Magnetic Resonance Imaging and Three-Dimensional Reconstructions of the Brain of a Fetal Common Dolphin, Delphinus delphis

To demonstrate the kinds of data that can be obtained non-destructively and non-invasively from preserved museum specimens using modern imaging technology the head region of a whole body fetal specimen of the common dolphin, Delphinus delphis, aged 8–9 months post-conception, was scanned using Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). Series of scans were obtained in coronal, sagittal and horizontal planes. A digital three-dimensional reconstruction of the whole brain was prepared from the coronal series of scans. Sectional areas and three-dimensional volumes were obtained of the cerebral hemispheres and of the brainstemplus-cerebellum. Neuroanatomical features identified in the scans include the major sulci of the cerebral hemispheres, well-differentiated regions of gray and white matter, the mesencephalic, pontine, and cervical flexures, the “foreshortened’’ appearance of the forebrain, and the large auditory inferior colliculi. These findings show that numerous features of the fetal common dolphin brain can be visualized and analyzed from MRI scans

The Changing Role of Pharmacists as Evidenced by the Strong Vocational Interest Blank

The Strong Vocational Interest Blank/Strong Campbell Interest Inventory-Merged Form, or simply Strong Vocational Interest Blank (SVIB), is widely used to determine the suitability of a student\u27s interests to a particular field. In the process of norming the instrument, data concerning the satisfaction of practitioners of a field and their responses on the instrument are gathered. Such data lend themselves to analysis of trends in the characteristics of those practitioners both over time and over the satisfaction spectrum. Hence changes in the field and characteristics lending themselves to satisfaction can be ascertained

Holocene aridification of India

Author Posting. © American Geophysical Union, 2012. This article is posted here by permission of American Geophysical Union for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Geophysical Research Letters 39 (2012): L03704, doi:10.1029/2011GL050722.Spanning a latitudinal range typical for deserts, the Indian peninsula is fertile instead and sustains over a billion people through monsoonal rains. Despite the strong link between climate and society, our knowledge of the long-term monsoon variability is incomplete over the Indian subcontinent. Here we reconstruct the Holocene paleoclimate in the core monsoon zone (CMZ) of the Indian peninsula using a sediment core recovered offshore from the mouth of Godavari River. Carbon isotopes of sedimentary leaf waxes provide an integrated and regionally extensive record of the flora in the CMZ and document a gradual increase in aridity-adapted vegetation from ~4,000 until 1,700 years ago followed by the persistence of aridity-adapted plants after that. The oxygen isotopic composition of planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides ruber detects unprecedented high salinity events in the Bay of Bengal over the last 3,000 years, and especially after 1,700 years ago, which suggest that the CMZ aridification intensified in the late Holocene through a series of sub-millennial dry episodes. Cultural changes occurred across the Indian subcontinent as the climate became more arid after ~4,000 years. Sedentary agriculture took hold in the drying central and south India, while the urban Harappan civilization collapsed in the already arid Indus basin. The establishment of a more variable hydroclimate over the last ca. 1,700 years may have led to the rapid proliferation of water-conservation technology in south India.This study was supported by grants from the National Science Foundation (OCE-0841736 and OCE- 0623766) and Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution.2012-08-1

Short communication: Massive erosion in monsoonal central India linked to late Holocene land cover degradation

Soil erosion plays a crucial role in transferring sediment and carbon from land to sea, yet little is known about the rhythm and rates of soil erosion prior to the most recent few centuries. Here we reconstruct a Holocene erosional history from central India, as integrated by the Godavari River in a sediment core from the Bay of Bengal. We quantify terrigenous fluxes, fingerprint sources for the lithogenic fraction and assess the age of the exported terrigenous carbon. Taken together, our data show that the monsoon decline in the late Holocene significantly increased soil erosion and the age of exported organic carbon. This acceleration of natural erosion was later exacerbated by the Neolithic adoption and Iron Age extensification of agriculture on the Deccan Plateau. Despite a constantly elevated sea level since the middle Holocene, this erosion acceleration led to a rapid growth of the continental margin. We conclude that in monsoon conditions aridity boosts rather than suppresses sediment and carbon export, acting as a monsoon erosional pump modulated by land cover conditions

African American men with low-grade prostate cancer have increased disease recurrence after prostatectomy compared with Caucasian men.

PURPOSE: To explore whether disparities in outcomes exist between African American (AA) and Caucasian (CS) men with low-grade prostate cancer and similar cancer of the prostate risk assessment-postsurgery (CAPRA-S) features following prostatectomy (RP). METHODS: The overall cohort consisted of 1,265 men (234 AA and 1,031 CS) who met the National comprehensive cancer network criteria for low- to intermediate-risk prostate cancer and underwent RP between 1990 and 2012. We first evaluated whether clinical factors were associated with adverse pathologic outcomes and freedom from biochemical failure (FFbF) using the entire cohort. Next, we studied a subset of 705 men (112 AA and 593 CS) who had pathologic Gleason score≤6 (low-grade disease). Using this cohort, we determined whether race affected FFbF in men with RP-proven low-grade disease and similar CAPRA-S scores. RESULTS: With a median follow-up time of 27 months, the overall 7-year FFbF rate was 86% vs. 79% in CS and AA men, respectively (P = 0.035). There was no significant difference in one or more adverse pathologic features between CS vs. AA men (27% vs. 31%; P = 0.35) or CAPRA-S score (P = 0.28). In the subset analysis of patients with low-grade disease, AA race was associated with worse FFbF outcomes (P = 0.002). Furthermore, AA race was a significant predictor of FFbF in men with low-grade disease (hazard ratio = 2.01, 95% CI: 1.08-3.72; P = 0.029). CONCLUSIONS: AA race is a predictor of worse FFbF outcomes in men with low-grade disease after RP. These results suggest that a subset of AA men with low-grade disease may benefit from more aggressive treatment

Complete Genome Sequence of a CTX-M-15-Producing Escherichia coli Strain from the H30Rx Subclone of Sequence Type 131 from a Patient with Recurrent Urinary Tract Infections, Closely Related to a Lethal Urosepsis Isolate from the Patient\u27s Sister.

We report here the complete genome sequence, including five plasmid sequences, of Escherichia coli sequence type 131 (ST131) strain JJ1887. The strain was isolated in 2007 in the United States from a patient with recurrent cystitis, whose caregiver sister died from urosepsis caused by a nearly identical strain

Anatomy and Three-Dimensional Reconstructions of the Brain of the White Whale (Delphinapterus leucas) From Magnetic Resonance Images

Magnetic resonance imaging offers a means of observing the internal structure of the brain where traditional procedures of embedding, sectioning, staining, mounting, and microscopic examination of thousands of sections are not practical. Furthermore, internal structures can be analyzed in their precise quantitative spatial interrelationships, which is difficult to accomplish after the spatial distortions often accompanying histological processing. For these reasons, magnetic resonance imaging makes specimens that were traditionally difficult to analyze, more accessible. In the present study, images of the brain of a white whale (Beluga) Delphinapterus leucas were scanned in the coronal plane at 119 antero-posterior levels. Fromthese scans, a computer-generated three-dimensional model was constructed using the programs VoxelViewand VoxelMath (Vital Images, Inc.). This model, wherein details of internal and external morphology are represented in three-dimensional space, was then resectioned in orthogonal planes to produce corresponding series of “virtual” sections in the horizontal and sagittal planes. Sections in all three planes display the sizes and positions of such structures as the corpus callosum, internal capsule, cerebral peduncles, cerebral ventricles, certain thalamic nuclear groups, caudate nucleus, ventral striatum, pontine nuclei, cerebellar cortex and white matter, and all cerebral cortical sulci and gyri

Anatomy and Three-Dimensional Reconstructions of the Brain of a Bottlenose Dolphin (Tursiops truncatus) From Magnetic Resonance Images

Cetacean (dolphin, whale, and porpoise) brains are among the least studied mammalian brains because of the formidability of collecting and histologically preparing such relatively rare and large specimens. Magnetic resonance imaging offers a means of observing the internal structure of the brain when traditional histological procedures are not practical. Furthermore, internal structures can be analyzed in their precise anatomic positions, which is difficult to accomplish after the spatial distortions often accompanying histological processing. In this study, images of the brain of an adult bottlenose dolphin, Tursiops truncatus, were scanned in the coronal plane at 148 antero-posterior levels. From these scans a computer-generated three-dimensional model was constructed using the programs Voxel-View and VoxelMath (Vital Images, Inc.). This model, wherein details of internal and external morphology are represented in three-dimensional space, was then resectioned in orthogonal planes to produce corresponding series of virtual sections in the horizontal and sagittal planes. Sections in all three planes display the sizes and positions of major neuroanatomical features such as the arrangement of cortical lobes and subcortical structures such as the inferior and superior colliculi, and demonstrate the utility of MRI for neuroanatomical investigations of dolphin brains