Exploring new landmarks: analysis of Twitter usage during the 41st ESNR Annual Meeting.

We analyzed the use of Twitter during the 41st Annual Meeting of the European Society of Neuroradiology (ESNR) held in Rotterdam from 19 to 23 September 2018. The aim was to check the status of the European neuroradiology Twitter community and to discover which topics were discussed most often. The data were compared with a similar analysis performed during the Annual Meeting of the American Society of Neuroradiology (ASNR) in 2014. Even though the analysis demonstrated a low use of Twitter during the ESNR meeting, the platform still generated an important volume of impressions and engagement. This use was noted by the global community because topics of the meeting, such as the value of radiological reporting and advanced imaging, were discussed worldwide. These data, also compared to the American meeting, suggests a need for more prolific use and engagement with ESNR social media accounts in order to draw our members into discussions during meetings and to reinforce the place of European neuroradiology in the debate on key imaging topics as well as promoting society events.

Combined effect of cerebral hypoperfusion and white matter lesions on executive functioning - The SMART-MR study.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: It has been hypothesized that cerebral hypoperfusion may contribute to cognitive deterioration. Patients with white matter lesions (WML) may be more vulnerable to a decrease in cerebral blood flow (CBF) due to an impaired autoregulation. We investigated the association between CBF and cognitive performance and whether WML modified this relation. METHODS: Within the SMART-MR study, a cohort study among patients with manifest arterial disease, cross-sectional analyses were performed in 472 patients (mean age 57 +/- 10 years, 77% male). Total CBF was measured with magnetic resonance angiography in the internal carotid arteries and basilar artery, and was expressed per 100 ml brain volume. Neuropsychological tests assessing executive functioning and memory were performed and composite scores were calculated. We used linear regression analyses, adjusted for age, sex, education and intelligence, to investigate the association between CBF and cognitive performance. RESULTS: We found that WML modified the association between CBF and executive functioning (p for interaction <0.001); the association between lower CBF and worse performance on executive functioning became stronger and significant with increasing volumes of WML. Lower CBF was not associated with worse memory. CONCLUSION: Our results suggest that a combination of lower CBF and WML may impair executive functioning but not memory.

Clinical characteristics of type 1 diabetic patients with and without severe hypoglycemia.

OBJECTIVE: To investigate the frequency of severe hypoglycemia (SH) and hypoglycemic coma and to identify clinical and behavioral risk indicators in a nonselected population of type 1 diabetic patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: This study involved a retrospective clinical survey of 195 consecutive patients using a questionnaire addressing the frequency of SH (i.e., help from others required) and hypoglycemic coma during the previous year, general characteristics, behavior, hypoglycemia awareness, and the Hypoglycemia Fear Survey Data regarding diabetes, treatment, long-term complications, comorbidity, and comedication were obtained from the patients' medical records. RESULTS: A total of 82% of subjects were receiving intensive insulin treatment, and mean +/- SD HbA(1c) was 7.8 +/- 1.2%. Mean duration of diabetes was 20 +/- 12 years. The occurrence of SH (including hypoglycemic coma) was 150 episodes/100 patient-years and affected 40.5% of the population. Hypoglycemic coma occurred in 19% of subjects (40 episodes/100 patient-years). SH without coma was independently related to nephropathy (odds ratio [OR] 4.8 [95% CI 1.5-15.1]), a threshold for hypoglycemic symptoms of <3 mmol/l (4.8 [1.8-12.0]), and a daily insulin dose 0.1 U/kg higher (1.3 [1.0-1.6]) (all ORs were adjusted for diabetes duration and use of comedication). Hypoglycemic coma was independently related to neuropathy (3.9 [1.5-10.4]), (nonselective) beta-blocking agents (14.9 [2.1-107.4]), and alcohol use (3.5 [1.3-9.1]) (all ORs were adjusted for diabetes duration). CONCLUSIONS: SH and hypoglycemic coma are common in a nonselected population with type 1 diabetes. The presence of long-term complications, a threshold for symptoms of <3 mmo/l, alcohol use, and (nonselective) beta-blockers were associated with SH during the previous year. If prospectively confirmed, these results may have consequences for clinical practice.

Folding and conformational analysis of AVR9 peptide elicitors of the fungal tomato pathogen Cladosporium fulvum.

The race-specific elicitor AVR9, produced by the phytopathogenic fungus Cladosporium fulvum, is a 28-residue beta-sheet peptide containing three disulfide bridges. The folding of this peptide to its native conformation was examined in the presence of oxidized (GSSG) and reduced (GSH) glutathione at concentrations resembling those present in the endoplasmic reticulum. The concentrations of GSH and GSSG, and the applied temperature strongly affected the folding efficiency. The effect of temperature appeared reversible. The conditions for in vitro folding were optimized and a maximum yield of 60-70% of correctly folded peptide was obtained. In vitro folded AVR9 is equally as active as native fungal AVR9. They both display similar NMR characteristics, indicating that they have the same 3D structure and identical disulfide bridges. Thus, AVR9 can be folded correctly in vitro. This folding can be described by disulfide bridge formation leading to scrambled three-disulfide species, followed by disulfide reshuffling to acquire the native structure. The presence of urea significantly affected the folding of AVR9, indicating that noncovalent interactions play a role in directing correct folding. Protein disulfide isomerase increased the folding rate at least 15-fold, but had no effect on the yield. The folding procedure has also been applied successfully to two mutant AVR9 peptides, (K23A)AVR9 and biotinylated AVR9. We conclude that the 28-residue sequence, without the preprosequence (as present in vivo), contains sufficient information to direct correct folding and disulfide bridge formation in vitro.

Social anxiety, self-presentation, and the self-serving bias in causal attribution.

Two experiments were conducted to provide evidence concerning the contribution of self-presentation concerns to the self-serving bias in causal attribution (individuals' tendency to assume more personal responsibility for a success than for a failure outcome) and its occasional, but systematic, reversal. In Experiment 1 high- but not low-social-anxiety participants presented themselves in a far more modest light when a committee of high prestige others was to join the experimenter in evaluating their behavior than when the committee evaluation was canceled. In Experiment 2 this reversal of the self-serving bias among high-social-anxiety subjects (in the evaluative context) was replicated, and it was also found that both high- and low-social-anxiety participants portrayed the causes of their behavior in a more modest fashion when they responded via the "bogus pipeline," a measurement technique designed to reduce distortion and dissimulation in verbal responses, than when they responded in the traditional paper-and-pencil format (although the influence of the bogus pipeline above and beyond the committee evaluation in eliciting "honest" responses from subjects only reached significance for low-social-anxiety subjects). These findings are discussed in terms of the varying self-presentation strategies and differing self-concepts of individuals high and low in social anxiety, as well as the self-presentation component to apparently self-enhancing and self-effacing causal attributions for performance.

Synthesis of adenosine triphosphate in isolated nuclei and intact cells.

1. It has previously been demonstrated that nuclei isolated from normal and neoplastic lymphoid cells are capable of oxygen-dependent ATP synthesis. In this paper it is shown that also the corresponding intact cells can synthesize ATP under those conditions in which nuclei can synthesize ATP. 2. In nuclei isolated from liver, kidney, rhabdomyosarcoma and osteosarcoma, oxygen-dependent ATP synthesis could not be demonstrated. The cells isolated from these tissues or tumours could not synthesize ATP either. The alternatives that such nuclei lost their ability for oxidative phosphorylation during the isolation procedure or that the process does not occur in these nuclei were explored. 3. Janus Green B, a vital stain for mitochondria, was used as a differential inhibitor of mitochondrial and nuclear ATP synthesis in intact cells. 4. Oxidative phosphorylation in mitochondria isolated from cells that had been incubated with various concentrations of Janus Green B (1-10mum) was seriously uncoupled, whereas at these concentrations oxygen-dependent ATP synthesis in isolated nuclei and in isolated cells were only inhibited to a small extent. 5. The results suggest that oxygen-dependent ATP synthesis in isolated cells measured under ;nuclear' conditions and in the presence of Janus Green B and Ca(2+) is mainly due to nuclear oxygen-dependent ATP synthesis. The stimulation of cellular ATP synthesis by glucose was completely inhibited by Janus Green B. 6. It is tentatively concluded that the stimulation of ATP synthesis in isolated cells by glucose, which is not found in isolated nuclei, represents mitochondrial ATP synthesis, and nuclear and mitochondrial ATP synthesis can then be studied differentially in the intact cell. The possibility is considered that oxygen-dependent nuclear ATP synthesis is not a general property of cell nuclei.