Longwall shearer tracking system

A tracking system for measuring and recording the movements of a longwall shearer vehicle includes an optical tracking assembly carried at one end of a desired vehicle path and a retroreflector assembly carried by the vehicle. Continuous horizontal and vertical light beams are alternately transmitted by means of a rotating Dove prism to the reflector assembly. A vertically reciprocating reflector interrupts the continuous light beams and converts these to discrete horizontal and vertical light beam images transmitted at spaced intervals along the path. A second rotating Dove prism rotates the vertical images to convert them to a second series of horizontal images while the first mentioned horizontal images are left unrotated and horizontal. The images are recorded on a film

Whole-body MRI of patients with polymyalgia rheumatica identifies a distinct subset with complete patient-reported response to glucocorticoids

Objectives: To determine whether whole-body MRI defines clinically-relevant subgroups within polymyalgia rheumatica (PMR) including glucocorticoid responsiveness. Methods: 22 patients with PMR and 16 with rheumatoid arthritis, untreated and diagnosed by consultant rheumatologists, underwent whole-body, multiple-joint MRI, scored by two experts. PMR patients reported whether they felt “back to normal” on glucocorticoid therapy and were followed for a median of 2 years. Results: All PMR patients were deemed to respond to glucocorticoids clinically. A characteristic pattern of symmetrical, extracapsular inflammation, adjacent to greater trochanter, acetabulum, ischial tuberosity and/or symphysis pubis, was observed in 14/22 of the PMR cases. In PMR, this pattern was associated with complete glucocorticoid response (p=0.01), higher pre-treatment C-reactive protein (CRP) and serum IL-6, and better post-treatment fatigue and function. Only 1/14 in the extracapsular group could stop glucocorticoids within 1 year, compared to 4/7 of the others. A score derived from the five sites discriminating best between PMR and RA correlated with IL-6 (p<0.002). IL-6 levels ≥16.8 pg/mL had 86% sensitivity and 86% specificity for the extracapsular MRI pattern. Conclusions: A subset of patients with rheumatologist-diagnosed PMR had a characteristic, extracapsular pattern of MRI inflammation, associated with elevated IL-6/CRP and with complete patient-reported glucocorticoid responsiveness

A Single Dose of Neuron-Binding Human Monoclonal Antibody Improves Spontaneous Activity in a Murine Model of Demyelination

Our laboratory demonstrated that a natural human serum antibody, sHIgM12, binds to neurons in vitro and promotes neurite outgrowth. We generated a recombinant form, rHIgM12, with identical properties. Intracerebral infection with Theiler's Murine Encephalomyelitis Virus (TMEV) of susceptible mouse strains results in chronic demyelinating disease with progressive axonal loss and neurologic dysfunction similar to progressive forms of multiple sclerosis. To study the effects of rHIgM12 on the motor function of TMEV-infected mice, we monitored spontaneous nocturnal activity over many weeks. Nocturnal behavior is a sensitive measure of rodent neurologic function because maximal activity changes are expected to occur during the normally active night time monitoring period. Mice were placed in activity boxes eight days prior to treatment to collect baseline spontaneous activity. After treatment, activity in each group was continuously recorded over 8 weeks. We chose a long 8-week monitoring period for two reasons: (1) we previously demonstrated that IgM induced remyelination is present by 5 weeks post treatment, and (2) TMEV-induced demyelinating disease in this strain progresses very slowly. Due to the long observation periods and large data sets, differences among treatment groups may be difficult to appreciate studying the original unfiltered recordings. To clearly delineate changes in the highly fluctuating original data we applied three different methods: (1) binning, (2) application of Gaussian low-pass filters (GF) and (3) polynomial fitting. Using each of the three methods we showed that compared to control IgM and saline, early treatment with rHIgM12 induced improvement in both horizontal and vertical motor function, whereas later treatment improved only horizontal activity. rHIgM12 did not alter activity of normal, uninfected mice. This study supports the hypothesis that treatment with a neuron-binding IgM not only protects neurons in vitro, but also influences functional motor improvement

The "Artificial Mathematician" Objection: Exploring the (Im)possibility of Automating Mathematical Understanding

Reuben Hersh confided to us that, about forty years ago, the late Paul Cohen predicted to him that at some unspecified point in the future, mathematicians would be replaced by computers. Rather than focus on computers replacing mathematicians, however, our aim is to consider the (im)possibility of human mathematicians being joined by “artificial mathematicians” in the proving practice—not just as a method of inquiry but as a fellow inquirer

Confidentiality and public protection: ethical dilemmas in qualitative research with adult male sex offenders

This paper considers the ethical tensions present when engaging in in-depth interviews with convicted sex offenders. Many of the issues described below are similar to those found in other sensitive areas of research. However, confidentiality and public protection are matters that require detailed consideration when the desire to know more about men who have committed serious and harmful offences is set against the possibility of a researcher not disclosing previously unknown sensitive information that relates to the risk of someone being harmed.</p

Mice with an induced mutation in collagen 8A2 develop larger eyes and are resistant to retinal ganglion cell damage in an experimental glaucoma model

PURPOSE: To study susceptibility to glaucoma injury as it may be affected by mutations in ocular connective tissue components. METHODS: Mice homozygous for an N-ethyl-N-nitrosourea induced G257D exchange (Gly to Asp) missense mutation (Aca23) in their collagen 8A2 gene were studied to measure intraocular pressure (IOP), axial length and width, number of retinal ganglion cells (RGC), and inflation responses. Three month old homozygous Aca23 mutant and wild type (WT) mice had 6 weeks exposure to elevated IOP induced by polystyrene microbead injection. Additional Aca23 and matched controls were studied at ages of 10 and 18 months. RESULTS: Aca23 mice had no significant difference from WT in IOP level, and in both strains IOP rose with age. In multivariable models, axial length and width were significantly larger in Aca23 than WT, became larger with age, and were larger after exposure to glaucoma (n=227 mice). From inflation test data, the estimates of scleral stress resultants in Aca23 mice were similar to age-matched and younger WT C57BL/6 (B6) mice, while the strain estimates for Aca23 were significantly less than those for either WT group in the mid-sclera and in some of the more anterior scleral measures (p&lt;0.001; n=29, 22, 20 eyes in Aca23, older WT, younger WT, respectively). With chronic IOP elevation, Aca23 eyes increased 9% in length and 7% in width, compared to untreated fellow eyes (p&lt;0.05, &lt;0.01). With similar elevated IOP exposure, WT eyes enlarged proportionately twice as much as Aca23, increasing in length by 18% and in nasal-temporal width by 13% (both p&lt;0.001, Mann-Whitney test). In 4 month old control optic nerves, mean RGC axon number was not different in Aca23 and WT (46,905&plusmn;7,592, 43,628&plusmn;11,162, respectively; p=0.43, Mann-Whitney test, n=37 and 29). With chronic glaucoma, Aca23 mice had a mean axon loss of only 0.57&plusmn;17%, while WT mice lost 21&plusmn;31% (median loss: 1% versus 10%, n=37, 29, respectively; p=0.001; multivariable model adjusting for positive integral IOP exposure). CONCLUSIONS: The Aca23 mutation in collagen 8&alpha;2 is the first gene defect found to alter susceptibility to experimental glaucoma, reducing RGC loss possibly due to differences in mechanical behavior of the sclera. Detailed study of the specific changes in scleral connective tissue composition and responses to chronic IOP elevation in this strain could produce new therapeutic targets for RGC neuroprotection

Ordering in voter models on networks: Exact reduction to a single-coordinate diffusion

We study the voter model and related random-copying processes on arbitrarily complex network structures. Through a representation of the dynamics as a particle reaction process, we show that a quantity measuring the degree of order in a finite system is, under certain conditions, exactly governed by a universal diffusion equation. Whenever this reduction occurs, the details of the network structure and random-copying process affect only a single parameter in the diffusion equation. The validity of the reduction can be established with considerably less information than one might expect: it suffices to know just two characteristic timescales within the dynamics of a single pair of reacting particles. We develop methods to identify these timescales, and apply them to deterministic and random network structures. We focus in particular on how the ordering time is affected by degree correlations, since such effects are hard to access by existing theoretical approaches.Comment: 37 pages, 10 figures. Revised version with additional discussion and simulation results to appear in J Phys

Probing the CP nature of the Higgs coupling in tt¯h events at the LHC

The determination of the CP nature of the Higgs coupling to top quarks is addressed in this paper, using t¯th events produced in √s=13  TeV proton-proton collisions at the LHC. Dileptonic final states are employed, with two oppositely charged leptons and four jets, corresponding to the decays t→bW+→bℓ+νℓ, ¯t→¯bW−→¯bℓ−¯νℓ, and h→b¯b. Pure scalar (h=H), pure pseudoscalar (h=A), and CP-violating Higgs boson signal events, generated with MadGraph5_aMC@NLO, are fully reconstructed through a kinematic fit. We furthermore generate samples that have both a CP-even and a CP-odd component in the t¯th coupling in order to probe the ratio of the two components. New angular distributions of the decay products, as well as CP angular asymmetries, are explored in order to separate the scalar from the pseudoscalar components of the Higgs boson and reduce the contribution from the dominant irreducible background, t¯tb¯b. Significant differences between the angular distributions and asymmetries are observed, even after the full kinematic fit reconstruction of the events, allowing to define the best observables for a global fit of the Higgs couplings parameters.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio