A Comparison of Two Types of Turns Used in the Breaststroke and Butterfly

This study compared the speed of the touch-turn to the grab-turn using the competitive butterfly and breaststrokes. The subjects were twenty five male high school swimmers, all of whom had at least three years of competitive experience. All subjects received instruction on each turn during 16 weeks of a competitive season and practiced each turn dozens of times. Each subject was tested on the speed of each turn. The tests were given on two consecutive days to establish reliability. The Pearson Product Moment correlation was used to determine the relationship of the initial test to the retest. An analysis of variance was used to ascertain if any significant difference existed between the two types of turns. The conclusions were that no significant difference existed between the time of the touch-turn and the grab-turn when used with the butterfly stroke and the breaststroke

Collating and Curating Neuroanatomical Nomenclatures: Principles and Use of the Brain Architecture Knowledge Management System (BAMS)

Terms used to describe nervous system parts and their interconnections are rife with synonyms, partial correspondences, and even homonyms, making effective scientific communication unnecessarily difficult. To address this problem a new Topological Relations schema for the Relations module of BAMS (Brain Architecture Knowledge Management System) was created. It includes a representation of the qualitative spatial relations between nervous system parts defined in different neuroanatomical nomenclatures or atlases and is general enough to record data and metadata from the literature, regardless of description level or species. Based on this foundation a Projections Translations inference engine was developed for the BAMS interface that automatically translates neuroanatomical projection (axonal inputs and outputs) reports across nomenclatures from translated information. To make BAMS more useful to the neuroscience community three things were done. First, we implemented a simple schema for validation of the translated neuroanatomical projections. Second, more than 1,000 topological relations between brain gray matter regions for the rat were inserted, along with associated details. Finally, a case study was performed to enter all historical or legacy published information about terminology related to one relatively complex gray matter region of the rat. The bed nuclei of the stria terminalis (BST) were chosen and 21 different nomenclatures from 1923 to present were collated, along with 284 terms for parts (gray matter differentiations), 360 qualitative topological relations between parts, and more than 7,000 details about spatial relations between parts, all of which was annotated with appropriate metadata. This information was used to construct a graphical “knowledge map” of relations used in the literature to describe subdivisions of the rat BST

BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology: Design and Implementation

We describe in this paper the structure and main features of a domain specific ontology for neuroscience, the BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology. The ontology includes a complete set of concepts that describe the parts of the rat nervous system, a growing set of concepts that describe neuron populations identified in different brain regions, and relationships between concepts. The ontology is linked with a complex representation of structural and physiological variables used to classify neurons, which is encoded in BAMS. BAMS Neuroanatomical Ontology is accessible on the web and includes an interface that allows browsing terms, viewing criteria for classification, and accessing associated information

Lhx6 Delineates a Pathway Mediating Innate Reproductive Behaviors from the Amygdala to the Hypothalamus

In mammals, innate reproductive and defensive behaviors are mediated by anatomically segregated connections between the amygdala and hypothalamus. This anatomic segregation poses the problem of how the brain integrates activity in these circuits when faced with conflicting stimuli eliciting such mutually exclusive behaviors. Using genetically encoded and conventional axonal tracers, we have found that the transcription factor Lhx6 delineates the reproductive branch of this pathway. Other Lhx proteins mark neurons in amygdalar nuclei implicated in defense. We have traced parallel projections from the posterior medial amygdala, activated by reproductive or defensive olfactory stimuli, respectively, to a point of convergence in the ventromedial hypothalamus. The opposite neurotransmitter phenotypes of these convergent projections suggest a “gate control” mechanism for the inhibition of reproductive behaviors by threatening stimuli. Our data therefore identify a potential neural substrate for integrating the influences of conflicting behavioral cues and a transcription factor family that may contribute to the development of this substrate

The NeuARt II system: a viewing tool for neuroanatomical data based on published neuroanatomical atlases

BACKGROUND: Anatomical studies of neural circuitry describing the basic wiring diagram of the brain produce intrinsically spatial, highly complex data of great value to the neuroscience community. Published neuroanatomical atlases provide a spatial framework for these studies. We have built an informatics framework based on these atlases for the representation of neuroanatomical knowledge. This framework not only captures current methods of anatomical data acquisition and analysis, it allows these studies to be collated, compared and synthesized within a single system. RESULTS: We have developed an atlas-viewing application ('NeuARt II') in the Java language with unique functional properties. These include the ability to use copyrighted atlases as templates within which users may view, save and retrieve data-maps and annotate them with volumetric delineations. NeuARt II also permits users to view multiple levels on multiple atlases at once. Each data-map in this system is simply a stack of vector images with one image per atlas level, so any set of accurate drawings made onto a supported atlas (in vector graphics format) could be uploaded into NeuARt II. Presently the database is populated with a corpus of high-quality neuroanatomical data from the laboratory of Dr Larry Swanson (consisting 64 highly-detailed maps of PHAL tract-tracing experiments, made up of 1039 separate drawings that were published in 27 primary research publications over 17 years). Herein we take selective examples from these data to demonstrate the features of NeuArt II. Our informatics tool permits users to browse, query and compare these maps. The NeuARt II tool operates within a bioinformatics knowledge management platform (called 'NeuroScholar') either as a standalone or a plug-in application. CONCLUSION: Anatomical localization is fundamental to neuroscientific work and atlases provide an easily-understood framework that is widely used by neuroanatomists and non-neuroanatomists alike. NeuARt II, the neuroinformatics tool presented here, provides an accurate and powerful way of representing neuroanatomical data in the context of commonly-used brain atlases for visualization, comparison and analysis. Furthermore, it provides a framework that supports the delivery and manipulation of mapped data either as a standalone system or as a component in a larger knowledge management system

A proposal for a coordinated effort for the determination of brainwide neuroanatomical connectivity in model organisms at a mesoscopic scale

In this era of complete genomes, our knowledge of neuroanatomical circuitry remains surprisingly sparse. Such knowledge is however critical both for basic and clinical research into brain function. Here we advocate for a concerted effort to fill this gap, through systematic, experimental mapping of neural circuits at a mesoscopic scale of resolution suitable for comprehensive, brain-wide coverage, using injections of tracers or viral vectors. We detail the scientific and medical rationale and briefly review existing knowledge and experimental techniques. We define a set of desiderata, including brain-wide coverage; validated and extensible experimental techniques suitable for standardization and automation; centralized, open access data repository; compatibility with existing resources, and tractability with current informatics technology. We discuss a hypothetical but tractable plan for mouse, additional efforts for the macaque, and technique development for human. We estimate that the mouse connectivity project could be completed within five years with a comparatively modest budget.Comment: 41 page

The Victorian Newsletter (Spring 1967)

The Victorian Newsletter is edited for the English X Group of the Modern Language Association by William E. Buckler, New York University, New York, N.Y. 10003

Genomic, Pathway Network, and Immunologic Features Distinguishing Squamous Carcinomas

This integrated, multiplatform PanCancer Atlas study co-mapped and identified distinguishing molecular features of squamous cell carcinomas (SCCs) from five sites associated with smokin