Movement correction in DCE-MRI through windowed and reconstruction dynamic mode decomposition

Images of the kidneys using dynamic contrast enhanced magnetic resonance renography (DCE-MRR) contains unwanted complex organ motion due to respiration. This gives rise to motion artefacts that hinder the clinical assessment of kidney function. However, due to the rapid change in contrast agent within the DCE-MR image sequence, commonly used intensity-based image registration techniques are likely to fail. While semi-automated approaches involving human experts are a possible alternative, they pose significant drawbacks including inter-observer variability, and the bottleneck introduced through manual inspection of the multiplicity of images produced during a DCE-MRR study. To address this issue, we present a novel automated, registration-free movement correction approach based on windowed and reconstruction variants of dynamic mode decomposition (WR-DMD). Our proposed method is validated on ten different healthy volunteers’ kidney DCEMRI data sets. The results, using block-matching-block evaluation on the image sequence produced by WR-DMD, show the elimination of 99% of mean motion magnitude when compared to the original data sets, thereby demonstrating the viability of automatic movement correction using WR-DMD

Absolute spectral modelling of asteroid (4) Vesta

We present a new physics-based approach to model the absolute reflectance spectra of asteroid (4) Vesta. The spectral models are derived by utilizing a ray-optics code that simulates light scattering by particles large compared to the wavelength of the incident light. In the light of the spectral data obtained by the Dawn spacecraft, we use howardite powder to model Vesta's surface regolith and its particle size distribution for 10-200 mu m sized particles. Our results show that the modelled spectrum mimics well the observations. The best match was found using a power-law particle size distribution with an index 3.2. This suggests that Vesta's regolith is dominated by howardite particlesPeer reviewe

Comparison of Habitual and Maximal Gait Speed and their Impact on Sarcopenia Quantification in German Nursing Home Residents.

OBJECTIVES Sarcopenia is characterized by loss of muscle strength and muscle mass. The EWGSOP2 specifications include physical functioning determination for quantification of the sarcopenia severity. However, there is a lack in the use of habitual and maximal gait speed and their influence on sarcopenia quantification. We hypothesize differences in sarcopenia quantification using habitual and maximal gait speed. METHODS Sixty-six residents from five nursing homes were examined. Habitual and maximal gait speed were measured by 4-meter-walking-Test. McNemar-Test and χ2-test were used to identify quantification differences. Effect sizes of both gait speeds were calculated with Spearman's rank-correlation-coefficient. RESULTS Significant difference was identified for twenty-two residents in physical functioning classification by McNemar-Test (p<.001). χ2-Test identified a significant frequency distribution for sarcopenia categories between both gait speeds (χ2 (df2)=11.215, p=.004; Cramer's V=.412). Significant correlations (p<.05) were only shown for maximal gait speed in variables falls in the last three months (|rs|=.326), Barthel-Index (|rs|=.415), and SARC-F (|rs|=.335). CONCLUSIONS The use of habitual and maximal gait speed has a significant impact on sarcopenia quantification in nursing home residents. An adapted standardization in the EWGSOP2 specifications should follow

A study to examine the relationship between uterine pathology and depletion of oxytetracycline in plasma and milk after intrauterine infusion

Citation: Gorden, P. J., Ydstie, J., Kleinhenz, M. D., Wulf, L. W., Gehring, R., Wang, C., & Coetzee, J. F. (2016). A study to examine the relationship between uterine pathology and depletion of oxytetracycline in plasma and milk after intrauterine infusion. Journal of Animal Science, 94, 30-30. doi:10.2527/msasas2016-065Metritis is a frequent problem in postpartum dairy cows. Intrauterine therapy with oxytetracycline (OTC) is often used to improve therapeutic outcomes, although efficacy data supporting this therapy are ambiguous. Several manuscripts describe the depletion of OTC from milk following intrauterine therapy. However, none of these studies have correlated uterine severity scores with milk OTC concentrations using highly sensitive detection systems. Our objective was to do this to test the hypothesis that cows with more severe uterine severity would have higher OTC residues in milk following intrauterine therapy. Thirty-two cows received a single treatment of 4 g of OTC via intrauterine infusion. Blood and milk samples were collected before intrauterine therapy and throughout the trial period of 96 h after infusion. Uterine severity scores were assigned at initiation of therapy and every 24 h throughout the remainder of the trial. Plasma and milk samples were analyzed for OTC concentrations using liquid chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry. Following treatment, OTC rapidly diffused from the uterus to plasma and from plasma to milk. Maximum concentration in plasma and milk occurred within 24 h following intrauterine infusion and 18 of the cows still had detectable levels of OTC in milk 4 d after intrauterine infusion. Greater uterine severity score at the initiation of treatment showed a significant positively correlation with higher milk OTC concentration at the second milking following treatment (R2 = 0.46, P = 0.01) but there was no correlation between initial uterine severity score and OTC concentration at the conclusion of the study (R2 = ?0.06, P = 0.75). In the United States, intrauterine administration of OTC is considered to be an extra-label therapy. The use of uterine severity score can be used to predict OTC concentration in the first day following therapy but should not be used as a predictor of OTC concentrations 96 h after treatment. Dairy producers should consult with their veterinarian to develop strategies that will prevent the presence of violative residues of OTC in bulk tank milk following intrauterine therapy

A sampling method for quantifying the information content of IASI channels

There is a vast amount of information about the atmosphere available from instruments on board satellites. One example is the Infrared Atmospheric Sounding Interferometer (IASI) instrument, which measures radiances emitted from Earth’s atmosphere and surface in 8461 channels. It is difficult to transmit, store, and assimilate such a large amount of data. A practical solution to this has been to select a subset of a few hundred channels based on those that contain the most useful information. Different measures of information content for objective channel selection have been suggested for application to variational data assimilation. These include mutual information and the degrees of freedom for signal. To date, the calculation of these measures of information content has been based on the linear theory that is at the heart of operational variational data assimilation. However, the retrieval of information about the atmosphere from the satellite radiances can be highly nonlinear. Here, a sampling method for calculating the mutual information that is free from assumptions about the linearity of the relationship between the observed radiances and the state variables is examined. It is found that large linearization errors can indeed lead to large discrepancies in the value of mutual information. How this new estimate of information content can be used in channel selection is addressed, with particular attention given to the efficiency of the new method. It is anticipated that accounting for the nonlinearity in the channel selection will be beneficial when using nonlinear data assimilation methods currently in development

Using the Revised Cardiac Risk Index to predict major postoperative events for people with kidney failure : An external validation and update

Funding Information: T.G.H. is supported by a Kidney Research Scientist Core Education and National Training Program postdoctoral fellowship (cosponsored by the Kidney Foundation of Canada and Canadian Institutes of Health Research) and the Clinician Investigator Program at the University of Calgary. These funding sources had no role in study design, data collection, analysis, reporting, or the decision to submit for publication. Funding Information: Ethics Statement: We followed the Transparent Reporting of a Multivariable Prediction Model for Individual Prognosis or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) checklist19 for prediction-model validation (Supplemental Table S1) and were granted ethics approval by the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.Preoperative risk-prediction tools that are used to predict risk of perioperative death and CV events, and are supported by North American guidelines, include the revised cardiac risk index (RCRI),5 the American College of Surgeons National Surgical Quality Improvement Program (ACS NSQIP) tool,6,7 and the National Surgical Quality Improvement Program Myocardial Infarction or Cardiac Arrest (NSQIP MICA) tool.8 The RCRI has been recommended over others for use in Canada for all adults over the age of 45 years, and for those aged 18-45 years with CV disease, who are undergoing elective, noncardiac surgery.3 The RCRI incorporates 6 criteria based on surgical and comorbidity characteristics of the patient and derives an estimated probability of postoperative myocardial infarction, cardiac arrest, or death.5 Additionally, the RCRI is used to guide perioperative decision-making.3The Alberta Kidney Disease Network database includes person-level linkages of administrative health data, laboratory data, prescription information, and kidney disease-specific data from the province of Alberta, Canada.17 Alberta has approximately 4.4 million residents, and with universal public health insurance, health data capture is near complete.17,18 From this database, we derived a retrospective cohort of adults with kidney failure who underwent ambulatory or inpatient surgery. We used this cohort to externally validate and examine the performance of the RCRI for this population. We followed the Transparent Reporting of a Multivariable Prediction Model for Individual Prognosis or Diagnosis (TRIPOD) checklist19 for prediction-model validation (Supplemental Table S1) and were granted ethics approval by the University of Calgary and the University of Alberta.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Authorship Trends Over the Past 30-Years in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering

In academia, manuscripts serve as an important component of career development. The past several years have seen heightened evaluation of the role of the gender gap in career advancement, as well as other bibliometric changes in publications. We therefore analyzed authorship and publication trends in the Annals of Biomedical Engineering over the past three decades (one complete year of manuscripts for each decade; 1986, 1996, 2006, and 2016). The variables analyzed were number of authors per manuscript, numerical position of the corresponding author, number of collaborating institutions and countries, number of references, and number of citations per manuscript. The gender of both the first and corresponding authors was identified and analyzed over time and by region. Globally, the percentage of female first and corresponding authors significantly increased from 0% in 1986 to 28.6% (p = 0.003) and 20.4% (p = 0.0009), respectively, in 2016. Although there were significant differences regarding female first and corresponding author over time, they did not vary by region of origin (p = 0.5 and 0.2, respectively). Overall, these findings highlight the improvements made and the challenges that still exist related to publishing within the bioengineering field

Understanding signaling cascades in melanoma

Understanding regulatory pathways involved in melanoma development and progression has advanced significantly in recent years. It is now appreciated that melanoma is the result of complex changes in multiple signaling pathways that affect growth control, metabolism, motility and the ability to escape cell death programs. Here we review the major signaling pathways currently known to be deregulated in melanoma with an implication to its development and progression. Among these pathways are Ras, B-Raf, MEK, PTEN, phosphatidylinositol-3 kinase (PI3Ks) and Akt which are constitutively activated in a significant number of melanoma tumors, in most cases due to genomic change. Other pathways discussed in this review include the [Janus kinase/signal transducer and activator of transcription (JAK/STAT), transforming growth factor-beta pathways which are also activated in melanoma, although the underlying mechanism is not yet clear. As a paradigm for remodeled signaling pathways, melanoma also offers a unique opportunity for targeted drug development.Fil: Lopez Bergami, Pablo Roberto. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados Unidos. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Fitchmann, B. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados UnidosFil: Ronai, Ze´ev. Sanford-burnham Medical Research Institute; Estados Unido

Poly-Thymidine Oligonucleotides Mediate Activation of Murine Glial Cells Primarily Through TLR7, Not TLR8

The functional role of murine TLR8 in the inflammatory response of the central nervous system (CNS) remains unclear. Murine TLR8 does not appear to respond to human TLR7/8 agonists, due to a five amino acid deletion in the ectodomain. However, recent studies have suggested that murine TLR8 may be stimulated by alternate ligands, which include vaccinia virus DNA, phosphothioate oligodeoxynucleotides (ODNs) or the combination of phosphothioate poly-thymidine oligonucleotides (pT-ODNs) with TLR7/8 agonists. In the current study, we analyzed the ability of pT-ODNs to induce activation of murine glial cells in the presence or absence of TLR7/8 agonists. We found that TLR7/8 agonists induced the expression of glial cell activation markers and induced the production of multiple proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines in mixed glial cultures. In contrast, pT-ODNs alone induced only low level expression of two cytokines, CCL2 and CXCL10. The combination of pT-ODNs along with TLR7/8 agonists induced a synergistic response with substantially higher levels of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines compared to CL075. This enhancement was not due to cellular uptake of the agonist, indicating that the pT-ODN enhancement of cytokine responses was due to effects on an intracellular process. Interestingly, this response was also not due to synergistic stimulation of both TLR7 and TLR8, as the loss of TLR7 abolished the activation of glial cells and cytokine production. Thus, pT-ODNs act in synergy with TLR7/8 agonists to induce strong TLR7-dependent cytokine production in glial cells, suggesting that the combination of pT-ODNs with TLR7 agonists may be a useful mechanism to induce pronounced glial activation in the CNS