4,835 research outputs found
Engaging Students Engaging Industry Engaging Enterprise
A reflective piece on how a small team of students and academics gained more awareness of their own sense of enterprise and creativity. The case study examines the phases and crisis points of the whole event process and identifies some of the key learning outcomes for all involved
Resting-State Functional Connectivity in Late-Life Depression: Higher Global Connectivity and More Long Distance Connections
Functional magnetic resonance imaging recordings in the resting-state (RS)
from the human brain are characterized by spontaneous low-frequency
fluctuations in the blood oxygenation level dependent signal that reveal
functional connectivity (FC) via their spatial synchronicity. This RS study
applied network analysis to compare FC between late-life depression (LLD)
patients and control subjects. Raw cross-correlation matrices (CM) for LLD were
characterized by higher FC. We analyzed the small-world (SW) and modular
organization of these networks consisting of 110 nodes each as well as the
connectivity patterns of individual nodes of the basal ganglia. Topological
network measures showed no significant differences between groups. The
composition of top hubs was similar between LLD and control subjects, however
in the LLD group posterior medial-parietal regions were more highly connected
compared to controls. In LLD, a number of brain regions showed connections with
more distant neighbors leading to an increase of the average Euclidean distance
between connected regions compared to controls. In addition, right caudate
nucleus connectivity was more diffuse in LLD. In summary, LLD was associated
with overall increased FC strength and changes in the average distance between
connected nodes, but did not lead to global changes in SW or modular
organization
The segregated connectome of late-life depression: a combined cortical thickness and structural covariance analysis.
Late-life depression (LLD) has been associated with both generalized and focal neuroanatomical changes including gray matter atrophy and white matter abnormalities. However, previous literature has not been consistent and, in particular, its impact on the topology organization of brain networks remains to be established. In this multimodal study, we first examined cortical thickness, and applied graph theory to investigate structural covariance networks in LLD. Thirty-three subjects with LLD and 25 controls underwent T1-weighted, fluid-attenuated inversion recovery and clinical assessments. Freesurfer was used to perform vertex-wise comparisons of cortical thickness, whereas the Graph Analysis Toolbox (GAT) was implemented to construct and analyze the structural covariance networks. LLD showed a trend of lower thickness in the left insular region (p < 0.001 uncorrected). In addition, the structural network of LLD was characterized by greater segregation, particularly showing higher transitivity (i.e., measure of clustering) and modularity (i.e., tendency for a network to be organized into subnetworks). It was also less robust against random failure and targeted attacks. Despite relative cortical preservation, the topology of the LLD network showed significant changes particularly in segregation. These findings demonstrate the potential for graph theoretical approaches to complement conventional structural imaging analyses and provide novel insights into the heterogeneous etiology and pathogenesis of LLD.This work was supported by the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia and the Biomedical Research Centre awarded to Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the University of Cambridge, and the NIHR Biomedical Research Unit in Dementia and the Biomedical Research Centre awarded to Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust and the Newcastle University. Elijah Mak was in receipt of a Gates Cambridge, PhD studentship.This is the author accepted manuscript. It first appeared from Elsevier at http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neurobiolaging.2016.08.013
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Recapitulation of polymicrobial communities associated with cystic fibrosis airway infections: a perspective
The airways of persons with cystic fibrosis are prone to infection by a diverse and dynamic polymicrobial consortium. Currently, no models exist that permit recapitulation of this consortium within the laboratory. Such microbial ecosystems likely have a network of interspecies interactions, serving to modulate metabolic pathways and impact upon disease severity. The contribution of less abundant/fastidious microbial species on this cross-talk has often been neglected due to lack of experimental tractability. Here, we critically assess the existing models for studying polymicrobial infections. Particular attention is paid to 3Rs-compliant in vitro and in silico infection models, offering significant advantages over mammalian infection models. We outline why these models will likely become the ‘go to’ approaches when recapitulating polymicrobial cystic fibrosis infection
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Cardiac 123I-MIBG planar heart to mediastinum ratios depend on patient size; phantom studies suggest SPECT-CT could improve quantification.
INTRODUCTION: Planar 123I-MIBG (meta-iodobenzylguanidine) cardiac imaging is listed as an indicative biomarker in the 2017 international consensus criteria for the diagnosis of dementia with Lewy bodies. There has been very little research into the relationship between apparent cardiac uptake and patient size, or in the possible advantage of attenuation and scatter corrected SPECT-CT compared to planar imaging. We aimed to evaluate this in both a chest phantom and in older adults with normal cognition. MATERIALS AND METHODS: An anthropomorphic chest phantom was filled with 123I solution using activities typical of healthy subjects. The phantom was scanned on a Siemens Intevo gamma camera with MELP collimators using both planar and SPECT-CT techniques. Further scans were acquired with a PMMA chest plate added, then water filled plastic breasts. The SPECT-CT images were reconstructed using a resolution recovery OSEM method with and without attenuation and scatter correction (ACSC) applied. Twenty-nine adults over 60 years of age (mean 75.2 ± 8.3 years) underwent planar cardiac MIBG imaging, followed by SPECT-CT. SPECT images were reconstructed as above. Heart-to-mediastinum ratios (HMRs) were calculated for planar and SPECT images. RESULTS: Phantom planar HMR decreased by 20% with the PMMA chest plate added; 39% with plate and breasts. ACSC SPECT cardiac counts showed less dependence on phantom size than SPECT without ACSC (3% versus 37%). The body mass indices (BMI) of the older adults ranged from 22 to 38. There was a significant linear relationship between planar HMR and BMI (R2 = 0.44, p<0.01), but not for ACSC SPECT. However, there was no significant difference between the slopes for planar and ACSC SPECT (p = 0.11). CONCLUSION: Planar cardiac 123I-MIBG HMR results are correlated with BMI. Phantom results suggest that ACSC SPECT can correct for patient size. A large patient population or clinical database would be required to demonstrate a clinical effect
RETROCAM: A Versatile Optical Imager for Synoptic Studies
We present RETROCAM, an auxiliary CCD camera that can be rapidly inserted
into the optical beam of the MDM 2.4m telescope. The speed and ease of
reconfiguring the telescope to use the imager and a straightforward user
interface permit the camera to be used during the course of other observing
programs. This in turn encourages RETROCAM's use for a variety of monitoring
projects.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures, Accepted by A
Elm Farm Organic Research Centre Bulletin 83 April 2006
Regular bulleting with technical updates from Organic Advisory Service
Issue contains:
Testing for Tolerance - a pragmatic view GM Debate
Vaccination nation - to jab or not to jab Future shape of OCIS
Evolutionary wheat makes the grade? NIAB tracks health of organic cereal seed
Stopping erosion of soil quality - the organic way
Care needed to halt butterfly collapse
Aspects of poultry behaviour: How free range is free range?
On choosing an organic wheat A local education challenge
New Wakelyns Science Building Organic vegetable market growt
Characteristics of nanocrystalline thin films of cadmium sulphide deposited at the water-oil interface
The Radio Light Curve of the Gamma-Ray Nova in V407 Cyg: Thermal Emission from the Ionized Symbiotic Envelope, Devoured from Within by the Nova Blast
We present multi-frequency radio observations of the 2010 nova event in the
symbiotic binary V407 Cygni, obtained with the Karl G. Jansky Very Large Array
and spanning 1-45 GHz and 17-770 days following discovery. This nova---the
first ever detected in gamma rays---shows a radio light curve dominated by the
wind of the Mira giant companion, rather than the nova ejecta themselves. The
radio luminosity grew as the wind became increasingly ionized by the nova
outburst, and faded as the wind was violently heated from within by the nova
shock. This study marks the first time that this physical mechanism has been
shown to dominate the radio light curve of an astrophysical transient. We do
not observe a thermal signature from the nova ejecta or synchrotron emission
from the shock, due to the fact that these components were hidden behind the
absorbing screen of the Mira wind.
We estimate a mass loss rate for the Mira wind of Mdot_w ~ 10^-6 M_sun/yr. We
also present the only radio detection of V407 Cyg before the 2010 nova, gleaned
from unpublished 1993 archival VLA data, which shows that the radio luminosity
of the Mira wind varies by a factor of >~20 even in quiescence. Although V407
Cyg likely hosts a massive accreting white dwarf, making it a candidate
progenitor system for a Type Ia supernova, the dense and radially continuous
circumbinary material surrounding V407 Cyg is inconsistent with observational
constraints on the environments of most Type Ia supernovae.Comment: Resubmitted to ApJ after incorporating referee's comment
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