Ventricular Fibrillation Waveform Analysis during Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation

Ventricular fibrillation (VF) is the primary rhythm associated with cardiac arrest characterized as rapid, disorganized contractions of the heart with complex electrocardiogram (ECG) patterns. Recent studies have reported that performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) procedure prior to shock increases the survival rate especially especially when VF is untreated for more than 5 minutes. The waveform analysis is objective help in the choice of the right therapy (shock parameters, shock first or CPR first, drug administration). This analysis is a precondition of individually optimized defibrillation and contribute substantially to an increased quality of CPR and reduce delivery of failed rescue shock. Animal and clinical studies confirmed that ventricular fibrillation waveform analysis contains information to reliably predict the countershock success rate and further improved countershock outcome prediction

let-7b-5p suppresses the proliferation and migration of pulmonary artery smooth muscle cells via down-regulating IGF1

Objectives: Some previous studies indicated that the excessive proliferation and migration of Pulmonary Artery Smooth Muscle Cells (PASMCs) could be observed in pulmonary artery intima after Pulmonary Embolism (PE) occurred. In addition, recent studies identified some miRNAs that are differentially expressed in the blood of PE patients, which might be used as a diagnostic biomarker for PE, including let-7a-5p, let-7b-5p, and miR-150-5p. Hence, the authors sought to explore the effects of let-7b-5p in PASMC proliferation and migration and the corresponding regulatory mechanism. Methods: Platelet-Derived Growth Factor (PDGF) was utilized to induce the hyper-proliferation model in PASMCs. The mRNA and protein expression levels were detected by RT-qPCR and western blot, respectively. The proliferation of PASMCs was evaluated by the detection of PCNA expression, as well as CCK-8 and Edu assays. Wound healing and Transwell assays were exploited to assess the migration ability of PASMCs. The targets of let-7b-5p were predicted based on two bioinformatics online tools. Dual-luciferase and Ago2 pull-down assays were applied to confirm the interaction between let-7b-5p and IGF1. Results: 40 ng/mL PDGF was selected as the optimal concentration to induce PASMCs. let-7b-5p mimics suppressed the proliferation and migration of PDGF-induced PASMCs, while let-7b-5p inhibitor led to the opposite result. In further mechanism exploration, IGF1 was predicted and confirmed as the direct target gene of let-7b-5p. The promotion role of IGF1 overexpression on the proliferation and migration of PDGF-induced PASMCs was dramatically countered by let-7b-5p mimics. Conclusion: let-7b-5p prohibits the proliferation and migration of PDGF-induced PASMCs by modulating IGF1

Alpha-methylnorepinephrine, a selective alpha2-adrenergic agonist for cardiac resuscitation

AbstractOBJECTIVESThe purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of a selective alpha2-adrenergic agonist, alpha-methylnorepinephrine (alphaMNE) as an alternative vasopressor agent during cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).BACKGROUNDFor more than 40 years, epinephrine has been the vasopressor agent of choice for CPR. Its beta- and alpha1-adrenergic effects increase myocardial oxygen consumption, magnify global myocardial ischemia and increase the severity of postresuscitation myocardial dysfunction.METHODSVentricular fibrillation (VF) was induced in 20 Sprague-Dawley rats. After 8 min of untreated VF, mechanical ventilation and precordial compression began. AlphaMNE, epinephrine or saline placebo was injected into the right atrium 2 min after the start of precordial compression. As an additional control, one group of animals was pretreated with alpha2-receptor blocker, yohimbine, before injection of alphaMNE. Defibrillation was attempted 4 min later. Left ventricular pressure, dP/dt40, negative dP/dt and cardiac index were measured for an interval of 240 min after resuscitation.RESULTSExcept for saline placebo and yohimbine-treated animals, comparable increases in coronary perfusion pressure were observed after each drug intervention. All animals were successfully resuscitated. Left ventricular diastolic pressure, cardiac index, dP/dt40and negative dP/dt were more optimal after alphaMNE; this was associated with significantly better postresuscitation survival. Pretreatment with yohimbine abolished the beneficial effects of alphaMNE.CONCLUSIONSThe selective alpha2-adrenergic agonist, alphaMNE, was as effective as epinephrine for initial cardiac resuscitation but provided strikingly better postresuscitation myocardial function and survival

Содержание тяжелых металлов в почвах селитебной территории АО "АП Саратовский завод резервуарных металлоконструкций"

В октябре 2017 года исследованы почвы на территории г.Саратова в Ленинском районе. Определение валового содержания ТМ в почве проводилось на рентгенофлуоресцентном спектрометре “Spectroskan МАX - G”. Установлено, что уровень загрязнения исследуемых почв относится к допустимой категории, однако есть образцы, в которых превышение ПДК по свинцу более чем в 5 раз, а по цинку в 3.5 раза.The soil survey was conducted in October 2017 on the territory of Saratov in the Leninsky district. The determination of gross TM content in soil was carried out on the X-ray fluorescence spectrometer "Spectroskan MAX - G". Established that the level of contamination of soils refers to a valid category, but there are specimens in which excessive concentrations of lead more than 5 times, and zinc by 3.5 times

An offloading method using decentralized P2P-enabled mobile edge servers in edge computing

Edge computing has emerged as a promising infrastructure for providing elastic resources in the proximity of mobile users. Owing to resource limitations in mobile devices, offloading several computational tasks from mobile devices to mobile edge servers is the main means of improving the quality of experience of mobile users. In fact, because of the high speeds of moving vehicles on expressways, there would be numerous candidate mobile edge servers available for them to offload their computational workload. However, the selection of the mobile edge server to be utilized and how much computation should be offloaded to meet the corresponding task deadlines without large computing bills are topics that have not been discussed much. Furthermore, with the increasing deployment of mobile edge servers, their centralized management would cause certain performance issues. In order to address these challenges, we firstly apply peer-to-peer networks to manage geo-distributed mobile edge servers. Secondly, we propose a new deadline-aware and cost-effective offloading approach, which aims to improve the offloading efficiency for vehicles and allows additional tasks to meet their deadlines. The proposed approach was validated for its feasibility and efficiency by means of extensive experiments, which are presented in this paper

Wideband electromagnetic interference filtering power divider with a wide stopband using the genetic algorithm

This paper proposes a new design of an electromagnetic interference wideband filtering power divider (FPD) with a wide stopband based on the genetic algorithm (GA). A set of data structures is constructed by describing the corresponding connection method between the basic units and their electrical parameters in the three-port design. Then, the GA is used to find the appropriate design topology and electrical parameters, including isolation resistances, to meet FPD specifications by optimizing the data structures. For validation, one prototype is implemented. The results indicate that the new wideband FPD exhibits compact size, sharp roll-off, and good in-band isolations

Field-of-view optimized and constrained undistorted single-shot study of intravoxel incoherent motion and diffusion-weighted imaging of the uterus during the menstrual cycle: a prospective study

PURPOSEThis study aimed to compare the variability of the uterus during the menses phase (MP), follicular phase (FP), and luteal phase (LP) of the menstrual cycle using intravoxel incoherent motion diffusion-weighted imaging (IVIM-DWI).METHODSThis prospective study was conducted at the Guangdong Provincial Hospital of Traditional Chinese Medicine between January 2022 and January 2023. Women of childbearing age (18–45 years) with appropriate progesterone levels were included in this study. Conventional magnetic resonance imaging and IVIM-DWI scans were performed during the MP, FP, and LP. The differences in IVIM-DWI-derived parameters between these phases were then compared, and the overlap was quantitatively described.RESULTSThe apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) and pure molecular diffusion coefficient (D) values from the endometrium, uterine junctional zone (UJZ), and myometrium indicated statistical differences between the MP and FP and the MP and LP (ADC: endometrium, both P < 0.001; UJZ, P = 0.008 and P < 0.001, respectively; myometrium, P = 0.033 and P = 0.006, respectively; D: endometrium, both P < 0.001; UJZ, P = 0.008 and P = 0.006, respectively; myometrium, P = 0.041 and P = 0.045, respectively). The perfusion-related diffusion coefficient (D*) values from the myometrium indicated statistical differences between the FP and MP and the FP and LP (D*: myometrium, P = 0.049 and P = 0.009, respectively). The overlapping endometrium ratios between the MP and FP or LP were lower than 50% in the ADC and D values (ADC: overlapping of MP and FP: 33.33%, overlapping of MP and LP: 23.33%; D: overlapping of MP and FP: 40.00%, overlapping of MP and LP: 43.33%).CONCLUSIONThe ADC and IVIM-derived parameters indicated differences in the uterus in diverse phases of the menstrual cycle, especially in the endometrium in relation to ADC and D values

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons with an imaging camera and its implications to spectroscopy

Position-sensitive detection of ultracold neutrons (UCNs) is demonstrated using an imaging charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. A spatial resolution less than 15 $\mu$m has been achieved, which is equivalent to an UCN energy resolution below 2 pico-electron-volts through the relation $\delta E = m_0g \delta x$. Here, the symbols $\delta E$, $\delta x$, $m_0$ and $g$ are the energy resolution, the spatial resolution, the neutron rest mass and the gravitational acceleration, respectively. A multilayer surface convertor described previously is used to capture UCNs and then emits visible light for CCD imaging. Particle identification and noise rejection are discussed through the use of light intensity profile analysis. This method allows different types of UCN spectroscopy and other applications.Comment: 12 figures, 28 pages, accepted for publication in NIM