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Additive manufacturing (AM) is increasingly being used to fabricate end-use and high-value-added parts in a range of industries. AM’s ability to create complex geometries and vary the internal composition of a part has enabled the design of many novel devices, including radio frequency (RF) devices that rely on the spatial variation of electromagnetic (EM) properties. However, current AM processes for fabricating complex parts are typically run without any part monitoring or online feedback control, and as a result, the printed parts may be compromised by defects or have poor tolerances. Manufacturing parts in this way also requires extra quality testing since there is no knowledge of their interior quality. For these reasons, introducing process monitoring and corrective action to the AM process has become an important area of research as AM is being used to create safety-critical parts. This work proposes a control algorithm to enable closed-loop control of an EM property, specifically dielectric permittivity, within a print using a fused filament fabrication (FFF) printer. The control system used a split-ring resonator (SRR) to measure the permittivity of printed thermoplastic, and the control action was applied by updating the printed infill density layer to layer. This control system was tested by printing a proof-of-concept graded-index (GRIN) lens with spatially varying permittivity through the lens’ length. The results demonstrate the ability of the controller to follow a constantly varying reference signal, indicating the potential of closed-loop control for improved fabrication of functional RF devices that depend on precise variations in relative permittivity.

The article focuses on U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris's handling of immigration issues during her campaign against former U.S. President, Donald Trump, highlighting her failure to counter Trump's inflammatory rhetoric while promoting a tough border security stance. It criticizes her alignment with far-right narratives that neglect comprehensive reform and the needs of immigrant communities, despite her background as a daughter of immigrants.

AbstractBackground: Data on Internet utilization is needed, particularly during a time when in-person services are limited or only available virtually. The purpose of this study was to identify characteristics of Internet use among persons who use drugs and assess adoption of an interactive, risk reduction informational website – WebHealth4Us. Methods: Participant recruitment occurred in pharmacies participating in the New York State pharmacy syringe access program (n = 209). ACASI surveys were conducted on-site to ascertain Internet use and related sociodemographics and risk behaviors. Internet users (use ≥ once/month) were shown a website WebHealth4Ushighlighting social services and risk reduction information on four topic areas: mental health, HIV, HCV, and other STI; users could also sign-up for weekly text messages for any topic area. Follow-up ACASI occurred at four weeks to assess user experiences and website adoption. Results: Study sample (n = 196) was mostly male (60%), average age 46, black/Latinx (76%), had a history of incarceration (79%), and reported past/current injection (53%) or non-injection (51%) drug use. Internet use was high (79%), accessed >4 times/week (60%) most commonly for: housing (61%), health issues (54%), and drug treatment (45%). Over one-third accessed WebHealth4Usduring follow-up, and 35% of those opted for weekly text messages (mental health most common topic selected). After adjustment, younger age (AOR = 0.96) and alcohol use (AOR = 2.26) predicted WebHealth4Usaccess. Conclusion: Internet use was high with considerable WebHealth4Usaccess, and specifically for mental health needs. Web-based interventions warrant large-scale investigation in high-risk communities, prioritizing social determinants and behavioral health.

Objective: The purpose of this paper was to measure if people with greater “structural literacy,” as indicated by greater awareness of racial and socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19 impact, would hold fewer negative attitudes against those perceived to be Asian in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: A survey was administered between April and August 2020 to participants from two longitudinal cohorts in New York State. The survey assessed anti-Asian attitudes relating to COVID-19, awareness of racial and socioeconomic disparities in COVID-19, residential location, socioeconomic status, and other demographic information. The sample included 233 Black, Latinx, and White midlife adults from urban, suburban, and rural New York neighborhoods. Multivariable regression modeling was used to assess associations between COVID-19 disparities awareness, an indicator of structural literacy, and anti-Asian attitudes, adjusting for gender, race/ethnicity, residential location, and socioeconomic disadvantage. Results: Greater awareness of disparities in COVID-19 was associated with lower levels of anti-Asian attitudes after adjustment (adj-slope =  − 0.358, p< 0.001). Conclusion: Greater structural literacy, as measured by awareness of socioeconomic and racial disparities in COVID-19 impact, was associated with fewer anti-Asian attitudes among Black, Latinx, and White adults. Implications: Increasing structural literacy may reduce anti-Asian attitudes that motivate harmful acts against oppressed groups.

Therapeutic angiogenesis and arteriogenesis represent an alternative treatment modality for patients with advanced ischaemic coronary or peripheral artery occlusive disease, who are unsuitable for standard revascularization procedures.

•Crisis Intervention Team trainings offer opportunities to address stigma•Knowledge of communication strategies was found to be correlated with lower levels of substance use stigma•Increased self-efficacy post-training was associated with lower levels of mental illness and substance use stigma•Awareness of community resources was related to decreased mental illness and substance use stigma after training•Additional training content on bias and substance use disorders may be beneficial

Volcanic ash eruptions and mineral dust injection into the atmosphere are of particular importance to the aviation industry. Ash and dust affect almost any aspect of air operations, from airport facilities to cruise flight. This paper is focused on the advantage of using dust forecasting tools and the potential benefit for Air Traffic Management (ATM), flight safety and aircraft performance. It is suggested that state of the art Chemical Weather Prediction (CWP) model coupled with accurate dust cycle module could be a useful operational tool for more efficient Air Traffic Management and aircraft exploitation.

Perlecan is a heparan sulfate proteoglycan (HSPG) constituent of the extracellular matrix with roles in cell growth, differentiation, and angiogenesis. The role of the HS side chains in regulating in vivoangiogenesis after hind-limb ischemia is unknown.

Background: Albeit transitional cell carcinoma of the urinary bladder is a chemosensitive neoplasm, metastatic disease is related with poor prognosis and short-term survival data. Objective: Cisplatin-based combination chemotherapy is recognised as the golden standard therapy for patients with inoperable locally advanced or metastatic bladder cancer. However, owing to treatment-related toxicities and short-response durations, novel treatment options or agents, with both enhanced efficacy and tolerability, have been sought. Methods: Reviewing the current status and addressing the future of novel anticancer therapeutics in metastatic urinary bladder cancer. Results/conclusion: Non-platinum, single agents, such as gemcitabine and taxanes, as well as multidrug regimens in doublet or triplet chemotherapeutic combinations are regarded as promising alternatives. Dose intensification of conventional regimens, dose-dense sequential administration of new agents, the use of molecular markers for predicting chemosensitivity and the integration of biologically targeted agents to enhance chemotherapeutic efficacy are promising approaches.

Objective To present our 10-year experience with patients surgically treated for upper urinary tract transitional cell carcinoma.Patients and methods We reviewed the medical records of 264 patients (218 males and 46 females), aged 37–93 years (mean, 69.5), treated surgically for upper tract transitional cell carcinoma during the period January 1996 to December 2005.Results During the mean follow-up of 58 months (range, 12–120), local relapse was diagnosed in 14% of the patients. The mean time to recurrence was 13 months (range, 1–102). The overall mortality was 14%, and the mean survival was 109 months. Survival was significantly influenced by the following parameters: male gender (P = 0.0151), age over 80 years (P = 0.0012), location in both the pelviocaliceal system and the ureter (P = 0.051), a two incision operation (P = 0.0075), grade III (P = 0.0314), stage T3 and T4 (P <0.0001).Conclusions Tumor stage was identified as the most important determinant in predicting recurrence and survival. Other predictors of survival included male gender, age over 80 years, location in the pelviocaliceal system and the ureter, a two incision operation, and high grade.

AbstractA prototype system for in vivo monitoring of the heart tissue viability by using combined measurements of fluorescence, thermography and electrical activity has been elaborated for cardiac surgery. The fluorescence imaging of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide NAD(P)H in the blue light range (467 nm) by using UV light (347 nm) excitation was used to detect metabolic disturbances. The method of the principal component analysis was used for the processing of the fluorescence image sequences. Far infrared (7.5 13 m) imaging was used to evaluate temperature dynamics of the tissue surface during circulation disturbances. Evaluation of the epicardial electrogram shape by using continuous wavelet transform was used to detect and evaluate ischemia-caused disturbances of the electrical activity of the tissue. The combination of temperature, fluorescence and electrical activity estimates obtained from synchronically registered parameters during the experiments on model systems and experimental animals yielded qualitatively new results for the evaluation of cardiac tissue viability and enabled to achieve a versatile evaluation of the heart tissue viability.Eine experimenteller Aufbau fr das Monitoring der Herzvitalitt in vivowird vorgestellt. Die Kombination von Fuoreszenzbildgebung, Thermographie und EKG wurde fr die Herzchirurgie entworfen. nderungen des Stoffwechsels knnen durch ein 2D mapping der Fluoreszenz von Nicotinamide Adenine Dinucleotide NAD(P)H festgestellt werden. Die Anregung erfolgt bei 347 nm; die Fluoreszenz wird bei 467 nm detektiert. Die Bildsequenzen wurden mit einer Hauptkomponentenanalyse analysiert. Die Temperaturdynamik der Herzoberflche whrend der Ischmie wird durch IR-Strahlung (7.5 13 m) abgebildet. Zustzlich konnten die Strungen der elektrischen Aktivitt durch ein EKG nach einer Wavelet-Transformation bewertet werden. Durch die Kombination der drei verschiedenen Methoden knnen synchrone Parameter an Modellsystemen und Versuchstieren gewonnen werden. Diese qualitativ neuen Ergebnisse dienen einer umfassenden Beurteilung der Vitalitt von Herzgewebe.

We have investigated the signaling pathways initiated by insulin, insulin-like growth factor-1 (IGF-I), and platelet-derived growth factor (PDGF) leading to activation of the extracellular signal-regulated kinase (ERK) in L6 myotubes. Insulin but not IGF-I or PDGF-induced ERK activation was abrogated by Ras inhibition, either by treatment with the farnesyl transferase inhibitor FTP III, or by actin disassembly by cytochalasin D, previously shown to inhibit Ras activation. The protein kinase C (PKC) inhibitor bisindolylmaleimide abolished PDGF but not IGF-I or insulin-induced ERK activation. ERK activation by insulin, IGF-I, or PDGF was unaffected by the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase inhibitor wortmannin but was abolished by the MEK inhibitor PD98059. In contrast, activation of the pathway involving phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3k), protein kinase B, and glycogen synthase kinase 3 (GSK3) was mediated similarly by all three receptors, through a PI 3-kinase-dependent but Ras- and actin-independent pathway. We conclude that ERK activation is mediated by distinct pathways including: (i) a cytoskeleton- and Ras-dependent, PKC-independent, pathway utilized by insulin, (ii) a PKC-dependent, cytoskeleton- and Ras-independent pathway used by PDGF, and (iii) a cytoskeleton-, Ras-, and PKC-independent pathway utilized by IGF-I.

The cytochromes P450 are a superfamily of enzymes that can carry out a wide range of oxidative reactions. While the transcriptional control of the cytochrome P450 genes has been relatively well-studied, posttranscriptional regulatory mechanisms that contribute to the regulation of P450s are much less well understood. We followed the decay of CYP1A1, CYP1A2, and CYP1B1 mRNAs after induction by the AH receptor ligand 2,3,7,8,-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin. CYP1A2 and CYP1B1 mRNAs were long-lived in this cell line (t12 > 24 h). In contrast, the CYP1A1 mRNA decays remarkably quickly. To determine if this rapid decay was unique to CYP1A1, we assessed the decay of selected human P450 and liver-specific mRNAs in HepG2 cells as a comparison. We analyzed albumin, phosphofructokinase, and GAPDH mRNAs and found that they were long-lived, with half-lives >24 h. We show that CYP2E1 mRNA can be detected in HepG2 cells by RT-PCR and that this mRNA also has a basal half-life of >24 h. Thus the CYP1A1 mRNA with its half-life of 2.4 h was one of the shortest-lived mRNA studied and is the most unstable of the cytochrome P450 mRNAs we have tested. The rapid decay of CYP1A1 mRNA is associated with a rapid loss in poly(A) tail length, suggesting that deadenylation is the first step in the decay pathway. The short half-life appears to be conserved across species, which suggests that this characteristic of the CYP1A1 mRNA is important for its function.

Glucose utilization increases markedly in the normal dog during stress induced by the intracerebroventricular (ICV) injection of carbachol. To determine the extent to which insulin, glucagon, and selective (α/β)-adrenergic activation mediate the increment in glucose metabolic clearance rate (MCR) and glucose production (Ra), we used five groups of normal mongrel dogs: 1) pancreatic clamp (PC; n= 7) with peripheral somatostatin (0.8 μg ⋅ kg−1⋅ min−1) and intraportal replacement of insulin (1,482 ± 84 pmol ⋅ kg−1⋅ min−1) and glucagon (0.65 ng ⋅ kg−1⋅ min−1) infusions; 2) PC plus combined α (phentolamine)- and β (propranolol)-blockade (7 and 5 μg ⋅ kg−1⋅ min−1, respectively; α+β; n= 5);3) PC plus α-blockade (α;n= 6);4) PC plus β-blockade (β;n= 5); and5) a carbachol control group without PC (Con; n= 10). During ICV carbachol stress (0–120 min), catecholamines, ACTH, and cortisol increased in all groups. Baseline insulin and glucagon levels were maintained in all groups except Con, where glucagon rose 33%, and α, where insulin increased slightly but significantly. Stress increased (P< 0.05) plasma glucose in Con, PC, and α but decreased it in β and α+β. The MCR increment was greater (P< 0.05) in β and α+β than in Con, PC, and α. Raincreased (P< 0.05) in all groups but was attenuated in α+β. Stress-induced lipolysis was abolished in β (P< 0.05). The marked rise in lactate in Con, PC, and α was abolished in α+β and β. We conclude that the stress-induced increase in MCR is largely independent of changes in insulin, markedly augmented by β-blockade, and related, at least in part, to inhibition of lipolysis and glycogenolysis, and that Rais augmented by glucagon and α- and β-catecholamine effects.