Retinal Afferents Synapse with Relay Cells Targeting the Middle Temporal Area in the Pulvinar and Lateral Geniculate Nuclei

Considerable debate continues regarding thalamic inputs to the middle temporal area (MT) of the visual cortex that bypass the primary visual cortex (V1) and the role they might have in the residual visual capability following a lesion of V1. Two specific retinothalamic projections to area MT have been speculated to relay through the medial portion of the inferior pulvinar nucleus (PIm) and the koniocellular layers of the dorsal lateral geniculate nucleus (LGN). Although a number of studies have demonstrated retinal inputs to regions of the thalamus where relays to area MT have been observed, the relationship between the retinal terminals and area MT relay cells has not been established. Here we examined direct retino-recipient regions of the marmoset monkey (Callithrix jacchus) pulvinar nucleus and the LGN following binocular injections of anterograde tracer, as well as area MT relay cells in these nuclei by injection of retrograde tracer into area MT. Retinal afferents were shown to synapse with area MT relay cells as demonstrated by colocalization with the presynaptic vesicle membrane protein synaptophysin. We also established the presence of direct synapes of retinal afferents on area MT relay cells within the PIm, as well as the koniocellular K1 and K3 layers of the LGN, thereby corroborating the existence of two disynaptic pathways from the retina to area MT that bypass V1

Uncertainty Aware Structural Topology Optimization Via a Stochastic Reduced Order Model Approach

This work presents a stochastic reduced order modeling strategy for the quantification and propagation of uncertainties in topology optimization. Uncertainty aware optimization problems can be computationally complex due to the substantial number of model evaluations that are necessary to accurately quantify and propagate uncertainties. This computational complexity is greatly magnified if a high-fidelity, physics-based numerical model is used for the topology optimization calculations. Stochastic reduced order model (SROM) methods are applied here to effectively 1) alleviate the prohibitive computational cost associated with an uncertainty aware topology optimization problem; and 2) quantify and propagate the inherent uncertainties due to design imperfections. A generic SROM framework that transforms the uncertainty aware, stochastic topology optimization problem into a deterministic optimization problem that relies only on independent calls to a deterministic numerical model is presented. This approach facilitates the use of existing optimization and modeling tools to accurately solve the uncertainty aware topology optimization problems in a fraction of the computational demand required by Monte Carlo methods. Finally, an example in structural topology optimization is presented to demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed uncertainty aware structural topology optimization approach

Three Papers from the Annual Meeting Held on October 26 and 27, 1961 in Williamsburg, Virginia

Legal History -- Unhappy Hybrid by William F. Swindler Not in the Law Alone by James A. Servies Williamsburg -- A 20-Minute History by Dudley W. Woodbridg

Automatic Thoughts and Cognitive Restructuring in Cognitive Behavioral Group Therapy for Social Anxiety Disorder

The goal in (Heimberg, R. G. [1991]. A manual for conducting Cognitive Behavior Group Therapy for social phobia (2nd ed.), unpublished manuscript) cognitive behavioral group therapy (CBGT) for social anxiety disorder (social phobia) is to challenge irrational automatic thoughts and create exposures to provide disconfirming evidence for these irrational thoughts as well as habituation to fearful stimuli. Yet little is known about the types of thoughts reported by socially anxious individuals in therapy or which thoughts therapists select for cognitive restructuring in CBGT sessions. The present study analyzed the semantic content of automatic thoughts reported in CBGT and found that the most common thoughts related to poor social performance, negative labels by others, and the anticipation of negative outcomes in feared situations. Principle components analyses indicated the automatic thoughts reflected three underlying themes: Experiencing Anxiety, Negative Self-Evaluation, and Fear of Negative Evaluation. The paper also describes exploratory analyses of which thoughts became the focus of cognitive restructuring exercises and their relationship to treatment outcome. Implications for cognitive therapy are also discussed

Integrated economic hydrologic model for groundwater basin management, An

May 1994.Also listed online under Open file reports list as no. 7.Revision of Faisal's thesis (Ph. D.--Colorado State University, 1994).Includes bibliographical references (pages 151-156).Financed in part by the U.S. Dept. of the Interior, Geological Survey, grant no. 14-08-0001-G2008/2 09

Toward Eclipse Mapping of Hot Jupiters

Recent Spitzer infrared measurements of hot Jupiter eclipses suggest that eclipse mapping techniques could be used to spatially resolve the day-side photospheric emission of these planets using partial occultations. As a first step in this direction, we simulate ingress/egress lightcurves for the three brightest known eclipsing hot Jupiters and evaluate the degree to which parameterized photospheric emission models can be distinguished from each other with repeated, noisy eclipse measurements. We find that the photometric accuracy of Spitzer is insufficient to use this tool effectively. On the other hand, the level of photospheric details that could be probed with a few JWST eclipse measurements could greatly inform hot Jupiter atmospheric modeling efforts. A JWST program focused on non-parametric eclipse map inversions for hot Jupiters should be actively considered.Comment: 32 pages, 6 figures, 3 tables, accepted for publication in Ap

ABCC5, ERCC2, XPA and XRCC1 transcript abundance levels correlate with cisplatin chemoresistance in non-small cell lung cancer cell lines

BACKGROUND: Although 40–50% of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) tumors respond to cisplatin chemotherapy, there currently is no way to prospectively identify potential responders. The purpose of this study was to determine whether transcript abundance (TA) levels of twelve selected DNA repair or multi-drug resistance genes (LIG1, ERCC2, ERCC3, DDIT3, ABCC1, ABCC4, ABCC5, ABCC10, GTF2H2, XPA, XPC and XRCC1) were associated with cisplatin chemoresistance and could therefore contribute to the development of a predictive marker. Standardized RT (StaRT)-PCR, was employed to assess these genes in a set of NSCLC cell lines with a previously published range of sensitivity to cisplatin. Data were obtained in the form of target gene molecules relative to 10(6 )β-actin (ACTB) molecules. To cancel the effect of ACTB variation among the different cell lines individual gene expression values were incorporated into ratios of one gene to another. Each two-gene ratio was compared as a single variable to chemoresistance for each of eight NSCLC cell lines using multiple regression. In an effort to validate these results, six additional lines then were evaluated. RESULTS: Following validation, single variable models best correlated with chemoresistance (p < 0.001), were ERCC2/XPC, ABCC5/GTF2H2, ERCC2/GTF2H2, XPA/XPC and XRCC1/XPC. All single variable models were examined hierarchically to achieve two variable models. The two variable model with the highest correlation was (ABCC5/GTF2H2, ERCC2/GTF2H2) with an R(2 )value of 0.96 (p < 0.001). CONCLUSION: These results provide markers suitable for assessment of small fine needle aspirate biopsies in an effort to prospectively identify cisplatin resistant tumors