Hippocampal volume as a putative marker of resilience or compensation to minor depressive symptoms in a nonclinical sample

Case-control studies in major depression have established patterns of regional gray matter loss, including the hippocampus, which might show state-related effects dependent on disease stage. However, there is still limited knowledge on compensation effects that might occur in people resilient to depression showing only subclinical symptoms. We used voxel-based morphometry on a multicenter data set of 409 healthy nonclinical subjects to test the hypothesis that local hippocampal volume would be inversely correlated with subclinical depressive symptoms [Symptom Checklist 90-Revised (SCL-90-R) depression scores]. Our region-of-interest results show a significant (p = 0.042, FWE cluster-level corrected) positive correlation of SCL-90-R scores for depression and a left hippocampus cluster. Additionally, we provide an exploratory finding of gyrification, a surface-based morphometric marker, correlating with a right postcentral gyrus cluster [p = 0.031, family-wise error (FWE) cluster-level corrected]. Our findings provide first preliminary evidence of an inverse relationship for subjects in the absence of clinical depression and might thus point to processes related to compensation. Similar effects have been observed in remission from major depression and thus deserve further study to evaluate hippocampal volume not only as a state-dependent marker of disease but also of resilience

Heavy Quark Masses from Sum Rules in Four-Loop Approximation

New data for the total cross section $\sigma(e^+e^-\to{hadrons})$ in the charm and bottom threshold region are combined with an improved theoretical analysis, which includes recent four-loop calculations, to determine the short distance $\bar{\rm MS}$ charm and bottom quark masses. A detailed discussion of the theoretical and experimental uncertainties is presented. The final result for the $\bar{\rm MS}$-masses, $m_c(3 {GeV})=0.986(13)$ GeV and $m_b(10 {GeV})=3.609(25)$ GeV, can be translated into $m_c(m_c)=1.286(13)$ GeV and $m_b(m_b)=4.164(25)$ GeV. This analysis is consistent with but significantly more precise than a similar previous study.Comment: 29 page

Clinically Relevant Characterization of Lung Adenocarcinoma Subtypes Based on Cellular Pathways: An International Validation Study

Lung adenocarcinoma (AD) represents a predominant type of lung cancer demonstrating significant morphologic and molecular heterogeneity. We sought to understand this heterogeneity by utilizing gene expression analyses of 432 AD samples and examining associations between 27 known cancer-related pathways and the AD subtype, clinical characteristics and patient survival. Unsupervised clustering of AD and gene expression enrichment analysis reveals that cell proliferation is the most important pathway separating tumors into subgroups. Further, AD with increased cell proliferation demonstrate significantly poorer outcome and an increased solid AD subtype component. Additionally, we find that tumors with any solid component have decreased survival as compared to tumors without a solid component. These results lead to the potential to use a relatively simple pathological examination of a tumor in order to determine its aggressiveness and the patient's prognosis. Additional results suggest the ability to use a similar approach to determine a patient's sensitivity to targeted treatment. We then demonstrated the consistency of these findings using two independent AD cohorts from Asia (N = 87) and Europe (N = 89) using the identical analytic procedures

Sexual regional dimorphism of post-adolescent and middle age brain maturation. A multi-center 3T MRI study

Sex-related differences are tied into neurodevelopmental and lifespan processes, beginning early in the perinatal and developmental phases and continue into adulthood. The present study was designed to investigate sexual dimorphism of changes in gray matter (GM) volume in post-adolescence, with a focus on early and middle-adulthood using a structural magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) dataset of healthy controls from the European Network on Psychosis, Affective disorders and Cognitive Trajectory (ENPACT). Three hundred and seventy three subjects underwent a 3.0 T MRI session across four European Centers. Age by sex effects on GM volumes were investigated using voxel-based morphometry (VBM) and the Automated Anatomical Labeling atlas regions (ROI). Females and males showed overlapping and non-overlapping patterns of GM volume changes during aging. Overlapping age-related changes emerged in bilateral frontal and temporal cortices, insula and thalamus. Both VBM and ROI analyses revealed non-overlapping changes in multiple regions, including cerebellum and vermis, bilateral mid frontal, mid occipital cortices, left inferior temporal and precentral gyri. These findings highlight the importance of accounting for sex differences in cross-sectional analyses, not only in the study of normative changes, but particularly in the context of psychiatric and neurologic disorders, wherein sex effects may be confounded with disease-related changes

Gastroblastoma in Adulthood-A Rarity among Rare Cancers-A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Gastroblastoma (GB) is a rare gastric epithelial-mesenchymal neoplasm, first described by Miettinen et al. So far, all reported cases described the tumor in children or young adults, and similarities with other childhood blastomas have been postulated. We report a case of GB in a 43-year-old patient with long follow up and no recurrence up to 100\u2009months after surgery. So far, this is the second case of GB occurring in the adult age >40-year-old. Hence, GB should be considered in the differential diagnosis of microscopically comparable conditions in adults carrying a worse prognosis and different clinical approach

Spatio-temporal variation in the wintering associations of an alpine bird

Many animals make behavioural changes to cope with winter conditions, being gregariousness a common strategy. Several factors have been invoked to explain why gregariousness may evolve during winter, with individuals coming together and separating as they trade off the different costs and benefits of living in groups. These trade-offs may, however, change over space and time as a response to varying environmental conditions. Despite its importance, little is known about the factors triggering gregarious behaviour during winter and its change in response to variation in weather conditions is poorly documented. Here, we aimed at quantifying large-scale patterns in wintering associations over 23 years of the white-winged snowfinch Montifringilla nivalis nivalis. We found that individuals gather in larger groups at sites with harsh wintering conditions. Individuals at colder sites reunite later and separate earlier in the season than at warmer sites. However, the magnitude and phenology of wintering associations are ruled by changes in weather conditions. When the temperature increased or the levels of precipitation decreased, group size substantially decreased, and individuals stayed united in groups for a shorter time. These results shed light on factors driving gregariousness and points to shifting winter climate as an important factor influencing this behaviour.M.d.M.D. was financially supported by the (i) Spanish Ministry of Sciences, Innovation and Universities (no. CGL2016-79764-P) and (ii) a Spanish Ramon y Cajal grant no. RYC-2014-16263. M.B. was partly supported by the project Mediterranean Mosaics II funded by MAVA to Lipu