2,505 research outputs found
Early diffusion evidence of retrograde transsynaptic degeneration in the human visual system
We investigated whether diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indices of white matter integrity would offer early markers of retrograde transsynaptic degeneration (RTD) in the visual system after stroke
Objective: We investigated whether diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) indices of white matter integrity
would offer early markers of retrograde transsynaptic degeneration (RTD) in the visual system
after stroke.
Methods: We performed a prospective longitudinal analysis of the sensitivity of DTI markers of
optic tract health in 12 patients with postsynaptic visual pathway stroke, 12 stroke controls,
and 28 healthy controls. We examined group differences in (1) optic tract fractional anisotropy
(FA-asymmetry), (2) perimetric measures of visual impairment, and (3) the relationship between
FA-asymmetry and perimetric assessment.
Results: FA-asymmetry was higher in patients with visual pathway lesions than in control groups.
These differences were evident 3 months from the time of injury and did not change significantly
at 12 months. Perimetric measures showed evidence of impairment in participants with visual
pathway stroke but not in control groups. A significant association was observed between
FA-asymmetry and perimetric measures at 3 months, which persisted at 12 months.
Conclusions: DTI markers of RTD are apparent 3 months from the time of injury. This represents
the earliest noninvasive evidence of RTD in any species. Furthermore, these measures associate
with measures of visual impairment. DTI measures offer a reproducible, noninvasive, and sensitive
method of investigating RTD and its role in visual impairment
FAST: A multi-processed environment for visualization of computational fluid dynamics
Three-dimensional, unsteady, multi-zoned fluid dynamics simulations over full scale aircraft are typical of the problems being investigated at NASA Ames' Numerical Aerodynamic Simulation (NAS) facility on CRAY2 and CRAY-YMP supercomputers. With multiple processor workstations available in the 10-30 Mflop range, we feel that these new developments in scientific computing warrant a new approach to the design and implementation of analysis tools. These larger, more complex problems create a need for new visualization techniques not possible with the existing software or systems available as of this writing. The visualization techniques will change as the supercomputing environment, and hence the scientific methods employed, evolves even further. The Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST), an implementation of a software system for fluid mechanics analysis, is discussed
FAST: A multi-processed environment for visualization of computational fluid
Three dimensional, unsteady, multizoned fluid dynamics simulations over full scale aircraft is typical of problems being computed at NASA-Ames on CRAY2 and CRAY-YMP supercomputers. With multiple processor workstations available in the 10 to 30 Mflop range, it is felt that these new developments in scientific computing warrant a new approach to the design and implementation of analysis tools. These large, more complex problems create a need for new visualization techniques not possible with the existing software or systems available as of this time. These visualization techniques will change as the supercomputing environment, and hence the scientific methods used, evolve ever further. Visualization of computational aerodynamics require flexible, extensible, and adaptable software tools for performing analysis tasks. FAST (Flow Analysis Software Toolkit), an implementation of a software system for fluid mechanics analysis that is based on this approach is discussed
Scientific Visualization Using the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST)
Over the past few years the Flow Analysis Software Toolkit (FAST) has matured into a useful tool for visualizing and analyzing scientific data on high-performance graphics workstations. Originally designed for visualizing the results of fluid dynamics research, FAST has demonstrated its flexibility by being used in several other areas of scientific research. These research areas include earth and space sciences, acid rain and ozone modelling, and automotive design, just to name a few. This paper describes the current status of FAST, including the basic concepts, architecture, existing functionality and features, and some of the known applications for which FAST is being used. A few of the applications, by both NASA and non-NASA agencies, are outlined in more detail. Described in the Outlines are the goals of each visualization project, the techniques or 'tricks' used lo produce the desired results, and custom modifications to FAST, if any, done to further enhance the analysis. Some of the future directions for FAST are also described
Matched case-control studies: a review of reported statistical methodology
Background: Case-control studies are a common and efficient means of studying rare diseases or illnesses with long latency periods. Matching of cases and controls is frequently employed to control the effects of known potential confounding variables. The analysis of matched data requires specific statistical methods. Methods: The objective of this study was to determine the proportion of published, peer-reviewed matched case-control studies that used statistical methods appropriate for matched data. Using a comprehensive set of search criteria we identified 37 matched case-control studies for detailed analysis. Results: Among these 37 articles, only 16 studies were analyzed with proper statistical techniques (43%). Studies that were properly analyzed were more likely to have included case patients with cancer and cardiovascular disease compared to those that did not use proper statistics (10/16 or 63%, versus 5/21 or 24%, P = 0.02). They were also more likely to have matched multiple controls for each case (14/16 or 88%, versus 13/21 or 62%, P = 0.08). In addition, studies with properly analyzed data were more likely to have been published in a journal with an impact factor listed in the top 100 according to the Journal Citation Reports index (12/16 or 69%, versus 1/21 or 5%, P Conclusion: The findings of this study raise concern that the majority of matched case-control studies report results that are derived from improper statistical analyses. This may lead to errors in estimating the relationship between a disease and exposure, as well as the incorrect adaptation of emerging medical literature.</p
Staphylococcus epidermidis Strategies to Avoid Killing by Human Neutrophils
Staphylococcus epidermidis is a leading nosocomial pathogen. In contrast to its more aggressive relative S. aureus, it causes chronic rather than acute infections. In highly virulent S. aureus, phenol-soluble modulins (PSMs) contribute significantly to immune evasion and aggressive virulence by their strong ability to lyse human neutrophils. Members of the PSM family are also produced by S. epidermidis, but their role in immune evasion is not known. Notably, strong cytolytic capacity of S. epidermidis PSMs would be at odds with the notion that S. epidermidis is a less aggressive pathogen than S. aureus, prompting us to examine the biological activities of S. epidermidis PSMs. Surprisingly, we found that S. epidermidis has the capacity to produce PSMδ, a potent leukocyte toxin, representing the first potent cytolysin to be identified in that pathogen. However, production of strongly cytolytic PSMs was low in S. epidermidis, explaining its low cytolytic potency. Interestingly, the different approaches of S. epidermidis and S. aureus to causing human disease are thus reflected by the adaptation of biological activities within one family of virulence determinants, the PSMs. Nevertheless, S. epidermidis has the capacity to evade neutrophil killing, a phenomenon we found is partly mediated by resistance mechanisms to antimicrobial peptides (AMPs), including the protease SepA, which degrades AMPs, and the AMP sensor/resistance regulator, Aps (GraRS). These findings establish a significant function of SepA and Aps in S. epidermidis immune evasion and explain in part why S. epidermidis may evade elimination by innate host defense despite the lack of cytolytic toxin expression. Our study shows that the strategy of S. epidermidis to evade elimination by human neutrophils is characterized by a passive defense approach and provides molecular evidence to support the notion that S. epidermidis is a less aggressive pathogen than S. aureus
Decoding Neural Activity to Assess Individual Latent State in Ecologically Valid Contexts
There exist very few ways to isolate cognitive processes, historically
defined via highly controlled laboratory studies, in more ecologically valid
contexts. Specifically, it remains unclear as to what extent patterns of neural
activity observed under such constraints actually manifest outside the
laboratory in a manner that can be used to make an accurate inference about the
latent state, associated cognitive process, or proximal behavior of the
individual. Improving our understanding of when and how specific patterns of
neural activity manifest in ecologically valid scenarios would provide
validation for laboratory-based approaches that study similar neural phenomena
in isolation and meaningful insight into the latent states that occur during
complex tasks. We argue that domain generalization methods from the
brain-computer interface community have the potential to address this
challenge. We previously used such an approach to decode phasic neural
responses associated with visual target discrimination. Here, we extend that
work to more tonic phenomena such as internal latent states. We use data from
two highly controlled laboratory paradigms to train two separate
domain-generalized models. We apply the trained models to an ecologically valid
paradigm in which participants performed multiple, concurrent driving-related
tasks. Using the pretrained models, we derive estimates of the underlying
latent state and associated patterns of neural activity. Importantly, as the
patterns of neural activity change along the axis defined by the original
training data, we find changes in behavior and task performance consistent with
the observations from the original, laboratory paradigms. We argue that these
results lend ecological validity to those experimental designs and provide a
methodology for understanding the relationship between observed neural activity
and behavior during complex tasks
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