Characterization of Mycelium Biocomposites under Simulated Weathering Conditions.

Expanded polystyrene (EPS) remains a popular packaging material despite environmental concerns such as pollution, difficulty to recycle, and toxicity to wildlife. The goal of this study is to evaluate the potential of an ecofriendly alternative to traditional EPS composed of a mycelium biocomposite grown from agricultural waste. In this material, the mycelium spores are incorporated into cellulosic waste, resulting in a structurally sound biocomposite completely enveloped by mycelium fibers.

Automated classification of online reviews of otolaryngologists.

Objectives: The study aimed to extract online comments of otolaryngologists in the 20 most populated cities in the United States from healthgrades.com, develop and validate a natural language processing (NLP) logistic regression algorithm for automated text classification of reviews into 10 categories, and compare 1- and 5-star reviews in directly-physician-related and non-physician-related categories.

Methods: 1977 1-star and 12,682 5-star reviews were collected.

Palliative Paracentesis in the Home Setting: A Case Series.

Background: Management of ascites-related symptoms in home hospice and palliative care patients can be challenging. Ultrasound-guided paracentesis is a standard intervention for this indication, but generally requires transfer to a hospital or outpatient interventional-radiology (IR) setting; thus, such interventions are often not practical or attainable for home hospice and palliative care patients.

Objective: To describe a mobile, in-home service that provides home-based palliative paracentesis (HBPP) as an interventional palliative option for patients with distressing symptoms related to ascites.

The baubellum is more developmentally and evolutionarily labile than the baculum.

Understanding the evolutionary forces that influence sexual dimorphism is a fundamental goal in biology. Here, we focus on one particularly extreme example of sexual dimorphism. Many mammal species possess a bone in their penis called a baculum.

Dissection, MicroCT Scanning and Morphometric Analyses of the Baculum.

Modern morphometrics provides powerful methods to quantify size and shape variation. A basic requirement is a list of coordinates that define landmarks; however such coordinates must represent homologous structures across specimens. While many biological objects consist of easily identified landmarks to satisfy the assumption of homology, many lack such structures.

The Baculum was Gained and Lost Multiple Times during Mammalian Evolution.

The rapid evolution of male genitalia is a nearly ubiquitous pattern across sexually reproducing organisms, likely driven by the evolutionary pressures of male-male competition, male-female interactions, and perhaps pleiotropic effects of selection. The penis of many mammalian species contains a baculum, a bone that displays astonishing morphological diversity. The evolution of baculum size and shape does not consistently correlate with any aspects of mating system, hindering our understanding of the evolutionary processes affecting it.

The Genetic Basis of Baculum Size and Shape Variation in Mice.

The rapid divergence of male genitalia is a preeminent evolutionary pattern. This rapid divergence is especially striking in the baculum, a bone that occurs in the penis of many mammalian species. Closely related species often display diverse baculum morphology where no other morphological differences can be discerned.