3,811 research outputs found
Intraseasonal Cross-Shelf Variability of Hypoxia along the Newport, Oregon, Hydrographic Line
AbstractObservations of hypoxia, dissolved oxygen (DO) concentrations < 1.4 ml L−1, off the central Oregon coast vary in duration and spatial extent throughout each upwelling season. Underwater glider measurements along the Newport hydrographic line (NH-Line) reveal cross-shelf DO gradients at a horizontal resolution nearly 30 times greater than previous ship-based station sampling. Two prevalent hypoxic locations are identified along the NH-Line, as is a midshelf region with less severe hypoxia north of Stonewall Bank. Intraseasonal cross-shelf variability is investigated with 10 sequential glider lines and a midshelf mooring time series during the 2011 upwelling season. The cross-sectional area of hypoxia observed in the glider lines ranges from 0 to 1.41 km2. The vertical extent of hypoxia in the water column agrees well with the bottom mixed layer height. Midshelf mooring water velocities show that cross-shelf advection cannot account for the increase in outer-shelf hypoxia observed in the glider sequence. This change is attributed to an along-shelf DO gradient of −0.72 ml L−1 over 2.58 km or 0.28 ml L−1 km−1. In early July of the 2011 upwelling season, near-bottom cross-shelf currents reverse direction as an onshore flow at 30-m depth is observed. This shoaling of the return flow depth throughout the season, as the equatorward coastal jet moves offshore, results in a more retentive near-bottom environment more vulnerable to hypoxia. Slope Burger numbers calculated across the season do not reconcile this return flow depth change, providing evidence that simplified two-dimensional upwelling model assumptions do not hold in this location.</jats:p
Neuropsychological Deficits Are Correlated with Frontal Hypometabolism in Positron Emission Tomography Studies of Older Alcoholic Patients
Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/66315/1/j.1530-0277.1993.tb00750.x.pd
World citation and collaboration networks: uncovering the role of geography in science
Modern information and communication technologies, especially the Internet,
have diminished the role of spatial distances and territorial boundaries on the
access and transmissibility of information. This has enabled scientists for
closer collaboration and internationalization. Nevertheless, geography remains
an important factor affecting the dynamics of science. Here we present a
systematic analysis of citation and collaboration networks between cities and
countries, by assigning papers to the geographic locations of their authors'
affiliations. The citation flows as well as the collaboration strengths between
cities decrease with the distance between them and follow gravity laws. In
addition, the total research impact of a country grows linearly with the amount
of national funding for research & development. However, the average impact
reveals a peculiar threshold effect: the scientific output of a country may
reach an impact larger than the world average only if the country invests more
than about 100,000 USD per researcher annually.Comment: Published version. 9 pages, 5 figures + Appendix, The world citation
and collaboration networks at both city and country level are available at
http://becs.aalto.fi/~rajkp/datasets.htm
Program trace optimization with constructive heuristics for combinatorial problems
This is the author accepted manuscript. The final version is available from Springer via the DOI in this record.EvoCOP: 19th European Conference on Evolutionary Computation in Combinatorial Optimisation, 24-26 April 2019, Leipzig, GermanyProgram Trace Optimisation (PTO), a highly general optimisation framework, is applied to a range of combinatorial optimisation (COP) problems. It effectively combines \smart" problem-specifi c constructive heuristics and problem-agnostic metaheuristic search, automatically and implicitly designing problem-appropriate search operators. A weakness is identifi ed in PTO's operators when applied in conjunction with smart heuristics on COP problems, and an improved method is introduced to address this. To facilitate the comparison of this new method with the original, across problems, a common format for PTO heuristics (known as generators) is demonstrated, mimicking GRASP. This also facilitates comparison of the degree of greediness (the GRASP alpha parameter) in the heuristics. Experiments across problems show that the novel operators consistently outperform the original without any loss of generality or cost in CPU time; hill-climbing is a sufficient metaheuristic; and intermediate levels of greediness are usually best
Alzheimer's pathology targets distinct memory networks in the ageing brain
Alzheimer’s disease researchers have been intrigued by the selective regional vulnerability of the brain to amyloid-β plaques and tau neurofibrillary tangles. Post-mortem studies indicate that in ageing and Alzheimer’s disease tau tangles deposit early in the transentorhinal cortex, a region located in the anterior-temporal lobe that is critical for object memory. In contrast, amyloid-β pathology seems to target a posterior-medial network that subserves spatial memory. In the current study, we tested whether anterior-temporal and posterior-medial brain regions are selectively vulnerable to tau and amyloid-β deposition in the progression from ageing to Alzheimer’s disease and whether this is reflected in domain-specific behavioural deficits and neural dysfunction. 11C-PiB PET and 18F-flortaucipir uptake was quantified in a sample of 131 cognitively normal adults (age: 20–93 years; 47 amyloid-β-positive) and 20 amyloid-β-positive patients with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease dementia (65–95 years). Tau burden was relatively higher in anterior-temporal regions in normal ageing and this difference was further pronounced in the presence of amyloid-β and cognitive impairment, indicating exacerbation of ageing-related processes in Alzheimer’s disease. In contrast, amyloid-β deposition dominated in posterior-medial regions. A subsample of 50 cognitively normal older (26 amyloid-β-positive) and 25 young adults performed an object and scene memory task while functional MRI data were acquired. Group comparisons showed that tau-positive (n = 18) compared to tau-negative (n = 32) older adults showed lower mnemonic discrimination of object relative to scene images [t(48) = −3.2, P = 0.002]. In a multiple regression model including regional measures of both pathologies, higher anterior-temporal flortaucipir (tau) was related to relatively worse object performance (P = 0.010, r = −0.376), whereas higher posterior-medial PiB (amyloid-β) was related to worse scene performance (P = 0.037, r = 0.309). The functional MRI data revealed that tau burden (but not amyloid-β) was associated with increased task activation in both systems and a loss of functional specificity, or dedifferentiation, in posterior-medial regions. The loss of functional specificity was related to worse memory. Our study shows a regional dissociation of Alzheimer’s disease pathologies to distinct memory networks. While our data are cross-sectional, they indicate that with ageing, tau deposits mainly in the anterior-temporal system, which results in deficits in mnemonic object discrimination. As Alzheimer’s disease develops, amyloid-β deposits preferentially in posterior-medial regions additionally compromising scene discrimination and anterior-temporal tau deposition worsens further. Finally, our findings propose that the progression of tau pathology is linked to aberrant activation and dedifferentiation of specialized memory networks that is detrimental to memory function
Trauma history and depression predict incomplete adherence to antiretroviral therapies in a low income country.
As antiretroviral therapy (ART) for HIV becomes increasingly available in low and middle income countries (LMICs), understanding reasons for lack of adherence is critical to stemming the tide of infections and improving health. Understanding the effect of psychosocial experiences and mental health symptomatology on ART adherence can help maximize the benefit of expanded ART programs by indicating types of services, which could be offered in combination with HIV care. The Coping with HIV/AIDS in Tanzania (CHAT) study is a longitudinal cohort study in the Kilimanjaro Region that included randomly selected HIV-infected (HIV+) participants from two local hospital-based HIV clinics and four free-standing voluntary HIV counselling and testing sites. Baseline data were collected in 2008 and 2009; this paper used data from 36 month follow-up interviews (N = 468). Regression analyses were used to predict factors associated with incomplete self-reported adherence to ART. INCOMPLETE ART ADHERENCE WAS SIGNIFICANTLY MORE LIKELY TO BE REPORTED AMONGST PARTICIPANTS WHO EXPERIENCED A GREATER NUMBER OF CHILDHOOD TRAUMATIC EVENTS: sexual abuse prior to puberty and the death in childhood of an immediate family member not from suicide or homicide were significantly more likely in the non-adherent group and other negative childhood events trended toward being more likely. Those with incomplete adherence had higher depressive symptom severity and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). In multivariable analyses, childhood trauma, depression, and financial sacrifice remained associated with incomplete adherence.\ud
This is the first study to examine the effect of childhood trauma, depression and PTSD on HIV medication adherence in a low income country facing a significant burden of HIV. Allocating spending on HIV/AIDS toward integrating mental health services with HIV care is essential to the creation of systems that enhance medication adherence and maximize the potential of expanded antiretroviral access to improve health and reduce new infections
Fixed points and amenability in non-positive curvature
Consider a proper cocompact CAT(0) space X. We give a complete algebraic
characterisation of amenable groups of isometries of X. For amenable discrete
subgroups, an even narrower description is derived, implying Q-linearity in the
torsion-free case.
We establish Levi decompositions for stabilisers of points at infinity of X,
generalising the case of linear algebraic groups to Is(X). A geometric
counterpart of this sheds light on the refined bordification of X (\`a la
Karpelevich) and leads to a converse to the Adams-Ballmann theorem. It is
further deduced that unimodular cocompact groups cannot fix any point at
infinity except in the Euclidean factor; this fact is needed for the study of
CAT(0) lattices.
Various fixed point results are derived as illustrations.Comment: 33 page
Neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease responsive to interleukin-1 beta inhibition
BACKGROUND:Neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease is characterized by fever, urticarial rash, aseptic meningitis, deforming arthropathy, hearing loss, and mental retardation. Many patients have mutations in the cold-induced autoinflammatory syndrome 1 (CIAS1) gene, encoding cryopyrin, a protein that regulates inflammation.METHODS:We selected 18 patients with neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease (12 with identifiable CIAS1 mutations) to receive anakinra, an interleukin-1-receptor antagonist (1 to 2 mg per kilogram of body weight per day subcutaneously). In 11 patients, anakinra was withdrawn at three months until a flare occurred. The primary end points included changes in scores in a daily diary of symptoms, serum levels of amyloid A and C-reactive protein, and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate from baseline to month 3 and from month 3 until a disease flare.RESULTS:All 18 patients had a rapid response to anakinra, with disappearance of rash. Diary scores improved (P<0.001) and serum amyloid A (from a median of 174 mg to 8 mg per liter), C-reactive protein (from a median of 5.29 mg to 0.34 mg per deciliter), and the erythrocyte sedimentation rate decreased at month 3 (all P<0.001), and remained low at month 6. Magnetic resonance imaging showed improvement in cochlear and leptomeningeal lesions as compared with baseline. Withdrawal of anakinra uniformly resulted in relapse within days; retreatment led to rapid improvement. There were no drug-related serious adverse events.CONCLUSIONS:Daily injections of anakinra markedly improved clinical and laboratory manifestations in patients with neonatal-onset multisystem inflammatory disease, with or without CIAS1 mutations
Bidirectional lipid droplet velocities are controlled by differential binding strengths of HCV Core DII protein
Host cell lipid droplets (LD) are essential in the hepatitis C virus (HCV) life cycle and are targeted by the viral capsid core protein. Core-coated LDs accumulate in the perinuclear region and facilitate viral particle assembly, but it is unclear how mobility of these LDs is directed by core. Herein we used two-photon fluorescence, differential interference contrast imaging, and coherent anti-Stokes Raman scattering microscopies, to reveal novel core-mediated changes to LD dynamics. Expression of core protein’s lipid binding domain II (DII-core) induced slower LD speeds, but did not affect directionality of movement on microtubules. Modulating the LD binding strength of DII-core further impacted LD mobility, revealing the temporal effects of LD-bound DII-core. These results for DII-core coated LDs support a model for core-mediated LD localization that involves core slowing down the rate of movement of LDs until localization at the perinuclear region is accomplished where LD movement ceases. The guided localization of LDs by HCV core protein not only is essential to the viral life cycle but also poses an interesting target for the development of antiviral strategies against HCV
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