OBJECTIVE Galectin-3 (Gal-3) is considered as a myocardial fibrosis biomarker with prognostic value in heart failure (HF). Since aldosterone is a neurohormone with established fibrotic properties, we aimed to investigate if mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) would modulate the prognostic value of Gal-3. METHODS The IBLOMAVED cohort comprised 427 eligible chronic HF patients (CHF) w...

BACKGROUND/AIM Steroidal mineralocorticoid receptor antagonists (MRAs) are effective in the treatment of kidney disease; however, the side effect of hyperkalaemia, particularly in the context of renal impairment, is a major limitation to their clinical use. Recently developed non-steroidal MRAs have distinct characteristics suggesting that they may be superior to steroidal MRAs. Therefore, we e...

Acute heart failure syndromes (AHFS) are a heterogeneous group of commonly encountered and difficult to manage clinical syndromes associated with high morbidity and mortality. Dyspnoea, pulmonary, and systemic congestion often characterize AHFS due to acutely elevated intracardiac filling pressures and fluid overload. Diuresis, respiratory support, vasodilator therapy, and gradual attenuation o...

Generally, there exist voltage differences between the voltage commands and the output voltages of the three-phase pulse-width modulated (PWM) voltage-source inverter (VSI), which are caused by the intended dead-time to prevent the armshort of a leg and the nonlinearities of switching devices. These voltage differences (or voltage distortion) affect the current distortion, torque pulsations, an...

Title of dissertation: RANDOMIZED SEARCH METHODS FOR SOLVING MARKOV DECISION PROCESSES AND GLOBAL OPTIMIZATION Jiaqiao Hu, Doctor of Philosophy, 2006 Dissertation directed by: Professor Steven I. Marcus Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering Professor Michael C. Fu Department of Decision and Information Technology Markov decision process (MDP) models provide a unified framework for m...

a mobile manipulator robot is known as a complex system due to some properties such as coupling between the manipulator and mobile chassis, holonomic and nonholonomic constraints, multivariable and nonlinear dynamics. the control of robot faces the external disturbance, parametric uncertainty and unmodeled dynamics. therefore, the use of an adaptive fuzzy system is suggested for its capability ...

Breast cancer is classified into different subtypes that are associated with different patient survival outcomes, underscoring the importance of understanding the role of precursor cell and genetic alterations in determining tumor subtypes. In this study, we evaluated the oncogenic phenotype of two distinct mammary stem/progenitor cell types designated as K5+/K19- or K5+/K19+ upon introduction ...

Despite the availability of anti-hypertensive medications with increasing efficacy up to 50% of hypertensive patients have blood pressure levels (BP) not at the goals set by international societies. Some of these patients are either not optimally treated or are non-adherent to the prescribed drugs. However, a proportion, despite adequate treatment, have resistant hypertension (RH), which repres...