In vivo evaluation of demyelination and remyelination in a nerve crush injury model

Nerves of the peripheral nervous system have, to some extent, the ability to regenerate after injury, particularly in instances of crush or contusion injuries. After a controlled crush injury of the rat sciatic nerve, demyelination and remyelination are followed with functional assessments and imaged both ex vivo and in vivo over the course of 4 weeks with video-rate coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering (CARS) microscopy. A new procedure compatible with live animal imaging is developed for performing histomorphometry of myelinated axons. This allows quantification of demyelination proximal and remyelination distal to the crush site ex vivo and in vivo respectively

Syntactic priming in comprehension:Parallelism effects with and without coordination

Although previous research has shown a processing facilitation for conjoined phrases that share the same structure, it is currently not clear whether this paral-lelism advantage is specific to particular syntactic environments such as coordina-tion, or whether it is an example of more general effect in sentence comprehension. Here, we report three eye-tracking experiments that test for parallelism effects both in coordinated noun phrases and in subordinate clauses. The first experiment repli-cated previous findings, showing that the second conjunct of a coordinated noun phrase was read more quickly when it had the same structure as the first conjunct, compared with when it did not. Experiment 2 examined parallelism effects in noun phrases that were not linked by coordination. Again, a reading time advantage was found when the second noun phrase had the same structure as the first. Experi-ment 3 compared parallelism effects in coordinated and non-coordinated syntactic environments. The parallelism effect was replicated for both environments, and was statistically equivalent whether or not coordination was involved. This demon-strated that parallelism effects can be found outside the environment of coordina-tion, suggesting a general syntactic priming mechanism as the underlying explana-tion

Wld(S) Prevents Axon Degeneration through Increased Mitochondrial Flux and Enhanced Mitochondrial Ca(2+) Buffering

Wld(S) (slow Wallerian degeneration) is a remarkable protein that can suppress Wallerian degeneration of axons and synapses [1], but how it exerts this effect remains unclear [2]. Here, using Drosophila and mouse models, we identify mitochondria as a key site of action for Wld(S) neuroprotective function. Targeting the NAD(+) biosynthetic enzyme Nmnat to mitochondria was sufficient to fully phenocopy Wld(S), and Wld(S) was specifically localized to mitochondria in synaptic preparations from mouse brain. Axotomy of live wild-type axons induced a dramatic spike in axoplasmic Ca(2+) and termination of mitochondrial movement-Wld(S) potently suppressed both of these events. Surprisingly, Wld(S) also promoted increased basal mitochondrial motility in axons before injury, and genetically suppressing mitochondrial motility in vivo dramatically reduced the protective effect of Wld(S). Intriguingly, purified mitochondria from Wld(S) mice exhibited enhanced Ca(2+) buffering capacity. We propose that the enhanced Ca(2+) buffering capacity of Wld(S+) mitochondria leads to increased mitochondrial motility, suppression of axotomy-induced Ca(2+) elevation in axons, and thereby suppression of Wallerian degeneration

The Autopointer: A New Augmented-Reality Device for Transfer of Planning Data into the Operating Room.

To transfer preoperatively planned data into the operating room (OR), registration is necessary as well as a method to localize the planned data in the OR. This data may comprise e.g. entry point positions into the human body in case of minimally invasive interventions or cutting trajectories. State of the art methods for localization are e.g.: • The robot itself is used as a pointing device (exploiting the forward kinematics) to position other devices and the workpiece with respect to each other. • An optically tracked pointer is used to find positions in the OR, assisted either by a VR representation of the scene where the pointer is visualized, or by simple commands ("move right/left/up/down..."). • The plan is projected with e.g. video or laser projectors. This work presents a first prototype of the autopointer, a new patent pending device using a handheld optically tracked laser scanner to localize preoperatively planned data in the operating room (OR)

Die Fotoreportage in Deutschland von 1925 bis 1935 : eine empirische Studie zur Geschichte der illustrierten Presse in der Periode der Durchsetzung des Fotojournalismus

Diese Studie befasst sich mit der Entwicklung der Fotoreportage in deutschen illustrierten Wochenzeitungen (1925-1935). Nur wenige Behauptungen zur Entwicklung der Fotoreportage sind empirisch fundiert. Die vorliegende Studie untersucht zwei Hypothesen mittels einer quantitativen Inhaltsanalyse: Zum einen die These, dass die moderne Fotoreportage ab 1929 von Stefan Lorant entwickelt wurde, und zum anderen Gidals Feststellung, dass 1933 der neue Bildjournalismus in Deutschland zusammenbrach und sich hauptsächlich propagandistischer Bilder bediente. Das Korpus enthält alle Ausgaben der Berliner Illustrirten Zeitung, der Arbeiter-Illustrierten Zeitung, des Illustrierten Beobachters und der Münchner Illustrierten Presse von 1925 bis 1935. Die Inhaltsanalyse zeigt, dass die Anzahl der Fotoreportagen ab 1927 stark anstieg. Fotoreportagen wiesen schon in allen vier Illustrierten narrative Strukturen und Elemente (ein zweiseitiges Layout, eine ansprechende Typografie, wechselnde Fotoformate, Schlüsselbilder, Freistellungen und Überlappungen von Fotos) auf und halten dem Vergleich mit der modernen Fotoreportage Gidals stand. Nach 1928 stieg die Anzahl der Fotoreportagen in allen vier Medien weiter an. Die narrativen Gestaltungselemente gewannen bis 1932 immer mehr an Bedeutung. Ab 1933 zeigte sich eine Entwicklung zur mehrseitigen Reportage – mit propagandistischem Inhalt und zur großformatigen Fotografie, wogegen die Anzahl narrativer Elemente abnahm. Die moderne Fotoreportage entstand also nicht erst von 1929 bis 1931 in der MIP, sondern bereits ab 1927 in der MIP, AIZ und im IB (BIZ 1929). Ab 1933 erschienen im Layout veränderte, propagandistische Fotoreportagen. Die narrative Struktur und Ästhetik des Layouts entsprach in vielen Fällen immer noch den Kriterien der modernen Fotoreportage. Ein Zusammenbruch des Bildjournalismus ist nach den vorliegenden Untersuchungen nicht zu erkennen

Multisensory Brand Search: How the Meaning of Sounds Guides Consumers’ Visual Attention

Building on models of crossmodal attention, the present research proposes that brand search is inherently multisensory, in that the consumers’ visual search for a specific brand can be facilitated by semantically related stimuli that are presented in another sensory modality. A series of five experiments demonstrates that the presentation of spatially non-predictive auditory stimuli associated with products (e.g., usage sounds or product-related jingles) can crossmodally facilitate consumers’ visual search for, and selection of, products. Eye-tracking data (Experiment 2) revealed that the crossmodal effect of auditory cues on visual search manifested itself not only in reaction times, but also in the earliest stages of visual attentional processing, thus suggesting that the semantic information embedded within sounds can modulate the perceptual saliency of the target products’ visual representations. Crossmodal facilitation was even observed for newly-learnt associations between unfamiliar brands and sonic logos, implicating multisensory short-term learning in establishing audiovisual semantic associations. The facilitation effect was stronger when searching complex rather than simple visual displays, thus suggesting a modulatory role of perceptual load