The interplay of mechanical forces transduces diverse physico-biochemical processes to influence lung morphogenesis, growth, maturation, remodeling and repair. Because tissue stress is difficult to measure in vivo, mechano-sensitive responses are commonly inferred from global changes in lung volume, shape, or compliance and correlated with structural changes in tissue blocks sampled from postmo...

BACKGROUND Stacking cross-sectional intravascular images permits three-dimensional rendering of endovascular implants, yet introduces between-frame uncertainties that limit characterization of device placement and the hemodynamic microenvironment. In a porcine coronary stent model, we demonstrate enhanced OCT reconstruction with preservation of between-frame features through fusion with angiogr...

Evidence for the theory of biotic resistance is equivocal, with experiments often finding a negative relationship between invasion success and native species richness, and large-scale comparative studies finding a positive relationship. Biotic resistance derives from local species interactions, yet global and regional studies often analyze data at coarse spatial grains. In addition, differences...

In this chapter we present and evaluate a conceptual framework intended to improve predictability of the role of disease in landscape processes of socioecological systems. On a local scale, disease tends to increase the interactions among patches on a landscape, particularly through changes in the frequency and severity of disturbances and increases in the vulnerability of ecosystems to fundame...

[1] Aerosol indirect effects, i.e., the interactions of aerosols with clouds by serving as cloud condensation nuclei or ice nuclei constitute the largest uncertainty in climate forcing and projection. Previous IPCC reported negative aerosol indirect forcing, which does not account for aerosolconvective cloud interactions because the complex processes involved are poorly understood and represent...

Applying the recent developments of scale transition theory, we demonstrate a systematic approach to the problem of scaling up local scale interactions to regional scale dynamics with field data. Dynamics on larger spatial scales differ from the predictions of local dynamics alone because of an interaction between nonlinearity in population dynamics at the local scale and spatial variation in d...

Studying the cross talk between nonpathogenic organisms and their mammalian hosts represents an experimental challenge because these interactions are typically subtle and the microbial societies that associate with mammalian hosts are very complex and dynamic. A large, functionally stable, climax community of microbes is maintained in the murine and human gastrointestinal tracts. This open ecos...

This paper reports the results of our investigation of the effects of Chan meditation on brain electrophysiological behaviors from the viewpoint of spatially nonlinear interdependence among regional neural networks. Particular emphasis is laid on the alpha-dominated EEG (electroencephalograph). Continuous-time wavelet transform was adopted to detect the epochs containing substantial alpha activ...

Contemporary and significant spatiotemporal changes in glaciers are a result of rapidly evolving regional global climate, continuous monitoring is imperative for understanding the complexities glacio–climatic interactions [...]

Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), based on regional and multicultural cooperation, has focused on the improvement of living standards, collective as well as individual prosperity of people and economic development of member’s states. Since February 1992 ECO has been expanded to ten as the result of collapse of the Soviet Union. Of course, gas and oil are very important factors in this re...