370 research outputs found
The impact of COVID-19 on opioid use in those awaiting hip and knee arthroplasty : A retrospective cohort study
Peer reviewedPostprin
Expanding human variation at PLOS Genetics
The “experiments of nature” that underlie genetics engage all organisms equally: from microbes and slime molds to plants and vertebrates, the inextricable connection between genotype and phenotype lies at the core of our community. That community is remarkably diverse, spanning an array of not only organisms but also approaches and questions; indeed, diversity is one of the main reasons we enjoy contributing to the journal
Theory of Chiral Modulations and Fluctuations in Smectic-A Liquid Crystals Under an Electric Field
Chiral liquid crystals often exhibit periodic modulations in the molecular
director; in particular, thin films of the smectic-C* phase show a chiral
striped texture. Here, we investigate whether similar chiral modulations can
occur in the induced molecular tilt of the smectic-A phase under an applied
electric field. Using both continuum elastic theory and lattice simulations, we
find that the state of uniform induced tilt can become unstable when the system
approaches the smectic-A--smectic-C* transition, or when a high electric field
is applied. Beyond that instability point, the system develops chiral stripes
in the tilt, which induce corresponding ripples in the smectic layers. The
modulation persists up to an upper critical electric field and then disappears.
Furthermore, even in the uniform state, the system shows chiral fluctuations,
including both incipient chiral stripes and localized chiral vortices. We
compare these predictions with observed chiral modulations and fluctuations in
smectic-A liquid crystals.Comment: 11 pages, including 9 postscript figures, uses REVTeX 3.0 and
epsf.st
Evaluating the strength of genetic results: Risks and responsibilities
In this issue, we are publishing an Editorial Expression of Concern in connection with a recent article on the genetics of multiple sclerosis (MS). In brief, the authors used exome sequencing of families with multiple individuals diagnosed with MS to identify 21 missense or nonsense mutations in 12 genes, and they then suggest that these 12 genes provide a platform for additional research. Following publication, concerns were raised about the validity of some of the statements made in the manuscript, leading us to a series of discussions, both internally and with the authors. The purpose of this editorial is to describe the sequence of events, the rationale for our eventual publication of the Editorial Expression of Concern, and, in doing so, comment and engender discussion more broadly on the role of scientists as editors in what can sometimes be a grey area: the causal relationship between genetic and phenotypic variation
Lyapunov Potential Description for Laser Dynamics
We describe the dynamical behavior of both class A and class B lasers in
terms of a Lyapunov potential. For class A lasers we use the potential to
analyze both deterministic and stochastic dynamics. In the stochastic case it
is found that the phase of the electric field drifts with time in the steady
state. For class B lasers, the potential obtained is valid in the absence of
noise. In this case, a general expression relating the period of the relaxation
oscillations to the potential is found. We have included in this expression the
terms corresponding to the gain saturation and the mean value of the
spontaneously emitted power, which were not considered previously. The validity
of this expression is also discussed and a semi-empirical relation giving the
period of the relaxation oscillations far from the stationary state is proposed
and checked against numerical simulations.Comment: 13 pages (including 7 figures) LaTeX file. To appear in Phys Rev.A
(June 1999
PLOS Genetics Data Sharing Policy: In Pursuit of Functional Utility
About a year ago, PLOS implemented a new process intended to further the overarching principle that data used in the work we publish should be accessible and reusable. The motivation goes hand-in-hand with both our open access ethos and the scientific method itself: the validity of a conclusion depends on the ability to reproduce the underlying results
A distinct influenza infection signature in the blood transcriptome of patients with severe community-acquired pneumonia
Introduction
Diagnosis of severe influenza pneumonia remains challenging because of a lack of correlation between the presence of influenza virus and clinical status. We conducted gene-expression profiling in the whole blood of critically ill patients to identify a gene signature that would allow clinicians to distinguish influenza infection from other causes of severe respiratory failure, such as bacterial pneumonia, and noninfective systemic inflammatory response syndrome.
Methods
Whole-blood samples were collected from critically ill individuals and assayed on Illumina HT-12 gene-expression beadarrays. Differentially expressed genes were determined by linear mixed-model analysis and overrepresented biological pathways determined by using GeneGo MetaCore.
Results
The gene-expression profile of H1N1 influenza A pneumonia was distinctly different from those of bacterial pneumonia and systemic inflammatory response syndrome. The influenza gene-expression profile is characterized by upregulation of genes from cell-cycle regulation, apoptosis, and DNA-damage-response pathways. In contrast, no distinctive gene-expression signature was found in patients with bacterial pneumonia or systemic inflammatory response syndrome. The gene-expression profile of influenza infection persisted through 5 days of follow-up. Furthermore, in patients with primary H1N1 influenza A infection in whom bacterial co-infection subsequently developed, the influenza gene-expression signature remained unaltered, despite the presence of a superimposed bacterial infection.
Conclusions
The whole-blood expression-profiling data indicate that the host response to influenza pneumonia is distinctly different from that caused by bacterial pathogens. This information may speed the identification of the cause of infection in patients presenting with severe respiratory failure, allowing appropriate patient care to be undertaken more rapidly
Modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in a dual-wavelength dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring laser
We report on the observation of modulation instability induced by cross-phase
modulation in a dual-wavelength operation dispersion-managed soliton fiber ring
laser with net negative cavity dispersion. The passively mode-locked operation
is achieved by using nonlinear polarization rotation technique. A new type of
dual-wavelength operation, where one is femtosecond pulse and the other is
picosecond pulse operation, is obtained by properly rotating the polarization
controllers. When the dual-wavelength pulses are simultaneously circulating in
the laser ring cavity, a series of stable modulation sidebands appears in the
picosecond pulse spectrum at longer wavelength with lower peak power due to
modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation between the two lasing
wavelengths. Moreover, the intensities and wavelength shifts of the modulation
sidebands can be tuned by varying the power of the femtosecond pulse or the
lasing central wavelengths of the dual-wavelength pulses. The theoretical
analysis of the modulation instability induced by cross-phase modulation in our
fiber laser is also presented.Comment: 26 pages, 10 figure
Gravitational corrections to Yukawa systems
We compute the gravitational corrections to the running of couplings in a
scalar-fermion system, using the Wilsonian approach. Our discussion is relevant
for symmetric as well as for broken scalar phases. We find that the Yukawa and
quartic scalar couplings become irrelevant at the Gaussian fixed point.Comment: 5 pages, RevTex, discussion extended, typos corrected, reference
added. Published online on PLB
A discrete host-parasitoid model with development of pesticide resistance and IPM strategies
The development of pesticide resistance significantly affects the outcomes of pest control. A quantitative depiction of the effects of pesticide resistance development on integrated pest management (IPM) strategies and pest control outcomes is challenging. To address this problem, a discrete host-parasitoid model with pesticide resistance development and IPM strategies is proposed and analyzed. The threshold condition of pest eradication which reveals the relationship between the development of pest resistance and the rate of natural enemy releases is provided and analyzed, and the optimal rate for releasing natural enemies was obtained based on this threshold condition. Furthermore, in order to reduce adverse effects of the pesticide on natural enemies, the model has been extended to consider the spraying of pesticide and releases of natural enemies at different times. The effects of the dynamic complexity and different resistance development equations on the main results are also discussed
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