11,277 research outputs found
A node-wise analysis of the uterine muscle networks for pregnancy monitoring
The recent past years have seen a noticeable increase of interest in the
correlation analysis of electrohysterographic (EHG) signals in the perspective
of improving the pregnancy monitoring. Here we propose a new approach based on
the functional connectivity between multichannel (4x4 matrix) EHG signals
recorded from the women abdomen. The proposed pipeline includes i) the
computation of the statistical couplings between the multichannel EHG signals,
ii) the characterization of the connectivity matrices, computed by using the
imaginary part of the coherence, based on the graph-theory analysis and iii)
the use of these measures for pregnancy monitoring. The method was evaluated on
a dataset of EHGs, in order to track the correlation between EHGs collected by
each electrode of the matrix (called node-wise analysis) and follow their
evolution along weeks before labor. Results showed that the strength of each
node significantly increases from pregnancy to labor. Electrodes located on the
median vertical axis of the uterus seemed to be the more discriminant. We
speculate that the network-based analysis can be a very promising tool to
improve pregnancy monitoring.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, accepted in the IEEE EMBC conferanc
Global Identification of Drive Gains and Dynamic Parameters of Parallel Robots - Part 2: Case Study
International audienceUsually, identification models of parallel robots are simplified and take only the dynamics of the moving platform into account. Moreover the input efforts are estimated through the use of the manfucaturer's actuator drive gains that are not calibrated thus leading to identification errors. In this paper a systematic way to derive the full dynamic identification model of the Orthoglide parallel robot in combination with a method that allows the identification of both robot inertial parameters and drive gains
Prenatal inhibition of the tryptophan–kynurenine pathway alters synaptic plasticity and protein expression in the rat hippocampus
Glutamate receptors sensitive to N-methyl-d-aspartate (NMDA) are important in early brain development, influencing cell proliferation and migration, neuritogenesis, axon guidance and synapse formation. The kynurenine pathway of tryptophan metabolism includes an agonist (quinolinic acid) and an antagonist (kynurenic acid) at these receptors. Rats were treated in late gestation with 3,4-dimethoxy-N-[4-(3-nitrophenyl)thiazol-2-yl]-benzene-sulphonamide (Ro61-8048), an inhibitor of kynurenine-3-monoxygenase which diverts kynurenine metabolism to kynurenic acid. Within 5 h of drug administration, there was a significant decrease in GluN2A expression and increased GluN2B in the embryo brains, with changes in sonic hedgehog at 24 h. When injected dams were allowed to litter normally, the brains of offspring were removed at postnatal day 21 (P21). Recordings of hippocampal field excitatory synaptic potentials (fEPSPs) showed that prenatal exposure to Ro61-8048 increased neuronal excitability and paired-pulse facilitation. Long-term potentiation was also increased, with no change in long-term depression. At this time, levels of GluN2A, GluN2B and postsynaptic density protein PSD-95 were all increased. Among several neurodevelopmental proteins, the expression of sonic hedgehog was increased, but DISC1 and dependence receptors were unaffected, while raised levels of doublecortin and Proliferating Cell Nuclear Antigen (PCNA) suggested increased neurogenesis. The results reveal that inhibiting the kynurenine pathway in utero leads to molecular and functional synaptic changes in the embryos and offspring, indicating that the pathway is active during gestation and plays a significant role in the normal early development of the embryonic and neonatal nervous system
Muon Anomalous Magnetic Moment and mu -> e gamma in B-L Model with Inverse Seesaw
We study the anomalous magnetic moment of the muon, a_\mu, and lepton flavor
violating decay \mu -> e \gamma in TeV scale B-L extension of the Standard
Model (SM) with inverse seesaw mechanism. We show that the B-L contributions to
a_\mu are severely constrained, therefore the SM contribution remains intact.
We also emphasize that the current experimental limit of BR(\mu -> e \gamma)
can be satisfied for a wide range of parameter space and it can be within the
reach of MEG experiment.Comment: 10 pages, 4 Figure
Permanent Draft Genome Sequence of Photorhabdus temperata Strain Hm, an Entomopathogenic Bacterium Isolated from Nematodes
Photorhabdus temperata strain Hm is an entomopathogenic bacterium that forms a symbiotic association with Heterorhabditis nematodes. Here, we report a 5.0-Mbp draft genome sequence for P. temperata strain Hm with a G+C content of 44.1% and containing 4,226 candidate protein-encoding genes
Low scale B-L extension of the Standard Model at the LHC
The fact that neutrinos are massive indicates that the Standard Model (SM)
requires extension. We propose a low energy (<TeV) B-L extension of the SM,
which is based on the gauge group SU(3)_C x SU(2)_L x U(1)_Y x U(1)_{B-L}. We
show that this model provides a natural explanation for the presence of three
right-handed neutrinos in addition to an extra gauge boson and a new scalar
Higgs. Therefore, it can lead to very interesting phenomenological implications
different from the SM results which can be tested at the LHC. Also we analyze
the muon anomalous magnetic moment in this class of models. We show that
one-loop with exchange Z' may give dominant new contribution ~ few x 10^{-11}.Comment: 12 page
Polyunsaturated fatty acids influence offspring sex ratio in cows
Dietary polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) can influence fertility in farm animals. Some evidence in mice and sheep have suggested that PUFAs may influence offspring sex ratio, which may have significant value for cattle production. To test this hypothesis, three groups of Holstein cows were supplemented with either 0%, 3% or 5% protected fat (PF) in the form of calcium salt of fatty acids (rich in omega-6) from 14–21 days pre-partum until conception. Proven-fertile frozen semen from the same ejaculate was used for insemination. Calf sex recorded at birth was 8/19 (42.1%) male offspring in the control group, increasing to 14/20 (70%, P > 0.05) and 17/20 (85%, P < 0.05) in 3% and 5% PF, respectively. To test if this effect was caused by a direct influence on the oocyte, we supplemented bovine cumulus oocyte complexes during in vitro maturation with either omega-3 alpha-linolenic acid (ALA), omega-6 linoleic acid (LA) or trans-10, cis-12 conjugated linoleic acid (CLA). Sex ratio of the produced transferable embryos was determined using PCR of SRY gene. Similar to the in vivo results, sex ratio was skewed to the male side in the embryos derived from LA- and CLA-treated oocytes (79% and 71%) compared to control and ALA-treated oocytes (44% and 54%, respectively). These results indicate that both dietary and in vitro supplementation of omega-6 PUFAs can skew the sex ratio towards the male side in cattle. Further experiments are required to confirm this effect on a larger scale and to study the mechanisms of action that might be involved
Comparison of Ising magnet on directed versus undirected Erdos-Renyi and scale-free network
Scale-free networks are a recently developed approach to model the
interactions found in complex natural and man-made systems. Such networks
exhibit a power-law distribution of node link (degree) frequencies n(k) in
which a small number of highly connected nodes predominate over a much greater
number of sparsely connected ones. In contrast, in an Erdos-Renyi network each
of N sites is connected to every site with a low probability p (of the orde r
of 1/N). Then the number k of neighbors will fluctuate according to a Poisson
distribution. One can instead assume that each site selects exactly k neighbors
among the other sites. Here we compare in both cases the usual network with the
directed network, when site A selects site B as a neighbor, and then B
influences A but A does not influence B. As we change from undirected to
directed scale-free networks, the spontaneous magnetization vanishes after an
equilibration time following an Arrhenius law, while the directed ER networks
have a positive Curie temperature.Comment: 10 pages including all figures, for Int. J, Mod. Phys. C 1
Draft Genome Sequence of Photorhabdus luminescens subsp. laumondii HP88, an Entomopathogenic Bacterium Isolated from Nematodes
Photorhabdus luminescens subsp. laumondii HP88 is an entomopathogenic bacterium that forms a symbiotic association with Heterorhabditis nematodes. We report here a 5.27-Mbp draft genome sequence for P. luminescens subsp. laumondii HP88, with a G+C content of 42.4% and containing 4,243 candidate protein-coding genes
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