67,236 research outputs found
Hemodynamic evaluation using four-dimensional flow magnetic resonance imaging for a patient with multichanneled aortic dissection
The hemodynamic function of multichanneled aortic dissection (MCAD) requires close monitoring and effective management to avoid potentially catastrophic sequelae. This report describes a 47-year-old man who underwent endovascular repair based on findings from four-dimensional (4D) flow magnetic resonance imaging of an MCAD. The acquired 4D flow data revealed complex, bidirectional flow patterns in the false lumens and accelerated blood flow in the compressed true lumen. The collapsed abdominal true lumen expanded unsatisfactorily after primary tear repair, which required further remodeling with bare stents. This case study demonstrates that hemodynamic analysis using 4D flow magnetic resonance imaging can help understand the complex pathologic changes of MCAD
Variation in actual relationship among descendants of inbred individuals
In previous analyses, the variation in actual, or realized, relationship has been derived as a function of map length of chromosomes and type of relationship, the variation being greater the shorter the total chromosome length and the coefficient of variation being greater the more distant the relationship. Here, the results are extended to allow for the relatives' ancestor being inbred. Inbreeding of a parent reduces variation in actual relationship among its offspring, by an amount that depends on the inbreeding level and the type of mating that led to that level. For descendants of full-sibs, the variation is reduced in later generations, but for descendants of half-sibs, it is increased
Intrinsic spin Hall effect in platinum metal
Spin Hall effect in metallic Pt is studied with first-principles relativistic
band calculations. It is found that intrinsic spin Hall conductivity (SHC) is
as large as at low temperature, and
decreases down to at room
temperature. It is due to the resonant contribution from the spin-orbit
splitting of the doubly degenerated -bands at high-symmetry and
points near the Fermi level. By modeling these near degeneracies by effective
Hamiltonian, we show that SHC has a peak near the Fermi energy and that the
vertex correction due to impurity scattering vanishes. We therefore argue that
the large spin Hall effect observed experimentally in platinum is of intrinsic
nature.Comment: Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Olig2/Plp-positive progenitor cells give rise to Bergmann glia in the cerebellum.
NG2 (nerve/glial antigen2)-expressing cells represent the largest population of postnatal progenitors in the central nervous system and have been classified as oligodendroglial progenitor cells, but the fate and function of these cells remain incompletely characterized. Previous studies have focused on characterizing these progenitors in the postnatal and adult subventricular zone and on analyzing the cellular and physiological properties of these cells in white and gray matter regions in the forebrain. In the present study, we examine the types of neural progeny generated by NG2 progenitors in the cerebellum by employing genetic fate mapping techniques using inducible Cre-Lox systems in vivo with two different mouse lines, the Plp-Cre-ER(T2)/Rosa26-EYFP and Olig2-Cre-ER(T2)/Rosa26-EYFP double-transgenic mice. Our data indicate that Olig2/Plp-positive NG2 cells display multipotential properties, primarily give rise to oligodendroglia but, surprisingly, also generate Bergmann glia, which are specialized glial cells in the cerebellum. The NG2+ cells also give rise to astrocytes, but not neurons. In addition, we show that glutamate signaling is involved in distinct NG2+ cell-fate/differentiation pathways and plays a role in the normal development of Bergmann glia. We also show an increase of cerebellar oligodendroglial lineage cells in response to hypoxic-ischemic injury, but the ability of NG2+ cells to give rise to Bergmann glia and astrocytes remains unchanged. Overall, our study reveals a novel Bergmann glia fate of Olig2/Plp-positive NG2 progenitors, demonstrates the differentiation of these progenitors into various functional glial cell types, and provides significant insights into the fate and function of Olig2/Plp-positive progenitor cells in health and disease
Theoretic Limits on the Equation of State Parameter of Quintessence
The value of scalar field coupled to gravity should be less than the Planck
scale in the consistent theory of quantum gravity. It provides a theoretic
constraint on the equation of state parameter for the quintessence. In some
cases our theoretic constraints are more stringent than the constraints from
the present experiments.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; minor corrections and refs adde
Understanding the Frequency Distribution of Mechanically Stable Disk Packings
Relative frequencies of mechanically stable (MS) packings of frictionless
bidisperse disks are studied numerically in small systems. The packings are
created by successively compressing or decompressing a system of soft purely
repulsive disks, followed by energy minimization, until only infinitesimal
particle overlaps remain. For systems of up to 14 particles most of the MS
packings were generated. We find that the packings are not equally probable as
has been assumed in recent thermodynamic descriptions of granular systems.
Instead, the frequency distribution, averaged over each packing-fraction
interval , grows exponentially with increasing . Moreover,
within each packing-fraction interval MS packings occur with frequencies
that differ by many orders of magnitude. Also, key features of the frequency
distribution do not change when we significantly alter the packing-generation
algorithm--for example frequent packings remain frequent and rare ones remain
rare. These results indicate that the frequency distribution of MS packings is
strongly influenced by geometrical properties of the multidimensional
configuration space. By adding thermal fluctuations to a set of the MS
packings, we were able to examine a number of local features of configuration
space near each packing including the time required for a given packing to
break to a distinct one, which enabled us to estimate the energy barriers that
separate one packing from another. We found a positive correlation between the
packing frequencies and the heights of the lowest energy barriers .
We also examined displacement fluctuations away from the MS packings to
correlate the size and shape of the local basins near each packing to the
packing frequencies.Comment: 21 pages, 20 figures, 1 tabl
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