Evolution of Natural Myocardial Shear Wave Behavior in Young Hearts: Determinant Factors and Reproducibility Analysis.

Background: Myocardial diastolic function assessment in children by conventional echocardiography is challenging. High-frame rate echocardiography facilitates the assessment of myocardial stiffness, a key factor in diastolic function, by measuring the propagation velocities of myocardial shear waves (SWs). However, normal values of natural SWs in children are currently lacking.

Impact of Serotonergic 5HT and 5HT Receptor Activation on the Respiratory Response to Hypercapnia in a Rat Model of Parkinson's Disease.

In Parkinson's disease (PD), along with typical motor dysfunction, abnormal breathing is present; the cause of which is not well understood. The study aimed to analyze the effects of stimulation of the serotonergic system with 5-HT and 5-HT agonists in a model of PD induced by injection of 6-hydroxydopamine (6-OHDA). To model PD, bilateral injection of 6-OHDA into both striata was performed in male Wistar rats.

A miniaturized culture platform for control of the metabolic environment.

The heart is a metabolic "omnivore" and adjusts its energy source depending on the circulating metabolites. Human cardiac organoids, a three-dimensional model of the heart wall, are a useful tool to study cardiac physiology and pathology. However, cardiac tissue naturally experiences shear stress and nutrient fluctuations via blood flow , whilst models are conventionally cultivated in a static medium.

Kinetics of Intermetallic Phase Precipitation in Manual Metal Arc Welded Duplex Stainless Steels.

The article presents the influence of heat treatment on the kinetics of transformations in lean duplex LDX2101 steel and a weld made of standard duplex 2209 material, which was welded by manual metal arc welding. Changes in the microstructure, hardness, and magnetic phase content were analyzed after heat treatment was conducted at a temperature of 800 °C for a period ranging from 15 to 1440 min. Light and scanning microscopy, Vickers hardness measurements, and magnetic phase content measurements using a ferritoscope were used for the research.

AlphaFold2 captures the conformational landscape of the HAMP signaling domain.

In this study, we present a conformational landscape of 5000 AlphaFold2 models of the Histidine kinases, Adenyl cyclases, Methyl-accepting proteins and Phosphatases (HAMP) domain, a short helical bundle that transduces signals from sensors to effectors in two-component signaling proteins such as sensory histidine kinases and chemoreceptors. The landscape reveals the conformational variability of the HAMP domain, including rotations, shifts, displacements, and tilts of helices, many combinations of which have not been observed in experimental structures. HAMP domains belonging to a single family tend to occupy a defined region of the landscape, even when their sequence similarity is low, suggesting that individual HAMP families have evolved to operate in a specific conformational range.

What can be lost? Genomic perspective on the lipid metabolism of Mucoromycota.

Mucoromycota is a phylum of early diverging fungal (EDF) lineages, of mostly plant-associated terrestrial fungi. Some strains have been selected as promising biotechnological organisms due to their ability to produce polyunsaturated fatty acids and efficient conversion of nutrients into lipids. Others get their lipids from the host plant and are unable to produce even the essential ones on their own.

Continuous shear wave measurements for dynamic cardiac stiffness evaluation in pigs.

Ultrasound-based shear wave elastography is a promising technique to non-invasively assess the dynamic stiffness variations of the heart. The technique is based on tracking the propagation of acoustically induced shear waves in the myocardium of which the propagation speed is linked to tissue stiffness. This measurement is repeated multiple times across the cardiac cycle to assess the natural variations in wave propagation speed.

Fucose as a nutrient ligand for Dikarya and a building block of early diverging lineages.

Fucose is a deoxyhexose sugar present and studied in mammals. The process of fucosylation has been the primary focus in studies relating to fucose in animals due to the presence of fucose in Lewis antigens. Very few studies have reported its presence in Fungi, mostly in Mucoromycotina.

Impact of Loading and Myocardial Mechanical Properties on Natural Shear Waves: Comparison to Pressure-Volume Loops.

Background: Shear wave elastography (SWE) has been proposed as a novel noninvasive method for the assessment of myocardial stiffness, a relevant determinant of diastolic function. It is based on tracking the propagation of shear waves, induced, for instance, by mitral valve closure (MVC), in the myocardium. The speed of propagation is directly related to myocardial stiffness, which is defined by the local slope of the nonlinear stress-strain relation.

Increasing the Mechanical Strength and Corrosion Resistance of Aluminum Alloy 7075 via Hydrostatic Extrusion and Aging.

The present study investigates the correlation between mechanical properties and resistance to corrosion of hydrostatically extruded aluminum alloy 7075. Supersaturated solid solutionized samples undergo a plastic deformation process, followed by both natural and artificial aging. Furthermore, two types of hydrostatic extrusion are applied to the samples: single-stepped and double-stepped.

The Influence of Heat Treatment on the Mechanical Properties and Corrosion Resistance of the Ultrafine-Grained AA7075 Obtained by Hydrostatic Extrusion.

In this paper, the corrosion resistance and mechanical properties of the 7075 aluminum alloy are studied. The alloy was deformed by hydrostatic extrusion and then aged both naturally and artificially. Results are compared with those of coarse-grained material subjected to T6 heat treatment.

High-Frame-Rate Speckle Tracking for Echocardiographic Stress Testing.

Stress echocardiography helps to diagnose cardiac diseases that cannot easily be detected or do not even manifest at rest. In clinical practice, assessment of the stress test is usually performed visually and, therefore, in a qualitative and subjective way. Although speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) has been proposed for the quantification of function during stress, its time resolution is inadequate at high heart rates.

Respiratory Abnormalities in Parkinson's Disease: What Do We Know from Studies in Humans and Animal Models?

Parkinson's disease (PD) is the second most common progressive neurodegenerative disease characterized by movement disorders due to the progressive loss of dopaminergic neurons in the ventrolateral region of the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc). Apart from the cardinal motor symptoms such as rigidity and bradykinesia, non-motor symptoms including those associated with respiratory dysfunction are of increasing interest. Not only can they impair the patients' quality of life but they also can cause aspiration pneumonia, which is the leading cause of death among PD patients.

Usefulness of the CHEST Score in Predicting the Clinical Outcomes of COVID-19 in Diabetic and Non-Diabetic Cohorts.

Background: Diabetes mellitus is among the most frequent comorbidities worsening COVID-19 outcome. Nevertheless, there are no data regarding the optimal risk stratification of patients with diabetes and COVID-19. Since individual CHEST components reflect the comorbidities, we assumed that the score could predict COVID-19 outcomes.

In Silico Predictions of Ecological Plasticity Mediated by Protein Family Expansions in Early-Diverging Fungi.

Early-diverging fungi (EDF) are ubiquitous and versatile. Their diversity is reflected in their genome sizes and complexity. For instance, multiple protein families have been reported to expand or disappear either in particular genomes or even whole lineages.

Utilization of cobalamin is ubiquitous in early-branching fungal phyla.

Cobalamin is a cofactor present in essential metabolic pathways in animals and one of the water-soluble vitamins. It is a complex compound synthesized solely by prokaryotes. Cobalamin dependence is scattered across the tree of life.

Metabolic Potential, Ecology and Presence of Associated Bacteria Is Reflected in Genomic Diversity of Mucoromycotina.

Mucoromycotina are often considered mainly in pathogenic context but their biology remains understudied. We describe the genomes of six Mucoromycotina fungi representing distant saprotrophic lineages within the subphylum (i.e.

Evaporation-Driven Flow in Micropillar Arrays: Transport Dynamics and Chemical Analysis under Varied Sample and Ambient Conditions.

Microfluidic flow in lab-on-a-chip devices is typically very sensitive to the variable physical properties of complex samples, e.g., biological fluids.

In Vivo Comparison of Multiline Transmission and Diverging Wave Imaging for High-Frame-Rate Speckle-Tracking Echocardiography.

High-frame-rate (HFR) speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) assesses myocardial function by quantifying motion and deformation at high temporal resolution. Among the proposed HFR techniques, multiline transmission (MLT) and diverging wave (DW) imaging have been used in this context both being characterized by specific advantages and disadvantages. Therefore, in this article, we directly contrast both approaches in an in vivo setting while operating at the same frame rate (FR).

Shear Wave Elastography Using High-Frame-Rate Imaging in the Follow-Up of Heart Transplantation Recipients.

Objectives: The purpose of this study was to investigate whether propagation velocities of naturally occurring shear waves (SWs) at mitral valve closure (MVC) increase with the degree of diffuse myocardial injury (DMI) and with invasively determined LV filling pressures as a reflection of an increase in myocardial stiffness in heart transplantation (HTx) recipients.

Background: After orthotopic HTx, allografts undergo DMI that contributes to functional impairment, especially to increased passive myocardial stiffness, which is an important pathophysiological determinant of left ventricular (LV) diastolic dysfunction. Echocardiographic SW elastography is an emerging approach for measuring myocardial stiffness in vivo.

Investigation of Microwave Absorption Performance of CoFeO/NiFeO/Carbon Fiber Composite Coated with Polypyrrole in X-Band Frequency.

The current research reports the preparation of a microwave absorber containing CoFeO/NiFeO/Carbon fiber (H/S/CF) coated with polypyrrole polymer (PPy@H/S/CF) through sol-gel and in-situ polymerization processes. X-ray diffraction (XRD), field emission scanning electron microscopy (FESEM), vibrating sample magnetometer (VSM), and a vector network analyzer (VNA) are utilized to evaluate the features of the prepared composite. The microstructure analysis results revealed carbon fibers well decorated with submicron-size particles having hard/soft magnetic phases and thoroughly coated with polymer.

A Novel 2-D Speckle Tracking Method for High-Frame-Rate Echocardiography.

Speckle tracking echocardiography (STE) is a clinical tool to noninvasively assess regional myocardial function through the quantification of regional motion and deformation. Even if the time resolution of STE can be improved by high-frame-rate (HFR) imaging, dedicated HFR STE algorithms have to be developed to detect very small interframe motions. Therefore, in this article, we propose a novel 2-D STE method, purposely developed for HFR echocardiography.

Interplay of cardiac remodelling and myocardial stiffness in hypertensive heart disease: a shear wave imaging study using high-frame rate echocardiography.

Aims: To determine myocardial stiffness by means of measuring the velocity of naturally occurring myocardial shear waves (SWs) at mitral valve closure (MVC) and investigate their changes with myocardial remodelling in patients with hypertensive heart disease.

Methods And Results: Thirty-three treated arterial hypertension (HT) patients with hypertrophic left ventricular (LV) remodelling (59 ± 14 years, 55% male) and 26 aged matched healthy controls (55±15 years, 77% male) were included. HT patients were further divided into a concentric remodelling (HT1) group (13 patients) and a concentric hypertrophy (HT2) group (20 patients).