590 research outputs found
Glimepiride, a novel sulfonylurea, does not abolish myocardial protection afforded by either ischemic preconditioning or diazoxide
Background: The sulfonylurea glibenclamide (Glib) abolishes the cardioprotective effect of ischemic preconditioning (IP), presumably by inhibiting mitochondrial KATP channel opening in myocytes. Glimepiride (Glim) is a new sulfonylurea reported to affect nonpancreatic KATP channels less than does Glib. We examined the effects of Glim on IP and on the protection afforded by diazoxide (Diaz), an opener of mitochondrial KATP channels.
Methods and results: Rat hearts were Langendorff-perfused, subjected to 35 minutes of regional ischemia and 120 minutes of reperfusion, and assigned to 1 of the following treatment groups: (1) control; (2) IP of 2x 5 minutes each of global ischemia before lethal ischemia; or pretreatment with (3) 30 µmol/L Diaz, (4) 10 µmol/L Glim, (5) 10 µmol/L Glib, (6) IP+Glim, (7) IP+Glib, (8) Diaz+Glim, or (9) Diaz+Glib. IP limited infarct size (18.5±1% vs 43.7±3% in control, P<0.01) as did Diaz (22.2±4.7%, P<0.01). The protective actions of IP or Diaz were not abolished by Glim (18.5±3% in IP+Glim, 22.3±3% in Diaz+Glim; P<0.01 vs control). However, Glib abolished the infarct-limiting effects of IP and Diaz. Patch-clamp studies in isolated rat ventricular myocytes confirmed that both Glim and Glib (each at 1 µmol/L) blocked sarcolemmal KATP currents. However, in isolated cardiac mitochondria, Glim (10 µmol/L) failed to block the effects of KATP opening by GTP, in contrast to the blockade caused by Glib.
Conclusions: Although it blocks sarcolemmal currents in rat cardiac myocytes, Glim does not block the beneficial effects of mitochondrial KATP channel opening in the isolated rat heart. These data may have significant implications for the treatment of type 2 diabetes in patients with ongoing ischemic heart disease
Astrochemistry and Astrophotonics for an Antarctic Observatory
Due to its location and climate, Antarctica offers unique conditions for
long-period observations across a broad wavelength regime, where important
diagnostic lines for molecules and ions can be found, that are essential to
understand the chemical properties of the interstellar medium. In addition to
the natural benefits of the site, new technologies, resulting from
astrophotonics, may allow miniaturised instruments, that are easier to
winterise and advanced filters to further reduce the background in the
infrared.Comment: 4 pages, to be published in EAS Publications Series, Vol. 40, Proc.
of 3rd ARENA conferenc
Colorectal cancer Outcomes in people with Severe Mental Illness Cohort (COSMIC): A protocol for an Australian retrospective cohort using linked administrative data
Introduction: Colorectal cancer (CRC) mortality is significantly higher in those with severe mental illness (SMI) compared with the general population, despite similar incidence rates, suggesting that barriers to optimal screening and cancer care may contribute to disparities in CRC mortality in those with SMI. This study aims to compare participation in Australia's National Bowel Cancer Screening Programme (NBCSP) in those with SMI and those in the general population. We will also investigate treatment pathways after diagnosis to determine whether treatment variations could explain differences in CRC mortality.
Methods and analysis: We will undertake a retrospective cohort study of Australians using linked administrative data to assess differences in screening and cancer care between those with and without SMI, aged 50-74 years on or after 1 January 2006. People with SMI will be defined using antipsychotic medication prescription data. The comparison group will be people enrolled in Medicare (Australia's universal healthcare system) who have not been prescribed antipsychotic medication. Data on outcomes (NBCSP participation, follow-up colonoscopy, CRC incidence and CRC-cause and all-cause mortality) and confounders will be obtained from national-based and state-based administrative health datasets. All people in New South Wales, aged 50-74 with a new diagnosis of CRC on or after 1 January 2006, will be ascertained to examine stage at diagnosis and cancer treatment in those with and without SMI. Poisson regression will be used to calculate incidence rates and rate ratios for each outcome.
Ethics and dissemination: Ethics approval has been obtained from the University of Queensland Human Research Ethics Committee, the Australian Institute of Health and Welfare Ethics Committee and data custodians from every Australian State/Territory. Findings will be disseminated via publications in peer-reviewed journals and presented at appropriate conferences. Trial registration number ACTRN12620000781943
Corrigendum: Intrathecal drug delivery: Advances and applications in the management of chronic pain patient.
post-print4149 K
Axion-like particles as ultra high energy cosmic rays?
If Ultra High Energy Cosmic Rays (UHECRs) with E>4 10^{19} eV originate from
BL Lacertae at cosmological distances as suggested by recent studies, the
absence of the GZK cutoff can not be reconciled with Standard-Model particle
properties. Axions would escape the GZK cutoff, but even the coherent
conversion and back-conversion between photons and axions in large-scale
magnetic fields is not enough to produce the required flux. However, one may
construct models of other novel (pseudo)scalar neutral particles with
properties that would allow for sufficient rates of particle production in the
source and shower production in the atmosphere to explain the observations. As
an explicit example for such particles we consider SUSY models with light
sgoldstinos.Comment: 5 pages, 2 postscript figures, ref. adde
Managerial judgment and forecast combination: An experimental study
This paper examines the role of managerial judgment in forming a final forecast, or judging the achievability of a critical level of sales, when multiple forecasts or opinions are available to the decision maker. Several factors that can help improve the quality of human intervention are identified and incorporated in a decision aid. Experimental results show that aided combination can help the decision maker exploit her relevant private information and mitigate the generally observed negative effects of human intervention. Further, the results suggest that emphasizing expected sales, even when the organization is primarily interested in go/no-go decisions, helps improve performance. Several suggestions for future research are presented.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/47133/1/11002_2004_Article_BF00993954.pd
Current-carrying cosmic string loops 3D simulation: towards a reduction of the vorton excess problem
The dynamical evolution of superconducting cosmic string loops with specific
equations of state describing timelike and spacelike currents is studied
numerically. This analysis extends previous work in two directions: first it
shows results coming from a fully three dimensional simulation (as opposed to
the two dimensional case already studied), and it now includes fermionic as
well as bosonic currents. We confirm that in the case of bosonic currents,
shocks are formed in the magnetic regime and kinks in the electric regime. For
a loop endowed with a fermionic current with zero-mode carriers, we show that
only kinks form along the string worldsheet, therefore making these loops
slightly more stable against charge carrier radiation, the likely outcome of
either shocks or kinks. All these combined effects tend to reduce the number
density of stable loops and contribute to ease the vorton excess problem. As a
bonus, these effects also may provide new ways of producing high energy cosmic
rays.Comment: 11 pages, RevTeX 4 format, 8 figures, submitted to PR
National Beef Quality Audit-2016: Transportation, mobility, and harvest-floor assessments of targeted characteristics that affect quality and value of cattle, carcasses, and by-products
The National Beef Quality Audit-2016 (NBQA-2016) was conducted to assess current transportation, mobility, and quality characteristics of U.S. fed steers and heifers. Data were collected at 17 beef processing facilities between March and November 2016. About 8,000 live cattle were evaluated for transportation and mobility, and about 25,000 carcasses were evaluated on the slaughter floor. Cattle were in transit to the slaughter facility for a mean duration of 2.7 h from a mean distance of 218.5 km using trailers with dimensions ranging from 17.84 m2 to 59.09 m2. Area allotted per animal averaged 1.13 m2 and ranged from 0.85 m2 to 2.28 m2. A total of 96.8% of cattle received a mobility score of 1 (walks easily, no apparent lameness). Identification types (35.1% had multiple) were lot visual tags (61.5%), individual tags (55.0%), electronic tags (16.9%), metal-clip tags (9.2%), bar-coded tags (0.05%), wattles (0.01%), and other (2.6%). Cattle were black-hided (57.8%), Holstein (20.4%), red-hided (10.5%), yellow-hided (4.8%), gray-hided (2.9%), brown-hided (1.3%), and white-hided (1.1%). Unbranded hides were observed on 74.3% of cattle; 18.6% had brands located on the butt, 6.3% on the side, and 1.3% on the shoulder (values exceed 100% due to multiple brands). For hide-on carcasses, 37.7% displayed no mud or manure; specific locations for mud or manure were legs (40.8%), belly (33.0%), tail region (15.5%), side (6.8%), and top-line (3.9%). Cattle without horns represented 83.3% of the sample, and cattle that did have horns measured: \u3c 2.54 cm (5.5%), 2.54 to 12.7 cm (8.3%), and \u3e 12.7 cm (2.9%). Carcasses without bruises represented 61.1% of those sampled, whereas 28.2% had 1, 8.2% had 2, 2.1% had 3, and 0.3% had 4 bruises. Of those carcasses with a bruise, the bruise was located on the loin (29.7%), round (27.8%), chuck (16.4%), rib (14.4%), and brisket/plate/flank (11.6%). Frequencies of offal condemnations were livers (30.8%), lungs (18.2%), viscera (16.3%), hearts (11.1%), heads (2.7%), and tongues (2.0%). Compared to NBQA-2011, fewer cattle were identified for traceability, fewer were black-hided, a greater number were Holstein cattle, more with no brand and no horns, fewer without bruises, more liver, lung, and viscera condemnations, and fewer heads and tongues were condemned. The NBQA remains an influential survey for the U.S. beef industry to provide benchmarks and strategic plans for continued improvement of beef quality and consistency
Observation of exclusive DVCS in polarized electron beam asymmetry measurements
We report the first results of the beam spin asymmetry measured in the
reaction e + p -> e + p + gamma at a beam energy of 4.25 GeV. A large asymmetry
with a sin(phi) modulation is observed, as predicted for the interference term
of Deeply Virtual Compton Scattering and the Bethe-Heitler process. The
amplitude of this modulation is alpha = 0.202 +/- 0.028. In leading-order and
leading-twist pQCD, the alpha is directly proportional to the imaginary part of
the DVCS amplitude.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure
Electron Scattering From High-Momentum Neutrons in Deuterium
We report results from an experiment measuring the semi-inclusive reaction
where the proton is moving at a large angle relative to the
momentum transfer. If we assume that the proton was a spectator to the reaction
taking place on the neutron in deuterium, the initial state of that neutron can
be inferred. This method, known as spectator tagging, can be used to study
electron scattering from high-momentum (off-shell) neutrons in deuterium. The
data were taken with a 5.765 GeV electron beam on a deuterium target in
Jefferson Laboratory's Hall B, using the CLAS detector. A reduced cross section
was extracted for different values of final-state missing mass ,
backward proton momentum and momentum transfer . The data
are compared to a simple PWIA spectator model. A strong enhancement in the data
observed at transverse kinematics is not reproduced by the PWIA model. This
enhancement can likely be associated with the contribution of final state
interactions (FSI) that were not incorporated into the model. A ``bound neutron
structure function'' was extracted as a function of and
the scaling variable at extreme backward kinematics, where effects of
FSI appear to be smaller. For MeV/c, where the neutron is far
off-shell, the model overestimates the value of in the region of
between 0.25 and 0.6. A modification of the bound neutron structure
function is one of possible effects that can cause the observed deviation.Comment: 33 pages RevTeX, 9 figures, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. C. Fixed 1
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