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The objective of this study is to assess future changes in meteorological, hydrology and agricultural droughts under the impact of changing climate in the Srepok River Basin, a subbasin of LMB, using three drought indices; standardized precipitation index (SPI), standardized runoff index (SRI) and standardized soil moisture index (SSWI). The well‐calibrated Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT) is used as a simulation tool to estimate the features of meteorological, hydrological and agricultural droughts. The climate data for the 2016–2040 period is obtained from four different regional climate models; HadGEM3‐RA, SNU‐MM5, RegCM4 and YSU‐RSM, which are downscaled from the HadGEM2‐AO GCM. The results show that the severity, duration and frequency of droughts are predicted to increase in the near future for this region. Moreover, the meteorological drought is less sensitive to climate change than the hydrological and agricultural droughts; however, it has a stronger correlation with the hydrological and agricultural droughts as the accumulation period is increased. These findings may be useful for water resources management and future planning for mitigation and adaptation to the climate change impact in the Srepok River Basin.

A low-profile, high gain Fabry-Perot Resonator antenna with a wide operation bandwidth (BW) is presented in this paper. The proposed design consists of an ellipse-shaped dipole as a wideband radiating source, which is reflected by an artificial magnetic conductor ground plane to achieve low-profile structure. The antenna gain can be significantly enhanced by the use of a half-wavelength-thick dielectric slab as a partial reflecting surface. Additionally, this dielectric slab also contributes to improving the radiation pattern characteristics of the proposed design, especially in the high frequency region. A final prototype with an overall size of 1.2λ × 1.2λ × 0.4λ (λ is free-space wavelength at the lowest frequency of 3-dB gain BW) has been fabricated to validate the concept. The measured results show that the proposed antenna yielded a wide 3-dB gain BW of approximately 50.3% with a peak gain of 14 dBi and impedance matching BW of 48.9%.

Endoplasmic reticulum (ER) stress plays an important role in the pathogenesis of diabetes, contributing to pancreatic β‐cell loss and insulin resistance in type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM). In this study, the effect of ethanol extracts of Euphorbia hirta L. (Eup), Phyllanthus amarus L. (Phy), Mimosa pudica L. (Mim), Psidium guajava L. (Psi) and Azadirachta indica A. Juss (Aza) collected in the Mekong Delta on ER stress‐induced apoptosis in mouse β‐cell lines was investigated. The results showed that, among tested extracts, Aza and Eup extracts gave the strongest cell‐protective effect improving cell viability to 76 % and 69 % at the dose of 0.1 mg/mL, respectively. These results indicated that Aza and Eup possess the potential to be developed as novel drugs against T2DM.

The functionality of a dual-band frequency-reconfigurable antenna based on a microstrip patch is extended toward independent tuning of its two operational bands. The antenna has distinct monopolar and broadside radiation patterns at its lower and upper bands, respectively, and a previous realization only allowed simultaneous tuning of the two bands. In this paper, a more sophisticated bias scheme with two DC bias voltages and four varactors is introduced to extend the principle toward independent control of the resonance frequencies of the two bands. An antenna prototype has been designed, fabricated, and validated with experiments. The results demonstrate that the antenna achieves independent relative tuning ranges of about 11% at both frequency bands.

We examined the allelic expression and positioning of two pluripotency‐associated genes, OCT4 and SOX2, and two housekeeping genes, ACTB and TUBA, in 4‐ and 8‐cell porcine embryos utilizing RNA and DNA fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) in single blastomeres. The proportion of blastomeres expressing SOX2 bi‐allelically increased from 45% at the 4‐cell stage to 60% at the 8‐cell stage. Moreover, in 8‐cell embryos, SOX2 was expressed bi‐allelically in significantly more blastomeres than was the case for OCT4, and this was associated with a tendency for SOX2 alleles to move toward the nuclear interior during 4‐ to 8‐cell transition. However, the radial location of OCT4 alleles did not change significantly during this transition. The locations of active and inactive alleles based on DNA and RNA FISH signals were also calculated. Inactive OCT4 alleles were located in very close proximity to the nuclear membrane, whereas active OCT4 alleles were more centrally disposed in the nucleus. Nevertheless, the nuclear location of active and inactive SOX2 alleles did not change in either 4‐ or 8‐cell blastomeres. Our RNA and DNA FISH data provide novel information on the allelic expression patterns and positioning of pluripotency‐associated genes, OCT4 and SOX2, during embryonic genome activation in pigs.

Objectives We sought to examine near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) imaging findings of aortocoronary saphenous vein grafts (SVGs). Background SVGs are prone to develop atherosclerosis similar to native coronary arteries. They have received little study using NIRS. Methods We examined the clinical characteristics and imaging findings from 43 patients who underwent NIRS imaging of 45 SVGs at our institution between 2009 and 2016. Results The mean patient age was 67 ± 7 years and 98% were men, with high prevalence of diabetes mellitus (56%), hypertension (95%), and dyslipidemia (95%). Mean SVG age was 7 ± 7 years, mean SVG lipid core burden index (LCBI) was 53 ± 60 and mean maxLCBI4 mm was 194 ± 234. Twelve SVGs (27%) had lipid core plaques (2 yellow blocks on the block chemogram), with a higher prevalence in SVGs older than 5 years (46% vs. 5%, P = 0.002). Older SVG age was associated with higher LCBI (r = 0.480, P

Background The Flash Ostial system (Ostial Corporation, Sunnyvale, CA) was designed to optimize implantation of aorto-ostial coronary stents by flaring the proximal stent struts against the aortic wall. Methods We retrospectively reviewed the medical record, angiograms, and intravascular ultrasound images of 22 aorto-ostial percutaneous coronary interventions performed at our institution between March and September 2015. The Flash Ostial system was used in 13 cases (59%). Results Mean age was 67 ± 8 years and all patients were men. The target vessel was the right coronary artery (59%), left main (27%), or a saphenous vein graft (14%); 59% of the lesions had moderate/severe calcification. The mean number of predilation balloons was 1.8 ± 1.6, mean Flash ostial balloon diameter was 3.3 ± 0.5 mm and mean inflation pressure was 13.1 ± 4.0 atmospheres. Intravascular ultrasonography (available for 19 patients) revealed mean ostial minimum lumen cross-sectional area (MLA) of 9.2 ± 3.0 mm2 and reference MLA of 8.5 ± 2.7 mm2. The percent difference between ostial and reference MLA was higher in cases in which the Flash Ostial system was used versus those where it was not (9.6 ± 5.5% vs. 4.0 ± 2.8%, P = 0.03). All stent struts were well apposed. Technical success was 100%. One patient developed a left groin pseudoaneurysm treated with thrombin injection and one patient had a periprocedural myocardial infarction. Median contrast, fluoroscopy time, and procedure time were 235 mL, 33 min, and 118 min, respectively. Conclusions The Flash Ostial system can be successfully used in aorto-ostial stenting, resulting in large ostial vessel MLA. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.