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Background Introduced in 1970, the Swan–Ganz catheter (SGC) soon became widely used because of its unique usefulness in managing intensive care patients. Unfortunately, SGC usage was complicated by pulmonary artery rupture (PAR) with a 50% mortality rate that led to a near banning of the SCG in the late 1980s. Increasing knowledge and decreasing incidence of SGC-related PARs (SGPARs) led to the current feeling that the present SGPAR incidence is now low enough to tolerate given the lives saved by SGC usage. However, an important unknown is that, to our knowledge, pathologists have never published a comprehensive microscopic description of a SGPAR. Case report A 73-year-old woman with moderate pulmonary hypertension died from a SGPAR soon after single SGC measurements of right ventricular and pulmonary capillary wedge pressures. By using what we thought to be an appropriate method of dissection, we did a complete microscopic step section study of the 1.6 cm SGPAR revealing 12 relatively uniform longitudinal tears (one perforating) consistent with an overinflated SGC balloon or a weakened arterial wall. Literature review A MEDLINE search of 38 consecutive SGPARs from 2014 to 1980 found 52 cases in 38 papers. Analysis revealed that all 46 SGPARs suitable for study came from large institutions, and confirmed that elderly women were more likely to have SGPARs than elderly men. Conclusions More and better data are needed before fully informed decisions can be made regarding future SGC usage. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The rhizosphere in terrestrial systems is the region of soil surrounding plant roots where there is increased microbial activity; in aquatic plants, this definition may be less clear because of diffusion of nutrients in water, but there is still a zone of influence by plant roots in this environment []. Within that zone chemical conditions differ from those of the surrounding environment as a consequence of a range of processes that were induced either directly by the activity of plant roots or by the activity of rhizosphere microflora. Recently, there are a number of new studies related to rhizospheres of aquatic plants and specifically their increased potential for remediation of contaminants, especially remediation of metals through aquatic plant–microbial interaction. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Up until the early 1970s, most professional societies in engineering, including NSPE and ASCE, had ethical rules prohibiting competitive bidding. The U.S. Department of Justice alleged that these codes of ethics had as their purpose or effect the restriction of price competition among society members, which violated the Sherman Act. The case against NSPE went all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court, which issued its decision in 1978. The Court held that these codes of ethics unfairly restrain trade by preventing customers from making price comparisons in the initial selection of an engineer, and impose the NSPE's views of the costs and benefits on the marketplace. ASCE continues to debate whether competitive bidding for professional services is ethical, which the U.S. Supreme Court says does not even comply with the law. ASCE should, in its ethical standards, strive for a code of conduct that exceeds the standard considered to be unlawful. Otherwise, ASCE will be put in the position of considering such a prohibition as ethical, but which the courts consider unlawful, meaning that ASCE's ethics do not even reach the level society places on all citizens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A self-integrating magnetic-loop device having a rise time of less than 175 ps has been developed to monitor the temporal behavior of the current and position associated with an electron beam. Beam current and centroid position are measured with a 2-GHz bandwidth by combining the output of these loops with two 0°/180° hybrids. The improved monitors are essentially free of self-resonances and spurious responses at bandwidths extended to 2 GHz. The probes are economical and easy to produce in volume for a wide range of applications. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]