The role of wearable home blood pressure monitoring in detecting out-of-office control status.

Ambulatory blood pressure (ABP) and home blood pressure (HBP) monitoring is currently recommended for management of hypertension. Nonetheless, traditional HBP protocols could overlook diurnal fluctuations, which could also be linked with adverse cardiovascular outcomes. In this observational study, we studied among a group of treated hypertensive patients (N = 62, age: 52.4 ± 10.4 years) by using out-of-office ABP and wearable HBP. They received one session of 24-h ABP measurement with an oscillometric upper-arm monitor, and totally three sessions of 7-day/6-time-daily wearable HBP measurement separated in each month with HeartGuide. Controlled hypertension is defined as an average BP <130/80 mmHg for both daytime ABP and HBP. There was substantial reliability (intraclass correlation coefficient, ICC 0.883-0.911) and good reproducibility (Cohen's kappa = 0.600) for wearable HBP measurement, especially before breakfast and after dinner. Among all patients, 27.4% had both uncontrolled HBP and ABP, 30.6% had uncontrolled HBP only, while 6.5% had uncontrolled ABP only. Female gender and increased numbers of anti-hypertensive agents are correlated with controlled hypertension. Patients with uncontrolled hypertension had a significantly higher maximal daytime blood pressure, which was previously signified as an imperial marker for cardiovascular risk. In conclusion, wearable HBP monitoring in accordance with a dedicated daily-living schedule results in good reliability and reproducibility. Patients with an uncontrolled wearable HBP should benefit from repeated HBP or ABP measurement for risk stratification.

Electronic bands of scandium monocarbide, ScC, in the region 14 140-16 000 cm-1.

Scandium monocarbide molecules, ScC, have been prepared by the reaction of 532 nm laser-ablated Sc metal with acetylene or methane under supersonic jet-cooled conditions. Electronic spectra of Sc12C and Sc13C have been recorded in the region 14 140-16 000 cm-1 using laser-induced fluorescence, and about 40 bands of each isotopomer have been analyzed rotationally. Wavelength resolved emission spectra have been obtained for many of them. The results show that Sc12C has a 2Πi ground state, with a bond length of 1.952 Å. Its vibrational frequency and spin-orbit coupling constant are 648 cm-1 and -39.47 cm-1, respectively (631 cm-1 and -39.32 cm-1 in Sc13C). Lying 155.58 cm-1 above the X2Π3/2 level (154.72 cm-1 in Sc13C) is a 4Π5/2 level, the lowest spin-orbit component of a 4Πi state. The excited states at higher energy are very complicated. Bands from both the doublet and quartet spin manifolds are present, and there are strong doublet-quartet interactions which induce many nominally-forbidden bands violating the selection rule ΔS = 0. Eight excited electronic states have been recognized, including four 4Δ states. These 4Δ states represent four of the five 4Δ states from the electron configurations (C 2pσ)2 (C 2pπ)2 (Sc 3dδ)1 and (C 2pσ)1 (C 2pπ)2 (Sc 4sσ)1 (Sc 3dδ)1.

Skin Commensal Staphylococci May Act as Reservoir for Fusidic Acid Resistance Genes.

We analyzed the occurrence and mechanisms of fusidic acid resistance present in staphylococci isolated from 59 healthy volunteers. The fingers of the volunteers were screened for the presence of staphylococci, and the collected isolates were tested for resistance to fusidic acid. A total of 34 fusidic acid resistant staphylococcal strains (all were coagulase-negative) were isolated from 22 individuals (22/59, 37.3%). Examination of the resistance genes revealed that acquired fusB or fusC was present in Staphylococcus epidermidis, Staphylococcus capitis subsp. urealyticus, Staphylococcus hominis subsp. hominis, Staphylococcus warneri and Staphylococcus haemolyticus. Resistance islands (RIs) carrying fusB were found in S. epidermidis and S. capitis subsp. urealyticus, while staphylococcal chromosome cassette (SCC)-related structures harboring fusC were found in S. hominis subsp. hominis. Genotypic analysis of S. epidermidis and S. hominis subsp. hominis indicated that the fus elements were disseminated in diverse genetic strain backgrounds. The fusC elements in S. hominis subsp. hominis strains were highly homologous to SCCfusC in the epidemic sequence type (ST) 239/SCCmecIII methicillin-resistant S. aureus (MRSA) or the pseudo SCCmec in ST779 MRSA. The presence of acquired fusidic acid resistance genes and their genetic environment in commensal staphylococci suggested that the skin commensal staphylococci may act as reservoir for fusidic acid resistance genes.

Fluorescence lifetimes of the Ã1Πu state of C3.

The fluorescence lifetimes of 115 vibrational levels of the Ã1Π(u) state of C3 have been measured under supersonic molecular beam conditions. Of these, ninety-one are Π(u) vibronic levels, for which the lifetimes lie in the range 190-700 ns. The lifetimes of those Π(u) levels where only the bending vibration is excited lie in the range 190-235 ns. There is very little variation with bending quantum number, and the lifetimes of the two orbital components of the 1Π(u) state are essentially the same. When ν1 and ν3 are excited, the lifetimes become longer and/or reach a maximum for levels with v1 + v3 ~ 4. Excitation of the bending vibration in addition to the stretching vibrations shortens the lifetime slightly. Several of the levels show double-exponential decays. Another 23 levels, of Σ(u)+ vibronic symmetry, mostly have lifetimes that are longer than 300 ns. Interaction with nearby "dark" electronic states, such as B1Σ(u)-, B'1Δ(u), C1Π(g), and b3Π(g), is proposed to account for the observed lifetime lengthening. A particularly clear instance of such an interaction is the long lifetime (914 ns) of a perturbing Σ(u)+ level at 30,181 cm(-1), which is confirmed as belonging to the perturbing B'1Δ(u) state. A single level of Δ(u) symmetry at 29,170 cm(-1), which perturbs one of the Π(u) levels, is shown to belong to the à state.

A novel approach for medium formulation for growth of a microalga using motile intensity.

Motile intensity of the cells, defined as the specific mean kinetic energy, was measured by image analysis and used to formulate a suitable medium for the cultivation of a motile microalga. Nitrogen source at 60 mg/L was used as the target component. The cells grown in a medium containing urea showed the highest motile intensities during cultivation when compared to the cells grown with NH(4)Cl or (NH(4))(2)SO(4) as the nitrogen source. The urea culture gave the highest biomass yield and lipid content of 1.06+/-0.12 g/L and 22.34+/-2.56%, respectively after 150 h of cultivation. These results indicated a strong dependence of motile intensity on the nitrogen source used in the growth medium. This concept, which requires only a small droplet of the sample, can find potential application in the design and optimization of culture media.