3,516 research outputs found
Selective If inhibition:new frontiers inthe management of coronary disease
No full textTHE LAST 30 YEARS HAVE SEEN SPECTACULAR PROGRESS IN THE
management of stable coronary artery disease (CAD), with numerous
new pharmacological and interventional options becoming available.
The most recent statistics from the American Heart Association (AHA)
report a 33% reduction in rates of mortality due to CAD in the 10 years to 2004,1 which can be
largely attributed to these advances. Despite this progress, the disease remains an important
contributor to mortality and morbidity in the Western world. Indeed, the AHA statistics also place
CAD as the single largest killer of American adults, with 1 in 5 deaths being attributable to CAD.1
Clearly, there is little room for complacency in our management of stable CAD, and we need to
continue to seek original and innovative ways of saving lives in this population.
A striking demonstration of this situation came from analysis of data from patients included
in the REduction of Atherothrombosis for Continued Health (REACH) Registry in 44 countries
between 2003 and 2004.2 This 1-year, international study recruited a large subset of more than
38 000 patients with stable CAD. The majority of the REACH patients were receiving contemporary,
evidence-based, preventive drug therapy, including antiplatelet therapy, lipid-lowering agents,
and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors, and about half were receiving β-blockers. Despite
this, all-cause mortality at 1 year was 2.89% and cardiovascular mortality was 1.93%. Patients
with stable CAD also had a 4.52% rate of a composite end point of cardiovascular death, myocardial
infarction (MI), and stroke. The REACH authors rightly concluded that continued efforts are
needed to improve secondary prevention and clinical outcomes.2 The implications of the REACH
data in terms of burden of disease are alarming, considering that the lifetime risk of developing
CAD for American adults aged over 40 is 49% for men and 32% for women.1 One conclusion is
that current management strategies in stable CAD are failing to reach the expectations of cardiologists
and patients alike.3
Current guidelines recommend a two-pronged management strategy for patients with stable
CAD, who require one treatment to relieve symptoms alongside another to reduce long-term morbidity
and mortality.4 Despite the progress in the field, 50% of patients remain symptomatic with
treatment, and rates of mortality are highly unsatisfactory. These shortcomings can be traced to
a number of factors. Pharmacological therapy is abound with problems of subtherapeutic dosing
and compliance. Furthermore, the optimization of treatment can be hindered by insufficient
efficacy in patients with refractory angina and by a long list of contraindications, for example,
β-blockers are contraindicated in patients with asthma, peripheral vascular disease, and severe
bradycardia, which may limit their use in those patient populations. Another factor is poor tolerability,
which may lead to treatment discontinuation and reduce the efficacy of even the most
rigorous management strategy.
Surgical intervention does not necessarily resolve these problems: intervention is not always
possible, and most revascularized patients still require antianginal treatment after the procedure.
Indeed, as the Clinical Outcomes Utilizing Revascularization and AGgressive drug Evaluation
(COURAGE) trial recently demonstrated,5 there is no benefit of percutaneous coronary interven-
E D I T O R I A L
Address for correspondence:
Prof Roberto Ferrari, Chair of
Cardiology, Arcispedale S. Anna,
University of Ferrara, Corso
Giovecca 203, 44100, Ferrara,
Italy and Fondazione Salvatore
Maugeri, IRCCS, Brescia, Italy
(e-mail [email protected])
Prof Kim Fox, Professor of
Cardiology, Royal Brompton
Hospital, London SW3 6NP, UK
(e-mail [email protected])
Medicographia.
2008;30:189-195.
Selective I
f inhibition:
new frontiers in the management
of coronary artery disease
b y R . F e r r a r i a n d K . F o x ,
I t a l y a n d U n i t e d K i n g d o m
Kim FOX, MD, FESC
Professor of Cardiology
Royal Brompton Hospital
London, UK
Roberto FERRARI, MD, PhD
Chair of Cardiology
Arcispedale S. Anna
University of Ferrara
and Fondazione Salvatore
Maugeri, IRCCS
Brescia, ITALY
tion (PCI) on top of guideline-based optimized pharmacological therapy, in terms of reduction
in risk of mortality, MI, or major cardiovascular events. This demonstrates how important it is
to raise our standards in preventive cardiology through improvement of established lifestyle and
therapeutic intervention and control of other clinical parameters, which can improve cardiovascular
risk assessment and management.
The ideal treatment for stable CAD would be one that provided both anti-ischemic and antianginal
efficacy, as well as improvement in prognosis by reducing cardiovascular events. Heart
rate (HR) is one of the clinical parameters that is most frequently assessed in daily practice. Being
the main determinant of ischemia, HR reduction is established as an important therapeutic
component of the prevention of ischemia. A strong association between elevated HR and increased
risk of all-cause mortality, cardiovascular mortality, and development of cardiovascular
disease has been shown in the general population, as well as in patients with hypertension, diabetes,
and CAD.6,7 Experimental data have demonstrated the involvement of HR in the development
of atherosclerosis with reduction in its progression after pharmacological or surgical HR
reduction. The impact of β-blockers and of some calcium blockers on mortality in post-MI patients
has been suggested to be related to reduction in resting HR. Consistent with this understanding
of the important role of HR, ivabradine, the first selective and specific If inhibitor, opens
up promising opportunities in the management of CAD
Une plate-forme logicielle et une démarche pour la validation de ressources linguistiques sur corpus : application à l'évaluation de la détection automatique de cadres temporels
No full text@inproceedings{CN-FERRARI-2005, title = {{Une plate-forme logicielle et une d{é}marche pour la validation de ressources linguistiques sur corpus : application {à} l'{é}valuation de la d{é}tection automatique de cadres temporels}}, author = {St{é}phane Ferrari and Fr{é}d{é}rik Bilhaut and Antoine Widl{ö}cher and Marion Laignelet}, booktitle = {Actes des 4{è}mes Journ{é}es de la Linguistique de Corpus (JLC'05)}, editor = {G. Williams}, month = {septembre}, address = {Lorient, France}, year = {2005} }National audienc
Discours évaluatif et suivi d'opinion
No full text@inproceedings{CN-VERNIER-07, author = {M. Vernier and S. Ferrari and D. Legallois}, title = {{Discours évaluatif et suivi d'opinion}}, booktitle = {{Actes des 5èmes Journées de la Linguistique de Corpus}}, year = {2007}, editor = {G. Williams}, month = {septembre}, address = {Lorient, France}, publisher = {Université de Bretagne-Sud}, annote = {CN} }National audienc
A MATLAB procedure for the encoding of macroseismic effects and the objective estimation of seismic intensity by the Fuzzy sets method
No full textGeophysical Research Abstracts,
Vol. 11, EGU2009-5414, 2009
EGU General Assembly 2009
© Author(s) 2009
A MATLAB procedure for the encoding of macroseismic effects and the
objective estimation of seismic intensity by the Fuzzy sets method.
D. Tripone (1), P. Gasperini (2), G. Vannucci (3), and G. Ferrari (4)
(1) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna (Italy), ([email protected]),
(2) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Viale Berti-Pichat 8, I-40127 Bologna (Italy), ([email protected]),
(3) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna (Italy),
([email protected]), (4) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna
(Italy), ([email protected])
In previous works we developed a Fortran procedure for the encoding and the computer analysis of the macroseismic
effects deduced from historical sources that allow the complete formalization of the process of seismic
intensity assessment. The texts representing the macroseismic information are decomposed in 5 main syntactic
elementary components by using alphanumeric codes. The database includes presently more than 33000 effects
relative to 8 significant Italian earthquakes of the last two centuries that can be analyzed by multi-criteria decisionmaking
algorithms to estimate objectively the seismic intensity at each locality. The complete procedure was now
translated to MATLAB and was definitely improved by the inclusion of new tools for the encoding, the georeferencing
and the checking of the data and of new Fuzzy algorithms for intensity determination. The output of
the procedure is strictly integrated with the new version of “Boxer” code for the determination of seismic source
parameters.PublishedWien5.1. TTC - Banche dati e metodi macrosismiciope
A MATLAB procedure for the encoding of macroseismic effects and the objective estimation of seismic intensity by the Fuzzy sets method
No full textGeophysical Research Abstracts,
Vol. 11, EGU2009-5414, 2009
EGU General Assembly 2009
© Author(s) 2009
A MATLAB procedure for the encoding of macroseismic effects and the
objective estimation of seismic intensity by the Fuzzy sets method.
D. Tripone (1), P. Gasperini (2), G. Vannucci (3), and G. Ferrari (4)
(1) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna (Italy), ([email protected]),
(2) Dipartimento di Fisica, Università di Bologna, Viale Berti-Pichat 8, I-40127 Bologna (Italy), ([email protected]),
(3) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna (Italy),
([email protected]), (4) INGV-Istituto Nazionale di Geofisica e Vulcanologia, Via Donato Creti, 12, I-40128, Bologna
(Italy), ([email protected])
In previous works we developed a Fortran procedure for the encoding and the computer analysis of the macroseismic
effects deduced from historical sources that allow the complete formalization of the process of seismic
intensity assessment. The texts representing the macroseismic information are decomposed in 5 main syntactic
elementary components by using alphanumeric codes. The database includes presently more than 33000 effects
relative to 8 significant Italian earthquakes of the last two centuries that can be analyzed by multi-criteria decisionmaking
algorithms to estimate objectively the seismic intensity at each locality. The complete procedure was now
translated to MATLAB and was definitely improved by the inclusion of new tools for the encoding, the georeferencing
and the checking of the data and of new Fuzzy algorithms for intensity determination. The output of
the procedure is strictly integrated with the new version of “Boxer” code for the determination of seismic source
parameters.PublishedWien5.1. TTC - Banche dati e metodi macrosismiciope
Lp-Lq estimates for transition semigroups associated to dissipative stochastic systems
No full textIn a separable Hilbert space, we study supercontractivity and ultracontractivity properties for a transition semigroup associated with a stochastic partial differential equation. This is done in terms of exponential integrability of Lipschitz functions and some logarithmic Sobolev-type inequalities with respect to invariant measures. The abstract characterization results concerning the improvement of summability can be applied to transition semigroups associated to stochastic reaction-diffusion equations. (c) 2025 The Author(s). Published by Elsevier Masson SAS. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/)
Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside protects endothelial cells against palmitic acid-induced injury in vitro through Nrf-2 modulation
No full textElevation of circulating Free Fatty Acids (FFAs) has been shown to induce pro-inflammatory changes and oxidative stress. Clinical and experimental studies have shown that high FFAs levels promote endothelial dysfunction, a potential mechanism underlying atherosclerosis and other vascular diseases. As a major component of dietary saturated fat, palmitic acid (PA) is able to induce endothelial dysfunction by redox-sensitive Nf-kB -dependent pathways. The consumption of diets rich in natural bioactive components and their contribution to maintaining or improving cardiovascular health has been a subject of considerable interest to researchers. Anthocyanins, one of the most interesting classes of flavonoids, are widespread in dark red colored fruits and vegetables and seem to play a role in preventing human diseases related to oxidative stress. In this study, primary human umbilical vein endothelial cells (HUVECs) treated with PA were used to explore the protective effects of Cyanidin-3-O-glucoside (C3G), the best-known and investigated anthocyanin, recognized as a potent antioxidant. C3G reduced PA-induced endothelial dysfunction and oxidative stress in HUVECs by reducing Nf-kB activation. In particular, at molecular level, we examined the effects on cellular adaptive response. Our results demonstrated that C3G, also without any kind of stimulus, increased the translocation of the transcription factor Nrf2 into the nucleus so activating antioxidant and detoxifying genes. Furthermore, a crosstalk between Nrf2 and NF-kB pathways has been observed. In fact, Nrf2 inhibited nuclear translocation resulted in NF-kB increase so supporting the molecular mechanism in C3G protective effects.
This study demonstrates that C3G is able to protect HUVECs against PA-induced changes in endothelial proatherogenic phenotype, including the activation of NF-kB. This findings might serve as a new therapeutic approach for prevention or treatment of diseases associated with inflammation and oxidative stress.
References
Steinberg et al. 2003. Vascular function, insulinresistance and fatty acids. Diabetologia , 46, 300−301.
Kim et al. Arterioscler Thromb Vasc Biol 2005;25:989-94.
Speciale et al Genes Nutr. 2014 Jul;9(4):40
"Test me and treat me" - attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study
No full text© 2015 BMJ Open, "Test me and treat me"-attitudes to vitamin D deficiency and supplementation: a qualitative study. This manuscript version is made available under the Creative Commons Attribution Licens
Metodologia para implantação de TRF direcionada para as empresas da indústria de serragem de blocos de mármore e granito
No full textDissertação (mestrado) - Universidade Federal de Santa Catarina, Centro Tecnológico. Programa de Pós-Graduação em Engenharia de Produção.Através das observações feitas no processo produtivo da cadeia produtiva de rochas ornamentais do Espírito Santo foi possível identificar o excessivo tempo gasto para a realização de setup em industrias de serragem de blocos de mármore e granito. Este fato tem prejudicado a flexibilidade da produção e diminuído significativamente a produtividade das indústrias. A partir desta constatação surgiu o pressuposto de aplicabilidade dos conceitos da troca rápida de ferramenta - TRF preconizados por Shigeo Shingo nas empresas deste segmento. Partiu-se da identificação das causas e evolução da produtividade, onde a TRF foi colocada em destaque como uma filosofia chave a ser utilizada para reduzir os gargalos de setup existentes no processo produtivo destas industrias. Baseado em trabalhos escritos anteriormente sobre a implantação da TRF e na experiência de especialistas neste segmento, foi então desenvolvida uma metodologia para implantação da TRF direcionada para as empresas da industria de serragem de blocos de mármore e granito. Esta metodologia foi testada em uma pequena empresa do segmento, onde foi confirmado o pressuposto básico anteriormente descrito. O principal resultado alcançado foi a redução significativa no tempo de setup em virtude da aplicabilidade dos métodos da TRF preconizados por Shingo. Como conclusão do trabalho pode-se citar o aumento da produtividade devido a redução do lead time na empresa estudada. Uma outra conclusão importante foi a possível aplicação desta metodologia em empresas de médio e grande porte
Crop type mapping by using transfer learning
No full textCrop type mapping currently represents an important problem in remote sensing. Accurate information on the extent and types of crops derived from remote sensing can help managing and improving agriculture especially for developing countries where such information is scarce. In this paper, high-resolution RGB drone images are the input data for the classification performed using a transfer learning (TL) approach. VGG16 and GoogLeNet, which are pre-trained convolutional neural networks (CNNs) used for classification tasks coming from computer vision, are considered for the mapping of the crop types. Thanks to the transferred knowledge, the proposed models can successfully classify the studied crop types with high overall accuracy for two considered cases, achieving up to almost 83% for the Malawi dataset and up to 90% for the Mozambique dataset. Notably, these results are comparable to the ones achieved by the same deep CNN architectures in many computer vision tasks. With regard to drone data analysis, application of deep CNN is very limited so far due to high requirements on the number of samples needed to train such complicated architectures. Our results demonstrate that the transfer learning is an efficient way to overcome this problem and take full advantage of the benefits of deep CNN architectures for drone-based crop type mapping. Moreover, based on experiments with different TL approaches we show that the number of frozen layers is an important parameter of TL and a fine-tuning of all the CNN weights results in significantly better performance than the approaches that apply fine-tuning only on some numbers of last layers
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