A novel deep learning based hippocampus subfield segmentation method

[EN] The automatic assessment of hippocampus volume is an important tool in the study of several neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer's disease. Specifically, the measurement of hippocampus subfields properties is of great interest since it can show earlier pathological changes in the brain. However, segmentation of these subfields is very difficult due to their complex structure and for the need of high-resolution magnetic resonance images manually labeled. In this work, we present a novel pipeline for automatic hippocampus subfield segmentation based on a deeply supervised convolutional neural network. Results of the proposed method are shown for two available hippocampus subfield delineation protocols. The method has been compared to other state-of-the-art methods showing improved results in terms of accuracy and execution time.This research was supported by the Spanish DPI2017-87743-R grant from the Ministerio de Economia, Industria y Competitividad of Spain. This study has been also carried out with financial support from the French State, managed by the French National Research Agency (ANR) in the frame of the Investments for the future Program IdEx Bordeaux (ANR-10-IDEX-03-02, HL-MRI Project) and Cluster of excellence CPU and TRAIL (HR-DTI ANR-10-LABX-57). The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of NVIDIA Corporation with their donation of the TITAN X GPU used in this research.Manjón Herrera, JV.; Romero, JE.; Coupe, P. (2022). A novel deep learning based hippocampus subfield segmentation method. Scientific Reports. 12(1):1-9. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-022-05287-81912

Generation of mice with a conditional Foxp2 null allele

Disruptions of the human FOXP2 gene cause problems with articulation of complex speech sounds, accompanied by impairment in many aspects of language ability. The FOXP2/Foxp2 transcription factor is highly similar in humans and mice, and shows a complex conserved expression pattern, with high levels in neuronal subpopulations of the cortex, striatum, thalamus, and cerebellum. In the present study we generated mice in which loxP sites flank exons 12–14 of Foxp2; these exons encode the DNA-binding motif, a key functional domain. We demonstrate that early global Cre-mediated recombination yields a null allele, as shown by loss of the loxP-flanked exons at the RNA level and an absence of Foxp2 protein. Homozygous null mice display severe motor impairment, cerebellar abnormalities and early postnatal lethality, consistent with other Foxp2 mutants. When crossed to transgenic lines expressing Cre protein in a spatially and/or temporally controlled manner, these conditional mice will provide new insights into the contributions of Foxp2 to distinct neural circuits, and allow dissection of roles during development and in the mature brain. genesis 45:440–446, 2007. Published 2007 Wiley-Liss, Inc

Life satisfaction and musculoskeletal complaints in a population seeking osteopathy care: consecutive sample of 611 patients.

BackgroundLife satisfaction is a component of the subjective well-being construct. Research consistently suggests that life satisfaction is associated with enhanced social benefits and improved health outcomes. However, its relationship to musculoskeletal health outcomes is underexplored. This study evaluates the life satisfaction of a patient population presenting with musculoskeletal complaints, and the relationship of life satisfaction with other health demographics and behaviours.MethodThe study used a consecutive sampling design. Patients attending the Victoria University Osteopathy Clinic (Melbourne, Australia) were invited to complete the PROMIS® General Life Satisfaction scale (GLSS) along with questions related to health demographics and behaviours.ResultsThe GLSS T-score was not significantly different for gender, being born outside of Australia, speaking English at home, or complaint chronicity.ConclusionsLife satisfaction did not appear to be related to a range of health and demographic variables in the current musculoskeletal pain cohort. The PROMIS® General Life Satisfaction scale could prove useful to explore the relationship between life satisfaction and treatment outcomes for musculoskeletal complaints

Behavior of multitemporal and multisensor passive microwave indices in Southern Hemisphere ecosystems

©2014. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved. This study focused on the time series analysis of passive microwave and optical satellite data collected from six Southern Hemisphere ecosystems in Australia and Argentina. The selected ecosystems represent a wide range of land cover types, including deciduous open forest, temperate forest, tropical and semiarid savannas, and grasslands. We used two microwave indices, the frequency index (FI) and polarization index (PI), to assess the relative contributions of soil and vegetation properties (moisture and structure) to the observations. Optical-based satellite vegetation products from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer were also included to aid in the analysis. We studied the X and Ka bands of the Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer-EOS and Wind Satellite, resulting in up to four observations per day (1:30, 6:00, 13:30, and 18:00-h). Both the seasonal and hourly variations of each of the indices were examined. Environmental drivers (precipitation and temperature) and eddy covariance measurements (gross ecosystem productivity and latent energy) were also analyzed. It was found that in moderately dense forests, FI was dependent on canopy properties (leaf area index and vegetation moisture). In tropical woody savannas, a significant regression (R2) was found between FI and PI with precipitation (R2->-0.5) and soil moisture (R2->-0.6). In the areas of semiarid savanna and grassland ecosystems, FI variations found to be significantly related to soil moisture (R2->-0.7) and evapotranspiration (R2->-0.5), while PI varied with vegetation phenology. Significant differences (p-<-0.01) were found among FI values calculated at the four local times. Key Points Passive microwave indices can be used to estimate vegetation moisture Microwave observations were supported by flux data Passive microwave indices could be used to estimate evapotranspiratio

MODIS vegetation products as proxies of photosynthetic potential along a gradient of meteorologically and biologically driven ecosystem productivity

© 2016 Author(s). A direct relationship between gross ecosystem productivity (GEP) estimated by the eddy covariance (EC) method and Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) vegetation indices (VIs) has been observed in many temperate and tropical ecosystems. However, in Australian evergreen forests, and particularly sclerophyll and temperate woodlands, MODIS VIs do not capture seasonality of GEP. In this study, we re-evaluate the connection between satellite and flux tower data at four contrasting Australian ecosystems, through comparisons of GEP and four measures of photosynthetic potential, derived via parameterization of the light response curve: ecosystem light use efficiency (LUE), photosynthetic capacity (Pc), GEP at saturation (GEPsat), and quantum yield (α) with MODIS vegetation satellite products, including VIs, gross primary productivity (GPPMOD) leaf area index (LAIMOD), and fraction of photosynthetic active radiation (fPARMOD). We found that satellite-derived biophysical products constitute a measurement of ecosystem structure (e.g. leaf area index-quantity of leaves) and function (e.g. leaf level photosynthetic assimilation capacity-quality of leaves), rather than GEP. Our results show that in primarily meteorological-driven (e.g. photosynthetic active radiation, air temperature, and/or precipitation) and relatively aseasonal ecosystems (e.g. evergreen wet sclerophyll forests), there were no statistically significant relationships between GEP and satellite-derived measures of greenness. In contrast, for phenology-driven ecosystems (e.g. tropical savannas), changes in the vegetation status drove GEP, and tower-based measurements of photosynthetic activity were best represented by VIs. We observed the highest correlations between MODIS products and GEP in locations where key meteorological variables and vegetation phenology were synchronous (e.g. semi-arid Acacia woodlands) and low correlation at locations where they were asynchronous (e.g. Mediterranean ecosystems). However, we found a statistical significant relationship between the seasonal measures of photosynthetic potential (Pc and LUE) and VIs, where each ecosystem aligns along a continuum; we emphasize here that knowledge of the conditions in which flux tower measurements and VIs or other remote sensing products converge greatly advances our understanding of the mechanisms driving the carbon cycle (phenology and climate drivers) and provides an ecological basis for interpretation of satellite-derived measures of greenness

Does Amazon forest leaf phenology mediate transpiration seasonality and hence, ecoclimate teleconnections?

Abstract OOS 11-5