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Funder: K.G.A. has received support from the American Heart Association Institute for Precision Cardiovascular Medicine (17IFUNP3384001), a KL2/Catalyst Medical Research Investigator Training (CMeRIT) award from the Harvard Catalyst (KL2 TR002542), and the NIH (1K08HL153937)., Funder: B.N.W is supported by the National Science Foundation Graduate Research Program (DGE 1256260)., Funder: I.S. is supported by a Precision Health Scholars Award from the University of Michigan Medical School., Funder: I.K., S.Ko., and K.It. are funded by the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development, AMED, under Grant Numbers JP16ek0109070h0003, JP18kk0205008h0003, JP18kk0205001s0703, JP20km0405209, and JP20ek0109487. The BioBank Japan is supported by AMED under Grant Number JP20km0605001., Funder: J.L.M.B. acknowledges research support from NIH R01HL125863, American Heart Association (A14SFRN20840000), the Swedish Research Council (2018-02529) and Heart Lung Foundation (20170265) and the Foundation Leducq (PlaqueOmics: Novel Roles of Smooth Muscle and Other Matrix Producing Cells in Atherosclerotic Plaque Stability and Rupture, 18CVD02., Funder: P.S.dV was supported by American Heart Association grant number 18CDA34110116 and National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute grant R01HL146860. The Atherosclerosis Risk in Communities study has been funded in whole or in part with Federal funds from the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, National Institutes of Health, Department of Health and Human Services (contract numbers HHSN268201700001I, HHSN268201700002I, HHSN268201700003I, HHSN268201700004I and HHSN268201700005I), R01HL087641, R01HL059367 and R01HL086694; National Human Genome Research Institute contract U01HG004402; and National Institutes of Health contract HHSN268200625226C. The authors thank the staff and participants of the ARIC study for their important contributions. Infrastructure was partly supported by Grant Number UL1RR025005, a component of the National Institutes of Health and NIH Roadmap for Medical Research., Funder: O.G. has received funding from the British Heart Foundation (BHF) (FS/14/66/3129)., Funder: T.K. is supported by the Corona-Foundation (Junior Research Group Translational Cardiovascular Genomics) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 1123 (B02)., Funder: D.S.A. has received support from a training grant from the NIH (T32HL007604)., Funder: N.P.B., M.C.C., J.F., and D.-K.J. have been funded by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (2UM1DK105554)., Funder: A.V.K. has been funded by 1K08HG010155 from the National Human Genome Research Institute., Funder: C.P.N. and T.R.W received funding from the British Heart Foundation (SP/16/4/32697)., Funder: The Trøndelag Health Study (The HUNT Study) is a collaboration between HUNT Research Centre (Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology), Trøndelag County Council, Central Norway Regional Health Authority, and the Norwegian Institute of Public Health. The K.G. Jebsen Center for Genetic Epidemiology is financed by Stiftelsen Kristian Gerhard Jebsen; Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences, NTNU, Norwegian University of Science and Technology; and Central Norway Regional Health Authority. Whole genome sequencing for the HUNT study was funded by HL109946., Funder: O.M. was funded by the Swedish Heart- and Lung Foundation, the Swedish Research Council, the European Research Council ERC-AdG-2019-885003 and Lund University Infrastructure grant ”Malmö population-based cohorts” (STYR 2019/2046)., Funder: This work was supported by the European Commission (HEALTH-F2–2013-601456) and the TriPartite Immunometabolism Consortium [TrIC]- NovoNordisk Foundation (NNF15CC0018486), VIAgenomics (SP/19/2/344612), the British Heart Foundation, a Wellcome Trust core award (M.F., H.W., 203141/Z/16/Z) and support from the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre. M.F. and H.W. are members of the Oxford BHF Centre of Research Excellence (RE/13/1/30181). The views expressed are those of the authors and not necessarily those of the NHS, the NIHR or the Department of Health., Funder: J.D. is a British Heart Foundation Professor, European Research Council Senior Investigator, and National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Senior Investigator., Funder: J.C.H. acknowledges personal funding from the British Heart Foundation (FS/14/55/30806) and is a member of the Oxford BHF Centre of Research Excellence (RE/13/1/30181)., Funder: R.C. has received funding from the British Heart Foundation and British Heart Foundation Centre of Research Excellence., Funder: This research was supported by BHF (SP/13/2/30111) and conducted using the UK Biobank Resource (application number 9922)., Funder: The GerMIFs gratefully acknowledge the support of the Bavarian State Ministry of Health and Care, furthermore founded this work within its framework of DigiMed Bayern (grant No: DMB-1805-0001), the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) within the framework of ERA-NET on Cardiovascular Disease (Druggable-MI-genes: 01KL1802), within the scheme of target validation (BlockCAD: 16GW0198K), within the framework of the e:Med research and funding concept (AbCD-Net: 01ZX1706C), the British Heart Foundation (BHF)/German Centre of Cardiovascular Research (DZHK)-collaboration (VIAgenomics) and the German Research Foundation (DFG) as part of the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB 1123 (B02) and the Sonderforschungsbereich SFB TRR 267 (B05)., Funder: C.J.W. is funded by NIH grant R35-HL135824., Funder: This work was supported by the British Heart Foundation (BHF) grant RG/14/5/30893 (P.D.) and forms part of the research themes contributing to the translational research portfolios of the Barts Biomedical Research Centre funded by the UK National Institute for Health Research (NIHR)., The discovery of genetic loci associated with complex diseases has outpaced the elucidation of mechanisms of disease pathogenesis. Here we conducted a genome-wide association study (GWAS) for coronary artery disease (CAD) comprising 181,522 cases among 1,165,690 participants of predominantly European ancestry. We detected 241 associations, including 30 new loci. Cross-ancestry meta-analysis with a Japanese GWAS yielded 38 additional new loci. We prioritized likely causal variants using functionally informed fine-mapping, yielding 42 associations with less than five variants in the 95% credible set. Similarity-based clustering suggested roles for early developmental processes, cell cycle signaling and vascular cell migration and proliferation in the pathogenesis of CAD. We prioritized 220 candidate causal genes, combining eight complementary approaches, including 123 supported by three or more approaches. Using CRISPR–Cas9, we experimentally validated the effect of an enhancer in MYO9B, which appears to mediate CAD risk by regulating vascular cell motility. Our analysis identifies and systematically characterizes >250 risk loci for CAD to inform experimental interrogation of putative causal mechanisms for CAD.

The Friedel-Crafts acylation of furan to produce 2-acyl furan by using acetic anhydride is industrially important but it uses highly polluting liquid acids as catalysts. In this study, supported but modified heteropoly acids were used as heterogeneous catalysts in a solventless green process. Metal exchanged dodecatungstophosphoric acid (DTP) was loaded on three different supports, and its effect on acylation was evaluated. 20% w/w Chromium substituted DTP was supported on K-10 clay, SiO2, and ZrO2 using the incipient wetness impregnation method. Cr0.66-DK10 (dodecatungstophosphoric acid on K10) catalyst was found to have excellent activity for Friedel-Crafts acylation of furan. Under optimized condition, the catalyst to furan ratio was 9.6% which is significantly less as per prior art and it gave 88% conversion with 100% selectivity. The characterization of the synthesized catalyst was done using sophisticated techniques, namely, XRD, FT-IR, SEM, TEM, XPS, NH3-TPD, TGA, ICP/OES, and BET. The Eley-Rideal mechanism was used to fit the kinetic data. The apparent activation energy was 18.03 kcal/mol. The catalyst was robust and reusable. The reaction is green and clean because no chlorinated chemicals, reagents, solvent, and polluting catalysts were used.

Visual brand identity plays a major role in communicating brand image in today’s cluttered marketing environment. Although studies related to brand identity elements have explored the effects of its individual elements such as logo, brand name, taglines, their holistic impact has not been fully investigated. Extending the design principles of biomorphism (which is imitating natural or nature-related attributes) from environmental psychology and architecture, we introduce a new holistic concept called biomorphic visual identity and test its influence on consumer responses, including perceived sustainability and perceived credibility, which lead to brand liking and purchase intentions. Findings from the study (a 2 × 2 mixed experimental design with visually manipulated—biomorphic vs. non-biomorphic—fictitious brand identity as stimuli and n = 420) suggest that the biomorphic visual identity of a brand influences marketing outcomes mediated by perceived sustainability and perceived credibility, both of which positively influence consumers’ brand likability and purchase intentions. The results also show that visual biomorphic elements have a higher impact than verbal ones on consumer responses. The idea of biomorphic visual identity introduced in this paper is not just novel and relevant to brand identity design, but is found to influence important marketing outcomes, as well. Furthermore, the mediating and moderating effects tested in this paper make the study conceptually robust. This research may trigger a series of studies on holistic, biomorphic design approach in brand building.

A study was undertaken to assess the morphological variations during the period 1969–2018 in the twenty-one islands in Gulf of Mannar, southeast India, using Survey of India Toposheet, Google Earth images and field survey techniques. The results show that two of the islands have eroded and submerged, fifteen islands area cover has reduced and four have their area expanded during the last 49 years. Overall, the Tuticorin group of islands has experienced the highest percentage of land cover reduction (78.55%), followed by Keelakarai (43.49%), Vembar (36.21%) and Mandapam (21.84%) groups. The exceptions are the four islands of the Mandapam group viz. Hare, Manoli, Krusadai and Shingle, whose area covers have increased (16.44%). A small change in the area of an island induces a greater change in its morphology. From the Island Change Ratio plot, it is observed that islands with an area cover of 10–30 ha have suffered loss of more area cover and undergone mobility from the core area. The constant changes undergone and the mobility exhibited by these islands clearly indicate that they are dynamic. The main factors that are responsible for the current changes in their extent and position are coral mining and sea level rise. Thus, it is clear that the low-lying reef islands of Gulf of Mannar are very dynamic, and that their expansion, loss in area cover and mobility are mainly controlled by coral mining and climate change. Immediate conservation action is necessary to prevent the islands from submergence.

Tenecteplase (TNK-tPA) is a promising third-generation plasminogen activator, because of its greater fibrin specificity and longer half-life than alteplase. There is a paucity of studies on intravenous thrombolysis using TNK-tPA in developing countries. The present study has been undertaken to compare the efficacy and safety of TNK-tPA with alteplase. Two studies were conducted. Study I was an open-label, randomized study in which two doses of TNK-tPA (0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg) were compared. Study II was an open-label study in which TNK-tPA 0.2 mg/kg bolus was compared with historical controls. The primary endpoint for study I and study II was an improvement of ≥ 8 points or a score of 0 on the National Institutes of Health Stroke Scale (NIHSS) [major neurological improvement (MNI)] at 24 h. Secondary endpoints for both studies were neurological improvement as assessed using the NIHSS score, modified Rankin Scale (mRS) score and the Barthel Index (BI) on days 7, 30 and 90. Minimal disability was defined as an mRS score of 0 or 1 and good functional recovery as a BI score of 50–90. Safety was assessed by the proportion of patients having symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage (sICH) within 36 h and asymptomatic intracranial hemorrhage at 48 h after treatment. In study I, 20 patients received 0.1 mg/kg and 30 received 0.2 mg/kg TNK-tPA. There was no significant difference in MNI at 24 h between 0.1 and 0.2 mg/kg TNK-tPA doses. The patients given 0.2 mg/kg TNK-tPA had a significantly better 3-month outcome (minimal disability, p = 0.007). There was no sICH in study I. In study II, 62 patients (one lost to follow-up) received 0.2 mg/kg TNK-tPA. MNI was noted in ten patients (16.4%), 3-month minimal disability was noted in 37 patients (60.7%), and good functional recovery was seen in 33 patients (54.1%). sICH occurred in one patient, and four patients died. Pooled data of patients in study I and study II receiving 0.2 mg/kg TNK-tPA were compared with data from the historical National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) trial. For comparison, the primary endpoint of the NINDS trial (improvement on NIHSS of ≥ 4 points or a score of 0 at 24 h) was taken. The primary endpoint though was not significantly different (58.2% vs. 47%, p = 0.08), but with TNK-tPA, greater neurological improvement, minimal disability (70.3 vs. 39%, p

New Delhi metallo-β-lactamase-1 gene (bla NDM-1 ) codes for New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase-1 (NDM-1) enzyme that cleaves the amide bond of β-lactam ring, and provides resistance against major classes of β-lactam antibiotics. Dissemination of the plasmid borne bla NDM-1 through horizontal gene transfer is a potential threat to the society. In this study, a rapid non-culture method for detecting NDM-1 positive bacteria was developed by Loop Mediated Isothermal Amplification (LAMP) of bla NDM-1 . Sensitivity of this method was found to be one femtogram of plasmid DNA, which translates into 2.6-25.8 copies depending on the size of the plasmid DNA. This method was applied to detect NDM-1 positive bacteria in 81 water samples that were collected from environmental and drinking water sources. NDM-1 positive bacteria were detected in three drinking water samples by LAMP but not by PCR. These three samples were collected from the water sources that were treated with chlorine for decontamination before public distribution. NDM-1 positive bacteria were not detected in lake water samples or in the samples that were collected from the water sources that were purified by reverse osmosis before public distribution. Detection of NDM-1 positive bacteria using LAMP was found to be safe, sensitive and rapid for screening large number of samples from diverse sources. This method could be developed as on-field detection kit by using fluorescent dyes to visualize the amplified bla NDM-1 gene.

The area of wireless sensor network has been a constant source of attention in the research community owing to its potential remote sensing application as well as significant issues associated with almost every applications. Out of various types of issues, coverage and connectivity is one of the unsolved issues till date in wireless sensor network that potentially degrade the efficient performance capability of the applications in wireless sensor network. This paper introduces a graph based coverage and connectivity technique (GCCT) that is aimed to attain better optimization of coverage and connectivity issues in large scale wireless sensor network considering the issues of energy depletion factor. A model is developed considering the radio and energy model of hierarchical routing protocol and a new module is introduced called as super-leader node, which aims to attain energy efficiency at a same time. Simulation results shows substantial energy conservation of GCCT compared to conventional protocols.

A one-pot, multi-component, green, and highly efficient procedure has been developed for synthesis of 4-thiazolidinones. Use of β-cyclodextrin-SO3H as an eco-friendly and recyclable catalyst resulted in excellent yields under solvent-free conditions. This procedure has the advantages of readily available starting materials, short reaction times, high yields, easy workup, broad substrate scope, and use of an environment-friendly catalyst. The catalyst can be recycled with slight loss of its catalytic activity.

Polyaniline thin films doped with an inorganic acid were deposited on glass substrate using simple and cost effective oxidative polymerization technique. As- synthesized thin film of polyaniline was studied with dif- ferent characterization techniques. The formation of polyaniline on glass substrate was confirmed by X-ray diffraction and UV spectroscopy. Surface morphological investigation was performed using scanning electron mi- croscopy. Gas sensing behavior of polyaniline thin film was studied by I-V measurements before and after lique- fied petroleum gas (LPG) exposure at room temperature, based on change in electrical resistance. The observed re- sult shows polyaniline thin film sensor is efficient for LPG detection at room temperature.

Although bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders are not that much uncommon, but incidences of bilateral anterior fracture-dislocation shoulder are relatively rare with about 16 reported cases in the world literature. We report a rare case of bilateral anterior dislocation of the shoulders with bilateral 3-part fracture of the proximal humerus after first time epileptic attack. The diagnosis of bilateral anterior fracture shoulder dislocation was done on the same day of the epileptic injury, and patient had been operated within 48 h of injury. Patient was treated with open reduction and internal fixation through the delto-pectoral approach for both the sides. For right side, fixation was done with proximal humerus locking plate, and for left side, fixation was done with multiple screws with washers. Primary rotator cuff repair was done on both the sides. We had got excellent result in our case report at 1-year follow-up. The literature on this injury is also reviewed.

The kinetics of oxidation of l-lysine by diperiodatoargentate(III) (DPA) in aqueous alkaline medium at a constant ionic strength of 0.50 mol dm−3 was studied spectrophotometrically. The oxidation products are aldehyde, 5-aminopentanal and Ag(I). The main products were identified by spot test, IR and GC-MS. The stoichiometry is [l-lysine]:[DPA] = 1:1. The reaction is first order with respect to diperiodatoargentate(III) concentrations, whereas the order with respect to l-lysine and alkali concentrations changes from first order to zero order as the l-lysine and alkali concentrations are increased. The effects of added products, periodate, ionic strength, and dielectric constant of the reaction medium were investigated. Based on the experimental results, a mechanism involving complex formation between DPA species and l-lysine is proposed. The reaction constants involved in the mechanism were evaluated. The activation parameters with respect to the slow step of the mechanism were determined and discussed.

Many organizations provide dialog-based support through contact centers to sell their products, handle customer issues, and address product-and service-related issues. This is usually provided through voice calls--of late, web-chat based support is gaining prominence. In this paper, we consider any conversational text derived from web-chat systems, voice recognition systems etc., and propose a method to identify procedures that are embedded in the text. We discuss here how to use the identified procedures in knowledge authoring and agent prompting. In our experiments, we evaluate the utility of the proposed method for agent prompting. We first cluster the call transcripts to find groups of conversations that deal with a single topic. Then, we find possible procedure-steps within each topic-cluster by clustering the sentences within each of the calls in the topic-cluster. We propose a measure for differentiating between clusters that are procedure-steps and those that are topical sentence collections. Once we identify procedure-steps, we represent the calls as sequences of procedure-steps and perform mining to extract distinct and long frequent sequences which represent the procedures that are typically followed in calls. We show that the extracted procedures are comprehensive enough. We outline an approach for retrieving relevant procedures for a partially completed call and illustrate the utility of distinct collections of sequences in the real-world scenario of agent prompting using the retrieval mechanism.

The micro amounts of iodide (10−7) (mol dm−3) and chloride (10−2) (mol dm−3) mediated oxidation of antimony(III) by cerium(IV) in an aqueous sulphuric acid medium have been studied spectrophotometrically at 25 °C and μ = 3.10 mol dm−3. The stoichiometry is 1:2 in chloride and iodide mediated reactions. i.e. one mole of antimony(III) requires two moles of cerium(IV). In the case of chloride mediated reaction, the reaction was first order in cerium(IV) and halide concentrations, whereas in the case of iodide mediated reaction the order with respect to [cerium(IV)] was unity and with respect to iodide concentrations was more than unity (ca. 1.4). In both chloride and iodide mediated reactions the order with respect to antimony(III) concentrations was less than unity. Increase in sulphuric acid concentration increased the rate. The order with respect to H+ ion concentration was less than unity. Added products, cerium(III) and antimony(V) did not have any significant effect on the reaction rate. The active species of oxidant was understood to be $$\hbox{H}_{3}\hbox{Ce}(\hbox{SO}_{4})_{4}^{-}$$ , whereas that of reductant as SbCl3 in the case of chloride and SbI2+ in case of iodide mediated reactions. The possible reaction mechanisms were proposed and the activation parameters were determined and discussed.

An important merit of the MPEG-4 video standard is that it not only provided tools and algorithms for enhancing the compression efficiency of existing MPEG-2 and H.263 standards but also contributed key innovative solutions for new multimedia applications such as real-time video streaming to PCs and cell phones over Internet and wireless networks, interactive services, and multimedia access. Many of these solutions are currently used in practice or have been important stepping-stones for new standards and technologies. In this book, we do not aim at providing a complete reference for MPEG-4 video as many excellent references on the topic already exist. Instead, we focus on three topics that we believe formed key innovations of MPEG-4 video and that will continue to serve as an inspiration and basis for new, emerging standards, products, and technologies. The three topics highlighted in this book are object-based coding and scalability, Fine Granularity Scalability, and error resilience tools. Thi...

Accurate models for variable bit rate (VBR) video traffic need to allow for different frame types present in the video, different activity levels for different frames, and a variable group of pictures (GOP) structure. The temporal as well as the stochastic properties of the trace data need to be captured by any models. We propose some models that capture temporal properties of the data using doubly Markov processes and autoregressive models. We highlight the importance of capturing the stochastic properties of the data accurately, as this leads to significant improvement in the performance of the model. In order to capture the stochastic properties of the traces, the probability density function of the trace data needs to be accurately modeled. Hence, the focus of this paper is on creating autoregressive processes with arbitrary probability densities. We relate this to work in wavelet theory on the solutions to two-scale dilation equations. The performance of our model is evaluated in terms of the stochastic properties of the generated trace as well as using network simulations.

Retinoid X receptor (RXR) plays a central role in the regulation of many intracellular receptor signalling pathways and can mediate ligand-dependent transcription, acting as a homodimer or as a heterodimer. Here we identify an antagonist towards RXR homodimers which also functions as an agonist when RXR is paired as a heterodimer to specific partners, including peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor and retinoic acid receptor. This dimer-selective ligand confers differential interactions on the transcription machinery: the antagonist promotes association with TAF110 (TATA-binding protein (TBP)-associated factor 110) and the co-repressor SMRT, but not with TBP, and these properties are distinct from pure RXR agonists. This unique class of RXR ligands will provide a means to control distinct target genes at the level of transcription and allow the development of retinoids with a new pharmacological action.