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AbstractStrategies for favoring close others, such as friends and in-group members, benefit individuals and society. Although younger and older children apply these sharing strategies, how they integrate these relationships remain understudied. Friendship and group membership sometimes conflict (e.g. a friend from another, even a rival group), driving the question of how children behave in such situations. To address this question, this preregistered study recruited 121 4–6-year-olds and 94 9–12-year-olds from a middle-class community in China. A 2 (friend vs. stranger) by 2 (in vs. out-group) between-subjects design was applied per age group. Participants were asked to share seven objects with a recipient, who was either a stranger, or a previously nominated friend and from an in- or out-group (manipulated in the Minimal Group Paradigm). The results showed that children in both age groups shared more with friends than with strangers. However, only 4–6-year-olds shared more resources with in-group members than with out-group ones. Moreover, 4–6-year-olds did not distinguish between an out-group friend and an in-group stranger, while 9–12-year-olds shared more with an out-group friend relative to an ingroup stranger, indicating that friendship outweighs minimal group membership only among 9–12-year-olds. Furthermore, there was an interaction between age and minimal group membership, implying a decrease in the minimal group effect between 4–6-year-olds and 9–12-year-olds. Accordingly, the implications of friendship and minimal group effects, and their relative influence on sharing during childhood are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The composition-dependent crystal and defect structures, and superconducting properties of Nb 1+ x Se 2 (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.09) polycrystalline samples were revealed by x-ray diffraction, electrical resistivity, magnetization and specific-heat measurements. Stacking-disordered structures were characterized by gradually broadened and weakened (h 0 l) reflections: disordered 2H a structure for x ≤ 0.04 and 2H b + 3R mixed-layer structure for x ≥ 0.05. Superconducting transition temperature (T c) is 7.3 K in pristine NbSe 2 , which decreases with increasing the content of interstitial-Nb (Nb int), down to below 2 K in x = 0.09. The lowered T c originates from the decreased electron-phonon coupling and density of states at the Fermi level E F. Upper critical field μ 0 H c2 of all samples evidently exceed the Pauli limit except for pristine NbSe 2. μ 0 H c2 , irreversible field μ 0 H irr and critical current density J c are all raised in slight-Nb int samples compared with NbSe 2. The enhancements are due to the increase in charge carrier scattering and vortex pinning by Nb int impurity and stacking disorders. These results indicate that minor nonmagnetic impurity doping could improve the current-carrying capacity under the premise of small impact on T c , which thus is a promising strategy to develop high-field superconducting magnets. • Stacking-disordered structures were observed in non-stoichiometric Nb 1+ x Se 2. • Superconducting transition temperature T c decreases with increasing the content of interstitial-Nb (Nb int). • The reduced electron-phonon coupling and density of states are responsible for the decrease in T c. • Upper critical field H c2 , irreversible field H irr and critical current density J c were raised by slight addition of Nb int. • The improvement of H c2 , H irr and J c is attributed to the boosted charge carrier scattering and strengthened vortex pinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Passive video forensics has drawn much attention in recent years. However, research on detection of object-based forgery, especially for forged video encoded with advanced codec frameworks, is still a great challenge. In this paper, we propose a deep learning-based approach to detect object-based forgery in the advanced video. The presented deep learning approach utilizes a convolutional neural network (CNN) to automatically extract high-dimension features from the input image patches. Different from the traditional CNN models used in computer vision domain, we let video frames go through three preprocessing layers before being fed into our CNNmodel. They include a frame absolute difference layer to cut down temporal redundancy between video frames, a max pooling layer to reduce computational complexity of image convolution, and a high-pass filter layer to enhance the residual signal left by video forgery. In addition, an asymmetric data augmentation strategy has been established to get a similar number of positive and negative image patches before the training. The experiments have demonstrated that the proposed CNN-based model with the preprocessing layers has achieved excellent results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

HCN4 is a hyperpolarization-activated nucleotide-gated cation channel involved in the generation of the If current that drives cardiac pacemaker activity. Previous studies have demonstrated that HCN4 is highly expressed in a restricted manner in adult sinoatrial (SA) node [Eur. J. Biochem. 268 (2001) 1646]. However, its developmental expression pattern is unknown. We have examined expression of HCN4 mRNA during mouse heart development. HCN4 mRNA was first detected in the cardiac crescent at embryonic day (ED) 7.5. At ED 8 it was symmetrically located in the most caudal portion of the heart tube, the sinus venosus where pacemaker activity has previously been reported [Am. J. Physiol. 212 (1967) 407]. With further development, HCN4 expression became asymmetrically distributed, occupying the dorsal wall of the right atria, and was progressively restricted to the junction of the right atrial appendage and the superior vena cava. The site of HCN4 expression in late embryonic heart coincided with the location of the SA node in postnatal and adult heart [Cardiovasc. Res. 52 (2001) 51]. Our results suggest that HCN4 may be a unique marker of the developing SA node. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Injecting supercritical CO2 into gas reservoir is a novel trial to improve condensate gas recovery and decrease the hydrocarbon liquid dropout. A good understanding of the effect of supercritical CO2 on the phase behavior properties of these hydrocarbons is essential for accurately forecasting the displacing performance and storing process of the reservoirs with numerical simulators. This paper presents novel phase behavior experimental procedures and phase equilibrium evaluation methodology for gas-condensate phase system mixed with supercritical CO2 over a wide range of temperatures and pressures. A unique phase behavior phenomena was also reported. The mass transfer between two vapour phases was also measured. In order to interpret and identify the interface property between condensate gas and supercritical CO2, a multiphase thermodynamic VLV equilibrium model was established. Finally, taken YKL condensate gas in Northwest China as an example, the region where the conditions in terms of pressure, temperature and CO2 concentration can yield VLV equilibrium was found. The calculation results of multiphase thermodynamic model for condensate-CO2 system in this paper are close to the experimental data and can truthfully reflect the phase behavior of interface between CO2 and condensate gas. The research results indicate that it is the existence of the interface between CO2 and condensate gas that makes CO2 possible be an attractive option to successfully displace condensate gas and decrease CO2 emissions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: We aimed to study the effect of cariporide (CP) on protecting the saphenous vein and the role of acetaldehyde dehydrogenase 2 (ALDH2) in coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Background: The saphenous vein is the main graft material used in CABG. Recent studies suggested that CP is effective in protecting against various cardiovascular diseases. Methods: Segments of a surgically removed saphenous vein were used to examine the vascular response to CP. The ALDH2 genotype and expression of related proteins were assessed by Western blotting and immunohistochemistry. Results: Among the conditions tested, the University of Wisconsin solution with CP (4°C, 5 min) treatment showed the best protective effect on the saphenous vein. The incidence of major adverse cardiac events was higher in the ALDH2-GA (heterozygous mutant) genotype population after CABG. Conclusion: CP plays a role in reducing the production of reactive oxygen species and apoptosis by ALDH2-mediated mitochondrial function improvement. The ALDH2 mutant genotype might be one of the risk factors for coronary atherosclerotic heart disease. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the DBR all-visible mercury-free high-temperature and high-pressure multifunctional formation fluid PVT analyzer developed and produced by Schlumberger company is used to conduct an experimental study on phase behavior characteristics of one offshore high CO2 condensate gas wells. The experiments include two-phase flash experiment, constant composition expansion experiment (CCE experiment), and constant volume depletion experiment (CVD experiment). Experimental results show that the higher the CO2 content in the condensate gas system, the higher the gas-oil ratio of condensate gas, the greater the density of condensate oil, the higher the dew point pressure of condensate gas, the greater the relative volume of condensate gas, the smaller the amount of retrograde condensate oil. And the higher the CO2 content in the condensate gas system, the phase diagram is shifted to the left and up, the critical point of the phase diagram is shifted to the lower left, the smaller the area of the two-phase envelope, the lighter the condensate gas system, the condensate oil recovery is higher. The above experimental results revealed that CO2 is well soluble with condensate gas, the expansion capacity of the condensate gas system was slightly enhanced, and because CO2 has a good extraction capacity, the light components of condensate gas were constantly extracted, the retrograde condensate rate of condensate oil decreases, and the maximum retrograde condensate volume also decreased. However, the condensate oil was produced along with the natural gas, and the higher the CO2 content, the stronger the extraction, the more condensate oil was produced. It is mainly because CO2 has the strong gasification and extraction capacity, on the one hand, the retrograde condensation of condensate gas was inhibited, and on the other hand, reverse evaporation of condensate oil was enhanced. The above experimental results indicate the law of the effect of CO2 on the phase behavior characteristics of condensate gas reservoirs, providing theoretical basis and guidance for the efficient development of condensate gas reservoirs at sea. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

While existing watermarking attack methods can disturb the correct extraction of watermark information, the visual quality of watermarked images will be greatly damaged. Therefore, a concealed attack based on generative adversarial network and perceptual losses for robust watermarking is proposed. First, the watermarked image is utilized as the input of generative networks, and its generating target (i.e. attacked watermarked image) is the original image. Inspired by the U-Net network, the generative networks consist of encoder-decoder architecture with skip connection, which can combine the low-level and high-level information to ensure the imperceptibility of the generated image. Next, to further improve the imperceptibility of the generated image, instead of the loss function based on MSE, a perceptual loss based on feature extraction is introduced. In addition, a discriminative network is also introduced to make the appearance and distribution of generated image similar to those of the original image. The addition of the discriminative network can remove watermark information effectively. Extensive experiments are conducted to verify the feasibility of the proposed concealed attack method. Experimental and analysis results demonstrate that the proposed concealed attack method has better imperceptibility and attack ability in comparison to the existing watermarking attack methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A complete Co doping range up to its solid solubility limit in FeSe have been successfully grown. • The typical lateral size of Fe 1-x Co x Se single crystals is 1–5 mm. • All the samples show metalic behaviour in contrast to a metal insulator transition of Cu doped FeSe. A series of tetragonal Fe 1-x Co x Se single crystals with a complete Co doping range (0 ≤ x ≤ 0.52) up to its solid solubility limit in FeSe have been grown by an eutectic AlCl 3 /KCl molten salt method. The typical lateral size of as-grown Fe 1-x Co x Se single crystals is 1–5 mm. The chemical composition and homogeneity of the crystals was examined by both inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer. X-ray diffraction analysis demonstrates that the crystal lattice parameters a and c are both linearly decreased with increasing Co doping level x. In the whole doping range, all the samples show metallic behaviour in contrast to a metal insulator transition of Cu-doped FeSe according to the resistivity measurements. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the development of tight gas reservoir, the irreducible water saturation, rock permeability, and relative permeability change with formation pressure, which has a significant impact on well production. Based on capillary bundle model and fractal theory, the irreducible water saturation model, permeability model, and relative permeability model are constructed considering the influence of water film and stress sensitivity at the same time. The accuracy of this model is verified by results of nuclear magnetic experiment and comparison with previous models. The effects of some factors on irreducible water saturation, permeability, and relative permeability curves are discussed. The results show that the stress sensitivity will obviously reduce the formation permeability and increase the irreducible water saturation, and the existence of water film will reduce the permeability of gas phase. The increase of elastic modulus weakens the stress sensitivity of reservoir. The irreducible water saturation increases, and the relative permeability curve changes little with the increase of effective stress. When the minimum pore radius is constant, the ratio of maximum pore radius to minimum pore radius increases, the permeability increases, the irreducible water saturation decreases obviously, and the two-phase flow interval of relative permeability curve increases. When the displacement pressure increases, the irreducible water saturation decreases, and the interval of two-phase flow increases. These models can calculate the irreducible water saturation, permeability and relative permeability curves under any pressure in the development of tight gas reservoir. The findings of this study can help for better understanding of the productivity evaluation and performance prediction of tight sandstone gas reservoirs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Hearts of mice lacking Isl1, a LIM homeodomain transcription factor, are completely missing the outflow tract, right ventricle, and much of the atria. isl1 expression and lineage tracing of isl1-expressing progenitors demonstrate that Isl1 is a marker for a distinct population of undifferentiated cardiac progenitors that give rise to the cardiac segments missing in isl1 mutants. Isl1 function is required for these progenitors to contribute to the heart. In isl1 mutants, isl1-expressing progenitors are progressively reduced in number, and FGF and BMP growth factors are downregulated. Our studies define two sets of cardiogenic precursors, one of which expresses and requires Isl1 and the other of which does not. Our results have implications for the development of specific cardiac lineages, left-right asymmetry, cardiac evolution, and isolation of cardiac progenitor cells. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Hexagonal Cu 6 GeWSe 8 (H -phase) with an intermediate band gap has been reported lately. In this paper, we show a low-temperature face-centered-cubic modification of Cu 6 GeWSe 8 (C -phase), which crystallizes in the noncentrosymmetric space group F -43 m with four formula in the cell of dimension a = 11.1372(2) Å. In the C -phase, double layers organized by Me Se 4 (Me = Cu, Ge and W) tetrahedra alternately stack along the <111> direction. A weakly first-order or nearly second-order displacive phase transition from cubic to hexagonal polytypes undergoes initially at ∼ 440 °C upon increasing temperature. Electrical resistivity and Seebeck coefficient reveal a semiconductor-like conduction with holes as the predominant charge carriers. The semiconductivity is also supported by the almost zero electronic specific-heat coefficient γ. The mechanism of thermal conduction was analyzed by abstracting electronic and lattice thermal conductivities through thermal transport measurement and meanwhile the thermoelectric properties were characterized. The differences in band structures and formation energy between the two variants were studied by ab - initio calculations, which indicate that the H -phase is a semiconductor and the C -phase is a semimetal with low density of states, and the hexagonal modification is comparatively stable. The cubic polytype of Cu 6 GeWSe 8 expands the Cu-Ge-W-Se system. A stereo phase diagram making reviews on the rich materials, and multiple crystallographic and electronic states in this system was established, which would be helpful to guide for seeking new materials and to probe the interplay between polymorphism and property in chalcogenide family. • A new polymorph of Cu 6 GeWSe 8 with a face-centered-cubic structure was reported. • A structural transition from C - to H -phase undergoes around 440 °C. • The cubic Cu 6 GeWSe 8 shows semiconductor-like behavior with holes as the main carriers. • The electronic structures were studied by ab - initio calculations. • A physical-property-based phase diagram of Cu-Ge-W-Se system was established. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here we report a tungsten silicophosphide W 3 Si 2 P isostructural and isoelectronic to Mo 3 Si 2 P, which was prepared by heating the constituent elements at 1170 °C. It adopts a nonsymmorphic lattice with a -glide symmetry (noncentrosymmetric space group Ama 2). The electrical and thermal transport properties were characterized by electrical resistivity, Seebeck effect and thermal conductivity (κ). W 3 Si 2 P shows metallic conduction following the Bloch-Grüneisen-Mott model with holes as the main carriers, which is also supported by ab - initio calculations. Electronic and lattice κ make comparable contributions to the thermal conduction at high temperatures, while the electronic component dominates at low temperatures. Electronic-structure calculations reveal that the W 5 d orbits govern the bands near the Fermi level, in which 5 d x 2 − y 2 orbital electrons take the maximal occupation. As the first genuine ternary compound in W–Si–P family, it might be a novelty playground to probe the underlying electronic physics related to crystallographic symmetry. A tabulation summarizes the compounds in W–Si–P system, and reviews on their structural and physical properties were made to build a comprehensive understanding of this system. The synthesized W 3 Si 2 P adopts an orthorhombic structure consisting of (W1)Si 2 P 3 trigonal bipyramids and (W2)Si 5 P 2 convex octahedra, which exhibits metallicity with holes as the major carriers. Electronic and lattice κ make comparable contributions to the thermal conduction. [Display omitted] • A tungsten silicophosphide W 3 Si 2 P adopting the space group Ama 2 was prepared. • W 3 Si 2 P exhibits metallic conduction with holes as the main charge carriers. • W 5 d orbital electrons govern the bands and density of states near the Fermi level. • The thermal transport was analyzed by thermal conductivity measurement. • A review on the compounds in W–Si–P system has been made. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The composition homogeneous CuFeSe 2 single crystals with 1.6 × 1.2 × 1.0 mm3 in size are successfully grown. • The intrinsic ferrimagnetic transition occurs below T C = 146 K without other magnetic impurity interference. • An abrupt increase of resistivity below T C revealing a semiconducting behavior. An eutectic AlCl 3 /KCl molten salt method in a horizontal configuration was employed to grow millimeter-sized and composition homogeneous CuFeSe 2 single crystals due to the continuous growth process in a temperature gradient induced solution convection. The typical as-grown CuFeSe 2 single crystals in cubic forms are nearly 1.6 × 1.2 × 1.0 mm3 in size. The chemical composition and homogeneity of the crystals was examined by both inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy and energy dispersive spectrometer with Cu:Fe:Se = 0.96:1.00:1.99 consistent with the stoichiometric composition of CuFeSe 2. The magnetic measurements suggest a ferrimagnetic or weak ferromagnetic transition below T C = 146 K and the resistivity reveals a semiconducting behavior and an abrupt increase below T C. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reversible data hiding (RDH) has unique advantage in copyright and integrity protection for multimedia contents. As a typical RDH scheme, histogram shifting technique (HS) has found wide applications due to its high quality of marked image. At present, most existing HS-based RDH schemes rely on single histogram generated from cover image to hide data. Since the single histogram-based approach (SH_RDH) commonly employs smooth regions in the cover image for data hiding, it might not well utilize the cover image and exploit the correlations among image contents of different texture characteristics. In this paper, a novel RDH general framework using multiple histograms modification (MH_RDH) is proposed, which involves two key issues as follows: 1) the construction of multiple histograms based on optimized multi-features and 2) the rate allocation among multiple histograms is formulated as the one of rate-distortion optimization and solved with evolutionary algorithms. The experimental results show that the proposed method could considerably increase the payload of current MH_RDH-based embedding (ranging from 0.2 to 0.7 bpp for most test images) and outperform the other state-of-the-art SH_RDH and MH_RDH schemes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Highlights • Employ FCM clustering to build multiple closely correlated carriers for MH_RDH. • Attempt to apply machine learning algorithm to reversible data hiding applications. • Effectively represent each pixel with a set of features, which will be used in FCM. • Optimize the hyper parameters in clustering process for better performance in MH_RDH. • Experimental results show the superiority of our FCM based MH_RDH. Abstract Reversible data hiding algorithm (RDH) has been widely used in multimedia's copyright protection and content integrity authentication. As a typical RDH scheme, histogram shifting (HS) is extensively investigated due to its high quality of stego-image. Most existing HS based RDH schemes utilize prediction and sorting techniques to build single sharp histogram, which exploit the smooth areas in cover image for data hiding. To take advantages of the correlation among image contents of different texture characteristics, several multiple histograms based RDHs (MH_RDH) are proposed recently, which resort on some rigid rules, e.g. single feature based sorting followed by uniform segmentation of sorted sequence, to construct the multiple histograms. In this paper, the clustering algorithm, i.e. Fuzzy C-means (FCM) clustering, is introduced for the construction of multiple histograms. The FCM equipped with deliberately designed features is employed to classify the cover carriers, e.g. prediction errors, into different clusters with similar traits, which are then used to build the multiple histograms for efficient data embedding. Experimental results demonstrate the superior performance of the proposed scheme over other state-of-the-art ones. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• The ridge regression predictor is utilized to minimize the sum of squared residuals between the prediction pixels and the target pixels for reducing prediction error. • The ridge regression predictor only decreases the weights of abnormal samples and weakens the influence of abnormal samples on prediction, avoiding the overfitting phenomenon. • the proposed method also selects the nearest neighbouring pixel around the target pixels as the training sets and the supported sets of ridge regression predictor, which further improves the prediction accuracy. An effective error prediction algorithm is the key to improving the embedding performance of reversible data hiding schemes. In this paper, high-performance ridge regression predictor-based reversible data hiding (RDH) is proposed. The ridge regression predictor is an adaptive predictor that adds L2 regularisation to minimise the residual sum of squares between the prediction pixels and the target pixels. The L2 norm as a penalty function decreases the weights for the prediction coefficients of unimportant pixels. In other words, the ridge regression predictor limits prediction coefficients that have negative or no influence on predicting the target pixels (abnormal samples). The ridge regression predictor allows the prediction coefficients to be small, which avoids the overfitting problem and enhances tamper-resistance and generalisation ability. In addition, to increase the prediction accuracy of the ridge regression predictor, the proposed method employs small samples to obtain more accurate prediction values. The neighbouring pixels closest to the target pixels are selected as the training sets and supported sets during the prediction process. In summary, the ridge regression predictor can generate an error plane that is more suitable for embedding, thereby improving the embedding performance of RDH. Extensive experimental results also show that the proposed method is superior to the state-of-the-art RDH schemes in terms of prediction accuracy and embedding performance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Limited experiences of applying an on-pump beating-heart technique for surgical revascularization in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction have been reported. Which strategy, either off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG) or on-pump beating-heart CABG surgery, is the best strategy for surgical revascularization in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction is still controversial. This single-center study aimed to evaluate the impacts of an on-pump beating-heart versus an off-pump technique for surgical revascularization on the early clinical outcomes in patients with a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 35% or less to explore which technique would be more suitable for surgical revascularization in patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction.Methods: A total of 216 consecutive patients with an echocardiographic estimated LVEF of 35% or less who underwent non-emergency, primary, isolated CABG from January 2010 to December 2014 were included in this study and were divided into either an ONBEAT group (patients who received on-pump beating-heart CABG surgery, n = 88) or an OFF group (patients who received off-pump CABG surgery, n = 128). The early clinical outcomes were investigated and compared.Results: Patients in the ONBEAT group compared to the OFF group had a significant higher early postoperative LVEF (35.6 ± 2.9 vs. 34.8 ± 3.3%, p = 0.034) but shared a similar baseline LVEF (31.0 ± 2.8 vs. 31.0 ± 2.9%, p = 0.930). Patients in the ONBEAT group compared to the OFF group received a greater number of grafts and an increased amount of drainage during the first 24 h (3.7 ± 0.8 vs. 2.8 ± 0.6, p <0.001; 715 ± 187 ml vs. 520 ± 148 ml, p <0.001, respectively), without evidence of worse in-hospital mortality or major postoperative morbidity. Additionally, logistic regression analysis showed that surgical technique (on-pump beating-heart CABG vs. off-pump CABG) had no independent influence on in-hospital mortality or major postoperative morbidity in patients with preoperative LVEF of 35% or less.Conclusions: The on-pump beating-heart technique may be an acceptable alternative to the off-pump technique for surgical revascularization in patients with an estimated LVEF of 35% or less. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Mild preoperative renal insufficiency is not rare in patients receiving isolated off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting surgery (OPCAB) surgery. However, there is less study aimed to evaluate the impact of mild preoperative renal insufficiency on in-hospital and follow-up outcomes after isolated OPCAB surgery. This single-centre, retrospective propensity score matching study aimed to evaluate the impact of mild preoperative renal insufficiency on in-hospital and long-term outcomes after first isolated OPCAB surgery.Methods: After propensity score matching, 1236 patients with preoperative estimated glomerular filtration rate (eGFR) of more than 60 ml/min/1.73 m(2) undergoing first isolated OPCAB surgery from January 2007 to December 2011 were entered into this study and were divided to normal group (eGFR ≥ 90 ml/min/1.73 m(2), n = 618) and mild group (eGFR of 60-89 ml/min/1.73 m(2), n = 618). The in-hospital and long-term outcomes were investigated and retrospectively analyzed.Results: The 2 propensity score-matched groups had similar baseline and procedural characteristics except the baseline eGFR. Thirty-five patients died during the same hospitalization or within 30 days of operation, with a surgical mortality of 2.8 %. Sixty-seven patients died during follow-up, with a long-term survival of 94.1 %. Univariate factor analysis showed that the 2 propensity score-matched groups have similar rates among in-hospital outcomes. Kaplan-Meier curves displayed a similar in-hospital survival between the 2 groups (χ(2) = 0.728, p = 0.393), while a better long-term survival in patients with normal preoperative renal function compared with mild preoperative renal insufficiency (χ(2) = 4.722, p = 0.030). After Cox proportional model was used, the hazard ratio for long-term mortality in patients with mild preoperative renal insufficiency compared with normal preoperative renal function was 1.72 (95 % CI 1.06-2.83, p = 0.032).Conclusions: Mild preoperative renal insufficiency compared with normal preoperative renal function reduced long-term survival, without evidence of worse in-hospital outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: An intra-aortic balloon pump (IABP) is the most commonly used circulatory assist device in cardiac surgery. We hypothesized that prophylactic application of an IABP improves early clinical outcome of high-risk patients undergoing scheduled off-pump coronary artery bypass grafting (OPCABG). Methods: From January 2010 to December 2013, hemodynamically stable, high-risk patients undergoing scheduled OPCABG with preincision use of an IABP were recruited to the IABP group. Using the propensity score-matching method, every patient in the IABP group was matched with another patient (the control group) with a similar propensity score who received an IABP on an as-needed basis during or after OPCABG. Surgical mortality and major morbidity rates were compared between groups. Results: A total of 116 patient pairs were included in this study. In patients in the IABP group, postoperative low cardiac output and respiratory as well as renal failure were less frequent, intensive care unit stay was shorter, and surgical mortality was lower compared to patients in the control group. In multivariate logistic regression, timing of IABP implantation, as an independent risk factor, was associated with postoperative low cardiac output (OR = 2.02, 95% CI 1.28-5.76), respiratory failure (OR = 1.86, 95% CI 1.19-4.27), renal failure (OR = 2.96, 95% CI 1.51-6.63) and surgical mortality (OR = 2.45, 95% CI 1.42-6.07). Conclusions: Prophylactic application of an IABP improves postoperative cardiac performance, reduces respiratory and renal complications, and consequently lowers surgical mortality in high-risk patients undergoing scheduled OPCABG. © 2015 S. Karger AG, Basel [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The design and synthesis of two closely related series of prostacyclin receptor agonist compounds that showed excellent human IP receptor potency and efficacy is described. Compounds from this series showed in vivo activity after SC dosing in the monocrotaline model of PAH in rat. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: We have evaluated the anti-platelet and vascular pharmacology of AR246686, a novel 5-hydroxytryptamine2A (5-HT2A) receptor antagonist. AR246686 displayed high affinity binding to membranes of HEK cells stably expressing recombinant human and rat 5-HT2A receptors (K i =0.2 nM and 0.4 nM, respectively). Functional antagonism (IC50 =1.9 nM) with AR246686 was determined by inhibition of ligand-independent inositol phosphate accumulation in the 5-HT2A stable cell line. We observed 8.7-fold and 1360-fold higher affinity of AR246686 for the 5-HT2A receptor vs. 5-HT2C and 5-HT2B receptors, respectively. AR246686 inhibited 5-HT-induced amplification of ADP-stimulated human platelet aggregation (IC50 =21 nM). Similar potency was observed for inhibition of 5-HT stimulated DNA synthesis in rat aortic smooth muscle cells (IC50 =10 nM) and 5-HT-mediated contraction in rat aortic rings. Effects of AR246686 on arterial thrombosis and bleeding time were studied in a rat model of femoral artery occlusion. Oral dosing of AR246686 to rats resulted in prolongation of time to occlusion at 1 mg/kg, whereas increased bleeding time was observed at a dose of 20 mg/kg. In contrast, both bleeding time and time to occlusion were increased at the same dose (10 mg/kg) of clopidogrel. These results demonstrate that AR246686 is a high affinity 5-HT2A receptor antagonist with potent activity on platelets and vascular smooth muscle. Further, oral administration results in anti-thrombotic effects at doses that are free of significant effects on traumatic bleeding time. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]