A new Early Permian “lithistid” sponge (Porifera: Demospongiae: Anthaspidellidae) from the Polar Urals

Despite advancement of thrombectomy technologies for large-vessel occlusion (LVO) stroke and increased user experience, complete recanalization rates linger around 50%, and one-third of patients who have undergone successful recanalization still experience poor neurological outcomes. To enhance the understanding of the biomechanics and failure modes, the authors conducted an experimental analysis of the interaction of emboli/artery/devices in the first human brain test platform for LVO stroke described to date. In 12 fresh human brains, 105 LVOs were recreated by embolizing engineered emboli analogs and recanalization was attempted using aspiration catheters and/or stent retrievers. The complex mechanical interaction between diverse emboli (elastic, stiff, and fragment prone), arteries (anterior and posterior circulation), and thrombectomy devices were observed, analyzed, and categorized. The authors systematically evaluated the recanalization process through failure modes and effects analysis, and they identified where and how thrombectomy devices fail and the impact of device failure. The first-pass effect (34%), successful (71%), and complete (60%) recanalization rates in this model were consistent with those in the literature. Failure mode analysis of 184 passes with thrombectomy devices revealed the following. 1) Devices loaded the emboli with tensile forces leading to elongation and intravascular fragmentation. 2) In the presence of anterograde flow, small fragments embolize to the microcirculation and large fragments result in recurrent vessel occlusion. 3) Multiple passes are required due to recurrent (15%) and residual (73%) occlusions, or both (12%). 4) Residual emboli remained in small branching and perforating arteries in cases of alleged complete recanalization (28%). 5) Vacuum caused arterial collapse at physiological pressures (27%). 6) Device withdrawal caused arterial traction (41%), and severe traction provoked avulsion of perforating and small branching arteries. Biomechanically superior thrombectomy technologies should prevent unrestrained tensional load on emboli, minimize intraluminal embolus fragmentation and release, improve device/embolus integration, recanalize small branching and perforating arteries, prevent arterial collapse, and minimize traction.

Small branching veins that arise from the venous outflow of surgical arterial-venous fistulas (AVFs) are frequently seen during fistulograms performed to evaluate for poorly functioning AVFs. It is hypothesized that the presence of escape veins can decrease the performance of native AVFs during hemodialysis by diverting flow. Though interventional methods for exclusion of escape veins are effective, the mechanism of disruption these small branching vessels cause on flow through AVFs is unknown. Furthermore, an objective method for identifying escape veins that cause significantly diminished venous flow has not been defined. The following describes the detrimental nature of escape veins using tenants of physics and electrical circuitry. Subsequently, the proceeding study shows the identification of small branching escape veins in patients during fistulography. Intravascular pressure measurements were obtained proximal and distal to the ostium of the offending collaterals in these patients. Escape veins causing a pressure gradient of at least 5 mmHg were treated, and pressure measurements were repeated following intervention. The patients were entered into a database and hemodialysis blood flow rates were monitored to determine if escape vein intervention increased AVF performance.

PurposeFluid on structural B scan OCT is currently the most important sign among all imaging modalities of neovascular AMD. Recently, OCT angiography biomarkers of activity of nAMD have been described. The aim of the study is to compare the appearance of OCT angiography of eyes with wAMD with intraretinal or subretinal fluid against those without fluid on Bscan OCT.MethodsRetrospective cross sectional study.Fluid on Bscan OCT was classified as intraretinal fluid such as cysts and subretinal fluid as fluid under the retina. OCT angiography biomarkers of activity of nAMD were presence of secondary small vessel branching, peripheral arcades with anastomoses and presence of a dense net (DN). Inclusion criteria were: presence of neovessels on OCT angiography and sufficent images quality on both modalities. Presence of degenerative cysts and/or PED was an exclusion criteria.Results59 eyes of 55 patients naive or treated for wet AMD were included (average age: 80 (SD ±7), min‐max: 63‐95). Subretinal fluid was present in 20% eyes (12/59), intraretinal fluid in 25% (15/59), a combination of both in 10% (6/59) and absence of subretinal or intraretinal fluid in 44% (26/59). DN was present in 30% (18/59), LN in 69% (41/59). Dense net was present in statistically significantly more of the uncontrolled eyes 45% (15/33) (p=0.009, fisher exact test.) Peripheral arcades with anastomoses were evident in 46% (12/26) of controlled eyes and 61% (20/33) of uncontrolled eyes. Small vessel branching was evident in 0% (0/26) of the controlled eyes and in 36% (12/33) uncontrolled eyes.ConclusionsDense net are significantly more prevalent in eyes with uncontrolled AMD; small vessel branching and peripheral loops are also more prevalent in these eyes. This suggest that OCT‐A provides imaging of the morphology of choroidal CNV in AMD patients associated with disease activity.

To identify and describe the thin-section computed tomographic (CT) findings of nontuberculous mycobacterial (NTM) pulmonary infection in immunocompetent patients and to compare these findings with histopathologic findings. Between April 2002 and March 2003, the thin-section chest CT findings in and histopathologic lung tissue specimens from 22 patients who fulfilled the American Thoracic Society diagnostic criteria for NTM pulmonary infection were retrospectively reviewed. The lung lesion patterns (ie, small nodules, branching centrilobular nodules [ie, tree-in-bud pattern], consolidation, cavities, bronchiectasis, and volume loss) seen at CT at the sites of transbronchial lung biopsy (n = 22) or lobectomy (n = 1) were compared with the histopathologic findings. Thirteen of the 22 patients were found to have Mycobacterium abscessus pulmonary infection; seven, to have Mycobacterium avium-intracellulare complex infection; and two, to have Mycobacterium fortuitum infection. Regardless of the specific infective mycobacterial species, bilateral small nodules (in 22 [100%] lung locations), cylindric bronchiectasis (in 20 [91%] locations), and branching centrilobular nodular lesions (in 17 [77%] locations) were the most common CT findings seen at the biopsy sites. All of the transbronchial lung biopsy specimens showed a thickened bronchiolar wall and bronchiolar and peribronchiolar inflammation at histopathologic analysis. Dilated bronchioles were identified in 19 (86%) patients, and epithelioid granulomas with or without caseation were seen in seven (32%). Regardless of the specific infective mycobacterial species, the most common thin-section CT findings of NTM pulmonary infection are bilateral small nodules, cylindric bronchiectasis, and branching centrilobular nodules. These findings correspond histopathologically to bronchiolectasis and bronchiolar and peribronchiolar inflammation with or without granuloma formation.

NEST-BUILDING AMPHIPODS.—Mr. S. J. Smith, in a memoir on some amphipods described by Thomas Say (Trans., Connecticut Acad., July, 1880), states that the tubes which certain species make to live in are to a great extent formed of pellets of their excreta. In 1874 he watched carefully the process of constructing the tubes in several species of Amphipoda. Microdeutopus grandimanus (M. minax, Smith) was a particularly favourable subject for observation. When captured and placed in a small zoophyte trough with small branching algæ, the individuals almost always proceeded at once to construct a tube, and could very readily be observed under the microscope. A few slender branches of the alga were pulled toward each other by means of the antennae and gnathopods, and fastened by threads of cement spun from branch to branch by the first and second pairs of peraeopods. The branches were not usually at once brought near enough together to serve as the framework of the tube, but were gradually brought together by pulling them in and fastening them a little at a time, until they were brought into the proper position, where they were firmly held by means of a thick network of fine threads of cement spun from branch to branch. After the tube had assumed very nearly its completed form, it was still usually nothing but a transparent network of cement threads woven among the branches of the alga, though occasionally a branch of the alga was bitten off and added to the framework: but very soon the animal began to work bits of excrement and bits of alga into the net. In this case the pellets of excrement, as passed, were taken in the gnathopods and maxilli-peds, and apparently also by the maxillae and mandibles, and broken into minute fragments and worked through the web, upon the outside of which they seemed to adhere, partially by the viscosity of the cement threads, and partially by the tangle of threads over them. Excrement and bits of alga were thus worked into the wall of the tube until the whole animal was protected from view, while, during the whole process, the spinning of cement over the inside of the tube was kept up. When spinning the cement threads within the tube the animal was held in place on the ventral side by the second pair of gnathopods and the caudal appendages, the latter being curved beneath the anterior portion of the pleon, and on the dorsal side by the third, fourth, and fifth pairs of peraeopods extended and turned up over the back, with the dactyli turned outward into the web. The spinning was done wholly with the first and second peraeopods, the tips of which were touched from point to point over the inside of the skeleton tube in a way that recalled strongly the movements of the hands in playing upon a piano. The cement adhered at once at the points touched and spun out between them in uniform delicate threads. The threads seemed to harden very quickly after they were spun, and did not seem even from the first to adhere to the animal itself.

ABSTRACTThe Oligocene and Miocene Valley Springs Formation is one element in the middle to late Cenozoic alluvial fill of the Central Valley of California and represents a large fluvial depositional system that extended westward from sediment‐filled palaeovalleys in the high Sierra Nevada to a piedmont alluvial plain under the present Central Valley. The Valley Springs Formation consists largely of tuffaceous mudrock, tuffaceous sandstone, polymict conglomerate and rhyodacitic tuff. The most prominent lithofacies in the formation is yellowish grey or greyish yellow, tuffaceous mudstone and claystone characterized by crude, commonly wavy layering or bedding, an irregular fracture, and common clay‐lined partings, fissures, and small branching tubules.Petrographic and X‐ray diffraction analyses of the composition, texture, fabric, mineralogy and organic content of an 8 m thick section of the tuffaceous mudrock lithofacies have provided evidence for an origin quite different from the earlier interpretations of this lithofacies as altered tuffs. Numerous rounded mudstone or claystone clasts in a detrital mud matrix, together with abundant freshwater microfossils (megaspores, chrysophyte cysts, diatoms and sponge spicules), indicates that the lithofacies is a mostly epiclastic sedimentary deposit. Root traces, fissuring, orientated clay skins lining pores and secondary surfaces, and mineralogical data are evidence of periodic exposure and desiccation.The tuffaceous mudrock lithofacies of the Valley Springs Formation, interpreted in the context of the middle to lower regions of a piedmont alluvial system, most probably represents a complex of ephemeral lake and marsh environments on a low gradient alluvial plain. The inferred abundance of shallow lakes, ponds and marshes implies a climate that was wetter than the semi‐arid climate of the region today.

Operative Vaginal Delivery in the 21st Century

The influence of downstream branching arteries on upstream haemodynamics

Synthesis of dense intersecting branched tree-like ZnO nanostructures and its superior LPG sensing property

In elective microsurgical procedures, it is necessary to occlude small branches when mobilizing vessels in obtaining vein grafts. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative merits of suture ligation, bipolar cauterization, and hemoclip ligation, and to determine the minimum safe distance of occlusion. The left inferior epigastric vein and the right profunda femoris artery were ligated under operating microscope magnification with 10-0 nylon suture, small hemoclip, or bipolar cauterization at distances of 0, 1, or 2 mm from the parent vessel in 75 rats. Suture ligation was significantly better than bipolar cauterization (p less than .01) and hemoclip ligation (p less than .001). All cauterization failures occurred at 0 and 1 mm. Hemoclip failures occurred at all three distances. In the management of small branching vessels: suture ligation is safe at 0, 1, and 2 mm; bipolar cauterization is safe at 2 mm; and hemoclip ligation is unsafe.

Verification of PCTL properties of MDPs with convex uncertainties has been\ninvestigated recently by Puggelli et al. However, model checking algorithms\ntypically suffer from state space explosion. In this paper, we address\nprobabilistic bisimulation to reduce the size of such an MDPs while preserving\nPCTL properties it satisfies. We discuss different interpretations of\nuncertainty in the models which are studied in the literature and that result\nin two different definitions of bisimulations. We give algorithms to compute\nthe quotients of these bisimulations in time polynomial in the size of the\nmodel and exponential in the uncertain branching. Finally, we show by a case\nstudy that large models in practice can have small branching and that a\nsubstantial state space reduction can be achieved by our approach.\n

IntroductionComplete recanalization in large vessel occlusion (LVO) strokes with suction catheters and stent retrievers has remained at 50% despite improved technologies and accumulating operator experience. About 40% of patients experience...

The purpose of the article is formation of a cluster business model based on marketing principles. The article presents the results of a study on the formation of a cluster business model on a marketing basis. It is substantiated that an effective tool for reforming the cluster business development management system can be a proactive management system, which is built on the analysis of past, identified current and possible future errors, and the timely formation of management business decisions on this basis, the creation of cluster models for effective implementation. The implementation of the marketing principle of proactive management requires the creation of a mobile organizational structure for cluster management, which would be flexible, dynamic; quickly adapt to unforeseen changes in external conditions; would have the ability to self-organize individual links as the task changes. It is established that the mechanism of state guarantees of investment projects should include assistance to innovative cluster business through insurance of investment risks in high-tech industries and the provision of guarantees to investors. Special attention should be paid to state stimulation of the investment process at all levels, the formation of a certain trust in the economic policy of the state. The smooth implementation of the proposed developments is possible under the conditions of introducing a regional-functional structure of the organization of cluster business management on the basis of marketing, which is characterized by the possibility of effective goods movement (due to an integrated, diversification direction), small branching and a clear division of duties and responsibilities.

Suppose that X={X t :tÂ?0} is a supercritical super Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, that is, a superprocess with an Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process on $\mathbb{R}^{d}$ corresponding to $L=\frac{1}{2}\sigma^{2}\Delta-b x\cdot\nabla$ as its underlying spatial motion and with branching mechanism Â?(Â?)=Â?Â?Â?+AŸÂ? 2+Â?(0,+Â?)(e Â?Â?x Â?1+Â?x)n(dx), where Â?=Â?Â?Â?(0+)>0, AŸÂ?0, and n is a measure on (0,Â?) such that Â?(0,+Â?) x 2 n(dx)<+Â?. Let $\mathbb{P} _{\mu}$ be the law of X with initial measure μ. Then the process W t =e Â?Â?t Â?X t Â? is a positive $\mathbb{P} _{\mu}$ -martingale. Therefore there is W Â? such that W t Â?W Â?, $\mathbb{P} _{\mu}$ -a.s. as tÂ?Â?. In this paper we establish some spatial central limit theorems for X. Let $\mathcal{P}$ denote the function class $$ \mathcal{P}:=\bigl\{f\in C\bigl(\mathbb{R}^d\bigr): \mbox{there exists } k\in\mathbb{N} \mbox{ such that }|f(x)|/\|x\|^k\to 0 \mbox{ as }\|x\|\to\infty \bigr\}. $$ For each $f\in\mathcal{P}$ we define an integer Â?(f) in term of the spectral decomposition of f. In the small branching rate case Â? 2Â?(f)b. Our central limit theorems in the small and critical branching rate cases sharpen the corresponding results in the recent preprint of Miloś in that our limit normal random variables are non-degenerate. Our central limit theorems in the large branching rate case have no counterparts in the recent preprint of Miloś. The main ideas for proving the central limit theorems are inspired by the arguments in K. Athreya's 3 papers on central limit theorems for continuous time multi-type branching processes published in the late 1960's and early 1970's.

Fluctuation limit theorems of immigration superprocesses with small branching