Improved estimates for the role of grey matter volume and GABA in bistable perception

they provide a method for studying the internal mechanisms of the brain while ensuring an unchanging external stimulus. In recent years, several studies have reported correlations between perceptual dynamics during bistable perception and particular brain characteristics such as the grey matter volume of areas in the superior parietal lobule (SPL) and the relative GABA concentration in the occipital lobe. Here, we attempt to replicate previous results using similar paradigms to those used in the studies first reporting the correlations. Using the original findings as priors for Bayesian analyses, we found strong support for the correlation between structure-from-motion percept duration and anterior SPL grey matter volume. Correlations between percept duration and other parietal areas as well as occipital GABA, however, were not directly replicated or appeared less strong than previous studies suggested. Inspection of the posterior distributions (current “best guess” based on new data given old data as prior) revealed that several original findings may reflect true relationships although no direct evidence was found in support of them in the current sample. Additionally, we found that multiple regression models based on grey matter volume at 2–3 parietal locations (but not including GABA) were the best predictors of percept duration, explaining approximately 35% of the inter-individual variance. Taken together, our results provide new estimates of correlation strengths, generally increasing confidence in the role of the aSPL while decreasing confidence in some of the other relationships

A Upf3b-mutant mouse model with behavioral and neurogenesis defects.

Nonsense-mediated RNA decay (NMD) is a highly conserved and selective RNA degradation pathway that acts on RNAs terminating their reading frames in specific contexts. NMD is regulated in a tissue-specific and developmentally controlled manner, raising the possibility that it influences developmental events. Indeed, loss or depletion of NMD factors have been shown to disrupt developmental events in organisms spanning the phylogenetic scale. In humans, mutations in the NMD factor gene, UPF3B, cause intellectual disability (ID) and are strongly associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and schizophrenia (SCZ). Here, we report the generation and characterization of mice harboring a null Upf3b allele. These Upf3b-null mice exhibit deficits in fear-conditioned learning, but not spatial learning. Upf3b-null mice also have a profound defect in prepulse inhibition (PPI), a measure of sensorimotor gating commonly deficient in individuals with SCZ and other brain disorders. Consistent with both their PPI and learning defects, cortical pyramidal neurons from Upf3b-null mice display deficient dendritic spine maturation in vivo. In addition, neural stem cells from Upf3b-null mice have impaired ability to undergo differentiation and require prolonged culture to give rise to functional neurons with electrical activity. RNA sequencing (RNAseq) analysis of the frontal cortex identified UPF3B-regulated RNAs, including direct NMD target transcripts encoding proteins with known functions in neural differentiation, maturation and disease. We suggest Upf3b-null mice serve as a novel model system to decipher cellular and molecular defects underlying ID and neurodevelopmental disorders

Particle creation in an oscillating spherical cavity

We study the creation of massless scalar particles from the quantum vacuum due to the dynamical Casimir effect by spherical shell with oscillating radius. In the case of a small amplitude of the oscillation, to solve the infinite set of coupled differential equations for the instantaneous basis expansion coefficients we use the method based on the time-dependent perturbation theory of the quantum mechanics. To the first order of the amplitude we derive the expressions for the number of the created particles for both parametric resonance and non-resonance cases.Comment: 8 pages, LaTeX, no figure

Use of domesticated pigs by Mesolithic hunter-gatherers in northwestern Europe

Acknowledgements We thank the Archaeological State Museum Schleswig-Holstein, the Archaeological State Offices of Brandenburg, Lower Saxony and Saxony and the following individuals who provided sample material: Betty Arndt, Jo¨rg Ewersen, Frederick Feulner, Susanne Hanik, Ru¨diger Krause, Jochen Reinhard, Uwe Reuter, Karl-Heinz Ro¨hrig, Maguerita Scha¨fer, Jo¨rg Schibler, Reinhold Schoon, Regina Smolnik, Thomas Terberger and Ingrid Ulbricht. We are grateful to Ulrich Schmo¨lcke, Michael Forster, Peter Forster and Aikaterini Glykou for their support and comments on the manuscript. We also thank many institutions and individuals that provided sample material and access to collections, especially the curators of the Museum fu¨r Naturkunde, Berlin; Muse´um National d0 Histoire Naturelle, Paris; Smithsonian Institution, National Museum of Natural History, Washington D.C.; Zoologische Staatssammlung, Mu¨nchen; Museum fu¨r Haustierkunde, Halle; the American Museum of Natural History, New-York. This work was funded by the Graduate School ‘Human Development in Landscapes’ at Kiel University (CAU) and supported by NERC project Grant NE/F003382/1. Radiocarbon dating was carried out at the Leibniz Laboratory, CAU. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons AttributionNonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

Channeling of Positrons through Periodically Bent Crystals: on Feasibility of Crystalline Undulator and Gamma-Laser

The electromagnetic radiation generated by ultra-relativistic positrons channelling in a crystalline undulator is discussed. The crystalline undulator is a crystal whose planes are bent periodically with the amplitude much larger than the interplanar spacing. Various conditions and criteria to be fulfilled for the crystalline undulator operation are established. Different methods of the crystal bending are described. We present the results of numeric calculations of spectral distributions of the spontaneous radiation emitted in the crystalline undulator and discuss the possibility to create the stimulated emission in such a system in analogy with the free electron laser. A careful literature survey covering the formulation of all essential ideas in this field is given. Our investigation shows that the proposed mechanism provides an efficient source for high energy photons, which is worth to study experimentally.Comment: 52 pages, MikTeX, 14 figure

Broad clinical phenotypes associated with TAR-DNA binding protein (TARDBP) mutations in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

The finding of TDP-43 as a major component of ubiquitinated protein inclusions in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) has led to the identification of 30 mutations in the transactive response-DNA binding protein (TARDBP) gene, encoding TDP-43. All but one are in exon 6, which encodes the glycine-rich domain. The aim of this study was to determine the frequency of TARDBP mutations in a large cohort of motor neurone disease patients from Northern England (42 non-superoxide dismutase 1 (SOD1) familial ALS (FALS), nine ALS-frontotemporal dementia, 474 sporadic ALS (SALS), 45 progressive muscular atrophy cases). We identified four mutations, two of which were novel, in two familial (FALS) and two sporadic (SALS) cases, giving a frequency of TARDBP mutations in non-SOD1 FALS of 5% and SALS of 0.4%. Analysis of clinical data identified that patients had typical ALS, with limb or bulbar onset, and showed considerable variation in age of onset and rapidity of disease course. However, all cases had an absence of clinically overt cognitive dysfunction

Inverse magnetic catalysis in field theory and gauge-gravity duality

We investigate the surface of the chiral phase transition in the three-dimensional parameter space of temperature, baryon chemical potential and magnetic field in two different approaches, the field-theoretical Nambu-Jona-Lasinio (NJL) model and the holographic Sakai-Sugimoto model. The latter is a top-down approach to a gravity dual of QCD with an asymptotically large number of colors and becomes, in a certain limit, dual to an NJL-like model. Our main observation is that, at nonzero chemical potential, a magnetic field can restore chiral symmetry, in apparent contrast to the phenomenon of magnetic catalysis. This "inverse magnetic catalysis" occurs in the Sakai-Sugimoto model and, for sufficiently large coupling, in the NJL model and is related to the physics of the lowest Landau level. While in most parts our discussion is a pedagogical review of previously published results, we include new analytical results for the NJL approach and a thorough comparison of inverse magnetic catalysis in the two approaches.Comment: 37 pages, 11 figures, to appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A. Schmitt, H.-U. Ye

Etiological Profile and Treatment Outcome of Epistaxis at a Tertiary Care Hospital in Northwestern Tanzania: A Prospective Review of 104 Cases.

Epistaxis is the commonest otolaryngological emergency affecting up to 60% of the population in their lifetime, with 6% requiring medical attention. There is paucity of published data regarding the management of epistaxis in Tanzania, especially the study area. This study was conducted to describe the etiological profile and treatment outcome of epistaxis at Bugando Medical Centre, a tertiary care hospital in Northwestern Tanzania. This was a prospective descriptive study of the cases of epistaxis managed at Bugando Medical Centre from January 2008 to December 2010. Data collected were analyzed using SPSS computer software version 15. A total of 104 patients with epistaxis were studied. Males were affected twice more than the females (2.7:1). Their mean age was 32.24 ± 12.54 years (range 4 to 82 years). The modal age group was 31-40 years. The commonest cause of epistaxis was trauma (30.8%) followed by idiopathic (26.9%) and hypertension (17.3%). Anterior nasal bleeding was noted in majority of the patients (88.7%). Non surgical measures such as observation alone (40.4%) and anterior nasal packing (38.5%) were the main intervention methods in 98.1% of cases. Surgical measures mainly intranasal tumor resection was carried out in 1.9% of cases. Arterial ligation and endovascular embolization were not performed. Complication rate was 3.8%. The overall mean of hospital stay was 7.2 ± 1.6 days (range 1 to 24 days). Five patients died giving a mortality rate of 4.8%. Trauma resulting from road traffic crush (RTC) remains the most common etiological factor for epistaxis in our setting. Most cases were successfully managed with conservative (non-surgical) treatment alone and surgical intervention with its potential complications may not be necessary in most cases and should be the last resort. Reducing the incidence of trauma from RTC will reduce the incidence of emergency epistaxis in our centre

Designed Azolopyridinium Salts Block Protective Antigen Pores In Vitro and Protect Cells from Anthrax Toxin

Background:Several intracellular acting bacterial protein toxins of the AB-type, which are known to enter cells by endocytosis, are shown to produce channels. This holds true for protective antigen (PA), the binding component of the tripartite anthrax-toxin of Bacillus anthracis. Evidence has been presented that translocation of the enzymatic components of anthrax-toxin across the endosomal membrane of target cells and channel formation by the heptameric/octameric PA63 binding/translocation component are related phenomena. Chloroquine and some 4-aminoquinolones, known as potent drugs against Plasmodium falciparium infection of humans, block efficiently the PA63-channel in a dose dependent way.Methodology/Principal Findings:Here we demonstrate that related positively charged heterocyclic azolopyridinium salts block the PA63-channel in the μM range, when both, inhibitor and PA63 are added to the same side of the membrane, the cis-side, which corresponds to the lumen of acidified endosomal vesicles of target cells. Noise-analysis allowed the study of the kinetics of the plug formation by the heterocycles. In vivo experiments using J774A.1 macrophages demonstrated that the inhibitors of PA63-channel function also efficiently block intoxication of the cells by the combination lethal factor and PA63 in the same concentration range as they block the channels in vitro.Conclusions/Significance:These results strongly argue in favor of a transport of lethal factor through the PA63-channel and suggest that the heterocycles used in this study could represent attractive candidates for development of novel therapeutic strategies against anthrax. © 2013 Beitzinger et al

Can We Really Prevent Suicide?

Every year, suicide is among the top 20 leading causes of death globally for all ages. Unfortunately, suicide is difficult to prevent, in large part because the prevalence of risk factors is high among the general population. In this review, clinical and psychological risk factors are examined and methods for suicide prevention are discussed. Prevention strategies found to be effective in suicide prevention include means restriction, responsible media coverage, and general public education, as well identification methods such as screening, gatekeeper training, and primary care physician education. Although the treatment for preventing suicide is difficult, follow-up that includes pharmacotherapy, psychotherapy, or both may be useful. However, prevention methods cannot be restricted to the individual. Community, social, and policy interventions will also be essentia