3,432 research outputs found
Parental and familial factors influencing physical activity levels in early adolescence: a prospective study
Parental/familial factors are important determinants of the physical activity level (PAL) in children and adolescents, but studies rarely prospectively evaluate their relationships. This study aimed to evaluate the changes in physical activity levels among adolescents from Bosnia and Herzegovina over a two-year period and to determine parental/familial predictors of PAL in early adolescence. A total of 651 participants (50.3% females) were tested at baseline (beginning of high school education; 14 years old on average) and at follow-up (approximately 20 months later). The predictors included sociodemographic characteristics (age, gender) and parental/familial factors (socioeconomic status of the family, maternal and paternal education, conflict with parents, parental absence from home, parental questioning, and parental monitoring). Physical activity levels were evidenced by the Physical Activity Questionnaire for Adolescents (PAQ-A; criterion). Boys were more active than girls, both at baseline (t-test = 3.09, p < 0.001) and at follow-up (t-test = 3.4, p < 0.001). Physical activity level decreased over the observed two-year period (t-test = 16.89, p < 0.001), especially in boys, which is probably a consequence of drop-out from the sport in this period. Logistic regression evidenced parental education as a positive predictor of physical activity level at baseline (OR [95% CI]; 1.38 [1.15–170], 1.35 [1.10–1.65]), and at follow-up (1.35 [1.11–1.69], 1.29 [1.09–1.59], for maternal and paternal education, respectively). Parents with a higher level of education are probably more informed about the importance of physical activity on health status, and thus transfer this information to their children as well. The age from 14 to 16 years is likely a critical period for maintaining physical activity levels in boys, while further studies of a younger age are necessary to evaluate the dynamics of changes in physical activity levels for girls. For maintaining physical activity levels in adolescence, special attention should be paid to children whose parents are less educated, and to inform them of the benefits of an appropriate physical activity level and its necessity for maintaining proper health and growth
The solution to a multichannel Bethe potential and its application to pion-nucleus reactions
We solve a radial Schr\"odinger equation for the case of a multichannel
square well plus an exponential potential in one of the channels. The solution
is obtained by summing exactly the infinite terms of the perturbative series
for the evolution operator of the system. Analytical expressions for the
scattering matrix and the scattering length are given, a Deser-like formula
which connects approximate ground energies and scattering length is obtained
for a particular case. Possible physical applications of these results are
discussed briefly.Comment: Title changed and other minor changes. 14pages, latex, no figure
High-Dimensional Feature Selection by Feature-Wise Kernelized Lasso
The goal of supervised feature selection is to find a subset of input
features that are responsible for predicting output values. The least absolute
shrinkage and selection operator (Lasso) allows computationally efficient
feature selection based on linear dependency between input features and output
values. In this paper, we consider a feature-wise kernelized Lasso for
capturing non-linear input-output dependency. We first show that, with
particular choices of kernel functions, non-redundant features with strong
statistical dependence on output values can be found in terms of kernel-based
independence measures. We then show that the globally optimal solution can be
efficiently computed; this makes the approach scalable to high-dimensional
problems. The effectiveness of the proposed method is demonstrated through
feature selection experiments with thousands of features.Comment: 18 page
Muon-anti-neutrino <---> electron-anti-neutrino mixing: analysis of recent indications and implications for neutrino oscillation phenomenology
We reanalyze the recent data from the Liquid Scintillator Neutrino Detector
(LSND) experiment, that might indicate anti-nu_muanti-nu_e mixing. This
indication is not completely excluded by the negative results of established
accelerator and reactor neutrino oscillation searches. We quantify the region
of compatibility by means of a thorough statistical analysis of all the
available data, assuming both two-flavor and three-flavor neutrino
oscillations. The implications for various theoretical scenarios and for future
oscillation searches are studied. The relaxation of the LSND constraints under
different assumptions in the statistical analysis is also investigated.Comment: 17 pages (RevTeX) + 9 figures (Postscript) included with epsfig.st
Increased fidelity of protein synthesis extends lifespan
Loss of proteostasis is a fundamental process driving aging. Proteostasis is affected by the accuracy of translation, yet the physiological consequence of having fewer protein synthesis errors during multi-cellular organismal aging is poorly understood. Our phylogenetic analysis of RPS23, a key protein in the ribosomal decoding center, uncovered a lysine residue almost universally conserved across all domains of life, which is replaced by an arginine in a small number of hyperthermophilic archaea. When introduced into eukaryotic RPS23 homologs, this mutation leads to accurate translation, as well as heat shock resistance and longer life, in yeast, worms, and flies. Furthermore, we show that anti-aging drugs such as rapamycin, Torin1, and trametinib reduce translation errors, and that rapamycin extends further organismal longevity in RPS23 hyperaccuracy mutants. This implies a unified mode of action for diverse pharmacological anti-aging therapies. These findings pave the way for identifying novel translation accuracy interventions to improve aging
Almost Maximal Lepton Mixing with Large T Violation in Neutrino Oscillations and Neutrinoless Double Beta Decay
We point out two simple but instructive possibilities to construct the
charged lepton and neutrino mass matrices, from which the nearly bi-maximal
neutrino mixing with large T violation can naturally emerge. The two lepton
mixing scenarios are compatible very well with current experimental data on
solar and atmospheric neutrino oscillations, and one of them may lead to an
observable T-violating asymmetry between \nu_\mu --> \nu_e and \nu_e -->
\nu_\mu transitions in the long-baseline neutrino oscillation experiments.
Their implications on the neutrinoless double beta decay are also discussed.Comment: RevTex 15 pages (2 PS figures
Identification of Giardia lamblia DHHC Proteins and the Role of Protein S-palmitoylation in the Encystation Process
Protein S-palmitoylation, a hydrophobic post-translational modification, is performed by protein acyltransferases that have a common DHHC Cys-rich domain (DHHC proteins), and provides a regulatory switch for protein membrane association. In this work, we analyzed the presence of DHHC proteins in the protozoa parasite Giardia lamblia and the function of the reversible S-palmitoylation of proteins during parasite differentiation into cyst. Two specific events were observed: encysting cells displayed a larger amount of palmitoylated proteins, and parasites treated with palmitoylation inhibitors produced a reduced number of mature cysts. With bioinformatics tools, we found nine DHHC proteins, potential protein acyltransferases, in the Giardia proteome. These proteins displayed a conserved structure when compared to different organisms and are distributed in different monophyletic clades. Although all Giardia DHHC proteins were found to be present in trophozoites and encysting cells, these proteins showed a different intracellular localization in trophozoites and seemed to be differently involved in the encystation process when they were overexpressed. dhhc transgenic parasites showed a different pattern of cyst wall protein expression and yielded different amounts of mature cysts when they were induced to encyst. Our findings disclosed some important issues regarding the role of DHHC proteins and palmitoylation during Giardia encystation.Fil: Merino, Maria Cecilia. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Zamponi, Nahuel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Vranych, Cecilia Verónica. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Touz, Maria Carolina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; ArgentinaFil: Ropolo, Andrea Silvana. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra. Universidad Nacional de Córdoba. Instituto de Investigación Médica Mercedes y Martín Ferreyra; Argentin
Measurement of and Production in Collisions at = 1.96 TeV
The Standard Model predictions for and production are
tested using an integrated luminosity of 200 pb of \ppbar collision data
collected at the Collider Detector at Fermilab. The cross sections are measured
selecting leptonic decays of the and bosons, and photons with
transverse energy GeV that are well separated from leptons. The
production cross sections and kinematic distributions for the and
are compared to SM predictions.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, submitted to PR
Precision measurements of the top quark mass from the Tevatron in the pre-LHC era
The top quark is the heaviest of the six quarks of the Standard Model.
Precise knowledge of its mass is important for imposing constraints on a number
of physics processes, including interactions of the as yet unobserved Higgs
boson. The Higgs boson is the only missing particle of the Standard Model,
central to the electroweak symmetry breaking mechanism and generation of
particle masses. In this Review, experimental measurements of the top quark
mass accomplished at the Tevatron, a proton-antiproton collider located at the
Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, are described. Topologies of top quark
events and methods used to separate signal events from background sources are
discussed. Data analysis techniques used to extract information about the top
mass value are reviewed. The combination of several most precise measurements
performed with the two Tevatron particle detectors, CDF and \D0, yields a value
of \Mt = 173.2 \pm 0.9 GeV/.Comment: This version contains the most up-to-date top quark mass averag
Measurement of the Lifetime Difference Between B_s Mass Eigenstates
We present measurements of the lifetimes and polarization amplitudes for B_s
--> J/psi phi and B_d --> J/psi K*0 decays. Lifetimes of the heavy (H) and
light (L) mass eigenstates in the B_s system are separately measured for the
first time by determining the relative contributions of amplitudes with
definite CP as a function of the decay time. Using 203 +/- 15 B_s decays, we
obtain tau_L = (1.05 +{0.16}/-{0.13} +/- 0.02) ps and tau_H = (2.07
+{0.58}/-{0.46} +/- 0.03) ps. Expressed in terms of the difference DeltaGamma_s
and average Gamma_s, of the decay rates of the two eigenstates, the results are
DeltaGamma_s/Gamma_s = (65 +{25}/-{33} +/- 1)%, and DeltaGamma_s = (0.47
+{0.19}/-{0.24} +/- 0.01) inverse ps.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, 2 tables; as published in Physical Review Letters
on 16 March 2005; revisions are for length and typesetting only, no changes
in results or conclusion
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