FocusStack and StimServer: a new open source MATLAB toolchain for visual stimulation and analysis of two-photon calcium neuronal imaging data

Two-photon calcium imaging of neuronal responses is an increasingly accessible technology for probing population responses in cortex at single cell resolution, and with reasonable and improving temporal resolution. However, analysis of two-photon data is usually performed using ad-hoc solutions. To date, no publicly available software exists for straightforward analysis of stimulus-triggered two-photon imaging experiments. In addition, the increasing data rates of two-photon acquisition systems imply increasing cost of computing hardware required for in-memory analysis. Here we present a Matlab toolbox, FocusStack, for simple and efficient analysis of two-photon calcium imaging stacks on consumer-level hardware, with minimal memory footprint. We also present a Matlab toolbox, StimServer, for generation and sequencing of visual stimuli, designed to be triggered over a network link from a two-photon acquisition system. FocusStack is compatible out of the box with several existing two-photon acquisition systems, and is simple to adapt to arbitrary binary file formats. Analysis tools such as stack alignment for movement correction, automated cell detection and peri-stimulus time histograms are already provided, and further tools can be easily incorporated. Both packages are available as publicly-accessible source-code repositories

Representation of visual scenes by local neuronal populations in layer 2/3 of mouse visual cortex

How are visual scenes encoded in local neural networks of visual cortex? In rodents, visual cortex lacks a columnar organization so that processing of diverse features from a spot in visual space could be performed locally by populations of neighboring neurons. To examine how complex visual scenes are represented by local microcircuits in mouse visual cortex we measured visually evoked responses of layer 2/3 neuronal populations using 3D two-photon calcium imaging. Both natural and artificial movie scenes (10 seconds duration) evoked distributed and sparsely organized responses in local populations of 70–150 neurons within the sampled volumes. About 50% of neurons showed calcium transients during visual scene presentation, of which about half displayed reliable temporal activation patterns. The majority of the reliably responding neurons were activated primarily by one of the four visual scenes applied. Consequently, single-neurons performed poorly in decoding, which visual scene had been presented. In contrast, high levels of decoding performance (>80%) were reached when considering population responses, requiring about 80 randomly picked cells or 20 reliable responders. Furthermore, reliable responding neurons tended to have neighbors sharing the same stimulus preference. Because of this local redundancy, it was beneficial for efficient scene decoding to read out activity from spatially distributed rather than locally clustered neurons. Our results suggest a population code in layer 2/3 of visual cortex, where the visual environment is dynamically represented in the activation of distinct functional sub-networks

A depth telerecording unit for marine biology

A serious obstacle to critical examination of stratification and diurnal migration of plankton has been the lack of instruments that enable the biologist to ascertain accurately the depth of his collecting net at the time of opening, fishing and closing...

Membrane testosterone binding sites in prostate carcinoma as a potential new marker and therapeutic target: Study in paraffin tissue sections

BACKGROUND: Steroid action is mediated, in addition to classical intracellular receptors, by recently identified membrane sites, that generate rapid non-genomic effects. We have recently identified a membrane androgen receptor site on prostate carcinoma cells, mediating testosterone rapid effects on the cytoskeleton and secretion within minutes. METHODS: The aim of this study was to investigate whether membrane androgen receptors are differentially expressed in prostate carcinomas, and their relationship to the tumor grade. We examined the expression of membrane androgen receptors in archival material of 109 prostate carcinomas and 103 benign prostate hyperplasias, using fluorescein-labeled BSA-coupled testosterone. RESULTS: We report that membrane androgen receptors are preferentially expressed in prostate carcinomas, and they correlate to their grade using the Gleason's microscopic grading score system. CONCLUSION: We conclude that membrane androgen receptors may represent an index of tumor aggressiveness and possibly specific targets for new therapeutic regimens

Deep multi-task learning for air quality prediction

© 2018, Springer Nature Switzerland AG. Predicting the concentration of air pollution particles has been an important task of urban computing. Accurately measuring and estimating makes the citizen and governments can behave with suitable decisions. In order to predict the concentration of several air pollutants at multiple monitoring stations throughout the city region, we proposed a novel deep multi-task learning framework based on residual Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). The experimental results on the real world data from London region substantiate that the proposed deep model has manifest superiority than shallow models and outperforms 9 baselines

Bio-psychosocial determinants of cardiovascular disease in a rural population on Crete, Greece: formulating a hypothesis and designing the SPILI-III study

Background: In 1988, the SPILI project was established in order to evaluate the cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk profile of the inhabitants of Spili, in rural Crete, Greece. The first reports from this project revealed that against the unfavourable risk factors’ profile observed, only a few men with a previous myocardial infarction were encountered. A follow-up study (SPILI II) was performed twelve years after the initial examination, and the unfavourable cardiovascular risk profile was re-confirmed. Presentation of the Hypothesis: This paper presents a hypothesis formulated on the basis of previous research to investigate if dynamic psycho-social determinants, including social coherence of the local community, religiosity and spirituality, are protective against the development of coronary heart disease in a well-defined population. Testing the Hypothesis: A follow-up examination of this Cretan cohort is currently being performed to assess the link between psychosocial factors and CVD. Psychosocial factors including sense of control, religiosity and spirituality are assessed in together with conventional CVD risk factors. Smoking and alcohol consumption, as well as dietary habits and activity levels are recorded. Oxidative stress and inflammatory markers, as well as ultrasound measurement of carotid intima media thickness, a preclinical marker of atherosclerosis, will also be measured. Implications of the hypothesis tested: The issue of the cardio-protective effect of psycho-social factors would be revisited based on the results of this Cretan cohort; nevertheless, further research is needed across different subpopulations in order to establish a definite relationship. A comprehensive approach based on the aspects of biosocial life may result in more accurate CVD risk management

Genes in the postgenomic era

We outline three very different concepts of the gene - 'instrumental', 'nominal', and 'postgenomic'. The instrumental gene has a critical role in the construction and interpretation of experiments in which the relationship between genotype and phenotype is explored via hybridization between organisms or directly between nucleic acid molecules. It also plays an important theoretical role in the foundations of disciplines such as quantitative genetics and population genetics. The nominal gene is a critical practical tool, allowing stable communication between bioscientists in a wide range of fields grounded in well-defined sequences of nucleotides, but this concept does not embody major theoretical insights into genome structure or function. The post-genomic gene embodies the continuing project of understanding how genome structure supports genome function, but with a deflationary picture of the gene as a structural unit. This final concept of the gene poses a significant challenge to conventional assumptions about the relationship between genome structure and function, and between genotype and phenotype

Is there evidence for accelerated polyethylene wear in uncemented compared to cemented acetabular components? A systematic review of the literature

Joint arthroplasty registries show an increased rate of aseptic loosening in uncemented acetabular components as compared to cemented acetabular components. Since loosening is associated with particulate wear debris, we postulated that uncemented acetabular components demonstrate a higher polyethylene wear rate than cemented acetabular components in total hip arthroplasty. We performed a systematic review of the peer-reviewed literature, comparing the wear rate in uncemented and cemented acetabular components in total hip arthroplasty. Studies were identified using MEDLINE (PubMed), EMBASE and the Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials. Study quality was assessed using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development and Evaluation (GRADE) approach. The search resulted in 425 papers. After excluding duplicates and selection based on title and abstracts, nine studies were found eligible for further analysis: two randomised controlled trials, and seven observational studies. One randomised controlled trial found a higher polyethylene wear rate in uncemented acetabular components, while the other found no differences. Three out of seven observational studies showed a higher polyethylene wear in uncemented acetabular component fixation; the other four studies did not show any differences in wear rates. The available evidence suggests that a higher annual wear rate may be encountered in uncemented acetabular components as compared to cemented components

Apoptosis screening of human chromosome 21 proteins reveals novel cell death regulators

The functional analysis of chromosome 21 (Chr21) proteins is of great medical relevance. This refers, in particular, to the trisomy of human Chr21, which results in Down’s syndrome, a complex developmental and neurodegenerative disease. In a previous study we analyzed 89 human Chr21 genes for the subcellular localization of their encoded proteins using a transfected-cell array technique. In the present study, the results of the follow-up investigation are presented in which 52 human Chr21 genes were over-expressed in HEK cells using the transfected-cell array platform, and the effect of this protein over-expression on the induction of apoptosis has been analyzed. We found that the over-expression of two Chr21 proteins (claudin-14 and -8) induced cell death independent of the classic caspase-mediated apoptosis. Our results strongly suggest the functional involvement of claudins in the control of the cell cycle and regulation of the cell death induction mechanism