Klotho gene polymorphism, brain structure and cognition in early-life development

Open access via Springer Compact Agreement Acknowledgements We thank the PING study participants who contributed to the research. The study was supported by the University of Aberdeen Development Trust and by the SINAPSE (Scottish Imaging Network: A Platform for Scientific Excellence) Postdoctoral and Early Career Researcher Exchanges funding. The PING Study (National Institutes of Health Grant RC2DA029475) funded data collection and sharing for this project. PING is funded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse and the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute of Child Health & Human Development. PING data are disseminated by the PING Coordinating Center at the Center for Human Development, University of California, San Diego. Data used in preparation of this article were obtained from the Pediatric Imaging, Neurocognition and Genetics Study (PING) database (http://ping.chd.ucsd.edu/). As such, the investigators within PING contributed to the design and implementation of PING and/or provided data but did not participate in analysis or writing of this report. A complete listing of PING investigators can be found at http://ping.chd.ucsd.edu/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=104&Itemid=134. The Generation R Study is conducted by the Erasmus Medical Center in close collaboration with the School of Law and Faculty of Social Sciences of the Erasmus University Rotterdam, the Municipal Health Service Rotterdam area, Rotterdam, the Rotterdam Homecare Foundation, Rotterdam and the Stichting Trombosedienst & Artsenlaboratorium Rijnmond (STAR-MDC), Rotterdam. Neuroimaging was supported by the Netherlands Organization for Health Research and Development (ZonMw) TOP project number 91211021. We gratefully acknowledge the contribution of children and parents, general practitioners, hospitals, midwives and pharmacies in Rotterdam. We would like to thank Karol Estrada, Dr. Tobias A. Knoch, Anis Abuseiris, Luc V. de Zeeuw, and Rob de Graaf, for their help in creating GRIMP, BigGRID, MediGRID, and Services@MediGRID/D-Grid, [funded by the German Bundesministerium fuer Forschung und Technology; grants 01 AK 803 A-H, 01 IG 07015 G] for access to their grid computing resources. We thank Pascal Arp, Mila Jhamai, Marijn Verkerk, Manoushka Ganesh, Lizbeth Herrera and Marjolein Peters for their help in creating, managing and QC of the GWAS database. The general design of Generation R Study is made possible by financial support from the Erasmus Medical Center, Rotterdam, the Erasmus University Rotterdam, ZonMw, the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO), the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport and the Ministry of Youth and Families.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

UJI VALIDITAS ALAT PERMAINAN ESTAFET PIPA BOLA PING PONG UNTUK KEMAMPUAN KERJA SAMA ANAK USIA 4-5 TAHUN

Masalah yang ditemukan oleh peneliti yaitu kurangnya alat permainan yang mendukung perkembangan kemampuan kerjasama anak, sehingga anak-anak lebih mementingkan diri sendiri dan kurang peduli dengan teman lainnya. Jenis penelitian ini yaitu penelitian pengembangan yang akan menghasilkan produk alat permainan estafet pipa bola ping pong. Tujuan penelitian ini untuk mengetahui hasil pengembangan media alat permainan estafet pipa bola ping pong dan untuk mengetahui kelayakan media alat permainan estafet pipa bola pingopong  yang digunakan dalam proses bermain. Penelitian ini menggunakan penelitian pengembangan dengan menggunakan model penelitian Research and Development (R&D) dengan menggunakan 5 dari 10 tahapan yang ada yaitu 1) potensi masalah 2) pengumpulan informasi 3) desain produk 4) validasi desain 5) revisi produk. Dalam proses pengumpulan data peneliti menggunakan angket yang diajukan kepada validator selaku para ahli yang terdiri dari dua ahli media dan dua ahli materi. Berdasarkan hasil validasi alat permainan estafet pipa bola ping pong mendapat hasil rata-rata 4,15 atau 83% dengan kriteria “Sangat Layak” sedangkan dari hasil validasi materi mendapat hasil rata-rata 3,6 atau 71% dengan kriteria “Layak”. Sehingga dapat disimpulkan bahwa media alat permainan estafet pipa bola ping pong “Sangat Layak” untuk digunakan untuk menumbuhkan kemampuan kerjasama anak

Extragonadal LH/hCG action-Not yet time to rewrite textbooks

Gonadotropins are indispensable in both sexes in the regulation of gonadal sex steroid production and gametogenesis. In addition to their well-established classical actions, numerous recent publications have indicated the presence and function of luteinizing hormone/chorionic gonadotropin receptors (LH/hCG-R) in a variety of extragonadal tissues. However, the physiological significance of such effects has remained unclear. We have generated two genetically modified mouse models, one with excessive production of hCG and the other with targeted disruption of LH/hCG-R gene, and used them to address the functions of LH and hCG. Numerous gonadal and extragonadal phenotypes were found in the models with the two extremes of LH/hCG action. However, when the extragonadal effects were scrutinized in greater detail, they all appeared to arise through modification of gonadal function, either through enhanced or inhibited response to LH/hCG stimulation. Hence, further evidence is needed before the extragonadal LH/hCG-R expression can be considered functionally significant.Fil: Pakarainen, Tomi. University of Turku; FinlandiaFil: Ahtiainen, Petteri. University of Turku; FinlandiaFil: Zhang, Fu Ping. University of Helsinki; FinlandiaFil: Rulli, Susana Beatriz. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Fundación de Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental. Instituto de Biología y Medicina Experimental; ArgentinaFil: Poutanen, Matti. University of Turku; FinlandiaFil: Huhtaniemi, Ilpo. University of Turku; Finlandia. IMperial College London; Reino Unid

Discrete and free subgroups of SL₂

In this thesis, we study finitely generated subgroups of the matrix group SL₂ (over various locally compact fields) which are both discrete and free. We first examine the existing literature on two- and three-generated subgroups of SL₂(R) and SL₂(C). Some such subgroups are known to be free, and this can be proved by applying a ‘combination’ theorem (such as Klein’s Combination Theorem, or the Ping Pong Lemma) to the action of these groups by Möbius transformations on the Riemann sphere. It remains, however, an open problem to determine freeness of such subgroups in general. On the other hand, applying the Ping Pong Lemma to the action of SL₂(R) by Möbius transformations on the hyperbolic plane H² is known to give necessary and sufficient conditions for a two-generated subgroup of SL₂(R) to be both discrete (with respect to the topology inherited from R⁴) and free of rank two. This forms the basis of an existing practical algorithm which, given a two-generated subgroup G ≤ SL₂(R), determines after finitely many steps whether or not G is both discrete and free of rank two. We then look at two-generated subgroups of SL₂(K), where K is a non-archimedean local field (such as the p-adic numbers). Such groups act by isometries and without inversions on a locally finite regular simplicial tree, called the Bruhat-Tits tree. We demonstrate that applying the Ping Pong Lemma to this action gives a practical algorithm which, given a two-generated subgroup G ≤ SL₂(K), determines after finitely many steps whether or not G is both discrete (with respect to the topology inherited from K⁴) and free of rank two. The basis of this algorithm involves computing and comparing various translation lengths. Finally, we show that similar techniques can be used to give another algorithm which, given a three-generated subgroup G ≤ SL₂(K), determines after finitely many steps whether or not G is both discrete and free of rank three. We demonstrate that both algorithms can be applied more generally in the setting of two- or three-generated subgroups of the isometry group of any locally finite simplicial tree (when equipped with the topology of pointwise convergence, and a method of computing translation lengths) and have relevance to the constructive membership problem.Woolf Fisher Trust, Cambridge Trus

Expansion of a compressible gas in vacuum

Tai-Ping Liu \cite{Liu\_JJ} introduced the notion of "physical solution' of the isentropic Euler system when the gas is surrounded by vacuum. This notion can be interpreted by saying that the front is driven by a force resulting from a H\"older singularity of the sound speed. We address the question of when this acceleration appears or when the front just move at constant velocity. We know from \cite{Gra,SerAIF} that smooth isentropic flows with a non-accelerated front exist globally in time, for suitable initial data. In even space dimension, these solutions may persist for all $t\in\R$ ; we say that they are {\em eternal}. We derive a sufficient condition in terms of the initial data, under which the boundary singularity must appear. As a consequence, we show that, in contrast to the even-dimensional case, eternal flows with a non-accelerated front don't exist in odd space dimension. In one space dimension, we give a refined definition of physical solutions. We show that for a shock-free flow, their asymptotics as both ends $t\rightarrow\pm\infty$ are intimately related to each other

e-Research Meets e-Health

This paper appeared at the Australasian Workshop on Health Data and Knowledge Management (HDKM 2008), Wollongong, NSW, Australia. Conferences in Research and Practice in Information Technology (CRPIT), Vol. 80. James R. Warren, Ping Yu, John Yearwood and Jon D. Patrick, Eds. Reproduction for academic, not-for profit purposes permitted provided this text is included.This paper considers some key aspects of e-Research methodology and infrastructure which are relevant to e-Health, and identifies some promising areas in e-Health where these aspects could be used beneficially