Parenchymal and vascular Aβ-deposition and its effects on the degeneration of neurons and cognition in Alzheimer's disease

The deposition of the amyloid β-protein (Aβ) is one of the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Aβ-deposits show the morphology of senile plaques and cerebral amyloid angiopathy (CAA). Senile plaques and vascular Aβ-deposits occur first in neocorti-cal areas. Then, they expand hierarchically into further brain regions. The distribution of Aβ plaques throughout the entire brain, thereby correlates with the clinical status of the patients. Imaging techniques for Aβ make use of the hierarchical distribution of Aβ to distinguish AD patients from non-AD patients. However, pathology seen in AD patients represents a late stage of a pathological process starting 10–30 years earlier in cognitively normal individuals. In addition to the fibrillar amyloid of senile plaques, oligomeric and monomeric Aβ is found in the brain. Recent studies revealed that oligomeric Aβ is presumably the most toxic Aβ-aggregate, which interacts with glutamatergic synapses. In doing so, dendrites are presumed to be the primary target for Aβ-toxicity. In addition, vascular Aβ-deposits can lead to capillary occlusion and blood flow disturbances presumably contributing to the alteration of neurons in addition to the direct neurotoxic effects of Aβ. All these findings point to an important role of Aβ and its aggregates in the neurodegenerative process of AD. Since there is already significant neuron loss in AD patients, treatment strategies aimed at reducing the amyloid load will presumably not cure the symptoms of dementia but they may stop disease progression. Therefore, it seems to be necessary to protect the brain from Aβ-toxicity already in stages of the disease with minor neuron loss before the onset of cognitive symptoms

Do different subjective evaluation criteria reflect distinct constructs?

This is not the published version. Published version available from: http://journals.lww.com/jonmd/pages/default.asp

Bose-Einstein condensation of 86Sr

We report on the attainment of Bose-Einstein condensation of 86Sr. This isotope has a scattering length of about +800 a0 and thus suffers from fast three-body losses. To avoid detrimental atom loss, evaporative cooling is performed at low densities around 3x10^12 cm^-3 in a large volume optical dipole trap. We obtain almost pure condensates of 5x10^3 atoms.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Controlled nanochannel lattice formation utilizing prepatterned substrates

Solid substrates can be endued with self-organized regular stripe patterns of nanoscopic lengthscale by Langmuir-Blodgett transfer of organic monolayers. Here we consider the effect of periodically prepatterned substrates on this process of pattern formation. It leads to a time periodic forcing of the oscillatory behavior at the meniscus. Utilizing higher order synchronization with this forcing, complex periodic patterns of predefined wavelength can be created. The dependence of the synchronization on the amplitude and the wavelength of the wetting contrast is investigated in one and two spatial dimensions and the resulting patterns are discussed. Furthermore, the effect of prepatterned substrates on the pattern selection process is investigated

Dynamics of a thin liquid film with surface rigidity and spontaneous curvature

The effect of rigid surfaces on the dynamics of thin liquid films which are amenable to the lubrication approximation is considered. It is shown that the Helfrich energy of the layer gives rise to additional terms in the time-evolution equations of the liquid film. The dynamics is found to depend on the absolute value of the spontaneous curvature, irrespective of its sign. Due to the additional terms, a novel finite wavelength instability of flat rigid interfaces can be observed. Furthermore, the dependence of the shape of a droplet on the bending rigidity as well as on the spontaneous curvature is discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Quenched Charge Disorder and Coulomb Interactions

We develop a general formalism to investigate the effect of quenched fixed charge disorder on effective electrostatic interactions between charged surfaces in a one-component (counterion-only) Coulomb fluid. Analytical results are explicitly derived for two asymptotic and complementary cases: i) mean-field or Poisson-Boltzmann limit (including Gaussian-fluctuations correction), which is valid for small electrostatic coupling, and ii) strong-coupling limit, where electrostatic correlations mediated by counterions become significantly large as, for instance, realized in systems with high-valency counterions. In the particular case of two apposed and ideally polarizable planar surfaces with equal mean surface charge, we find that the effect of the disorder is nil on the mean-field level and thus the plates repel. In the strong-coupling limit, however, the effect of charge disorder turns out to be additive in the free energy and leads to an enhanced long-range attraction between the two surfaces. We show that the equilibrium inter-plate distance between the surfaces decreases for elevated disorder strength (i.e. for increasing mean-square deviation around the mean surface charge), and eventually tends to zero, suggesting a disorder-driven collapse transition.Comment: 13 pages, 2 figure

Die Entstehung Der Ersten ‘Christlichen Gemeinde' Roms im Kontext der Jüdischen Gemeinden

Üblicherweise spricht man von den Anfängen einer ‘christlichen Gemeinde' in Rom, wenn man von den Anfängen des Christus-glaubens in Rom sprechen will. Wir haben uns im Titel unseres Beitrages dieser Konvention angeschlossen. Wir möchten aber von vornherein darauf aufmerksam machen, daβ diese Terminologie anachronistisch ist. Es ist zwar wahr, daβ Christusgläubige schon früh von auβen als eine eigenständige Gruppe erkannt und als solche auch Opfer von Maβnahmen römischer Machtpolitik werden konnten. Unseres Erachtens geschieht das spätestens unter Nero. Doch ist die Bezeichnung ‘Christianer' (Xριστιανοί lat. Chrestiani oder Christiani) erst in Dokumenten nach 70 faβbar (Acta 11.25; Tacitus Ann. 15.44; Sueton Nero 16.2). Bemerkenswert ist, daβ in Suetons Hinweis auf das Claudiusedikt (‘Da die Juden unter ihrem Anführer Chrestos beständig Unruhe stifteten, vertrieb er sie aus Rom') die Christusgläubigen noch ethnisch und religiös ganz zu den Juden gerechnet werden. Wir kommen auf diese Stelle später zurück, möchten jetzt aber schon darauf aufmerksam machen, daβ Sueton unter Claudius jedenfalls keine ‘Christianer' in Rom erwähnt. Gewiβ stimmen wir denjenigen Gelehrten zu, die annehmen, daβ Chrestus hier gleich Christus ist, d.h. Jesus (Christus) meint. Wir können also auf Grund von Suetons Notiz annehmen, daβ es schon unter Claudius Anhänger des Christus-glaubens in Rom gab. Doch hat M. Stern recht, wenn er schreibt, ‘However, the words of Suetonius could convey the impression that Christus himself was present at Rome at that time, and that the disturbances were instigated by him personally, while Tacitus, indeed, was better informed on the whereabouts of Christus.