A study to understand the acceptance of DICOM Structured Reports on Breast Imaging

Purpose: To create a Digital Imaging and Communication in Medicine Structured Reports (DICOM-SR) Repository and compare the acceptance of Free Text (FT) versus Structured Reports (SR) in communication of Breast Imaging findings. Materials and Methods: It was conceptualized the MamoCatalogue to the structuring of the Reports and the SR were converted into DICOM-SR and integrated with Dicoogle. After that, seven representative Breast Imaging Reports were selected and evaluated by a group of 25 Physicians. Each Physician evaluated the seven Reports, in FT and SR with a 3 months timelag, about their, Structure, Clarity and assertiveness, Diagnostic/Recommendations, Easiness of reading, Full reading, Partially reading with Breast Imaging Reporting and Data System (BI-RADS) focus and Ambiguity. Results: A DICOM-SR Repository was created and the assessment of the acceptance of the FT vs. SR revealed that there is a global trend favoring FT. Nevertheless, a group wise analysis revealed that for Gynaecologists and General Practitioners (GP) the differences between FT and SR weren't significant, unlike what happens with Radiologists. Conclusion: The DICOM-SR Repository allows the query/retrieve data for Reports and the communication with Gynaecologists and GP by SR was satisfactory. Although, Radiologists acceptance must be reinforced upon global communication and management strategy

Rai1 frees mice from the repression of active wake behaviors by light.

Besides its role in vision, light impacts physiology and behavior through circadian and direct (aka 'masking') mechanisms. In Smith-Magenis syndrome (SMS), the dysregulation of both sleep-wake behavior and melatonin production strongly suggests impaired non-visual light perception. We discovered that mice haploinsufficient for the SMS causal gene, Retinoic acid induced-1 (Rai1), were hypersensitive to light such that light eliminated alert and active-wake behaviors, while leaving time-spent-awake unaffected. Moreover, variables pertaining to circadian rhythm entrainment were activated more strongly by light. At the input level, the activation of rod/cone and suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) by light was paradoxically greatly reduced, while the downstream activation of the ventral-subparaventricular zone (vSPVZ) was increased. The vSPVZ integrates retinal and SCN input and, when activated, suppresses locomotor activity, consistent with the behavioral hypersensitivity to light we observed. Our results implicate Rai1 as a novel and central player in processing non-visual light information, from input to behavioral output

Introduction: Ideology, propaganda, and political discourse in the Xi Jinping era

The ideology, propaganda, and political discourse of the Communist Party of China (CPC) have continued to function as key elements of the political system of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) in the post-Maoist period since 1978. In the first term of the Xi Jinping leadership (2012–2017), the CPC, for instance, elaborated on its guiding ideological concepts, devised inventive ideational framings of phenomena usually perceived as tangible (such as the BNew Normal^), engaged in complex intellectual debates on crucial topics (such as Beco-civilization^), intensified and diversified its argumentation patterns and discursive strategies, and consolidated ideational governance over some citizens’ individual values, beliefs, and loyalties. Furthermore, it is often no longer possible to differentiate between the CPC’s internal and external propaganda, as seemingly exclusively domestic ideational and discursive issues increasingly correlate with international phenomena. However, the trends in the Xi era do not present paradigmatic shifts, but rather an overall reassertion-cuminnovation of previous Maoist and post-Maoist uses of ideology, propaganda, and political discourse, primarily aiming at strengthening one-party rule

Microtubule Dynamics from Mating through the First Zygotic Division in the Budding Yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae

We have used time-lapse digital imaging microscopy to examine cytoplasmic astral microtubules (Mts) and spindle dynamics during the mating pathway in budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Mating begins when two cells of opposite mating type come into proximity. The cells arrest in the G1 phase of the cell cycle and grow a projection towards one another forming a shmoo projection. Imaging of microtubule dynamics with green fluorescent protein (GFP) fusions to dynein or tubulin revealed that the nucleus and spindle pole body (SPB) became oriented and tethered to the shmoo tip by a Mt-dependent search and capture mechanism. Dynamically unstable astral Mts were captured at the shmoo tip forming a bundle of three or four astral Mts. This bundle changed length as the tethered nucleus and SPB oscillated toward and away from the shmoo tip at growth and shortening velocities typical of free plus end astral Mts (∼0.5 μm/min). Fluorescent fiduciary marks in Mt bundles showed that Mt growth and shortening occurred primarily at the shmoo tip, not the SPB. This indicates that Mt plus end assembly/disassembly was coupled to pushing and pulling of the nucleus. Upon cell fusion, a fluorescent bar of Mts was formed between the two shmoo tip bundles, which slowly shortened (0.23 ± 0.07 μm/min) as the two nuclei and their SPBs came together and fused (karyogamy). Bud emergence occurred adjacent to the fused SPB ∼30 min after SPB fusion. During the first mitosis, the SPBs separated as the spindle elongated at a constant velocity (0.75 μm/min) into the zygotic bud. There was no indication of a temporal delay at the 2-μm stage of spindle morphogenesis or a lag in Mt nucleation by replicated SPBs as occurs in vegetative mitosis implying a lack of normal checkpoints. Thus, the shmoo tip appears to be a new model system for studying Mt plus end dynamic attachments and much like higher eukaryotes, the first mitosis after haploid cell fusion in budding yeast may forgo cell cycle checkpoints present in vegetative mitosis

Artificial intelligence in cancer imaging: Clinical challenges and applications

Judgement, as one of the core tenets of medicine, relies upon the integration of multilayered data with nuanced decision making. Cancer offers a unique context for medical decisions given not only its variegated forms with evolution of disease but also the need to take into account the individual condition of patients, their ability to receive treatment, and their responses to treatment. Challenges remain in the accurate detection, characterization, and monitoring of cancers despite improved technologies. Radiographic assessment of disease most commonly relies upon visual evaluations, the interpretations of which may be augmented by advanced computational analyses. In particular, artificial intelligence (AI) promises to make great strides in the qualitative interpretation of cancer imaging by expert clinicians, including volumetric delineation of tumors over time, extrapolation of the tumor genotype and biological course from its radiographic phenotype, prediction of clinical outcome, and assessment of the impact of disease and treatment on adjacent organs. AI may automate processes in the initial interpretation of images and shift the clinical workflow of radiographic detection, management decisions on whether or not to administer an intervention, and subsequent observation to a yet to be envisioned paradigm. Here, the authors review the current state of AI as applied to medical imaging of cancer and describe advances in 4 tumor types (lung, brain, breast, and prostate) to illustrate how common clinical problems are being addressed. Although most studies evaluating AI applications in oncology to date have not been vigorously validated for reproducibility and generalizability, the results do highlight increasingly concerted efforts in pushing AI technology to clinical use and to impact future directions in cancer care

Measuring V_ub and probing SUSY with double ratios of purely leptonic decays of B and D mesons

The experimental prospects for precise measurements of the leptonic decays B_u -> tau nu / mu nu, B_s -> mu+ mu-, D -> mu nu and D_s -> mu nu / tau nu are very promising. Double ratios involving four of these decays can be defined in which the dependence on the values of the decay constants is essentially eliminated, thus enabling complementary measurements of the CKM matrix element V_ub with a small theoretical error. We quantify the experimental error in a possible future measurement of |V_ub| using this approach, and show that it is competitive with the anticipated precision from the conventional approaches. Moreover, it is shown that such double ratios can be more effective than the individual leptonic decays as a probe of the parameter space of supersymmetric models. We emphasize that the double ratios have the advantage of using |V_ub| as an input parameter (for which there is experimental information), while the individual decays have an uncertainty from the decay constants (e.g. f_B_s), and hence a reliance on theoretical techniques such as lattice QCD.Comment: 21 pages, 4 figure

Four-Day-Old Human Neonates Look Longer at Non-Biological Motions of a Single Point-of-Light

BACKGROUND: Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the “two-third-power law” of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This result can be interpreted within the “violation of expectation” framework and can indicate that neonates' motion perception — like adults'—is attuned to biological kinematics

Superluminal neutrinos and the tachyon's stability in the rotating Universe

It is well-known that a hypothetical particle which moves faster than the light, a \emph{tachyon}, is unstable in the Minkowski space-time. Here we shall show that, contrary to the Minkowski case, the tachyon is stable in the rotating Universe described by a family of the G\"{o}del-like solutions, unless the absolute value of its mass is larger than some small constant which is related to the universe`s rotation scale and is many orders less than the electron`s mass. The smallness of this upper bound on the tachyon`s mass might be an explanation why we do not observe heavy tachyons. Mathematically, the stability bound is similar to the well-known Breitenlohner-Freedman bound for the asymptotically anti-de Sitter (AdS) space-times.Comment: 10 pages, new material added, accepted for publication in Phys. Lett.

5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan Suppressed Food Intake in Rats Despite an Increase in the Arcuate NPY Expression

This study was conducted to define the underlying mechanism of hypophagia induced by increased central serotonergic action. Rats received 3 daily injections of 5-hydroxy-L-tryptophan (5-HTP), a serotonin precursor, at a dose of 100 mg/kg/10 ml saline at 1 h before lights off. A significant suppression in food intake was observed shortly after the 5-HTP injection and persisted during 3 daily 5-HTP injections. Neuropeptide Y (NPY) expression in the arcuate nucleus increased after 3 days of 5-HTP treatment, as high as in the pair-fed group. Immunoreactivity of phosphorylated extracellular signal-regulated protein kinase (pERK1/2) in the hypothalamic paraventricular nucleus (PVN) was increased markedly by 3 days of 5-HTP treatment, but not by 3 days of pair-fed. mRNA expression levels of serotonin reuptake transporter (5-HTT) was increased in the dorsal raphe nucleus of the 5-HTP treated rats, but not in the pair-fed group. Results suggest that increased pERK1/2 in the PVN of 5-HTP injected rats may be a part of serotonergic anorectic signaling, perhaps blunting the orectic action of NPY; i.e., 5-HTP injected rats showed hypophagia despite of increased NPY expression in the arcuate nucleus

Association of the TLR4 Asp299Gly polymorphism with lung function in relation to body mass index

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Previous studies have shown conflicting results for the association between TLR4 polymorphism (Asp299Gly) and lung function. We investigated the influence of TLR4 Asp299Gly, a polymorphism, on lung function in a community population.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In 2003, a cross-sectional survey was conducted to assess the respiratory health of residents living in and around the town of Humboldt, Saskatchewan, Canada. There were 2090 adults age 18-79 years who completed a questionnaire that included a medical and smoking history, as well as socio-economic and lifestyle variables. Genetic information and lung function test measurements were available on 1725 subjects (754 males and 971 females) of the 2090 respondents. These subjects were selected for further analysis to investigate the association between TLR4 Asp299Gly genotype and forced expiratory volume in the first second in liters (FEV₁), forced vital capacity in liters (FVC), FEV₁/FVC ratio, and forced expiratory flow rate in liters/second (FEF_25-75). Multivariable linear regression analysis was used to investigate associations.</p> <p>Results</p> <p><b>A</b>djusted mean values of FEV₁and FVC were significantly different between TLR4 wild type and TLR4 variant groups [Mean ± S.E.: (TLR4 wild type - FEV₁: 3.18 ± 0.02, FVC: 3.95 ± 0.03; TLR4 variant - FEV₁: 3.31 ± 0.06, FVC: 4.14 ± 0.07)]. Based on multivariable regression analysis, we observed that body mass index (BMI) was associated with decreased FEV₁/FVC ratio and FEF_25-75in TLR4 variant group but not in wild type group.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>BMI may modify the associations of TLR4 Asp299Gly polymorphism with FEV₁/FVC ratio and FEF_25-75.</p