Kidney Injury Caused by Preeclamptic Pregnancy Recovers Postpartum in a Transgenic Rat Model

Preeclampsia (PE) is characterized by the onset of hypertension (≥140/90 mmHg) and presence of proteinuria (>300 mg/L/24 h urine) or other maternal organ dysfunctions. During human PE, renal injuries have been observed. Some studies suggest that women with PE diagnosis have an increased risk to develop renal diseases later in life. However, in human studies PE as a single cause of this development cannot be investigated. Here, we aimed to investigate the effect of PE on postpartum renal damage in an established transgenic PE rat model. Female rats harboring the human-angiotensinogen gene develop a preeclamptic phenotype after mating with male rats harboring the human-renin gene, but are normotensive before and after pregnancy. During pregnancy PE rats developed mild tubular and glomerular changes assessed by histologic analysis, increased gene expression of renal damage markers such as kidney injury marker 1 and connective-tissue growth factor, and albuminuria compared to female wild-type rats (WT). However, four weeks postpartum, most PE-related renal pathologies were absent, including albuminuria and elevated biomarker expression. Only mild enlargement of the glomerular tuft could be detected. Overall, the glomerular and tubular function were affected during pregnancy in the transgenic PE rat. However, almost all these pathologies observed during PE recovered postpartum.     

Impact of DICER1 and DROSHA on the Angiogenic Capacity of Human Endothelial Cells

RNAi-mediated knockdown of DICER1 and DROSHA, enzymes critically involved in miRNA biogenesis, has been postulated to affect the homeostasis and the angiogenic capacity of human endothelial cells. To re-evaluate this issue, we reduced the expression of DICER1 or DROSHA by RNAi-mediated knockdown and subsequently investigated the effect of these interventions on the angiogenic capacity of human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVEC) in vitro (proliferation, migration, tube formation, endothelial cell spheroid sprouting) and in a HUVEC xenograft assay in immune incompetent NSG^TM mice in vivo. In contrast to previous reports, neither knockdown of DICER1 nor knockdown of DROSHA profoundly affected migration or tube formation of HUVEC or the angiogenic capacity of HUVEC in vivo. Furthermore, knockdown of DICER1 and the combined knockdown of DICER1 and DROSHA tended to increase VEGF-induced BrdU incorporation and induced angiogenic sprouting from HUVEC spheroids. Consistent with these observations, global proteomic analyses showed that knockdown of DICER1 or DROSHA only moderately altered HUVEC protein expression profiles but additively reduced, for example, expression of the angiogenesis inhibitor thrombospondin-1. In conclusion, global reduction of miRNA biogenesis by knockdown of DICER1 or DROSHA does not inhibit the angiogenic capacity of HUVEC. Further studies are therefore needed to elucidate the influence of these enzymes in the context of human endothelial cell-related angiogenesis.     

Octet error probability analysis of ADSL–DMT codewords

This paper presents an analytical investigation of the octet error probability of ADSL codewords under the impact of white Gaussian noise. It is shown that the assumption of independent bit errors which can be found in the literature is invalid in this case. Instead, as a novel method, bitgroups from DMT subcarriers contributing to a particular octet are analyzed. Typical bitgroup types are discussed with regard to their error probability. Finally, proposals for applying these results in optimized system solutions are derived.     

Detecting landscape forms using Fourier transformation and singular value decomposition (SVD)

Landscape structure is a main determinant of ecological landscape potentials. The basic differentiation of relief into depressions and elevations at deliberately chosen scales can be managed comfortably by the Fourier transformation. The automated extraction of these structures from an elevation map using Fourier transformation or singular value decomposition can help to overcome complicated and errorprone procedures based on the determination of numerical structure parameters such as slope and aspect. The combination of automated extraction methods and moving window technology can lead to further, more integrated insights related to complex landscape patterns.     

从过程价值的角度出发对集成的客户方案进行定价

Integrating products and services to customized solutions can help firms to differentiate from their competitors. In practice, however, various companies fall short in extracting value from their customers. Therefore this paper focuses on pricing aspects as central means for value appropriation in the context of solutions. Following the resource-based view of the firm, we adopt a process-oriented perspective on pricing practices in order to identify crucial factors and activities. Based on 15 in-depth interviews with practitioners from various industries we derive six steps of a price management process for value appropriation in the context of solution selling and present critical activities and routines within each step.     

Dissolution of Alumina, Sintering, and Crystallization in Glass Ceramic Composites for LTCC

Sintering and microstructure evolution of alkali-free calcium–alumo–borosilicate glass/α-Al₂O₃ composites (mean particle size ca. 2 μm) for low-temperature cofired ceramics were studied during heating at 5 K/min by heating microscopy, thermal analysis (DTA), X-ray diffraction (XRD), and electron microscopy (SEM). Composites fully densify at ≈830°C, not essentially influenced by the dissolution of alumina and glass crystallization. Thus wollastonite, as first crystalline phase, was detectable at 840°C. Above 900°C, a pronounced crystallization of anorthite is evident, reaching 60 wt% at 1050°C. Rietveld analyses of XRD data revealed that anorthite precipitates at the expenses of alumina, which declines from ≈33 to <10 wt%, and wollastonite, which fully declines from its maximum of ≈19 wt%. Based on XRD, we discuss the evolution of crystal mass fractions, the residual glass composition, the glass viscosity, and the effective shear viscosity of the composites under study during heating.     

Simulation based analysis of secondary effects on solder fatigue

Secondary effects on thermal fatigue of solder joints, which frequently have been neglected, were studied by means of the finite element method (FEM). Based on a semi-empirical approach to predict fatigue life by evaluating the cyclic accumulated equivalent creep strain or energy density, effects of organic boards intrinsic properties on solder joint fatigue were investigated. Aspects of more realistic FR-4 board modelling were studied, in particular concerning its in-plane anisotropy and intrinsic warpage behaviour. Intrinsic board warpage was measured on test board level as well as for boards from series production. High intrinsic warpage was in particular found for several test boards. The effects for the worst case scenario observed so far were analysed for both first level and second level interconnects. The change in predicted fatigue life varied between 30% and 500%, the latter most critical effects were found at large QFN components. Another secondary effect studied was to include the frequently neglected interfacial intermetallics into FEM. It turned out that for components with relatively large standoff like LFBGAs the effects were actually negligible, but for the highly miniaturized components like chip resistors CR0201 they are the decisive factor.     

Evaluation of oxygen content on silicon nitride powder surface from the measurement of the isoelectric point

The oxygen content associated to the surface of silicon nitride powder particles was characterized using a method which is based on the measurement of the specific surface area and the isoelectric point in aqueous solution. From the dissociation model of hydrolyzed surface groups a linear dependence between the fraction of silanol groups (SiOH) and the pH of the isoelectric point is predicted, which was confirmed by electrophoretic measurements of various commercial silicon nitride powders. The proposed method provides rapid information on the particle surface composition, which is of particular relevance for colloidal processing of silicon nitride powders.