Evaluating EPflex MRline Guidewire for Endovascular Interventions Guided by MRI at 3T vs. X-ray Fluoroscopy

This project sought to evaluate the efficacy of using the EPflex MRline guidewire for endovascular treatment guided by real-time Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI). MRI theoretically has numerous advantages over x-ray, the current clinical standard imaging modality for endovascular procedures. The most profound advantage of MRI is the ability to acquire physiological functional information, via perfusion and diffusion measures, for better intervention planning before and during the procedure. The EPflex guidewire was selectedbecause of its ability to perform in an MRI and x-ray fluoroscopy environment, allowing for relevant and useful comparisons of the guiding imaging modality. An abdominal aorta phantom was used to assess the ability of experienced and inexperienced operators to successfullynavigate the wire under each imaging modality. It was found that x-ray guidance provided statistically faster and more successful navigation attempts than MRI guidance; however, more clinical tests need to be performed in order to assess the clinical significance of these results.This study represents an important step in the direction of developing safer and more effective imaging systems for guiding endovascular procedures

Fair Play For Girls

This report highlights the urgent need for equitable opportunities for girls in football. The report endorsed by leading figures in the football community and backed by the UK Government, underscores the importance of addressing gender disparities in sports provision and support

Toward interoperable bioscience data

© The Author(s), 2012. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Nature Genetics 44 (2012): 121-126, doi:10.1038/ng.1054.To make full use of research data, the bioscience community needs to adopt technologies and reward mechanisms that support interoperability and promote the growth of an open 'data commoning' culture. Here we describe the prerequisites for data commoning and present an established and growing ecosystem of solutions using the shared 'Investigation-Study-Assay' framework to support that vision.The authors also acknowledge the following funding sources in particular: UK Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) BB/I000771/1 to S.-A.S. and A.T.; UK BBSRC BB/I025840/1 to S.-A.S.; UK BBSRC BB/I000917/1 to D.F.; EU CarcinoGENOMICS (PL037712) to J.K.; US National Institutes of Health (NIH) 1RC2CA148222-01 to W.H. and the HSCI; US MIRADA LTERS DEB-0717390 and Alfred P. Sloan Foundation (ICoMM) to L.A.-Z.; Swiss Federal Government through the Federal Office of Education and Science (FOES) to L.B. and I.X.; EU Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Open PHACTS 115191 to C.T.E.; US Department of Energy (DOE) DE-AC02- 06CH11357 and Arthur P. Sloan Foundation (2011- 6-05) to J.G.; UK BBSRC SysMO-DB2 BB/I004637/1 and BBG0102181 to C.G.; UK BBSRC BB/I000933/1 to C.S. and J.L.G.; UK MRC UD99999906 to J.L.G.; US NIH R21 MH087336 (National Institute of Mental Health) and R00 GM079953 (National Institute of General Medical Science) to A.L.; NIH U54 HG006097 to J.C. and C.E.S.; Australian government through the National Collaborative Research Infrastructure Strategy (NCRIS); BIRN U24-RR025736 and BioScholar RO1-GM083871 to G.B. and the 2009 Super Science initiative to C.A.S

The Impact of Worry on Attention to Threat

Prior research has often linked anxiety to attentional vigilance for threat using the dot probe task, which presents probes in spatial locations that were or were not preceded by a putative threat stimulus. The present study investigated the impact of worry on threat vigilance by administering this task during a worry condition and during a mental arithmetic control condition to 56 undergraduate students scoring in the low normal range on a measure of chronic worry. The worry induction was associated with faster responses than arithmetic to probes in the attended location following threat words, indicating the combined influence of worry and threat in facilitating attention. Within the worry condition, responses to probes in the attended location were faster for trials containing threat words than for trials with only neutral words, whereas the converse pattern was observed for responses to probes in the unattended location. This connection between worry states and attentional capture by threat may be central to understanding the impact of hypervigilance on information processing in anxiety and its disorders

‘Normal happy girl’ interrupted: An auto/biographical analysis of Myra Hindley’s public confession

Responding to the need to develop the range and scope of narrative criminology, this paper provides an empirical demonstration of how auto/biographical analysis can be used for criminological purposes. More specifically, the paper explores how British serial killer Myra Hindley sought to construct, (re)present and rehabilitate her own identity in the face of the ‘mad, bad, or evil’ discourse that she was typically associated with. Using her auto/biographical letter to The Guardian newspaper as the main source of data, supplemented with material taken from her prison files available in The National Archive, the paper examines how she sought to develop her own causation narrative in the face of massive public derision. It demonstrates how the ‘normal happy girl’ interrupted narrative which Hindley constructs is neither an accurate account of her life, nor an invention of her imagination. Instead, it is a product of the immediate local context which she found herself in; the conventions of criminal autobiography; the rules and regulations that govern prisoners; the redemptive requirements of the penal process; and, the generalized causation narratives of serial killers that were being reconfigured by various lay commentators for use in the ‘Moors murders’ story

Effects of traumatic brain injury and posttraumatic stress disorder on Alzheimer's disease in veterans, using the Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative

Both traumatic brain injury (TBI) and posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are common problems resulting from military service, and both have been associated with increased risk of cognitive decline and dementia resulting from Alzheimer's disease (AD) or other causes. This study aims to use imaging techniques and biomarker analysis to determine whether traumatic brain injury (TBI) and/or PTSD resulting from combat or other traumas increase the risk for AD and decrease cognitive reserve in Veteran subjects, after accounting for age. Using military and Department of Veterans Affairs records, 65 Vietnam War veterans with a history of moderate or severe TBI with or without PTSD, 65 with ongoing PTSD without TBI, and 65 control subjects are being enrolled in this study at 19 sites. The study aims to select subject groups that are comparable in age, gender, ethnicity, and education. Subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) or dementia are being excluded. However, a new study just beginning, and similar in size, will study subjects with TBI, subjects with PTSD, and control subjects with MCI. Baseline measurements of cognition, function, blood, and cerebrospinal fluid biomarkers; magnetic resonance images (structural, diffusion tensor, and resting state blood-level oxygen dependent (BOLD) functional magnetic resonance imaging); and amyloid positron emission tomographic (PET) images with florbetapir are being obtained. One-year follow-up measurements will be collected for most of the baseline procedures, with the exception of the lumbar puncture, the PET imaging, and apolipoprotein E genotyping. To date, 19 subjects with TBI only, 46 with PTSD only, and 15 with TBI and PTSD have been recruited and referred to 13 clinics to undergo the study protocol. It is expected that cohorts will be fully recruited by October 2014. This study is a first step toward the design and statistical powering of an AD prevention trial using at-risk veterans as subjects, and provides the basis for a larger, more comprehensive study of dementia risk factors in veterans