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Aims: Performing percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) to multiple coronary lesions during the same procedure has potential economic and social advantages. However comprehensive outcome data of real world practice in a large population is limited. We aimed to compare short- and long-term outcomes between patients with multi-vessel coronary artery disease who either underwent single- or multivessel PCI within the e-SELECT registry. Methods and results: The e-SELECT registry combines data collected at 320 medical centres in 56 countries where patients received CYPHER Select® or CYPHER Select® Plus sirolimus-eluting stent (SES). Rates of myocardial infarction and major adverse cardiac event (MACE) (defined as any death, myocardial infarction or target lesion revascularisation) were compared between patients undergoing single-vessel versus multivessel PCI. A total of 15,147 patients who satisfied the inclusion criteria were included in the e-SELECT registry. Two thousand two hundred and seventy-eight (2,278) subjects (15%) underwent multivessel PCI and 12,869 (85%) had single-vessel PCI. The mean age was higher in the multivessel PCI group (63 vs. 62 years, p

We study the expressive power of various modal logics with team semantics. We show that exactly the properties of teams that are downward closed and closed under team k-bisimulation, for some finite k, are definable in modal logic extended with intuitionistic disjunction. Furthermore, we show that the expressive power of modal logic with intuitionistic disjunction and extended modal dependence logic coincide. Finally we establish that any translation from extended modal dependence logic into modal logic with intuitionistic disjunction increases the size of some formulas exponentially., Comment: 19 pages

Considering protection of the environment and environmental regulations, the great volumes of dredged low and/or high sediments should be treated. Because of the types of dredgers and the presence of fine particles of the sediments, they have high moisture content. So it’s necessary to carry out the treatments of dehydration and drying for decreasing the wa-ter content. The objective of this study is to follow the natural drying evolution of the sediments by their mechanical characterization. Through the analysis of the physical and chemical properties (grading nature, moisture content, limits of Atterberg and organic matter content) of studied sediments, characterization of shear strength was carried out taking account the influence of water content. The relatively long process of natural drying is depending on the time and by the relation of Su-W which is established by two methods of testing in laboratory. This paper consists of the presentation of results performed with fall-cone test (FCT) and vane shear test (VST) on dam and marine sediments. Relationship between water content and undrained shear strength obtained from fall cone and from vane shear test is evaluated and given. Finally, the relationship is discussed regarding the two testing procedures and a pro-posed correction for FCT could be suggested for dam and marine sediments. But measurements of Su with FCT and VST pose problem due to their principle and their procedure of testing. FCT test is applied only on top of sediment layer and VST test gives discrete measures along the vertical depth layer. Considering these limitations, a continuous Su testing will be preferable. Applicability of T-Bar test to sediments is examined. T-Bar test may be a suitable method to calculate the undrained shear strength of sediments. However, the applicability of T-Bar test (TBT) is not evaluated yet.

Car lane-changing behaviour has been well investigated at merging locations or weaving sections where the lane-changes are usually due to different origin-destination trip purposes. However, the lane-changing behaviour under the effects of bus priority-lanes in urban streets has not been received much attention. This kind of behaviour is found to initially depend on the existence of oncoming buses in priority-lanes in urban streets. In this paper, a car lane-changing model under bus priority-lane effects in urban streets is proposed. This model comprises three steps: looking-back threshold determination, gap acceptance model and execution model. The model’s parameters are estimated jointly by using the Maximum Likelihood Method. The research results show that the car lane-changing behaviour under bus-priority-lane effects in urban streets is considered compulsory behaviour. The behaviour has specific characteristics with smaller critical gaps compared with those at other normal lane cases and can be modelled by the proposed model.

Background and hypothesis: Mechanisms of heart failure in elderly hypertensive patients with hypertrophy have not been studied sufficiently. We hypothesized that impaired increment of coronary blood flow in response to increases in heart rate could be responsible for the occurrence or aggravation of heart failure. Methods: To test this hypothesis, we measured coronary hemodynamics and lactate balance during basal conditions and atrial pacing in 21 elderly patients aged ≥ 65 years (mean 74 ± 6 years) without coronary arterial disease: 7 normoten-sive control patients (Group 1), 7 hypertensive hypertrophic patients without a history of congestive heart failure (Group 2), and 7 patients with such history (Group 3). Coronary sinus blood flow (CSBF) was measured in coronary sinus using a thermodilution catheter. Results: During basal conditions, heart rate did not differ among the three groups (67 ± 3 in Group 1,65 ±11 in Group 2, and 63 ± 6 beats/min in Group 3). CSBF was significantly higher in the two hypertrophic groups than in the control group, but CSBF normalized by left ventricular mass was significantly lower in both hypertrophic groups. External mechanical efficiency (EME) obtained as left ventricular work divided by myocardial oxygen consumption did not differ among groups during basal conditions (36 ± 9% in Group 1, 35 ± 8% in Group 2, and 29 ± 9% in Group 3, NS). During atrial pacing to increase heart rate by 25 ± 5% (lower) and 54 ± 6% (higher), the increases in CSBF were markedly limited in both hypertrophic groups, and the response in Group 3 was more depressed than that in Group 2. EME did not change in the control group or in Group 2, but did decrease to 21 ± 5% in Group 3 during the higher pacing rate (p

This paper presents a 4 kW, 450 kHz voltage-source inverter with a series resonant circuit for induction melting applications, which is characterized by the power control based on pulse density modulation (PDM). The pulse-density-modulated inverter makes an induction melting system simple and compact, thus leading to higher efficiency. A modulation strategy is proposed to realize the induction melting system capable of operation at the frequency and power level of interest. Some interesting experimental results are shown to verify the validity of the concept

Adhesion force analysis using atomic force microscopy clearly revealed for the first time the mechanism underlying the specific binding between a titanium surface and ferritin possessing the sequence of Ti-binding peptide in its N-terminal domain. Our results proved that the specific binding is due to double electrostatic bonds between charged residue and surface groups of the substrate. Furthermore, it is also demonstrated that the accretion of surfactant reduces nonspecific interactions, dramatically enhancing the selectivity and specificity of Ti-binding peptide.

Previously we have reported that Toki-shakuyaku-san (TSS) ameliorated the impairment of spatial memory induced by single cerebral ischemia (I x 10 minutes) and scopolamine, a muscarinic receptor antagonist. In this experiment, we studied the effect of TSS on repeated cerebral ischemia (2 x 10 minutes, 1-hour interval) induced impairment of spatial memory and neuronal injury in rats. The 8-day post-ischemic treatment with TSS (30-300 mg/kg) was administered p.o. once per day. TSS dose-dependently prevented the impairment of spatial memory, neuronal death and TUNEL positive cells induced by repeated cerebral ischemia. In order to determine the mechanism of TSS, we also studied the effect of TSS on GluR2 mRNA, one of the glutamate (alpha-amino-3-hydroxy-5-methyl-4-isoxazole (AMPA) receptor subunits. Repeated cerebral ischemia significantly decreased GluR2 flop mRNA at 1 and 3 days after the occlusion. TSS (300 mg/kg) significantly suppressed the decrease in GluR2 flop at 3 days after repeated cerebral ischemia. These results suggested that the TSS has neuroprotective action which may be indirectly mediated by the AMPA receptor, and TSS may be beneficial for the treatment of cerebrovascular dementia. C1 Fukuoka Univ, Fac Pharmaceut Sci, Dept Neuropharmacol, Fukuoka 8140180, Japan. Fukuoka Univ, Adv Mat Inst, Fukuoka 8140180, Japan. Pamukkale Univ, Fac Med, Div Internal Med, Dept Pharmacol, TR-20070 Denizli, Turkey.