Stimulated Neutrino Conversion and Bounds on Neutrino Magnetic Moments

Recent experiment proposed to observe induced radiative neutrino transitions are confronted to existing bounds on neutrino magnetic moments from earth-based experiments. These are found to exclude any observation by several orders of magnitude, unless the magnetic moments are assumed to be strongly momentum dependent. This possibility is discussed in some generality, and we find that nontrivial dependence of the neutrino form factor may indeed occur, leading to quite unexpected effects, although this is insufficient by orders of magnitude to justify the experiments.Comment: one reference modified + minor changes, 8 pages, plain Late

Personal Corruption & Corrupting Laws: Montesquieu’s Twofold Theory of Corruption

Traditional views tend to identify the problem of corruption in the dishonesty of public officials. The main purpose of the research is to recover Montesquieu’s view of corruption and show that there are at least two different causes of corrupt behaviors. In The Spirit of Laws, Montesquieu distinguishes “two kinds of corruption: one, when the people do not observe the laws, the other when they are corrupted by the laws; the latter is an incurable ill because it lies in the remedy itself.” Recent studies about Montesquieu’s account of corruption do not pay much attention to this distinction

Thermal Resonance in Signal Transmission

We use temperature tuning to control signal propagation in simple one-dimensional arrays of masses connected by hard anharmonic springs and with no local potentials. In our numerical model a sustained signal is applied at one site of a chain immersed in a thermal environment and the signal-to-noise ratio is measured at each oscillator. We show that raising the temperature can lead to enhanced signal propagation along the chain, resulting in thermal resonance effects akin to the resonance observed in arrays of bistable systems.Comment: To appear in Phys. Rev.

Pharmacological Interventions to Ameliorate Neuropathological Symptoms in a Mouse Model of Lafora Disease

14 páginas; 9 figuras.Lafora disease (LD, OMIM 254780) is a rare fatal neurodegenerative disorder that usually occurs during childhood with generalized tonic-clonic seizures, myoclonus, absences, drop attacks or visual seizures. Unfortunately, at present, available treatments are only palliatives and no curative drugs are available yet. The hallmark of the disease is the accumulation of insoluble polyglucosan inclusions, called Lafora bodies (LBs), within the neurons but also in heart, muscle and liver cells. Mouse models lacking functional EPM2A or EPM2B genes (the two major loci related to the disease) recapitulate the Lafora disease phenotype: they accumulate polyglucosan inclusions, show signs of neurodegeneration and have a dysregulation of protein clearance and endoplasmic reticulum stress response. In this study, we have subjected a mouse model of LD (Epm2b-/-) to different pharmacological interventions aimed to alleviate protein clearance and endoplasmic reticulum stress. We have used two chemical chaperones, trehalose and 4-phenylbutyric acid. In addition, we have used metformin, an activator of AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK), as it has a recognized neuroprotective role in other neurodegenerative diseases. Here, we show that treatment with 4-phenylbutyric acid or metformin decreases the accumulation of Lafora bodies and polyubiquitin protein aggregates in the brain of treated animals. 4-Phenylbutyric acid and metformin also diminish neurodegeneration (measured in terms of neuronal loss and reactive gliosis) and ameliorate neuropsychological tests of Epm2b-/- mice. As these compounds have good safety records and are already approved for clinical uses on different neurological pathologies, we think that the translation of our results to the clinical practice could be straightforward.This work was supported by grants from the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science SAF2011-27442, Fundació La Marato de TV3 (ref. 100130) and an ACCI2012 action from CIBERER. A.B. holds a postdoctoral fellowship from the Program “Junta para la Ampliación de Estudios” (JAE-Doc) co-funded by the European Social Fund (ESF).Peer reviewe

Validation and Search of the Ideal Cut-Off of the Sysmex UF-1000i (R) Flow Cytometer for the Diagnosis of Urinary Tract Infection in a Tertiary Hospital in Spain

Urinary tract infections (UTI) are one of the most prevalent infections. A rapid and reliable screening method is useful to screen out negative samples. The objective of this study was to validate the Sysmex flow cytometer UF-1000i by evaluating its accuracy, linearity and carry-over; and define an optimal cut-off value to be used in routine practice in our hospital. For the validation of the UF-1000i cytometer, precision, linearity and carry-over were studied in samples with different counts of bacteria, leukocytes and erythrocytes. Between March and June 2016, urine samples were tested in the Clinical Microbiology Laboratory at University Miguel Servet Hospital, in Spain. Samples were analyzed with the Sysmex UF-1000i cytometer, and cultured. Growth of >= 10(5) CFUs/mL was considered positive. The validation study reveals that the precision in all the variables is acceptable; that there is a good linearity in the dilutions performed, obtaining values almost identical to those theoretically expected; and for the carry-over has practically null values. A total of 1, 220 urine specimens were included, of which 213 (17.4%) were culture positive. The optimal cut-off point of the bacteria-leukocyte combination was 138.8 bacteria or 119.8 leukocytes with an S and E of 95.3 and 70.4%, respectively. The UF-1000i cytometer is a valuable method to screen urine samples to effectively rule out UTI and, may contribute to the reduction of unnecessary urine cultures

Comparing Two Automated Techniques for the Primary Screening-Out of Urine Culture

Urinary tract infection is the most common human infection with a high morbidity. In primary care and hospital services, conventional urine culture is a key part of infection diagnosis but results take at least 24 h. Therefore, a rapid and reliable screening method is still needed to discard negative samples as quickly as possible and to reduce the laboratory workload. In this aspect, this study aims to compare the diagnostic performance between Sysmex OF-1000i and FUS200 systems in comparison to urine culture as the gold standard. From March to June 2016, 1, 220 urine samples collected at the clinical microbiology laboratory of the "Miguel Servet" hospital were studied in parallel with both analysers, and some technical features were evaluated to select the ideal equipment. The most balanced cut-off values taking into account bacteria or leukocyte counts were 138 bacteria/mu L or 119.8 leukocyte/pl for the OF-1000i (95.3% SE and 70.4% SP), and 5.7 bacteria/mu L or 4.3 leukocyte/mu L for the FUS200 (95.8% SE and 44.4% SP). The reduction of cultured plates was 37.4% with the FUS200 and 58.3% with the UF-1000i. This study shows that both techniques improve the workflow in the laboratory, but the OF-1000i has the highest specificity at any sensitivity and the FUS200 needs a shorter processing time

Distortion product otoacoustic emissions in normally hearing subjects.

The finding of active function by the outer hair cells for sound processing prior to neural transduction in the inner hair cells represents the basic mechanism for the generation of Otoacoustic Emissions in the cochlea. Among them the so-called Distortion Product Otoacoustic Emissions represent a tool for an in depth knowledge of the Organ of Corti micromechanics, more advantageous than others, based on their properties, that makes possible an objective frequency-specific study: The response in a group of normally hearing subjects is presented and characterized to ascertain the basic features to be used in further testing of deaf people

Flavonoids patterns of French honeys with different floral origin

The flavonoid profiles of 12 different unifloral French honey samples were analysed by HPLC to evaluate if these substances could be used as markers of the floral origin of honey. In this analysis, the characteristic flavonoids from propolis and/or beeswax (chrysin, galangin, tectochrysin, pinocembrin and pinobanksin) were separated from those originating mainly from nectar and/or pollen (polyhydroxylated flavonoid aglycones), which would be related to their floral origin. All the analysed samples contained a common flavonoid profile consisting of polyhydroxylated flavonoid aglycones including 8-methoxykaempferol, kaempferol, quercetin, isorhamnetin, luteolin and apigenin, suggesting that flavonoid analysis does not generally prove differences between French monofloral honey samples. However, some individual honey samples showed potential floral markers. Thus, heather honey was characterized by the presence of myricetin, calluna honey by ellagic acid and citrus honey by the flavanone hesperetin. In other samples, the relative amount of 1 individual flavonoid could be related to the floral origin. Thus, sunflower honeys contained an important relative amount of quercetin, and in alder honey only 8-methoxykaempferol was detected. This preliminary study shows that flavonoid and phenolic compound analyses could be a very valuable complementary biochemical technique in the objective determination of the floral origin of some specific monofloral honey samples, but further studies with a larger number of samples is necessary to confirm the observed differences