In this paper, an extended accumulative roll bonding (ARB) technique, called the 'Four-Layer Accumulative Roll Bonding (FL-ARB)' technique, is presented for the first time. This technique has been employed to produce ultrafine-grained commercial pure aluminum sheets with success. After three FL-ARB passes, the grain size of pure aluminum was seen to reduce to 380 nm. The bonding strength of the...

This paper introduces the DUP System, a simple framework for parallel stream processing. The DUP System enables developers to compose applications from stages written in almost any programming language and to run distributed streaming applications across all POSIXcompatible platforms. Parallel applications written with the DUP System do not suffer from many of the problems that exist in traditi...

BACKGROUND Renin-angiotensin system inhibitor and calcium channel blocker (CCB) are widely used in controlling blood pressure (BP) in patients with chronic kidney disease (CKD). We carried out a meta-analysis to compare the renoprotective effect of the combination of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) and CCB (i.e., ACEI/ARB + CCB) with ACEI/ARB...

Rapid emergence of antibiotic resistance (AR) in developing countries is posing a greater health risk and increasing the global disease burden. Lack of access to safe drinking water, poor sanitation and inadequate sewage treatment facilities in these countries are fueling the problem associated with emergence of AR. Rapid proliferation of AR mediated by treated and untreated discharges from hos...

BACKGROUND Addition of spironolactone (SPR) to angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs) might provide antiproteinuric effects beyond what is gained by either medication alone. This study was designed to assess the long-term efficacy of SPR/ARB combination in comparison with the standard ACE/ARB regimen in diabetic nephropathy. METHODS In an ope...

BACKGROUND Stage 2 hypertension often requires combination antihypertensive therapy. Ambulatory blood pressure monitoring (ABPM) is a useful tool for assessing antihypertensive drugs and their combinations. OBJECTIVE To compare the effect of a moderate dose of angiotensin receptor blocker/calcium channel blocker (ARB/CCB) combined with a diuretic versus a maximal dose of ARB with a diuretic o...

BACKGROUND Statins and angiotensin receptor blockers (ARBs) are known to improve vascular dysfunction in patients with chronic kidney disease. However, these effects have been inconsistent in dialysis patients. Moreover, it is currently unknown whether adding statins to ARBs improves vascular dysfunction better than ARB monotherapy in these patients. METHODS We conducted a prospective open ra...

OBJECTIVE We examined factors associated with screening for albuminuria and initiation of ACE inhibitor or angiotensin receptor blocker (ARB) treatment in diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS We conducted surveys and medical record reviews for 5,378 patients participating in a study of diabetes care in managed care at baseline (2000-2001) and follow-up (2002-2003). Factors associate...

PUPOSE Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with increased risk of thromboembolism, and is also a predisposing factor to dementia. Our investigation was a retrospective observational study to evaluate whether the usage of angiotensin-converting-enzyme inhibitor (ACEI) or angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) could reduce the incidence of dementia in patients with AF. METHODS A total of 5221...

We tested the hypothesis that olmesartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker (ARB) devoid of peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ agonist activity, would improve whole-body insulin sensitivity in overweight and obese individuals with elevated blood pressure (BP). Sixteen individuals (8 women, 8 men; age=49.5 ± 2.9 years; body mass index=33.0 ± 1.7 kg/m2) were randomly assigned in a cros...