A connectome and analysis of the adult Drosophila central brain

The neural circuits responsible for animal behavior remain largely unknown. We summarize new methods and present the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Improved methods include new procedures to prepare, image, align, segment, find synapses in, and proofread such large data sets. We define cell types, refine computational compartments, and provide an exhaustive atlas of cell examples and types, many of them novel. We provide detailed circuits consisting of neurons and their chemical synapses for most of the central brain. We make the data public and simplify access, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions, and provide procedures linking the neurons defined by our analysis with genetic reagents. Biologically, we examine distributions of connection strengths, neural motifs on different scales, electrical consequences of compartmentalization, and evidence that maximizing packing density is an important criterion in the evolution of the fly’s brain

A search for resonances decaying into a Higgs boson and a new particle X in the XH → qqbb final state with the ATLAS detector

A search for heavy resonances decaying into a Higgs boson (H) and a new particle (X) is reported, utilizing 36.1 fb−1 of proton–proton collision data at collected during 2015 and 2016 with the ATLAS detector at the CERN Large Hadron Collider. The particle X is assumed to decay to a pair of light quarks, and the fully hadronic final state is analysed. The search considers the regime of high XH resonance masses, where the X and H bosons are both highly Lorentz-boosted and are each reconstructed using a single jet with large radius parameter. A two-dimensional phase space of XH mass versus X mass is scanned for evidence of a signal, over a range of XH resonance mass values between 1 TeV and 4 TeV, and for X particles with masses from 50 GeV to 1000 GeV. All search results are consistent with the expectations for the background due to Standard Model processes, and 95% CL upper limits are set, as a function of XH and X masses, on the production cross-section of the resonance

A connectome and analysis of the adult Drosophila central brain

The neural circuits responsible for animal behavior remain largely unknown. We summarize new methods and present the circuitry of a large fraction of the brain of the fruit fly Drosophila melanogaster. Improved methods include new procedures to prepare, image, align, segment, find synapses in, and proofread such large data sets. We define cell types, refine computational compartments, and provide an exhaustive atlas of cell examples and types, many of them novel. We provide detailed circuits consisting of neurons and their chemical synapses for most of the central brain. We make the data public and simplify access, reducing the effort needed to answer circuit questions, and provide procedures linking the neurons defined by our analysis with genetic reagents. Biologically, we examine distributions of connection strengths, neural motifs on different scales, electrical consequences of compartmentalization, and evidence that maximizing packing density is an important criterion in the evolution of the fly's brain

The development of a scale of the Guttman Type for the assessment of mobility disability in multiple sclerosis

Objective: The aim of the study was to develop a valid and reliable unidimensional scale of the Guttman type for the assessment of mobility disability in multiple sclerosis (MS). Subjects: Sixty-eight subjects with a definite diagnosis of MS participated.They were attending as outpatients at a MS unit at a District General Hospital. Thirty had the primary progressive pattern of disease, and 38 had the relapsing-remitting pattern. Methods: Formal assessments used for neurological disability were inspected, and 14 test items of gross motor function were extracted and ordered according to two criteria. These were that actions progressed from lying, to sitting, to standing and walking tasks, and that they progressed from broader to narrower bases of support. All subjects carried out all test items which were scored as ‘pass’ or ‘fail’. Analysis: Data were tested for internal consistency, reliability, inter item correlation, reproducibility and scalability. On the basis of the results, the items were re-ordered in rank, and reduced to eleven tests. The eleven item scale was re-analysed. Results: Results showed that the scale had an internal consistency of 0.88 (alpha coefficient) and a coefficient of reproducibility (CR) of 0.95 and above for both MS subject groups. The coefficient of scalability (CS) for items was 0.78 for primary progressive subjects and 0.74 for the relapsing-remitting group. Reliability ranged from good (kappa = 0.49) for one item, to perfect for six items. Conclusion: The scale was demonstrated to be a hierarchical scale of the Guttman type exhibiting homogeneous unidimensionality and good reliability. The high CR indicated that scores may be summed, and the very acceptable levels of CS indicated that the cumulative scores are meaningful within the defined concept of hierarchy used in this study

Charged-particle distributions in pp interactions at √s = 8 TeV measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC

This paper presents measurements of charged-particle distributions which are produced in proton\u2013proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 1as = 8 TeV and recorded by the ATLAS detector at the LHC. A special dataset recorded in 2012 with a small number of interactions per beam crossing (below 0.004) and corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 160 \u3bcb 121 was used. A minimum-bias trigger was utilised to select a data sample of more than 9 million collision events. The multiplicity, pseudorapidity, and transverse momentum distributions of charged particles are shown in different regions of kinematics and chargedparticle multiplicity, including measurements of final states at high multiplicity. The results are presented as particle-level distributions to which predictions of various Monte Carlo event generator models are compared