Four-Day-Old Human Neonates Look Longer at Non-Biological Motions of a Single Point-of-Light

BACKGROUND: Biological motions, that is, the movements of humans and other vertebrates, are characterized by dynamic regularities that reflect the structure and the control schemes of the musculo-skeletal system. Early studies on the development of the visual perception of biological motion showed that infants after three months of age distinguished between biological and non-biological locomotion. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Using single point-light motions that varied with respect to the “two-third-power law” of motion generation and perception, we observed that four-day-old human neonates looked longer at non-biological motions than at biological motions when these were simultaneously presented in a standard preferential looking paradigm. CONCLUSION/SIGNIFICANCE: This result can be interpreted within the “violation of expectation” framework and can indicate that neonates' motion perception — like adults'—is attuned to biological kinematics

Local three-nucleon interaction from chiral effective field theory

The three-nucleon (NNN) interaction derived within the chiral effective field theory at the next-to-next-to-leading order (N2LO) is regulated with a function depending on the magnitude of the momentum transfer. The regulated NNN interaction is then local in the coordinate space, which is advantages for some many-body techniques. Matrix elements of the local chiral NNN interaction are evaluated in a three-nucleon basis. Using the ab initio no-core shell model (NCSM) the NNN matrix elements are employed in 3H and 4He bound-state calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 9 figure

Movement Timing and Invariance Arise from Several Geometries

Human movements show several prominent features; movement duration is nearly independent of movement size (the isochrony principle), instantaneous speed depends on movement curvature (captured by the 2/3 power law), and complex movements are composed of simpler elements (movement compositionality). No existing theory can successfully account for all of these features, and the nature of the underlying motion primitives is still unknown. Also unknown is how the brain selects movement duration. Here we present a new theory of movement timing based on geometrical invariance. We propose that movement duration and compositionality arise from cooperation among Euclidian, equi-affine and full affine geometries. Each geometry posses a canonical measure of distance along curves, an invariant arc-length parameter. We suggest that for continuous movements, the actual movement duration reflects a particular tensorial mixture of these canonical parameters. Near geometrical singularities, specific combinations are selected to compensate for time expansion or compression in individual parameters. The theory was mathematically formulated using Cartan's moving frame method. Its predictions were tested on three data sets: drawings of elliptical curves, locomotion and drawing trajectories of complex figural forms (cloverleaves, lemniscates and limaçons, with varying ratios between the sizes of the large versus the small loops). Our theory accounted well for the kinematic and temporal features of these movements, in most cases better than the constrained Minimum Jerk model, even when taking into account the number of estimated free parameters. During both drawing and locomotion equi-affine geometry was the most dominant geometry, with affine geometry second most important during drawing; Euclidian geometry was second most important during locomotion. We further discuss the implications of this theory: the origin of the dominance of equi-affine geometry, the possibility that the brain uses different mixtures of these geometries to encode movement duration and speed, and the ontogeny of such representations

Altered Perceptual Sensitivity to Kinematic Invariants in Parkinson's Disease

Ample evidence exists for coupling between action and perception in neurologically healthy individuals, yet the precise nature of the internal representations shared between these domains remains unclear. One experimentally derived view is that the invariant properties and constraints characterizing movement generation are also manifested during motion perception. One prominent motor invariant is the “two-third power law,” describing the strong relation between the kinematics of motion and the geometrical features of the path followed by the hand during planar drawing movements. The two-thirds power law not only characterizes various movement generation tasks but also seems to constrain visual perception of motion. The present study aimed to assess whether motor invariants, such as the two thirds power law also constrain motion perception in patients with Parkinson's disease (PD). Patients with PD and age-matched controls were asked to observe the movement of a light spot rotating on an elliptical path and to modify its velocity until it appeared to move most uniformly. As in previous reports controls tended to choose those movements close to obeying the two-thirds power law as most uniform. Patients with PD displayed a more variable behavior, choosing on average, movements closer but not equal to a constant velocity. Our results thus demonstrate impairments in how the two-thirds power law constrains motion perception in patients with PD, where this relationship between velocity and curvature appears to be preserved but scaled down. Recent hypotheses on the role of the basal ganglia in motor timing may explain these irregularities. Alternatively, these impairments in perception of movement may reflect similar deficits in motor production

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

Performance of CMS muon reconstruction in pp collision events at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV

The performance of muon reconstruction, identification, and triggering in CMS has been studied using 40 inverse picobarns of data collected in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV at the LHC in 2010. A few benchmark sets of selection criteria covering a wide range of physics analysis needs have been examined. For all considered selections, the efficiency to reconstruct and identify a muon with a transverse momentum pT larger than a few GeV is above 95% over the whole region of pseudorapidity covered by the CMS muon system, abs(eta) < 2.4, while the probability to misidentify a hadron as a muon is well below 1%. The efficiency to trigger on single muons with pT above a few GeV is higher than 90% over the full eta range, and typically substantially better. The overall momentum scale is measured to a precision of 0.2% with muons from Z decays. The transverse momentum resolution varies from 1% to 6% depending on pseudorapidity for muons with pT below 100 GeV and, using cosmic rays, it is shown to be better than 10% in the central region up to pT = 1 TeV. Observed distributions of all quantities are well reproduced by the Monte Carlo simulation.Comment: Replaced with published version. Added journal reference and DO

X-ray emission from the Sombrero galaxy: discrete sources

We present a study of discrete X-ray sources in and around the bulge-dominated, massive Sa galaxy, Sombrero (M104), based on new and archival Chandra observations with a total exposure of ~200 ks. With a detection limit of L_X = 1E37 erg/s and a field of view covering a galactocentric radius of ~30 kpc (11.5 arcminute), 383 sources are detected. Cross-correlation with Spitler et al.'s catalogue of Sombrero globular clusters (GCs) identified from HST/ACS observations reveals 41 X-rays sources in GCs, presumably low-mass X-ray binaries (LMXBs). We quantify the differential luminosity functions (LFs) for both the detected GC and field LMXBs, whose power-low indices (~1.1 for the GC-LF and ~1.6 for field-LF) are consistent with previous studies for elliptical galaxies. With precise sky positions of the GCs without a detected X-ray source, we further quantify, through a fluctuation analysis, the GC LF at fainter luminosities down to 1E35 erg/s. The derived index rules out a faint-end slope flatter than 1.1 at a 2 sigma significance, contrary to recent findings in several elliptical galaxies and the bulge of M31. On the other hand, the 2-6 keV unresolved emission places a tight constraint on the field LF, implying a flattened index of ~1.0 below 1E37 erg/s. We also detect 101 sources in the halo of Sombrero. The presence of these sources cannot be interpreted as galactic LMXBs whose spatial distribution empirically follows the starlight. Their number is also higher than the expected number of cosmic AGNs (52+/-11 [1 sigma]) whose surface density is constrained by deep X-ray surveys. We suggest that either the cosmic X-ray background is unusually high in the direction of Sombrero, or a distinct population of X-ray sources is present in the halo of Sombrero.Comment: 11 figures, 5 tables, ApJ in pres

Performance of the CMS Cathode Strip Chambers with Cosmic Rays

The Cathode Strip Chambers (CSCs) constitute the primary muon tracking device in the CMS endcaps. Their performance has been evaluated using data taken during a cosmic ray run in fall 2008. Measured noise levels are low, with the number of noisy channels well below 1%. Coordinate resolution was measured for all types of chambers, and fall in the range 47 microns to 243 microns. The efficiencies for local charged track triggers, for hit and for segments reconstruction were measured, and are above 99%. The timing resolution per layer is approximately 5 ns

Histone deacetylase inhibitors in Hodgkin lymphoma

Although Hodgkin lymphoma (HL) is considered one of the most curable human cancers, the treatment of patients with relapsed and refractory disease, especially those who relapse after autologous stem cell transplantation, remains challenging. Furthermore, because of the young age of these patients, the impact of early mortality on the number of years lost from productive life is remarkable. Patients with relapsed HL post stem cell transplantation currently have no curative therapy, and are in need for new drugs and novel treatment strategies. While no new drugs have been approved for the treatment of patients with HL in more than three decades, several new agents are demonstrating promising results in early clinical trials. This review will focus on the emerging role of histone deacetylase inhibitors in patients with relapsed HL

D-Ribose Induces Cellular Protein Glycation and Impairs Mouse Spatial Cognition

BACKGROUND: D-ribose, an important reducing monosaccharide, is highly active in the glycation of proteins, and results in the rapid production of advanced glycation end products (AGEs) in vitro. However, whether D-ribose participates in glycation and leads to production of AGEs in vivo still requires investigation. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: Here we treated cultured cells and mice with D-ribose and D-glucose to compare ribosylation and glucosylation for production of AGEs. Treatment with D-ribose decreased cell viability and induced more AGE accumulation in cells. C57BL/6J mice intraperitoneally injected with D-ribose for 30 days showed high blood levels of glycated proteins and AGEs. Administration of high doses D-ribose also accelerated AGE formation in the mouse brain and induced impairment of spatial learning and memory ability according to the performance in Morris water maze test. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These data demonstrate that D-ribose but not D-glucose reacts rapidly with proteins and produces significant amounts of AGEs in both cultured cells and the mouse brain, leading to accumulation of AGEs which may impair mouse spatial cognition