AIMS Beta-adrenergic augmentation of Ca(2+) sparks and cardiac contractility has been functionally linked to phosphorylation-dependent dissociation of FK506 binding protein 12.6 (FKBP12.6) regulatory proteins from ryanodine receptors subtype 2 (RYR2). We used FKBP12.6 null mice to test the extent to which the dissociation of FKBP12.6 affects Ca(2+) sparks and mediates the inotropic action of is...

BACKGROUND Preventive child health care is well suited for the early detection of parenting and developmental problems. However, as far as the younger age group is concerned, there are no validated early detection instruments which cover both the child and its environment. Therefore, we have developed a broad-scope structured interview which assesses parents' concerns and their need for support...

Recently, Spark as data processing engine, gained huge popularity because of better performance in terms of the speed. Developers of Spark claim that it may outperform Hadoop MapReduce in 100 times in memory and 10 times on disk [1]. This paper outlines which innovations improved speed and how. In order to investigate improvements, I analysed technical documentation, which is available, since b...

The efficiencies of methods employed in solution of building simulation models are considered and compared by means of benchmark testing. Direct comparisons between the Simulation Problem Analysis and Research Kernel (SPARK) and the HVACSIM+ programs are presented, as are results for SPARK versus conventional and sparse matrix methods. An indirect comparison between SPARK and the IDA program is...

AIMS: β-adrenergic augmentation of Ca 2+ sparks and cardiac contractility has been functionally linked to phosphorylation–dependent dissociation of FK506 binding protein 12.6 (FKBP12.6) regulatory proteins from ryanodine receptors subtype 2 (RYR2). We used FKBP12.6 null mice to test the extent to which the dissociation of FKBP12.6 affects Ca 2+ sparks and mediates the inotropic action of isopro...

Recent research suggests that the diastolic ryanodine-receptor-mediated release of Ca(2+) (J(leak)) from the sarcoplasmic reticulum of ventricular myocytes occurs in spark and nonspark forms. Further information about the role(s) of these release manifestations is scarce, however. This study addresses whether the fraction of spark-mediated J(leak) increases due to β-adrenergic stimulation. Conf...

Building on efforts to promote a culture of innovation at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL), Central Spark is a collection of exploratory spaces and concepts designed to provide APL staff members with new means to develop creative solutions to their sponsors’ most difficult challenges. Areas associated with Central Spark are open 24/7 and encourage creative explorati...

As more and more devices connect to Internet of Things, unbounded streams of data will be generated, which have to be processed “on the fly” in order to trigger automated actions and deliver real-time services. Spark Streaming is a popular realtime stream processing framework. To make efficient use of Spark Streaming and achieve stable stream processing, it requires a careful interplay between ...

Examining calcium spark morphology and its relationship to the structure of the cardiac myocyte offers a direct means of understanding excitation-contraction coupling mechanisms. Traditional confocal line-scanning achieves excellent temporal spark resolution but at the cost of spatial information in the perpendicular dimension. To address this, we developed a methodology to identify and analyze...