Relaxing Floors: Fractal Fluency in the Built Environment.

This year's cover artists are members of a newly formed team of designers and scientists known as the Science and Design Laboratory, along with flooring manufacturing experts from the Mohawk Group. This unique collab-oration creates patterns for installation on the floors of versatile commercial, public and private spaces including airports, hospitals, offices and homes. Their goal is to create human-centered designs based on psychology experiments that investigate the positive impacts of viewing fractal patterns.

Neuromuscular blockade in the elderly patient.

Neuromuscular blockade is a desirable or even essential component of general anesthesia for major surgical operations. As the population continues to age, and more operations are conducted in the elderly, due consideration must be given to neuromuscular blockade in these patients to avoid possible complications. This review considers the pharmacokinetics and pharmacodynamics of neuromuscular blockade that may be altered in the elderly.

Hyperosmolarity attenuates TNF-α-mediated proinflammatory activation of human pulmonary microvascular endothelial cells.

Firm neutrophil (PMN)-endothelial (EC) adhesion is crucial to the PMN-mediated hyperinflammation observed in acute lung injury. Hypertonic saline (HTS) used for resuscitation of hemorrhagic shock has been associated with a decreased incidence of PMN-mediated lung injury/acute respiratory distress syndrome. We hypothesize that physiologically accessible hypertonic incubation (170 vs.

It's not your grandfather's field plasma.

Initiating prehospital resuscitation with plasma in patients with trauma-associated hemorrhagic shock will result in more rapid and durable clot formation and, thus, the need for fewer packed cell infusions, less frequent use of cryoprecipitate, and more ventilator-free hospital days compared with those of patients randomized to standard crystalloid field resuscitation.

Germ cell tumor metastatic to the oral cavity.

Neoplasms metastatic to the oral cavity are rare, accounting for less than 1% of all malignancies found there. When they do occur, they are usually found in the soft tissue or mandible. Metastatic malignancies involving the gingival, alveolar, or buccal mucosa are very rare.

Hypertonic saline inhibits arachidonic acid priming of the human neutrophil oxidase.

Background: Arachidonic acid (AA, and its leukotriene derivatives, e.g., LTB(4)) is an inflammatory mediator in post-shock mesenteric lymph that appears to act as an agonist on G-protein coupled receptors (GPCRs).

Mesenchymal hamartoma of the liver.

Mesenchymal hamartoma of the liver is the second most common benign liver tumor of childhood. Ultrasonography demonstrates a cystic lesion that may be very large. Computed tomographic scan will further establish the location and its relationship to vascular anatomy.