Immune Activation in Amyloid-β-Related Angiitis Correlates with Decreased Parenchymal Amyloid-β Plaque Load

Background: Primary angiitis of the central nervous system (PACNS) is a rare but serious condition. A fraction of patients suffering from PACNS concurrently exhibit pronounced cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA) which is characterized by deposits of amyloid-β (Aβ) in and around the walls of small and medium-sized arteries of the brain. PACNS with CAA has been identified as a distinct disease entity, termed Aβ-related angiitis (ABRA). Evidence points to an immune reaction to vessel wall Aβ as the trigger of vasculitis. Objective: To investigate whether the inflammatory response to Aβ has (1) any effect on the status of immune activation in the brain parenchyma and (2) leads to clearance of Aβ from brain parenchyma. Methods: We studied immune activation and Aβ load by quantitative immunohistochemical analysis in brain parenchyma adjacent to affected vessels in 11 ABRA patients and 10 matched CAA controls. Results: ABRA patients showed significantly increased immune activation and decreased Aβ loads in the brain parenchyma adjacent to affected vessels. Conclusion: Our results are in line with the hypothesis of ABRA being the result of an excessive immune response to Aβ and show that this can lead to enhanced clearance of Aβ from the brain parenchyma by immune-mediated mechanisms

q-Deformed Superalgebras

The article deals with q-analogs of the three- and four-dimensional Euclidean superalgebra and the Poincare superalgebra.Comment: 38 pages, LateX, no figures, corrected typo

Powdery Mildew Caused by Podosphaera macularis on Hop (Humulus lupulus) in North Carolina

Hop (Humulus lupulus L.) production recently has expanded across the United States to include areas of the country that have not previously grown hop commercially. In June 2015, a grower in western North Carolina detected powdery mildew in a small (<0.5-ha) yard during routine scouting. Characteristic signs of powdery mildew (caused by Podosphaera macularis) were observed on cultivars ‘Cashmere’, ‘Cascade’, and ‘Chinook’. The incidence of affected leaves ranged from 0.5 to 7% among cultivars when the disease was first found, which is sufficiently severe to cause damage to cones if control measures are not implemented (Mahaffee et al. 2003). Occurrence of the disease on Cascade was of particular concern because Cascade is thought to possess some resistance to powdery mildew, although Cascade-adapted strains of P. macularis have been detected in the U.S. Pacific Northwest. Affected leaves were collected for confirmation of pathogen identity. Chasmothecia were absent. Five isolates were obtained by transferring conidia from infected leaves to healthy leaves of the powdery-mildew-susceptible cultivar Symphony. Within 7 days, powdery mildew colonies with barrel-shaped conidia and nonbranching conidiophores typical of P. macularis were visible (Ocamb et al. 1999). Two isolates from North Carolina (HPM-915 and HPM-916) and a non-Cascade-adapted isolate from Oregon (HPM-333) were each inoculated individually onto 3 leaves of Cascade (suspension of 2 × 10⁴ conidia/ml). After 10 days of incubation at 18°C, a significantly greater number of lesions developed on leaves inoculated with isolates from North Carolina as compared with a non-Cascadeadapted isolate, indicating an adaption to this cultivar. Noninoculated controls remained healthy. Similar results were obtained in two repetitions of the inoculations. To further confirm the identity of the organism as P. macularis, two isolates from North Carolina were coinoculated individually with mating type tester isolates of P. macularis confirmed to be either mating type MAT1-1 or MAT1-2 idiomorph (Wolfenbarger et al. 2015). Chasmothecia only formed when isolates were paired with a MAT1-2 isolate, indicating both isolates were P. macularis and MAT1-1 idiomorph. Mating type also was determined using PCR assays (Wolfenbarger et al. 2015), which confirmed all five isolates as MAT1-1. The PCR products were sequenced bidirectionally and compared with a sequence of P. macularis from the Pacific Northwest (GenBank Accession No. KJ922755.1). The sequences of all five isolates were identical to this accession. A representative sequence was deposited (KT899949). At present, powdery mildew occurs only sporadically in commercial yards in the eastern United States, in part because resistant cultivars are widely planted. However, powdery mildew is a damaging disease of hop and surveys are warranted to better understand the distribution of the disease on Cascade and other cultivars in the region. The isolates recovered in North Carolina may have originated from the Pacific Northwest given that only the MAT1-1 idiomorph was detected and virulence of the isolates recovered matched that of isolates only known to exist at present in the western United States

The invisible enemy : Understanding bird-window strikes through citizen science in a focal city

Bird-window collisions have been estimated to be among the most important sources of bird death. Despite increasing knowledge in Latin America, our understanding of this phenomenon is still incipient, with research performed in Mexico limited to a handful of studies. Here, we present the results of a citizen science effort focused on bird-window collisions at seven buildings in the university campus of the National School of Higher Studies (ENES) of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, located in the city of Leon (central Mexico). Our main goal was to describe seasonal patterns of bird-window collisions and their relationship with building traits (i.e., building height, window area) through citizen science monitoring strategies. Our results showed that collisions were higher in two of the seven studied buildings, with two bird species recording almost half of the total collisions: Clay-colored Sparrow (Spizella pallida) and Indigo Bunting (Passerina cyanea). Seasonally, April was the only month to differ from the rest of the studied months, showing significantly higher rate of bird-window collision. Regarding building traits, only building height was related to the number of recorded bird-window collisions. In sum, our study provides findings from an understudied area, showing the value of citizen science approaches to generate knowledge on a deadly phenomenon. Notably, besides the potential drawbacks and importance of generating this kind of information, our project raised awareness on the topic across the entire campus community, from the students and academics to the administration, highlighting the potential for social impact with these kinds of projects.Peer reviewe

Simulation of the CMS Resistive Plate Chambers

The Resistive Plate Chamber (RPC) muon subsystem contributes significantly to the formation of the trigger decision and reconstruction of the muon trajectory parameters. Simulation of the RPC response is a crucial part of the entire CMS Monte Carlo software and directly influences the final physical results. An algorithm based on the parametrization of RPC efficiency, noise, cluster size and timing for every strip has been developed. Experimental data obtained from cosmic and proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s}=7$ TeV have been used for determination of the parameters. A dedicated validation procedure has been developed. A good agreement between the simulated and experimental data has been achieved.Comment: to be published in JINS

Performance of photon reconstruction and identification with the CMS detector in proton-proton collisions at √s = 8 TeV

A description is provided of the performance of the CMS detector for photon reconstruction and identification in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV at the CERN LHC. Details are given on the reconstruction of photons from energy deposits in the electromagnetic calorimeter (ECAL) and the extraction of photon energy estimates. The reconstruction of electron tracks from photons that convert to electrons in the CMS tracker is also described, as is the optimization of the photon energy reconstruction and its accurate modelling in simulation, in the analysis of the Higgs boson decay into two photons. In the barrel section of the ECAL, an energy resolution of about 1% is achieved for unconverted or late-converting photons from Hγγ decays. Different photon identification methods are discussed and their corresponding selection efficiencies in data are compared with those found in simulated events

Measurement of jet multiplicity distributions in [Formula: see text] production in pp collisions at [Formula: see text].

The normalised differential top quark-antiquark production cross section is measured as a function of the jet multiplicity in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 7[Formula: see text] at the LHC with the CMS detector. The measurement is performed in both the dilepton and lepton+jets decay channels using data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 5.0[Formula: see text]. Using a procedure to associate jets to decay products of the top quarks, the differential cross section of the [Formula: see text] production is determined as a function of the additional jet multiplicity in the lepton+jets channel. Furthermore, the fraction of events with no additional jets is measured in the dilepton channel, as a function of the threshold on the jet transverse momentum. The measurements are compared with predictions from perturbative quantum chromodynamics and no significant deviations are observed

Measurement of WZ and ZZ production in pp collisions at [Formula: see text] in final states with b-tagged jets.

Measurements are reported of the WZ and ZZ production cross sections in proton-proton collisions at [Formula: see text][Formula: see text] in final states where one Z boson decays to b-tagged jets. The other gauge boson, either W or Z, is detected through its leptonic decay (either [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text], [Formula: see text], or [Formula: see text]). The results are based on data corresponding to an integrated luminosity of 18.9&nbsp;fb[Formula: see text] collected with the CMS detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The measured cross sections, [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text], are consistent with next-to-leading order quantum chromodynamics calculations