Levodopa reverses gait asymmetries related to anhedoniaand magical ideation

Animals and men turn preferentially away from the hemisphere with the more active dopamine (DA) system. Consistent with the idea of a right-hemispheric hyperdopaminergia in schizophrenia, a leftsided turning bias was described for unmedicated psychotic patients. We investigated the modulating role of DA and schizophrenia-like thought on whole-body turns in a controlled double-blind study. The number of veers to either side when walking blindfolded straight ahead (20 meter) was assessed in 40 healthy righthanded men (20 men received levodopa, the remaining participants placebo). Side preferences were analyzed in terms of individuals' positive (Magical Ideation, MI) and negative (Physical Anhedonia, PhysAn) schizotypal features. In the placebo group, increasing MI scores were related to increasing left-sided veering and increasing PhysAn scores were related to increasing right-sided veering. In the levodopa group, this relationship between preferred veering side and type of schizotypy was reversed. The finding in the placebo group suggests an association between MI and a relative right-hemispheric hyperdopaminergia. Unexpectedly, levodopa did not enhance this veering bias, but reversed it, suggesting that psychosis-protective mechanisms exist in the healthy positive "schizotypic” brain. Also unexpectedly, levodopa made "anhedonics” veer like "magics” after placebo, suggesting that DA agonists suppress negative schizotypal symptom

Motor control drives visual bodily judgements

The ‘embodied cognition’ framework proposes that our motor repertoire shapes visual perception and cognition. But recent studies showing normal visual body representation in individuals born without hands challenges the contribution of motor control on visual body representation. Here, we studied hand laterality judgements in three groups with fundamentally different visual and motor hand experiences: two-handed controls, one-handers born without a hand (congenital one-handers) and one-handers with an acquired amputation (amputees). Congenital one-handers, lacking both motor and first-person visual information of their missing hand, diverged in their performance from the other groups, exhibiting more errors for their intact hand and slower reaction-times for challenging hand postures. Amputees, who have lingering non-visual motor control of their missing (phantom) hand, performed the task similarly to controls. Amputees’ reaction-times for visual laterality judgements correlated positively with their phantom hand’s motor control, such that deteriorated motor control associated with slower visual laterality judgements. Finally, we have implemented a computational simulation to describe how a mechanism that utilises a single hand representation in congenital one-handers as opposed to two in controls, could replicate our empirical results. Together, our findings demonstrate that motor control is a driver in making visual bodily judgments

Unit cell of graphene on Ru(0001): a 25 x 25 supercell with 1250 carbon atoms

The structure of a single layer of graphene on Ru(0001) has been studied using surface x-ray diffraction. A surprising superstructure has been determined, whereby 25 x 25 graphene unit cells lie on 23 x 23 unit cells of Ru. Each supercell contains 2 x 2 crystallographically inequivalent subcells caused by corrugation. Strong intensity oscillations in the superstructure rods demonstrate that the Ru substrate is also significantly corrugated down to several monolayers, and that the bonding between graphene and Ru is strong and cannot be caused by van der Waals bonds. Charge transfer from the Ru substrate to the graphene expands and weakens the C-C bonds, which helps accommodate the in-plane tensile stress. The elucidation of this superstructure provides important information in the potential application of graphene as a template for nanocluster arrays.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, paper submitted to peer reviewed journa

Fabrication of Highly Ordered Vertical Nanogap Arrays and Networks on a Large Scale

Fabrication of Highly Ordered Vertical Nanogap Arrays and Networks on a Large Scal

Energy Deposition Studies for Possible Innovative Phase II Collimator Designs

Due to the known limitations of Phase I LHC collimators in stable physics conditions, the LHC collimation system will be complemented by additional 30 Phase II collimators. The Phase II collimation system is designed to improve cleaning efficiency and to minimize the collimator-induced impedance with the main function of protecting the Super Conducting (SC) magnets from quenching due to beam particle losses. To fulfil these requirements, different possible innovative collimation designs were taken in consideration. Advanced jaw materials, including new composite materials (e.g. Cu–Diamond), jaw SiC insertions, coating foil, in-jaw instrumentation (e.g. BPM) and improved mechanical robustness of the jaw are the main features of these new promising Phase II collimator designs developed at CERN. The FLUKA Monte Carlo code is extensively used to evaluate the behavior of these collimators in the most radioactive areas of LHC, supporting the mechanical integration. These studies aim to identify the possible critical points along the IR7 line

Magnetic impurity coupled to interacting conduction electrons

We consider a magnetic impurity which interacts by hybridization with a system of weakly correlated electrons and determine the energy of the ground state by means of an 1/N_f expansion. The correlations among the conduction electrons are described by a Hubbard Hamiltonian and are treated to lowest order in the interaction strength. We find that their effect on the Kondo temperature, T_K, in the Kondo limit is twofold: First, the position of the impurity level is shifted due to the reduction of charge fluctuations, which reduces T_K. Secondly, the bare Kondo exchange coupling is enhanced as spin fluctuations are enlarged. In total, T_K increases. Both corrections require intermediate states beyond the standard Varma-Yafet ansatz. This shows that the Hubbard interaction does not just provide quasiparticles, which hybridize with the impurity, but also renormalizes the Kondo coupling.Comment: ReVTeX 19 pages, 3 uuenconded postscript figure

Effect of conduction electron interactions on Anderson impurities

The effect of conduction electron interactions for an Anderson impurity is investigated in one dimension using a scaling approach. The flow diagrams are obtained by solving the renormalization group equations numerically. It is found that the Anderson impurity case is different from its counterpart -- the Kondo impurity case even in the local moment region. The Kondo temperature for an Anderson impurity shows nonmonotonous behavior, increasing for weak interactions but decreasing for strong interactions. The implication of the study to other related impurity models is also discussed.Comment: 10 pages, revtex, 4 figures (the postscript file is included), to appear in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Commun.

Neues aus der geburtshilflichen Anästhesie

Zusammenfassung: Hintergrund: Das Risikoprofil der Patientinnen hat sich in der geburtshilflichen Anästhesie wesentlich verändert. Noch mehr als bei anderen Disziplinen lebt gerade die geburtshilfliche Anästhesie daher im wahrsten Sinne des Worts von der engen Abstimmung aller Beteiligten und einer guten interdisziplinären Zusammenarbeit. Ziel der Arbeit: Der Beitrag klärt über wichtige anästhesiologische Risiken im Rahmen der Geburt auf und vermittelt entsprechende Konzepte zur Prävention, Diagnose und zum Management peripartaler Komplikationen. Material und Methode: Die Steigerung von Risikoschwangerschaften, die zu einem großen Teil auf eine Zunahme der Adipositas zurückzuführen ist, verlangt nach klar definierten Richtlinien und interdisziplinären Konzepten, die im vorliegenden Beitrag beschrieben und diskutiert werden. Die neuroaxiale Blockade ist weiterhin das wirksamste Verfahren zur Behandlung des Geburtsschmerzes und bietet mit den im Beitrag vorgestellten programmierten intermittierenden epiduralen Boli einen vielversprechenden neuen Modus. Schlussendlich haben die deutschsprachigen Länder Deutschland, Österreich, Schweiz einen Behandlungsalgorithmus für die postpartale Blutung entwickelt, der erläutert wird. Ergebnisse: Die anästhesiologischen Komponenten einer Risikoschwangerschaft müssen frühzeitig erkannt werden; hierzu gehören u.a. Adipositas, Präeklampsie oder medikamentös-induzierte Koagulopathie. Die Epiduralanalgesie ist das effektivste Analgesieverfahren in der Geburtshilfe. Die patientinnengesteuerte Remifentanilanalgesie stellt - bei Kontraindikationen für ein neuroaxiales Verfahren - aktuell die beste Alternative dar. Schlussfolgerung: In Risikosituationen, wie bei (Prä-)Eklampsie, notfallmäßiger Sectio caesarea, massiven Blutverlusten oder anderen intrapartalen Notfallsituationen ist die optimale interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit zwischen Hebammen, Geburtshelfern und Anästhesisten gefragt. Es sind jedoch nicht nur Notfallsituationen, die eine gute interdisziplinäre Zusammenarbeit erfordern; genauso wichtig ist die Zusammenarbeit im Erkennen von Risikoschwangerschaften und einer frühzeitigen gemeinsamen Planung der bevorstehenden Gebur

Conduction in rectangular quasi-one-dimensional and two-dimensional random resistor networks away from the percolation threshold

In this study we investigate electrical conduction in finite rectangular random resistor networks in quasione and two dimensions far away from the percolation threshold p(c) by the use of a bond percolation model. Various topologies such as parallel linear chains in one dimension, as well as square and triangular lattices in two dimensions, are compared as a function of the geometrical aspect ratio. In particular we propose a linear approximation for conduction in two-dimensional systems far from p(c), which is useful for engineering purposes. We find that the same scaling function, which can be used for finite-size scaling of percolation thresholds, also applies to describe conduction away from p(c). This is in contrast to the quasi-one-dimensional case, which is highly nonlinear. The qualitative analysis of the range within which the linear approximation is legitimate is given. A brief link to real applications is made by taking into account a statistical distribution of the resistors in the network. Our results are of potential interest in fields such as nanostructured or composite materials and sensing applications

Local Moments Coupled to a Strongly Correlated Electron Chain

A 1D model hamiltonian that is motivated by the recent discovery of the heavy-fermion behavior in the cuprates of the $Nd_2CuO_4$ type is studied. It consists of $t-J$ interacting conduction electrons coupled to a lattice of localized spins through a Kondo exchange term $J_K$. Exact diagonalization and density matrix renormalization group methods are used. The latter method is generalized to arbitrary densities. At half-filling, a spin gap opens for all $J_K>0$. Away from half-filling$,$ it is shown that, at strong $J_K$% , the ground state is an unsaturated ferromagnet . At weak $J_K$ the system is in a paramagnetic phase with enhanced RKKY correlations. The importance of self-screening of the local moments in the depletion regime is discussed. We argue that these findings transcend the specifics of the model.Comment: 10 pages, Latex, 4 figures included, to be published in PRB (Rapid Communications