Commensurate and modulated magnetic phases in orthorhombic A1C60

Competing magnetically ordered structures in polymerized orthorhombic A1C60 are studied. A mean-field theory for the equilibrium phases is developed using an Ising model and a classical Heisenberg model to describe the competition between inter- and intra-chain magnetic order in the solid. In the Ising model, the limiting commensurate one-dimensional and three-dimensional phases are separated by a commensurate three-sublattice state and by two sectors containing higher-order commensurate phases. For the Heisenberg model the quasi-1D phase is never the equilibrium state; instead the 3D commensurate phases exhibits a transition to a continuum of coplanar spiral magnetic phases.Comment: 11 pages REVTeX 3.0 plus 4 figures appende

Reduced prospective motor control in 10-month-olds at risk for autism spectrum disorder

Motor impairments are not a part of the diagnostic criteria for autism spectrum disorder (ASD) but are overrepresented in the ASD population. Deficits in prospective motor control have been demonstrated in adults and older children with ASD but have never before been examined in infants at familial risk for the disorder. We assessed the ability to prospectively control reach-to-grasp actions in 10-month-old siblings of children with ASD (high-risk group, n = 29, 13 female) as well as in a low-risk control group (n = 16, 8 female). The task was to catch a ball rolling on a curvilinear path off an inclined surface. The low-risk group performed predictive reaches when catching the ball, whereas the high-risk group started their movements reactively. The high-risk group started their reaches significantly later than the low-risk group (p = .03). These results indicate impaired prospective motor control in infants susceptible for ASD

A candidate gene study identifies a haplotype of CD2 as novel susceptibility factor for systemic sclerosis

Objective. Systemic sclerosis (SSc) is a rare autoimmune disease (AID) with a complex genetic aetiology. Evidence for a shared pathogenesis across AIDs is given by the well-known pleiotropism of autoimmune genes. Recently, several unbiased approaches have identified an association between polymorphisms of the CD2 gene, and rheumatoid arthritis (RA) susceptibility. The objective of this study was to investigate whether CD2 polymorphisms are associated with SSc. Methods. Two SNPs of CD2, rs624988 and rs798036, were genotyped in a total of 1,786 SSc patients and 2,360 healthy individuals from two European populations (France and Italy). Meta analyses were performed to assess whether an association exists between CD2 polymorphisms or haplotypes and SSc or its main subtypes. Results. The combined analyses revealed an association between the rs624988 A allele and SSc susceptibility: p(adj)=0.023, OR=1.14 (95%CI 1.04-1.25). Single marker analysis did not reveal any association between rs798036 and SSc. Haplotype analysis identified that the A-T haplotype, previously described in RA, was associated with higher susceptibility for SSc (p(adj)=0.029, OR=1.14, 95%CI 1.04-1.25) and with the positive anticentromere antibody sub-group of SSc patients (p(adj)=0.009, OR=1 95%CI 1.07-1.32). Genotype-mRNA expression correlations revealed that the CD2 risk haplotype was associated with decreased CD2 mRNA expression in SSc patients. Conclusion. Our study establishes CD2 as a new susceptibility factor for SSc, in a European Caucasian population, confirming the sharing of autoimmune risk factors by SSc and RA

Solutions for the self-adaptation of communicating systems in operation

International audienceIn the context of mission-critical, safety-critical, and remote-controlled applications, it is required to equip systems with self-adapting capabilities. Adaptation is required in post-manufacturing to correct yield loss and achieve zero defective parts-per-million as well as during normal operation to account for different application scenarios and for varying environmental conditions. A self-adaptive system must be capable of providing the required high performances after manufacturing and throughout its normal operation regardless the application scenario wherein it is deployed and despite the varying environmental conditions. In this paper, we describe a generic post-manufacturing self-adaptation technique for RF circuits as well as concurrent self-adaptation techniques for a safety-critical medical sensor for glaucoma diagnosis and for a NFC system which is very sensitive to the environment in which it operates