Advanced magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological assessment for detecting brain injury in a prospective cohort of university amateur boxers

$\textbf{Background/aim:}$ The safety of amateur and professional boxing is a contentious issue. We hypothesised that advanced magnetic resonance imaging and neuropsychological testing could provide evidence of acute and early brain injury in amateur boxers. $\textbf{Methods:}$ We recruited 30 participants from a university amateur boxing club in a prospective cohort study. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and neuropsychological testing was performed at three time points: prior to starting training; within 48 hours following a first major competition to detect acute brain injury; and one year follow-up. A single MRI acquisition was made from control participants. Imaging analysis included cortical thickness measurements with Advanced Normalization Tools (ANTS) and FreeSurfer, voxel based morphometry (VBM), and Tract Based Spatial Statistics (TBSS). A computerized battery of neuropsychological tests was performed assessing attention, learning, memory and impulsivity. $\textbf{Results:}$ During the study period, one boxer developed seizures controlled with medication while another developed a chronic subdural hematoma requiring neurosurgical drainage. A total of 10 boxers contributed data at to the longitudinal assessment protocol. Reasons for withdrawal were: logistics (10), stopping boxing (7), withdrawal of consent (2), and development of a chronic subdural hematoma (1). No significant changes were detected using VBM, TBSS, cortical thickness measured with FreeSurfer or ANTS, either cross-sectionally at baseline, or longitudinally. Neuropsychological assessment of boxers found attention/concentration improved over time while planning and problem solving ability latency decreased after a bout but recovered after one year. $\textbf{Conclusion:}$ While this neuroimaging and neuropsychological assessment protocol could not detect any evidence of brain injury, one boxer developed seizures and another developed a chronic sub-dural haematoma.PJH is supported by a NIHR Research Professorship. VFJN is supported by a Health Foundation / Academy of Medical Sciences Clinician Scientist Fellowship. BJS holds a grant from the NIHR Brain Injury Healthcare Technology Co-operative. This study was supported through the Cambridge National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) Biomedical Research Centre (BRC). Control data were acquired with the support of the Medical Research Council as part of their Addiction Initiative (grant number G1000018), and a Pathfinder award from Medical Research Council (G0401099)

Dissociable effects of 5-HT2C receptor antagonism and genetic inactivation on perseverance and learned non-reward in an egocentric spatial reversal task

Cognitive flexibility can be assessed in reversal learning tests, which are sensitive to modulation of 5-HT2C receptor (5-HT2CR) function. Successful performance in these tests depends on at least two dissociable cognitive mechanisms which may separately dissipate associations of previous positive and negative valence. The first is opposed by perseverance and the second by learned non-reward. The current experiments explored the effect of reducing function of the 5-HT2CR on the cognitive mechanisms underlying egocentric reversal learning in the mouse. Experiment 1 used the 5-HT2CR antagonist SB242084 (0.5 mg/kg) in a between-groups serial design and Experiment 2 used 5-HT2CR KO mice in a repeated measures design. Animals initially learned to discriminate between two egocentric turning directions, only one of which was food rewarded (denoted CS+, CS−), in a T- or Y-maze configuration. This was followed by three conditions; (1) Full reversal, where contingencies reversed; (2) Perseverance, where the previous CS+ became CS− and the previous CS− was replaced by a novel CS+; (3) Learned non-reward, where the previous CS− became CS+ and the previous CS+ was replaced by a novel CS-. SB242084 reduced perseverance, observed as a decrease in trials and incorrect responses to criterion, but increased learned non-reward, observed as an increase in trials to criterion. In contrast, 5-HT2CR KO mice showed increased perseverance. 5-HT2CR KO mice also showed retarded egocentric discrimination learning. Neither manipulation of 5-HT2CR function affected performance in the full reversal test. These results are unlikely to be accounted for by increased novelty attraction, as SB242084 failed to affect performance in an unrewarded novelty task. In conclusion, acute 5-HT2CR antagonism and constitutive loss of the 5-HT2CR have opposing effects on perseverance in egocentric reversal learning in mice. It is likely that this difference reflects the broader impact of 5HT2CR loss on the development and maintenance of cognitive function

Geospatial information infrastructures

Manual of Digital Earth / Editors: Huadong Guo, Michael F. Goodchild, Alessandro Annoni .- Springer, 2020 .- ISBN: 978-981-32-9915-3Geospatial information infrastructures (GIIs) provide the technological, semantic,organizationalandlegalstructurethatallowforthediscovery,sharing,and use of geospatial information (GI). In this chapter, we introduce the overall concept and surrounding notions such as geographic information systems (GIS) and spatial datainfrastructures(SDI).WeoutlinethehistoryofGIIsintermsoftheorganizational andtechnologicaldevelopmentsaswellasthecurrentstate-of-art,andreflectonsome of the central challenges and possible future trajectories. We focus on the tension betweenincreasedneedsforstandardizationandtheever-acceleratingtechnological changes. We conclude that GIIs evolved as a strong underpinning contribution to implementation of the Digital Earth vision. In the future, these infrastructures are challengedtobecomeflexibleandrobustenoughtoabsorbandembracetechnological transformationsandtheaccompanyingsocietalandorganizationalimplications.With this contribution, we present the reader a comprehensive overview of the field and a solid basis for reflections about future developments

Reciprocity as a foundation of financial economics

This paper argues that the subsistence of the fundamental theorem of contemporary financial mathematics is the ethical concept ‘reciprocity’. The argument is based on identifying an equivalence between the contemporary, and ostensibly ‘value neutral’, Fundamental Theory of Asset Pricing with theories of mathematical probability that emerged in the seventeenth century in the context of the ethical assessment of commercial contracts in a framework of Aristotelian ethics. This observation, the main claim of the paper, is justified on the basis of results from the Ultimatum Game and is analysed within a framework of Pragmatic philosophy. The analysis leads to the explanatory hypothesis that markets are centres of communicative action with reciprocity as a rule of discourse. The purpose of the paper is to reorientate financial economics to emphasise the objectives of cooperation and social cohesion and to this end, we offer specific policy advice

Quark helicity distributions in the nucleon for up, down, and strange quarks from semi--inclusive deep--inelastic scattering

Polarized deep--inelastic scattering data on longitudinally polarized hydrogen and deuterium targets have been used to determine double spin asymmetries of cross sections. Inclusive and semi--inclusive asymmetries for the production of positive and negative pions from hydrogen were obtained in a re--analysis of previously published data. Inclusive and semi--inclusive asymmetries for the production of negative and positive pions and kaons were measured on a polarized deuterium target. The separate helicity densities for the up and down quarks and the anti--up, anti--down, and strange sea quarks were computed from these asymmetries in a ``leading order'' QCD analysis. The polarization of the up--quark is positive and that of the down--quark is negative. All extracted sea quark polarizations are consistent with zero, and the light quark sea helicity densities are flavor symmetric within the experimental uncertainties. First and second moments of the extracted quark helicity densities in the measured range are consistent with fits of inclusive data

Transformation-induced changes in the DNA-nuclear matrix interface, revealed by high-throughput analysis of DNA halos

In higher eukaryotic nuclei, DNA is periodically anchored to an extraction-resistant protein structure, via matrix attachment regions. We describe a refined and accessible method to non-subjectively, rapidly and reproducibly measure both size and stability of the intervening chromatin loops, and use it to demonstrate that malignant transformation compromises the DNA-nuclear matrix interface

Evidence for a narrow |S|=1 baryon state at a mass of 1528 MeV in quasi-real photoproduction

Evidence for a narrow baryon state is found in quasi-real photoproduction on a deuterium target through the decay channel p K^0_S --> p pi^+ pi^-. A peak is observed in the p K^0_S invariant mass spectrum at 1528 +/- 2.6 (stat) +/-2.1 (syst) MeV. Depending on the background model,the naive statistical significance of the peak is 4--6 standard deviations and its width may be somewhat larger than the experimental resolution of sigma=4.3 -- 6.2 MeV. This state may be interpreted as the predicted S=+1 exotic Theta^{+}(uuddbar(s)) pentaquark baryon. No signal for an hypothetical Theta^{++} baryon was observed in the pK^+ invariant mass distribution. The absence of such a signal indicates that an isotensor Theta is excluded and an isovector Theta is unlikely.Comment: 8 pages, 4 figure

Dynamic Interaction of cBid with Detergents, Liposomes and Mitochondria

The BH3-only protein Bid plays a key role in the induction of mitochondrial apoptosis, but its mechanism of action is still not completely understood. Here we studied the two main activation events of Bid: Caspase-8 cleavage and interaction with the membrane bilayer. We found a striking reversible behaviour of the dissociation-association events between the Bid fragments p15 and p7. Caspase-8 cleavage does not induce per se separation of the two Bid fragments, which remain in a stable complex resembling the full length Bid. Detergents trigger a complete dissociation, which can be fully reversed by detergent removal in a range of protein concentrations from 100 µM down to 500 nM. Incubation of cBid with cardiolipin-containing liposomes leads to partial dissociation of the complex. Only p15 (tBid) fragments are found at the membrane, while p7 shows no tendency to interact with the bilayer, but complete removal of p7 strongly increases the propensity of tBid to become membrane-associated. Despite the striking structural similarities of inactive Bid and Bax, Bid does not form oligomers and reacts differently in the presence of detergents and membranes, highlighting clear differences in the modes of action of the two proteins. The partial dissociation of cBid triggered by the membrane is suggested to depend on the strong and specific interaction between p15 and p7. The reversible disassembly and re-assembly of the cBid molecules at the membrane was as well proven by EPR using spin labeled cBid in the presence of isolated mitochondria. The observed dynamic dissociation of the two Bid fragments could allow the assistance to the pore-forming Bax to occur repeatedly and may explain the proposed “hit-and-run" mode of action of Bid at the bilayer

Elucidation on the Effect of Operating Temperature to the Transport Properties of Polymeric Membrane Using Molecular Simulation Tool

Existing reports of gas transport properties within polymeric membrane as a direct consequence of operating temperature are in a small number and have arrived in diverging conclusion. The scarcity has been associated to challenges in fabricating defect free membranes and empirical investigations of gas permeation performance at the laboratory scale that are often time consuming and costly. Molecular simulation has been proposed as a feasible alternative of experimentally studied materials to provide insights into gas transport characteristic. Hence, a sequence of molecular modelling procedures has been proposed to simulate polymeric membranes at varying operating temperatures in order to elucidate its effect to gas transport behaviour. The simulation model has been validated with experimental data through satisfactory agreement. Solubility has shown a decrement in value when increased in temperature (an average factor of 1.78), while the opposite has been observed for gas diffusivity (an average factor of 1.32) when the temperature is increased from 298.15Â K to 323.15Â K. In addition, it is found that permeability decreases by 1.36 times as the temperature is increased