Alterations in functional connectivity for language in prematurely born adolescents

Recent data suggest recovery of language systems but persistent structural abnormalities in the prematurely born. We tested the hypothesis that subjects who were born prematurely develop alternative networks for processing language. Subjects who were born prematurely (n = 22; 600–1250 g birth weight), without neonatal brain injury on neonatal cranial ultrasound, and 26 term control subjects were examined with a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) semantic association task, the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children-III (WISC-III) and the Clinical Evaluation of Language Fundamentals (CELF). In-magnet task accuracy and response times were calculated, and fMRI data were evaluated for the effect of group on blood oxygen level dependent (BOLD) activation, the correlation between task accuracy and activation and the functional connectivity between regions activating to task. Although there were differences in verbal IQ and CELF scores between the preterm (PT) and term control groups, there were no significant differences for either accuracy or response time for the in-magnet task. Both groups activated classic semantic processing areas including the left superior and middle temporal gyri and inferior frontal gyrus, and there was no significant difference in activation patterns between groups. Clear differences between the groups were observed in the correlation between task accuracy and activation to task at P < 0.01, corrected for multiple comparisons. Left inferior frontal gyrus correlated with accuracy only for term controls and left sensory motor areas correlated with accuracy only for PT subjects. Left middle temporal gyri correlated with task accuracy for both groups. Connectivity analyses at P < 0.001 revealed the importance of a circuit between left middle temporal gyri and inferior frontal gyrus for both groups. In addition, the PT subjects evidenced greater connectivity between traditional language areas and sensory motor areas but significantly fewer correlated areas within the frontal lobes when compared to term controls. We conclude that at 12 years of age, children born prematurely and children born at term had no difference in performance on a simple lexical semantic processing task and activated similar areas. Connectivity analyses, however, suggested that PT subjects rely upon different neural pathways for lexical semantic processing when compared to term controls. Plasticity in network connections may provide the substrate for improving language skills in the prematurely born

Functional Analysis of a Novel Potassium Channel (KCNA1) Mutation in Hereditary Mokymia

Myokymia is characterized by spontaneous, involuntary muscle fiber group contraction visible as vermiform movement of the overlying skin. Myokymia with episodic ataxia is a rare, autosomal dominant trait caused by mutations in KCNA1, encoding a voltage-gated potassium channel. In the present study, we report a family with four members affected with myokymia. Additional clinical features included motor delay initially diagnosed as cerebral palsy, worsening with febrile illness, persistent extensor plantar reflex, and absence of epilepsy or episodic ataxia. Mutation analysis revealed a novel c.676C&gt;A substitution in the potassium channel gene KCNA1, resulting in a T226K nonconservative missense mutation in the Kv1.1 subunit in all affected individuals. Electrophysiological studies of the mutant channel expressed in Xenopus oocytes indicated a loss of function. Co-expression of WT and mutant cRNAs significantly reduced whole-oocyte current compared to expression of WT Kv1.1 alone

RoboTAP: Target priorities for robotic microlensing observations

Context. The ability to automatically select scientifically-important transient events from an alert stream of many such events, and to conduct follow-up observations in response, will become increasingly important in astronomy. With wide-angle time domain surveys pushing to fainter limiting magnitudes, the capability to follow-up on transient alerts far exceeds our follow-up telescope resources, and effective target prioritization becomes essential. The RoboNet-II microlensing program is a pathfinder project, which has developed an automated target selection process (RoboTAP) for gravitational microlensing events, which are observed in real time using the Las Cumbres Observatory telescope network. Aims. Follow-up telescopes typically have a much smaller field of view compared to surveys, therefore the most promising microlensing events must be automatically selected at any given time from an annual sample exceeding 2000 events. The main challenge is to select between events with a high planet detection sensitivity, with the aim of detecting many planets and characterizing planetary anomalies. Methods. Our target selection algorithm is a hybrid system based on estimates of the planet detection zones around a microlens. It follows automatic anomaly alerts and respects the expected survey coverage of specific events. Results. We introduce the RoboTAP algorithm, whose purpose is to select and prioritize microlensing events with high sensitivity to planetary companions. In this work, we determine the planet sensitivity of the RoboNet follow-up program and provide a working example of how a broker can be designed for a real-life transient science program conducting follow-up observations in response to alerts; we explore the issues that will confront similar programs being developed for the Large Synoptic Survey Telescope (LSST) and other time domain surveys

A review of the current treatment methods for posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus of infants

Posthaemorrhagic hydrocephalus (PHH) is a major problem for premature infants, generally requiring lifelong care. It results from small blood clots inducing scarring within CSF channels impeding CSF circulation. Transforming growth factor – beta is released into CSF and cytokines stimulate deposition of extracellular matrix proteins which potentially obstruct CSF pathways. Prolonged raised pressures and free radical damage incur poor neurodevelopmental outcomes. The most common treatment involves permanent ventricular shunting with all its risks and consequences

Differential Adaptation of Human Gut Microbiota to Bariatric Surgery–Induced Weight Loss: Links With Metabolic and Low-Grade Inflammation Markers

International audienceOBJECTIVE Obesity alters gut microbiota ecology and associates with low-grade inflammation in humans. Roux-en-Y gastric bypass (RYGB) surgery is one of the most efficient procedures for the treatment of morbid obesity resulting in drastic weight loss and improvement of metabolic and inflammatory status. We analyzed the impact of RYGB on the modifications of gut microbiota and examined links with adaptations associated with this procedure. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS Gut microbiota was profiled from fecal samples by real-time quantitative PCR in 13 lean control subjects and in 30 obese individuals (with seven type 2 diabetics) explored before (M0), 3 months (M3), and 6 months (M6) after RYGB. RESULTS Four major findings are highlighted: 1) Bacteroides/Prevotella group was lower in obese subjects than in control subjects at MO and increased at M3. It was negatively correlated with corpulence, but the correlation depended highly on caloric intake; 2) Escherichia coli species increased at M3 and inversely correlated with fat mass and leptin levels independently of changes in food intake; 3) lactic acid bacteria including Lacto-bacillus/Leuconostoc/Pediococcus group and Bifidobacterium genus decreased at M3; and 4) Faecalibacterium prausnitzii species was lower in subjects with diabetes and associated negatively with inflammatory markers at MO and throughout the follow-up after surgery independently of changes in food intake. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that components of the dominant gut microbiota rapidly adapt in a starvation-like situation induced by RYGB while the F. prausnitzii species is directly linked to the reduction in low-grade inflammation state in obesity and diabetes independently of calorie intake. Diabetes 59:3049-3057, 201

Maternal distress and perceptions of infant development following extracorporeal membrane oxygenation and conventional ventilation for persistent pulmonary hypertension

Neurodevelopmental outcome and concurrent maternal distress were examined for infants who suffered persistent pulmonary hypertension at birth and were treated with either extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) ( n = 19) or conventional ventilation (CV) ( n = 15). Mothers were asked to complete inventories assessing their infant's (mean age 8.74 months) developmental growth as well as their own psychological health. Relevant sociodemographic and treatment parameters were also entered into the analysis. The results indicated that ECMO and CV infants did not differ on developmental indices and impairment rates were 15–23% respectively, similar to previous reports, in addition, ECMO and CV mothers did not differ in their reports of psychological distress. Correlational analyses revealed that length of treatment for ECMO but not CV infants significantly predicted developmental delay and maternal distress. For CV mothers, maternal distress was associated with the perception of delayed language. The results are discussed in terms of the limited morbidity associated with ECMO and CV interventions and the possible role of a ‘vulnerable child syndrome’ in understanding the maternal-infant relationship following ECMO therapy.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73367/1/j.1365-2214.1995.tb00410.x.pd

TOI-1235 b: A Keystone Super-Earth For Testing Radius Valley Emergence Models Around Early M Dwarfs

Small planets on close-in orbits tend to exhibit envelope mass fractions of either effectively zero or up to a few percent depending on their size and orbital period. Models of thermally driven atmospheric mass loss and of terrestrial planet formation in a gas-poor environment make distinct predictions regarding the location of this rocky/nonrocky transition in period–radius space. Here we present the confirmation of TOI-1235 b (P = 3.44 days, ${r}_{{\rm{p}}}={1.738}_{-0.076}^{+0.087}$ ${R}_{\oplus }$), a planet whose size and period are intermediate between the competing model predictions, thus making the system an important test case for emergence models of the rocky/nonrocky transition around early M dwarfs (R s = 0.630 ± 0.015 ${R}_{\odot }$, M s = 0.640 ± 0.016 ${M}_{\odot }$). We confirm the TESS planet discovery using reconnaissance spectroscopy, ground-based photometry, high-resolution imaging, and a set of 38 precise radial velocities (RVs) from HARPS-N and HIRES. We measure a planet mass of ${6.91}_{-0.85}^{+0.75}$ ${M}_{\oplus }$, which implies an iron core mass fraction of ${20}_{-12}^{+15}$% in the absence of a gaseous envelope. The bulk composition of TOI-1235 b is therefore consistent with being Earth-like, and we constrain an H/He envelope mass fraction to be \u3c0.5% at 90% confidence. Our results are consistent with model predictions from thermally driven atmospheric mass loss but not with gas-poor formation, suggesting that the former class of processes remains efficient at sculpting close-in planets around early M dwarfs. Our RV analysis also reveals a strong periodicity close to the first harmonic of the photometrically determined stellar rotation period that we treat as stellar activity, despite other lines of evidence favoring a planetary origin ($P={21.8}_{-0.8}^{+0.9}$ days, ${m}_{{\rm{p}}}\sin i={13.0}_{-5.3}^{+3.8}$ ${M}_{\oplus }$) that cannot be firmly ruled out by our data

OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb: The First Spitzer Bulge Planet Lies Near the Planet/Brown-dwarf Boundary

We report the discovery of OGLE-2016-BLG-1190Lb, which is likely to be the first Spitzer microlensing planet in the Galactic bulge/bar, an assignation that can be confirmed by two epochs of high-resolution imaging of the combined source–lens baseline object. The planet's mass, M p = 13.4 ± 0.9 M J , places it right at the deuterium-burning limit, i.e., the conventional boundary between "planets" and "brown dwarfs." Its existence raises the question of whether such objects are really "planets" (formed within the disks of their hosts) or "failed stars" (low-mass objects formed by gas fragmentation). This question may ultimately be addressed by comparing disk and bulge/bar planets, which is a goal of the Spitzer microlens program. The host is a G dwarf, M host = 0.89 ± 0.07 M ⊙, and the planet has a semimajor axis a ~ 2.0 au. We use Kepler K2 Campaign 9 microlensing data to break the lens-mass degeneracy that generically impacts parallax solutions from Earth–Spitzer observations alone, which is the first successful application of this approach. The microlensing data, derived primarily from near-continuous, ultradense survey observations from OGLE, MOA, and three KMTNet telescopes, contain more orbital information than for any previous microlensing planet, but not quite enough to accurately specify the full orbit. However, these data do permit the first rigorous test of microlensing orbital-motion measurements, which are typically derived from data taken over <1% of an orbital period