Complementary Roles of Orexin and Melanin-Concentrating Hormone in Feeding Behavior

Transcribed within the lateral hypothalamus, the neuropeptides orexin/hypocretin (OX) and melanin-concentrating hormone (MCH) both promote palatable food intake and are stimulated by palatable food. While these two neuropeptides share this similar positive relationship with food, recent evidence suggests that this occurs through different albeit complementary effects on behavior, with OX promoting food seeking and motivation for palatable food and MCH functioning during ongoing food intake, reinforcing the consumption of calorically dense foods. Further differences are evident in their effects on physiological processes, which are largely opposite in nature. For example, activation of OX receptors, which is neuronally excitatory, promotes waking, increases energy expenditure, and enhances limbic dopamine levels and reward. In contrast, activation of MCH receptors, which is neuronally inhibitory, promotes paradoxical sleep, enhances energy conservation, reduces limbic dopamine, and increases depressive behavior. This review describes these different effects of the neuropeptides, developing the hypothesis that they stimulate the consumption of palatable food through excessive seeking in the case of OX and through excessive energy conservation in the case of MCH. It proposes that OX initiates food intake and subsequently stimulates MCH which then acts to prolong the consumption of palatable, energy-dense food

Deep infrared observations of the puzzling central X-ray source in RCW103

1E 161348-5055 (1E 1613) is a point-like, soft X-ray source originally identified as a radio-quiet, isolated neutron star, shining at the center of the 2000 yr old supernova remnant RCW103. 1E 1613 features a puzzling 6.67 hour periodicity as well as a dramatic variability over a time scale of few years. Such a temporal behavior, coupled to the young age and to the lack of an obvious optical counterpart, makes 1E 1613 a unique source among all compact objects associated to SNRs. It could either be the first low-mass X-ray binary system discovered inside a SNR, or a peculiar isolated magnetar with an extremely slow spin period. Analysis of archival IR observations, performed in 2001 with the VLT/ISAAC instrument, and in 2002 with the NICMOS camera onboard HST unveils a very crowded field. A few sources are positionally consistent with the refined X-ray error region that we derived from the analysis of 13 Chandra observations. To shed light on the nature of 1E 1613, we have performed deep IR observations of the field with the NACO instrument at the ESO/VLT, searching for variability. We find no compelling reasons to associate any of the candidates to 1E 1613. On one side, within the frame of the binary system model for the X-ray source, it is very unlikely that one of the candidates be a low-mass companion star to 1E 1613. On the other side, if the X-ray source is an isolated magnetar surrounded by a fallback disc, we cannot exclude that the IR counterpart be hidden among the candidates. If none of the potential counterparts is linked to the X-ray source, 1E 1613 would remain undetected in the IR down to Ks>22.1. Such an upper limit is consistent only with an extremely low-mass star (an M6-M8 dwarf) at the position of 1E 1613, and makes rather problematic the interpretation of 1E 1613 as an accreting binary system.Comment: 26 pages, 5 figures. Accepted for publication in Ap

Echo-Mapping of Swift J1753.5-0127

We present two epochs of coordinated X-ray-optical timing observations of the black hole candidate Swift J1753.5-0127 during its 2005 outburst. The first epoch in July occurred at outburst peak. Two consecutive nights of observations using the McDonald Observatory Argos camera with the Rossi X-ray Timing Explorer show a consistent correlation with an immediate response and an extended tail lasting ~5s. The properties of the variability and the correlation are consistent with thermal reprocessing in an accretion disk. The shortness of the lag suggests a short orbital period consistent with that recently claimed. The second epoch in August used the VLT FORS2 HIT mode again in conjunction with RXTE. Again a repeatable correlation is seen between two independent subsets of the data. In this case, though, the cross-correlation function has an unusual structure comprising a dip followed by a double-peak. We suggest that this may be equivalent to the dip plus single peak structure seen by Kanbach et al. (2001) in XTE J1118+480 and attributed there to synchrotron emission; a similar structure was seen during later activity of Swift J1753.5-0127 by Durant et al. (2008).Comment: 7 pages, accepted for publication in Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Societ

The 69 ms Radio Pulsar Near the Supernova Remnant RCW 103

We report the detection of the radio pulsar counterpart to the 69 ms X-ray pulsar discovered near the supernova remnant RCW 103 (G332.4-0.4). Our detection confirms that the pulsations arise from a rotation-powered neutron star, which we name PSR J1617-5055. The observed barycentric period derivative confirms that the pulsar has a characteristic age of only 8 kyr, the sixth smallest of all known pulsars. The unusual apparent youth of the pulsar and its proximity to a young remnant requires that an association be considered. Although the respective ages and distances are consistent within substantial uncertainties, the large inferred pulsar transverse velocity is difficult to explain given the observed pulsar velocity distribution, the absence of evidence for a pulsar wind nebula, and the symmetry of the remnant. Rather, we argue that the objects are likely superposed on the sky; this is reasonable given the complex area. Without an association, the question of where is the supernova remnant left behind following the birth of PSR J1617-5055 remains open. We also discuss a possible association between PSR J1617-5055 and the gamma-ray source 2CG 333+01. Though an association is energetically plausible, it is unlikely given that EGRET did not detect 2CG 333+01.Comment: 18 pages, 2 encapsulated Postscript figures, uses AAS LaTeX style files. Accepted for publication in The Astrophysical Journal Letter

Hypothalamic Α 2 -Noradrenergic Receptor System Relation to Dietary, Genetic, and Hormonally Induced Obesity

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/73970/1/j.1749-6632.1989.tb53313.x.pd

Machine Learning Predictions Electronic Couplings for Charge Transport Calculations of P3HT

The purpose of this work is to lower the computational cost of predicting charge mobilities in organic semiconductors, which will benefit the screening of candidates for inexpensive solar power generation. We characterize efforts to minimize the number of expensive quantum chemical calculations we perform by training machines to predict electronic couplings between monomers of poly-(3-hexylthiophene). We test five machine learning techniques and identify random forests as the most accurate, information-dense, and easy-to-implement approach for this problem, achieving mean-absolute-error of 0.02 [× 1.6 × 10−19 J], R2 = 0.986, predicting electronic couplings 390 times faster than quantum chemical calculations, and informing zero-field hole mobilities within 5% of prior work. We discuss strategies for identifying small effective training sets. In sum, we demonstrate an example problem where machine learning techniques provide an effective reduction in computational costs while helping to understand underlying structure–property relationships in a materials system with broad applicability

Descending pathways from hypothalamus to dorsal motor vagus and ambiguus nuclei in the rat

The anatomical pathways between the hypothalamus and cell groups of the lower medulla that are involved in the neural control of endocrine pancreas activity were investigated. As part of this control system the descending pathways originating from lateral, dorsomedial and ventromedial hypothalamic nuclei towards the dorsal motor vagus and ambiguus nuclei, were studied by retrograde transport of horseradish peroxidase. Very small injections of the tracer, by means of the iontophoretic delivery method, were placed in the dorsal motor vagus, ambiguus and solitary tract nucleus as well as in the various nuclei of the medullary reticular formation. Subsequent retrograde labeling was studied in the hypothalamus and the brainstem. The appearance of considerable retrograde labeling in mesencephalic periventricular grey and rostral mesencephalic reticular formation indicated a possible role for these structures as intermediates in an indirect hypothalamo-medullary control circuitry. This led us to extend the peroxidase injections to these mesencephalic areas after which the hypothalamus was investigated for retrograde labeling. All data combined indicated the existence of three descending pathways, direct and indirect, between hypothalamus and the parasympathetic motor nuclei of the lower medulla.

On the continuous Cesàro operator in certain function spaces

“The final publication is available at Springer via http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s11117-014-0321-5"Various properties of the (continuous) Cesàro operator C, acting on Banach and Fréchet spaces of continuous functions and L p-spaces, are investigated. For instance, the spectrum and point spectrum of C are completely determined and a study of certain dynamics of C is undertaken (eg. hyper- and supercyclicity, chaotic behaviour). In addition, the mean (and uniform mean) ergodic nature of C acting in the various spaces is identified.The research of the first two authors was partially supported by the projects MTM2010-15200 and GVA Prometeo II/2013/013 (Spain). The second author gratefully acknowledges the support of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.Albanese, AA.; Bonet Solves, JA.; Ricker, WJ. (2015). On the continuous Cesàro operator in certain function spaces. Positivity. 19:659-679. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11117-014-0321-5S65967919Albanese, A.A.: Primary products of Banach spaces. Arch. Math. 66, 397–405 (1996)Albanese, A.A.: On subspaces of the spaces $$L^p_{\rm loc}$$ L loc p and of their strong duals. Math. Nachr. 197, 5–18 (1999)Albanese, A.A., Moscatelli, V.B.: Complemented subspaces of sums and products of copies of $$L^1 [0,1]$$ L 1 [ 0 , 1 ] . Rev. Mat. Univ. Complut. Madr. 9, 275–287 (1996)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Mean ergodic operators in Fréchet spaces. Ann. Acad. Sci. Fenn. Math. 34, 401–436 (2009)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: On mean ergodic operators. In: Curbera, G.P. (eds.) Vector Measures, Integration and Related Topics. Operator Theory: Advances and Applications, vol. 201, pp. 1–20. Birkhäuser, Basel (2010)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: $$C_0$$ C 0 -semigroups and mean ergodic operators in a class of Fréchet spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 365, 142–157 (2010)Albanese, A.A., Bonet, J., Ricker, W.J.: Convergence of arithmetic means of operators in Fréchet spaces. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 401, 160–173 (2013)Bayart, F., Matheron, E.: Dynamics of linear operators. Cambridge Tracts in Mathematics, vol. 179. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2009)Bellenot, S.F., Dubinsky, E.: Fréchet spaces with nuclear Köthe quotients. Trans. Am. Math. Soc. 273, 579–594 (1982)Bonet, J., Frerick, L., Peris, A., Wengenroth, J.: Transitive and hypercyclic operators on locally convex spaces. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 37, 254–264 (2005)Boyd, D.W.: The spectrum of the Cesàro operator. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 29, 31–34 (1968)Brown, A., Halmos, P.R., Shields, A.L.: Cesàro operators. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 26, 125–137 (1965)Dierolf, S., Zarnadze, D.N.: A note on strictly regular Fréchet spaces. Arch. Math. 42, 549–556 (1984)Dunford, N., Schwartz, J.T.: Linear Operators I: General Theory (2nd Printing). Wiley-Interscience, New York (1964)Galaz Fontes, F., Solís, F.J.: Iterating the Cesàro operators. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 136, 2147–2153 (2008)Galaz Fontes, F., Ruiz-Aguilar, R.W.: Grados de ciclicidad de los operadores de Cesàro–Hardy. Misc. Mat. 57, 103–117 (2013)González, M., León-Saavedra, F.: Cyclic behaviour of the Cesàro operator on $$L_2(0,+\infty )$$ L 2 ( 0 , + ∞ ) . Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 137, 2049–2055 (2009)Grosse-Erdmann, K.G., Peris Manguillot, A.: Linear chaos. In: Universitext. Springer, London (2011)Hardy, G.H., Littlewood, J.E., Pólya, G.: Inequalities. In: Reprint of the 1952 Edition. Cambridge Mathematical Library. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (1988)Krengel, U.: Ergodic theorems. In: De Gruyter Studies in Mathematics, vol. 6. Walter de Gruyter Co., Berlin (1985)Leibowitz, G.M.: Spectra of finite range Cesàro operators. Acta Sci. Math. (Szeged) 35, 27–28 (1973)Leibowitz, G.M.: The Cesàro operators and their generalizations: examples in infinite-dimensional linear analysis. Am. Math. Mon. 80, 654–661 (1973)León-Saavedra, F., Piqueras-Lerena, A., Seoane-Sepúlveda, J.B.: Orbits of Cesàro type operators. Math. Nachr. 282, 764–773 (2009)Lin, M.: On the uniform ergodic theorem. Proc. Am. Math. Soc. 43, 337–340 (1974)Meise, R., Vogt, D.: Introduction to functional analysis. In: Oxford Graduate Texts in Mathematics, vol. 2. The Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, New York (1997)Metafune, G., Moscatelli, V.B.: Quojections and prequojections. In: Terzioğlu, T. (ed.) Advances in the Theory of Fréchet spaces. NATO ASI Series, vol. 287, pp. 235–254. Kluwer Academic Publishers, Dordrecht (1989)Moscatelli, V.B.: Fréchet spaces without norms and without bases. Bull. Lond. Math. Soc. 12, 63–66 (1980)Piszczek, K.: Quasi-reflexive Fréchet spaces and mean ergodicity. J. Math. Anal. Appl. 361, 224–233 (2010)Piszczek, K.: Barrelled spaces and mean ergodicity. Rev R. Acad. Cienc. Exactas Fis. Nat. Ser. A Math. RACSAM 104, 5–11 (2010)Yosida, K.: Functional Analysis, 6th edn. Springer, Berlin (1980

Argonne National Laboratory Reports

Report describing the research and development activities related to reactor fuels and fast-reactor programs conducted by the Argonne National Laboratory Chemical Engineering Division

Whole Earth Telescope observations of the hot helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf EC 20058-5234

We present the analysis of a total of 177h of high-quality optical time-series photometry of the helium atmosphere pulsating white dwarf (DBV) EC 20058-5234. The bulk of the observations (135h) were obtained during a WET campaign (XCOV15) in July 1997 that featured coordinated observing from 4 southern observatory sites over an 8-day period. The remaining data (42h) were obtained in June 2004 at Mt John Observatory in NZ over a one-week observing period. This work significantly extends the discovery observations of this low-amplitude (few percent) pulsator by increasing the number of detected frequencies from 8 to 18, and employs a simulation procedure to confirm the reality of these frequencies to a high level of significance (1 in 1000). The nature of the observed pulsation spectrum precludes identification of unique pulsation mode properties using any clearly discernable trends. However, we have used a global modelling procedure employing genetic algorithm techniques to identify the n, l values of 8 pulsation modes, and thereby obtain asteroseismic measurements of several model parameters, including the stellar mass (0.55 M_sun) and T_eff (~28200 K). These values are consistent with those derived from published spectral fitting: T_eff ~ 28400 K and log g ~ 7.86. We also present persuasive evidence from apparent rotational mode splitting for two of the modes that indicates this compact object is a relatively rapid rotator with a period of 2h. In direct analogy with the corresponding properties of the hydrogen (DAV) atmosphere pulsators, the stable low-amplitude pulsation behaviour of EC 20058 is entirely consistent with its inferred effective temperature, which indicates it is close to the blue edge of the DBV instability strip. (abridged)Comment: 19 pages, 8 figures, 5 tables, MNRAS accepte