Investigating directed influences between activated brain areas in a motor-response task using fMRI

Localization of cognitive processes is a strength of functional neuroimaging. However, information about functional interactions between brain areas is crucial for a deeper understanding of brain function. We applied vector autoregressive modeling in the context of Granger causality as a method to analyze directed connectivity in a standard event-related fMRI study using a simple auditory-motor paradigm. The basic idea is to use temporal information in stochastic time series of a brain region in order to predict signal time courses in other brain regions. Thus, we predicted that the method should demonstrate causal influence of the auditory cortex and the supplementary motor area (SMA) on primary motor cortex. Eleven right-handed healthy female subjects were instructed to press a ball with either their left or their right hand when hearing the command "left" or "right" in the scanner. Influence to the left motor cortex was found from bilateral auditory cortex as well as from the SMA in 9 of 11 subjects. Granger causality to the right motor cortex existed from bilateral auditory cortex in 5 and from SMA in 6 subjects. Granger causality to the SMA existed from right auditory cortex in 7 subjects and from left auditory cortex in 8 subjects. Our findings in a simple task show that even under suboptimal circumstances (a relatively long TR of 2440 ms), Granger causality can be a useful tool to explore effective connectivity. Temporally optimized scanning should increase that potential.     

Metal–Polymer Hybrid Nanoparticles for Correlative High‐Resolution Light and Electron Microscopy

The combination of fluorescence microscopy and electron microscopy promises a deeper insight into the ultrastructural features of cell organelles, e.g., after drug administration. Both methods complement each other and provide, as a correlative approach, a keen insight into the fate of nanoparticles within the cell. Moreover, it represents a promising tool to determine alterations of the cellular environment as a response to particle uptake. However, the availability of suitable correlative markers is mandatory for such correlative approaches. In this contribution, the utilization of poly(ethylene imine) based metal–polymer hybrid particles labeled with small gold nanoparticles and Rhodamine B facilitating the observation of the particles by means of fluorescence as well as by transmission electron microscopy is suggested. Correlative light and electron microscopy is used to study uptake and intracellular fusion processes of endosomal/lysosomal structures.     

Dissimilar electro-osmotic flow and ionic current recirculation patterns in porous media detected by NMR mapping experiments

Random-site percolation clusters were milled into ceramic (polar) and polystyrene (nonpolar) plates as a paradigm for porous media or complex microsystem channel networks. The pore space was filled with electrolyte solutions. Using NMR microscopy techniques, maps of the following quantities were recorded: (i) flow velocity driven by external pressure gradient, (ii) electro-osmotic flow (EOF) velocity, (iii) ionic current density in the presence of EOF, (iv) ionic current density in the absence of EOF. As far as possible, the experiments were supplemented by computational fluid dynamics simulations. It is shown that electro-osmotic flow as well as the electric current density include vortices and recirculation patterns. Remarkably, all transport patterns turned out to be dissimilar, and the occurrence and positions of vortices do not coincide in the different maps.     

Hadron masses and matrix elements from the QCD Schrödinger functional

We explain how masses and matrix elements can be computed in lattice QCD using Schrödinger functional boundary conditions. Numerical results in the quenched approximation demonstrate that good precision can be achieved. For a statistical sample of the same size, our hadron masses have a precision similar to what is achieved with standard methods, but for the computation of matrix elements such as the pseudoscalar decay constant the Schrödinger functional technique turns out to be much more efficient than the known alternatives.     

A multistep flux-corrected transport scheme

A multistep flux-corrected transport (MFCT) scheme is developed to achieve conservative and monotonic tracer transports for multistep dynamical cores. MFCT extends Zalesak two-time level scheme to any multistep time-differencing schemes by including multiple high-order fluxes in the antidiffusive flux, while computing the two-time level low-order monotone solution. The multistep time-differencing scheme used in this study is the third-order Adams–Bashforth (AB3) scheme implemented in a finite-volume icosahedral shallow-water model. The accuracy of AB3 MFCT is quantified by the shape-preserving advection experiments in non-divergent flow, as well as a cosine bell whose shape changes during advection in shear flow. AB3 MFCT has been shown to be insensitive to time step size. This make AB3 MFCT an attractive transport scheme for explicit high resolution model applications with small time step. MFCT is tested in shallow-water model simulations to demonstrate that the use of MFCT maintains positive-definite tracer transport, while at the same time conserving both fluid mass and tracer mass within round-off errors in the AB3 dynamic core.     

Second harmonic imaging of chloroplasts using the two-photon laser scanning microscope

BackgroundSecond harmonic information reveals information about the structure of spatially oriented structures with an asymmetry. We study the second harmonic images of the grana and intergranal parts of chloroplasts in the leaves of the shade moss Plagiomnium affine.ResultsA two-photon microscope with blocking filters to suppress fluorescence generated both forward and backward second harmonic illumination to be captured. In the starch free chloroplasts of the single cell layered laminae strong second harmonic generation (SHG) from the granal regions was emitted. Upon illumination the chloroplasts changed their orientation affecting the SHG signal. Chloroplast is reoriented upon illumination.ConclusionsSHG signals were successfully obtained from the grana without any possible confusion from SHG starch grains due to their absence.