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Biomedical subjects

R Cusack

Publications and source records attributed to R Cusack.

17 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2002

New robust 3-D phase unwrapping algorithms: application to magnetic field mapping and undistorting echoplanar images.

The phase, as well as the magnitude, of MRI images can carry useful information. It may be used to encode flow or temperature, or to map the magnetic field for the undistorting of EPIs and automated shimming. In all cases, we measure the extra spin given to nuclei. Unfortunately, we can only measure the final phase of the spins: the rotation is wrapped into the range [-pi, +pi], and to obtain a measure of the parameter of interest the missing multiples of 2pi must be replaced--a process known as phase unwrapping. While simple in principle, standard phase unwrapping algorithms fail catastrophically in the presence of even small amounts of noise. Here we present a new algorithm for robust three-dimensional phase unwrapping, in which unwrapping is guided, so that it initially works on less noisy regions. We test the algorithm on simulated phase data, and on maps of magnetic field, which were then used to successfully undistort EPI images. The unwrapping algorithm could be directly applied to other kinds of phase data.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2002

Persistence and amplification of St. Louis encephalitis virus in the Coachella Valley of California, 2000-2001.

The introduction of a St. Louis encephalitis virus (SLE) genotype new to southeastern California during 2000 was followed by focal enzootic amplification in the Coachella Valley that was detected by seroconversions of 29 sentinel chickens in five of nine flocks of 10 chickens each, isolations of virus from 30 of 538 pools of 50 Culex tarsalis Coquillett females, and collection of 30 positive sera from 2,205 wild birds. This SLE strain over wintered successfully and then amplified during the summer of 2001, with 47 sentinel seroconversions in eight of nine flocks, 70 virus isolations from 719 pools of Cx. tarsalis and Cx. p. quinquefasciatus Say, and 40 positive sera from 847 wild birds. Human illness was not detected by passive case surveillance, despite issuance of a health alert during 2001. Virus amplification during both years was associated with above average temperatures conducive for extrinsic incubation and below average precipitation during spring associated with below average vector abundance. Seroconversions by sentinel chickens provided the timely detection of virus activity, with initial conversions detected before positive mosquito pools or wild bird infections. Vertical infection was not detected among Cx. tarsalis adults reared from immatures collected during the fall-winter of 2000, even though SLE over wintered successfully in this area. Early seroconversions by a sentinel chicken during February 2001 and a recaptured Gambel's quail in April 2001 provided evidence for transmission during winter and spring when ambient temperatures averaged below 17 degrees C, the threshold for SLE replication.

Animals↗
PubMed2001

Identification of infectious salmon anaemia virus in Atlantic salmon from Nova Scotia (Canada): evidence for functional strain differences.

Infectious salmon anaemia (ISA) is a serious disease responsible for high morbidity in farmed Atlantic salmon Salmo salar in Norway, Scotland and New Brunswick, Canada. Recent attempts to identify different strains of ISA virus (ISAV) based on nucleotide sequence variation have shown that the Norwegian and Scottish samples are similar to one another but markedly different from New Brunswick samples. These data may suggest the presence of different strains on each side of the Atlantic but no functional difference has been found with either strain. We describe the first identification and characterisation of ISAV in Atlantic salmon from Nova Scotia, Canada. Further, salmon infected with the Nova Scotia ISAV do not show typical ISAV pathology or mortality. Sequencing of this new strain showed it to possess greater similarity to ISAV from Norway and Scotland than to ISAV from New Brunswick. These findings are discussed in terms of a possible origin of the Nova Scotia ISAV strain and the existence of an avirulent ISAV strain. The impact of current strain variation studies on our knowledge of ISAV is also discussed.

Amino Acid Sequence↗
PubMed2001

Effects of attention and unilateral neglect on auditory stream segregation.

Two pairs of experiments studied the effects of attention and of unilateral neglect on auditory streaming. The first pair showed that the build up of auditory streaming in normal participants is greatly reduced or absent when they attend to a competing task in the contralateral ear. It was concluded that the effective build up of streaming depends on attention. The second pair showed that patients with an attentional deficit toward the left side of space (unilateral neglect) show less stream segregation of tone sequences presented to their left than to their right ears. Streaming in their right ears was similar to that for stimuli presented to either ear of healthy and of brain-damaged controls, who showed no across-ear asymmetry. This result is consistent with an effect of attention on streaming, constrains the neural sites involved, and reveals a qualitative difference between the perception of left- and right-sided sounds by neglect patients.

Aged↗
PubMed2000

Neglect between but not within auditory objects.

Unilateral neglect is frequently characterized by the presence of extinction, which is a lack of awareness to contralesional visual stimuli in the presence of those further towards the ipsilesional side. It has been established that this visual extinction can be reduced if the stimuli are grouped together into a single object. However, attention between and within auditory objects has never before been studied. We demonstrate for the first time that unilateral neglect--hitherto thought primarily to be a disorder of visuospatial processing-- involves a specific deficit in allocating attention between auditory objects separated only in time and not in space. Importantly, this deficit is restricted to comparisons between sounds: the patients' ability to make within-sound comparisons is similar to that of controls. These differences cannot be explained in terms of different time spans over which comparisons must be made. The results suggest unilateral neglect is linked to--if not actually determined by--a reduction in attentional capacity in both the visual and auditory domains, and across the dimensions of both space and time. The findings have potential clinical applications.

Acoustic Stimulation↗
PubMed2000

Patterns of avian seroprevalence to western equine encephalomyelitis and Saint Louis encephalitis viruses in California, USA.

Temporal and spatial changes in the enzootic activity of western equine encephalomyelitis (WEE) and St. Louis encephalitis (SLE) viruses were monitored at representative wetland study sites in the Coachella, San Joaquin, and Sacramento valleys of California from 1996 to 1998 using three methods: (1) virus isolation from pools of 50 host-seeking Culex tarsalis Coquillett females, (2) seroconversions in flocks of 10 sentinel chickens, and (3) seroprevalence in wild birds collected by mist nets and grain baited traps. Overall, 74 WEE and one SLE isolates were obtained from 222,455 Cx. tarsalis females tested in 4,988 pools. In addition, 133 and 40 seroconversions were detected in 28 chicken flocks, and 143 and 27 of 20,192 sera tested from 149 species of wild birds were positive for antibodies to WEE and SLE, respectively. WEE was active in all three valleys, whereas SLE only was detected in Coachella Valley. Seroconversions in sentinel chickens provided the most sensitive indication of enzootic activity and were correlated with seroprevalence rates in wild birds. Avian seroprevalence rates did not provide an early warning of pending enzootic activity in chickens, because positive sera from after hatching year birds collected during spring most probably were the result of infections acquired during the previous season. Few seroconversions were detected among banded recaptured birds collected during spring and early summer. Age and resident status, but not sex, were significant risk factors for wild bird infection, with the highest seroprevalence rates among after hatching year individuals of permanent resident species. Migrants (with the exception of mourning doves) and winter resident species rarely were positive. House finches, house sparrows, Gambel's quail, California quail, common ground doves, and mourning doves were most frequently positive for antibodies. The initial detection of enzootic activity each summer coincided closely with the appearance of hatching year birds of these species in our study areas, perhaps indicating their role in virus amplification. Bird species most frequently positive roosted or nested in elevated upland vegetation, sites where Cx. tarsalis host-seeking females hunt most frequently. These serosurveys provided important background information for planned host competence and chronic infection studies.

Animals↗
PubMed2000

Effects of differences in timbre on sequential grouping.

Differences in the timbre of sounds in a sequence can affect their perceptual organization. Using a performance measure, Hartmann and Johnson (1991) concluded that streaming could be predicted primarily by the extent to which sounds were passed by different peripheral channels. However, results from a rating task by Dannenbring and Bregman (1976) suggested that sounds in the same spectral region (passed by the same peripheral channels) can be allocated to different streams. In Experiment 1, it was found, using an interleaved melody task, that target sounds could be selected from distractors in the same spectral region more easily when they differed in timbre. This finding might result from primitive stream segregation or schema-driven selection, but not from peripheral channeling. In Experiment 2, a rhythm discrimination task was used, requiring the sounds to be integrated for good performance. Differences in timbre impaired performance, indicating the occurrence of primitive stream segregation.

Attention↗
PubMed1999

Effects of similarity in bandwidth on the auditory sequential streaming of two-tone complexes.

We investigated the perceptual grouping of sequentially presented sounds--auditory stream segregation. It is well established that sounds heard as more similar in quality, or timbre, are more likely to be grouped into the same auditory stream. However, it is often unclear exactly what acoustic factors determine timbre. In this study, we presented various sequences of simple sounds, each comprising two frequency components (two-tone complexes), and measured their perceptual grouping. We varied only one parameter between trials, the intercomponent separation for some of the complexes, and examined the effects on stream segregation. Four hypotheses are presented that might predict the extent of streaming. Specifically, least streaming might be expected when the sounds were most similar in either (1) the frequency regions in which they have energy (maximum spectral overlap), (2) their auditory bandwidths, (3) their relative bandwidths, or (4) the rate at which the two components beat together (intermodulation rate). It was found that least streaming occurred when sounds were most similar in either their auditory or their relative bandwidths. Although these two hypotheses could not be distinguished, the results were clearly different from those predicted by hypotheses (1) and (4). The implications for models of stream segregation are discussed.

Auditory Perception↗
PubMed1991

Preliminary studies for an immunotherapeutic approach to the treatment of human myeloma using chimeric anti-CD38 antibody.

Multiple myeloma is a disease in which conventional chemotherapy has only limited value, but which may be ideal for treatment with passive antibody against a suitable cell surface antigen on the neoplastic plasma cell. The CD38 antigen is known to be present on the majority of neoplastic plasma cells, and this was confirmed by detailed examination of bone marrow aspirates from three patients. Strong expression of CD38 was confined to cells which, by the criteria of light-scattering profiles and possession of cytoplasmic Ig, were plasma cells. The vast majority of neoplastic plasma cells appeared to be involved. Using a cell line as a model, it was found that the CD38 antigen acts as a target for a chimeric antibody prepared from the antibody OKT10. The chimeric antibody consists of the Fab portion of the mouse monoclonal antibody linked by a stable thioether bond to an Fc molecule derived from human IgG1, thereby forming mouse Fab-human Fc. In contrast to the parent antibody, the chimeric molecule mediates antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity (ADCC) very efficiently with human blood mononuclear effector cells, and is effective at low concentration. Also, even though the CD38 antigen is present on natural killer cells, there appears to be little deleterious action of the antibody on effector cell function. The antibody also failed to affect the growth of progenitor cells of the granulocyte/macrophage or erythroid lineages present in normal bone marrows, despite the suspicion that these cells express the antigen. Other advantages of the CD38 molecule are that it is not found in the serum of patients with myeloma, and it does not appear to modulate in vitro. Fourteen patients with florid myeloma and on various chemotherapeutic regimes had an undiminished capacity to mediate ADCC with the chimeric antibody, when compared with normal individuals. The maintenance of ADCC activity, coupled with the known suppression of the antibody response in these patients, augers well for treatment with chimeric antibody.

ADP-ribosyl Cyclase↗
PubMed1989

Infrapopulation dispersal of Gyrodactylus colemanensis (Monogenea) on fry of Salmo gairdneri.

Manipulative positioning of Gyrodactylus colemanensis on individually isolated fry of Salmo gairdneri was used to examine the behavior of the parasite during colonization and the influence that site of invasion has on size and spatial distribution of ensuing infrapopulations. The parasite's initial response was to relocate posteriorly on the host's body; those that reached a fin usually end up on or adjacent to the fin's margin. Individuals monitored for up to 15 days postinfection moved both anteriorly and posteriorly on the body surface and relocated to new fins via the body surface. The parasite occurred most frequently on the caudal fin followed by the pectoral and pelvic fins, with length of the fin margin and fin activity appearing to be factors influencing the distribution. Infections originating from the head, flank, and caudal fin similarly rose and fell to extinction or near extinction on the host over 49 days at 10 C. The more posterior the site of invasion, the greater the proportion of parasites carried by the caudal fin. The study concludes that G. colemanensis is restricted in its distribution on the host and that the fin margins may serve as a reliable food source and favor transmission to new hosts.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Gyrodactylus salmonis (Yin and Sproston, 1948) parasitizing fry of Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill).

Fry of brook trout, Salvelinus fontinalis (Mitchill), were infected under controlled conditions with Gyrodactylus salmonis (Yin and Sproston, 1948) and the course of infection followed for 22 days in four groups of 40 fish and for 60 days in a group of 200 fish. Between 15 and 44% mortality occurred among infected groups compared with less than 5% in noninfected control groups. Intensely infected moribund fish were cachexic, lethargic, and often darkened in color. Histologic studies revealed that intensely infected fish had a thinner epidermis with fewer goblet cells than control fish. Internally the only obvious lesions involved the kidney where there was extensive tubular degeneration and necrosis. It is hypothesized that attachment and grazing activity by G. salmonis can lead directly to death of fry through disruption of the osmotic permeability of the epidermis. There was no evidence of secondary invasion by bacteria or fungi.

Animals↗
PubMed1986

Development of infections of Gyrodactylus colemanensis Mizelle and Kritsky, 1967 (Monogenea) and the effect on fry of Salmo gairdneri Richardson.

The development of infections of Gyrodactylus colemanensis Mizelle and Kritsky, 1967 (Monogenea) and their effect on fry of Salmo gairdneri Richardson are examined experimentally. Starting with initial infections of 1 to 10 worms per fry, intensity in 2 replicate groups increased to peaks of 55 and 65 on day 22 post-infection and declined to 0 by days 67 and 85 post-infection. The parasites were numerically aggregated within the host groups and there was a negative correlation between intensity and fish size. Infections did not influence growth or survival of the host and produced no clinical signs of disease.

Animals↗