Competing double-exchange/super-exchange ordering for enhanced water oxidation kinetics.

Competing double-exchange and super-exchange interactions yield rich chemistry for understanding robust oxygen evolution activity in Ru-doped lanthanum strontium manganite, with an overpotential of 300 mV at 10 mA cm and a Tafel slope of 110 mV dec. Favourable redox potentials of Mn/Mn and Ru/Ru lead to improved charge transfer kinetics for OER activity.

Feature-based multimodal registration framework for vertebral pose estimation.

Purpose: The reliable estimation of the vertebral body posture helps to aid a safe and effective spine surgery. The proposed work aims to present an MR to X-ray image registration to assess the 3D pose of the vertebral body during spine surgery. The 3D assessment of vertebral pose assists in analyzing the position and orientation of the vertebral body to provide information during various clinical diagnosis conditions such as curvature estimation and pedicle screw insertion surgery.

Automated image analysis method to detect and quantify fat cell infiltration in hematoxylin and eosin stained human pancreas histology images.

Fatty infiltration in pancreas leading to steatosis is a major risk factor in pancreas transplantation. Hematoxylin and eosin (H and E) is one of the common histological staining techniques that provides information on the tissue cytoarchitecture. Adipose (fat) cells accumulation in pancreas has been shown to impact beta cell survival, its endocrine function and pancreatic steatosis and can cause non-alcoholic fatty pancreas disease (NAFPD).

Mitochondrial control of microglial phagocytosis by the translocator protein and hexokinase 2 in Alzheimer's disease.

Microglial phagocytosis is an energetically demanding process that plays a critical role in the removal of toxic protein aggregates in Alzheimer's disease (AD). Recent evidence indicates that a switch in energy production from mitochondrial respiration to glycolysis disrupts this important protective microglial function and may provide therapeutic targets for AD. Here, we demonstrate that the translocator protein (TSPO) and a member of its mitochondrial complex, hexokinase-2 (HK), play critical roles in microglial respiratory-glycolytic metabolism and phagocytosis.

A Hybrid 3D-2D Image Registration Framework for Pedicle Screw Trajectory Registration between Intraoperative X-ray Image and Preoperative CT Image.

Pedicle screw insertion is considered a complex surgery among Orthopaedics surgeons. Exclusively to prevent postoperative complications associated with pedicle screw insertion, various types of image intensity registration-based navigation systems have been developed. These systems are computation-intensive, have a small capture range and have local maxima issues.

Realistic C-arm to pCT registration for vertebral localization in spine surgery : A hybrid 3D-2D registration framework for intraoperative vertebral pose estimation.

Spine surgeries are vulnerable to wrong-level surgeries and postoperative complications because of their complex structure. Unavailability of the 3D intraoperative imaging device, low-contrast intraoperative X-ray images, variable clinical and patient conditions, manual analyses, lack of skilled technicians, and human errors increase the chances of wrong-site or wrong-level surgeries. State of the art work refers 3D-2D image registration systems and other medical image processing techniques to address the complications associated with spine surgeries.

Resident macrophages restrain pathological adipose tissue remodeling and protect vascular integrity in obese mice.

Tissue-resident macrophages in white adipose tissue (WAT) dynamically adapt to the metabolic changes of their microenvironment that are often induced by excess energy intake. Currently, the exact contribution of these macrophages in obesity-driven WAT remodeling remains controversial. Here, using a transgenic CD169-DTR mouse strain, we provide new insights into the interplay between CD169 adipose tissue macrophages (ATMs) and their surrounding WAT microenvironment.

Polymorphism in Tmem132d regulates expression and anxiety-related behavior through binding of RNA polymerase II complex.

TMEM132D is a candidate gene, where risk genotypes have been associated with anxiety severity along with higher mRNA expression in the frontal cortex of panic disorder patients. Concurrently, in a high (HAB) and low (LAB) trait anxiety mouse model, Tmem132d was found to show increased expression in the anterior cingulate cortex (aCC) of HAB as compared to LAB mice. To understand the molecular underpinnings underlying the differential expression, we sequenced the gene and found two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the promoter differing between both lines which could explain the observed mRNA expression profiles using gene reporter assays.

Transient and persistent behavioral and molecular changes in primiparous female Wistar rats.

Motherhood brings about a multitude of behavioral and physiological changes in dams and some of these persist until after weaning. We studied behavioral changes associated with reproductive experience at lactating day (LD)8, at weaning (LD21), and 28 days post-weaning (PW28) compared to nulliparous (NP) females. Furthermore, in another cohort of animals, we quantified mRNA expression of five target genes known to be associated with maternal experience: arginin-vasopressin(Avp) and its 1A receptor(Avpr1a), oxytocin(Oxt) and its receptor(Oxtr), and corticotropin-releasing hormone(Crh) in three key maternal region: the medial preoptic area (MPOA), bed nucleus of the stria terminalis (BNST) and paraventricular hypothalamic nucleus(PVN).

Selective breeding for high anxiety introduces a synonymous SNP that increases neuropeptide S receptor activity.

Neuropeptide S (NPS) has generated substantial interest due to its anxiolytic and fear-attenuating effects in rodents, while a corresponding receptor polymorphism associated with increased NPS receptor (NPSR1) surface expression and efficacy has been implicated in an increased risk of panic disorder in humans. To gain insight into this paradox, we examined the NPS system in rats and mice bred for high anxiety-related behavior (HAB) versus low anxiety-related behavior, and, thereafter, determined the effect of central NPS administration on anxiety- and fear-related behavior. The HAB phenotype was accompanied by lower basal NPS receptor (Npsr1) expression, which we could confirm via in vitro dual luciferase promoter assays.

Environmental manipulations generate bidirectional shifts in both behavior and gene regulation in a crossbred mouse model of extremes in trait anxiety.

Although gene-environment interactions are known to significantly influence psychopathology-related disease states, only few animal models cover both the genetic background and environmental manipulations. Therefore, we have taken advantage of the bidirectionally inbred high (HAB) and low (LAB) anxiety-related behavior mouse lines to generate HAB × LAB F1 hybrids that intrinsically carry both lines' genetic characteristics, and subsequently raised them in three different environments-standard, enriched (EE) and chronic mild stress (CMS). Assessing genetic correlates of trait anxiety, we focused on two genes already known to play a role in HAB vs.