Subbarrel patterns in somatosensory cortical barrels can emerge from local dynamic instabilities

Complex spatial patterning, common in the brain as well as in other biological systems, can emerge as a result of dynamic interactions that occur locally within developing structures. In the rodent somatosensory cortex, groups of neurons called "barrels" correspond to individual whiskers on the contralateral face. Barrels themselves often contain subbarrels organized into one of a few characteristic patterns. Here we demonstrate that similar patterns can be simulated by means of local growth-promoting and growth-retarding interactions within the circular domains of single barrels. The model correctly predicts that larger barrels contain more spatially complex subbarrel patterns, suggesting that the development of barrels and of the patterns within them may be understood in terms of some relatively simple dynamic processes. We also simulate the full nonlinear equations to demonstrate the predictive value of our linear analysis. Finally, we show that the pattern formation is robust with respect to the geometry of the barrel by simulating patterns on a realistically shaped barrel domain. This work shows how simple pattern forming mechanisms can explain neural wiring both qualitatively and quantitatively even in complex and irregular domains. © 2009 Ermentrout et al

Rigorous 3D change determination in Antarctic Peninsula glaciers from stereo WorldView-2 and archival aerial imagery

This paper presents detailed elevation and volume analysis of 16 individual glaciers, grouped at four locations, spread across the Antarctic Peninsula (AP). The study makes use of newly available WorldView-2 satellite stereo imagery to exploit the previously untapped value of archival stereo aerial photography. High resolution photogrammetric digital elevation models (DEMs) are derived to determine three-dimensional glacier change over an unprecedented time span of six decades with an unparalleled mean areal coverage of 82 % per glacier. The use of an in-house robust surface matching algorithm ensured rigorous alignment of the DEMs to overcome inherent problems associated with processing archival photography, most notably the identification and correction of scale error in some datasets. The analysis provides insight into one of the most challenging and data-scarce areas on the planet by expanding the spatial extent north of the AP to include previously un-studied glaciers located in the South Shetland Islands. 81 % of glaciers studied showed considerable loss of volume over the period of record. The mean annual mass loss for all glaciers yielded 0.24 \ub1 0.08 m.w.e. per year, with a maximum mass loss of up to 62 m.w.e. and frontal retreat exceeding 2.2 km for Stadium Glacier, located furthest north on Elephant Island. Observed volumetric loss was broadly, though not always, correlated with frontal retreat. The combined mass balance of all 16 glaciers yielded -1.862 \ub1 0.006 Gt, which corresponds to -0.005 mm sea level equivalent (SLE) over the 57 year observation period

Milk: the new sports drink? A Review

There has been growing interest in the potential use of bovine milk as an exercise beverage, especially during recovery from resistance training and endurance sports. Based on the limited research, milk appears to be an effective post-resistance exercise beverage that results in favourable acute alterations in protein metabolism. Milk consumption acutely increases muscle protein synthesis, leading to an improved net muscle protein balance. Furthermore, when post-exercise milk consumption is combined with resistance training (12 weeks minimum), greater increases in muscle hypertrophy and lean mass have been observed. Although research with milk is limited, there is some evidence to suggest that milk may be an effective post-exercise beverage for endurance activities. Low-fat milk has been shown to be as effective, if not more effective, than commercially available sports drinks as a rehydration beverage. Milk represents a more nutrient dense beverage choice for individuals who partake in strength and endurance activities, compared to traditional sports drinks. Bovine low-fat fluid milk is a safe and effective post exercise beverage for most individuals, except for those who are lactose intolerant. Further research is warranted to better delineate the possible applications and efficacy of bovine milk in the field of sports nutrition

Self-Feeding Interventions for Adults with Tremors

This research analysis was completed in collaboration with Carol Schramek, OTR/L, who works at a skilled nursing facility (SNF) in Iowa run by ABCM corporations. A systematic review of literature was conducted to explore the research question: What evidence-based interventions have been shown to be effective for reducing tremors, improving occupational performance, and/or increasing client satisfaction during self-feeding in adults with resting and/or action tremors? After initial review of 73 articles based on title, 33 articles met our inclusion criteria and were included in our critical appraisal of our topic (CAT). We found there to be a lack of research specifically on self-feeding interventions for adults with an upper-extremity tremor. Due to this gap in research, inferences on the effectiveness of the non-functional interventions for occupation-based tasks in our critical appraisal for self-feeding were made. After reviewing the 33 articles, 8 intervention categories prevailed that had positive impacts on occupational performance for clients with tremor including: limb temperature, positioning of the upper extremity, electrical stimulation, vibration, orthoses, muscular therapy, behavioral training, and various eating devices. After meeting with our collaborator to discuss options for disseminating our findings from the CAT analysis, it was determined that a digital booklet containing basic information ( description, methods, cost, photos) on each intervention category would be most useful for Schramek and her occupational therapy (OT) practitioner colleagues to use when learning about and selecting interventions to use. The booklet was created and sent via email in a pdf and Microsoft Word document to reference and print at her convenience. The purpose of providing a Microsoft Word version, was to enable editing of the files for client-centered customization. To measure the efficacy and benefits of the booklet for the OT practitioners, pre and post surveys were created to assess the OT practitioners\u27 current usage, knowledge, and familiarity of self-feeding interventions for adults with tremor before and after reading through our booklet. Results from our surveys and collaborator feedback indicated that the booklet provided useful information for practitioners to utilize and increased their knowledge on options for interventions to address self-feeding in adults with tremor. OT practitioners should consider all supports and barriers the client has for self-feeding when determining if an intervention included in this critical appraisal is appropriate for their clients with tremor. More research is needed to determine if these interventions are appropriate for OT practitioners to implement for clients with tremors

Association of Over-The-Counter Pharmaceutical Sales with Influenza-Like-Illnesses to Patient Volume in an Urgent Care Setting

We studied the association between OTC pharmaceutical sales and volume of patients with influenza-like-illnesses (ILI) at an urgent care center over one year. OTC pharmaceutical sales explain 36% of the variance in the patient volume, and each standard deviation increase is associated with 4.7 more patient visits to the urgent care center (p<0.0001). Cross-correlation function analysis demonstrated that OTC pharmaceutical sales are significantly associated with patient volume during non-flu season (p<0.0001), but only the sales of cough and cold (p<0.0001) and thermometer (p<0.0001) categories were significant during flu season with a lag of two and one days, respectively. Our study is the first study to demonstrate and measure the relationship between OTC pharmaceutical sales and urgent care center patient volume, and presents strong evidence that OTC sales predict urgent care center patient volume year round. © 2013 Liu et al

Blood transcriptomic diagnosis of pulmonary and extrapulmonary tuberculosis.

BACKGROUND. Novel rapid diagnostics for active tuberculosis (TB) are required to overcome the time delays and inadequate sensitivity of current microbiological tests that are critically dependent on sampling the site of disease. Multiparametric blood transcriptomic signatures of TB have been described as potential diagnostic tests. We sought to identify the best transcript candidates as host biomarkers for active TB, extend the evaluation of their specificity by comparison with other infectious diseases, and to test their performance in both pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB. METHODS. Support vector machine learning, combined with feature selection, was applied to new and previously published blood transcriptional profiles in order to identify the minimal TB‑specific transcriptional signature shared by multiple patient cohorts including pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB, and individuals with and without HIV-1 coinfection. RESULTS. We identified and validated elevated blood basic leucine zipper transcription factor 2 (BATF2) transcript levels as a single sensitive biomarker that discriminated active pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB from healthy individuals, with receiver operating characteristic (ROC) area under the curve (AUC) scores of 0.93 to 0.99 in multiple cohorts of HIV-1-negative individuals, and 0.85 in HIV-1-infected individuals. In addition, we identified and validated a potentially novel 4-gene signature comprising CD177, haptoglobin, immunoglobin J chain, and galectin 10 that discriminated active pulmonary and extrapulmonary TB from other febrile infections, giving ROC AUCs of 0.94 to 1. CONCLUSIONS. Elevated blood BATF2 transcript levels provide a sensitive biomarker that discriminates active TB from healthy individuals, and a potentially novel 4-gene transcriptional signature differentiates between active TB and other infectious diseases in individuals presenting with fever. FUNDING. MRC, Wellcome Trust, Rosetrees Trust, British Lung Foundation, NIHR.This work was supported by a Medical Research Council Fellowship to JR (MR/L001756/1) and Wellcome Trust Fellowship to EG (107311/Z/15/Z), the Rosetrees Trust, the British Lung Foundation (TB05/11), and by the National Institute for Health Research University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre

Seeing Tree Structure from Vibration

Humans recognize object structure from both their appearance and motion; often, motion helps to resolve ambiguities in object structure that arise when we observe object appearance only. There are particular scenarios, however, where neither appearance nor spatial-temporal motion signals are informative: occluding twigs may look connected and have almost identical movements, though they belong to different, possibly disconnected branches. We propose to tackle this problem through spectrum analysis of motion signals, because vibrations of disconnected branches, though visually similar, often have distinctive natural frequencies. We propose a novel formulation of tree structure based on a physics-based link model, and validate its effectiveness by theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and empirical experiments. With this formulation, we use nonparametric Bayesian inference to reconstruct tree structure from both spectral vibration signals and appearance cues. Our model performs well in recognizing hierarchical tree structure from real-world videos of trees and vessels.Comment: ECCV 2018. The first two authors contributed equally to this work. Project page: http://tree.csail.mit.edu