Biglycan-driven risk stratification in ZFTA-RELA fusion supratentorial ependymomas through transcriptome profiling.

Recent genomic studies have allowed the subdivision of intracranial ependymomas into molecularly distinct groups with highly specific clinical features and outcomes. The majority of supratentorial ependymomas (ST-EPN) harbor ZFTA-RELA fusions which were designated, in general, as an intermediate risk tumor variant. However, molecular prognosticators within ST-EPN ZFTA-RELA have not been determined yet.

Impact of molecular classification on prognosis in children and adolescents with spinal ependymoma: Results from the HIT-MED database.

Background: Ependymomas of the spinal cord are rare among children and adolescents, and the individual risk of disease progression is difficult to predict. This study aims to evaluate the prognostic impact of molecular typing on pediatric spinal cord ependymomas.

Methods: Eighty-three patients with spinal ependymomas ≤22 years registered in the HIT-MED database (German brain tumor registry for children, adolescents, and adults with medulloblastoma, ependymoma, pineoblastoma, and CNS-primitive neuroectodermal tumors) between 1992 and 2022 were included.

Disentangling decision errors from action execution in mouse-tracking studies: The case of effect-based action control.

Mouse-tracking is regarded as a powerful technique to investigate latent cognitive and emotional states. However, drawing inferences from this manifold data source carries the risk of several pitfalls, especially when using aggregated data rather than single-trial trajectories. Researchers might reach wrong conclusions because averages lump together two distinct contributions that speak towards fundamentally different mechanisms underlying between-condition differences: influences from online-processing during action execution and influences from incomplete decision processes.

Revealing real-time 3D in vivo pathogen dynamics in plants by label-free optical coherence tomography.

Microscopic imaging for studying plant-pathogen interactions is limited by its reliance on invasive histological techniques, like clearing and staining, or, for in vivo imaging, on complicated generation of transgenic pathogens. We present real-time 3D in vivo visualization of pathogen dynamics with label-free optical coherence tomography. Based on intrinsic signal fluctuations as tissue contrast we image filamentous pathogens and a nematode in vivo in 3D in plant tissue.

The Role of Salicylic Acid in the Expression of and Other Immunity-Related Genes.

The hormone salicylic acid (SA) plays a crucial role in plant immunity by activating responses that arrest pathogen ingress. SA accumulation also penalizes growth, a phenomenon visible in mutants that hyperaccumulate SA, resulting in strong growth inhibition. An important question, therefore, is why healthy plants produce basal levels of this hormone when defense responses are not activated.

Sequential adaptation to modality incompatibility.

Modality-compatible stimulus-response mappings (e.g., responding vocally to an auditory stimulus and manually to a visual stimulus) are often easier to perform than modality-incompatible sets (reversed modality mappings).

Sense of agency in social hierarchies.

Distributing complex actions across agents is commonplace in human society. The objective efficiency of joint actions comes with critical challenges for the sense of agency of individual agents, complicating an accurate formation of these agents' perceived control over actions and action outcomes. Here we report a new experimental paradigm to investigate sense of agency for supervisors and subordinates in hierarchical settings.

Transcriptome analysis stratifies second-generation non-WNT/non-SHH medulloblastoma subgroups into clinically tractable subtypes.

Medulloblastoma (MB), one of the most common malignant pediatric brain tumor, is a heterogenous disease comprised of four distinct molecular groups (WNT, SHH, Group 3, Group 4). Each of these groups can be further subdivided into second-generation MB (SGS MB) molecular subgroups, each with distinct genetic and clinical characteristics. For instance, non-WNT/non-SHH MB (Group 3/4) can be subdivided molecularly into eight distinct and clinically relevant tumor subgroups.

Risk prediction in early childhood sonic hedgehog medulloblastoma treated with radiation-avoiding chemotherapy: Evidence for more than 2 subgroups.

Background: The prognostic impact of clinical risk factors and DNA methylation patterns in sonic hedgehog (SHH)-activated early childhood desmoplastic/nodular medulloblastoma (DMB) or medulloblastoma with extensive nodularity (MBEN) were evaluated to better identify patients at risk for relapse.

Methods: One hundred and forty-four patients with DMB (n = 99) or MBEN (n = 45) aged <5 years and treated with radiation-sparing approaches, including intraventricular methotrexate in 132 patients were evaluated.

Results: Patients with DMB had less favorable 5-year progression-free survival than MBEN (5y-PFS, 71% [DMB] vs.

Action representations in prevention behavior: Evidence from motor execution.

Human actions sometimes aim at preventing an event from occurring. How these to-be-prevented events are represented, however, is poorly understood. Recent proposals in the literature point to a possible divide between effect-producing, operant actions, and effect-precluding, prevention actions, suggesting that the control of operant actions relies on codes of environment-related effects whereas prevention actions do not.

Outcomes of Infants and Young Children With Relapsed Medulloblastoma After Initial Craniospinal Irradiation-Sparing Approaches: An International Cohort Study.

Purpose: Infant and young childhood medulloblastoma (iMB) is usually treated without craniospinal irradiation (CSI) to avoid neurocognitive late effects. Unfortunately, many children relapse. The purpose of this study was to assess salvage strategies and prognostic features of patients with iMB who relapse after CSI-sparing therapy.

Sensor-based phenotyping of above-ground plant-pathogen interactions.

Plant pathogens cause yield losses in crops worldwide. Breeding for improved disease resistance and management by precision agriculture are two approaches to limit such yield losses. Both rely on detecting and quantifying signs and symptoms of plant disease.

Two faces of temporal binding: Action- and effect-binding are not correlated.

Research on the sense of agency has proliferated a range of explicit and implicit measures. However, the relation of different measures is poorly understood with especially mixed findings on the correlation between explicit judgments of agency and the implicit perceptual bias of temporal binding. Here, we add to the conundrum by showing that the two sub-components of temporal binding - action-binding and effect-binding, respectively - are not correlated across participants either, suggesting independent processes for both components.

Visualization of Three Sclerotiniaceae Species Pathogenic on Onion Reveals Distinct Biology and Infection Strategies.

, , and are three fungal species of the family Sclerotiniaceae that are pathogenic on onion. Despite their close relatedness, these fungi cause very distinct diseases, respectively called leaf blight, neck rot, and white rot, which pose serious threats to onion cultivation. The infection biology of neck rot and white rot in particular is poorly understood.

Quantification of plant morphology and leaf thickness with optical coherence tomography.

Optical coherence tomography (OCT) can be a valuable imaging tool for in vivo and label-free digital plant phenotyping. However, for imaging leaves, air-filled cavities limit the penetration depth and reduce the image quality. Moreover, up to now quantification of leaf morphology with OCT has been done in one-dimensional or two-dimensional images only, and has often been limited to relative measurements.

To prevent means to know: Explicit but no implicit agency for prevention behavior.

Human agents draw on a variety of explicit and implicit cues to construct a sense of agency for their actions and the effects of these actions on the outside world. Associative mechanisms binding actions to their immediate effects support the evolution of agency for operant actions. However, human agents often also act to prevent a certain event from occurring.

Quality measures for neurologists: Financial and practice implications.

Measuring and reporting health care quality is increasingly becoming part of clinical practice and reimbursement for specialists, including neurologists. The goal is to improve the value of care. Current major programs tie quality measurements to reimbursement, including programs from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services: the Physician Quality Reporting System, the Electronic Health Record Incentive Program (and Meaningful Use), and Accountable Care Organizations.

Quality improvement in neurology: AAN epilepsy quality measures: Report of the Quality Measurement and Reporting Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology.

Objective: Epilepsy is a common neurologic condition with significant personal, societal, medical, and economic burdens. There are considerable gaps in the quality of care delivered. Measuring the quality of care delivered is the first step to its improvement.

Quality improvement in neurology: AAN Parkinson disease quality measures: report of the Quality Measurement and Reporting Subcommittee of the American Academy of Neurology.

Background: Measuring the quality of health care is a fundamental step toward improving health care and is increasingly used in pay-for-performance initiatives and maintenance of certification requirements. Measure development to date has focused on primary care and common conditions such as diabetes; thus, the number of measures that apply to neurologic care is limited. The American Academy of Neurology (AAN) identified the need for neurologists to develop measures of neurologic care and to establish a process to accomplish this.

The Stroke Practice Improvement Network: a quasiexperimental trial of a multifaceted intervention to improve quality.

Objective: The aim of this project was to determine whether a tailored multifaceted intervention aimed at site-specific barriers is more effective than audit feedback alone for improving adherence to inhospital stroke performance measures (PMs): door to needle time of less than 1 hour for tissue plasminogen activator, dysphagia screening, deep venous thrombosis prophylaxis, and warfarin treatment for atrial fibrillation.

Methods: Hospitals were paired on baseline adherence to dysphagia screening and quality improvement infrastructure and randomized to receive audit feedback alone (n=7) versus audit feedback plus site-specific interventions (n=6). Data were collected on all admitted patients with stroke seen in the neurology department before and after a 6-month implementation period.

Benchmarks and determinants of adherence to stroke performance measures.

Background And Purpose: Develop achievable benchmarks for 9 stroke performance measures (PM) and to identify organizational factors associated with adherence.

Methods: Adherence rates and achievable benchmarks were determined for 9 PM within a study of patients (n=2294) admitted with acute ischemic stroke at 17 hospitals. Baseline information regarding hospital characteristics and stroke-specific processes of care were collected, and multi-level models were used to test the association of these factors with adherence.

Formal dysphagia screening protocols prevent pneumonia.

Background: Pneumonia is an important complication of ischemic stroke and increases mortality 3-fold. Five guidelines recommend a dysphagia screen before oral intake. What constitutes an adequate dysphagia screen and which patients should receive it remain unclear.

Establishment of primary stroke centers: a survey of physician attitudes and hospital resources.

Objectives: To survey US physicians involved in acute stroke care to determine the proportion of hospitals that currently meet the recommended Brain Attack Coalition (BAC) criteria for Primary Stroke Centers (PSC) and obtain opinions regarding the value of stroke centers.

Methods: A survey regarding the BAC guidelines for the establishment of stroke centers was mailed to 3,245 US neurologists, neurosurgeons, and emergency physicians.

Results: A total of 1,032 responses were received.