Engaging and disengaging recurrent inhibition coincides with sensing and unsensing of a sensory stimulus

AbstractEven simple sensory stimuli evoke neural responses that are dynamic and complex. Are the temporally patterned neural activities important for controlling the behavioral output? Here, we investigated this issue. Our results reveal that in the insect antennal lobe, due to circuit interactions, distinct neural ensembles are activated during and immediately following the termination of every odorant. Such non-overlapping response patterns are not observed even when the stimulus intensity or identities were changed. In addition, we find that ON and OFF ensemble neural activities differ in their ability to recruit recurrent inhibition, entrain field-potential oscillations and more importantly in their relevance to behaviour (initiate versus reset conditioned responses). Notably, we find that a strikingly similar strategy is also used for encoding sound onsets and offsets in the marmoset auditory cortex. In sum, our results suggest a general approach where recurrent inhibition is associated with stimulus ‘recognition’ and ‘derecognition’.</jats:p

Furor over furs.

Furor Over Furs was designed to provide a true account of the fur industry by removing bias and emotion that can often cloud fact. To obtain this information, literature reviews, surveys and interviews were all implemented. We examined all sides of the fur industry, and then reported the information so that a fair opinion could be drawn from our research. Problems arose from the lack of willing communication from members of the fur industry. We conclude that animal rights groups have overstated their bounds, largely unopposed by an industry which, in general, treats its animals humanely

Genomic data mining

In this project, we used two data mining tools, CBA and WEKA, to search for genetic polymorphisms that affect two human diseases, autosomal recessive spinal muscular atrophy (SMA) and bilateral optic neuropathy (LHON). We modified WEKA to be able to mine genetic data. Our results provided a number of association rules, which identified important genetic variants and phenotypic factors affecting the disease state and severity

Radiographic alignment outcomes after the single-position prone transpsoas approach: a multi-institutional retrospective review of 363 cases

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this paper was to evaluate the changes in radiographic spinopelvic parameters in a large cohort of patients undergoing the prone transpsoas approach to the lumbar spine. METHODS: A multicenter retrospective observational cohort study was performed for all patients who underwent lateral lumber interbody fusion via the single-position prone transpsoas (PTP) approach. Spinopelvic parameters from preoperative and first upright postoperative radiographs were collected, including lumbar lordosis (LL), pelvic incidence (PI), and pelvic tilt (PT). Functional indices (visual analog scale score), and patient-reported outcomes (Oswestry Disability Index) were also recorded from pre- and postoperative appointments. RESULTS: Of the 363 patients who successfully underwent the procedure, LL after fusion was 50.0° compared with 45.6° preoperatively (p \u3c 0.001). The pelvic incidence-lumbar lordosis mismatch (PI-LL) was 10.5° preoperatively versus 2.9° postoperatively (p \u3c 0.001). PT did not significantly change (0.2° ± 10.7°, p \u3e 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: The PTP approach allows significant gain in lordotic augmentation, which was associated with good functional results at follow-up