Purpose. – MRI is essential in the management of brain tumours. However, long waiting times reduce patient accessibility. Reducing acquisition time could improve access but at the cost of spatial ...resolution and diagnostic quality. A commercially available artificial intelligence (AI) solution, SubtleMRTM , can increase the resolution of acquired images. The objective of this prospective study was to evaluate the impact of this algorithm that halves the acquisition time on the detectability of brain lesions in radiology and radiotherapy. Material and methods. – The T1/T2 MRI of 33 patients with brain metastases or meningiomas were analysed. Images acquired quickly have a matrix divided by two which halves the acquisition time. The visual quality and lesion detectability of the AI images were evaluated by radiologists and radiation oncologist as well as pixel intensity and lesions size. Results. – The subjective quality of the image is lower for the AI images compared to the reference images. However, the analysis of lesion detectability shows a specificity of 1 and a sensitivity of 0.92 and 0.77 for radiology and radiotherapy respectively. Undetected lesions on the IA image are lesions with a diameter less than 4 mm and statistically low average gadolinium-enhancement contrast. Conclusion. – It is possible to reduce MRI acquisition times by half using the commercial algorithm to restore the characteristics of the image and obtain good specificity and sensitivity for lesions with a diameter greater than 4 mm.
Objectif de l’étude :L’IRM est essentielle dans la prise en charge des tumeurs cérébrales. Cependant, les longs délais d’attente réduisent l’accessibilité des patients à cette modalité. La réduction du temps d’acquisition pourrait améliorer l’accès, mais au détriment de la résolution spatiale et de la qualité du diagnostic. Une solution d’intelligence artificielle disponible dans le commerce, SubtleMR™, peut augmenter la résolution des images acquises. L’objectif de cette étude prospective était d’évaluer l’impact de cet algorithme qui divise par deux le temps d’acquisition sur la détectabilité des lésions cérébrales en radiologie et radiothérapie. Matériel et méthodes : Les IRM pondérées en T1/T2 de 33 patients atteints de métastases cérébrales ou de méningiomes ont été analysées. Les images acquises rapidement possèdent une matrice divisée par deux qui divise par deux le temps d’acquisition. La qualité visuelle et la détectabilité des lésions des images d’intelligence artificielle ont été évaluées par des radiologues et des radiothérapeutes, ainsi que l’intensité des pixels et la taille des lésions. Résultats :La qualité subjective de l’image est inférieure pour les images d’intelligence artificielle par rapport aux images de référence. Cependant, l’analyse de la détectabilité des lésions montre une spécificité de 1 et une sensibilité de 0,92 et 0,77 respectivement pour la radiologie et la radiothérapie. Les lésions non détectées sur l’image d’intelligence artificielle sont des lésions d’un diamètre inférieur à 4 mm et d’un contraste de rehaussement moyen significativement plus faible après injection de gadolinium. Conclusion :Il est possible de diviser par deux les temps d’acquisition de l’IRM en utilisant l’algorithme commercial pour restituer les caractéristiques de l’image et obtenir une bonne spécificité et sensibilité pour les lésions de diamètre supérieur à 4 mm.
It is commonly accepted that repeatedly using mental procedures results in a transition to memory retrieval, but the determinant of this process is still unclear. In a 3-week experiment, we compared ...two different learning situations involving basic additions, one based on counting and the other based on arithmetic fact memorization. Two groups of participants learned to verify additions such as "G + 2 = Q?" built on an artificial sequence (e.g., "XGRQD..."). The first group learned the sequence beforehand and could therefore count to solve the problems, whereas the second group was not aware of the sequence and had to learn the equations by rote. With practice, solution times of both groups reached a plateau, indicating a certain level of automatization. However, a more fine-grained comparison indicated that participants relied on fundamentally different learning mechanisms. In the counting condition, most participants showed a persistent linear effect of the numerical operand on solution times, suggesting that fluency was reached through an acceleration of counting procedures. However, some participants began memorizing the problems involving the largest addends: Their solution times were very similar to those of participants in the rote learning group, suggesting that they resulted from a memory retrieval process. These findings show that repeated mental procedures do not systematically lead to memory retrieval but that fluency can also be reached through the acceleration of these procedures. Moreover, these results challenge associationist models, which cannot currently predict that the process of memorization begins with problems involving the largest addends.
Issues
Music is among the most frequently used medium to promote young adults' well‐being. To that aim, the efficiency of music is explained by its capacity to modulate emotions through its effect on ...the brain's reward pathways. Hence, music could help individuals suffering from dysregulations in these pathways, whose experience of positive emotions is often inhibited. Such dysregulations are particularly present in individuals with problematic psychoactive substance (PAS) use, who are overrepresented in the context of homelessness. While few of them initiate treatment, they successfully rely on their own resources to promote their well‐being, including music, though its impact in this context remains under‐studied.
Approach
This scoping review describes the impact of music on the well‐being, PAS use and addictive trajectory of young housed and homeless individuals with problematic PAS use. Eleven French and English databases were screened for peer‐reviewed articles using concepts and keywords related to music, PAS and well‐being. From the 3697 results, 39 were reviewed. Results were organised according to the observed impact of music and analysed critically.
Key Findings
Literature shows that PAS users value the impact of music in meeting emotional, psychological and social needs, especially when they experience homelessness. Yet, research has been highly limited to the harmful consequences of music, limiting our knowledge of its potential benefits.
Implications and Conclusion
To deepen our understanding about the impact of music, future research should endorse a broader perspective and consider the personal and contextual experiences accompanying the involvement in music, factors that were traditionally overlooked.
This study aimed to describe and understand the links between musical activities (i.e. listening, playing, attending festive events, belonging to music-based communities) and the addictive trajectory ...of homeless young adults who experience problematic psychoactive substance (PS) use. Semi-structured qualitative interviews were conducted with 15 homeless young adults aged 18 to 30 years old, to explore how music modulated their addictive trajectory. A thematic and trajectory analysis were performed. Music most often constituted a tool used to control, reduce, or recover from problematic PS use, and sometimes led to the initiation of novel substances, increased consumption, and relapses. These benefits and harms varied according to specific individual and contextual factors. Almost half of the sample reported no link between music and PS use. A better comprehension of the links between music and the addictive trajectory will guide the development of adapted harm reduction interventions that account for homeless young adults’ strengths.
Music is increasingly considered to promote the health and well-being of clinical populations treated in hospital and psychiatric settings. Research shows numerous benefits of music on physical and ...mental health issues by responding to psychological, emotional, social and physical needs. However, while music's benefits are largely supported among clinical populations, it appears that marginalized populations remain stigmatized through a lasting emphasis on their difficulties, including their use of music. Nevertheless, music appears as an innovative, accessible and promising tool to address such needs in individuals who experience social inequity regarding their access to health and helping services. Among those are marginalized individuals who suffer psychoactive substance abuse. Though research in this population remains scarce, we observe beneficial and harmful influences of music on psychoactive substance use and on the long-term addictive trajectory. In a more comprehensive manner, this article critically explores the relevance of the music and health conceptual framework developed by Västfjäll et al. to explain the role of music on the addictive trajectory. Accounting for music, individual and contextual factors, the model explains how music alters emotional states positively or negatively, which in turn modulates psychoactive substance use and the different periods encountered through the associated addictive trajectory. Despite some limitations, the model offers insights that can usefully guide and contribute to adapt its use in community interventions and as a harm reduction tool, conditional to the careful consideration of individuals' needs and interpretation of their musical experiences.
The pathogenic yeast
is both a powerful commensal and a pathogen of humans that can infect wide range of organs and body sites. Metabolic flexibility promotes infection and commensal colonization by ...this opportunistic pathogen. Yeast cell survival depends upon assimilation of fermentable and non-fermentable locally available carbon sources. Physiologically relevant sugars like glucose and fructose are present at low levels in host niches. However, because glucose is the preferred substrate for energy and biosynthesis of structural components, its efficient detection and metabolism are fundamental for the metabolic adaptation of the pathogen. We explored and characterized the
hexose kinase system composed of one hexokinase (
Hxk2) and two glucokinases (
Glk1 and
Glk4). Using a set of mutant strains, we found that hexose phosphorylation is mostly performed by
Hxk2, which sustains growth on hexoses. Our data on hexokinase and glucokinase expression point out an absence of cross regulation mechanisms at the transcription level and different regulatory pathways. In the presence of glucose,
Hxk2 migrates in the nucleus and contributes to the glucose repression signaling pathway. In addition,
Hxk2 participates in oxidative, osmotic and cell wall stress responses, while glucokinases are overexpressed under hypoxia. Hexose phosphorylation is a key step necessary for filamentation that is affected in the hexokinase mutant. Virulence of this mutant is clearly impacted in the
and macrophage models. Filamentation, glucose phosphorylation and stress response defects of the hexokinase mutant prevent host killing by
. By contributing to metabolic flexibility, stress response and morphogenesis, hexose kinase enzymes play an essential role in the virulence of
.
Updates to the SUMER Spectral Atlas Curdt, Werner; Wilhelm, Klaus; Schühle, Udo ...
Solar physics,
11/2022, Volume:
297, Issue:
11
Journal Article
Peer reviewed
Open access
We present a reworked version of the SUMER spectral atlas (Curdt et al.,
2001
). New identifications are given for more than 100 emission lines; entries were corrected or added to the list. The solar ...emission curve – spectral radiance versus wavelength – in the SUMER spectral range is now available in digital format as electronic supplementary material. To reveal the true solar emission, second-order photons from the Lyman continuum have been discarded near the long wavelength section in the first order of diffraction.
Deciphering mechanisms shaping bacterial diversity should help to build tools to predict the emergence of infectious diseases. Xanthomonads are plant pathogenic bacteria found worldwide. Xanthomonas ...axonopodis is a genetically heterogeneous species clustering, into six groups, strains that are collectively pathogenic on a large number of plants. However, each strain displays a narrow host range. We address the question of the nature of the evolutionary processes--geographical and ecological speciation--that shaped this diversity. We assembled a large collection of X. axonopodis strains that were isolated over a long period, over continents, and from various hosts. Based on the sequence analysis of seven housekeeping genes, we found that recombination occurred as frequently as point mutation in the evolutionary history of X. axonopodis. However, the impact of recombination was about three times greater than the impact of mutation on the diversity observed in the whole dataset. We then reconstructed the clonal genealogy of the strains using coalescent and genealogy approaches and we studied the diversification of the pathogen using a model of divergence with migration. The suggested scenario involves a first step of generalist diversification that spanned over the last 25,000 years. A second step of ecology-driven specialization occurred during the past two centuries. Eventually, secondary contacts between host-specialized strains probably occurred as a result of agricultural development and intensification, allowing genetic exchanges of virulence-associated genes. These transfers may have favored the emergence of novel pathotypes. Finally, we argue that the largest ecological entity within X. axonopodis is the pathovar.
PDF
