Temperature but not leptin prevents semi-starvation induced hyperactivity in rats: implications for anorexia nervosa treatment

The hypothesis linking hyperactivity with weight loss associated hypoleptinemia in anorexia nervosa gained momentum after a study showing that leptin suppressed semi-starvation induced hyperactivity in rats. Alternatively, ambient temperature is a key modulating factor of activity in semi-starved rats. The aim of the study is to compare the efficacy of leptin with increased ambient temperature in the prevention of hyperactivity in semi-starved rats. 74 Sprague-Dawley male rats were employed in two experiments with the difference residing in the length of baseline. After an extended (28 days), or shorter (14 days) baseline with free access to food and the running wheel, housed at 21 degrees C, animals were either ad-lib feed or food restricted (60% of food ingested during previous week) and infused with same amount of leptin at 21 degrees C, 25 degrees C, or vehicle at 21 degrees C, 25 degrees C and 32 degrees C for a week. Animals housed at 32 degrees C significantly reduced wheel running and weight loss during food restriction while animals given leptin did not yield no differences in activity or weight loss. Moreover, unlike animals housed at 32 degrees C, body temperature of leptin infused animals housed at 21 degrees C was significantly reduced during food restriction. Furthermore, leptin treated rats without a preceding stable pattern of activity displayed a severe dysregulation of circadian rhythm in activity and a collapse of body temperature. Housing temperature plays a more critical role than leptin in the regulation of semi-starvation induced hyperactivity in rats, which may be of relevance for the management of hyperactivity in anorexia nervosa

Molecular identification of isolates of the Trichophyton mentagrophytes complex

Background: The Trichophyton mentagrophytes complex is the second most common causal agent of dermatophytosis. It comprises five species-T. mentagrophytes, T. interdigitale, T. erinacei, T quinckeanum, and T. benhamie, as well as nine different genotypes of T. mentagrophytes / T. interdigitale-which are morphologically similar; however, their susceptibility to antifungal agents may differ. For targeted therapy and better prognosis, it is important to identify these species at a molecular level. However, since many hospitals lack molecular methods, the actual aetiology of dermatophytosis caused by this complex remains unknown. Objective: To characterize 55 anthropophilic isolates of the T. mentagrophytes complex recovered from a dermatological centre in Yucatan, Mexico. Material and methods: Fifty-five isolates of the T. mentagrophytes complex were obtained from patients with tinea capitis, tinea pedis, tinea corporis, tinea barbae, and tinea unguium. They were characterized by their colonial and microscopic morphology on Sabouraud dextrose agar (SDA) and through the sequencing of a fragment from the region ITS1-5.8S-ITS2. Results: All colonies grown on SDA were white. Forty-six isolates formed colonies with a powdery texture, while nine isolates formed colonies with a velvety texture. The micromorphological features were typical of the T. mentagrophytes complex. The molecular analysis revealed that 55 isolates were microorganisms that belonged to the T. mentagrophytes complex, that 46 formed powdery colonies representing T. mentagrophytes, and that the other nine isolates that formed velvety colonies represented T. interdigitale. The latter nine isolates were obtained from patients with tinea pedis, tinea corporis, and tinea unguium. Conclusions: The colony morphology on SDA led to the identification of 46 isolates as T. mentagrophytes and nine isolates as T. interdigitale. At a molecular level, the species identified by their morphology were identified only as T. mentagrophytes complex

Resonant X-ray Scattering in Manganites - Study of Orbital Degree of Freedom -

Orbital degree of freedom of electrons and its interplay with spin, charge and lattice degrees of freedom are one of the central issues in colossal magnetoresistive manganites. The orbital degree of freedom has until recently remained hidden, since it does not couple directly to most of experimental probes. Development of synchrotron light sources has changed the situation; by the resonant x-ray scattering (RXS) technique the orbital ordering has successfully been observed . In this article, we review progress in the recent studies of RXS in manganites. We start with a detailed review of the RXS experiments applied to the orbital ordered manganites and other correlated electron systems. We derive the scattering cross section of RXS where the tensor character of the atomic scattering factor (ASF) with respect to the x-ray polarization is stressed. Microscopic mechanisms of the anisotropic tensor character of ASF is introduced and numerical results of ASF and the scattering intensity are presented. The azimuthal angle scan is a unique experimental method to identify RXS from the orbital degree of freedom. A theory of the azimuthal angle and polarization dependence of the RXS intensity is presented. The theoretical results show good agreement with the experiments in manganites. Apart from the microscopic description of ASF, a theoretical framework of RXS to relate directly to the 3d orbital is presented. The scattering cross section is represented by the correlation function of the pseudo-spin operator for the orbital degree of freedom. A theory is extended to the resonant inelastic x-ray scattering and methods to observe excitations of the orbital degree of freedom are proposed.Comment: 47 pages, 24 figures, submitted to Rep. Prog. Phy

Joint Observation of the Galactic Center with MAGIC and CTA-LST-1

MAGIC is a system of two Imaging Atmospheric Cherenkov Telescopes (IACTs), designed to detect very-high-energy gamma rays, and is operating in stereoscopic mode since 2009 at the Observatorio del Roque de Los Muchachos in La Palma, Spain. In 2018, the prototype IACT of the Large-Sized Telescope (LST-1) for the Cherenkov Telescope Array, a next-generation ground-based gamma-ray observatory, was inaugurated at the same site, at a distance of approximately 100 meters from the MAGIC telescopes. Using joint observations between MAGIC and LST-1, we developed a dedicated analysis pipeline and established the threefold telescope system via software, achieving the highest sensitivity in the northern hemisphere. Based on this enhanced performance, MAGIC and LST-1 have been jointly and regularly observing the Galactic Center, a region of paramount importance and complexity for IACTs. In particular, the gamma-ray emission from the dynamical center of the Milky Way is under debate. Although previous measurements suggested that a supermassive black hole Sagittarius A* plays a primary role, its radiation mechanism remains unclear, mainly due to limited angular resolution and sensitivity. The enhanced sensitivity in our novel approach is thus expected to provide new insights into the question. We here present the current status of the data analysis for the Galactic Center joint MAGIC and LST-1 observations

A search for an unexpected asymmetry in the production of e+μ− and e−μ+ pairs in proton-proton collisions recorded by the ATLAS detector at root s = 13 TeV

This search, a type not previously performed at ATLAS, uses a comparison of the production cross sections for e(+)mu(-) and e(-)mu(+) pairs to constrain physics processes beyond the Standard Model. It uses 139 fb(-1) of proton-proton collision data recorded at root s = 13 TeV at the LHC. Targeting sources of new physics which prefer final states containing e(+)mu(-) and e(-)mu(+), the search contains two broad signal regions which are used to provide model-independent constraints on the ratio of cross sections at the 2% level. The search also has two special selections targeting supersymmetric models and leptoquark signatures. Observations using one of these selections are able to exclude, at 95% confidence level, singly produced smuons with masses up to 640 GeV in a model in which the only other light sparticle is a neutralino when the R-parity-violating coupling lambda(23)(1)' is close to unity. Observations using the other selection exclude scalar leptoquarks with masses below 1880 GeV when g(1R)(eu) = g(1R)(mu c) = 1, at 95% confidence level. The limit on the coupling reduces to g(1R)(eu) = g(1R)(mu c) = 0.46 for a mass of 1420 GeV

Measurement of the nuclear modification factor for muons from charm and bottom hadrons in Pb+Pb collisions at 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector

Heavy-flavour hadron production provides information about the transport properties and microscopic structure of the quark-gluon plasma created in ultra-relativistic heavy-ion collisions. A measurement of the muons from semileptonic decays of charm and bottom hadrons produced in Pb+Pb and pp collisions at a nucleon-nucleon centre-of-mass energy of 5.02 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the Large Hadron Collider is presented. The Pb+Pb data were collected in 2015 and 2018 with sampled integrated luminosities of 208 mu b(-1) and 38 mu b(-1), respectively, and pp data with a sampled integrated luminosity of 1.17 pb(-1) were collected in 2017. Muons from heavy-flavour semileptonic decays are separated from the light-flavour hadronic background using the momentum imbalance between the inner detector and muon spectrometer measurements, and muons originating from charm and bottom decays are further separated via the muon track's transverse impact parameter. Differential yields in Pb+Pb collisions and differential cross sections in pp collisions for such muons are measured as a function of muon transverse momentum from 4 GeV to 30 GeV in the absolute pseudorapidity interval vertical bar eta vertical bar < 2. Nuclear modification factors for charm and bottom muons are presented as a function of muon transverse momentum in intervals of Pb+Pb collision centrality. The bottom muon results are the most precise measurement of b quark nuclear modification at low transverse momentum where reconstruction of B hadrons is challenging. The measured nuclear modification factors quantify a significant suppression of the yields of muons from decays of charm and bottom hadrons, with stronger effects for muons from charm hadron decays

Inclusive and multiplicity dependent production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp and p-Pb collisions

Measurements of the production of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in pp collisions at root s = 13 TeV at midrapidity with the ALICE detector are presented down to a transverse momentum (p(T)) of 0.2 GeV/c and up to p(T) = 35 GeV/c, which is the largest momentum range probed for inclusive electron measurements in ALICE. In p-Pb collisions, the production cross section and the nuclear modification factor of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays are measured in the p(T) range 0.5 < p(T) < 26 GeV/c at root s(NN) = 8.16 TeV. The nuclear modification factor is found to be consistent with unity within the statistical and systematic uncertainties. In both collision systems, first measurements of the yields of electrons from heavy-flavour hadron decays in different multiplicity intervals normalised to the multiplicity-integrated yield (self-normalised yield) at midrapidity are reported as a function of the self-normalised charged-particle multiplicity estimated at midrapidity. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions grow faster than linear with the self-normalised multiplicity. A strong p(T) dependence is observed in pp collisions, where the yield of high-p(T) electrons increases faster as a function of multiplicity than the one of low-p(T) electrons. The measurement in p-Pb collisions shows no p(T) dependence within uncertainties. The self-normalised yields in pp and p-Pb collisions are compared with measurements of other heavy-flavour, light-flavour, and strange particles, and with Monte Carlo simulations

Measurement of the non-prompt D-meson fraction as a function of multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at s \sqrt{s} = 13 TeV

The fractions of non-prompt (i.e. originating from beauty-hadron decays) D0 and D+ mesons with respect to the inclusive yield are measured as a function of the charged-particle multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 13 TeV with the ALICE detector at the LHC. The results are reported in intervals of transverse momentum (pT) and integrated in the range 1 < pT < 24 GeV/c. The fraction of non-prompt D0 and D+ mesons is found to increase slightly as a function of pT in all the measured multiplicity intervals, while no significant dependence on the charged- particle multiplicity is observed. In order to investigate the production and hadronisation mechanisms of charm and beauty quarks, the results are compared to PYTHIA 8 as well as EPOS 3 and EPOS 4 Monte Carlo simulations, and to calculations based on the colour glass condensate including three-pomeron fusion

Characterizing the initial conditions of heavy-ion collisions at the LHC with mean transverse momentum and anisotropic flow correlations

Correlations between mean transverse momentum and anisotropic flow coefficients or are measured as a function of centrality in Pb–Pb and Xe–Xe collisions at sqrt(sNN) = 5.02 TeV and 5.44 TeV, respectively, with ALICE. In addition, the recently proposed higher-order correlation between [pt], v2, and v3 is measured for the first time, which shows an anticorrelation for the presented centrality ranges. These measurements are compared with hydrodynamic calculations using IP-Glasma and TRENTO initial-state shapes, the former based on the Color Glass Condensate effective theory with gluon saturation, and the latter a parameterized model with nucleons as the relevant degrees of freedom. The data are better described by the IP-Glasma rather than the TRENTO based calculations. In particular, Trajectum and JETSCAPE predictions, both based on the TRENTO initial state model but with different parameter settings, fail to describe the measurements. As the correlations between [pt] and vn are mainly driven by the correlations of the size and the shape of the system in the initial state, these new studies pave a novel way to characterize the initial state and help pin down the uncertainty of the extracted properties of the quark–gluon plasma recreated in relativistic heavy-ion collisions