The effects of adding an antagonistic salt, sodium tetraphenylborate (
NaBPh
4
), to a binary mixture of deuterated water and 2,6-dimethylpyridine were investigated by visual inspection, optical ...microscopy, and small-angle neutron scattering. With increasing salt concentration, the two-phase region shrinks. When the concentration of
NaBPh
4
is
85
mmol
·
L
-
1
, a temperature-induced lamellar/disorder phase transition is observed at 338 K. These trends are similar to those observed for a mixture of water/3-methylpyridine/
NaBPh
4
(Sadakane et al., Phys. Rev. Lett.
103
, 167803
(2009)
).
Low serum albumin level is reportedly associated with worse clinical outcomes in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). However, associations between decreased serum albumin level and outcomes ...in non-CKD patients with coronary artery disease (CAD) remain unclear. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the prognostic value of serum albumin concentrations in stable CAD patients with preserved renal function.
We studied 1316 patients with CAD and preserved renal function (estimated glomerular filtration rate ≥60 mL/min/1.73 m2) who underwent their first PCI between 2000 and 2011 and had data available for pre-procedural serum albumin. Patients were assigned to quartiles based on pre-procedural albumin concentrations. The incidence of major adverse cardiac events (MACE), including all-cause death and non-fatal myocardial infarction, was evaluated. Mean albumin concentration was 4.1 ± 0.4 g/dL. During the median follow-up of 7.5 years, 181 events occurred (13.8%). Kaplan–Meier curves revealed that patients with decreased serum albumin concentrations showed a higher event rate for MACE (log-rank, p < 0.0001). Using the highest tertiles (>4.3 g/dL) as reference, adjusted hazard ratios were 1.97 (95% CI, 1.12–3.55), 1.77 (95% CI, 0.99–3.25), and 1.19 (95% CI, 0.68–2.15) for serum albumin concentrations of <3.9, 3.9–4.0, and 4.1–4.3 g/dL, respectively. Decreased serum albumin concentration was associated with MACE even after adjusting for other independent variables (HR, 2.21 per 1-g/dL decrease; 95% CI, 1.37–3.56, p = 0.001).
Decreased serum albumin concentration independently predicted worse long-term prognosis in non-CKD patients after PCI. Pre-procedural serum albumin concentration could offer a useful predictor for patients with CAD and preserved renal function.
•The prognostic value of serum albumin in CAD patients without CKD was evaluated.•Patients with lower serum albumin levels tended to be worse baseline characteristics.•Patients with low serum albumin levels showed higher incidences of cardiac events.•Lower serum albumin level was independently associated with worse clinical outcomes.
Display omitted
•We found a macroscopic amount of soluble fullerenes were produced by laser ablation of graphite in a `room-temperature' argon gas flow.•The absolute value of the yield was 10−2wt%, ...which was higher than that expected for such a low temperature.•Addition of propane to the carrier gas strongly suppressed fullerene formation, while it enhanced polyyne formation.•The reactivities of the fullerene precursors and chain-form carbon clusters are discussed based on the anticorrelation of the yields of fullerenes and polyynes.
Soluble fullerenes were produced with a somewhat unexpectedly high yield (10−2wt% of the evaporated carbons) by laser ablation of graphite in a ‘room-temperature’ argon gas flow. The high yield was likely due to the high temperature of the graphite after heating by the ablation laser. Laser ablation experiments using argon-diluted propane gas showed that fullerene formation was strongly inhibited by the addition of propane, while the formation of hydrogen-terminated, chain-form carbon molecules (polyynes) was enhanced. The reactivities of the fullerene precursors and chain-form carbon clusters are discussed based on the anticorrelation of the yields of fullerenes and polyynes.
1. The skulls and postcranial skeletons of the red jungle fowl (Gallus gallus) were compared osteometrically between the populations from North and South Vietnam, North and Central Laos and Southeast ...Bangladesh. The populations include the three subspecies of G. g. spadiceus, G. g. gallus and G. g. murghi and were sampled to reveal the geographical morphological variations among populations in G. gallus.
2. The morphometric characteristics of subspecies murghi could be clearly distinguished from those of the other subspecies using a canonical discriminant analysis. However, the size and shape of the skull of the gallus population from South Vietnam were not statistically different from that of the subspecies spadiceus from North Laos. The canonical discriminant scores also clearly indicated that there were morphological similarities in the skulls of the populations from North Laos and South Vietnam.
3. From the results, therefore, it is concluded that red jungle fowls do not exhibit high levels of osteometric variation between geographical localities at least within the Indochinese Peninsula.
4. This contrasts with previous studies which have described these subspecies as having various external morphological differences and have argued that zoogeographical barriers exist between the north and south areas of the Indochinese Peninsula.
Ternary ZnSnAs2 thin films heavily doped with nominal 10 and 20% Mn content on InP (001) substrates are grown using low-temperature molecular beam epitaxy and their magnetic and transport properties ...are investigated for the first time. It is found that the Mn-doped ZnSnAs2 thin films are pseudomorphically grown on nearly lattice-matched InP (001) substrates, and a trace amount of secondary phase MnAs formation is observed by high-resolution X-ray diffraction (HR-XRD) measurements. Magnetization measurements on Mn-doped ZnSnAs2 thin films reveal that the Curie temperature is around 334K. Nominal magnetic moments per Mn atom measured from the saturation magnetization of hysteresis loops at 5K have been estimated as 5.28 and 4.17 mu B for 10% and 20% Mn-doped ZnSnAs2 thin films, respectively. We have found from Hall effect measurements that the 10% and 20% Mn-doped ZnSnAs2 films exhibit n-type conduction, in contrast to p-type conduction in ZnSnAs2 doped with less than 10% Mn. This is likely related to the presence of a certain amount of Mn interstitials or Mn3+ substitution on Zn site in the samples.
The molecular mechanisms underlying the promotion of colorectal carcinogenesis by a high-fat diet (HFD) remain unclear. We investigated the role of the insulin-signal pathway and the c-Jun N-terminal ...kinase (JNK) pathway, which reportedly play crucial roles in insulin resistance, during colorectal carcinogenesis in the presence of hyperinsulinaemia induced by a HFD.
Azoxymethane-induced aberrant crypt foci formation and cell proliferation in the colonic epithelium were compared between mice fed a normal diet (ND) and mice fed a HFD. A western blot analysis was performed to elucidate the mechanism affecting colorectal carcinogenesis by a HFD.
The number of aberrant crypt foci and the colonic epithelial cell proliferative activity were significantly higher in the HFD group than in the ND group. While the plasma insulin level was significantly higher in the HFD group than in the ND group, a western blot analysis revealed the inactivation of Akt, which is located downstream of the insulin receptor, in the colonic epithelia of the HFD group. On the other hand, JNK activity was significantly higher in the HFD group than in the ND group. A JNK specific inhibitor significantly suppressed the increase in epithelial cell proliferation only under a HFD, but not under a ND.
Colonic cell proliferation was promoted via the JNK pathway in the presence of a HFD but not in the presence of a ND. This novel mechanism may explain the involvement of the JNK pathway in the effect of dietary fat intake on colon carcinogenesis.
A neutron spin echo experiment for tiny samples with high energy resolution can be realized by combining modulated intensity by zero effort (MIEZE) technique and ellipsoidal neutron focusing ...supermirrors. We observed TOF–MIEZE (the time-of-flight method with MIEZE) signals with an effective frequency of 108 kHz with focusing beam. The Fourier time range 0.48–5.3 ns was covered at once by using TOF technique with neutron wavelength 0.65–1.45 nm. The contrasts of TOF–MIEZE signal were 0.62 ± 0.02 and 0.50 ± 0.05 with each neutron wavelength of 0.68 nm and 1.35 nm, respectively.
The concentration of mineral solutes in mammalian blood is considerably higher than that predicted by their solubility product. The plasma protein fetuin-A inhibits calcium phosphate deposition by ...forming colloidal calciprotein particles (CPPs). In this article the authors present a detailed small angle neutron scattering study including contrast variation analysis providing detailed quantitative information on the three-dimensional topology of the CPPs and on their morphogenesis. In detail the authors found the following: (i) A two stage growth process showing spontaneously formed primary particles with a size of about 500 A diameter that subsequently transformed to 1000 A sized particles which were stable for at least 24 h. (ii) A particular shielding topology was observed for the second CPP state, namely, that a densely packed fetuin-A monolayer covers a mineral core and thereby prevents further crystal growth. (iii) Transmission electron microscopy analysis of in vitro synthesized second state CPPs revealed striking similarities to material retrieved from a human peritonitis patient. This latter finding underscores the importance of short- and long-term stabilizations of CPPs by fetuin-A to enable clearing of mineral debris in the body.
PDF
