Hybrid Genetic Algorithm for Clustering IC Topographies of EEGs.

Clustering of independent component (IC) topographies of Electroencephalograms (EEG) is an effective way to find brain-generated IC processes associated with a population of interest, particularly for those cases where event-related potential features are not available. This paper proposes a novel algorithm for the clustering of these IC topographies and compares its results with the most currently used clustering algorithms. In this study, 32-electrode EEG signals were recorded at a sampling rate of 500 Hz for 48 participants.

Assessing Functional Brain Network Dynamics in Dyslexia from fNIRS Data.

Developmental dyslexia is characterized by a deficit of phonological awareness whose origin is related to atypical neural processing of speech streams. This can lead to differences in the neural networks that encode audio information for dyslexics. In this work, we investigate whether such differences exist using functional near-infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS) and complex network analysis.

CIBERER: Spanish national network for research on rare diseases: A highly productive collaborative initiative.

CIBER (Center for Biomedical Network Research; Centro de Investigación Biomédica En Red) is a public national consortium created in 2006 under the umbrella of the Spanish National Institute of Health Carlos III (ISCIII). This innovative research structure comprises 11 different specific areas dedicated to the main public health priorities in the National Health System. CIBERER, the thematic area of CIBER focused on rare diseases (RDs) currently consists of 75 research groups belonging to universities, research centers, and hospitals of the entire country.

Detecting Phase-Synchrony Connectivity Anomalies in EEG Signals. Application to Dyslexia Diagnosis.

Objective Dyslexia diagnosis is a challenging task, since traditional diagnosis methods are not based on biological markers but on behavioural tests. Although dyslexia diagnosis has been addressed by these tests in clinical practice, it is difficult to extract information about the brain processes involved in the different tasks and, then, to go deeper into its biological basis. Thus, the use of biomarkers can contribute not only to the diagnosis but also to a better understanding of specific learning disorders such as dyslexia.

Species diversification in the lowlands of mid-latitude South America: Turnera sidoides subsp. carnea as a case study.

The lowlands of mid-latitude South America comprise complex temperate ecoregions characterized by a unique biodiversity. However, the processes responsible for shaping its species diversity are still largely unknown. Turnera sidoides subsp.

Parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic: differences between seven European countries and between children with and without mental health conditions.

The aim of the present study was to examine parental experiences of homeschooling during the COVID-19 pandemic in families with or without a child with a mental health condition across Europe. The study included 6720 parents recruited through schools, patient organizations and social media platforms (2002 parents with a child with a mental health condition and 4718 without) from seven European countries: the UK (n = 508), Sweden (n = 1436), Spain (n = 1491), Belgium (n = 508), the Netherlands (n = 324), Germany (n = 1662) and Italy (n = 794). Many parents reported negative effects of homeschooling for themselves and their child, and many found homeschooling to be of poor quality, with insufficient support from schools.

Dyslexia Diagnosis by EEG Temporal and Spectral Descriptors: An Anomaly Detection Approach.

Diagnosis of learning difficulties is a challenging goal. There are huge number of factors involved in the evaluation procedure that present high variance among the population with the same difficulty. Diagnosis is usually performed by scoring subjects according to results obtained in different neuropsychological (performance-based) tests specifically designed to this end.

EEG Connectivity Analysis Using Denoising Autoencoders for the Detection of Dyslexia.

The Temporal Sampling Framework (TSF) theorizes that the characteristic phonological difficulties of dyslexia are caused by an atypical oscillatory sampling at one or more temporal rates. The LEEDUCA study conducted a series of Electroencephalography (EEG) experiments on children listening to amplitude modulated (AM) noise with slow-rythmic prosodic (0.5-1[Formula: see text]Hz), syllabic (4-8[Formula: see text]Hz) or the phoneme (12-40[Formula: see text]Hz) rates, aimed at detecting differences in perception of oscillatory sampling that could be associated with dyslexia.

Formulation and communication of evaluative forensic science expert opinion-A GHEP-ISFG contribution to the establishment of standards.

Communicating and interpreting genetic evidence in the administration of justice is currently a matter of great concern, due to the theoretical and technical complexity of the evaluative reporting and large difference in expertise between forensic experts and law professionals. A large number of initiatives have been taken trying to bridge this gap, contributing to the education of both parties. Results however have not been very encouraging, as most of these initiatives try to cope globally with the problem, addressing simultaneously theoretical and technical approaches which are in a quite heterogeneous state of development and validation.

Syllabic parsing in children: a developmental study using visual word-spotting in Spanish.

Some inconsistency is observed in the results from studies of reading development regarding the role of the syllable in visual word recognition, perhaps due to a disparity between the tasks used. We adopted a word-spotting paradigm, with Spanish children of second grade (mean age: 7 years) and sixth grade (mean age: 11 years). The children were asked to detect one-syllable words that could be found at the beginning of pseudo-words, with the boundary between the word and the remaining letters being manipulated.

Beyond decoding deficit: inhibitory effect of positional syllable frequency in dyslexic Spanish children.

This study explores whether activation and inhibition word processes contribute to the characteristic speed deficits found in transparent orthographies (Wimmer, Appl Psycholinguist 14:1-33, 1993). A second and fourth grade sample of normal school readers and dyslexic school readers participated in a lexical decision task. Words were manipulated according to two factors: word frequency (high vs.

Reelin-dependent ApoER2 downregulation uncouples newborn neurons from progenitor cells.

Reelin and its receptor machinery are well known to be required for the migration and positioning of neocortical projection neurons. More recently, reelin has been shown both necessary and sufficient to determine the rate of neocortical neurogenesis. The molecular links underlying its seemingly distinct proliferative and post-proliferative functions remain unknown.

Spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury: a cost-of-illness study.

Background: Among traumatic injuries, spinal cord injuries (SCI) and traumatic brain injuries (TBI) are of major importance because of their epidemiological and economic impact on society. The overall objective of this study was to estimate the economic cost associated with people with SCI and TBI in Spain in 2007.

Methods: A cost-of-illness analysis was performed, considering the perspective of society, using a 1-year time horizon.

Interpretation guidelines for mixed-STR multilocus electrophoretic profiles.

The interpretation of multilocus STR profiling is a complex task that requires a high degree of expertise due to the high number of variables that can affect a biological and analytical process like this.The purpose of this chapter is to provide guidelines to categorize the mixtures using a discrete system and select those in the white area to produce a profile for reporting and/or comparing.

Reelin sets the pace of neocortical neurogenesis.

Migration of neurons during cortical development is often assumed to rely on purely post-proliferative reelin signaling. However, Notch signaling, long known to regulate neural precursor formation and maintenance, is required for the effects of reelin on neuronal migration. Here, we show that reelin gain-of-function causes a higher expression of Notch target genes in radial glia and accelerates the production of both neurons and intermediate progenitor cells.

CD8(+)HLA-G(+) regulatory T cells are expanded in HIV-1-infected patients.

It has been recently reported that CD8(+) T cells from healthy human peripheral blood express the tolerogenic HLA-G molecule originally described in trophoblasts. The majority of these CD8(+)HLA-G(+) cells exhibit a naïve phenotype and are FoxP3 negative, and they have been classified as a novel subset of regulatory T cells based on their potent suppressive function. We have investigated if this new cell population is expanded during HIV-1 infection.

Downregulation of functional Reelin receptors in projection neurons implies that primary Reelin action occurs at early/premigratory stages.

Reelin signaling is essential for correct development of the mammalian brain. Reelin binds to apolipoprotein E receptor 2 and very low-density lipoprotein receptor and induces phosphorylation of Dab1. However, when and where these reactions occur is essentially unknown, and the primary function(s) of Reelin remain unclear.

Predicting recurrences or major bleeding in women with cancer and venous thromboembolism. Findings from the RIETE Registry.

Background: Cancer patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) have an increased incidence of recurrences and bleeding complications Reliable information on the factors determining the risk for such complications may facilitate better use of therapy.

Methods: RIETE Registry is an ongoing, international registry of consecutive patients presenting with symptomatic acute VTE confirmed by objective tests. We assessed the 3-month outcome in all women with active cancer, trying to identify if differences exist according to the tumor site.

ISFG: Recommendations on biostatistics in paternity testing.

The Paternity Testing Commission (PTC) of the International Society for Forensic Genetics has taken up the task of establishing the biostatistical recommendations in accordance with the ISO 17025 standards and a previous set of ISFG recommendations specific to the genetic investigations in paternity cases. In the initial set, the PTC recommended that biostatistical evaluations of paternity are based on a likelihood ratio principle - yielding the paternity index, PI. Here, we have made five supplementary biostatistical recommendations.

Sui generis head trauma: a case with intracerebral phalanges.

In times of conflict, physicians can encounter all types of trauma, even uncommon trauma. The case we present is one of those cases. A 30-year-old, male, Army sergeant suffered polytrauma caused by fragmentation missiles and the shock wave from an antipersonnel mine in combat; the amputated fingers of the right hand produced ocular trauma, with loss of the right eyeball.

Puzzling out the reeler brainteaser: does reelin signal to unique neural lineages?

Much has been learnt about the reeler mutant since its inclusion in the celebrated Catalog of the Neurological Mutants of the Mouse in the mid-sixties. The pace of discovery was most definitively agitated after the identification of reelin, the genuine gene product mutated in reeler (first expressed by a monolayer of cells in the marginal zone of the developing brain), and the subsequent establishment of the so-called reelin signaling pathway (including the reelin receptor machinery expressed by migrating newborn neurons). Yet little is known as to how the reelin signaling events, which are critically involved in neuronal migration, are linked to the in vivo behavior of individual neurons.

Integrin and the Reelin-Dab1 pathway: a sticky affair?

It has been repeatedly suggested that integrin is essential for neuronal migration. A new study proposes a link between Disabled-1 (Dab1) phosphorylation and alpha3 integrin signalling that is thought to drive the timely detachment of migrating neurons from the guiding radial glia fibers during early corticogenesis. This proposal however is hardly compatible with time-lapse anatomical investigations and genetic studies on integrin or with recent works which indicate direct reelin signalling to radial fibers.

Reelin signaling directly affects radial glia morphology and biochemical maturation.

Radial glial cells are characterized, besides their astroglial properties, by long radial processes extending from the ventricular zone to the pial surface, a crucial feature for the radial migration of neurons. The molecular signals that regulate this characteristic morphology, however, are largely unknown. We show an important role of the secreted molecule reelin for the establishment of radial glia processes.