BACKGROUND AND HYPOTHESIS Detrusor smooth muscle cells (DSMCs) of the urinary bladder are electrically connected to one another via gap junctions and form a three dimensional syncytium. DSMCs exhibit spontaneous electrical activity, including passive depolarizations and action potentials. The shapes of spontaneous action potentials (sAPs) observed from a single DSM cell can vary widely. The bio...

The importance of self-assembling peptides (SAPs) in regenerative medicine is becoming increasingly recognized. The propensity of SAPs to form nanostructured fibers is governed by multiple forces including hydrogen bonds, hydrophobic interactions and π-π aromatic interactions among side chains of the amino acids. Single residue modifications in SAP sequences can significantly affect these force...

We propose a novel approach for ICU patient risk stratification by combining the learned "topic" structure of clinical concepts (represented by UMLS codes) extracted from the unstructured nursing notes with physiologic data (from SAPS-I) for hospital mortality prediction. We used Hierarchical Dirichlet Processes (HDP), a non-parametric topic modeling technique, to automatically discover "topics...

Shock-absorbing pylons (SAPs) are components that increase prosthetic compliance and provide shock absorption during walking, running, and other high-impact activities in persons with leg amputations. This study investigated the effect of SAPs on the gaits of persons who walk with transtibial prostheses. Two gait analyses were performed on 10 subjects walking with and without an Endolite TT (Te...

Acute myocarditis is an uncommon and potentially life-threatening disease. Scoring systems are essential for predicting outcome and evaluating the therapy effect of adult patients with acute myocarditis. The aim of this study was to determine the value of the Sequential Organ Failure Assessment (SOFA), Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation IV (APACHE IV) and second Simplified Acute Phy...

BACKGROUND Our purpose was to assess the performance of general severity systems (Acute Physiology and Chronic Health Evaluation [APACHE], Simplified Acute Physiology Score [SAPS], and Mortality Probability Models [MPM]) and to compare them with the Parsonnet score to predict mortality after cardiac surgery. METHODS AND RESULTS This was a prospective observational study of 465 cardiac surgery...

Some parasympathetic ganglionic cells are located in the epicardial fat pad between the medial superior vena cava and the aortic root (SVC-Ao fat pad) of the dog. We investigated whether the ganglionic cells in the SVC-Ao fat pad control the right atrial contractile force, sinus cycle length (SCL), and atrioventricular (AV) conduction in the autonomically decentralized heart of the anesthetized...

Early and accurate differentiation between infectious and non-infectious fever is vitally important in the intensive care unit (ICU). In the present study, patients admitted to the medical ICU were screened daily from August 2008 to February 2009. Within 24 hr after the development of fever (>38.3℃), serum was collected for the measurement of the procalcitonin (PCT) and high mobility group B 1 ...

Objectives: To investigate the hypothesis that naltrexone augmentation of antipsychotics may show beneficial effects on symptoms of schizophrenia. Method: Sixty nine participants were randomized to two groups for a 12-weeks trial. Positive and negative symptoms of schizophrenia were assessed with the Scale for Assessment of Positive Symptoms (SAPS) and the Scale for Assessment of Negative Sympt...

Superabsorbent polymers (SAPs) efficiently reduce total shrinkage and cracking susceptibility of fibre reinforced mortars (FRM). This paper discusses the effects SAPs on microstructure mechanical properties FRM containing fly ash (FA) ground granulated blast-furnace slag (GGBS) during a period 180 days. Three types cement including CEM I, II/B-V III/A three SAP with different chemical compositi...