Unraveled from Collective Dynamics by Two-Pion Azimuthal Correlations in 158 A GeV/c Pb + Au Collisions
Elliptic flow and two-particle azimuthal correlations of charged hadrons and
high- pions ( 1 GeV/) have been measured close to mid-rapidity in
158A GeV/ Pb+Au collisions by the CERES experiment. Elliptic flow ()
rises linearly with to a value of about 10% at 2 GeV/. Beyond
1.5 GeV/, the slope decreases considerably, possibly indicating
a saturation of at high . Two-pion azimuthal anisotropies for
1.2 GeV/ exceed the elliptic flow values by about 60% in mid-central
collisions. These non-flow contributions are attributed to near-side and
back-to-back jet-like correlations, the latter exhibiting centrality dependent
broadening.Comment: Submitted to Phys. Rev. Letters, 4 pages, 5 figure
Disordered ultracold atomic gases in optical lattices: A case study of Fermi-Bose mixtures
We present a review of properties of ultracold atomic Fermi-Bose mixtures in
inhomogeneous and random optical lattices. In the strong interacting limit and
at very low temperatures, fermions form, together with bosons or bosonic holes,
{\it composite fermions}. Composite fermions behave as a spinless interacting
Fermi gas, and in the presence of local disorder they interact via random
couplings and feel effective random local potential. This opens a wide variety
of possibilities of realizing various kinds of ultracold quantum disordered
systems. In this paper we review these possibilities, discuss the accessible
quantum disordered phases, and methods for their detection. The discussed
quantum phases include Fermi glasses, quantum spin glasses, "dirty"
superfluids, disordered metallic phases, and phases involving quantum
percolation.Comment: 29 pages and 11 figure
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