Effect of vertebroplasty on the compressive strength of vertebral bodies.

Background Context: Percutaneous vertebroplasty has been used successfully for many years in the treatment of painful compressive vertebral fractures due to osteoporosis.

Purpose: To compare the effect of vertebroplasty on the compressive strength of unfractured vertebral bodies.

Study Design: Biomechanical study on cadaveric thoracic vertebrae.

C1 lateral mass screw placement via the posterior arch: a technique comparison and anatomic analysis.

Background Context: Instrumentation of C1 is becoming increasingly common. Starting points initially described for C1 lateral mass screws at the lateral mass/posterior arch junction are technically challenging. Recently, a number of techniques have evolved advocating varying starting points and trajectories.

Mapping the development of research on physical activity and the built environment.

Objective: The importance of the built environment for physical activity has been recognized in recent decades, resulting in new research. This study aims to understand the current structure of physical activity and built environment (PABE) research and identify gaps to address as the field continues to rapidly develop.

Methods: Key PABE articles were nominated by top scholars and a snowball sample of 2764 articles was collected in 2013 using citation network links.

Dissociating neuronal gamma-band activity from cranial and ocular muscle activity in EEG.

EEG is the most common technique for studying neuronal dynamics of the human brain. However, electromyogenic artifacts from cranial muscles and ocular muscles executing involuntary microsaccades compromise estimates of neuronal activity in the gamma band (>30 Hz). Yet, the relative contributions and practical consequences of these artifacts remain unclear.

Collective efficacy as a task specific process: examining the relationship between social ties, neighborhood cohesion and the capacity to respond to violence, delinquency and civic problems.

In the neighborhood effects literature, collective efficacy is viewed as the key explanatory process associated with the spatial distribution of a range of social problems. While many studies usefully focus on the consequences of collective efficacy, in this paper we examine the task specificity of collective efficacy and consider the individual and neighborhood factors that influence residents' perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy for specific tasks. Utilizing survey and administrative data from 4,093 residents nested in 148 communities in Australia, we distinguish collective efficacy for particular threats to social order and assess the relative importance of social cohesion and neighborhood social ties to the development of collective efficacy for violence, delinquency and civic/political issues.

Diffusion of Complete Streets policies Across US communities.

Context: Complete Streets policies guide planning in communities by making the transportation system accommodating to all users including vehicle drivers, pedestrians, and bicyclists, as well as those using public transportation. While the number of Complete Streets policies has increased over the past decade, no research has explored the factors attributing to the widespread diffusion of these policies.

Objective: The purpose of this study was to apply concepts of the Diffusion of Innovation Theory to data related to Complete Streets policies in order to identify potential patterns and correlates.

Ciclovía initiatives: engaging communities, partners, and policy makers along the route to success.

Context: Recent efforts to increase physical activity through changes to the built environment have led to strategies and programs that use existing public space, including bicycle lanes, temporary parks, and the ciclovia initiative (scheduled events in which streets are closed to motorized vehicles and opened for recreational activities) popularized in South America.

Objective: This article describes and compares the processes and structures involved in developing and implementing a ciclovia-type program in 2 US urban contexts: San Francisco, California, and St Louis, Missouri. Considering the current growth of and interest in ciclovia initiatives, important outcomes, lessons learned are offered for application in other, similar settings.

Optimal molecular profiling of tissue and tissue components: defining the best processing and microdissection methods for biomedical applications.

Isolation of well-preserved pure cell populations is a prerequisite for sound studies of the molecular basis of any tissue-based biological phenomenon. This updated chapter reviews current methods for obtaining anatomically specific signals from molecules isolated from tissues, a basic requirement for productive linking of phenotype and genotype. The quality of samples isolated from tissue and used for molecular analysis is often glossed over or omitted from publications, making interpretation and replication of data difficult or impossible.

Image segmentation with implicit color standardization using spatially constrained expectation maximization: detection of nuclei.

Color nonstandardness--the propensity for similar objects to exhibit different color properties across images--poses a significant problem in the computerized analysis of histopathology. Though many papers propose means for improving color constancy, the vast majority assume image formation via reflective light instead of light transmission as in microscopy, and thus are inappropriate for histological analysis. Previously, we presented a novel Bayesian color segmentation algorithm for histological images that is highly robust to color nonstandardness; this algorithm employed the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm to dynamically estimate for each individual image the probability density functions that describe the colors of salient objects.

Noise alters beta-band activity in superior temporal cortex during audiovisual speech processing.

Speech recognition is improved when complementary visual information is available, especially under noisy acoustic conditions. Functional neuroimaging studies have suggested that the superior temporal sulcus (STS) plays an important role for this improvement. The spectrotemporal dynamics underlying audiovisual speech processing in the STS, and how these dynamics are affected by auditory noise, are not well understood.

Pathology informatics fellowship retreats: The use of interactive scenarios and case studies as pathology informatics teaching tools.

Background: Last year, our pathology informatics fellowship added informatics-based interactive case studies to its existing educational platform of operational and research rotations, clinical conferences, a common core curriculum with an accompanying didactic course, and national meetings.

Methods: The structure of the informatics case studies was based on the traditional business school case study format. Three different formats were used, varying in length from short, 15-minute scenarios to more formal multiple hour-long case studies.

Semiautomated laser capture microdissection of lung adenocarcinoma cytology samples.

Objective: In the past decade molecular diagnostics has changed the clinical management of lung adenocarcinoma patients. Molecular diagnostics, however, is largely dependent on the quantity and quality of the tumor DNA that is retrieved from the tissue or cytology samples. Frequently, patients are diagnosed on cytology specimens where the tumor cells are scattered within the cell block, making selecting for tumor enrichment difficult.

Efficacy of MRI for assessment of spinal trauma: correlation with intraoperative findings.

Study Design: Observational diagnostic study on consecutive patients.

Objective: To assess the efficacy of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) for detecting spinal soft tissue injury after acute trauma using intraoperative findings as a reference standard.

Summary Of Background Data: Recognizing injuries to spinal soft tissue structures is critical for proper decision making and management for blunt trauma victims.

Target population involvement in urban ciclovias: a preliminary evaluation of St. Louis open streets.

Ciclovias are active street events when roads are open to walkers, cyclists, and families and closed to automobiles. Over 70 cities in the USA have implemented ciclovias to promote physical activity. The authors evaluated four events during 2010 to determine what activities participants perform and who is attending.

Cardiovascular stability and unchanged muscle sympathetic activity during xenon anaesthesia: role of norepinephrine uptake inhibition.

Background: Intraoperative hypotension is associated with increased risk of perioperative complications. The N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) receptor (NMDA-R) antagonist xenon (Xe) induces general anaesthesia without impairment of cardiac output and vascular resistance. Mechanisms involved in cardiovascular stability have not been identified.

Image microarrays derived from tissue microarrays (IMA-TMA): New resource for computer-aided diagnostic algorithm development.

Background: Conventional tissue microarrays (TMAs) consist of cores of tissue inserted into a recipient paraffin block such that a tissue section on a single glass slide can contain numerous patient samples in a spatially structured pattern. Scanning TMAs into digital slides for subsequent analysis by computer-aided diagnostic (CAD) algorithms all offers the possibility of evaluating candidate algorithms against a near-complete repertoire of variable disease morphologies. This parallel interrogation approach simplifies the evaluation, validation, and comparison of such candidate algorithms.

Segregation through the lens of housing unit transition: what roles do the prior residents, the local micro-neighborhood, and the broader neighborhood play?

This study focuses on segregation as it plays out at the micro-level of housing unit transition. Employing a unique sample that places housing units into micro-neighborhoods and census tracts, this study tests whether the characteristics of the previous residents of the unit, the local micro-neighborhood, or the broader tract best explain the race/ethnicity of the new residents in a housing unit. The results show that the racial/ethnic composition of the local micro-neighborhood has even stronger effects on the race/ethnicity of the new residents than does the racial/ethnic composition of the broader census tract.

Kinematics of the cervical adjacent segments after disc arthroplasty compared with anterior discectomy and fusion: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

Study Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis.

Objective: To determine the kinematics of the adjacent segments and global cervical spine after cervical arthroplasty compared with anterior cervical discectomy and fusion (ACDF).

Summary Of Background Data: Adjacent segment pathology after ACDF is a significant concern.

An integrated model of active glenohumeral stability.

We present the first model of the glenohumeral joint implementing active muscle driven humeral positioning and stabilization without a priori constraints on glenohumeral kinematics. Previously established methods were used to predetermine the path, activation timing and resultant force contribution of 27 individual muscle segments at any given joint position. Artificial boundary conditions were applied in a three-dimensional finite element model of the joint and progressively released until the humeral head was completely free to rotate and translate within the fixed glenoid according to the compressive component of the predetermined resultant force.

Histologic identification of brown adipose and peripheral nerve involvement in human atherosclerotic vessels.

The disease mechanisms and histology of plaque development associated with atherosclerosis remain incredibly complex and not entirely understood. Recent investigations have emphasized the importance of inflammation in atherosclerosis. Several studies have also indicated heterotopic or extraskeletal bone formation in atherosclerotic vessels.

Life sciences domain analysis model.

Objective: Meaningful exchange of information is a fundamental challenge in collaborative biomedical research. To help address this, the authors developed the Life Sciences Domain Analysis Model (LS DAM), an information model that provides a framework for communication among domain experts and technical teams developing information systems to support biomedical research. The LS DAM is harmonized with the Biomedical Research Integrated Domain Group (BRIDG) model of protocol-driven clinical research.

Large-scale cortical correlation structure of spontaneous oscillatory activity.

Little is known about the brain-wide correlation of electrophysiological signals. We found that spontaneous oscillatory neuronal activity exhibited frequency-specific spatial correlation structure in the human brain. We developed an analysis approach that discounts spurious correlation of signal power caused by the limited spatial resolution of electrophysiological measures.

Integration of architectural and cytologic driven image algorithms for prostate adenocarcinoma identification.

Introduction: The advent of digital slides offers new opportunities within the practice of pathology such as the use of image analysis techniques to facilitate computer aided diagnosis (CAD) solutions. Use of CAD holds promise to enable new levels of decision support and allow for additional layers of quality assurance and consistency in rendered diagnoses. However, the development and testing of prostate cancer CAD solutions requires a ground truth map of the cancer to enable the generation of receiver operator characteristic (ROC) curves.