GP-Unet: Lesion Detection from Weak Labels with a 3D Regression Network

We propose a novel convolutional neural network for lesion detection from weak labels. Only a single, global label per image - the lesion count - is needed for training. We train a regression network with a fully convolutional architecture combined with a global pooling layer to aggregate the 3D output into a scalar indicating the lesion count. When testing on unseen images, we first run the network to estimate the number of lesions. Then we remove the global pooling layer to compute localization maps of the size of the input image. We evaluate the proposed network on the detection of enlarged perivascular spaces in the basal ganglia in MRI. Our method achieves a sensitivity of 62% with on average 1.5 false positives per image. Compared with four other approaches based on intensity thresholding, saliency and class maps, our method has a 20% higher sensitivity.Comment: Article published in MICCAI 2017. We corrected a few errors from the first version: padding, loss, typos and update of the DOI numbe

Motor-cognitive coupling is impaired in children with mild or severe forms of developmental coordination disorder

Children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD) show deficits in motor-cognitive coupling. However, it remains unclear whether such deficits depend on the severity of DCD. The aim of this study was to examine cognitive-motor coupling under different levels of inhibitory control in children with severe (s-DCD) or moderate DCD (m-DCD), compared with typically-developing children (TDC). The performance of 29 primary-school children aged 6–12 years with s-DCD (Mage = 9.12 ± 1.56 years), 53 m-DCD (Mage = 8.78 ± 1.67 years), and 201 TDC (Mage = 9.20 ± 1.50 years) was compared on a double jump reaching task (DJRT) paradigm, presented on a large 42-inch touchscreen. The task display had a circular home-base, centred at the bottom of the display, and three target locations at radials of −20°, 0°, and 20°, 40 cm above the home-base circle. For the standard double-jump reaching task (DJRT), children moved their index finger from home-base circle to touch the target stimulus as fast as possible; 20% were jump trials where the target shifted left or right at lift-off. For the anti-jump reaching task (AJRT), 20% of trials required an anti-jump movement, touching the contralateral target location. While no group differences were shown on the DJRT, the DCD group were slower to complete reaching movements than the TDC group on AJRT; on the latter, the two DCD sub-groups were not shown to differ. Results confirm the presence of motor inhibition deficits in DCD which may not be dependent on the motor severity of the disorder

Estudo sobre a produtividade primária de uma estação fundeada no estuário do Rio Curú (Ceará-Brasil), no período de Setembro de 1977 a Maio de 1978

The study of primary production from phytoplankton in estuarine regions is of basic importance, to projects of culture of oysters, shrimps and fishes. In this paper a study was made of the primary production in the Rio Curú's estuary (Ceará-Brasil), during the period from September, 1977 to May, 1978. We used the Winkler's method to make the measurement of productions. The data obtained on oxygen produced varied from 0.03 to 0.04 m LO2 |l| hour of light, for net production and 0.01 to 0.04 ml O2 |l| hour of light for the total production. Qualitative and quantitative studies were also made to obtain the dominant species and the most abundant and most frequent species

Identification of a regulatory pathway inhibiting adipogenesis via RSPO2

Healthy adipose tissue remodeling depends on the balance between de novo adipogenesis from adipogenic progenitor cells and the hypertrophy of adipocytes. De novo adipogenesis has been shown to promote healthy adipose tissue expansion, which confers protection from obesity-associated insulin resistance. Here, we define the role and trajectory of different adipogenic precursor subpopulations and further delineate the mechanism and cellular trajectory of adipogenesis, using single-cell RNA-sequencing datasets of murine adipogenic precursors. We identify Rspo2 as a functional regulator of adipogenesis, which is secreted by a subset of CD142$^{+}$ cells to inhibit maturation of early progenitors through the receptor Lgr4. Increased circulating RSPO2 in mice leads to adipose tissue hypertrophy and insulin resistance and increased RSPO2 levels in male obese individuals correlate with impaired glucose homeostasis. Taken together, these findings identify a complex cellular crosstalk that inhibits adipogenesis and impairs adipose tissue homeostasis

Laços com a loucura: a cidade como espaço de promoção de saúde mental

Este ensaio aborda a relação da cidade com a loucura. Busca analisar o espaço público com suas normas e desvios e refletir sobre o cuidado em saúde mental. Aborda o dispositivo do Acompanhamento Terapêutico em sua perspectiva antimanicomial e de fortalecimento do cuidado em liberdade. Dialoga com a perspectiva da psicologia ambiental e da psicanálise para refletir sobre essa complexa trama entre loucura, cidade, laço social e saúde mental

Genetically Determined Plasma Lipid Levels and Risk of Diabetic Retinopathy: A Mendelian Randomization Study.

Results from observational studies examining dyslipidemia as a risk factor for diabetic retinopathy (DR) have been inconsistent. We evaluated the causal relationship between plasma lipids and DR using a Mendelian randomization approach. We pooled genome-wide association studies summary statistics from 18 studies for two DR phenotypes: any DR (N = 2,969 case and 4,096 control subjects) and severe DR (N = 1,277 case and 3,980 control subjects). Previously identified lipid-associated single nucleotide polymorphisms served as instrumental variables. Meta-analysis to combine the Mendelian randomization estimates from different cohorts was conducted. There was no statistically significant change in odds ratios of having any DR or severe DR for any of the lipid fractions in the primary analysis that used single nucleotide polymorphisms that did not have a pleiotropic effect on another lipid fraction. Similarly, there was no significant association in the Caucasian and Chinese subgroup analyses. This study did not show evidence of a causal role of the four lipid fractions on DR. However, the study had limited power to detect odds ratios less than 1.23 per SD in genetically induced increase in plasma lipid levels, thus we cannot exclude that causal relationships with more modest effect sizes exist

Connectivity-based parcellation of the thalamus explains specific cognitive and behavioural symptoms in patients with bilateral thalamic infarct

A novel approach based on diffusion tractography was used here to characterise the cortico-thalamic connectivity in two patients, both presenting with an isolated bilateral infarct in the thalamus, but exhibiting partially different cognitive and behavioural profiles. Both patients (G.P. and R.F.) had a pervasive deficit in episodic memory, but only one of them (R.F.) suffered also from a dysexecutive syndrome. Both patients had an MRI scan at 3T, including a T1-weighted volume. Their lesions were manually segmented. T1-volumes were normalised to standard space, and the same transformations were applied to the lesion masks. Nineteen healthy controls underwent a diffusion-tensor imaging (DTI) scan. Their DTI data were normalised to standard space and averaged. An atlas of Brodmann areas was used to parcellate the prefrontal cortex. Probabilistic tractography was used to assess the probability of connection between each voxel of the thalamus and a set of prefrontal areas. The resulting map of corticothalamic connections was superimposed onto the patients' lesion masks, to assess whether the location of the thalamic lesions in R.F. (but not in G. P.) implied connections with prefrontal areas involved in dysexecutive syndromes. In G.P., the lesion fell within areas of the thalamus poorly connected with prefrontal areas, showing only a modest probability of connection with the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC). Conversely, R.F.'s lesion fell within thalamic areas extensively connected with the ACC bilaterally, with the right dorsolateral prefrontal cortex, and with the left supplementary motor area. Despite a similar, bilateral involvement of the thalamus, the use of connectivity-based segmentation clarified that R.F.'s lesions only were located within nuclei highly connected with the prefrontal cortical areas, thus explaining the patient's frontal syndrome. This study confirms that DTI tractography is a useful tool to examine in vivo the effect of focal lesions on interconnectivity brain patterns