2,737 research outputs found
Frequency Domain Functional Near-Infrared Spectrometer (fNIRS) for Crew State Monitoring
A frequency domain functional near-infrared spectrometer (fNIRS) and accompanying software have been developed by the NASA Glenn Research Center as part of the Airspace Operations and Safety Program (AOSP) Technologies for Airplane State Awareness (TASA)SE211 Crew State Monitoring (CSM) Project. The goal of CSM was to develop a suite of instruments to measure the cognitive state of operators while performing operational activities. The fNIRS was one of the instruments intended for the CSM, developed to measure changes in oxygen levels in the brain noninvasively
Classification of Generalized Symmetries for the Vacuum Einstein Equations
A generalized symmetry of a system of differential equations is an
infinitesimal transformation depending locally upon the fields and their
derivatives which carries solutions to solutions. We classify all generalized
symmetries of the vacuum Einstein equations in four spacetime dimensions. To
begin, we analyze symmetries that can be built from the metric, curvature, and
covariant derivatives of the curvature to any order; these are called natural
symmetries and are globally defined on any spacetime manifold. We next classify
first-order generalized symmetries, that is, symmetries that depend on the
metric and its first derivatives. Finally, using results from the
classification of natural symmetries, we reduce the classification of all
higher-order generalized symmetries to the first-order case. In each case we
find that the generalized symmetries are infinitesimal generalized
diffeomorphisms and constant metric scalings. There are no non-trivial
conservation laws associated with these symmetries. A novel feature of our
analysis is the use of a fundamental set of spinorial coordinates on the
infinite jet space of Ricci-flat metrics, which are derived from Penrose's
``exact set of fields'' for the vacuum equations.Comment: 57 pages, plain Te
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Pan-viral serology implicates enteroviruses in acute flaccid myelitis.
Since 2012, the United States of America has experienced a biennial spike in pediatric acute flaccid myelitis (AFM)1-6. Epidemiologic evidence suggests non-polio enteroviruses (EVs) are a potential etiology, yet EV RNA is rarely detected in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF)2. CSF from children with AFM (n = 42) and other pediatric neurologic disease controls (n = 58) were investigated for intrathecal antiviral antibodies, using a phage display library expressing 481,966 overlapping peptides derived from all known vertebrate and arboviruses (VirScan). Metagenomic next-generation sequencing (mNGS) of AFM CSF RNA (n = 20 cases) was also performed, both unbiased sequencing and with targeted enrichment for EVs. Using VirScan, the viral family significantly enriched by the CSF of AFM cases relative to controls was Picornaviridae, with the most enriched Picornaviridae peptides belonging to the genus Enterovirus (n = 29/42 cases versus 4/58 controls). EV VP1 ELISA confirmed this finding (n = 22/26 cases versus 7/50 controls). mNGS did not detect additional EV RNA. Despite rare detection of EV RNA, pan-viral serology frequently identified high levels of CSF EV-specific antibodies in AFM compared with controls, providing further evidence for a causal role of non-polio EVs in AFM
Strain Typing Methods and Molecular Epidemiology of Pneumocystis Pneumonia
Several typing methods, with different strengths and weaknesses, are available for studies of Pneumocystis pneumonia
A New Era in Extragalactic Background Light Measurements: The Cosmic History of Accretion, Nucleosynthesis and Reionization
(Brief Summary) What is the total radiative content of the Universe since the
epoch of recombination? The extragalactic background light (EBL) spectrum
captures the redshifted energy released from the first stellar objects,
protogalaxies, and galaxies throughout cosmic history. Yet, we have not
determined the brightness of the extragalactic sky from UV/optical to
far-infrared wavelengths with sufficient accuracy to establish the radiative
content of the Universe to better than an order of magnitude. Among many
science topics, an accurate measurement of the EBL spectrum from optical to
far-IR wavelengths, will address: What is the total energy released by stellar
nucleosynthesis over cosmic history? Was significant energy released by
non-stellar processes? Is there a diffuse component to the EBL anywhere from
optical to sub-millimeter? When did first stars appear and how luminous was the
reionization epoch? Absolute optical to mid-IR EBL spectrum to an
astrophysically interesting accuracy can be established by wide field imagingat
a distance of 5 AU or above the ecliptic plane where the zodiacal foreground is
reduced by more than two orders of magnitude.Comment: 7 pages; Science White Paper for the US Astro 2010-2020 Decadal
Survey. If interested in further community-wide efforts on this topic please
contact the first autho
Randomized controlled trial of deutetrabenazine for tardive dyskinesia: The ARM-TD study
OBJECTIVE: To determine the efficacy and safety of deutetrabenazine as a treatment for tardive dyskinesia (TD).
METHODS: One hundred seventeen patients with moderate to severe TD received deutetrabenazine or placebo in this randomized, double-blind, multicenter trial. Eligibility criteria included an Abnormal Involuntary Movement Scale (AIMS) score of ≥6 assessed by blinded central video rating, stable psychiatric illness, and stable psychoactive medication treatment. Primary endpoint was the change in AIMS score from baseline to week 12. Secondary endpoints included treatment success at week 12 on the Clinical Global Impression of Change (CGIC) and Patient Global Impression of Change.
RESULTS: For the primary endpoint, deutetrabenazine significantly reduced AIMS scores from baseline to week 12 vs placebo (least-squares mean [standard error] -3.0 [0.45] vs -1.6 [0.46], p = 0.019). Treatment success on CGIC (48.2% vs 40.4%) favored deutetrabenazine but was not significant. Deutetrabenazine and placebo groups showed low rates of psychiatric adverse events: anxiety (3.4% vs 6.8%), depressed mood/depression (1.7% vs 1.7%), and suicidal ideation (0% vs 1.7%, respectively). In addition, no worsening in parkinsonism, as measured by the Unified Parkinson's Disease Rating Scale motor subscale, was noted from baseline to week 12 in either group.
CONCLUSIONS: In patients with TD, deutetrabenazine was well tolerated and significantly reduced abnormal movements.
CLASSIFICATION OF EVIDENCE: This study provides Class I evidence that in patients with TD, deutetrabenazine reduces AIMS scores
EST assembly supported by a draft genome sequence: an analysis of the Chlamydomonas reinhardtii transcriptome
Clustering and assembly of expressed sequence tags (ESTs) constitute the basis for most genomewide descriptions of a transcriptome. This approach is limited by the decline in sequence quality toward the end of each EST, impacting both sequence clustering and assembly. Here, we exploit the available draft genome sequence of the unicellular green alga Chlamydomonas reinhardtii to guide clustering and to correct errors in the ESTs. We have grouped all available EST and cDNA sequences into 12 063 ACEGs (assembly of contiguous ESTs based on genome) and generated 15 857 contigs of average length 934 nt. We predict that roughly 3000 of our contigs represent full-length transcripts. Compared to previous assemblies, ACEGs show extended contig length, increased accuracy and a reduction in redundancy. Because our assembly protocol also uses ESTs with no corresponding genomic sequences, it provides sequence information for genes interrupted by sequence gaps. Detailed analysis of randomly sampled ACEGs reveals several hundred putative cases of alternative splicing, many overlapping transcription units and new genes not identified by gene prediction algorithms. Our protocol, although developed for and tailored to the C. reinhardtii dataset, can be exploited by any eukaryotic genome project for which both a draft genome sequence and ESTs are available
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International meta-analysis of PTSD genome-wide association studies identifies sex- and ancestry-specific genetic risk loci.
The risk of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) following trauma is heritable, but robust common variants have yet to be identified. In a multi-ethnic cohort including over 30,000 PTSD cases and 170,000 controls we conduct a genome-wide association study of PTSD. We demonstrate SNP-based heritability estimates of 5-20%, varying by sex. Three genome-wide significant loci are identified, 2 in European and 1 in African-ancestry analyses. Analyses stratified by sex implicate 3 additional loci in men. Along with other novel genes and non-coding RNAs, a Parkinson's disease gene involved in dopamine regulation, PARK2, is associated with PTSD. Finally, we demonstrate that polygenic risk for PTSD is significantly predictive of re-experiencing symptoms in the Million Veteran Program dataset, although specific loci did not replicate. These results demonstrate the role of genetic variation in the biology of risk for PTSD and highlight the necessity of conducting sex-stratified analyses and expanding GWAS beyond European ancestry populations
Search for right-handed W bosons in top quark decay
We present a measurement of the fraction f+ of right-handed W bosons produced
in top quark decays, based on a candidate sample of events in the
lepton+jets decay mode. These data correspond to an integrated luminosity of
230pb^-1, collected by the DO detector at the Fermilab Tevatron
Collider at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV. We use a constrained fit to reconstruct the
kinematics of the and decay products, which allows for the
measurement of the leptonic decay angle for each event. By comparing
the distribution from the data with those for the expected
background and signal for various values of f+, we find
f+=0.00+-0.13(stat)+-0.07(syst). This measurement is consistent with the
standard model prediction of f+=3.6x10^-4.Comment: Submitted to Physical Review D Rapid Communications 7 pages, 3
figure
Measurement of Semileptonic Branching Fractions of B Mesons to Narrow D** States
Using the data accumulated in 2002-2004 with the DO detector in
proton-antiproton collisions at the Fermilab Tevatron collider with
centre-of-mass energy 1.96 TeV, the branching fractions of the decays B ->
\bar{D}_1^0(2420) \mu^+ \nu_\mu X and B -> \bar{D}_2^{*0}(2460) \mu^+ \nu_\mu X
and their ratio have been measured: BR(\bar{b}->B) \cdot BR(B-> \bar{D}_1^0
\mu^+ \nu_\mu X) \cdot BR(\bar{D}_1^0 -> D*- pi+) =
(0.087+-0.007(stat)+-0.014(syst))%; BR(\bar{b}->B)\cdot BR(B->D_2^{*0} \mu^+
\nu_\mu X) \cdot BR(\bar{D}_2^{*0} -> D*- \pi^+) =
(0.035+-0.007(stat)+-0.008(syst))%; and (BR(B -> \bar{D}_2^{*0} \mu^+ \nu_\mu
X)BR(D2*0->D*- pi+)) / (BR(B -> \bar{D}_1^{0} \mu^+ \nu_\mu X)\cdot
BR(\bar{D}_1^{0}->D*- \pi^+)) = 0.39+-0.09(stat)+-0.12(syst), where the charge
conjugated states are always implied.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. Let
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