BACKGROUND Carotid artery atherosclerosis is an important risk factor for stroke. As such, quantitative imaging of carotid artery calcification, as a proxy of atherosclerosis, has become a cornerstone of current stroke research. Yet, population-based data comparing the computed tomography (CT) and cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) for the detection and quantification of calcification rema...

OBJECTIVE The drug warfarin blocks carboxylation of vitamin K-dependent proteins and acts as an anticoagulant and an accelerant of vascular calcification. The calcification inhibitor MGP (matrix Gla [carboxyglutamic acid] protein), produced by vascular smooth muscle cells (VSMCs), is a key target of warfarin action in promoting calcification; however, it remains unclear whether proteins in the ...

the present study was conducted to provide a detailed descriptive osteology of barbus cyri from southern caspian sea for the first time and comparing it with those of b. lacerta from the tigris and urmia lake basins. for this purpose, twelve specimens of b. cyri were collected from safidrud river using electrofishing device and fixed in 10% buffered formalin. then, the specimens were cleared an...

Skeleton can be viewed as a compact shape representation in that the shape can be completely reconstructed form the skeleton. We present a novel method for skeleton pruning that is based on this fundamental skeleton property. We iteratively remove skeleton end braches with smallest relevance for shape reconstruction. The relevance of branches is measured as their contribution to shape reconstru...

this paper studies the semantic contribution of –e suffix based on lieber (2004). this theory using seven semantic features and a principle called coindexation principle studies the semantic contribution of lexical items and their function in compounding, derivation and conversion. in this theory each lexical item even affixes have a semantic skeleton and a semantic body. each affix has to have...

BACKGROUND As the oceans simultaneously warm, acidify and increase in P(CO2), prospects for marine biota are of concern. Calcifying species may find it difficult to produce their skeleton because ocean acidification decreases calcium carbonate saturation and accompanying hypercapnia suppresses metabolism. However, this may be buffered by enhanced growth and metabolism due to warming. METHODOL...

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Mitral annular calcification (MAC) is known to be associated with degenerative processes of the cardiac fibrous skeleton and cardiovascular disease mortality. However, MAC has not been evaluated in an extreme age group (patients >/=90 years of age). In this study, the clinical significance of MAC associated with aging was examined in this age group and compared with MA...

Skeleton extraction is a very challenging subject, and has an important application value. Because of the ambiguity and complexity of cerebrovascular image, the skeleton gained by conventional skeleton algorithms is discontinuous. This paper proposes a cerebrovascular image skeleton extraction algorithm based on topological nodes. This algorithm first determines the important topological nodes ...

Vascular calcification is common in ESRD patients and is important in increasing mortality from cardiovascular complications in these patients. Hyperphosphatemia related to chronic kidney disease is increasingly known as major stimulus for vascular calcification. Hyperphosphatemia and vascular calcification become popular discussion among nephrologist environment more than five decades, and man...