Regional, not global, functional connectivity contributes to isolated focal dystonia

ObjectiveTo test the hypothesis that there is shared regional or global functional connectivity dysfunction in a large cohort of patients with isolated focal dystonia affecting different body regions compared to control participants. In this case-control study, we obtained resting-state MRI scans (three or four 7.3-minute runs) with eyes closed in participants with focal dystonia (cranial [17], cervical [13], laryngeal [18], or limb [10]) and age- and sex-matched controls.MethodsRigorous preprocessing for all analyses was performed to minimize effect of head motion during scan acquisition (dystonia n = 58, control n = 47 analyzed). We assessed regional functional connectivity by computing a seed-correlation map between putamen, pallidum, and sensorimotor cortex and all brain voxels. We assessed significant group differences on a cluster-wise basis. In a separate analysis, we applied 300 seed regions across the cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, and thalamus to comprehensively sample the whole brain. We obtained participant whole-brain correlation matrices by computing the correlation between seed average time courses for each seed pair. Weighted object-oriented data analysis assessed group-level whole-brain differences.ResultsParticipants with focal dystonia had decreased functional connectivity at the regional level, within the striatum and between lateral primary sensorimotor cortex and ventral intraparietal area, whereas whole-brain correlation matrices did not differ between focal dystonia and control groups. Rigorous quality control measures eliminated spurious large-scale functional connectivity differences between groups.ConclusionRegional functional connectivity differences, not global network level dysfunction, contributes to common pathophysiologic mechanisms in isolated focal dystonia. Rigorous quality control eliminated spurious large-scale network differences between patients with focal dystonia and control participants.

DETERMINAÇÃO DE METAIS EM BEBIDAS LÁCTEAS

The search for healthier, innovative and practical products has moved the exponential growth of the dairy industry. Various foods have in their composition additives to enhance color, smell, texture and ensure greater durability. Rigorous quality control for the detection of contaminants and other potentially toxic and carcinogenic substances is essential for the industry. The objective of this work was to quantify the levels of lead, cadmium and chromium metals, which present a higher toxic potential in relation to health, which ends up affecting the children in a more significant way. The digestion method was used in a muffle oven. All three analyzed brands showed high levels of chromium and cadmium and absence of lead. The X mark showed the highest levels of these metals, followed by the Z mark, and the Y mark the lowest concentrations, but all with values above that established by the legislation. Therefore, all the analyzed brands presented positive results

In search of traceability: two decades of calibrated Brewer UV measurements in Sodankylä and Jokioinen

The two Brewer spectrometers of the Finnish Meteorological Institute at Jokioinen and Sodänkylä have been maintained and calibrated according to the highest levels of the WMO/GAW recommendations, with rigorous quality control and quality assurance. However, the WMO/GAW recommendations are ambiguous on a number of decisions which need to be made when the response of the Brewer is calculated. The decisions have been left to the individual operators. Even within FMI, the two stations have used slightly different procedures, both completely consistent with the GAW recommendations. We suggest that the Brewer community should in the future address this ambiguity.

Data recovery of A06 and A07 WOCE cruises

The WOCE cruises were carried out during the 1990s and were included in GLODAP, which is an easily usable, available and fully calibrated global database. AT and CT data, together with the rest of carbon variables, were subjected to rigorous quality control and some adjustments were done assuming biases, in case of AT and CT, not greater than ±6 μmol kg−1 and ±4 μmol kg−1, respectively. The A06 and A07 cruises were deleted from GLODAP database owing to AT and CT data were not suitable for analysis. However, these data are still available in CLIVAR and Carbon Hydrographic Data Office web site, demonstrated the unreliable quality of AT and CT, but contrarily, the more realistic profiles of pH data. The main goal of the present work is to recover AT and CT data of A06 and A07 using GLODAP database combining with CARINA database and the most contemporary cruise MOC2Equatorial 2010. Thus, AT data of A06 and A07 will be renewed using directly these data in a particular application of Multiple Linear Regression: the 3-D moving window MLR estimation method. Moreover, CT data will be recalculated using the CTAT ratio together with the obtained results from the crossovers analysis method. In order to demonstrate the quality of the recovered AT and CT, the new pH has been calculated, showing the good agreement in terms of pH obtained between A06 and A07 related to MOC2. To sum up, the entire carbon databases of A06 and A07 were checked and recovered.

A Combined Climate Extremes Index for the Australian Region

Changes in the area of Australia experiencing concurrent temperature and rainfall extremes are investigated through the use of two combined indices. The indices describe variations between the fraction of land area experiencing extreme cold and dry or hot and wet conditions. There is a high level of agreement between the variations and trends of the indices from 1957 to 2008 when computed using (i) a spatially complete gridded dataset without rigorous quality control checks and (ii) spatially incomplete high-quality station datasets with rigorous quality control checks. Australian extremes are examined starting from 1911, which is the first time a broad-scale assessment of Australian temperature extremes has been performed prior to 1957. Over the whole country, the results show an increase in the extent of hot and wet extremes and a decrease in the extent of cold and dry extremes annually and during all seasons from 1911 to 2008 at a rate of between 1% and 2% decade−1. These trends mostly stem from changes in tropical regions during summer and spring. There are relationships between the extent of extreme maximum temperatures, precipitation, and soil moisture on interannual and decadal time scales that are similar to the relationships exhibited by variations of the means. However, the trends from 1911 to 2008 and from 1957 to 2008 are not consistent with these relationships, providing evidence that the processes causing the interannual variations and those causing the longer-term trends are different.

Nordic Seas dissolved oxygen data in CARINA

Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Oceans have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). This paper is one of a series of papers related to the CARINA project and presents an account of the quality control of the oxygen data from the Nordic Seas (the Greenland, Norwegian, and Iceland Seas) in CARINA. Out of 35 cruises from the Nordic Seas included in CARINA, 32 had oxygen data, spanning the period from 1982 to 2006. These data have been subject to rigorous quality control in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. Oxygen data from four cruises have been adjusted in the final CARINA data product.

Overview of the Nordic Seas CARINA data and salinity measurements

Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The data have been subject to rigorous quality control (QC) in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. The data for most of the parameters included were examined in order to quantify systematic biases in the reported values, i.e. secondary quality control. Significant biases have been corrected for in the data products, i.e. the three merged files with measured, calculated and interpolated values for each of the three CARINA regions; the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (AMS), the Atlantic (ATL) and the Southern Ocean (SO). With the adjustments the CARINA database is consistent both internally as well as with GLODAP (Key et al., 2004) and is suitable for accurate assessments of, for example, oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. The Arctic Mediterranean Seas include the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas, and the quality control was carried out separately in these two areas. This contribution provides an overview of the CARINA data from the Nordic Seas and summarises the findings of the QC of the salinity data. One cruise had salinity data that were of questionable quality, and these have been removed from the data product. An evaluation of the consistency of the quality controlled salinity data suggests that they are consistent to at least ±0.005.

Nordic Seas dissolved oxygen data in CARINA

Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The data have been subject to rigorous quality control (QC) in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. The data for most of the parameters included were examined in order to quantify systematic biases in the reported values, i.e. secondary quality control. Significant biases have been corrected for in the data products, i.e. the three merged files with measured, calculated, and interpolated values for each of the three CARINA regions; the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (AMS), the Atlantic (ATL), and the Southern Ocean (SO). With the adjustments the CARINA database is consistent both internally as well as with GLODAP (Key et al., 2004) and is suitable for accurate assessments of, for example, oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. The Arctic Mediterranean Seas includes the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas (Greenland, Norwegian, and Iceland Seas), and the quality control was carried out separately in these two areas. This contribution presents an account of the quality control of the dissolved oxygen data from the Nordic Seas in CARINA. Out of the 35 cruises from the Nordic Seas included in CARINA, 32 had oxygen data. The data from 4 of these were found to be biased low and were subject to adjustment. Thus the final CARINA data product contains oxygen data from 32 cruises from the Nordic Seas, and these data appear consistent to ±1% (corresponds to ±3 μmol kg−1 in the deep water).

Nordic Seas total alkalinity data in CARINA

Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The data have been subject to rigorous quality control (QC) in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. The data for most of the parameters included were examined in order to quantify systematic biases in the reported values, i.e. secondary quality control. Significant biases have been corrected for in the data products, i.e. the three merged files with measured, calculated and interpolated values for each of the three CARINA regions; the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (AMS), the Atlantic (ATL) and the Southern Ocean (SO). With the adjustments the CARINA database is consistent both internally as well as with GLODAP (Key et al., 2004) and is suitable for accurate assessments of, for example, oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. The Arctic Mediterranean Seas includes the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas, and the quality control was carried out separately in these two areas. This contribution presents an account of the quality control of the total alkalinity (ALK) data from the Nordic Seas in CARINA. Out of the 35 cruises from the Nordic Seas included in CARINA, 21 had ALK data. The data from 6 of these were found to be of low quality and should not be used. Of the others, 3 were found to be biased low and were subject to adjustment. Thus the final CARINA data product contains ALK data from 15 cruises from the Nordic Seas, and these data appear consistent to ±3 μmol kg−1.

Overview of the Nordic Seas CARINA data and salinity measurements

Water column data of carbon and carbon relevant hydrographic and hydrochemical parameters from 188 previously non-publicly available cruises in the Arctic, Atlantic, and Southern Ocean have been retrieved and merged into a new database: CARINA (CARbon IN the Atlantic). The data have been subject to rigorous quality control (QC) in order to ensure highest possible quality and consistency. The data for most of the parameters included were examined in order to quantify systematic biases in the reported values, i.e. secondary quality control. Significant biases have been corrected for in the data products, i.e. the three merged files with measured, calculated and interpolated values for each of the three CARINA regions; the Arctic Mediterranean Seas (AMS), the Atlantic (ATL) and the Southern Ocean (SO). With the adjustments the CARINA database is consistent both internally as well as with GLODAP (Key et al., 2004) and is suitable for accurate assessments of, for example, oceanic carbon inventories and uptake rates and for model validation. The Arctic Mediterranean Seas includes the Arctic Ocean and the Nordic Seas, and the quality control was carried out separately in these two areas. This contribution provides an overview of the CARINA data from the Nordic Seas and summarises the findings of the QC of the salinity data. One cruise had salinity data that were of questionable quality, and these have been removed from the data product. An evaluation of the consistency of the quality controlled salinity data suggests that they are consistent to at least 0.05.