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The anterolateral pathway consists of ascending spinal tracts that convey pain, temperature and touch information from the spinal cord to the brain.sup.1-4. Projection neurons of the anterolateral pathway are attractive therapeutic targets for pain treatment because nociceptive signals emanating from the periphery are channelled through these spinal projection neurons en route to the brain. However, the organizational logic of the anterolateral pathway remains poorly understood. Here we show that two populations of projection neurons that express the structurally related G-protein-coupled receptors (GPCRs) TACR1 and GPR83 form parallel ascending circuit modules that cooperate to convey thermal, tactile and noxious cutaneous signals from the spinal cord to the lateral parabrachial nucleus of the pons. Within this nucleus, axons of spinoparabrachial (SPB) neurons that express Tacr1 or Gpr83 innervate distinct sets of subnuclei, and strong optogenetic stimulation of the axon terminals induces distinct escape behaviours and autonomic responses. Moreover, SPB neurons that express Gpr83 are highly sensitive to cutaneous mechanical stimuli and receive strong synaptic inputs from both high- and low-threshold primary mechanosensory neurons. Notably, the valence associated with activation of SPB neurons that express Gpr83 can be either positive or negative, depending on stimulus intensity. These findings reveal anatomically, physiologically and functionally distinct subdivisions of the SPB tract that underlie affective aspects of touch and pain. Two populations of neurons with distinct anatomy and receptor expression that convey information from the spinal cord to the brain have different functional properties with respect to touch and pain., Author(s): Seungwon Choi [sup.1] , Junichi Hachisuka [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.6] , Matthew A. Brett [sup.1] , Alexandra R. Magee [sup.1] , Yu Omori [sup.2] [sup.3] [sup.7] , Noor-ul-Aine Iqbal [sup.1] [...]

Bilateral symmetry has evolved from radial symmetry in several floral lineages, and multiple hypotheses have been proposed to account for the success of this floral plan. One of these hypotheses posits that bilateral symmetry (or, more generally, a reduced number of planes of floral symmetry) allows for more precise pollen placement on pollinators. Greater precision would maximize the efficacy of pollen transfer to conspecifics, while minimizing reproductive interference amongst plant species. Despite the intuitiveness of this hypothesis, it has little experimental support. Here, we tested whether a reduction in the number of floral planes of symmetry (as in the transition from radial to bilateral symmetry) increases the potential precision of pollen placement. We analyzed video recordings of bumblebees (Bombus impatiens) visiting artificial flowers to determine whether consistency in flower entry angle differed between radial (round) and disymmetric (rectangular) “flowers”. We observed more consistent entry angles for disymmetric flowers than for radial flowers, with entry angles to radial flowers 43% more variable on average (standard deviations of 30° vs. 21°). Bees trained on flowers with an intermediate (square) morphology exhibited a slight, non-significant preference for radial symmetry over disymmetry. Our results show that disymmetry—an evolutionarily intermediate form of floral symmetry—has the potential to increase pollen transfer to conspecific stigmas, relative to radial symmetry. Thus, evolutionary reduction in the number of planes of floral symmetry likely provides benefits in terms of pollen delivery, as suggested by the pollen-placement-accuracy hypothesis. These findings offer insight into the evolution of floral symmetry.

Classical Hodgkin's lymphoma (CHL) presenting with exclusively pulmonary symptoms is very unusual. We report two cases of CHL with atypical clinical presentations mimicking pulmonary infections. The first case represents a stage IV CHL with secondary lung involvement, and the second case demonstrates a very rare case of CHL with isolated lung involvement, also known as primary pulmonary Hodgkin's lymphoma. The second patient was initially misdiagnosed and treated with six months of antibiotics before the correct diagnosis was made by a lung biopsy. Both patients received chemotherapy; one patient achieved complete remission and the other achieved near-complete remission.

The demand for fluorescent organic dyes across a broad range of applications has led to investigation into tuneable emission dyes. The tuneable nature of these dyes makes them desirable for applications in a variety of fields, including organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs), optical sensing devices, and fluorescence imaging. In recent investigations, there have only been a handful of mechanisms used to tune emission. Herein, we present four novel perylene-acene dyads that undergo solvent tuneable emission, and propose a novel mechanism for this tuneability based on the presence of a charge transfer state. These dyes were shown to reach photoluminescence quantum efficiencies (PLQEs) as high as 45%, depending on the solvent, showing the ability for this mechanism to be used to access higher PLQE tuneable emission. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ulcerative colitis has long been linked with an increased risk for colonic adenocarcinoma, whereas Crohn’s disease (CD) has recently been reported to pose a similar increased risk. We report a 33-year-old healthy female with no family history who presented with abdominal pain and a colon mass. Histopathology revealed a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma extending through the muscularis propria with metastatic lymph nodes and intact mismatch repair proteins by immunohistochemical expression and gene sequencing. The nonneoplastic grossly uninvolved background mucosa showed marked crypt distortion, crypt abscesses, CD-like lymphoid hyperplasia, transmural inflammation, and reactive epithelial atypia. Additional patient questioning revealed frequent loose stools since she was a teenager leading to diagnosis of a previously undiagnosed CD without primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The adenocarcinoma is suspected to be related to the underlying CD. Newly diagnosed adenocarcinoma in a young female as the presenting sign for CD in the absence of PSC is extremely rare.

Adenocarcinoma with osteoblastic metastases is classically seen in prostate, breast, and lung primaries. Less common primary sites include thyroid, kidney, and stomach. We present two cases of primary gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma with metastatic osteoblastic activity from two previously unreported sites. The first case represents an esophageal adenocarcinoma arising in a background of intestinal metaplasia that metastasized with osteoblastic activity to the deltoid muscle. The second case demonstrates a Stage IV sigmoid colon adenocarcinoma with osteoblastic metastases to the liver and lymph nodes. The findings indicate that metastases from various gastrointestinal primary adenocarcinomas can have prominent bone formation.

A series of structurally related binuclear metallacycles [Cd (NO3)(sub 2) L](sub 2), where L is an angular exobidentate ligand, is synthesized. Stereoselective homochiral association of [Cd (NO3)(sub 2) L](sub 2) leads to the formation of helical coordination polymer, whereas meso type association results in nonhelical chain structures.

Array programming provides a powerful, compact and expressive syntax for accessing, manipulating and operating on data in vectors, matrices and higher-dimensional arrays. NumPy is the primary array programming library for the Python language. It has an essential role in research analysis pipelines in fields as diverse as physics, chemistry, astronomy, geoscience, biology, psychology, materials science, engineering, finance and economics. For example, in astronomy, NumPy was an important part of the software stack used in the discovery of gravitational waves1 and in the first imaging of a black hole2. Here we review how a few fundamental array concepts lead to a simple and powerful programming paradigm for organizing, exploring and analysing scientific data. NumPy is the foundation upon which the scientific Python ecosystem is constructed. It is so pervasive that several projects, targeting audiences with specialized needs, have developed their own NumPy-like interfaces and array objects. Owing to its central position in the ecosystem, NumPy increasingly acts as an interoperability layer between such array computation libraries and, together with its application programming interface (API), provides a flexible framework to support the next decade of scientific and industrial analysis. NumPy is the primary array programming library for Python; here its fundamental concepts are reviewed and its evolution into a flexible interoperability layer between increasingly specialized computational libraries is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drug‐resistant strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis are on the rise and have resulted in an urgent need to develop new tuberculosis (TB) drugs. Herein, the development of chromonyl‐pyrimidines as a new TB drug scaffold is presented. A library of eleven chromonyl‐pyrimidines was synthesised, from which lead compound 6‐((2‐amino‐6‐methylpyrimidin‐4‐yl)amino)‐3‐benzoyl‐2‐phenyl‐4H‐chromen‐4‐one (MIC=36 μM against M. tuberculosis) was identified. A second‐generation library of seven aryl‐substituted chromonyl‐pyrimidines was then prepared, with six chromonyl‐pyrimidines exhibiting an improved M. tuberculosis growth inhibition (MIC=12.5 μM). From this work, the potential of chromonyl‐pyrimidines as therapeutics for TB is demonstrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Statistical Energy Analysis (SEA) approach has largely been used in vibro-acoustic modelling to predict the averaged energy in coupled vibrating structures and acoustic cavities. The average is performed over an ensemble of nominally identical built-up systems where random responses are observed at high frequencies after excitation. Over the years, this approach has been extended to predict the energy variance employing the statistics of the Gaussian Orthogonal Ensemble, and numerical and experimental evidence has supported the predictions of the mean and variance of energy of coupled vibrating structures. However, little experimental evidence is found to validate the prediction of the variance of energy in coupled structural-acoustic systems. In this work, the mean and variance of energies predicted from a statistical energy analysis model have been validated with experimental measurements on a structural-acoustic system, comprised by a flat thin plate coupled to an enclosed acoustic volume. The structural system has been randomised by adding small masses on arbitrary positions on the plate, whereas the randomisation of the acoustic cavity is achieved by allocating rigid baffles in random positions within the acoustic volume. In general, good agreement is found between the predictions of the model and the experimental results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We describe a project-based introduction to reproducible and collaborative neuroimaging analysis. Traditional teaching on neuroimaging usually consists of a series of lectures that emphasize the big picture rather than the foundations on which the techniques are based. The lectures are often paired with practical workshops in which students run imaging analyses using the graphical interface of specific neuroimaging software packages. Our experience suggests that this combination leaves the student with a superficial understanding of the underlying ideas, and an informal, inefficient, and inaccurate approach to analysis. To address these problems, we based our course around a substantial open-ended group project. This allowed us to teach: (a) computational tools to ensure computationally reproducible work, such as the Unix command line, structured code, version control, automated testing, and code review and (b) a clear understanding of the statistical techniques used for a basic analysis of a single run in an MR scanner. The emphasis we put on the group project showed the importance of standard computational tools for accuracy, efficiency, and collaboration. The projects were broadly successful in engaging students in working reproducibly on real scientific questions. We propose that a course on this model should be the foundation for future programs in neuroimaging. We believe it will also serve as a model for teaching efficient and reproducible research in other fields of computational science. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ulcerative colitis has long been linkedwith an increased risk for colonic adenocarcinoma,whereas Crohn's disease (CD) has recently been reported to pose a similar increased risk. We report a 33-year-old healthy female with no family history who presented with abdominal pain and a colon mass. Histopathology revealed a moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma extending through the muscularis propria with metastatic lymph nodes and intact mismatch repair proteins by immunohistochemical expression and gene sequencing. The nonneoplastic grossly uninvolved background mucosa showed marked crypt distortion, crypt abscesses, CD-like lymphoid hyperplasia, transmural inflammation, and reactive epithelial atypia. Additional patient questioning revealed frequent loose stools since she was a teenager leading to diagnosis of a previously undiagnosed CD without primary sclerosing cholangitis (PSC). The adenocarcinoma is suspected to be related to the underlying CD. Newly diagnosed adenocarcinoma in a young female as the presenting sign for CD in the absence of PSC is extremely rare. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We evaluated and compared the performance of two popular neuroimaging processing platforms: Statistical Parametric Mapping (SPM) and FMRIB Software Library (FSL). We focused on comparing brain segmentations using Kirby21, a magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) replication study with 21 subjects and two scans per subject conducted only a few hours apart. We tested within- and between-platform segmentation reliability both at the whole brain and in 10 regions of interest (ROIs). For a range of fixed probability thresholds we found no differences between-scans within-platform, but large differences between-platforms. We have also found very large differences between- and within-platforms when probability thresholds were changed. A randomized blinded reader study indicated that: (1) SPM and FSL performed well in terms of gray matter segmentation; (2) SPM and FSL performed poorly in terms of white matter segmentation; and (3) FSL slightly outperformed SPM in terms of CSF segmentation. We also found that tissue class probability thresholds can have profound effects on segmentation results. We conclude that the reproducibility of neuroimaging studies depends on the neuroimaging software-processing platform and tissue probability thresholds. Our results suggest that probability thresholds may not be comparable across platforms and consistency of results may be improved by estimating a probability threshold correspondence function between SPM and FSL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Adenocarcinoma with osteoblastic metastases is classically seen in prostate, breast, and lung primaries. Less common primary sites include thyroid, kidney, and stomach. We present two cases of primary gastrointestinal adenocarcinoma with metastatic osteoblastic activity from two previously unreported sites. The first case represents an esophageal adenocarcinoma arising in a background of intestinal metaplasia that metastasized with osteoblastic activity to the deltoid muscle. The second case demonstrates a Stage IV sigmoid colon adenocarcinoma with osteoblastic metastases to the liver and lymph nodes. The findings indicate that metastases from various gastrointestinal primary adenocarcinomas can have prominent bone formation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

At our institution, percent tumor burden in prostate core biopsies is quantified using variations of one of two methods. Measurement by the Aggregate method reports only adenocarcinoma and omits intervening stroma and benign prostatic glands while the Discontinuous method includes the intervening stroma and benign glands between distinct foci of adenocarcinoma. In this study, we selected cases with 12-part core biopsies that were followed by a radical prostatectomy within two years. Interestingly, we found that when adenocarcinoma involved prostate 12-part core biopsies and subsequent resection unilaterally, there is no significant difference in absolute percentage of tumor using either measuring method ( P = 0.4). In contrast, when adenocarcinoma involved the biopsies unilaterally and subsequent prostatectomy bilaterally, the two measurement methods had a statistically significant difference in percentage scores ( P = 0.002). In the study cohort, other factors including Gleason score ( P = 0.88) and total number of adenocarcinoma-involved cores ( P = 0.27) did not introduce any significant correlation with bilateral involvement. In this study, we found that biopsies that discontinuously and unilaterally involve half of a prostate are much more likely to involve both lobes than those that are unilateral and present in nodular aggregates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Diffusion Imaging in Python (Dipy) is a free and open source software project for the analysis of data from diffusion magnetic resonance imaging (dMRI) experiments. dMRI is an application of MRI that can be used to measure structural features of brain white matter. Many methods have been developed to use dMRI data to model the local configuration of white matter nerve fiber bundles and infer the trajectory of bundles connecting different parts of the brain. Dipy gathers implementations of many different methods in dMRI, including: diffusion signal pre-processing; reconstruction of diffusion distributions in individual voxels; fiber tractography and fiber track post-processing, analysis and visualization. Dipy aims to provide transparent implementations for all the different steps of dMRI analysis with a uniform programming interface. We have implemented classical signal reconstruction techniques, such as the diffusion tensor model and deterministic fiber tractography. In addition, cutting edge novel reconstruction techniques are implemented, such as constrained spherical deconvolution and diffusion spectrum imaging (DSI) with deconvolution, as well as methods for probabilistic tracking and original methods for tractography clustering. Many additional utility functions are provided to calculate various statistics, informative visualizations, as well as file-handling routines to assist in the development and use of novel techniques. In contrast to many other scientific software projects, Dipy is not being developed by a single research group. Rather, it is an open project that encourages contributions from any scientist/developer through GitHub and open discussions on the project mailing list. Consequently, Dipy today has an international team of contributors, spanning seven different academic institutions in five countries and three continents, which is still growing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]