Anatomical characteristics of the styloid process in internal carotid artery dissection: Case-control study

Introduction Pathophysiology of cervical artery dissection is complex and poorly understood. In addition to well-known causative and predisposing factors, including major trauma and monogenic connective tissue disorders, morphological characteristics of the styloid process have been recently recognized as a possible risk factor for cervical internal carotid artery dissection. Aims To study the association of the anatomical characteristics of styloid process with internal carotid artery dissection. Methods Retrospective, multicenter, case-control study of patients with internal carotid artery dissection and age- and sex-matched controls. Consecutive patients with internal carotid artery dissection and controls with ischemic stroke or transient ischemic attack of any etiology excluding internal carotid artery dissection, who had performed computed tomography angiography, diagnosed between January 2010 and September 2016. Two independent observers measured styloid process length and styloid process distance to internal carotid artery. Results Sixty-two patients with internal carotid artery dissection and 70 controls were included. Interobserver agreement was good for styloid process length and styloid process-internal carotid artery distance (interclass correlation coefficient = 0.89 and 0.76, respectively). Styloid process ipsilateral to dissection was longer than left and right styloid process in controls (35.8 ± 14.4 mm versus 30.4 ± 8.9 mm and 30.3 ± 8.2 mm, p = 0.011 and p = 0.008, respectively). Styloid process-internal carotid artery distance ipsilateral to dissection was shorter than left and right distance in controls (6.3 ± 1.9 mm versus 7.2 ± 2.1 mm and 7.0 ± 2.3 mm, p = 0.003 and p = 0.026, respectively). Internal carotid artery dissection was associated with styloid process length (odds ratio = 1.04 mm-1, 95% confidence interval = 1.01-1.08, p = 0.015) and styloid process-internal carotid artery distance (OR = 0.77 mm-1, 95% confidence interval = 0.64-0.92, p = 0.004). Conclusion Longer styloid process and shorter distance between styloid process and cervical internal carotid artery are associated with cervical internal carotid artery dissection.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Enchytraeus albidus Microarray: Enrichment, Design, Annotation and Database (EnchyBASE)

Enchytraeus albidus (Oligochaeta) is an ecologically relevant species used as standard test organisms for risk assessment. Effects of stressors in this species are commonly determined at the population level using reproduction and survival as endpoints. The assessment of transcriptomic responses can be very useful e.g. to understand underlying mechanisms of toxicity with gene expression fingerprinting. In the present paper the following is being addressed: 1) development of suppressive subtractive hybridization (SSH) libraries enriched for differentially expressed genes after metal and pesticide exposures; 2) sequencing and characterization of all generated cDNA inserts; 3) development of a publicly available genomic database on E. albidus. A total of 2100 Expressed Sequence Tags (ESTs) were isolated, sequenced and assembled into 1124 clusters (947 singletons and 177 contigs). From these sequences, 41% matched known proteins in GenBank (BLASTX, e-value≤10-5) and 37% had at least one Gene Ontology (GO) term assigned. In total, 5.5% of the sequences were assigned to a metabolic pathway, based on KEGG. With this new sequencing information, an Agilent custom oligonucleotide microarray was designed, representing a potential tool for transcriptomic studies. EnchyBASE (http://bioinformatics.ua.pt/enchybase/) was developed as a web freely available database containing genomic information on E. albidus and will be further extended in the near future for other enchytraeid species. The database so far includes all ESTs generated for E. albidus from three cDNA libraries. This information can be downloaded and applied in functional genomics and transcription studies

A reliable cw Lyman-α\alpha laser source for future cooling of antihydrogen

We demonstrate a reliable continuous-wave (cw) laser source at the 1\,$S$--2\,$P$ transition in (anti)hydrogen at 121.56\,nm (Lyman-$\alpha$) based on four-wave sum-frequency mixing in mercury. A two-photon resonance in the four-wave mixing scheme is essential for a powerful cw Lyman-$\alpha$ source and is well investigated.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures, Proceedings of LEAP 201

Counting the Founders: The Matrilineal Genetic Ancestry of the Jewish Diaspora

The history of the Jewish Diaspora dates back to the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests in the Levant, followed by complex demographic and migratory trajectories over the ensuing millennia which pose a serious challenge to unraveling population genetic patterns. Here we ask whether phylogenetic analysis, based on highly resolved mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) phylogenies can discern among maternal ancestries of the Diaspora. Accordingly, 1,142 samples from 14 different non-Ashkenazi Jewish communities were analyzed. A list of complete mtDNA sequences was established for all variants present at high frequency in the communities studied, along with high-resolution genotyping of all samples. Unlike the previously reported pattern observed among Ashkenazi Jews, the numerically major portion of the non-Ashkenazi Jews, currently estimated at 5 million people and comprised of the Moroccan, Iraqi, Iranian and Iberian Exile Jewish communities showed no evidence for a narrow founder effect, which did however characterize the smaller and more remote Belmonte, Indian and the two Caucasus communities. The Indian and Ethiopian Jewish sample sets suggested local female introgression, while mtDNAs in all other communities studied belong to a well-characterized West Eurasian pool of maternal lineages. Absence of sub-Saharan African mtDNA lineages among the North African Jewish communities suggests negligible or low level of admixture with females of the host populations among whom the African haplogroup (Hg) L0-L3 sub-clades variants are common. In contrast, the North African and Iberian Exile Jewish communities show influence of putative Iberian admixture as documented by mtDNA Hg HV0 variants. These findings highlight striking differences in the demographic history of the widespread Jewish Diaspora

Jet energy measurement with the ATLAS detector in proton-proton collisions at root s=7 TeV

The jet energy scale and its systematic uncertainty are determined for jets measured with the ATLAS detector at the LHC in proton-proton collision data at a centre-of-mass energy of √s = 7TeV corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 38 pb-1. Jets are reconstructed with the anti-kt algorithm with distance parameters R=0. 4 or R=0. 6. Jet energy and angle corrections are determined from Monte Carlo simulations to calibrate jets with transverse momenta pT≥20 GeV and pseudorapidities {pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy systematic uncertainty is estimated using the single isolated hadron response measured in situ and in test-beams, exploiting the transverse momentum balance between central and forward jets in events with dijet topologies and studying systematic variations in Monte Carlo simulations. The jet energy uncertainty is less than 2. 5 % in the central calorimeter region ({pipe}η{pipe}<0. 8) for jets with 60≤pT<800 GeV, and is maximally 14 % for pT<30 GeV in the most forward region 3. 2≤{pipe}η{pipe}<4. 5. The jet energy is validated for jet transverse momenta up to 1 TeV to the level of a few percent using several in situ techniques by comparing a well-known reference such as the recoiling photon pT, the sum of the transverse momenta of tracks associated to the jet, or a system of low-pT jets recoiling against a high-pT jet. More sophisticated jet calibration schemes are presented based on calorimeter cell energy density weighting or hadronic properties of jets, aiming for an improved jet energy resolution and a reduced flavour dependence of the jet response. The systematic uncertainty of the jet energy determined from a combination of in situ techniques is consistent with the one derived from single hadron response measurements over a wide kinematic range. The nominal corrections and uncertainties are derived for isolated jets in an inclusive sample of high-pT jets. Special cases such as event topologies with close-by jets, or selections of samples with an enhanced content of jets originating from light quarks, heavy quarks or gluons are also discussed and the corresponding uncertainties are determined. © 2013 CERN for the benefit of the ATLAS collaboration

Measurement of the inclusive and dijet cross-sections of b-jets in pp collisions at sqrt(s) = 7 TeV with the ATLAS detector

The inclusive and dijet production cross-sections have been measured for jets containing b-hadrons (b-jets) in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of sqrt(s) = 7 TeV, using the ATLAS detector at the LHC. The measurements use data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 34 pb^-1. The b-jets are identified using either a lifetime-based method, where secondary decay vertices of b-hadrons in jets are reconstructed using information from the tracking detectors, or a muon-based method where the presence of a muon is used to identify semileptonic decays of b-hadrons inside jets. The inclusive b-jet cross-section is measured as a function of transverse momentum in the range 20 < pT < 400 GeV and rapidity in the range |y| < 2.1. The bbbar-dijet cross-section is measured as a function of the dijet invariant mass in the range 110 < m_jj < 760 GeV, the azimuthal angle difference between the two jets and the angular variable chi in two dijet mass regions. The results are compared with next-to-leading-order QCD predictions. Good agreement is observed between the measured cross-sections and the predictions obtained using POWHEG + Pythia. MC@NLO + Herwig shows good agreement with the measured bbbar-dijet cross-section. However, it does not reproduce the measured inclusive cross-section well, particularly for central b-jets with large transverse momenta.Comment: 10 pages plus author list (21 pages total), 8 figures, 1 table, final version published in European Physical Journal