To analyze the effects of decellularization on the biomechanical properties of porcine common carotid arteries, decellularization was performed by a detergent-enzymatic procedure that preserves extracellular matrix scaffold. Internal diameter, external diameter, and wall thickness were measured by optical microscopy on neighboring histological sections before and after decellularization. Ruptur...

The clinical role of collateral vessels was evaluated during transient coronary occlusion by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty in 22 patients with (8) and without (14) collateral vessels. Coronary occlusion pressure, the ratio of mean coronary occlusion pressure to mean aortic pressure and myocardial perfusion pressure at 40 s of balloon inflation were significantly higher in patie...

Enhanced external counterpulsation (EECP) is a noninvasive technique that provides beneficial effects for patients with chronic, symptomatic angina pectoris. However, the direct left ventricular effects of EECP have not been studied invasively. We examined invasive right atrial pressure and left ventricular hemodynamics during EECP. Ten patients referred for diagnostic evaluation underwent left...

RATIONALE The importance of applying high-frequency oscillatory ventilation with a high lung volume strategy in infants is well established. Currently, a lack of reliable methods for assessing lung volume limits clinicians' ability to achieve the optimum volume range. OBJECTIVES To map the pressure-volume relationship of the lung during high-frequency oscillatory ventilation in infants, to de...

BACKGROUND Many infants born at less than 34 weeks of gestational age will require resuscitation in the delivery suite. Yet, different resuscitation techniques are specified in different national guidelines, likely reflecting a limited evidence base. One difference is the length of mechanical inflation initially delivered to infants either via a facemask or endotracheal tube. Some guidelines sp...

We point out that, if quantum field renormalization is taken into account and the counterterms are evaluated at the Hubble-radius crossing time or few e-foldings after it, the predictions of slow-roll inflation for both the scalar and the tensorial power spectrum change significantly. This leads to a change in the consistency condition that relates the tensor-to-scalar amplitude ratio with spec...

Spacetime singularities have been discovered which are physically much weaker than those predicted by the classical singularity theorems. Geodesics evolve through them and they only display infinities in the derivatives of their curvature invariants. So far, these singularities have appeared to require rather exotic and unphysical matter for their occurrence. Here we show that a large class of ...

The essential reason that a 100-percent-reserve gold standard should be the ultimate goal of monetary reform is that it would secure the economic system against the evils both of inflation and of deflation–depression. In addition, it would be consistent with the fundamental moral–political principle of the absence of the initiation of physical force and thus the positive presence of individual ...

We perform a numerical investigation of the fields evolution in the supersymmetric inflationary model based on radiative corrections. Supergravity corrections are also included. We find that, out of all the examined initial data, only about 10% give an adequate amount of inflation and can be considered as ”natural”. Moreover, these successful initial conditions appear scattered and more or less...

Our major conclusions are as follows: (1) If inflation rates remain high, then the yield curve will tend to slope upward more steeply than in the past (or slope downward less steeply when the yield curve is inverted). (2) This yield curve situation will lead firms to shorten the average maturities of their liabilities, even though this will expose them to greater risks of earnings fluctuations ...