3,461 research outputs found
Does Protest âDistractâ Athletes From Performing? Evidence From the National Anthem Demonstrations in the National Football League
While there is a long tradition of activism within sport, a popular criticism of athlete protest is that it is a âdistractionâ that hinders on-field performance. The widespread demonstrations against racial injustice in 2017 among players in the National Football League (NFL) provided an opportunity to test this âdistraction hypothesis.â Using data drawn from multiple sources, we first explored which factors predicted player protest, finding that Black players and those playing for underdogs were more likely to protest. Then, using a series of analyses at the player-game level (nâ=â19,051) and the team-game level (nâ=â512), we tested the assertion that protest is detrimental to individual or team performance, finding no evidence for a distraction effect. The results of this study allow us to better understand social factors that may affect athletic performance or constrain athlete activism
Temporally Resolved Intensity Contouring (TRIC) for characterization of the absolute spatio-temporal intensity distribution of a relativistic, femtosecond laser pulse
Today's high-power laser systems are capable of reaching photon intensities
up to W/cm^2, generating plasmas when interacting with material. The
high intensity and ultrashort laser pulse duration (fs) make direct observation
of plasma dynamics a challenging task. In the field of laser-plasma physics and
especially for the acceleration of ions, the spatio-temporal intensity
distribution is one of the most critical aspects. We describe a novel method
based on a single-shot (i.e. single laser pulse) chirped probing scheme, taking
nine sequential frames at framerates up to THz. This technique, to which we
refer as temporally resolved intensity contouring (TRIC) enables single-shot
measurement of laser-plasma dynamics. Using TRIC, we demonstrate the
reconstruction of the complete spatio-temporal intensity distribution of a
high-power laser pulse in the focal plane at full pulse energy with sub
picosecond resolution.Comment: Daniel Haffa, Jianhui Bin and Martin Speicher are corresponding
author
Tyrosine Hydroxylase and DOPA Decarboxylase Gene Variants in Personality Traits
Personality influences several characteristics of normal and pathologic behaviors and it is associated with neurotransmitter systems that are under genetic control. The dopaminergic system has been proposed to play a role in the modulation of personality traits. In the present study, variants of the tyrosine hydroxylase (TH) and DOPA decarboxylase (DDC) genes (for TH: rs3842727, rs6356; for DDC: rs1451371, rs1470750, rs998850) were investigated in 111 suicide attempters and 289 healthy subjects to assess the involvement of the dopaminergic synthesis pathway in personality traits. No strong evidence was found for the associations between personality and TH or DDC in overall tests. An interaction effect of genotype and diagnosis was present, with TH and DDC SNPs having a greater effect on the respective personality dimensions in the group of suicide attempters. Because of the risk of false positives, these findings should be interpreted with highest caution. Direct replication attempts within independent groups of suicide attempters will help to resolve this question. Copyright (C) 2009 S. Karger AG, Base
Brown Tumors Belong to the Spectrum of KRAS-driven Neoplasms
Brown tumors are rare and generally self-limiting mass lesions of bone occurring in the context of hyperparathyroidism. Although commonly regarded as endocrine-driven tumor-like lesions, we detected pathogenic hotspot KRAS mutations in 10/16 brown tumors (62%) with similar frequencies found in cases affecting the peripheral and axial skeleton. Pathogenic mutations in other driver genes of the RAS-MAPK pathway were not identified. Our findings suggest brown tumors to represent true neoplasms driven by the activation of the RAS-MAPK signaling pathway. The frequent regression of brown tumors after normalization of hyperparathyroidism points to a second hit mediated by endocrine stimulation to be required for tumor development. Our findings underline the pathogenic relation of brown tumors to nonossifying fibroma and giant cell granuloma of the jaws which both appear histologically similar to brown tumors and are also driven by RAS-MAPK signaling pathway activation
Moving Beyond the catchment scale: value and opportunities in large-scale hydrology to understand our changing world
International audienc
Methylxanthines and Neurodegenerative Diseases: An Update
Methylxanthines (MTX) are purine derived xanthine derivatives. Whereas naturally
occurring methylxanthines like caffeine, theophylline or theobromine are widely consumed in food,
several synthetic but also non-synthetic methylxanthines are used as pharmaceuticals, in particular in
treating airway constrictions. Besides the well-established bronchoprotective effects, methylxanthines
are also known to have anti-inflammatory and anti-oxidative properties, mediate changes in lipid
homeostasis and have neuroprotective effects. Known molecular mechanisms include adenosine
receptor antagonism, phosphodiesterase inhibition, effects on the cholinergic system, wnt signaling,
histone deacetylase activation and gene regulation. By affecting several pathways associated with
neurodegenerative diseases via different pleiotropic mechanisms and due to its moderate side
effects, intake of methylxanthines have been suggested to be an interesting approach in dealing with
neurodegeneration. Especially in the past years, the impact of methylxanthines in neurodegenerative
diseases has been extensively studied and several new aspects have been elucidated. In this review
we summarize the findings of methylxanthines linked to AlzheimerÂŽs disease, Parkinsonâs disease
and Multiple Sclerosis since 2017, focusing on epidemiological and clinical studies and addressing
the underlying molecular mechanisms in cell culture experiments and animal studies in order to
assess the neuroprotective potential of methylxanthines in these diseases
Toward a systematic 1/d expansion: Two particle properties
We present a procedure to calculate 1/d corrections to the two-particle
properties around the infinite dimensional dynamical mean field limit. Our
method is based on a modified version of the scheme of Ref.
onlinecite{SchillerIngersent}}. To test our method we study the Hubbard model
at half filling within the fluctuation exchange approximation (FLEX), a
selfconsistent generalization of iterative perturbation theory. Apart from the
inherent unstabilities of FLEX, our method is stable and results in causal
solutions. We find that 1/d corrections to the local approximation are
relatively small in the Hubbard model.Comment: 4 pages, 4 eps figures, REVTe
Unique Role of Caffeine Compared to Other Methylxanthines (Theobromine, Theophylline, Pentoxifylline, Propentofylline) in Regulation of AD Relevant Genes in Neuroblastoma SH-SY5Y Wild Type Cells
Methylxanthines are a group of substances derived from the purine base xanthine with
a methyl group at the nitrogen on position 3 and different residues at the nitrogen on position 1
and 7. They are widely consumed in nutrition and used as pharmaceuticals. Here we investigate
the transcriptional regulation of 83 genes linked to Alzheimerâs disease in the presence of five
methylxanthines, including the most prominent naturally occurring methylxanthinesâcaffeine,
theophylline and theobromineâand the synthetic methylxanthines pentoxifylline and propentofylline.
Methylxanthine-regulated genes were found in pathways involved in processes including oxidative
stress, lipid homeostasis, signal transduction, transcriptional regulation, as well as pathways involved
in neuronal function. Interestingly, multivariate analysis revealed different or inverse effects on gene
regulation for caffeine compared to the other methylxanthines, which was further substantiated by
multiple comparison analysis, pointing out a distinct role for caffeine in gene regulation. Our results
not only underline the beneficial effects of methylxanthines in the regulation of genes in neuroblastoma
wild-type cells linked to neurodegenerative diseases in general, but also demonstrate that individual
methylxanthines like caffeine mediate unique or inverse expression patterns. This suggests that the
replacement of single methylxanthines by others could result in unexpected effects, which could not
be anticipated by the comparison to other substances in this substance class
The three-dimensional random field Ising magnet: interfaces, scaling, and the nature of states
The nature of the zero temperature ordering transition in the 3D Gaussian
random field Ising magnet is studied numerically, aided by scaling analyses. In
the ferromagnetic phase the scaling of the roughness of the domain walls,
, is consistent with the theoretical prediction .
As the randomness is increased through the transition, the probability
distribution of the interfacial tension of domain walls scales as for a single
second order transition. At the critical point, the fractal dimensions of
domain walls and the fractal dimension of the outer surface of spin clusters
are investigated: there are at least two distinct physically important fractal
dimensions. These dimensions are argued to be related to combinations of the
energy scaling exponent, , which determines the violation of
hyperscaling, the correlation length exponent , and the magnetization
exponent . The value is derived from the
magnetization: this estimate is supported by the study of the spin cluster size
distribution at criticality. The variation of configurations in the interior of
a sample with boundary conditions is consistent with the hypothesis that there
is a single transition separating the disordered phase with one ground state
from the ordered phase with two ground states. The array of results are shown
to be consistent with a scaling picture and a geometric description of the
influence of boundary conditions on the spins. The details of the algorithm
used and its implementation are also described.Comment: 32 pp., 2 columns, 32 figure
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