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Development of Computed Echo Tomography—An Imaging Breakthrough Addressing the Limitations of Conventional Ultrasound: A Baseline Imaging Analysis for Traumatic Injuries
No full textObjectives: The diagnosis and triage of trauma in austere environments using ultrasound can be severely limited by bone and other obstructions, particularly when dealing with intracranial, spinal, thoracic, and long bone injuries. A novel form of ultrasound, computed echo tomography (CET), may provide for more complete “whole body” imaging capability, thereby significantly improving patient management.
Methods: To document and assess the imaging capabilities of the recently Food and Drug Administration-cleared CET system (MAUI Imaging K3900), we conducted 3 whole-body imaging sessions using 6 normal volunteers. Sixty-five predefined views of 4 different anatomic regions were obtained at each session. Images were scored by 5 clinicians experienced in trauma/general surgery, emergency medicine, and/or interventional radiology using the American College of Emergency Physicians diagnostic image quality scoring system. Imaging scores ?3 were deemed adequate for inclusion in a “head-to-toe” imaging protocol being developed for the US military.
Results: Overall, 59 views (90.8%) were deemed adequate for clinical decision making. Eleven (16.9%) had average scores between 3 and 4; and 48 (73.8%) had average scores ?4. Imaging the cranial vault demonstrated numerous anatomic details. Extremity imaging revealed detailed views of both the boney cortex and the medullary cavity. Abdominal imaging showed clear views of the liver, spleen, and kidneys without any rib artifacts.
Conclusion: CET-based imaging eliminates bone-related artifacts thereby allowing access to critical brain and extremity imaging and removes rib shadows from thoracic and abdominal organ imaging. CET imaging deserves further investigation for field-based trauma diagnosis and general imaging in other resource-limited environments.Supported by the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs through the Combat Casualty Care Research Program under Award No. HT9425-23-3-0002. The views and conclusions contained herein are those of the authors and should not be interpreted as necessarily representing the official policies or endorsements, either expressed or implied, of the US Governmenthttps://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S268811522500139
Do Civil Servants Serve the Constitution or the President?
No full textThe Trump chaos has brought a key constitutional principle to the fore: What happens when bureaucrats believe the president is not living up to his pledge to the Constitution? Sunil Dasgupta talks with Hamilton College, NY, Associate Professor of Sociology Jamie Lee Kucinskas about her new book, The Loyalty Trap: Conflicting Loyalties of Civil Servants Under Increasing Autocracy, where she reports prescient findings from 127 interviews she conducted with civil servants during the first Trump administration. https://www.amazon.com/dp/0231208154?ref=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_ZVNC2RT3GWFDR9A3Q2GD&ref_=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_ZVNC2RT3GWFDR9A3Q2GD&social_share=cm_sw_r_ffobk_cp_ud_dp_ZVNC2RT3GWFDR9A3Q2GD&bestFormat=true&previewDohEventScheduleTesting=C&csmig=1 Music by Anna Rubin.https://open.spotify.com/episode/3FmG8vbBWes9zQODwQc4x
There is no six-year periodicity in tidal forcing
No full textThe El Nino–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) is one of the most important interannual modulations of Earth’s climate, and efforts to improve ENSO forecasting are most welcome. Lin and Qian1 (hereafter LQ19) offer an intriguing tidal connection, which, if correct, brings in a highly deterministic component that could simplify and improve forecasts. The LQ19 argument rests on the existence of a 6-year variability in the tidal forces acting on the ocean. There are several aspects to their argument that merit comment, but here we confine ourselves to the simple question of the tidal force itself. Accurate quantitative knowledge of this force has existed for over a century2,3, and it would be surprising to learn that an important 6-y component has only now been discovered. In fact, there is no 6-y component in the tidal force nor in the Earth’s ocean tide.As LQ19 note, there is a 6-y periodicity in the Moon’s orbital motion which is most simply described as follows: The Moon’s orbit plane (or its ascending node) precesses with a period of 18.6 y, and its orbital ellipse (or perigee) precesses with a period of 8.85 y, both motions taken relative to the equinox. If we consider the motion of perigee relative to the moving node, its period is 6 years, simply because (1/8.85 + 1/18.6) = 1.600 (the two frequencies are added, not subtracted, because the node and perigee move in opposite directions). But does this relative motion induce a 6-y tide on Earth? It does not. We begin by reviewing the two ways a 6-y variability in tidal forcing could possibly occur—these mechanisms do occur at other periods such as 18.6 y—and we then explain why both can be ruled out. We then examine three physical explanations that LQ19 offer in support of a 6-y tide, and we explain why each of those can also be ruled out.We thank Jialin Lin for some clarifications about his work We thank Duncan Agnew Mattias Green and Philip Woodworth for useful discussions The contribution from VV is based on work supported by NASA under award 80GSFC24M0006 CRESST IIhttps://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-025-97361-
“Crowned with the Wreath of Citizenship”: Race, Regionalism and the Suffrage Movement in Maryland
No full textThe state of Maryland proved to be a complicated battleground for the suffrage movement. The regional differences in border states forced suffragists to adapt their campaigns and confront a broad range of issues like race, immigration and labor. This thesis focuses on three specific regions in Maryland; the three western counties which were isolated from the rest of the state by the Appalachian Mountains, the Eastern Shore, and Baltimore.
The first chapter addresses the suffrage tactics employed by suffragists in coal towns in Western Maryland. Here, suffragists tackled labor conditions and paranoia over immigrant laborers to argue their case. The second chapter demonstrates how suffragists appealed to the southern culture evident on the Eastern Shore, where race and the traditional roles of women were at the heart of suffrage opposition. Chapter three explores the diversity of the movement in the city of Baltimore. Parades in the city exposed the full range of participants including working class women and the educated upper crust of society. Finally, the fourth chapter covers the work of suffragists in Maryland after the passage of the 19th Amendment. Despite the amendment to the constitution, there were still those who fought hard against it. Suffragists not only had to reckon with backlash to the amendment, but they worked overtime to ensure that the women of their state learned how to exercise the right to vote.
The research conducted for this thesis has been primarily drawn from newspapers at the local level. In particular, the Maryland Suffrage News reported on the grassroots organizing from suffragists in each county throughout the state. The Baltimore Afro-American was crucial to understanding the role of black women in suffrage organizations in the state. In the decades after the movement, the Baltimore Sun gave suffragists a unique opportunity to reflect on their activism
Surprising Variation of Gamma Rays from the Sun over the Solar Cycle Revealed with Fermi-LAT
No full textThe steady-state gamma-ray emission from the Sun is thought to consist of two emission components due to interactions with Galactic cosmic rays: (1) a hadronic component covering the solar disk, and (2) a leptonic component peaking at the solar edge and extending into the heliosphere. The flux of these components is expected to vary with the 11-year solar cycle, being highest during solar minimum and lowest during solar maximum, because it is correlated with the cosmic-ray flux. No study has yet analyzed the flux variation of the two components separately over solar cycles. In this work, we measure the temporal variations of the flux of each component over 15 years of Fermi Large Area Telescope observations and compare them with the sunspot number and Galactic cosmic-ray flux from AMS-02 near the Earth. We find that the flux variation of the disk anticorrelates with solar activity and correlates with cosmic-ray protons, confirming its emission mechanism. The flux variation of the extended component anticorrelates with solar activity only until mid 2012. After that, we no longer observe any correlation or anticorrelation, even with the CR electron flux. This most likely suggests that cosmic-ray transport and modulation in the inner heliosphere are unexpectedly complex and different for electrons and protons or, alternatively, the presence of an additional, unknown component of gamma rays or cosmic rays. These findings impact space weather research and emphasize the need for close monitoring of Cycle 25 and the ongoing polarity reversal.These include the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and the Department of Energy in the United States the Commissariat a lEnergie Atomique and the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique Institut National de Physique Nucleaire et de Physique des Particules in France the Agenzia Spaziale Italiana and the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare in Italy the Ministry of Education Culture Sports Science and Technology MEXT High Energy Accelerator Research Organization KEK and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency JAXA in Japan and the K A Wallenberg Foundation the Swedish Research Council and the Swedish National Space Board in Sweden 8 Additional support for science analysis during the operations phase is gratefully acknowledged from the Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica in Italy and the Centre National dEtudes Spatiales in France This work performed in part under DOE Contract DE AC02http://arxiv.org/abs/2505.0634
Language analysis assignments in TESOL and applied linguistics
No full textTo design a useful language lesson, teachers must understand the inner workings of language. This chapter discusses key considerations found in different types of language analysis assignments, an important part of TESOL/AL program coursework. Language analysis assignments are designed to help teachers develop a habit of observing real language objectively and systematically. This chapter provides overarching considerations applicable to common language analysis assignments, in particular, phonetic transcriptions, solving phonology problems, linguistic description, and identifying grammatical patterns of error in learner speech. Using specific examples, it also highlights common pitfalls in these types of assignments and how to avoid them.https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781003414384-14/language-analysis-assignments-tesol-applied-linguistics-sunny-park-johnson-sarah-shi
Addressing critiques refines global estimates of reforestation potential for climate change mitigation
No full textReforestation is a prominent climate change mitigation strategy, but available global maps of reforestation potential are widely criticized and highly variable, which limits their ability to provide robust estimates of both the locations and total area of opportunity. Here we develop global maps that address common critiques, build on a review of 89 reforestation maps created at multiple scales, and present eight reforestation scenarios with varying objectives, including providing ecosystem services, minimizing social conflicts, and delivering government policies. Across scenarios, we find up to 195 Mha (million hectares) are available (2225 TgCO₂e (teragrams of carbon dioxide equivalent) per year total net mitigation potential), which is 71–92% smaller than previous estimates because of conservative modeling choices, incorporation of safeguards, and use of recent, high-resolution datasets. This area drops as low as 6 Mha (53 TgCO₂e per year total net mitigation potential) if only statutorily protected areas are targeted. Few locations simultaneously achieve multiple objectives, suggesting that a mix of lands and restoration motivations will be needed to capitalize on the many potential benefits of reforestation., Reforestation is a key climate change mitigation strategy, but global maps of its potential are widely criticized. This study shows that addressing those critiques substantially refines estimates of the places with reforestation potential.K.A.F., E.E.P., D.E.T.H., P.W.E., and S.S.C.-P. were funded by the Bezos Earth Fund. J.W.V. was supported by USDA-NIFA Sustainable Agricultural Systems Grant 2019-68012-29819, USDA-NIFA McIntire-Stennis Project 1016880, and the National Science Foundation under award DEB1931232. F.F. and P.C. were funded by NASA grant 80NSSC22K1363, and F.F. acknowledges the receipt of a fellowship from the OECD Cooperative Research Programme: Sustainable Agricultural and Food Systems in 2023. S.A. and M.A. were funded by Future Ecosystems for Africa in partnership with Oppenheimer Generations Research and Conservation. M.E.F. was funded by a NASA grant 80NSSC21K0297 and a Bezos Earth Fund grant to the World Resources Institute with a subgrant to the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. E.C.F. and C.T. were supported by the MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium and the Government of Portugal through the Portuguese Foundation for International Cooperation in Science, Technology, and Higher Education. N.H. and C.A.W. were funded by a Bezos Earth Fund grant to the Nature Conservancy with a sub-grant to Clark University. We are grateful for the insights and review provided by Christina Kennedy, Johan Oldekop, and David Theobald during the development of our methods, and for cartographic advice provided by Chris Bruce.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-025-59799-
Peace has long been elusive in rural Colombia – Black women’s community groups try to bring it closer each day
No full textThe country’s long-running conflict continues to impact life in many rural areas, which also face threats from illegal mining and other extractive industries.http://theconversation.com/peace-has-long-been-elusive-in-rural-colombia-black-womens-community-groups-try-to-bring-it-closer-each-day-21955
Tropospheric nitrogen dioxide levels vary diurnally in Asian cities
No full textSatellite measurements of nitrogen dioxide have been used to infer nitrogen oxide emissions, a critical component in tropospheric chemistry and pollution. New observations from the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer offer a breakthrough by providing a daytime record of nitrogen dioxide over Asia. Here we present the summertime diurnal patterns of nitrogen dioxide at major cities, power plant regions, and the Strait of Malacca. The Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer data across various regions show high nitrogen dioxide in the morning which decrease in the afternoon, with varying hourly peaks, troughs, and amplitudes reflecting diurnal characteristics of local emissions and chemistry. Nitrogen oxide emissions inferred from Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer and the Weather Research and Forecasting model coupled with Chemistry also show distinct patterns among regions: early morning peaks occur over Hanoi, Guangzhou, and Bangkok; mid-to-late morning peaks appear over Seoul and Beijing; and late afternoon peaks are noted in the Yangtze River Delta region. Top-down emissions incorporating temporal changes in the Geostationary Environmental Monitoring Spectrometer nitrogen dioxide yield the most accurate nitrogen dioxide simulations.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Environmental Research (NIER), funded by the Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE) of the Republic of Korea (NIER-2024-04-02-028). This work was supported by the National Research Foundation of Korea (NRF) grant funded by the Korean government (MSIT) (No. 2020R1A2C2014131). This work was supported by the Korea Environmental Industry & Technology Institute (KEITI) through Climate Change R&D Project for New Climate Regime., funded by Korea Ministry of Environment (MOE)(RS-2022- KE002096). The MAX-DOAS and PGN instrument PIs and staff at the stations are grateful for their sustained effort in maintaining high-quality measurements and for valuable scientific discussions. The PGN is a bilateral project supported by funding from NASA and ESA.https://www.nature.com/articles/s43247-025-02272-
DEVELOPMENT AND VALIDATION OF A BREATHABLE SHAKE FLASK WITH INTEGRATED NON-INVASIVE SENSORS FOR REAL-TIME CRITICAL PROCESS PARAMETERS MONITORING AND CONTROL
No full textShake flasks are one of the most widely used bioreactors in industrial biotechnology research and process development. For over a century of usage in microbiology, shake flasks have remained unchanged. The only innovations have been the introduction of baffles and the move towards disposable plastic material to fabricate the flask and closure plugs. Shake flask suffers from a significant problem. The opening on top of the shake flask is the only route for O2 to diffuse in and CO2 to diffuse out. However, this opening is often sealed with a closure plug to prevent spill-over and maintain sterility. These seal closures provide undesired mass transfer resistance to the gaseous exchange between the shake flask and the external environment, which creates a severe paucity of O2 and accumulation of CO2, leading to poor growth conditions in the flask. There is no monitoring or control over culture conditions like pH, dissolved O2, or dissolved CO2. These often result in inconsistencies in process development studies, culminating in inefficient recombinant protein production, and constitute a major source of heterogeneities as the process moves from flasks to stirred tank bioreactors. Breathable flask has been invented to address the limitations of a shake flask. It is made of a biocompatible silicone membrane that is highly permeable to O2 and CO2. Naturally occurring concentration gradient across the permeable membrane walls facilitates the movement of O2 and CO2 between the flask and the external environment, leading to a 28-66% growth in biomass and 41-56% improvement in recombinant protein titer. Completely non-invasive sensors for O2, CO2 and pH were developed and integrated with the breathable flask for real time process monitoring. Further, a jacket was developed that encapsulates a breathable flask. This jacket facilitated control of O2 and CO2 concentrations inside the breathable flask by flushing the jacket with desired gas mixes. By actively monitoring and controlling the O2 in the jacketed breathable flask by controlling the gas mix and flow rate in the jacket, O2 limitations were completely eliminated in the microbial cultures for the first time. Growth was optimized in the jacketed flask, with an improvement of 81-156% in biomass and 76-140% in recombinant yield. A hydrodynamic model has been developed to make informed decisions on selecting the agitation rate and fill volume by modeling the fluid behavior in the shake flask. The last part of the work focused on developing a commercial manufacturing capacity by following DoD’s technology and manufacturing readiness level guidelines to commercialize the flask technology.
The work delivered a breathable flask system equipped with integrated real-time sensors for monitoring and controlling dissolved O?, CO?, and pH. This innovation transforms ubiquitous laboratory shake flasks into a smart, high-throughput platform capable of generating invaluable process data for optimizing cellular expression and scaling new biomanufacturing technologies affordably at the lab bench