Dear All,
Many of the routine updates to our IT provision have been successfully
completed. We will complete the remaining jobs next week. These involve
the stimulus PCs.
The cluster is currently down. This is an issue that is unrelated to the
routine updates and is being dealt with by HP engineers.
Thanks, Paul, for installing these important updates.
As I wrote previously, please report any issues that arise in your use of
the IT system here (other than the cluster issue, which we know about).
This will help us resolve them speedily.
Best wishes
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD.
Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Dear All,
A few things to update you on that will be occurring at YNiC over the next
couple of weeks.
During the weeks commencing 5th September and 12th September we will be
performing essential IT maintenance. This is the normal annual procedure
to install updates (as specified below). It will impact on access to the
centre and its IT provision as follows.
1) We will be closing the centre from 5pm, Monday 6th September through to
9am, Wednesday 7th September. There will be no access to computing during
this period.
2) For the week commencing 12th September we will have a ‘soft’ closure.
You may come to the centre, but your work may be disrupted by maintenance
of hardware and software. It may also be a period during which we have to
close the centre at short notice.
We should be able to honour scanner bookings during the fortnight, but
again there may be instances when we have to cancel them at short notice.
OVERVIEW OF UPDATES:
We will be updating our desktop and stimulus PC images. This will mean
that software versions will change. We make every effort to check that
these have minimal impact on researchers’ ability to run their analysis and
stimulus code. However, once our updates are made please check your use of
software to ensure it still works.
Thank you for your patience
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD
Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Dear Colleagues
I have just, 7.30pm on the 31st, packed my last box of papers and am
about to vacate my office.
Tomorrow, Professor Tony Morland will become the new Director of the
York Neuroimaging Centre and Professor Alex Wade will be the Deputy Director
I am sure you will join me in welcoming them to their new roles and in
wishing them a very successful future.
I have had a fantastic time as Director for the last 13 years and 9
months. I am moving into new roles to work on newly funded research into
molecular imaging in humans and the associated hardware to accomplish it.
I could not have done this job with out the staff at YNiC and I would
like to publicly acknowledge my sincere thanks for them being such
wonderful colleagues.
We also could not have done this without you - the Users. You have made
it tremendously exciting. A lot of science has been carried out. Over
300 projects with over 700 Users, have scanned over 4000 people.
Thank you
I am not going far - CHyM and the new clinical imaging facilities in
York and Leeds, so I hope to meet you all from time to time.
best wishes
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
If you're wondering why the cluster is currently unavailable, please see
Paul's message below.
-------- Forwarded Message --------
Subject: [Staff] Compute blade maintenance
Date: Tue, 30 Aug 2016 14:12:09 +0100
From: Paul Elliott <Paul.Elliott(a)ynic.york.ac.uk>
To: undisclosed
Hi all,
I'll shortly be disabling the queues for the cluster so that I can work
with HP to resolve the issues with our compute blades after a further
blade failure overnight. If anybody has any urgent jobs for the cluster
then please let me know and I'll try and work around your jobs.
Thanks, Paul.
--
Paul Elliott, UNIX Systems Administrator
York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC), University of York
_______________________________________________
Staff mailing list
Staff(a)ynic.york.ac.uk
https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/mailman/listinfo/staff
Hello All,
You may have already been alerted to this, but I wanted to let you know
that the overhead lighting at YNiC is being replaced today. It is not too
disruptive - I am finding it straightforward to work in open plan.
However, there may be occasions when you will be asked to move so the two
fitters can gain access to a specific ceiling panel.
Best wishes
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD
Head of the Centre for Neuroscience, Hull-York Medical School.
Deputy Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Dear colleagues
I am having a clear out before I migrate to another place.
The table in my room has piles of books that are now probably not going
to be read by me again. Feel free to help yourselves.
The ones on my shelf I might read again, or need, so please leave these
for now.
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
Hello All,
David Pitcher will be giving a presentation on two proposed projects; one
TMS and one fMRI.
Best wishes
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD
Head of the Centre for Neuroscience, Hull-York Medical School.
Deputy Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Dear all,
Following the cluster failures on Friday we have attempted to replicate
the issue over the weekend by loading up all the compute nodes within
the cluster to the highest level possible. So far we have not seen any
further failures. As such we will shortly return the cluster to service
but as the root cause of the original failures are still unknown we may
see further sudden and unexpected losses of service. If you submit jobs
to the cluster please keep careful track of which jobs you have
submitted and ensure that you validate your jobs have run successfully
before using any of the output.
HP Enterprise (who manufacture and support our hardware) are currently
investigating the cause of the failures and we hope to have a full
resolution as quickly as possible.
Best wishes,
Paul.
--
Paul Elliott, UNIX Systems Administrator
York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC), University of York
Hello All,
We are having intermittent faults on some of the blades that make up our
cluster. Given that jobs submitted can fail and we also want to ensure no
damage is done to the cluster, we are taking it off line for the time
being. I am very sorry for inconveniences that may arise.
Best wishes
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD
Head of the Centre for Neuroscience, Hull-York Medical School.
Deputy Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Dear All,
As you may already know a new Siemens scanner has been installed. Also, we
have hired a new radiographer, Jane. These are both very good pieces of
news for the centre. However, over the summer we will need to run
acceptance testing procedures on the new scanner and also ensure that our
radiographers and other YNiC Staff MRI operators are trained to use the new
scanner. The acceptance testing and training will impact on our provision
of operator covered slots on the GE system. Over this week and last we
have not scheduled operator cover, but have resumed normal operator cover
form 18th July.
We will give as much notice as we can about reductions in operator cover.
If during periods when operator cover is reduced and you need a YNiC to
scan, please get in touch with us and we will do our best to fit you in.
Thanks for your understanding.
Best wishes
Tony
--
Antony Morland, PhD
Head of the Centre for Neuroscience, Hull-York Medical School.
Deputy Director, York Neuroimaging Centre
Department of Psychology, University of York, York YO10 5DD, UK.
Hi all,
It would appear that we may have a 'fault' associated with the new
extension fire doors. They triggered an alarm at the weekend.
Therefore until further notice when locking the department in the
evening please do not set the alarm in the MRI corridor.
Doors should be locked on the computer as per normal and the alarm
should be set in MEG and open plan as usual.
I will update you all when normal procedures can be resumed.
Ross
Hi all,
As the builders are no longer on site, we can now lock the MRI corridor
and its enclosed offices and set the alarm at night.
There are two additional doors which should be 'locked' on the computer
system '1st new extension' and '2nd new extension'.
Many thanks
Ross
http://www.pnas.org/content/pnas/early/2016/06/27/1602413113.abstract.html?…
Functional MRI (fMRI) is 25 years old, yet surprisingly its most common
statistical methods have not been validated using real data. Here, we
used resting-state fMRI data from 499 healthy controls to conduct 3
million task group analyses. Using this null data with different
experimental designs, we estimate the incidence of significant results.
In theory, we should find 5% false positives (for a significance
threshold of 5%), but instead we found that the most common software
packages for fMRI analysis (SPM, FSL, AFNI) can result in false-positive
rates of up to 70%. These results question the validity of some 40,000
fMRI studies and may have a large impact on the interpretation of
neuroimaging results.
They state
"Our principal finding is that the parametric statistical methods work
well, if conservatively, for voxelwise inference, but not for
clusterwise inference. We note that other authors have found RFT
clusterwise inference to be invalid in certain settings under
stationarity (21, 30) and nonstationarity (13, 33). This present work,
however, is the most comprehensive to explore the typical parameters
used in task fMRI for a variety of software tools. Our results are also
corroborated by similar experiments for structural brain analysis (VBM)
(11–13, 39, 40), showing that cluster-based P values are more sensitive
to the statistical assumptions. For voxelwise inference, our results are
consistent with a previous comparison between parametric and
nonparametric methods for fMRI, showing that a nonparametric permutation
test can result in more lenient statistical thresholds while offering
precise control of false positives (13, 41). "
Would be worth discussing at a ynic seminar later in the summer
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
We are aware that many of you who use shared project folders often
encounter the situation where a file in that folder is not accessible to
all members of the group.
We have prepared some guidance on how to avoid this happening. In
addition, we have prepared a (semi) automated procedure that will any
user with access to a group folder to reset the permissions in that
folder so that all files can be shared by all users. This procedure
involves running a script in a command terminal -- a script that resets
the permissions in the entire group directory for all users.
For information, please log into the YNiC wiki with your YNiC login and
view the guidance at:
https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/docs/ITPages/FilePermissions
--
André
************************************************************************
André Gouws
York Neuroimaging Centre
University of York
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Heslington
YO10 5NY
Tel: +44 (0) 1904 435327
Fax: +44 (0) 1904 435356
Hi All,
Apologies for the short notice; however, would you please be advised
that following further changes to the fire alarm system within the
Biocentre MRI Extension; it will be necessary for me to re-witness the
system in operation on Wednesday 22nd June 2016 between the hours of
16.30pm & 18.30pm approximately.
Due to the nature of the test being that the alarms will need to be
activated; so to avoid anyone leaving the building, on each activation
and it may need to be carried out on a number of occasions; the alarm
will only sound for a short period of time (30 seconds approx). Although
it is anticipated that a smooth operation of the above will be carried
out successfully; should the alarm sound continuously for more than 1
minute, then all precautions need to be taken and all personnel should
leave the building and go to their designated muster point.
It is also assumed that these tests may at some point effect the Fire
Alarm System in CHyM; although these will be alerts rather than full
sounder activation; however, once again, should the alarms sound for
more than 1 minute; the same will apply to the occupants of CHyM and all
personnel should make their way out of the building as appropriate.
In order to assist in making the end user / operatives aware, I will be
affixing notices at the entrance doors of both the Biocentre and CHyM
Buildings advising of this test on Wednesday afternoon (22/6/16).
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
There will be two ynic seminars this week.
First we have an extra seminar by Andy Ioannides from the Lab for Human
Brain Dynamiocs, Nicosia.
This seminar will be at noon on Wednesday the 15th in BO20 and the title is
"Understanding sleep and its implications for specific health
conditions" the abstract is below
The second seminar is at the normal time of 4pm on Thursday also in BO20
That seminar will be given by Jody Culham from Western and the title is
"The treachery of images":Why the brain responds differently to real
objects than photos "
Her seminar abstract is
"Psychologists and neuroimagers commonly study perceptual and cognitive
processes using images because of the convenience and ease of
experimental control they provide. However, real objects differ from
pictures in many ways, including the availability and consistency of
depth cues and the potential for interaction. Across a series of
neuroimaging experiments, we have shown that the brain responds
differently to real objects than pictures, both in terms of the level of
activation and the pattern. Now that these results have shown
quantitative and qualitative differences in the way the brain processes
real objects and images, the next step is to determine which aspects of
real objects drive these differences. "
-----------------------------
Andy Ioannides abstract is
"Some 20 years ago, Michel Jouvet, motivated by the early PET scanning
studies of the sleeping brain wrote in the concluding chapter of his
book The paradox of sleep - the story of dreaming “… the majority of
researchers are waiting with bated breath for the results of studies
combining PET scanning, ‘functional’ magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI),
magnetoencephalography and tomographic electroencephalography.” The
developments in the last two decades have fully vindicated this
statement. The talk will first review published work obtained from real
time tomographic analysis of the first whole night MEG recordings of
sleep that focused on changes in regional brain activations and
connectivity between areas related to eye movements and [1] and changes
in regional spectral content in each sleep stage and especially during
Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep [2]. The rest of the talk will present
unpublished results from further and more detailed analysis of the same
data. focusing on light sleep (NREM1 and NREM2) and discuss the new
findings in the context of current ideas about the role of K-complexes
and spindles in sleep maintenance and memory consolidation and how these
may relate to pathology. "
References:
[1] Ioannides, A.A., Corsi-Cabrera, M., Fenwick, P.B.C., del Rio
Portilla, Y., Laskaris, N.A., Khurshudyan, A., Theofilou, D., Shibata,
T., Uchida, S., Nakabayashi, T., Kostopoulos, G.K., 2004. MEG tomography
of human cortex and brainstem activity in waking and REM sleep saccades.
Cereb. Cortex 14, 56–72.
[2] Ioannides, A.A., Kostopoulos, G.K., Liu, L., Fenwick, P.B.C., 2009.
MEG identifies dorsal medial brain activations during sleep. Neuroimage
44, 455–468. doi:10.1016/j.neuroimage.2008.09.030
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
Dear users,
Two talks will be given today at 4pm in B020.
Mladen Sormaz will help us understand the contents of this thoughts on
resting state brains in a talk entitled:
‘Understanding the content of thought’
Charlotte Murphy will then dazzle us with her eloquence and sagacity via
a talk entitled:
‘Distinguishing stimulus independence from representation’
As always there will be refreshments in C Block reception after the talks.
We look forward to seeing you there.
All the best,
Junior
--
Junior Whiteley
York Neuroimaging Centre
junior.whiteley(a)ynic.york.ac.uk
Please can I remind all TMS operators and anyone using the TMS lab to take
due care when using and putting away the TMS coils. Today we have found
that four of the tracking spheres on the coil trackers needed replacing.
The retroreflective surface on the spheres is delicate and will wear if
touched or knocked. This will lead to inaccurate tracking for your
experiments as the centre of the sphere will be misestimated by the
Brainsight system. Further, this suggests that the coil trackers are
getting knocked which is not ideal as these are delicate, precision
instruments.
It is important that you check the spheres on the coil trackers each time
you run an experiment. If you find they are damaged please talk to Andre or
myself. We can then help you replace the markers and order more as required
to make sure experiments can continue to run smoothly
I have attached a photo of one of the damaged spheres from today for
reference
Thanks
Bruce
[image: Inline images 1]
Dear All,
I am pleased to announce that Department of Psychology will be hosting the
Computational Modelling of the Visual System symposium as a part of the
NextGenVis Marie Skłodowska-Curie Innovative Training Network. The
symposium is scheduled for Saturday, 17th September 2016 and will take
place at Kings Manor, York.
Keynote speakers for the symposium are Aviv Mezer (The Hebrew University,
IL), Bob Dougherty (Stanford, USA) and Geoff Aguirre (University
of Pennsylvania, USA).
*Registration:*
If you would like to register to attend there is a fee of £32 - this fee
covers symposium registration, tea and coffee, and lunch. If you wish to
pay with your M-Code budgets, please note that it will be attributed to the
*next* financial year.
If you would like to register, please send your name to
marc.himmelberg(a)york.ac.uk. You will be required to send your work order or
M-Code to finance at the start of August. Alternatively, cheques and cash
are acceptable.
*The registration deadline is 30th June.*
Best,
Marc and Barbara
--
Marc Himmelberg
PhD Student
PS/C224, Department of Psychology
University of York
York, YO10 5DD
UK
Dear Users
YNiC used to have a set of headcaps for use with EEG. These were of
different sizes for children up to adults. The complete set has been
removed from the box in the MEG area that is labelled for these caps.
I am sure that they were borrowed for a perfectly good scientific reason
but we would like them back. No questions will be asked
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
Hi All,
Apologies for the short notice; however, would you please be advised
that the witnessing of the fire alarm system within the YNiC MRI
Extension has been re-scheduled for Thursday 2nd June 2016 between the
hours of 16.00pm & 18.30pm approximately.
Due to the nature of the test being that the alarms will need to be
activated; so to avoid anyone leaving the building, on each activation
and it may need to be carried out on a number of occasions; the alarm
will only sound for a short period of time (30 seconds approx). Although
it is anticipated that a smooth operation of the above will be carried
out successfully; should the alarm sound continuously for more than 1
minute, then all precautions need to be taken and all personnel should
leave the building and go to their designated muster point.
It is also assumed that these tests will at some point effect the Fire
Alarm System in CHyM; although these will be alerts rather than full
sounder activation; however, once again, should the alarms sound for
more than 1 minute; the same will apply to the occupants of CHyM and all
personnel should make their way out of the building as appropriate.
In order to assist in making the end user / operatives aware, We will be
affixing notices at the entrance doors of both the Biocentre and CHyM
Buildings advising of this test on Thursday afternoon (2/6/16).
Gary Green
I thought you would be pleased to hear that the 150th paper associated
with the Imaging Centre has just been accepted.
A good excuse for a party I suggest
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
Dear Colleagues
I am pleased to announce that the new MRI scanner is now in the magnet
room and the RF cage has been sealed. Commissioning is now under way.
For those of you who watched the first installation 11 years ago, this
one was considerably faster. From lifting out of the lorry, the magnet
was in the building less than 40 minutes later. No bumps or scratches.
Two pictures are now available on the ynic website showing the magnet
coming out of the lorry and being prepared to be pushed (all 13 Tons of
it) into the building.
Gary
--
---------------
Gary Green
York Neuroimaging Centre &
Centre for Hyperpolarisation in Magnetic Resonance
The Biocentre
York Science Park
Innovation Way
Heslington
York
YO10 5NY
tel +44 (0) 1904 435349
fax +44 (0) 1904 435356
mobile +44 (0) 788 191 3004
http://www.ynic.york.ac.ukhttp://www.york.ac.uk/chym/https://www.ynic.york.ac.uk/about-us/people/ggrg
Please note
===================
Hi All,
Would you please be advised that we are now reaching the completion
of the Biocentre's MRI Extension project; with this in mind, would
you please be advised that I will be testing the operation of the
fire alarm system on Tuesday 24th May 2016 between the hours of
14.00pm and 17.00pm.
Due to the nature of the test being that the alarms will need to be
activated; so to avoid anyone leaving the building, on each
activation and it may need to be carried out on a number of
occasions; the alarm will only sound for a short period of time (30
seconds approx). Although it is anticipated that a smooth operation
of the above will be carried out successfully; should the alarm
sound continuously for more than 1 minute, then all precautions need
to be taken and all personnel should leave the building and go to
their designated muster point.
It is also assumed that these tests will at some point effect the
Fire Alarm System in CHyM; although these will be alerts rather than
full sounder activation; however, once again, should the alarms
sound for more than 1 minute; the same will apply to the occupants
of CHyM and all personnel should make their way out of the building
as appropriate.
In order to assist in making the end user / operatives aware, I will
be affixing notices at the entrance doors of both the Biocentre and
CHyM Buildings advising of this test on Tuesday afternoon (24/5/16).
Hi Nick / / Gary G / Vicky,
Could you please assist by sending out an email to all personnel
within the two buildings.
Should you have any queries regarding the above, please do not
hesitate in giving me a call.
Regards
Kevin
**Kevin Roberts**
****Contract Supervisor - University of York
Mobile: 07494 425807 / kevin.roberts(a)york.ac.uk
<mailto:kevin.roberts@york.ac.uk>
Tel: 01904 325104
Ext: 5104
Estates Services
University of York
Providence House
Innovation Close
York YO10 5ZF
*P****Please consider your environmental responsibility - think
before you print!*
Dear all,
Tomorrow afternoon (24th May) the YNiC compute cluster will be taken
off-line to investigate a problem that is currently limiting available
capacity on the cluster.
The work will begin at 1pm and will last up to 5 hours. During this time
any jobs submitted to the queue will be held and will automatically run
when service is resumed. Jobs submitted after 8am tomorrow morning will
be held so that they are not running at 1pm when the work commences and
any jobs running at 1pm will be stopped.
Thanks, Paul.
--
Paul Elliott, UNIX Systems Administrator
York Neuroimaging Centre (YNiC), University of York