The magnetism of a thin grain-boundary (GB) phase that envelopes the Nd2Fe14B grains in optimally annealed Nd–Fe–B sintered magnets was investigated by electron holography. The phase shift measured ...from a thin-foil specimen containing a tilted amorphous GB phase (∼3nm in width) was −0.34rad, which is substantially smaller than that expected for the nonferromagnetic GB phase of −1.2rad. Simulations of the phase shift with various magnetization values suggest that the magnetic flux density of the GB phase is ∼1.0T. The observations imply significant exchange coupling between Nd2Fe14B grains, which can explain the avalanche propagation of magnetization reversal observed in sintered magnets.
Recent findings have raised new interests about the use of anticholinergics, especially tiotropium, for the treatment of asthma. This study was performed to determine whether an additional ...improvement in lung function is obtained when tiotropium is administrated in addition to conventional therapies in severe asthmatics, and to identify factors capable of predicting the response to tiotropium, using a pharmacogenetic approach. A total of 138 severe asthmatics on conventional medications and with decreased lung function were randomly recruited. Tiotropium 18 μg was added once a day and lung functions were measured every 4 weeks. Responders were defined as those with an improvement of greater-than-or-equal15% (or 200 ml) in the forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1) that was maintained for at least 8 successive weeks. Eleven single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in CHRM1-3 (coding muscarinic receptors one to three) which were identified by re-sequencing, and Arg16Gly and Gln27Glu in ADRB2 (coding β₂ adrenoreceptor) were scored in 80 of the 138 asthmatics. Forty-six of the 138 asthmatics (33.3%) responded to tiotropium treatment. Logistic regression analyses (controlled for age, gender, and smoking status) showed that Arg16Gly in ADRB2 P = 0.003, OR (95% CI) = 0.21 (0.07-0.59) in a minor allele-dominant model was significantly associated with response to tiotropium. As many as 30% of severe asthmatics on conventional medications with reduced lung function were found to respond to adjuvant tiotropium. The presence of Arg16Gly in ADRB2 may predict response to tiotropium.
Objective To evaluate treatment outcomes of in situ abdominal aortic reconstruction with cryopreserved arterial allograft (CAA) for patients with abdominal aortic infection. Materials and methods A ...retrospective review of prospectively collected data was conducted of patients who underwent in situ aortic reconstruction using CAA for primary, secondary, or prosthetic infection of the abdominal aorta between May 2006 and July 2015, at a single institution. Clinical presentation, indications for treatment, procedural details, early post-operative mortality and morbidity, late death, and graft related complications during the follow up period were investigated. Patient survival and event free survival (any death or re-operation) were calculated using the Kaplan-Meier method. Results Twenty-five patients (male, n = 20, 80%; mean age, 70.2 ± 8.7 years) underwent in situ abdominal aortic reconstruction (48% aortic, 52% aorto-bi-iliac) with vessel size and ABO matched CAA for treatment of abdominal aortic infection caused by infected abdominal aortic aneurysm ( n = 15), aortic prosthesis infection ( n = 7), aortic reconstruction with concomitant colon resection ( n = 2), and primary suppurative aortitis ( n = 1). The median follow up was 19.1 months (range 1–73 months). There were seven post-operative deaths including two (8%) early (<30 days) and five (20%) late deaths There were three (12%) graft related complications including thrombotic occlusion of the CAA, aneurysmal dilatation, and aorto-enteric fistula. Three years after CAA implantation, patient survival was 74% and the event free survival was 58%. Conclusions It is believed that in situ abdominal aortic reconstruction with CAA is a useful option for treating primary, secondary, or prosthetic infection of the abdominal aorta.
Many chalcogenide glasses undergo a breakdown in electronic resistance above a critical field strength. Known as threshold switching, this mechanism enables field-induced crystallization in emerging ...phase-change memory. Purely electronic as well as crystal nucleation assisted models have been employed to explain the electronic breakdown. Here, picosecond electric pulses are used to excite amorphous Ag_{4}In_{3}Sb_{67}Te_{26}. Field-dependent reversible changes in conductivity and pulse-driven crystallization are observed. The present results show that threshold switching can take place within the electric pulse on subpicosecond time scales-faster than crystals can nucleate. This supports purely electronic models of threshold switching and reveals potential applications as an ultrafast electronic switch.
Transforaminal epidural injection is an effective method for treating spinal pain but can cause devastating complications that result from accidental vascular uptake of the injectate or a direct ...vascular injury. We prospectively evaluated the patient factors that might be associated with intravascular uptake during transforaminal epidural injections. A total of 2145 injections were performed on 1088 patients under contrast-enhanced real-time fluoroscopic guidance. The collected data included the patient's age, sex, body mass index, diagnosis, injection level, side of injection, history of spinal surgery at the targeted level, and the number of injections at the targeted site. The overall incidence of intravascular injection was 10.5% (224/2145). The highest incidence was at the cervical level (28/136; 20.6%), followed by the sacral level (111/673; 16.5%), the thoracic level (23/280; 8.2%) and the lumbar level (64/1056; 6.1%). The difference was significant for the cervical and sacral level compared with the lumbar and thoracic levels (p < 0.001). Intravascular injection was not associated with the other patient characteristics studied.
Most cells, highly sensitive to oxygen levels, undergo apoptosis under hypoxia. Therefore, the involvement of hypoxia in rotator cuff tendon degeneration has been proposed. While previous studies ...have reported that hypoxia induces apoptosis in rotator cuff fibroblasts (RCFs), little research has investigated whether antioxidants have cytoprotective effects against RCF apoptosis. The present study aimed at determining whether the antioxidant N-acetylcysteine (NAC) exerted cytoprotective effects against hypoxia-induced RCF apoptosis. Third-passage rat RCFs were divided into normoxia, NAC, hypoxia and NAC-hypoxia groups. The hypoxia inducer was 1,000 µmol/L cobalt chloride (CoCl2); the antioxidant was 20 mmol/L NAC. Expressions of hypoxia-inducible factor-1α (HIF-1α) and heme oxygenase-1 (HO-1), cell viability, intracellular reactive oxygen species (ROS) production, apoptosis rates as well as expressions of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved poly ADP-ribose polymerase-1 (PARP-1), vascular endothelial growth factors-β (VEGF-β) and matrix metalloproteinase-2 (MMP-2) were evaluated. Expression of HIF-1α and HO-1 was significantly higher in the hypoxia group than in the normoxia group (p < 0.001). Cell viability was significantly lower in the hypoxia group than in the normoxia group (p < 0.001). Intracellular ROS production, apoptosis rate and expressions of cleaved caspase-3, cleaved PARP-1, VEGF-β and MMP-2 were significantly higher in the hypoxia group than in the normoxia group (p < 0.001). All these responses were significantly attenuated by pre-treatment with NAC (p ≤ 0.001). ROS were involved in hypoxic RCF apoptosis induced by CoCl2; NAC, an ROS scavenger, inhibited hypoxia-induced RCF apoptosis by inhibiting ROS production.
This paper presents Virtual FA, an innovative approach to enhance the DRAM production quality in Samsung and field quality in customers. By leveraging telemetry data from customer deployment fleet, ...our method classifies failure types and perform risk assessment without physical analysis, enabling swift and effective issue identification and resolution. The study, involving several experts across DRAM design, process, assembly, and quality team, targeted 15nm DDR4 products. With vFA, we accurately categorized failure types and determined risks across all products and cases, leading to improved production quality in Samsung and field quality in customers with timely feedback.
Summary
Background Urticaria is the commonest cutaneous reaction caused by aspirin or other nonsteroidal anti‐inflammatory drugs. The pathogenesis of aspirin‐induced urticaria (AIU) is not fully ...understood, but appears to involve mast cell activation and neutrophil infiltration.
Objectives To investigate the genetic contribution of interleukin (IL)‐18, which can amplify acute inflammation by promoting mast cell activation, neutrophil migration and cytokine production, to the pathogenesis of AIU.
Methods A case–control association study was performed using 275 patients with AIU and 196 normal healthy controls in a Korean population. Two promoter polymorphisms of the IL18 gene (−607A/C and −137G/C) were genotyped using the primer extension method. The functional effect of the IL18 gene promoter polymorphism was investigated through in vitro studies including a luciferase reporter assay and electrophoretic mobility shift assays (EMSAs) and ex vivo studies involving neutrophil chemotaxis assays.
Results A significant association was detected between both AIU in general and the aspirin‐intolerant acute urticaria (AIAU) phenotype and the IL18 promoter polymorphism −607A/C. Patients with AIAU showed higher frequencies of the C−607G−137 haplotype, ht1 CG, compared with controls (P = 0·02). Moreover, ht1 CG showed a high transcript haplotype by the luciferase activity assay, and EMSAs identified a −607C allele‐specific DNA‐binding protein as CREB2. Neutrophil chemotactic activity was highest in subjects with AIU exhibiting the high transcript haplotype, ht1 CG (P = 0·019).
Conclusions The high transcript haplotype ht1 CG of the IL18 gene may contribute to the development of acute cutaneous inflammation sensitive to aspirin, leading to the clinical presentation of AIAU.
The ethylene‐responsive element binding factor (ERF) family is a large family of transcription factors involved in plant development and environmental stress responses. We previously reported the ...identification of 29 putative substrates of Mitogen‐activated Protein Kinase3 (AtMPK3), AtMPK4 and AtMPK6, based on a solid‐phase phosphorylation screening using a lambda phage expression library in Arabidopsis thaliana.
In this study, a putative MPK substrate, AtERF72 (At3g16770), was strongly phosphorylated by AtMPK6 on the serine residue at position 151 (Ser151). AtERF72 binds to the GCC box (AGCCGCC) in the promoters of several pathogenesis‐related (PR) genes and activates their transcription. We also show that the DNA‐binding activity of AtERF72 is enhanced upon phosphorylation by AtMPK6 in vitro.
In addition, transient co‐expression experiments in Arabidopsis protoplasts revealed that effector constructs expressing a mutant variant of AtERF72, AtERF72S151D (carrying a Ser to aspartic acid Asp substitution at amino acid position 151) showed higher expression of the β‐glucuronidase (GUS) reporter gene driven by the GCC box element than effector constructs expressing the wild‐type AtERF72. Furthermore, yeast two‐hybrid assays revealed that the interaction between AtERF72S151D and TGA4/OBF4 was stronger than that between wild‐type AtERF72 and TGA4/OBF4.
Since AtERF72S151D is equivalent to AtERF72 phosphorylated by AtMPK6 at Ser151, these results suggest that the phosphorylation of AtERF72 by AtMPK6 triggers an event of transcriptional regulation from defence signalling in Arabidopsis.
AtERF72 is phosphorylated by AtMPK6 at the serine residue at position 151 (Ser151) and strongly binds to the GCC box (AGCCGCC) in the stress‐related gene promoters.
PDF
