Sodium intake and hypertension

The close relationship between hypertension and dietary sodium intake is widely recognized and supported by several studies. A reduction in dietary sodium not only decreases the blood pressure and the incidence of hypertension, but is also associated with a reduction in morbidity and mortality from cardiovascular diseases. Prolonged modest reduction in salt intake induces a relevant fall in blood pressure in both hypertensive and normotensive individuals, irrespective of sex and ethnic group, with larger falls in systolic blood pressure for larger reductions in dietary salt. The high sodium intake and the increase in blood pressure levels are related to water retention, increase in systemic peripheral resistance, alterations in the endothelial function, changes in the structure and function of large elastic arteries, modification in sympathetic activity, and in the autonomic neuronal modulation of the cardiovascular system. In this review, we have focused on the effects of sodium intake on vascular hemodynamics and their implication in the pathogenesis of hypertensio

Induction of Prostaglandin Release from Macrophages by Bacterial Endotoxin

This review summarizes the role of the monocytic responses to lipopolysaccharide as it relates to periodontal disease severity. Data are presented which illustrate that the levels of prostaglandin E2 (PGE2) secreted by systemic peripheral blood monocytes in culture, in the presence of bacterial endotoxins, are highly correlated with the levels observed in the gingival crevicular fluid. Furthermore, the different periodontal diagnostic categories have varying levels of monocytic and crevicular fluid PGE2, in juxtaposition with clinical disease severity. These data are consistent with the concept that there is close synchrony between the systemic responsiveness of peripheral blood monocytes with regard to prostanoid synthesis and the local levels of mediator present within the gingival crevic

Sensitivity limits of a Raman atom interferometer as a gravity gradiometer

We evaluate the sensitivity of a dual cloud atom interferometer to the measurement of vertical gravity gradient. We study the influence of most relevant experimental parameters on noise and long-term drifts. Results are also applied to the case of doubly differential measurements of the gravitational signal from local source masses. We achieve a short term sensitivity of 3*10^(-9) g/Hz^(-1/2) to differential gravity acceleration, limited by the quantum projection noise of the instrument. Active control of the most critical parameters allows to reach a resolution of 5*10^(-11) g after 8000 s on the measurement of differential gravity acceleration. The long term stability is compatible with a measurement of the gravitational constant G at the level of 10^(-4) after an integration time of about 100 hours.Comment: 19 pages, 20 figure

Left ventricular ejection time, not heart rate, is an independent correlate of aortic pulse wave velocity.

Salvi P, Palombo C, Salvi GM, Labat C, Parati G, Benetos A. Left ventricular ejection time, not heart rate, is an independent correlate of aortic pulse wave velocity. J Appl Physiol 115: 1610–1617, 2013. First published September 19, 2013; doi:10.1152/japplphysiol.00475.2013.— Several studies showed a positive association between heart rate and pulse wave velocity, a sensitive marker of arterial stiffness. However, no study involving a large population has specifically addressed the dependence of pulse wave velocity on different components of the cardiac cycle. The aim of this study was to explore in subjects of different age the link between pulse wave velocity with heart period (the reciprocal of heart rate) and the temporal components of the cardiac cycle such as left ventricular ejection time and diastolic time. Carotid-femoral pulse wave velocity was assessed in 3,020 untreated subjects (1,107 men). Heart period, left ventricular ejection time, diastolic time, and early-systolic dP/dt were determined by carotid pulse wave analysis with high-fidelity applanation tonometry. An inverse association was found between pulse wave velocity and left ventricular ejection time at all ages (25 years, r2 0.043; 25–44 years, r2 0.103; 45–64 years, r2 0.079; 65–84 years, r2 0.044; 85 years, r2 0.022; P 0.0001 for all). A significant (P 0.0001) negative but always weaker correlation between pulse wave velocity and heart period was also found, with the exception of the youngest subjects (P0.20). A significant positive correlation was also found between pulse wave velocity and dP/dt (P 0.0001). With multiple stepwise regression analysis, left ventricular ejection time and dP/dt remained the only determinant of pulse wave velocity at all ages, whereas the contribution of heart period no longer became significant. Our data demonstrate that pulse wave velocity is more closely related to left ventricular systolic function than to heart period. This may have methodological and pathophysiological implications

Molecular detection of parasites (Trematoda, Digenea: Bucephalidae and Monorchiidae) in the European flat oyster Ostrea edulis (Mollusca: Bivalvia)

Members of the globally distributed bivalve family Ostreidae (oysters) have a significant role in marine ecosystems and include species of high economic importance. In this work, we report the occurrence of digenean parasites of the families Bucephalidae (Prosorhynchoides sp.) and Monorchiidae (Postmonorchis sp.) in Mediterranean native populations of Ostrea edulis (but not in the introduced Magallana gigas). Molecular detection was based on DNA sequencing of the ribosomal intergenic spacer 2 (ITS2) marker. The importance of detecting the presence of overlooked digenean parasites in Mediterranean oysters is discussed. © 2018 The Author(s). Published by Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

Structured light techniques for 3D surface reconstruction in robotic tasks

Robotic tasks such as navigation and path planning can be greatly enhanced by a vision system capable of providing depth perception from fast and accurate 3D surface reconstruction. Focused on robotic welding tasks we present a comparative analysis of a novel mathematical formulation for 3D surface reconstruction and discuss image processing requirements for reliable detection of patterns in the image. Models are presented for a parallel and angled configurations of light source and image sensor. It is shown that the parallel arrangement requires 35\% fewer arithmetic operations to compute a point cloud in 3D being thus more appropriate for real-time applications. Experiments show that the technique is appropriate to scan a variety of surfaces and, in particular, the intended metallic parts for robotic welding tasks