BACKGROUND/AIMS There have been reports that interatrial septal (IAS) thickness is increased in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). This study was performed to investigate whether IAS thickness determined by transthoracic echocardiography (TTE) represents the amount of left atrium (LA) structural and functional remodeling. METHODS The study population consisted of 104 consecutive patients...

In this article we enunciate and rigorously demonstrate a new lemma which, based on previously proposed theorem, proves the identifiability of leverage points in state estimation with specific reference to least absolute value (LAV) estimator. context, also propose an algorithm for point identification LAV estimators whose performance is validated by means extensive numerical simulations compar...

Fifty four sexual partners of homosexual men with the acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) were studied, of whom 32 were seropositive and 22 seronegative for human T cell lymphotropic virus type III or lymphadenopathy virus (HTLV-III/LAV) antibody, which showed that repeated exposure by anal intercourse does not necessarily lead to seroconversion. Seropositivity to HTLV-III/LAV was not as...

African horse sickness (AHS) is a hemorrhagic viral fever of horses. It is the only equine disease for which the World Organization for Animal Health has introduced specific guidelines for member countries seeking official recognition of disease-free status. Since 1997, South Africa has maintained an AHS controlled area; however, sporadic outbreaks of AHS have occurred in this area. We compared...

Vaccination of humans and animals with live attenuated organisms has proven to be an effective means of combatting some important infectious diseases. In fact, the 20th century witnessed tremendous improvements in human and animal health worldwide as a consequence of large-scale vaccination programs with live attenuated vaccines (LAVs). Here, we use the neglected zoonotic diseases brucellosis a...

Introduction. The primary trauma of spinal cord injury (SCI) results in severe damage to nervous functions. At the cellular level, SCI causes astrogliosis. Human umbilical mesenchymal stem cells (HUMSCs), isolated from Wharton's jelly of the umbilical cord, can be easily obtained. Previously, we showed that the neuroprotective effects of Lavandula angustifolia can lead to improvement in a contu...

Polymer electrolyte membranes (PEMs) for direct methanol fuel cell (DMFC) applications were prepared from a graft-copolymer (PSF-g-PSSA) consisting of a polysulfone (PSF) main chain and poly(styrene sulfonic acid) (PSSA) side chains with various average distances between side chains (Lav) and side chain lengths (Lsc). The polymers were synthesized by grafting ethyl p-styrenesulfonate (EtSS) on ...

PURPOSE To utilize Gaussian mixture model (GMM) for the quantification of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and to evaluate the combined use of multiple types of quantification. MATERIALS AND METHODS Eighty-seven patients (67 men, 20 women; age, 67.4 ± 11.0 years) who had undergone computed tomography (CT) and pulmonary function test (PFT) were included. The heterogeneity of CT att...

BACKGROUND Stress myocyte biomarkers are used prognostically in patients with cardiovascular disease. We examined associations between amino-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP), midregional pro-A-type natriuretic peptide (MR-proANP), and midregional proadrenomedullin (MR-proADM) concentrations and cardiac chamber volumes in chest pain patients without heart failure by use of com...