The results check details also indicate that PCB exposure is accompanied by reduced PON1 activity that could impair the HDL function to protect against oxidation. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.”
“In this paper, domain switching
in ferroelectric ceramics near the morphotropic phase boundary (MPB), where tetragonal phase and rhombohedral phase coexist, is analyzed by a micromechanical model using an inverse-pole-figure (IPF) method. Charge screening effect in ferroelectric ceramics is taken into account, thus the depolarization field by polarization switching vanishes. The mechanical constraint caused by non-180 degrees switching, however, cannot be neglected and is assumed to be proportional to the switching strain caused by non-180 degrees domain switching with a factor PLX3397 cost beta as the measure of the constrained level. Using the IPF method, the domain switching induced polarization and strain can be explicitly obtained via integrations over the unit spherical surface. Two limiting cases are studied in this paper, i.e., the energy barrier for the interphase non-180 degrees domain switching is equal to or much larger than that for the in-phase non-180
degrees switching. In the former case, it is found that domains always tend to switch to the rhombohedral phase especially when the constrained level is high, i.e., at a large value of beta. If the mechanical constraint is neglected, i.e., beta = 0, the maximum achievable polarization and strain can be analytically obtained in this case. While in the latter case, interphase domain switching is suppressed, thus TH-302 ic50 domain switching
in MPB ceramics is only a superposition of independent in-phase domain switching in tetragonal ceramics and rhombohedral ceramics. (c) 2009 American Institute of Physics. [DOI: 10.1063/1.3153282]“
“Purpose: Some implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are now able to monitor intrathoracic impedance. The aim of the study was to describe the use of such monitoring in clinical practice and to evaluate the clinical impact of the fluid accumulation alert feature of these ICDs.
Methods and Results: Five hundred thirty-two heart failure (HF) patients implanted with these ICDs were followed up for 11 +/- 7 months. A clinical event (CE) was deemed to have occurred if it resulted in hospitalization or milder manifestations of HF deterioration. Three hundred sixty-two acute decreases in intrathoracic impedance (Z events) occurred in 230 patients. Of these episodes, 171 (47%) were associated with a CE within 2 weeks of the Z event. In another 71 (20%) Z events, drug therapy was adjusted despite the absence of overt signs of clinical deterioration. The rate of unexplained Z events was 0.25 per patient-year and 25 hospitalizations were not associated with Z events. The audible alert was disabled in a group of 102 patients (OFF group). HF hospitalizations occurred in 29 (7%) patients in the ON group and 20 (20%, P < 0.001) patients in the OFF group.