Adherence to guidelines strongly improves reproducibility of brachial artery flow-mediated dilation.

BACKGROUND: Brachial artery FMD is widely used as a non-invasive measure of endothelial function. Adherence to expert guidelines is believed to be of vital importance to obtain reproducible measurements. We conducted a systematic review of studies reporting on the reproducibility of the FMD in order to determine the relation between adherence to current expert guidelines for FMD measurement and its reproducibility. METHODS: Medline-database was searched through July 2015 and 458 records were screened for FMD reproducibility studies reporting the mean difference and variance of repeated FMD measurements. An adherence score was assigned to each of the included studies based on reported adherence to published guidelines on the assessment of brachial artery FMD. A Typical Error Estimate (TEE) of the FMD was calculated for each included study. The relation between the FMD TEE and the adherence score was investigated by means of Pearson correlation coefficients and multiple linear regression analysis. RESULTS: Twenty-seven studies involving 48 study groups and 1537 subjects were included in the analyses. The adherence score ranged from 2.4 to 9.2 (out of a maximum of 10) and was strongly and inversely correlated with FMD TEE (adjusted R(2) = 0.36, P < 0.01). Use of automated edge-detection software, continuous diameter measurement, true peak diameter for %FMD calculation, a stereostatic probe holder, and higher age emerged as factors associated with a lower FMD TEE. CONCLUSIONS: These data demonstrate that adherence to current expert consensus guidelines and applying contemporary techniques for measuring brachial artery FMD decreases its measurement error

The research on endothelial function in women and men at risk for cardiovascular disease (REWARD) study: methodology

Background Endothelial function has been shown to be a highly sensitive marker for the overall cardiovascular risk of an individual. Furthermore, there is evidence of important sex differences in endothelial function that may underlie the differential presentation of cardiovascular disease (CVD) in women relative to men. As such, measuring endothelial function may have sex-specific prognostic value for the prediction of CVD events, thus improving risk stratification for the overall prediction of CVD in both men and women. The primary objective of this study is to assess the clinical utility of the forearm hyperaemic reactivity (FHR) test (a proxy measure of endothelial function) for the prediction of CVD events in men vs. women using a novel, noninvasive nuclear medicine -based approach. It is hypothesised that: 1) endothelial dysfunction will be a significant predictor of 5-year CVD events independent of baseline stress test results, clinical, demographic, and psychological variables in both men and women; and 2) endothelial dysfunction will be a better predictor of 5-year CVD events in women compared to men. Methods/Design A total of 1972 patients (812 men and 1160 women) undergoing a dipyridamole stress testing were recruited. Medical history, CVD risk factors, health behaviours, psychological status, and gender identity were assessed via structured interview or self-report questionnaires at baseline. In addition, FHR was assessed, as well as levels of sex hormones via blood draw. Patients will be followed for 5 years to assess major CVD events (cardiac mortality, non-fatal MI, revascularization procedures, and cerebrovascular events). Discussion This is the first study to determine the extent and nature of any sex differences in the ability of endothelial function to predict CVD events. We believe the results of this study will provide data that will better inform the choice of diagnostic tests in men and women and bring the quality of risk stratification in women on par with that of men

Network-Based Data Integration for Selecting Candidate Virulence Associated Proteins in the Cereal Infecting Fungus Fusarium graminearum

The identification of virulence genes in plant pathogenic fungi is important for understanding the infection process, host range and for developing control strategies. The analysis of already verified virulence genes in phytopathogenic fungi in the context of integrated functional networks can give clues about the underlying mechanisms and pathways directly or indirectly linked to fungal pathogenicity and can suggest new candidates for further experimental investigation, using a ‘guilt by association’ approach. Here we study 133 genes in the globally important Ascomycete fungus Fusarium graminearum that have been experimentally tested for their involvement in virulence. An integrated network that combines information from gene co-expression, predicted protein-protein interactions and sequence similarity was employed and, using 100 genes known to be required for virulence, we found a total of 215 new proteins potentially associated with virulence of which 29 are annotated as hypothetical proteins. The majority of these potential virulence genes are located in chromosomal regions known to have a low recombination frequency. We have also explored the taxonomic diversity of these candidates and found 25 sequences, which are likely to be fungal specific. We discuss the biological relevance of a few of the potentially novel virulence associated genes in detail. The analysis of already verified virulence genes in phytopathogenic fungi in the context of integrated functional networks can give clues about the underlying mechanisms and pathways directly or indirectly linked to fungal pathogenicity and can suggest new candidates for further experimental investigation, using a ‘guilt by association’ approach

The measurement of product placement

Product placement can be defined as utilisation of a real product or a service directly in audiovisual works, under clear, contractually-agreed terms. The methodology for measuring the effectiveness of funds invested in product placement in audiovisual works has not been developed yet. The authors of this paper propose a possible solution for measuring the effectiveness of product placement, which they applied in the Vinari (Winemakers) TV series. The authors proceeded from the price. A sponsor of a TV commercial would have to pay to reach the target group to the same extent as when using product placement. The CPP (Cost per Point) approach was used, i.e. the cost of reaching 1% of the target group. Reaching the target group was surveyed by means of a primary investigation of the perception of the sponsor's company as a financial backer of cultural activities by using questionnaires. The authors based their calculations of effectiveness regarding the sponsoring of a television series using elements of brand and product placement on a model calculation of the current advertising prices for a thirty-second advertising spot in relation to the CPP. The average recall of the product placement in the sponsored series represented 16% of the target group. It was calculated that if broadcasting TV spots, the price would be CZK 6.7 million, which is more than six times the amount of the value of the sponsorship. The survey shows that there are positive benefits related to the support of the Vinari (Winemakers) TV series. A significant fact is also that respondents were still able to recall this sponsorship even after several days and not only when this information actually reached them. No pricelist or media can guarantee that a communicated message will be recalled, so sponsorship in TV series is concluded to be highly effective for reasonable price and with prolonged effect which surpass advertising expectations. © Institute of Society Transformation, 2016

Position of the predictions in relation to the 4 chromosomes of <i>Fusarium graminearum</i>.

<p>The predicted virulence genes are shown as black vertical bars in track 1 for each chromosome. The verified virulence seeds (red bars) are depicted in track 2. Recombination frequency across the chromosomes is depicted in track 3 using a colour gradient (white (0.0) lowest to crimson (>8 cM highest). The various colours in track 3 for each chromosome indicate the frequence of recombination (cM/27 kb), i. e. # clBeige 1 clKhaki 2 clGold 3 clGoldenRod 4 clTomato 8 clCrimson. The numbers between the colours are boundary values in cM/27 kb. Beige represents the lowest and crimson the highest recombination frequency <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0067926#pone.0067926-Gale1" target="_blank">[47]</a>. (Image generated using OmniMapFree <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0067926#pone.0067926-Antoniw1" target="_blank">[27]</a>).</p

The neighbourhood of FGSG_05535 and FGSG_09988.

<p>Although connected to the two seed proteins FGSG_09614 <i>(GPA2)</i> and FGSG_04104 <i>(GPB1),</i> experimental evidence in barley suggests that the two predictions 05535 and 09988 are dispensable for pathogenicity <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0067926#pone.0067926-Yu1" target="_blank">[36]</a>. Genetic redundancy is suggested to explain this fact. (FGSG_05698: probable <i>CPC2</i> protein, FGSG_09870: probable <i>CPC2</i> protein; FGSG_09271: probable <i>SEC13</i> - protein transport protein; FGSG_10251: probable <i>LST8</i> protein; FGSG_04618: related to vegetatible incompatibility protein <i>HET-E-1</i>; FGSG_16028: probable U5 snRNP-specific 40 kD protein (novel WD-40 repeat protein); FGSG_05038: probable nuclear migration protein.</p

The probability that a verified virulence (VV)seed is connected to at least 2 others by chance.

<p>The probability that a verified virulence (VV)seed is connected to at least 2 others by chance.</p

The local neighbourhood for the predicted virulence gene FGSG_06878.

<p>The neighbourhood of FGSG_06878 (prediction -large white triangle) and these 8 seed proteins to which it is linked, visualised with Ondex <a href="http://www.plosone.org/article/info:doi/10.1371/journal.pone.0067926#pone.0067926-Kohler1" target="_blank">[16]</a>. The magenta coloured edges predicted PPI information, blue edges predicted co-expression information and the green coloured edges predict sequence similarity information.</p