Altered Functional Connectivity in an Aged Rat Model of Postoperative Cognitive Dysfunction: A Study Using Resting-State Functional MRI

BACKGROUND: Postoperative cognitive impairment is a common complication after cardiac and major non-cardiac surgery in the elderly, but its causes and mechanisms remain unclear. The purpose of the current study was to use resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to explore changes in the functional connectivity, i.e. the synchronization of low frequency fluctuation (LFF), in an animal model of cognitive impairment in aged rats. METHODS: Aged (22 months) rats were anaesthetized with 40 µg/kg fentanyl and 500 µg/kg droperidol (intraperitoneal) for splenectomy. Cognitive function was assessed using Y maze prior to operation and on postoperative days 1, 3 and 9. To evaluate functional connectivity, resting-state fMRI data were acquired using a 3T MR imaging system with a 4 channel phase array rat head coil. RESULTS: Cognitive function was impaired at postoperative days 1 and 3 compared with preoperative. Significant synchronized LFF was detected bilaterally in the primary somatosensory cortex and hippocampus preoperatively. By contrast, no significant LFF synchronization was detected in the right primary somatosensory cortex and right hippocampus on postoperative days 1 and 3, although the pattern of functional connectivity had become almost normal by day 9. CONCLUSION: Splenectomy performed under neuroleptic anaesthesia triggers a cognitive decline that is associated with altered spontaneous neuronal activity in the cortex and hippocampus

Pyrimido[4,5‐ d ]pyrimidin‐4(1 H )‐one Derivatives as Selective Inhibitors of EGFR Threonine 790 to Methionine 790 (T790M) Mutants

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99681/1/8387_ftp.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99681/2/anie_201302313_sm_miscellaneous_information.pd

Pyrimido[4,5‐ d ]pyrimidin‐4(1 H )‐one Derivatives as Selective Inhibitors of EGFR Threonine 790 to Methionine 790 (T790M) Mutants

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99673/1/8545_ftp.pdfhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/99673/2/ange_201302313_sm_miscellaneous_information.pd

Ontogeny of Synovial Macrophages and the Roles of Synovial Macrophages From Different Origins in Arthritis

The ontogeny of macrophages in most organ/tissues in human body has been proven. Due to the limited number and inaccessibility of synovial macrophages (SM), the origin of SM has not been fully illuminated. The objective of this study was designed to investigate the ontogeny of SM and to evaluate the role of SM from different origins in arthritis. Two origins of SM, embryonic SM (ESM) and bone marrow SM (BMSM) were identified in Cx3cr1-EGFP mice, CCR2−/− mice and bone marrow (BM) chimera model by using a stringent sorting strategy. The cellular features, including dynamic total cell number, in situ proliferation, phagocytosis and expressions of pro-inflammatory and anti-inflammatory genes, of ESM and BMSM were compared. In addition, ESM and BMSM showed different expression patterns in Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) patients' synovium and during the developmental process of collagen-induced arthritis (CIA) mice. Taken together, these results demonstrated that the SM at least has two origins, ESM and BMSM. The different cellular property and dynamic expression patterns in RA patients/CIA mice highlight the notion that ESM and BMSM might play different role in arthritis

Finishing the euchromatic sequence of the human genome

The sequence of the human genome encodes the genetic instructions for human physiology, as well as rich information about human evolution. In 2001, the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium reported a draft sequence of the euchromatic portion of the human genome. Since then, the international collaboration has worked to convert this draft into a genome sequence with high accuracy and nearly complete coverage. Here, we report the result of this finishing process. The current genome sequence (Build 35) contains 2.85 billion nucleotides interrupted by only 341 gaps. It covers ∼99% of the euchromatic genome and is accurate to an error rate of ∼1 event per 100,000 bases. Many of the remaining euchromatic gaps are associated with segmental duplications and will require focused work with new methods. The near-complete sequence, the first for a vertebrate, greatly improves the precision of biological analyses of the human genome including studies of gene number, birth and death. Notably, the human enome seems to encode only 20,000-25,000 protein-coding genes. The genome sequence reported here should serve as a firm foundation for biomedical research in the decades ahead

A Particle Image Velocimetry Study of Bubbly Gas-Liquid Flow

The aim of this work is to build a framework that can be used for characterizing the bubbly gas liquid turbulent flow in the stirred bioreactor tank. To this end we have developed and modified techniques with which to measure the velocity of both dispersed gas and carrier liquid phases by the optical measurement technique, a 2-CCD camera Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) system; and to characterize the turbulence by the wavelets tool, Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). Further modification and development of the method have been done in order to measure the gas bubble velocity by applying a numerical filter on the bubble image and by applying the normalized cross-correlation algorithm for velocity calculation were made. The bubble size and its reflection behaviour make it unqualified to be a seeding particle used in the PIV technique. In order to obtain the accurate velocity result at the higher resolution, and hence the slip velocity between the two phases, the post-process of the bubble image is required and the proper algorithm for the velocity calculation needs to be examined. Turbulence introduced through the gas bubbles presence in the grid-generated liquid turbulent flow is investigated in term of excess turbulent kinetic energy of carrier liquid flow. The momentum equilibrium between the two phases is evaluated by the use of the Stokes number and the energy spectra of the turbulent flow. The research work starts from the well-controlled, grid-generated turbulence for investigating the methodology of both experimental and data interpretation stage, and then switching to the real stirred bioreactor tank. We have for the first time introduced POD methodology to analyse the turbulence of both phases for characterizing the mutual effect in between, and attempted to connect the mode index in the POD energy spectra with the real physical turbulent spatial length scale. The experiment shows that the modified energy spectra agree with the Stokes number. The flow regime address in this work is restricted to disperse bubbly gas liquid two-phase flow. The flow regimes addressed in this article are restricted to dispersed bubbly gas liquid two-phase flow in a non-Newtonian surrounding fluid with significant influence of gravity or convection on the magnitude of relative particle velocity, but negligible influence of heat and mass transfer effects

Methodology development for the analysis of velocity particle image velocimetry images of turbulent, bubbly gas-liquid flows

Methods of analysing and interpreting two-dimensional velocity field data in order to understand the scales of turbulence of bubbly two-phase flow were developed. Reynolds decomposition and large eddy simulation (LES) decompositions (low-pass filtering), in conjunction with proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) energy spectra analysis, as well as adjusted convective decomposition (constant convection velocity is gas bubble velocity) were applied to analyse the structure of turbulence. Particle image velocimetry was applied for velocity measurements. Decomposition analysis was performed for the local velocity around gas bubbles in a chosen region. Various decomposition methodologies were applied for interpretation of the results and it was found that the number of eddies revealed and vorticity magnitude varied with the decomposition method used. In particular, LES decomposition was found to perform better at showing smaller eddies. POD indicated the energy changes quantitatively through the spatial energy spectra, while the comparison of single-phase flow with bubbly two-phase flow offered an efficient way of decomposing the total velocity. A combination of convective decomposition and POD was applied to the energy spectra level in order to obtain a novel view of the turbulence energy introduced by the gas bubbles

BNP Paribas: Equity Smart Order Router

Blizzard is BNP Paribas' smart order router implementation, a system that takes order requests from clients and algorithmically executes those orders. The goal of this project is to develop a general purpose visualization toolkit that could be used to dynamically display and monitor the status of Blizzard, and allow for easy analysis the router. This tool will provide an easier way to detect anomalies and find the impact of factors such as router and market latency and market movement on the performance of the router, as measured by the metric of the fill ratio, or the percent of orders successfully executed. A secondary goal of this project is to use the toolkit, in addition to statistical analysis, to find improvements for the algorithms in place