799-2 Left Ventricular (LV) and Myocyte Electrophysiology with the Development of Dilated Cardiomyopathy (DCM); Effects of Angiotensin II Receptor (AT1 AT-II) Blockade

Ventricular arrhythmias are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality with DCM, and AT1 AT-II receptor activation has been implicated to play a role in arrhythmogenesis. However, the effects of AT1, AT-II receptor activation on changes in LV function and myocyte electrophysiology during the progression of DCM remain unexplored. Accordingly, this study measured weekly changes in LV function (ejection fraction, LVEF; peak systolic wall stress, LVWS) and surface electrocardiography (R-R interval, QRS duration, QTc interval), and myocyte action potentials (resting membrane, RM; upstroke velocity, Vmax; duration at 90% repolarization, APD90) at terminal study in 3 groups of dogs (n=6/group): DCM, chronic pace (216 bpm, 4 weeks); DCM/AT-BLOCK, chronic pace and treatment with a specific non-peptide AT1 AT-II antagonist (SR 47436 (BMS 186295); 30mg/kg BID); and control (CON). All measurements were made with the pacemaker deactivated.LVEF (%)LVWS (g/cm2)R-R (ms).QRS (ms).QTc (ms)Week 2:CON68.7±3.2133±14646±9958.4±1.3291±13DCM40.9±4.1*184±16*519±4060.7±1.9316±9DCM/AT-Block44.1±3.7*138±10+540±566.32±1.2*325±9Week4:CON73.1±2.4127±10629±4557.6±1.4314±9DCM35.2±3.5*223±16*505±41*62.0±1.9313±9DCM/AT-Block35.2±2.7*160±13*+578±4865.7±1.5*296±6*p<0.05 vs CON+p<0.05 vs DCMWith DCM, RM (-71±l* vs -78±1mV) and APD90 (257±9* vs 226±7ms) increased, and Vmax decreased (121±5* vs 158±9V/s) compared to CON. In contrast, with AT-BLOCK, RM became more negative (-76±1+mV), APD90 was reduced (183±14*+) and Vmax increased (165±13+).SummaryAT1 AT-II receptor blockade during the progression of DCM caused significant changes in LV myocardial conduction and myocyte action potentials. These results suggest that AT1 AT-II receptor activation plays a contributory role toward the changes in LV electrophysiology with DCM

System support software for the Space Ultrareliable Modular Computer (SUMC)

The highly transportable programming system designed and implemented to support the development of software for the Space Ultrareliable Modular Computer (SUMC) is described. The SUMC system support software consists of program modules called processors. The initial set of processors consists of the supervisor, the general purpose assembler for SUMC instruction and microcode input, linkage editors, an instruction level simulator, a microcode grid print processor, and user oriented utility programs. A FORTRAN 4 compiler is undergoing development. The design facilitates the addition of new processors with a minimum effort and provides the user quasi host independence on the ground based operational software development computer. Additional capability is provided to accommodate variations in the SUMC architecture without consequent major modifications in the initial processors

Beam-target interaction experiments for bremsstrahlung converter applications

The authors are investigating the possible adverse effects of (1) backstreaming ion emission from the Bremsstrahlung converter target and (2) the interaction of the resultant plasma with the electron beam during subsequent pulses for multi-pulse radiography facilities. These effects would primarily manifest themselves in a static focusing system as a rapidly varying x-ray spot. To study these effects, they are conducting beam-target interaction experiments on the ETA-II accelerator (a 6.0 MeV, 2.5 kA, 70 ns FWHM pulsed, electron accelerator). They are measuring spot dynamics and characterizing the resultant plasma for various configurations. Thus far, their experiments show that the first effect is not strongly present when the beam initially interacts with the target. Electron beam pulses delivered to the target after formation of a plasma are strongly affected. They have also performed initial experiments to determine the effect of the beam propagating through the plasma. This data shows that the head of the beam is relatively robust, but that backstreaming ions from the plasma can still manifest itself as a dynamic focus toward the tail of the beam. They report on the details of the experimental work to suppress these effects

Production of Ceratonova shasta Myxospores from Salmon Carcasses: Carcass Removal Is Not a Viable Management Option

Severe infection by the endemic myxozoan parasite, Ceratonova (synonym, Ceratomyxa) shasta, has been associated with declines in and impaired recovery efforts of populations of fall-run Chinook Salmon Oncorhynchus tshawytscha in the Klamath River, California. The parasite has a complex life cycle involving a polychaete worm host as well as a salmon host. Myxospore transmission of this parasite, from salmon to polychaete, is a life cycle step during which there is a potential for applied disease management. A 3-year data set on prevalence, intensity, and spore characteristics of C. shasta myxospores was obtained from adult Chinook Salmon carcasses surveyed in the main stem of the Klamath River and three of its tributaries, Bogus Creek and the Shasta and Trinity rivers. Annual prevalence of myxospore detection in salmon intestines ranged from 22% to 52%, and spore concentration values per intestinal scraping ranged from 3.94 × 10² to 1.47 × 10⁷ spores. A prevalence of 7.3% of all carcasses examined produced >5.0 × 10⁵ spores, and these carcasses with “high” spore counts accounted for 76–95% of the total spores in a given spawning season. Molecular analysis of visually negative carcasses showed that 45–87% of these samples had parasite DNA, indicating they contained either low spore numbers or presporogonic stages of the parasite. Myxospores were rarely found in carcasses of freshly spawned adults but were common in decomposed carcasses of both sexes. The date of collection or age (based indirectly on FL) did not influence detection. The longer prespawn residence time for spring-run Chinook Salmon compared with that for fall-run Chinook Salmon in the Trinity River was associated with higher spore loads. The dye exclusion method for assessing spore viability in fresh smears indicated an inverse relationship in spore integrity and initial spore concentration. A carcass-removal pilot project in Bogus Creek for 6 weeks in the fall of 2008 (907 carcasses removed) and 2009 (1,799 carcasses removed) failed to measurably influence the DNA quantity of C. shasta in targeted waters. Combined with the high numbers of carcasses that contributed myxospores, we therefore deemed that this labor-intensive approach is not a viable management option to reduce the infectivity of C. shasta in Chinook Salmon in the Klamath River

Prediction of preterm birth with and without preeclampsia using mid-pregnancy immune and growth-related molecular factors and maternal characteristics.

OBJECTIVE:To evaluate if mid-pregnancy immune and growth-related molecular factors predict preterm birth (PTB) with and without (±) preeclampsia. STUDY DESIGN:Included were 400 women with singleton deliveries in California in 2009-2010 (200 PTB and 200 term) divided into training and testing samples at a 2:1 ratio. Sixty-three markers were tested in 15-20 serum samples using multiplex technology. Linear discriminate analysis was used to create a discriminate function. Model performance was assessed using area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC). RESULTS:Twenty-five serum biomarkers along with maternal age <34 years and poverty status identified >80% of women with PTB ± preeclampsia with best performance in women with preterm preeclampsia (AUC = 0.889, 95% confidence interval (0.822-0.959) training; 0.883 (0.804-0.963) testing). CONCLUSION:Together with maternal age and poverty status, mid-pregnancy immune and growth factors reliably identified most women who went on to have a PTB ± preeclampsia

Awareness of genetic risk in the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN)

Introduction: Although some members of families with autosomal dominant Alzheimer's disease mutations learn their mutation status, most do not. How knowledge of mutation status affects clinical disease progression is unknown. This study quantifies the influence of mutation awareness on clinical symptoms, cognition, and biomarkers. / Methods: Mutation carriers and non‐carriers from the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN) were stratified based on knowledge of mutation status. Rates of change on standard clinical, cognitive, and neuroimaging outcomes were examined. / Results: Mutation knowledge had no associations with cognitive decline, clinical progression, amyloid deposition, hippocampal volume, or depression in either carriers or non‐carriers. Carriers who learned their status mid‐study had slightly higher levels of depression and lower cognitive scores. / Discussion: Knowledge of mutation status does not affect rates of change on any measured outcome. Learning of status mid‐study may confer short‐term changes in cognitive functioning, or changes in cognition may influence the determination of mutation status

Performance Improvements to the Neutron Imaging System at the National Ignition Facility

A team headed by LANL and including many members from LLNL and NSTec LO and NSTec LAO fielded a neutron imaging system (NIS) at the National Ignition Facility at the start of 2011. The NIS consists of a pinhole array that is located 32.5 cm from the source and that creates an image of the source in a segmented scintillator 28 m from the source. The scintillator is viewed by two gated, optical imaging systems: one that is fiber coupled, and one that is lens coupled. While there are a number of other pieces to the system related to pinhole alignment, collimation, shielding and data acquisition, those pieces are discussed elsewhere and are not relevant here. The system is operational and has successfully obtained data on more that ten imaging shots. This remainder of this whitepaper is divided in five main sections. In Section II, we identify three critical areas of improvement that we believe should be pursued to improve the performance of the system for future experiments: spatial resolution, temporal response and signal-to-noise ratio. In Section III, we discuss technologies that could be used to improve these critical performance areas. In Section IV, we describe a path to evolve the current system to achieve improved performance with minimal impact on the ability of the system to operate on shots. In Section V, we discuss the abilities, scope and timescales of the current teams and the Commissariat energie atomique (CEA). In Section VI, we summarize and make specific recommendations for collaboration on improvements to the NIS

Enhanced Temporal but Not Attentional Processing in Expert Tennis Players

In tennis, as in many disciplines of sport, fine spatio-temporal resolution is required to reach optimal performance. While many studies on tennis have focused on anticipatory skills or decision making, fewer have investigated the underlying visual perception abilities. In this study, we used a battery of seven visual tests that allowed us to assess which kind of visual information processing is performed better by tennis players than other athletes (triathletes) and non-athletes. We found that certain time-related skills, such as speed discrimination, are superior in tennis players compared to non-athletes and triathletes. Such tasks might be used to improve tennis performance in the future