1,106 research outputs found
Quantitative evaluation of motor function before and after engraftment of dopaminergic neurons in a rat model of Parkinson's disease
Although gait change is considered a useful indicator of severity in animal models of Parkinson's disease, systematic and extensive gait analysis in animal models of neurological deficits is not well established. The CatWalk-assisted automated gait analysis system provides a comprehensive way to assess a number of dynamic and static gait parameters simultaneously. In this study, we used the Catwalk system to investigate changes in gait parameters in adult rats with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions and the rescue effect of dopaminergic neuron transplantation on gait function. Four weeks after 6-OHDA injection, the intensity and maximal area of contact were significantly decreased in the affected paws and the swing speed significantly decreased in all four paws. The relative distance between the hind paws also increased, suggesting that animals with unilateral 6-OHDA-induced lesions required all four paws to compensate for loss of balance function. At 8 weeks post-transplantation, engrafted dopaminergic neurons expressed tyrosine hydroxylase. In addition, the intensity, contact area, and swing speed of the four limbs increased and the distance between the hind paws decreased. Partial recovery of methamphetamine-induced rotational response was also noted
Molecular Fountain
The resolution of any spectroscopic or interferometric experiment is
ultimately limited by the total time a particle is interrogated. We here
demonstrate the first molecular fountain, a development which permits hitherto
unattainably long interrogation times with molecules. In our experiments,
ammonia molecules are decelerated and cooled using electric fields, launched
upwards with a velocity between 1.4 and 1.9\,m/s and observed as they fall back
under gravity. A combination of quadrupole lenses and bunching elements is used
to shape the beam such that it has a large position spread and a small velocity
spread (corresponding to a transverse temperature of 10\,K and a
longitudinal temperature of 1\,K) when the molecules are in free fall,
while being strongly focused at the detection region. The molecules are in free
fall for up to 266\,milliseconds, making it possible to perform sub-Hz
measurements in molecular systems and paving the way for stringent tests of
fundamental physics theories
Look, the World is Watching How We Treat Migrants! The Making of the Anti-Trafficking Legislation during the Ma Administration
Employing the spiral model, this research analyses how anti-human trafficking legislation was promulgated during the Ma Ying-jeou (Ma Yingjiu) presidency. This research found that the government of Taiwan was just as accountable for the violation of migrantsâ human rights as the exploitive placement agencies and abusive employers. This research argues that, given its reliance on the United States for political and security support, Taiwan has made great efforts to improve its human rights records and meet US standards for protecting human rights. The reform was a result of multilevel inputs, including US pressure and collaboration between transnational and domestic advocacy groups. A major contribution of this research is to challenge the belief that human rights protection is intrinsic to democracy. In the same light, this research also cautions against Tai-wanâs subscription to US norms since the reform was achieved at the cost of stereotyping trafficking victimhood, legitimising state surveillance, and further marginalising sex workers
The Power of Duples (in Self-Assembly): It's Not So Hip To Be Square
In this paper we define the Dupled abstract Tile Assembly Model (DaTAM),
which is a slight extension to the abstract Tile Assembly Model (aTAM) that
allows for not only the standard square tiles, but also "duple" tiles which are
rectangles pre-formed by the joining of two square tiles. We show that the
addition of duples allows for powerful behaviors of self-assembling systems at
temperature 1, meaning systems which exclude the requirement of cooperative
binding by tiles (i.e., the requirement that a tile must be able to bind to at
least 2 tiles in an existing assembly if it is to attach). Cooperative binding
is conjectured to be required in the standard aTAM for Turing universal
computation and the efficient self-assembly of shapes, but we show that in the
DaTAM these behaviors can in fact be exhibited at temperature 1. We then show
that the DaTAM doesn't provide asymptotic improvements over the aTAM in its
ability to efficiently build thin rectangles. Finally, we present a series of
results which prove that the temperature-2 aTAM and temperature-1 DaTAM have
mutually exclusive powers. That is, each is able to self-assemble shapes that
the other can't, and each has systems which cannot be simulated by the other.
Beyond being of purely theoretical interest, these results have practical
motivation as duples have already proven to be useful in laboratory
implementations of DNA-based tiles
Relativistic close coupling calculations for photoionization and recombination of Ne-like Fe XVII
Relativistic and channel coupling effects in photoionization and unified
electronic recombination of Fe XVII are demonstrated with an extensive 60-level
close coupling calculation using the Breit-Pauli R-matrix method.
Photoionization and (e + ion) recombination calculations are carried out for
the total and the level-specific cross sections, including the ground and
several hundred excited bound levels of Fe XVII (up to fine structure levels
with n = 10). The unified (e + ion) recombination calculations for (e + Fe
XVIII --> Fe XVII) include both the non-resonant and resonant recombination
(`radiative' and `dielectronic recombination' -- RR and DR). The low-energy and
the high energy cross sections are compared from: (i) a 3-level calculation
with 2s^2p^5 (^2P^o_{1/2,3/2}) and 2s2p^6 (^2S_{1/2}), and (ii) the first
60-level calculation with \Delta n > 0 coupled channels with spectroscopic
2s^2p^5, 2s2p^6, 2s^22p^4 3s, 3p, 3d, configurations, and a number of
correlation configurations. Strong channel coupling effects are demonstrated
throughout the energy ranges considered, in particular via giant
photoexcitation-of-core (PEC) resonances due to L-M shell dipole transition
arrays 2p^5 --> 2p^4 3s, 3d in Fe XIII that enhance effective cross sections by
orders of magnitude. Comparison is made with previous theoretical and
experimental works on photoionization and recombination that considered the
relatively small low-energy region (i), and the weaker \Delta n = 0 couplings.
While the 3-level results are inadequate, the present 60-level results should
provide reasonably complete and accurate datasets for both photoionization and
(e + ion) recombination of Fe~XVII in laboratory and astrophysical plasmas.Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, Phys. Rev. A (submitted
Associated production of charged Higgs bosons and top quarks with POWHEG
The associated production of charged Higgs bosons and top quarks at hadron
colliders is an important discovery channel to establish the existence of a
non-minimal Higgs sector. Here, we present details of a next-to-leading order
(NLO) calculation of this process using the Catani-Seymour dipole formalism and
describe its implementation in POWHEG, which allows to match NLO calculations
to parton showers. Numerical predictions are presented using the PYTHIA parton
shower and are compared to those obtained previously at fixed order, to a
leading order calculation matched to the PYTHIA parton shower, and to a
different NLO calculation matched to the HERWIG parton shower with MC@NLO. We
also present numerical predictions and theoretical uncertainties for various
Two Higgs Doublet Models at the Tevatron and LHC.Comment: 36 page
SARS Coronavirus Detection Methods
Using clinical samples from patients with severe acute respiratory syndrome, we showed that the sensitivities of a quantitative reverse transcriptionâpolymerase chain reaction (80% for fecal samples and 25% for urine samples) were higher than those of the polyclonal (50% and 5%) and monoclonal (35% and 8%) antibody-based nucleocapsid antigen capture enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays
Characterization of a Mixed Methanotrophic Culture Capable of Chloroethylene Degradation
A consortium of methanotrophs cultured from the St. Joseph's aquifer in Schoolcraft, MI, was found to exhibit similar methane consumption rates as pure cultures of methanotrophs. The methanotrophic consortium resides within a portion of the aquifer contaminated with a mixed waste plume of perchloroethylene (PCE) and its reductive dechlorination products from natural attenuation, trichloroethylene (TCE), cis-dichloroethylene (c-DCE), and vinyl chloride (VC). Oxidation kinetics for TCE, c-DCE, and VC were measured for the mixed methanotroph consortium and compared to reported rate parameters for degradation of these chloroethylene compounds by pure methanotrophic cultures. The results demonstrate that the kinetics of chloroethylene oxidation by the Schoolcraft methanotroph population mimic the degradation rates of pure methanotrophic cultures that primarily express particulate methane monooxygenase (pMMO). Molecular and biochemical analyses confirmed that sMMO was not being expressed by these cells. Rather, using competitive reverse transcriptionpolymerase chain reaction, pmoA, a gene encoding one of the polypeptides of the pMMO was found at a level of (1.57 ± 0.10) Ă 10â17 mol pmoA mRNA/g wet soil in soil slurries and (2.65 ± 0.43) Ă 10â17 mol pmoA mRNA/ÎŒl in groundwater. No expression of mmoX, a gene encoding one of the polypeptides of the sMMO, was detected.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/63398/1/ees.2005.22.177.pd
Model Analysis of Time Reversal Symmetry Test in the Caltech Fe-57 Gamma-Transition Experiment
The CALTECH gamma-transition experiment testing time reversal symmetry via
the E2/M1 mulipole mixing ratio of the 122 keV gamma-line in Fe-57 has already
been performed in 1977. Extending an earlier analysis in terms of an effective
one-body potential, this experiment is now analyzed in terms of effective one
boson exchange T-odd P-even nucleon nucleon potentials. Within the model space
considered for the Fe-57 nucleus no contribution from isovector rho-type
exchange is possible. The bound on the coupling strength phi_A from effective
short range axial-vector type exchange induced by the experimental bound on
sin(eta) leads to phi_A < 10^{-2}.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex 3.
New Lymphogranuloma Venereum Chlamydia trachomatis Variant, Amsterdam
We retrospectively conducted a study of men who have sex with men who visited the Amsterdam, the Netherlands, sexually transmitted diseases clinic from January 2002 to December 2003 and had rectal Chlamydia trachomatis infections. We found that symptomatic (73%) as well as asymptomatic (43%) patients were infected with a new C. trachomatis LGV variant
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