text:
Tuesday, September 23, 2014
Ten Literary Classics That Have Stayed With Me
1. Great Expectations by Charles Dickens. I am reading this right now, with the seniors, for the fifteenth time. In recent years I've read through it completely with them, taking a significant amount of class time to do so, but feel like it's worth the time and trouble so that they get the benefit of the themes and intricately woven plot. This book has so many layers that I still uncover new ones every year. The story of Pip, his immaturity, his snobbery, and then his maturing gratitude, is very good.
I do wish sometimes that someone could take the works of an author like Dickens, and, without changing any of his basic storyline or characters, just simplify the language somewhat. The eighteenth-century style of fiction is so flowery and wordy, that today's high schoolers really struggle with getting something out of it - yet there is much depth there that they need to learn from.
2. Macbeth by Shakespeare. This play is the perfect literary interpretation of James 1:15 - "Then, when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
3. Hamlet by Shakespeare. Another outstanding interpretation of a Biblical principle, that the sin of one man, in this case Claudius, sends out tentacles that end in consequences for many other people.
4. Works of Anne Bradstreet. This Puritan author, the first poet in America (not just the first female poet), writes beautiful work, very readable, and very uplifting. She was a Christian first, then a wife and mother. Some feminists have tried to appropriate her and her work, because she was the first poet and wrote of desiring to have her work acknowledged by men; however, she was very devoted to her family and did not espouse the independence desired by most in feminism. I wish I had paid more attention to my sister's graduate recital, about Bradstreet, a number of years ago!
5. Silas Marner by George Eliot. I dreaded teaching this for the first time, two years ago. I was pleasantly surprised, especially after supplementing this work with Focus on the Family CDs. Although Eliot has the layers of wordiness like Dickens does, she has crafted a deep, complex, and beautiful story with a great theme of redemption. I've really enjoyed reading this with sophomores.
6. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. Strong evidence that even authors who do not espouse godly principles in their lives, nevertheless have godly principles written on their hearts. You can't repeat the past. You can't find happiness in affairs or in huge parties. Gatsby's funeral is a stark reminder of what is left after a shallow life.
7. Pride and Prejudice and Sense and Sensibility by Jane Austen. Okay, I confess, I like the BBC film version of P&P, and the Ang Lee film version of S&S, better than the books themselves. But I could watch them repeatedly.
8. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. Wow. In spite of the language, this should be required reading for all young people, who have no idea of what stark racism was like in the 1930s. Gripping and very heavy story, lightened by her device of telling it through the eyes of a humorous small child.
9. Canterbury Tales by Chaucer. I've only read two of them, "The Nun's Priest's Tale," and "The Pardoner's Tale," but we read most of the prologue about the characters. Chaucer was known for his understanding of people, his storytelling ability, and his humor. All that comes out in what I've read - and his style is very readable. He may be studied in depth on a higher level, but he is very enjoyable for regular people to study also.
10. Works by Alfred, Lord Tennyson. It's easy to see why he was called "The People's Poet," because of his readable poems and narratives. He suffered greatly through the loss of his dear friend, and his poetry not only tells good stories, but also gives much food for thought. I especially like "Ulysses," "In Memoriam," and "Enoch Arden."
Other classic writings we read with more enthusiasm than some pieces, just not on the previous list: The Scarlet Letter, Julius Caesar, Ethan Frome, Huckleberry Finn, The Importance of Being Earnest, works by Edgar Allen Poe, Robert Burns, and many other poets!
My tastes do not run to fantasy or science fiction. I prefer realism in readable packages. And all of these have stayed with me for many years now.


Used Hybrids Reviews
Autobytel has reviews that will walk you around a car, give you a peek under the hood and get you behind the wheel with an industry expert. Browse by category or get into a specific brand to see how well a car does when put to the test.
Showing 7 of 457 reviews available
2014 Mercedes-Benz B-Class Electric Drive Review
Mercedes-Benz is a company whose reputation for putting forth the best or nothing at all, puts it under a lot of pressure. Because the brand trumpets its commitment to...
2014 Nissan Leaf Photo Gallery
One of the first, and arguably one of the most successful, examples of a modern electric vehicle, the Nissan Leaf is a 5-door hatchback with room for five passengers and a whole bunch of their...
2014 Nissan Leaf Review and Road Test
Don’t tell Tesla founder Elon Musk, but electric cars that must be plugged in to recharge the battery represent nothing more than a bridge to a hydrogen-powered fuel-cell future...
The Porsche 918 Spyder at the 2014 New York Auto Show
At the 2014 New York Auto Show, Autobytel caught up with Detlev von Platen, the CEO of Porsche Cars North America. Four or five years ago, Porsche was trying to answer...
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV Photo Gallery
As electric vehicles go, the 2014 Chevrolet Spark EV is sized and priced in alignment with what makes perfectly good sense to someone who cannot afford a Tesla Model S. This tiny commuter...
2014 Chevrolet Spark EV Review and Quick Spin
When I was a kid, my grandparents lived in Sun City, California, a desert retirement community where residents commonly owned a single car and, for running down to the drug store...
Lexus F SPORT Line of High Performance Luxury Cars
Lexus is known for its reliable luxury cars, but the brand is also capable of putting out some pretty high class performance. The Lexus F SPORT lineup is where most of the...


text:
Patrick Allen Profile & Artworks
Patrick Allen is wati Anangu, an Aboriginal man from the Central Desert area of Australia. He grew up learning to carve with his family and stepfather, initially helping them with the sanding work. He began carving in his own right and sold his first works through Maruku in 2018.
Community: Finke, NT

domain: hobby


what do you think is better, fully protected land or 50 acre tracts with cabins? i love the dream of owning a small cabin in the wilderness but at the same time think land should be preserved. there is a balanced option where a cabin or so is built on the land with a conservation easement. also some people share their land with the public with a public access easement put in with a conservation easement. any opinions of how we can have a lot of cabins without destroying the wilderness or disturbing wildlife? i know the national forest service allows summer homes in certain areas.
Depends on who owns the 50 acre tracks and what you mean by 'protecting' land.
Much of the 'Wilderness' areas, at least in my state, are areas which where heavily logged by humans in the not to distant past. They are full of dead-fall and are messes just waiting for a dry summer and a lightning strike. Some of them are thorny/brambly messes. Even in many of the state parks here I see invasives popping up, going to seed, and spreading without check. The parks are under staffed.
My feeling is that true wilderness and healthy functioning ecosystems should be preserved at all cost - while many 'wilderness' lands could benefit by being responsible managed by people.
However, This would take a great deal of education - and I would argue certification. I am not a person who generally likes regulation. But in my personal opinion and from personal observation I would say that at this point in our history/society 95%+ of people are too ignorant and possessing of poor judgement to be let loose to live in the woods without screwing it up. Meaning absolutely no offense to the author or anyone else. It just takes time to learn how to exist in nature without disturbing it. And most people have not spent much time to learn. So NO I would not be for just parceling them out and handing them out to anyone with $50,000 and starry eyed dreams of living in the county. But I do think that there are vast tracks of wilderness that could use a helping human hand. Of course you couldn't be putting a bunch of roads and driveways in. That would not be good. So it'd have to be a hike in/hike out and live where you live sort of situation
Anyway that's just my take/rant.
Oh, and it would probably be better if it where like 150 or 250 acres if one actually wanted to support yourself on it. Forests produce plenty of food, but its never all in one place.
Edit: I am also a firm believer in sharing natural spaces. A house can be your castle but land shouldn't be a kingdom. Ya dig?
Landon Sunrich wrote:My feeling is that true wilderness and healthy functioning ecosystems should be preserved at all cost - while many 'wilderness' lands could benefit by being responsible managed by people.
This. Very few areas are true or functional anymore. Good permaculture design will improve the ecosystem over "doing nothing" for almost 100% of land.
"You must be the change you want to see in the world." "First they ignore you, then they laugh at you, then they fight you, then you win." --Mahatma Gandhi
"Preach the Gospel always, and if necessary, use words." --Francis of Assisi.
"Family farms work when the whole family works the farm." -- Adam Klaus
R Scott - I'm actually surprised how many landscapes are still functioning, though many of them have 'adapted' to modernity.
Personally I feel that many (but not all) landscapes could benefit from meaningful human participation but not design - perhaps we are debating semantics. - but does that make sense? Clearing deadfall and the like - taking up a role as natural mega-fauna without trying to tinker to much with the design as handed to us by nature (god who/what ever)
Regardless it needs to be done intelligently by people who know a great deal about the ecology of the region - preferably someone who knows a heck of a lot more than me though I am constantly striving towards greater knowledge and understanding.
I've countless times found myself standing somewhere (usually in the woods) covered in sweat thinking. 'Man I am so glad I decided to purposely get lost for 3 hours' followed by 'no one has been here in decades - maybe even ever. I should just sit here and not disturb anything' I can't even bring myself to walk through these perfect spots half the time. So they're out there. For sure they are. I'd hate so see them lost to tinkering by people who think that they are wiser than the environment.
I agree with all that's been said. I do think people acting as stewards of previously disturbed land (leaving old growth forest alone) could be a real long term solution to a lot of problems. Especially in a place like where I live in New England, where young forest has remained so much abandoned farmland.
Of course, people would have to know what they are doing
The idea of "nature" as a thing outside of human life, a thing to be revered and protected but left completely alone while we destroy our own habitat through over development and pollution
Just dont try creating a lawn or have a paved driveway. Design the cabin in way that will allow nature to return once your out of the picture. A narrow dirt driveway and woodland that butts up to your cabin is best. Going offgrid will also be a plus since you want need the utility hookups.
Many people, and all tribes, feel that nature is best protected, when people live on it. By extension, when the people who live on the land don't protect it, then nothing will.
I agree that nature should benefit from people, and that the question shouldn't be one of separation, but one of good practices. Protection should only be from serious hazards, and not from "disturbances." Hazards such as: Polluting factories, industrial farming, industrial agriculture and urban waste. Little stuff, like personal structures and tiny scale wood chopping and hunting, should be ignored.
Most urban/suburban folk won't approach and don't feel comfortable "in" nature, these days, anyhow.
Another thing to consider is community and the flow of seasons.
I don't think individuals having 50 acre wilderness to make their way alone would be as resilient as small communities living together. Not morethan 200 people, I think, from what I've read about human social dynamics. Shared work, roles and living spaces. Instead of lots and lots of long roads and driveways, just a few in the most advantageous places.
I'm new England before colonization and decimation, the indigenous people lived in one area in the warm months and elsewhere in the cold. The food supply changed, the weather changed, so the people adapted. My home and farm is in the summer area.
I am a tree worshiper with a sawmill. Just know that all those "low impact" decks and walkways, if supplied via clearcut logging and the commercial wood products industry, are really high impact in someone's (probably my) back yard.
"If we use our minds in a clear coherent manner, we will not accept the unacceptable."
i like the idea of there being a chance to own a second home but at the same time do not want to see the forests destroyed. for sure no lawns or driveways but instead a gravel pull over to park along an existing road and walk back a ways to the cabin and the cabin being a nice compact style. here are some links to examples.
The problem is most people poison and kill everything around them.
Our lights are pollution, our laundry, our constant need for fire, our food waste attracts animals we may have to kill.
So you would need to parcel it out to permies.
Using energy and waste properly and manipulating and beautifying every square inch.
Get meta with me! What pursues us is our own obsessions! But not this tiny ad:
Earth Friendly Heat - Full Event - 16 hours of video


text:
Salivary Measures of BPA
Like urine, saliva is a preferred bodily fluid for biomonitoring purposes because collection requires relatively noninvasive procedures. To date, studies that have examined saliva for BPA have focused on the effects of dental sealant application to BPA concentrations. Since the 1960s, BPA diglycidyl methacrylate has been used as a component of many dental restorative materials, including those used for sealing molars.
Six studies have measured BPA in saliva after dental sealant application, and all were able to detect BPA in the saliva of some of the individuals examined (Arenholt-Bindslev et al. 1999; Fung et al. 2000; Joskow et al. 2006; Olea et al. 1996; Sasaki et al. 2005; Zafra et al. 2002) (Table 2). These studies used different analytical methods and examined saliva collected at different points after sealant application. Although these studies provide interesting information about the dynamics of BPA leaching from sealants shortly after sealant placement (Vandenberg et al. 2007), they are less informative about the use of saliva as a matrix for biomonitoring of BPA. Joskow et al. (2006) measured BPA concentrations in saliva before any treatment, with a mean level of 0.3 ng/mL saliva; this concentration is much lower than that measured in urine (Table 1). Owing to the possibility of contamination with BPA leaching from dental materials, saliva does not seem to be a reliable biomonitoring tool for estimating systemic exposure to unconjugated BPA.
Environ Health Perspect. 2010;118(8):1055-1070. © 2010
Cite this: Urinary, Circulating, and Tissue Biomonitoring Studies Indicate Widespread Exposure to Bisphenol A - Medscape - Aug 01, 2010.

domain: medical


KUT - Rachael High Rise Fab Ab Mom Jean - Upright
Raw edges and threadbare rips provide a perfectly lived-in look to these high-rise mom jeans with slimming Fab Ab front pockets to update the fit.
- 99% Cotton / 1% Spandex
- Machine wash cold inside out to retain color. Only non-chlorine bleach when needed. Tumble dry low or for better care lay flat to dry. Warm Iron if necessary. Color may transfer when new.
- Inseam: 26" | Leg Opening: 12 3/4" | Rise: 10 1/2"
- Model is 5'9" wearing a size 4


text:
Dogecoin, a Shiba Inu-themed digital coin started as a joke that became the latest obsession for retail traders this week, plunged almost by half Saturday, sparking a flurry of posts on Reddit and Twitter begging coin holders not to panic sell.
The digital coin is down 46% in the last 24 hours and was at $0.02582 as of 4:35 p.m. in New York on Saturday, according to CoinMarketCap data. The plunge came after a blistering sevenfold surge on Friday, when the coin reached over $0.07.
Amid the rally, Robinhood temporarily halted instant deposits for crypto buying on Friday, citing “extraordinary market conditions,” a spokesperson told CNBC. Users could still use funds already deposited in the platform to buy cryptos.
Users on the Reddit thread SatoshiStreetBets — which describes itself as the “crypto version of WallStreetBets” — are imploring others to hold on to Dogecoin and not to switch to other cryptos.
“To those saying hype is over… we just saw proof over the past 3-4 nights of our collective efforts being effective. The moment we lose each other is the moment we fail,” one poster said. “Look at the way money is printed. Doge could potentially be used as well. Never say never.”

domain: economics


Yes, polymers can be used in custom or specialty building materials.
Polymers, or plastics, are incredibly versatile materials that can be used in various applications. Polymers have become an integral part of our everyday lives, from medical devices to packaging and construction materials.
But can they be used in custom or specialty building materials? The answer is yes! Polymers can create custom and specialty building materials with unique properties that are not available with traditional construction materials.
This blog explores how polymers can be used in custom and specialty building materials and how these materials benefit the construction industry.
- Polymers can be used in custom or specialty building materials.
- Customization allows for unique properties tailored to specific needs.
- Polymers are used in specialty construction for specialized structures.
- Synthetic polymers mimic natural materials’ properties in custom building materials.
- Polymer-based building materials offer durability, insulation, and sustainability benefits.
What You Will Learn
Custom Building Materials
Building materials are materials used to construct buildings, structures, and other objects. These materials include wood, metal, concrete, brick, stone, glass, plastic, and many more.
Polymers are a type of plastic used as a building material due to their strength and durability. They can be formed into various shapes and sizes for custom or specialty building projects.
Polymers are also lightweight, making them ideal for use in applications where weight is an issue, such as roofing or flooring systems. They also have excellent insulation properties, making them suitable for energy-efficient buildings.
Customization is the process of creating a product or service tailored to meet an individual customer’s specific needs and preferences.
In terms of using polymers in custom and specialty building materials, manufacturers can create products with unique properties designed to meet the exact requirements of a particular project.
For example, they may be able to produce materials with different levels of strength, flexibility, insulation, or other characteristics depending on what is needed for a particular application.
This allows builders to have more control over their projects and create structures better suited to their specific needs.
Specialty construction is the use of polymers materials in custom building projects. This construction involves using polymers to create unique and specialized structures, such as those used for medical or industrial purposes.
Polymers are versatile materials that can be molded into various shapes and sizes, making them ideal for creating custom building projects. They are also lightweight, durable, and resistant to corrosion and other environmental factors.
Specialty construction with polymers allows builders to create structures that meet specific needs while still being cost-effective. They can be combined with traditional building materials like wood or steel to create strong yet lightweight frames that are both aesthetically pleasing and functional.
Synthetic materials are artificial materials created to mimic natural materials’ properties. They can be used in custom and specialty building materials because they offer a variety of advantages over traditional building materials.
Synthetic polymers, for example, are lightweight yet strong, durable, and resistant to corrosion and weathering. They also have excellent insulation properties, making them ideal for energy-efficient buildings.
Synthetic polymers can be easily molded into any shape or size desired to make them perfect for creating custom designs or shapes for specialty building projects.
The Durability and Lifespan of Polymer-Based Building Materials
Polymer-based building materials offer exceptional durability and a long lifespan, making them an excellent choice for custom or specialty construction projects. These materials are engineered to withstand various environmental conditions, including extreme temperatures, moisture, UV radiation, and chemical exposure.
One key advantage of polymers is their resistance to corrosion and degradation. Unlike traditional building materials such as wood or metal that can deteriorate over time due to rusting or rotting, polymer-based materials are highly resistant to these issues.
This makes them ideal for applications in areas with high humidity levels or coastal regions where saltwater corrosion is a concern.
Polymers have excellent weathering properties that allow them to maintain their structural integrity even when exposed to harsh outdoor conditions. They can resist fading caused by prolonged sun exposure and retain their color vibrancy for extended periods.
Furthermore, polymer-based building materials exhibit impressive strength-to-weight ratios compared to conventional alternatives like concrete or steel. This means they can provide the same level of structural support while being lighter in weight – reducing the load on foundations and allowing for more design flexibility.
The longevity of polymer-based construction products also contributes positively towards sustainability efforts by reducing the need for frequent replacements during a structure’s lifetime. By choosing durable polymer solutions instead of less resilient options available on the market today; builders not only save costs but also reduce waste generation associated with material replacement cycles.
Eco-friendly Aspects of Polymer Usage in Construction
Firstly, polymers can be recycled and reused, reducing the demand for new raw materials. This helps to conserve natural resources and minimize waste generation.
Polymer-based building materials often have a lighter weight compared to traditional alternatives such as concrete or steel. This reduces transportation energy requirements during construction and lowers carbon emissions.
Furthermore, polymers can contribute to improved energy efficiency in buildings. For example, certain polymer coatings or membranes can enhance insulation properties by minimizing heat transfer through walls or roofs.
By reducing the need for excessive heating or cooling systems, these materials help decrease energy consumption and associated greenhouse gas emissions.
Moreover, some polymers used in construction are resistant to corrosion caused by moisture exposure or chemical reactions over time. As a result of their durability and longevity compared to conventional materials like wood or metal that may require frequent replacement due to degradation issues; fewer resources are consumed overall.
Role of Polymers in Sound and Heat Insulation
With their unique properties, polymers can effectively reduce noise transmission and minimize heat transfer, resulting in improved comfort and energy efficiency.
In terms of sound insulation, polymer-based materials act as excellent barriers to block or absorb unwanted noise. They have the ability to dampen vibrations caused by sound waves, preventing them from traveling through walls or floors.
This is particularly beneficial for buildings located near busy roads, airports, or other noisy environments.
Polymer foams are commonly used for their exceptional acoustic properties. These foams are lightweight yet dense enough to absorb sound energy efficiently across a wide range of frequencies.
By incorporating polymer foam panels into walls or ceilings during construction or renovation projects, the overall acoustic performance of a building can be significantly enhanced.
When it comes to heat insulation, polymers offer remarkable thermal resistance due to their low thermal conductivity properties. This means that they can effectively slow down the transfer of heat between different areas within a building envelope.
Polymer-based insulating materials such as expanded polystyrene (EPS) boards provide an effective barrier against temperature fluctuations by reducing conductive and convective heat flow through walls and roofs. By minimizing unwanted heat gain during hot summers and preventing excessive cooling loss during cold winters, these materials contribute towards maintaining comfortable indoor temperatures while reducing reliance on heating/cooling systems – ultimately leading to energy savings.
Application of Polymer Composites in Disaster-Resilient Infrastructure
These materials offer exceptional strength and durability, making them ideal for withstanding extreme weather events such as hurricanes, earthquakes, and floods.
One key advantage of polymer composites is their lightweight nature. Compared to traditional building materials like concrete or steel, polymers are significantly lighter while still maintaining high structural integrity.
This characteristic not only reduces the overall weight of structures but also allows for easier transportation and installation.
In addition to their lightweight properties, polymer composites exhibit excellent resistance against corrosion and chemical degradation. This makes them highly suitable for coastal areas prone to saltwater exposure or regions with high levels of air pollution.
By using polymer-based materials in disaster-prone zones, engineers can ensure that critical infrastructure remains intact even under harsh environmental conditions.
Furthermore, these composite materials possess superior flexibility compared to conventional options like concrete or metal alloys. The ability of polymers to withstand deformation without breaking allows buildings constructed from these composites to better absorb energy during seismic events or sudden impacts caused by natural disasters.
Moreover, polymer-based solutions provide enhanced insulation properties that contribute towards energy efficiency in buildings. By incorporating advanced additives into the composition, these innovative materials can effectively regulate temperature fluctuations and reduce heat transfer through walls and roofs.
This results in reduced reliance on heating and cooling systems, leading not only to cost savings but also a smaller carbon footprint.
Overall,polymer composite technology offers immense potential for creating resilient infrastructures capable of mitigating damage caused by natural disasters.
Innovative Polymer Technologies Shaping the Future of Construction Industry
These innovative materials have unique properties that enhance performance, durability, sustainability, and design flexibility in various construction applications.
One such technology is polymer-based concrete admixtures. By incorporating polymers into traditional concrete mixtures, engineers can improve its strength, durability, and resistance to cracking.
This results in longer-lasting structures with reduced maintenance needs.
Another exciting development is the use of polymer composites in building components like beams or columns. These composites combine high-strength fibers with a polymer matrix to create lightweight yet robust materials that outperform traditional alternatives like steel or wood.
They offer excellent corrosion resistance while being easier to handle during installation.
Polymers also play a crucial role in sustainable construction practices by enabling energy-efficient insulation systems. Insulation made from expanded polystyrene (EPS) or polyurethane foam provides superior thermal performance compared to conventional options while reducing energy consumption for heating and cooling buildings.
Moreover, advanced polymers contribute significantly to improving safety standards within the industry through fire-resistant coatings applied on structural elements such as steel beams or cables. These coatings provide an additional layer of protection against heat transfer during fires without compromising structural integrity.
Furthermore, polymer-based waterproofing membranes have become increasingly popular due to their exceptional water barrier properties when used on roofs, foundations, or basements. These membranes prevent water infiltration effectively and help maintain dry interiors, protecting buildings from moisture-related damage over time.
The advent of 3D printing has opened up new avenues for using polymers directly in constructing complex architectural designs. This additive manufacturing technique allows architects and designers greater freedom in creating intricate shapes at lower costs than traditional methods.
By utilizing specialized polymer blends specifically formulated for 3D printing purposes,.
Construction companies can reduce waste material generated during the construction process and achieve greater precision in their projects.
Innovative polymer technologies are reshaping the future of the construction industry. From enhancing structural integrity and durability to improving energy efficiency and design possibilities, polymers offer a wide range of benefits that will continue to drive advancements in construction practices.
As research and development efforts continue, we can expect even more exciting applications for polymers in custom or specialty building materials.
Are polymers used in construction?
Yes, polymers are extensively used in construction in various areas like flooring, windows, cladding, pipes, insulation, and more.
Why are polymers not used in construction?
Polymers are not extensively used in construction due to the potential damage they can cause to non-plastic components such as concrete and steel reinforcements due to incompatibility issues.
What polymers are used in building?
In construction, the commonly used polymers include organic silicon resin, phenolic resin, polypropylene, polystyrene, polyester resin, polymethylmethacrylate, polyvinyl chloride, and polyethylene.
Where are polymers used?
Polymers are used in a variety of fields and products including clothing, kitchenware, medical appliances, construction materials, automotive parts, paints and adhesives.
How are polymers manipulated for specific roles in construction?
Polymers are manipulated for specific roles in construction through processes such as thermosetting, blending with other materials, and adding fillers or reinforcements, enabling them to exhibit desired attributes like strength, durability, elasticity, fire resistance, and versatility.
What are the advantages and disadvantages of using polymers in construction?
Advantages of using polymers in construction include their durability, resistance to environmental conditions, light weight, and ease of installation, however, their disadvantages involve the high production costs, use of non-renewable resources, and possible health hazards in cases of improper use or disposal.
Are there any sustainable alternatives to polymers in construction?
Yes, sustainable alternatives to polymers in construction include materials like natural fibers, bamboo, recycled metal, reclaimed stone, and bio-based plastics.


text:
Welcome to Treefrog Treasures!
Who we are:
Established in 2001, Treefrog Treasures established by the late Shannon Reuss with her desire to bring toy soldier collectors from all over the world together. Shannon excelled in caring for her customers. That legacy continues under the ownership of her husband, Peter Reuss, and his business partner, Richard Walker. Together they seek to expand the hobby, encouraging more people to 'Bring their love of history to life'.
Located in Eyota, Minnesota USA, we have a large warehouse with a small showroom and although we are mostly internet/mail order-based, you are welcome to drop in anytime Monday through Friday between the hours of 8am and 4pm and Saturdays from 8am-Noon.
What we do:
We offer a wide selection of 1/30 and 1/32 hand-painted metal and plastic toy soldiers; model planes and military vehicles; and one of the largest selections of diorama accessories in the business.
What can you expect from Treefrog Treasures?
- Easy to use, up-to-date website
- Excellent customer service
- Friendly, helpful staff
- A huge selection of quality in-stock products
- Fast and efficient order processing and shipping (We ship in-stock orders same or next business day!)
- Free shipping for qualifying orders, both domestic and international
- Careful packing with environmentally-friendly packaging material


Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) will be announcing its plans for a smartwatch-focused operating system in March with a blog post, according to CNET’s Roger Cheng. Google is expected to release a smartwatch sometime in the next year, along with a version of Google Glass for consumers.
The Google Smartwatch is said to heavily feature the use of Google Now for search and notifications, much like Glass. Cheng’s report is the first news to break on the product since the Wall Street Journal reported in October that it was in “late-stage development," and the company was in discussions with suppliers in Asia.
UPDATE: Photos of a Nexus "Gem" prototype smartwatch, made by Motorola, have surfaced online. The prototype was scrapped -- likely when Google decided it would partner with LG for the device. Click here for the rest of the story.
The Journal reported at the time that the Google smartwatch would run the Android operating system, but it appears that the company is instead building a scaled-down OS specifically for the watch, instead of a version of Android or the Chrome OS. Samsung similarly appointed its Samsung Gear 2 with its own Tizen OS.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company will introduce the smartwatch at Google I/O, the company’s annual conference for software developers.
The Google smartwatch will be made in a manner similar to Nexus smartphones and tablets, where the company’s services and branding are highlighted instead of the manufacturer. The Nexus Gem, as it is rumored to be called, is likely to connect with smartphones like the LG Nexus 5 and rumored Nexus 6, and work alongside other non-Nexus branded Android devices.
Google Now integration will be a focus of the smartwatch; the intelligent personal assistant predicts what a user needs based on where they are and what they are doing, like offering real-time notifications about flight status and QR-based boarding passes it pulls from an airline’s confirmation email. Google Now also answers questions and makes predictions and suggestions based on personal data.
Google last year used Bluetooth Smart, or Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) connectivity for battery-friendly smartwatch notifications. By offering Google Now intelligence, much as the service is implemented on the Google Glass headset, the company aims to offer a more full-featured wearable experience with the device than competing devices from Samsung, Apple and others.
If the Nexus Gem follows the pricing scheme of the Nexus 5 and the Nexus 4 before it, Google will also offer its smartwatch at a lower cost than competitors. A version bundled with a possible Nexus 6, like how Samsung bundled the original Galaxy Gear with the Note 3, could also lift the company’s growing handset sales.
TechCrunch offered a contrary report this weekend that said the Google smartwatch could be released as early as March, or as late as June – in time for Google I/O. The report said early prototypes looked similar to the Pebble Steel, with a metal band and full-color square watch face, but the Google smartwatch probably will ship with a plastic band and colored LCD screen. To navigate the prototype, the site said, Google developed a series of swipe and tap gestures.
The conflicting reports about the release date for Google's smartwatch mean that while details are still murky, the company intends to make its way to users' wrists sometime this year.
Follow Reporter Thomas Halleck on Twitter @tommylikey.


text:
Requiem for Rome
Sextus Petronius Aquilinus
Roman born and brutishly strong, Sextus Petronius Aquilinus cuts an imposing figure. He’s nearly six feet tall – a rarity in this time and place – and his expression is one of near-permanent, detached disdain.
He is completely hairless, and his skin is a grayish, sickly hue. He has the body of a life-long warrior, and the scars he bears on his leathery arms and back tell the tale of several battles fought…and laws broken. Aquilinus almost always wears the matte black armor of the Legio Mortuum and displays his weapons without shame or decorum.
Sextus Petronius Aquilinus was once a lowly mortal soldier, serving with the Legio XVI Flavia Firma in the East. His life was that of a faceless member of the multitude, undistinguished and unnoticed. He died in battle, somewhere around 250 CE.
What he remembers of the aftermath is now a confused jumble of dream-like images. All he knows is this: something shadowy seemed to grab hold of him as he pressed his hands to a mortal wound in his side, feeling the life flow out of his body. He saw death and chaos all around him, and a blinding, stinking miasma seemed to claim him, dragging him down through the soft earth and away from the battle.
When he next awoke – from sleep or madness, he knows not – it was 302 CE, and he was in Rome. He has no idea how he got there, and no idea who Embraced him – indeed, if he was Embraced at all. He rose among the vermes, and was just another Roman Nosferatu, grubbing in the low tunnels.
His power and battle acumen brought him quickly to the attention of the Legio Mortuum, and he was recruited.
He has served with honor and dignity ever since. Two years before the chronicle begins, he was assigned to patrol one of the territories of the Peregrine Collegia, and came to know many of the Kindred there. He befriended Cornelia Alba and Vergilius Ambustus, and has become involved in their pursuits.

domain: literature


text:
Insights on Verdi's goal to help physicians build the best medical oncology practices.
Medicare’s New Oncology Care Model (OCM) Strategic Opportunities and Imperatives Wes Chapman June 3, 2015 Introduction On February 12th of 2015, Medicare (CMS) introduced a new integrated payment and quality model for oncology care in the US for Medicare…Read Full
Building the Oncology Medical Home Trainings and Certifications February 21, 2015 Wes Chapman, Aaron Lyss, Gina Todisco, Carolyn Craig Building a Medical Home: It takes a trained team Our team set out just over a year ago to build a…Read Full
Making Medical Oncology Pathways Work for Patients, Providers and Payers Using the PSO Structure to Benefit all Parties Finding the Unicorn – Making Order from Chaos Wes Chapman & Aaron Lyss December 6, 2014 In our September blog regarding medical…Read Full
On the Escape of Tigers & Other Public Health Hazards Considering the Ebola Outbreak in Haddon’s Matrix and Reason’s Swiss Cheese Model October 16, 2014 Wes Chapman Preface: In 1970, Dr. William Haddon wrote a brilliant editorial that changed…Read Full
Converting an Academic Medical Center to NIAHO/ISO 9001 Dr. Glen Crotty, Vicky Grate & Wes Chapman September 29th, 2014 This is the first in a series looking at the motivations, methods and outcomes from our efforts at Charleston Area…Read Full
Payers, Pathways & Unicorns How Payers are Getting Pathways all wrong in Medical Oncology Dr. Jeff Patton, Wes Chapman, Aaron Lyss September 21, 2014 Unicorns: everyone knows what they look like, but nobody has ever seen one We are…Read Full


By Maria Gregoriou
THE TRANSPLANT clinic at Nicosia general hospital has carried out transplants on 73 patients since its establishment in January 2011, with a 100 per cent success rate, it said yesterday.
Of these 73 transplants, 23 were conducted from post-mortem donors and 50 were kidney transplants from living donors. In 2011, some 27 patients received transplants, 29 in 2012 and 17 so far in 2013.
The 50 ‘live’ kidney operations were performed by laparoscopic nephrectomy, which is a minimally invasive technique to remove kidneys in a safe and effective way. It also results in less post-operative pain than traditional surgery.
“We are grateful to families in Cyprus who have recently donated the organs of their deceased family members and have granted life to our fellow citizens,” a statement released by the eexecutive medical director Petros Matsas and executive director of the transplant Clinic, Vassilis Hadjianastassiou of Nicosia general hospital.
According to the statement four post-mortem donors donated their organs after death in 2010, six in 2011, four in 2012 and three in 2013 so far.
“The transplant clinic believes it is very important to thank all the nursing, medical and laboratory staff of the general hospital who have contributed to this success. We would especially like to thank the intensive care unit, the donor coordinators, the compatibility labs, the operating theatre staff, the anesthesiology clinic and the staff of the kidney clinic,” it added.
The transplant clinic performed the first simultaneous kidney and pancreas transplant in the country in June 2012. Four people are currently on the waiting list to receive a simultaneous transplant and around 70 patients are waiting for a kidney transplant.
“Organ donations provide hope for the future to our fellow citizens,” the centre said.
Hadjianastassiou credited much of the centre’s success to the ten members of the transplant council appointed in July 2012 to supervise the ystem in Cyprus.
“This council represents society and this is the first time that Cyprus has such a regulatory process in any medical field,” he said.
The council has appointed a full-time trained coordinator who works closely with the intensive care unit. When someone is diagnosed as being brain dead, the coordinator approaches the patient’s family to explain the transplant process.
“Hopefully this will increase the amount of transplants and the use of rare organs,” Hadjianastassiou added.
Patients on the donor list can only receive organ transplants from donors in Cyprus “because other countries do not have a surplus of organs but for a small country like us it would be good to get into a bigger pool of potential donors,” Hadjianastassiou said.
The transplant council is currently trying to form agreements with other countries for patients who have been on the list for many years.
The clinic has also arranged with the Cyprus Telecommunications Authority’s (CyTA) to give out leaflets with their customers’ phone bills about how someone can register as a potential deceased donor and receive a donor card. These leaflets will reach 500,000 households.
The transplant clinic uses computer software with a point scoring system to determine which patient on the list will receive an available organ.
“The software uses certain variables to locate which patient is more eligible for the organ such as, compatibility, the matching of genes and the age of the donor compared to the ages of the patients,” Hadjianastassiou said.
The ranking system is not the only way that a patient is selected. “When the system ranks a patient as being suitable to receive the organ, I must then talk to the patient’s neurologist for example, and ask if the patient is still suitable for the transplant,” said Hadjianastassiou.
As organs are limited, the clinic has to consider the fact that everyone has equal opportunities, while also taking into account that organs are rare resources that must be utilized as best they can for the good of society as a whole, he added.
Each donor can give life to up to eight patients. “One post-mortem donor can donate two kidneys, two lungs, a heart, a kidney that can be divided into two and a pancreas,” Hadjianastassiou said.
The corneas of the eyes can also be transplanted to patients who are blind or who have trouble with seeing.
In order to become a potential post-mortem organ donator go to http://www.moh.gov.cy/moh/moh.nsf/index_en/index_en and complete the Cyprus potential organ donor database form.


text:
Beachwood Teacher Sentenced in Teen Sex Case
A southern New Jersey school teacher who had a sexual relationship with a 15-year-old student has been sentenced to six years in state prison.
Ocean County prosecutors say 32-year-old Erin Haskell of Barnegat also will be subject to lifetime parole supervision and must register as a sex offender under the sentence imposed Monday. She had pleaded guilty last August to sexual assault.
Authorities have said the relationship took place in 2012, between June and September. The sexual activities occurred in both Beachwood and Barnegat.
(Copyright 2014 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

domain: sociology


As far as one-day price drops go, for a stock to lose more than 40% there is never to going to be a shortage of attention – even more so when that particular stock happens to be a tech giant. Despite posting revenue and earnings results for the fourth quarter that beat analysts’ forecasts, LinkedIn was pummeled in trading on Friday morning as the company signaled that revenue and earnings for Q1 of 2016 were being revised dramatically lower – forecast sales of $820M vs $868.3M; projected EBITDA of $190M vs $213.9M; and EPS of 55c vs 75c.
While a drop of 40% may come as a surprise to some, the stock has been declining since last year when it topped $270, led by inconsistent profits and an ongoing decline in its growth. While normally a (forecast) 28% increase in revenue would be favorable, in the context of the company’s history it might just suggest LinkedIn is running out of momentum – over the last 5 years, sales growth has dropped as follows: >100% (2011); 86% (2012); 50-odd% (2013); 40-odd% (2014); 35% (2015). Amidst the current bear market, investors have also made it clear that current results don’t offset weak forward guidance, and will punish companies accordingly. The exception has been companies like Facebook and Google, who have exceeded analysts’ forecasts by a wide margin and seen their stock prices react positively.
With the stock plunging below $110, perhaps we have seen an initial overreaction from the market that often accompanies growth stocks failing to live up the market’s expectations. As such, our outlook is that we expect the stock to temporarily increase as part of a short term bounce, however, in the absence of any further updates on the company’s growth or renewed confidence in the markets, we see the price continuing lower.
Disclosure: Ser Man Traders do not hold any shares in LinkedIn (LNKD)


text:
On the Road to Where the Bell Tolls by M.J. Williams
On the Road to Where the Bells Toll is a mystery novel where a family, mainly the grandparents Emily and Stan, try to solve a case that involves an apparent suicide. Stan and Emily are spending time with their daughter Megan, her husband Phillip, and their granddaughters Wynter, Allyn, and Annabel when a friend of their daughter asks them to look into her husband’s death. Though his death seems to be a cut-and-dry suicide to the local police, the woman is convinced that her husband would not have killed himself. It is the second death in a short period of time that seems suspicious, causing the family to believe there is more going on than there originally appeared to be.
The book focuses quite a bit on the interaction between the three generations of Emily and Stan’s family, and portrays them as a very wholesome group. The problem is it seems a little unrealistic that there is so little dysfunction in the family dynamic. The biggest quarrel any of them have are the minor spats between the two youngest grandchildren. It also seems a bit of a stretch of the imagination for members of the same family to discover multiple dead bodies and to then take it upon themselves to investigate the possible murders of them. Despite these drawbacks, On the Road to Where the Bells Toll is an engaging read, with lots of attention to detail and interesting historical facts peppered throughout. The conclusion could have been a bit stronger, but overall the reader is left feeling quite satisfied by the end of the book.
To purchase a copy of the book, click here to find it on Amazon.

domain: library


text:
Mobile health—the use of mobile applications and devices to deliver medical information, access or record data, or provide clinical services—has the potential to revolutionize patient care. From tracking fitness achievements to allowing real-time remote consultation services with physicians, mHealth gives patients and providers better access to essential health information.
The underlying drivers of mHealth adoption are strong. The rapidly increasing availability of mobile Internet and the widespread use of inexpensive delivery devices, such as smartphones and data sensors, provide a solid foundation for growth. At the same time, the trend toward value-based health care has the potential to reward mHealth solutions that deliver superior outcomes and lower costs and that measure the outcomes of other products, such as pharmaceuticals.
But a great deal of innovative thinking will be required by stakeholders at the intersection of health care and mobile technology to make this promise a reality on a broad scale. To date, only a few devices or apps have succeeded commercially in the launch phase—and it is still not clear whether these promising products will drive sustainable revenue growth in the long term. Companies face challenges in designing products that easily fit into the user’s routine, that provide a benefit for which key stakeholders are willing to pay, and that can be integrated within the existing health-care infrastructure. Companies that succeed in mHealth over the long term will not only create innovative products but will also develop innovative business models—ones that combine unique offerings, viable revenue models, and robust stakeholder ecosystems.
In doing so, these companies will ensure that mHealth solutions achieve their commercial potential in addition to enhancing care. Although the challenges to commercialization may seem daunting, industry players can overcome them through well-designed, collaborative business models.


text:
Volume 14 - 2020 | https://doi.org/10.3389/fnana.2020.00018
How Human Is Human Connectional Neuroanatomy?
- 1Department of Anatomy and Neurobiology, Boston University School of Medicine, Boston, MA, United States
- 2Psychiatric Neuroimaging Laboratory, Harvard Medical School, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Boston, MA, United States
- 3Center for Morphometric Analysis, Department of Psychiatry and Neurology, A. Martinos Center for Biomedical Imaging, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, MA, United States
- 4Department of Psychology, Colby College, Waterville, ME, United States
The structure of the human brain has been studied extensively. Despite all the knowledge accrued, direct information about connections, from origin to termination, in the human brain is extremely limited. Yet there is a widespread misperception that human connectional neuroanatomy is well-established and validated. In this article, we consider what is known directly about human structural and connectional neuroanatomy. Information on neuroanatomical connections in the human brain is derived largely from studies in non-human experimental models in which the entire connectional pathway, including origins, course, and terminations, is directly visualized. Techniques to examine structural connectivity in the human brain are progressing rapidly; nevertheless, our present understanding of such connectivity is limited largely to data derived from homological comparisons, particularly with non-human primates. We take the position that an in-depth and more precise understanding of human connectional neuroanatomy will be obtained by a systematic application of this homological approach.
Understanding the structure of the human brain remains one of the most challenging issues in human neuroscience. While the fundamental architecture of most other organ systems has been determined and the structural organization of their underlying tissues established in great detail, this is not the case in the human brain. The fundamental structure of the human central nervous system, in particular structural brain connectivity, is still not completely delineated.
Different parts of the human central nervous system have been delineated and described using gross anatomical and histological approaches, and according to regional differences in cellular or fibrous composition (e.g., Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1895; Vogt and Vogt, 1919; Bailey and von Bonin, 1951; Cajal, 1995; Brodmann, 2006; von Economo et al., 2008). Since the 19th century, the optimal method for dividing the central nervous system into discrete regions has been an object of study and debate. The regional organization of the human brain has been extensively described using post-mortem material and is generally agreed upon. This line of investigation continues using non-invasive brain imaging techniques such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), which provides both post-mortem and in vivo data (e.g., Toga and Mazziotta, 2002; Walters et al., 2003; Eickhoff et al., 2005).
One essential aspect of the human central nervous system structure is virtually unknown: precisely where a specific connection originates and terminates in the brain. Surprising as it may seem, this realization arises from an evaluation of our knowledge of human neuroanatomy. Even among the most studied neuroanatomical systems, e.g., the connections between the lateral geniculate nucleus and the primary visual cortex (PVC), what direct evidence do we have in the human? Axonal fibers such as the optic radiations can be observed through microdissection of white matter, e.g., the Klingler technique (Ludwig and Kingler, 1956; Rubino et al., 2005), or inferred from a pattern of degeneration in fibers and cells after a stroke or other localized damage (e.g., Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1901). The course of the pathways can also be inferred by tracking the flow of water molecules within axonal bundles using diffusion-based MRI (dMRI) imaging tractography (e.g., Conturo et al., 1999; Mori et al., 1999; Basser et al., 2000; Poupon et al., 2000; Lori et al., 2002). However, none of these methods can directly visualize cellular origins or terminal fields of axons (Figure 1). Both microdissection and dMRI-based methods have difficulties in evaluating branch points or determining trajectories as groups of axons approach each other (Maier-Hein et al., 2017). More problematic is that these methods are unable to determine the trajectory of axons when they enter gray matter and whether they pass through a structure on their way to a deeper layer or region, stop at a proximal point, or branch and turn upon entering a structure (Makris et al., 2002; Schmahmann and Pandya, 2006; Zemmoura et al., 2014; Maier-Hein et al., 2017).
Figure 1. Center: A ventral view of the human brain showing results from diffusion imaging (left side) and microdissection approaches (right side) to show the course of the optic radiations between the lateral geniculate nucleus of the thalamus (LGN) and the PVC. Experimental studies in the macaque monkey (left column) have illustrated the location and morphology of the neurons of origin in the LGN (top) as well as the pattern of termination from individual axons (bottom). The trajectory of the fiber pathway in monkeys can be accurately illustrated in gross anatomical microdissections, via diffusion-based MRI (dMRI) tractographic methods and in pathway tracing studies. In the human (right), the trajectory of the pathway may be anatomically indicated by microdissection studies, but these studies often display false positives, as do results from dMRI methods (see the displayed fibers near the eye). The stems of fiber tracts, but not the precise origins and termination of the component axons, can also be illustrated using dMRI methods. Termination patterns and origins of fiber pathways are not directly known in the human, and are inferred from experimental data in the monkey. Diffusion image modified from Hofer et al. (2010). Image of the LGN neuron from Wilson (1989) is copyright 1989, Society for Neuroscience and terminal axon in primary visual cortex (PVC) from Blasdel and Lund (1983) is copyright 1983, Society for Neuroscience. Microdissection image modified with permission from Goga and Türe (2015).
How Human Is Human Connectional Neuroanatomy?
Given this situation, from where does our information on human neuroanatomy, in particular structural brain connectivity, emerge? To address this question, we examined two classic human neuroanatomy texts: Carpenter and Sutin (1983) and Nieuwenhuys et al. (2007). We sorted the primary literature in the references as a metric to determine the sources of information on human brain organization. We found that overwhelmingly, especially regarding structural connectivity, knowledge of human neuroanatomy is obtained through homology, i.e., from experimental animals (Figure 2).
Figure 2. Primary literature in classic human neuroanatomy textbooks according to species. Upper left: percentages derived from primary literature citations found in Carpenter and Sutin (1983). Lower left: percentages derived from Nieuwenhuys et al. (2007). Right: percentages from Schmahmann and Pandya (2006), Fibers Pathways of the Brain. For categorization, the term monkey includes all non-human primate species and the term rodent includes rat, mouse, and guinea pig. The term “other” includes species infrequently used, such as rabbit, dog, chicken, ferret, and hamster.
In the Carpenter text, of the primary literature listed in the references section, 37% (781) of studies were performed in cats. Studies in monkeys (mostly macaque species) accounted for 24% (509), while rodents comprised 19% (363). Only 13% (275) of the investigations listed used human material, with the vast majority describing aspects of the human nervous system readily accessible to study such as vascular supply, peripheral nerves, or architectonics. Many of the human investigations described neurological symptoms or neurosurgical approaches and interventions in clinical cases. Several examined post-mortem brain histology in neurological cases to infer the trajectories and termination patterns of degenerated fibers after damage such as that caused by stroke (e.g., Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1901). Others delineated fiber systems with fixation or other staining methods (e.g., Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1895, 1901) or with microdissection (e.g., Ludwig and Kingler, 1956).
In the more recent Nieuwenhuys text, the proportions of non-human vs. human studies were slightly different. Studies in cats accounted for 17% (576), whereas studies in monkeys and rodents each represented 32% (monkey = 1,098, rodent = 1,122) of the primary literature. Human studies accounted for 16% (543) of the total primary sources. As before, the vast majority of human studies were based on post-mortem analyses, and to this were added non-invasive imaging studies (e.g., positron emission tomography, MRI-based studies, magnetoencephalography) and non-invasive brain stimulation studies (e.g., transcranial magnetic stimulation). A similar analysis of Schmahmann and Pandya (2006) found that 29% of the studies were from human, 65% from the monkey, and the remainder from rat (2.4%), cat (2.2%) and other species (~1.7%).
The human studies cited in these texts do not show precise origins or terminations of fiber pathways. Collectively, these studies provide little direct evidence of structural brain connectivity in humans, except the following approaches. In one, a tracer is applied to slices of the human brain collected quickly after death and kept alive as long as possible (Dai et al., 1998a,b,c). In another, crystals of lipophilic tracers (e.g., DiI; e.g., Galuske et al., 2000; Lai et al., 2018) are placed in regions of the post-mortem human brain and fluorescently visualized after a long incubation period (~12 months in Galuske et al., 2000; 10–14 months in Lai et al., 2018). These approaches, which represent the only direct evidence of connections in the human brain from origin to termination, are limited in that they reveal relatively short connections (5 mm–1.5 cm) within circumscribed regions. Another approach uses the properties of white matter within histological sections to infer connectivity. One such method, 3D polarized light imaging, takes advantage of the fact that myelin is optically anisotropic, and polarized light propagates through it in different ways depending on the orientation of the myelin sheath (Axer H. et al., 2011; Axer et al., 2011a,b; Dohmen et al., 2015). Passing multiple light beams, each with a different polarization allows for bundles of myelinated fibers to be inferred throughout the section. More recent advances in this method measure the degree of attenuation of the polarized light (diattenuation) to infer the orientation of axonal bundles (Menzel et al., 2017, 2019). A related method images brain sections with optical coherence tomography during sectioning, and reconstructs fiber bundles from a series of images after the brain has been sectioned (e.g., Wang et al., 2011, 2014). A final approach with great promise is expansion microscopy, a technique that physically enlarges brain tissue to achieve significant increases in resolution (e.g., Chen et al., 2015; Zhao et al., 2017). These techniques are promising, but not yet comparable in detail and precision to the gold standard of invasive tracing methods in experimental animals.
Thus, the bulk of knowledge that forms the basis of human connectional neuroanatomy is drawn from a variety of non-human species. This fact is not surprising; the homological approach has been and remains a cornerstone of neuroanatomy, including that of the human brain (e.g., Crick and Jones, 1993; Schmahmann and Pandya, 2006). What is surprising is the fact that although not always explicitly acknowledged, homological relationships are the primary source of our knowledge of connectivity in the human brain.
Although gross anatomical and histological features have been well studied in the human brain, precise knowledge of structural connections between specific areas, from origins to terminations, is quite limited. This has been the case since the classic neuroanatomical studies of the 19th century (e.g., Reil, 1809; Broca, 1862; Meynert, 1868; Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1895; Burdach, 1922). Because early human neuroanatomists were often physicians (e.g., Brodmann, Dejerine, and others), the focus on human connectional neuroanatomy originated more from a clinical than a strictly neuroanatomical perspective. This perspective meant that neuroanatomical relationships were studied primarily to better interpret how patterns of symptoms could arise from damage to discrete brain structures. To that end, post-mortem human material was used to chart the extent of focal damage induced by pathologies such as stroke, as well as the patterns of degeneration in white and gray matter that occurred in widespread regions of the central nervous system. Connectional relationships were assumed when the primary lesion-induced a pattern of degeneration of white matter, and in some cases gray matter, that appeared to reflect structural connectivity of the primary lesion site with other brain areas (e.g., Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1895; Dejerine and Dejerine-Klumpke, 1901).
In parallel, experimental neuroanatomists since the 19th century have focused on brain connections in non-human species with the primary aim of describing fundamental aspects of brain organization rather than clinical relevance. This research has used invasive methods that provide a high level of microscopic detail and employ systematic methodologies aimed at charting connections. Like the clinico-anatomical approach in humans, early studies in animals entailed making lesions in specific parts of the neuraxis, with connectivity inferred based on patterns of degeneration (e.g., Glees, 1946; Nauta and Gygax, 1954; Fink and Heimer, 1967; Nauta and Ebbesson, 1970; Gallyas et al., 1980). This experimental approach, however, was found to include non-specific effects such as false positives due to damage to axons of passage or false negatives due to the lack of a degenerated myelin sheath, which often resulted in imprecise or inaccurate findings (e.g., Schmahmann and Pandya, 2006; Decramer et al., 2018).
In the 1970s degeneration techniques were largely superseded as novel pathway tracing techniques were developed to obviate the limitations of earlier methods. These new techniques involved the intracerebral injection of tracers taken up and transported by neurons (e.g., Cowan et al., 1972; Mesulam, 1976; Mesulam and Rosene, 1977; Rosene and Mesulam, 1978; Mesulam and Rosene, 1979). After an appropriate time for axonal transport of the tracer, the brain was prepared to demonstrate the presence of tracer so that connected areas could be identified, and the strength of connectivity, from origin to termination, qualitatively and quantitatively evaluated. These newer approaches continue to the present, and enormous amounts of information on structural connectivity among different brain regions in different species have been generated. Because the techniques in experimental animals were more precise and controlled than those in humans, and because they provided information on origins and terminations, the more detailed information on brain connections in non-human species was incorporated into the human canon as a foundation of human connectional neuroanatomy. This incorporation of experimental neuroanatomical findings from non-human species into human neuroanatomy has not always been explicit and has led to the inaccurate assumption that a great deal of human connectional neuroanatomy is known directly.
Indeed, human connectional neuroanatomy is based partly on human clinico-anatomical and fiber microdissection studies (and a few studies of very short connections), but largely on homologies generated from anatomical studies in non-human species. The former provides information principally on pathway stems, while the latter comprises the vast majority of information on origins and terminations of brain pathways (Figure 1). Thus, there is scant direct evidence regarding human connectional neuroanatomy, and the data that exist are largely incomplete. Yet there is a widespread misperception that human connectional neuroanatomy is well-established and validated.
The Importance of Validation and Ground Truth
Awareness of the strong reliance of human neuroanatomy on findings from non-human species is important in the context of current human neuroimaging. The recent advent of non-invasive imaging techniques and the adoption of computer science-based analytical tools has led to a resurgence of human neuroanatomical study and has contributed to the emergence of new fields such as computational neuroanatomy. Non-invasive approaches to neuroanatomy in the human brain have been adopted that use diffusion-based techniques to infer the presence and orientation of fiber bundles in vivo (e.g., Conturo et al., 1999; Mori et al., 1999; Basser et al., 2000; Poupon et al., 2000; Lori et al., 2002). These modern imaging approaches to neuroanatomy have revealed with great clarity certain aspects of human fiber system structure. Axons and their myelin sheaths constitute fibers, and fibers in the human brain typically coalesce from their cellular origins into regions in which the main portions, namely the stems of fiber tracts, are found (e.g., Makris et al., 1997, 2002). In these regions where fibers travel together along with the same orientation, their ability to be measured with non-invasive imaging methods such as dMRI is more reliable (e.g., Conturo et al., 1999; Gao et al., 2013; Seehaus et al., 2013). Fibers traveling along the same axis similarly affect water diffusion, reflecting fiber orientation. Diffusion-based tractography methods may then be used to visualize fibers. In this technique, one or more preferred axes of water diffusion for each voxel are measured. A pathway is inferred when adjacent voxels have similar orientations, reflecting the transit of an axonal bundle from one voxel to another (e.g., Conturo et al., 1999; Mori et al., 1999; Basser et al., 2000; Poupon et al., 2000; Lori et al., 2002). Importantly, microdissection techniques and histological analyses have largely validated these data for the largest fiber bundles (e.g., Ludwig and Kingler, 1956; Miklossy et al., 1991).
Although human fiber stems have been validated and are well established using diffusion-based techniques, it is much more difficult for these techniques to define the trajectory of fibers in a voxel when these fibers have a broader range of orientations (e.g., Dauguet et al., 2007; Dyrby et al., 2007; Roebroeck et al., 2008; Thomas et al., 2014; Reveley et al., 2015). As fibers approach gray matter or disperse to travel to different targets, the cohesion in their orientation decreases, along with the ability of diffusion-based techniques to resolve the orientations of the myriad axons contained within the voxel. The reliability of the inferred virtual fiber bundles is accordingly reduced. The ability to resolve fibers near the cortex is also reduced by partial volume effects, where gray and white matter structures share the same voxel (e.g., Caspers and Axer, 2019). Importantly, there are no current techniques in humans to validate the virtual fiber bundles away from regions of high cohesion that define pathway stems.
Connectional ground truth comprises the complete structure of fiber bundles, including origins and terminations as well as stems (Figure 1). For the human brain, ground truth for origins and terminations is extremely limited, and, in most instances, does not exist. Consequently, the validity of results from dMRI-based tract-tracing algorithms cannot be compared against ground truth and confirmed. Moreover, the fiber tract structure as inferred from diffusion-based imaging techniques against ground truth cannot be used as feedback to guide the development of better algorithms. The absence of ground truth is thus a major impediment to defining the complete pattern of structural connections in the human brain from origin to termination and represents a barrier that cannot be directly overcome using available technology.
What are the implications of the absence of ground truth for human structural brain connectivity? One important implication is that depending on the acquisition parameters and tractographic analysis tools, the anatomical results provided by diffusion-based tractography can be markedly different for the same structure in the same subject (Makris et al., 2013; Setsompop et al., 2013). A logical consequence is that in the absence of ground truth for human structural connectivity, we cannot with certainty determine whether a tract defined by diffusion-based methods represents a false positive or a true pathway. Similarly, we are unable to evaluate whether the absence of a pathway from a particular structure represents a true negative or a false negative in the human brain (e.g., Gao et al., 2013; Azadbakht et al., 2015; van den Heuvel et al., 2015; Maier-Hein et al., 2017; Sinke et al., 2018).
Ground truth exists for the non-human primate, several species of which have been used in conjunction with invasive tract-tracing methods to comprehensively chart pathways at high resolution (e.g., Schmahmann and Pandya, 2006). The macaque monkey has been one of the dominant models for these neuroanatomical tract-tracing studies. Thus, one way to address the absence of ground truth in human brain connectivity would be to employ a refined homological approach based on non-human primate neuroanatomy. The logic of such an approach is as follows: (1) establish a reliable relationship between experimental neuroanatomical and dMRI connectional data in individual macaque monkeys using empirically developed and validated acquisition and tractographic analysis parameters; (2) formulate a parcellation framework to apply to the macaque monkey brain with a direct correspondence to an established parcellation framework of the human brain for translational purposes; and (3) apply the empirically developed and appropriately scaled dMRI acquisition and tractographic analysis parameters to homological areas of the human brain to examine structural connectivity. It should be noted that such a novel approach would not only provide data for the creation of species-specific atlases (e.g., Mori et al., 2005; Feng et al., 2017; Van Essen and Glasser, 2018), but also would generate data for the creation of homologically-based atlases. Moreover, in addition to providing more precise information on structural connectivity in human and macaque brains, homological atlases would be useful for generating templates to demarcate, localize, and interrelate brain regions and their connections across species.
One approach to compare connections across species that has particular promise is the creation of a connectional fingerprint (e.g., Mars et al., 2018). In this work, the authors use known correspondence in the white matter bundles across species (e.g., human and non-human primates) and diffusion MRI based connectivity profiles of these white matter fiber bundles with gray matter areas to determine homologies between human and primate gray matter areas. Therefore, prior knowledge of white matter correspondence is the key to the determination of gray matter homologies in this work. Nevertheless, the incorporation of tract-tracing data derived from experimental animals into these models could provide a stronger and more direct link between connectional ground truth data and diffusion-based tractographic data that could then be extrapolated to humans.
Other studies relating experimental neuroanatomical data in non-human primates to diffusion-based data have been carried out (van den Heuvel et al., 2015; Donahue et al., 2016; Shen et al., 2019; Van Essen et al., 2019; Hori et al., 2020). These studies have generated measures of connectional strength based on collations of single experiments in which retrograde tracers were injected into a single region and the number of labeled neurons counted. Comparisons were made with dMRI-derived tracts or measures of functional connectivity. These studies provide methodologies important to extending ground truth in the macaque to human connectional neuroanatomy. At the same time, more needs to be done in terms of directly evaluating the white matter pathways (e.g., Schmahmann and Pandya, 2006) to complement data from retrograde tracers, which do not reveal information about where the pathways travel in the white matter, the number of axons involved, or the extent of the terminal arbors.
More studies are needed to better establish homological comparisons between a non-human primate and human connectional neuroanatomy. These comparisons are essential to translate ground truth connectional knowledge based on tract-tracing experiments in non-human primates to the human brain. However, data from extant neuroanatomical tract-tracing in multiple non-human primate species are underutilized and need to be leveraged and used more fully, taking into account the limitations of the methods (e.g., variability in tracer injections, tracer uptake by fibers of passage; Jbabdi et al., 2015). New and existing analytical techniques for diffusion imaging and homological comparisons need to be refined, critically evaluated and tested. Most importantly, the misperception that human connectional neuroanatomy has been solved using classic techniques such as dissection, as well as newer neuroimaging methodologies, needs to be explicitly addressed.
Although differences in brain structure, connectivity, and function have been documented between non-human primates and human (e.g., Jbabdi et al., 2015), the proposed comparative approach will provide a foundation for the validation of diffusion-based tractography and a more precise approximation of ground truth structural connectivity in the human brain (e.g., Makris et al., 2005; Rilling et al., 2008; Mesulam, 2009; Jbabdi et al., 2013, 2015). Given the current methodological limitations in directly revealing human brain structural connectivity, such a refined homological approach using MRI and dMRI tractographic methods should reduce false positive and negative findings and provide a solid foundation to test hypotheses about the human brain circuit diagram (BCD). Since our knowledge of human connectional neuroanatomy depends so heavily on data from non-human animals, an explicitly comparative approach using dMRI tractography in conjunction with homologically-based atlases will provide a systematic framework for understanding human BCDs with current imaging methods. This approach should make our understanding of human connectional neuroanatomy more accurate, if not necessarily more human.
Data Availability Statement
The datasets generated for this study are available on request to the corresponding author.
RR, NM, and EY wrote the first draft of the manuscript. All authors contributed to manuscript revision, read and approved the submitted version.
The authors acknowledge support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH; R01 MH112748). NM was a EURIAS Fellow at the Hanse-Wissenschaftskolleg Institute for Advanced Study, Delmenhorst, Germany while working on this study.
Conflict of Interest
The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.
Axer, M., Amunts, K., Grässel, D., Palm, C., Dammers, J., Axer, H., et al. (2011a). A novel approach to the human connectome: ultra-high resolution mapping of fiber tracts in the brain. NeuroImage 54, 1091–1101. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2010.08.075
Axer, M., Grässel, D., Kleiner, M., Dammers, J., Dickscheid, T., Reckfort, J., et al. (2011b). High-resolution fiber tract reconstruction in the human brain by means of three-dimensional polarized light imaging. Front. Neuroinform. 5:34. doi: 10.3389/fninf.2011.00034
Axer, H., Beck, S., Axer, M., Schuchardt, F., Heepe, J., Flücken, A., et al. (2011). Microstructural analysis of human white matter architecture using polarized light imaging: views from neuroanatomy. Front. Neuroinform. 5:28. doi: 10.3389/fninf.2011.00028
Azadbakht, H., Parkes, L. M., Haroon, H. A., Augath, M., Logothetis, N. K., de Crespigny, A., et al. (2015). Validation of high-resolution tractography against in vivo tracing in the macaque visual cortex. Cereb. Cortex 25, 4299–4309. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhu326
Basser, P. J., Pajevic, S., Pierpaoli, C., Duda, J., and Aldroubi, A. (2000). in vivo fiber tractography using DT-MRI data. Magn. Reson. Med. 44, 625–632. doi: 10.1002/1522-2594(200010)44:4<625::aid-mrm17>3.0.co;2-o
Brodmann, K. (2006). Brodmann’s Localisation in the Cerebral Cortex. Available online at: https://www.springer.com/us/book/9780387269177. Accessed June 7, 2019.
Conturo, T. E., Lori, N. F., Cull, T. S., Akbudak, E., Snyder, A. Z., Shimony, J. S., et al. (1999). Tracking neuronal fiber pathways in the living human brain. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 96, 10422–10427. doi: 10.1073/pnas.96.18.10422
Cowan, W., Gottlieb, D. I., Hendrickson, A., Price, J. L., and Woolsey, T. A. (1972). The autoradiographic demonstration of axonal connections in the central nervous system. Brain Res. 37, 21–51. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(72)90344-7
Dai, J., Swaab, D. F., Van der Vliet, J., and Buijs, R. M. (1998a). Postmortem tracing reveals the organization of hypothalamic projections of the suprachiasmatic nucleus in the human brain. J. Comp. Neurol. 400, 87–102. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19981012)400:1<87::aid-cne6>3.0.co;2-p
Dai, J., Van der Vliet, J., Swaab, D. F., and Buijs, R. M. (1998b). Human retinohypothalamic tract as revealed by in vitro postmortem tracing. J. Comp. Neurol. 397, 357–370. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19980803)397:3<357::aid-cne4>3.0.co;2-1
Dai, J., Vliet, J. V. D., Swaab, D. F., and Buijs, R. M. (1998c). Postmortem anterograde tracing of intrahypothalamic projections of the human dorsomedial nucleus of the hypothalamus. J. Comp. Neurol. 401, 16–33. doi: 10.1002/(sici)1096-9861(19981109)401:1<16::aid-cne2>3.0.co;2-o
Dauguet, J., Peled, S., Berezovskii, V., Delzescaux, T., Warfield, S. K., Born, R., et al. (2007). Comparison of fiber tracts derived from in vivo DTI tractography with 3D histological neural tract tracer reconstruction on a macaque brain. NeuroImage 37, 530–538. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.04.067
Decramer, T., Swinnen, S., van Loon, J., Janssen, P., and Theys, T. (2018). White matter tract anatomy in the rhesus monkey: a fiber dissection study. Brain Struct. Funct. 223, 3681–3688. doi: 10.1007/s00429-018-1718-x
Dohmen, M., Menzel, M., Wiese, H., Reckfort, J., Hanke, F., Pietrzyk, U., et al. (2015). Understanding fiber mixture by simulation in 3D polarized light imaging. NeuroImage 111, 464–475. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2015.02.020
Donahue, C. J., Sotiropoulos, S. N., Jbabdi, S., Hernandez-Fernandez, M., Behrens, T. E., Dyrby, T. B., et al. (2016). Using diffusion tractography to predict cortical connection strength and distance: a quantitative comparison with tracers in the monkey. J. Neurosci. 36, 6758–6770. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.0493-16.2016
Dyrby, T. B., Søgaard, L. V., Parker, G. J., Alexander, D. C., Lind, N. M., Baaré, W. F. C., et al. (2007). Validation of in vitro probabilistic tractography. NeuroImage 37, 1267–1277. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.06.022
Eickhoff, S., Walters, N. B., Schleicher, A., Kril, J., Egan, G. F., Zilles, K., et al. (2005). High-resolution MRI reflects myeloarchitecture and cytoarchitecture of human cerebral cortex. Hum. Brain Mapp. 24, 206–215. doi: 10.1002/hbm.20082
Feng, L., Jeon, T., Yu, Q., Ouyang, M., Peng, Q., Mishra, V., et al. (2017). Population-averaged macaque brain atlas with high-resolution ex vivo DTI integrated into in vivo space. Brain Struct. Funct. 222, 4131–4147. doi: 10.1007/s00429-017-1463-6
Fink, R. P., and Heimer, L. (1967). Two methods for selective silver impregnation of degenerating axons and their synaptic endings in the central nervous system. Brain Res. 4, 369–374. doi: 10.1016/0006-8993(67)90166-7
Gallyas, F., Zaborszky, L., and Wolff, J. R. (1980). Experimental studies of mechanisms involved in methods demonstrating axonal and terminal degeneration. Stain Technol. 55, 281–290. doi: 10.3109/10520298009067256
Galuske, R. A., Schlote, W., Bratzke, H., and Singer, W. (2000). Interhemispheric asymmetries of the modular structure in human temporal cortex. Science 289, 1946–1949. doi: 10.1126/science.289.5486.1946
Gao, Y., Choe, A. S., Stepniewska, I., Li, X., Avison, M. J., and Anderson, A. W. (2013). Validation of DTI tractography-based measures of primary motor area connectivity in the squirrel monkey brain. PLoS One 8:e75065. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0075065
Goga, C., and Türe, U. (2015). The anatomy of Meyer’s loop revisited: changing the anatomical paradigm of the temporal loop based on evidence from fiber microdissection. J. Neurosurg. 122, 1253–1262. doi: 10.3171/2014.12.JNS14281
Hori, Y., Schaeffer, D. J., Gilbert, K. M., Hayrynen, L. K., Cléry, J. C., Gati, J. S., et al. (2020). Comparison of resting-state functional connectivity in marmosets with tracer-based cellular connectivity. NeuroImage 204:116241. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.116241
Jbabdi, S., Lehman, J. F., Haber, S. N., and Behrens, T. E. (2013). Human and monkey ventral prefrontal fibers use the same organizational principles to reach their targets: tracing versus tractography. J. Neurosci. 33, 3190–3201. doi: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2457-12.2013
Lai, H. M., Liu, A. K. L., Ng, H. H. M., Goldfinger, M. H., Chau, T. W., DeFelice, J., et al. (2018). Next generation histology methods for three-dimensional imaging of fresh and archival human brain tissues. Nat. Commun. 9:1066. doi: 10.1038/s41467-018-05089-5
Lori, N. F., Akbudak, E., Shimony, J. S., Cull, T. S., Snyder, A. Z., Guillory, R. K., et al. (2002). Diffusion tensor fiber tracking of human brain connectivity: acquisition methods, reliability analysis and biological results. NMR Biomed. 15, 494–515. doi: 10.1002/nbm.779
Maier-Hein, K. H., Neher, P. F., Houde, J.-C., Côté, M.-A., Garyfallidis, E., Zhong, J., et al. (2017). The challenge of mapping the human connectome based on diffusion tractography. Nat. Commun. 8:1349. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-01285-x
Makris, N., Kennedy, D. N., McInerney, S., Sorensen, A. G., Wang, R., Caviness, V. S. Jr., et al. (2005). Segmentation of subcomponents within the superior longitudinal fascicle in humans: a quantitative, in vivo, DT-MRI study. Cereb. Cortex 15, 854–869. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhh186
Makris, N., Papadimitriou, G. M., Worth, A. J., Jenkins, B., Garrido, L., Sorensen, A. G., et al. (2002). “Diffusion tensor imaging,” in Neuropharmacology—5th Generation of Progress, eds K. L. Davis, D. Charney, J. Coyle, and C. Nemeroff (New York, NY: Lippincott, Williams & Wilkins), 357–371.
Makris, N., Preti, M. G., Asami, T., Pelavin, P., Campbell, B., Papadimitriou, G. M., et al. (2013). Human middle longitudinal fascicle: variations in patterns of anatomical connections. Brain Struct. Funct. 218, 951–968. doi: 10.1007/s00429-012-0441-2
Makris, N., Worth, A. J., Sorensen, A. G., Papadimitriou, G. M., Wu, O., Reese, T. G., et al. (1997). Morphometry of in vivo human white matter association pathways with diffusion-weighted magnetic resonance imaging. Ann. Neurol. 42, 951–962. doi: 10.1002/ana.410420617
Mars, R. B., Sotiropoulos, S. N., Passingham, R. E., Sallet, J., Verhagen, L., Khrapitchev, A. A., et al. (2018). Whole brain comparative anatomy using connectivity blueprints. Elife 7:e35237. doi: 10.7554/eLife.35237
Menzel, M., Reckfort, J., Weigand, D., Köse, H., Amunts, K., and Axer, M. (2017). Diattenuation of brain tissue and its impact on 3D polarized light imaging. Biomed. Opt. Express 8, 3163–3197. doi: 10.1364/boe.8.003163
Mesulam, M. M., and Rosene, D. L. (1977). Differential sensitivity between blue and brown reaction procedures for HRP neurohistochemistry. Neuroscience Letters 5, 7–14. doi: 10.1016/0304-3940(77)90157-4
Mesulam, M. M., and Rosene, D. L. (1979). Sensitivity in horseradish peroxidase neurohistochemistry: a comparative and quantitative study of nine methods. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 27, 763–773. doi: 10.1177/27.3.113450
Miklossy, J., Clarke, S., and Van der Loos, H. (1991). The long distance effects of brain lesions: visualization of axonal pathways and their terminations in the human brain by the Nauta method. J. Neuropathol. Exp. Neurol. 50, 595–614. doi: 10.1097/00005072-199109000-00006
Mori, S., Crain, B. J., Chacko, V. P., and Van Zijl, P. C. M. (1999). Three-dimensional tracking of axonal projections in the brain by magnetic resonance imaging. Ann. Neurol. 45, 265–269. doi: 10.1002/1531-8249(199902)45:2<265::aid-ana21>3.0.co;2-3
Poupon, C., Clark, C. A., Frouin, V., Régis, J., Bloch, I., Le Bihan, D., et al. (2000). Regularization of diffusion-based direction maps for the tracking of brain white matter fascicles. NeuroImage 12, 184–195. doi: 10.1006/nimg.2000.0607
Reveley, C., Seth, A. K., Pierpaoli, C., Silva, A. C., Yu, D., Saunders, R. C., et al. (2015). Superficial white matter fiber systems impede detection of long-range cortical connections in diffusion MR tractography. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 112, E2820–E2828. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1418198112
Rilling, J. K., Glasser, M. F., Preuss, T. M., Ma, X., Zhao, T., Hu, X., et al. (2008). The evolution of the arcuate fasciculus revealed with comparative DTI. Nat. Neurosci. 11, 426–428. doi: 10.1038/nn2072
Roebroeck, A., Galuske, R., Formisano, E., Chiry, O., Bratzke, H., Ronen, I., et al. (2008). High-resolution diffusion tensor imaging and tractography of the human optic chiasm at 9.4 T. NeuroImage 39, 157–168. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2007.08.015
Rosene, D. L., and Mesulam, M. M. (1978). Fixation variables in horseradish peroxidase neurohistochemistry: I. The effect of fixation time and perfusion procedures upon enzyme activity. J. Histochem. Cytochem. 26, 28–39. doi: 10.1177/26.1.413864
Rubino, P. A., Rhoton, A. L., Tong, X., and de Oliveira, E. (2005). Three-dimensional relationships of the optic radiation. Neurosurgery 57, 219–227; discussion 219–227. doi: 10.1227/01.neu.0000176415.83417.16
Seehaus, A. K., Roebroeck, A., Chiry, O., Kim, D.-S., Ronen, I., Bratzke, H., et al. (2013). Histological validation of DW-MRI tractography in human postmortem tissue. Cereb. Cortex 23, 442–450. doi: 10.1093/cercor/bhs036
Setsompop, K., Kimmlingen, R., Eberlein, E., Witzel, T., Cohen-Adad, J., McNab, J. A., et al. (2013). Pushing the limits of in vivo diffusion MRI for the Human Connectome Project. NeuroImage 80, 220–233. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2013.05.078
Shen, K., Goulas, A., Grayson, D. S., Eusebio, J., Gati, J. S., Menon, R. S., et al. (2019). Exploring the limits of network topology estimation using diffusion-based tractography and tracer studies in the macaque cortex. NeuroImage 191, 81–92. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2019.02.018
Sinke, M. R. T., Otte, W. M., Christiaens, D., Schmitt, O., Leemans, A., van der Toorn, A., et al. (2018). Diffusion MRI-based cortical connectome reconstruction: dependency on tractography procedures and neuroanatomical characteristics. Brain Struct. Funct. 223, 2269–2285. doi: 10.1007/s00429-018-1628-y
Thomas, C., Ye, F. Q., Irfanoglu, M. O., Modi, P., Saleem, K. S., Leopold, D. A., et al. (2014). Anatomical accuracy of brain connections derived from diffusion MRI tractography is inherently limited. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 111, 16574–16579. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1405672111
van den Heuvel, M. P., de Reus, M. A., Feldman Barrett, L., Scholtens, L. H., Coopmans, F. M. T., Schmidt, R., et al. (2015). Comparison of diffusion tractography and tract-tracing measures of connectivity strength in rhesus macaque connectome. Hum. Brain Mapp. 36, 3064–3075. doi: 10.1002/hbm.22828
Van Essen, D. C., Donahue, C. J., Coalson, T. S., Kennedy, H., Hayashi, T., and Glasser, M. F. (2019). Cerebral cortical folding, parcellation and connectivity in humans, nonhuman primates, and mice. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A doi: 10.1073/pnas.1902299116 [Epub ahead of print].
Vogt, C., and Vogt, O. (1919). Allgemeine Ergebnisse unserer Hirnforschung. Leipzig: J.A. Barth. Available online at: http://books.google.com/books?id=BJcXAAAAYAAJ. Accessed April 15, 2019.
Walters, N. B., Egan, G. F., Kril, J. J., Kean, M., Waley, P., Jenkinson, M., et al. (2003). in vivo identification of human cortical areas using high-resolution MRI: an approach to cerebral structure-function correlation. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U S A 100, 2981–2986. doi: 10.1073/pnas.0437896100
Wang, H., Black, A. J., Zhu, J., Stigen, T. W., Al-Qaisi, M. K., Netoff, T. I., et al. (2011). Reconstructing micrometer-scale fiber pathways in the brain: multi-contrast optical coherence tomography based tractography. NeuroImage 58, 984–992. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2011.07.005
Zemmoura, I., Serres, B., Andersson, F., Barantin, L., Tauber, C., Filipiak, I., et al. (2014). FIBRASCAN: a novel method for 3D white matter tract reconstruction in MR space from cadaveric dissection. NeuroImage 103, 106–118. doi: 10.1016/j.neuroimage.2014.09.016
Keywords: neuroanatomy, homology, human, monkey, cat, rat, axons, DTI
Citation: Rushmore RJ, Bouix S, Kubicki M, Rathi Y, Yeterian EH and Makris N (2020) How Human Is Human Connectional Neuroanatomy? Front. Neuroanat. 14:18. doi: 10.3389/fnana.2020.00018
Received: 23 December 2019; Accepted: 23 March 2020;
Published: 15 April 2020.
Edited by:Marcello Rosa, Monash University, Australia
Reviewed by:Alexandros Goulas, Universitätsklinikum Hamburg-Eppendorf, Germany
Stefan Everling, University of Western Ontario, Canada
Copyright © 2020 Rushmore, Bouix, Kubicki, Rathi, Yeterian and Makris. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
*Correspondence: Nikos Makris, firstname.lastname@example.org
† These authors have contributed equally to this work

domain: biology


text:
FORKED RIVER – New Jersey GOP assembly leader Jon Bramnick is taking his comedy act to a venue in Ocean County this week, the latest of several appearances he has made this summer.
Assemblyman Bramnick, who represents New Jersey’s 21st legislative district and is influential in state Republican politics, also holds the title of the “funniest lawyer in New Jersey” when not legislating.
This summer, the assembly GOP leader and attorney has appeared around Ocean County, including previous appearances as the opening act in Forked River and Long Beach Island at the Surflight Theater.
Bramnick’s latest show is set for 8pm Thursday August 16th, 2018 at Joey Harrison’s River House in Lacey Township. He will be appearing with Rodney Laney and Buddy Fitzpatrick.

domain: news


text:
If you want a whole lot more information that payday loans is generally a personal debt capture, look no further than today’s document because of the buyer economic policies Bureau.
The service found that 4 out-of 5 payday advance loan tends to be restored or rolling over within fourteen days as soon as the finish of the expression. In two among these matters, the purchaser renews the borrowed funds at the least 10 time in a row.
And returning borrowing is costly than numerous borrowers may know. Expenses in 1 away from 5 revived financing finished up exceeding the original level pilfered, the CFPB receive.
“From this looking for, one could readily conclude that the business structure for the pay day sector relies upon someone becoming trapped during these lending for the long term, since nearly half their particular companies was inspired by people that are fundamentally having to pay high-cost rent the level of their earliest debt,” Richard Cordray, manager on the CFPB, said in an announcement.
Tabla de contenido
The man claimed the service is within the last phase of establishing potential reforms.
A quick payday loan is a temporary funding, usually a couple of weeks, and meant to be a crisis bridge between money. Buyers supporters have traditionally complained that the charges on these loans are generally inflated. The common cost is definitely $15 per $100 pilfered, which translates into a yearly portion price around 390 %. Even so, an estimated 12 million Us americans at this point utilize this money, the CFPB says.
The CFPB regarded the one-year exercise of consumers removing much more than 12 million personal loans from storefront pay day financial institutions in 30 shows these days.
The CFPB does not begin applicants by age. However, it asserted 1 out-of 5 consumers remunerated every month — a sign they get public Safeguards or any other federal government perks — whilst remaining in debt for your yr read.
Elizabeth Costle, director of market and status matters for all the AARP consumer approach Institute, claims payday loan providers are inclined to love some older consumers on personal Security as a result of the steady profit stream.
“The concern is most of us can’t pay them down in 2 months or 30 days,” Costle claims. “They move these people over and additionally they find out more fees and much more focus, and they get by themselves into a personal debt spiral in which these people can’t break.”
The city economic Services Association of The united states, which shows payday loan providers that operate about 12,000 storefronts all over get more the country, states its polling signifies that most clients are happier.
The group represents about half the storefronts around and members happen to be approved because says they operate in, says spokeswoman Amy Cantu. Users offer a prolonged repayment schedule free for individuals who need a bit longer to repay, although ?ndividuals are prohibited to get another funding whilst in the plan, which is the reason some don’t work with it, she states.
Cantu claims this lady crowd is using the CFPB to handle reforms.
The CFPB started taking complaints on payday advances in December, thus far, the quantity has now reached several thousand, Cordray mentioned.
it is unlikely the organisation will lose this sort of financial products, however.
“Preserving the means to access smaller money money really does indicate, most likely, that some such lending should be readily available,” Cordray mentioned. “Our worries instead usually all too often those lending products bring about a perpetuating sequence” of personal loans.
Some reports have got in essence prohibited pay day loaning by setting rate of interest hats on temporary finance. It’s not stymied online payday financial institutions that presentation lending products on the Internet to customers of these says. These loan providers see associates’ financial records so they can transfer money in and right out the profile.
The CFPB state address just with debts made by store workers, not just internet based loan providers. However, whatever reforms the agency do produce will more than likely incorporate methods to secure owners from troubles with online loan providers, too.

domain: finance