Antenatal antiarrhythmic treatment for fetal tachyarrhythmias: a study protocol for a prospective multicentre trial

Introduction Several retrospective or single-centrestudies demonstrated the efficacy of transplacentaltreatment of fetal tachyarrhythmias. Our retrospectivenationwide survey showed that the fetal therapy willbe successful at an overall rate of 90%. For fetuseswith hydrops, the treatment success rate will be 80%.However, standard protocol has not been established.The objective of this study is to evaluate the efficacy andsafety of the protocol-defined transplacental treatment offetal tachyarrhythmias. Participant recruitment began inOctober 2010.Methods and analysis The current study is a multicentre,single-arm interventional study. A total of 50 fetuseswill be enrolled from 15 Japanese institutions. Theprotocol-defined transplacental treatment is performed forsingletons with sustained fetal tachyarrhythmia ≥180 bpm,with a diagnosis of supraventricular tachycardia or atrialflutter. Digoxin, sotalol, flecainide or a combination is usedfor transplacental treatment. The primary endpoint isdisappearance of fetal tachyarrhythmias. The secondaryendpoints are fetal death related to tachyarrhythmia,proportion of preterm birth, rate of caesarean sectionattributable to fetal arrhythmia, improvement in fetalhydrops, neonatal arrhythmia, neonatal central nervoussystem disorders and neonatal survival. Maternal, fetal andneonatal adverse events are evaluated at 1 month afterbirth. Growth and development are also evaluated at 18and 36 months of corrected age.Ethics and dissemination The Institutional Review Boardof the National Cerebral and Cardiovascular Center ofJapan has approved this study. Our findings will be widelydisseminated through conference presentations and peerreviewedpublications

Results of the search for inspiraling compact star binaries from TAMA300's observation in 2000-2004

We analyze the data of TAMA300 detector to search for gravitational waves from inspiraling compact star binaries with masses of the component stars in the range 1-3Msolar. In this analysis, 2705 hours of data, taken during the years 2000-2004, are used for the event search. We combine the results of different observation runs, and obtained a single upper limit on the rate of the coalescence of compact binaries in our Galaxy of 20 per year at a 90% confidence level. In this upper limit, the effect of various systematic errors such like the uncertainty of the background estimation and the calibration of the detector's sensitivity are included.Comment: 8 pages, 4 Postscript figures, uses revtex4.sty The author list was correcte

Observation results by the TAMA300 detector on gravitational wave bursts from stellar-core collapses

We present data-analysis schemes and results of observations with the TAMA300 gravitational-wave detector, targeting burst signals from stellar-core collapse events. In analyses for burst gravitational waves, the detection and fake-reduction schemes are different from well-investigated ones for a chirp-wave analysis, because precise waveform templates are not available. We used an excess-power filter for the extraction of gravitational-wave candidates, and developed two methods for the reduction of fake events caused by non-stationary noises of the detector. These analysis schemes were applied to real data from the TAMA300 interferometric gravitational wave detector. As a result, fake events were reduced by a factor of about 1000 in the best cases. The resultant event candidates were interpreted from an astronomical viewpoint. We set an upper limit of 2.2x10^3 events/sec on the burst gravitational-wave event rate in our Galaxy with a confidence level of 90%. This work sets a milestone and prospects on the search for burst gravitational waves, by establishing an analysis scheme for the observation data from an interferometric gravitational wave detector

Estudo da cinetica de extração dos glicosideos da Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni com mistura CO2 + agua

Orientadores: Maria Angela de Almeida Meireles, Marcia Ortiz Mayo MarquesDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Estadual de Campinas, Faculdade de Engenharia de AlimentosResumo: O extrato obtido a partir das folhas da planta Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni apresenta propriedades edulcorantes devido a seus glicosídeos, principalmente esteviosídeo e rebaudiosídeo A. No entanto o sabor residual perceptível limita seu uso e aceitação, sendo desejável portanto a remoção deste. O pré-tratamento das folhas de estévia usando COz supercrítico reduz o sabor residual, pela retirada de alguns compostos responsáveis pelo amargor, o que não ocorre com os processos convencionais. Nesse contexto, o presente trabalho objetivou o estudo da extração dos glicosídeos da estévia, usando uma etapa de pré-tratamento e posteriormente efetuando uma extração dos glicosídeos com a mistura COz+água, para se obter um extrato com maior teor de rebaudiosídeo A (glicosídeo de maior poder edulcorante e menor sabor residual) quando comparado a processos convencionais. O processo proposto incluiu duas etapas: prétratamento com COz a 200 bar/30°C, vazão de 5,14 :t 0,25 x 10-5 kg/s e 12 horas de extração e extração dos glicosídeos com COz+água a 120 bar/1O e 16°C e 250 bar/1O e 16°C, co-solvente igual a 9,5% (molar) ...Observação: O resumo, na íntegra poderá ser visualizado no texto completo da tese digital.Abstract: The extract obtained from Stevia rebaudiana Bertoni leaves shows sweetening properties because of their glycosides, meanly stevioside and rebaudioside A. Nevertheless, the perceptive after taste limits its use and acceptance, being desirable the removal of that. The pre-treatment of the stevia leaves using supercritical CO2reduces the aftertaste by removing some compounds responsable for the bittemess. It doesn't happen with the convencional process. In this context, this work had the objective of studying the extraction of stevia glycosides, using a step of pre-treatment and lately making an extraction of the glycosides with CO2+water, once an extract with greater quantity of rebaudioside A (sweetest and lowest after taste glycoside), than in convencional processo The process proposed included two steps: pre-treatment with CO2at 200 bar/30°C, flow rate of5,14:t 0,25 x 10-5kg/s and 12 hours of extraction; glycosides extraction with mixture CO2+water at 120 bar/I Oand 16°C e 250 bar/IOand 16°C, 9,5% (molar) of co-solvent ...Note: The complete abstract is available with the full electronic digital thesis or dissertations.Mestrad