Long-term outcomes of mitral valve annuloplasty versus subvalvular sparing replacement for severe ischemic mitral regurgitation

Background: Although practice guidelines recommend surgery for patients with severe chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR), they do not specify whether to repair or replace the mitral valve. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term outcomes in patients with severe CIMR undergoing mitral valve annuloplasty (MVA) versus subvalvular sparing mitral valve replacement (MVR).  Methods: 392 consecutive patients who underwent MVA or subvalvular sparing MVR for treatment of severe CIMR were retrospectively reviewed. Results: After adjustment for baseline differences with multivariable regression analysis at 53 months follow-up (interquartile range, 34–81 months), there was no significant difference between the two groups for risk of major adverse cardiac or cerebrovascular events (MACCE), cardiac death, or all-cause death. Propensity score matching extracted 77 pairs. During the follow-up, compared with the MVR group, both the left atrium and left ventricle end-diastolic diameter were markedly larger (p = 0.013 and p = 0.033, respectively), and the incidence of mitral regurgitation recurrence was significantly higher in the MVA group (p < 0.001). No significant difference was observed between the two propensity score-matched groups in composite in-hospital outcomes, overall survival, freedom from cardiac death or MACCE, except subvalvular sparing MVR was associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA (p = 0.015). Conclusions: Subvalvular sparing MVR is a suitable management of patients with severe CIMR, it is more favorable to ventricular remodeling and is associated with a lower incidence of hospitalization for heart failure than MVA

Vehicle trajectory clustering based on dynamic representation learning of internet of vehicles

With the widely used Internet of Things, 5G, and smart city technologies, we are able to acquire a variety of vehicle trajectory data. These trajectory data are of great significance which can be used to extract relevant information in order to, for instance, calculate the optimal path from one position to another, detect abnormal behavior, monitor the traffic flow in a city, and predict the next position of an object. One of the key technology is to cluster vehicle trajectory. However, existing methods mainly rely on manually designed metrics which may lead to biased results. Meanwhile, the large scale of vehicle trajectory data has become a challenge because calculating these manually designed metrics will cost more time and space. To address these challenges, we propose to employ network representation learning to achieve accurate vehicle trajectory clustering. Specifically, we first construct the k-nearest neighbor-based internet of vehicles in a dynamic manner. Then we learn the low-dimensional representations of vehicles by performing dynamic network representation learning on the constructed network. Finally, using the learned vehicle vectors, vehicle trajectories are clustered with machine learning methods. Experimental results on the real-word dataset show that our method achieves the best performance compared against baseline methods. © 2000-2011 IEEE. **Please note that there are multiple authors for this article therefore only the name of the first 5 including Federation University Australia affiliate “Feng Xia” is provided in this record*

Predicting functional mitral stenosis after restrictive annuloplasty for ischemic mitral regurgitation

Background: Although it has been realized that restrictive mitral valve annuloplasty (MVA) may re­sult in clinically significant functional mitral stenosis (MS), it still cannot be predicted. The purpose of this study was to identify risk factors for clinically significant functional MS following restrictive MVA surgery for chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation (CIMR). Methods: One hundred and fourteen patients who underwent restrictive MVA with coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) for treatment of CIMR were retrospectively reviewed. Clinically significant functional MS was defined as resting transmitral peak pressure gradient (PPG) ≥ 13 mmHg. Results: During the follow-up period (range 6–12 months), 28 (24.56%) patients developed clinically significant functional MS. The PPG at follow-up was significantly higher than that measured in the early postoperative stage (3–5 days after surgery). Moreover, there was a linear correlation between the two measurements (r = 0.398, p < 0.001). Annuloplasty size ≤ 27 mm and early postoperative PPG ≥ 7.4 mmHg could predict clinically significant functional MS at 6–12 months postoperatively. Conclusions: Chronic ischemic mitral regurgitation patients treated with restrictive MVA and CABG have significant increases in PPG postoperatively. Annuloplasty size ≤ 27 mm and early postopera­tive PPG ≥ 7.4 mmHg can predict clinically significant functional MS at 6–12 months after surgery

Noninvasive electromyometrial imaging of human uterine maturation during term labor

Electromyometrial imaging (EMMI) was recently developed to image the three-dimensional (3D) uterine electrical activation during contractions noninvasively and accurately in sheep. Herein we describe the development and application of a human EMMI system to image and evaluate 3D uterine electrical activation patterns at high spatial and temporal resolution during human term labor. We demonstrate the successful integration of the human EMMI system during subjects\u27 clinical visits to generate noninvasively the uterine surface electrical potential maps, electrograms, and activation sequence through an inverse solution using up to 192 electrodes distributed around the abdomen surface. Quantitative indices, including the uterine activation curve, are developed and defined to characterize uterine surface contraction patterns. We thus show that the human EMMI system can provide detailed 3D images and quantification of uterine contractions as well as novel insights into the role of human uterine maturation during labor progression

Harpin-induced expression and transgenic overexpression of the phloem protein gene AtPP2-A1 in Arabidopsis repress phloem feeding of the green peach aphid Myzus persicae

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Treatment of plants with HrpN_Ea, a protein of harpin group produced by Gram-negative plant pathogenic bacteria, induces plant resistance to insect herbivores, including the green peach aphid <it>Myzus persicae</it>, a generalist phloem-feeding insect. Under attacks by phloem-feeding insects, plants defend themselves using the phloem-based defense mechanism, which is supposed to involve the phloem protein 2 (PP2), one of the most abundant proteins in the phloem sap. The purpose of this study was to obtain genetic evidence for the function of the <it>Arabidopsis thaliana </it>(Arabidopsis) PP2-encoding gene <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>in resistance to <it>M. persicae </it>when the plant was treated with HrpN_Eaand after the plant was transformed with <it>AtPP2-A1</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The electrical penetration graph technique was used to visualize the phloem-feeding activities of apterous agamic <it>M. persicae </it>females on leaves of Arabidopsis plants treated with HrpN_Eaand an inactive protein control, respectively. A repression of phloem feeding was induced by HrpN_Eain wild-type (WT) Arabidopsis but not in <it>atpp2-a1</it>/E/142, the plant mutant that had a defect in the <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>gene, the most HrpN_Ea-responsive of 30 <it>AtPP2 </it>genes. In WT rather than <it>atpp2-a1</it>/E/142, the deterrent effect of HrpN_Eatreatment on the phloem-feeding activity accompanied an enhancement of <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>expression. In PP2OETAt (<it>AtPP2-A1</it>-overexpression transgenic <it>Arabidopsis thaliana</it>) plants, abundant amounts of the <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>gene transcript were detected in different organs, including leaves, stems, calyces, and petals. All these organs had a deterrent effect on the phloem-feeding activity compared with the same organs of the transgenic control plant. When a large-scale aphid population was monitored for 24 hours, there was a significant decrease in the number of aphids that colonized leaves of HrpN_Ea-treated WT and PP2OETAt plants, respectively, compared with control plants.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The repression in phloem-feeding activities of <it>M. persicae </it>as a result of <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>overexpression, and as a deterrent effect of HrpN_Eatreatment in WT Arabidopsis rather than the <it>atpp2-a1</it>/E/142 mutant suggest that <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>plays a role in plant resistance to the insect, particularly at the phloem-feeding stage. The accompanied change of aphid population in leaf colonies suggests that the function of <it>AtPP2-A1 </it>is related to colonization of the plant.</p

The bracteatus pineapple genome and domestication of clonally propagated crops

Domestication of clonally propagated crops such as pineapple from South America was hypothesized to be a 'one-step operation'. We sequenced the genome of Ananas comosus var. bracteatus CB5 and assembled 513 Mb into 25 chromosomes with 29,412 genes. Comparison of the genomes of CB5, F153 and MD2 elucidated the genomic basis of fiber production, color formation, sugar accumulation and fruit maturation. We also resequenced 89 Ananas genomes. Cultivars 'Smooth Cayenne' and 'Queen' exhibited ancient and recent admixture, while 'Singapore Spanish' supported a one-step operation of domestication. We identified 25 selective sweeps, including a strong sweep containing a pair of tandemly duplicated bromelain inhibitors. Four candidate genes for self-incompatibility were linked in F153, but were not functional in self-compatible CB5. Our findings support the coexistence of sexual recombination and a one-step operation in the domestication of clonally propagated crops. This work guides the exploration of sexual and asexual domestication trajectories in other clonally propagated crops

Rhombohedral stacking-faults in exfoliated highly oriented pyrolytic graphite

The recent observation of possible granular superconductivity in highly oriented pyrolytic graphite (HOPG) has attracted significant research interest. Here we report a novel investigation on the structural-properties of exfoliated-HOPG. We investigated two types of exfoliation methods, involving either a full (method-1) or partial (method-2) contact between adhesive tape and the main HOPG. Structural characterization was obtained by employing X-ray diffraction (XRD), Raman spectroscopy and electron microscopy (SEM). In particular, Raman point and mapping spectroscopy revealed significant structural-transitions from ABA (Bernal) to ABC (rhombohedral) stacking (stacking-faults), in those samples obtained with the method-2. Interestingly, strained regions exhibiting structural-deformations with a ridge-like morphology were reproducibly identified. The acquired Raman-spectra revealed a local enhancement of the D and D’ bands-intensity together with contributions arising from Electronic Raman Scattering (ERS) across the band-gap of rhombohedral-graphite, at middle (∼1870 cm−1) and high (∼ 2680 cm−1) frequency. HRTEM of the samples produced with the method-2 allowed also for the identification of local-coexistence of ripplocation-like defects with moiré superlattices, an indicator of non-uniform c-axis configuration

Genetic variation in prostaglandin synthesis and related pathways, NSAID use and colorectal cancer risk in the Colon Cancer Family Registry

Although use of non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) generally decreases colorectal cancer (CRC) risk, inherited genetic variation in inflammatory pathways may alter their potential as preventive agents. We investigated whether variation in prostaglandin synthesis and related pathways influences CRC risk in the Colon Cancer Family Registry by examining associations between 192 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and two variable nucleotide tandem repeats (VNTRs) within 17 candidate genes and CRC risk. We further assessed interactions between these polymorphisms and NSAID use on CRC risk. Using a case-unaffected-sibling-control design, this study included 1621 primary invasive CRC cases and 2592 sibling controls among Caucasian men and women aged 18–90. After adjustment for multiple comparisons, two intronic SNPs were associated with rectal cancer risk: rs11571364 in ALOX12 [ORhet/hzv = 1.87, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.19–2.95, P = 0.03] and rs45525634 in PTGER2 (ORhet/hzv = 0.49, 95% CI = 0.29–0.82, P = 0.03). Additionally, there was an interaction between NSAID use and the intronic SNP rs2920421 in ALOX12 on risk of CRC (P = 0.03); among those with heterozygous genotypes, risk was reduced for current NSAID users compared with never or former users (ORhet = 0.60, 95% CI = 0.45–0.80), though not among those with homozygous wild-type or variant genotypes. The results of this study suggest that genetic variation in ALOX12 and PTGER2 may affect the risk of rectal cancer. In addition, this study suggests plausible interactions between NSAID use and variants in ALOX12 on CRC risk. These results may aid in the development of genetically targeted cancer prevention strategies with NSAIDs