645 research outputs found
Effects of canagliflozin on heart failure outcomes associated with preserved and reduced ejection fraction in type 2 diabetes: results from the CANVAS Program
Patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus are at high risk of developing heart failure (HF).1 Sodium glucose co-transporter 2 (SGLT2) inhibitors have been demonstrated, in large scale trials, to reduce the risk of HF events in patients with type 2 diabetes deemed to be at high risk based on established cardiovascular disease or multiple risk factors.2-4 However, it is unclear whether benefits are experienced across the broad spectrum of HF patients that includes those with preserved (HFpEF) as well as reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF)
Andersen-Tawil Syndrome Presenting with Complete Heart Block
Andersen-Tawil syndrome (ATS) is a rare autosomal dominant neuromuscular disorder due to mutations in the KCNJ2 gene. The classical phenotype of ATS consists of a triad of periodic paralysis, cardiac conduction abnormalities and dysmorphic features. Episodes of either muscle weakness or cardiac arrhythmia may predominate however, and dysmorphic features may be subtle, masking the true breadth of the clinical presentation, and posing a diagnostic challenge. The severity of cardiac involvement varies but includes reports of life-threatening events or sudden cardiac death, usually attributed to ventricular tachyarrhythmias. We report the first case of advanced atrioventricular (AV) block in ATS and highlight clinical factors that may delay diagnosis
Canagliflozin and heart failure in Type 2 diabetes mellitus: results from the CANVAS Program (Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study)
BACKGROUND : Canagliflozin is a sodium glucose cotransporter 2 inhibitor that reduces the risk of cardiovascular events. We report the effects on heart failure and cardiovascular death overall, in those with and without a baseline history of heart failure, and in other participant subgroups. METHODS : The CANVAS Program (Canagliflozin Cardiovascular Assessment Study) enrolled 10 142 participants with type 2 diabetes mellitus and high cardiovascular risk. Participants were randomly assigned to canagliflozin or placebo and followed for a mean of 188 weeks. The primary end point for these analyses was adjudicated cardiovascular death or hospitalized heart failure. RESULTS : Participants with a history of heart failure at baseline (14.4%) were more frequently women, white, and hypertensive and had a history of prior cardiovascular disease (all P0.130), except for a possibly reduced absolute rate of events attributable to osmotic diuresis among those with a prior history of heart failure (P=0.03). CONCLUSIONS : In patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus and an elevated risk of cardiovascular disease, canagliflozin reduced the risk of cardiovascular death or hospitalized heart failure across a broad range of different patient subgroups. Benefits may be greater in those with a history of heart failure at baseline. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION : URL: https://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifiers: NCT01032629 and NCT01989754
Multimode quantum interference of photons in multiport integrated devices
We report the first demonstration of quantum interference in multimode
interference (MMI) devices and a new complete characterization technique that
can be applied to any photonic device that removes the need for phase stable
measurements. MMI devices provide a compact and robust realization of NxM
optical circuits, which will dramatically reduce the complexity and increase
the functionality of future generations of quantum photonic circuits
Rapid Shifts in Bacterial Communities and Homogeneity of Symbiodiniaceae in Colonies of Pocillopora acuta Transplanted Between Reef and Mangrove Environments
It has been proposed that an effective approach for predicting whether and how reef-forming corals persist under future climate change is to examine populations thriving in present day extreme environments, such as mangrove lagoons, where water temperatures can exceed those of reef environments by more than 3°C, pH levels are more acidic (pH &lt; 7.9, often below 7.6) and O2 concentrations are regularly considered hypoxic (&lt;2 mg/L). Defining the physiological features of these “extreme” corals, as well as their relationships with the, often symbiotic, organisms within their microbiome, could increase our understanding of how corals will persist into the future. To better understand coral-microbe relationships that potentially underpin coral persistence within extreme mangrove environments, we therefore conducted a 9-month reciprocal transplant experiment, whereby specimens of the coral Pocillopora acuta were transplanted between adjacent mangrove and reef sites on the northern Great Barrier Reef. Bacterial communities associated with P. acuta specimens native to the reef environment were dominated by Endozoicomonas, while Symbiodiniaceae communities were dominated by members of the Cladocopium genus. In contrast, P. acuta colonies native to the mangrove site exhibited highly diverse bacterial communities with no dominating members, and Symbiodiniaceae communities dominated by Durusdinium. All corals survived for 9 months after being transplanted from reef-to-mangrove, mangrove-to-reef environments (as well as control within environment transplants), and during this time there were significant changes in the bacterial communities, but not in the Symbiodiniaceae communities or their photo-physiological functioning. In reef-to-mangrove transplanted corals, there were varied, but sometimes rapid shifts in the associated bacterial communities, including a loss of “core” bacterial members after 9 months where coral bacterial communities began to resemble those of the native mangrove corals. Bacterial communities associated with mangrove-to-reef P. acuta colonies also changed from their original composition, but remained different to the native reef corals. Our data demonstrates that P. acuta associated bacterial communities are strongly influenced by changes in environmental conditions, whereas Symbiodiniaceae associated communities remain highly stable.</jats:p
Integrated photonic quantum gates for polarization qubits
Integrated photonic circuits have a strong potential to perform quantum
information processing. Indeed, the ability to manipulate quantum states of
light by integrated devices may open new perspectives both for fundamental
tests of quantum mechanics and for novel technological applications. However,
the technology for handling polarization encoded qubits, the most commonly
adopted approach, is still missing in quantum optical circuits. Here we
demonstrate the first integrated photonic Controlled-NOT (CNOT) gate for
polarization encoded qubits. This result has been enabled by the integration,
based on femtosecond laser waveguide writing, of partially polarizing beam
splitters on a glass chip. We characterize the logical truth table of the
quantum gate demonstrating its high fidelity to the expected one. In addition,
we show the ability of this gate to transform separable states into entangled
ones and vice versa. Finally, the full accessibility of our device is exploited
to carry out a complete characterization of the CNOT gate through a quantum
process tomography.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
TISs-ST: a web server to evaluate polymorphic translation initiation sites and their reflections on the secretory targets
<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>The nucleotide sequence flanking the translation initiation codon (start codon context) affects the translational efficiency of eukaryotic mRNAs, and may indicate the presence of an alternative translation initiation site (TIS) to produce proteins with different properties. Multi-targeting may reflect the translational variability of these other protein forms. In this paper we present a web server that performs computations to investigate the usage of alternative translation initiation sites for the synthesis of new protein variants that might have different functions.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>An efficient web-based tool entitled TISs-ST (Translation Initiation Sites and Secretory Targets) evaluates putative translation initiation sites and indicates the prediction of a signal peptide of the protein encoded from this site. The TISs-ST web server is freely available to both academic and commercial users and can be accessed at <url>http://ipe.cbmeg.unicamp.br/pub/TISs-ST</url>.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>The program can be used to evaluate alternative translation initiation site consensus with user-specified sequences, based on their composition or on many position weight matrix models. TISs-ST provides analytical and visualization tools for evaluating the periodic frequency, the consensus pattern and the total information content of a sequence data set. A search option allows for the identification of signal peptides from predicted proteins using the PrediSi software.</p
Observation of eight-photon entanglement
Using ultra-bright sources of pure-state entangled photons from parametric
down conversion, an eight-photon interferometer and post-selection detection,
we demonstrate the ability to experimentally manipulate eight individual
photons and report the creation of an eight-photon Schr\"odinger cat state with
an observed fidelity of .Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
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Impact of progressive global warming on the global-scale yield of maize and soybean
Global surface temperature is projected to warm over the coming decades, with regional differences expected in temperature change, rainfall and the frequency of extreme events. Temperature is a major determinant of crop growth and development, affecting planting date, growing season length and yield. We investigated the effects of increments of mean global temperature warming from 0.5 °C to 4 °C on soybean and maize development and yield, both globally and for the main producing countries, and simulated adaptation through changing planting date and variety. Increasing temperature resulted in reduced growing season lengths and ultimately reduced yields for both crops. The global yield for maize decreased as temperature increased, although the severity of the decrease was dependent on geographic region. Small temperature increases of 0.5 °C had no effect on soybean yield, although yield decreased as temperature increased. These negative effects, however, were partly compensated for by the implementation of adaptation strategies including planting earlier in the season and changing variety. The degree of compensation was dependent on geographical area and crop, with maize adaptation delaying the negative effects of temperature on yield, compared to soybean adaptation which increased yield in China, India and Korea DPR as well as delaying the effects in the remaining countries. The results of this paper indicate the degree to which farmer-controlled adaptation strategies can alleviate the negative impacts of increasing temperature on two major crop species
Template-free 3D Reconstruction of Poorly-textured Nonrigid Surfaces
Two main classes of approaches have been studied to perform monocular nonrigid 3D reconstruction: Template-based methods and Non-rigid Structure from Motion techniques. While the first ones have been applied to reconstruct poorly-textured surfaces, they assume the availability of a 3D shape model prior to reconstruction. By contrast, the second ones do not require such a shape template, but, instead, rely on points being tracked throughout a video sequence, and are thus illsuited to handle poorly-textured surfaces. In this paper, we introduce a template-free approach to reconstructing a poorly-textured, deformable surface. To this end, we leverage surface isometry and formulate 3D reconstruction as the joint problem of non-rigid image registration and depth estimation. Our experiments demonstrate that our approach yields much more accurate 3D reconstructions than state-of-the-art techniques
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