Executive summary of the joint position paper on renal denervation of the Cardiovascular and Interventional Radiological Society of Europe (CIRSE) and the European Society of Hypertension (ESH)

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Large Deformation Effects in the N = Z 44Ti Compound Nucleus

The N = Z 44Ti* nucleus has been populated in Fusion Evaporation process at very high excitation energies and angular momenta using two entrance channels with different mass-asymmetry. The deformation effects in the rapidly rotating nuclei have been investigated through the energy distribution of the alpha-particle combined to statistical-model calculations. In the case of low-multiplicity events, the ratio between first particle emitted has been measured and shows significant disagreement with the predictions of the statistical-model. This may explain The large discrepancies observed in proton energy spectra measured in previous experiments performed in the same mass region.Comment: Proceeding of the 10th International Conference on Nuclear Reaction Mechanisms, Varenna Italy, June 9-13 2003. 10 pages, 6 figures, 1 tabl

Large scale variation in DNA copy number in chicken breeds

Background Detecting genetic variation is a critical step in elucidating the molecular mechanisms underlying phenotypic diversity. Until recently, such detection has mostly focused on single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) because of the ease in screening complete genomes. Another type of variant, copy number variation (CNV), is emerging as a significant contributor to phenotypic variation in many species. Here we describe a genome-wide CNV study using array comparative genomic hybridization (aCGH) in a wide variety of chicken breeds. Results We identified 3,154 CNVs, grouped into 1,556 CNV regions (CNVRs). Thirty percent of the CNVs were detected in at least 2 individuals. The average size of the CNVs detected was 46.3 kb with the largest CNV, located on GGAZ, being 4.3 Mb. Approximately 75% of the CNVs are copy number losses relatively to the Red Jungle Fowl reference genome. The genome coverage of CNVRs in this study is 60 Mb, which represents almost 5.4% of the chicken genome. In particular large gene families such as the keratin gene family and the MHC show extensive CNV. Conclusions A relative large group of the CNVs are line-specific, several of which were previously shown to be related to the causative mutation for a number of phenotypic variants. The chance that inter-specific CNVs fall into CNVRs detected in chicken is related to the evolutionary distance between the species. Our results provide a valuable resource for the study of genetic and phenotypic variation in this phenotypically diverse species

Observation of the lowest energy gamma-ray in any superdeformed nucleus : 196Bi

New results on the superdeformed $^{196}$Bi nucleus a re reported. We have observed with the EUROBALL IV $\gamma$-ray spectrometer array a superdeformed trans ition of 124 keV which is the lowest observed energy $\gamma$-ray in any superdeformed nucleus. We have de velopped microscopic cranked Hartree-Fock-Bogoliubov calculations using the SLy4 effective force and a realistic surface p airing which strongly support the $K^\pi=2^-$($\pi$[651]1/2$\otimes \nu$[752]5/2) assignment of this su perdeformed band

Impact of Renal Impairment on Beta-Blocker Efficacy in Patients With Heart Failure.

BACKGROUND: Moderate and moderately severe renal impairment are common in patients with heart failure and reduced ejection fraction, but whether beta-blockers are effective is unclear, leading to underuse of life-saving therapy. OBJECTIVES: This study sought to investigate patient prognosis and the efficacy of beta-blockers according to renal function using estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR). METHODS: Analysis of 16,740 individual patients with left ventricular ejection fraction <50% from 10 double-blind, placebo-controlled trials was performed. The authors report all-cause mortality on an intention-to-treat basis, adjusted for baseline covariates and stratified by heart rhythm. RESULTS: Median eGFR at baseline was 63 (interquartile range: 50 to 77) ml/min/1.73 m2; 4,584 patients (27.4%) had eGFR 45 to 59 ml/min/1.73 m2, and 2,286 (13.7%) 30 to 44 ml/min/1.73 m2. Over a median follow-up of 1.3 years, eGFR was independently associated with mortality, with a 12% higher risk of death for every 10 ml/min/1.73 m2 lower eGFR (95% confidence interval [CI]: 10% to 15%; p < 0.001). In 13,861 patients in sinus rhythm, beta-blockers reduced mortality versus placebo; adjusted hazard ratio (HR): 0.73 for eGFR 45 to 59 ml/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI: 0.62 to 0.86; p < 0.001) and 0.71 for eGFR 30 to 44 ml/min/1.73 m2 (95% CI: 0.58 to 0.87; p = 0.001). The authors observed no deterioration in renal function over time in patients with moderate or moderately severe renal impairment, no difference in adverse events comparing beta-blockers with placebo, and higher mortality in patients with worsening renal function on follow-up. Due to exclusion criteria, there were insufficient patients with severe renal dysfunction (eGFR <30 ml/min/1.73 m2) to draw conclusions. In 2,879 patients with atrial fibrillation, there was no reduction in mortality with beta-blockers at any level of eGFR. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with heart failure, left ventricular ejection fraction <50% and sinus rhythm should receive beta-blocker therapy even with moderate or moderately severe renal dysfunction

A single-sample method for normalizing and combining full-resolution copy numbers from multiple platforms, labs and analysis methods

Motivation: The rapid expansion of whole-genome copy number (CN) studies brings a demand for increased precision and resolution of CN estimates. Recent studies have obtained CN estimates from more than one platform for the same set of samples, and it is natural to want to combine the different estimates in order to meet this demand. Estimates from different platforms show different degrees of attenuation of the true CN changes. Similar differences can be observed in CNs from the same platform run in different labs, or in the same lab, with different analytical methods. This is the reason why it is not straightforward to combine CN estimates from different sources (platforms, labs and analysis methods)

Ergodic properties of quasi-Markovian generalized Langevin equations with configuration dependent noise and non-conservative force

We discuss the ergodic properties of quasi-Markovian stochastic differential equations, providing general conditions that ensure existence and uniqueness of a smooth invariant distribution and exponential convergence of the evolution operator in suitably weighted $L^{\infty}$ spaces, which implies the validity of central limit theorem for the respective solution processes. The main new result is an ergodicity condition for the generalized Langevin equation with configuration-dependent noise and (non-)conservative force

Search for Fingerprints of Tetrahedral Symmetry in 156Gd^{156}Gd

Theoretical predictions suggest the presence of tetrahedral symmetry as an explanation for the vanishing intra-band E2-transitions at the bottom of the odd-spin negative parity band in $^{156}Gd$. The present study reports on experiment performed to address this phenomenon. It allowed to determine the intra-band E2 transitions and branching ratios B(E2)/B(E1) of two of the negative-parity bands in $^{156}Gd$.Comment: presented by Q.T. Doan at XLII Zakopane School of Physics: Breaking Frontiers: Submicron Structures in Physics and Biology, May 2008. 5 pages, minor corrections. To be published in the proceeding

Thin PDMS Films Using Long Spin Times or Tert-Butyl Alcohol as a Solvent

Thin polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) films are frequently used in “lab on a chip” devices as flexible membranes. The common solvent used to dilute the PDMS for thin films is hexane, but hexane can swell the underlying PDMS substrate. A better solvent would be one that dissolves uncured PDMS but doesn't swell the underlying substrate. Here, we present protocols and spin curves for two alternatives to hexane dilution: longer spin times and dilution in tert-butyl alcohol. The thickness of the PDMS membranes under different spin speeds, spin times, and PDMS concentrations was measured using an optical profilometer. The use of tert-butyl alcohol to spin thin PDMS films does not swell the underlying PDMS substrate, and we have used these films to construct multilayer PDMS devices

A new isomer in 125^{125}La

Levels in $^{125}$La have been studied via $\beta ^+$/EC decay of on-line mass-separated $^{125}$Ce using the HIGISOL technique. A new (390 $\pm$ 40) ms isomer is definitely attributed to $^{125}$La by conversion electron measurements of the 107 keV E3 isomeric transition