Phosphorylated neurofilament H (pNF-H) as a potential diagnostic marker for neurological disorders in horses

The current study aimed at the investigating the potential use of phosphorylated neurofilament H (pNF-H) as a diagnostic biomarker for neurologic disorders in the horse. Paired serum and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) samples (n = 88) and serum only (n = 30) were obtained from horses diagnosed with neurologic disorders and clinically healthy horses as control. The neurologic horses consisted of equine protozoal myeloencephalitis (EPM) (38 cases) and cervical vertebral malformation (CVM) (23 cases). Levels of pNF-H were determined using an ELISA. The correlation between CSF and serum concentrations of pNF-H was evaluated using Spearman's Rank test and the significance of the difference among the groups was assessed using a nonparametric test. Horses had higher pNF-H levels in the CSF than serum. Horses afflicted with EPM had significantly higher serum pNF-H levels in comparison to controls or CVM cases. The correlation between CSF and serum pNF-H levels was poor in both the whole study population and among subgroups of horses included in the study. There was significant association between the likelihood of EPM and the concentrations of pNF-H in either the serum or CSF. These data suggest that pNF-H could be detected in serum and CSF samples from neurologic and control horses. This study demonstrated that pNF-H levels in serum and CSF have the potential to provide objective information to help in the early diagnosis of horses afflicted with neurologic disorders

Ocean 2D eddy energy fluxes from small mesoscale processes with SWOT

We investigate ocean dynamics at different scales in the Agulhas Current system, a region of important interocean exchange of heat and energy. While ocean observations and some of the most advanced climate models capture the larger mesoscale dynamics (&gt; 100 km), the smaller-scale fronts and eddies are underrepresented. The recently launched NASA–CNES Surface Water and Ocean Topography (SWOT) wide-swath altimeter mission observes the smaller ocean geostrophic scales down to 15 km in wavelength globally. Here we will analyse different eddy diagnostics in the Agulhas Current region and quantify the contributions from the larger mesoscales observable today and the smaller scales to be observed with SWOT. Surface geostrophic diagnostics of eddy kinetic energy, strain, and energy cascades are estimated from modelled sea surface height (SSH) fields of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology general circulation model (MITgcm) latitude–longitude polar cap (LLC4320) simulation subsampled at 1/10∘. In this region, the smaller scales (&lt;150 km) have a strong signature on the horizontal geostrophic strain rate and for all eddy diagnostics in the Western Boundary Current and along the meandering Agulhas Extension. We investigate the horizontal cascade of energy using a coarse-graining technique, and we observe that the wavelength range where the inverse cascade occurs is biased towards larger mesoscale wavelengths with today’s altimetric sampling. We also calculate the projected sampling of the eddy diagnostics under the SWOT swaths built with the NASA–CNES simulator to include the satellite position and realistic noise. For the swaths, a neural network noise mitigation method is implemented to reduce the residual SWOT random error before calculating eddy diagnostics. In terms of SSH, observable wavelengths of 15 to 20 km are retrieved after neural network noise mitigation, as opposed to wavelengths larger than 40 km before the noise reduction.</p

Classical and quantum chaos in a circular billiard with a straight cut

We study classical and quantum dynamics of a particle in a circular billiard with a straight cut. This system can be integrable, nonintegrable with soft chaos, or nonintegrable with hard chaos, as we vary the size of the cut. We use a quantum web to show differences in the quantum manifestations of classical chaos for these three different regimes.Comment: LaTeX2e, 8 pages including 3 Postscript figures and 4 GIF figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.

Ordering ambiguity revisited via position dependent mass pseudo-momentum operators

Ordering ambiguity associated with the von Roos position dependent mass (PDM) Hamiltonian is considered. An affine locally scaled first order differential introduced, in Eq.(9), as a PDM-pseudo-momentum operator. Upon intertwining our Hamiltonian, which is the sum of the square of this operator and the potential function, with the von Roos d-dimensional PDM-Hamiltonian, we observed that the so-called von Roos ambiguity parameters are strictly determined, but not necessarily unique. Our new ambiguity parameters' setting is subjected to Dutra's and Almeida's [11] reliability test and classified as good ordering.Comment: 10 pages, no figures, revised/expanded, mathematical presentations in section 2 (Especially, the typological Errors in Eqs.(9)-(12))are now corrected. To appear in the Int. J. Theor. Phy

PT-symmetric Solutions of Schrodinger Equation with position-dependent mass via Point Canonical Transformation

PT-symmetric solutions of Schrodinger equation are obtained for the Scarf and generalized harmonic oscillator potentials with the position-dependent mass. A general point canonical transformation is applied by using a free parameter. Three different forms of mass distributions are used. A set of the energy eigenvalues of the bound states and corresponding wave functions for target potentials are obtained as a function of the free parameter.Comment: 13 page

A general scheme for the effective-mass Schrodinger equation and the generation of the associated potentials

A systematic procedure to study one-dimensional Schr\"odinger equation with a position-dependent effective mass (PDEM) in the kinetic energy operator is explored. The conventional free-particle problem reveals a new and interesting situation in that, in the presence of a mass background, formation of bound states is signalled. We also discuss coordinate-transformed, constant-mass Schr\"odinger equation, its matching with the PDEM form and the consequent decoupling of the ambiguity parameters. This provides a unified approach to many exact results known in the literature, as well as to a lot of new ones.Comment: 16 pages + 1 figure; minor changes + new "free-particle" problem; version published in Mod. Phys. Lett.

Antonio Gramsci’s impact on critical pedagogy

This paper provides an account of Antonio Gramsci’s impact on the area of critical pedagogy. It indicates the Gramscian influence on the thinking of major exponents of the field. It foregrounds Gramsci's ideas and then indicates how they have been taken up by a selection of critical pedagogy exponents who were chosen on the strength of their identification and engagement with Gramsci's ideas, some of them even having written entire essays on Gramsci. The essay concludes with a discussion concerning an aspect of Gramsci's concerns, the question of powerful knowledge, which, in the present author's view, provides a formidable challenge to critical pedagogues.peer-reviewe

Experiências de contacto dos bebés com a linguagem escrita

The purpose of this study is to characterize the literacy experiences ofbabies aged between 14 and 24 months. In this study, four issues were analysed: which type of written language experiences are offered to the children, how parents value these literacy experiences, the way parents perceive their own role in the literacy development of their children and what parents know about their means of contributing to the literacy development of their children. Six mothers were interviewed. These interviews were analysed with the use of a categorical content analysis. The results suggest that mothers value and include in their practices facilitative and mediation actions of literacy experiences with their children, noting some variability depending on the respective qualifications.Este estudo exploratório visa descrever as experiências de literacia de bebés entre os 14 e os 25 meses. Analisamse quatro questões, que experiências envolvendo a linguagem escrita no seio familiar são proporcionadas aos bebés, qual o valor que os pais lhes atribuem, como percepcionam o seu papel na promoção do desenvolvimento literácito dos filhos e como podem contribuir para o desenvolvimento da literacia dos mesmos. Adotou-se uma metodologia qualitativa, com recurso à análise de conteúdo categorial das respostas dadas por seis mães em entrevista individual e semiestruturada. Concluiu-se que estas mães valorizam e incluem nas suas práticas ações facilitadoras e de mediação de experiências de literacia por parte dos seus bebés, notando-se alguma variabilidade em função das respetivas habilitações académicas.(undefined)info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

B806: Performance Evaluations of Potato Clones and Varieties in the Northeastern States 1984

Cooperative potato clone and variety trials were conducted at 32 locations to determine field performance of selected clones and varieties grown under soil, climatic, and cultural management common to the potato growing areas of 12 cooperating states and the Province of New Brunswick, Canada. A few locations also evaluated storage and processing behavior of selected clones and varieties. These tests are contributions to Regional Project NE107 entitled, Breeding and Evaluation of New Potato Clones for the Northeast. The primary objective of this project is to determine clone performance and stability over a wide range of soil, climate, and cultural conditions.https://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/aes_bulletin/1117/thumbnail.jp