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Libman-Sacks endocarditis, characterized by verrucous vegetations formation, is a typical cardiac manifestation of autoimmune diseases such as systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE) and antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Although typically mild and asymptomatic, Libman-Sacks endocarditis can lead to serious complications, including thromboembolic events, superimposed bacterial endocarditis, and severe valvular regurgitation and/or stenosis, and valve surgery may be required. Here, we report a case of mitral valve repair for a large Libman-Sacks vegetation in a 29-year-old woman with a history of APS with cerebral infarction. Transesophageal echocardiography (TEE) demonstrated an isolated large mobile vegetation on the atrial side of posterior mitral valve leaflet, with severe mitral regurgitation. Next, we organized a multidisciplinary team meeting to better evaluate the case before performing the surgery. To prevent further thromboembolic events, and due to the insufficiency of the mitral valve, the patient was accepted for mitral valve surgery, and she was discharged uneventfully 10 days after successful surgery. She was managed with long-term anticoagulation medicine after surgery and followed up for 2 years with no complications. The present case showed mitral repair is feasible and effective in young female patients of child-bearing age, and the lesion only localized mitral valve abnormalities caused by Libman-Sacks endocarditis.

Our aim was to examine whether the influence of apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) genotype on cognitive decline differs in male and female across the Alzheimer's disease (AD) continuum. Among individuals with normal cognition (NC; n = 415), mild cognitive impairment (MCI; n = 870), and AD (n = 334), we investigated the longitudinal associations of APOE4 genotype and sex with cognitive decline over 13 years. Our cognitive outcomes were Rey Auditory Verbal Learning Test (RAVLT) total learning score and delayed recall and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE) score. There were significant effects of the APOE4×sex interaction on change in verbal memory in the MCI group, but not the NC or AD group. Specifically, among individuals with MCI, female APOE4 carriers had a steeper decline in RAVLT total learning score, but not delayed recall or MMSE score compared to all other groups (APOE4 + /Male, APOE4-/Female, APOE4-/Male). In conclusion, female APOE4 carriers have faster rates of memory decline than their male counterparts among MCI individuals.

Background: Left ventricular noncompaction with multiple left ventricular thrombi can be revealed by echocardiography, and early diagnosis seems to be imperative to prevent significant embolic events. Case Report: A 57-year-old woman presented with symptoms of heart failure. Two-dimensional transthoracic echocardiogram demonstrated a dilated and diffusely hypokinetic left ventricle with severe impaired left ventricular systolic function. Moreover, a markedly thickened endocardium at the left ventricular apex and middle segment with numerous, excessively prominent trabeculations and deep intertrabecular recesses were present. During systole, the ratio of the noncompacted to compacted myocardial layers at the site of the maximal wall thickness was above two, a characteristic finding in left ventricular non-compaction. Multiple mobile, homogeneous, echodense thrombi were identified in the left ventricle, with the largest one in the apical noncompacted segment (dimensions, 32 × 14 mm). Cardiac magnetic resonance imaging confirmed the diagnosis of noncompacted myocardium with the presence of multiple thrombi. After anticoagulant therapy, her symptoms improved and thrombi dissolved. Unexpectedly, she re-admitted to the cardiovascular unit with progressive dyspnea. Transthoracic echocardiogram showed new large right atrial thrombi, with the largest one was 43 × 38 mm compared to the echocardiogram done 11 months ago. The patient was anticoagulated with continuous heparin infusion for several days followed by oral Apixaban. After 4 weeks, the floating thrombi completely disappeared. After a 26-month follow-up, the patient’s condition was stable without embolic complications. Conclusion: Echocardiography was the cornerstone of diagnostic methods for early detecting left ventricular thrombi to eventually prevent embolic events.

ObjectiveThere is growing evidence that testosterone may be implicated in the pathogenesis of Alzheimer’s disease (AD). We aimed to examine the relationship between plasma total testosterone levels and change in brain glucose metabolism over time among non-demented older people.MethodsThe association of plasma total testosterone levels with change in brain glucose metabolism among non-demented older people was investigated cross-sectionally and longitudinally. Given a significant difference in levels of plasma total testosterone between gender, we performed our analysis in a sex-stratified way. At baseline, 228 non-demented older people were included: 152 males and 76 females.ResultsIn the cross-sectional analysis, no significant relationship between plasma total testosterone levels and brain glucose metabolism was found in males or females. In the longitudinal analysis, we found a significant association of plasma total testosterone levels with change in brain glucose metabolism over time in males, but not in females. More specifically, in males, higher levels of total testosterone in plasma at baseline were associated with slower decline in brain glucose metabolism.ConclusionWe found that higher levels of total testosterone in plasma at baseline were associated with slower decline in brain glucose metabolism in males without dementia, indicating that testosterone may have beneficial effects on brain function.

The heme oxygenase (HO) system is an important regulatory arm of the intrinsic cytoprotective and anti-inflammatory system. HO-2 plays an important role in regulating inflammation following injury. The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of HO-2 overexpression on inflammatory responses. A skin transplantation model, involving the application of skin grafts from wild-type or HO-2 overexpressing mice to BALB/c mice, was used for investigation. HO-2 overexpression suppressed the production of pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, TNF-α, and IL-6) in macrophages compared to that in macrophages obtained from control mice. HO-2 overexpression also significantly prolonged the survival of allografted skin. Our findings suggest that HO-2 attenuates inflammatory responses and effectively prolongs skin graft survival.

This paper mainly carries out researches on the small part samples of the spindles. Through the Weibull distribution and least squares,the mathematical analysis has made on the lifetime of ...

To keep housing affordable, the City of New York has implemented rent-stabilization policies to restrict the rate at which the rent of certain units can be increased every year. However, some landlords of these rent-stabilized units try to illegally force their tenants out in order to circumvent rent-stabilization laws and greatly increase the rent they can charge. To identify and help tenants who are vulnerable to such landlord harassment, the New York City Public Engagement Unit (NYC PEU) conducts targeted outreach to tenants to inform them of their rights and to assist them with serious housing challenges. In this paper, we1 collaborated with NYC PEU to develop machine learning models to better prioritize outreach and help to vulnerable tenants. Our best-performing model can potentially help TSU find 59% more buildings where tenants face landlord harassment than the current outreach method using the same resources. The results also highlight the factors that help predict the risk of experiencing tenant harassment, and provide a data-driven and comprehensive approach to improve the city's policy of proactive outreach to vulnerable tenants.

Objective: To investigate whether APOE ε4 affects the association of verbal memory with neurodegeneration presented by the hippocampal volume/intracranial volume ratio (HpVR). Methods: The study sample included 371 individuals with normal cognition (NC), 725 subjects with amnestic mild cognitive impairment (aMCI), and 251 patients with mild Alzheimer's disease (AD) from the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI) who underwent the rey auditory verbal learning test (RAVLT). Multiple linear regression models were conducted to assess the effect of the APOE ε4∗HpVR interaction on RAVLT in all subjects and in each diagnostic group adjusting for age, gender and educational attainment, and global cognition. Results: In all subjects, there was no significant APOE ε4 × HpVR interaction for immediate recall or delayed recall (p > 0.05). However, in aMCI subjects, there was a significant APOE ε4 × HpVR interaction for delayed recall (p = 0.008), but not immediate recall (p = 0.15). More specifically, the detrimental effect of APOE ε4 on delayed recall altered by HpVR such that this effect was most evident among subjects with small to moderate HpVR, but this disadvantage was absent or even reversed among subjects with larger HpVR. No significant interaction was observed in the NC or AD group. Conclusion: These findings highlight a potential role of APOE ε4 status in affecting the association of hippocampus size with delayed recall memory in the early stage of AD.

We compared the data reliability on a subjective task from two platforms: Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and LabintheWild. MTurk incentivizes participants with financial compensation while LabintheWild provides participants with personalized feedback. LabintheWild was found to produce higher data reliability than MTurk. Our findings suggested that online experiment platforms providing feedback in exchange for study participation could produce more reliable data in subjective preference tasks than those offering financial compensation.

Rationale Primary cardiac osteosarcoma is a rare tumor. To our knowledge, only 15 cases have been reported in the literature in the past 10 years. We describe a case of primary, cardiac, fibroblastic osteosarcoma in a 42-year-old woman. Patient concerns A 42-year-old woman with a 10-day history of chest pain. Intraoperatively, a mass was found originating from the ostium of the left inferior pulmonary vein in the left atrium, extending to the mitral orifice. Histologically, the tumor contained variable amounts of spindle cells and osseous differentiation in different areas. Primary, cardiac fibroblastic osteosarcoma had the typical appearance of interlacing hyperchromatic spindle-shaped stromal cells associated with osseous matrix. Diagnoses According to the clinicopathological features, diagnosis of primary, cardiac fibroblastic osteosarcoma was made. Interventions Wide surgical excision of the mass was performed. Outcomes Three months after the operation, transthoracic echocardiography demonstrated a 3.2 cm × 2 cm recurrent mass in the wall of the left atrium (LA). She died shortly afterwards as a result of the local disease recurrence. Lessons In this report, we describe a rare case of primary, cardiac fibroblastic osteosarcoma, and findings are helpful for the pathologists would like to further identify the clinicopathological features of this rare tumor.

This study proposes and tests a model that explains TMS development in collocated and geographically dispersed teams using communication technology to share knowledge. The paper reports on data fro...

Background There is no existing report on the quality of randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of melasma treatment currently conducted in China. This study aims to assess the quality of RCT- reporting in the treatment of melasma conducted in China. Methods Several databases were searched from their inception through to August 2014. In order to rate the report quality, we scored 1 for the item if it was reported in CONSORT 2010 and 0 for the item if it was not definitely stated or was not clear. For overall quality score (OQS), 13 items were scored and calculated with a range of 0 to 13. Five items (‘randomization’, ‘allocation concealment’, ‘blinding’, ‘baseline characteristics’ and ‘intention-to-treat (ITT) analysis’) were scored and a key methodological index score (MIS) was calculated with a range of 0 to 5 for each trial. Results A total of 246 relevant RCTs were included in the final analysis. The median OQS was 7, with a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 11. Some items’ information was insufficient, especially in the categories of ‘trial design’, ‘sample size’, ‘recruitment’ and ‘ancillary analyses’ with a positive rate of less than 20%. The median MIS was 1 with a minimum of 0 and a maximum of 3. Some items’ reporting was poor, especially in the categories of ‘randomization’, ‘allocation concealment and implementation’, ‘blinding’ and ‘ITT analysis’ with a positive rate of less than 10%. The mean OQS increased by about 0.52 for manuscripts published in the period of 5-year increments (95% CI: 0.32 to 0.72; P

The measurement of inner diameter is a traditional and important measurement task in machining. Methods to measure the inner diameter are divided into contact and non-contact measurement. A contact measurement method with multiple inductive transducers is presented in this paper. In this paper, the constitution and structure of the system are described in order to establish the mathematical measurement model and analyze the measurement error emerged by inaccurate parameters. Moreover, the outputs measured by sensors are transformed into corresponding coordinates, and then the least square method is adopted to fit the coordinates to calculate the diameter, details will be presented in the paper. The measuring accuracy of the system is verified by experiment. The results indicate that this method could reduce the error caused by sensors deviated from the center of measuring circle and improve the measurement accuracy.

Double Parallel Joints coordinate measuring machine (CMM) is a new type coordinate measuring device with 9 structural parameters with accuracy difficult to be ensured just by processing and assembly. Calibration is needed to identify the structural parameters of the measuring machine. This article describes the calibration process of such a Double Parallel Joints CMM, and simulation was employed to analyze how the number of samples and angle measurement accuracy influence the measurement precision and calibration result during calibrating process. The conclusions are very instructive to precision design or error allocation and calibration process of the Double Parallel Joints CMM. Key words o CMM, Double Parallel Joints, Parameter Identification, Simulation INTRODUCTION The focus of CMM research is on orthogonal coordinate measuring system with over 40 years development. Conventional CMMs have a very wide range of applications for its wide measurement range, high accuracy, connecting with flexible manufacturing systems and computer integrated manufacturing system. With the maturity of CMM and the requirements of large-scale engineering measurement, increasing studies on non-orthogonal CMM were carried out. Though Articulated Arm Coordinate Measuring Machine (AACMM) involving kinematic model, error model and structural parameters identify or calibration and so on has been studied in many domestic colleges, the accuracy of AACMM is limited because of its structur e and exorbitant expense on six high precision angle measuring system. W. Lotze proposed a novel low-cost CMM named ScanMax

We have previously shown that troglitazone (TG) induces apoptosis in acute myelogenous leukaemia (AML) cell lines. Here we show that normal bone marrow and mobilized peripheral blood progenitors are highly resistant to TG at concentrations up to 100 microM, while primary cultures of AML bone marrow show significant decline in viability at >7.5 microM TG. The combination of standard cytotoxic agents (daunorubicin, etoposide, and cytarabine) with TG is synergistic in six AML cell lines, with the strongest synergy being exhibited when cells are pretreated with TG for 24h prior to addition of the cytotoxic agent. Significant declines in IC(50) for the cytotoxic agents are seen at nanomolar concentrations of TG. The in vitro synergy between TG and the cytotoxic drugs used in AML therapy provides a basis for in vivo evaluation of these combinations.