Fronto-Temporal Disconnection Within the Presence Hallucination Network in Psychotic Patients With Passivity Experiences.

Psychosis, characterized by hallucinations and delusions, is a common feature of psychiatric disease, especially schizophrenia. One prominent theory posits that psychosis is driven by abnormal sensorimotor predictions leading to the misattribution of self-related events. This misattribution has been linked to passivity experiences (PE), such as loss of agency and, more recently, to presence hallucinations (PH), defined as the conscious experience of the presence of an alien agent while no person is actually present. PH has been observed in schizophrenia, Parkinson's disease, and neurological patients with brain lesions and, recently, the brain mechanisms of PH (PH-network) have been determined comprising bilateral posterior middle temporal gyrus (pMTG), inferior frontal gyrus (IFG), and ventral premotor cortex (vPMC). Given that the experience of an alien agent is a common feature of PE, we here analyzed the functional connectivity within the PH-network in psychotic patients with (N = 39) vs without PE (N = 26). We observed reduced fronto-temporal functional connectivity in patients with PE compared to patients without PE between the right pMTG and the right and left IFG of the PH-network. Moreover, when seeding from these altered regions, we observed specific alterations with brain regions commonly linked to auditory-verbal hallucinations (such as Heschl's gyrus). The present connectivity findings within the PH-network extend the disconnection hypothesis for hallucinations to the specific case of PH and associates the PH-network with key brain regions for frequent psychotic symptoms such as auditory-verbal hallucinations, showing that PH are relevant to the study of the brain mechanisms of psychosis and PE

Photocatalytic Nanolithography of Self-Assembled Monolayers and Proteins

Self-assembled monolayers of alkylthiolates on gold and alkylsilanes on silicon dioxide have been patterned photocatalytically on sub-100 nm length-scales using both apertured near-field and apertureless methods. Apertured lithography was carried out by means of an argon ion laser (364 nm) coupled to cantilever-type near-field probes with a thin film of titania deposited over the aperture. Apertureless lithography was carried out with a helium–cadmium laser (325 nm) to excite titanium-coated, contact-mode atomic force microscope (AFM) probes. This latter approach is readily implementable on any commercial AFM system. Photodegradation occurred in both cases through the localized photocatalytic degradation of the monolayer. For alkanethiols, degradation of one thiol exposed the bare substrate, enabling refunctionalization of the bare gold by a second, contrasting thiol. For alkylsilanes, degradation of the adsorbate molecule provided a facile means for protein patterning. Lines were written in a protein-resistant film formed by the adsorption of oligo(ethylene glycol)-functionalized trichlorosilanes on glass, leading to the formation of sub-100 nm adhesive, aldehyde-functionalized regions. These were derivatized with aminobutylnitrilotriacetic acid, and complexed with Ni2+, enabling the binding of histidine-labeled green fluorescent protein, which yielded bright fluorescence from 70-nm-wide lines that could be imaged clearly in a confocal microscope

Syphilis at the Crossroad of Phylogenetics and Paleopathology

The origin of syphilis is still controversial. Different research avenues explore its fascinating history. Here we employed a new integrative approach, where paleopathology and molecular analyses are combined. As an exercise to test the validity of this approach we examined different hypotheses on the origin of syphilis and other human diseases caused by treponemes (treponematoses). Initially, we constructed a worldwide map containing all accessible reports on palaeopathological evidences of treponematoses before Columbus's return to Europe. Then, we selected the oldest ones to calibrate the time of the most recent common ancestor of Treponema pallidum subsp. pallidum, T. pallidum subsp. endemicum and T. pallidum subsp. pertenue in phylogenetic analyses with 21 genetic regions of different T. pallidum strains previously reported. Finally, we estimated the treponemes' evolutionary rate to test three scenarios: A) if treponematoses accompanied human evolution since Homo erectus; B) if venereal syphilis arose very recently from less virulent strains caught in the New World about 500 years ago, and C) if it emerged in the Americas between 16,500 and 5,000 years ago. Two of the resulting evolutionary rates were unlikely and do not explain the existent osseous evidence. Thus, treponematoses, as we know them today, did not emerge with H. erectus, nor did venereal syphilis appear only five centuries ago. However, considering 16,500 years before present (yBP) as the time of the first colonization of the Americas, and approximately 5,000 yBP as the oldest probable evidence of venereal syphilis in the world, we could not entirely reject hypothesis C. We confirm that syphilis seems to have emerged in this time span, since the resulting evolutionary rate is compatible with those observed in other bacteria. In contrast, if the claims of precolumbian venereal syphilis outside the Americas are taken into account, the place of origin remains unsolved. Finally, the endeavor of joining paleopathology and phylogenetics proved to be a fruitful and promising approach for the study of infectious diseases

GWAS for quantitative resistance phenotypes in Mycobacterium tuberculosis reveals resistance genes and regulatory regions

YesDrug resistance diagnostics that rely on the detection of resistance-related mutations could expedite patient care and TB eradication. We perform minimum inhibitory concentration testing for 12 anti-TB drugs together with Illumina whole-genome sequencing on 1452 clinical Mycobacterium tuberculosis (MTB) isolates. We evaluate genome-wide associations between mutations in MTB genes or non-coding regions and resistance, followed by validation in an independent data set of 792 patient isolates. We confirm associations at 13 non-canonical loci, with two involving non-coding regions. Promoter mutations are measured to have smaller average effects on resistance than gene body mutations. We estimate the heritability of the resistance phenotype to 11 anti-TB drugs and identify a lower than expected contribution from known resistance genes. This study highlights the complexity of the genomic mechanisms associated with the MTB resistance phenotype, including the relatively large number of potentially causal loci, and emphasizes the contribution of the non-coding portion of the genome.Biomedical research grant from the American Lung Association (PI MF, RG-270912-N), a K01 award from the BD2K initiative (PI MF, ES026835), and an NIAID U19 CETR grant (P.I. M.M., AI109755), the Belgian Science Policy (Belspo) (L.R., C.J.M.)

Études en cours sur les populations anciennes du Nord de la France, du Néolithique à l'époque médiévale

. — This paper présents anthropological data of skeletons from archaeo- logical sites of the North of France : a gallery grave and a collective inhumation from the Neolithic period, a skeleton from the « La Tène » one, a merovingian cemetery and a a mediaeval skeleton.. — Les auteurs effectuent une mise au point sur les données anthropologiques de squelettes provenant de sites archéologiques du Nord de la France. Il s'agira successivement dune allée couverte SOM. d'une sépulture collective non mégalithique, d'une sépulture isolée attribuée à La Tène, d'un cimetière mérovingien VIe - VIP siècles et d'un squelette du XIV siècle.Kurzawski V., Blondiaux Joël, Marquet N. Études en cours sur les populations anciennes du Nord de la France, du Néolithique à l'époque médiévale. In: Bulletins et Mémoires de la Société d'anthropologie de Paris, XIII° Série. Tome 9 fascicule 1, 1982. pp. 51-55

Smoothening intermediate reflecting layer for tandem thin-film silicon solar cells

We introduce the concept of smoothening intermediate reflecting layers (IRLs) in Micromorph thin-film silicon tandem solar cells in the superstrate configuration. The aim of such structures is not only to provide a selective reflection of light for optimal light management in both sub-cells but also to tune the morphology of the surface on which the microcrystalline silicon bottom cell is grown. This novel type of IRL is shown to enable the use of rough front electrodes with excellent light scattering properties in Micromorph devices without impacting the electrical property of the microcrystalline material. A low-index (1.5), highly transparent and insulating UV-curable lacquer is used as IRL The electrical contact between both sub-cells is ensured by a partial covering of this lacquer layer: the bottoms of the structure are efficiently filled whereas the tips are unveiled by an etching step. This results in an efficient smoothening of the surface of the top cell, validated by a V-oc boost of up to 50 mV compared to a standard IRL A strong top cell current increase is also shown, with up to 2.3 mA/cm(2) (20% relative) current gain compared to a cell with no IRL Adjusting the volume of lacquer composing this advanced interlayer enables a fine tuning of its opto-electrical properties. The introduction of a smoothening IRL is shown, with simple calculations, to be a key element towards the obtaining of 13.5% stable-efficiency Micromorph devices using present state-of-the-art single junctions. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved

Bone mineral density in children and adolescents with cystic fibrosis : measurementswith quantitative computed tomography

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