Percutaneous renal artery denervation in patients with chronic systolic heart failure: A randomized controlled trial

Background: Renal denervation (RDN) is as an effective treatment for heart failure (HF), but its effects on cardiac function of patients with HF are not well documented. Here, the aim was to investigate RDN’s effect on patients with chronic systolic HF, by conducting a single-center, prospective, randomized, and controlled study. Methods: Sixty patients with chronic systolic HF were randomly assigned to the RDN or control groups, receiving percutaneous catheter-based RDN with radiofrequency ablation and drug treatment, respectively. All patients performed a 6-minute walk test, echocardiography, blood pressure measurement, and biochemical test, at both baseline and in a 6-month follow up. Results: Over 6-month follow up, patients in RDN group showed a decrease in N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (440.1 ± 226.5 pg/mL vs. 790.8 ± 287.0 pg/mL, p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.14), an increase in left ventricular ejection fraction (39.1 ± 7.3% vs. 35.6 ± 3.3%, p = 0.017, Cohen’s d = 0.61), improved New York Heart Association class assessment (p = 0.01, Cohen’s d = 0.66), and decreased blood pressures (p < 0.001, Cohen’s d = 0.91), without reporting hypotension and syncope amaurosis. No significant between-group difference was observed for glomerular filtration rate and heart rate. Conclusions: Renal denervation which effectively and safely improves patient’s cardiac function as well as exercise tolerance, could be considered as an effective treatment for chronic systolic HF

How SaaS Application Led To Cloud Enabled Business Innovation: A Case Study from China

Although cloud computing is increasingly viewed as a catalyst for business innovation, many executives wonder whether and how it can enable the emergence of new business opportunities. This research-inprogress case study presents the business drivers and implementation of a leading telecommunication carrier from China in revolutionizing its SaaS application to a cloud enabled service platform in its innovation to develop a multisided platform business model. The preliminary implicatons from the case reveal that to gain value from cloud enabled business innovation, firms need to develop business strategies based on four key elements: customer needs probing, value proposition positioning, cloud enabled platform construction, and ecosystem development

Constraints on Axion-like Particles from Observations of Mrk 421 using the CLs{\rm CL_s} Method

Axion-like particles (ALPs) could mix with photons in the presence of astrophysical magnetic fields, and result in oscillations in the high energy $\gamma$-ray spectra observed by experiments. In this work, we investigate the ALP-photon oscillation effect through the blazar Mrk 421 spectra of 15 periods observed by Major Atmospheric Gamma Imaging Cherenkov Telescopes (MAGIC) and Fermi Large Area Telescope (Fermi-LAT). Compared with previous studies, we generate the mock data under the ALP hypothesis and apply the ${\rm CL_s}$ method to set constraints on the ALP parameters. This method is widely employed in high energy experiments and could avoid the possibility of excluding some parameter regions due to the fluctuation. We find that the ALP-photon coupling $g_{a\gamma}$ is constrained to be smaller than $\sim 2\times10^{-11}$ GeV$^{-1}$ for ALP mass ranging from $10^{-9}$ eV to $10^{-7}$ eV at a 95\% confidence level. The constraints obtained with the method based on the TS distribution under the null hypothesis, which is adopted in many previous astrophysical ALP studies, are also shown. Our results demonstrate that the joint constraints of all the periods from both methods are consistent. However, the latter method fails to provide constraints for some observation periods, whereas the ${\rm CL_s}$ method remains effective in such cases.Comment: 10 pages, 26 figure

Constraints on Axion-like Particles from the Observation of GRB 221009A by LHAASO

The LHAASO collaboration recently reported the measurement of the gamma-ray spectra of GRB 221009A, which is the brightest burst ever, covering an energy range from 0.3 $\mathrm{TeV}$ to about 10 $\mathrm{TeV}$. Based on the observation, we investigate the ALP-photon oscillation effect in the host galaxy of GRB 221009A and the Milky Way. The ${\rm CL_s}$ method is applied to set constraints on the ALP parameters in this study. Given the uncertain magnetic field configuration in the host galaxy, we use three different models: a homogeneous magnetic field model, a magnetic field model identical to that of the Milky Way, and a model constructed from the HST observations of the host galaxy. We find that the constraints derived using these three host galaxy magnetic field models are comparable. Our results are complementary in the small ALP mass regions compared with other experiments.Comment: 8 pages, 13 figure

Talatisamine, a C19-diterpenoid alkaloid from Chinese traditional herbal ‘Chuanwu’

The title compound [systematic name: (1S,4S,5R,7S,8S,9R,10R,11S,13S,14S,16S,17R)-N-methyl-8,14-dihy­droxy-1,16-tri­meth­oxy-4-(meth­oxy­methyl­ene)aconitane], C24H39NO5, was isolated from the roots of Aconitum carmichaelii Debx., which is known as ‘Chuanwu’ in Chinese traditional herbal medicine. The mol­ecule has an aconitane carbon skeleton with four six-membered rings and two five-membered rings, including a six-membered N-containing heterocyclic ring. Both five-membered rings adopt envelope conformations. The four six-membered adopt chair conformations. Two intra­molecular O—H⋯O hydrogen bonds occur

A triangular grid generation and optimization framework for the design of free-form gridshells

Gridshells have been widely used in various public buildings, and many of them are defined over complex free-form surfaces with complex boundaries. This emphasizes the importance of general grid generation and optimization methods in the initial design stage to achieve visually sound and easy-to-manufacture structure. In this paper, a framework is presented to generate uniform, well-shaped and fluency triangular grids for structural design over free-form surfaces, especially those with complex boundaries. The framework employs force-based algorithms and a connectivity-regularization algorithm to optimize grid quality. First, an appropriate distribution of internal points is randomly generated on the surface. Secondly, a bubble-packing method is employed to increase the uniformity of the initial point distribution, and the points are connected using Delaunay-based triangularization to produce an initial grid with rods of balanced length. Thirdly, the grid connectivity is optimized using a range of edge-operations including edge-flip, collapse and split. The optimization process features a grid relaxation objective which includes the degree of the vertices, leading to improved regularity. As a final step, the grid is relaxed to improve fluency using a net-like method. As part of its contribution, this paper, therefore, proposes a metric for fluency, which can be used to quantitatively evaluate the suitability of a given grid for architectural and structural expression. Two case-study examples are presented to demonstrate the effective execution of the grid generation and optimization framework. It is shown that by using the proposed framework, the fluency index of the grid can be improved by up to 157%

Recent Advances in 3D Graphene Architectures and Their Composites for Energy Storage Applications

Graphene is widely applied as an electrode material in energy storage fields. However, the strong π-π interaction between graphene layers and the stacking issues lead to a great loss of electrochemically active surface area, damaging the performance of graphene electrodes. Developing 3D graphene architectures that are constructed of graphene sheet subunits is an effective strategy to solve this problem. The graphene architectures can be directly utilized as binder-free electrodes for energy storage devices. Furthermore, they can be used as a matrix to support active materials and further improve their electrochemical performance. Here, recent advances in synthesizing 3D graphene architectures and their composites as well as their application in different energy storage devices, including various battery systems and supercapacitors are reviewed. In addition, their challenges for application at the current stage are discussed and future development prospects are indicated

Phase formation of polycrystalline MgB2 at low temperature using nanometer Mg powder

The MgB2 superconductor synthesized in a flowing argon atmosphere using nanometer magnesium powder as the raw materials, denoted as Nano-MgB2, has been studied by the technique of in-situ high temperature resistance measurement (HT-RT measurement). The MgB2 phase is identified to form within the temperature range of 430 to 490 C, which is much lower than that with the MgB2 sample fabricated in the same gas environment using the micron-sized magnesium powder, denoted as Micro-MgB2, reported previously. The sample density of the Nano-MgB2 reaches 1.7 g/cm3 with a crystal porosity structure less than a micrometer, as determined by the scanning electron microscope (SEM) images, while the Micro-MgB2 has a much more porous structure with corresponding density of 1.0 g/cm3. This indicates that the Mg raw particle size, besides the sintering temperature, is a crucial factor for the formation of high density MgB2 sample, even at the temperature much lower than that of the Mg melting, 650 C. The X-ray diffraction (XRD) pattern shows a good MgB2 phase with small amount of MgO and Mg and the transition temperature, TC, of the Nano-MgB2 was determined as 39 K by the temperature dependent magnetization measurement (M-T), indicating the existence of a good superconducting property.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure, Solid State Communicatio