BACKGROUND Prostasin, a serine protease, is suggested to be a novel mechanism regulating the epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) expressed in the distal nephron. This study aimed to evaluate whether the human prostasin gene is a novel candidate gene underlying blood pressure (BP) elevation. METHODS In a sample of healthy African-American (AA) and European-American (EA) twin subjects aged 17.6 +/...

Acute aortic syndrome (AAS) is a term used to describe a constellation of life-threatening aortic diseases that have similar presentation, but appear to have distinct demographic, clinical, pathological and survival characteristics. Many believe that the three major entities that comprise AAS: aortic dissection (AD), intramural hematoma (IMH) and penetrating aortic ulcer (PAU), make up a spectr...

Architects and involved stakeholders constantly make Architectural Assumptions (AAs) in architecture design. These assumptions, as an important part of architectural knowledge, need to be well managed in the whole architecting lifecycle. However, they are always retained in the heads of various stakeholders and left undocumented, which results in architectural knowledge vaporization, especially...

OBJECTIVE To study the efficiency of a stiff collar in restricting the instability of anterior atlantoaxial subluxation (AAS). METHODS Twenty two successive patients with an unstable AAS were studied. Lateral view radiographs were taken of the cervical spine in flexion, extension, and neutral positions without a collar, and in full flexion with a custom made stiff collar. RESULTS The collar...

In this work it is shown that 20 canonical amino acids (AAs) within genetic code appear to be a whole system with strict AAs positions; more exactly, with AAs ordinal number in three variants; first variant 00-19, second 00-21 and third 00-20. The ordinal number follows from the positions of belonging codons, i.e. their digrams (or “doublets”). The reading itself is a reading in quaternary numb...

Anabolic-androgenic steroids (AAS) are used as ergogenic aids by athletes and non-athletes to enhance performance by augmenting muscular development and strength. AAS administration is often associated with various adverse effects that are generally dose related. High and multi-doses of AAS used for athletic enhancement can lead to serious and irreversible organ damage. Among the most common ad...

Previous research has suggested that Asian Americans (AAs) are less likely to mobilize social support, and find support to be less helpful, when compared with European Americans (EAs). In a 10-day daily diary study of AA and EA college students, we hypothesized that AAs would activate support less frequently than EAs for both stressful and positive events, a cultural difference that would be me...

The significant difference in water-to-binder ratio, activator type and concentration between alkali-activated slag (AAS) paste/mortar/concrete AAS-based cemented paste backfill (AAS-CPB) means that previous results related to the properties mix optimization of AAS materials cannot be directly translated AAS-CPB. This study statistically identifies effect key influential variables such as silic...

Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD) is a kind of chronic inflammation, which has increasing incidence and prevalence in recent years. IBD mainly divides into Crohn's disease (CD) and ulcerative colitis (UC). It is hard to cure IBD completely, and novel therapies are urgently needed. Amino acids (AAs) and their metabolites are regarded as important nutrients for humans and animals and also play an ...