Right ventricular remodeling and function in pulmonary arterial hypertension

Vonk Noordegraaf, A. [Promotor]Marcus, J.T. [Copromotor]Bogaard, H.J. [Copromotor

Magnetic tunneling junctions with the Heusler compound Co_2Cr_{0.6}Fe_{0.4}Al

The Heusler alloy is used as an electrode of magnetic tunneling junctions. The junctions are deposited by magnetron dc sputtering using shadow mask techniques with AlO_{x} as a barrier and cobalt as counter electrode. Measurements of the magnetoresistive differential conductivity in a temperature range between 4K and 300K are shown. An analysis of the barrier properties applying the Simmons model to the bias dependent junction conductivity is performed. VSM measurements were carried out to examine the magnetic properties of the samples.Comment: 3 pages, 3 figures submitted to JMMM (proceedings of JEMS04

Apparent spin polarization decay in Cu-dusted Co/Al203/Co tunnel junctions

Co/Al2O3/Co magnetic tunnel junctions with an interfacial Cu layer have been investigated with in situ growth characterization and ex situ magnetotransport measurements. Cu interlayers grown on Co give an approximately exponential decay of the tunneling magnetoresistance with ¿˜0.26 nm while those grown on Al2O3 have a decay length of 0.70 nm. The difference in decay lengths can be explained by different growth morphologies, and in this way clarifies a present disagreement in the literature. For monolayer coverage of Cu, we show that the tunneling spin polarization is suppressed by at least a factor of 2 compared to Co and beyond ˜5 ML it becomes vanishingly small

Threshold-free Selection of Taxonomic Multilabels

In online search or content selection systems, significant computational resources are expended to classify or categorize electronic documents into topics, concepts, or entities. A classifier can process, parse or otherwise analyze the document to assign one or more labels to the document based on the taxonomy. The classifier can generate a score for each of the labels, and provide the labels and the scores to other components or modules for further downstream processing. To keep downstream processes efficient without causing excessive processing of labels, the classifier may filter out the labels to return a subset of labels based on comparing a label’s score with a threshold. However, using a threshold-based technique to filter out labels may not account for the tree structure of the taxonomy, and it may also fail to take into account the likelihood dependencies between all parent nodes and child nodes. The proposed technique solves this by (1) selecting a set of labels returned by the classifier that optimizes certain metrics, such as precision and recall metrics; and (2) using a greedy multi-label selection algorithm that optimizes the precision/recall in step (1). Using these techniques, the system can select a subset of labels to return or provide for further processing

Multimorbidity in Heart Failure: Leveraging Cluster Analysis to Guide Tailored Treatment Strategies

REVIEW PURPOSE: This review summarises key findings on treatment effects within phenotypical clusters of patients with heart failure (HF), making a distinction between patients with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) and reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). FINDINGS: Treatment response differed among clusters; ACE inhibitors were beneficial in all HFrEF phenotypes, while only some studies show similar beneficial prognostic effects in HFpEF patients. Beta-blockers had favourable effects in all HFrEF patients but not in HFpEF phenotypes and tended to worsen prognosis in older, cardiorenal patients. Mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists had more favourable prognostic effects in young, obese males and metabolic HFpEF patients. While a phenotype-guided approach is a promising solution for individualised treatment strategies, there are several aspects that still require improvements before such an approach could be implemented in clinical practice. SUMMARY: Stronger evidence from clinical trials and real-world data may assist in establishing a phenotype-guided treatment approach for patient with HF in the future

Challenges and Opportunities in Understanding Genetics of Fungal Diseases:Towards a Functional Genomics Approach

Item does not contain fulltextInfectious diseases are a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, and human pathogens have long been recognized as one of the main sources of evolutionary pressure, resulting in a high variable genetic background in immune-related genes. The study of the genetic contribution to infectious diseases has undergone tremendous advances over the last decades. Here, focusing on genetic predisposition to fungal diseases, we provide an overview of the available approaches for studying human genetic susceptibility to infections, reviewing current methodological and practical limitations. We describe how the classical methods available, such as family-based studies and candidate gene studies, have contributed to the discovery of crucial susceptibility factors for fungal infections. We will also discuss the contribution of novel unbiased approaches to the field, highlighting their success but also their limitations for the fungal immunology field. Finally, we show how a systems genomics approach can overcome those limitations and can lead to efficient prioritization and identification of genes and pathways with a critical role in susceptibility to fungal diseases. This knowledge will help to stratify at-risk patient groups and, subsequently, develop early appropriate prophylactic and treatment strategies

Differential Kinetics of Aspergillus nidulans and Aspergillus fumigatus Phagocytosis

Acknowledgements: The authors would like to acknowledge Fraser P. Coxon and Ian Ganley for providing LC3-GFP-mCherry BMDMs. M.S.G. was supported by an FEMS research grant and F.L.v.d.V. was supported by ZonMW under the name EURO-CMC frame of E-Rare-2, the ERA-Net for Research on Rare Diseases.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

1/f noise in patterned GMR spin valves

abstract onl