Reduced Concussion Symptom Burden in Early Adolescent Athletes Using a Head-Neck Cooling Device.

Objective: To determine whether an investigational head-neck cooling device, Pro2cool, can better reduce symptom severity compared with standard postconcussion care in early adolescent athletes after a sports-related concussion.

Design: Prospective, longitudinal, randomized trial design conducted over a 28-day period.

Setting: Six pediatric medical centers in Ohio and Michigan.

Supercontinuum generation in single-crystal YAG fibers pumped around the zero-dispersion wavelength.

Yttrium aluminum garnet (YAG) is a common host material for both bulk and single-crystal fiber lasers. With increasing interest in developing optical technologies in the short-wave infrared and mid-infrared wavelength range, YAG may be a potential supercontinuum medium for these applications. Here, we characterize femtosecond laser pumped supercontinuum generation with 1200-2000 nm pump wavelengths () for undoped, single-crystal YAG fibers, which are representative of the normal, zero, and anomalous-dispersion regimes.

Preliminary Safety and Efficacy of Head and Neck Cooling Therapy After Concussion in Adolescent Athletes: A Randomized Pilot Trial.

Objective: To determine the safety and efficacy of head and neck cooling when applied up to 8 days after concussion among adolescent athletes.

Design: A randomized nonblinded pilot trial.

Setting: Sports Medicine Clinic in a tertiary hospital.

Single-Shot Multi-Stage Damage and Ablation of Silicon by Femtosecond Mid-infrared Laser Pulses.

Although ultrafast laser materials processing has advanced at a breakneck pace over the last two decades, most applications have been developed with laser pulses at near-IR or visible wavelengths. Recent progress in mid-infrared (MIR) femtosecond laser source development may create novel capabilities for material processing. This is because, at high intensities required for such processing, wavelength tuning to longer wavelengths opens the pathway to a special regime of laser-solid interactions.

A Versatile Optical Clearing Protocol for Deep Tissue Imaging of Fluorescent Proteins in Arabidopsis thaliana.

Confocal microscopy is widely used to visualize gene expression patterns and developmental processes in plants. However, the imaging of plant tissue can be challenging due to its opacity, which often makes previous immersion in a clearing agent necessary. Many commonly-used chemicals suffer either from their incompatibility with fluorescent proteins or their complex and lengthy application.

Advanced light microscopy core facilities: Balancing service, science and career.

Core Facilities (CF) for advanced light microscopy (ALM) have become indispensable support units for research in the life sciences. Their organizational structure and technical characteristics are quite diverse, although the tasks they pursue and the services they offer are similar. Therefore, throughout Europe, scientists from ALM-CFs are forming networks to promote interactions and discuss best practice models.

Achieving enhanced gain in photorefractive polymers by eliminating electron contributions using large bias fields.

Photorefractive polymers have been extensively studied for over two decades and have found applications in holographic displays and optical image processing. The complexity of these materials arises from multiple charge contributions, for example, leading to the formation of competing photorefractive gratings. It has been recently shown that in a photorefractive polymer at relatively moderate applied electric fields the primary charge carriers (holes) establish an initial grating, followed by a subsequent competing grating (electrons) resulting in a decreased two-beam coupling and diffraction efficiencies.

Whole-body gene expression pattern registration in Platynereis larvae.

Background: Digital anatomical atlases are increasingly used in order to depict different gene expression patterns and neuronal morphologies within a standardized reference template. In evo-devo, a discipline in which the comparison of gene expression patterns is a widely used approach, such standardized anatomical atlases would allow a more rigorous assessment of the conservation of and changes in gene expression patterns during micro- and macroevolutionary time scales. Due to its small size and invariant early development, the annelid Platynereis dumerilii is particularly well suited for such studies.

Microglial repopulation model reveals a robust homeostatic process for replacing CNS myeloid cells.

Under most physiological circumstances, monocytes are excluded from parenchymal CNS tissues. When widespread monocyte entry occurs, their numbers decrease shortly after engraftment in the presence of microglia. However, some disease processes lead to focal and selective loss, or dysfunction, of microglia, and microglial senescence typifies the aged brain.

Spectral discrimination of cerebral amyloid lesions after peripheral application of luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes.

In vivo imaging of pathological protein aggregates provides essential knowledge of the kinetics and implications of these lesions in the progression of proteopathies, such as Alzheimer disease. Luminescent conjugated oligothiophenes are amyloid-specific ligands that bind and spectrally distinguish different types of amyloid aggregates. Herein, we report that heptamer formyl thiophene acetic acid (hFTAA) passes the blood-brain barrier after systemic administration and specifically binds to extracellular β-amyloid deposits in the brain parenchyma (Aβ plaques) and in the vasculature (cerebral β-amyloid angiopathy) of β-amyloid precursor protein transgenic APP23 mice.

Repeatable target localization for long-term in vivo imaging of mice with 2-photon microscopy.

Repetitive in vivo imaging in mice has become an indispensable tool for studying dynamic changes in structure and function of the brain. We describe a head fixation system, which allows rapid re-localization of previously imaged regions of interest (ROIs) within the brain. Such ROIs can be automatically relocated and imaged over weeks to months with negligible rotational change and only minor translational errors.

Cellular distribution of metastasis suppressor 1 and the shape of cell bodies are temporarily altered in Engrailed-2 overexpressing cerebellar Purkinje cells.

Metastasis suppressor 1 (MTSS1, BEG4, MIM) is well described for its function as a metastasis suppressor gene and is expressed in a variety of tissues. However, only little is known about its expression in the central nervous system (CNS), and functions within the CNS have not been addressed so far. Here, we show that MTSS1 was expressed in postmitotic neurons of the cerebellar cortex.

Primary human CD4+ T cells have diverse levels of membrane lipid order that correlate with their function.

Membrane lipid microdomains (lipid rafts) play an important role in T cell function by forming areas of high lipid order that facilitate activation. However, their role in regulating T cell differentiation and function remains controversial. In this study, by applying a new approach involving microscopy and flow cytometry, we characterize membrane lipid order in ex vivo primary human CD4(+) T cells.

Long-term in vivo imaging of β-amyloid plaque appearance and growth in a mouse model of cerebral β-amyloidosis.

Extracellular deposition of the amyloid-β peptide (Aβ) in the brain parenchyma is a hallmark lesion of Alzheimer's disease (AD) and a predictive marker for the progression of preclinical to symptomatic AD. Here, we used multiphoton in vivo imaging to study Aβ plaque formation in the brains of 3- to 4-month-old APPPS1 transgenic mice over a period of 6 months. A novel head fixation system provided robust and efficient long-term tracking of single plaques over time.

Controlling phase change through ultrafast excitation of coherent phonons.

For semimetals such as bismuth, ultrafast femtosecond laser-excited coherent phonons at laser fluences below the damage threshold have been studied extensively. In this work, we investigate whether or not coherent phonon oscillations contribute to material's permanent damage, or can enhance or suppress such damage. We employed temporally-shaped femtosecond pulses to either enhance or cancel coherent phonon oscillations.

Tuning spectral properties of ultrafast laser ablation plasmas from brass using adaptive temporal pulse shaping.

Using automated laser pulse temporal shaping we report on enhancing spectral emission characteristics of ablation plasmas produced by laser irradiation of brass on ultrafast time scales. For different input irradiance levels, control of both atomic and ionic species becomes possible concerning the yield and the excitation state. The improved energy coupling determined by tailored pulses induces material ejection with lower mechanical load that translates into hot gas-phase regions with higher excitation degrees and reduced particulates.

Perineural invasion is an independent predictor of outcome in colorectal cancer.

Purpose: Perineural invasion (PNI) is associated with decreased survival in several malignancies, but its significance in colorectal cancer (CRC) remains to be clearly defined. We evaluated PNI as a potential prognostic indicator in CRC, focusing on its significance in node-negative patients.

Patients And Methods: We identified 269 consecutive patients who had CRC resected at our institution.

The role of angiocidin in sarcomas.

Background: Angiocidin, first identified as a tumor-associated thrombospondin-1 (TSP-1) receptor, is a key mediator of tumor progression. TSP-1, an extracellular protein produced by stromal cells, up-regulates gelatinases and tumor cell invasion in epithelial malignancies. The authors recently developed 2 angiocidin-inhibitory peptides that block angiocidin-TSP-1 binding.

Perineural invasion in cancer: a review of the literature.

Perineural invasion (PNI) is the process of neoplastic invasion of nerves and is an under-recognized route of metastatic spread. It is emerging as an important pathologic feature of many malignancies, including those of the pancreas, colon and rectum, prostate, head and neck, biliary tract, and stomach. For many of these malignancies, PNI is a marker of poor outcome and a harbinger of decreased survival.

Rectal cancer patients benefit from implementation of a dedicated colorectal cancer center in a Veterans Affairs Medical Center.

Background: A dedicated colorectal cancer (CRC) center was created in a Veterans Affairs Medical Center with the intent of improving quality of patient care and multidisciplinary cooperation.

Methods: Retrospective and prospective databases before and after creation of the CRC center, respectively, were created. Patients entered in each database included those requiring surgical intervention for CRC treatment.

Ultrashort laser pulse splitting upon resonant reflection on a mirror-based waveguide grating.

A resonant waveguide grating based on a high reflectivity mirror causes a 2pi phaseshift of adjustable slope in the spectrum of an ultrashort light pulse, giving rise to a controllable, lossless temporal pulse splitting. This monolithic phase shifter can simply be placed on the path of the beam as a mirror. A functional element was designed and fabricated.

Engrailed-2 regulates genes related to vesicle formation and transport in cerebellar Purkinje cells.

Engrailed transcription factors regulate survival, cell fate decisions and axon pathfinding in central neurons. En-2 can also attenuate Purkinje cell (PC) maturation. Here, we use array analysis to scrutinize gene expression in developing PCs overexpressing Engrailed-2 (L7En-2).

Angiocidin inhibitory peptides decrease tumor burden in a murine colon cancer model.

Introduction: We have recently developed two inhibitory peptides that target angiocidin, a key mediator of tumor progression and angiogenesis. In this study, we investigate the expression of angiocidin in human colon cancer specimens and evaluate the therapeutic efficacy of our angiocidin inhibitory peptides.

Methods: We created a colon cancer tissue array containing primary tumor, normal colon, negative and positive lymph nodes, and liver metastases (when available) from 159 consecutive colon cancer specimens.

Optical dephasing in saturable-absorbing organic dye IR140.

Room-temperature degenerate four-wave mixing in the forward two-pulse geometry, has been performed on ajet of organic saturable-absorbing laser dye IR140 dissolved in dimethylsulfoxide and ethylene glycol. Numerical solutions to the optical Bloch equation were fitted to the experimental data in order to extract a value of T2 = 50 +/- 5 fs for the homogeneous dephasing time; this value is comparable to those measured for similar organic dyes using other techniques.

Immune reconstitution following autologous transfers of CD3/CD28 stimulated CD4(+) T cells to HIV-infected persons.

We have previously shown that adoptive transfer of in vitro CD3/CD28 activated autologous CD4(+) T cells results in increased CD4 counts and CD4/CD8 ratios in HIV+ subjects. In this report, analysis of variable beta (Vbeta) chain T cell receptor (TCR) repertoire showed that CD3/CD28 stimulation was able to increase polyclonality within skewed spectra types in vitro. In vivo, two of eight subjects showed increase in TCR diversity and importantly, in no subject did a highly skewed in vivo repertoire emerge.