Detection superiority of 7 T MRI protocol in patients with epilepsy and suspected focal cortical dysplasia

In 11 adult patients with suspicion of Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) on 1.5 T (n = 1) or 3 T (n = 10) magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), 7 T MRI was performed. Visibility, extent, morphological features and delineation were independently rated and subsequently discussed by three observers. Additionally, head-to-head comparisons with corresponding 3 T images were made in the eight patients with a previous 3 T MRI and sustained suspicion of FCD. Comparison with histopathology was done in the five patients that underwent surgery. All lesions, seen at 1.5 and 3 T, were also recognized on 7 T. At 7 T FLAIR highlighted the FCD-like lesions best, whereas T2 and T2* were deemed better suited to review structure and extent of the lesion. Image quality with the used 7 T MRI setup was higher than the quality with the used 3 T MRI setup. In 2 out of 11 patients diagnosis changed, in one after re-evaluation of the images, and in the other based on histopathology. With the used 7 T MRI setup, FCD-like lesions can be detected with more confidence and detail as compared to lower field strength. However, concordance between radiologic diagnosis and final diagnosis seems to be lower than expected

Supporting Direct Breastfeeding in a Tracheostomy-Dependent Neonate: A Case Report

Objectives: There are numerous well-described benefits to breastfeeding to both infant and mother. Even in healthy children with an uncomplicated perinatal course, there may be significant struggles maintaining a breastfeeding relationship. Infants with a complicated clinical course have been shown to benefit even more from the provision of breastmilk, however they are seldom encouraged to feed directly at the breast. There are no reports of successful direct breastfeeding in an infant with a tracheostomy. Methods and Results: We present the case of a breastfeeding dyad including a trach-dependent infant with congenital idiopathic bilateral vocal fold immobility who successfully initiated and maintained an inclusive breastfeeding relationship. Conclusion: This case illustrates that successful direct breastfeeding can be achieved in an infant with a tracheostomy. If a patient is felt to be capable of oral feeding via bottle, there is no reason that there should not be a trial of direct feeding at the breast, for the benefit of both members of the breastfeeding dyad

Cross-linguistic influence in bilingual grammars: Evidence from gender assigment in unilingual Dutch and mixed speech

This study reports on grammatical gender assignment in elicited production data from heritage speakers of Turkish, Papiamento, and Spanish in the Netherlands. We selectively target the nominal domain, consisting of a determiner, a noun, and an adjective. Previous studies have demonstrated gender to be vulnerable in bilingual acquisition (e.g., Gathercole & Thomas 2005; Mitrofanova et al. 2018). The presence of grammatical gender in one language may affect gender assignment in the other language, suggesting cross-linguistic influence (Egger, Hulk & Tsimpli 2018; Eichler, Jansen & Müller 2013; Kaltsa, Tsimpli & Argyri 2019). In this chapter, we investigate the role of cross-linguistic influence from the heritage language onto the societal language by comparing three HLs that differ in terms of the properties of the nominal domain, including gender. Determiner phrase (DP) constructions consisting of a determiner, noun, and adjective were elicited by means of a director-matcher task (Gullberg, Indefrey &Muysken 2009), which was performed both in a unilingual Dutch mode, and in a code-switching mode. The results show that all groups tend to overgeneralize the common gender in the Dutch unilingual mode. Strikingly, heritage speakers of Spanish performed more target-like than the Papiamento and Turkish speakers, which is probably related to the fact that Turkish and Papiamento do not have a grammatical gender system, whereas Spanish distinguishes masculine and feminine gender in the DP. As for code-switching from Dutch to the HL, we observe a similar preference for the common gender, such that most speakers tend to assign common gender to nouns that are inserted from their respective HLs into Dutch DPs. Some speakers also apply a gender assignment strategy based on the translation equivalent of the noun in Dutch, or produce a postnominal adjective construction with an uninflected adjective. An analysis of extra-linguistic variables demonstrated that in both the unilingual and the code-switching mode, gender assignment strategies seem to be determined to some extent by the degree of dominance of the societal language

Partial Volume Correction in Arterial Spin Labeling Perfusion MRI: A method to disentangle anatomy from physiology or an analysis step too far?

The mismatch in the spatial resolution of Arterial Spin Labeling (ASL) MRI perfusion images and the anatomy of functionally distinct tissues in the brain leads to a partial volume effect (PVE), which in turn confounds the estimation of perfusion to a specific tissue of interest such as grey or white matter. This confound occurs because the image voxels contain a mixture of tissues with disparate perfusion properties, leading to estimated perfusion values that reflect primarily the volume proportions of tissues in the voxel rather than the perfusion of any particular tissue of interest within that volume. It is already recognized that PVE influences studies of brain perfusion, and that its effect might be even more evident in studies where changes in perfusion are co-incident with alterations in brain structure, such as studies involving a comparison between an atrophic patient population vs control subjects, or studies comparing subjects over a wide range of ages. However, the application of PVE correction (PVEc) is currently limited and the employed methodologies remain inconsistent. In this article, we outline the influence of PVE in ASL measurements of perfusion, explain the main principles of PVEc, and provide a critique of the current state of the art for the use of such methods. Furthermore, we examine the current use of PVEc in perfusion studies and whether there is evidence to support its wider adoption. We conclude that there is sound theoretical motivation for the use of PVEc alongside conventional, 'uncorrected', images, and encourage such combined reporting. Methods for PVEc are now available within standard neuroimaging toolboxes, which makes our recommendation straightforward to implement. However, there is still more work to be done to establish the value of PVEc as well as the efficacy and robustness of existing PVEc methods

The association between threat and politics simultaneously depends on the type of threat, the political domain, and the country

Theories link threat with right-wing political beliefs. We use the World Values Survey (60,378 participants) to explore how six types of threat (e.g., economic, violence, and surveillance) are associated with multiple political beliefs (e.g., cultural, economic, and ideological identification) in 56 countries/territories. Multilevel models with individuals nested in countries revealed that the threat-political belief association depends on the type of threat, the type of political beliefs, and the country. Economic-related threats tended to be associated with more left-wing economic political beliefs and violence-related threats tended to be associated with more cultural right-wing beliefs, but there were exceptions to this pattern. Additional analyses revealed that the associations between threat and political beliefs were different across countries. However, our analyses identified few country characteristics that could account for these cross-country differences. Our findings revealed that political beliefs and perceptions of threat are linked, but that the relationship is not simple. Keywords: Ideology, Belief Systems, Threat, Cultur

Inhibition of oncostatin M in osteoarthritic synovial fluid enhances GAG production in osteoarthritic cartilage repair

Mediators in the synovial fluid are thought to play a major role in osteoarthritic cartilage turnover. The purpose of the current study was to investigate the role of oncostatin M (OSM) in osteoarthritis (OA) by evaluating the presence of the cytokine and its receptors in the OA joint and interfering with its activity in synovial fluid co-cultured with cartilage explants. OSM levels were increased in the synovial fluid of osteoarthritic patients compared to healthy donors. Immunohistochemistry confirmed the presence of both the leukaemia inhibitory factor (LIF) and OSM receptors for OSM throughout the whole depth of osteoarthritic cartilage and synovial tissue, whereas in healthy cartilage their presence seemed more restricted to the superficial zone. Blocking OSM activity, using an activity inhibiting antibody, in 25 % osteoarthritic synovial fluid added to OA cartilage explant cultures increased glycosaminoglycan (GAG) content from 18.6 mg/g to 24.3 mg/g (P < 0.03) and total production from 7.0 mg/g to 11.9 mg/g (P < 0.003). However, OSM exogenously added to cartilage explant cultures reflecting low and high concentrations in the synovial fluid (5 and 50 pg/mL) did not affect cartilage matrix turnover, suggesting that factors present in the synovial fluid act in concert with OSM to inhibit GAG production. The current study indicates the potential to enhance cartilage repair in osteoarthritis by modulating the joint environment by interfering with OSM activity

Mechanical stress inhibits early stages of endogenous cell migration: A pilot study in an ex vivo osteocho

Cell migration has a central role in osteochondral defect repair initiation and biomaterial-mediated regeneration. New advancements to reestablish tissue function include biomaterials and factors promoting cell recruitment, differentiation and tissue integration, but little is known about responses to mechanical stimuli. In the present pilot study, we tested the influence of extrinsic forces in combination with biomaterials releasing chemoattractant signals on cell migration. We used an ex vivo mechanically stimulated osteochondral defect explant filled with fibrin/hyaluronan hydrogel, in presence or absence of platelet-derived growth factor-BB or stromal cell-derived factor 1, to assess endogenous cell recruitment into the wound site. Periodic mechanical stress at early time point negatively influenced cell infiltration compared to unloaded samples, and the implementation of chemokines to increase cell migration was not efficient to overcome this negative effect. The gene expression at 15 days of culture indicated a marked downregulation of matrix metalloproteinase (MMP)13 and MMP3, a decrease of β1 integrin and increased mRNA levels of actin in osteochondral samples exposed to complex load. This work using an ex vivo osteochondral mechanically stimulated advanced platform demonstrated that recurrent mechanical stress at early time points impeded cell migration into the hydrogel, providing a unique opportunity to improve our understanding on management of joint injury