Size of hippocampal pyramidal neurons in schizophrenia

Background Meta-analyses of hippocampal size have indicated thatthis structure is smaller in schizophrenia.This could reflect a reductioninthe size of constituent neurons or a reduced number of neurons. Aims To measure the size of hippocampalpyramidalneuronsinthe hippocampalpyramidalneurons inthe brains of peoplewith andwithout schizophrenia. Method Pyramidalneuron size in hippocampal subfieldswas estimated stereologically fromsections taken at 5mmintervals throughoutthewhole length of right and left hippocampi from andleft the brains of13 peoplewith schizophrenia and16 controls.Resultswere assessed using repeated-measures analysis of covariance looking for amain effectof diagnosis and gender, andinteractions of and interactions thesewith side. Results Wewere unable to detect significantdifferences related to diagnosis, gender or side for any hippocampal subfield for this series of cases. Conclusions For this series of brains, hippocampal cell size is unchangedin schizophrenia

Primary renal embryonal rhabdomyosarcoma in adults: a case report and review of the literature.

Adult renal rhabdomyosarcoma is a rare subtype of renal sarcoma. We present a case of a renal mass treated with radical nephrectomy that subsequently was shown to be renal rhabdomyosarcoma. We discuss the clinical presentation, imaging findings, and histology for this case and review the available literature

On the non-existence of an R-labeling

We present a family of Eulerian posets which does not have any R-labeling. The result uses a structure theorem for R-labelings of the butterfly poset.Comment: 6 pages, 1 figure. To appear in the journal Orde

Loss of Dendritic HCN1 Subunits Enhances Cortical Excitability and Epileptogenesis

Hyperpolarization-activated cation nonselective 1 (HCN1) plasticity in entorhinal cortical (EC) and hippocampal pyramidal cell dendrites is a salient feature of temporal lobe epilepsy. However, the significance remains undetermined. We demonstrate that adult HCN1 null mice are more susceptible to kainic acid-induced seizures. After termination of these with an anticonvulsant, the mice also developed spontaneous behavioral seizures at a significantly more rapid rate than their wild-type littermates. This greater seizure susceptibility was accompanied by increased spontaneous activity in HCN1(-/-) EC layer III neurons. Dendritic I-h in these neurons was ablated, too. Consequentially, HCN1(-/-) dendrites were more excitable, despite having significantly more hyperpolarized resting membrane potentials (RMPs). In addition, the integration of EPSPs was enhanced considerably such that, at normal RMP, a 50 Hz train of EPSPs produced action potentials in HCN1(-/-) neurons. As a result of this enhanced pyramidal cell excitability, spontaneous EPSC frequency onto HCN1(-/-) neurons was considerably greater than that onto wild types, causing an imbalance between normal excitatory and inhibitory synaptic activity. These results suggest that dendritic HCN channels are likely to play a critical role in regulating cortical pyramidal cell excitability. Furthermore, these findings suggest that the reduction in dendritic HCN1 subunit expression during epileptogenesis is likely to facilitate the disorder

Helicobacter pylori Outer Membrane Protein 18 ( Hp1125 ) Induces Dendritic Cell Maturation and Function

Background.  Dendritic cells (DCs) are potent antigen-presenting cells that initiate T-cell responses. A robust adaptive Th1 immune response is crucial to an adaptive (Th2) immune response necessary for vaccine-induced protective immunity against Helicobacter pylori. It has been shown that several outer membrane proteins (Omps) induce a robust antibody response. However, it is also known that the antibodies generated are not protective. Moreover there is great variation in the recognition of high molecular weight H. pylori proteins by sera from infected patients. In contrast to the high molecular weight proteins, serologic responses to small molecular weight proteins provide assessment of current infection with H. pylori and also of its eradication. Aim.  The goal of the study was to analyze the activation of the immune response by a specific low molecular weight Omp that is universally expressed by all H. pylori strains. Therefore, we studied interaction of H. pylori Omp18 with DCs. Methods.  Activation of murine bone marrow-derived DCs and production of cytokines by Omp18 was assessed by fluorescence-activated cell sorter (FACS) for costimulatory markers and ELISA, respectively. The ability of Omp18 stimulated DCs to induce lymphocyte proliferation was measured in a mixed leukocyte reaction. Results.  Omp18 induced higher expression of the B7 (CD80 and CD86) costimulatory molecule after 18 hours indicating processing and presentation of the antigen on the surface by bone marrow-derived DCs. The maturing DCs also secreted significant levels of IL-12, but was 4-fold less than that stimulated by whole bacteria. Omp18-primed DCs induced proliferation and release of IFNγ by syngeneic splenocytes. Conclusion.  We concluded that Omp18 is capable of activating DCs initiating a Th1 immune response.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73882/1/j.1523-5378.2005.00350.x.pd

Screening for celiac disease in the general population and in high-risk groups

BACKGROUND: Celiac disease (CD) occurs in approximately 1% of the Western population. It is a lifelong disorder that is associated with impaired quality of life (QOL) and an excessive risk of comorbidity and death. OBJECTIVES: To review the literature on screening for CD in relation to the current World Health Organization (WHO) criteria for mass screening. METHODS: We performed a PubMed search to identify indexed papers on CD screening with a publication date from 1900 until 1 June 2014. When we deemed an abstract relevant, we read the corresponding paper in detail. RESULTS: CD fulfills several WHO criteria for mass screening (high prevalence, available treatment and difficult clinical detection), but it has not yet been established that treatment of asymptomatic CD may reduce the excessive risk of severe complications, leading to higher QOL nor that it is cost-effective. CONCLUSIONS: Current evidence is not sufficient to support mass screening for CD, but active case-finding may be appropriate, as we recognize that most patients with CD will still be missed by this strategy. Although proof of benefit is still lacking, screening for CD may be appropriate in high-risk groups

Inner Space Preserving Generative Pose Machine

Image-based generative methods, such as generative adversarial networks (GANs) have already been able to generate realistic images with much context control, specially when they are conditioned. However, most successful frameworks share a common procedure which performs an image-to-image translation with pose of figures in the image untouched. When the objective is reposing a figure in an image while preserving the rest of the image, the state-of-the-art mainly assumes a single rigid body with simple background and limited pose shift, which can hardly be extended to the images under normal settings. In this paper, we introduce an image "inner space" preserving model that assigns an interpretable low-dimensional pose descriptor (LDPD) to an articulated figure in the image. Figure reposing is then generated by passing the LDPD and the original image through multi-stage augmented hourglass networks in a conditional GAN structure, called inner space preserving generative pose machine (ISP-GPM). We evaluated ISP-GPM on reposing human figures, which are highly articulated with versatile variations. Test of a state-of-the-art pose estimator on our reposed dataset gave an accuracy over 80% on PCK0.5 metric. The results also elucidated that our ISP-GPM is able to preserve the background with high accuracy while reasonably recovering the area blocked by the figure to be reposed.Comment: http://www.northeastern.edu/ostadabbas/2018/07/23/inner-space-preserving-generative-pose-machine

A serological diagnosis of coeliac disease is associated with osteoporosis in older Australian adults

Previously thought to be mainly a disorder of childhood and early adult life, coeliac disease (CeD) is increasingly diagnosed in older adults. This may be important given the association between CeD and osteoporosis. The primary aim of this study was to determine the seroprevalence of undiagnosed CeD (‘at-risk serology’) in an older Australian community and relate this to a diagnosis of osteoporosis and fractures during a follow-up period of 12 years. We included participants from the Hunter Community Study (2004–2007) aged 55–85, who had anti-tissue transglutaminase (tTG) titres, human leukocyte antigen (HLA) genotypes, and bone mineral density measurements at baseline. Follow-up data included subsequent diagnosis of CeD and fractures using hospital information. ‘At-risk’ serology was defined as both tTG and HLA positivity. Complete results were obtained from 2122 patients. The prevalence of ‘at-risk’ serology was 5%. At baseline, 3.4% fulfilled criteria for a diagnosis of osteoporosis. During a mean of 9.7 years of follow-up, 7.4% of the cohort suffered at least one fracture and 0.7% were subsequently diagnosed with CeD. At-risk serology was significantly associated with osteoporosis in a multivariate model (odds ratio 2.83, 95% confidence interval 1.29–6.22); there was insufficient power to look at the outcome of fractures. The results of this study demonstrate that at-risk CeD serology was significantly associated with concurrent osteoporosis but not future fractures. Most individuals with a serological diagnosis of CeD were not diagnosed with CeD during the follow-up period according to medical records. Coeliac disease likely remains under-diagnosed.The study was funded by the University of Newcastle, the Hunter Medical Research Institute, and the Vincent Fairfax Family Foundatio

Bats Use Magnetite to Detect the Earth's Magnetic Field

While the role of magnetic cues for compass orientation has been confirmed in numerous animals, the mechanism of detection is still debated. Two hypotheses have been proposed, one based on a light dependent mechanism, apparently used by birds and another based on a “compass organelle” containing the iron oxide particles magnetite (Fe3O4). Bats have recently been shown to use magnetic cues for compass orientation but the method by which they detect the Earth's magnetic field remains unknown. Here we use the classic “Kalmijn-Blakemore” pulse re-magnetization experiment, whereby the polarity of cellular magnetite is reversed. The results demonstrate that the big brown bat Eptesicus fuscus uses single domain magnetite to detect the Earths magnetic field and the response indicates a polarity based receptor. Polarity detection is a prerequisite for the use of magnetite as a compass and suggests that big brown bats use magnetite to detect the magnetic field as a compass. Our results indicate the possibility that sensory cells in bats contain freely rotating magnetite particles, which appears not to be the case in birds. It is crucial that the ultrastructure of the magnetite containing magnetoreceptors is described for our understanding of magnetoreception in animals