Narcolepsy and emotional experience: a review of the literature

Narcolepsy is a chronic sleep disorder characterized by excessive daytime sleepiness, cataplexy, hypnagogic hallucinations, and sleep paralysis. This disease affects significantly the overall patient functioning, interfering with social, work, and affective life. Some symptoms of narcolepsy depend on emotional stimuli; for instance, cataplectic attacks can be triggered by emotional inputs such as laughing, joking, a pleasant surprise, and also anger. Neurophysiological and neurochemical findings suggest the involvement of emotional brain circuits in the physiopathology of cataplexy, which seems to depending on the dysfunctional interplay between the hypothalamus and the amygdala associated with an alteration of hypocretin levels. Furthermore, behavioral studies suggest an impairment of emotions processing in narcolepsy-cataplexy (NC), like a probable coping strategy to avoid or reduce the frequency of cataplexy attacks. Consistently, NC patients seem to use coping strategies even during their sleep, avoiding unpleasant mental sleep activity through lucid dreaming. Interestingly, NC patients, even during sleep, have a different emotional experience than healthy subjects, with more vivid, bizarre, and frightening dreams. Notwithstanding this evidence, the relationship between emotion and narcolepsy is poorly investigated. This review aims to provide a synthesis of behavioral, neurophysiological, and neurochemical evidence to discuss the complex relationship between NC and emotional experience and to direct future research

Group-galaxy correlations in redshift space as a probe of the growth of structure

We investigate the use of the cross-correlation between galaxies and galaxy groups to measure redshift-space distortions (RSD) and thus probe the growth rate of cosmological structure. This is compared to the classical approach based on using galaxy auto-correlation. We make use of realistic simulated galaxy catalogues that have been constructed by populating simulated dark matter haloes with galaxies through halo occupation prescriptions. We adapt the classical RSD dispersion model to the case of the group-galaxy cross-correlation function and estimate the RSD parameter $\beta$ by fitting both the full anisotropic correlation function $\xi(r_p,\pi)$ and its multipole moments. In addition, we define a modified version of the latter statistics by truncating the multipole moments to exclude strongly non-linear distortions at small transverse scales. We fit these three observable quantities in our set of simulated galaxy catalogues and estimate statistical and systematic errors on $\beta$ for the case of galaxy-galaxy, group-group, and group-galaxy correlation functions. When ignoring off-diagonal elements of the covariance matrix in the fitting, the truncated multipole moments of the group-galaxy cross-correlation function provide the most accurate estimate, with systematic errors below 3% when fitting transverse scales larger than $10Mpc/h$. Including the full data covariance enlarges statistical errors but keep unchanged the level of systematic error. Although statistical errors are generally larger for groups, the use of group-galaxy cross-correlation can potentially allow the reduction of systematics while using simple linear or dispersion models.Comment: 18 pages, 16 figure

The puzzling source IGR J17361-4441 in NGC 6388: a possible planetary tidal disruption event

On 2011 August 11, INTEGRAL discovered the hard X-ray source IGR J17361-4441 near the centre of the globular cluster NGC 6388. Follow up observations with Chandra showed the position of the transient was inconsistent with the cluster dynamical centre, and thus not related to its possible intermediate mass black hole. The source showed a peculiar hard spectrum (Gamma \approx 0.8) and no evidence of QPOs, pulsations, type-I bursts, or radio emission. Based on its peak luminosity, IGR J17361-4441 was classified as a very faint X-ray transient, and most likely a low-mass X-ray binary. We re-analysed 200 days of Swift/XRT observations, covering the whole outburst of IGR J17361-4441 and find a t^{-5/3} trend evident in the light curve, and a thermal emission component that does not evolve significantly with time. We investigate whether this source could be a tidal disruption event, and for certain assumptions find an accretion efficiency epsilon \approx 3.5E-04 (M_{Ch}/M) consistent with a massive white dwarf, and a disrupted minor body mass M_{mb}=1.9E+27(M/M_{Ch}) g in the terrestrial-icy planet regime. These numbers yield an inner disc temperature of the order kT_{in} \approx 0.04 keV, consistent with the blackbody temperature of kT_{in} \approx 0.08 keV estimated by spectral fitting. Although the density of white dwarfs and the number of free-floating planets are uncertain, we estimate the rate of planetary tidal disruptions in NGC 6388 to be in the range 3E-06 to 3E-04 yr^{-1}. Averaged over the Milky Way globular clusters, the upper limit value corresponds to 0.05 yr^{-1}, consistent with the observation of a single event by INTEGRAL and Swift.Comment: Accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society Main Journal on 2014 July 16; 9 pages, 5 figures. Added references; corrected typo

The interplay of reactive oxygen species, hypoxia, inflammation, and sirtuins in cancer initiation and progression

The presence of ROS is a constant feature in living cells metabolizing O2. ROS concentration and compartmentation determine their physiological or pathological effects. ROS overproduction is a feature of cancer cells and plays several roles during the natural history of malignant tumor. ROS continuously contribute to each step of cancerogenesis, from the initiation to the malignant progression, acting directly or indirectly. In this review, we will (a) underline the role of ROS in the pathway leading a normal cell to tumor transformation and progression, (b) define the multiple roles of ROS during the natural history of a tumor, (c) conciliate many conflicting data about harmful or beneficial effects of ROS, (d) rethink the importance of oncogene and tumor suppressor gene mutations in relation to the malignant progression, and (e) collocate all the cancer hallmarks in a mechanistic sequence which could represent a "physiological" response to the initial growth of a transformed stem/pluripotent cell, defining also the role of ROS in each hallmark. We will provide a simplified sketch about the relationships between ROS and cancer. The attention will be focused on the contribution of ROS to the signaling of HIF, NFκB, and Sirtuins as a leitmotif of cancer initiation and progressi

Integral estimates for transport densities

The integration-by-parts methods introduced in this paper improve upon the Lp estimates on transport densities given in the recent paper by L. De Pascale and A. Pratelli (Calc. Var. Partial Differential Equations 14 (2002) 249–274)

Spitzer-IRS high resolution spectroscopy of the 12\mu m Seyfert galaxies: I. First results

The first high resolution Spitzer IRS 9-37um spectra of 29 Seyfert galaxies (about one quarter) of the 12um Active Galaxy Sample are presented and discussed. The high resolution spectroscopy was obtained with corresponding off-source observations. This allows excellent background subtraction, so that the continuum levels and strengths of weak emission lines are accurately measured. The result is several new combinations of emission line ratios, line/continuum and continuum/continuum ratios that turn out to be effective diagnostics of the strength of the AGN component in the IR emission of these galaxies. The line ratios [NeV]/[NeII], [OIV]/[NeII], already known, but also [NeIII]/[NeII] and [NeV]/[SiII] can all be effectively used to measure the dominance of the AGN. We extend the analysis, already done using the 6.2um PAH emission feature, to the equivalent width of the 11.25um PAH feature, which also anti-correlates with the dominance of the AGN. We measure that the 11.25um PAH feature has a constant ratio with the H_2 S(1) irrespective of Seyfert type, approximately 10 to 1. Using the ratio of accurate flux measurements at about 19um with the two spectrometer channels, having aperture areas differing by a factor 4, we measured the source extendness and correlated it with the emission line and PAH feature equivalent widths. The extendness of the source gives another measure of the AGN dominance and correlates both with the EWs of [NeII] and PAH emission. Using the rotational transitions of H$_2$ we were able to estimate temperatures (200-300K) and masses (1-10 x 10^6 M_sun), or significant limits on them, for the warm molecular component in the galaxies observed.Comment: submitted to ApJ, Aug.2007, revised, in the refereeing proces

Celecoxib inhibits proliferation and survival of chronic myelogeous leukemia (CML) cells via AMPK-dependent regulation of β-catenin and mTORC1/2.

CML is effectively treated with tyrosine kinase inhibitors (TKIs). However, the efficacy of these drugs is confined to the chronic phase of the disease and development of resistance to TKIs remains a pressing issue. The anti-inflammatory COX2 inhibitor celecoxib has been utilized as anti-tumour drug due to its anti-proliferative activity. However, its effects in hematological malignancies, in particular CML, have not been investigated yet. Thus, we tested biological effects and mechanisms of action of celecoxib in Philadelphia-positive (Ph+) CML and ALL cells.We show here that celecoxib suppresses the growth of Ph+ cell lines by increasing G1-phase and apoptotic cells and reducing S- and G2-phase cells. These effects were independent of COX2 inhibition but required the rapid activation of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) and the consequent inhibition mTORC1 and 2. Treatment with celecoxib also restored GSK3β function and led to down-regulation of β-catenin activity through transcriptional and post-translational mechanisms, two effects likely to contribute to Ph+ cell growth suppression by celecoxib.Celecoxib inhibited colony formation of TKI-resistant Ph+ cell lines including those with the T315I BCR-ABL mutation and acted synergistically with imatinib in suppressing colony formation of TKI-sensitive Ph+ cell lines. Finally, it suppressed colony formation of CD34+ cells from CML patients, while sparing most CD34+ progenitors from healthy donors, and induced apoptosis of primary Ph+ ALL cells.Together, these findings indicate that celecoxib may serve as a COX2-independent lead compound to simultaneously target the mTOR and β-catenin pathways, key players in the resistance of CML stem cells to TKIs

Quaternionic eigenvalue problem

We discuss the (right) eigenvalue equation for $\mathbb{H}$, $\mathbb{C}$ and $\mathbb{R}$ linear quaternionic operators. The possibility to introduce an isomorphism between these operators and real/complex matrices allows to translate the quaternionic problem into an {\em equivalent} real or complex counterpart. Interesting applications are found in solving differential equations within quaternionic formulations of quantum mechanics.Comment: 13 pages, AMS-Te

Smart Antenna Systems Model Simulation Design for 5G Wireless Network Systems

The most recent antenna array technologies such as smart antenna systems (SAS) and massive multiple input multiple output (MIMO) systems are giving a strong increasing impact relative to 5G wireless communication systems due to benefits that they could introduce in terms of performance improvements with respect to omnidirectional antennas. Although a considerable number of theoretical proposals already exist in this field, the most common used network simulators do not implement the latest wireless network standards and, consequently, they do not offer the possibility to emulate scenarios in which SAS or massive MIMO systems are employed. This aspect heavily affects the quality of the network performance analysis with regard to the next generation wireless communication systems. To overcome this issue, it is possible, for example, to extend the default features offered by one of the most used network simulators such as Omnet++ which provides a very complete suite of network protocols and patterns that can be adapted in order to support the latest antenna array systems. The main goal of the present chapter is to illustrate the improvements accomplished in this field allowing to enhance the basic functionalities of the Omnet++ simulator by implementing the most modern antenna array technologies

Signals and Power Distribution in the CMS Inner Tracker

\begin{abstract} This Note describes how the interconnection between the 3540 modules of the CMS Inner Tracker has been approached, focusing on the signal, high voltage and low voltage line distribution. The construction and tests of roughly a thousand interconnects called ``Mother Cables" is described. \end{abstract