Noninvasive monitoring of cardiac function in a chronic ischemic heart failure model in the rat: Assessment with tissue Doppler and non-Doppler 2D strain echocardiography

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Objectives</p> <p>Feasibility of noninvasive monitoring of cardiac function after surgically induced ischemic cardiomyopathy with tissue Doppler and non-Doppler 2D strain echocardiography in rats.</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The optimal method for quantitative assessment of global and regional ventricular function in rats with chronic heart failure for research purposes remains unclear.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>20 rats underwent suture ligation of the left anterior descending coronary artery via a left thoracotomy to induce ischemic cardiomyopathy. Echocardiographic examination with estimation of left ventricular wall thickness, diameters, fractional shortening, ejection fraction, wall velocities as well as radial strain were performed before and 4 weeks after surgery.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Mean LVEF decreased from 70 ± 6% to 40 ± 8% (p < 0.0001) one month after the operation. LVEDD increased from 7 ± 1 mm to 9 ± 1 mm (p < 0.0001), systolic anterior velocity decreased from 0.79 ± 0.25 cm/s to 0.18 ± 0.19 cm/s (p < 0.0001). Radial 2D strain was significantly reduced after myocardial infarction of the septal (18.2 ± 6.6% vs 7.0 ± 5.9%, p < 0.001), anteroseptal (17.3 ± 5.2% vs 4.6 ± 3.0%, p < 0.0001), anterior (18.9 ± 5.9% vs 5.6 ± 2.5%, p < 0.0001), lateral (21.4 ± 4.9% vs 8.1 ± 3.5%, p < 0.0001) as well as posterior myocardial segments (19.3 ± 5.2% vs 15.4 ± 5.5%, p < 0.01). Inferior segments (19.2 ± 7.9% vs 17.8 ± 7.9%, ns) did not change at all.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>It is feasible to assess dimensions, global function, and regional contractility with echocardiography in rats suffering from chronic heart failure after myocardial infarction. Particularly regional function can be exactly evaluated if tissue Doppler and 2D strain is used.</p

Measuring the complexity of Dutch legislation

For legislation to be effective, it should not be too complex; otherwise, it cannot be sufficiently understood by those who have to apply the law or comply with it. This paper adds to the research in AI & law on developing precise mathematical complexity measures for legislation and applying these measures by computational means. The framework of Katz & Bommarito (2014) is applied to measure the complexity of Dutch legislation. The aim is twofold: first, to investigate whether this framework is meaningfully more widely applicable by applying it to a different jurisdiction and a corpus of larger size; and second, to identify possible improvements to the framework

Автоматизация доставки, установки и обновления лицензированного программного обеспечения на базе веб-сервиса UTS Marketplace

Работа посвящена проектированию и разработке информационной системы для автоматизации процессов лицензирования и доставки программного обеспечения на устройства клиентов, его своевременного обновления и контроля за его исполнением. Разрабатываемая информационная система состоит из web-сервисов, интегрируемых с сервисом цифрового распространения программного обеспечения UTS Marketplace и кроссплатформенного desktop-клиента UTS Launcher. Результаты работы позволят в значительной мере автоматизировать бизнес-процессы компании ООО "Универсальные терминал системы".The work is devoted to the design and development of an information system for automating licensing and software delivery processes to customer devices, its timely updating and monitoring of its execution. The developed information system consists of web services that are integrated with the UTS Marketplace software digital distribution service and the UTS Launcher cross-platform desktop client. The results of the work will significantly automate the business processes of the company Universal Terminal Systems LLC

Разработка поточного варианта радиоизотопного анализатора серы в нефти с функцией плотномера

Данная работа посвящена разработке поточного анализатора содержания серы в нефти и нефтепродуктах РЕТРАН. В работе проведен сравнительный анализ имеющихся аналогов, метрологических и технологических характеристик. Описан метод лежащий в основе предлагаемого анализатора. Представлены полученные экспериментальные результаты проведенных испытаний разрабатываемого анализатора. Предлагаемый анализатор не будет уступать существующим аналогам по экономической эффективности, точности измерений и простоте обслуживания.This work is devoted to the development of a flow analyzer for sulfur content in oil and petroleum products RETRAN. A comparative analysis of the available analogs, metrological and technological characteristics is carried out in the work. The method underlying the proposed analyzer is described. The obtained experimental results of the tests of the developed analyzer are presented. The proposed analyzer will not be inferior to existing analogues in terms of cost effectiveness, measurement accuracy and ease of maintenance

Management of invasive candidiasis and candidemia in adult non-neutropenic intensive care unit patients: Part I. Epidemiology and diagnosis

Background Invasive candidiasis and candidemia are frequently encountered in the nosocomial setting, particularly in the intensive care unit (ICU)

Management of invasive candidiasis and candidemia in adult non-neutropenic intensive care unit patients: Part II. Treatment

Background Invasive candidiasis and candidemia are frequently encountered in the nosocomial setting particularly in the intensive care unit (ICU)

Molecular marker sequences of cattle Cooperia species identify Cooperia spatulata as a morphotype of Cooperia punctata

The genus Cooperia includes important parasites of ruminants and currently contains 34 accepted species. However, even for those species infecting livestock, there is a considerable lack of molecular information and many species are only identifiable using subtle morphological traits. The present study aimed to provide molecular data to allow diagnosis of Cooperia species infecting cattle. Partial sequences of two mitochondrial (cytochrome oxidase 2, 12S rRNA gene) and two nuclear genes (isotype 1 β tubulin gene including two introns, internal transcribed spacers (ITS) were obtained from morphologically identified specimens of Cooperia pectinata, Cooperia punctata and Cooperia spatulata as well as from larvae of pure Cooperia oncophora and C. punctata laboratory isolates. Pairwise identity of ITS-2 sequences was very high and it was the only region able to identify a specimen as Cooperia sp. However, the ITS-2 was unreliable for diagnosis at the species level. All other marker sequences could not unequivocally be allocated to the genus Cooperia but allowed clear species identification with the exception of the pair C. punctata/C. spatulata for which no significant differences were found for any marker sequence. Maximum-likelihood phylogenetic analyses of individual genes as well as a multi-locus analysis covering all four sequences confirmed that specimen identified as C. spatulata were randomly distributed throughout the C. punctata cluster and formed no group of their own. In contrast, the other Cooperia species formed clearly separated and statistically supported clusters. These data indicate that C. spatulata is most likely only a morphotype of C. punctata and the name should be considered a synonym. Combinations of nuclear and mitochondrial markers should be used to identify morphotypes or cryptic species to benefit from excellent barcoding properties of the latter but allowing proper phylogenetic analyses and controlling for lineage sorting that might occur for mitochondrial genotypes within a species

Cervical Artery Dissection in Young Adults in the Stroke in Young Fabry Patients (sifap1) Study

Background: Patients with carotid artery dissection (CAD) have been reported to have different vascular risk factor profiles and clinical outcomes to those with vertebral artery dissection (VAD). However, there are limited data from recent, large international studies comparing risk factors and clinical features in patients with cervical artery dissection (CeAD) with other TIA or ischemic stroke (IS) patients of similar age and sex. Methods: We analysed demographic, clinical and risk factor profiles in TIA and IS patients ≤55 years of age with and without CeAD in the large European, multi-centre, Stroke In young FAbry Patients 1 (sifap1) study. Patients were further categorised according to age (younger: 18-44 years; middle-aged: 45-55 years), sex, and site of dissection. Results: Data on the presence of dissection were available in 4,208 TIA and IS patients of whom 439 (10.4%) had CeAD: 196 (50.1%) had CAD, 195 (49.9%) had VAD, and 48 had multiple artery dissections or no information regarding the dissected artery. The prevalence of CAD was higher in women than in men (5.9 vs. 3.8%, p < 0.01), whereas the prevalence of VAD was similar in women and men (4.6 vs. 4.7%, n.s.). Patients with VAD were younger than patients with CAD (median = 41 years (IQR = 35-47 years) versus median = 45 years (IQR = 39-49 years); p < 0.01). At stroke onset, about twice as many patients with either CAD (54.0 vs. 23.1%, p < 0.001) or VAD (63.4 vs. 36.6%, p < 0.001) had headache than patients without CeAD and stroke in the anterior or posterior circulation, respectively. Compared to patients without CeAD, hypertension, concomitant cardiovascular diseases and a patent foramen ovale were significantly less prevalent in both CAD and VAD patients, whereas tobacco smoking, physical inactivity, obesity and a family history of cerebrovascular diseases were found less frequently in CAD patients, but not in VAD patients. A history of migraine was observed at a similar frequency in patients with CAD (31%), VAD (27.8%) and in those without CeAD (25.8%). Conclusions: We identified clinical features and risk factor profiles that are specific to young patients with CeAD, and to subgroups with either CAD or VAD compared to patients without CeAD. Therefore, our data support the concept that certain vascular risk factors differentially affect the risk of CAD and VAD