bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
Impact of elevated heart rate on clinical outcomes in patients with heart failure with reduced and preserved ejection fraction: a report from the CHART‐2 Study
Authors: Takada Tsuyoshi , Sakata Yasuhiko , Miyata Satoshi , Takahashi Jun , Nochioka Kotaro , Miura Masanobu , Tadaki Soichiro , Shimokawa Hiroaki ,   on behalf of the CHART‐2 Investigators
Published: March 2014

AimsIt is still controversial whether elevated baseline heart rate (HR) is associated with higher mortality in patients with heart failure (HF) with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). We compared the impacts of baseline HR on mortality in patients with HFpEF and those with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF).Methods and resultsWe enrolled consecutive 2688 patients in Stage C or D HF with sinus rhythm from our Chronic Heart Failure Analysis and Registry in the Tohoku District 2 (CHART‐2) Study (n = 10 219). The prognostic impact of HR increase was compared between the two groups, defined as left ventricular ejection fraction of < 50% (HFrEF) and > 50% (HFpEF). Cox regression analysis revealed that elevated baseline HR was associated with increased all‐cause mortality in both groups [hazard ratio for the highest tertile (HH) 1.77 in HFrEF, P = 0.008; HH1.82 in HFpEF, P = 0.001]. However, as for mode of death, elevated HR was associated with cardiovascular (CV) death in HFpEF (HH 2.17, P = 0.012), but the association was modest in HFrEF (HH1.49, P = 0.14): in particular, impact on HF death was different between HFpEF (HH 3.79, P = 0.020) and HFrEF (HH 1.07, P = 0.864). In contrast, the prognostic impact of baseline HR on non‐CV death was noted only in patients with HFrEF. β‐Blocker therapy was associated with reduced HF mortality in HFrEF (hazard ratio 0.49, P = 0.038) but not in HFpEF (hazard ratio 0.64, P = 0.321).ConclusionsElevated HR was associated with increased CV death in HFpEF compared with HFrEF, although its impact on all‐cause mortality was comparable between the two groups.
Weaning from inotropic support and concomitant beta‐blocker therapy in severely ill heart failure patients: take the time in order to improve prognosis
Authors: Constantinescu Alina A. , Caliskan Kadir , Manintveld Olivier C. , van Domburg Ron , Jewbali Lucia , Balk Aggie H.M.M. 
Published: March 2014

AimsBeta‐blockers improve the prognosis in heart failure (HF), but their introduction may seem impossible in patients dependent on inotropic support. However, many of these patients can be titrated on beta‐blockers, but there is little evidence of successful clinical strategies.Methods and resultsWe analysed the records of inotropy‐dependent patients referred for assessment for heart transplantation. Thirty‐six patients (45%) could not be weaned (NW) and underwent left ventricular assist device (LVAD) implantation or transplantation, or died. However, 44 (55%) were successfully weaned (SW). Neither the aetiology (ischaemic vs. non‐ischaemic) nor cardiac indexes were different in the SW as compared with the NW group (2.27 ± 0.5 vs. 2.15 ± 0.6 L/min/m2). The NW patients had lower LVEF (15 ± 5% vs. 19 ± 5%, P = 0.001), higher right atrial pressure (12 ± 6 vs. 8 ± 6 mmHg, P = 0.02), and more severe mitral regurgitation (P < 0.001) than the SW patients. At discharge, 35 of 44 SW patients were receiving beta‐blockers. In 29 of them, a beta‐blocker could only be initiated or continued during concomitant support with i.v. enoximone for a duration of 14.1 ± 7.2 days. Patients discharged on a beta‐blocker had an LVAD/transplantation‐free cumulative survival of 71% during a follow‐up of 2074 ± 201 days (confidence interval 1679–2470).ConclusionIt takes time to put severely ill HF patients on beta‐blockers and it may require bridging with inotropes which are independent of beta‐adrenergic receptors. Whether such a strategy may result in a better clinical outcome warrants further research.
Determination of Bismuth by Adsorptive Stripping Voltammetry Using Aluminum Oxide for Elimination of Environmental Sample Matrix Interferences
Authors: Koper Anna , Grabarczyk Malgorzata 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThe aim of this work was to find a fast new and simple method for efficient elimination of negative influence of humic substances and synthetic surfactants in the voltammetric determination of bismuth. The negative influence of the organic matrix present in environmental water samples due to their adsorption on aluminum oxide was successfully evaluated. The organic compounds such as humic substances and surface active compounds were removed by adsorption on the surface of aluminum oxide from the water samples. The application of this method was the recovery of Bi(III) from spiked water samples.
Separation of alogliptin enantiomers in cyclodextrin‐modified capillary electrophoresis: A validated method
Authors: Fejős Ida , Urbancsok Zsuzsanna , Zhou Wei , Sohajda Tamás , Hu Wenhui , Szente Lajos , Béni Szabolcs 
Published: March 2014

The single enantiomer drug, alogliptin (Alo, Nesina®) is a novel, orally available and selective dipeptidyl peptidase‐4 inhibitor used for the treatment of type II diabetes. Following itspKadetermination by CE‐pH titration, a validated chiral CE method has been developed to separate Alo enantiomers. Preliminary screening of the native CDs and their ten derivatives revealed that sulfopropylated‐γ‐CD, sulfopropylated‐β‐CD and sulfopropylated‐γ‐CD, sulfobutyl‐ether‐β‐CD (SBE‐β‐CD) and sulfobutyl‐ether‐γ‐CD enabled enantioresolution. Furthermore, cavity size dependent enantiomer migration order reversal was observed between γ‐ and β‐CD derivatives. To improve enantioseparation, buffer composition and pH, CD concentration, applied voltage, temperature, and injection parameters were optimized for the Alo/ SBE‐β‐CD system, yielding a resolution of 8.34. RSD percentage of the resolution value, migration times, and corrected peak areas were below 3 and 5% during testing repeatability and intermediate precision. LOD and LOQ values were found to be 2 and 6 μg/mL, respectively, for each enantiomer. Calibration lines ranging from 6 to 250 μg/mL were constructed withr2> 0.9997. Robustness could be successfully verified by using the Plackett–Burman statistical experimental design. The optimized system containing 5 mM SBE‐β‐CD in a 25 mM acetate buffer at pH 4.75 was found promising to detect 0.1% distomer in the presence of the API.
Optimal resource allocation for opportunistic spectrum access in heterogeneous MIMO cognitive radio networks
Authors: Adian M. G. , Aghaeinia H. , Norouzi Yaser 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThe optimal resource allocation in multi‐antenna multi‐band cognitive radio networks with heterogeneous secondary users (SUs) and underlay strategy is presented in this work. The heterogeneity is due to different types of secondary networks, where some of the SUs constitute an ad hoc network and access the resources (channel and power) in a distributed and competitive fashion, referred to as distributed SUs (DSUs), and others are served by a cognitive base station (CBS) and are referred to as centralised SUs (CSUs). The objectives of this work are twofold. At first, we study the joint problems of transmission time and power allocation for CSUs in uplink with the constraint of fairness. Afterwards, for the heterogeneous case with both the CSUs and DSUs, the resource allocation problem is formulated, and an iterative power water‐filling scheme is proposed to achieve the optimal resource allocation for both kinds of SUs. The simulation results illustrate the performance of the proposed scheme and its superiority over other resource allocation schemes. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Snowmelt runoff and soil moisture dynamics on steep subalpine hillslopes
Authors: Kampf Stephanie , Markus Julie , Heath Jared , Moore Cara 
Published: March 2014

AbstractSnowmelt water supplies streamflow and growing season soil moisture in mountain regions, yet pathways of snowmelt water and their effects on moisture patterns are still largely unknown. This study examined how flow processes during snowmelt runoff affected spatial patterns of soil moisture on two steep sub‐alpine hillslope transects in Rocky Mountain National Park, CO, USA. The transects have northeast‐facing and east‐facing aspects, and both extend from high‐elevation bedrock outcrops down to streams in valley bottoms. Spatial patterns of both snow depth and near‐surface soil moisture were surveyed along these transects in the snowmelt and summer seasons of 2008–2010. To link these patterns to flow processes, soil moisture was measured continuously on both transects and compared with the timing of discharge in nearby streams. Results indicate that both slopes generated shallow lateral subsurface flow during snowmelt through near‐surface soil, colluvium and bedrock fractures. On the northeast‐facing transect, this shallow subsurface flow emerged through mid‐slope seepage zones, in some cases producing saturation overland flow, whereas the east‐facing slope had no seepage zones or overland flow. At the hillslope scale, earlier snowmelt timing on the east‐facing slope led to drier average soil moisture conditions than on the northeast‐facing slope, but within hillslopes, snow patterns had little relation to soil moisture patterns except in areas with persistent snow drifts. Results suggest that lateral flow and exfiltration processes are key controls on soil moisture spatial patterns in this steep sub‐alpine location. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Structure and Reactions of Aliphatic Bridged Bifunctional Radical Ions: Exploring Fine‐Tuning in Radiation Chemistry
Authors: Feldman Vladimir I. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractBridged bifunctional molecules of general structure X(CH2)nY are useful models for investigations into the effects of intra‐ and intermolecular interactions in primary radiation‐induced processes, with a number of implications for radiation chemistry, radiobiology, and molecular electronics. This short Review presents an outline of recent studies on the structure and reactivity of aliphatic bifunctional radical ions in low‐temperature matrices using EPR spectroscopy and quantum‐chemical calculations. Both EPR data and DFT calculations for radical cations show that the delocalization of charge and spin density occurs if XY or X and Y have close electronic properties. If the difference in the ionization potentials between X and Y is large, localized radical cations are observed with ground‐state properties close to those of the corresponding monofunctional species. Nevertheless, the remote second functional group may affect the photochemistry of such radical cations at a specific bridge length, probably due to intramolecular interactions in a certain conformation. The stabilization of bridged bifunctional radical anions containing two carbonyl groups was found to be very sensitive to the local environment, which may be described in terms of a microsolvation model at the MP2 level of theory. Two independent reactions pathways with excess electrons, yielding different types of localized radical anions, were demonstrated for asymmetrical bifunctional molecules. The obtained results and their implications are discussed in terms of fine‐tuning effects in radiation‐induced chemical processes in condensed phases.
Malonyl CoA: A promising target for the treatment of cardiac disease
Authors: Fillmore Natasha , Lopaschuk Gary D. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractAlterations in cardiac energy metabolism are an important contributor to the high incidence and severity of heart disease in the world. These alterations can include an impairment of the production of ATP necessary to meet the high energy demands of the heart, as well as adverse switches in energy substrate preference by the heart. With regard to this latter point, evidence suggests that a decrease in cardiac efficiency, caused by a rise in cardiac fatty acid oxidation and/or an increase in the uncoupling of glycolysis from glucose oxidation, impairs cardiac function and is a contributing factor to cardiac disease. In support of this concept, therapeutic strategies that modulate these metabolic pathways and increase cardiac efficiency produce beneficial results in the setting of heart disease. One such strategy is to increase cardiac malonyl CoA levels, an important inhibitor of mitochondrial fatty acid uptake. This includes malonyl CoA decarboxylase (MCD) inhibition that results in increased cardiac malonyl CoA levels, decreased cardiac fatty acid oxidation rates, and improved cardiac efficiency. Preclinical studies have shown that MCD inhibition can improve cardiac function in various forms of heart disease. Here, we focus on the importance of malonyl CoA in the regulation of cardiac energy metabolism and function in the normal and diseased heart and discuss the evidence that suggests that inhibition of fatty acid oxidation especially via regulation of malonyl CoA, through MCD inhibition, is a promising strategy to treat cardiac disease. © 2014 IUBMB Life, 66(3):139–146, 2014
Direct effects of morphine but not of fentanyl‐type opioids on human 5‐HT3A receptors in outside‐out patch‐clamp studies
Authors: Schaaf T. , Lyutenska M. , Urban B.W. , Wittmann M. 
Published: March 2014

AbstractBackgroundThe alkaloid morphine is historically the oldest opiate, yet still today it has clinically important uses in analgesic therapies. The main analgesic effect of opioids, including synthetic opioids belonging to the family of 4‐anilidopiperidines, is mediated via activation of opioid receptors spread throughout the peripheral and central nervous system. However, morphine acting as a ‘dirty’ drug also exhibits effects on other receptor systems, e.g., the serotonergic system and its 5‐HT3 receptor. Therefore, this study focuses on the interaction of morphine and fentanyl‐type opioids (alfentanil, remifentanil and sufentanil) with 5‐HT3A receptors.MethodsExcised outside‐out patches from human embryonic kidney‐293 cells, stably transfected with the human 5‐HT3A receptor cDNA, were used to determine the opioid effects using the patch‐clamp technique.ResultsWithin clinical concentrations, the effects of morphine are concentration‐dependent. Morphine reduced current amplitudes, as well as activation and decay time constants. These effects were not competitive. Contrary to these results, all fentanyl‐type opioids only exerted effects far above their clinical concentration ranges. These effects were not homogenous but varying.ConclusionsMorphine is an opioid compound exhibiting special antagonistic interaction with 5‐HT3A receptors. This interaction is not shared by the newer synthetic derivatives of the fentanyl‐type opioids in the clinical relevant concentration range.
ERK3 Promotes Endothelial Cell Functions by Upregulating SRC‐3/SP1‐Mediated VEGFR2 Expression
Authors: Wang Wei , Bian Ka , Vallabhaneni Sreeram , Zhang Bin , Wu Ray‐Chang , O'Malley Bert W. , Long Weiwen 
Published: February 2014

AbstractDespite a regain of interest recently in ERK3 kinase signaling, the molecular regulations of both ERK3 gene expression and protein kinase activity are still largely unknown. While it is shown that disruption of ERK3 gene causes neonatal lethality, cell type‐specific functions of ERK3 signaling remain to be explored. In this study, we report that ERK3 gene expression is upregulated by cytokines through c‐Jun in endothelial cells; c‐Jun binds to the ERK3 gene and regulates its transcription. We further reveal a new role for ERK3 in regulating endothelial cell migration, proliferation and tube formation by upregulating SRC‐3/SP‐1‐mediated VEGFR2 expression. The underlying molecular mechanism involves ERK3‐stimulated formation of a transcriptional complex involving coactivator SRC‐3, transcription factor SP‐1 and the secondary coactivator CBP. Taken together, our study identified a molecular regulatory mechanism of ERK3 gene expression and revealed a previously unknown role of ERK3 in regulating endothelial cell functions. J. Cell. Physiol. 229: 1529–1537, 2014. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
VARIATION IN SOIL ORGANIC CARBON AND NITROGEN STOCKS ALONG A TOPOSEQUENCE IN A TRADITIONAL MEDITERRANEAN OLIVE GROVE
Authors: Lozano‐García Beatriz , Parras‐Alcántara Luis 
Published: March 2014

ABSTRACTThe impact of the topographical position on soil properties was evaluated in an olive grove with traditional tillage. Three topographical positions: summit, backslope and toeslope were chosen for evaluation. The soil samples were taken from four soil sections of 0·25 m (0–1 m). The soil organic carbon (SOC) and N content increased along the downslope direction (5·5, 6·5 and 7·1 g C kg−1 and 0·3, 0·8 and 0·9 g N kg−1 in the surface layer in the summit, backslope and toeslope respectively) as well as SOC and N stocks, considering the two first soil sections. In addition, there was movement of the most erodible textural fraction (silt). However, the total SOC stock (refer to 1 m of depth) did not vary with respect to the topographical position, but the total N stock (refer to 1 m of depth) varied significantly. These increases were due to erosion processes that occur along the toposequence, leading to organic matter transfers from the summit to the toeslope. All the stratification ratios calculated were lower than 2, indicating the low quality of the soils. Therefore, alternative management techniques that avoid soil erosion must be considered in olive grove in order to increase the soil quality and fertility. Copyright © 2014 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Plasmonic lattice solitons beyond the coupled‐mode theory
Authors: Xue Ying , Ye Fangwei , Mihalache Dumitru , Panoiu Nicolae C. , Chen Xianfeng 
Published: March 2014

AbstractThe existence and properties of plasmonic lattice solitons (PLSs) supported by periodic arrays of metallic nanowires embedded into a dielectric medium with Kerr nonlinearity are studied by solving the 3D Maxwell equations, and the conclusions are compared with the results predicted by a coupled‐mode theory analysis. It is found that these two methods predict markedly different characteristics for the optical power of PLSs and its dependence on the separation distance between adjacent nanowires. In particular, the coupled‐mode theory is found to be valid only when the distance between nanowires is larger than some characteristic length. The compensation of modal loss by a background optical gain is also studied and it is revealed that the gain coefficient required to balance the loss is much smaller than the loss parameter of the metallic components of the plasmonic array.
Syntheses of Biaxially Extended Octithiophene‐Based Conjugated Copolymers for High‐Open‐Circuit‐Voltage Photovoltaic‐Cell Applications
Authors: Wu Hung‐Chin , Lai Yi‐Cang , Chiu Yu‐Cheng , Lee Wen‐Ya , Chen Wen‐Chang 
Published: March 2014

Novel biaxially extended octithiophene (8T)‐based conjugated polymers are successfully ­synthesized using Stille coupling reactions of the branched octithiophene moiety with seleno­phene (P8TSe), thiophene (P8TT), and thieno[3,2‐b]thiophene (P8TTT). The 8T moiety can signifi­cantly lower the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level and leads to an enhanced open‐circuit voltage because of the branched conformation. The power conversion efficiencies (PCE) of the polymer/[6,6]‐phenyl‐C71‐butyric acid methyl ester PC71BM photovoltaic cells are in the range of 1.28–2.30%. In particular, the P8TTT‐based device processed from an o‐dichlorobenzene/1,8‐diiodoctane mixed solvent shows the best PCE among the studied polymers (2.81%), demonstrating that 8T‐based polymers with a low HOMO level can emerge as promising candidates for organic device applications.
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Polymers from 1‐Vinyl‐2‐(hydroxymethyl)imidazole in Water: Altering from UCST to LCST Behavior via O‐Ethylation
Authors: Meiswinkel Georg , Ritter Helmut 
Published: March 2014

1‐Vinyl‐2‐(methoxymethyl)imidazole (6), 1‐vinyl‐2‐(ethoxymethyl)imidazole (7), 1‐vinyl‐2‐(prop­oxy­methyl)imidazole (8), and 1‐vinyl‐2‐(butoxymethyl)imidazole (9) are synthesized through the etherification of 1‐vinyl‐2‐(hydroxymethylimidazole) (1) with corresponding alkyl halides (2–5). Corresponding homopolymers (10–13) are synthesized via free radical polymerization and investigated concerning their temperature‐dependent solubility in water. The homopolymer 11 shows a lower critical solution temperature (LCST) behavior with a cloud point of 23 °C. Through copolymerization of 7 with N‐vinylimidazole (14), the cloud point is varied up to 42 °C.
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Incorporation of rician noise in the analysis of biexponential transverse relaxation in cartilage using a multiple gradient echo sequence at 3 and 7 tesla
Authors: Bouhrara Mustapha , Reiter David A. , Celik Hasan , Bonny Jean‐Marie , Lukas Vanessa , Fishbein Kenneth W. , Spencer Richard G. 
Published: March 2014

PurposePrevious work has evaluated the quality of different analytic methods for extracting relaxation times from magnitude imaging data exhibiting Rician noise. However, biexponential analysis of relaxation in tissue, including cartilage, and materials is of increasing interest. We, therefore, analyzed biexponential transverse relaxation decay in the presence of Rician noise and assessed the accuracy and precision of several approaches to determining component fractions and apparent transverse relaxation times.Theory and MethodsComparisons of four different voxel‐by‐voxel fitting methods were performed using Monte Carlo simulations, and phantom and ex vivo bovine nasal cartilage (BNC) experiments. In each case, preclinical and clinical imaging field strengths of 7 Tesla (T) and 3T, respectively, and parameters, were investigated across a range of signal‐to‐noise ratios (SNR). Results were compared with Cramér‐Rao lower bound calculations.ResultsAs expected, at high SNR, all methods performed well. At lower SNR, fits explicitly incorporating the analytic form of the Rician noise maintained performance. The much more efficient correction scheme of Gudbjartsson and Patz performed almost as well in many cases. Ex vivo experiments on phantoms and BNC were consistent with simulation results.ConclusionExplicit incorporation of Rician noise greatly improves accuracy and precision in the analysis of biexponential transverse decay data. Magn Reson Med 73:352–366, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Reduction of voxel bleeding in highly accelerated parallel 1H MRSI by direct control of the spatial response function
Authors: Kirchner Thomas , Fillmer Ariane , Tsao Jeffrey , Pruessmann Klaas Paul , Henning Anke 
Published: March 2014

PurposeTo substantially improve spatial localization in magnetic resonance spectroscopic imaging (MRSI) accelerated by parallel imaging. This is important in order to make MRSI more reliable as a tool for clinical applications.MethodsThe sensitivity encoding acceleration technique with spatial overdiscretization is applied for the reconstruction of parallel MRSI. In addition, the spatial response function is optimized by minimizing its deviation from a previously chosen target function. This modified minimum‐norm sensitivity encoding‐MRSI reconstruction approach is applied in this article for in vivo pulse‐acquire MRSI of human brain at 7T with simulated acceleration factors of 2, 4, and 9 as well as actual 4‐fold accelerated MRSI.ResultsThe sidelobes of the spatial response function are significantly suppressed, which reduces far‐reaching voxel bleeding. At the same time, the major enlargement of the effective voxel size, which would be introduced by conventional k‐space apodization methods, is largely avoided. Regularization allows for a practical trade‐off between noise minimization, effective voxel size, and unaliasing. Although not aiming at increasing the nominal spatial resolution, a better spatial specificity is achieved.ConclusionSimultaneous suppression of short‐ and far‐reaching voxel bleeding in MRSI is analyzed and reconstruction of highly accelerated parallel in vivo MRSI is demonstrated. Magn Reson Med 73:469–480, 2015. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.