Hong Ling: A Retrospective

Catalogue of a retrospective exhibition of some 56 works, including early figural works and nudes as well as 'conceptual landscapes', by the contemporary Chinese artist Hong Ling (b. 1955), mounted at the Brunei Gallery, SOAS University of London, from 15 July-24 September 2016. The exhibition features paintings in oil and ink, as well as watercolours, drawings and photographs by the artist, dating from 1979 to his student days in Beijing in the 1980s and up to 2016. The retrospective follows Hong Ling's retirement in 2015 from the faculty of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Beijing, where he had taught oil painting practice since his graduation in 1987

Region-specific and activity-dependent regulation of SVZ neurogenesis and recovery after stroke.

Stroke is the leading cause of adult disability. Neurogenesis after stroke is associated with repair; however, the mechanisms regulating poststroke neurogenesis and its functional effect remain unclear. Here, we investigate multiple mechanistic routes of induced neurogenesis in the poststroke brain, using both a forelimb overuse manipulation that models a clinical neurorehabilitation paradigm, as well as local manipulation of cellular activity in the peri-infarct cortex. Increased activity in the forelimb peri-infarct cortex via either modulation drives increased subventricular zone (SVZ) progenitor proliferation, migration, and neuronal maturation in peri-infarct cortex. This effect is sensitive to competition from neighboring brain regions. By using orthogonal tract tracing and rabies virus approaches in transgenic SVZ-lineage-tracing mice, SVZ-derived neurons synaptically integrate into the peri-infarct cortex; these effects are enhanced with forelimb overuse. Synaptic transmission from these newborn SVZ-derived neurons is critical for spontaneous recovery after stroke, as tetanus neurotoxin silencing specifically of the SVZ-derived neurons disrupts the formation of these synaptic connections and hinders functional recovery after stroke. SVZ-derived neurogenesis after stroke is activity-dependent, region-specific, and sensitive to modulation, and the synaptic connections formed by these newborn cells are functionally critical for poststroke recovery

Dealing honestly with an honest mistake

A 70-year-old woman was admitted for a symptomatic left iliofemoral deep vein thrombosis. She underwent percutaneous mechanical thrombectomy, followed by overnight thrombolysis. The next day her clot had resolved, and a culprit left iliac vein stenosis was identified. After stent placement, a heparin infusion was initiated and the patient was taken back to the ward. At 11 the evening after the procedure, the resident on call was contacted to verify the written order. The resident stated that the heparin dose was to be 250 U/h; however, the nurse documented 2500 U/h and changed the infusion pump at the patient's bedside. At 5:30 the next morning, the resident was notified that the patient's partial thromboplastin time was >300 seconds and promptly shut off the heparin infusion. No noticeable adverse events occurred because of the high heparin dosing. The charge nurse was notified, as was risk management. What should the patient be told

Accessibility of Primary Health Care Settings for People with Disabilities

People with disabilities report physical barriers in doctors’ offices that affect the quality of care. The analysis seeks to describe overall primary care office physical accessibility and identify (1) in which areas offices meet access criteria, (2) which accessibility criteria are most often not met, and (3) whether there are urban/non-urban differences

Nuclear transcriptional changes in hypothalamus of Pomc enhancer knockout mice after excessive alcohol drinking

Persistent alterations of proopiomelanocortin (Pomc) and mu‐opioid receptor (Oprm1) activity and stress responses after alcohol are critically involved in vulnerability to alcohol dependency. Gene transcriptional regulation altered by alcohol may play important roles. Mice with genome‐wide deletion of neuronal Pomc enhancer1 (nPE1−/−), had hypothalamic‐specific partial reductions of beta‐endorphin and displayed lower alcohol consumption, compared to wildtype littermates (nPE1+/+). We used RNA‐Seq to measure steady‐state nuclear mRNA transcripts of opioid and stress genes in hypothalamus of nPE1+/+ and nPE1−/− mice after 1‐day acute withdrawal from chronic excessive alcohol drinking or after water. nPE1−/− had lower basal Pomc and Pdyn (prodynorphin) levels compared to nPE1+/+, coupled with increased basal Oprm1 and Oprk1 (kappa‐opioid receptor) levels, and low alcohol drinking increased Pomc and Pdyn to the basal levels of nPE1+/+ in the water group, without significant effects on Oprm1 and Oprk1. In nPE1+/+, excessive alcohol intake increased Pomc and Oprm1, with no effect on Pdyn or Oprk1. For stress genes, nPE1−/− had lowered basal Oxt (oxytocin) and Avp (arginine vasopressin) that were restored by low alcohol intake to basal levels of nPE1+/+. In nPE1+/+, excessive alcohol intake decreased Oxt and Avpi1 (AVP‐induced protein1). Functionally examining the effect of pharmacological blockade of mu‐opioid receptor, we found that naltrexone reduced excessive alcohol intake in nPE1+/+, but not nPE1−/−. Our results provide evidence relevant to the transcriptional profiling of the critical genes in mouse hypothalamus: enhanced opioid and reduced stress gene transcripts after acute withdrawal from excessive alcohol may contribute to altered reward and stress responses.Transcriptional profiling of the critical genes in mouse hypothalamus: enhanced opioid and reduced stress gene transcripts after acute withdrawal from excessive alcohol may contribute to altered reward and stress responses.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152013/1/gbb12600.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/152013/2/gbb12600_am.pd

Exploring Driver Responses to Unexpected and Expected Events Using Probabilistic Topic Models

Drivers’ expectations influence their responses to events in complex ways. In particular, covert and sustained hazards, like crosswinds, might require complex vehicle control adaptations. We investigated differences between drivers’ lateral responses in unexpected and expected (repeated) crosswind events using probabilistic topic modeling. First, each driver’s event-based steering wheel movements (angle and rate, 5 Hz) were transformed into symbolic words. Then, probabilistic topic modeling was used to discover patterns in the steering wheel movement data across the event conditions. Results indicate that drivers may make fewer abrupt steering wheel movements when they encounter unexpected crosswinds. On the contrary, drivers are more likely to make continuous faster steering corrections to compensate crosswinds when they are expected. The topic models also classify unexpected and expected crosswind events better than traditional models that use single aggregated values across events (maximum steering wheel angle and rate). These preliminary insights show an advantage for granular, time-series based analysis of driving data, and suggest a viable machinelearning based technique to conduct such investigations

Efficient Computation of Parameterized Pointer Information for Interprocedural Analyses

Pointer information that is provided by many algorithms identifies a memory location using the same name throughout a program. Such pointer information is inappropriate for use in analyzing C programs because, using such information, a program analysis may propagate a large amount of spurious information across procedure boundaries. This paper presents a modular algorithm that efficiently computes parameterized pointer information in which symbolic names are introduced to identify memory locations whose addresses may be passed into a procedure. Because a symbolic name may identify different memory locations when the procedure is invoked under different callsites, using parameterized pointer information can help a program analysis reduce the spurious information that is propagated across procedure boundaries. The paper also presents a set of empirical studies, that demonstrate (a) the efficiency of the algorithm, and (b) the benefits of using parameterized pointer information over using non-parameterized pointer information in program analyses. The studies show that using parameterized pointer information may significantly improve the precision and the efficiency of many program analyses