Stretch induces immediate and delayed inotropic effects in mammalian myocardium via distinct mechanosensitive pathways, but these effects are poorly characterized in human cardiac muscle. We tested the effects of stretch on immediate and delayed force response in failing human myocardium. Experiments were performed in muscle strips from 52 failing human hearts (37 degrees C, 1 Hz, bicarbonate b...

We analyse Spitzer images of 30 long-duration gamma-ray burst (GRB) host galaxies. We estimate their total stellar masses (M⋆) based on the rest-frame K-band luminosities and constrain their unobscured star-formation rates (SFR) based on the rest-frame UV continuua. Further, we compute a mean M⋆/LKrest = 0.45M⊙/L⊙. We find that the hosts are low M⋆, star-forming systems. The median M⋆ in our sa...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study is to determine if body mass index (BMI) and stone skin distance (SSD) affect stone free rate (SFR) in obese and morbid obese patients who underwent flexible URS for proximal ureteral or renal stones < 20 mm. MATERIALS AND METHODS A retrospective chart review was performed of consecutive patients that underwent flexible URS. Inclusion criteria were: proximal ...

Footrot is an infectious bacterial disease of sheep that causes lameness. The causal agent is Dichelobacter nodosus. There is debate regarding the role of Fusobacterium necrophorum in disease initiation. This research used an observational longitudinal study of footrot, together with quantitative PCR (qPCR) of bacterial load of D. nodosus and F. necrophorum, to elucidate the roles of each speci...

Star formation rate (SFR) distributions of galaxies are often assumed to be bimodal with modes corresponding to star-forming and quiescent galaxies, respectively. Both classes of galaxies are typically studied separately, and SFR distributions of star-forming galaxies are commonly modelled as lognormals. Using both observational data and results from numerical simulations, I argue that this div...

Myocardial stretch induces a biphasic force response: a first abrupt increase followed by a slow force response (SFR), believed to be the in vitro manifestation of the Anrep effect. The SFR is due to an increase in Ca²⁺ transient of unclear mechanism. We proposed that Na⁺/H⁺ exchanger (NHE-1) activation is a key factor in determining the contractile response, but recent reports challenged our f...

Context. Measuring star formation at a local scale is important to constrain star formation laws. Yet, it is not clear whether and how the measure of star formation is affected by the spatial scale at which a galaxy is observed. Aims. We want to understand the impact of the resolution on the determination of the spatially resolved star formation rate (SFR) and other directly associated physical...

OBJECTIVE To assess the safety, efficacy, and stone-free rate (SFR) of mini-percutaneous nephrolithotomy (mini-PCNL) and retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS) for the management of lower calyceal stones of ⩽2 cm, and to determine the advantages and disadvantages of each. PATIENTS AND METHODS In all, 120 patients with lower calyceal stones of ⩽2 cm were randomly divided into two equal groups: G...

BACKGROUND To establish and internally validate an innovative R.I.R.S. scoring system that allows urologists to preoperatively estimate the stone-free rate (SFR) after retrograde intrarenal surgery (RIRS). METHODS This study included 382 eligible samples from a total 573 patients who underwent RIRS from January 2014 to December 2016. Four reproducible factors in the R.I.R.S. scoring system, i...

MOTIVATION Alcoholic fatty liver disease (AFLD) and non-AFLD (NAFLD) can progress to severe liver diseases such as steatohepatitis, cirrhosis and cancer. Thus, the detection of early liver disease is essential; however, minimal invasive diagnostic methods in clinical hepatology still lack specificity. RESULTS Ion molecule reaction mass spectrometry (IMR-MS) was applied to a total of 126 human...