Centipedes and Millipedes (Chilopoda, Diplopoda) of the Khentey Mountain Range, Northern Mongolia

We sampled 99 plots in three locations in the West, South and East Khentey, each consisted of both pitfall traps and soil and litter sampling. We were able to establish the occurrence of ten species of Chilopoda from three genera, three families and three orders and three species of Diplopoda also from three genera, three families and three orders in the Khentey Mountain region. Among the Chilopoda were found eight Lithobiomorpha: Lithobius (Ezembius) giganteus, L. (E.) sibiricus, L. (E.) ostiacorum, L. (E.) rapax, L. (E.) mongolellus, L. (Monotarsobius) alticus, L. (M.) crassus and L. (M.) curtipes and two Geophilomorpha: Escaryus chadaevae and Strigamia pusilla. L. giganteus and L. alticus were by far the most widespread Chilopoda species. Three Diplopoda species were Angarozonium amurense, Orinisobates microthylax, and Uniramidesmus perplexus, with A. amurense as the most abundant species. Both, the genus Orinisobates with O. microthylax, as well as the family Nemasomatidae they belong to, are new to the millipede fauna of Mongolia. Being the southernmost find of U. perplexus, the current record is new to the Mongolian millipede species list, likewise the genus Uniramidesmus, the family Polydesmidae and the order Polydesmida to which it belongs. The Chilopoda communities in the western Khentey were more species-rich than those in the south and east, which is caused by the higher precipitation and hence resulting higher diversity of the forest. Within the western and southern Khentey, was found a simultaneously increase in the richness of Chilopoda and tree species. Generally, was found the highest diversity of Chilopoda in the higher altitudes, which corresponds with the increasing precipitation. Lithobiomorpha, however, had their highest diversity in the floodplain forests. Geophilomorpha were absent in the alluvial forests and were only found in the hill forests. Diplopoda occurred only within the West and East Khentey, while in the dry southern Khentey no Diplopoda were found and their occurrence seems lacking or very rare

Practical analysis of replication-based systems

Task replication has been advocated as a practical solution to reduce response times in parallel systems. The analysis of replication-based systems typically rests on some strong assumptions: Poisson arrivals, exponential service times, or independent service times of the replicas. This study is motivated not only by several studies which indicate that these assumptions are unrealistic, but also by some elementary observations highlighting some contriving behaviour. For instance, when service times are not exponential, adding a replication factor can stabilize an unstable system, i.e., having infinite delays, but a tempting higher replication factor can push the system back in a perilous unstable state. This behaviour disappears however if the replicas are sufficiently correlated, in which case any replication factor would even be detrimental.Motivated by the need to dispense with such common yet unrealistic and misleading assumptions, we provide a robust theoretical framework to compute stochastic bounds on response time distributions in general replication systems subject to Markovian arrivals, quite general service times, and correlated replicas. Numerical results show that our bounds are accurate and improve state-of-the-art bounds in the case of Markovian arrivals by as much as three orders of magnitude. We apply our results to a practical application and highlight that correctly setting the replication factor crucially depends on both the service time distributions of the replicas and the degree of correlation amongst

Contrast-induced acute kidney injury and its contemporary prevention

The complexity and application range of interventional and diagnostic procedures using contrast media (CM) have recently increased. This allows more patients to undergo procedures that involve CM administration. However, the intrinsic CM toxicity leads to the risk of contrast-induced acute kidney injury (CI-AKI). At present, effective therapy of CI-AKI is rather limited. Effective prevention of CI-AKI therefore becomes crucially important. This review presents an in-depth discussion of CI-AKI incidence, pathogenesis, risk prediction, current preventive strategies, and novel treatment possibilities. The review also discusses the difference between CI-AKI incidence following intraarterial and intravenous CM administration. Factors contributing to the development of CI-AKI are considered in conjunction with the mechanism of acute kidney damage. The need for ultimate risk estimation and the prediction of CI-AKI is stressed. Possibilities of CI-AKI prevention is evaluated within the spectrum of existing preventive measures aimed at reducing kidney injury. In particular, the review discusses intravenous hydration regimes and pre-treatment with statins and N-acetylcysteine. The review further focuses on emerging alternative imaging technologies, alternative intravascular diagnostic and interventional procedures, and new methods for intravenous hydration guidance; it discusses the applicability of those techniques in complex procedures and their feasibility in current practise. We put emphasis on contemporary interventional cardiology imaging methods, with a brief discussion of CI-AKI in non-vascular and non-cardiologic imaging and interventional studies

Randomized comparison of 9-month stent strut coverage of biolimus and everolimus drug-eluting stents assessed by optical coherence tomography in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. Long-term (5-years) clinical follow-up (ROBUST trial)

Background: The aim of the study was to compare healing (assessed by optical coherence tomography [OCT]) of biolimus A9 (BES) and everolimus drug-eluting stents (EES) at 9-month follow-up in patients with ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) treated by primary percutaneous coronary intervention (pPCI). Nine-month clinical and angiographic data were also compared in both groups as well as clinical data at 5 years of follow-up. Methods: A total of 201 patients with STEMI were enrolled in the study and randomized either to pPCI with BES or EES implantation. All patients were scheduled for 9 months of angiographic and OCT follow-up. Results: The rate of major adverse cardiovascular events (MACE) was comparable at 9 months in both groups (5% in BES vs. 6% in the EES group; p = 0.87). Angiographic data were also comparable between both groups. The main finding at 9-month OCT analysis was the greatly reduced extent of mean neointimal area at the cost of a higher proportion of uncovered struts in the BES group (1.3 mm2 vs. 0.9 mm2; p = 0.0001 and 15.9% vs. 7.0%; p = 0.0001, respectively). At 5 years of clinical follow-up the rate of MACE was comparable between both groups (16.8% vs. 14.0%, p = 0.74). Conclusions: The study demonstrates a very low rate of MACE and good 9-month stent strut coverage of second-generation BES and EES in patients with STEMI. BES showed greatly reduced extent of mean neointimal hyperplasia area at the cost of a higher proportion of uncovered struts when compared to EES. The rate of MACE was low and comparable in both groups at 5 years

Lexical access speed and the development of phonological recoding during immediate serial recall

A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought, but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here, we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child’s spontaneous use of labels during a visually presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory

Lexical access speed and the development of phonological recoding during immediate serial recall

A recent Registered Replication Report (RRR) of the development of verbal rehearsal during serial recall revealed that children verbalized at younger ages than previously thought, but did not identify sources of individual differences. Here, we use mediation analysis to reanalyze data from the 934 children ranging from 5 to 10 years old from the RRR for that purpose. From ages 5 to 7, the time taken for a child to label pictures (i.e. isolated naming speed) predicted the child’s spontaneous use of labels during a visually presented serial reconstruction task, despite no need for spoken responses. For 6- and 7-year-olds, isolated naming speed also predicted recall. The degree to which verbalization mediated the relation between isolated naming speed and recall changed across development. All relations dissipated by age 10. The same general pattern was observed in an exploratory analysis of delayed recall for which greater demands are placed on rehearsal for item maintenance. Overall, our findings suggest that spontaneous phonological recoding during a standard short-term memory task emerges around age 5, increases in efficiency during the early elementary school years, and is sufficiently automatic by age 10 to support immediate serial recall in most children. Moreover, the findings highlight the need to distinguish between phonological recoding and rehearsal in developmental studies of short-term memory

ACE gene insertion/deletion polymorphism has a mild influence on the acute development of left ventricular dysfunction in patients with ST elevation myocardial infarction treated with primary PCI

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>We evaluated the associations among angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) gene insertion/deletion (I/D) polymorphism, ACE activity and post-myocardial infarction (MI) left ventricular dysfunction and acute heart failure (AHF) early after presentation with MI with ST-segment elevation (STEMI).</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A total of 556 patients with STEMI treated by primary PCI (421 patients without AHF and 135 patients with AHF) were the study population. The activity of BNP, NT-ProBNP and ACE were measured at hospital admission and 24 h after MI onset. Left ventricular angiography was done before PCI; echocardiography was undertaken between the third and fifth day after MI.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In comparison with the II genotypes group, the DD/ID group had a higher level of ACE activity upon hospital admission (p < 0.001). We found a significantly higher level of ACE activity in patients with moderate LV dysfunction (EF 40-54%) in comparison both with patients with preserved LV function (EF ≥55%) and with patients with severe LV dysfunction (p = 0.028). A non-significant trend towards a higher incidence of mild AHF (22.1% vs. 16.02%, p = 0,093), a significantly higher value of end-systolic volume (ESV/BSA) (30.0 ± 12.3 vs. 28.5 ± 13.0; p < 0.05) and lower EF (50.2 ± 11.1 vs. 52.7 ± 11.7; p < 0.05) in the DD/ID genotypes group was noted. Even after multiple adjustments according to multivariate models, the EF for the DD/ID group remained significantly lower (p = 0,033). The DD/ID genotypes were associated with a significantly higher risk of EF <45% (OR 2.04 [95% CI 1.28; 3.25]).</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These results suggest that the I/D polymorphism of ACE is associated with the development of LV dysfunction in the acute phase after STEMI. We demonstrated for the first time an association of the low ACE activity with the severe LV dysfunction, although patients with moderate LV dysfunction had higher level ACE activity than patients with preserved LV function.</p

GRACE Score among Six Risk Scoring Systems (CADILLAC, PAMI, TIMI, Dynamic TIMI, Zwolle) Demonstrated the Best Predictive Value for Prediction of Long-Term Mortality in Patients with ST-Elevation Myocardial Infarction.

To compare the prognostic accuracy of six scoring models for up to three-year mortality and rates of hospitalisation due to acute decompensated heart failure (ADHF) in STEMI patients.A total of 593 patients treated with primary PCI were evaluated. Prospective follow-up of patients was ≥3 years. Thirty-day, one-year, two-year, and three-year mortality rates were 4.0%, 7.3%, 8.9%, and 10.6%, respectively. Six risk scores--the TIMI score and derived dynamic TIMI, CADILLAC, PAMI, Zwolle, and GRACE--showed a high predictive accuracy for six- and 12-month mortality with area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) values of 0.73-0.85. The best predictive values for long-term mortality were obtained by GRACE. The next best-performing scores were CADILLAC, Zwolle, and Dynamic TIMI. All risk scores had a lower prediction accuracy for repeat hospitalisation due to ADHF, except Zwolle with the discriminatory capacity for hospitalisation up to two years (AUC, 0.80-0.83).All tested models showed a high predictive value for the estimation of one-year mortality, but GRACE appears to be the most suitable for the prediction for a longer follow-up period. The tested models exhibited an ability to predict the risk of ADHF, especially the Zwolle model