BACKGROUND The elastic function of the aorta in patients with transposition of the great arteries after arterial switch operation (ASO) is suspected to be important for long-term prognosis. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty-one patients and 34 controls were studied at 3.0 Tesla with MRI. Forty-three patients (12.8±6.9 years) underwent 1-stage ASO, 8 patients (23.8±6.9 years) had prior pulmonary arter...

OBJECTIVES To evaluate incidence and results of surgical intervention for neoaortic root pathology following arterial switch operation (ASO) for transposition of the great arteries (TGA). METHODS Between April 1996 and August 2013, 12 patients underwent reoperation for neoaortic root dilatation (ARD) and/or neoaortic valve regurgitation (AR). Maximal aortic sinus and annulus diameter Z-scores...

Antisense oligonucleotides (ASOs) have the potential to discriminate between subtle RNA mismatches such as SNPs. Certain mismatches, however, allow ASOs to bind at physiological conditions and result in RNA cleavage mediated by RNase H. We showed that replacing DNA nucleotides in the gap region of an ASO with other chemical modification can improve allele selectivity. Herein, we systematically ...

Defence trees are used to represent attack and defence strategies in security scenarios; the aim in such scenarios is to select the best set of countermeasures have to be applied to stop all the vulnerabilities. To represent the preference among the possible countermeasures of a given attack, defence trees are enriched with CP-networks (CP-net for short). However, for complex trees, composing C...

G-quadruplexes (G4) are intricate RNA structures found throughout the transcriptome. Because they are associated with a variety of biological cellular mechanisms, these fascinating structural motifs are seen as potential therapeutic targets against many diseases. While screening of chemical compounds specific to G4 motifs has yielded interesting results, no single compound successfully discrimi...

The apatite-type compound Ba(5)(AsO(4))(3)Cl, penta-barium tris-[arsenate(V)] chloride, has been synthesized by ion exchange at high temperature from a synthetic sample of mimetite (Pb(5)(AsO(4))(3)Cl) with BaCO(3) as a by-product. The results of the Rietveld refinement, based on high resolution synchrotron X-ray powder diffraction data, show that the title compound crystallizes in the same str...

Community-based participatory research (CBPR) is an important approach to inform the development and implementation of HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment strategies. However, there is a paucity of literature describing CBPR from the perspective of community-based organizations (CBOs), specifically AIDS service organizations (ASO). Focusing on the perspective of the executive director (ED) from t...

Viperin is an interferon-inducible antiviral protein, responsible for antiviral response to a variety of viral infections. Here, we show that silencing viperin by antisense oligonucleotides (ASO) protects against diet-induced glucose intolerance, and yet exacerbates adipose tissue inflammation. In high-fat diet-fed mice, viperin ASO improves glucose homeostasis, reduces plasma triglyceride conc...

Background: Patients with arteriosclerosis obliterans (ASO) often have co-existing atherosclerotic diseases. The purpose of this study was to examine the clinical features of patients with ASO, including the overlap of atherosclerotic risk factors, characteristics of cardiovascular events, and clinical prognosis. Method: We enrolled 205 consecutive patients who had ankle brachial index (ABI) of...

Nonalcoholic fatty liver disease (NAFLD) is a major contributing factor to hepatic insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes. Diacylglycerol acyltransferase (Dgat), of which there are two isoforms (Dgat1 and Dgat2), catalyzes the final step in triglyceride synthesis. We evaluated the metabolic impact of pharmacological reduction of DGAT1 and -2 expression in liver and fat using antisense oligonucle...