Computing the Mertens and Meissel-Mertens constants for sums over arithmetic progressions

We give explicit numerical values with 100 decimal digits for the Mertens constant involved in the asymptotic formula for $\sum\limits_{\substack{p\leq x p\equiv a \bmod{q}}}1/p$ and, as a by-product, for the Meissel-Mertens constant defined as $\sum_{p\equiv a \bmod{q}} (\log(1-1/p)+1/p)$, for $q \in \{3$, ..., $100\}$ and $(q, a) = 1$.Comment: 12 pages, 6 table

Time and space in Tristram Shandy and other eighteenth century novels : the issues of progression and continuity.

The thesis argues that the narratives of the eighteenth-century novels selected for this study demonstrate a conscious manipulation of time and space, and that the consequence of this manipulation is to provide the reader with a unique literary journey through the text. The thesis, in its analysis and comparison of these distinctive journeys, chooses to focus on the narrative techniques which facilitate or hamper progression and continuity within the texts. It particularly concentrates on the impact of these narrative techniques on the reading experience. The first chapter studies and compares texts resorting mainly to the present tense with those predominantly written in the past tense. It examines the effects of the tense used in the narration on the reader's engrossment in the fiction. The second chapter concentrates on the repercussions of the author's choice of a beginning and an ending for his story on the nature of the progression of the narrative. The third chapter is devoted to the destabilising reading journey offered by Tristram Shandy. It examines the numerous techniques which react against continuity and progression in time and in space, and the narrator's motivation behind their use. It shows how the narrative choices of Tristram Shandy place the reader face to face with his own act of reading. The fourth and final chapter is concerned with the role and the status of fictional footnotes in some eighteenth-century prose fictions. It demonstrates the fictional nature of the footnotes in Tom Jones. It argues that fictional footnotes affect the reader's progression across the text in time and in space as well as his understanding of the work of fiction, and this in a fundamental way

Myotonic dystrophies : state of the art of new therapeutic developments for the CNS

Myotonic dystrophies are multisystemic diseases characterized not only by muscle and heart dysfunction but also by CNS alteration. They are now recognized as brain diseases affecting newborns and children for myotonic dystrophy type 1 and adults for both myotonic dystrophy type 1 and type 2. In the past two decades, much progress has been made in understanding the mechanisms underlying the DM symptoms allowing development of new molecular therapeutic tools with the ultimate aim of curing the disease. This review describes the state of the art for the characterization of CNS related symptoms, the development of molecular strategies to target the CNS as well as the available tools for screening and testing new possible treatments

A high-resolution image time series of the Gorner Glacier – Swiss Alps – derived from repeated unmanned aerial vehicle surveys

Modern drone technology provides an efficient means to monitor the response of alpine glaciers to climate warming. Here we present a new topographic dataset based on images collected during 10 UAV surveys of the Gorner Glacier glacial system (Switzerland) carried out approximately every 2 weeks throughout the summer of 2017. The final products, available at https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.2630456 (Benoit et al., 2018), consist of a series of 10&thinsp;cm resolution orthoimages, digital elevation models of the glacier surface, and maps of ice surface displacement. Used on its own, this dataset allows mapping of the glacier and monitoring surface velocities over the summer at a very high spatial resolution. Coupled with a classification or feature detection algorithm, it enables the extraction of structures such as surface drainage networks, debris, or snow cover. The approach we present can be used in the future to gain insights into ice flow dynamics.</p

Aberrant splicing and expression of the non muscle myosin heavy-chain gene MYH14 in DM1 muscle tissues

Myotonic dystrophy type 1 (DM1) is a complex multisystemic disorder caused by an expansion of a CTG repeat located at the 3' untranslated region (UTR) of DMPK on chromosome 19q13.3. Aberrant messenger RNA (mRNA) splicing of several genes has been reported to explain some of the symptoms of DM1 including insulin resistance, muscle wasting and myotonia. In this paper we analyzed the expression of the MYH14 mRNA and protein in the muscle of DM1 patients (n=12) with different expansion lengths and normal subjects (n=7). The MYH14 gene is located on chromosome 19q13.3 and encodes for one of the heavy chains of the so called class II "nonmuscle" myosins (NMHCII). MYH14 has two alternative spliced isoforms: the inserted isoform (NMHCII-C1) which includes 8 amino acids located in the globular head of the protein, not encoded by the non inserted isoform (NMHCII-C0). Results showed a splicing unbalance of the MYH14 gene in DM1 muscle, with a prevalent expression of the NMHCII-C0 isoform more marked in DM1 patients harboring large CTG expansions. Minigene assay indicated that levels of the MBNL1 protein positively regulates the inclusion of the MYH14 exon 6. Quantitative analysis of the MYH14 expression revealed a significant reduction in the DM1 muscle samples, both at mRNA and protein level. No differences were found between DM1 and controls in the skeletal muscle localization of MYH14, obtained through immunofluorescence analysis. In line with the thesis of an "RNA gain of function" hypothesis described for the CTG mutation, we conclude that the alterations of the MYH14 gene may contribute to the DM1 molecular pathogenesis

An Experimental and Theoretical Study of the Variation of 4f Hybridization Across the La1-xCexIn3 Series

Crystal structures of a series of La1-xCexIn3 (x = 0.02, 0.2, 0.5, or 0.8) intermetallic compounds have been investigated by both neutron and X-ray diffraction, and their physical properties have been characterized by magnetic susceptibility and specific heat measurements. Our results emphasize atypical atomic displacement parameters (ADP) for the In and the rare-earth sites. Depending on the x value, the In ADP presents either an "ellipsoidal" elongation (La-rich compounds) or a "butterfly-like" distortion (Ce-rich compounds). These deformations have been understood by theoretical techniques based on the band theory and are the result of hybridization between conduction electrons and 4f-electrons.Comment: 7 pages, 8 figure

Boundary mode lubrication of articular cartilage with a biomimetic diblock copolymer

We report the design of a diblock copolymer with architecture and function inspired by the lubricating glycoprotein lubricin. This diblock copolymer, synthesized by sequential reversible addition–fragmentation chain-transfer polymerization, consists of a cationic cartilage-binding domain and a brush-lubricating domain. It reduces the coefficient of friction of articular cartilage under boundary mode conditions (0.088 ± 0.039) to a level equivalent to that provided by lubricin (0.093 ± 0.011). Additionally, both the EC50 (0.404 mg/mL) and cartilage-binding time constant (7.19 min) of the polymer are comparable to purified human and recombinant lubricin. Like lubricin, the tribological properties of this polymer are dependent on molecular architecture. When the same monomer composition was evaluated either as an AB diblock copolymer or as a random copolymer, the diblock effectively lubricated cartilage under boundary mode conditions whereas the random copolymer did not. Additionally, the individual polymer blocks did not lubricate independently, and lubrication could be competitively inhibited with an excess of binding domain. This diblock copolymer is an example of a synthetic polymer with lubrication properties equal to lubricin under boundary mode conditions, suggesting its potential utility as a therapy for joint pathologies like osteoarthritis