Functional MRI BOLD response to Tower of London performance of first-episode schizophrenia patients using cortical pattern matching

Due to its three-dimensional folding pattern, the human neocortex; poses a challenge for accurate co-registration of grouped functional; brain imaging data. The present study addressed this problem by; employing three-dimensional continuum-mechanical image-warping; techniques to derive average anatomical representations for coregistration; of functional magnetic resonance brain imaging data; obtained from 10 male first-episode schizophrenia patients and 10 age-matched; male healthy volunteers while they performed a version of the; Tower of London task. This novel technique produced an equivalent; representation of blood oxygenation level dependent (BOLD) response; across hemispheres, cortical regions, and groups, respectively, when; compared to intensity average co-registration, using a deformable; Brodmann area atlas as anatomical reference. Somewhat closer; association of Brodmann area boundaries with primary visual and; auditory areas was evident using the gyral pattern average model.; Statistically-thresholded BOLD cluster data confirmed predominantly; bilateral prefrontal and parietal, right frontal and dorsolateral; prefrontal, and left occipital activation in healthy subjects, while; patients’ hemispheric dominance pattern was diminished or reversed,; particularly decreasing cortical BOLD response with increasing task; difficulty in the right superior temporal gyrus. Reduced regional gray; matter thickness correlated with reduced left-hemispheric prefrontal/; frontal and bilateral parietal BOLD activation in patients. This is the; first study demonstrating that reduction of regional gray matter in; first-episode schizophrenia patients is associated with impaired brain; function when performing the Tower of London task, and supports; previous findings of impaired executive attention and working memory; in schizophrenia.

Functional neuroanatomy of auditory mismatch processing : an event-related fMRI study of duration-deviant oddballs

This study was designed to identify the neural networks underlying automatic auditory deviance detection in 10 healthy subjects using functional magnetic resonance imaging. We measured blood oxygenation level-dependent contrasts derived from the comparison of blocks of stimuli presented as a series of standard tones (50 ms duration) alone versus blocks that contained rare duration-deviant tones (100 ms) that were interspersed among a series of frequent standard tones while subjects were watching a silent movie. Possible effects of scanner noise were assessed by a “no tone” condition. In line with previous positron emission tomography and EEG source modeling studies, we found temporal lobe and prefrontal cortical activation that was associated with auditory duration mismatch processing. Data were also analyzed employing an event-related hemodynamic response model, which confirmed activation in response to duration-deviant tones bilaterally in the superior temporal gyrus and prefrontally in the right inferior and middle frontal gyri. In line with previous electrophysiological reports, mismatch activation of these brain regions was significantly correlated with age. These findings suggest a close relationship of the event-related hemodynamic response pattern with the corresponding electrophysiological activity underlying the event-related “mismatch negativity” potential, a putative measure of auditory sensory memory.

Functional brain maps of Tower of London performance : a positron emission tomography and functional magnetic resonance imaging study

Regional cerebral blood flow (rCBF) and blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts represent different physiological measures of brain activation. The present study aimed to compare two functional brain imaging techniques (functional magnetic resonance imaging versus [15O] positron emission tomography) when using Tower of London (TOL) problems as the activation task. A categorical analysis (task versus baseline) revealed a significant BOLD increase bilaterally for the dorsolateral prefrontal and inferior parietal cortex and for the cerebellum. A parametric haemodynamic response model (or regression analysis) confirmed a task-difficulty-dependent increase of BOLD and rCBF for the cerebellum and the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex. In line with previous studies, a task-difficulty-dependent increase of left-hemispheric rCBF was also detected for the premotor cortex, cingulate, precuneus, and globus pallidus. These results imply consistency across the two neuroimaging modalities, particularly for the assessment of prefrontal brain function when using a parametric TOL adaptation.

Differential susceptibility to performance degradation across categories of facial emotion - a model confirmation

Patients with a number of psychiatric and neuropathological conditions demonstrate problems in recognising facial expressions of emotion. Research indicating that patients with schizophrenia perform more poorly in the recognition of negative valence facial stimuli than positive valence stimuli has been interpreted as evidence of a negative emotion specific deficit. An alternate explanation rests in the psychometric properties of the stimulus materials. This model suggests that the pattern of impairment observed in schizophrenia may reflect initial discrepancies in task difficulty between stimulus categories, which are not apparent in healthy subjects because of ceiling effects. This hypothesis is tested, by examining the performance of healthy subjects in a facial emotion categorisation task with three levels of stimulus resolution. Results confirm the predictions of the model, showing that performance degrades differentially across emotion categories, with the greatest deterioration to negative valence stimuli. In the light of these results, a possible methodology for detecting emotion specific deficits in clinical samples is discussed.

Book Review: "Metal Rules the Globe: Heavy Metal Music around the World". Durham, NC: Duke University Press.

It is rare to find an anthology that realizes the possibilities of the form. We tend to regard our edited collections as lesser siblings, and forget their special value. But at times, a subject seems to require an edited collection much more than it does a classic monograph. So it is with the subject showcased here, which concerns the global circulation, performance and consumption of heavy metal. This is a relatively new and emerging body of work, hitherto scattered disparately in the broader popular music studies, but quickly gaining status as a “studies” with the establishment of a global conference, a journal, and publication of this anthology, all in recent years. Metal Rules the Globe took the editors’ a decade to compile. That they have thought deeply about how they want the collection to speak shows through in the book’s thoughtful arrangement and design, and in the way in which they draw on the contributions herein to develop for the field a research agenda that will take it forward...

Book Review: "Below the Line: Producers and Production Studies in the New Television Economy by Vicki Mayer", Duke University Press, 2012

Vicki Mayer’s book is unusual in that, despite its title, it is not about television producers at all, or at least not in the sense that scholars and the television industry itself have traditionally understood the role. Rather than referring to those in creative, managerial or financial control, or those with substantial intellectual input into a program, Mayer uses the term in a deliberately broad sense to mean, essentially, anyone ‘whose labor, however small, contributes to [television] production’ (179).

Evaluation of Interconnect Fabrics for an Embedded MPSoC in 28 nm FD-SOI

Embedded many-core architectures contain dozens to hundreds of CPU cores that are connected via a highly scalable NoC interconnect. Our Multiprocessor-System-on-Chip CoreVAMPSoC combines the advantages of tightly coupled bus-based communication with the scalability of NoC approaches by adding a CPU cluster as an additional level of hierarchy. In this work, we analyze different cluster interconnect implementations with 8 to 32 CPUs and compare them in terms of resource requirements and performance to hierarchical NoCs approaches. Using 28nm FD-SOI technology the area requirement for 32 CPUs and AXI crossbar is 5.59mm2 including 23.61% for the interconnect at a clock frequency of 830 MHz. In comparison, a hierarchical MPSoC with 4 CPU cluster and 8 CPUs in each cluster requires only 4.83mm2 including 11.61% for the interconnect. To evaluate the performance, we use a compiler for streaming applications to map programs to the different MPSoC configurations. We use this approach for a design-space exploration to find the most efficient architecture and partitioning for an application.

A Deweyan experience economy for higher education : The case of the Australian Indie 100 Music Event

In this essay we argue that a Deweyan experience economy will best support the higher education (HE) sector in the future, and we draw a contrast between that economy and the sector’s current focus on informational concerns, as expressed by the recent rush to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) and other mass online informational offerings. We base our argument on current developments in music education and music technology that we see as being preemptive of wider trends. We use examples from a three-year study of online and offline music pedagogies and outline a four-year experiment in developing a pedagogical experience economy to illustrate a theoretical position informed by John Dewey’s theory of experience,Pierre Bourdieu’s theory of habitus and capital, and recent work in economic geography on epistemic communities. We argue further that the future of the HE sector is local rather than global, experiential rather than informational, and that therefore a continued informational approach to the future of HE risks undermining the sector.

National Profiles of In-Country Capacity to Support Disability-Inclusive Education; Fiji, Samoa, Soloman Islands and Vanuatu

This publication emanates from the four-country research project entitled “Strengthening capacity for disability-inclusive education development policy formulation, implementation and monitoring in the South Pacific region” funded by the Australian Development Research Award Scheme (ADRAS) and conducted jointly by the academic staff from the Queensland University of Technology and the University of the South Pacific.

In vitro pre-vascularisation of tissue-engineered constructs: A co-culture perspective

In vitro pre-vascularization is one of the main vascularization strategies in the tissue engineering field. Culturing cells within a tissue-engineered construct (TEC) prior to implantation provides researchers with a greater degree of control over the fate of the cells. However, balancing the diverse range of different cell culture parameters in vitro is seldom easy and in most cases, especially in highly vascularized tissues, more than one cell type will reside within the cell culture system. Culturing multiple cell types in the same construct presents its own unique challenges and pitfalls. The following review examines endothelial-driven vascularization and evaluates the direct and indirect role other cell types have in vessel and capillary formation. The article then analyses the different parameters researchers can modulate in a co-culture system in order to design optimal tissue-engineered constructs to match desired clinical applications.

Global, regional, and national comparative risk assessment of 79 behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks or clusters of risks in 188 countries, 1990–2013: a systematic analysis for the Global Burden of Disease Study 2013

Background The Global Burden of Disease, Injuries, and Risk Factor study 2013 (GBD 2013) is the first of a series of annual updates of the GBD. Risk factor quantification, particularly of modifiable risk factors, can help to identify emerging threats to population health and opportunities for prevention. The GBD 2013 provides a timely opportunity to update the comparative risk assessment with new data for exposure, relative risks, and evidence on the appropriate counterfactual risk distribution. Methods Attributable deaths, years of life lost, years lived with disability, and disability-adjusted life-years (DALYs) have been estimated for 79 risks or clusters of risks using the GBD 2010 methods. Risk–outcome pairs meeting explicit evidence criteria were assessed for 188 countries for the period 1990–2013 by age and sex using three inputs: risk exposure, relative risks, and the theoretical minimum risk exposure level (TMREL). Risks are organised into a hierarchy with blocks of behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks at the first level of the hierarchy. The next level in the hierarchy includes nine clusters of related risks and two individual risks, with more detail provided at levels 3 and 4 of the hierarchy. Compared with GBD 2010, six new risk factors have been added: handwashing practices, occupational exposure to trichloroethylene, childhood wasting, childhood stunting, unsafe sex, and low glomerular filtration rate. For most risks, data for exposure were synthesised with a Bayesian meta-regression method, DisMod-MR 2.0, or spatial-temporal Gaussian process regression. Relative risks were based on meta-regressions of published cohort and intervention studies. Attributable burden for clusters of risks and all risks combined took into account evidence on the mediation of some risks such as high body-mass index (BMI) through other risks such as high systolic blood pressure and high cholesterol. Findings All risks combined account for 57·2% (95% uncertainty interval [UI] 55·8–58·5) of deaths and 41·6% (40·1–43·0) of DALYs. Risks quantified account for 87·9% (86·5–89·3) of cardiovascular disease DALYs, ranging to a low of 0% for neonatal disorders and neglected tropical diseases and malaria. In terms of global DALYs in 2013, six risks or clusters of risks each caused more than 5% of DALYs: dietary risks accounting for 11·3 million deaths and 241·4 million DALYs, high systolic blood pressure for 10·4 million deaths and 208·1 million DALYs, child and maternal malnutrition for 1·7 million deaths and 176·9 million DALYs, tobacco smoke for 6·1 million deaths and 143·5 million DALYs, air pollution for 5·5 million deaths and 141·5 million DALYs, and high BMI for 4·4 million deaths and 134·0 million DALYs. Risk factor patterns vary across regions and countries and with time. In sub-Saharan Africa, the leading risk factors are child and maternal malnutrition, unsafe sex, and unsafe water, sanitation, and handwashing. In women, in nearly all countries in the Americas, north Africa, and the Middle East, and in many other high-income countries, high BMI is the leading risk factor, with high systolic blood pressure as the leading risk in most of Central and Eastern Europe and south and east Asia. For men, high systolic blood pressure or tobacco use are the leading risks in nearly all high-income countries, in north Africa and the Middle East, Europe, and Asia. For men and women, unsafe sex is the leading risk in a corridor from Kenya to South Africa. Interpretation Behavioural, environmental and occupational, and metabolic risks can explain half of global mortality and more than one-third of global DALYs providing many opportunities for prevention. Of the larger risks, the attributable burden of high BMI has increased in the past 23 years. In view of the prominence of behavioural risk factors, behavioural and social science research on interventions for these risks should be strengthened. Many prevention and primary care policy options are available now to act on key risks.

FTO genotype is associated with phenotypic variability of body mass index

There is evidence across several species for genetic control of phenotypic variation of complex traits1, 2, 3, 4, such that the variance among phenotypes is genotype dependent. Understanding genetic control of variability is important in evolutionary biology, agricultural selection programmes and human medicine, yet for complex traits, no individual genetic variants associated with variance, as opposed to the mean, have been identified. Here we perform a meta-analysis of genome-wide association studies of phenotypic variation using ~170,000 samples on height and body mass index (BMI) in human populations. We report evidence that the single nucleotide polymorphism (SNP) rs7202116 at the FTO gene locus, which is known to be associated with obesity (as measured by mean BMI for each rs7202116 genotype)5, 6, 7, is also associated with phenotypic variability. We show that the results are not due to scale effects or other artefacts, and find no other experiment-wise significant evidence for effects on variability, either at loci other than FTO for BMI or at any locus for height. The difference in variance for BMI among individuals with opposite homozygous genotypes at the FTO locus is approximately 7%, corresponding to a difference of ~0.5 kilograms in the standard deviation of weight. Our results indicate that genetic variants can be discovered that are associated with variability, and that between-person variability in obesity can partly be explained by the genotype at the FTO locus. The results are consistent with reported FTO by environment interactions for BMI8, possibly mediated by DNA methylation9, 10. Our BMI results for other SNPs and our height results for all SNPs suggest that most genetic variants, including those that influence mean height or mean BMI, are not associated with phenotypic variance, or that their effects on variability are too small to detect even with samples sizes greater than 100,000.

Diabetic charcot neuroarthropathy of the knee: Conservative treatment options as alternatives to surgery

In contrast to the well-known Charcot neuroarthropathy (CN) of the foot, CN of the knee is hardly recognized. In a literature search, we only found five articles on total knee arthroplasty for Charcot joints (1–5). We did not find a single article dealing with alternative treatment options or the general clinical course of this disease. We started our study

Diabetic charcot neuroarthropathy of the hand: Clinical course, diagnosis, and treatment options

During the treatment of diabetic Charcot neuroarthropathy (CN) of the foot in two young patients, we discovered atypical alterations of their hands with loss of strength and paresthesia combined with atypical and nonhealing bone alterations and instability. Whereas CN of the foot is a serious and well-known complication of diabetes, CN of the hand is only mentioned in four articles (1–4).