MRI of the lung (3/3)-current applications and future perspectives

BACKGROUND: MRI of the lung is recommended in a number of clinical indications. Having a non-radiation alternative is particularly attractive in children and young subjects, or pregnant women. METHODS: Provided there is sufficient expertise, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be considered as the preferential modality in specific clinical conditions such as cystic fibrosis and acute pulmonary embolism, since additional functional information on respiratory mechanics and regional lung perfusion is provided. In other cases, such as tumours and pneumonia in children, lung MRI may be considered an alternative or adjunct to other modalities with at least similar diagnostic value. RESULTS: In interstitial lung disease, the clinical utility of MRI remains to be proven, but it could provide additional information that will be beneficial in research, or at some stage in clinical practice. Customised protocols for chest imaging combine fast breath-hold acquisitions from a "buffet" of sequences. Having introduced details of imaging protocols in previous articles, the aim of this manuscript is to discuss the advantages and limitations of lung MRI in current clinical practice. CONCLUSION: New developments and future perspectives such as motion-compensated imaging with self-navigated sequences or fast Fourier decomposition MRI for non-contrast enhanced ventilation- and perfusion-weighted imaging of the lung are discussed. Main Messages • MRI evolves as a third lung imaging modality, combining morphological and functional information. • It may be considered first choice in cystic fibrosis and pulmonary embolism of young and pregnant patients. • In other cases (tumours, pneumonia in children), it is an alternative or adjunct to X-ray and CT. • In interstitial lung disease, it serves for research, but the clinical value remains to be proven. • New users are advised to make themselves familiar with the particular advantages and limitations

LOVTRAP: an optogenetic system for photoinduced protein dissociation

Here we introduce LOVTRAP, an optogenetic approach for reversible, light-induced protein dissociation. LOVTRAP is based on protein A fragments that bind to the LOV domain only in the dark, with tunable kinetics and a >150-fold change in Kd. By reversibly sequestering proteins at mitochondria, we precisely modulated the proteins’ access to the cell edge, demonstrating a naturally occurring 3 mHz cell edge oscillation driven by interactions of Vav2, Rac1 and PI3K

Skipping of Chinese characters does not rely on word-based processing

© 2017 The Psychonomic Society, Inc. Previous eye-movement studies have indicated that people tend to skip extremely high-frequency words in sentence reading, such as “the” in English and “的/de” in Chinese. Two alternative hypotheses have been proposed to explain how this frequent skipping happens in Chinese reading: one assumes that skipping happens when the preview has been fully identified at the word level (word-based skipping); the other assumes that skipping happens whenever the preview character is easy to identify regardless of whether lexical processing has been completed or not (character-based skipping). Using the gaze-contingent display change paradigm, we examined the two hypotheses by substituting the preview of the third character of a four-character Chinese word with the high-frequency Chinese character “的/de”, which should disrupt the ongoing word-level processing. The character-based skipping hypothesis predicts that this manipulation will enhance the skipping probability of the target character (i.e., the third character of the target word), because the character “的/de” has much higher character frequency than the original character. The word-based skipping hypothesis instead predicts a reduction of the skipping probability of the target character because the presence of the character “的/de” is lexically infelicitous at word level. The results supported the character-based skipping hypothesis, indicating that in Chinese reading the decision of skipping a character can be made before integrating it into a word

A perspective on SIDS pathogenesis. The hypotheses: plausibility and evidence

Several theories of the underlying mechanisms of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) have been proposed. These theories have born relatively narrow beach-head research programs attracting generous research funding sustained for many years at expense to the public purse. This perspective endeavors to critically examine the evidence and bases of these theories and determine their plausibility; and questions whether or not a safe and reasoned hypothesis lies at their foundation. The Opinion sets specific criteria by asking the following questions: 1. Does the hypothesis take into account the key pathological findings in SIDS? 2. Is the hypothesis congruent with the key epidemiological risk factors? 3. Does it link 1 and 2? Falling short of any one of these answers, by inference, would imply insufficient grounds for a sustainable hypothesis. Some of the hypotheses overlap, for instance, notional respiratory failure may encompass apnea, prone sleep position, and asphyxia which may be seen to be linked to co-sleeping. For the purposes of this paper, each element will be assessed on the above criteria

Multi-messenger observations of a binary neutron star merger

On 2017 August 17 a binary neutron star coalescence candidate (later designated GW170817) with merger time 12:41:04 UTC was observed through gravitational waves by the Advanced LIGO and Advanced Virgo detectors. The Fermi Gamma-ray Burst Monitor independently detected a gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) with a time delay of ~1.7 s with respect to the merger time. From the gravitational-wave signal, the source was initially localized to a sky region of 31 deg2 at a luminosity distance of 40+8-8 Mpc and with component masses consistent with neutron stars. The component masses were later measured to be in the range 0.86 to 2.26 Mo. An extensive observing campaign was launched across the electromagnetic spectrum leading to the discovery of a bright optical transient (SSS17a, now with the IAU identification of AT 2017gfo) in NGC 4993 (at ~40 Mpc) less than 11 hours after the merger by the One- Meter, Two Hemisphere (1M2H) team using the 1 m Swope Telescope. The optical transient was independently detected by multiple teams within an hour. Subsequent observations targeted the object and its environment. Early ultraviolet observations revealed a blue transient that faded within 48 hours. Optical and infrared observations showed a redward evolution over ~10 days. Following early non-detections, X-ray and radio emission were discovered at the transient’s position ~9 and ~16 days, respectively, after the merger. Both the X-ray and radio emission likely arise from a physical process that is distinct from the one that generates the UV/optical/near-infrared emission. No ultra-high-energy gamma-rays and no neutrino candidates consistent with the source were found in follow-up searches. These observations support the hypothesis that GW170817 was produced by the merger of two neutron stars in NGC4993 followed by a short gamma-ray burst (GRB 170817A) and a kilonova/macronova powered by the radioactive decay of r-process nuclei synthesized in the ejecta

Quantum Spacetime Phenomenology

I review the current status of phenomenological programs inspired by quantum-spacetime research. I stress in particular the significance of results establishing that certain data analyses provide sensitivity to effects introduced genuinely at the Planck scale. And my main focus is on phenomenological programs that managed to affect the directions taken by studies of quantum-spacetime theories.Comment: 125 pages, LaTex. This V2 is updated and more detailed than the V1, particularly for quantum-spacetime phenomenology. The main text of this V2 is about 25% more than the main text of the V1. Reference list roughly double

Bayesian group belief

If a group is modelled as a single Bayesian agent, what should its beliefs be? I propose an axiomatic model that connects group beliefs to beliefs of group members, who are themselves modelled as Bayesian agents and, crucially, may have different information. They may also have different prior beliefs and different domains (σ-algebras) on which they hold beliefs, to account for differences in awareness and conceptualisation. As is shown, group beliefs can incorporate all information spread across individuals without individuals having to communicate their information (which may be complex, hard-to-describe, or not describable in principle due to language restrictions); individuals should instead communicate their prior and posterior beliefs. The group beliefs derived here take a simple multiplicative form if people’s information is independent (and a more complex form if information overlaps arbitrarily), which contrast with familiar linear or geometric opinion pooling and the (Pareto) requirement of respecting unanimous beliefs

Nociceptin/orphanin FQ inhibits electrically induced contractions of the human bronchus via NOP receptor activation

Nociceptin/orphanin FQ (N/OFQ) has been reported to inhibit neurogenic contractions in various tissues, including guinea pig airways. In the present study, we investigated the ability of N/OFQ to affect cholinergic contractions of human bronchi elicited by electrical field stimulation (EFS). Tissues were obtained from 23 patients undergoing surgery for lung cancer. EFS (20 Hz, 320 mA, 1.5 ms, 10 s) was applied five times every 20 min. Contractions induced by EFS were abolished by either TTX (1 M) or atropine (1 M) and concentration-dependently (10 nM-1 M) inhibited by N/OFQ (Emax, 11.5\ub11.8% inhibition). The inhibitory effects of N/OFQ were mimicked by the N/OFQ receptor (NOP) ligand [Arg14, Lys15]N/OFQ which displayed however, higher significant maximal effects (17.7\ub12.9% inhibition, P < 0.05). The actions of N/OFQ and [Arg14, Lys15]N/OFQ were not affected by naloxone (1 M) while prevented by the selective NOP receptor antagonist UFP-101 (10 M). Moreover, the inhibitory effects of NOP agonists were no longer evident in tissues treated with tertiapin (10 M), an inhibitor of inward-rectifier potassium channels. In conclusion, the present data demonstrate that N/OFQ inhibited acetylcholine (ACh) release in the human bronchi via NOP receptor activation. This effect may involve stimulation of potassium currents