Magnetization reversal in Kagome artificial spin ice studied by first-order reversal curves

Magnetization reversal of interconnected Kagome artificial spin ice was studied by the first-order reversal curve (FORC) technique based on the magneto-optical Kerr effect and magnetoresistance measurements. The magnetization reversal exhibits a distinct six-fold symmetry with the external field orientation. When the field is parallel to one of the nano-bar branches, the domain nucleation/propagation and annihilation processes sensitively depend on the field cycling history and the maximum field applied. When the field is nearly perpendicular to one of the branches, the FORC measurement reveals the magnetic interaction between the Dirac strings and orthogonal branches during the magnetization reversal process. Our results demonstrate that the FORC approach provides a comprehensive framework for understanding the magnetic interaction in the magnetization reversal processes of spin-frustrated systems

Identifying the Alteration Patterns of Brain Functional Connectivity in Progressive Mild Cognitive Impairment Patients: A Longitudinal Whole-Brain Voxel-Wise Degree Analysis

Patients with mild cognitive impairment (MCI) are at high risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD), while some of them may remain stable over decades. The underlying mechanism is still not fully understood. In this study, we aimed to explore the connectivity differences between progressive MCI (PMCI) and stable MCI (SMCI) individuals on a whole-brain scale and on a voxel-wise basis, and we also aimed to reveal the differential dynamic alternation patterns between these two disease subtypes. The resting-state functional magnetic resonance images of PMCI and SMCI patients at baseline and year-one were obtained from the Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative dataset, and the progression was determined based on a three-year follow-up. A whole-brain voxel-wise degree map that was calculated based on graph-theory was constructed for each subject, and then the cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses on the degree maps were performed between PMCI and SMCI patients. In longitudinal analyses, compared with SMCI group, PMCI group showed decreased long-range degree in the left middle occipital/supramarginal gyrus, while the short-range degree was increased in the left supplementary motor area and middle frontal gyrus and decreased in the right middle temporal pole. A significant longitudinal alteration of decreased short-range degree in the right middle occipital was found in PMCI group. Taken together with previous evidence, our current findings may suggest that PMCI, compared with SMCI, might be a severe presentation of disease along the AD continuum, and the rapidly reduced degree in the right middle occipital gyrus may have indicative value for the disease progression. Moreover, the cross-sectional comparison results and corresponding receiver-operator characteristic-curves analyses may indicate that the baseline degree difference is not a good predictor of disease progression in MCI patients. Overall, these findings may provide objective evidence and an indicator to characterize the progression-related brain connectivity changes in MCI patients

Disrupting the Indian hedgehog signaling pathway in vivo attenuates surgically induced osteoarthritis progression in Col2a1-CreERT2; Ihhfl/fl mice

Introduction: Previous observations implicate Indian hedgehog (Ihh) signaling in osteoarthritis (OA) development because it regulates chondrocyte hypertrophy and matrix metallopeptidase 13 (MMP-13) expression. However, there is no direct genetic evidence for the role of Ihh in OA, because mice with cartilage or other tissue-specific deletion of the Ihh gene die shortly after birth. We evaluated the role of Ihh in vivo via a Cre-loxP-mediated approach to circumvent the early death caused by Ihh deficiency. Methods: To evaluate the role of Ihh in OA development, Ihh was specifically deleted in murine cartilage using an Ihh conditional deletion construct (Col2a1-CreERT2; Ihhfl/fl). The extent of cartilage degradation and OA progression after Ihh deletion was assessed by histological analysis, immunohistochemistry, real-time PCR and in vivo fluorescence molecular tomography (FMT) 2 months after OA was induced by partial medial meniscectomy. The effect of Ihh signaling on cartilage was compared between Ihh-deleted mice and their control littermates. Results: Only mild OA changes were observed in Ihh-deleted mice, while control mice displayed significantly more cartilage damage. Typical OA markers such as type X collagen and MMP-13 were decreased in Ihh-deleted mice. In vivo FMT demonstrated decreased cathepsins and MMP activity in knee joints of animals with deletion of Ihh. Conclusions: These findings support the protective role of Ihh deletion in surgically induced OA. Thus, our findings suggest the potential to develop new therapeutic strategies that can prevent and treat OA by inhibiting Ihh signaling in chondrocytes

Characterization of the Fiber Connectivity Profile of the Cerebral Cortex in Schizotypal Personality Disorder: A Pilot Study

Schizotypal personality disorder (SPD) is considered one of the classic disconnection syndromes. However, the specific cortical disconnectivity pattern has not been fully investigated. In this study, we aimed to explore significant alterations in whole-cortex structural connectivity in SPD individuals (SPDs) by combining the techniques of brain surface morphometry and white matter (WM) tractography. Diffusion and structural MR data were collected from twenty subjects with SPD (all males; age, 19.7 ± 0.9 yrs) and eighteen healthy controls (all males; age, 20.3 ± 1.0 yrs). To measure the structural connectivity for a given unit area of the cortex, the fiber connectivity density (FiCD) value was proposed and calculated as the sum of the fractional anisotropy of all the fibers connecting to that unit area in tractography. Then, the resultant whole-cortex FiCD maps were compared in a vertex-wise manner between SPDs and controls. Compared with normal controls, SPDs showed significantly decreased FiCD in the rostral middle frontal gyrus (crossing BA9 and BA10) and significantly increased FiCD in the anterior part of the fusiform/inferior temporal cortex (P < 0.05, Monte Carlo simulation corrected). Moreover, the gray matter volume extracted from the left rostral middle frontal cluster was observed to be significantly greater in the SPD group (P = 0.02). Overall, this study identifies a decrease in connectivity in the left middle frontal cortex as a key neural deficit at the whole-cortex level in SPD, thus providing insight into its neuropathological basis

A cost-effective and universal strategy for complete prokaryotic genomic sequencing proposed by computer simulation

Background: Pyrosequencing techniques allow scientists to perform prokaryotic genome sequencing to achieve the draft genomic sequences within a few days. However, the assemblies with shotgun sequencing are usually composed of hundreds of contigs. A further multiplex PCR procedure is needed to fill all the gaps and link contigs into complete chromosomal sequence, which is the basis for prokaryotic comparative genomic studies. In this article, we study various pyrosequencing strategies by simulated assembling from 100 prokaryotic genomes. Findings. Simulation study shows that a single end 454 Jr. run combined with a paired end 454 Jr. run (8 kb library) can produce: 1) ∼90% of 100 assemblies with 99.99%; 4) average false gene duplication rate is < 0.7%; 5) average false gene loss rate is < 0.4%. Conclusions: A single end 454 Jr. run combined with a paired end 454 Jr. run (8 kb library) is a cost-effective way for prokaryotic whole genome sequencing. This strategy provides solution to produce high quality draft assemblies for most of prokaryotic organisms within days. Due to the small number of assembled scaffolds, the following multiplex PCR procedure (for gap filling) would be easy. As a result, large scale prokaryotic whole genome sequencing projects may be finished within weeks. © 2012 Jiang et al; BioMed Central Ltd.published_or_final_versio

Plasma Apolipoprotein B-48, Hepatic Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing and Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing Catalytic Subunit-1 mRNA Levels Are Altered in Zinc-Deficient Rats

Apolipoprotein B (apoB) exists as two major isoforms and serves as an obligatory component of lipid-rich plasma lipoprotein particles. Apolipoprotein B mRNA editing is a zinc-dependent, site-specific cytidine deamination that determines whether the apoB-100 or apoB-48 isoform is synthesized. The objective of this work was to examine whether dietary zinc levels affect apoB mRNA editing in vivo. Adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were randomly assigned to zinc-deficient (ZD, Ͻ0.5 mg Zn/kg diet), zinc-adequate (ZA, 30 mg Zn/kg diet) or zincreplenished (ZDA, ZD rats fed the ZA diet for last 2 d) dietary groups for 18 d. The ratio of plasma apolipoprotein B-48 (apoB-48) to total apoB was significantly lower in zinc-deficient compared with zinc-adequate rats. Primer extension analysis indicated a modest but significant reduction in hepatic apoB mRNA editing in ZD rats compared with that of the ZA group. In ZDA rats, hepatic apoB mRNA editing and the percentage of plasma apoB-48 to total apoB were not different from ZA rats. The mRNA abundance of hepatic apobec-1 (apoB mRNA editing catalytic subunit 1) was significantly lower in ZD and ZDA rats than in ZA rats. In summary, the plasma ratio of apoB-48 to total apoB protein as well as hepatic apoB mRNA editing and hepatic apobec-1 mRNA levels were reduced in rats consuming a zinc-deficient diet. These data suggest that one or more components of apoB metabolism may be influenced by dietary zinc status. J. Nutr. 129: 1855–1861, 1999

Regulation of Intestinal Apolipoprotein B mRNA Editing Levels by a Zinc-Deficient Diet and cDNA Cloning of Editing Protein in Hamsters

This study was conducted to investigate the influence of dietary zinc on intestinal apoB mRNA editing in hamsters. Apolipoprotein B-48 (apoB-48) is synthesized from the same gene as apoB-100 by a post-transcriptional, site-specific cytidine deamination, a process known as apoB mRNA editing. A cDNA encoding the hamster apoB mRNA editing enzyme was obtained by reverse transcriptase-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the deduced amino acid sequence was found to possess high amino acid sequence identity to apoB mRNA editing enzymes from several other species. Editing activity was detected in the small intestine and colon but, like humans, none was detected in the liver. Analysis by RT-PCR indicated that the small intestine possessed the highest expression of editing enzyme mRNA abundance, whereas both liver and small intestine expressed relatively high levels of apoB mRNA. The influence of dietary zinc on intestinal apoB mRNA editing levels was examined in Golden Syrian hamsters (7 wk old) assigned to one of the following three dietary treatments: Zn-adequate (ZA, 30 mg Zn/kg diet), Zn-deficient (ZD, Ͻ0.5 mg Zn/kg diet), or Zn-replenished (ZDA, ZD hamsters receiving ZA diet for last 2 d) for 7 wk. Hamsters consuming the ZD diet had modestly but significantly lower intestinal editing activity than ZA hamsters. Intestinal editing activity in the ZDA group was not different from that of ZA hamsters. Data derived from these studies contribute to the understanding of lipoprotein metabolism in hamsters, a suitable model for the study of atherosclerosis. J. Nutr. 130: 2166 –2173, 2000

The InfraRed Imaging Spectrograph (IRIS) for TMT: latest science cases and simulations

The Thirty Meter Telescope (TMT) first light instrument IRIS (Infrared Imaging Spectrograph) will complete its preliminary design phase in 2016. The IRIS instrument design includes a near-infrared (0.85 - 2.4 micron) integral field spectrograph (IFS) and imager that are able to conduct simultaneous diffraction-limited observations behind the advanced adaptive optics system NFIRAOS. The IRIS science cases have continued to be developed and new science studies have been investigated to aid in technical performance and design requirements. In this development phase, the IRIS science team has paid particular attention to the selection of filters, gratings, sensitivities of the entire system, and science cases that will benefit from the parallel mode of the IFS and imaging camera. We present new science cases for IRIS using the latest end-to-end data simulator on the following topics: Solar System bodies, the Galactic center, active galactic nuclei (AGN), and distant gravitationally-lensed galaxies. We then briefly discuss the necessity of an advanced data management system and data reduction pipeline.Comment: 15 pages, 7 figures, SPIE (2016) 9909-0

Impact of esophageal motility on microbiome alterations in symptomatic gastroesophageal reflux disease patients with negative endoscopy: Exploring the role of ineffective esophageal motility and contraction reserve

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Ineffective esophageal motility (IEM) is common in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD) and can be associated with poor esophageal contraction reserve on multiple rapid swallows. Alterations in the esophageal microbiome have been reported in GERD, but the relationship to presence or absence of contraction reserve in IEM patients has not been evaluated. We aim to investigate whether contraction reserve influences esophageal microbiome alterations in patients with GERD and IEM. METHODS: We prospectively enrolled GERD patients with normal endoscopy and evaluated esophageal motility and contraction reserve with multiple rapid swallows during high-resolution manometry. The esophageal mucosa was biopsied for DNA extraction and 16S ribosomal RNA gene V3-V4 (Illumina)/full-length (Pacbio) amplicon sequencing analysis. RESULTS: Among the 56 recruited patients, 20 had normal motility (NM), 19 had IEM with contraction reserve (IEM-R), and 17 had IEM without contraction reserve (IEM-NR). Esophageal microbiome analysis showed a significant decrease in microbial richness in patients with IEM-NR when compared to NM. The beta diversity revealed different microbiome profiles between patients with NM or IEM-R and IEM-NR ( CONCLUSIONS: In symptomatic GERD patients with normal endoscopic findings, the esophageal microbiome differs based on contraction reserve among IEM. Absent contraction reserve appears to alter the physiology and microbiota of the esophagus