3,249 research outputs found
Gyrification, cortical and subcortical morphometry in neurofibromatosis type 1: an uneven profile of developmental abnormalities.
Background: Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is a monogenic disorder associated with cognitive impairments. In order to understand how mutations in the NF1 gene impact brain structure it is essential to characterize in detail the brain structural abnormalities in patients with NF1. Previous studies have reported contradictory findings and have focused only on volumetric measurements. Here, we investigated the volumes of subcortical structures and the composite dimensions of the cortex through analysis of cortical volume, cortical thickness, cortical surface area and gyrification. Methods: We studied 14 children with NF1 and 14 typically developing children matched for age, gender, IQ and right/left-handedness. Regional subcortical volumes and cortical gyral measurements were obtained using the FreeSurfer software. Between-group differences were evaluated while controlling for the increase in total intracranial volume observed in NF1. Results: Subcortical analysis revealed disproportionately larger thalami, right caudate and middle corpus callosum in patients with NF1. Cortical analyses on volume, thickness and surface area were however not indicative of significant alterations in patients. Interestingly, patients with NF1 had significantly lower gyrification indices than typically developing children primarily in the frontal and temporal lobes, but also affecting the insula, cingulate cortex, parietal and occipital regions. Conclusions: The neuroanatomic abnormalities observed were localized to specific brain regions, indicating that particular areas might constitute selective targets for NF1 gene mutations. Furthermore, the lower gyrification indices were accompanied by a disproportionate increase in brain size without the corresponding increase in folding in patients with NF1. Taken together these findings suggest that specific neurodevelopmental processes, such as gyrification, are more vulnerable to NF1 dysfunction than others. The identified changes in brain organization are consistent with the patterns of cognitive dysfunction in the NF1 phenotype. Β© 2013 Violante et al
Deformed Skyrme Crystals
The Skyrme crystal, a solution of the Skyrme model, is the lowest
energy-per-charge configuration of skyrmions seen so far. Our numerical
investigations show that, as the period in various space directions is changed,
one obtains various other configurations, such as a double square wall, and
parallel vortex-like solutions. We also show that there is a sudden "phase
transition" between a Skyrme crystal and the charge 4 skyrmion with cubic
symmetry as the period is gradually increased in all three space directions.Comment: 13 pages, 6 figures. To be published in JHE
Alcohol, tobacco and breast cancer: should alcohol be condemned and tobacco acquitted?
British Journal of Cancer (2002) 87, 1195β1196. doi:10.1038/sj.bjc.6600633 www.bjcancer.co
A pyramid MOT with integrated optical cavities as a cold atom platform for an optical lattice clock
We realize a two-stage, hexagonal pyramid magneto-optical trap (MOT) with strontium, and demonstrate loading of cold atoms into cavity-enhanced 1D and 2D optical lattice traps, all within a single compact assembly of in-vacuum optics. We show that the device is suitable for high-performance quantum technologies, focusing especially on its intended application as a strontium optical lattice clock. We prepare 2βΓβ104 spin-polarized atoms of 87Sr in the optical lattice within 500βms; we observe a vacuum-limited lifetime of atoms in the lattice of 27βs; and we measure a background DC electric field of 12βVβmβ1 from stray charges, corresponding to a fractional frequency shift of (β1.2βΒ±β0.8)βΓβ10β18 to the strontium clock transition. When used in combination with careful management of the blackbody radiation environment, the device shows potential as a platform for realizing a compact, robust, transportable optical lattice clock with systematic uncertainty at the 10β18 level
Wilson loops stability in the gauge/string correspondence
We study the stability of some classical string worldsheet solutions employed
for computing the potential energy between two static fundamental quarks in
confining and non-confining gravity duals. We discuss the fixing of the
diffeomorphism invariance of the string action, its relation with the
fluctuation orientation and the interpretation of the quark mass substraction
worldsheet needed for computing the potential energy in smooth (confining)
gravity background. We consider various dual gravity backgrounds and show by a
numerical analysis the existence of instabilities under linear fluctuations for
classical string embedding solutions having positive length function derivative
. Finally we make a brief discussion of 't Hooft loops in
non-conformal backgrounds.Comment: 34 pages, 36 figures. Reference added. Final version JHEP accepte
Predicting the safety and efficacy of butter therapy to raise tumour pHe: an integrative modelling study
Background: Clinical positron emission tomography imaging has demonstrated the vast majority of human cancers exhibit significantly increased glucose metabolism when compared with adjacent normal tissue, resulting in an acidic tumour microenvironment. Recent studies demonstrated reducing this acidity through systemic buffers significantly inhibits development and growth of metastases in mouse xenografts.\ud
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Methods: We apply and extend a previously developed mathematical model of blood and tumour buffering to examine the impact of oral administration of bicarbonate buffer in mice, and the potential impact in humans. We recapitulate the experimentally observed tumour pHe effect of buffer therapy, testing a model prediction in vivo in mice. We parameterise the model to humans to determine the translational safety and efficacy, and predict patient subgroups who could have enhanced treatment response, and the most promising combination or alternative buffer therapies.\ud
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Results: The model predicts a previously unseen potentially dangerous elevation in blood pHe resulting from bicarbonate therapy in mice, which is confirmed by our in vivo experiments. Simulations predict limited efficacy of bicarbonate, especially in humans with more aggressive cancers. We predict buffer therapy would be most effectual: in elderly patients or individuals with renal impairments; in combination with proton production inhibitors (such as dichloroacetate), renal glomular filtration rate inhibitors (such as non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs and angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors), or with an alternative buffer reagent possessing an optimal pK of 7.1β7.2.\ud
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Conclusion: Our mathematical model confirms bicarbonate acts as an effective agent to raise tumour pHe, but potentially induces metabolic alkalosis at the high doses necessary for tumour pHe normalisation. We predict use in elderly patients or in combination with proton production inhibitors or buffers with a pK of 7.1β7.2 is most promising
The effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the health impact of climate change:a systematic review of systematic reviews
Climate change is likely to be one of the most important threats to public health in the coming years. Yet despite the large number of papers considering the health impact of climate change, few have considered what public health interventions may be of most value in reducing the disease burden. We aimed to evaluate the effectiveness of public health interventions to reduce the disease burden of high priority climate sensitive diseases
Evolution of spiral and scroll waves of excitation in a mathematical model of ischaemic border zone
Abnormal electrical activity from the boundaries of ischemic cardiac tissue
is recognized as one of the major causes in generation of ischemia-reperfusion
arrhythmias. Here we present theoretical analysis of the waves of electrical
activity that can rise on the boundary of cardiac cell network upon its
recovery from ischaemia-like conditions. The main factors included in our
analysis are macroscopic gradients of the cell-to-cell coupling and cell
excitability and microscopic heterogeneity of individual cells. The interplay
between these factors allows one to explain how spirals form, drift together
with the moving boundary, get transiently pinned to local inhomogeneities, and
finally penetrate into the bulk of the well-coupled tissue where they reach
macroscopic scale. The asymptotic theory of the drift of spiral and scroll
waves based on response functions provides explanation of the drifts involved
in this mechanism, with the exception of effects due to the discreteness of
cardiac tissue. In particular, this asymptotic theory allows an extrapolation
of 2D events into 3D, which has shown that cells within the border zone can
give rise to 3D analogues of spirals, the scroll waves. When and if such scroll
waves escape into a better coupled tissue, they are likely to collapse due to
the positive filament tension. However, our simulations have shown that such
collapse of newly generated scrolls is not inevitable and that under certain
conditions filament tension becomes negative, leading to scroll filaments to
expand and multiply leading to a fibrillation-like state within small areas of
cardiac tissue.Comment: 26 pages, 13 figures, appendix and 2 movies, as accepted to PLoS ONE
2011/08/0
Non-Equilibrium Field Dynamics of an Honest Holographic Superconductor
Most holographic models of superconducting systems neglect the effects of
dynamical boundary gauge fields during the process of spontaneous
symmetry-breaking. Usually a global symmetry gets broken. This yields a
superfluid, which then is gauged "weakly" afterwards. In this work we build
(and probe the dynamics of) a holographic model in which a local boundary
symmetry is spontaneously broken instead. We compute two-point functions of
dynamical non-Abelian gauge fields in the normal and in the broken phase, and
find non-trivial gapless modes. Our AdS3 gravity dual realizes a p-wave
superconductor in (1+1) dimensions. The ground state of this model also breaks
(1+1)-dimensional parity spontaneously, while the Hamiltonian is
parity-invariant. We discuss possible implications of our results for a wider
class of holographic liquids.Comment: 32 pages, 12 figures; v3: string theory derivation of setup added
(section 3.1), improved presentation, version accepted by JHEP; v2: paragraph
added to discussion, figure added, references added, typos correcte
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