Design and rationale of a clinical trial to increase cardiomyocyte division in infants with tetralogy of Fallot.

Background: Patients with Tetralogy of Fallot with pulmonary stenosis (ToF/PS), the most common form of cyanotic congenital heart disease (CHD), develop adverse right ventricular (RV) remodeling, leading to late heart failure and arrhythmia. We recently demonstrated that overactive β-adrenergic receptor signaling inhibits cardiomyocyte division in ToF/PS infants, providing a conceptual basis for the hypothesis that treatment with the β-adrenergic receptor blocker, propranolol, early in life would increase cardiomyocyte division. No data are available in ToF/PS infants on the efficacy of propranolol as a possible novel therapeutic option to increase cardiomyocyte division and potentially reduce adverse RV remodeling.

Electrical Characterization of the Backside Interface on BSI Global Shutter Pixels with Tungsten-Shield Test Structures on CDTI Process.

A new methodology is presented using well known electrical characterization techniques on dedicated single devices in order to investigate backside interface contribution to the measured pixel dark current in BSI CMOS image sensors technologies. Extractions of interface states and charges within the dielectric densities are achieved. The results show that, in our case, the density of state is not directly the source of dark current excursions.

Cell Type-Specific p38δ Targeting Reveals a Context-, Stage-, and Sex-Dependent Regulation of Skin Carcinogenesis.

Activation and/or upregulated expression of p38δ are demonstrated in human skin malignancies including cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma, suggesting a role for p38δ in skin carcinogenesis. We previously reported that mice with germline deletion of the p38δ gene are significantly protected from chemical skin carcinogenesis. Here, we investigated the effects of cell-selective targeted ablation of p38δ in keratinocytes and in immune (myeloid) cells on skin tumor development in a two-stage 7,12-dimethylbenz()anthracene (DMBA)/12--tetradecanoylphorbol-13-acetate (TPA) chemical mouse skin carcinogenesis model.

Influence of Manatees' Diving on Their Risk of Collision with Watercraft.

Watercraft pose a threat to endangered Florida manatees (Trichechus manatus latirostris). Mortality from watercraft collisions has adversely impacted the manatee population's growth rate, therefore reducing this threat is an important management goal. To assess factors that contribute to the risk of watercraft strikes to manatees, we studied the diving behavior of nine manatees carrying GPS tags and time-depth recorders in Tampa Bay, Florida, during winters 2002-2006.