Rodent models of cardiopulmonary disease: their potential applicability in studies of air pollutant susceptibility.

The mechanisms by which increased mortality and morbidity occur in individuals with preexistent cardiopulmonary disease following acute episodes of air pollution are unknown. Studies involving air pollution effects on animal models of human cardiopulmonary diseases are both infrequent and difficult to interpret. Such models are, however, extensively used in studies of disease pathogenesis. Primarily they comprise those developed by genetic, pharmacologic, or surgical manipulations of the cardiopulmonary system. This review attempts a comprehensive description of rodent cardiopulmonary disease models in the context of their potential application to susceptibility studies of air pollutants regardless of whether the models have been previously used for such studies. The pulmonary disease models include bronchitis, emphysema, asthma/allergy, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, interstitial fibrosis, and infection. The models of systemic hypertension and congestive heart failure include: those derived by genetics (spontaneously hypertensive, Dahl S. renin transgenic, and other rodent models); congestive heart failure models derived by surgical manipulations; viral myocarditis; and cardiomyopathy induced by adriamycin. The characteristic pathogenic features critical to understanding the susceptibility to inhaled toxicants are described. It is anticipated that this review will provide a ready reference for the selection of appropriate rodent models of cardiopulmonary diseases and identify not only their pathobiologic similarities and/or differences to humans but also their potential usefulness in susceptibility studies

Layered connectors: revisiting the formal basis of architectural connection for complex distributed systems

The complex distributed systems of nowadays require the dynamic composition of multiple components, which are autonomous and so complex that they can be considered as systems in themselves. These components often use different application protocols and are implemented on top of heterogeneous middleware, which hamper their successful interaction. The explicit and rigorous description and analysis of components interaction is essential in order to enable the dynamic composition of these components. In this paper, we propose a formal approach to represent and reason about interactions between components using layered connectors. Layered connectors describe components interaction at both the application and middleware layers and make explicit the role of middleware in the realisation of this interaction. We provide formal semantics of layered connectors and present an approach for the synthesis of layered connectors in order to enable the dynamic composition of highly heterogeneous components. We validate our approach through a case study in the area of collaborative emergency management

Tachycardia Related Cardiomyopathy: Response to Control of the Arrhythmia

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/75609/1/j.1540-8183.1989.tb00780.x.pd