Tractography passes the test: Results from the diffusion-simulated connectivity (disco) challenge.

Estimating structural connectivity from diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging is a challenging task, partly due to the presence of false-positive connections and the misestimation of connection weights. Building on previous efforts, the MICCAI-CDMRI Diffusion-Simulated Connectivity (DiSCo) challenge was carried out to evaluate state-of-the-art connectivity methods using novel large-scale numerical phantoms. The diffusion signal for the phantoms was obtained from Monte Carlo simulations. The results of the challenge suggest that methods selected by the 14 teams participating in the challenge can provide high correlations between estimated and ground-truth connectivity weights, in complex numerical environments. Additionally, the methods used by the participating teams were able to accurately identify the binary connectivity of the numerical dataset. However, specific false positive and false negative connections were consistently estimated across all methods. Although the challenge dataset doesn't capture the complexity of a real brain, it provided unique data with known macrostructure and microstructure ground-truth properties to facilitate the development of connectivity estimation methods

Mating behaviour of the Indian grey mongoose Herpestes edwardsii edwardsii Geoffroy

Volume: 92Start Page: 26End Page: 2

Regional anesthesia in faciomaxillary and oral surgery

Faciomaxillary and oral surgical procedures are frequently done under local anesthesia. Only few techniques are used widely in these areas in spite of the numerous blocks available. Knowledge about these techniques could encourage use of these techniques for the benefit of patients and operators′ comfort. Leaving aside the commonly used intraoral anesthetic technique by faciomaxillary and dental surgeons, focus is given on regional blocks of extraoral route, like maxillary block, mandibular block, superficial cervical plexus block, forehead and scalp block, trigeminal nerve block, sphenopalatine nerve block, and they are discussed with their indications and technical details involved in administering them. Advantages of using the regional blocks over general anesthesia and multiple pricks include reduced dosage and number of needle pricks. Pediatric considerations like prolonged duration of anesthesia and wider area of action for regional blocks warrant that they should be used with caution