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Q Amyloid: an open-access platform for automated amyloid-beta quantification
Full text linkAmyloid-beta (Aβ) deposition is one of the earliest neuropathological hallmarks of Alzheimer\u27s disease (AD), and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) is commonly used to detect Aβ in vivo. However, an automated PET-based pipeline for quantification of brain Aβ accumulation is still missing. This project aims to develop Q Amyloid, an open-access platform to automatically quantify brain Aβ burden.
Q Amyloid quantifies Aβ load using the Centiloid (CL) scale [1]. Structural Magnetic Resonance Imaging (T1-MRI) and PET data were downloaded from the GAAIN website for algorithm development, along with CL values, adopted as gold standards. The pipeline included MRI and PET scan preprocessing following the “standard method” [1], and a quality control step to assess its outcome. Individual Standardized Uptake Value ratios (SUVr) were then computed and converted to CL units [1]. The pipeline was evaluated on the 11C-PiB GAAIN dataset and subsequently calibrated on three additional ¹⁸F-labeled radiotracers using the corresponding data available on GAAIN.
Evaluation of the Q Amyloid pipeline on the 11C-PiB GAAIN dataset demonstrated that the group mean SUVr values were within 2% of the gold standard, and that individual SUVr were highly correlated with the other fluorinated tracers (R2= [0.902-0.962]) (Figure 1).
Once operational, the platform will receive subject-specific T1-MRI and PET scans as input and generate a report detailing the amyloidosis status. Q Amyloid will serve as a valuable tool in clinical trials, providing quantitative biomarkers to support early AD diagnosis.
This project is supported by the cascading grant “Q Amyloid – Quantitative Amyloid Imaging” under PNRR ECS00000017 “THE-Tuscany Health Ecosystem,” Spoke 6: “Precision Medicine & Personalized Healthcare” funded by the European Commission through the NextGeneration EU programme.
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TOF PET/MR attenuation correction of flexible MR-hardware utilizing MLAA and template alignment
Full text linkAccurate attenuation correction (AC) of hardware components used during Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MR) remains a challenge in PET/MR, as these components are not visible in MR-derived attenuation maps. CT-based template μ-maps are widely used for stationary hardware such as the patient table, but flexible MR hardware is currently not corrected for in clinical protocols. Previously, the influence of such MR hardware (MR-HW) on PET quantification was investigated using phantom [1] and patient [2] measurements performed on the Siemens Biograph mMR. These initial studies explored the simultaneous estimation of attenuation and activity (MLAA) [3] together with registration of a CT-based template μ-map on non-time of flight data to correct for the coil attenuation, similar to [4]. It has been shown that time-of-flight (TOF) information can stabilize the joint estimation problem for patient attenuation correction, eliminating crosstalk artefacts in the presence of errors in initial attenuation estimates [5].
Building on these findings, the current work evaluates AC strategies for MR hardware using a state-of-the-art TOF PET/CT system (Biograph Vision 600, Siemens Healthineers) to explore how TOF information influences the robustness and accuracy of MRAC for recent PET/MR systems. Measurements of a NEMA body phantom—with and without an MR-hardware coil placed on top—were acquired using the TOF PET/CT system. MLAA, initialized with a phantom (and patient table) μ-map only, was employed to reconstruct the attenuation distribution outside the phantom, i.e., the coil attenuation. These results were compared to the known coil position obtained from a dedicated CT acquisition of the setup. Additionally, a CT scan of the coil in a different position was converted into a PET μ-map and registered to the MLAA output to assess registration-based correction. The feasibility and accuracy of the registration and the impact of the different MR-hardware attenuation correction strategies on the reconstructed PET images were evaluated.
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The White Heather Club Reassessed
Full text linkThis article reassess the role of The White Heather Club in mid-20th century Scottish culture. Rejecting preconceptions that it fostered trite representations, it shows how the programme reflected rapid innovations in broadcasting and was a technically and culturally creative approach to home entertainment on the small screen. The White Heather Club brought Scottish entertainment into Scottish homes at a pivotal post-war period when World War II was still a living memory, and popular culture and standards of living were undergoing a period of rapid change. The White Heather Club, in short, should be considered as a record of popular Scottish entertainment; it incorporated aspects of, and deserves to sit alongside, the folk revival movement
\u27Suppos þat þai be nocht bot fabill\u27: Medieval Film and Robert the Bruce
No full textThis article focusses on three films about Robert the Bruce: The Bruce (1996), Outlaw King (2018) and Robert the Bruce (2019). By exploring connections between historians and film-makers views of the past, and how these are expressed through cinematic conventions, it goes beyond assessments of ‘accuracy’ to enable more nuanced assessments of these films as creative works of art
The Making of a Monster: The Perpetrators of 1984 Sikh Genocide
No full textOur in-depth understanding of atrocities and their perpetrators stems from extensive research on the Holocaust. Since then, we have been able to ascertain the roles of authority figures, society, and environmental factors in determining the behaviour of atrocity perpetrators. It is found that violators of human rights are more often than not ordinary people. Thus, it becomes important to study this perceived ordinary nature of perpetrators because it might help us prevent genocides in the future. In 1984, the Sikh community of India found themselves on the receiving end of a genocidal war. Even after years, they have been unable to cope with the trauma and suffering. This paper aims to understand the psyche and attitudes of the ordinary individuals who decided to murder the people they had grown up with. The paper will provide an overview of the Sikh genocide, the events that led up to it, the tumultuous environment in which it was set up, the role of superior figures, and how it affected the perpetrators
A new EUtopia – Understanding Common European Asylum System (CEAS) and the criminalisation of migration in Europe
Full text linkThe aim of this paper is to expound and critically analyse the proposed reform of the Common European Asylum System (CEAS) in December 2023. Drawing on insights from migration science and political philosophy, it argues that political agreement on the controversial reform can best be understood through a Foucauldian lens, conceptualising the European border regime as a biopolitical space in which migrant lives are contested. Against the background of the ever-expanding criminalisation and securitisation of migration, analyses of disciplinary and biopower offer unique insights into modern-day European asylum and border politics. The article criticises the bifurcation of European rights discourses in light of this trend, and calls for differentiated engagement with developments in European asylum politics.
La Evolución en la tecnología de cosecha: Un estudio de la diversidad a partir de restos líticos y botánicos en el Neolítico Ibérico (8th-7th milenio cal. BP)
No full textPioneer farming groups arrived in the Iberian Peninsula in the first half of the eighth-millennium cal. BP. Since then, the spread of new populations continued, and the highly diverse material culture of the Neolithic has been interpreted as a reflection of multiple origins and as the regionalisation that followed. In the past few decades, the study of different lithic tools has served to explore cultural Neolithic patterns. In particular, changes in harvesting technology have provided helpful information about the diffusion of Neolithic groups, proposing possible transfers in technology or even cultural adaptation to agricultural changes as explanatory factors for subsequent shifts. Here, we investigate how the initial diversity in harvesting technology changes or remains over time and in different regions according to crop harvesting preferences. Also, we test whether the diversity of harvesting tool dynamics is related to technological factors. Thus, we characterise the crops, blade production, and harvesting tools associated with different areas from 7600 to 6400 cal. BP on a large and refined chrono-cultural scale. As a result, we confirm that using one sickle type is independent of the crop harvested, and at least until the Middle Neolithic, we observe that it does not limit the incorporation of the new agricultural system into the region. By including glossy and no glossy blade measurements in the analysis, we discard the effects of technological limitations as an obstacle for replicating the parallel type in those contexts where it is not documented. Moreover, we found significant differences between the coefficients of variation in blade samples inserted differently, likely influenced by the hafting system. Whenever possible, we discuss how this adapts to blade production. Incorporating a filter in selecting the sample in favour of dated assemblages made it possible to situate these patterns on a comparative scale of two hundred years through the entire time framework. En la península Ibérica, grupos de agricultores pioneros llegaron hacia la primera mitad del 8th milenio cal BP. Desde entonces, continuó la expansión de nuevas poblaciones, y la diversidad de la cultura material que nos proporcionan los contextos neolíticos se ha interpretado como un reflejo tanto de los múltiples orígenes de estos grupos como de la regionalización que siguió a su llegada. En las últimas décadas, el estudio de diferentes herramientas líticas ha servido para explorar patrones culturales del periodo. En particular, la detección de cambios en la tecnología de recolección ha proporcionado información útil sobre la difusión de los grupos neolíticos, proponiéndose como factores explicativos de los cambios posteriores posibles transferencias en la tecnología o incluso la adaptación cultural a cambios agrícolas. Este trabajo busca comparar continuidades y discontinuidades entre los factores económicos, sociales y técnicos caracterizando el cultivo cereal, la producción de láminas y los elementos de hoz según distintas áreas entre el 7600 y el 6400 cal. BP en una escala cronocultural amplia. Como resultado, se confirma que el uso de un tipo de hoz es independiente del cultivo cosechado y, al menos hasta el Neolítico Medio, observamos que no limita la incorporación del nuevo sistema agrícola en la región. Al incluir en el análisis las medidas de láminas con pátina y de producciones laminares, descartamos limitaciones tecnológicas en aquellas áreas donde no se introdujo el tipo de inserción paralela. Además, encontramos diferencias significativas entre las variaciones de las láminas insertas de diferentes maneras, probablemente relacionadas con restricciones de enmangue y, cuando los datos lo permitieron, discutimos la forma en que la producción laminar se adaptó a ellas. La incorporación de filtros en el proceso de selección de la muestra a favor de conjuntos datados permitió situar estos patrones en una escala comparativa de doscientos años
Phosphodiesterases, 3\u27,5\u27-cyclic nucleotide (PDEs) in GtoPdb v.2025.1
No full text3\u27,5\u27-Cyclic nucleotide phosphodiesterases (PDEs, 3\u27,5\u27-cyclic-nucleotide 5\u27-nucleotidohydrolase), E.C. 3.1.4.17, catalyse the hydrolysis of a 3\u27,5\u27-cyclic nucleotide (usually cyclic AMP or cyclic GMP). isobutylmethylxanthine is a nonselective inhibitor with an IC50 value in the millimolar range for all isoforms except PDE 8A, 8B and 9A. A 2\u27,3\u27-cyclic nucleotide 3\u27-phosphodiesterase (E.C. 3.1.4.37 CNPase) activity is associated with myelin formation in the development of the CNS
Automating Dietary Expertise: The Challenge of Making a Food-Tracking App for Everyone
No full textDigitally tracking food and eating has become a widespread activity. Scholars in anthropology, sociology and science and technology studies have problematised the personal and social implications of dietary tracking and the metrification of food and eating. Metrification has contributed to the emergence of new types of relevant expertise and new experts of eating and health. This warrants in-depth research to better understand the forming, negotiation, establishment and effects of new expertise.
Drawing on a sociomaterial perspective, this article explores these questions by reflecting on the development of an automated dietary tracking and intervention app. The article focuses on seeking feedback on mock-ups and prototypes of the app from potential users and non-users in ‘go-alongs’ and interviews, and in focus groups. The analysis revealed that the delegation of dietary expertise to an automated system poses a challenge for many participants. They emphasised what is neglected in the process—including their dietary but also bodily and sociocultural expertise. Our study contributes to an understanding of how dietary tracking and delegating expertise to an automated system appeals to users whose food values align with metrics used in the app but also users who accept to delegate specific forms of care to the technology
Big wheels keep on turning: Some diagnostic phenomena within knapped stone tools of the Hungarian Neolithic
Full text linkResearch into the Neolithic period in Hungary (between 6000 and 4600 or 4500 BCE) began at the turning of the 19th and 20th century, and the cultural frameworks that we use today were coined relatively early. In the last hundred years, Hungarian prehistoric research has done much to delineate these cultures\u27 spatial and temporal boundaries. On this basis, the territory of present-day Hungary can be divided into two major regions - one in the west and one in the east - and three major chronological phases. Although systematic research on Neolithic knapped stone tools in Hungary does not have a long history, the lessons of the last thirty years are sufficient to compare the experience with other elements of material culture and to draw further conclusions by integrating them at a higher level. It is generally agreed that the expedient nature of Neolithic stone tools does not allow for the kind of sophisticated typologies that we know from the Palaeolithic or Mesolithic. However, we are not necessarily lacking general phenomena that could be used to distinguish one region, period, or archaeological culture from another. These phenomena may be differences in the choice of raw materials, differences in typology sets, or technological changes, which are exhaustively discussed with numerous examples from the last decades in this paper. Utilizing Fernand Braudel’s tripartite system, we can reconstruct the processes that influenced the choice of raw material as relatively rapid and frequent changes in both areas, thus reflecting short-term cycles. Typological changes were much less frequent and had an impact in both the eastern and western parts of the region. However, if we look at the broadest period, only one detectable change can be observed, which is in the field of technology, and it occurred at the end of the Early Neolithic. For the rest of the Neolithic, we almost exclusively encounter debitage products and tools derived from indirect percussion applied to regional raw materials, largely using a prismatic or orthogonal core strategy