BACKGROUND: Oxidative stress, mediated by an imbalance between oxidants and antioxidants, contributes significantly to the pathogenesis of asthma.OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the impact of serum total ...antioxidant capacity (TAC) on the pulmonary function of Korean asthma patients.METHOD:
A total of 104 adult asthma patients enrolled from the COREA (Cohort for Reality and Evolution of Adult Asthma in Korea) programme participated in the study. Baseline clinical parameters at enrolment, and the results of pulmonary function tests at baseline and 1 and 2 years after enrolment
were collected. TAC at baseline was measured using a Trolox-equivalent antioxidant capacity assay. Patients were divided into two groups based on TAC levels, and various clinical parameters were compared.RESULT: Serum TAC levels correlated with forced expiratory volume in 1 second (FEV1)
at baseline (r = 0.22, P = 0.03). The group with higher baseline TAC levels maintained greater mean FEV1 both 1 and 2 years after enrolment, even after adjusting for sex, age, height, weight, body mass index and smoking status.CONCLUSION: These results suggest
an important link between serum TAC levels and pulmonary function, indicating that higher TAC levels may be a biomarker for favourable prognosis in asthma patients.
Socioeconomic disadvantage is associated with poor health outcomes. However, whether socioeconomic factors are associated with post-myocardial infarction (MI) outcomes in younger patient populations ...is unknown.
To evaluate the association of neighborhood-level socioeconomic disadvantage with long-term outcomes among patients who experienced an MI at a young age.
This cohort study analyzed patients in the Mass General Brigham YOUNG-MI Registry (at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts) who experienced an MI at or before 50 years of age between January 1, 2000, and April 30, 2016. Each patient's home address was mapped to the Area Deprivation Index (ADI) to capture higher rates of socioeconomic disadvantage. The median follow-up duration was 11.3 years. The dates of analysis were May 1, 2020, to June 30, 2020.
Patients were assigned an ADI ranking according to their home address and then stratified into 3 groups (least disadvantaged group, middle group, and most disadvantaged group).
The outcomes of interest were all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. Cause of death was adjudicated from national registries and electronic medical records. Cox proportional hazards regression modeling was used to evaluate the association of ADI with all-cause and cardiovascular mortality.
The cohort consisted of 2097 patients, of whom 2002 (95.5%) with an ADI ranking were included (median interquartile range age, 45 42-48 years; 1607 male individuals 80.3%). Patients in the most disadvantaged neighborhoods were more likely to be Black or Hispanic, have public insurance or no insurance, and have higher rates of traditional cardiovascular risk factors such as hypertension and diabetes. Among the 1964 patients who survived to hospital discharge, 74 (13.6%) in the most disadvantaged group compared with 88 (12.6%) in the middle group and 41 (5.7%) in the least disadvantaged group died. Even after adjusting for a comprehensive set of clinical covariates, higher neighborhood disadvantage was associated with a 32% higher all-cause mortality (hazard ratio, 1.32; 95% CI, 1.10-1.60; P = .004) and a 57% higher cardiovascular mortality (hazard ratio, 1.57; 95% CI, 1.17-2.10; P = .003).
This study found that, among patients who experienced an MI at or before age 50 years, socioeconomic disadvantage was associated with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality even after adjusting for clinical comorbidities. These findings suggest that neighborhood and socioeconomic factors have an important role in long-term post-MI survival.
A novel catalyst, Ni/Ce–ZrO2, exhibits very high catalytic activity and stability even in the stoichiometric steam reforming of methane (H2O/CH4 = 1). Furthermore, when it was employed in oxy-steam ...reforming, it gave enhanced CH4 conversion (99.1%) at 750 °C and the activity was maintained for 100 h. The high catalyst stability is mainly ascribed to the synergistic effect of the Ce modifier resulting from high capacity to store oxygen and high ability to produce mobile oxygen.
Arabidopsis and Medicago truncatula represent sister clades within the dicot subclass Rosidae. We used genetic map-based and bacterial artificial chromosome sequence-based approaches to estimate the ...level of synteny between the genomes of these model plant species. Mapping of 82 tentative orthologous gene pairs reveals a lack of extended macrosynteny between the two genomes, although marker collinearity is frequently observed over small genetic intervals. Divergence estimates based on non-synonymous nucleotide substitutions suggest that a majority of the genes under analysis have experienced duplication in Arabidopsis subsequent to divergence of the two genomes, potentially confounding synteny analysis. Moreover, in cases of localized synteny, genetically linked loci in M. truncatula often share multiple points of synteny with Arabidopsis; this latter observation is consistent with the large number of segmental duplications that compose the Arabidopsis genome. More detailed analysis, based on complete sequencing and annotation of three M. truncatula bacterial artificial chromosome contigs suggests that the two genomes are related by networks of microsynteny that are often highly degenerate. In some cases, the erosion of microsynteny could be ascribed to the selective gene loss from duplicated loci, whereas in other cases, it is due to the absence of close homologs of M. truncatula genes in Arabidopsis.
Spontaneous basal cell carcinoma (BCC) is very rare in rats, with an incidence rate of only 0.14% reported in aged animals. A spontaneous BCC occurred in a 7-week-old Sprague-Dawley rat housed in a ...specific-pathogen-free animal facility. The tumor was a single, well-delineated reddish-brown subcutaneous mass measuring 2 × 2 cm and located in the left inguinal region. Microscopically, the tumor consisted of basaloid cells in lobular and cribriform growth patterns and with a high mitotic rate. Immunohistochemically, cytokeratin 14 (an indicator for basal keratinocytes of the epidermis) showed strong reactions throughout the whole tumor, and cytokeratin 18 showed weak but positive reaction in the majority of nested tumor cells. To the authors' knowledge, this is the first report of spontaneous BCC occurrence in young Sprague-Dawley rats.
The environmental factors that affected the accumulation of nitrite in nitrifying reactors were investigated using a mixed culture. A batch reactor with 50 mg-N/l of ammonia was used. The pH, ...temperature and dissolved oxygen concentration were varied. The concentration of unionized free ammonia also changed with the oxidation of ammonia and the variation of pH and temperature. The accumulation of nitrite was affected sensitively by pH and temperature. A higher nitrite concentration was observed at pH 8-9 or temperature around 30 degrees C. The dissolved oxygen also affected, giving the highest nitrite accumulation at around 1.5 mg/l. These were the favored conditions for nitrite production. The free ammonia concentration influenced the nitrite accumulation also, by inhibiting nitrite oxidation. The inhibition became apparent at a concentration of approximately 4 mg/l or above, but insignificant at below 1 mg/l. Thus, simultaneously high free ammonia concentration and maximum specific ammonia-oxidation rate (above 15 x 10(-3) mg-N/mg-VSS x h) were needed for a significant nitrite accumulation. When the two conditions were met, then the highest accumulation was observed when the ratio of the maximum specific oxidation rate of ammonia to the maximum specific oxidation rate of nitrite (ka/kn) was highest. Under the optimal operating conditions of pH 8, 30 degrees C and 1.5 mg/l of dissolved oxygen, as much as 77% of the removed ammonia accumulated in nitrite.
A new channel estimation-based equalization technique for 8-VSB digital television system is proposed in order to perform fast initialization of the equalizer and minimize error propagation of the ...channel estimation and equalization. To overcome the shortage of the training sequence in the VSB DTV signal, we proposed a new scheme using the TS-length buffer. Also, the modified-stop-and-go algorithm (MSaG) is proposed to minimize error propagation. Simulation results show the LS (least-square) algorithm is adequate in broadcasting channels and the proposed scheme can quickly initialize the equalizer, while providing receiver performance comparable to that of conventional schemes.
PDF
