The Drug Candidate BGP-15 Delays the Onset of Diastolic Dysfunction in the Goto-Kakizaki Rat Model of Diabetic Cardiomyopathy

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Developing M2M applications with Mango

Mango is an open source alternative for Machine to Machine software. It enables users to access and control electronic sensors, devices, and machines over multiple protocols simultaneously. However, Mango was designed for the desktop. It relies heavily on JavaScript to render its graphical pages. While rendering, massive amounts of data are being transferred between the Mango server and the browser. Furthermore, because of the continuous polling for new data, it can easily hog the CPU of the computer displaying said data. As a result of these limitations, Mango is hardly usable on a wide range of – mainly older – mobile devices. The commissioners of the project at the JAMK University of Applied Sciences wanted to investigate the possibility of other means of accessing the data collected by Mango. Specifically, the software had to be examined and documented if it was achievable to access the data directly by an external lightweight application written in, for example, PHP. The analysis showed that because of the nature how Mango stores many of its crucial data – by serializing Java objects into BLOB columns – direct access poses challenges. However, with the help of Mango's ability to serialize objects into JSON format, a new path opens to developers aiming for mobile access

Adverse Impact of Diet-Induced Hypercholesterolemia on Cardiovascular Tissue Homeostasis in a Rabbit Model: Time-Dependent Changes in Cardiac Parameters

The present study evaluates a hypothesis that diet-related hypercholesterolemia increases oxidative stress-related burden to cardiovascular tissue, resulting in progressively increased mortality, along with deterioration of electrophysiological and enzymatic function in rabbit myocardium. New Zealand white rabbits were divided into four groups, defined as follows: GROUP I, cholesterol-free rabbit chow for 12 weeks; GROUP II, cholesterol-free chow, 40 weeks; GROUP III, chow supplemented with 2% cholesterol, 12 weeks; GROUP IV, chow supplemented with 2% cholesterol, 40 weeks. At the 12 and 40 weeks time points, animals in each of the aforementioned cohorts were subjected to echocardiographic measurements, followed by sacrifice. Significant deterioration in major outcome variables measured in the present study were observed only in animals maintained for 40 weeks on 2% cholesterol-supplemented chow, with much lesser adverse effects noted in animals fed high cholesterol diets for only 12 weeks. It was observed that rabbits receiving high cholesterol diets for 40 weeks exhibited significantly increased mortality, worsened ejection fraction and general deterioration of cardiac functions, along with increased atherosclerotic plaque formation and infarct size. Additionally, myocardium of GROUP IV animals was observed to contain lower levels of heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1) and cytochrome c oxidase III (COX III) protein relative to the controls

Methodical Challenges and a Possible Resolution in the Assessment of Receptor Reserve for Adenosine, an Agonist with Short Half-Life

The term receptor reserve, first introduced and used in the traditional receptor theory, is an integrative measure of response-inducing ability of the interaction between an agonist and a receptor system (consisting of a receptor and its downstream signaling). The underlying phenomenon, i.e., stimulation of a submaximal fraction of receptors can apparently elicit the maximal effect (in certain cases), provides an opportunity to assess the receptor reserve. However, determining receptor reserve is challenging for agonists with short half-lives, such as adenosine. Although adenosine metabolism can be inhibited several ways (in order to prevent the rapid elimination of adenosine administered to construct concentration–effect (E/c) curves for the determination), the consequent accumulation of endogenous adenosine biases the results. To address this problem, we previously proposed a method, by means of which this bias can be mathematically corrected (utilizing a traditional receptor theory-independent approach). In the present investigation, we have offered in silico validation of this method by simulating E/c curves with the use of the operational model of agonism and then by evaluating them using our method. We have found that our method is suitable to reliably assess the receptor reserve for adenosine in our recently published experimental setting, suggesting that it may be capable for a qualitative determination of receptor reserve for rapidly eliminating agonists in general. In addition, we have disclosed a possible interference between FSCPX (8-cyclopentyl-N3-[3-(4-(fluorosulfonyl)benzoyloxy)propyl]-N1-propylxanthine), an irreversible A1 adenosine receptor antagonist, and NBTI (S-(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl)-6-thioinosine), a nucleoside transport inhibitor, i.e., FSCPX may blunt the effect of NBTI

Hyaluronan bound mature sperm count (HB-MaSC) is a more informative indicator of fertility than conventional sperm parameters: Correlations with Body Mass Index (BMI)

The relationship between overweight and male fertility is well studied, still the correlation of obesity and de- creased sperm quality is a subject to debate. The widely used conventional spermatological examinations alone seem to be inadequate to assess fertilization potential. Hyaluronan Binding Assay (HBA®) is one of the available validated tests that allows the functional examination of sperm. Data of 72 male patients (mean age 33.9 (24–43) years) from infertile couples were analysed. Body Mass Index (BMI) determination, conventional semen analysis and HBA were performed. Additionally, a relatively new Hyaluronan Bound Matured Sperm Count (HB-MaSC) -index, first introduced by the authors in 2015, was calculated. This index reflects fertilization potential of sperm more precisely. With the increase of BMI, sperm count decreased significantly until about 25kg/m2, above 25 kg/m2 no further decrease was observed, although sperm count remained permanently low. Greater body weight (in the 70–90 kg range) was observed to have a significant negative effect only on the progressive sperm motility. In addition to sperm concentration and motility, sperm fertilization potential is also negatively affected by obesity, but is irrespective of body weight, as evaluated using BMI + HB-MaSC linear regression analyses adjusted for age and weight. This correlation between male BMI and sperm fertilization potential – as opposed to the conventional correlations with sperm concentration or motility – appears to provide more helpful in- formation in the identification of real capability for fertilization

Effect of broth from meat of linseed‐fed cattle on glucose‐stimulated insulin release in healthy male volunteers

Polyunsaturated fatty acid consumption has been shown to improve insulin sensitivity. We studied if administration of broth with beef meat enriched with polyunsaturated fatty acids influenced glucose-stimulated insulin release in healthy male volunteers. Broth was made either from cattles undergone dietary supplementation with lightly bruised whole linseed in addition to feeding ad libitum on grass silage (test meal) or from those fed grass silage alone (control meal). Oral glucose tolerance tests (OGTT) were performed in patients after a 6-day period of eating 300 ml broth containing 100 g meat once a day in addition to their otherwise normal mixed nourishment. During OGTT, blood samples were taken for blood glucose level and plasma insulin immunoreactivity before and 15, 30, 60, 90, 120, and 180 min after the glucose load. Glucose-stimulated maximum increase in plasma insulin immunoreactivity was 42 ± 6.6 and 81 ± 7.4 mU/ml (p < 0.05) after the test and the control meals, respectively. However, both fasting and postload blood glucose levels were the same after either meal period. The results suggest an insulin-sensitizing effect of food produced from beef cattle maintained on linseed diet in healthy human volunteers.K

Methodical Challenges and a Possible Resolution in the Assessment of Receptor Reserve for Adenosine, an Agonist with Short Half-Life

The term receptor reserve, first introduced and used in the traditional receptor theory, is an integrative measure of response-inducing ability of the interaction between an agonist and a receptor system (consisting of a receptor and its downstream signaling). The underlying phenomenon, i.e., stimulation of a submaximal fraction of receptors can apparently elicit the maximal effect (in certain cases), provides an opportunity to assess the receptor reserve. However, determining receptor reserve is challenging for agonists with short half-lives, such as adenosine. Although adenosine metabolism can be inhibited several ways (in order to prevent the rapid elimination of adenosine administered to construct concentration-effect (E/c) curves for the determination), the consequent accumulation of endogenous adenosine biases the results. To address this problem, we previously proposed a method, by means of which this bias can be mathematically corrected (utilizing a traditional receptor theory-independent approach). In the present investigation, we have offered in silico validation of this method by simulating E/c curves with the use of the operational model of agonism and then by evaluating them using our method. We have found that our method is suitable to reliably assess the receptor reserve for adenosine in our recently published experimental setting, suggesting that it may be capable for a qualitative determination of receptor reserve for rapidly eliminating agonists in general. In addition, we have disclosed a possible interference between FSCPX (8-cyclopentyl-N³-[3-(4-(fluorosulfonyl)benzoyloxy)propyl]-N¹-propylxanthine), an irreversible A₁ adenosine receptor antagonist, and NBTI (S-(2-hydroxy-5-nitrobenzyl)-6-thioinosine), a nucleoside transport inhibitor, i.e., FSCPX may blunt the effect of NBTI