Notes

Pressure Membrane layer FBG Indicator Understood simply by 3D Technologies.
A cross-sectional study was conducted to investigate the risk factors for sub-clinical mastitis (SCM) in Mbarara District, an intensive dairy production region of Uganda where hand-milking is dominant. In 30 farms, herd-level milking practices and SCM prevalence were studied. The SCM prevalences were 68.6% (417/608, 95% confidence interval (CI) 64.9-72.2%) and 39.2% (946/2,411, 37.3-41.2%) at the cow- and quarter-levels, respectively. A preventive factor for SCM was cow calmness at the end of milking (OR 0.20, 95%CI 0.05-0.79, P=0.021); a risk factor was rough teat-end (OR 1.75, 95%CI 1.14-2.68, P=0.011). Good cow hygiene was negatively associated with environmental mastitis (P=0.002). Appropriate hand-milking practices that avoid teat damage are expected to reduce SCM in Uganda.OBJECTIVES We investigated the quality of life (QOL) of patients using the Free/Low-Cost Medical Care Program, which is a system that enables people in financial difficulities to receive treatment free of charge or at a low cost. We also investigated the background charateristics and lifestyle of the patients. METHODS The subjects were 226 outpatients who used the Free/Low-Cost Medical Care Program (use group) and 226 outpatients who did not use the program (non-use group). The method was an anonymous cross-sectional servey by mail. The survey items included basic attributes, health-related QOL (HRQOL), feeling of being poor, lifestyle diseases, lifestyle, and connection with the community. RESULTS The number of respondants with valid responses was 97 in the use group and 85 in the non-use group. Among the basic attributes, there were a significant differense between the use group and the non-use group in the family structure, type of work, household income, and educational background. The HRQOL scores of the physical and social summary components were significantly lower in the use group than in the non-use group. The HRQOL scores of mental summary component were higher than the national standard HRQOL score in both the use and non-use groups. CONCLUSIONS In this study, it was considered that old age affected the HRQOL scores of the physical and social components. click here It was considered from the HRQOL scores of the mental aspect that the use of the Free/Low-Cost Medical Care Program might have contributed to mental stability a certain to extent.Guidelines for cardiovascular drug therapy recommend monitoring serum digoxin concentration (SDC) in patients receiving digoxin treatment, especially those with renal dysfunction and hypokalemia. However, only a few studies have reported the prevalence of SDC monitoring and laboratory testing in clinical practice. Therefore, the aim of this study was to describe the frequency of SDC monitoring and laboratory testing in digoxin users and to assess the association between SDC monitoring and patient characteristics. We used the Japanese insurance claims data covering approximately 1.7 million patients aged 20-74 years between January 1, 2005 and March 31, 2014. All patients who had at least one prescription for digoxin were included. The frequency of SDC and laboratory tests was calculated and the association between patient characteristics and SDC monitoring was assessed using logistic regression analysis. A total of 98,867 prescriptions of digoxin were issued to 3,458 patients between 2005 and 2014. The annual mean frequencies of monitoring SDC, serum potassium level and serum creatinine level and of recording electrocardiograms was 16.8%, 34.8%, and 38.7% and 24.1%, respectively. Atrial fibrillation, chronic heart failure, renal diseases, and use of oral anticoagulants were associated with SDC monitoring. We found the frequency of SDC monitoring to be relatively low in Japanese clinical practice.Ischemic heart disease (IHD) is one of the most common cardiovascular diseases with high morbidity and mortality. Danshensu (DSS) is widely used in the treatment of coronary heart disease. In this study, the carboxy group of DSS was esterified with edaravone to synthesize the novel DSS derivative DEX-018 to achieve a synergistic protective effect and overcome the structural deficiency of DSS. The pharmacological effect of DEX-018 against tert-butyl hydrogen peroxide (t-BHP) induced oxidative damage in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) was evaluated. The results demonstrated that pretreatment with DEX-018 significantly increased cell viability and superoxide dismutase (SOD) activity and decreased the lactate dehydrogenase (LDH) leakage rate, malondialdehyde (MDA) level and intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) level. In addition, DEX-018 inhibited cell apoptosis and reversed the expression of apoptosis-related proteins (Bcl-2, Bax, and caspase-3) in HUVECs stimulated by t-BHP. Further study on the mechanism of DEX-018 revealed that the expression of p-Akt and p- extracellular signal-regulated kinase 1/2 (ERK1/2) was increased, which suggested that DEX-018 may protect HUVECs against t-BHP induced oxidative injury via the Akt and ERK1/2 signaling pathways. To further validate the correlation, CCK8 was used to detect cell viability after treatment with DEX-018 plus Akt inhibitor (MK2206) and PI3K inhibitor (LY294002). Compared with DEX-018 alone, MK2206 or LY294002 significantly decreased cell viability of HUVECs, indicating that the protective effect of DEX-018 against t-BHP induced oxidative injury was significantly weakened. It was further verified that the antioxidant and anti-apoptotic effects of DEX-018 were partly related to the phosphadylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt signaling pathway.Hemangioblastomas of the cerebellopontine angle (CPA) that emerge extra-axially from the peripheral nervous system are extremely rare. We report a case of hemangioblastoma of the CPA evaluated by pseudocontinuous arterial spin labeling (pCASL). The high rate of tumor blood flow determined using pCASL provided additional useful information for the differential diagnosis of the CPA tumors in this patient.BACKGROUND Recently, an interoperative catheter electrode mapping system, termed ExTRa Mapping (EXT), was developed for precise diagnosis and effective treatment of non-paroxysmal atrial fibrillations (non-PAF). link2 However, the mapping accuracy of EXT is still unclear.Methods and ResultsIn this study, the reliability of the EXT in comparison with that of high-resolution optical membrane potential mapping was compared. Spiral wave re-entries (SWRs) were induced in the excised rabbit hearts (n=8, 42 episodes). link3 Electrical signals were measured by electrodes on a transparent silicone plate, with the same arrangement as in the clinical catheter, and fluorescence signals were recorded simultaneously across the plate. Based on the phase maps derived by EXT, activation patterns (one-directed propagations 26, rotational activities 16) were identified correctly with 95% accuracy (40/42), and the correlation coefficient of the ratio of the non-passive period was 0.95. In the rotational episodes (15), the mean position error of the centers of gravity of the SWR trajectory (2,000 ms) was 2.0 mm. For the one-directional episodes (25), the correlation coefficient of the directions of one-way propagation was 0.99. CONCLUSIONS The phase map sequence by EXT is consistent with that by the analyses of high-resolution optical mapping. EXT is reliable for analyzing the activation pattern in the region of interest.BACKGROUND Healthcare-associated infective endocarditis (HAIE) has become increasingly recognized worldwide because the underlying patient conditions are completely different from those of community-acquired infective endocarditis (CIE). However, data on HAIE in the Japanese population is lacking. We sought to clarify the patient characteristics and prognosis of HAIE in a Japanese population.Methods and ResultsA retrospective study was conducted in 158 patients who were diagnosed with infective endocarditis, 53 of whom (33.5%) were classified as HAIE. Compared with patients with CIE, those with HAIE were older (median age 72 vs. 61 years; P=0.0002) and received surgical treatment less frequently (41.5% vs. 62.9%; P=0.01). Regarding causative microorganisms, staphylococci,including methicillin-resistant pathogens, were more common in patients with HAIE (32.1% vs. 14.3%; P=0.01). Patients with HAIE had higher in-hospital mortality (32.1% vs. 4.8%; P less then 0.0001) and Kaplan-Meier analysis showed worse prognosis for patients with HAIE than CIE (P less then 0.0001, log-rank test). On multivariate Cox analysis, HAIE (hazard ratio 3.26; 95% confidence interval 1.49-7.14), age ≥60 years, surgical treatment, stroke, and heart failure were independently associated with mortality. CONCLUSIONS HAIE has different clinical characteristics and causative microorganisms, as well as worse prognosis, than CIE. Preventive strategies, and the prompt and appropriate identification of HAIE may improve the outcome of infective endocarditis.Emerging evidence indicates that DJ-1 is highly expressed in different cancers. It modulates cancer progression, including cell proliferation, cell apoptosis, invasion, and metastasis. However, its role in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains poorly defined. The current study noted increased DJ-1 expression in CRC tumor tissue and found that its expression was closely related to clinical-pathological features. Similarly, DJ-1 increased in CRC cells (SW480, HT-29, Caco-2, LoVo, HCT116, and SW620), and especially in SW480 and HCT116 cells. Functional analyses indicated that overexpression of DJ-1 promoted CRC cell invasion, migration, and proliferation in vitro and in vivo. Mechanistic studies indicated that DJ-1 increased in CRC cell lines, activated specific protein cyclin-D1, and modulated the MDM2/p53 signaling pathway by regulating the levels of the downstream factors Bax, Caspase-3, and Bcl-2, which are related to the cell cycle and apoptosis. Conversely, knockdown of DJ-1 upregulated p53 expression by disrupting the interaction between p53 and MDM2 and inhibiting CRC cell proliferation, revealing the pro-oncogenic mechanism of DJ-1 in CRC. In conclusion, the current findings provide compelling evidence that DJ-1 might be a promoter of CRC cell invasion, proliferation, and migration via the cyclin-D1/MDM2-p53 signaling pathway. Findings also suggest its potential role as a postoperative adjuvant therapy for patients with CRC.An error in an equation in the paper by Song et al. [Acta Cryst. (2019), C75, 1353-1358] is corrected.Two novel K/Mn phosphate hydrates, namely, dipotassium trimanganese dipyrophosphate dihydrate, K2Mn3(H2O)2[P2O7]2, (I), and potassium manganese dialuminium triphosphate dihydrate, KMn(H2O)2[Al2(PO4)3], (II), were obtained in the form of single crystals during a single hydrothermal synthesis experiment. Their crystal structures were studied by X-ray diffraction. Both new compounds are members of the morphotropic series of phosphates with the following formulae A2M3(H2O)2[P2O7]2, where A = K, NH4, Rb or Na and M = Mn, Fe, Co or Ni, and AM2+(H2O)2[M3+2(PO4)3], where A = Cs, Rb, K, NH4 or (H3O); M2+ = Mn, Fe, Co or Ni; and M3+ = Al, Ga or Fe. A detailed crystal chemical analysis revealed correlations between the unit-cell parameters of the members of the series, their structural features and the sizes of the cations. It has been shown that a mixed type anionic framework is formed in (II) by aluminophosphate [(AlO2)2(PO4)2]∞ layers, with a cationic topology similar to the Si/Al-topology of the crystal structures of feldspars.
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