New onset hypertension-rare intimal variant fibromuscular dysplasia

SummaryFibromuscular dysplasia (FMD) involving the renal arteries commonly presents as hypertension secondary to renal artery stenosis. Atypical patterns involving intima are rare and contribute to less than 10% cases of FMD. We present a relatively uncommon case of new onset hypertension in a 30-year-old woman resulting from intimal variant FMD involving the left renal artery. Renal duplex ultrasonography and angiography showed stenosis of the left renal artery consistent with intimal variant FMD. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty of the stenotic lesion was successfully performed. Following angioplasty, her blood pressure was normalized. Renovascular hypertension secondary to FMD involving intimal layer is rare and requires a high index of clinical suspicion. Renal duplex ultrasonography is the recommended initial test of screening for renal artery stenosis in appropriate patients. The standard selective renal angiography, intravascular ultrasound, along with or without hemodynamic assessment should be utilized when renovascular intervention is contemplated. Percutaneous transluminal angioplasty is the mainstay of treatment for those who meet the criteria of intervention

1 H-cyclopropa[b]naphthalene: A novel ethylene antagonist for extending storage life and maintaining quality of climacteric and suppressed climacteric plums

Ethylene is a key trigger that governs the rate of fruit ripening, storability, and postharvest quality of fresh fruit. Efficient inhibition of ethylene action is essential to slow down the postharvest ripening processes, extend storage life and maintain optimum fruit quality during storage. Ethylene antagonist compounds with the likelihood of application as liquid formulation would facilitate managing ethylene broadly as both preharvest and/or postharvest treatments. This study examined the effects of different aqueous formulations of 1 H-cyclopropa[b]naphthalene (NC) as an ethylene antagonist in the cold stored (1 °C) Japanese plums ‘Angeleno’ (suppressed-climacteric) and ‘Tegan Blue’, which exhibit climacteric peaks, respectively. NC was applied as a 2 M spray solution prepared using only distilled water (NCA), 5% ethanol (NCE), 0.02% Tween 20 (NCT), 5% -cyclodextrin (NCD) or a 1 M fumigant for 18 h at ambient conditions (20 ± 1 °C). Regardless of formulation, NC retarded ethylene production in both the suppressed-climacteric and climactic cultivars. The capacity of NC to suppress ethylene production was relatively higher in ‘Angeleno’ than in ‘Tegan Blue’. Levels of bioactive compounds such as total phenols, total anthocyanins and total antioxidant capacity in fruit treated with NC were at par with the control. NC fumigation was the most effective treatment in suppressing ethylene production and maintaining fruit quality followed by NCE, NCT, NCD and NCA in both plum cultivars. Amongst the NC spray solutions, the ones with ethanol or Tween 20 as adjuvants outperformed other solutions. Ethylene production positively correlated with weight loss, SSC, SSC: TA and concentrations of individual sugars, but was negatively correlated with firmness, titratable acidity (TA) and individual organic acids in both cultivars. The results also support the notion that ethylene has a role in the synthesis of phenolic compounds and anthocyanin depending on the sugar substrates present in the phenylpropanoid and flavonoid pathways

Effect of Arthrospira platensis against sodium fluoride-induced haematological alterations

455-459The objective of present study was to investigate the effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Arthrospira platensis (ASP) against sodium fluoride (NaF) induced hematological alterations. Thirty-six male Wistar albino rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. Group I served as normal control. Group II served as toxic control. Group III served as plant control received ASP at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight (p.o). Groups IV-VI served as treatment groups, which received the hydro alcoholic extract of ASP at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight (p.o), respectively. All except group I and III received NaF (100 ppm) through drinking water for 30 days. Various blood parameters such as leukocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and platelet count were estimated. Results showed that ASP restored fluoride-induced hematological changes. In conclusion, the present study revealed that ASP has the good mitigative effect against sodium fluoride-induced hematological changes

Postharvest fruit quality of apple influenced by ethylene antagonist fumigation and ozonized cold storage

The effects of two new ethylene antagonists namely 1H-cyclopropabenzene (BC) and 1H-cyclopropa[b]naphthalene (NC), as well as 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on ethylene production and fruit quality of Cripps Pink and Granny Smith apple in ozonized cold storage, were investigated. When compared to control, Cripps Pink fruit fumigated with BC and NC exhibited significantly lowest ethylene production and respiration, whilst the Granny Smith fruit treated with 1-MCP exhibited lowest ethylene production followed by NC and BC treatments. Application of ozone in cold storage maintained higher levels of sugars but elevated ethylene production in both the apple cultivars. No significant interaction was recorded between ethylene antagonists and ozone application in cold storage on the ethylene production, respiration and other fruit quality parameters. In conclusion, results suggest that BC and NC are potential ethylene antagonists in Cripps Pink and Granny Smith apples during the cold storage

Effect of Arthrospira platensis against sodium fluoride-induced haematological alterations

455-459The objective of present study was to investigate the effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Arthrospira platensis (ASP) against sodium fluoride (NaF) induced hematological alterations. Thirty-six male Wistar albino rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. Group I served as normal control. Group II served as toxic control. Group III served as plant control received ASP at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight (p.o). Groups IV-VI served as treatment groups, which received the hydro alcoholic extract of ASP at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight (p.o), respectively. All except group I and III received NaF (100 ppm) through drinking water for 30 days. Various blood parameters such as leukocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and platelet count were estimated. Results showed that ASP restored fluoride-induced hematological changes. In conclusion, the present study revealed that ASP has the good mitigative effect against sodium fluoride-induced hematological changes

Binaural Speech Enhancement Using STOI-Optimal Masks

STOI-optimal masking has been previously proposed and developed for single-channel speech enhancement. In this paper, we consider the extension to the task of binaural speech enhancement in which spatial information is known to be important to speech understanding and therefore should be preserved by the enhancement processing. Masks are estimated for each of the binaural channels individually and a `better-ear listening' mask is computed by choosing the maximum of the two masks. The estimated mask is used to supply probability information about the speech presence in each time-frequency bin to an Optimally-modified Log Spectral Amplitude (OM-LSA) enhancer. We show that using the proposed method for binaural signals with a directional noise not only improves the SNR of the noisy signal but also preserves the binaural cues and intelligibility.Comment: Accepted at IWAENC 202

Postharvest fruit quality of apple influenced by ethylene antagonist fumigation and ozonized cold storage

The effects of two new ethylene antagonists namely 1H-cyclopropabenzene (BC) and 1H-cyclopropa[b]naphthalene (NC), as well as 1-methylcyclopropene (1-MCP) on ethylene production and fruit quality of Cripps Pink and Granny Smith apple in ozonized cold storage, were investigated. When compared to control, Cripps Pink fruit fumigated with BC and NC exhibited significantly lowest ethylene production and respiration, whilst the Granny Smith fruit treated with 1-MCP exhibited lowest ethylene production followed by NC and BC treatments. Application of ozone in cold storage maintained higher levels of sugars but elevated ethylene production in both the apple cultivars. No significant interaction was recorded between ethylene antagonists and ozone application in cold storage on the ethylene production, respiration and other fruit quality parameters. In conclusion, results suggest that BC and NC are potential ethylene antagonists in Cripps Pink and Granny Smith apples during the cold storage

Effect of Arthrospira platensis against Sodium fluoride induced haematological alterations

The objective of present study was to investigate the effects of hydroalcoholic extract of Arthrospira platensis (ASP) against sodium fluoride (NaF) induced hematological alterations. Thirty-six male Wistar albino rats were divided into six groups of six animals each. Group I served as normal control. Group II served as toxic control. Group III served as plant control received ASP at a dose of 400 mg/kg body weight (p.o). Groups IV-VI served as treatment groups, which received the hydro alcoholic extract of ASP at doses of 100, 200 and 400 mg per kg body weight (p.o), respectively. All except group I and III received NaF (100 ppm) through drinking water for 30 days. Various blood parameters such as leukocyte count, erythrocyte count, hemoglobin, hematocrit, mean corpuscular volume, mean corpuscular hemoglobin, mean corpuscular hemoglobin concentration and platelet count were estimated. Results showed that ASP restored fluoride induced hematological changes. In conclusion, the present study revealed that ASP has the good mitigative effect against sodium fluoride-induced hematological changes

Geometric-sensitivity-difference Algorithm for Fluorescence Diffuse Optical Tomography Reconstruction

Fluorescence Diffuse Optical Tomography is an emerging non-invasive imaging technique. Here we have introduced an alternative approach for Fluorescence Diffuse Optical Tomography which optimizes the data model fit based on pairing of the source and detector such that one source is shared by two detectors or one detector is shared by two sources, which in comparison to the conventional data model fit which does not use any kind of pairing. This new reconstruction algorithm is called Geometric Sensitivity Difference (GSD) method which effectively reduces the variation of reconstruction sensitivity with respect to imaging depth. Here the GSD method for source sharing detector pairs is demonstrated using simulated continuous-wave measurements in an outer circular-array imaging geometry, of which the native sensitivity varies strongly with respect to the depth. The results of the GSD method are compared to that of two methods: one is the conventional baseline method which utilizes the native sensitivity and the second method is depth compensation algorithm (DCA) which employs active depth adaptive scheme which counteracts the dependence of reconstruction sensitivity with respect to imaging depth.Electrical Engineerin

Left ventricular noncompaction and myocardial fibrosis: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Left ventricular noncompaction (LVNC) is a rare congenital abnormality. It is currently classified as a genetic cardiomyopathy and results from early arrest of endomyocardial morphogenesis. The pathophysiology of left ventricular dysfunction, which becomes apparent beyond the 4^thdecade of life, is unclear.</p> <p>Case report</p> <p>We report a case of 60-year-old woman who presented with shortness of breath and showed noncompacted endocardium on echocardiography. Cardiac catheterization and viral studies were unremarkable. Histology revealed endomyocardial fibrosis without disarray. She was subsequently diagnosed with LVNC and treated with medications.</p> <p>Discussion</p> <p>Cardiologists and other physicians should be aware of LVNC due to its high likelihood of misdiagnosis and associated high complication rates. Early diagnosis, intervention and screening among family members can decrease the morbidity and mortality associated with LVNC.</p