Effect of Lowered Light Quality (R:FR Ratio) at Targeted Organs on Branching of Trifolium Repens

This report examined results from four similarly conducted experiments using Trifolium repens in which the R:FR ratio but not the photosynthetically active radiation (PAR) of incident light was altered at specific organ(s) of several successive phytomers or just at a single phytomer. Results indicate the local response to lowered R:FR light treatment was similar irrespective of the number of phytomers treated. This response pattern provides the means whereby plants can initiate strong localised responses to a heterogeneous light environment

Mini-Cog for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia and other dementias within a primary care setting.

BACKGROUND: Alzheimer's disease and other forms of dementia are becoming increasingly common with the aging of most populations. The majority of individuals with dementia will first present for care and assessment in primary care settings. There is a need for brief dementia screening instruments that can accurately diagnose dementia in primary care settings. The Mini-Cog is a brief, cognitive screening test that is frequently used to evaluate cognition in older adults in various settings. OBJECTIVES: To determine the diagnostic accuracy of the Mini-Cog for diagnosing Alzheimer's disease dementia and related dementias in a primary care setting. SEARCH METHODS: We searched the Cochrane Dementia and Cognitive Improvement Register of Diagnostic Test Accuracy Studies, MEDLINE, Embase and four other databases, initially to September 2012. Since then, four updates to the search were performed using the same search methods, and the most recent was January 2017. We used citation tracking (using the databases' 'related articles' feature, where available) as an additional search method and contacted authors of eligible studies for unpublished data. SELECTION CRITERIA: We only included studies that evaluated the Mini-Cog as an index test for the diagnosis of Alzheimer's disease dementia or related forms of dementia when compared to a reference standard using validated criteria for dementia. We only included studies that were conducted in primary care populations. DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS: We extracted and described information on the characteristics of the study participants and study setting. Using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Accuracy Studies (QUADAS-2) criteria we evaluated the quality of studies, and we assessed risk of bias and applicability of each study for each domain in QUADAS-2. Two review authors independently extracted information on the true positives, true negatives, false positives, and false negatives and entered the data into Review Manager 5 (RevMan 5). We then used RevMan 5 to determine the sensitivity, specificity, and 95% confidence intervals. We summarized the sensitivity and specificity of the Mini-Cog in the individual studies in forest plots and also plotted them in a receiver operating characteristic plot. We also created a 'Risk of bias' and applicability concerns graph to summarize information related to the quality of included studies. MAIN RESULTS: There were a total of four studies that met our inclusion criteria, including a total of 1517 total participants. The sensitivity of the Mini-Cog varied between 0.76 to 1.00 in studies while the specificity varied between 0.27 to 0.85. The included studies displayed significant heterogeneity in both methodologies and clinical populations, which did not allow for a meta-analysis to be completed. Only one study (Holsinger 2012) was found to be at low risk of bias on all methodological domains. The results of this study reported that the sensitivity of the Mini-Cog was 0.76 and the specificity was 0.73. We found the quality of all other included studies to be low due to a high risk of bias with methodological limitations primarily in their selection of participants. AUTHORS' CONCLUSIONS: There is a limited number of studies evaluating the accuracy of the Mini-Cog for the diagnosis of dementia in primary care settings. Given the small number of studies, the wide range in estimates of the accuracy of the Mini-Cog, and methodological limitations identified in most of the studies, at the present time there is insufficient evidence to recommend that the Mini-Cog be used as a screening test for dementia in primary care. Further studies are required to determine the accuracy of Mini-Cog in primary care and whether this tool has sufficient diagnostic test accuracy to be useful as a screening test in this setting

Reconstruction of motional states of neutral atoms via MaxEnt principle

We present a scheme for a reconstruction of states of quantum systems from incomplete tomographic-like data. The proposed scheme is based on the Jaynes principle of Maximum Entropy. We apply our algorithm for a reconstruction of motional quantum states of neutral atoms. As an example we analyze the experimental data obtained by the group of C. Salomon at the ENS in Paris and we reconstruct Wigner functions of motional quantum states of Cs atoms trapped in an optical lattice

Equation of State of Nuclear Matter at high baryon density

A central issue in the theory of astrophysical compact objects and heavy ion reactions at intermediate and relativistic energies is the Nuclear Equation of State (EoS). On one hand, the large and expanding set of experimental and observational data is expected to constrain the behaviour of the nuclear EoS, especially at density above saturation, where it is directly linked to fundamental processes which can occur in dense matter. On the other hand, theoretical predictions for the EoS at high density can be challenged by the phenomenological findings. In this topical review paper we present the many-body theory of nuclear matter as developed along different years and with different methods. Only nucleonic degrees of freedom are considered. We compare the different methods at formal level, as well as the final EoS calculated within each one of the considered many-body schemes. The outcome of this analysis should help in restricting the uncertainty of the theoretical predictions for the nuclear EoS.Comment: 51 pages, to appear in J. Phys. G as Topical Revie

Sex differences in the movement patterns of free-ranging chimpanzees (Pan troglodytes schweinfurthii): foraging and border checking

Most social primates live in cohesive groups, so travel paths inevitably reflect compromise: decision processes of individuals are obscured. The fission-fusion social organisation of the chimpanzee, however, allows an individual’s movements to be investigated independently. We followed 15 chimpanzees (8 male and 7 female) through the relatively flat forest of Budongo, Uganda, plotting the path of each individual over periods of 1-3 days. Chimpanzee movement was parsed into phases ending with halts of more than 20 minutes, during which individuals fed, rested or engaged in social activities. Males, lactating or pregnant females, and sexually receptive females all travelled similar average distances between halts, at similar speeds, and along similarly direct beeline paths. Compared to lactating or pregnant females, males did travel for a significantly longer time each day and halted more often, but the most striking sex differences appeared in the organisation of movement phases into a day’s path. After a halt, males tended to continue in the same direction as before. Lactating or pregnant females showed no such strategy and often retraced the preceding phase, returning to previously visited food patches. We suggest that female chimpanzee movements approximate an optimal solution to feeding requirements, whereas the paths of males allow integration of foraging with territorial defence. The ‘continually moving forwards’ strategy of males enables them to monitor their territory boundaries – border checking – whilst foraging, generally avoiding the explicit boundary patrols observed at other chimpanzee study sites

SS-matrix poles near the ΛN\Lambda N and ΣN\Sigma N Thresholds in the Coupled \\ΛN−ΣN\Lambda N-\Sigma N System

We search $t$-matrix poles for $\Lambda N-\Sigma N$ coupling interactions using two soft core models of the Nijmegen group which bind the hypertriton at the correct binding energy, and hard core models which are still influential in hypernuclear physics. To treat the hard core potentials, a useful method for calculating the off-shell $t$-matrix is proposed. We find poles close to the $\Sigma N$ threshold in the second or third quadrant of the complex plane of the $\Sigma N$ relative momentum. The relation between the poles and the shape of the $\Lambda N$ elastic total cross section is discussed based on a so-called uniformization by which two-channel $t$-matrices become single-valued on a complex valuable. We also find poles near the $\Lambda N$ threshold. These are correlated to the $S$-wave $\Lambda N$ scattering lengths, the values of which have yet to be determined.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, Revte

Concomitant Active Tuberculosis Prolongs Survival in Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer: A Study in a Tuberculosis-Endemic Country

BACKGROUND: Adjuvant tumor cell vaccine with chemotherapy against non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) shows limited clinical response. Whether it provokes effective cellular immunity in tumor microenvironment is questionable. Concomitant active tuberculosis in NSCLC (TBLC) resembles locoregional immunotherapy of tumor cell vaccine; thus, maximally enriches effective anti-tumor immunity. This study compares the survival and immunological cell profile in TBLC over NSCLC alone. METHODS: Retrospective review of NSCLC patients within 1-year-period of 2007 and follow-up till 2010. RESULTS: A total 276 NSCLC patients were included. The median survival of TBLC is longer than those of NSCLC alone (11.6 vs. 8.8 month, p<0.01). Active tuberculosis is an independent predictor of better survival with HR of 0.68 (95% CI, 0.48 ~ 0.97). Squamous cell carcinoma (SCC) (55.8 vs. 31.7%, p<0.01) is a significant risk factor for NSCLC with active TB. The median survival of SCC with active tuberculosis is significantly longer than adenocarcinoma or undetermined NSCLC with TB (14.2 vs. 6.6 and 2.8 months, p<0.05). Active tuberculosis in SCC increases the expression of CD3 (46.4 ± 24.8 vs. 24.0 ± 16.0, p<0.05), CXCR3 (35.1 ± 16.4 vs. 19.2 ± 13.3, p<0.01) and IP-10 (63.5 ± 21.9 vs. 35.5 ± 21.0, p<0.01), while expression of FOXP3 is decreased (3.5 ± 0.5 vs. 13.3 ± 3.7 p<0.05, p<0.05). Survival of SCC with high expression of CD3 (12.1 vs. 3.6 month, p<0.05) and CXCR3 (12.1 vs. 4.4 month, p<0.05) is longer than that with low expression. CONCLUSIONS: Active tuberculosis in NSCLC shows better survival outcome. The effective T lymphocyte infiltration in tumor possibly underlies the mechanism. Locoregional immunotherapy of tumor cell vaccine may deserve further researches

Energy Flow in the Hadronic Final State of Diffractive and Non-Diffractive Deep-Inelastic Scattering at HERA

An investigation of the hadronic final state in diffractive and non--diffractive deep--inelastic electron--proton scattering at HERA is presented, where diffractive data are selected experimentally by demanding a large gap in pseudo --rapidity around the proton remnant direction. The transverse energy flow in the hadronic final state is evaluated using a set of estimators which quantify topological properties. Using available Monte Carlo QCD calculations, it is demonstrated that the final state in diffractive DIS exhibits the features expected if the interaction is interpreted as the scattering of an electron off a current quark with associated effects of perturbative QCD. A model in which deep--inelastic diffraction is taken to be the exchange of a pomeron with partonic structure is found to reproduce the measurements well. Models for deep--inelastic $ep$ scattering, in which a sizeable diffractive contribution is present because of non--perturbative effects in the production of the hadronic final state, reproduce the general tendencies of the data but in all give a worse description.Comment: 22 pages, latex, 6 Figures appended as uuencoded fil