The Role of Microbiota in Cardiovascular Risk: Focus on Trimethylamine Oxide

The extensive collection of bacteria cohabiting within the host collaborates with human functions and metabolisms in both health and disease. The fine equilibrium of commensals is tightly controlled and an imbalance (“dysbiosis”) in the gut microbiota can play different roles in human disease. The development of new genome sequencing techniques has allowed a better understanding of the role of human gut microbiota. This led to the identification of numerous metabolites produced in the gut, which have been suggested to play a role in human disease. Among these, trimethylamine oxide (TMAO) appears to be of particular importance as a risk factor and potentially as a causative agent of various pathologies, most remarkably cardiovascular and disease and other associated conditions. Mechanistic links are yet to be established, however, increased levels of TMAO have been shown to augment the risk of developing renal failure, metabolic syndrome, diabetes mellitus, heart failure, hypertension, atherosclerosis, and dyslipidemia ultimately leading to increased risk of serious cardiovascular events. This article reviews the potential impact of TMAO in human cardiovascular disease

Giant Anisotropy of Spin-Orbit Splitting at the Bismuth Surface

We investigate the bismuth (111) surface by means of time and angle resolved photoelectron spectroscopy. The parallel detection of the surface states below and above the Fermi level reveals a giant anisotropy of the Spin-Orbit (SO) spitting. These strong deviations from the Rashba-like coupling cannot be treated in $\textbf{k}\cdot \textbf{p}$ perturbation theory. Instead, first principle calculations could accurately reproduce the experimental dispersion of the electronic states. Our analysis shows that the giant anisotropy of the SO splitting is due to a large out-of plane buckling of the spin and orbital texture.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure

Reading in two writing systems: Accommodation and assimilation of the brain's reading network

Bilingual reading can require more than knowing two languages. Learners must acquire also the writing conventions of their second language, which can differ in its deep mapping principles (writing system) and its visual configurations (script). We review ERP (event-related potential) and fMRI studies of both Chinese-English bilingualism and Chinese second language learning that bear on the system accommodation hypothesis: the neural networks acquired for one system must be modified to accommodate the demands of a new system. ERP bilingual studies demonstrate temporal indicators of the brain's experience with L1 and L2 and with the frequency of encounters of words in L2. ERP learning studies show that early visual processing differences between L1 and L2 diminish during a second term of study. fMRI studies of learning converge in finding that learners recruit bilateral occipital-temporal and also middle frontal areas when reading Chinese, similar to the pattern of native speakers and different from alphabetic reading. The evidence suggests an asymmetry: alphabetic readers have a neural network that accommodates the demands of Chinese by recruiting neural structures less needed for alphabetic reading. Chinese readers have a neural network that partly assimilates English into the Chinese system, especially in the visual stages of word identification. © Cambridge University Press 2007.published_or_final_versio

High prevalence of Blastocystis spp. in children from a periurban school

Señor Editor Hemos leído con mucha atención e interés el trabajo de investigación de Quispe-Juli y col (1) realizado en la población Ciudad de Dios, ubicada en el Distrito de Yura, Arequipa, Perú. En dicho trabajo, se presentan los resultados de un estudio coproparasitológico para determinar la prevalencia de Blastocystis spp., agente etiológico de la blastocistosis o enfermedad de Zierdt-Garavelli, y otros enteroparásitos en 83 niños escolarizados.Mr. Editor We have read with great interest and interest the research work of Quispe-Juli et al (1) carried out in the Ciudad de Dios population, located in the District of Yura, Arequipa, Peru. In this paper, we present the results of a co-parasitological study to determine the prevalence of Blastocystis spp., Etiological agent of blastocystosis or Zierdt-Garavelli disease, and other enteroparasites in 83 school children

Evidence for a Peierls phase-transition in a three-dimensional multiple charge-density waves solid

The effect of dimensionality on materials properties has become strikingly evident with the recent discovery of graphene. Charge ordering phenomena can be induced in one dimension by periodic distortions of a material's crystal structure, termed Peierls ordering transition. Charge-density waves can also be induced in solids by strong Coulomb repulsion between carriers, and at the extreme limit, Wigner predicted that crystallization itself can be induced in an electrons gas in free space close to the absolute zero of temperature. Similar phenomena are observed also in higher dimensions, but the microscopic description of the corresponding phase transition is often controversial, and remains an open field of research for fundamental physics. Here, we photoinduce the melting of the charge ordering in a complex three-dimensional solid and monitor the consequent charge redistribution by probing the optical response over a broad spectral range with ultrashort laser pulses. Although the photoinduced electronic temperature far exceeds the critical value, the charge-density wave is preserved until the lattice is sufficiently distorted to induce the phase transition. Combining this result with it ab initio} electronic structure calculations, we identified the Peierls origin of multiple charge-density waves in a three-dimensional system for the first time.Comment: Accepted for publication in Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. US

Transfer of spectral weight across the gap of Sr2IrO4 induced by La doping

We study with Angle Resolved PhotoElectron Spectroscopy (ARPES) the evolution of the electronic structure of Sr2IrO4, when holes or electrons are introduced, through Rh or La substitutions. At low dopings, the added carriers occupy the first available states, at bottom or top of the gap, revealing an anisotropic gap of 0.7eV in good agreement with STM measurements. At further doping, we observe a reduction of the gap and a transfer of spectral weight across the gap, although the quasiparticle weight remains very small. We discuss the origin of the in-gap spectral weight as a local distribution of gap values