OBJECTIVE To determine whether I(Na) and I(CaL) are altered in function/density in right atrial (RA) cells from dogs with chronic atrial fibrillation (cAF dogs, episodes lasting at least 6 days) and whether the changes that occur differ from those in dogs with nonsustained or brief episodes of fibrillation (nAF dogs). METHODS Using whole cell voltage clamp, sodium and calcium current density ...

OBJECTIVE Our goal was to study rate adaptation of atrial action potentials in non-steady and steady states to further our understanding of mechanisms determining inducibility and stability of atrial fibrillation. METHODS We used standard microelectrode techniques to examine the characteristics of steady-state action potentials paced at regular cycle lengths (CL) and of nonsteady-state action...

PURPOSE To evaluate the transscleral delivery of fluoresceinated dextrans (FITC-D) with molecular mass up to 70 kDa to the rabbit posterior segment using sub-Tenon injections. METHODS Eighteen NZW rabbits received a unilateral 200-μL injection of 2 mg/mL sodium fluorescein (NaF), 25 mg/mL 40-kDa FITC-D, or 25 mg/mL 70-kDa FITC-D, with (n = 9) or without (n = 9) immediate euthanatization. In l...

OBJECTIVE To study the effects of selenium and zinc on oxidative stress, apoptosis, and cell cycle changes in rat renal cells induced by fluoride. METHODS Wistar rats were given distilled water containing sodium fluoride (50 mg/L NaF) and were gavaged with different doses of selenium-zinc preparation for six months. Four groups were used and each group had eight animals (four males and four f...

The chemistry of 2-oxo-1,2,3,4-tetrahydropyrimidines began to develop toward the end of 1893 year, when the first representatives of this class compounds were reported by P. Biginelli. Despite prior reports of several really effective catalytic and non-catalytic approaches towards Biginelli-type products, an overwhelming number of new catalysts for the Biginelli reaction have been recently publ...

Nipple aspirate fluid (NAF) has been used for many years as a potential non-invasive method to identify markers for breast cancer risk or early detection. Because individual markers have not been optimal, we are exploring the use of surface enhanced laser desorption and ionization time of flight (SELDI-TOF) mass spectrometry to identify patterns of proteins that might define a proteomic signatu...

Scalar multiplication is an important operation in elliptic curve cryptosystems(ECC). The algorithms for computing scalar multiplication are mostly based on the binary expansions of scalars, such as the non-adjacent form (NAF) and wNAF(sliding window method). Representing scalars using more bases can speed up the scalar multiplication, such as mbNAF, wmbNAF and extended wmbNAF, which was propos...

We deene a new logic language with negation by introducing existential and universal quantiiers in the queries. We call ??general programs and ??general goals the programs and the goals in this language. Negation is handled by using two rules: the NAF rule for universally quantiied negative queries and the NAI rule for existentially quantiied negative queries. We formalize this amalgamation in ...

Model-free reinforcement learning has been successfully applied to a range of challenging problems, and has recently been extended to handle large neural network policies and value functions. However, the sample complexity of modelfree algorithms, particularly when using highdimensional function approximators, tends to limit their applicability to physical systems. In this paper, we explore alg...