The prevalence of heart failure (HF) due to cardiac remodelling after acute myocardial infarction (AMI) does not decrease regardless of implementation of new technologies supporting opening culprit coronary artery and solving of ischemia-relating stenosis with primary percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI). Numerous studies have examined the diagnostic and prognostic potencies of circulating cardiac biomarkers in acute coronary syndrome/AMI and heart failure after AMI, and even fewer have depicted the utility of biomarkers in AMI patients undergoing primary PCI. Although complete revascularization at early period of acute coronary syndrome/AMI is an established factor for improved short-term and long-term prognosis and lowered risk of cardiovascular (CV) complications, late adverse cardiac remodelling may be a major risk factor for one-year mortality and postponded heart failure manifestation after PCI with subsequent blood flow resolving in culprit coronary artery. The aim of the review was to focus an attention on circulating biomarker as a promising tool to stratify AMI patients at high risk of poor cardiac recovery and developing HF after successful PCI. The main consideration affects biomarkers of inflammation, biomechanical myocardial stress, cardiac injury and necrosis, fibrosis, endothelial dysfunction, and vascular reparation. Clinical utilities and predictive modalities of natriuretic peptides, cardiac troponins, galectin 3, soluble suppressor tumorogenicity-2, high-sensitive C-reactive protein, growth differential factor-15, midregional proadrenomedullin, noncoding RNAs, and other biomarkers for adverse cardiac remodelling are discussed in the review.

Nonthermal plasma technologies offer an innovative approach to the problem of decomposing various volatile organic compounds (VOC's). We focused on dc capillary tube discharge plasma reactors to study the decomposition/destruction efficiency for toluene, EGM, trichloroethane, and trichlroethylene at 50-2300-ppm levels in dry air. The effects of gas flow rate, VOC concentration, and reactor operating conditions on decomposition and analysis of reactant conversion for each VOC were investigated. The results show that VOC destruction efficiency as high as 90% can be achieved, even under a short residence time (3.8 ms) with a destruction energy efficiency of up to 95 g (VOC)/kWh. Laboratory-scale plasma technology was successfully demonstrated for its potential application for VOC control in the semiconductor clean-room environment.

This paper critically reviews the non-thermal plasma techniques for reduction of volatile organic compounds (VOC) in air streams. The currently used technologies fall into two categories: those based on nonthermal plasma generated from various forms of corona discharge and those exploiting high energy electron beams. Relative advantages and disadvantages of non-thermal plasma and conventional techniques are discussed.

Heart failure (HF) is a global medical problem that characterizes poor prognosis and high economic burden for the health system and family of the HF patients. Although modern treatment approaches have significantly decreased a risk of the occurrence of HF among patients having predominant coronary artery disease, hypertension, and myocarditis, the mortality of known HF continues to be unacceptably high. One of the most important symptoms of HF that negatively influences tolerance to physical exercise, well-being, social adaptation, and quality of life is deep fatigue due to HF-related myopathy. Myopathy in HF is associated with weakness of the skeletal muscles, loss of myofibers, and the development of fibrosis due to microvascular inflammation, metabolic disorders, and mitochondrial dysfunction. The pivotal role in the regulation of myocardial and skeletal muscle rejuvenation, attenuation of muscle metabolic homeostasis, and protection against ischemia injury and apoptosis belongs to myokines. Myokines are defined as a wide spectrum of active molecules that are directly synthesized and released by both cardiac and skeletal muscle myocytes and regulate energy homeostasis in autocrine/paracrine manner. In addition, myokines have a large spectrum of pleiotropic capabilities that are involved in the pathogenesis of HF including cardiac remodeling, muscle atrophy, and cardiac cachexia. The aim of the narrative review is to summarize the knowledge with respect to the role of myokines in adverse cardiac remodeling, myopathy, and clinical outcomes among HF patients. Some myokines, such as myostatin, irisin, brain-derived neurotrophic factor, interleukin-15, fibroblast growth factor-21, and growth differential factor-11, being engaged in the regulation of the pathogenesis of HF-related myopathy, can be detected in peripheral blood, and the evaluation of their circulating levels can provide new insights to the course of HF and stratify patients at higher risk of poor outcomes prior to sarcopenic stage.

Nonthermal plasma technologies offer an innovative approach to the problem of decomposing various volatile organic compounds (VOCs). We focused on an AC-energized ferroelectric packed-bed plasma reactor to study the decomposition/destruction efficiency and byproduct analysis for toluene, o-xylene, trichloroethylene, and their mixture from 50 to 230 ppm in dry air. The effects of gas flow rate, concentration, moisture content, and reactor operating conditions on the decomposition and analysis of reactant conversion for each VOC were investigated for suitable applications of the emerging technology. Laboratory-scale packed-bed plasma technology was successfully demonstrated for the application of VOC control in semiconductor clean room environments.

Extracellular vesicles play a pivotal role in numerous physiological (immune response, cell-to-cell cooperation, angiogenesis) and pathological (reparation, inflammation, thrombosis/coagulation, atherosclerosis, endothelial dysfunction) processes. The development of heart failure is strongly associated with endothelial dysfunction, microvascular inflammation, alteration in tissue repair, and cardiac and vascular remodeling. It has been postulated that activated endothelial cell-derived vesicles are not just transfer forms of several active molecules (such as regulatory peptides, coagulation factors, growth factors, active molecules, hormones that are embedded onto angiogenesis, tissue reparation, proliferation, and even prevention from ischemia/hypoxia), but are instead involved in direct myocardial and vascular damage due to regulation of epigenetic responses of the tissue. These responses are controlled by several factors, such as micro-RNAs, that are transferred inside extracellular vesicles from mother cells to acceptor cells and are transductors of epigenetic signals. Finally, it is not a uniform opinion whether different phenotypes of heart failure are the result of altered cardiac and vascular reparation due to certain epigenetic responses, which are yielded by co-morbidities, such as diabetes mellitus and obesity. The aim of the review is to summarize knowledge regarding the role of various types of extracellular endothelial cell-derived vesicles in the regulation of cardiac and vascular remodeling in heart failure.

No abstract

We studied thin films of cuprous oxide deposited on glass coated with transparent conducting indium-tin oxide (ITO) films. The deposition of both Cu 2 0 and ITO was made by rf sputtering in an Ar/02 gas mixture. For the deposition ofCu 2 0 a pure copper target was used and ITO films were deposited from a disk target, the halves of which were made ofSn and In, respectively. This allows variation of the stoichiometry of the deposited ITO film by changing the position of the substrate glass beneath the Sn/ln target. X-ray diffraction of Cu 2 0 films indicates the typical pattern of amorphous material. We were able to produce Cu 2 0 films of different stoichiometry by varying the O 2 to Ar ratio during rf sputtering. The maximum resistivity of the films corresponds to an ideal stoichiometry ofCu 2 0. An activation energy of 0.55 eV found from thermostimulated conductivity is related to excess Cu vacancies. The band gap found from the spectral dependence of the photovoltaic effect is 2.0 eV. The composition of ITO films was studied by Auger analysis and can be described as a variable composition mixture ofSn0 2 + x and In 2 0 3 + y' To produce an Ohmic electrode, gold was evaporated on the top of the Cu 2 0 film and hence the resulting structure of the photocell could be specified as ITO-Cu 2 0-Au, for which we propose a barrier band diagram. We studied the photovoltaic characteristics of the fabricated photocells under an incandescent lamp with ~ 100m W /cm 2 output. The open-circuit voltage and short-circuit current of our cells were about 20-90 mV and 50,uA/cm2, respectively, and some dependence of the output characteristics on the composition ofITO film was observed. Conversion efficiency for thin films Cu 2 0/ITO cells was found to be substantially lower than for Cu 2 0/Cu Schottky barrier cells. This is tentatively attributed to small diffusion lengths and/or presence of interface recombination centers.