Мовні реалії іншого часу і простору (про особливості слововживання у творах Івана Багряного)

The structure of Earthʼs deep inner core has important implications for core evolution, since it is thought to be related to the early stages of core formation. Previous studies have suggested that there exists an innermost inner core with distinct anisotropy relative to the rest of the inner core. Using an extensive new data set of handpicked absolute travel time observations of the inner core phase PKIKP, we find that the data are best explained by variations in anisotropy between two hemispheres and do not require an innermost inner core. We demonstrate that observations of an innermost inner core are an artifact from averaging over lateral anisotropy variations. More significantly we show that hemispherical variations in anisotropy, previously only imaged in the upper inner core, continue to its centre. The eastern region has 0.5–1.5% anisotropy, whereas the western region has 3.5–8.8% anisotropy increasing with depth, with a slow direction at 57–61° to the Earthʼs rotation axis at all depths. Such anisotropy is consistent with models of aligned hcp or bcc iron aggregates

Axon radius estimation with Oscillating Gradient Spin Echo (OGSE) diffusion MRI

The estimation of axon radius provides insights into brain function [1] and could provide progression and classification biomarkers for a number of white matter diseases [2-4]. A recent in silico study [5] has shown that optimised gradient waveforms (GEN) and oscillating gradient waveform spin echo (OGSE) have increased sensitivity to small axon radius compared to pulsed gradient spin echo (PGSE) diffusion MR sequences. In a follow-up study [6], experiments with glass capillaries show the practical feasibility of GEN sequences and verify improved pore-size estimates. Here, we compare PGSE with sine, sine with arbitrary phase, and square wave OGSE (SNOGSE, SPOGSE, SWOGSE, respectively) for axon radius mapping in the corpus callosum of a rat, ex-vivo. Our results suggest improvements in pore size estimates from OGSE over PGSE, with greatest improvement from SWOGSE, supporting theoretical results from [5] and other studies [7-9]

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and trastuzumab versus neoadjuvant chemotherapy followed by post-operative trastuzumab for patients with HER2-positive breast cancer

Neoadjuvant chemotherapy plus trastuzumab (NCT) increases the rate of pathological complete response (pCR) and event-free survival (EFS) compared to neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NC) alone in women with HER2 positive breast cancer (BC). pCR in this setting is associated with improved EFS. Whether NCT preferentially improves EFS in comparison to NC followed by adjuvant trastuzumab initiated postoperatively (NCAT) has not been addressed. Using clinical data from women with HER2 positive BC treated at 7 European institutions between 2007 and 2010 we sought to investigate the impact on breast cancer outcomes of concomitant (NCT) versus sequential (NCAT) treatment in HER2 positive early BC. The unadjusted hazard ratio (HR) for event free survival with NCT compared with NCAT was 0.63 (95% CI 0.37–1.08; p = 0.091). Multivariable analysis revealed that treatment group, tumour size and ER status were significantly associated with EFS from diagnosis. In the whole group NCT was associated with a reduced risk of an event relative to NCAT, an effect that was confined to ER negative (HR: 0.25; 95% CI, 0.10–0.62; p = 0.003) as opposed to ER positive tumours (HR: 1.07; 95% CI, 0.46–2.52; p = 0.869). HER2 positive/ER negative BC treated with NC gain greatest survival benefit when trastuzumab is administered in both the neoadjuvant and adjuvant period rather than in the adjuvant period alone. These data support the early introduction of targeted combination therapy in HER2 positive/ER negative BC

Cardiovascular Magnetic Resonance Imaging in Experimental Models

Cardiovascular magnetic resonance (CMR) imaging is the modality of choice for clinical studies of the heart and vasculature, offering detailed images of both structure and function with high temporal resolution

Grey matter sublayer thickness estimation in the mouse cerebellum

The cerebellar grey matter morphology is an important feature to study neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease or Down’s syndrome. Its volume or thickness is commonly used as a surrogate imaging biomarker for such diseases. Most studies about grey matter thickness estimation focused on the cortex, and little attention has been drawn on the morphology of the cerebellum. Using ex vivo highresolution MRI, it is now possible to visualise the different cell layers in the mouse cerebellum. In this work, we introduce a framework to extract the Purkinje layer within the grey matter, enabling the estimation of the thickness of the cerebellar grey matter, the granular layer and molecular layer from gadolinium-enhanced ex vivo mouse brain MRI. Application to mouse model of Down’s syndrome found reduced cortical and layer thicknesses in the transchromosomic group

Changes in cardiac-driven perivascular fluid movement around the MCA in a pharmacological model of acute hypertension detected with non-invasive MRI

Perivascular spaces mediate a complex interaction between cerebrospinal fluid and brain tissue that may be an important pathway for solute waste clearance. Their structural or functional derangement may contribute to the development of age-related neurogenerative conditions. Here, we employed a non-invasive low b-value diffusion-weighted ECG-gated MRI method to capture perivascular fluid movement around the middle cerebral artery of the anaesthetised rat brain. Using this method, we show that such MRI estimates of perivascular fluid movement directionality are highly sensitive to the cardiac cycle. We then show that these measures of fluid movement directionality are decreased in the angiotensin-II pharmacological model of acute hypertension, with an associated dampening of vessel pulsatility. This translational MRI method may, therefore, be useful to monitor derangement of perivascular fluid movement associated with cardiovascular pathologies, such as hypertension, in order to further our understanding of perivascular function in neurology

Using Diffusion-Diffusion Exchange Spectroscopy to observe diffusion exchange in yeast

The permeability of cell membranes varies significantly across both healthy and diseased tissue, and changes in cell membrane permeability can occur during treatment response in tumours. Measurements of cell membrane permeability could therefore be useful for tumour detection and as biomarkers of treatment response in the clinic. As the diffusion of water across the cell membrane is directly dependent on cell membrane permeability, we have investigated the ability of diffusion-diffusion exchange spectroscopy to quantify the diffusion exchange of water in a suspension of yeast, as a first step towards its application in tumours