AIMS Conduction of vasomotor signals along the vessel coordinates the behaviour of vascular cells and is attributed to the spread of hyperpolarizations through gap junctions. Intriguingly, conducted dilations encompass larger distances than can be expected by passive electrotonic spread. Because distances are quite distinct for different dilators, we hypothesized that separate pathways with dis...

OBJECTIVES This study reports a novel transcatheter procedure for residual mitral regurgitation (MR) after MitraClip implantation using the Amplatzer Duct Occluder II (ADO II). BACKGROUND Although the MitraClip procedure is a transcatheter treatment option for patients at high surgical risk with severe MR, management of significant residual MR after MitraClip implantation is still challenging...

Adenosine kinase (AK) is a purine salvage enzyme that catalyzes the phosphorylation of adenosine to AMP. In Mycobacterium tuberculosis, AK can also catalyze the phosphorylation of the adenosine analog 2-methyladenosine (methyl-Ado), the first step in the metabolism of this compound to an active form. Purification of AK from M. tuberculosis yielded a 35-kDa protein that existed as a dimer in its...

The emergence of West Nile (WN) virus in New York and the surrounding area in 1999 prompted an increase in surveillance measures throughout the United States, including the screening of sentinel chicken flocks for antibodies. An enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) for the detection of chicken immunoglobulin M (IgM) to WN virus was developed, standardized, and characterized as a rapid and ...

An antigen capture immunoassay to detect West Nile (WN) virus antigen in infected mosquitoes and avian tissues has been developed. With this assay purified WN virus was detected at a concentration of 32 pg/0.1 ml, and antigen in infected suckling mouse brain and laboratory-infected mosquito pools could be detected when the WN virus titer was 10(2.1) to 10(3.7) PFU/0.1 ml. In a blindly coded set...

BACKGROUND To overcome the shortage of medical care delivery in the rapidly aging Japanese society, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare in 2010 started to train the nurses to be able to conduct the specified medical acts. The Japanese Nursing Association conducted the educational program to train the wound, ostomy, and continence nurses for the specified medical act of wound care. Howeve...

West Nile (WN) virus is a mosquito-borne flavivirus and human, equine, and avian neuropathogen. The virus is indigenous to Africa, Asia, Europe, and Australia, and has recently caused large epidemics in Romania, Russia, and Israel. Birds are the natural reservoir (amplifying) hosts, and WN virus is maintained in nature in a mosquito-bird-mosquito transmission cycle primarily involving Culex sp ...

In an earlier paper it was argued that two sequences, denoted by {Un} and {Wn}, constitute the sextic analogues of the well-known Lucas sequences {un} and {vn}. While a number of the properties of {Un} and {Wn} were presented, several arithmetic properties of these sequences were only mentioned in passing. In this paper we discuss the derived sequences {Dn} and {En}, where Dn = gcd(Wn − 6R n, U...

Let k be a perfect field of characteristic p > 0, Wn = Wn(k). For separated k-schemes of finite type, we explain how rigid cohomology with compact supports can be computed as the cohomology of certain de Rham-Witt complexes with coefficients. This result generalizes the classical comparison theorem of Bloch-Illusie for proper and smooth schemes. In the proof, the key step is an extension of the...

In this paper we first study the difference between Weak Normalization (WN) and Strong Normalization (SN), in the framework of first order orthogonal rewriting systems. With the help of the Erasure Lemma we establish a Pumping Lemma, yielding information about exceptional terms, defined as terms that are WN but not SN. A corollary is that if an orthogonal TRS is WN, there are no cyclic reductio...