Digital Dark Field-Higher Contrast and Greater Specificity Dark Field Imaging Using a 4DSTEM Approach.

A new method for dark field imaging is introduced, which uses scanned electron diffraction (or 4DSTEM-4-dimensional scanning transmission electron microscopy) datasets as its input. Instead of working on simple summation of intensity, it works on a sparse representation of the diffraction patterns in terms of a list of their diffraction peaks. This is tested on a thin perovskite film containing structural ordering resulting in additional superlattice spots that reveal details of domain structures, and is shown to give much better selectivity and contrast than conventional virtual dark field imaging.

Evaluation of the accuracy of a UWB tracker for in-home positioning for older adults.

The population of older adults is rapidly growing. In-home monitoring systems have been used to support aging-in-place. Ambient sensors or wearable localizers can be used but may be too low resolution, while camera systems are invasive to privacy.

Striatal response to negative feedback in a stop signal task operates as a multi-value learning signal.

Background And Aim: We examined error-driven learning in fMRI activity of 217 subjects in a stop signal task to obtain a more robust characterization of the relation between behavioral measures of learning and corresponding neural learning signals than previously possible.

Methods: The stop signal task is a two-alternative forced choice in which participants respond to an arrow by pressing a left or right button but must inhibit that response on 1 in 7 trials when cued by an auditory "stop signal." We examined post-error learning by comparing brain activity (BOLD signal) and behavioral responses on trials preceded by successful (correct stop) vs.

Addressing stigma within the dissemination of research products to improve quality of care for pregnant and parenting people affected by substance use disorder.

Substance use disorders are a common and treatable condition among pregnant and parenting people. Social, self, and structural stigma experienced by this group represent a barrier to harm reduction, treatment utilization, and quality of care. We examine features of research dissemination that may generate or uphold stigmatization at every level for pregnant and parenting individuals affected by substance use disorder and their children.

Real-world cell phone radiofrequency electromagnetic field exposures.

In 2011 the International Agency for Research on Cancer classified radiofrequency electromagnetic fields (RF EMF) from cell phones as possibly carcinogenic to humans. The National Toxicology Program and the Ramazzini Institute have both reported that RF EMF exposures significantly increase gliomas and Schwannomas of the heart in rodent studies. Recent studies indicate that RF EMF exposures from cell phones have negative impacts on animal cells and cognitive and/or behavioral development in children.

Early-life exposure to organophosphate pesticides and pediatric respiratory symptoms in the CHAMACOS cohort.

Background: Although pesticide use is widespread, the possible effect of early-life exposure to organophosphate (OP) on pediatric respiratory health is not well described.

Objectives: We investigated the relationship between early-life exposure to OPs and respiratory outcomes.

Methods: Participants included 359 mothers and children from the CHAMACOS birth cohort.

Towards a viscoelastic model for the unfused midpalatal suture: development and validation using the midsagittal suture in New Zealand white rabbits.

Maxillary expansion treatment is a commonly used procedure by orthodontists to widen a patient's upper jaw. As this is typically performed in adolescent patients, the midpalatal suture, connective tissue adjoining the two maxilla halves, remains unfused. Studies that have investigated patient response to expansion treatment, generally through finite element analysis, have considered this suture to behave in a linear elastic manner or it was left vacant.

Long-term exposure to air pollution and cardiorespiratory disease in the California teachers study cohort.

Rationale: Several studies have linked long-term exposure to particulate air pollution with increased cardiopulmonary mortality; only two have also examined incident circulatory disease.

Objectives: To examine associations of individualized long-term exposures to particulate and gaseous air pollution with incident myocardial infarction and stroke, as well as all-cause and cause specific mortality.

Methods: We estimated long-term residential air pollution exposure for more than 100,000 participants in the California Teachers Study, a prospective cohort of female public school professionals.

Air pollution exposure during critical time periods in gestation and alterations in cord blood lymphocyte distribution: a cohort of livebirths.

Background: Toxic exposures have been shown to influence maturation of the immune system during gestation. This study investigates the association between cord blood lymphocyte proportions and maternal exposure to air pollution during each gestational month.

Methods: Cord blood was analyzed using a FACSort flow cytometer to determine proportions of T lymphocytes (CD3+ cells and their subsets, CD4+ and CD8+), B lymphocytes (CD19+) and natural killer (NK) cells.

Exposure to air pollution in critical prenatal time windows and IgE levels in newborns.

The objective of this study was to analyze the mechanisms by which exposure to ambient air pollutants influences respiratory health may include altered prenatal immune development. To analyze associations between elevated cord serum Immunoglobulin E (IgE) levels and maternal air pollution exposure during each month of gestation. Total cord serum IgE was determined by the CAP system and mothers' total IgE levels by nephelometry for 459 births in the Czech Republic from May 1994 to mid-January 1997.

Long-term exposure to constituents of fine particulate air pollution and mortality: results from the California Teachers Study.

Background: Several studies have reported associations between long-term exposure to ambient fine particulate matter (PM) and cardiovascular mortality. However, the health impacts of long-term exposure to specific constituents of PM(2.5) (PM with aerodynamic diameter < or = 2.

Obesity, waist size and prevalence of current asthma in the California Teachers Study cohort.

Background: Obesity is a risk factor for asthma, particularly in women, but few cohort studies have evaluated abdominal obesity which reflects metabolic differences in visceral fat known to influence systemic inflammation. A study was undertaken to examine the relationship between the prevalence of asthma and measures of abdominal obesity and adult weight gain in addition to body mass index (BMI) in a large cohort of female teachers.

Methods: Prevalence odds ratios (ORs) for current asthma were calculated using multivariable linear modelling, adjusting for age, smoking and race/ethnicity.

Amyloid inhibitors enhance survival of cultured human islets.

Background: Amyloid fibrils created by misfolding and aggregation of proteins are a major pathological feature in a variety of degenerative diseases. Therapeutic approaches including amyloid vaccines and anti-aggregation compounds in models of amyloidosis point to an important role for amyloid in disease pathogenesis. Amyloid deposits derived from the beta-cell peptide islet amyloid polypeptide (IAPP or amylin) are a characteristic of type 2 diabetes and may contribute to loss of beta-cells in this disease.

Fungi and pollen exposure in the first months of life and risk of early childhood wheezing.

Background: Many studies have found that the risk of childhood asthma varies by month of birth, but few have examined ambient aeroallergens as an explanatory factor. A study was undertaken to examine whether birth during seasons of elevated ambient fungal spore or pollen concentrations is associated with risk of early wheezing or blood levels of Th1 and Th2 type cells at 24 months of age.

Methods: 514 children were enrolled before birth and followed to 24 months of age.

The relationship of respiratory and cardiovascular hospital admissions to the southern California wildfires of 2003.

Objective: There is limited information on the public health impact of wildfires. The relationship of cardiorespiratory hospital admissions (n = 40 856) to wildfire-related particulate matter (PM(2.5)) during catastrophic wildfires in southern California in October 2003 was evaluated.

Residential traffic and children's respiratory health.

Background: Living near traffic has been associated with asthma and other respiratory symptoms. Most studies, however, have been conducted in areas with high background levels of ambient air pollution, making it challenging to isolate an independent effect of traffic. Additionally, most investigations have used surrogates of exposure, and few have measured traffic pollutants directly as part of the study.

The impact of components of fine particulate matter on cardiovascular mortality in susceptible subpopulations.

Background: Several studies have demonstrated associations between daily mortality and ambient particulate matter less than 2.5 microns in diameter (fine particles or PM2.5).

An association between asthma and BMI in adolescents: results from the California Healthy Kids Survey.

We examined the relationship between asthma prevalence and BMI in a cross-sectional survey of 471,969 adolescents. The size of the survey allowed us to investigate this relationship with much greater resolution than previously possible. Both lifetime and current asthma prevalence increased monotonically with increasing BMI, starting with individuals as low as the 45th to 55th percentiles of BMI.

Early childhood lower respiratory illness and air pollution.

Background: Few studies of air pollutants address morbidity in preschool children. In this study we evaluated bronchitis in children from two Czech districts: Teplice, with high ambient air pollution, and Prachatice, characterized by lower exposures.

Objectives: Our goal was to examine rates of lower respiratory illnesses in preschool children in relation to ambient particles and hydrocarbons.

The role of islet neogenesis-associated protein (INGAP) in islet neogenesis.

Islet Neogenesis-Associated Protein (INGAP) is a member of the Reg family of proteins implicated in various settings of endogenous pancreatic regeneration. The expression of INGAP and other RegIII proteins has also been linked temporally and spatially with the induction of islet neogenesis in animal models of disease and regeneration. Furthermore, administration of a peptide fragment of INGAP (INGAP peptide) has been demonstrated to reverse chemically induced diabetes as well as improve glycemic control and survival in an animal model of type 1 diabetes.

The identification and sequence analysis of a new Reg3gamma and Reg2 in the Syrian golden hamster.

The regenerating (Reg) genes are associated with tissue repair and have been directly implicated in pancreatic beta-cell regeneration. A hamster Reg3, Islet neogenesis associated protein (INGAP), has been shown to possess anti-diabetic properties in rodent models. Although several Reg3 proteins have been identified in other species, INGAP is the only Reg3 found in hamsters.

Acinar plasticity: development of a novel in vitro model to study human acinar-to-duct-to-islet differentiation.

Objectives: The plasticity of pancreatic tissue is demonstrated in many pancreatic diseases. It has previously been shown that pancreatic islet-to-duct transformation and acinoductal metaplasia have been associated with both pancreatic regeneration and adenocarcinoma in various in vivo and in vitro settings. Understanding this inherent morphogenetic plasticity of the adult pancreas could lead to new therapeutic approaches to pancreatic disease.

The effects of components of fine particulate air pollution on mortality in california: results from CALFINE.

Objective: Several epidemiologic studies provide evidence of an association between daily mortality and particulate matter < 2.5 pm in diameter (PM2.5).

Early environmental exposures and intracellular Th1/Th2 cytokine profiles in 24-month-old children living in an agricultural area.

Background: Children who reside in agricultural settings are potentially exposed to higher levels of organophosphate (OP) pesticides, endotoxin, and allergens than their urban counterparts. Endotoxin and allergens stimulate maturation of the immune response in early childhood, but little is known about the effect of exposures to OPs or to the three combined.

Objectives: In this study, we investigated the relationships between these exposures and T-helper 1 (Th1) and T-helper 2 (Th2) cytokines, biomarkers of allergic asthma, in the subjects of CHAMACOS (Center for the Health Assessment of Mothers and Children of Salinas), a longitudinal birth cohort in Salinas Valley, California.