487 research outputs found
Recent advances in neuroimaging of bladder, bowel and sexual function
PURPOSE OF REVIEW: In this review, we summarize recent advances in the understanding of the neural control of the bladder, bowel and sexual function, in both men and women. RECENT FINDINGS: Evidence of supraspinal areas controlling the storage of urine and micturition in animals, such as the pontine micturition centre, emerged in the early 20th century. Neurological stimulation and lesion studies in humans provided additional indirect evidence for additional bladder-related brain areas. Thereafter, functional neuroimaging in humans with PET and fMRI provided more direct evidence of the involvement of these brain areas. The areas involved in the storage and expulsion of urine also seem to be involved in the central control of storage and expulsion of feces. Furthermore, most knowledge on the brain control of sexual function is obtained from dynamic imaging in human volunteers. Relatively little is known about the dysfunctional central circuits in patients with pelvic organ dysfunction. SUMMARY: fMRI has been the most widely used functional neuroimaging technique in the last decade to study the central control of bladder function, anorectal function and sexual function. The studies described in this review show which sensory and motor areas are involved, including cortical and subcortical areas. We propose the existence of a switch-like phenomenon located in the pons controlling micturition, defecation and orgasm
Validity of numerical trajectories in the synchronization transition of complex systems
We investigate the relationship between the loss of synchronization and the
onset of shadowing breakdown {\it via} unstable dimension variability in
complex systems. In the neighborhood of the critical transition to strongly
non-hyperbolic behavior, the system undergoes on-off intermittency with respect
to the synchronization state. There are potentially severe consequences of
these facts on the validity of the computer-generated trajectories obtained
from dynamical systems whose synchronization manifolds share the same
non-hyperbolic properties.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure
Systemic and ocular fluid compounds as potential biomarkers in age-related macular degeneration
Biomarkers can help unravel mechanisms of disease and identify new targets for therapy. They can also be useful in clinical practice for monitoring disease progression, evaluation of treatment efficacy, and risk assessment in multifactorial diseases, such as age-related macular degeneration (AMD). AMD is a highly prevalent progressive retinal disorder for which multiple genetic and environmental risk factors have been described, but the exact etiology is not yet fully understood. Many compounds have been evaluated for their association with AMD. We performed an extensive literature review of all compounds measured in serum, plasma, vitreous, aqueous humor, and urine of AMD patients. Over 3600 articles were screened, resulting in more than 100 different compounds analyzed in AMD studies, involved in neovascularization, immunity, lipid metabolism, extracellular matrix, oxidative stress, diet, hormones, and comorbidities (such as kidney disease). For each compound, we provide a short description of its function and discuss the results of the studies in relation to its usefulness as AMD biomarker. In addition, biomarkers identified by hypothesis-free techniques, including metabolomics, proteomics, and epigenomics, are covered. In summary, compounds belonging to the oxidative stress pathway, the complement system, and lipid metabolism are the most promising biomarker candidates for AMD. We hope that this comprehensive survey of the literature on systemic and ocular fluid compounds as potential biomarkers in AMD will provide a stepping stone for future research and possible implementation in clinical practice
The Spin-Dependent Structure Functions of Nuclei in the Meson-Nucleon Theory
A theoretical approach to the investigation of spin-dependent structure
functions in deep inelastic scattering of polarized leptons off polarized
nuclei, based on the effective meson-nucleon theory and operator product
expansion method, is proposed and applied to deuteron and . The explicit
forms of the moments of the deuteron and spin-dependent structure
functions are found and numerical estimates of the influence of nuclear
structure effects are presented.Comment: 42 pages revtex, 7 postscript figures available from above e-mail
upon request. Perugia preprint DFUPG 92/9
4pi Models of CMEs and ICMEs
Coronal mass ejections (CMEs), which dynamically connect the solar surface to
the far reaches of interplanetary space, represent a major anifestation of
solar activity. They are not only of principal interest but also play a pivotal
role in the context of space weather predictions. The steady improvement of
both numerical methods and computational resources during recent years has
allowed for the creation of increasingly realistic models of interplanetary
CMEs (ICMEs), which can now be compared to high-quality observational data from
various space-bound missions. This review discusses existing models of CMEs,
characterizing them by scientific aim and scope, CME initiation method, and
physical effects included, thereby stressing the importance of fully 3-D
('4pi') spatial coverage.Comment: 14 pages plus references. Comments welcome. Accepted for publication
in Solar Physics (SUN-360 topical issue
SPIN-DEPENDENT NUCLEAR STRUCTURE FUNCTIONS: GENERAL APPROACH WITH APPLICATION TO THE DEUTERON
We study deep-inelastic scattering from polarized nuclei within a covariant
framework. A clear connection is established between relativistic and
non-relativistic limits, which enables a rigorous derivation of convolution
formulae for the spin-dependent nuclear structure functions g_1^A and g_2^A in
terms of off-mass-shell extrapolations of polarized nucleon structure
functions, g_1^N and g_2^N. Approximate expressions for g_{1,2}^A are obtained
by expanding the off-shell g_{1,2}^N about their on-shell limits. As an
application of the formalism we consider nuclear effects in the deuteron,
knowledge of which is necessary to obtain accurate information on the
spin-dependent structure functions of the neutron.Comment: 26 pages RevTeX, 9 figures available upon reques
Search for direct production of charginos and neutralinos in events with three leptons and missing transverse momentum in âs = 7 TeV pp collisions with the ATLAS detector
A search for the direct production of charginos and neutralinos in final states with three electrons or muons and missing transverse momentum is presented. The analysis is based on 4.7 fbâ1 of protonâproton collision data delivered by the Large Hadron Collider and recorded with the ATLAS detector. Observations are consistent with Standard Model expectations in three signal regions that are either depleted or enriched in Z-boson decays. Upper limits at 95% confidence level are set in R-parity conserving phenomenological minimal supersymmetric models and in simplified models, significantly extending previous results
Jet size dependence of single jet suppression in lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s(NN)) = 2.76 TeV with the ATLAS detector at the LHC
Measurements of inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions at the LHC
provide direct sensitivity to the physics of jet quenching. In a sample of
lead-lead collisions at sqrt(s) = 2.76 TeV corresponding to an integrated
luminosity of approximately 7 inverse microbarns, ATLAS has measured jets with
a calorimeter over the pseudorapidity interval |eta| < 2.1 and over the
transverse momentum range 38 < pT < 210 GeV. Jets were reconstructed using the
anti-kt algorithm with values for the distance parameter that determines the
nominal jet radius of R = 0.2, 0.3, 0.4 and 0.5. The centrality dependence of
the jet yield is characterized by the jet "central-to-peripheral ratio," Rcp.
Jet production is found to be suppressed by approximately a factor of two in
the 10% most central collisions relative to peripheral collisions. Rcp varies
smoothly with centrality as characterized by the number of participating
nucleons. The observed suppression is only weakly dependent on jet radius and
transverse momentum. These results provide the first direct measurement of
inclusive jet suppression in heavy ion collisions and complement previous
measurements of dijet transverse energy imbalance at the LHC.Comment: 15 pages plus author list (30 pages total), 8 figures, 2 tables,
submitted to Physics Letters B. All figures including auxiliary figures are
available at
http://atlas.web.cern.ch/Atlas/GROUPS/PHYSICS/PAPERS/HION-2011-02
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