Naked Mole-Rat Social Phenotypes Vary in Investigative and Aggressive Behavior in a Laboratory Partner Preference Paradigm

Here we employed the partner preference test (PPT) to examine how naked mole-rat non-breeding individuals of different behavioral phenotypes make social decisions. Naked mole-rats from six colonies were classified into three behavioral phenotypes (soldiers, dispersers, and workers) using a battery of behavioral tests. They then participated in a 3 h long PPT, where they could freely interact with a tethered familiar or tethered unfamiliar conspecific. By comparing the three behavioral phenotypes, we tested the hypothesis that the PPT can be used to interrogate social decision-making in this species, revealing individual differences in behavior that are consistent with discrete social phenotypes. We also tested whether a shorter, 10 min version of the paradigm is sufficient to capture group differences in behavior. Overall, soldiers had higher aggression scores toward unfamiliar conspecifics than both workers and dispersers at the 10 min and 3 h comparison times. At the 10 min comparison time, workers showed a stronger preference for the familiar animal’s chamber, as well as for investigating the familiar conspecific, compared to both dispersers and soldiers. At the 3 h time point, no phenotype differences were seen with chamber or investigation preference scores. Overall, all phenotypes spent more time in chambers with another animal vs. being alone. Use of the PPT in a comparative context has demonstrated that the test identifies species and group differences in affiliative and aggressive behavior toward familiar and unfamiliar animals, revealing individual differences in social decision-making and, importantly, capturing aspects of species-specific social organization seen in nature

Social control of brain morphology in a eusocial mammal

Social status impacts reproductive behavior in diverse vertebrate species, but little is known about how it affects brain morphology. We explore this in the naked mole-rat, a species with the most rigidly organized reproductive hierarchy among mammals. Naked mole-rats live in large, subterranean colonies where breeding is restricted to a single female and small number of males. All other members of the colony, known as subordinates, are reproductively suppressed. Subordinates can become breeders if removed from the colony and placed with an opposite sex partner, but in nature most individuals never attain reproductive status. We examined the brains of breeding and subordinate naked mole-rats of both sexes, including several regions linked to reproduction and shown to be sexually dimorphic in other mammals. Stereological analyses revealed that neural morphology depends on status, such that breeders, regardless of sex, had more cells than subordinates in the ventromedial nucleus of the hypothalamus and a larger volume of the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis, paraventricular nucleus, and medial amygdala. Several other brain regions examined were unaffected. Surprisingly, males and females did not differ on any measure. These findings provide evidence that a change in social status triggers considerable neural remodeling and indicate that status, rather than sex, has a predominant role in determining neural structure in this remarkably social mammal

Management of Fracture Risk in Patients with Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD): Building a UK Consensus Through Healthcare Professional and Patient Engagement

Introduction: Osteoporosis and bone fractures are common in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) and contribute significantly to morbidity and mortality. Current national guidance on COPD management recommends addressing bone health in patients, however, does not detail how. This consensus outlines key elements of a structured approach to managing bone health and fracture risk in patients with COPD.Methods: A systematic approach incorporating multifaceted methodologies included detailed patient and healthcare professional (HCP) surveys followed by a roundtable meeting to reach a consensus on what a pathway would look like.Results: The surveys revealed that fracture risk was not always assessed despite being recognised as an important aspect of COPD management by HCPs. The majority of the patients also stated they would be receptive to discussing treatment options if found to be at risk of osteoporotic fractures. Limited time and resource allocation were identified as barriers to addressing bone health during consultations. The consensus from the roundtable meeting was that a proactive systematic approach to assessing bone health should be adopted. This should involve using fracture risk assessment tools to identify individuals at risk, investigating secondary causes of osteoporosis if a diagnosis is made and reinforcing non-pharmacological and preventative measures such as smoking cessation, keeping active and pharmacological management of osteoporosis and medicines management of corticosteroid use. Practically, prioritising patients with important additional risk factors, such as previous fragility fractures, older age and long-term oral corticosteroid use for an assessment, was felt required.Conclusion: There is a need for integrating fracture risk assessment into the COPD pathway. Developing a systematic and holistic approach to addressing bone health is key to achieving this. In tandem, opportunities to disseminate the information and educational resources are also required

Comparison of quality control methods for automated diffusion tensor imaging analysis pipelines

© 2019 Haddad et al. The processing of brain diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) data for large cohort studies requires fully automatic pipelines to perform quality control (QC) and artifact/outlier removal procedures on the raw DTI data prior to calculation of diffusion parameters. In this study, three automatic DTI processing pipelines, each complying with the general ENIGMA framework, were designed by uniquely combining multiple image processing software tools. Different QC procedures based on the RESTORE algorithm, the DTIPrep protocol, and a combination of both methods were compared using simulated ground truth and artifact containing DTI datasets modeling eddy current induced distortions, various levels of motion artifacts, and thermal noise. Variability was also examined in 20 DTI datasets acquired in subjects with vascular cognitive impairment (VCI) from the multi-site Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI). The mean fractional anisotropy (FA), mean diffusivity (MD), axial diffusivity (AD), and radial diffusivity (RD) were calculated in global brain grey matter (GM) and white matter (WM) regions. For the simulated DTI datasets, the measure used to evaluate the performance of the pipelines was the normalized difference between the mean DTI metrics measured in GM and WM regions and the corresponding ground truth DTI value. The performance of the proposed pipelines was very similar, particularly in FA measurements. However, the pipeline based on the RESTORE algorithm was the most accurate when analyzing the artifact containing DTI datasets. The pipeline that combined the DTIPrep protocol and the RESTORE algorithm produced the lowest standard deviation in FA measurements in normal appearing WM across subjects. We concluded that this pipeline was the most robust and is preferred for automated analysis of multisite brain DTI data

Characterization of the severe phenotype of pyruvate kinase deficiency

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162766/2/ajh25926.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/162766/1/ajh25926_am.pd

Improved Segmentation of the Intracranial and Ventricular Volumes in Populations with Cerebrovascular Lesions and Atrophy Using 3D CNNs

Successful segmentation of the total intracranial vault (ICV) and ventricles is of critical importance when studying neurodegeneration through neuroimaging. We present iCVMapper and VentMapper, robust algorithms that use a convolutional neural network (CNN) to segment the ICV and ventricles from both single and multi-contrast MRI data. Our models were trained on a large dataset from two multi-site studies (N = 528 subjects for ICV, N = 501 for ventricular segmentation) consisting of older adults with varying degrees of cerebrovascular lesions and atrophy, which pose significant challenges for most segmentation approaches. The models were tested on 238 participants, including subjects with vascular cognitive impairment and high white matter hyperintensity burden. Two of the three test sets came from studies not used in the training dataset. We assessed our algorithms relative to four state-of-the-art ICV extraction methods (MONSTR, BET, Deep Extraction, FreeSurfer, DeepMedic), as well as two ventricular segmentation tools (FreeSurfer, DeepMedic). Our multi-contrast models outperformed other methods across many of the evaluation metrics, with average Dice coefficients of 0.98 and 0.96 for ICV and ventricular segmentation respectively. Both models were also the most time efficient, segmenting the structures in orders of magnitude faster than some of the other available methods. Our networks showed an increased accuracy with the use of a conditional random field (CRF) as a post-processing step. We further validated both segmentation models, highlighting their robustness to images with lower resolution and signal-to-noise ratio, compared to tested techniques. The pipeline and models are available at: https://icvmapp3r.readthedocs.io and https://ventmapp3r.readthedocs.io to enable further investigation of the roles of ICV and ventricles in relation to normal aging and neurodegeneration in large multi-site studies

Leadership As We Know It

Leadership as We Know it is a collection of insights into modern leadership compiled by graduate students in Winona State University’s Leadership Education program during the Spring 2019 semester in a course aptly titled, Change Leadership. Each chapter was penned by one of 20 unique class members who offer their vision of leadership based upon their eclectic personal backgrounds and professional experiences, whose fields include athletics, business, education, and more. These diverse narratives offer something for everyone; whether it be a veteran or blossoming leader eager to continue their growth and evolution. Leadership as We Know it provides accounts from seasoned professionals who oversee their own organizational departments as well as emerging leaders just beginning their careers. Throughout these unique stories, clear patterns will emerge for the reader in what it takes to inspire change and provide authentic leadership for followers.https://openriver.winona.edu/leadershipeducationbooks/1003/thumbnail.jp

An Abrupt Aging of Dissolved Organic Carbon in Large Arctic Rivers

Permafrost thaw in Arctic watersheds threatens to mobilize hitherto sequestered carbon. We examine the radiocarbon activity (F14C) of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) in the northern Mackenzie River basin. From 2003–2017, DOC‐F14C signatures (1.00 ± 0.04; n = 39) tracked atmospheric 14CO2, indicating export of “modern” carbon. This trend was interrupted in June 2018 by the widespread release of aged DOC (0.85 ± 0.16, n = 28) measured across three separate catchment areas. Increased nitrate concentrations in June 2018 lead us to attribute this pulse of 14C‐depleted DOC to mobilization of previously frozen soil organic matter. We propose export through lateral perennial thaw zones that occurred at the base of the active layer weakened by preceding warm summer and winter seasons. Although we are not yet able to ascertain the broader significance of this “anomalous” mobilization event, it highlights the potential for rapid and large‐scale release of aged carbon from permafrost

Ontario Neurodegenerative Disease Research Initiative (ONDRI): Structural MRI Methods and Outcome Measures

The Ontario Neurodegenerative Research Initiative (ONDRI) is a 3 years multi-site prospective cohort study that has acquired comprehensive multiple assessment platform data, including 3T structural MRI, from neurodegenerative patients with Alzheimer\u27s disease, mild cognitive impairment, Parkinson\u27s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, frontotemporal dementia, and cerebrovascular disease. This heterogeneous cross-section of patients with complex neurodegenerative and neurovascular pathologies pose significant challenges for standard neuroimaging tools. To effectively quantify regional measures of normal and pathological brain tissue volumes, the ONDRI neuroimaging platform implemented a semi-automated MRI processing pipeline that was able to address many of the challenges resulting from this heterogeneity. The purpose of this paper is to serve as a reference and conceptual overview of the comprehensive neuroimaging pipeline used to generate regional brain tissue volumes and neurovascular marker data that will be made publicly available online