Ba(2+), a doubly charged analogue of K(+), specifically blocks K(+) channels by virtue of electrostatic stabilization in the permeation pathway. Ba(2+) block is used here as a tool to determine the equilibrium binding affinity for various monovalent cations at specific sites in the selectivity filter of a noninactivating mutant of KcsA. At high concentrations of external K(+), the block-time di...

In 30 consecutive hyperthyroid patients with diffuse goitre divided dose therapy with carbimazole 40 mg and triiodothyronine 80 mug daily was shown to produce total or subtotal block in thyroid hormonogenesis. Once produced, this block could be invariably maintained with an equivalent single daily dose for periods up to three years. Its notable acceptability to patients, a more stable degree of...

This special issue focuses on single carrier block modulation (SC-BM) with frequency domain processing. This class of modulation and multiple access schemes complements the orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) and its variations. For example, LTE (the long term evolution of the 3GPP standard), and LTE-Advanced, employ OFDMA in the downlink (base stations to mobiles) and SC-FDMA...

One-tap frequency-domain equalization (FDE) based on the minimum mean square error (MMSE) criterion can significantly improve the bit error rate (BER) performance of single-carrier (SC) transmission in a frequency-selective fading channel. However, a big performance gap from the theoretical lower bound still exists due to the presence of residual inter-symbol interference (ISI) after MMSE-FDE. ...

The kinetics of 9-aminoacridine (9-AA) block of single Na channels in neuroblastoma N1E-115 cells were studied using the gigohm seal, patch clamp technique, under the condition in which the Na current inactivation had been eliminated by treatment with N-bromoacetamide (NBA). Following NBA treatment, the current flowing through individual Na channels was manifested by square-wave open events las...

Mexiletine as the first choice drug in myotonia treatment is a chiral sodium channel blocker clinically used in its racemic form. The phenolic structure of this drug, prompted us to design its novel calix[4]arene-based cluster in a chalice-shaped structure. Therefore, the present study reports the synthesis and in-vitro anti-myotonic activity of the chalice-shaped cluster of mexiletine...

Recent hardware technologies have enabled acquisition of 3D point clouds from real world scenes in real time. A variety of interactive applications with the 3D world can be developed on top of this new technological scenario. However, a main problem that still remains is that most processing techniques for such 3D point clouds are computationally intensive, requiring optimized approaches to han...

In this paper the low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes are considered applied to correction of error bursts. Errors grouping and forming of so-called bursts are typical effect in real communication and data storage systems, however, this effect is typically ignored, and the coding task is reduced to correction of independent errors, which makes the practical characteristics of coding systems w...

Background and aim: Antimonial compounds are regarded as the treatment of choice for cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL). Systemic administration of these drugs have some side effects such as cardiotoxicity. The objective of this study was to evaluate the electrocardiographic (ECG) changes in patients with CL treated with systemic Glucantime.Materials and methods: This study w...