F16RS SGR No. 9 (Honor Dr. Reeve)

To honor Dr. T. Gilmour Reeve for his many years of service as a Professor & Vice Provost of Louisiana State Universit

S17RS SGFB No. 1 (Sigma Tau Delta)

To allocate a maximum of four thousand dollars and zero cents ($4,000.00) from the Student Government Legislative Contingency Account to fund five (5) members of Sigma Tau Delta to attend the 2017 Sigma Tau Delta International convention in Louisville, Kentucky from March 29-April 2, 201

S17RS SGR No. 9 (Interfaith Prayer and Meditation Room)

to urge and request the implementation of an Interfaith Prayer & Meditation Room in the LSU Student Unio

Emergence of a tunable crystalline order in a Floquet-Bloch system from a parametric instability

Parametric instabilities in interacting systems can lead to the appearance of new structures or patterns. In quantum gases, two-body interactions are responsible for a variety of instabilities that depend on the characteristics of both trapping and interactions. We report on the Floquet engineering of such instabilities, on a Bose-Einstein condensate held in a time-modulated optical lattice. The modulation triggers a destabilization of the condensate into a state exhibiting a density modulation with a new spatial periodicity. This new crystal-like order directly depends on the modulation parameters: the interplay between the Floquet spectrum and interactions generates narrow and adjustable instability regions, leading to the growth, from quantum or thermal fluctuations, of modes with a density modulation non commensurate with the lattice spacing. This study demonstrates the production of metastable exotic states of matter through Floquet engineering, and paves the way for further studies of dissipation in the resulting phase, and of similar phenomena in other geometries.Comment: 12 pages, 9 figure

tinjauan hukum Islam terhadap hak dan kewenangan Presiden RI dalam memberikan Abolisi

Suatu Negara yang menganut system pemerintahan berdasarkan atas hokum, maka hukumlah yang mempunyai supremasi, dan yang memerintahkan adalah hokum, atau disebut The Rule of Law. Sehingga dalam setiap gerak tindakan pola penguasa serta warga negaranya, baik secara individu maupun secara bersama harus mendapatkan legalisasi hukum. Di dalam pasal 14 UUD 1945 tersebut yakni Presiden memberi grasi, amnesti, abolisi dan rehabilitasi ini berarti bahwa Presiden berhak turut campur dalam masalah Pengadilan. Sedangkan dalam UUD 1945 pasal 24 ayat 1 menyatakan bahwa “Kekuasaan kehakiman dilakukan oleh sebuah Mahkamah Agung dan lain-lain Badan Kehakiman menurut Undang-Undang. Rumusan maslah dalam pembahasan ini adalah; 1). Sejauh mana hak dan kewenangan Presiden Republik Indonesia dalam memberikan abolisi. 2). Bagaimana tinjauan Hukum Islam terhadap hak dan kewenangan Presiden dalam memberikan abolisi. Dalam pembahasan ini menggunakan jenis penelitian pustaka (Library Research), untuk penggalian datanya adalah dengan cara telaah pustaka yaitu dengan mengkaji buku-buku yang ada kaitannya dengan pembahasan, guna mencari landasan upaya pemecahan masalah. Untuk menganalisa data yang diperoleh, maka digunakan analisa data kwalitatif yang terdiri dari Metode Induktif dan Metode Komperatif. Kesimpulan dalam pembahasan ini adalah; 1). Presiden Republik Indonesia sebagai Kepala Negara mempunyai kekuasaan dalam bidang Yudikatif, yaitu diantaranya adalah memberikan abolisi. Kekuasaan ini bukan merupakan penyimpangan dari pasal 24 Undang-Undang Dasar 1945, tetapi merupakan suatu pengecualian, karena ia diatur dalam UUD 1945. Sedangkan pemberian abolisi oleh Presiden, yaitu setelah mendengar nasehat dari Mahkamah Agung. 2). Pada masa awal pemerintahan Islam, masalah peradilan dipegang oleh Nabi. Dalam Islam pemberian abolisi (maaf dan ampunan) oleh Kepala Negara (Nabi) kepada warganya tidak memerlukan persetujuan dari lembaga Negara lainnya. Karena segala kekuasaan dalam Negara berpuncak kepada Nabi sebagai Kepala Negara

The Role of Ultrasound Compared to Biopsy of Temporal Arteries in the Diagnosis and Treatment of Giant Cell Arteritis (TABUL): a diagnostic accuracy and cost-effectiveness study

Background: Giant cell arteritis (GCA) is a relatively common form of primary systemic vasculitis, which, if left untreated, can lead to permanent sight loss. We compared ultrasound as an alternative diagnostic test with temporal artery biopsy, which may be negative in 9–61% of true cases. Objective: To compare the clinical effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of ultrasound with biopsy in diagnosing patients with suspected GCA. Design: Prospective multicentre cohort study. Setting: Secondary care. Participants: A total of 381 patients referred with newly suspected GCA. Main outcome measures: Sensitivity, specificity and cost-effectiveness of ultrasound compared with biopsy or ultrasound combined with biopsy for diagnosing GCA and interobserver reliability in interpreting scan or biopsy findings. Results: We developed and implemented an ultrasound training programme for diagnosing suspected GCA. We recruited 430 patients with suspected GCA. We analysed 381 patients who underwent both ultrasound and biopsy within 10 days of starting treatment for suspected GCA and who attended a follow-up assessment (median age 71.1 years; 72% female). The sensitivity of biopsy was 39% [95% confidence interval (CI) 33% to 46%], which was significantly lower than previously reported and inferior to ultrasound (54%, 95% CI 48% to 60%); the specificity of biopsy (100%, 95% CI 97% to 100%) was superior to ultrasound (81%, 95% CI 73% to 88%). If we scanned all suspected patients and performed biopsies only on negative cases, sensitivity increased to 65% and specificity was maintained at 81%, reducing the need for biopsies by 43%. Strategies combining clinical judgement (clinician’s assessment at 2 weeks) with the tests showed sensitivity and specificity of 91% and 81%, respectively, for biopsy and 93% and 77%, respectively, for ultrasound; cost-effectiveness (incremental net monetary benefit) was £485 per patient in favour of ultrasound with both cost savings and a small health gain. Inter-rater analysis revealed moderate agreement among sonographers (intraclass correlation coefficient 0.61, 95% CI 0.48 to 0.75), similar to pathologists (0.62, 95% CI 0.49 to 0.76). Limitations: There is no independent gold standard diagnosis for GCA. The reference diagnosis used to determine accuracy was based on classification criteria for GCA that include clinical features at presentation and biopsy results. Conclusion: We have demonstrated the feasibility of providing training in ultrasound for the diagnosis of GCA. Our results indicate better sensitivity but poorer specificity of ultrasound compared with biopsy and suggest some scope for reducing the role of biopsy. The moderate interobserver agreement for both ultrasound and biopsy indicates scope for improving assessment and reporting of test results and challenges the assumption that a positive biopsy always represents GCA. Future work: Further research should address the issue of an independent reference diagnosis, standards for interpreting and reporting test results and the evaluation of ultrasound training, and should also explore the acceptability of these new diagnostic strategies in GCA. Funding: he National Institute for Health Research Health Technology Assessment programme

APBSmem: A Graphical Interface for Electrostatic Calculations at the Membrane

Electrostatic forces are one of the primary determinants of molecular interactions. They help guide the folding of proteins, increase the binding of one protein to another and facilitate protein-DNA and protein-ligand binding. A popular method for computing the electrostatic properties of biological systems is to numerically solve the Poisson-Boltzmann (PB) equation, and there are several easy-to-use software packages available that solve the PB equation for soluble proteins. Here we present a freely available program, called APBSmem, for carrying out these calculations in the presence of a membrane. The Adaptive Poisson-Boltzmann Solver (APBS) is used as a back-end for solving the PB equation, and a Java-based graphical user interface (GUI) coordinates a set of routines that introduce the influence of the membrane, determine its placement relative to the protein, and set the membrane potential. The software Jmol is embedded in the GUI to visualize the protein inserted in the membrane before the calculation and the electrostatic potential after completing the computation. We expect that the ease with which the GUI allows one to carry out these calculations will make this software a useful resource for experimenters and computational researchers alike. Three examples of membrane protein electrostatic calculations are carried out to illustrate how to use APBSmem and to highlight the different quantities of interest that can be calculated

Subcellular specificity of cannabinoid effects in striatonigral circuits

Recent advances in neuroscience have positioned brain circuits as key units in controlling behavior, implying that their positive or negative modulation necessarily leads to specific behavioral outcomes. However, emerging evidence suggests that the activation or inhibition of specific brain circuits can actually produce multimodal behavioral outcomes. This study shows that activation of a receptor at different subcellular locations in the same neuronal circuit can determine distinct behaviors. Pharmacological activation of type 1 cannabinoid (CB1) receptors in the striatonigral circuit elicits both antinociception and catalepsy in mice. The decrease in nociception depends on the activation of plasma membrane-residing CB1 receptors (pmCB1), leading to the inhibition of cytosolic PKA activity and substance P release. By contrast, mitochondrial-associated CB1 receptors (mtCB1) located at the same terminals mediate cannabinoid-induced catalepsy through the decrease in intra-mitochondrial PKA-dependent cellular respiration and synaptic transmission. Thus, subcellular-specific CB1 receptor signaling within striatonigral circuits determines multimodal control of behavior

Matter waves control in a time-dependent optical lattice : from quantum chaos to quantum control

En attendant de parvenir à construire un ordinateur quantique universel, les physiciens se sont attelés à développer des simulateurs quantiques : un système capable d'émuler des modèles de divers domaines de la physique sur lequel l'utilisateur possède un grand degré de contrôle. Les travaux présentés dans cette thèse portent sur un tel simulateur réalisé à l'aide condensats de Bose-Einstein manipulés par un réseau optique unidimensionnel. Dans ce manuscrit, nous décrivons plusieurs travaux expérimentaux réalisés en proche collaboration avec des physiciens théoriciens. Le premier d'entre eux porte sur le contrôle d'halos de diffusion. Nous proposons un nouveau protocole de contrôle de ces halos portant sur un décalage abrupt de la phase du réseau optique. Cette première étude soulève une nouvelle question : peut-on, par un variation adéquate de la phase du réseau optique, façonner la distribution en impulsion du condensat ? Cette question est un problème d'optimisation bien posé auquel la théorie du contrôle optimal peut répondre. Grâce à ce formalisme, nous sommes en mesure de contrôler l'état quantique du condensat dans le réseau optique. Ces nouveaux types de protocoles peuvent permettre de préparer des états initiaux permettant d'observer de nouveaux effets physiques. Un de ces effets est le transport d'un nuage d'atomes dans un paysage classiquement chaotique. Nous avons modulé périodiquement l'amplitude du réseau optique de telle manière à générer un espace des phases mixtes dans lequel nous avons mis en évidence un effet tunnel dit "assisté par le chaos".While seeking to build a universal quantum computer, physicists have been working on developing quantum simulators : a system capable of emulating models of others domains of physics over which the user has a large degree of control. The work presented in this thesis concerns such a simulator realized with Bose-Einstein condensates manipulated by a one-dimensional optical lattice. In this manuscript, we describe several experimental works realized in close collaboration with theoretical physicists. The first one is about the control of scattering halos. We propose a new protocol to control these halos by abruptly shifting the phase of the optical lattice. This first study then naturally raises a new question : can we, by an adequate variation of the optical lattice's phase, shape the momentum distribution of the condensate ? This question is an optimization problem that optimal control theory is able to answer. Using this formalism, we are able to control the quantum state of the condensate within the lattice. These new types of protocols open interesting perspectives as the preparation of initial states for the observation of physical effects that are difficult to observe. One of these effects is the the transport of a cloud of atoms in a classically chaotic landscape. We have periodically modulated the amplitude of the optical lattice in such a way as to generate a mixed phase space in which we have demonstrated a so-called "chaos-assisted tunneling"