Limits of flexural wave absorption by open lossy resonators: reflection and transmission problems

The limits of flexural wave absorption by open lossy resonators are analytically and numerically reported in this work for both the reflection and transmission problems. An experimental validation for the reflection problem is presented. The reflection and transmission of flexural waves in 1D resonant thin beams are analyzed by means of the transfer matrix method. The hypotheses, on which the analytical model relies, are validated by experimental results. The open lossy resonator, consisting of a finite length beam thinner than the main beam, presents both energy leakage due to the aperture of the resonators to the main beam and inherent losses due to the viscoelastic damping. Wave absorption is found to be limited by the balance between the energy leakage and the inherent losses of the open lossy resonator. The perfect compensation of these two elements is known as the critical coupling condition and can be easily tuned by the geometry of the resonator. On the one hand, the scattering in the reflection problem is represented by the reflection coefficient. A single symmetry of the resonance is used to obtain the critical coupling condition. Therefore the perfect absorption can be obtained in this case. On the other hand, the transmission problem is represented by two eigenvalues of the scattering matrix, representing the symmetric and anti-symmetric parts of the full scattering problem. In the geometry analyzed in this work, only one kind of symmetry can be critically coupled, and therefore, the maximal absorption in the transmission problem is limited to 0.5. The results shown in this work pave the way to the design of resonators for efficient flexural wave absorption

Heterozygous deficiency of endoglin decreases insulin and hepatic triglyceride levels during high fat diet

Endoglin is a transmembrane auxiliary receptor for transforming growth factor-beta (TGF-beta) that is predominantly expressed on proliferating endothelial cells. It plays a wide range of physiological roles but its importance on energy balance or insulin sensitivity has been unexplored. Endoglin deficient mice die during midgestation due to cardiovascular defects. Here we report for first time that heterozygous endoglin deficiency in mice decreases high fat diet-induced hepatic triglyceride content and insulin levels. Importantly, these effects are independent of changes in body weight or adiposity. At molecular level, we failed to detect relevant changes in the insulin signalling pathway at basal levels in liver, muscle or adipose tissues that could explain the insulin-dependent effect. However, we found decreased triglyceride content in the liver of endoglin heterozygous mice fed a high fat diet in comparison to their wild type littermates. Overall, our findings indicate that endoglin is a potentially important physiological mediator of insulin levels and hepatic lipid metabolism

Irisin, Two Years Later

In January 2012, Boström and colleagues identified a new muscle tissue secreted peptide, which they named irisin, to highlight its role as a messenger that comes from skeletal muscle to other parts of the body. Irisin is a cleaved and secreted fragment of FNDC5 (also known as FRCP2 and PeP), a member of fibronectin type III repeat containing gene family. Major interest in this protein arose because of its great therapeutic potential in diabetes and perhaps also therapy for obesity. Here we review the most important aspects of irisin's action and discuss its involvement in energy and metabolic homeostasis and whether the beneficial effects of exercise in these disease states could be mediated by this protein. In addition the effects of irisin at the central nervous system (CNS) are highlighted. It is concluded that although current and upcoming research on irisin is very promising it is still necessary to deepen in several aspects in order to clarify its full potential as a meaningful drug target in human disease states

Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses

Copyright 2013 American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in Romero García, V.; Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Picó Vila, R.; Sánchez Morcillo, VJ.; García-Raffi, LM.; Sánchez Pérez, JV. (2013). Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses. Applied Physics Letters. 103(26):264106-264106. doi:10.1063/1.4860535 and may be found at http://scitation.aip.org/The symmetry matching between the source and the lens results in fundamental interest for lensing applications. In this work, we have modeled an axisymmetric gradient index (GRIN) lens made of rigid toroidal scatterers embedded in air considering this symmetry matching with radially symmetric sources. The sound amplification obtained in the focal spot of the reported lens (8.24 dB experimentally) shows the efficiency of the axisymmetric lenses with respect to the previous Cartesian acoustic GRIN lenses. The axisymmetric design opens new possibilities in lensing applications in different branches of science and technology.The work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union FEDER through Project Nos. FIS2011-29734-C02-01 and -02 and PAID 2012/253. V. R. G. is grateful for the support of post-doctoral contracts of the UPV CEI-01-11.Romero García, V.; Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Picó Vila, R.; Sánchez Morcillo, VJ.; García-Raffi, LM.; Sánchez Pérez, JV. (2013). Wave focusing using symmetry matching in axisymmetric acoustic gradient index lenses. Applied Physics Letters. 103(26):264106-264106. https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4860535S26410626410610326John, S. (1987). Strong localization of photons in certain disordered dielectric superlattices. 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Refractive Acoustic Devices for Airborne Sound. Physical Review Letters, 88(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.88.023902Krokhin, A. A., Arriaga, J., & Gumen, L. N. (2003). Speed of Sound in Periodic Elastic Composites. Physical Review Letters, 91(26). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.91.264302Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Caballero, D., Mártinez-Sala, R., Rubio, C., Sánchez-Dehesa, J., Meseguer, F., … Gálvez, F. (1998). Sound Attenuation by a Two-Dimensional Array of Rigid Cylinders. Physical Review Letters, 80(24), 5325-5328. doi:10.1103/physrevlett.80.5325Sheng, P. (1995). Wave Scattering and the Effective Medium. Introduction to Wave Scattering, Localization, and Mesoscopic Phenomena, 49-113. doi:10.1016/b978-012639845-8/50003-4Mei, J., Liu, Z., Wen, W., & Sheng, P. (2006). Effective Mass Density of Fluid-Solid Composites. Physical Review Letters, 96(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.96.024301Lin, S.-C. S., Huang, T. J., Sun, J.-H., & Wu, T.-T. (2009). Gradient-index phononic crystals. Physical Review B, 79(9). doi:10.1103/physrevb.79.094302Zigoneanu, L., Popa, B.-I., & Cummer, S. A. (2011). Design and measurements of a broadband two-dimensional acoustic lens. Physical Review B, 84(2). doi:10.1103/physrevb.84.024305Li, Y., Liang, B., Tao, X., Zhu, X., Zou, X., & Cheng, J. (2012). Acoustic focusing by coiling up space. Applied Physics Letters, 101(23), 233508. doi:10.1063/1.4769984Yang, S., Page, J. H., Liu, Z., Cowan, M. L., Chan, C. T., & Sheng, P. (2004). Focusing of Sound in a 3D Phononic Crystal. Physical Review Letters, 93(2). doi:10.1103/physrevlett.93.024301Luo, C., Johnson, S. G., Joannopoulos, J. D., & Pendry, J. B. (2002). All-angle negative refraction without negative effective index. Physical Review B, 65(20). doi:10.1103/physrevb.65.201104Ke, M., Liu, Z., Qiu, C., Wang, W., Shi, J., Wen, W., & Sheng, P. (2005). Negative-refraction imaging with two-dimensional phononic crystals. Physical Review B, 72(6). doi:10.1103/physrevb.72.064306SAMIMY, M., KIM, J.-H., KEARNEY-FISCHER, M., & SINHA, A. (2010). Acoustic and flow fields of an excited high Reynolds number axisymmetric supersonic jet. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 656, 507-529. doi:10.1017/s0022112010001357Choe, Y., Kim, J. W., Shung, K. K., & Kim, E. S. (2011). Microparticle trapping in an ultrasonic Bessel beam. Applied Physics Letters, 99(23), 233704. doi:10.1063/1.3665615Baac, H. W., Ok, J. G., Maxwell, A., Lee, K.-T., Chen, Y.-C., Hart, A. J., … Guo, L. J. (2012). Carbon-Nanotube Optoacoustic Lens for Focused Ultrasound Generation and High-Precision Targeted Therapy. Scientific Reports, 2(1). doi:10.1038/srep00989Chang, T. M., Dupont, G., Enoch, S., & Guenneau, S. (2012). Enhanced control of light and sound trajectories with three-dimensional gradient index lenses. New Journal of Physics, 14(3), 035011. doi:10.1088/1367-2630/14/3/035011Sanchis, L., Yánez, A., Galindo, P. L., Pizarro, J., & Pastor, J. M. (2010). Three-dimensional acoustic lenses with axial symmetry. Applied Physics Letters, 97(5), 054103. doi:10.1063/1.3474616Gomez-Reino, C., Perez, M. V., & Bao, C. (2002). Gradient-Index Optics. doi:10.1007/978-3-662-04741-5Romero-García, V., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., Castiñeira-Ibáñez, S., & Garcia-Raffi, L. M. (2010). Evidences of evanescent Bloch waves in phononic crystals. Applied Physics Letters, 96(12), 124102. doi:10.1063/1.3367739Climente, A., Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Sound focusing by gradient index sonic lenses. Applied Physics Letters, 97(10), 104103. doi:10.1063/1.3488349Martin, T. P., Nicholas, M., Orris, G. J., Cai, L.-W., Torrent, D., & Sánchez-Dehesa, J. (2010). Sonic gradient index lens for aqueous applications. Applied Physics Letters, 97(11), 113503. doi:10.1063/1.348937

Acoustically penetrable sonic crystals based on fluid-like scatterers

We propose a periodic structure that behaves as a fluid fluid composite for sound waves, where the building blocks are clusters of rigid scatterers. Such building-blocks are penetrable for acoustic waves, and their properties can be tuned by selecting the filling fraction. The equivalence with a fluid fluid system of such a doubly periodic composite is tested analytical and experimentally. Because of the fluid-like character of the scatterers, sound structure interaction is negligible, and the propagation can be described by scalar models, analogous to those used in electromagnetics. As an example, the case of focusing of evanescent waves and the guided propagation of acoustic waves along an array of penetrable elements is discussed in detail. The proposed structure may be a real alternative to design a low contrast and acoustically penetrable medium where new properties as those shown in this work could be experimentally realized.We acknowledge financial support by Spanish Ministerio de Economia y Competitividad and European Union FEDER through project FIS2011-29731-C02-01 and -02. VRG is grateful for the financial support of the post-doctoral grant from the "Pays de la Loire". ACR is grateful for the support of the Programa de Ayudas e Iniciativas de Investigacin (PAID) of the UPV.Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Romero García, V.; Picó Vila, R.; Sánchez Morcillo, VJ.; Botey, M.; Herrero, R.; Cheng, YC.... (2015). Acoustically penetrable sonic crystals based on fluid-like scatterers. Journal of Physics D-Applied Physics. 48(2):25501-25510. https://doi.org/10.1088/0022-3727/48/2/025501S255012551048

Enhanced transmission band in periodic media with loss modulation

Copyright (2014) American Institute of Physics. This article may be downloaded for personal use only. Any other use requires prior permission of the author and the American Institute of Physics. The following article appeared in: Applied Physics Letters 105, 204104 (2014); doi: 10.1063/1.4902387 and may be found at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1063/1.490238.We study the propagation of waves in a periodic array of absorbing layers. We report an anomalous increase of wave transmission through the structure related to a decrease of the absorption around the Bragg frequencies. The effect is first discussed in terms of a generic coupled wave model extended to include losses, and its predictions can be applied to different types of waves propagating in media with periodic modulation of the losses at the wavelength scale. The particular case of sound waves in an array of porous layers embedded in air is considered. An experiment designed to test the predictions demonstrates the existence of the enhanced transmission band. (C) 2014 AIP Publishing LLC.The work was supported by Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and European Union FEDER through Projects FIS2011-29731-C02-01 and -02, also MAT2009-09438. A.M.Y. would like to thank the Erasmus Mundus Project (WELCOME program) for supporting him. V.R.G. acknowledges financial support from the "Pays-de-la-Loire" through the post-doctoral program.Cebrecos Ruiz, A.; Picó Vila, R.; Romero García, V.; Yasser, AM.; Maigyte, L.; Herrero, R.; Botey, M.... (2014). Enhanced transmission band in periodic media with loss modulation. Applied Physics Letters. 105(20):204104-1-204104-4. doi:10.1063/1.4902387S204104-1204104-410520Figotin, A., & Vitebskiy, I. (2008). Absorption suppression in photonic crystals. Physical Review B, 77(10). doi:10.1103/physrevb.77.104421Figotin, A., & Vitebskiy, I. (2010). Magnetic Faraday rotation in lossy photonic structures. Waves in Random and Complex Media, 20(2), 298-318. doi:10.1080/17455030.2010.482575Erokhin, S. G., Lisyansky, A. A., Merzlikin, A. M., Vinogradov, A. P., & Granovsky, A. B. (2008). Photonic crystals built on contrast in attenuation. Physical Review B, 77(23). doi:10.1103/physrevb.77.233102Kumar, N., Botey, M., Herrero, R., Loiko, Y., & Staliunas, K. (2012). High-directional wave propagation in periodic loss modulated materials. Photonics and Nanostructures - Fundamentals and Applications, 10(4), 644-650. doi:10.1016/j.photonics.2012.06.003Staliunas, K., Herrero, R., & Vilaseca, R. (2009). Subdiffraction and spatial filtering due to periodic spatial modulation of the gain-loss profile. Physical Review A, 80(1). doi:10.1103/physreva.80.013821Kumar, N., Herrero, R., Botey, M., & Staliunas, K. (2013). Flat lensing by periodic loss-modulated materials. Journal of the Optical Society of America B, 30(10), 2684. doi:10.1364/josab.30.002684Psarobas, I. E. (2001). Viscoelastic response of sonic band-gap materials. Physical Review B, 64(1). doi:10.1103/physrevb.64.012303Lee, C.-Y., Leamy, M. J., & Nadler, J. H. (2010). Frequency band structure and absorption predictions for multi-periodic acoustic composites. Journal of Sound and Vibration, 329(10), 1809-1822. doi:10.1016/j.jsv.2009.11.030Laude, V., Escalante, J. M., & Martínez, A. (2013). Effect of loss on the dispersion relation of photonic and phononic crystals. Physical Review B, 88(22). doi:10.1103/physrevb.88.224302Hwan Oh, J., Jae Kim, Y., & Young Kim, Y. (2013). Wave attenuation and dissipation mechanisms in viscoelastic phononic crystals. Journal of Applied Physics, 113(10), 106101. doi:10.1063/1.4795285Hussein, M. I. (2009). Theory of damped Bloch waves in elastic media. Physical Review B, 80(21). doi:10.1103/physrevb.80.212301Andreassen, E., & Jensen, J. S. (2013). Analysis of Phononic Bandgap Structures With Dissipation. Journal of Vibration and Acoustics, 135(4). doi:10.1115/1.4023901Allard, J. F., & Atalla, N. (2009). Propagation of Sound in Porous Media. doi:10.1002/9780470747339Tournat, V., Pagneux, V., Lafarge, D., & Jaouen, L. (2004). Multiple scattering of acoustic waves and porous absorbing media. Physical Review E, 70(2). doi:10.1103/physreve.70.026609Umnova, O., Attenborough, K., & Linton, C. M. (2006). Effects of porous covering on sound attenuation by periodic arrays of cylinders. The Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 119(1), 278-284. doi:10.1121/1.2133715Romero-García, V., Sánchez-Pérez, J. V., & Garcia-Raffi, L. M. (2010). Evanescent modes in sonic crystals: Complex dispersion relation and supercell approximation. Journal of Applied Physics, 108(4), 044907. doi:10.1063/1.3466988Christensen, J., Romero-García, V., Picó, R., Cebrecos, A., de Abajo, F. J. G., Mortensen, N. A., … Sánchez-Morcillo, V. J. (2014). Extraordinary absorption of sound in porous lamella-crystals. Scientific Reports, 4(1). doi:10.1038/srep04674Kogelnik, H., & Shank, C. V. (1972). Coupled‐Wave Theory of Distributed Feedback Lasers. Journal of Applied Physics, 43(5), 2327-2335. doi:10.1063/1.166149

Melanin-Concentrating Hormone acts through hypothalamic kappa opioid system and p70S6K to stimulate acute food intake.

Melanin-Concentrating Hormone (MCH) is one of the most relevant orexigenic factors specifically located in the lateral hypothalamic area (LHA), with its physiological relevance demonstrated in studies using several genetically manipulated mice models. However, the central mechanisms controlling MCH-induced hyperphagia remain largely uncharacterized. Here, we show that central injection of MCH in mice deficient for kappa opoid receptor (k-OR) failed to stimulate feeding. To determine the hypothalamic area responsible for this MCH/k-OR interaction, we performed virogenetic studies and found that downregulation of k-OR by adeno-associated viruses (shOprk1-AAV) in LHA, but not in other hypothalamic nuclei, was sufficient to block MCH-induced food intake. Next, we sought to investigate the molecular signaling pathway within the LHA that mediates acute central MCH stimulation of food intake. We found that MCH activates k-OR and that increased levels of phosphorylated extracellular signal regulated kinase (ERK) are associated with downregulation of phospho-S6 Ribosomal Protein. This effect was prevented when a pharmacological inhibitor of k-OR was co-administered with MCH. Finally, the specific activation of the direct upstream regulator of S6 (p70S6K) in the LHA attenuated MCH-stimulated food consumption. Our results reveal that lateral hypothalamic k-OR system modulates the orexigenic action of MCH via the p70S6K/S6 pathway

Evaluation of iron status in European adolescents through biochemical iron indicators: the HELENA Study

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVES: To assess the iron status among European adolescents through selected biochemical parameters in a cross-sectional study performed in 10 European cities. SUBJECTS/METHODS: Iron status was defined utilising biochemical indicators. Iron depletion was defined as low serum ferritin (SF8.5 mg/l) plus iron depletion. Iron deficiency anaemia (IDA) was defined as ID with haemoglobin (Hb) below the WHO cutoff for age and sex: 12.0 g/dl for girls and for boys aged 12.5-14.99 years and 13.0 g/dl for boys aged ≥15 years. Enzyme linked immunosorbent assay was used as analytical method for SF, sTfR and C-reactive protein (CRP). Subjects with indication of inflammation (CRP >5 mg/l) were excluded from the analyses. A total of 940 adolescents aged 12.5-17.49 years (438 boys and 502 girls) were involved. RESULTS: The percentage of iron depletion was 17.6%, significantly higher in girls (21.0%) compared with boys (13.8%). The overall percentage of ID and IDA was 4.7 and 1.3%, respectively, with no significant differences between boys and girls. A correlation was observed between log (SF) and Hb (r = 0.36, P < 0.01), and between log (sTfR) and mean corpuscular haemoglobin (r = -0.30, P < 0.01). Iron body stores were estimated on the basis of log (sTfR/SF). A higher percentage of negative values of body iron was recorded in girls (16.5%) with respect to boys (8.3%), and body iron values tended to increase with age in boys, whereas the values remained stable in girls. CONCLUSIONS: To ensure adequate iron stores, specific attention should be given to girls at European level to ensure that their dietary intake of iron is adequate.status: publishe

Relationship between self-reported dietary intake and physical activity levels among adolescents: The HELENA study

Background Evidence suggests possible synergetic effects of multiple lifestyle behaviors on health risks like obesity and other health outcomes. Therefore it is important to investigate associations between dietary and physical activity behavior, the two most important lifestyle behaviors influencing our energy balance and body composition. The objective of the present study is to describe the relationship between energy, nutrient and food intake and the physical activity level among a large group of European adolescents. Methods The study comprised a total of 2176 adolescents (46.2% male) from ten European cities participating in the HELENA (Healthy Lifestyle in Europe by Nutrition in Adolescence) study. Dietary intake and physical activity were assessed using validated 24-h dietary recalls and self-reported questionnaires respectively. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVA) were used to compare the energy and nutrient intake and the food consumption between groups of adolescents with different physical activity levels (1st to 3rd tertile). Results In both sexes no differences were found in energy intake between the levels of physical activity. The most active males showed a higher intake of polysaccharides, protein, water and vitamin C and a lower intake of saccharides compared to less active males. Females with the highest physical activity level consumed more polysaccharides compared to their least active peers. Male and female adolescents with the highest physical activity levels, consumed more fruit and milk products and less cheese compared to the least active adolescents. The most active males showed higher intakes of vegetables and meat, fish, eggs, meat substitutes and vegetarian products compared to the least active ones. The least active males reported the highest consumption of grain products and potatoes. Within the female group, significantly lower intakes of bread and cereal products and spreads were found for those reporting to spend most time in moderate to vigorous physical activity. The consumption of foods from the remaining food groups, did not differ between the physical activity levels in both sexes. Conclusion It can be concluded that dietary habits diverge between adolescents with different self-reported physical activity levels. For some food groups a difference in intake could be found, which were reflected in differences in some nutrient intakes. It can also be concluded that physically active adolescents are not always inclined to eat healthier diets than their less active peers.The HELENA study took place with the financial support of the European Community Sixth RTD Framework Programme (Contract FOOD-CT: 2005-007034). This work was also partially supported by the European Union, in the framework of the Public Health Programme (ALPHA project, Ref: 2006120), the Swedish Council for Working Life and Social Research (FAS), the Spanish Ministry of Education (EX-2007-1124, and EX-2008-0641), and the Spanish Ministry of Health, Maternal, Child Health and Development Network (number RD08/0072) (JPRL, LAM)

Systematic Collaborative Reanalysis of Genomic Data Improves Diagnostic Yield in Neurologic Rare Diseases

Altres ajuts: Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament de Salut; Generalitat de Catalunya, Departament d'Empresa i Coneixement i CERCA Program; Ministerio de Ciencia e Innovación; Instituto Nacional de Bioinformática; ELIXIR Implementation Studies (CNAG-CRG); Centro de Investigaciones Biomédicas en Red de Enfermedades Raras; Centro de Excelencia Severo Ochoa; European Regional Development Fund (FEDER).Many patients experiencing a rare disease remain undiagnosed even after genomic testing. Reanalysis of existing genomic data has shown to increase diagnostic yield, although there are few systematic and comprehensive reanalysis efforts that enable collaborative interpretation and future reinterpretation. The Undiagnosed Rare Disease Program of Catalonia project collated previously inconclusive good quality genomic data (panels, exomes, and genomes) and standardized phenotypic profiles from 323 families (543 individuals) with a neurologic rare disease. The data were reanalyzed systematically to identify relatedness, runs of homozygosity, consanguinity, single-nucleotide variants, insertions and deletions, and copy number variants. Data were shared and collaboratively interpreted within the consortium through a customized Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform, which also enables future data reinterpretation. Reanalysis of existing genomic data provided a diagnosis for 20.7% of the patients, including 1.8% diagnosed after the generation of additional genomic data to identify a second pathogenic heterozygous variant. Diagnostic rate was significantly higher for family-based exome/genome reanalysis compared with singleton panels. Most new diagnoses were attributable to recent gene-disease associations (50.8%), additional or improved bioinformatic analysis (19.7%), and standardized phenotyping data integrated within the Undiagnosed Rare Disease Program of Catalonia Genome-Phenome Analysis Platform functionalities (18%)