We have defined and computed a quatitative measure of the robustness of conduction, the safety factor, as a function of gap junction coupling and showed that reduced coupling can support very slow and very safe conduction.
Electrochemically formed solid electrolyte interfaces (SEIs) are the crucial link between electrolytes and electrodes because they enable several functions in lithium ion batteries, including ionic diffusion, electric conduction, and the safety provided by thermal stability.
Aiming to address interoperability issues that hamper the conduction of postmarketing safety analysis studies on top of EHR systems, the SALUS project (http://www.salusproject.eu/) built a semantic framework and a dedicated toolkit to serve this purpose.
By reducing the safety of conduction over the accessory pathway, flecainide blocks conduction and slows the ventricular rate.
The ability of an excitable current source to sustain a safe AP conduction is usually measured as safety factor (SF), and slightly different methods have been proposed in order to estimate it [ 42].
However, the realization that reduced coupling can increase the safety of conduction, and that increasing the Cx40 Cx43 ratio may reduce rather than increase conduction velocity, serve as important reminders that, even if some of the proposed therapeutic interventions were practicable, the functional consequences to the patient may be the opposite of those intended.
The role of ICaL in granting safety of conduction can be summarized as follows.
Panel (b) shows how AP conduction delay decreases as safety factor increases, being their relationship well fitted (R = 0.89) by a hyperbolic function.
When, on the opposite, ICaL increases, like during GKr reduction (see Figure 7(b)), the safety of conduction increases as SASF does; beating frequency decreases (middle panel of Figure 4) more than it does under GCaL downregulation.
