Atrial fibrillation impairs the diagnostic performance of cardiac natriuretic peptides in dyspneic patients. results from the BACH Study (Biomarkers in ACute Heart Failure)

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to assess the impact of atrial fibrillation (AF) on the performance of mid-region amino terminal pro-atrial natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP) in comparison with the B-type peptides (BNP and NT-proBNP) for diagnosis of acute heart failure (HF) in dyspneic patients. Background: The effects of AF on the diagnostic and prognostic performance of MR-proANP in comparison with the B type natriuretic peptides have not been previously reported. Methods: A total of 1,445 patients attending the emergency department with acute dyspnea had measurements taken of MR-proANP, BNP, and NT-proBNP values on enrollment to the BACH trial and were grouped according to presence or absence of AF and HF. Results: AF was present in 242 patients. Plasma concentrations of all three peptides were lowest in those with neither AF nor HF and AF without HF was associated with markedly increased levels (p < 0.00001). HF with or without AF was associated with a significant further increment (p < 0.00001 for all three markers). Areas under receiver operator characteristic curves (AUCs) for discrimination of acute HF were similar and powerful for all peptides without AF (0.893 to 0.912; all p < 0.001) with substantial and similar reductions (0.701 to 0.757) in the presence of AF. All 3 peptides were independently prognostic but there was no interaction between any peptide and AF for prediction of all-cause mortality. Conclusions: AF is associated with increased plasma natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP, BNP and NT-proBNP) levels in the absence of HF. The diagnostic performance of all three peptides is impaired by AF. This warrants consideration of adjusted peptide thresholds for diagnostic use in AF and mandates the continued search for markers free of confounding by AF

Faster, more reproducible DESI-MS for biological tissue imaging

A new, more robust sprayer for desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) mass spectrometry imaging is presented. The main source of variability in DESI is thought to be the uncontrolled variability of various geometric parameters of the sprayer, primarily the position of the solvent capillary, or more specifically, its positioning within the gas capillary or nozzle. If the solvent capillary is off-center, the sprayer becomes asymmetrical, making the geometry difficult to control and compromising reproducibility. If the stiffness, tip quality, and positioning of the capillary are improved, sprayer reproducibility can be improved by an order of magnitude. The quality of the improved sprayer and its potential for high spatial resolution imaging are demonstrated on human colorectal tissue samples by acquisition of images at pixel sizes of 100, 50, and 20 μm, which corresponds to a lateral resolution of 40-60 μm, similar to the best values published in the literature. The high sensitivity of the sprayer also allows combination with a fast scanning quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometer. This provides up to 30 times faster DESI acquisition, reducing the overall acquisition time for a 10 mm × 10 mm rat brain sample to approximately 1 h. Although some spectral information is lost with increasing analysis speed, the resulting data can still be used to classify tissue types on the basis of a previously constructed model. This is particularly interesting for clinical applications, where fast, reliable diagnosis is required. Graphical Abstract ᅟ

Functional properties, structural studies and chemoenzymatic synthesis of oligosaccharides

Oligosaccharides offer beneficial effects on immune system and gut health, such as anticancer activity, immunomodulatory activity, and complement activation. Functional oligosaccharides are widely found in plants, algae, bacteria and higher fungi. Milk oligosaccharides, especially human milk oligosaccharides, have considerable health benefits, such as the growth-promotion of the beneficial bacterial flora in the intestines, and developing resistance to bactertial and viral infections. Recent developments in high performance liquid chromatography, mass spectrometry, nuclear magnetic resonance and capillary electrophoresis techniques contribute to the analysis of the oligosaccharide identification and mixture quantification. Synthesis of oligosaccharides is becoming increasingly important to pharmaceutical industries, in which chemo-enzymatic synthesis is considered as an effective method. This article gives a brief summary of structures, accessible sources, physiological and chemical characteristics, and potential health benefits of functional oligosaccharides

Three-dimensional combined diversity coding and error control coding: Code design and diversity analysis

This paper investigates joint complex diversity coding (CDC) and error control coding (ECC) to increase diversity gains across multiple antennas, OFDM blocks, and OFDM sub-carriers. A general diversity analysis for joint CDC and ECC based space-time-frequency codes (STFCs) is provided. The mapping designs from ECC to CDC are crucial for efficient exploitation of the diversity potential. This paper provides and proves a sufficient condition of full diversity construction with joint 3D CDC and ECC, bit-interleaved coded complex diversity coding (BICCDC) and symbol-interleaved coded complex diversity coding (SICCDC). A multi-stream architecture is also introduced to reduce the complexity and latency of the decoding process. © 2011 IEEE

Percentile Queries in Multi-Dimensional Markov Decision Processes

Markov decision processes (MDPs) with multi-dimensional weights are useful to analyze systems with multiple objectives that may be conflicting and require the analysis of trade-offs. We study the complexity of percentile queries in such MDPs and give algorithms to synthesize strategies that enforce such constraints. Given a multi-dimensional weighted MDP and a quantitative payoff function $f$, thresholds $v_i$ (one per dimension), and probability thresholds $\alpha_i$, we show how to compute a single strategy to enforce that for all dimensions $i$, the probability of outcomes $\rho$ satisfying $f_i(\rho) \geq v_i$ is at least $\alpha_i$. We consider classical quantitative payoffs from the literature (sup, inf, lim sup, lim inf, mean-payoff, truncated sum, discounted sum). Our work extends to the quantitative case the multi-objective model checking problem studied by Etessami et al. in unweighted MDPs.Comment: Extended version of CAV 2015 pape

The spectral variability of FSRQs

The optical variability of 29 flat spectrum radio quasars in SDSS Stripe 82 region are investigated by using DR7 released multi-epoch data. All FSRQs show variations with overall amplitude ranging from 0.24 mag to 3.46 mag in different sources. About half of FSRQs show a bluer-when-brighter trend, which is commonly observed for blazars. However, only one source shows a redder-when-brighter trend, which implies it is rare in FSRQs. In this source, the thermal emission may likely be responsible for the spectral behavior.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figure, to be published in Journal of Astrophysics and Astronomy, as a proceeding paper of the conference "Multiwavelength Variability of Blazars", Guangzhou, China, September 22-24, 201

Historical trends of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs) recorded in sediments across the Tibetan Plateau

Sediment cores from four lakes across the Tibetan Plateau were used as natural archives to study the time trends of organochlorine pesticides (OCPs). The total concentrations of dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane (ΣDDT) and hexachlorocyclohexane isomers (ΣHCH) were in the range of 0.04–1.61 and 0.08–1.88 ng/g based on dry weight (dw), while the input fluxes were in the range of 0.3–236 and 0.7–295 pg/cm2/y in the core sediments, respectively. The input fluxes of ΣDDT and ΣHCH generally peaked in sediment layers corresponding to the 1970s–1990s and peaked in top sediment layers. The ratio of α/γ-HCH decreased in the top layer sediments, implying that the contribution of lindane (pure γ-HCH) has been increasing in recent years. In addition, the ratio of o,p′-DDT/p,p′-DDT increased significantly over the last 15–20 years, suggesting that dicofol (characterized by high ratio of o,p′-DDT/p,p′-DDT about 7.0) has recently become a relatively more important source of DDT compared to technical DDT itself. The time trends of OCPs recorded in lake sediments examined the impact on such remote alpine regions by human activities

Effects of Four Host Plants on Biology and Food Utilization of the Cutworm, Spodoptera litura

Effects of four host plants, tobacco, Chinese cabbage, cowpea and sweet potato, on larval and pupal development and survival, and longevity and fecundity of adults of Spodoptera litura (F) (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae), were studied under laboratory conditions (26° C, 60–80% RH), as was the utilization of the four host plants and adaptation on tobacco. All of the biological parameters included in the study were affected by the host plants. In a choice test, S. litura females oviposited most on Chinese cabbage, least on tobacco, and intermediate on cowpea and sweet potato. S. litura larvae developed differently on the four host plants, from shortest to longest in the following order: Chinese cabbage, cowpea, sweet potato, and tobacco. Pupal development was shorter on cowpea than on the other three host plants, and males generally developed longer than females. More females than males were found among emerged adults, and male adults lived 1–2 d longer than females. Larvae survived best on cowpea (81.6%), followed by Chinese cabbage (75.5%), then sweet potato (66.1%), and worst on tobacco (49.2%). Pupal survival rates were relatively high (91.4 – 95.9%) in all four host plant treatments, although that on sweet potato was lower than those on the other three host plants. Pupal weights on tobacco and sweet potato were similar, but both were lower than those on Chinese cabbage and cowpea. Generally, male pupae weighed less than female pupae. Numbers of eggs oviposited by female S. litura were highest on sweet potato, followed by those on cowpea, Chinese cabbage, and lowest on tobacco. Relative food consumption rate was highest on sweet potato, followed by that on cowpea, Chinese cabbage, and lowest on tobacco. In contrast, S. litura larvae that fed on tobacco had higher efficiency of conversion of digested food, highest efficiency of conversion of ingested food, and lowest approximate digestibility as compared with larvae that fed on other host plants. The potential causes for S. litura outbreaks on tobacco are discussed

Osteoblastoma of the rib with CT and MR imaging: a case report and literature review

Osteoblastoma is a rare bone tumor which is mostly found in the vertebral column and long bone. We describe a 59-year-old woman with osteoblastoma in the right fifth posterior segment of the rib, whose presenting symptoms were right back pain for two years and awakened at night. Chest computer tomography (CT) and thoracic spine magnetic resonance (MR) imaging findings included an expansile lesion of the right fifth rib and an ossified matrix. Surgical resection of the lesion confirmed a benign osteoblastoma. 12 months follow-up revealed disappearance of right back pain. Rib osteoblastoma in plain film has been described previously; however, to our knowledge this is the only case report emphasized in CT and MR imaging