BACKGROUND Recent studies suggested that there are marked systematic differences among BNP immunoassays. In this study we compared the BNP data and clinical results obtained with different immunoassays, including a new method (ST-AIA-PACK, TOSOH Corporation). METHODS BNP was measured on plasma-EDTA samples of healthy subjects (HS, n=126) and patients with heart failure (HF, n=31 NYHA I, II; n...

OBJECTIVE The concept of therapeutic angiogenesis with vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) has been validated in peripheral arterial disease. Its use in myocardial ischemia may be delayed as the result of the description in a porcine model of peripheral vasodilation after intraluminal injections of VEGF resulting in a 50% fatality rate by hypotension. We carried out this study to test whe...

OBJECTIVE CF101, an A3 adenosine receptor (A3AR) agonist, is a small orally bioavailable molecule known to suppress in vitro the production of tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-alpha). We evaluated its therapeutic potential and antiinflammatory effects in 3 murine models of adjuvant induced arthritis (AIA). METHODS The antiinflammatory effect of CF101 was examined in rat AIA, in mouse collagen...

There is evidence to suggest that the gas-water interface serves as an important retention domain for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in vadose-zone soil. Moreover, vapor adsorption at the gas-water interface may represent the dominant retention mechanism under certain conditions. In general, vapor-phase interfacial adsorption is most significant for low organic matter soils at intermediate w...

This experiment aimed at evaluating the effects of including the enzyme, β-mannanase, in dog (Canis lupus familiaris) diets based on either poultry (Gallus gallus domesticus) by-product meal (PBM) or soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.] Meal (SBM). The second objective was to evaluate 3 methods for determining energy and nutrient digestibility values in diets fed to dogs: total fecal collection (TF...

Following inflammation, primary sensory neurons in the dorsal root ganglion (DRG) alter the production of several proteins. Most DRG neurons are glutamatergic, using glutaminase as the enzyme for glutamate production, but little is known about glutaminase following inflammation. In the present study, adjuvant-induced arthritis (AIA) was produced in rats with complete Freund's adjuvant into the ...

Automatic Image Annotation (AIA) is an effective technology to improve the performance of images retrieval from large image collections by text queries. In this paper, we propose a novel AIA scheme based on finding the most similar images using a distance metric and then transferring the annotation to the query image. The proposed method can effectively deal with the problem of finding the resu...

Recovery of hentriacontane (C31 alkane) in feces as influenced by amount consumed and level of dietary fat was examined in a 2 x 2 factorial study in a 4 x 4 Latin square. Treatments were 1) alfalfa hay:concentrate (70:30; AH); 2) AH + calcium soap (500 g/d); 3) grass hay:concentrate (70:30, GH); and 4) GH + calcium soap. Fat did not influence C31 recovery in feces. Fecal recovery (grams/day) d...

Rodent models of immune-mediated arthritis (RMIA) are the conventional approach to evaluating mechanisms of inflammatory joint disease and the comparative efficacy of antiarthritic agents. Rat adjuvant-induced (AIA), collagen-induced (CIA), and streptococcal cell wall-induced (SCW) arthritides are preferred models of the joint pathology that occurs in human rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Lesions of...