208 research outputs found

    Lessons from behaviour for brain imaging

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    Integrating physiological and behavioural arousal with social context is fundamental to understanding affect in dogs. Cook et al. (2018) have made a worthy start towards illuminating the neural basis of dog affect underlying resource loss. However, their study depends on retrospective behaviour reports versus direct testing, and an interpretation of differential neural activation that is based on too few dogs. Research groups conducting canine brain-imaging work might: (1) consider collaborative approaches to augment sample sizes and replicability, and (2) take a recent lesson from dog behavioural research regarding a more cautious approach to applying functional labels to physiological and/or behavioural arousal

    Plasma transfusions prior to insertion of central lines for people with abnormal coagulation

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    Background: The insertion of central venous catheters (CVCs) may be associated with peri- and post-procedural bleeding. People who require a central line often have disorders of coagulation as a result of their underlying illness, co-morbidities or the effects of treatment. Clinical practice in some institutions is to mitigate the risk of bleeding in these patients by prophylactically transfusing fresh frozen plasma (FFP) in order to correct clotting factor deficiencies prior to central line insertion. However, FFP transfusion is not without risk, and it remains unclear whether this intervention is associated with reduced rates of bleeding or other clinically-meaningful outcomes. Objectives: To assess the effect of different prophylactic plasma transfusion regimens prior to central line insertion in people with abnormal coagulation. Search methods: We searched for randomised controlled trials (RCTs) in the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) (the Cochrane Library 2016, Issue 3), PubMed (e-publications only), Ovid MEDLINE (from 1946), Ovid Embase (from 1974), the Transfusion Evidence Library (from 1950) and ongoing trial databases to 1 March 2016. Selection criteria: We included RCTs involving transfusions of plasma to prevent bleeding in people of any age with abnormal coagulation requiring insertion of a central venous catheter, published in English. Data collection and analysis: We used standard methodological procedures expected by Cochrane. Main results: We identified four trials eligible for inclusion, of which three are ongoing. We did not exclude any studies because they were not published in English. The included study randomised 81 adults in intensive care whose INR (International Normalised Ratio) was greater than or equal to 1.5 to no FFP or to a single dose of 12 mL/kg FFP prior to undergoing central venous catheterisation (58 participants) or other invasive procedure (23 participants). It is the subgroup of 58 adults undergoing CVC insertion that were included in this review, the study authors provided unpublished data for this review's outcomes. The quality of the evidence was low or very low across different outcomes according to the GRADE methodology. The included study was at high risk of bias due to lack of blinding of participants and personnel and imbalance in the number of participants who had liver disease between study arms. There was insufficient evidence to determine a difference in major procedure-related bleeding within 24 hours (one RCT; 58 participants; no events in either study arm, very low-quality evidence). We are very uncertain whether FFP reduces minor procedure-related bleeding within 24 hours of the study (one RCT; 58 participants, RR 0.67, 95% CI 0.12 to 3.70, very low-quality evidence). No studies were found that looked at: all-cause mortality; the proportion of participants receiving plasma or red cell transfusions; serious adverse reactions (transfusion or line-related complications); number of days in hospital; change in INR; or quality of life. The three ongoing studies are still recruiting participants (expected recruitment: up to 355 participants in total). and are due to be completed by February 2018. Authors' conclusions: There is only very limited evidence from one RCT to inform the decision whether or not to administer prophylactic plasma prior to central venous catheterisation for people with abnormal coagulation. It is not possible from the current RCT evidence to recommend whether or not prophylactic plasma transfusion is beneficial or harmful in this situation. The three ongoing RCTs will not be able to answer this review’s questions, because they are small studies and do not address all of the comparisons included in this review (355 participants in total). To detect an increase in the proportion of participants who had major bleeding from 1 in 100 to 2 in 100 would require a study containing at least 4634 participants (80% power, 5% significance)

    Prion protein interacts with bace1 and differentially regulates its activity towards wild type and swedish mutant amyloid precursor protein

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    In Alzheimer disease amyloid-β (Aβ) peptides derived from the amyloid precursor protein (APP) accumulate in the brain. Cleavage of APP by the β-secretase BACE1 is the rate-limiting step in the production of Aβ. We have reported previously that the cellular prion protein (PrP(C)) inhibited the action of BACE1 toward human wild type APP (APP(WT)) in cellular models and that the levels of endogenous murine Aβ were significantly increased in PrP(C)-null mouse brain. Here we investigated the molecular and cellular mechanisms underlying this observation. PrP(C) interacted directly with the prodomain of the immature Golgi-localized form of BACE1. This interaction decreased BACE1 at the cell surface and in endosomes where it preferentially cleaves APP(WT) but increased it in the Golgi where it preferentially cleaves APP with the Swedish mutation (APP(Swe)). In transgenic mice expressing human APP with the Swedish and Indiana familial mutations (APP(Swe,Ind)), PrP(C) deletion had no influence on APP proteolytic processing, Aβ plaque deposition, or levels of soluble Aβ or Aβ oligomers. In cells, although PrP(C) inhibited the action of BACE1 on APP(WT), it did not inhibit BACE1 activity toward APP(Swe). The differential subcellular location of the BACE1 cleavage of APP(Swe) relative to APP(WT) provides an explanation for the failure of PrP(C) deletion to affect Aβ accumulation in APP(Swe,Ind) mice. Thus, although PrP(C) exerts no control on cleavage of APP(Swe) by BACE1, it has a profound influence on the cleavage of APP(WT), suggesting that PrP(C) may be a key protective player against sporadic Alzheimer disease

    Investigating the Neural Basis of Theta Burst Stimulation to Premotor Cortex on Emotional Vocalization Perception: A Combined TMS-fMRI Study

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    Previous studies have established a role for premotor cortex in the processing of auditory emotional vocalizations. Inhibitory continuous theta burst transcranial magnetic stimulation (cTBS) applied to right premotor cortex selectively increases the reaction time to a same-different task, implying a causal role for right ventral premotor cortex (PMv) in the processing of emotional sounds. However, little is known about the functional networks to which PMv contribute across the cortical hemispheres. In light of these data, the present study aimed to investigate how and where in the brain cTBS affects activity during the processing of auditory emotional vocalizations. Using functional neuroimaging, we report that inhibitory cTBS applied to the right premotor cortex (compared to vertex control site) results in three distinct response profiles: following stimulation of PMv, widespread frontoparietal cortices, including a site close to the target site, and parahippocampal gyrus displayed an increase in activity, whereas the reverse response profile was apparent in a set of midline structures and right IFG. A third response profile was seen in left supramarginal gyrus in which activity was greater post-stimulation at both stimulation sites. Finally, whilst previous studies have shown a condition specific behavioral effect following cTBS to premotor cortex, we did not find a condition specific neural change in BOLD response. These data demonstrate a complex relationship between cTBS and activity in widespread neural networks and are discussed in relation to both emotional processing and the neural basis of cTBS

    Asteroid Ryugu before the Hayabusa2 encounter

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    Asteroid (162173) Ryugu is the target object of Hayabusa2, an asteroid exploration and sample return mission led by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA). Ground-based observations indicate that Ryugu is a C-type near-Earth asteroid with a diameter of less than 1 km, but the knowledge of its detailed properties is very limited prior to Hayabusa2 observation. This paper summarizes our best understanding of the physical and dynamical properties of Ryugu based on ground-based remote sensing and theoretical modeling before the Hayabusa2’s arrival at the asteroid. This information is used to construct a design reference model of the asteroid that is used for the formulation of mission operation plans in advance of asteroid arrival. Particular attention is given to the surface properties of Ryugu that are relevant to sample acquisition. This reference model helps readers to appropriately interpret the data that will be directly obtained by Hayabusa2 and promotes scientific studies not only for Ryugu itself and other small bodies but also for the solar system evolution that small bodies shed light on.Additional co-authors: Guy Libourel, Roy Lichtenheldt, Alessandro Maturilli, Scott R. Messenger, Tatsuhiro Michikami, Hideaki Miyamoto, Stefano Mottola, Thomas Müller, Akiko M. Nakamura, Larry R. Nittler, Kazunori Ogawa, Tatsuaki Okada, Ernesto Palomba, Naoya Sakatani, Stefan E. Schröder, Hiroki Senshu, Driss Takir, Michael E. Zolensky and International Regolith Science Group (IRSG) in Hayabusa2 projec
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