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Endothelial dysfunction is one of the most common complications associated with diabetes and may lead to atherosclerosis. Conflicting reports indicate that NADPH oxidase 4 (NOX4) induces hydrogen peroxide production and cytotoxicity, but also has a protective effect on endothelial dysfunction. The present study aimed to identify the transcription factor responsible for NOX4 expression using a transcription factor activation profiling plate array and chromatin immunoprecipitation. Data from these analyses indicated that GATA‑binding protein 4 (GATA4) was able to mediate NOX4 transcription and is downregulated in human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) that were exposed to hyperglycemic conditions as well as in the endothelial cells of a mouse diabetes model. Overexpression of GATA4 was demonstrated to lead to increased expression of NOX4 mRNA and protein. Furthermore, GATA4 overexpression resulted in increased nitric oxide (NO) production through the upregulation of endothelial NO synthase phosphorylation. Treatment with simvastatin, a drug known to preserve endothelial function through an unknown mechanism, improved endothelial cell function by upregulating GATA4 expression in HUVECs exposed to hyperglycemia. Results from these experiments demonstrated that GATA4 may inhibit diabetes‑induced endothelial dysfunction by acting as a transcription factor for NOX4 expression and increasing NO production. Thus, the present study revealed a novel molecular mechanism underlying endothelial dysfunction in diabetes and identified GATA4 as a potential therapeutic target.

Primary cardiac tumors are extremely rare with occurrence range of about 0.0017-0.28%. Papillary fibroelastoma is a benign cardiac neoplasms. Improvement in the early diagnosis has been made possible with the help of high-resolution imaging technology, such as transesophageal echocardiography, combined with ischemic or embolic complications which patients typically present with clinically. We herein present a 51-year-old female patient with a papillary fibroelastoma on the aortic cusp, with its origin from the left coronary sinus. Her only clinical manifestation was angina-like chest pain and syncope. Surgical resection with aortic valve replacement due to the defect as a result of the resected tumor was performed with the patient on cardiopulmonary bypass. The patient recovered uneventfully and was discharged. A 2-year follow-up showed an intact valve without tumor recurrence.

Viral myocarditis (VMC) is a life-threatening disease that leads to heart failure or cardiac arrhythmia. A large number of researches have revealed that mircroRNAs (miRNAs) participate in the pathological processes of VMC. We previously reported that miR-1 repressed the expression of gap junction protein α1 (GJA1) in VMC. In this study, miR-19b was found to be significantly upregulated using the microarray analysis in a mouse model of VMC, and overexpression of miR-19b led to irregular beating pattern in human cardiomyocytes derived from the induced pluripotent stem cells (hiPSCs-CMs). The upregulation of miR-19b was associated with decreased GJA1 in vivo. Furthermore, a miR-19b inhibitor increased, while its mimics suppressed the expression of GJA1 in HL-1 cells. When GJA1 was overexpressed, the miR-19b mimics-mediated irregular beating was reversed in hiPSCs-CMs. In addition, the effect of miR-19b on GJA1 was enhanced by miR-1 in a dose-dependent manner. These data suggest miR-19b contributes to irregular beating through regulation of GJA1 by cooperating with miR-1. Based on the present and our previous studies, it could be indicated that miR-19b and miR-1 might be critically involved in cardiac arrhythmia associated with VMC.

Adenosine deaminases acting on RNA (ADAR) are enzymes that regulate RNA metabolism through post-transcriptional mechanisms. ADAR1 is involved in a variety of pathological conditions including inflammation, cancer, and the host defense against viral infections. However, the role of ADAR1p150 in vascular disease remains unclear. In this study, we examined the expression of ADAR1p150 and its role in viral myocarditis (VMC) in a mouse model. VMC mouse cardiomyocytes showed significantly higher expression of ADAR1p150 compared to the control samples. Coimmunoprecipitation verified that ADAR1p150 forms a complex with Dicer in VMC. miRNA-222, which is involved in many cardiac diseases, is highly expressed in cardiomyocytes in VMC. In addition, the expression of miRNA-222 was promoted by ADAR1p150/Dicer. Among the target genes of miRNA-222, the expression of phosphatase-and-tensin (PTEN) protein was significantly reduced in VMC. By using a bioinformatics tool, we found a potential binding site of miRNA-222 on the PTEN gene&rsquo, s 3&prime, UTR, suggesting that miRNA-222 might play a regulatory role. In cultured cells, miR-222 suppressed PTEN expression. Our findings suggest that ADAR1p150 plays a key role in complexing with Dicer and promoting the expression of miRNA-222, the latter of which suppresses the expression of the target gene PTEN during VMC. Our work reveals a previously unknown role of ADAR1p150 in gene expression in VMC.

Cardiac haemangioma and coronary-pulmonary artery fistula are both rare entities. We present the case of a 45-year-old symptomatic male patient with a rare cardiac cavernous haemangioma. During assessment, coronary-pulmonary artery fistula was diagnosed by computed tomographic angiography (CTA) of the coronary artery. As far as we know, this is the first case in which cardiac haemangioma has been found to co-exist with coronary-pulmonary artery fistula. Surgery remains the most effective form of therapy. Meanwhile, in patients with heart issues, CTA of the coronary artery has its particularly advantages that can reduce the risk of a second operation and missed diagnosis. We also performed an electronic search of the published literature in English on cases of cardiac haemangioma.

The densities of dimethyl carbonate, n-hexane and their mixtures were measured for 12 compositions at five different temperatures varying from (293.15 to 313.15) K and over the pressure range of (0.1 to 40) MPa. The densities of pure substances and their mixtures at atmospheric pressure were measured by a vibrating-tube densimeter. The densities at high pressures were measured by a variable-volume autoclave and precise analytical balance. The excess molar volume, isothermal compressibility, and isobaric expansivity were derived from the experimental densities.

The densities of dimethyl carbonate, cyclohexane, and their mixtures were measured for nine compositions at five different temperatures varying from (293.15 to 313.15) K and over the pressure range of (0.1 to 40) MPa. The densities of pure substances and their mixtures at atmospheric pressure were measured with a vibrating-tube densimeter. The densities at elevated pressures were measured with a high-pressure apparatus and a precise analytical balance. The molar volumes Vm, excess molar volumes VmE, isothermal compressibilities κ, and isobaric expansivities α were derived from the experimental densities.

Rationale: A 35-year old Chinese female was admitted to hospital with refractory pericardial effusions 10 days post mitral valve replacement via median sternotomy. We performed an exploratory resternotomy and found lymphatic leakage on the surface of the diaphragm which was continuously emitting a light yellow fluid. Patient concerns: The patient complained of no obvious discomfort except for the concern of massive pericardial effusion drainage. Diagnoses: Exploratory resternotomy and biochemical testing lead to a supradiaphragmatic lymphatic fistula being diagnosed as the cause of the refractory pericardial effusion. Interventions: The fistula was closed with a continuous suture and no other fistulas were found after a thorough exploration. Outcomes: The patient was discharged home on postoperative day 5 and recovery was uneventful. Lessons: In this case a timely exploratory resternotomy proved effective in seeking the cause of and treating pericardial effusion following cardiac surgery.

The water-water cycle which may be helpful for dissipating the excitation pressure over electron transport chain and minimizing the risk of photoinhibition and photodamage was investigated in rice after 10-d P-deficient treatment. Net photosynthetic rate decreased under P-deficiency, thus the absorption of photon energy exceeded the energy required for CO2 assimilation. A more sensitive response of effective quantum yield of photosystem 2 (ΦPS2) to O2 concentration was observed in plants that suffered P starvation, indicating that more electrons were transported to O2 in the P-deficient leaves. The electron transport rate through photosystem 2 (PS 2) (Jf) was stable, and the fraction of electron transport rate required to sustain CO2 assimilation and photorespiration (Jg/Jf) was significantly decreased accompanied by an increase in the alternative electron transport (Ja/Jf), indicating that a considerable electron amount had been transported to O2 during the water-water cycle in the P-deficient leaves. However, the fraction of electron transport to photorespiration (Jo/Jf) was also increased in the P-deficient leaves and it was less sensitive than that of water-water cycle. Therefore, water-water cycle could serve as an efficient electron sink. The higher non-photochemical fluorescence quenching (qN) in the P-deficient leaves depended on O2 concentration, suggesting that the water-water cycle might also contribute to non-radiative energy dissipation. Hence, the enhanced activity of the water-water cycle is important for protecting photosynthetic apparatus under P-deficiency in rice.

This paper mainly presents the AC impedance characteristics of a 2 kW PEMFC stack under different operating conditions and load changes. The AC impedances of the fuel cell stack are examined by a fuel cell impedance meter. Air stoichiometry, air humidity, and operation temperature are shown to have significant effects on the AC impedance of stack. When air stoichiometry decreases, the mass transfer resistance of stack increases obviously, but the influences on other resistances are very slight. The air humidity and operation temperature mainly influence the charge transfer resistance of stack. The influences of load changes on the AC impedance of stack are also investigated, and the results of which show that it is quite necessary to adjust the humidity of reactant gas according to the fuel cell load changes during fuel cell running. The AC impedance diagnosis of stack can provide some useful information for the running of fuel cell stack.

A wild soybean species Glycine cyrtoloba ACC547 was found to possess a high salinity resistance trait. It maintained higher net photosynthetic rate (PN) and maximal photochemical efficiency (Fv/Fm) than the soybean Glycine max cultivar Melrose under salt stress. Saline treatment enlarged the post-illumination transient increase in chlorophyll fluorescence in ACC547 much more than that in Melrose, indicating that its cyclic electron flow around photosystem 1 (CEF1) was accelerated more by salt stress. Additionally, ACC547 maintained higher nonphotochemical dissipation of excitation energy than Melrose under salt stress. It is suggested that the salinity resistance of ACC547 might be due to the CEF1-coupled dissipation of excess excitation energy.

The network of smart grid communications (SGC) is expected to be heterogeneous for providing diverse access interfaces. Load balancing is one of the key technologies in such heterogeneous networks, which can increase the system throughput as well as quality of service (QoS). In this paper, a context-aware load-balancing scheme is proposed for SGC networks by virtue of an adaptive trigger threshold. We investigate the characteristics of different kinds of services in the wireless local access network (WLAN) and Long Term Evolution (LTE). Simulation results show that our proposed load balance algorithm achieves better fairness and thus improves the overall throughput. Introduction The public-utility industry envisions the traditional power grid to incorporate the advanced communication systems for improving the control, efficiency, reliability and safety of power distribution and resource management. The resulting next-generation electric grid, known as smart grid, is expected to support a myriad of applications that have heterogeneous traffic requirements. Continuously increasing the demand of bandwidth, the intensive applications and the users’ variable appetite for services of smart grid lead to a tremendous pressure to the smart grid communication (SGC) systems. To address the wide variety of applications, scenarios, regions, environments and topologies in smart grid, multiple radio access technologies (RATs) such as wireless local access network (WLAN), Long Term Evolution (LTE) and Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access (WiMax) are inevitable to coexist. Therefore, with the increasing amount of users and services, an effective load balancing approach in heterogeneous SGC networks is becoming extremely imperative. Some previous literatures have addressed the heterogeneous SGC networks. The use of multiple RATs in a smart grid was first proposed in [1] to support the varying traffic requirements for overhead transmission line monitoring. At the network layer, architectures and frameworks to support such heterogeneous networks have been suggested in [2]-[4]. A survey of these architectures is provided in [2]. Recent proposals are based on the Media Independent Handover function defined by the IEEE 802.21 standard, which provides a framework to support seamless transition across networks based on different RATs [3]. Another relevant standard, IEEE P1900.4, defines building blocks for enabling coordinated network-device distributed decision making that contributes to the optimization of radio resource usage, including the spectrum access control, in heterogeneous wireless access networks [4]. Hierarchical resource managers have been proposed by the Common Radio Resource Management, Joint Radio Resource Management, and Multi-access Radio Resource Management schemes studied by the 3GPP group. And the emerging standards from the IETF and 3GPP communities to support flow mobility, when a device switches its data flows over multiple International Conference on Intelligent Systems Research and Mechatronics Engineering (ISRME 2015) © 2015. The authors Published by Atlantis Press 907 wireless access systems are proposed by [5]-[6]. However, none of the aforementioned literature puts forward an effective load balancing method for multiple RATs heterogeneous networks in smart grid. In this paper, a context-aware load balancing scheme is proposed for heterogeneous SGC networks. Both the fairness and the overall throughput are investigated for demonstrate the enhancement of the proposed approach. The optimal radio resource allocation is determined for exploring the resources from either cellular base station (BS) or access point (AP).

The current China State Grid network consists of a set of heterogeneous and distributed networks. In such a heterogeneous environment, it is a challenging task to provide efficient network alarm management, and further to analyze the correlation of alarms. Thus, an efficient and distributed network alarm analysis scheme is becoming necessary and indispensable. To this end, we have attached our emphasis on two aspects of the aforementioned problem and proposed the corresponding algorithms, respectively. Firstly, we introduced an intra-network alarm treatment process to manage the heterogeneous network alarms. Especially, we leverage on the fuzzy clustering method and fuse alarms within the same cluster into comprehensive alarms by utilizing the Dempster–Shafer theory. Secondly, we proposed an inter-network alarm analysis process to mine the correlation rules of alarms through a distributed scheme based on the Frequent Pattern-Growth (FP-Growth) association rule mining algorithm. Compared with the traditional centralized scheme and another Apriori-based distributed algorithm, our proposed scheme has a higher time efficiency for the effective management of network alarms. With the aid of such a two-step network alarm management scheme, it is easy for the network management system to make a better management of alarms in heterogeneous and distributed networks.

We have deposited thin copper coatings on micro-sized natural pollen particles by electroless plating, using palladium as the catalyst, copper sulfate as the source of deposited metal, and formaldehyde as the reducing agent. A two-step pretreatment process is used to activate the pollen surface with stannous chloride and palladium chloride. The results of XRD, SEM, AES, and cross-section metallography show that the pollen particles are completely coated by a pure and porous FCC-structured crystalline copper film about 1 μm thick. The film is composed of spherical and some needle-shaped metallic copper particles. The latter are attributed to the strong aggregation tendency among neighboring nano-sized copper particles grown with rapid hydrogen release. We find that lightweighted pollen particles are good candidates for fabricating metallic composite microspheres with core-shell structures.

Background An increasing number of studies have demonstrated the critical role of microRNAs in the pathogenesis of cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. This study evaluated whether miR-214 plays a pivotal role in the development of cardiac hypertrophy and heart failure. Methods In human tissues, miR-214 overexpression was determined to promote cardiac hypertrophy. We predicted miR-214 direct target by bioinformatics database and verifed it using luciferase dual reporting system. We silenced miR-214 using a specific antagomir in a pressure-overload mouse model of heart failure. Results Analysis of transgenic mice with cardiomyocyte-specific overexpression of miR-214 indicated that their hearts were 21% heavier than wild-type hearts and expressed several biochemical and functional markers consistent with dilated cardiomyopathy. These findings include enlarged left ventricular internal diameters, wall thinning, reduced ejection fraction, fractional shortening, and an increased fetal gene expression. The enhancer of zeste homolog 2 (EZH2) was confirmed as a direct target of miR-214 in cardiomyocytes. In vivo silencing of miR-214 using a specific antagomir rescued cardiac EZH2 expression and prevented cardiac hypertrophy and dysfunction. Conclusions Taken together, these results suggest that miR-214 may induce pathologic cardiac hypertrophy in part by reducing EZH2 messenger RNA levels. MiR-214 may therefore be a potential therapeutic target for treating certain cardiac disease states.

[Figure][1] [![Graphic][3] ][3] A 26-year-old Chinese man was found to have a mass in the right chest according to a chest roentgenogram during a routine medical checkup (A, arrow) . The patient was asymptomatic. Transthoracic echocardiography revealed a hypoechoic mass close to the

Figure 1: (A) Transaxial T2-weighted image showing a clear structural relationship of the tumour and blood vessels. (B) Coronal T2-weighted image showing the tumour with heterogeneous signal intensity, and predominantly with high signal intensity. (C) Coronal-enhanced T1-weighted image showing a huge tumour: 21.5 × 8.4 × 9.8 cm, encompassing the left common carotid artery, pressing against the primary bronchi and brachiocephalic trunk. Most of the lesion does not show strong enhancement; and part of the lesion shows septum-like enhancement. (D) A huge tumour pressing against the left lung. (E) Optic microscopic image showing blood-filled vascular spaces with fibrohialine stroma (haematoxylin–eosin, ×100). (F) Optic microscopic image showing polymorphous vascular spaces with endothelial cell lining and blood (haematoxylin–eosin, ×400).

Background: Patients with respiratory failure caused by H7N9 may benefit from veno-venous, veno-arterial, and veno-veno-arterial extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) support. Case summary: A 55-year-old male patient was suffering from H7N9-caused acute respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). He had a mechanical mitral and aortic valve replacement surgery and was using warfarin for anticoagulation. After prolonged mechanical ventilation, oxygen saturation was not improved. Veno-veno ECMO was then applied. After 16 days of extracorporeal life support, the patient successfully weaned from ECMO, with relatively good pulmonary recovery. Conclusion: This report demonstrates that ECMO support can help treating life-threatening diseases such as H7N9-associated ARDS. Because of his special mitral and aortic valve replacement surgery history and long duration of mechanical ventilation before ECMO, we report it as a separate case, hoping to provide some reference for ECMO treatment.

Background: Cardiac papillary fibroelastomas are rare. And only 15% of the papillary fibroelastomas are located on tricuspid valve. However, the treatment of papillary fibroelastomas varies. Case summary: We report a 75-year-old Chinese male who was hospitalized because of a right atrial mass found by echocardiography. Complete tumor excision along with Kay's tricuspid valvuloplasty surgery on beating heart under cardiopulmonary bypass was performed to the patient. Pathologic examination confirmed the definite diagnosis of cardiac papillary fibroelastoma. The recovery of the patient was uneventful and echocardiographic examination performed 6 months after surgery revealed no recurrence of the tumor. Conclusions: Beating-heart surgical excision is an effective and safe treatment of tricuspid papillary fibroelastomas.

Background: The cardiac hypertrophy (CH) model for mice has been widely used, thereby providing an effective research foundation for CH exploration. Objective: To research the effects of CH modeling under abdominal aortic constriction (AAC) using different needles and weights in mice. Methods: Four needles with different external diameters (0.35, 0.40, 0.45, and 0.50 mm) were used for AAC. 150 male C57BL/6 mice were selected according to body weight (BW) and divided into 3 weight levels: 18 g, 22 g, and 26 g (n = 50 in each group). All weight levels were divided into 5 groups: a sham group (n = 10) and 4 AAC groups using 4 ligation intensities (n = 10 per group). After surgery, survival rates were recorded, echocardiography was performed, hearts were dissected and used for histological detection, and data were statistically analyzed, P < 0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results: All mice died in the following AAC groups: 18g/0.35 mm, 22 g/0.35 mm, 26 g/0.35 mm, 22 g/0.40 mm, and 26 g/0.40 mm. All mice with AAC, those ligated with a 0.50-mm needle, and those that underwent sham operation survived. Different death rates occurred in the following AAC groups: 18 g/0.40 mm, 18 g/0.45 mm, 18 g/0.50 mm, 22 g/45 mm, 22 g/0.50 mm, 26 g/0.45 mm, and 26 g/0.50 mm. The heart weight/body weight ratios (5.39 ± 0.85, 6.41 ± 0.68, 4.67 ± 0.37, 5.22 ± 0.42, 4.23 ± 0.28, 5.41 ± 0.14, and 4.02 ± 0.13) were significantly increased compared with those of the sham groups for mice with the same weight levels. Conclusion: A 0.45-mm needle led to more obvious CH than did 0.40-mm and 0.50-mm needles and caused extraordinary CH in 18-g mice.

Increased macrophage accumulation occurs in the atria of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the phenotype and functions of the macrophages in AF remain unclear. We investigated the macrophage-atrial myocyte interaction in AF patients and found that the increased macrophages were mainly pro-inflammatory macrophages (iNOS+, Arg1−). Tachypacing of HL-1 atrial myocytes also led to pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization. In addition, lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-stimulated pro-inflammatory macrophages-induced atrial electrical remodeling, evidenced by increased AF incidence and decreased atrial effective refractory period and L-type calcium currents (I Ca-L) in both canine and mouse AF models. Depletion of macrophages relieved LPS-induced atrial electrical remodeling, confirming the role of pro-inflammatory macrophages in the pathogenesis of AF. We also found that the effect of LPS-stimulated macrophages on atrial myocytes was mediated by secretion of interleukin 1 beta (IL-1β), which inhibited atrial myocyte quaking protein (QKI) expression. IL-1β knockout in macrophages restored the LPS-stimulated macrophage-induced inhibition of QKI and CACNA1C (α1C subunit of L-type calcium channel) in atrial myocytes. Meanwhile, QKI overexpression in atrial myocytes restored the LPS-stimulated macrophage-induced electrical remodeling through enhanced binding of QKI to CACNA1C mRNA, which upregulated the expression of CACNA1C as well as I Ca-L. In contrast, QKI knockout inhibited CACNA1C expression. Finally, using transcription factor activation profiling plate array and chromatin immunoprecipitation, we revealed that special AT-rich sequence binding protein 1 activated QKI transcription. Taken together, our study uncovered the functional interaction between macrophages and atrial myocytes in AF. AF induced pro-inflammatory macrophage polarization while pro-inflammatory macrophages exacerbated atrial electrical remodeling by secreting IL-1β, further inhibiting QKI expression in atrial myocytes, which contributed to I Ca-L downregulation. Our study demonstrates a novel molecular mechanism underlying the pathogenesis and progression of AF and suggests that QKI is a potential therapeutic target. Electronic supplementary material The online version of this article (doi:10.1007/s00395-016-0584-z) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Intrathoracic goiter is commonly located in the anterior mediastinum. Here we report a case of a 58-year-old Chinese male in whom we successfully removed the intrathoracic goiter and eased his dyspnea by a right posterolateral thoracotomy approach. Posterior mediastinal thyroid goiter with mediastinal compressive symptoms is an indication of surgery.