Marine n-3 PUFA may improve autonomic dysfunction by an increase in heart rate variability (HRV) and may reduce the risk of malignant ventricular arrhythmias. Only a few smaller studies have examined such effects in patients on chronic dialysis, who often have autonomic dysfunction and a high risk of sudden cardiac death, which accounts for almost 30 % of all deaths. This cross-sectional study investigated the association between the plasma phospholipid content of n-3 PUFA and 24-h HRV or ventricular arrhythmias in patients on chronic dialysis. A 48-h Holter monitoring was performed on 169 patients on in-centre dialysis (83 %), home haemodialysis (10 %) or peritoneal dialysis (7 %) obtaining data on arrhythmias (n 152) and 24-h HRV (n 135). The mean overall HRV (standard deviation of normal intervals (SDNN)) was low and 71 % had a reduced overall HRV (SDNN<100 ms) indicating autonomic dysfunction. No significant associations between plasma phospholipid content of total marine n-3 PUFA, EPA (22 : 5n-3) or DHA (22 : 6n-3) and time-domain or frequency-domain HRV were detected in crude or adjusted linear regression analysis. However, a higher plasma phospholipid content of DHA was associated with a significantly lower proportion of patients with ventricular tachycardia (higher DHA-tertile: 9 % v. lower DHA-tertile: 28 %, P=0·02). In conclusion, the content of marine n-3 PUFA in plasma phospholipids was not associated with 24-h HRV, but a higher plasma phospholipid content of DHA was associated with a lower occurrence of ventricular tachycardia suggesting an antiarrhythmic effect of marine n-3 PUFA in patients on chronic dialysis.

The present study evaluated the effects of maternal dyslipidaemia on blood pressure (BP), cardiorespiratory physiology and biochemical parameters in male offspring. Wistar rat dams were fed either a control (CTL) or a dyslipidaemic (DLP) diet during pregnancy and lactation. After weaning, both CTL and DLP offspring received standard diet. On the 30th and 90th day of life, blood samples were collected for metabolic analyses. Direct measurements of BP, respiratory frequency (RF), tidal volume (VT) and ventilation (VE) under baseline condition, as well as during hypercapnia (7 % CO2) and hypoxia (KCN, 0·04 %), were recorded from awake 90-d-old male offspring. DLP dams exhibited raised serum levels of total cholesterol (TC) (4·0-fold), TAG (2·0-fold), VLDL+LDL (7·7-fold) and reduced HDL-cholesterol (2·4-fold), insulin resistance and hepatic steatosis at the end of lactation. At 30 d of age, the DLP offspring showed an increase in the serum levels of TC (P<0·05) and VLDL+LDL (P<0·05) in comparison with CTL offspring. At 90 d of age, DLP offspring exhibited higher mean arterial pressure (MAP, approximately 34 %). In the spectral analysis, the DLP group showed augmented low-frequency (LF) power and LF:high-frequency (HF) ratio when compared with CTL offspring. In addition, the DLP animals showed a larger delta variation in arterial pressure after administration of the ganglionic blocker (P=0·0003). We also found that cardiorespiratory response to hypercapnia and hypoxia was augmented in DLP offspring. In conclusion, the present data show that maternal dyslipidaemia alters cardiorespiratory physiology and may be a predisposing factor for hypertension at adulthood.

The coherent states approximation for one-dimensional multi-phased wave functions is considered in this paper. The wave functions are assumed to oscillate on a characteristic wave length 0(ε) with ε ≪ 1. A parameter recovery algorithm is first developed for single-phased wave function based on a moment asymptotic analysis. This algorithm is then extended to multi-phased wave functions. If cross points or caustics exist, the coherent states approximation algorithm based on the parameter recovery will fail in some local regions. In this case, we resort to the windowed Fourier transform technique, and propose a composite coherent states approximation method. Numerical experiments show that the number of coherent states derived by the proposed method is much less than that by the direct windowed Fourier transform technique.

This paper reports an investigation and a proposed solution to design Class E power amplifiers above the theoretical maximum frequency allowed by the adopted active device. Starting from the traditional time domain analysis, a numerical algorithm has been developed and presented in order to extend Class E feasibility through the optimization of the output voltage waveform. A hybrid Class E amplifier in laterally diffused metal oxide semiconductor (LDMOS) technology has been designed and measured. The final amplifier shows an output power of more than 10 W with an associated efficiency of 49% (power added efficiency (PAE) = 45%) over a 100-MHz bandwidth around 2.14 GHz.

La qualité sonore des véhicules constitue aujourd'hui un critère important de conception. Dans ce cadre, la détection de sources acoustiques est une problématique majeure. En effet, si l'analyse du bruit dans une cavité peut être traitée de manière classique (FEM, BEM...), les problèmes inverses posent souvent des problèmes liés à la taille des calculs effectués ou au conditionnement des matrices à inverser. Nous nous proposons ici d'étudier une méthode énergétique simplifiée (MES) qui présente la particularité d'être avantageusement inversible. Le but de la méthode proposée est de parvenir à localiser des sources acoustiques surfaciques à partir de mesures effectuées dans une cavité.

Flash stimulation elicits a visual evoked potential (VEP) as part of the electroencephalogram (EEG). This VEP is known to contain strong oscillatory activity around 120 Hz, which ceases 100 ms after the flash. It was unclear so far whether this time limit represents an averaging artifact due to loss of intertrial phase coherence or indicates a veridical cessation. Here we present results obtained from single-trial analysis of the EEG. These show that the oscillations exhibit virtually perfect phase locking and do in fact cease around 100 ms after the stimulus. Thus, the cessation of oscillatory activity in the VEP is not due to increasing intertrial phase jitter. Comparison with simultaneous retinal recordings exclude the possibility of direct crosstalk from the retina, but suggest that the oscillations are propagated from the retina to the cortex with a time lag of 48 ms.

Tracheal and arterial CO2 partial pressures were measured simultaneously in 27 laryngectomized patients both while they were awake and during high-frequency jet ventilation. Tracheal gas was sampled during brief interruptions of high-frequency jet ventilation. Agreement between tracheal and arterial CO2 partial pressures was assessed using the Bland–Altman method. The tracheal–arterial CO2 partial pressures gradient during spontaneous breathing was significantly lower (P<0.0002) than during high-frequency jet ventilation. During spontaneous ventilation, the bias was −0.77 kPa (95% CI= −0.99 to −0.55 kPa), and the upper and lower limits of agreement were 0.29 kPa (95% CI= −0.11 to −0.7 kPa) and −1.83 kPa (95% CI= −2.24 to −1.43 kPa). During high-frequency jet ventilation, the bias was −1.61 kPa (95% CI= −1.76 to −1.46 kPa), and the limits of agreement were −0.48 kPa (95% CI= −0.75 to −0.21 kPa) and −2.74 kPa (95% CI= −3.01 to −2.47 kPa). Despite the poor agreement between tracheal CO2 partial pressure and arterial CO2 partial pressure, it is sufficient to allow for adjustment of ventilator settings during jet ventilation.