BACKGROUND High-sensitivity troponin I (hs-TnI) and troponin T (hs-TnT) are moderately correlated and independently related to outcome in atrial fibrillation (AF). Rate controlling therapy has been shown to reduce hs-TnT, however the potential impact on hs-TnI levels, and whether this differs from the effects on hs-TnT, has not been investigated previously. METHODS Sixty patients with stable,...

BACKGROUND Nebulized hypertonic saline (HS) treatment is unavailable to large populations worldwide. OBJECTIVES To determine the bacterial contamination and electrolyte concentrations in homemade (HM-HS) vs. pharmacy made (PM-HS). METHODS We conducted three double-blind consecutive trials: 50 boiled-water homemade 3%-HS (B-HM-HS) bottles and 50 PM-HS. The bottles were cultured after 48 hour...

The Harmony Search (HS) method is an emerging meta-heuristic optimization algorithm. In this paper, we propose two modified HS methods to deal with the unimodal and multi-modal optimization problems. The first modified HS method is based on the fusion of the HS and Differential Evolution (DE) technique, namely, HS-DE. The DE is employed here to optimize the members of the HS memory. The second ...

Human serum (HS) has been reported to induce aggregation of human eyelid adipose-derived stem cells (HEACs) during high-density culture in vitro. The present study focused on the role of cell adhesion molecules and gelatinases during HS-induced aggregation of HEACs. HS-induced aggregation occurred between 9-15 days of culture. Cells aggregated by HS medium (HS-agg) showed stronger expression of...

A hybrid metaheuristic approach by hybridizing harmony search (HS) and firefly algorithm (FA), namely, HS/FA, is proposed to solve function optimization. In HS/FA, the exploration of HS and the exploitation of FA are fully exerted, so HS/FA has a faster convergence speed than HS and FA. Also, top fireflies scheme is introduced to reduce running time, and HS is utilized to mutate between firefli...

Hibiscus syriacus, a woody ornamental plant with great economic value, is vulnerable to salinity. Hence, its cultivation in saline areas severely restricted. Although grafting H. syriacus onto hamabo rootstock can greatly improve syriacus’s salt resistance, the photosynthetic response of and stress remains largely unknown. To address this question, self-rooted (Hs), self-grafted (Hs/Hs), hamabo...

HS (heparan sulphate) has hitherto not been found on human red blood cells (RBCs, erythrocytes). However, malarial-parasite (Plasmodium falciparum)-infected RBCs adhere to uninfected RBCs via HS-like receptors. In the present paper we demonstrate that human RBCs carry epitopes for an anti-HS antibody. Glycans isolated from RBC membranes reacted to HS-specific degradations and adhered to an HS-b...

Background: Hidradenitis suppurativa (HS) is a chronic inflammatory skin disease of unknown etiology. There is evidence that bacteria may contribute to initiating the inflammatory response in HS patients. To date, data on bacteria found in HS lesions and their resistance rates are rare. Methods: The results of bacterial cultures and antibiotic susceptibility of the isolated bacteria obtained fr...

A replication-defective recombinant retrovirus containing the human papilloma virus E6/E7 genes (LXSN-16 E6E7) was used to immortalize stromal cells from human marrow. The E6/E7 gene products interfere with the function of tumor-suppressor proteins p53 and Rb, respectively, thereby preventing cell cycle arrest without causing significant transformation. Twenty-seven immortalized clones designat...