ST2 in patients with severe aortic stenosis and heart failure

Background: ST2 is a circulating biomarker that is well established for predicting outcome in heart failure (HF). This is the first study to look at ST2 concentrations in optimally treated patients with stable but significant left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD) compared to patients with severe aortic stenosis (AS).Methods: Two cohorts were retrospectively studied: 94 patients undergoing transcatheter aortic valveimplantation for severe AS (63 with normal ejection fraction [EF] and 31 with reduced EF), and 50 patients with severe LVSD from non-valvular causes. ST2 pre-procedural samples were taken, and repeated again at 3 and 6 months. Patients were followed-up for 2 years. Data was analyzed using SPSS software.Results: Baseline concentrations of soluble ST2 did not differ significantly between the HF group and AS group with normal EF (EF ≥ 50%). However, in the AS group with a low EF (EF < 50%) ST2 concentrationswere significantly higher that the HF group (p = 0.009). New York Heart Association class IV HF, baseline N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide and gender were all independent predictors of soluble ST2 (sST2) baseline concentrations.Conclusions: Raised ST2 concentrations in the context of severe AS may be a marker for subclinical or clinical left ventricular dysfunction. More research is required to assess its use for assessment of prognosis and response to treatment

First upper limits from LIGO on gravitational wave bursts

We report on a search for gravitational wave bursts using data from the first science run of the LIGO detectors. Our search focuses on bursts with durations ranging from 4 ms to 100 ms, and with significant power in the LIGO sensitivity band of 150 to 3000 Hz. We bound the rate for such detected bursts at less than 1.6 events per day at 90% confidence level. This result is interpreted in terms of the detection efficiency for ad hoc waveforms (Gaussians and sine-Gaussians) as a function of their root-sum-square strain h_{rss}; typical sensitivities lie in the range h_{rss} ~ 10^{-19} - 10^{-17} strain/rtHz, depending on waveform. We discuss improvements in the search method that will be applied to future science data from LIGO and other gravitational wave detectors.Comment: 21 pages, 15 figures, accepted by Phys Rev D. Fixed a few small typos and updated a few reference

A História da Alimentação: balizas historiográficas

Os M. pretenderam traçar um quadro da História da Alimentação, não como um novo ramo epistemológico da disciplina, mas como um campo em desenvolvimento de práticas e atividades especializadas, incluindo pesquisa, formação, publicações, associações, encontros acadêmicos, etc. Um breve relato das condições em que tal campo se assentou faz-se preceder de um panorama dos estudos de alimentação e temas correia tos, em geral, segundo cinco abardagens Ia biológica, a econômica, a social, a cultural e a filosófica!, assim como da identificação das contribuições mais relevantes da Antropologia, Arqueologia, Sociologia e Geografia. A fim de comentar a multiforme e volumosa bibliografia histórica, foi ela organizada segundo critérios morfológicos. A seguir, alguns tópicos importantes mereceram tratamento à parte: a fome, o alimento e o domínio religioso, as descobertas européias e a difusão mundial de alimentos, gosto e gastronomia. O artigo se encerra com um rápido balanço crítico da historiografia brasileira sobre o tema

Preparação e caracterização de organobentonita modificada com ionenos alifáticos Preparation and characterization of aliphatic ionene-modified organobentonite

A preparação de complexos bentonita-ionenos a partir da adsorção de tetrametil-[x,y]-ionenos, onde x= 2 e y= 4,6,10 ou 12, e o 2-hidróxi-3-cloro-ioneno, EPI-DMA, foi realizada com a finalidade de observar o comportamento do tamanho do espaçador do ioneno na expansão basal (d001) das camadas de uma bentonita comercial do Brasil. Os complexos foram caracterizados por espectrometria de absorção na região do infravermelho, termogravimetria, fluorescência e difração de raios X. A partir das análises por fluorescência e difração de raios X dos complexos, foi observado que os poli-quaternários de amônio são adsorvidos nas superfícies internas e externas da argila delaminada, acima da capacidade de troca catiônica, CTC = 91 meq/100g de argila (calculada a partir de dados de fluorescência de raios X). A expansão basal das camadas da argila com os diferentes policátions revelou que o tamanho do espaçador é o fator mais importante, independentemente das massas molares dos ionenos, tal como foi observado principalmente entre os complexos Bt-2,10- e Bt-2,12-ioneno, com massas molares de 12000 e 5000 g/mol, respectivamente.<br>The preparation of bentonite-ionene complexes based on the adsorption of 2y-ionenes, where y = 4, 6, 10 or 12 and an ionene of the epichloridrin-dimethylamine EPI-DMA kind, was carried out in order to observe the behavior of the ionene spacer size in the expansion of the basal space (d-spacing, d001) of a Brazilian commercial bentonite. The complexes were characterized by adsorption spectromety in the infrared region, thermogravimetry, fluorescence and X-Ray diffraction. Ionenes were synthesized and characterized by infrared and nuclear magnetic resonance, the latter technique being useful for determining the average number molecular weight values. Based on the clay-ionenes complexes it could be observed that the ammonium polyquaternaries are adsorbed on the inner and outer clay surfaces, above the ion exchange capacity, CEC = 91 meq/100 g clay (calculated based on X-Ray fluorescence data). The clay basal expansion with the several polycations revealed that the spacer size is the most important factor, independent of ionene molecular weight values. Among the bentonite-ionene complexes, mainly between Bt-2,10 and Bt-2,12-ionene complexes which differ in molar mass by more than 30,000 g/mol, it was observed that the spacer size has no dependence on the ionene molecular weights