Nonlinear underwater propagation of picosecond ultraviolet laser beams.

Meter-scale nonlinear propagation of a picosecond ultraviolet laser beam in water, sufficiently intense to cause stimulated Raman scattering (SRS), nonlinear focusing, pump-Stokes nonlinear coupling, and photoexcitation, was characterized in experiments and simulations. Pump and SRS Stokes pulse energies were measured, and pump beam profiles were imaged at propagation distances up to 100 cm for a range of laser power below and above self-focusing critical power. Simulations with conduction band excitation energy =9.

Postnatal neuro-development of fetuses with absent end-diastolic flow in the umbilical artery and/or fetal descending aorta.

Objective: To determine whether absence of end-diastolic flow in the umbilical artery and/or fetal aorta impacts postnatal neuro-development in preterm-born children.

Methods: The study group, consisting of 43 fetuses with absent end-diastolic flow in the umbilical artery and/or fetal aorta, was compared with a control group, consisting of 30 fetuses, matching for gestational age but with normal doppler-flow results. The children's neuro-developmental status was assessed using the 'Munich functional developmental diagnostics' (MFDD), between the 2nd and 3rd year of life.

Local preconditioning by thermal stress accelerates microvascular thrombus formation.

Heme oxygenase 1 (HO-1) has been shown to suppress microvascular thrombus formation. Because stress conditioning induces HO-1 and, in addition, the anticoagulant thrombomodulin and thrombospondin 1, we studied the effect of hyperthermic and hypothermic local stress conditioning on microvascular thrombus formation. For local stress conditioning, the hindlimb of Sprague-Dawley rats was subjected to local heating (42.