The impact of deep-sea fisheries and implementation of the UNGA Resolutions 61/105 and 64/72. Report of an international scientific workshop

The scientific workshop to review fisheries management, held in Lisbon in May 2011, brought together 22 scientists and fisheries experts from around the world to consider the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) resolutions on high seas bottom fisheries: what progress has been made and what the outstanding issues are. This report summarises the workshop conclusions, identifying examples of good practice and making recommendations in areas where it was agreed that the current management measures fall short of their target

Glucocerebrosidase expression patterns in the non-human primate brain

Glucocerebrosidase (GCase) is a lysosomal enzyme encoded by the GBA1 gene. Mutations in GBA1 gene lead to Gaucher’s disease, the most prevalent lysosomal storage disorder. GBA1 mutations reduce GCase activity, therefore promoting the aggregation of alphasynuclein, a common neuropathological finding underlying Parkinson’s disease (PD) and dementia with Lewy bodies. However, it is also worth noting that a direct link between GBA1 mutations and alpha-synuclein aggregation indicating cause and effect is still lacking, with limited experimental evidence to date. Bearing in mind that a number of strategies increasing GCase expression for the treatment of PD are currently under development, here we sought to analyze the baseline expression of GCase in the brain of Macaca fascicularis, which has often been considered as the gold-standard animal model of PD. Although as with other lysosomal enzymes, GCase is expected to be ubiquitously expressed, here a number of regional variations have been consistently found, together with several specific neurochemical phenotypes expressing very high levels of GCase. In this regard, the most enriched expression of GCase was constantly found in cholinergic neurons from the nucleus basalis of Meynert, dopaminergic cells in the substantia nigra pars compacta, serotoninergic neurons from the raphe nuclei, as well as in noradrenergic neurons located in the locus ceruleus. Moreover, it is also worth noting that moderate levels of expression were also found in a number of areas within the paleocortex and archicortex, such as the entorhinal cortex and the hippocampal formation, respectively

Dietary metabolite profiling brings new insight into the relationship between nutrition and metabolic risk: An IMI Direct study

Background: Dietary advice remains the cornerstone of prevention and management of type 2 diabetes (T2D). However, understanding the efficacy of dietary interventions is confounded by the challenges inherent in assessing free living diet. Here we profiled dietary metabolites to investigate glycaemic deterioration and cardiometabolic risk in people at risk of or living with T2D. Methods: We analysed data from plasma collected at baseline and 18-month follow-up in individuals from the Innovative Medicines Initiative (IMI) Diabetes Research on Patient Stratification (DIRECT) cohort 1 n=403 individuals with normal or impaired glucose regulation (prediabetic) and cohort 2 n=458 individuals with new onset of T2D. A dietary metabolite profile model (Tpred) was constructed using multivariate regression of 113 plasma metabolites obtained from targeted metabolomics assays. The continuous Tpred score was used to explore the relationships between diet, glycaemic deterioration and cardio-metabolic risk via multiple linear regression models. Findings: A higher Tpred was associated with healthier diets high in wholegrain (β=0.004 g, p=0.02 and β=0.003 g, p=0.03) and lower energy intake (β=-0.0002 kcal, p=0.04 and β=-0.0002 kcal, p=0.003), and saturated fat (β=-0.03 g, p<.0001 and β=-0.03 g, p<.0001), respectively for cohort 1 and 2. In both cohorts a higher Tpred score was also associated with lower total body adiposity and improved lipid profiles HDL-cholesterol (β=0.07 mmol/L, p<.0001), (β=0.08 mmol/L, p=0.0002), and triglycerides (β=-0.1 mmol/L, p=0.003), (β=-0.2 mmol/L, p=0.0002), respectively for cohort 1 and 2. In cohort 2, the Tpred score was negatively associated with liver fat content (β=-0.74 %, p<.0001), and lower fasting concentrations of HbA1c (β=-0.9mmol/mol, p=0.02), glucose (β=-0.2 mmol/L, p=0.01) and insulin (β=-11.0 pmol/mol, p=0.01). Longitudinal analysis showed at 18-month follow up a higher Tpred score was also associated lower total body adiposity in both cohorts and lower fasting glucose (β=-0.2 mmol/L, p=0.03) and insulin (β=-9.2 pmol/mol, p=0.04) concentrations in cohort 2. Interpretation: Plasma dietary metabolite profiling provides objective measures of diet intake, showing a relationship to glycaemic deterioration and cardiometabolic health

Large enhancement of deuteron polarization with frequency modulated microwaves

We report a large enhancement of 1.7 in deuteron polarization up to values of 0.6 due to frequency modulation of the polarizing microwaves in a two liters polarized target using the method of dynamic nuclear polarization. This target was used during a deep inelastic polarized muon-deuteron scattering experiment at CERN. Measurements of the electron paramagnetic resonance absorption spectra show that frequency modulation gives rise to additional microwave absorption in the spectral wings. Although these results are not understood theoretically, they may provide a useful testing ground for the deeper understanding of dynamic nuclear polarization.Comment: 10 pages, including the figures coming in uuencoded compressed tar files in poltar.uu, which also brings cernart.sty and crna12.sty files neede

Anisotropic flow of charged hadrons, pions and (anti-)protons measured at high transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}=2.76 TeV

The elliptic, $v_2$, triangular, $v_3$, and quadrangular, $v_4$, azimuthal anisotropic flow coefficients are measured for unidentified charged particles, pions and (anti-)protons in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. Results obtained with the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods are reported for the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ at different collision centralities and as a function of transverse momentum, $p_{\rm T}$, out to $p_{\rm T}=20$ GeV/$c$. The observed non-zero elliptic and triangular flow depends only weakly on transverse momentum for $p_{\rm T}>8$ GeV/$c$. The small $p_{\rm T}$ dependence of the difference between elliptic flow results obtained from the event plane and four-particle cumulant methods suggests a common origin of flow fluctuations up to $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$. The magnitude of the (anti-)proton elliptic and triangular flow is larger than that of pions out to at least $p_{\rm T}=8$ GeV/$c$ indicating that the particle type dependence persists out to high $p_{\rm T}$.Comment: 16 pages, 5 captioned figures, authors from page 11, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/186

Centrality dependence of charged particle production at large transverse momentum in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN=2.76\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}} = 2.76 TeV

The inclusive transverse momentum ($p_{\rm T}$) distributions of primary charged particles are measured in the pseudo-rapidity range $|\eta|<0.8$ as a function of event centrality in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm{NN}}}=2.76$ TeV with ALICE at the LHC. The data are presented in the $p_{\rm T}$ range $0.15<p_{\rm T}<50$ GeV/$c$ for nine centrality intervals from 70-80% to 0-5%. The Pb-Pb spectra are presented in terms of the nuclear modification factor $R_{\rm{AA}}$ using a pp reference spectrum measured at the same collision energy. We observe that the suppression of high-$p_{\rm T}$ particles strongly depends on event centrality. In central collisions (0-5%) the yield is most suppressed with $R_{\rm{AA}}\approx0.13$ at $p_{\rm T}=6$-7 GeV/$c$. Above $p_{\rm T}=7$ GeV/$c$, there is a significant rise in the nuclear modification factor, which reaches $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx0.4$ for $p_{\rm T}>30$ GeV/$c$. In peripheral collisions (70-80%), the suppression is weaker with $R_{\rm{AA}} \approx 0.7$ almost independently of $p_{\rm T}$. The measured nuclear modification factors are compared to other measurements and model calculations.Comment: 17 pages, 4 captioned figures, 2 tables, authors from page 12, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/284

Measurement of charm production at central rapidity in proton-proton collisions at s=2.76\sqrt{s} = 2.76 TeV

The $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections of the prompt (B feed-down subtracted) charmed mesons D$^0$, D$^+$, and D$^{*+}$ in the rapidity range $|y|<0.5$, and for transverse momentum $1< p_{\rm T} <12$ GeV/$c$, were measured in proton-proton collisions at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV with the ALICE detector at the Large Hadron Collider. The analysis exploited the hadronic decays D$^0 \rightarrow$K$\pi$, D$^+ \rightarrow$K$\pi\pi$, D$^{*+} \rightarrow$D$^0\pi$, and their charge conjugates, and was performed on a $L_{\rm int} = 1.1$ nb$^{-1}$ event sample collected in 2011 with a minimum-bias trigger. The total charm production cross section at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and at 7 TeV was evaluated by extrapolating to the full phase space the $p_{\rm T}$-differential production cross sections at $\sqrt{s} = 2.76$ TeV and our previous measurements at $\sqrt{s} = 7$ TeV. The results were compared to existing measurements and to perturbative-QCD calculations. The fraction of cdbar D mesons produced in a vector state was also determined.Comment: 20 pages, 5 captioned figures, 4 tables, authors from page 15, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/307

Particle-yield modification in jet-like azimuthal di-hadron correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}} = 2.76 TeV

The yield of charged particles associated with high-$p_{\rm T}$ trigger particles ($8 < p_{\rm T} < 15$ GeV/$c$) is measured with the ALICE detector in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{\rm NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV relative to proton-proton collisions at the same energy. The conditional per-trigger yields are extracted from the narrow jet-like correlation peaks in azimuthal di-hadron correlations. In the 5% most central collisions, we observe that the yield of associated charged particles with transverse momenta $p_{\rm T}> 3$ GeV/$c$ on the away-side drops to about 60% of that observed in pp collisions, while on the near-side a moderate enhancement of 20-30% is found.Comment: 15 pages, 2 captioned figures, 1 table, authors from page 10, published version, figures at http://aliceinfo.cern.ch/ArtSubmission/node/350

Measurement of the spin-dependent structure function g1(x) of the proton

Adams D, Adeva B, Arik E, et al. Measurement of the spin-dependent structure function g1(x) of the proton. Phys.Lett. B. 1994;329(2-3):399-406.We have measured the spin-dependent structure function $g_1~p$ of the proton in deep inelastic scattering of polarized muons off polarized protons, in the kinematic range $0.003<x<0.7$ and 1\,\mbox{GeV}~2. Its first moment, $\int_0~1 g_1~p(x) dx$, is found to be 0.136 \pm 0.011\,(\mbox{stat.})\pm 0.011\,(\mbox{syst.}) at Q~2=10\,\mbox{GeV}~2. This value is smaller than the prediction of the Ellis--Jaffe sum rule by two standard deviations, and is consistent with previous measurements. A combined analysis of all available proton, deuteron and neutron data confirms the Bjorken sum rule to within $10\%$ of the theoretical value