Nicolet (Czechia)

Alteration of the support structure via milling is afeasible yetrarely applied strategy for boosting the performance of the catalystin dry methane reforming for syngas production. In this study, weintroduce stable oxygen vacancies in the zirconia structure, whichenhance the activation of the feedstock, specifically CO2, while preserving the specific surface area and porosity of thematerial under reaction conditions. The activity of the tested Ni/ZrO2 assemblies shows a clear dependence on the milling intensityof ZrO2, with mild milling at 400 rpm yielding the mostactive catalyst. At 600 °C, this material achieved the highestfeedstock conversion among the tested samples, with 29% for CH4 and 39% for CO2. Spectroscopic characterizationindicates that the activity of the tested catalysts is controlledby a partial change in the phase composition of the support from monoclinicto tetragonal under reaction conditions, as well as the nature andpopulation of O2– species, oxygen vacancies,Zr3+ defects, and Ni–ZrO2 interfacialinteractions.

Background: Endovascular therapy (EVT ) is the only available reperfusion treatment in acute ischemic patients on prior oral anticoagulants (OACs). We evaluated the practice patterns, safety, and outcomes of EVT in patients on OAC therapy. Methods: From 2010 to 2019, 84,346 ischemic stroke patients presenting within 24 hours of symptoms across 107hospitals were enrolled in the Florida Stroke Registry, of which 5,702 received EVT. We collected data on demographics, past history, medications, NIHSS, symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH), discharge destination and hospital characteristics and used multivariable-adjusted logistic regression models to identify differences in outcome based on anticoagulation status. Results: Among all EVT patients (mean age 71±15 years, 48% women), 969 (17%) were treated with OAC. Compared to those not on OACs, anticoagulated patients were older (mean age 75.5±12.8 vs 70.0 ±14.9 years), more women (56% vs 50%), Hispanics (25% vs 20%), Medicare patients (44% vs 34%) and more likely to have atrial fibrillation (78.5% vs 27%), present earlier to the hospital (101 min vs 122 min) with similar clinical severity (median NIHSS 16 vs 15). There was no significant difference in length of stay 0-6 days (OAC 45.7% vs 46.8%), mRS 0-2 (OAC 23.9% vs 30.9%), independent ambulation (OAC 31.1% vs 38.3%), sICH (OAC 6.1% vs 5.4%), life-threatening or serious hemorrhage (OAC 0.4% vs 0.8%) or mortality (OAC 9.8% vs 9.8%) between the two groups. After multivariate adjustment, EVT patients on OACs were less likely to be discharged home compared to patients not on OACs (OR 0.18, 95% CI 0.05-0.31). Conclusion: In this large, multi-center study, EVT for patients with acute ischemic stroke on oral anticoagulation therapy did not result in higher rates of sICH, life threatening hemorrhage or death, though these patients are less likely to be discharged directly home.

Background: Oral anticoagulants (OACs) for stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation (AF) are largely underutilized. We identified pre-admission OAC utilization patterns and factors predictive of OAC non-use in patients hospitalized for AF-related stroke. Methods: We included 22,220 patients with ischemic stroke due to previously diagnosed AF enrolled in the Florida Stroke Registry from 2010-2017. A multivariable-adjusted logistic regression model was used to identify factors associated with pre-stroke OAC use for patients with AF-related stroke. Results: A total of 16,246 (73%) patients with AF-related stroke were not on OAC pre-stroke. Compared to patients on OAC, non-OAC patients were more likely to be ≥80 years old, have Medicaid/no insurance, lower CHA 2 DS 2 -VASc scores and greater stroke severity at presentation. After adjustment for age, sex, race-ethnicity, insurance status and vascular risk factors, baseline OAC non-use was higher for patients with Medicaid/no insurance (vs. private insurance, (OR 1.34 [95% CI 1.08-1.67]), smokers (OR 1.29 [1.09-1.52] and patients with NIHSS ≥6 (vs. NIHSS≤5, OR 1.18 [1.11-1.26]). A trend towards greater odds of OAC non-use was seen in women (vs. men, OR 1.07 [0.99-1.14, P=0.07]). Conclusion: The majority of AF-related stroke patients with known AF were not anticoagulated prior to hospitalization for stroke in our study. Insurance status and smoking status had the greatest influence on pre-stroke OAC use. Anticoagulated patients had lower stroke severity on admission. Further efforts are needed to increase OAC use to reduce the burden of stroke for patients with AF, especially for vulnerable populations.

Introduction: Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) affects approximately 2 million individuals per year. Incidence of ICH is roughly equal in men and women, but few studies have examined the influence of sex on long-term outcomes after ICH and secondary injury. Previous studies have shown that women in the post-partum period and post-menopausal women are especially susceptible to poor functional outcomes after ICH. Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) promote vessel rupture during ICH and may lead to poorer outcomes in female patients due to blood-brain barrier breakdown. We hypothesized that MMP isoform levels would be predictive of injury severity, secondary injury and long-term functional outcomes after ICH in males and females. Methods and Results: Patients from our prospectively collected ICH database were included. We included patients with deep hypertensive ICH, and excluded secondary ICH. Baseline clinical, radiographic and laboratory data were collected. Neurologic deterioration was defined as increase in NIHSS score and/or reduction in GCS score. Functional outcomes were assessed by modified Rankin Scale (mRS) and EuroQol at 90 DPI. Discharge disposition was recorded. With a total of 55 patients (n = 39 male, 16 female) we demonstrated a significantly higher risk of IVH (p = 0.012) and neurologic deterioration (p = 0.005) in females compared to males. We found that MMP levels in serum reliably predict injury severity in males, and secondary injury in females. Using multiplex ELISA we demonstrated that serum MMP-2 levels are negatively correlated with IVH severity (p = 0.028) in females. Additionally, serum levels of MMP-3 (p= 0.011) in males and MMP-10 (p= 0.044) in females predicted long-term functional outcomes in a sex-specific manner. Conclusion: Our work demonstrates the importance of studying sex-specific factors in ICH outcomes. We have found that there is a potential use of serum MMP expression as a sex-specific diagnostic tool for physicians treating patients after ICH. To our knowledge, this is the first sex-specific study to examine serum MMP levels and their correlation with clinicoradiologic measures after ICH. Further research to confirm these findings is necessary.

BACKGROUND MRI DWI abnormalities have been reported in 22-35% of patients with intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH). The mechanism underlying these changes is unknown. The timing of development of DWI changes has not been well described. We evaluated the time at which DWI changes occurred in a prospective database of patients with spontaneous ICH in the Safety of Pioglitazone for Hematoma Resolution In Intracerebral Hemorrhage trial (SHRINC). We also sought to examine if clinical features might predict the time at which DWI changes occurred. METHODS SHRINC is an ongoing prospective, randomized study evaluating the safety of pioglitazone versus placebo in patients with ICH. Patients undergo serial MRI on Day (D)1, D2, D7/14, D28, and D42. We captured the occurrence of DWI lesions on MRI and categorized patients into 4 groups according to the time of onset of DWI lesions: observed on admission (hyperacute), D2 (acute), D7 or 14 (subacute) or >28 days (chronic). Patients were excluded if they did not have an MRI for comparison on the selected days. Baseline characteristics were collected prospectively on admission and compared between groups. RESULTS: Thirty patients had complete imaging; 17 (56.67%) had DWI abnormalities in total. Characteristics are included in Table 1. Seven patients (23.33%) had DWI abnormalities remote from the ICH. There were no differences in the baseline characteristics between the groups except INR was significantly lower in the hyperacute group compared to the chronic group (p<0.05). CONCLUSION: Our data demonstrate that DWI lesions are more frequently seen at the time of initial ICH. The occurrence of DWI lesions at later time points suggests there may be different mechanisms accounting for these changes. Our study is limited by the small sample size and blinded nature of treatment allocation. Further study is needed to understand the underlying mechanisms of these DWI changes and their clinical relevance.

The renin inhibitor aliskiren (ALK) reduces blood pressure and improves cardio-renal organ damage in hypertensive double transgenic rats (dTGRs) which express both human renin and angiotensinogen. Little is known about the effect of ALK on hypertension-related vascular structural alterations of resistance arteries. We tested the hypothesis that chronic treatment with ALK improves vascular remodeling of resistance arteriesin in dTGR. dTGRs (5 weeks old) were treated with ALK (3 mg/kg/day, n=5) or ramipril (RAM, 1 mg/kg/day, n=5) for 14 days and compared with age-matched untreated dTGRs. Blood pressure (BP) was measured by tail-cuff method. Resistance arteries media-to-lumen ratio (M/L) was evaluated on mesenteric arteries as pressurized preparations. The expression of AT1 receptor, AT2 receptor, eNOS and the NADPH subunit gp91phox was evaluated in aorta by immunoblotting. The reactive oxygen species (ROS) production was evaluated in aorta by Dihydroethidium (DHE) staining. BP was similarly reduced in both ALK-treated and RAM-treated rats compared to untreated dTGRs (167±1.18 mmHg and 169.4±1.5 mmHg vs 196.8 ±3.9 mmHg, respectively P<0.05; reduction of -15% and -14%; P<0.05). M/L was equally reduced in ALK-treated and RAM-treated rats compared to untreated rats (6.3±0.5 % and 6.4±0.2 % vs 9.8±.04%, respectively; P<0.05). AT1 and AT2 receptor expression was similar in all the groups. eNOS expression was increased only in ALK-treated rats (+41.3±6.3 % vs untreated dTGRs, p<0.05). gp91phox was slightly reduced in both ALK-and RAM-treated dTGRs. Both ALK and RAM similarly reduced ROS production in dTGRs compared to untreated rats (14.7±0.2 AU and 13.9±0.3 AU vs 18.1±0.9 AU, respectively; p<0.05). In conclusion equieffective antihypertensive dose of ALK or RAM improved oxidative stress and reduced M/L of mesenteric arteries. Only ALK increased the eNOS bioavailability. Hence, in dTGRs renin inhibition compares favorably to ACE inhibition in improving vascular remodeling.

Le monde rural ne doit pas voir son

Abstract A new software package, ANAQUANT, was specifically designed for a long-term approach to the quantitation of compounds In biological products. Its functionality and validity were tested by measuring fat and protein contents In liquid cow's milk using Fourier transform Infrared spectrometry and a handcrafted transmission flow cell. Calibration and validation standard deviations were 0.2484 and 0.3987 g/kg, respectively, for the prediction of proteins, and 0.3163 and 0.4222 g/L, respectively, for the prediction of butterfat. One month elapsed between calibration of the Instrument and the validation study. Results are consistent with those proposed in the literature.

We describe a new, automatic signal-processing method (ADEMG) for extracting motor-unit action potentials (MUAP's) from the electromyographic interference pattern for clinical diagnostic purposes. The method employs digital filtering to select the spike components of the MUAP's from the background activity, identifies the spikes by template matching, averages the MUAP waveforms from the raw signal using the identified spikes as triggers, and measures their amplitudes, durations, rise rates, numbers of phases, and firing rates. Efficient new algorithms are used to align and compare spikes and to eliminate interference from the MUAP averages. In a typical 10-s signal recorded from the biceps brachii muscle using a needle electrode during a 20 percent-maximal isometric contraction, the method identifies 8-15 simultaneously active MUAP's and detects 30-70 percent of their occurrences. The analysis time is 90 s on a PDP-11/34A.

Fourier transform infra–red photoacoustic spectroscopy can be used to obtain high–quality infra–red spectra of textile samples with the minimum of sample preparation. For a wool/polyester blend, the spectrum of the polyester was obtained by subtracting the spectrum of wool from that of the mixture. The resulting spectrum closely resembles that of the polyester. For a wool/nylon blend, the spectrum of the mixture obtained by adding the spectrum of wool to that of nylon was shown to be very similar to that of the actual wool/nylon blend. By quantifying the addition and subtraction processes it should be possible to analyse such binary mixtures quantitatively. A three–component blend of wool, nylon and viscose rayon was also examined and the spectral subtraction process was found to be of value in identifying the components.