Seeing faces: evidence suggesting cortical disinhibition in the genesis of visual hallucinations.

The neural mechanisms responsible for triggering visual hallucinations are poorly understood. Here, we report a unique patient whose hallucinations consist exclusively of faces, and which could be reliably precipitated by looking at trees. Using functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI), we found that, while face hallucinations was associated with increased neural activity in a number of cortical regions, including low-level visual areas, there was significant decreased activity in the right fusiform face area, a region that is empirically defined by increase activity during veridical perception of faces. These findings indicate key differences in how hallucinatory and veridical perceptions lead to the same phenomenological experience of seeing faces, and are consistent with the hypothesis that hallucinations may be generated by decreased inhibitory inputs to key cortical regions, in contrast to the excitatory synaptic inputs underlying veridical perception

On the causal interpretation of acyclic mixed graphs under multivariate normality

In multivariate statistics, acyclic mixed graphs with directed and bidirected edges are widely used for compact representation of dependence structures that can arise in the presence of hidden (i.e., latent or unobserved) variables. Indeed, under multivariate normality, every mixed graph corresponds to a set of covariance matrices that contains as a full-dimensional subset the covariance matrices associated with a causally interpretable acyclic digraph. This digraph generally has some of its nodes corresponding to hidden variables. We seek to clarify for which mixed graphs there exists an acyclic digraph whose hidden variable model coincides with the mixed graph model. Restricting to the tractable setting of chain graphs and multivariate normality, we show that decomposability of the bidirected part of the chain graph is necessary and sufficient for equality between the mixed graph model and some hidden variable model given by an acyclic digraph

Deciphering the role of Epstein-Barr virus in the pathogenesis of T and NK cell lymphoproliferations

Epstein-Barr virus (EBV) is a highly successful herpesvirus, colonizing more than 90% of the adult human population worldwide, although it is also associated with various malignant diseases. Primary infection is usually clinically silent, and subsequent establishment of latency in the memory B lymphocyte compartment allows persistence of the virus in the infected host for life. EBV is so markedly B-lymphotropic when exposed to human lymphocytes in vitro that the association of EBV with rare but distinct types of T and NK cell lymphoproliferations was quite unexpected. Whilst relatively rare, these EBV-associated T and NK lymphoproliferations can be therapeutically challenging and prognosis for the majority of patients is dismal. In this review, we summarize the current knowledge on the role of EBV in the pathogenesis of these tumours, and the implications for treatment. \ud \u

Generalised knot groups distinguish the square and granny knots (with an appendix by David Savitt)

Given a knot K we may construct a group G_n(K) from the fundamental group of K by adjoining an nth root of the meridian that commutes with the corresponding longitude. These "generalised knot groups" were introduced independently by Wada and Kelly, and contain the fundamental group as a subgroup. The square knot SK and the granny knot GK are a well known example of a pair of distinct knots with isomorphic fundamental groups. We show that G_n(SK) and G_n(GK) are non-isomorphic for all n>1. This confirms a conjecture of Lin and Nelson, and shows that the isomorphism type of G_n(K), n>1, carries more information about K than the isomorphism type of the fundamental group. An appendix by David Savitt contains some results on representations of the trefoil group in PSL(2,p) that are needed for the proof.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figures, to appear in JKTR. v3: example of the target groups added; slight correction to the construction of the target groups; references updated; some changes to notation. v2: section 4.2 expanded to give overview of proo

Review of SPNM Composers’ Weekend, London, 10-13 September 1981

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Music as Social Process: Some Aspects of the Work of Christian Wolff

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Adjuvant manufacturing scale-up and technology transfer

Strategies to increase the availability of cGMP adjuvant formulations for emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases comprise an essential component of global pandemic preparedness. We have focused on two approaches to increase global adjuvant supply and build local capacity: (1) scale-up of our cGMP adjuvant manufacturing capacity through equipment and process improvements, and (2) technology transfer of adjuvant manufacturing know-how to developing countries. Regarding manufacturing scale-up, we have increased our cGMP oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant manufacturing capacity from 2K doses/batch to 5M doses/batch by upgrading processing equipment and implementing innovative process efficiency improvements. We demonstrate this new capacity by manufacturing proof-of-concept batches of emulsion at the 5M dose scale and demonstrating acceptable particle size, emulsion component concentrations, pH, osmolality, and visual appearance. Regarding technology transfer, we highlight our local capacity building efforts in India, Romania, and South Africa, resulting in successful local production of adjuvant formulations and, in the case of India, Phase 1 clinical testing of the manufactured material as a component of a malaria vaccine [1-3]. Together, these efforts have enabled enhanced global adjuvant manufacturing capability, facilitating local capacity building and increased pandemic preparedness. References Fox, C.B. “It is time to accelerate building local vaccine adjuvant manufacturing capacity,” Therapeutic Advances in Vaccines, 2017, in press. Stavaru, C.; Onu, A.; Lupulescu, E.; Tucureanu, C.; Rasid, O.; Vlase, E.; Coman, C.; Caras, I.; Ghiorghisor, A.; Berbecila, L.; Tofan, V.; Bowen, R. A.; Marlenee, N.; Hartwig, A.; Bielefeldt-Ohmann, H.; Baldwin, S. L.; Van Hoeven, N.; Vedvick, T. S.; Huynh, C.; O’Hara, M. K.; Noah, D. L.; Fox, C. B. “Technology transfer of oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant manufacturing for pandemic influenza vaccine production in Romania: preclinical evaluation of split virion inactivated H5N1 vaccine with adjuvant,” Human Vaccines & Immunotherapeutics, 2015, 12:1009-1026. Fox, C. B.; Huynh, C.; O’Hara, M. K.; Onu, A. “Technology transfer of oil-in-water emulsion adjuvant manufacturing for pandemic influenza vaccine production in Romania,” Vaccine, 2013, 31:1633-1640

Loops, Overtones and Erhard Grosskopf

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