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To increase the tool life of fine blanking punches, this work investigates a combined solution approach consisting of increasing the mechanical strength of the substrate material by shot peening and deposition of physical vapor deposition (PVD) hard coatings. A powder metallurgical high‐speed steel (HSS) is used as a substrate material. First, the temperature‐dependent relaxation behavior of residual stresses and strain‐hardening of the shot‐peened substrate is analyzed. Subsequently, the coating process for deposition of the wear‐resistant hard coating TiAlCrSiN is adjusted regarding the substrate temperature to prevent the heat input from causing significant relaxation of the shot peening effects. After shot peening, the substrate exhibits an increased hardness of ΔHIT ≈+10% and compressive residual stresses of σ ≈−1700 MPa. Significant relaxation after heat treaent occurs between T = 300 and T = 400 °C. Thus, the substrate temperature does not exceed TS ≈ 300 °C during coating deposition due to process adjusents. Shot peening leads to an increased substrate and coating roughness as well as a slightly higher indentation hardness of the TiAlCrSiN coating. Moreover, the coatings deposited on shot‐peened substrate exhibit enhanced adhesion strength to the substrate and improved impact resistance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: This article examines the effects of partisan control of government on income distribution within the United States. Methods: Using newly available data, we estimate the effects of unified Democratic and Republican Party control at the state and national levels on the share of income going to the top 1 percent of income earners, by state, between 1917 and 2011. Results: We find that unified party control at the state level has minimal impact on income going to the top 1 percent of income earners within the states, but that unified party control at the federal level does have an effect. Moreover, we find that over the long term, unified Democratic control at the federal level leads to less income going to the top 1 percent, while unified Republican control increases income going to top earners. Conclusions: Despite the increased focus on federalism and state policy in studies of income inequality, our findings suggest that federal‐level political factors are important for understanding the share of income going to the top income earners in the United States, particularly in the contemporary era. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Surgical sutures are used to facilitate closure and healing of surgical- or trauma-induced wounds by upholding tissues together to facilitate healing process. There is a wide range of suture materials for medical purpose and the main types include absorbable and nonabsorbable. Recently, there is a growth in the development of classes of suture materials based on their properties and capabilities to improve tissue approximation and wound closure. This review outlines and discusses the current and emerging trends in suture technology including knotless barbed sutures, antimicrobial sutures, bio-active sutures such as drug-eluting and stem cells seeded sutures, and smart sutures including elastic, and electronic sutures. These newer strategies expand the versatility of sutures from being used as just a physical entity approximating opposing tissues to a more biologically active component enabling delivery of drugs and cells to the desired site with immense application potential in both therapeutics and diagnostics. © 2016 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Biomed Mater Res Part A: 104A: 1544-1559, 2016. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Targeted Regulation of Abortion Providers (or TRAP) laws impose medically unnecessary and burdensome regulations solely on abortion providers in order to make abortion services more expensive and difficult to obtain. Using event history analysis, this article examines the determinants of the enactment of a TRAP law by states over the period 1974-2008. The empirical results find that Republican institutional control of a state's legislative/executive branches is positively associated with a state enacting a TRAP law, while Democratic institutional control is negatively associated with a state enacting a TRAP law. The percentage of a state's population that is Catholic, public anti-abortion attitudes, state political ideology, and the abortion rate in a state are statistically insignificant predictors of a state enacting a TRAP law. The empirical results are consistent with the hypothesis that abortion is a redistributive issue and not a morality issue. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a study on the relationship between agricultural intensification and biological control. It mentions that the authors examined aphid pest populations in cereal and open fields and stressed the importance of parasitoids and vegetation-dwelling predators in various European region. The authors concluded that region-specific landscape management is needed for aphid control.

The article focuses on the effects of agricultural intensification (AI) on biodiversity in Europe. It investigates the diversity of vascular plants, carabid beetles, and birds in agricultural landscapes in cereal crop field at the field, farm, and European-region scale. The study suggests that a more detailed understanding of AI effects on diversity patterns of various plants and animals in multiple spatial scales would contribute to more efficient agri-environmental schemes in agroecosystems.

This is the sixteenth reported case of pulmonary botryomycosis, an uncommon suppurative bacterial infection of the lung. We describe the case of a 69-year-old man who presented with a chronic cough and intermittent haemoptysis and on subsequent chest computed tomographic scan imaging was found to have a right lower lobe mass. He underwent a right lower lobectomy for presumed lung cancer. Histological analysis however revealed a bacterial aetiology. The past literature is reviewed outlining the pathogenesis and difficulties of clinical and radiological diagnosis. Primary pulmonary botryomycosis forms an important curative differential diagnosis for lung cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Summary An uncommon case of neurosarcoidosis of the conus medullaris and cauda equina is described in a 24-year-old man with a 4-year history of urological symptoms and rash. Chest X-ray and biopsy confirmed sarcoidosis and MRI diagnosed conus medullaris involvement. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]