Treatment of hyperhomocysteinemia in renal transplant recipients. A randomized, placebo-controlled trial

BACKGROUND: Stable renal transplant recipients have an excess prevalence of hyperhomocysteinemia, which is a risk factor for arteriosclerosis. OBJECTIVE: To determine the effect of treatment with 1) vitamin B6 or 2) folic acid plus vitamin B12 on fasting and post-methionine-loading plasma total homocysteine levels in renal transplant recipients. DESIGN: Block-randomized, placebo-controlled, 2 x 2 factorial study. SETTING: University-affiliated transplantation program. PATIENTS: 29 clinically stable renal transplant recipients. INTERVENTION: Patients were randomly assigned to one of four regimens: placebo (n = 8); vitamin B6, 50 mg/d (n = 7); folic acid, 5 mg/d, and vitamin B12, 0.4 mg/d (n = 7); or vitamin B6, 50 mg/d, folic acid, 5 mg/d, and vitamin B12, 0.4 mg/d (n = 7). MEASUREMENTS: Fasting and 2-hour post-methionine-loading plasma total homocysteine levels. RESULTS: Vitamin B6 treatment resulted in a 22.1% reduction in geometric-mean post-methionine-loading increases in plasma total homocysteine levels (P = 0.042), and folic acid plus vitamin B12 treatment caused a 26.2% reduction in geometric-mean fasting plasma total homocysteine levels (P = 0.027). These results occurred after adjustment for age; sex; and pretreatment levels of total homocysteine, B vitamins, and creatinine. CONCLUSIONS: Vitamin B6 should be added to the combination of folic acid and vitamin B12 for effective reduction of both post-methionine-loading and fasting plasma total homocysteine levels in renal transplant recipients.     

Aggregation of random parameters Ornstein-Uhlenbeck or AR processes: some convergence results

Abstract.  It is shown that by aggregating simple random parameters, processes such as autoregressive micro-relationships or Ornstein-Uhlenbeck processes, one can obtain various seasonal long memory Gaussian models. The investigation concerns the discrete as well as the continuous time setting. In both situations the precise asymptotic behaviour of the covariance is studied. The regularity of sample paths is evaluated when possible.     

Photoreflectance of InSb/GaAs heterostructures at E1 andE1+Δ1 transitions

The photoreflectance spectra of InSb/GaAs heterostructures at the E₁ and E₁+Δ₁ transitions have been measured as a function of layer thickness. The spectra show an increase in lineshape broadening, similar to that observed in the increase in FWHM of the X-ray diffraction peaks, as the film thickness decreases. The data indicate increased crystal quality with increasing layer thickness. The results show that photoreflectance can be used as a tool to study the structural quality of lattice-mismatched heterostructures     

Differentiation of monocytes into dendritic cells in a model of transendothelial trafficking

Essential to the dendritic cell system of antigen-presenting cells are the veiled dendritic cells that traverse afferent lymph to enter lymph nodes, where they initiate immune responses. The origin of veiled cells, which were discovered 20 years ago, is unclear. Monocytes cultured with endothelium differentiated into dendritic cells within 2 days, particularly after phagocytosing particles in subendothelial collagen. These nascent dendritic cells migrated across the endothelium in the ablumenal-to-lumenal direction, as would occur during entry into lymphatics. Monocytes that remained in the subendothelial matrix became macrophages. Therefore, monocytes have two potential fates associated with distinct patterns of migration.     

Exact bit error rate analysis of TH-PPM UWB systems in the presence of multiple-access interference

A new method is proposed for precisely calculating the bit error probability of a time-hopping binary pulse position modulation ultra-wideband system with multiple access interference. The analytical expression is validated by simulation and used to assess the inaccuracy of the Gaussian approximation.     

Second-order statistical properties of the WSS Jakes' fadingchannel simulator

An improved Jakes' (1994) fading channel simulator was proposed by Pop and Beaulieu (see ibid., vol.49, p.699-708, Apr. 2001) to eliminate the stationarity problem occurring in Jakes' original design. In this paper, second-order statistical properties of the improved Jakes' simulator are analyzed. Consistent with Pop and Beaulieu's caution about high-order statistics of the simulator, it is proved that some second-order statistics of both the quadrature components and the envelope do not match the desired ones even if the number of sinusoids approaches infinity. Therefore, care must be taken when the simulator is employed to evaluate algorithms and systems     

Exact error-rate analysis of diversity 16-QAM with channel estimation error

The bit-error rate (BER) performance of multilevel quadrature amplitude modulation with pilot-symbol-assisted modulation channel estimation in static and Rayleigh fading channels is derived, both for single branch reception and maximal ratio combining diversity receiver systems. The effects of noise and estimator decorrelation on the received BER are examined. The high sensitivity of diversity systems to channel estimation error is investigated and quantified. The influence of the pilot-symbol interpolation filter windowing is also considered.     

Comprehensive analysis of vitamin E constituents in human plasma by liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry

The present paper describes the development and validation of a normal-phase liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry (NP-HPLC-MS) method for the screening and quantification of vitamin E constituents in human plasma and food matrixes. Liquid-liquid extraction combined with isotope dilution was applied to extract the lipophilic target analytes. Baseline separation of alpha-tocopherylacetate, alpha-tocopherol, alpha-tocotrienol, alpha-tocopherylquinone, beta-tocopherol, gamma-tocopherol, beta-tocotrienol, gamma-tocotrienol, delta-tocopherol, and delta-tocotrienol was achieved utilizing a normal-phase amine column operated with n-hexane and 1,4-dioxane as solvents. Detection was achieved by positive-ion atmospheric-pressure chemical ionization (APCI). Key features of the method are lower limits of detection, 3-51 nmoles/L; lower limits of quantification, 8-168 nmoles/L; linearity coefficients, 0.9778-0.9989; linear ranges, 0.01-29 micromol/L; recoveries, 53-92%; accuracies, 99-103%; intraday precisions, 2-17%; interday precisions, 5-18%; and suppression values, 0-29%. Fragmentation of tocopherols was studied by tandem mass spectrometry, and a fragmentation scheme for tocotrienols/tocopherols is postulated. Neutral-loss and precursor-ion scan experiments were performed for targeted discovery of oxidation products of tocopherols in human blood and fish oil, the latter being an important food component. The presented data suggest that this method will help to expand the number of quantified/discovered vitamin E constituents detected in food products and analyzed during human/animal trials in order to give a more comprehensive picture to nutritionists about the fate of vitamin E.     

The C-Terminal Domain of LRRK2 with the G2019S Substitution Increases Mutant A53T α-Synuclein Toxicity in Dopaminergic Neurons In Vivo

Alpha-synuclein (α-syn) and leucine-rich repeat kinase 2 (LRRK2) play crucial roles in Parkinson’s disease (PD). They may functionally interact to induce the degeneration of dopaminergic (DA) neurons via mechanisms that are not yet fully understood. We previously showed that the C-terminal portion of LRRK2 (ΔLRRK2) with the G2019S mutation (ΔLRRK2^G2019S) was sufficient to induce neurodegeneration of DA neurons in vivo, suggesting that mutated LRRK2 induces neurotoxicity through mechanisms that are (i) independent of the N-terminal domains and (ii) “cell-autonomous”. Here, we explored whether ΔLRRK2^G2019S could modify α-syn toxicity through these two mechanisms. We used a co-transduction approach in rats with AAV vectors encoding ΔLRRK2^G2019S or its “dead” kinase form, ΔLRRK2^DK, and human α-syn with the A53T mutation (AAV-α-syn^A53T). Behavioral and histological evaluations were performed at 6- and 15-weeks post-injection. Results showed that neither form of ΔLRRK2 alone induced the degeneration of neurons at these post-injection time points. By contrast, injection of AAV-α-syn^A53T alone resulted in motor signs and degeneration of DA neurons. Co-injection of AAV-α-syn^A53T with AAV-ΔLRRK2^G2019S induced DA neuron degeneration that was significantly higher than that induced by AAV-α-syn^A53T alone or with AAV-ΔLRRK2^DK. Thus, mutated α-syn neurotoxicity can be enhanced by the C-terminal domain of LRRK2^G2019 alone^, through cell-autonomous mechanisms.     

Air intrusion and its impact on energy performance of roofing assemblies

Air intrusion through roof assembly is a concern for wind uplift resistance and life-cycle performance of roofs. Airflow control is usually achieved by the installation of an air barrier/retarder in the roofing assembly. Even though the concept of air barrier/retarder and air barrier systems has been around for decades, it is still considered a new notion to the roofing industry. Currently, there are no widely accepted standard specifications or test methods to determine air intrusion through roofs or roof assemblies. An experimental procedure has been under development at the National Research Council of Canada to quantify the air intrusion of roof assemblies. As part of this investigation, five roofing assembly configurations were quantified for air intrusion. Relative performance of the air retarding effect of the five assemblies indicated that assemblies with air barrier/retarder had lower air intrusion rates than without. Measured air intrusion rates are compared with the existing codes of practice and standards. This comparison clearly demonstrates the significance of air intrusion into the roofing assembly and the necessity of a standardized air intrusion test method for the roofing industry. With the measured data, attempts were made to perform thermal load calculations using a simplified procedure, and through two case studies the impact of air intrusion through roofing assemblies on energy performance was estimated.