42,484 research outputs found
Association of antihypertensive monotherapy with serum sodium and potassium levels in Chinese patients
<b>Background</b> International guidelines on management of hypertension recommend any major classes of antihypertensive drugs. However, the low prescribing rate of thiazides has been attributed to concerns about electrolyte disturbances and studies between antihypertensive drug classes and hyponatremia/hypokalemia among Chinese patients were scarce. <p></p>
<b>Methods</b> From clinical databases we included 2,759 patients who received their first-ever antihypertensive monotherapy from January 2004 to June 2007 in a large territory of Hong Kong. We studied the plasma sodium and potassium levels 8 weeks after prescriptions and factors associated with hyponatremia and hypokalemia by multivariable regression analyses. <p></p>
<b>Results</b> Among major antihypertensive drug classes, thiazide users had the lowest sodium level (139.6 mEq/l, 95% confidence interval (CI) 139.3, 140.0, P < 0.001) and patients-prescribed calcium channel blockers (CCBs; 3.92 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.89, 3.95) or thiazide diuretics (3.99 mEq/l, 95% CI 3.93, 4.04) had the lowest potassium levels (P < 0.001). Multivariate analysis reported that advanced age (>/=70 years, odds ratio (OR) 7.49, 95% CI 2.84, 19.8, P < 0.001), male gender (OR 2.38, 95% CI 1.45, 3.91, P < 0.001), and thiazide users (OR 2.42, 95% CI 1.29, 4.56, P = 0.006) were significantly associated with hyponatremia, while renin-angiotensin system (RAS) (OR 0.31, 95% CI 0.13, 0.73, P = 0.008) and beta-blockers (BBs) (OR 0.35, 95% CI 0.23, 0.54, P < 0.001) users were less likely to present with hypokalemia. However, the proportions having normonatremic (95.1%) and normokalemic (89.4%) levels were high. <p></p>
<b>Conclusions</b> In view of the low prevalence of hyponatremia and hypokalemia associated with thiazides, physicians should not be deterred from prescribing thiazide diuretics as first-line antihypertensive agents as recommended by most international guidelines
The Surveyor 3 and Surveyor 4 flight paths and their determination from tracking data
Surveyor 3 and 4 spacecraft flight path
Effects Of Using The More Accurate Intrinsic Concentration On Bipolar-Transistor Modeling
A more accurate intrinsic concentration was suggested recently. Discrepancies between using the conventional and the more accurate intrinsic concentrations on bipolar transistor modeling are assessed in this study. Our calculations show that the conventional intrinsic concentration overestimates the collector and base currents by a factor of 1.5 to 2 but affects less severely the steadyâstate current gain
The universal functorial equivariant Lefschetz invariant
We introduce the universal functorial equivariant Lefschetz invariant for
endomorphisms of finite proper G-CW-complexes, where G is a discrete group. We
use K_0 of the category of "phi-endomorphisms of finitely generated free
RPi(G,X)-modules". We derive results about fixed points of equivariant
endomorphisms of cocompact proper smooth G-manifolds.Comment: 33 pages; shortened version of the author's PhD thesis, supervised by
Wolfgang Lueck, Westfaelische Wilhelms-Universitaet Muenster, 200
Photon pair generation using four-wave mixing in a microstructured fibre: theory versus experiment
We develop a theoretical analysis of four-wave mixing used to generate photon
pairs useful for quantum information processing. The analysis applies to a
single mode microstructured fibre pumped by an ultra-short coherent pulse in
the normal dispersion region. Given the values of the optical propagation
constant inside the fibre, we can estimate the created number of photon pairs
per pulse, their central wavelength and their respective bandwidth. We use the
experimental results from a picosecond source of correlated photon pairs using
a micro-structured fibre to validate the model. The fibre is pumped in the
normal dispersion regime at 708nm and phase matching is satisfied for widely
spaced parametric wavelengths of 586nm and 894nm. We measure the number of
photons per pulse using a loss-independent coincidence scheme and compare the
results with the theoretical expectation. We show a good agreement between the
theoretical expectations and the experimental results for various fibre lengths
and pump powers.Comment: 23 pages, 9 figure
Effects of Diversity on Multi-agent Systems: Minority Games
We consider a version of large population games whose agents compete for
resources using strategies with adaptable preferences. The games can be used to
model economic markets, ecosystems or distributed control. Diversity of initial
preferences of strategies is introduced by randomly assigning biases to the
strategies of different agents. We find that diversity among the agents reduces
their maladaptive behavior. We find interesting scaling relations with
diversity for the variance and other parameters such as the convergence time,
the fraction of fickle agents, and the variance of wealth, illustrating their
dynamical origin. When diversity increases, the scaling dynamics is modified by
kinetic sampling and waiting effects. Analyses yield excellent agreement with
simulations.Comment: 41 pages, 16 figures; minor improvements in content, added
references; to be published in Physical Review
Covariant hamiltonian dynamics
We discuss the covariant formulation of the dynamics of particles with
abelian and non-abelian gauge charges in external fields. Using this
formulation we develop an algorithm for the construction of constants of
motion, which makes use of a generalization of the concept of Killing vectors
and tensors in differential geometry. We apply the formalism to the motion of
classical charges in abelian and non-abelian monopole fieldsComment: 15 pages, no figure
On the dominance of J(P)=0(+) ground states in even-even nuclei from random two-body interactions
Recent calculations using random two-body interactions showed a preponderance
of J(P)=0(+) ground states, despite the fact that there is no strong pairing
character in the force. We carry out an analysis of a system of identical
particles occupying orbits with j=1/2, 3/2 and 5/2 and discuss some general
features of the spectra derived from random two-body interactions. We show that
for random two-body interactions that are not time-reversal invariant the
dominance of 0(+) states in this case is more pronounced, indicating that
time-reversal invariance cannot be the origin of the 0(+) dominance.Comment: 8 pages, 3 tables and 3 figures. Phys. Rev. C, in pres
An engineered cardiac reporter cell line identifies human embryonic stem cell-derived myocardial precursors.
Unlike some organs, the heart is unable to repair itself after injury. Human embryonic stem cells (hESCs) grow and divide indefinitely while maintaining the potential to develop into many tissues of the body. As such, they provide an unprecedented opportunity to treat human diseases characterized by tissue loss. We have identified early myocardial precursors derived from hESCs (hMPs) using an α-myosin heavy chain (αMHC)-GFP reporter line. We have demonstrated by immunocytochemistry and quantitative real-time PCR (qPCR) that reporter activation is restricted to hESC-derived cardiomyocytes (CMs) differentiated in vitro, and that hMPs give rise exclusively to muscle in an in vivo teratoma formation assay. We also demonstrate that the reporter does not interfere with hESC genomic stability. Importantly, we show that hMPs give rise to atrial, ventricular and specialized conduction CM subtypes by qPCR and microelectrode array analysis. Expression profiling of hMPs over the course of differentiation implicate Wnt and transforming growth factor-ÎČ signaling pathways in CM development. The identification of hMPs using this αMHC-GFP reporter line will provide important insight into the pathways regulating human myocardial development, and may provide a novel therapeutic reagent for the treatment of cardiac disease
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