Win for your kin: Neural responses to personal and vicarious rewards when mothers win for their adolescent children

Mother-child relationships change considerably in adolescence, but it is not yet understood how mothers experience vicarious rewards for their adolescent children. In the current study, we investigated neural responses of twenty mothers winning and losing money for their best friend and for their adolescent child in a gambling task. During the task, functional neuroimaging data were acquired. We examined the activation patterns when playing for or winning for self, adolescent children and friends in four a-priori selected ROIs (nucleus accumbens, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus and temporo-parietal junction). Behaviorally, mothers indicated that they experienced most enjoyment when they gained money for their children and that their children deserved to win more, relative to friends and self. At the neural level, nucleus accumbens activity was stronger when winning versus losing. This pattern was not only found when playing for self, but also for friends and children, possibly reflecting the rewarding value of vicarious prosocial gains. In addition, dorsomedial prefrontal cortex, precuneus, and temporo-parietal junction were more active when receiving outcomes for children and friends compared to self, possibly reflecting increased recruitment of mentalizing processes. Interestingly, activity in this network was stronger for mothers who indicated that their children and friends deserved to win more. These findings provide initial evidence that vicarious rewards for one’s children are processed similarly as rewards for self, and that activation in social brain regions are related to social closeness.Pathways through Adolescenc

Plasma and rectal mucosal oxylipin levels during aspirin and eicosapentaenoic acid treatment in the seAFOod polyp prevention trial

Background Aspirin and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA) have colorectal polyp prevention activity, alone and in combination. This study measured levels of plasma and rectal mucosal oxylipins in participants of the seAFOod 2 × 2 factorial, randomised, placebo-controlled trial, who received aspirin 300 mg daily and EPA 2000 mg free fatty acid, alone and in combination, for 12 months. Methods Resolvin (Rv) E1, 15-epi-lipoxin (LX) A4 and respective precursors 18-HEPE and 15-HETE (with chiral separation) were measured by ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry in plasma taken at baseline, 6 months and 12 months, as well as rectal mucosa obtained at trial exit colonoscopy at 12 months, in 401 trial participants. Results Despite detection of S- and R- enantiomers of 18-HEPE and 15-HETE in ng/ml concentrations, RvE1 or 15‑epi-LXA4 were not detected above a limit of detection of 20 pg/ml in plasma or rectal mucosa, even in individuals randomised to both aspirin and EPA. We have confirmed in a large clinical trial cohort that prolonged (12 months) treatment with EPA is associated with increased plasma 18-HEPE concentrations (median [inter-quartile range] total 18-HEPE 0.51 [0.21–1.95] ng/ml at baseline versus 0.95 [0.46–4.06] ng/ml at 6 months [P<0.0001] in those randomised to EPA alone), which correlate strongly with respective rectal mucosal 18-HEPE levels (r = 0.82; P<0.001), but which do not predict polyp prevention efficacy by EPA or aspirin. Conclusion Analysis of seAFOod trial plasma and rectal mucosal samples has not provided evidence of synthesis of the EPA-derived specialised pro-resolving mediator RvE1 or aspirin-trigged lipoxin 15‑epi-LXA4. We cannot rule out degradation of individual oxylipins during sample collection and storage but readily measurable precursor oxylipins argues against widespread degradation

Spinor condensates and light scattering from Bose-Einstein condensates

These notes discuss two aspects of the physics of atomic Bose-Einstein condensates: optical properties and spinor condensates. The first topic includes light scattering experiments which probe the excitations of a condensate in both the free-particle and phonon regime. At higher light intensity, a new form of superradiance and phase-coherent matter wave amplification were observed. We also discuss properties of spinor condensates and describe studies of ground--state spin domain structures and dynamical studies which revealed metastable excited states and quantum tunneling.Comment: 58 pages, 33 figures, to appear in Proceedings of Les Houches 1999 Summer School, Session LXXI

Selected papers on cooling tower water treatment

At head of title: State of Illinois Department of Registration and Education

Continued adaptation of C4 photosynthesis after an initial burst of changes in the andropogoneae grasses

C4 photosynthesis is a complex trait that sustains fast growth and high productivity in tropical and subtropical conditions and evolved repeatedly in flowering plants. One of the major C4 lineages is Andropogoneae, a group of ∼ 1,200 grass species that includes some of the world's most important crops and species dominating tropical and some temperate grasslands. Previous efforts to understand C4 evolution in the group have compared a few model C4 plants to distantly related C3 species, so that changes directly responsible for the transition to C4 could not be distinguished from those that preceded or followed it. In this study, we analyse the genomes of 66 grass species, capturing the earliest diversification within Andropogoneae as well as their C3 relatives. Phylogenomics combined with molecular dating and analyses of protein evolution show that many changes linked to the evolution of C4 photosynthesis in Andropogoneae happened in the Early Miocene, between 21 and 18 Ma, after the split from its C3 sister lineage, and before the diversification of the group. This initial burst of changes was followed by an extended period of modifications to leaf anatomy and biochemistry during the diversification of Andropogoneae, so that a single C4 origin gave birth to a diversity of C4 phenotypes during 18 million years of speciation events and migration across geographic and ecological spaces. Our comprehensive approach and broad sampling of the diversity in the group reveals that one key transition can lead to a plethora of phenotypes following sustained adaptation of the ancestral state

Grain Surface Models and Data for Astrochemistry

AbstractThe cross-disciplinary field of astrochemistry exists to understand the formation, destruction, and survival of molecules in astrophysical environments. Molecules in space are synthesized via a large variety of gas-phase reactions, and reactions on dust-grain surfaces, where the surface acts as a catalyst. A broad consensus has been reached in the astrochemistry community on how to suitably treat gas-phase processes in models, and also on how to present the necessary reaction data in databases; however, no such consensus has yet been reached for grain-surface processes. A team of ∼25 experts covering observational, laboratory and theoretical (astro)chemistry met in summer of 2014 at the Lorentz Center in Leiden with the aim to provide solutions for this problem and to review the current state-of-the-art of grain surface models, both in terms of technical implementation into models as well as the most up-to-date information available from experiments and chemical computations. This review builds on the results of this workshop and gives an outlook for future directions

Time-integrated luminosity recorded by the BABAR detector at the PEP-II e+e- collider

This article is the Preprint version of the final published artcile which can be accessed at the link below.We describe a measurement of the time-integrated luminosity of the data collected by the BABAR experiment at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy e+e- collider at the ϒ(4S), ϒ(3S), and ϒ(2S) resonances and in a continuum region below each resonance. We measure the time-integrated luminosity by counting e+e-→e+e- and (for the ϒ(4S) only) e+e-→μ+μ- candidate events, allowing additional photons in the final state. We use data-corrected simulation to determine the cross-sections and reconstruction efficiencies for these processes, as well as the major backgrounds. Due to the large cross-sections of e+e-→e+e- and e+e-→μ+μ-, the statistical uncertainties of the measurement are substantially smaller than the systematic uncertainties. The dominant systematic uncertainties are due to observed differences between data and simulation, as well as uncertainties on the cross-sections. For data collected on the ϒ(3S) and ϒ(2S) resonances, an additional uncertainty arises due to ϒ→e+e-X background. For data collected off the ϒ resonances, we estimate an additional uncertainty due to time dependent efficiency variations, which can affect the short off-resonance runs. The relative uncertainties on the luminosities of the on-resonance (off-resonance) samples are 0.43% (0.43%) for the ϒ(4S), 0.58% (0.72%) for the ϒ(3S), and 0.68% (0.88%) for the ϒ(2S).This work is supported by the US Department of Energy and National Science Foundation, the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council (Canada), the Commissariat à l’Energie Atomique and Institut National de Physique Nucléaire et de Physiquedes Particules (France), the Bundesministerium für Bildung und Forschung and Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany), the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare (Italy), the Foundation for Fundamental Research on Matter (The Netherlands), the Research Council of Norway, the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation, Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación (Spain), and the Science and Technology Facilities Council (United Kingdom). Individuals have received support from the Marie-Curie IEF program (European Union) and the A.P. Sloan Foundation (USA)

Low Q^2 Jet Production at HERA and Virtual Photon Structure

The transition between photoproduction and deep-inelastic scattering is investigated in jet production at the HERA ep collider, using data collected by the H1 experiment. Measurements of the differential inclusive jet cross-sections dsigep/dEt* and dsigmep/deta*, where Et* and eta* are the transverse energy and the pseudorapidity of the jets in the virtual photon-proton centre of mass frame, are presented for 0 < Q2 < 49 GeV2 and 0.3 < y < 0.6. The interpretation of the results in terms of the structure of the virtual photon is discussed. The data are best described by QCD calculations which include a partonic structure of the virtual photon that evolves with Q2.Comment: 20 pages, 5 Figure

Hadron Production in Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering

Characteristics of hadron production in diffractive deep-inelastic positron-proton scattering are studied using data collected in 1994 by the H1 experiment at HERA. The following distributions are measured in the centre-of-mass frame of the photon dissociation system: the hadronic energy flow, the Feynman-x (x_F) variable for charged particles, the squared transverse momentum of charged particles (p_T^{*2}), and the mean p_T^{*2} as a function of x_F. These distributions are compared with results in the gamma^* p centre-of-mass frame from inclusive deep-inelastic scattering in the fixed-target experiment EMC, and also with the predictions of several Monte Carlo calculations. The data are consistent with a picture in which the partonic structure of the diffractive exchange is dominated at low Q^2 by hard gluons.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.

Measurement of D* Meson Cross Sections at HERA and Determination of the Gluon Density in the Proton using NLO QCD

With the H1 detector at the ep collider HERA, D* meson production cross sections have been measured in deep inelastic scattering with four-momentum transfers Q^2>2 GeV2 and in photoproduction at energies around W(gamma p)~ 88 GeV and 194 GeV. Next-to-Leading Order QCD calculations are found to describe the differential cross sections within theoretical and experimental uncertainties. Using these calculations, the NLO gluon momentum distribution in the proton, x_g g(x_g), has been extracted in the momentum fraction range 7.5x10^{-4}< x_g <4x10^{-2} at average scales mu^2 =25 to 50 GeV2. The gluon momentum fraction x_g has been obtained from the measured kinematics of the scattered electron and the D* meson in the final state. The results compare well with the gluon distribution obtained from the analysis of scaling violations of the proton structure function F_2.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, 2 tables, submitted to Nucl. Phys.