Prolonged, brain-wide expression of nuclear-localized GCaMP3 for functional circuit mapping.

Larval zebrafish offer the potential for large-scale optical imaging of neural activity throughout the central nervous system; however, several barriers challenge their utility. First, ~panneuronal probe expression has to date only been demonstrated at early larval stages up to 7 days post-fertilization (dpf), precluding imaging at later time points when circuits are more mature. Second, nuclear exclusion of genetically-encoded calcium indicators (GECIs) limits the resolution of functional fluorescence signals collected during imaging.

A Catalytic Asymmetric Total Synthesis of (-)-Perophoramidine.

We report a catalytic asymmetric total synthesis of the ascidian natural product perophoramidine. The synthesis employs a molybdenum-catalyzed asymmetric allylic alkylation of an oxindole nucleophile and a monosubstituted allylic electrophile as a key asymmetric step. The enantioenriched oxindole product from this transformation contains vicinal quaternary and tertiary stereocenters, and is obtained in high yield along with high levels of regio-, diastereo-, and enantioselectivity.

Neural correlates of intentional switching from ternary to binary meter in a musical hemiola pattern.

Musical rhythms are often perceived and interpreted within a metrical framework that integrates timing information hierarchically based on interval ratios. Endogenous timing processes facilitate this metrical integration and allow us using the sensory context for predicting when an expected sensory event will happen ("predictive timing"). Previously, we showed that listening to metronomes and subjectively imagining the two different meters of march and waltz modulated the resulting auditory evoked responses in the temporal lobe and motor-related brain areas such as the motor cortex, basal ganglia, and cerebellum.

Functional transformations of odor inputs in the mouse olfactory bulb.

Sensory inputs from the nasal epithelium to the olfactory bulb (OB) are organized as a discrete map in the glomerular layer (GL). This map is then modulated by distinct types of local neurons and transmitted to higher brain areas via mitral and tufted cells. Little is known about the functional organization of the circuits downstream of glomeruli.

Socioeconomic inequalities in quality of care and outcomes among patients with acute coronary syndrome in the modern era of drug eluting stents.

Background: The rapidly changing landscape of percutaneous coronary intervention provides a unique model for examining disparities over time. Previous studies have not examined socioeconomic inequalities in the current era of drug eluting stents (DES).

Methods And Results: We analyzed 835 070 hospitalizations for acute coronary syndrome (ACS) from the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project across all insurance types from 2008 to 2011, examining whether quality of care and outcomes for patients with ACS differed by income (based on zip code of residence) with adjustment for patient characteristics and clustering by hospital.

The Stanford Nanocharacterization Laboratory (SNL) and Recent Applications of an Aberration-Corrected Environmental Transmission Electron Microscope.

This article describes the establishment, over a period of ten years or so, of a multi-user, institution-wide facility for the characterization of materials and devices at the nano-scale. Emphasis is placed on the type of equipment that we have found to be most useful for our users, and the business strategy that maintains its operations. A central component of our facility is an aberration-corrected environmental transmission electron microscope and its application is summarized in the studies of plasmon energies of silver nanoparticles, the band gap of PbS quantum dots, atomic site occupancy near grain boundaries in yttria stabilized zirconia, the lithiation of silicon nanoparticles, in situ observations on carbon nanotube oxidation and the electron tomography of varicella zoster virus nucleocapsids.

Social feedback processing from early to late adolescence: influence of sex, age, and attachment style.

Objective: The establishment of an accurate understanding of one's social context is a central developmental task during adolescence. A critical component of such development is to learn how to integrate the objective evaluation of one's behavior with the social response to the latter--here referred to as social feedback processing.

Case Report: We measured brain activity by means of fMRI in 33 healthy adolescents (12-19 years old, 14 females).

Abnormal cross-frequency coupling in the tinnitus network.

Neuroimaging studies have identified networks of brain areas and oscillations associated with tinnitus perception. However, how these regions relate to perceptual characteristics of tinnitus, and how oscillations in various frequency bands are associated with communications within the tinnitus network is still incompletely understood. Recent evidence suggests that apart from changes of the tinnitus severity the changes of tinnitus dominant pitch also have modulating effect on the underlying neuronal activity in a number of brain areas within the tinnitus network.

Isotopic insights into microbial sulfur cycling in oil reservoirs.

Microbial sulfate reduction in oil reservoirs (biosouring) is often associated with secondary oil production where seawater containing high sulfate concentrations (~28 mM) is injected into a reservoir to maintain pressure and displace oil. The sulfide generated from biosouring can cause corrosion of infrastructure, health exposure risks, and higher production costs. Isotope monitoring is a promising approach for understanding microbial sulfur cycling in reservoirs, enabling early detection of biosouring, and understanding the impact of souring.

Optical suppression of drug-evoked phasic dopamine release.

Brief fluctuations in dopamine concentration (dopamine transients) play a key role in behavior towards rewards, including drugs of abuse. Drug-evoked dopamine transients may result from actions at both dopamine cell bodies and dopamine terminals. Inhibitory opsins can be targeted to dopamine neurons permitting their firing activity to be suppressed.

Network analysis of time-lapse microscopy recordings.

Multicellular organisms rely on intercellular communication to regulate important cellular processes critical to life. To further our understanding of those processes there is a need to scrutinize dynamical signaling events and their functions in both cells and organisms. Here, we report a method and provide MATLAB code that analyzes time-lapse microscopy recordings to identify and characterize network structures within large cell populations, such as interconnected neurons.

Cellulose Nanoparticles are a Biodegradable Photoacoustic Contrast Agent for Use in Living Mice.

Molecular imaging with photoacoustic ultrasound is an emerging field that combines the spatial and temporal resolution of ultrasound with the contrast of optical imaging. However, there are few imaging agents that offer both high signal intensity and biodegradation into small molecules. Here we describe a cellulose-based nanoparticle with peak photoacoustic signal at 700 nm and an limit of detection of 6 pM (0.

Retino-hypothalamic regulation of light-induced murine sleep.

The temporal organization of sleep is regulated by an interaction between the circadian clock and homeostatic processes. Light indirectly modulates sleep through its ability to phase shift and entrain the circadian clock. Light can also exert a direct, circadian-independent effect on sleep.

Changes in complex spike activity during classical conditioning.

The cerebellar cortex is necessary for adaptively timed conditioned responses (CRs) in eyeblink conditioning. During conditioning, Purkinje cells acquire pause responses or "Purkinje cell CRs" to the conditioned stimuli (CS), resulting in disinhibition of the cerebellar nuclei (CN), allowing them to activate motor nuclei that control eyeblinks. This disinhibition also causes inhibition of the inferior olive (IO), via the nucleo-olivary pathway (N-O).

Unresolved issues in pre-meiotic anther development.

Compared to the diversity of other floral organs, the steps in anther ontogeny, final cell types, and overall organ shape are remarkably conserved among Angiosperms. Defects in pre-meiotic anthers that alter cellular composition or function typically result in male-sterility. Given the ease of identifying male-sterile mutants, dozens of genes with key roles in early anther development have been identified and cloned in model species, ordered by time of action and spatiotemporal expression, and used to propose explanatory models for critical steps in cell fate specification.

Sequencing and de novo assembly of a Dahlia hybrid cultivar transcriptome.

Dahlia variabilis, with an exceptionally high diversity of floral forms and colors, is a popular flower amongst both commercial growers and hobbyists. Recently, some genetic controls of pigment patterns have been elucidated. These studies have been limited, however, by the lack of comprehensive transcriptomic resources for this species.

Brain-like associative learning using a nanoscale non-volatile phase change synaptic device array.

Recent advances in neuroscience together with nanoscale electronic device technology have resulted in huge interests in realizing brain-like computing hardwares using emerging nanoscale memory devices as synaptic elements. Although there has been experimental work that demonstrated the operation of nanoscale synaptic element at the single device level, network level studies have been limited to simulations. In this work, we demonstrate, using experiments, array level associative learning using phase change synaptic devices connected in a grid like configuration similar to the organization of the biological brain.

Beat-induced fluctuations in auditory cortical beta-band activity: using EEG to measure age-related changes.

People readily extract regularity in rhythmic auditory patterns, enabling prediction of the onset of the next beat. Recent magnetoencephalography (MEG) research suggests that such prediction is reflected by the entrainment of oscillatory networks in the brain to the tempo of the sequence. In particular, induced beta-band oscillatory activity from auditory cortex decreases after each beat onset and rebounds prior to the onset of the next beat across tempi in a predictive manner.

Cortisol, cytokines, and hippocampal volume interactions in the elderly.

Separate bodies of literature report that elevated pro-inflammatory cytokines and cortisol negatively affect hippocampal structure and cognitive functioning, particularly in older adults. Although interactions between cytokines and cortisol occur through a variety of known mechanisms, few studies consider how their interactions affect brain structure. In this preliminary study, we assess the impact of interactions between circulating levels of IL-1Beta, IL-6, IL-8, IL-10, IL-12, TNF-alpha, and waking cortisol on hippocampal volume.

Fluid cognitive ability is a resource for successful emotion regulation in older and younger adults.

The Selection, Optimization, and Compensation with Emotion Regulation (SOC-ER) framework suggests that (1) emotion regulation (ER) strategies require resources and that (2) higher levels of relevant resources may increase ER success. In the current experiment, we tested the specific hypothesis that individual differences in one internal class of resources, namely cognitive ability, would contribute to greater success using cognitive reappraisal (CR), a form of ER in which one reinterprets the meaning of emotion-eliciting situations. To test this hypothesis, 60 participants (30 younger and 30 older adults) completed standardized neuropsychological tests that assess fluid and crystallized cognitive ability, as well as a CR task in which participants reinterpreted the meaning of sad pictures in order to alter (increase or decrease) their emotions.

Unconscious neural processing differs with method used to render stimuli invisible.

Visual stimuli can be kept from awareness using various methods. The extent of processing that a given stimulus receives in the absence of awareness is typically used to make claims about the role of consciousness more generally. The neural processing elicited by a stimulus, however, may also depend on the method used to keep it from awareness, and not only on whether the stimulus reaches awareness.

Decreased ability in the segregation of dynamically changing vowel-analog streams: a factor in the age-related cocktail-party deficit?

Pairs of harmonic complexes with different fundamental frequencies f0 (105 and 189 Hz or 105 and 136 Hz) but identical bandwidth (0.25-3 kHz) were band-pass filtered using a filter having an identical center frequency of 1 kHz. The filter's center frequency was modulated using a triangular wave having a 5-Hz modulation frequency fmod to obtain a pair of vowel-analog waveforms with dynamically varying single-formant transitions.