684 research outputs found
Dual Adaptation and Adaptive Generalization of the Human Vestibulo-Ocular Reflex
In two experiments, we examined the possibility that the human vestibulo-ocular reflex (VOR) is subject to dual adaptation (the ability to adapt to a sensory rearrangement more rapidly and/or more completely after repeated experience with it) and adaptive generalization (the ability to adapt more readily to a novel sensory rearrangement as a result of prior dual adaptation training). In Experiment 1, the subjects actively turned the head during alternating exposure to a visual-vestibular rearrangement (target/head gain = 0.5) and the normal situation (target/head gain = 0.0). These conditions produced both adaptation and dual adaptation of the VOR but no evidence of adaptive generalization when tested with a target/head gain of 1.0. Experiment 2, in which exposure to the 0.5 gain entailed externally controlled (i.e., passive) whole body rotation, resulted in VOR adaptation but no dual adaptation. As in Experiment 1, no evidence of adaptive generalization was found
An analytic model for a cooperative ballistic deposition in one dimension
We formulate a model for a cooperative ballistic deposition (CBD) process
whereby the incoming particles are correlated with the ones already adsorbed
via attractive force. The strength of the correlation is controlled by a
tunable parameter that interpolates the classical car parking problem at
, the ballistic deposition at and the CBD model at . The
effects of the correlation in the CBD model are as follows. The jamming
coverage increases with the strength of attraction due to an ever
increasing tendency of cluster formation. The system almost reaches the closest
packing structure as but never forms a percolating cluster which
is typical to 1D system. In the large regime, the mean cluster size
increases as . Furthermore, the asymptotic approach towards the
closest packing is purely algebraic both with as and with as where .Comment: 9 pages (in Revtex4), 9 eps figures; Submitted to publicatio
Inner ear tissue preservation by rapid freezing: improving fixation by high-pressure freezing and hybrid methods
In the preservation of tissues in as ‘close to life’ state as possible, rapid freeze fixation has many benefits over conventional chemical fixation. One technique by which rapid freeze-fixation can be achieved, high pressure freezing (HPF), has been shown to enable ice crystal artefact-free freezing and tissue preservation to greater depths (more than 40μm) than other quick-freezing methods. Despite increasingly becoming routine in electron microscopy, the use of HPF for the fixation of inner ear tissue has been limited. Assessment of the quality of preservation showed routine HPF techniques were suitable for preparation of inner ear tissues in a variety of species. Good preservation throughout the depth of sensory epithelia was achievable. Comparison to chemically fixed tissue indicated that fresh frozen preparations exhibited overall superior structural preservation of cells. However, HPF fixation caused characteristic artefacts in stereocilia that suggested poor quality freezing of the actin bundles. The hybrid technique of pre-fixation and high pressure freezing was shown to produce cellular preservation throughout the tissue, similar to that seen in HPF alone. Pre-fixation HPF produced consistent high quality preservation of stereociliary actin bundles. Optimising the preparation of samples with minimal artefact formation allows analysis of the links between ultrastructure and function in inner ear tissues
The selective phosphodiesterase 4 inhibitor roflumilast and phosphodiesterase 3/4 inhibitor pumafentrine reduce clinical score and TNF expression in experimental colitis in mice.
The specific inhibition of phosphodiesterase (PDE)4 and dual inhibition of PDE3 and PDE4 has been shown to decrease inflammation by suppression of pro-inflammatory cytokine synthesis. We examined the effect of roflumilast, a selective PDE4 inhibitor marketed for severe COPD, and the investigational compound pumafentrine, a dual PDE3/PDE4 inhibitor, in the preventive dextran sodium sulfate (DSS)-induced colitis model. The clinical score, colon length, histologic score and colon cytokine production from mice with DSS-induced colitis (3.5% DSS in drinking water for 11 days) receiving either roflumilast (1 or 5 mg/kg body weight/d p.o.) or pumafentrine (1.5 or 5 mg/kg/d p.o.) were determined and compared to vehicle treated control mice. In the pumafentrine-treated animals, splenocytes were analyzed for interferon-γ (IFNγ) production and CD69 expression. Roflumilast treatment resulted in dose-dependent improvements of clinical score (weight loss, stool consistency and bleeding), colon length, and local tumor necrosis factor-α (TNFα) production in the colonic tissue. These findings, however, were not associated with an improvement of the histologic score. Administration of pumafentrine at 5 mg/kg/d alleviated the clinical score, the colon length shortening, and local TNFα production. In vitro stimulated splenocytes after in vivo treatment with pumafentrine showed a significantly lower state of activation and production of IFNγ compared to no treatment in vivo. These series of experiments document the ameliorating effect of roflumilast and pumafentrine on the clinical score and TNF expression of experimental colitis in mice
Noninvasive Diagnosis of Portal Hypertension in Patients With Compensated Advanced Chronic Liver Disease
INTRODUCTION: We aimed to explore the prevalence of portal hypertension in the most common etiologies of patients with compensated advanced chronic liver disease (cACLD) and develop classification rules, based on liver stiffness measurement (LSM), that could be readily used to diagnose or exclude clinically significant portal hypertension (CSPH) in clinical practice. METHODS: This is an international cohort study including patients with paired LSM/hepatic venous pressure gradient (HVPG), LSM ≥10 kPa, and no previous decompensation. Portal hypertension was defined by an HVPG >5 mm Hg. A positive predictive value ≥90% was considered to validate LSM cutoffs for CSPH (HVPG ≥10 mm Hg), whereas a negative predictive value ≥90% ruled out CSPH. RESULTS: A total of 836 patients with hepatitis C (n = 358), nonalcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH, n = 248), alcohol use (n = 203), and hepatitis B (n = 27) were evaluated. Portal hypertension prevalence was >90% in all cACLD etiologies, except for patients with NASH (60.9%), being even lower in obese patients with NASH (53.3%); these lower prevalences of portal hypertension in patients with NASH were maintained across different strata of LSM values. LSM ≥25 kPa was the best cutoff to rule in CSPH in alcoholic liver disease, chronic hepatitis B, chronic hepatitis C, and nonobese patients with NASH, whereas in obese NASH patients, the positive predictive value was only 62.8%. A new model for patients with NASH (ANTICIPATE-NASH model) to predict CSPH considering body mass index, LSM, and platelet count was developed, and a nomogram was constructed. LSM ≤15 kPa plus platelets ≥150 × 10/L ruled out CSPH in most etiologies. DISCUSSION: Patients with cACLD of NASH etiology, especially obese patients with NASH, present lower prevalences of portal hypertension compared with other cACLD etiologies. LSM ≥25 kPa is sufficient to rule in CSPH in most etiologies, including nonobese patients with NASH, but not in obese patients with NASH
Search for and a measurement of the branching fraction for
We search for the decay and measure the
branching fraction for using
121.4~ of data collected at the
resonance with the Belle detector at the KEKB asymmetric-energy
collider. The branching fraction is measured
to be , where is the fraction of
in events. Our result is in good
agreement with the theoretical predictions as well as with a recent measurement
from LHCb. We observe no statistically significant signal for the decay
and set a confidence-level upper
limit on its branching fraction at . This constitutes a
significant improvement over the previous result.Comment: 6 pages, 3 figure
Correlated electrons in the presence of disorder
Several new aspects of the subtle interplay between electronic correlations
and disorder are reviewed. First, the dynamical mean-field theory
(DMFT)together with the geometrically averaged ("typical") local density of
states is employed to compute the ground state phase diagram of the
Anderson-Hubbard model at half-filling. This non-perturbative approach is
sensitive to Anderson localization on the one-particle level and hence can
detect correlated metallic, Mott insulating and Anderson insulating phases and
can also describe the competition between Anderson localization and
antiferromagnetism. Second, we investigate the effect of binary alloy disorder
on ferromagnetism in materials with -electrons described by the periodic
Anderson model. A drastic enhancement of the Curie temperature caused by
an increase of the local -moments in the presence of disordered conduction
electrons is discovered and explained.Comment: 17 pages, 7 figures, final version, typos corrected, references
updated, submitted to Eur. Phys. J. for publication in the Special Topics
volume "Cooperative Phenomena in Solids: Metal-Insulator Transitions and
Ordering of Microscopic Degrees of Freedom
First observation of the hadronic transition and new measurement of the and parameters
Using a sample of decays collected by
the Belle experiment at the KEKB collider, we observe for the first
time the transition with the branching fraction
and we measure the mass MeV/, corresponding to the hyperfine splitting MeV/. Using the transition , we measure the mass MeV/, corresponding to MeV/, the width
MeV/ and the branching
fraction .Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
Study of e+e- => B(*) B(*)-bar pi+- at sqrt(s)=10.866 GeV
We report the analysis of the three-body e+e- => B B-bar pi, B B*-bar pi, and
B* B*-bar pi processes, including the first observation of the Zb+-(10610) =>[B
B*-bar+c.c.]+- and Zb+-(10650) => [B*B*-bar]+- transitions. We measure visible
cross sections for the three-body production of sigma_vis(e+e- => [B
B*-bar+c.c.]+-pi-+=(11.2+-1.0(stat.)+-1.2(syst.)) pb and sigma_vis(e+e- =>
[B*B*-bar]+-pi-+)=(5.61+-0.73(stat.)+-0.66(syst.)) pb and set a 90% C.L. upper
limit of sigma_vis(e+e- => [BB-bar]+-pi-+)<2.1 pb. The results are based on a
121.4 1/fb data sample collected with the Belle detector at a center-of-mass
energy near the Y(5S) peak.Comment: 8 pages, 2 figure
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