.
Purpose: This study aimed to assess vascular endothelial function in patients with ocular hypertension (OHT) or primary open‐angle glaucoma (POAG) by measuring: (a) endothelium‐dependent ...flow‐mediated vasodilation (FMD) of the brachial artery, and (b) circulating endothelial progenitor cells, which are believed to support the integrity of the vascular endothelium.
Methods: We enrolled 25 patients with OHT, 23 with POAG and 26 control subjects, all of whom were aged < 65 years and had no medical history of cardiovascular disease or cardiovascular risk factors. All subjects underwent a complete ophthalmological examination, biochemistry study, assessment of cardiovascular parameters, brachial artery ultrasound assessment of endothelium‐dependent FMD, generic circulating progenitor cell (CPC) and circulating endothelial progenitor cell (EPC) count with the use of flow cytometry.
Results: Flow‐mediated vasodilation values differed significantly in OHT (4.5 ± 1.1%; p = 0.021) and POAG (4.0 ± 0.9%; p = 0.003) patients compared with controls (7.7 ± 0.8%). The CD34+ KDR+ EPC count was markedly lower in OHT (28.0 ± 5.0; p < 0.001) and POAG (24.3 ± 3.4; p < 0.001) patients compared with controls (73.1 ± 8.1). Neither FMD not EPCs differed significantly between OHT and POAG patients. No significant differences in CPC count or cardiovascular parameters were found among OHT or POAG patients and controls. The levels of CD34+ KDR+ EPCs were directly correlated (p = 0.043) with FMD, and inversely correlated (p = 0.032) with baseline intraocular pressure in OHT and POAG patients.
Conclusions: Both OHT and POAG patients without cardiovascular risk factors have previously unreported severely reduced circulating EPCs and reduced FMD, both of which are indicators of endothelial dysfunction and increased risk of cardiovascular events.
Our study aimed to add information about the diet and endoparasites of Enyalius brasiliensis from an Atlantic Rainforest remnant in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil. Regarding diet, ...E. brasiliensis consumed arthropods, with caterpillars and beetles being the most important preys. Regarding helminth parasites, overall prevalence was low (9.5%), with 238 nematodes of the genus Physaloptera found in the stomach of one specimen and one nematode of the genus Rhabdias inside the lung of another. Our results corroborate the observations of previous studies that indicate that lizards of the genus Enyalius tend to feed mainly on relatively large-bodied arthropods and to harbour depauperate endoparasite fauna.
The genus Cycloramphus Tschudi, 1,838 is presently composed of 27 anuran species distributed throughout the Atlantic Forest of southeastern Brazil. Heyer (1983), in a study dealing with variation and ...systematic of frogs of the genus Cycloramphus, removed C. brasiliensis (Cycloramphidae) from the synonymy of C. fuliginosus Tschudi, 1838 (Cycloramphidae). Cycloramphus brasiliensis is endemic to the relatively small portion of the Atlantic Forest of Serra dos Orgaos and Serra da Mantiqueira, in the state of Rio de Janeiro. This article provides additional information regarding the altitudinal range of distribution of this species to lower elevations, near sea level. The individuals of Cycloramphus brasiliensis were sampled in September and October, 2004 and between July 2007 and March 2010 using Visual Encounter Surveys performed by transects, in two localities of Atlantic Forest in the state of Rio de Janeiro, southeastern Brazil: the Estacao Ecologica Estadual Paraiso and the Reserva Ecologica de Guapiacu. The study found individuals of Cycloramphus brasiliensis at the two localities sampled.
Aims: To evaluate, with fundus perimetry, the peripapillary differential light threshold (DLT) in eyes with glaucoma and ocular hypertension (OHT), and compare it with peripapillary retinal nerve ...fibre layer (RNFL) thickness. Methods: 35 glaucomatous, 29 OHT and 24 control eyes were included. Peripapillary DLT at 1° from the optic nerve head was quantified with fundus perimetry; peripapillary RNFL thickness was measured over the same area by optical coherence tomography. Results: Mean (SD) peripapillary DLT was 19.2 (1.7), 17.6 (4.2) and 10.1 (6.9) dB in control, OHT and glaucomatous eyes, respectively (p<0.001). Mean (SD) RNFL thickness was 98.4 (35.3), 83.9 (35.1) and 55.8 (28.2) μm, respectively (p<0.001). Mean peripapillary DLT showed higher sensitivity and specificity in differentiating the three groups compared with RNFL thickness. Conclusion: Progressive, significant reduction of peripapillary DLT was documented in OHT and glaucomatous eyes compared with controls (p<0.001). DLT reduction parallels RNFL reduction.
A precise determination of the energy scale of jets at the Collider Detector at Fermilab at the Tevatron
p
p
¯
collider is described. Jets are used in many analyses to estimate the energies of ...partons resulting from the underlying physics process. Several correction factors are developed to estimate the original parton energy from the observed jet energy in the calorimeter. The jet energy response is compared between data and Monte Carlo simulation for various physics processes, and systematic uncertainties on the jet energy scale are determined. For jets with transverse momenta above 50
GeV the jet energy scale is determined with a
3
%
systematic uncertainty.
The muon system upgrade for the CDF II experiment Dorigo, Tommaso
Nuclear instruments & methods in physics research. Section A, Accelerators, spectrometers, detectors and associated equipment,
04/2001, Letnik:
461, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
During Run II, the Tevatron collider will operate with a 20-fold decrease of bunch crossing time and a similar increase of luminosity with respect to Run I: these new running conditions called for ...extensive improvements and extensions of the CDF muon system. The low light yield of aging scintillators has been effectively fixed by gluing light fibers to the long sides of these counters for added light output. The higher backgrounds of the Main Injector era will be suppressed by custom-shaped steel shielding structures. A new muon system has been developed to extend rapidity coverage up to |
η|=1.5 with performances comparable to those of the central muon system. New front-end electronics will handle the reduced gas gain set in the central muon system. Several mechanical problems have been solved to allow the completion of azimuthal coverage.
We present the first measurement of polarization and CP-violating asymmetries in a B{sub s}{sup 0} decay into two light vector mesons, B{sub s}{sup 0}{yields}{phi}{phi}, and an improved determination ...of its branching ratio using 295 decays reconstructed in a data sample corresponding to 2.9 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity collected by the CDF experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron collider. The fraction of longitudinal polarization is determined to be f{sub L}=0.348{+-}0.041(stat){+-}0.021(syst), and the branching ratio B(B{sub s}{sup 0}{yields}{phi}{phi})=2.32{+-}0.18(stat){+-}0.82(syst)x10{sup -5}. Asymmetries of decay angle distributions sensitive to CP violation are measured to be A{sub u}=-0.007{+-}0.064(stat){+-}0.018(syst) and A{sub v}=-0.120{+-}0.064(stat){+-}0.016(syst).
We present the results of a search for pair production of a heavy toplike (t') quark decaying to Wq final states using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.6 fb{sup -1} collected by ...the CDF II detector in pp collisions at {radical}(s)=1.96 TeV. We perform parallel searches for t'{yields}Wb and t'{yields}Wq (where q is a generic down-type quark) in events containing a lepton and four or more jets. By performing a fit to the two-dimensional distribution of total transverse energy versus reconstructed t{sup '} quark mass, we set upper limits on the t't' production cross section and exclude a standard model fourth-generation t' quark decaying to Wb (Wq) with mass below 358 (340) GeV/c{sup 2} at 95% C.L.
We present a measurement of the top-quark mass using a sample of tt events in 5.7 fb{sup -1} of integrated luminosity from pp collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron with {radical}(s)=1.96 TeV and ...collected by the CDF II Detector. We select events having large missing transverse energy, and four, five, or six jets with at least one jet tagged as coming from a b quark, and reject events with identified charged leptons. This analysis considers events from the semileptonic tt decay channel, including events that contain tau leptons. The measurement is based on a multidimensional template method. We fit the data to signal templates of varying top-quark masses and background templates, and measure a top-quark mass of M{sub top}=172.32{+-}2.4(stat){+-}1.0(syst) GeV/c{sup 2}.
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