1,271 research outputs found
Serum vitamin D in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease
Objectives: To determine the relevance of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D3), and 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and various stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Materials and Methods: The study included 230 participants (>74 years) allocated to three main groups: 1-healthy subjects (HS, n = 61), 2-patients with MCI (n = 61), and 3- patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) subdivided into three stages: mild (n = 41), moderate (n = 35), and severe AD (n = 32). The cognitive status was evaluated using MMSE. Serum 25 (OH)D3 (ng/ml) and 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations (pg/ml) were determined by competitive radioimmunoassay. Results: MMSE scores and 25(OH)D3 were decreased in MCI and all stages of the AD in both genders. MMSE variability was due to gender in HS (11%) and to 25(OH)D3 in MCI (15%) and AD (26%). ROC analysis revealed an outstanding property of MMSE in diagnosis of MCI (AUC, 0.906; CI 95%, 0.847–0.965; sensitivity 82%; specificity, 98%) and AD (AUC, 0.997; CI 95%, 0.992–1; sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 98%). 25(OH)D3 exhibited good property in MCI (AUC, 0.765; CI 95%, 0.681–0.849; sensitivity, 90%; specificity, 54%) and an excellent property in diagnosis of AD (AUC, 0.843; CI 95%, 0.782–0.904; sensitivity, 97%; specificity, 79%). Logistic analyses revealed that, in MCI, MMSE could predict (or classify correctly) with 97.6% accuracy (Wald, 15.22, β, −0.162; SE, 0.554; OR = 0.115:0.039–0.341; p =.0001), whereas 25(OH)D3 with 80% accuracy (Wald, 41,013; β, −0.213; SE, 0.033; OR = 0.808: 0.757–863; p =.0001). 25(OH)D3 was the only significant predictor for the severe AD and contributed to MMSE variability. Age and gender were significant predictors only in the moderate AD. In patients with MCI, 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 were correlated men, but in case of the AD, they were correlated in women. Conclusions: MMSE and serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations could be useful biomarkers for prediction and diagnosis of MCI and various stages of the AD. The results support the utility of vitamin D supplementation in AD therapy regimen. © 2018 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc
Deep Near-Infrared Observations and Identifications of Chandra Sources in the Orion Molecular Cloud 2 and 3
We conducted deep NIR imaging observations of the Orion molecular cloud 2 and
3 using QUIRC on the 88-inch telescope of the University of Hawaii. Our
purposes are 1) to generate a comprehensive NIR source catalog of these star
forming clouds, and 2) to identify the NIR counterpart of the Chandra X-ray
sources that have no counterpart in the 2MASS catalog. Our J-, H-, and K-band
observations are about 2 mag deeper than those of 2MASS, and well match the
current Chandra observation. We detected 1448 NIR sources, for which we derived
the position, the J-, H-, and K-band magnitude, and the 2MASS counterpart.
Using this catalog, we identified the NIR counterpart for about 42% of the
2MASS-unIDed Chandra sources. The nature of these Chandra sources are discussed
using their NIR colors and spatial distributions, and a dozen protostar and
brown dwarf candidates are identified.Comment: 39 pages, 9 postscript figures, accepted for publication in A
Dense, Parsec-Scale Clumps near the Great Annihilator
We report on Combined Array for Research in Millimeter-Wave Astronomy (CARMA)
and James Clerk Maxwell Telescope (JCMT) observations toward the Einstein
source 1E 1740.7-2942, a LMXB commonly known as the "Great Annihilator." The
Great Annihilator is known to be near a small, bright molecular cloud on the
sky in a region largely devoid of emission in 12-CO surveys of the Galactic
Center. The region is of interest because it is interior to the dust lanes
which may be the shock zones where atomic gas from HI nuclear disk is converted
into molecular gas. We find that the region is populated with a number of dense
(n ~ 10^5 cm^-3) regions of excited gas with small filling factors, and
estimate that up to 1-3 x 10^5 solar masses of gas can be seen in our maps. The
detection suggests that a significant amount of mass is transported from the
shock zones to the GC star-forming regions in the form of small, dense bundles.Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures, accepted for publication by the Astrophysical
Journal, abstract abridge
Australia Telescope Compact Array Radio Continuum 1384 and 2368 Mhz Observations of Sagittarius B
We present images of the Sagittarius (Sgr) B giant molecular cloud at 2368
and 1384 MHz obtained using new, multi-configuration Australia Telescope
Compact Array (ATCA) observations. We have combined these observations with
archival single-dish observations yielding images at resolutions of 47" by 14"
and 27" by 8" at 1384 and 2368 MHz respectively. These observations were
motivated by our theoretical work (Protheroe et al. 2008) indicating the
possibility that synchrotron emission from secondary electrons and positrons
created in hadronic cosmic ray (CR) collisions with the ambient matter of the
Sgr B2 cloud could provide a detectable (and possibly linearly polarized)
non-thermal radio signal. We find that the only detectable non-thermal emission
from the Sgr B region is from a strong source to the south of Sgr B2, which we
label Sgr B2 Southern Complex (SC). We find Sgr B2(SC) integrated flux
densities of 1.2+/-0.2 Jy at 1384 MHz and 0.7+/-0.1 Jy at 2368 MHz for a source
of FWHM size at 1384 MHz of ~54". Despite its non-thermal nature, the
synchrotron emission from this source is unlikely to be dominantly due to
secondary electrons and positrons. We use polarization data to place 5-sigma
upper limits on the level of polarized intensity from the Sgr B2 cloud of 3.5
and 3 mJy/beam at 1384 and 2368 MHz respectively. We also use the angular
distribution of the total intensity of archival 330 MHz VLA and the total
intensity and polarized emission of our new 1384 MHz and 2368 MHz data to
constrain the diffusion coefficient for transport of the parent hadronic CRs
into the dense core of Sgr B2 to be no larger than about 1% of that in the
Galactic disk. Finally, we have also used the data to perform a spectral and
morphological study of the features of the Sgr B cloud and compare and contrast
these to previous studies.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, matches version published in the Astronomical
Journa
Backlund transformations for difference Hirota equation and supersymmetric Bethe ansatz
We consider GL(K|M)-invariant integrable supersymmetric spin chains with
twisted boundary conditions and elucidate the role of Backlund transformations
in solving the difference Hirota equation for eigenvalues of their transfer
matrices. The nested Bethe ansatz technique is shown to be equivalent to a
chain of successive Backlund transformations "undressing" the original problem
to a trivial one.Comment: 22 pages, 2 figures, based on the talk given at the Workshop
"Classical and Quantum Integrable Systems", Dubna, January 200
Solutions of a discretized Toda field equation for from Analytic Bethe Ansatz
Commuting transfer matrices of vertex models obey the
functional relations which can be viewed as an type Toda field equation
on discrete space time. Based on analytic Bethe ansatz we present, for
, a new expression of its solution in terms of determinants and
Pfaffians.Comment: Latex, 14 pages, ioplppt.sty and iopl12.sty assume
Reduction of the Superfluid Density in the Vortex-Liquid Phase of Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy
In-plane complex surface impedance of a Bi2Sr2CaCu2Oy single crystal was
measured in the mixed state at 40.8 GHz.The surface reactance, which is
proportional to the real part of the effective penetration depth, increased
rapidly just above the first-order vortex-lattice melting transition field and
the second magnetization peak field.This increase is ascribed to the decrease
in the superfluid density rather than the loss of pinning.This result indicates
that the vortex melting transition changes the electronic structure as well as
the vortex structure.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figures, accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
Difference L operators related to q-characters
We introduce a factorized difference operator L(u) annihilated by the
Frenkel-Reshetikhin screening operator for the quantum affine algebra
U_q(C^{(1)}_n). We identify the coefficients of L(u) with the fundamental
q-characters, and establish a number of formulas for their higher analogues.
They include Jacobi-Trudi and Weyl type formulas, canceling tableau sums,
Casorati determinant solution to the T-system, and so forth. Analogous
operators for the orthogonal series U_q(B^{(1)}_n) and U_q(D^{(1)}_n) are also
presented.Comment: 25 pages, LaTeX2e, no figur
Thermal and magnetic properties of integrable spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains with applications to real compounds
The ground state and thermodynamic properties of spin-1 and spin-3/2 chains
are investigated via exactly solved su(3) and su(4) models with physically
motivated chemical potential terms. The analysis involves the Thermodynamic
Bethe Ansatz and the High Temperature Expansion (HTE) methods. For the spin-1
chain with large single-ion anisotropy, a gapped phase occurs which is
significantly different from the valence-bond-solid Haldane phase. The
theoretical curves for the magnetization, susceptibility and specific heat are
favourably compared with experimental data for a number of spin-1 chain
compounds. For the spin-3/2 chain a degenerate gapped phase exists starting at
zero external magnetic field. A middle magnetization plateau can be triggered
by the single-ion anisotropy term. Overall, our results lend further weight to
the applicability of integrable models to the physics of low-dimensional
quantum spin systems. They also highlight the utility of the exact HTE method.Comment: 38 pages, 15 figure
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