University of Toronto

About: University of Toronto is a education organization based out in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Health care. The organization has 126067 authors who have published 294940 publications receiving 13536856 citations. The organization is also known as: UToronto & U of T.

Chemical Kinetics and Photochemical Data for Use in Atmospheric Studies: Evaluation Number 18

Abstract: This is the eighteenth in a series of evaluated sets of rate constants, photochemical cross sections, heterogeneous parameters, and thermochemical parameters compiled by the NASA Panel for Data Evaluation. The data are used primarily to model stratospheric and upper tropospheric processes, with particular emphasis on the ozone layer and its possible perturbation by anthropogenic and natural phenomena. The evaluation is available in electronic form from the following Internet URL: http://jpldataeval.jpl.nasa.gov/

Genetic variants in novel pathways influence blood pressure and cardiovascular disease risk

Abstract: Blood pressure is a heritable trait(1) influenced by several biological pathways and responsive to environmental stimuli. Over one billion people worldwide have hypertension (>= 140 mm Hg systolic blood pressure or >= 90 mm Hg diastolic blood pressure)(2). Even small increments in blood pressure are associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events(3). This genome-wide association study of systolic and diastolic blood pressure, which used a multi-stage design in 200,000 individuals of European descent, identified sixteen novel loci: six of these loci contain genes previously known or suspected to regulate blood pressure (GUCY1A3-GUCY1B3, NPR3-C5orf23, ADM, FURIN-FES, GOSR2, GNAS-EDN3); the other ten provide new clues to blood pressure physiology. A genetic risk score based on 29 genome-wide significant variants was associated with hypertension, left ventricular wall thickness, stroke and coronary artery disease, but not kidney disease or kidney function. We also observed associations with blood pressure in East Asian, South Asian and African ancestry individuals. Our findings provide new insights into the genetics and biology of blood pressure, and suggest potential novel therapeutic pathways for cardiovascular disease prevention.

Outcome of heart failure with preserved ejection fraction in a population-based study.

Abstract: Thirty-one percent of the patients had an ejection fraction of more than 50 percent. Patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction were more likely to be older and female and to have a history of hypertension and atrial fibrillation. The presenting history and clinical examination findings were similar for the two groups. The unadjusted mortality rates for patients with an ejection fraction of more than 50 percent were not significantly different from those for patients with an ejection fraction of less than 40 percent at 30 days (5 percent vs. 7 percent, P = 0.08) and at 1 year (22 percent vs. 26 percent, P = 0.07); the adjusted one-year mortality rates were also not significantly different in the two groups (hazard ratio, 1.13; 95 percent confidence interval, 0.94 to 1.36; P = 0.18). The rates of readmission for heart failure and of in-hospital complications did not differ between the two groups. Conclusions Among patients presenting with new-onset heart failure, a substantial proportion had an ejection fraction of more than 50 percent. The survival of patients with heart failure with preserved ejection fraction was similar to that of patients with reduced ejection fraction.

Excursion set mass functions for hierarchical Gaussian fluctuations

Abstract: It is pointed out that most schemes for determining the mass function of virialized objects from the statistics of the initial density perturbation field suffer from the cloud-in-cloud problem of miscounting the number of low-mass clumps, many of which would have been subsumed into larger objects. The paper proposes a solution based on the theory of the excursion sets of F(r, R sub f), the four-dimensional initial density perturbation field smoothed with a continuous hierarchy of filters of radii R sub f.