Granular metals with SiNdielectrics.

Understanding and controlling nanoscale interface phenomena, such as band bending and secondary phase formation, is crucial for electronic device optimization. In granular metal (GM) studies, where metal nanoparticles are embedded in an insulating matrix, the importance of interface phenomena is frequently neglected. We demonstrate that GMs can serve as an exemplar system for evaluating the role of secondary phases at interfaces through a combination of x-ray photoemission spectroscopy (XPS) and electrical transport studies.

Identification of Acute Coronary Syndrome in the Elderly.

When older adults experience acute coronary syndrome (ACS), they often present with what are considered "atypical" symptoms. Because their symptoms less often match the expected presentation of ACS, older patients can have delayed time to assessment, to performance of an electrocardiogram, to diagnosis, and to definitive management. Unfortunately, it is this very group of patients who are at the highest risk for having ACS and for complications from ACS.

Transcatheter Embolization of Type I Endoleaks Associated With Endovascular Abdominal Aortic Aneurysm Repair Using Ethylene Vinyl Alcohol Copolymer.

Purpose: To evaluate the feasibility, safety, and outcome of transcatheter embolization using ethylene vinyl alcohol copolymer (EVOH) of type I endoleaks associated with endovascular abdominal aortic aneurysm repair.

Patient Population And Methods: Retrospective chart review was performed to identify 8 consecutive patients who had undergone EVOH embolization for type I endoleaks between 2012 and 2015. The primary approach used to access the endoleak was the perigraft technique, where the endoleak itself is catheterized at the anastomotic site.

Lateral Lumbar Interbody Fusion in Ambulatory Surgery Centers: Patient Selection and Outcome Measures Compared With an Inhospital Cohort.

Study Design: Comparative analysis.

Objective: To evaluate the safety and outcomes of moving lateral lumbar interbody fusion (LLIF) surgeries to an outpatient setting.

Summary Of Background Data: LLIF has been popularized as a less invasive lumbar fusion surgery as an alternative approach to anterior lumbar interbody fusions, posterior lateral interbody fusion, and transforaminal lateral interbody fusion (TLIF).

Expression of the secondary granule proteins major basic protein 1 (MBP-1) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPX) is required for eosinophilopoiesis in mice.

Eosinophil activities are often linked with allergic diseases such as asthma and the pathologies accompanying helminth infection. These activities have been hypothesized to be mediated, in part, by the release of cationic proteins stored in the secondary granules of these granulocytes. The majority of the proteins stored in these secondary granules (by mass) are major basic protein 1 (MBP-1) and eosinophil peroxidase (EPX).

Human versus mouse eosinophils: "that which we call an eosinophil, by any other name would stain as red".

The respective life histories of human subjects and mice are well defined and describe a unique story of evolutionary conservation extending from sequence identity within the genome to the underpinnings of biochemical, cellular, and physiologic pathways. As a consequence, the hematopoietic lineages of both species are invariantly maintained, each with identifiable eosinophils. This canonical presence nonetheless does not preclude disparities between human and mouse eosinophils, their effector functions, or both.

The construction of transgenic and gene knockout/knockin mouse models of human disease.

The genetic and physiological similarities between mice and humans have focused considerable attention on rodents as potential models of human health and disease. Together with the wealth of resources, knowledge, and technologies surrounding the mouse as a model system, these similarities have propelled this species to the forefront of biomedical research. The advent of genomic manipulation has quickly led to the creation and use of genetically engineered mice as powerful tools for cutting edge studies of human disease research including the discovery, refinement, and utility of many currently available therapeutic regimes.

A novel histologic scoring system to evaluate mucosal biopsies from patients with eosinophilic esophagitis.

Background & Aims: Eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE) is characterized by medically/surgically-resistant gastroesophageal reflux symptoms and dense squamous eosinophilia. Studies suggest that histologic assessment of esophageal eosinophilia alone cannot reliably separate patients with EoE from those with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Our goal was to develop an assay to identify EoE patients and perhaps differentiate EoE from other causes of esophageal eosinophilia.

Allergic pulmonary inflammation promotes the recruitment of circulating tumor cells to the lung.

Allergen-induced respiratory inflammation facilitates and/or elicits the extravasation of proinflammatory leukocytes by well-understood mechanisms that mediate the movement of multiple cell types. The nonspecific character of these pathways led us to hypothesize that circulating cancer cells use similar mechanisms, promoting secondary tumor formation at distal sites. To test this hypothesis, the frequency of metastasis to the lung as a function of allergic pulmonary inflammation was assessed following the i.

Alternative housing for Xenopus laevis.

At the authors' facility, housing arrangements for Xenopus laevis were cumbersome and labor-intensive, requiring technicians to wash frog tanks by hand several times a week. The authors describe an alternative housing solution they implemented by modifying a rack system that was originally used to maintain zebrafish. The rack's self-contained water circulation and filtration system saved technicians time and labor, and a commercial chiller attached to the mechanism efficiently controlled frogs' environmental temperature.

Coexpression of IL-5 and eotaxin-2 in mice creates an eosinophil-dependent model of respiratory inflammation with characteristics of severe asthma.

Mouse models of allergen provocation and/or transgenic gene expression have provided significant insights regarding the cellular, molecular, and immune responses linked to the pathologies occurring as a result of allergic respiratory inflammation. Nonetheless, the inability to replicate the eosinophil activities occurring in patients with asthma has limited their usefulness to understand the larger role(s) of eosinophils in disease pathologies. These limitations have led us to develop an allergen-naive double transgenic mouse model that expresses IL-5 systemically from mature T cells and eotaxin-2 locally from lung epithelial cells.

Galphai2-mediated signaling events in the endothelium are involved in controlling leukocyte extravasation.

The trafficking of leukocytes from the blood to sites of inflammation is the cumulative result of receptor-ligand-mediated signaling events associated with the leukocytes themselves as well as with the underlying vascular endothelium. Our data show that Galpha(i) signaling pathways in the vascular endothelium regulate a critical step required for leukocyte diapedesis. In vivo studies using knockout mice demonstrated that a signaling event in a non-lymphohematopoietic compartment of the lung prevented the recruitment of proinflammatory leukocytes.

Grasshoppers in research and education: methods for maintenance and production.

Insects used in research have traditionally been housed and cared for in the investigator's laboratory. Centralized colony maintenance may be advantageous, but presents unique challenges to animal care staff members, who are more familiar with vertebrate research animals. To fill this potential knowledge gap, the authors share the procedures they have developed at Arizona State University for the housing, husbandry, and breeding of grasshoppers used in research and teaching.

When is a mouse basophil not a basophil?

The identification and characterization of mouse basophils have historically been hampered by the extreme rarity of this cell type. Virtually no photomicrographs of hematologically stained (eg, Wright-Giemsa) examples of mouse basophils exist in the literature. However, 4 recent studies in the past 2 years have used flow cytometry and a defined set of cell-surface markers to identify and subsequently isolate mouse "basophils," including the publication of stained cytospin preparations of these cells.

Pivotal Advance: eosinophil infiltration of solid tumors is an early and persistent inflammatory host response.

Tumor-associated eosinophilia has been observed in numerous human cancers and several tumor models in animals; however, the details surrounding this eosinophilia remain largely undefined and anecdotal. We used a B16-F10 melanoma cell injection model to demonstrate that eosinophil infiltration of tumors occurred from the earliest palpable stages with significant accumulations only in the necrotic and capsule regions. Furthermore, the presence of diffuse extracellular matrix staining for eosinophil major basic protein was restricted to the necrotic areas of tumors, indicating that eosinophil degranulation was limited to this region.

A percutaneous swine model of myocardial infarction.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to develop a percutaneous, low risk, and reproducible technique of MI that simulates human disease.

Methods: MI was induced in 44 swine (32.8+/-7.

Decreased size and survival of weanling mice in litters of IL-5-/ -mice are a consequence of the IL-5 deficiency in nursing dams.

We have observed decreased size and increased mortality rates in interleukin 5 (IL-5)-deficient mice versus IL-5-heterozygous and wild-type mice and have sought to define these differences. IL-5-deficient mice nursed by IL-5 deficient mothers were notably underweight, with a high percentage of preweaning mortality. In contrast, IL-5-deficient mice nursed by IL-5-sufficient foster mothers from birth were well-developed and robust at weaning, with a relatively low percentage of preweaning mortality.

Defining a link with asthma in mice congenitally deficient in eosinophils.

Eosinophils are often dominant inflammatory cells present in the lungs of asthma patients. Nonetheless, the role of these leukocytes remains poorly understood. We have created a transgenic line of mice (PHIL) that are specifically devoid of eosinophils, but otherwise have a full complement of hematopoietically derived cells.

Potential nosocomial exposure to Mycobacterium tuberculosis from a bronchoscope.

Objective: To investigate a possible nosocomial outbreak of tuberculosis (TB).

Design: Retrospective cohort study.

Setting: Community hospital.

Percutaneous transvenous cellular cardiomyoplasty. A novel nonsurgical approach for myocardial cell transplantation.

Objectives: The study evaluated a nonsurgical means of intramyocardial cell introduction using the coronary venous system for direct myocardial access and cell delivery.

Background: Direct myocardial cell repopulation has been proposed as a potential method to treat heart failure.

Methods: We harvested bone marrow from Yorkshire swine (n = 6; 50 to 60 kg), selected culture-flask adherent cells, labeled them with the gene for green fluorescence protein, expanded them in culture, and resuspended them in a collagen hydrogel.

Dressing for success: choosing garbing standards for the laboratory animal facility.

The animal research literature devotes much attention to the function of clothing and personal protective equipment in preventing transmission of zoonotic diseases from animal to human, but has said comparatively little about the potential for transmission of disease from human to animal. The authors consider appropriate garbing standards for personnel charged with various tasks within the animal facility, emphasizing the protection of animals from potential health threats.

A causative relationship exists between eosinophils and the development of allergic pulmonary pathologies in the mouse.

Asthma and mouse models of allergic respiratory inflammation are invariably associated with a pulmonary eosinophilia; however, this association has remained correlative. In this report, a causative relationship between eosinophils and allergen-provoked pathologies was established using eosinophil adoptive transfer. Eosinophils were transferred directly into the lungs of either naive or OVA-treated IL-5(-/-) mice.

Spoligologos: a bioinformatic approach to displaying and analyzing Mycobacterium tuberculosis data.

Spacer oligonucleotide (spoligotyping) analysis is a rapid polymerase chain reaction-based method of DNA fingerprinting the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex. We examined spoligotype data using a bioinformatic tool (sequence logo analysis) to elucidate undisclosed phylogenetic relationships and gain insights into the global dissemination of strains of tuberculosis. Logo analysis of spoligotyping data provides a simple way to describe a fingerprint signature and may be useful in categorizing unique spoligotypes patterns as they are discovered.

Impact of genotyping of Mycobacterium tuberculosis on public health practice in Massachusetts.

Massachusetts was one of seven sentinel surveillance sites in the National Tuberculosis Genotyping and Surveillance Network. From 1996 through 2000, isolates from new patients with tuberculosis (TB) underwent genotyping. We describe the impact that genotyping had on public health practice in Massachusetts and some limitations of the technique.

Estimated costs of false laboratory diagnoses of tuberculosis in three patients.

We estimated direct medical and nonmedical costs associated with a false diagnosis of tuberculosis (TB) caused by laboratory cross-contamination of Mycobacterium tuberculosis cultures in Massachusetts in 1998 and 1999. For three patients who received misdiagnoses of active TB disease on the basis of laboratory cross-contamination, the costs totaled U.S.