Coronary artery caliber in normal children and patients with Kawasaki disease but without aneurysms: An echocardiographic and angiographic study

A total of 110 children aged 3 months to 16 years underwent two-dimensional echocardiography of the coronary arteries. Forty-two normal subjects and 68 patients with Kawasaki disease were evaluated. All 68 patients with Kawasaki disease underwent selective coronary arteriography. The objectives of this study were to 1) develop a normal profile of the proximal left and right coronary arteries as to caliber and shape in infants, toddlers and children using echocardiography; 2) compare the dimensions and shape of the coronary arteries of patients with Kawasaki disease but no obvious aneurysms with those of the coronary arteries of normal children; and 3) develop criteria that would permit distinguishing a large but normal coronary artery from a true aneurysm in patients with Kawasaki disease.In the normal subjects and patients with Kawasaki disease, the caliber of the coronary arteries showed little variability from the ostium to 10 mm distally, and ranged in size from 2 mm in infants to 5 mm in teenagers. There was no significant difference between male and female subjects. The feature that distinguished the large but normal coronary artery without aneurysm from that with an aneurysm was its uniformity of caliber. Also, the caliber of the opposite coronary artery was generally at the lower limits of normal. It appears that the proximal coronary arteries of infants and children can be accurately assessed using high resolution two-dimensional echocardiography, and that sequential evaluation of subtle changes over time may be performed

Growth References for Tsimane Forager-Horticulturalists of the Bolivian Amazon

Objectives—Growth standards and references currently used to assess population and individual health are derived primarily from urban populations, including few individuals from indigenous or subsistence groups. Given environmental and genetic differences, growth may vary in these populations. Thus, there is a need to assess whether international standards are appropriate for all populations, and to produce population specific references if growth differs. Here we present and assess growth references for the Tsimane, an indigenous population of Bolivian forager-horticulturalists. Methods—Mixed cross-sectional/longitudinal anthropometrics (9,614 individuals; 30,118 observations; ages 0–29 years) were used to generate centile curves and Lambda-Mu-Sigma (LMS) tables for height-for-age, weight-for-age, body mass index (BMI)-for-age, and weight-for-height (WFH) using Generalized Additive Models for Location Shape and Scale (GAMLSS). Velocity curves were generated using SuperImposition by Translation and Rotation (SITAR). Tsimane ≤5 years were compared World Health Organization (WHO) standards while those \u3e5 years were compared to WHO school age references. All ages were compared to published references for Shuar forager-horticulturalists of the Ecuadorian Amazon. Results—Tsimane growth differs from WHO values in height and weight, but is similar for BMI and WFH. Tsimane growth is characterized by slow height velocity in childhood and early adolescent peak height velocity at 11.3 and 13.2 years for girls and boys. Tsimane growth patterns are similar to Shuar, suggesting shared features of growth among indigenous South Americans. Conclusions—International references for BMI-for-age and WFH are likely appropriate for Tsimane, but differences in height-for-age and weight-for-age suggest Tsimane specific references may be useful for these measures

Gemfibrozil Inhibits Legionella pneumophila and Mycobacterium tuberculosis Enoyl Coenzyme A Reductases and Blocks Intracellular Growth of These Bacteria in Macrophages

We report here that gemfibrozil (GFZ) inhibits axenic and intracellular growth of Legionella pneumophila and of 27 strains of wild-type and multidrug-resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis in bacteriological medium and in human and mouse macrophages, respectively. At a concentration of 0.4 mM, GFZ completely inhibited L. pneumophila fatty acid synthesis, while at 0.12 mM it promoted cytoplasmic accumulation of polyhydroxybutyrate. To assess the mechanism(s) of these effects, we cloned an L. pneumophila FabI enoyl reductase homolog that complemented for growth an Escherichia coli strain carrying a temperature-sensitive enoyl reductase and rendered the complemented E. coli strain sensitive to GFZ at the nonpermissive temperature. GFZ noncompetitively inhibited this L. pneumophila FabI homolog, as well as M. tuberculosis InhA and E. coli FabI

Solar Contamination in Extreme-precision Radial-velocity Measurements: Deleterious Effects and Prospects for Mitigation

Solar contamination, due to moonlight and atmospheric scattering of sunlight, can cause systematic errors in stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements that significantly detract from the ~10 cm s−1 sensitivity required for the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets in or near habitable zones of Sun-like stars. The addition of low-level spectral contamination at variable effective velocity offsets introduces systematic noise when measuring velocities using classical mask-based or template-based cross-correlation techniques. Here we present simulations estimating the range of RV measurement error induced by uncorrected scattered sunlight contamination. We explore potential correction techniques, using both simultaneous spectrometer sky fibers and broadband imaging via coherent fiber imaging bundles, that could reliably reduce this source of error to below the photon-noise limit of typical stellar observations. We discuss the limitations of these simulations, the underlying assumptions, and mitigation mechanisms. We also present and discuss the components designed and built into the NEID (NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy) precision RV instrument for the WIYN 3.5 m telescope, to serve as an ongoing resource for the community to explore and evaluate correction techniques. We emphasize that while "bright time" has been traditionally adequate for RV science, the goal of 10 cm s−1 precision on the most interesting exoplanetary systems may necessitate access to darker skies for these next-generation instruments

The angiogenic factor midkine is regulated by dexamethasone and retinoic acid during alveolarization and in alveolar epithelial cells

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A precise balance exists between the actions of endogenous glucocorticoids (GC) and retinoids to promote normal lung development, in particular during alveolarization. The mechanisms controlling this balance are largely unknown, but recent evidence suggests that midkine (MK), a retinoic acid-regulated, pro-angiogenic growth factor, may function as a critical regulator. The purpose of this study was to examine regulation of MK by GC and RA during postnatal alveolar formation in rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Newborn rats were treated with dexamethasone (DEX) and/or all-trans-retinoic acid (RA) during the first two weeks of life. Lung morphology was assessed by light microscopy and radial alveolar counts. MK mRNA and protein expression in response to different treatment were determined by Northern and Western blots. In addition, MK protein expression in cultured human alveolar type 2-like cells treated with DEX and RA was also determined.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Lung histology confirmed that DEX treatment inhibited and RA treatment stimulated alveolar formation, whereas concurrent administration of RA with DEX prevented the DEX effects. During normal development, MK expression was maximal during the period of alveolarization from postnatal day 5 (PN5) to PN15. DEX treatment of rat pups decreased, and RA treatment increased lung MK expression, whereas concurrent DEX+RA treatment prevented the DEX-induced decrease in MK expression. Using human alveolar type 2 (AT2)-like cells differentiated in culture, we confirmed that DEX and cAMP decreased, and RA increased MK expression.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>We conclude that MK is expressed by AT2 cells, and is differentially regulated by corticosteroid and retinoid treatment in a manner consistent with hormonal effects on alveolarization during postnatal lung development.</p

Fermions scattering in a three dimensional extreme black hole background

The absorption cross section for scattering of fermions off an extreme BTZ black hole is calculated. It is shown that, as in the case of scalar particles, an extreme BTZ black hole exhibits a vanishing absorption cross section, which is consistent with the vanishing entropy of such object. Additionally, we give a general argument to prove that the particle flux near the horizon is zero. Finally we show that the {\it reciprocal space} introduced previously in \cite{gm} gives rise to the same result and, therefore, it could be considered as the space where the scattering process takes place in an AdS spacetime.Comment: 15 pages, RevTex4. Revised version. To be published in Class. Quantum. Gra

Mitigation of Moral Hazard and Adverse Selection in Venture Capital Financing: The Influence of the Country’s Institutional Setting

A venture capitalist (VC) needs to trade off benefits and costs when attempting to mitigate agency problems in their investor-investee relationship. We argue that signals of ventures complement the VC’s capacity to screen and conduct a due diligence during the pre-investment phase, but its attractiveness may diminish in institutional settings supporting greater transparency. Similarly, whereas a VC may opt for contractual covenants to curb potential opportunism by ventures in the post-investment phase, this may only be effective in settings supportive of shareholder rights enforcement. Using an international sample of VC contracts, our study finds broad support for these conjectures. It delineates theoretical and practical implications for how investors can best deploy their capital in different institutional settings whilst nurturing their relationships with entrepreneurs

Quasinormal Modes of Extremal BTZ Black Hole

Motivated by several pieces of evidence, in order to show that extreme black holes cannot be obtained as limits of non-extremal black holes, in this article we calculate explicitly quasinormal modes for Ba\~{n}ados, Teitelboim and Zanelli (BTZ) extremal black hole and we showed that the imaginary part of the frequency is zero. We obtain exact result for the scalar an fermionic perturbations. We also showed that the frequency is bounded from below for the existence of the normal modes (non-dissipative modes).Comment: 6 pp. Accepted Classical and Quantum Gravity. Typos corrected and some references was added. Final Versio