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The United States has witnessed a public display of outrage toward critical race theory (CRT). This opposition has been buoyed by White evangelical Christian polemics. I conducted a discourse-historical analysis of 21 statements, reflecting a diversity of voices within evangelical discourse (ED). First, ED constructs CRT as both bereft of theoretical validity and evil. Second, the discourse inverts the objectives of CRT by claiming those goals for its own. Third, ED seeks to strip CRT of its transformative and emancipatory power. Fourth, ED constructs CRT in ways that diffuse accountability. Finally, ED questions the faith of Christians who seek to learn from CRT. Reflection is offered for how CRT and Christianity might conspire together toward the aims of addressing racial inequity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Bifurcation Academic Research Consortium (Bif-ARC) project originated from the need to overcome the paucity of standardization and comparability between studies involving bifurcation coronary lesions. This document is the result of a collaborative effort between academic research organizations and the most renowned interventional cardiology societies focused on bifurcation lesions in Europe, the United States, and Asia. This consensus provides standardized definitions for bifurcation lesions; the criteria to judge the side branch relevance; the procedural, mechanistic, and clinical endpoints for every type of bifurcation study; and the follow-up methods. Considering the complexity of bifurcation lesions and their evaluation, detailed instructions and technical aspects for site and core laboratory analysis of bifurcation lesions are also reported. The recommendations included within this consensus will facilitate pooled analyses and the effective comparison of data in the future, improving the clinical relevance of trials in bifurcation lesions, and the quality of care in this subset of patients. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Atherosclerosis, hardening of the arteries, originates from small plaques in the arteries; it is a major cause of disability and premature death in the United States and worldwide. In this paper, we study the bifurcation of a highly nonlinear and highly coupled PDE model describing the growth of an arterial plaque in the early stage of atherosclerosis. The model involves LDL and HDL cholesterols, macrophage cells, and foam cells, with the interface separating the plaque and blood flow regions being a free boundary. We establish finite branches of symmetry-breaking stationary solutions which bifurcate from the radially symmetric solution. Since plaques in reality are unlikely to be strictly radially symmetric, our result would be useful to explain the asymmetric shapes of plaques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The question has been posed whether current developments in American penal policy toward reducing prison populations and sentences for low level, nonviolent offenses might reflect the end of the mass incarceration era. Yet articulation of precisely what defines the present in American penal policy remains unclear. This paper identifies three distinctive features: a national-level program of comprehensive criminal justice reevaluation and reform in response to the excesses of recent policy; the distinguishing of groups for distinct treatments as a central principle and product of the reform program; and the fusion of previously distinct political and administrative logics that undergird the reform process. Rather than a full turn away from mass incarceration or an ambivalent mix of old and new, contemporary penal policy is better characterized as a bifurcation, responding uniquely, with new answers and new omissions, to the dilemmas and constraints of “late mass incarceration.” [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: The provisional approach for bifurcation stenting with side-branch balloon angioplasty is associated with dissections and suboptimal results requiring kissing balloon techniques or bailout stenting. We hypothesized that using a scoring balloon for the side branch and a drug-eluting stent for the main vessel might improve outcomes of true bifurcation lesions., Methods and Results: A total of 93 patients with complex bifurcations were enrolled in a multicenter, single-arm, prospective clinical trial. A drug-eluting stent was deployed in the main vessel following dilatation of the side-branch stenosis with a scoring balloon. The overall angiographic success rate was 93.5%, and procedural success rate was 91.4%. The final diameter stenosis was 13.9% ± 7.2% for the main vessel and 33.3% ± 22.9% for the side branch. Crossover to stent deployment in the side branch was required in 10.8%. The postscoring balloon dissection rate was 8.2% and 6% (all ≤ class C) for the main vessel and side branch respectively, which was reduced to 1.1 and 2.1% poststenting. At 9-month follow-up, the composite MACE rate [cardiac death, myocardial infarction, or target lesion revascularization (TLR)] was 5.4%, including a TLR rate of 3.3% (1.1% from hospital discharge to 9 months)., Conclusion: The 9-month results of the AGILITY trial support a simple provisional strategy for treating complex true bifurcation lesions with deployment of a drug-eluting stent in the main vessel after dilatation of the side-branch vessel with a scoring balloon. This strategy was associated with excellent and safe procedural results, a low rate of crossover to side-branch stenting, and favorable outcomes., (Copyright © 2013 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.)