Controlled Manipulation of Individual Vortices in a Superconductor

We report controlled local manipulation of single vortices by low temperature magnetic force microscope (MFM) in a thin film of superconducting Nb. We are able to position the vortices in arbitrary configurations and to measure the distribution of local depinning forces. This technique opens up new possibilities for the characterization and use of vortices in superconductors

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS, Oral History Interview, March 19, 2018

Major Topics Covered: Personal background and education Texas Medical Center Library, UT Southwestern Medical School Library Texas Health Science Library Consortium Research Medical Library, MD Anderson: development of physical plant, staffing, services The Historical Resources Center Leadership: ambitions, challenges, conflict management Teaching, professional organizationshttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1142/thumbnail.jp

Kathryn Jones Hoffman, MSLS, Oral History Interview, March 27, 2018

Major Topics Covered: Personal background and education Texas Medical Center Library, UT Southwestern Medical School Library Texas Health Science Library Consortium Research Medical Library, MD Anderson: development of physical plant, staffing, services The Historical Resources Center Leadership: ambitions, challenges, conflict management Teaching, professional organizationshttps://openworks.mdanderson.org/mchv_interviewsessions/1143/thumbnail.jp

Evidence for ACTN3 as a genetic modifier of Duchenne muscular dystrophy

Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) is characterized by muscle degeneration and progressive weakness. There is considerable inter-patient variability in disease onset and progression, which can confound the results of clinical trials. Here we show that a common null polymorphism (R577X) in ACTN3 results in significantly reduced muscle strength and a longer 10\u2009m walk test time in young, ambulant patients with DMD; both of which are primary outcome measures in clinical trials. We have developed a double knockout mouse model, which also shows reduced muscle strength, but is protected from stretch-induced eccentric damage with age. This suggests that \u3b1-actinin-3 deficiency reduces muscle performance at baseline, but ameliorates the progression of dystrophic pathology. Mechanistically, we show that \u3b1-actinin-3 deficiency triggers an increase in oxidative muscle metabolism through activation of calcineurin, which likely confers the protective effect. Our studies suggest that ACTN3 R577X genotype is a modifier of clinical phenotype in DMD patients

Metal-coated carbon nanotube tips for Magnetic Force Microscopy

We fabricated cantilevers for magnetic force microscopy with carbon nanotube tips coated with magnetic material. Images of a custom hard drive demonstrated 20 nm lateral resolution, with prospects for further improvements.Comment: Accepted to be published in Applied Physics Letter

Understanding verbal fluency in healthy aging, Alzheimer’s disease, and Parkinson’s disease

This is the author's accepted manuscript. This article may not exactly replicate the final version published in the APA journal. It is not the copy of record.• Objective: Verbal fluency measures are frequently part of batteries designed to assess executive function, but are also used to assess semantic processing ability or word knowledge. The goal of the present study was to identify the cognitive components underlying fluency performance. • Method: Healthy young and older adults, adults with Parkinson’s disease, and adults with Alzheimer’s disease performed letter, category, and action fluency tests. Performance was assessed in terms of number of items generated, clustering, and the time course of output. A series of neuropsychological assessments were also administered to index verbal ability, working memory, executive function, and processing speed as correlates of fluency performance. • Results: Findings indicated that regardless of the particular performance measure, young adults performed the best and adults with Alzheimer’s disease performed most poorly, with healthy older adults and adults with Parkinson’s disease performing at intermediate levels. The exception was the action fluency task, where adults with Parkinson’s disease performed most poorly. The time course of fluency performance was characterized in terms of slope and intercept parameters and related to neuropsychological constructs. Speed of processing was found to be the best predictor of performance, rather than the efficiency of executive function or semantic knowledge. • Conclusions: Together, these findings demonstrate that the pattern of fluency performance looks generally the same regardless of how performance is measured. In addition, the primary role of processing speed in performance suggests that the use of fluency tasks as measures of executive function or verbal ability warrants reexamination.This work was conducted with grant support from the Kansas City Life Sciences Institute. Additional support was provided by the Digital Electronics Core of the Center for Biobehavioral Neurosciences in Communication Disorders, grant number P30 DC-005803, for assistance with the development of the digital ink assessment

Candidate gene analysis of femoral neck trabecular and cortical volumetric bone mineral density in older men.

In contrast to conventional dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry, quantitative computed tomography separately measures trabecular and cortical volumetric bone mineral density (vBMD). Little is known about the genetic variants associated with trabecular and cortical vBMD in humans, although both may be important for determining bone strength and osteoporotic risk. In the current analysis, we tested the hypothesis that there are genetic variants associated with trabecular and cortical vBMD at the femoral neck by genotyping 4608 tagging and potentially functional single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in 383 bone metabolism candidate genes in 822 Caucasian men aged 65 years or older from the Osteoporotic Fractures in Men Study (MrOS). Promising SNP associations then were tested for replication in an additional 1155 men from the same study. We identified SNPs in five genes (IFNAR2, NFATC1, SMAD1, HOXA, and KLF10) that were robustly associated with cortical vBMD and SNPs in nine genes (APC, ATF2, BMP3, BMP7, FGF18, FLT1, TGFB3, THRB, and RUNX1) that were robustly associated with trabecular vBMD. There was no overlap between genes associated with cortical vBMD and trabecular vBMD. These findings identify novel genetic variants for cortical and trabecular vBMD and raise the possibility that some genetic loci may be unique for each bone compartment