Effects of a Green Oat Herb Extract on Cognitive Performance and Neurophysiological Activity : A Randomized Double-Blind Placebo-Controlled Study

Green oat extracts have been used for centuries in traditional medicine in view of their supposed beneficial effects on cognition and mood. Recently, a specific green oat formulation (Neuravena) showed to have significant bioactive compounds potentially associated with the enhancement of processing speed, working memory and attention. The main aim of the current study was to compare the potential effect of acute administration of 800 mg of Neuravena with placebo on a set of neurophysiological correlates of processing speed, attention, performance-monitoring and inhibitory control. Twenty healthy participants were randomized to receive either Neuravena or placebo. Electroencephalographic (EEG) signal acquisition was obtained while participants carried out the modified Eriksen flanker and oddball tasks. Both groups were compared on measures of behavioral task performance, and a set of event-related potentials (ERPs) components related to performance monitoring (the error-related negativity; ERN and the N2), target detection, and attention (P3a/P3b). Following active-intervention N2, ERN, and P3a/P3b were significantly reduced and performance was faster, with no loss of accuracy. Conversely, no neurophysiological differences were found in the placebo group before and after treatment and performance worsened significantly in terms of reaction time and accuracy. Acute administration of 800 mg of Neuravena appears to enhance the optimization of neural resources and positively influences cognitive performance in tasks associated with executive functions, processing speed and attention. Moreover, Neuravena prevents the deleterious effects of tiredness during task performance

Four-port coupled channel-guide device based on 2D photonic crystal structure

We have fabricated and measured a four-port coupled channel-waveguide device using W1 channel waveguides oriented along ΓK directions in a two-dimensional (2D) hole-based planar photonic crystal (PhC) based on silicon-on-insulator (SOI) waveguide material, at operation wavelengths around 1550 nm. 2D FDTD simulations and experimental results are shown and compared. The structure has been designed using a mode conversion approach, combined with coupled-mode concepts. The overall length of the photonic crystal structure is typically about 39 μm and the structure has been fabricated using a combination of direct-write electron-beam lithography (EBL) and dry-etch processing. Devices were measured using a tunable laser with end-fire coupling into the planar structure

Implication of Trimethylamine N-Oxide (TMAO) in disease: Potential biomarker or new therapeutic target

Trimethylamine N-oxide (TMAO) is a molecule generated from choline, betaine, and carnitine via gut microbial metabolism. The plasma level of TMAO is determined by several factors including diet, gut microbial flora, drug administration and liver flavin monooxygenase activity. In humans, recent clinical studies evidence a positive correlation between elevated plasma levels of TMAO and an increased risk for major adverse cardiovascular events. A direct correlation between increased TMAO levels and neurological disorders has been also hypothesized. Several therapeutic strategies are being explored to reduce TMAO levels, including use of oral broad spectrum antibiotics, promoting the growth of bacteria that use TMAO as substrate and the development of target-specific molecules. Despite the accumulating evidence, it is questioned whether TMAO is the mediator of a bystander in the disease process. Thus, it is important to undertake studies to establish the role of TMAO in human health and disease. In this article, we reviewed dietary sources and metabolic pathways of TMAO, as well as screened the studies suggesting possible involvement of TMAO in the etiology of cardiovascular and neurological disorders, underlying the importance of TMAO mediating inflammatory processes. Finally, the potential utility of TMAO as therapeutic target is also analyzed

Nanoindentation Response of 3D Printed PEGDA Hydrogels in a Hydrated Environment

Hydrogels are commonly used materials in tissue engineering and organ-on-chip devices. This study investigated the nanomechanical properties of monolithic and multilayered poly(ethylene glycol) diacrylate (PEGDA) hydrogels manufactured using bulk polymerization and layer-by-layer projection lithography processes, respectively. An increase in the number of layers (or reduction in layer thickness) from 1 to 8 and further to 60 results in a reduction in the elastic modulus from 5.53 to 1.69 and further to 0.67 MPa, respectively. It was found that a decrease in the number of layers induces a lower creep index (CIT) in three-dimensional (3D) printed PEGDA hydrogels. This reduction is attributed to mesoscale imperfections that appear as pockets of voids at the interfaces of the multilayered hydrogels attributed to localized regions of unreacted prepolymers, resulting in variations in defect density in the samples examined. An increase in the degree of cross-linking introduced by a higher dosage of ultraviolet (UV) exposure leads to a higher elastic modulus. This implies that the elastic modulus and creep behavior of hydrogels are governed and influenced by the degree of cross-linking and defect density of the layers and interfaces. These findings can guide an optimal manufacturing pathway to obtain the desirable nanomechanical properties in 3D printed PEGDA hydrogels, critical for the performance of living cells and tissues, which can be engineered through control of the fabrication parameters

On the Exact Evaluation of Certain Instances of the Potts Partition Function by Quantum Computers

We present an efficient quantum algorithm for the exact evaluation of either the fully ferromagnetic or anti-ferromagnetic q-state Potts partition function Z for a family of graphs related to irreducible cyclic codes. This problem is related to the evaluation of the Jones and Tutte polynomials. We consider the connection between the weight enumerator polynomial from coding theory and Z and exploit the fact that there exists a quantum algorithm for efficiently estimating Gauss sums in order to obtain the weight enumerator for a certain class of linear codes. In this way we demonstrate that for a certain class of sparse graphs, which we call Irreducible Cyclic Cocycle Code (ICCC_\epsilon) graphs, quantum computers provide a polynomial speed up in the difference between the number of edges and vertices of the graph, and an exponential speed up in q, over the best classical algorithms known to date

Design and development of a multiplex microsatellite panel for the genetic characterisation and diversity assessment of domestic turkey (Meleagris gallopavo gallopavo)

Domestic turkey production generally utilises only a few genetically improved lines, and local breeds are severely endangered as a result. Furthermore, the genetic resources of domestic turkeys have not been properly investigated, which could, ultimately, lead to the extinction of local breeds and negatively affect their corresponding genetic diversity and environmental adaptation. Although, several microsatellite markers have been designed for mapping and quantitative trait locus analysis, there is no standard panel of markers for genetic characterisation or genetic diversity assessment. Accordingly, the present study aimed to develop a set of polymorphic microsatellite markers that could be used for international turkey population studies. Thirty-nine microsatellites were selected based on polymorphism, DNA sequence and chromosome position, as well as on amplification efficiency, success rate and the absence of nonspecific amplification. The markers were screened using 105 DNA samples from local turkey breeds from Mexico, the United States, Italy, Brazil, Egypt and Spain. A total of 401 alleles were identified, with a mean number of alleles per marker of 10.28 \ub1 4.25. All microsatellites were polymorphic, with at least four alleles and no more than 19 alleles. Furthermore, allelic richness ranged from 3.810 to 17.985, mean heterozygosity ranged from 0.452 \ub1 0.229 to 0.667 \ub1 0.265, polymorphic information content values ranged from 0.213 (MNT264) to 0.850 (RHT0024) and the mean Fis value was 0.322. Overall, the panel was highly polymorphic and exhibited moderate Hardy\u2013Weinberg disequilibrium, thereby indicating its value as a tool for biodiversity and population structure studies that could play an important role in promoting the conservation of local turkey breeds.Highlights Important genetic resources reside within indigenous turkey populations. These are linked to historic heritage production values and breeds. It is important to preserve this heritage and genetic diversity, which threatens to be lost as production systems focus on production characteristics. Microsatellite markers, even though, they are now replaced by single nucleotide polymorphism automatic genotyping platforms in many fields of genetics, remain a viable alternative thanks to their cheapness and simplicity of study which makes them particularly useful when the population to be studied lacks information of the prior genetic structure

A framework for the local information dynamics of distributed computation in complex systems

The nature of distributed computation has often been described in terms of the component operations of universal computation: information storage, transfer and modification. We review the first complete framework that quantifies each of these individual information dynamics on a local scale within a system, and describes the manner in which they interact to create non-trivial computation where "the whole is greater than the sum of the parts". We describe the application of the framework to cellular automata, a simple yet powerful model of distributed computation. This is an important application, because the framework is the first to provide quantitative evidence for several important conjectures about distributed computation in cellular automata: that blinkers embody information storage, particles are information transfer agents, and particle collisions are information modification events. The framework is also shown to contrast the computations conducted by several well-known cellular automata, highlighting the importance of information coherence in complex computation. The results reviewed here provide important quantitative insights into the fundamental nature of distributed computation and the dynamics of complex systems, as well as impetus for the framework to be applied to the analysis and design of other systems.Comment: 44 pages, 8 figure

Self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain in older people with osteoarthritis in six European countries: results from the European Project on Osteoarthritis (EPOSA)

Background: people with osteoarthritis (OA) frequently report that their joint pain is influenced by weather conditions. This study aimed to examine whether there are differences in perceived joint pain between older people with OA who reported to be weather-sensitive versus those who did not in six European countries with different climates and to identify characteristics of older persons with OA that are most predictive of perceived weather sensitivity.Methods: baseline data from the European Project on OSteoArthritis (EPOSA) were used. ACR classification criteria were used to determine OA. Participants with OA were asked about their perception of weather as influencing their pain. Using a two-week follow-up pain calendar, average self-reported joint pain was assessed (range: 0 (no pain)-10 (greatest pain intensity)). Linear regression analyses, logistic regression analyses and an independent t-test were used. Analyses were adjusted for several confounders.Results: the majority of participants with OA (67.2%) perceived the weather as affecting their pain. Weather-sensitive participants reported more pain than non-weather-sensitive participants (M?=?4.1, SD?=?2.4 versus M?=?3.1, SD?=?2.4; p?<?0.001). After adjusting for several confounding factors, the association between self-perceived weather sensitivity and joint pain remained present (B?=?0.37, p?=?0.03). Logistic regression analyses revealed that women and more anxious people were more likely to report weather sensitivity. Older people with OA from Southern Europe were more likely to indicate themselves as weather-sensitive persons than those from Northern Europe.Conclusions: weather (in)stability may have a greater impact on joint structures and pain perception in people from Southern Europe. The results emphasize the importance of considering weather sensitivity in daily life of older people with OA and may help to identify weather-sensitive older people with O

A Real Space Description of Field Induced Melting in the Charge Ordered Manganites: II. the Disordered Case

We study the effect of A site disorder on magnetic field induced melting of charge order (CO) in half doped manganites using a Monte-Carlo technique. Strong A-site disorder destroys CO even without an applied field. At moderate disorder, the zero field CO state survives but has several intriguing features in its field response. Our spatially resolved results track the broadening of the field melting transition due to disorder and explain the unusual dependence of the melting scales on bandwidth and disorder. In combination with our companion paper on field melting of charge order in clean systems we provide an unified understanding of CO melting across all half doped manganites.Comment: 9 pages, pdflatex, 10 embedded png fig

Asymmetric Dark Matter and Dark Radiation

Asymmetric Dark Matter (ADM) models invoke a particle-antiparticle asymmetry, similar to the one observed in the Baryon sector, to account for the Dark Matter (DM) abundance. Both asymmetries are usually generated by the same mechanism and generally related, thus predicting DM masses around 5 GeV in order to obtain the correct density. The main challenge for successful models is to ensure efficient annihilation of the thermally produced symmetric component of such a light DM candidate without violating constraints from collider or direct searches. A common way to overcome this involves a light mediator, into which DM can efficiently annihilate and which subsequently decays into Standard Model particles. Here we explore the scenario where the light mediator decays instead into lighter degrees of freedom in the dark sector that act as radiation in the early Universe. While this assumption makes indirect DM searches challenging, it leads to signals of extra radiation at BBN and CMB. Under certain conditions, precise measurements of the number of relativistic species, such as those expected from the Planck satellite, can provide information on the structure of the dark sector. We also discuss the constraints of the interactions between DM and Dark Radiation from their imprint in the matter power spectrum.Comment: 22 pages, 5 figures, to be published in JCAP, minor changes to match version to be publishe