Novel fluid biomarkers to differentiate frontotemporal dementia and dementia with Lewy bodies from Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review

RATIONALE: Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and dementia with Lewy bodies (DLB) are two common forms of neurodegenerative dementia, subsequent to Alzheimer's disease (AD). AD is the only dementia that includes clinically validated cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) biomarkers in the diagnostic criteria. FTD and DLB often overlap with AD in their clinical and pathological features, making it challenging to differentiate between these conditions. AIM: This systematic review aimed to identify if novel fluid biomarkers are useful in differentiating FTD and DLB from AD. Increasing the certainty of the differentiation between dementia subtypes would be advantageous clinically and in research. METHODS: PubMed and Scopus were searched for studies that quantified and assessed diagnostic accuracy of novel fluid biomarkers in clinically diagnosed patients with FTD or DLB, in comparison to patients with AD. Meta-analyses were performed on biomarkers that were quantified in 3 studies or more. RESULTS: The search strategy yielded 614 results, from which, 27 studies were included. When comparing bio-fluid levels in AD and FTD patients, neurofilament light chain (NfL) level was often higher in FTD, whilst brain soluble amyloid precursor protein β (sAPPβ) was higher in patients with AD. When comparing bio-fluid levels in AD and DLB patients, α-synuclein ensued heterogeneous findings, while the noradrenaline metabolite (MHPG) was found to be lower in DLB. Ratios of Aβ42/Aβ38 and Aβ42/Aβ40 were lower in AD than FTD and DLB and offered better diagnostic accuracy than raw amyloid-β (Aβ) concentrations. CONCLUSIONS: Several promising novel biomarkers were highlighted in this review. Combinations of fluid biomarkers were more often useful than individual biomarkers in distinguishing subtypes of dementia. Considering the heterogeneity in methods and results between the studies, further validation, ideally with longitudinal prospective designs with large sample sizes and unified protocols, are fundamental before conclusions can be finalised

Comparison of transgenic plant production for bacterial blight resistance in Pakistani local rice (Oryza sativa L.) cultivars

The study was carried out to improve bacterial leaf blight resistance in three rice cultivars (Basmati - 370, DR - 82 and IR - 6) by Agrobacterium mediated transformation system. Three week-old scutellum derived calli were infected with Agrobacterium strain EHA101, containing binary vector pTCL5 which has Xa 21 gene. Different levels of acetosyringone were tested to enhance transformation efficiency. Acetosyringone at 300 ìM showed 56.6% GUS expression with 100 and 200 ìM acetosyringone showing 13.3 and 30.0% GUS expression, respectively. Maximum transformation efficiency was obtained using DR - 82 with calli exposed to 300 ìM acetosyringone for 2 min. Direct hygromycin selection with 48 h ofco-cultivation was superior to pre-selection in all three cultivars. Transient GUS expression was 51.4% while stable GUS expression in calli was 18.8%. PCR analysis confirmed the presence of the Xa 21 gene in transformed regenerated plants. Stable varietal transformation efficiency was DR - 82 > Basmati-370 > IR - 6. Resistance of transgenic plants against Xanthomonas oryzae pathovar oryzae was evaluated with various strains/isolates at the seedling stage. All PCR positive transgenic plants of DR - 82 and Basmati - 370 were resistant with lesion areas less than 5% of the inoculated leaf area. The tested transgenic plants were resistant to all the indigenous and exotic strains tested due to the broad spectrum protection provided by the Xa 21 gene

Solid weak BCC-algebras

We characterize weak BCC-algebras in which the identity $(xy)z=(xz)y$ is satisfied only in the case when elements $x,y$ belong to the same branch

Decoherence control: Universal protection of two-qubit states and two-qubit gates using continuous driving fields

A field configuration utilizing local static and oscillating fields is constructed to achieve universal (but low-order) protection of two-qubit states. That is, two-qubit states can be protected against arbitrary system-environment coupling if the driving field frequency, as compared with the cutoff frequency of the environment, is sufficiently large. Equally important, we show that it is possible to construct driving fields to protect two-qubit entangling gates against decoherence, without assuming any particular form of system-environment coupling. Using a non-Markovian master equation, we further demonstrate the effectiveness of our continuous dynamical decoupling fields in protecting entanglement and the excellent performance of protected two-qubit gates in generating entanglement. The results are complementary to current studies of entanglement protection using universal dynamical decoupling pulse sequences.Comment: 16 pages, 6 figures (improved introduction, made connections with early studies of dynamically corrected quantum gates

Frequency domain analysis for detecting pipeline leaks

The original publication can be found at http://scitation.aip.org/hyoThis paper introduces leak detection methods that involve the injection of a fluid transient into the pipeline, with the resultant transient trace analyzed in the frequency domain. Two methods of leak detection using the frequency response of the pipeline are proposed. The inverse resonance method involves matching the modeled frequency responses to those observed to determine the leak parameters. The peak-sequencing method determines the region in which the leak is located by comparing the relative sizes between peaks in the frequency response diagram. It was found that a unique pattern was induced on the peaks of the frequency response for each specific location of the leak within the pipeline. The leak location can be determined by matching the observed pattern to patterns generated numerically within a lookup table. The procedure for extracting the linear frequency response diagram, including the optimum measurement position, the effect of unsteady friction, and the way in which the technique can be extended into pipeline networks, are also discussed within the paper.Pedro J. Lee, John P. Vítkovský, Martin F. Lambert, Angus R. Simpson and James A. Ligget