Agar block smear preparation: a novel method of slide preparation for preservation of native fungal structures for microscopic examination and long-term storage.

We describe a novel method of fungal slide preparation named "agar block smear preparation." A total of 510 agar block smears of 25 fungal strains obtained from culture collections, 90 QC fungal strains, and 82 clinical fungal strains from our clinical microbiology laboratory, which included a total of 137 species of yeasts, molds, and thermal dimorphic fungi, were prepared and examined. In contrast to adhesive tape preparation, agar block smears preserved the native fungal structures, such as intact conidiophores of Aspergillus species and arrangements of conidia in Scopulariopsis brevicaulis.

Second harmonic generation imaging - a new method for unraveling molecular information of starch.

We present a new method, second harmonic generation (SHG) imaging for the study of starch structure. SHG imaging can provide the structural organization and molecular orientation information of bio-tissues without centrosymmetry. In recent years, SHG has proven its capability in the study of crystallized bio-molecules such as collagen and myosin.

Direct near-field optical imaging of plasmonic resonances in metal nanoparticle pairs.

In this paper we investigate the near-field optical behavior of plasmon coupling in gold nanoparticle pairs. In particular, by performing series measurements through a fiber-collection mode near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM), we directly observed the localized electromagnetic (EM) field distribution between two nanospheres is sensitively depended on the incident polarization and interparticle distance. The qualitative near-field observation and quantitative analysis facilitate more understanding of localized hot spots in surface-enhanced Raman scattering (SERS), and nano-applications in selectively controlling the spatial distribution of localized surface plasmon (SP) modes on a fabricated nanostructure by adjusting the polarization direction.

Association of depressed mood and mortality in older adults with and without cognitive impairment in a prospective naturalistic study.

Objective: The authors examined predictors of mortality in individuals age 50 or older with or without cognitive impairment in a 12-year prospective naturalistic study of subcortical ischemic vascular disease focusing on symptoms of depressed mood, apathy, anhedonia, or anergia.

Method: A total of 498 participants were recruited from the community and from memory clinics into a multicenter longitudinal study of subcortical ischemic vascular disease. For baseline cognitive status, 36% of participants were assessed as cognitively intact, 31% as cognitively impaired, and 33% as demented.

White matter integrity and cortical metabolic associations in aging and dementia.

Background: Studies show that white matter hyperintensities, regardless of location, primarily affect frontal lobe metabolism and function. This report investigated how regional white matter integrity (measured as fractional anisotropy [FA]) relates to brain metabolism, to unravel the complex relationship between white matter changes and brain metabolism.

Objective: To elucidate the relationship between white matter integrity and gray matter metabolism using diffusion tensor imaging and fluorodeoxyglucose-positron emission tomography in a cohort of 16 subjects ranging from normal to demented (age, >55 years).

Influences of lobar gray matter and white matter lesion load on cognition and mood.

Depressed mood is a frequent co-morbidity of dementia suggesting that they might share a common neuropathological substrate. Gray matter (GM) atrophy and white matter lesions (WML) have been described in both conditions. Our aims were to determine the relationship of GM and WML with cognition and depressed mood in the same population.

A diffraction-limited scanning system providing broad spectral range for laser scanning microscopy.

Diversified research interests in scanning laser microscopy nowadays require broadband capability of the optical system. Although an all-mirror-based optical design with a suitable metallic coating is appropriate for broad-spectrum applications from ultraviolet to terahertz, most researchers prefer lens-based scanning systems despite the drawbacks of a limited spectral range, ghost reflection, and chromatic aberration. One of the main concerns is that the geometrical aberration induced by off-axis incidence on spherical mirrors significantly deteriorates image resolution.

Cerebral blood flow in ischemic vascular dementia and Alzheimer's disease, measured by arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging.

Background: Our objectives were to compare the effects of subcortical ischemic vascular dementia (SIVD) and Alzheimer's disease (AD) on cerebral blood flow (CBF), and then to analyze the relationship between CBF and subcortical vascular disease, measured as volume of white-matter lesions (WMLs).

Methods: Eight mildly demented patients with SIVD (mean +/- SD; aged 77 +/- 8 years; Mini-Mental State Examination score 26 +/- 3 years) and 14 patients with AD were compared with 18 cognitively normal elderly subjects. All subjects had CBF measured using arterial spin-labeling magnetic resonance imaging, and brain volumes were assessed using structural magnetic resonance imaging.

The Alzheimer's Disease Centers' Uniform Data Set (UDS): the neuropsychologic test battery.

The neuropsychologic test battery from the Uniform Data Set (UDS) of the Alzheimer's Disease Centers (ADC) program of the National Institute on Aging consists of brief measures of attention, processing speed, executive function, episodic memory, and language. This paper describes development of the battery and preliminary data from the initial UDS evaluation of 3268 clinically cognitively normal men and women collected over the first 24 months of utilization. The subjects represent a sample of community-dwelling, individuals who volunteer for studies of cognitive aging.

Broadband tunable optical parametric amplification from a single 50 MHz ultrafast fiber laser.

We have demonstrated a 0.7 microm - 1.9 microm wavelength-tunable light source based on a single-pass optical parametric amplification (OPA) in a multiperiod magnesium oxide-doped periodically poled lithium niobate crystal.

An inverse association of cardiovascular risk and frontal lobe glucose metabolism.

Objective: To investigate associations between vascular risk profile and cerebral glucose metabolism.

Methods: Subjects ranged from normal to having dementia (age >55 years) and underwent neuropsychological testing, MRI, and FDG PET scanning (n = 58). The Framingham Cardiovascular Risk Profile (FCRP) and its individual components were used as covariates in regression analyses with each PET scan using SPM2.

Co-registration of In-Vivo Human MRI Brain Images to Postmortem Histological Microscopic Images.

Certain features such as small vascular lesions seen in human MRI are detected reliably only in postmortem histological samples by microscopic imaging. Co-registration of these microscopically detected features to their corresponding locations in the in-vivo images would be of great benefit to understanding the MRI signatures of specific diseases. Using non-linear Polynomial transformation, we report a method to co-register in-vivo MRIs to microscopic images of histological samples drawn off the postmortem brain.

Association of distinct variants in SORL1 with cerebrovascular and neurodegenerative changes related to Alzheimer disease.

Background: Single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 2 distinct regions of the gene for the sortilin-related receptor (SORL1) (bounded by consecutively numbered SNPs 8-10 and 22-25) were shown to be associated with Alzheimer disease (AD) in multiple ethnically diverse samples.

Objective: To test the hypothesis that SORL1 is associated with brain magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) measurements of atrophy and/or vascular disease.

Design, Setting, And Patients: We evaluated the association of 30 SNPs spanning SORL1 with MRI measures of general cerebral atrophy, hippocampal atrophy, white matter hyperintensities, and overall cerebrovascular disease in 44 African American and 182 white sibships from the MIRAGE Study.

Longitudinal changes in memory and executive functioning are associated with longitudinal change in instrumental activities of daily living in older adults.

Impaired everyday function is a diagnostic criterion for dementia, and a determinant of healthcare utilization and caregiver burden. Although many previous studies have demonstrated a cross-sectional relationship between cognition (particularly executive functions and memory) and everyday function in older adults, very little is known about longitudinal relationships between these domains. This study examined the association between longitudinal change in episodic memory (MEM) and executive functioning (EXEC) and change in everyday function.

Understanding hippocampal sclerosis in the elderly: epidemiology, characterization, and diagnostic issues.

Hippocampal sclerosis (HS) is a pathologic term used to describe severe loss of neurons and reactive gliosis without cystic cavitation in the CA1 sector of the hippocampus. In late life, HS is associated with hippocampal atrophy, severe amnesia, and slowly progressive dementia without clinical seizure activity. HS is difficult to distinguish clinically from Alzheimer's disease and is often diagnosed postmortem.

Cognitive function and brain structure in females with a history of adolescent-onset anorexia nervosa.

Objective: Abnormalities in cognitive function and brain structure have been reported in acutely ill adolescents with anorexia nervosa, but whether these abnormalities persist or are reversible in the context of weight restoration remains unclear. Brain structure and cognitive function in female subjects with adolescent-onset anorexia nervosa assessed at long-term follow-up were studied in comparison with healthy female subjects, and associations with clinical outcome were investigated.

Patients And Methods: Sixty-six female subjects (aged 21.

The phase-response effect of size-dependent optical enhancement in a single nanoparticle.

We demonstrate detailed simulations and experiments of near-field phase-response in a single silver nanoparticle. The plasmon-photon interaction is directly observed in the vicinity of silver nanoparticles through a near-field scanning optical microscope (NSOM). Our results manifest the correlation of phase-response and size-dependent optical enhancement.

Cognitive and anatomic contributions of metabolic decline in Alzheimer disease and cerebrovascular disease.

Background: Alzheimer disease and cerebrovascular disease affect elderly persons through alterations in brain structure and metabolism that produce cognitive decline. Understanding how each disease contributes to dementia is essential from both a pathophysiologic and diagnostic perspective.

Objective: To elucidate how baseline cognitive function (episodic memory and executive function) and brain anatomy (white matter hyperintensities and hippocampal volume) are associated with baseline (positron emission tomography-1 [PET1]) and longitudinal (PET2) glucose metabolism in 38 subjects older than 55 years ranging from normal cognition, cognitive impairment without dementia, and dementia.

The MRI brain correlates of depressed mood, anhedonia, apathy, and anergia in older adults with and without cognitive impairment or dementia.

Objectives: We examined the magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) correlates of depressed mood, apathy, anhedonia, and anergia in older adults with and without cognitive impairment or dementia.

Methods: This analysis included 270 community-dwelling older adults (59% male; 79% Caucasian; mean age 74.4 years) who were recruited into a multi-center longitudinal observational study of subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD).

Incidence of dementia in long-term hormone users.

Results from epidemiologic studies of postmenopausal hormone use and dementia have been conflicting. Investigators from the Women's Health Initiative Memory Study reported that the incidence of dementia in women aged >/=65 years assigned to hormone use was increased. Here the authors report results from a prospective cohort study of 2,906 dementia-free women (1,519 hormone users and 1,387 hormone nonusers) aged > or =75 years who were recruited from a Southern California health plan in 1999 and followed through 2003.

Neuropathological basis of magnetic resonance images in aging and dementia.

Objective: Magnetic resonance (MR) imaging is used widely for assessment of patients with cognitive impairment, but the pathological correlates are unclear, especially when multiple pathologies are present.

Methods: This report includes 93 subjects from a longitudinally followed cohort recruited for the study of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and subcortical cerebrovascular disease (CVD). MR images were analyzed to quantify cortical gray matter volume, hippocampal volume, white matter hyperintensities, and lacunes.

Subcortical lacunes are associated with executive dysfunction in cognitively normal elderly.

Background And Purpose: The relationship between subcortical ischemic vascular disease (SIVD) and cognition in normal elderly is unclear, in part because of methodological inconsistencies across studies. To clarify this relationship, the current study investigated a well characterized cognitively normal elderly sample (>or=55 years) with quantitative MRI and psychometrically robust neuropsychological measures within a multivariate model. Converging evidence suggests that SIVD selectively impairs frontal-executive tasks by disrupting frontal-subcortical circuits.

Prevalence, course, and risk factors for antenatal anxiety and depression.

Objective: To estimate the prevalence and course of antenatal anxiety and depression across different stages of pregnancy, risk factors at each stage, and the relationship between antenatal anxiety and depression and postpartum depression.

Methods: A consecutive sample of 357 pregnant women in an antenatal clinic in a regional hospital was assessed longitudinally at four stages of pregnancy: first trimester, second trimester, third trimester, and 6 weeks postpartum. The antenatal questionnaire assessed anxiety and depression (using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale) and demographic and psychosocial risk factors.