Objectives To identify independent risk factors for visceral artery aneurysms. Methods Retrospective medical record review over 10 years. Results There were 26 men and 15 women, median age of 54 ...(range 22 to 85), and median follow-up was 20.6 months (range 0 to 94 months). There were 11 splenic, 17 hepatic, 8 gastroduodenal, 6 pancreatoduodenal, 5 superior mesenteric, and two inferior mesenteric artery aneurysms. Thirteen patients (13/41, 31.7%) were treated surgically without adjuvant endovascular intervention. Nineteen patients (19/41, 46.3%) were treated exclusively using endovascular procedures. Five patients (5/41, 12.2%) received second endovascular or surgical treatment as salvage procedure after the first procedure failed. Concomitant malignancy was positive predictors for in-hospital death. Renal failure, chronic lung disease, liver cirrhosis, previous abdominal surgery and concomitant malignancy were positive predictors of 2-year mortality. With the intention to treat in the whole cohort, less than 10% (2/21) of the endovascular treatments failed, compared to 18.5% (3/16) in the surgical group. Patients treated by surgery without aid of endovascular intervention, have lower 2-year mortality. In hospital-death rate was 9.8%, while overall mortality rate was 21.9%. Conclusions The endovascular intervention provides compatible, even better early postoperative outcomes for visceral artery aneurysms to surgery. Concomitant malignancy was the major determinant of visceral artery aneurysms, both in-hospital death and survival.
Heat shock protein (Hsp) 104 is a ring-forming, protein-remodeling machine that harnesses the energy of ATP binding and hydrolysis to drive protein disaggregation. Although Hsp104 is an active ...ATPase, the recovery of functional protein requires the species-specific cooperation of the Hsp70 system. However, like Hsp104, Hsp70 is an active ATPase, which recognizes aggregated and aggregation-prone proteins, making it difficult to differentiate the mechanistic roles of Hsp104 and Hsp70 during protein disaggregation. Mapping the Hsp70-binding sites in yeast Hsp104 using peptide array technology and photo–cross-linking revealed a striking conservation of the primary Hsp70-binding motifs on the Hsp104 middle-domain across species, despite lack of sequence identity. Remarkably, inserting a Strep -Tactin binding motif at the spatially conserved Hsp70-binding site elicits the Hsp104 protein disaggregating activity that now depends on Strep- Tactin but no longer requires Hsp70/40. Consistent with a Strep -Tactin–dependent activation step, we found that full-length Hsp70 on its own could activate the Hsp104 hexamer by promoting intersubunit coordination, suggesting that Hsp70 is an activator of the Hsp104 motor.
Abstract
Erectile dysfunction (ED) is mostly due to the lack of blood flow into the penis. In the past 20 years, near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) was used in measuring the concentrations and ...temporal dynamics of different hemoglobin types. However, the dynamics of the light absorption (photoplethysmography; PPG) have not been applied to survey penile hemodynamics and erection quality. This paper compared the use of photoplethysmography (PPG) to study vascular ED with standard penile Doppler ultrasonography. Men diagnosed with vascular ED for at least 6 months and nominated for penile ultrasonography were included. PPG signals were collected during the ultrasound examination. All beat-to-beat PPG waveforms were aligned with the peak and averaged to one representative
template waveform
for feature analysis, including amplitude differences (APD) index, reflection time index (RTI), augmentation index (AI), and perfusion index (PI). An inverse correlation was found between end-erection amplitude and both erection hardness score (EHS) and resistive index (RI). APD index and EHS as well as the international index of erectile function-5 (IIEF) and RI were positively correlated. RTI and AI were inversely correlated to IIEF and RI. PI was positively correlated to RI. PPG may therefore be useful as a noninvasive, convenient, technique for sexual function evaluation.
This study presents an approach based on the Gauss‐Markov Kalman filter to assimilate the total electron content observed from ground‐based GPS receivers and space‐based radio occultation ...instrumentations (such as FORMOSAT‐3/COSMIC (F3/C) and FORMOSAT‐7/COSMIC‐2 (F7/C2)) into the International Reference Ionosphere. Observing System Simulation Experiments (OSSEs) show that the data assimilation procedure consisting of the forecast and the measurement update steps can better improve the accuracy of the data assimilation analysis than the assimilation procedure using the measurement update alone. Compared with F3/C, the denser F7/C2 occultation observations can improve the analysis accuracy significantly as suggested by OSSEs. The real data assimilation results are further validated with global ionosphere maps, the global ground‐based GPS measurements, and the ionospheric F2 peak height and electron density sounded by ionosondes. Both the OSSEs and validation results confirm that a number of improvements to the data assimilation procedure presented in this paper can indeed be used to reconstruct the three‐dimensional ionospheric electron density adequately.
Key Points
A new ionospheric data assimilation procedure is presented that adopts a full Kalman filter to assimilate ground‐ and space‐based slant TEC
Inclusion of the forecast step of Kalman filter greatly improves the accuracy of the results (by up to 35.7%)
The new assimilation procedure can yield well‐resolved hourly global 3‐D electron density distribution with the upcoming F7/C2 mission
Summary
What is known and Objective: An ideal Health Care Service is a service system that focuses on patients. Patients in Taiwan have the freedom to fill their prescriptions at any pharmacies ...contracted with National Health Insurance. Each of these pharmacies uses its own computer system. So far, there are at least ten different systems on the market in Taiwan. To transmit the prescription information from the hospital to the pharmacy accurately and efficiently presents a great issue.
Methods: This study consisted of two‐dimensional applications using a QR‐code to capture Patient’s identification and prescription information from the hospitals as well as using a webcam to read the QR‐code and transfer all data to the pharmacy computer system. Two hospitals and 85 community pharmacies participated in the study.
Results and Discussion: During the trial, all participant pharmacies appraised highly of the accurate transmission of the prescription information. The contents in QR‐code prescriptions from Taipei area were picked up efficiently and accurately in pharmacies at Taichung area (middle Taiwan) without software system limit and area limitation. The QR‐code device received a patent (No. M376844, March 2010) from Intellectual Property Office Ministry of Economic Affair, China.
What is new and Conclusion: Our trial has proven that QR‐code prescription can provide community pharmacists an efficient, accurate and inexpensive device to digitalize the prescription contents. Consequently, pharmacists can offer better quality of pharmacy service to patients.
HLA‐Cw6 and psoriasis Chen, L.; Tsai, T.‐F.
British journal of dermatology (1951),
April 2018, 2018-04-01, 20180401, Letnik:
178, Številka:
4
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Summary
Psoriasis is a disease which causes, among other symptoms, red, scaly patches of skin. It is a complex disease because there are several different factors that work together to cause it, ...including those that are environmental and those that are genetic. Because of these variables, psoriasis can affect patients differently, with varying symptoms, areas of the body affected and how treatments work. Different versions of the same gene are called alleles, and some alleles make a person more prone to certain diseases or symptoms. Psoriasis susceptibility alleles have been thought to play an important role in the development of the disease, in particular one called HLA‐Cw6 which has been linked to features such as early onset psoriasis and a certain type of skin patches (lesions) called guttate lesions. This article, from the National Taiwan University Hospital, is a review, summarizing the key findings from a range of studies into HLA‐Cw6 and psoriasis. The worldwide frequency of HLA‐Cw6 allele varies greatly, but is generally higher in Caucasians. The allele is associated with Type I early onset psoriasis. Stress, obesity, and an infection called streptococcal pharyngitis are commonly found in patients with HLA‐Cw6 allele (HLA‐Cw6 positive patients). HLA‐Cw6 is found to be linked to a type of psoriasis called guttate psoriasis in some studies. In addition, patients carrying the allele are more likely to have lesions on their arms, legs and trunk. Studies also show that HLA‐Cw6 positive patients have more success with certain treatments than people without the allele. All of these findings could eventually help predict and plan for how different patients’ psoriasis develops and is treated, although more research is needed first.
Linked Article: Chen and Tsai Br J Dermatol 2018; 178:854–862
The Tonga volcano eruption of 15 January 2022 unleashed a variety of atmospheric perturbations, coinciding with the recovery-phase of a geomagnetic storm. The ensuing thermospheric variations created ...rare display of extreme poleward-expanding conjugate plasma bubbles seen in the rate of total electron content index over 100–150°E, reaching ∼40°N geographic latitude. This is associated with fluctuations in FORMOSAT-7/COSMIC-2 (F7/C2) ion-density measurements and spread-F in ionograms. Preceding to this, an unusually strong pre-reversal enhancement (PRE) occurred in the global ionospheric specification (GIS) electron density profiles derived from F7/C2 observations. The GIS also revealed a decrease of equatorial ionization anomaly (EIA) crest density due to the storm impact. Reduced E-region conductivity by volcano-induced waves and enhanced F-region wind, further accelerated by reduced ion-drag over the EIA, apparently intensified the PRE.
Accompanied with the strong PRE, volcano-induced seed perturbations triggered the super plasma bubble activity.
Highlights • 2 kidneys 1 clip method (2K1C) constricts 1 renal artery and induces hypertension. • 2K1C-induced hypertension impairs long-term, but not short-term, memory in mice. • 2K1C reduces ...dendritic complexity of CA1 neurons and hippocampal neurogenesis. • 2K1C doesn’t alter vascular density or glial activation status in the hippocampus. • 2K1C-induced impairments in the hippocampus are related to downregulation of BDNF.
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