Independent morphological variables correlate with Aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease

This manuscript presents a study with recruited volunteers that comprehends three sorts of events present in Alzheimer's Disease (AD) evolution (structural, biochemical, and cognitive) to propose an update in neurodegeneration biomarkers for AD. The novel variables, K, I, and S, suggested based on physics properties and empirical evidence, are defined by power-law relations between cortical thickness, exposed and total area, and natural descriptors of brain morphology. Our central hypothesis is that variable K, almost constant in healthy human subjects, is a better discriminator of a diseased brain than the current morphological biomarker, Cortical Thickness, due to its aggregated information. We extracted morphological features from 3T MRI T1w images of 123 elderly subjects: 77 Healthy Cognitive Unimpaired Controls (CTL), 33 Mild Cognitive Impairment (MCI) patients, and 13 Alzheimer's Disease (AD) patients. Moreover, Cerebrospinal Fluid (CSF) biomarkers and clinical data scores were correlated with K, intending to characterize health and disease in the cortex with morphological criteria and cognitive-behavioral profiles. K distinguishes Alzheimer's Disease, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Healthy Cognitive Unimpaired Controls globally and locally with reasonable accuracy (CTL-AD, 0.82; CTL-MCI, 0.58). Correlations were found between global and local K associated with clinical behavioral data (executive function and memory assessments) and CSF biomarkers (t-Tau, Aβ-40, and Aβ-42). The results suggest that the cortical folding component, K, is a premature discriminator of healthy aging, Mild Cognitive Impairment, and Alzheimer's Disease, with significant differences within diagnostics. Despite the non-concomitant events, we found correlations between brain structural degeneration (K), cognitive tasks, and biochemical markers.

Adult Anopheles Mosquito Distribution at a Low and High Malaria Transmission Site in Tanzania

Malaria parasites are only transmitted by female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles; hence, the disease’s distribution is linked to that of the vector mosquitoes. As such, the goal of this study was to find out the spatial and temporal distribution of Anopheles mosquito adults in the research sites. This was a repeated cross-sectional ecological study that took place in Morogoro and Dodoma, Tanzania. Vacuum aspiration was used to collect mosquitoes both outside and inside human dwellings. All mosquito-related data was collected and entered into appropriate data collection forms. Female mosquitoes were recognized morphologically using Gillies and Coetzee morphological criteria, followed by PCR. In total, about 2742 Anopheles mosquitoes with an average collection of 18.21 ± 1.12 per day were collected outside human houses of which 1717 ( 10.51 ± 1.17 ) and 1025 ( 8.42 ± 1.41 ) were collected from Morogoro and Dodoma, respectively. Of the captured mosquitoes, 89.0%, 10.0%, and 1.0% were recognized as Anopheles arabiensis, Anopheles gambiae s.s., and Anopheles quadrianulatus, respectively. The distribution varied significantly with seasons, whereby 302 ( 4.72 ± 1.04 ) and 2440 ( 12.96 ± 1.52 ) mosquitoes were captured in the cold-dry and warm-wet season, respectively ( p < 0.0001 ). Of the captured mosquitoes, 42.33%, 16.33%, 14.96%, and 4.27 were found on the ceiling, stored junks, verandas, and barks/tree, respectively. In malaria-endemic countries, vector control forms an important component of the malaria control efforts. This study found significant variation of Anopheles mosquito abundance in time and space with Anopheles arabiensis being the most predominant malaria vector. This signifies the need to introduce mosquito control methods that will target the less anthropophilic Anopheles arabiensis or the immature aquatic stages. The study further found that underbeds, store room/piled bags, and undisturbed curtains were the most preferred resting places by mosquitoes signifying to be the most effective strategic sites for spraying insecticides during the implementation of indoor residual spraying (IRS).

Current Implementation and Future Prospects of Santi-Morf V.1.0

SANTI-Morf (Prihantoro, 2021) is a new morphological analyser for Indonesian. In SANTI-Morf annotation scheme (Prihantoro, 2019), morpheme tokens are linked to their annotations. The tokens are presented in their orthographic and citation forms to allow (allo)morph or morpheme-based searches. Users can also perform retrievals on the basis of formal and functional morphological criteria as SANTI-Morf tagset encodes the analyses of morphemes’ forms (e.g. roots, clitics, affix type) and functions (e.g. passive voice, active voice, adjective degrees, etc.). Currently, the scheme is implemented in Nooj (Silberztein, 2003), a linguistic development environment. It enables users to index and annotate Indonesian texts in their local PC, and later perform searches based on morphological criteria and or tokens defined by the SANTI-Morf scheme. AbstrakSANTI-Morf (Prihantoro, 2021) adalah sebuah program analisis morfologi terbaru untuk bahasa Indonesia. Dalam skema anotasi SANTI-morf (Prihantoro, A new tagset for morphological analysis of Indonesian, 2019), setiap token morfem terhubung dengan anotasinya. Token-token ini direpresentasikan dalam bentuk ortografis dan bentuk sitasi sehingga memungkinkan pengguna untuk melakukan penelusuran berbasis (alo)morf atau morfem. Selain itu, pengguna juga bisa melakukan penelusuran berbasiskan bentuk atau fungsi morfem. Ini karena tagset analitik yang digunakan di SANTI-morf mencakup bentuk (di antaranya: akar, klitik, jenis afiksasi) dan fungsi (di antaranya: aktif, pasif, derajat ajektiva). Saat ini, SANTI-morf diimplementasikan menggunakan NooJ (Silberztein, 2003), sebuah program pengembangan aplikasi linguistik. Pengguna dapat mengindeks dan menganotasi teks berbahasa Indonesia di komputer mereka, dan selanjutnya melakukan penelusuran menggunakan kriteria morfologi dan skema tokenisasi yang digunakan di skema anotasi SANTI-morf.

Remnant Radio Galaxy Candidates of Small Angular Sizes

Remnant radio galaxies (RRGs), characterized by the cessation of AGN activity, represent a short-lived last phase of radio galaxy’s life-cycle. Hitherto, searches for RRGs, mainly based on the morphological criteria, have identified large angular size sources resulting into a bias towards the remnants of powerful FR-II radio galaxies. In this study we make the first attempt to perform a systematic search for RRGs of small angular sizes (<30′′) in the XMM−LSS field. By using spectral curvature criterion we discover 48 remnant candidates exhibiting strong spectral curvature i.e., α150MHz325MHz−α325MHz1.4GHz≥ 0.5. Spectral characteristics at higher frequency regime (>1.4 GHz) indicate that some of our remnant candidates can depict recurrent AGN activity with an active core. We place an upper limit on the remnant fraction (frem) to be 3.9%, which increases to 5.4% if flux cutoff limit of S150MHz≥ 10 mJy is considered. Our study unveils, hitherto unexplored, a new population of small-size (<200 kpc) remnant candidates that are often found to reside in less dense environments and at higher redshifts (z) > 1.0. We speculate that a relatively shorter active phase and/or low jet power can be plausible reasons for the small size of remnant candidates.

Defining the area of mitoses counting in invasive breast cancer using whole slide image

Although counting mitoses is part of breast cancer grading, concordance studies showed low agreement. Refining the criteria for mitotic counting can improve concordance, particularly when using whole slide images (WSIs). This study aims to refine the methodology for optimal mitoses counting on WSI. Digital images of 595 hematoxylin and eosin stained sections were evaluated. Several morphological criteria were investigated and applied to define mitotic hotspots. Reproducibility, representativeness, time, and association with outcome were the criteria used to evaluate the best area size for mitoses counting. Three approaches for scoring mitoses on WSIs (single and multiple annotated rectangles and multiple digital high-power (×40) screen fields (HPSFs)) were evaluated. The relative increase in tumor cell density was the most significant and easiest parameter for identifying hotspots. Counting mitoses in 3 mm2 area was the most representative regarding saturation and concordance levels. Counting in area <2 mm2 resulted in a significant reduction in mitotic count (P = 0.02), whereas counting in area ≥4 mm2 was time-consuming and did not add a significant rise in overall mitotic count (P = 0.08). Using multiple HPSF, following calibration, provided the most reliable, timesaving, and practical method for mitoses counting on WSI. This study provides evidence-based methodology for defining the area and methodology of visual mitoses counting using WSI. Visual mitoses scoring on WSI can be performed reliably by adjusting the number of monitor screens.

Comparative Molecular and Metabolic Profiling of Two Contrasting Wheat Cultivars under Drought Stress

Drought is one of the most important threats to plants and agriculture; therefore, understanding of the mechanisms of drought tolerance is crucial for breeding of new tolerant varieties. Here, we assessed the effects of a long-term water deficit stress simulated on a precision phenotyping system on some morphological criteria and metabolite traits, as well as the expression of drought associated transcriptional factors of two contrasting drought-responsive African wheat cultivars, Condor and Wadielniel. The current study showed that under drought stress Wadielniel exhibits significant higher tillering and height compared to Condor. Further, we used gas chromatography and ultra-high performance liquid chromatography mass-spectrometry to identify compounds that change between the two cultivars upon drought. Partial least square discriminant analysis (PLS-DA) revealed that 50 metabolites with a possible role in drought stress regulation were significantly changed in both cultivars under water deficit stress. These metabolites included several amino acids, most notably proline, some organic acids, and lipid classes PC 36:3 and TAG 56:9, which were significantly altered under drought stress. Here, the results discussed in the context of understanding the mechanisms involved in the drought response of wheat cultivars, as the phenotype parameters, metabolite content and expression of drought associated transcriptional factors could also be used for potential crop improvement under drought stress.

Comparison and Validation of Ichthyoplankton DNA Extraction Methods

Ichthyoplankton is the cluster of planktonic organisms that consists of fish eggs and larvae. These planktonic stages belong to the temporary zooplankton, representing future exploitable stocks. The study of the early ontogenesis of fish plays a key role in the understanding and evaluation of these populations through the study of their abundance and their spatio-temporal distribution. To better understand and protect these fisheries resources, it is essential to identify the different stages of fish embryonic development. This identification is usually performed using the classical method, based on morphological criteria under a binocular magnifying glass; however, this methodology is not always sufficient and is time consuming and, therefore, it is necessary to rely increasingly on molecular tools. The major problem with these tools is the yield and quality of the nucleic acids extracted from ichthyoplankton, especially in the case of eggs, which are small. Several methods have been used for DNA extraction from ichthyoplankton, either automated or manual, but very often from larvae or adults. In the present work, five fish egg DNA extraction protocols were compared based on their DNA yield and extraction quality, verified by agarose gel electrophoresis and quantitative PCR amplification. The results showed that extraction by our heat-protocol for direct PCR (Hp-dPCR) presents the simplest and cheapest protocol of all the kits used in this study, providing a sufficient quantity and quality of nucleic acids to be used for PCR amplification, and being within the reach of third world laboratories that often do not have sufficiently large budgets to obtain automated kits.

On the Nature of Organs and Organ Systems – A Chapter in the History and Philosophy of Biology

Contrasting definitions of organs based either on function or on strictly morphological criteria are the legacy of a tradition starting with Aristotle. This floating characterization of organs in terms of both form and function extends also to organ systems. The first section of this review outlines the notions of organ and body part as defined, explicitly or implicitly, in representative works of nineteenth century’s comparative morphology. The lack of a clear distinction between the two notions led to problems in Owen’s approach to the comparative method (definition of homolog vs. nature of the vertebrate archetype) and to a paradoxical formulation, by Anton Dohrn, of the principle of functional change. Starting from the second half of the twentieth century, with the extensive use of morphological data in phylogenetic analyses, both terms – organ and body part – have been often set aside, to leave room for a comparison between variously characterized attributes (character states) of the taxa to be compared. Throughout the last two centuries, there have been also efforts to characterize organs or body parts in terms of the underlying developmental dynamics, both in the context of classical descriptive embryology and according to models suggested by developmental genetics. Functionally defined organ are occasionally co-extensive with morphologically defined body parts, nevertheless a clear distinction between the former and the latter is a necessary prerequisite to a study of their evolution: this issue is discussed here on the example of the evolution of hermaphroditism and gonad structure and function.

Recommendations for diagnosing STIC: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Our understanding of the oncogenesis of high-grade serous cancer of the ovary and its precursor lesions, such as serous tubal intraepithelial carcinoma (STIC), has significantly increased over the last decades. Adequate and reproducible diagnosis of these precursor lesions is important. Diagnosing STIC can have prognostic consequences and is an absolute requirement for safely offering alternative risk reducing strategies, such as risk reducing salpingectomy with delayed oophorectomy. However, diagnosing STIC is a challenging task, possessing only moderate reproducibility. In this review and meta-analysis, we look at how pathologists come to a diagnosis of STIC. We performed a literature search identifying 39 studies on risk reducing salpingo-oophorectomy in women with a known BRCA1/2 PV, collectively reporting on 6833 patients. We found a pooled estimated proportion of STIC of 2.8% (95% CI, 2.0–3.7). We focused on reported grossing protocols, morphological criteria, level of pathologist training, and the use of immunohistochemistry. The most commonly mentioned morphological characteristics of STIC are (1) loss of cell polarity, (2) nuclear pleomorphism, (3) high nuclear to cytoplasmic ratio, (4) mitotic activity, (5) pseudostratification, and (6) prominent nucleoli. The difference in reported incidence of STIC between studies who totally embedded all specimens and those who did not was 3.2% (95% CI, 2.3–4.2) versus 1.7% (95% CI, 0.0–6.2) (p 0.24). We provide an overview of diagnostic features and present a framework for arriving at an adequate diagnosis, consisting of the use of the SEE-FIM grossing protocol, evaluation by a subspecialized gynecopathologist, rational use of immunohistochemical staining, and obtaining a second opinion from a colleague.