Hyperhomocysteinemia in premature arterial disease: examination of cystathionine β-synthase alleles at the molecular level

Hyperhomocysteinemia occurs in approximately 30% of the patients with premature occlusive arterial disease (POAD). Some of these exhibit significantly reduced fibroblast cystathionine β-synthase (CBS) activities, suggesting that they may be heterozygous for CBS deficiency. To test this possibility, we studied cDNA derived from four well characterized patients with POAD, exhibiting hyperhomocysteinemia and reduced CBS activities, from four normal controls, and from four obligatory heterozygotes for CBS deficiency. Lysates of individual colonies of E.coli, containing full-length PCR-amplification products in the expression vector, pKK388.1, were tested for CBS activity. cDNA from at least seven of the eight possible independent POAD alleles encoded catalytically active, stable CBS which exhibited normal response to both PLP and AdoMet. The sequences of all 3'-untranslated regions of all seven isolated POAD alleles were identical to the normal, wild-type CBS sequences. The results of the expression studies were confirmed for one POAD patient by determining the full-length cDNA sequences for both alleles; these were entirely normal over the complete length of the cDNA. In contrast, the screening method correctly distinguished mutant from normal alleles in all four obligatory heterozygotes studied. We conclude that CBS mRNAs from POAD individuals are free from inactivating mutations, including all 33 previously identified in heterozygous carriers and homocystinuric patient

Relationship of joint hypermobility with low Back pain and lumbar spine osteoarthritis

Background: Chronic low back pain (cLBP) affects millions of Americans and costs billions. Studies suggest a link between cLBP and joint hypermobility. Methods: We conducted cross-sectional primary analyses of joint hypermobility and cLBP, lumbar spine osteoarthritis (OA), and lumbar facet joint OA (FOA) in 3 large studies - the Generalized Osteoarthritis Study, Genetics of Generalized Osteoarthritis Study, and Johnston County Osteoarthritis Project (total n = 5072). Associations of joint hypermobility and Beighton trunk flexion with cLBP and lumbar OA were estimated using separate adjusted logistic regression models. Adjusted pooled odds ratios (pORs) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were then summarized - using random effect univariate, multivariate crude, and adjusted models - and heterogeneity was determined (I 2 statistic). Results: In univariate models, hypermobility was associated with symptomatic FOA (pOR = 0.64 [95% CI 0.44, 0.93]) but this result was not found in the multivariate models. In multivariate adjusted models, hypermobility was not significantly associated with cLBP and lumbar OA, but trunk flexion was inversely associated with cLBP (pOR = 0.40 [95% 0.26, 0.62]), spine OA (pOR = 0.66 [95% CI 0.50, 0.87]), symptomatic spine OA (pOR = 0.39 [95% CI 0.28, 0.53]), and symptomatic FOA (pOR = 0.53 [95% CI 0.37, 0.77]). Generally, between-study heterogeneity was moderate-high. Conclusions: Hypermobility was not associated with cLBP or lumbar OA. The inverse association of trunk flexion with cLBP and lumbar OA may indicate a role for a flexible spine in avoiding or managing these conditions. © 2019 The Author(s)

Relationship of joint hypermobility with ankle and foot radiographic osteoarthritis and symptoms in a community-based cohort

Objective. To explore associations of joint hypermobility (a condition where range of motion is greater than normal) with ankle and foot radiographic osteoarthritis (OA) and symptoms in a large community-based cohort of African American and white adults ages 55-94 years old. Methods. Ankle and foot radiographs and joint hypermobility data (Beighton score for joint hypermobility criteria) were available for 848 participants (from 2003 to 2010) in this cross-sectional study. General joint hypermobility was defined as a Beighton score ≥4 (range 0-9); knee hypermobility was defined as hyperextension of at least 1 knee. Standing anteroposterior and lateral foot radiographs were read with standard atlases for Kellgren-Lawrence grade, osteophytes, and joint space narrowing (JSN) at the tibiotalar joint, and for osteophytes and JSN to define OA at 5 foot joints. Ankle or foot symptoms were self-reported. Separate person-based logistic regression models were used to estimate associations of ankle and foot OA and symptom outcomes with hypermobility measures, adjusting for age, sex, race, body mass index, and history of ankle/foot injury. Results. This sample cohort included 577 women (68%) and 280 African Americans (33%). The mean age of the participants was 71 years, with a mean body mass index of 31 kg/m2. The general joint hypermobility of the participants was 7% and knee hypermobility was 4%. Having a history of ankle injury was 11.5%, and foot injury was 3.8%. Although general joint hypermobility was not associated with ankle and foot outcomes, knee hypermobility was associated with ankle symptoms, foot symptoms, and talonavicular OA (adjusted odds ratios of 4.4, 2.4, and 3.0, respectively). Conclusion. Knee joint hypermobility may be related to talonavicular OA and to ankle and foot symptoms

Selective quantum evolution of a qubit state due to continuous measurement

We consider a two-level quantum system (qubit) which is continuously measured by a detector. The information provided by the detector is taken into account to describe the evolution during a particular realization of measurement process. We discuss the Bayesian formalism for such ``selective'' evolution of an individual qubit and apply it to several solid-state setups. In particular, we show how to suppress the qubit decoherence using continuous measurement and the feedback loop.Comment: 15 pages (including 9 figures

Many body physics from a quantum information perspective

The quantum information approach to many body physics has been very successful in giving new insight and novel numerical methods. In these lecture notes we take a vertical view of the subject, starting from general concepts and at each step delving into applications or consequences of a particular topic. We first review some general quantum information concepts like entanglement and entanglement measures, which leads us to entanglement area laws. We then continue with one of the most famous examples of area-law abiding states: matrix product states, and tensor product states in general. Of these, we choose one example (classical superposition states) to introduce recent developments on a novel quantum many body approach: quantum kinetic Ising models. We conclude with a brief outlook of the field.Comment: Lectures from the Les Houches School on "Modern theories of correlated electron systems". Improved version new references adde

Creating number states in the micromaser using feedback

We use the quantum theory of feedback developed by Wiseman and Milburn [Phys. Rev. Lett. 70, 548 (1993)] and Wiseman [Phys. Rev. A 49, 2133 (1994)] to investigate the photon-number noise properties of the micromaser with direct detection feedback. We find that the feedback can significantly reduce the amount of noise in the photon number. Under the right conditions the feedback locks the systems onto a number state. As opposed to other schemes in the past [P. Meystre, Opt. Lett. 12, 669 (1987); J. Krause, M. O. Scully, and H. Walther, Phys. Rev. A 36, 4547 (1987)], we can fix the number states to which the system evolves. We also simulate the micromaser using the quantum-trajectories method and show that these results agree with the quantum theory of feedback. We show that the noise of quantum island states [P. Bogar, J. A. Bergou, and M. Hillary, Phys. Rev. A 50, 754 (1994)] can be significantly reduced by the feedback

Entanglement of positive definite functions on compact groups

We define and study entanglement of continuous positive definite functions on products of compact groups. We formulate and prove an infinite-dimensional analog of Horodecki Theorem, giving a necessary and sufficient criterion for separability of such functions. The resulting characterisation is given in terms of mappings of the space of continuous functions, preserving positive definiteness. The relation between the developed group-theoretical formalism and the conventional one, given in terms of density matrices, is established through the non-commutative Fourier analysis.Comment: published versio

Search for Higgs bosons decaying to tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at sqrt(s) = 1.96 TeV

We present a search for the production of neutral Higgs bosons decaying into tautau pairs in ppbar collisions at a center-of-mass energy of 1.96 TeV. The data, corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.4 fb-1, were collected by the D0 experiment at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We set upper limits at the 95% C.L. on the product of production cross section and branching ratio for a scalar resonance decaying into tautau pairs, and we then interpret these limits as limits on the production of Higgs bosons in the minimal supersymmetric standard model (MSSM) and as constraints in the MSSM parameter space.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figures, submitted to PL

Measurement of the photon+b+b-jet production differential cross section in ppˉp\bar{p} collisions at \sqrt{s}=1.96~\TeV

We present measurements of the differential cross section dsigma/dpT_gamma for the inclusive production of a photon in association with a b-quark jet for photons with rapidities |y_gamma|< 1.0 and 30<pT_gamma <300 GeV, as well as for photons with 1.5<|y_gamma|< 2.5 and 30< pT_gamma <200 GeV, where pT_gamma is the photon transverse momentum. The b-quark jets are required to have pT>15 GeV and rapidity |y_jet| < 1.5. The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 8.7 fb^-1, recorded with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron $p\bar{p}$ Collider at sqrt(s)=1.96 TeV. The measured cross sections are compared with next-to-leading order perturbative QCD calculations using different sets of parton distribution functions as well as to predictions based on the kT-factorization QCD approach, and those from the Sherpa and Pythia Monte Carlo event generators.Comment: 10 pages, 9 figures, submitted to Phys. Lett.