An Assessment of the Impact of Hafting on Paleoindian Point Variability

It has long been argued that the form of North American Paleoindian points was affected by hafting. According to this hypothesis, hafting constrained point bases such that they are less variable than point blades. The results of several studies have been claimed to be consistent with this hypothesis. However, there are reasons to be skeptical of these results. None of the studies employed statistical tests, and all of them focused on points recovered from kill and camp sites, which makes it difficult to be certain that the differences in variability are the result of hafting rather than a consequence of resharpening. Here, we report a study in which we tested the predictions of the hafting hypothesis by statistically comparing the variability of different parts of Clovis points. We controlled for the potentially confounding effects of resharpening by analyzing largely unused points from caches as well as points from kill and camp sites. The results of our analyses were not consistent with the predictions of the hypothesis. We found that several blade characters and point thickness were no more variable than the base characters. Our results indicate that the hafting hypothesis does not hold for Clovis points and indicate that there is a need to test its applicability in relation to post-Clovis Paleoindian points

Improved functionalization of oleic acid-coated iron oxide nanoparticles for biomedical applications

Superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles can providemultiple benefits for biomedical applications in aqueous environments such asmagnetic separation or magnetic resonance imaging. To increase the colloidal stability and allow subsequent reactions, the introduction of hydrophilic functional groups onto the particles’ surface is essential. During this process, the original coating is exchanged by preferably covalently bonded ligands such as trialkoxysilanes. The duration of the silane exchange reaction, which commonly takes more than 24 h, is an important drawback for this approach. In this paper, we present a novel method, which introduces ultrasonication as an energy source to dramatically accelerate this process, resulting in high-quality waterdispersible nanoparticles around 10 nmin size. To prove the generic character, different functional groups were introduced on the surface including polyethylene glycol chains, carboxylic acid, amine, and thiol groups. Their colloidal stability in various aqueous buffer solutions as well as human plasma and serum was investigated to allow implementation in biomedical and sensing applications.status: publishe

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibition in patients with coronary artery disease and preserved left ventricular function: Ischemia Management with Accupril post-bypass graft via inhibition of angiotensin-converting enzyme (IMAGINE) compared with the other major trials in coronary- artery disease

It has been hypothesized that angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition, independent from its effect on ventricular function and blood pressure, could affect the atherosclerotic process and reduce the incidence of ischemic events and its complications. Several large clinical outcome trials were designed to test this hypothesis: QUIET, HOPE, EUROPA, PEACE, and IMAGINE. The results of the PEACE study were recently reported, leaving the IMAGINE study as the last chapter in our efforts to evaluate the role of ACE inhibition in coronary artery disease with preserved left ventricular function. In this report, we compare these studies with respect to their methodology and patient population and analyze the unique nature of the last ongoing study, IMAGINE. The reported studies show that patients with coronary artery disease who are at low-to-moderate or high risk should receive an ACE inhibitor if tolerated. However, when the absolute risk of a patient decreases, and intensive contemporary management is given, with good control of risk factors, the absolute and perhaps relative benefits of an ACE inhibitor decrease and their routine use in these patients may not be warranted. The role of ACE inhibition started early post-coronary artery bypass graft in patients with preserved left ventricular function, and intensive contemporary management remains to be determined and should get answered by the IMAGINE study. Moreover, the IMAGINE population is not only a lower risk population than those enrolled in HOPE or EUROPA, but also the risk for this population is bimodal in nature (early post-revascularization inflammation and thrombosis vs long-term atherosclerosis progression) and may provide further insight into underlying mechanisms

Ischemia management with accupril post bypass graft via inhibition of angiotensin coNverting enzyme (IMAGINE): A multicentre randomized trial - design and rationale

BACKGROUND: Coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) remains the revascularization treatment of choice for patients with severely symptomatic or life-threatening coronary artery disease (CAD). However, 9% to 25% of the patients undergoing CABG will suffer a recurrent ischemic event such as death, recurrent infarction, angina or repeat revascularization. The pathophysiological processes particular to the CABG procedure that may affect graft endothelial function are most active in the early phase after surgery. Angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibition has been shown to be effective in reducing or preventing ischemic events in patients with and without left ventricular dysfunction, and in those at high risk for CAD. Nonetheless, no large clinical trail has investigated this role of ACE inhibition in preventing ischemic events early after CABG. OBJECTIVE: The Ischemia Management with Accupril post bypass Graft via Inhibition of angiotensin converting Enzyme (IMAGINE) study addressed whether ACE inhibition initiated early after CABG improves short and long term outcomes in patients after CABG. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This multicentre, multinational trial recruited 2204 patients with an uncomplicated course early after CABG from 55 to 65 medical care facilities in Canada, The Netherlands, Belgium and France. Eligible patients with normal left ventricular function were randomly assigned to placebo or quinapril (titrated up to 40 mg daily where possible) within seven to 10 days after CABG. All patients were followed up closely for a minimum of 12 months after random placement. The median treatment period is expected to be approximately 27 months

Development of a mnemonic screening tool for identifying subjects with Hunter syndrome

The Hunter Outcome Survey (HOS), an international, long-term observational registry of patients with Hunter syndrome, was used to develop a simple mnemonic screening tool (HUNTER) to aid in the diagnosis of Hunter syndrome. Data regarding the prediagnosis prevalence of ten specific signs and symptoms present in individual patients enrolled in the HOS were used to develop the HUNTER mnemonic screening tool. A total score of 6 or greater using a weighting scheme in which certain manifestations were assigned a weight of 2 (facial dysmorphism, nasal obstruction or rhinorrhea, enlarged tongue, enlarged liver, enlarged spleen, joint stiffness) and others assigned a weight of 1 (hernia, hearing impairment, enlarged tonsils, airway obstruction or sleep apnea) correctly identified 95 % of patients who had no family history of Hunter syndrome or who were not diagnosed prenatally. No association between age at diagnosis and HUNTER score was found. Conclusion: The HUNTER mnemonic appears to be a useful screening tool. Further validation in the clinical setting will be necessary to confirm its utility