| 4981. |
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| 4982. |
- Yoshihara, S., et al.
(författare)
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Long-lasting smooth-muscle relaxation by a novel PACAP analogue in human bronchi
- 2004
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Ingår i: Regul Pept. ; 123:1-3, s. 161-5.
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We compared the relaxant effect of original pituitary adenylate cyclase-activating peptide (PACAP)1-27 with that of a newly developed, synthetic PACAP1-27 analogue, [Arg(15,20,21) Leu(17)]-PACAP-Gly-Lys-Arg-NH(2), in human bronchi in vitro (n=4-5 in each group). Using precontraction by carbachol (0.1 muM), cumulative administration of PACAP1-27 and salbutamol caused concentration-dependent smooth muscle relaxation with similar potencies and maximum relaxant effects. Non-cumulative administration of the PACAP1-27 analogue and the original PACAP1-27 caused concentration-dependent relaxation with a similar maximum relaxant effect and potency as well. However, the onset and offset of action was markedly slower for the PACAP1-27 analogue than for the original PACAP1-27 (>90% versus <10% of peak relaxation remaining 5 h after administration). Peptidase inhibition by captopril (10 muM) and phosphoramidon (1 muM) significantly increased the maximum relaxant effect and duration of action of PACAP1-27 but not of the PACAP1-27 analogue, during the 3 h of observation in the human bronchi. We conclude that [Arg(15,20,21) Leu(17)]-PACAP-Gly-Lys-Arg-NH(2) produces significant concentration-dependent and sustained bronchial smooth muscle relaxation in vitro. The sustained relaxant effect is due, at least in part, to the synthetic PACAP1-27 analogue being less susceptible to cleavage by peptidases than the original peptide PACAP1-27.
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| 4983. |
- Young, J. B., et al.
(författare)
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Mortality and morbidity reduction with Candesartan in patients with chronic heart failure and left ventricular systolic dysfunction: results of the CHARM low-left ventricular ejection fraction trials
- 2004
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Ingår i: Circulation. - 1524-4539. ; 110:17, s. 2618-26
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- BACKGROUND: Patients with symptomatic chronic heart failure (CHF) and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) have a high risk of death and hospitalization for CHF deterioration despite therapies with angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors, beta-blockers, and even an aldosterone antagonist. To determine whether the angiotensin-receptor blocker (ARB) candesartan decreases cardiovascular mortality, morbidity, and all-cause mortality in patients with CHF and depressed LVEF, a prespecified analysis of the combined Candesartan in Heart Failure Assessment of Reduction in Mortality and morbidity (CHARM) low LVEF trials was performed. CHARM is a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, multicenter, international trial program. METHODS AND RESULTS: New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II through IV CHF patients with an LVEF of < or =40% were randomized to candesartan or placebo in 2 complementary parallel trials (CHARM-Alternative, for patients who cannot tolerate ACE inhibitors, and CHARM-Added, for patients who were receiving ACE inhibitors). Mortality and morbidity were determined in 4576 low LVEF patients (2289 candesartan and 2287 placebo), titrated as tolerated to a target dose of 32 mg once daily, and observed for 2 to 4 years (median, 40 months). The primary outcome (time to first event by intention to treat) was cardiovascular death or CHF hospitalization for each trial, with all-cause mortality a secondary end point in the pooled analysis of the low LVEF trials. Of the patients in the candesartan group, 817 (35.7%) experienced cardiovascular death or a CHF hospitalization as compared with 944 (41.3%) in the placebo group (HR 0.82; 95% CI 0.74 to 0.90; P<0.001) with reduced risk for both cardiovascular deaths (521 [22.8%] versus 599 [26.2%]; HR 0.84 [95% CI 0.75 to 0.95]; P=0.005) and CHF hospitalizations (516 [22.5%] versus 642 [28.1%]; HR 0.76 [95% CI 0.68 to 0.85]; P<0.001). It is important to note that all-cause mortality also was significantly reduced by candesartan (642 [28.0%] versus 708 [31.0%]; HR 0.88 [95% CI 0.79 to 0.98]; P=0.018). No significant heterogeneity for the beneficial effects of candesartan was found across prespecified and subsequently identified subgroups including treatment with ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, an aldosterone antagonist, or their combinations. The study drug was discontinued because of adverse effects by 23.1% of patients in the candesartan group and 18.8% in the placebo group; the reasons included increased creatinine (7.1% versus 3.5%), hypotension (4.2% versus 2.1%), and hyperkalemia (2.8% versus 0.5%), respectively (all P<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Candesartan significantly reduces all-cause mortality, cardiovascular death, and heart failure hospitalizations in patients with CHF and LVEF < or =40% when added to standard therapies including ACE inhibitors, beta-blockers, and an aldosterone antagonist. Routine monitoring of blood pressure, serum creatinine, and serum potassium is warranted.
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| 4984. |
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Young People, Soap Operas and Reality TV. Yearbook 2004
- 2004
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Samlingsverk (redaktörskap) (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- The transformation of the traditional soap opera into certain more extreme soaps, and the emergence of the recent ‘global’ reality TV formats have whipped up storms of controversy in a great number of countries. Such programmes have also generated worries among adults about how they are received by, and may influence, young viewers – because children from all over the world watch adult programming from an early age. Since research on young people and these fictional genres seriously lags behind, the primary aim of the Yearbook is to stimulate further research on the subject. In order to do so, the Clearinghouse invited scholars from all over the world to contribute their knowledge so far. Thus at the same time, the book gives answers to at least some of the questions on young people, soap operas and reality TV in the public debate.
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| 4985. |
- Yu, H.Y., et al.
(författare)
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Current enhancement with alternating gate voltage in the Coulomb blockade regime of a single wall carbon nanotube
- 2004
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Ingår i: Applied Physics A. - : Springer Science and Business Media LLC. - 0947-8396 .- 1432-0630. ; 79, s. 1613-1615
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- We investigated the current–voltage characteristics of a carbon nanotube in a single electron transistor structure with alternating gate voltage. A continuous current enhancement effect with increasing frequency of the applied gate voltage up to 13 MHz is reported. Assuming that I=nef, more than 1000 electrons are driven to flow across the source–drain channel at VDS=100 mV, 13 MHz of gate voltage (Vp-p=2 V) and T=1.8 K. The continuous current enhancement is explained by the broadening effect of the discrete energy levels of the finite-length carbon nanotube.
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| 4986. |
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| 4987. |
- Zacharaki, E I, et al.
(författare)
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A digital subtraction radiography scheme based on automatic multiresolution registration.
- 2004
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Ingår i: Dento maxillo facial radiology. - : British Institute of Radiology. - 0250-832X. ; 33:6, s. 379-90
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Tidskriftsartikel (refereegranskat)abstract
- OBJECTIVES: To establish a digital subtraction radiography scheme for aligning clinical in vivo radiographs based on the implementations of an automatic geometric registration method and a contrast correction technique. METHODS: Thirty-five pairs of in vivo dental radiographs from four clinical studies were used in this work. First, each image pair was automatically aligned by applying a multiresolution registration strategy using the affine transformation followed by the implementation of the projective transformation at full resolution. Then, a contrast correction technique was applied in order to produce subtraction radiographs and fused images for further clinical evaluation. The performance of the proposed registration method was assessed against a manual method based on the projective transformation. RESULTS: The qualitative assessment of the experiments based on visual inspection has shown advantageous performance of the proposed automatic registration method against the manual method. Furthermore, the quantitative analysis showed statistical difference in terms of the root mean square (RMS) error estimated over the whole images and specific regions of interest. CONCLUSIONS: The proposed automatic geometric registration method is capable of aligning radiographs acquired with or without rigorous a priori standardization. The methodology is pixel-based and does not require the application of any segmentation process prior to alignment. The employed projective transformation provides a reliable model for registering intraoral radiographs. The implemented contrast correction technique sequentially applied provides subtraction radiographs and fused images for clinical evaluation regarding the evolution of a disease or the response to a therapeutic scheme.
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| 4988. |
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| 4989. |
- Zachrisson, Per, 1945
(författare)
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Hunting for development. People, land and wildlife in southern Zimbabwe
- 2004
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Doktorsavhandling (övrigt vetenskapligt/konstnärligt)abstract
- Local communities in Africa, particularly southern Africa with its racially divided land pattern, have seen few economic benefits, apart from subsistence ones, from the region's wildlife during the twentieth century. Commercial, tourist and wildlife interests in the West have part in this development. Too often their main question is, how can wildlife survive, not, how can wildlifte survive amongst poor people? This study explores how a world-known development programme, CAMPFIRE (Communal Areas Management Programme for Indigenous Resources) addresses the question of how poor people can survive amongst wildlife in southern Zimbabwe. The aim of the study is to explore and illuminate the specific contexts of local resource use, survival strategies and discriminatory state interventions into which CAMPFIRE enters and to investigate local peoples' perception of the programme, its idea and practice from their situatedness. They study argues that the fate of the programme is to a large extent decided by local peoples' historically shaped and culturally mediated perception of land, wildlife an development together with their utilitarian calculation of wildlife compared with other natural resources. The study is divided into three parts. PART ONE problematizes fieldwork amongst disadvataged people and explores the reasons for this disadvatageness, which is particularly a colonial legacy of land and natural resources discrimination. The focus is on how the present-day fractured communities of Sotho, Venda, and Ndebele in Gwanda South evolved out of a colonial frontier and how they were able to adjust to the new circumstances. In PART TWO, the focus is on the present people ('inheritors of the land'), in Hwali ward and Patana village targeted for development under the CAMPFIRE programme. The situatedness of their communities on the land, their social networks, socio-economic chracteristics, their livelihoods, their leaders and local knowledge and the voices of their inhabitants mirror some of the circumstances of living off the land. PART THREE deals specifically with the impact of colonial rule, Western ideas on African wilderness put into practice and 'development' in the form of the CAMPFIRE programme on the population and their livelihoods. People's interactions and views on CAMPFIRE, its conceptualization of wildlife management in order to 'develop' the people and their land are represented with the help of six 'revelatory incidents' and three 'diagnostic events'. Powerlessness is a problem for the implementation of development. In the concluding chapter the question of power and empowerment in sustainable natural resource use is focused on. The question of international contestations over the use of African wildlife and what 'globalisation' of indigenous natural resources may entail for the people in Gwanda South are examined. The study ends by pointing out that indigenization of natural resources in Gwanda South, as elsewhere in Africa, is not only about equity and democracy, but it is also about getting rid of a perpetuated colonial legacy of dominant Western interests and views on how to best utilize local African resources for the benefit of outsiders.
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| 4990. |
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