Young Measures Generated by Ideal Incompressible Fluid Flows

In their seminal paper "Oscillations and concentrations in weak solutions of the incompressible fluid equations", R. DiPerna and A. Majda introduced the notion of measure-valued solution for the incompressible Euler equations in order to capture complex phenomena present in limits of approximate solutions, such as persistence of oscillation and development of concentrations. Furthermore, they gave several explicit examples exhibiting such phenomena. In this paper we show that any measure-valued solution can be generated by a sequence of exact weak solutions. In particular this gives rise to a very large, arguably too large, set of weak solutions of the incompressible Euler equations.Comment: 35 pages. Final revised version. To appear in Arch. Ration. Mech. Ana

Atypical Development of Broca’s Area in a Large Family with Inherited Stuttering

Developmental stuttering is a condition of speech dysfluency, characterised by pauses, blocks, prolongations, and sound or syllable repetitions. It affects around 1% of the population, with potential detrimental effects on mental health and long-term employment. Accumulating evidence points to a genetic aetiology, yet gene-brain associations remain poorly understood due to a lack of MRI studies in affected families. Here we report the first neuroimaging study of developmental stuttering in a family with autosomal dominant inheritance of persistent stuttering. We studied a four-generation family, sixteen family members were included in genotyping analysis. T1-weighted and diffusion weighted MRI scans were conducted on seven family members (6 male; aged 9–63 years) with two age and sex matched controls without stuttering (N = 14). Using Freesurfer, we analysed cortical morphology (cortical thickness, surface area and local gyrification index) and basal ganglia volumes. White matter integrity in key speech and language tracts (i.e. frontal aslant tract and arcuate fasciculus) was also analysed using MRtrix and probabilistic tractography. We identified a significant age by group interaction effect for cortical thickness in the left hemisphere pars opercularis (Broca’s area). In affected family members this region failed to follow the typical trajectory of age-related thinning observed in controls. Surface area analysis revealed the middle frontal gyrus region was reduced bilaterally in the family (all cortical morphometry significance levels set at a vertex-wise threshold of p < 0.01, corrected for multiple comparisons). Both the left and right globus pallidus were larger in the family than in the control group (left p = 0.017; right p=0.037), and a larger right globus pallidus was associated with more severe stuttering (rho =0.86, p=0.01). No white matter differences were identified. Genotyping identified novel loci on chromosomes 1 and 4 that map with the stuttering phenotype. Our findings denote disruption within the cortico-basal ganglia-thalamo-cortical network. The lack of typical development of these structures reflects the anatomical basis of the abnormal inhibitory control network between Broca’s area and the striatum underpinning stuttering in these individuals. This is the first evidence of a neural phenotype in a family with an autosomal dominantly inherited stuttering

Dose-Ranging Effect of Adjunctive Oral Cannabidiol vs Placebo on Convulsive Seizure Frequency in Dravet Syndrome A Randomized Clinical Trial

Question Is adjunctive cannabidiol at doses of 10 and 20 mg/kg/d superior to placebo in reducing convulsive seizure frequency in patients with Dravet syndrome? Findings This double-blind clinical trial randomized 199 children with Dravet syndrome to cannabidiol (10 or 20 mg/kg/d) or matched placebo for 14 weeks. Convulsive seizure frequency compared with baseline was reduced by 48.7% in the 10-mg/kg/d cannabidiol group and 45.7% in the 20-mg/kg/d cannabidiol group vs 26.9% in the placebo group. Meaning Both doses of adjunctive cannabidiol were similarly efficacious in reducing convulsive seizures associated with Dravet syndrome

Exceptional Record of Mid-Pleistocene Vertebrates Helps Differentiate Climatic from Anthropogenic Ecosystem Perturbations

Mid-Pleistocene vertebrates in North America are scarce but important for recognizing the ecological effects of climatic change in the absence of humans. We report on a uniquely rich mid-Pleistocene vertebrate sequence from Porcupine Cave, Colorado, which records at least 127 species and the earliest appearances of 30 mammals and birds. By analyzing \u3e20,000 mammal fossils in relation to modern species and independent climatic proxies, we determined how mammal communities reacted to presumed glacial-interglacial transitions between 1,000,000 and 600,000 years ago. We conclude that climatic warming primarily affected mammals of lower trophic and size categories, in contrast to documented human impacts on higher trophic and size categories historically. Despite changes in species composition and minor changes in small-mammal species richness evident at times of climatic change, overall structural stability of mammal communities persisted \u3e600,000 years before human impacts

Extinction times in the subcritical stochastic SIS logistic epidemic

Many real epidemics of an infectious disease are not straightforwardly super- or sub-critical, and the understanding of epidemic models that exhibit such complexity has been identified as a priority for theoretical work. We provide insights into the near-critical regime by considering the stochastic SIS logistic epidemic, a well-known birth-and-death chain used to model the spread of an epidemic within a population of a given size $N$. We study the behaviour of the process as the population size $N$ tends to infinity. Our results cover the entire subcritical regime, including the "barely subcritical" regime, where the recovery rate exceeds the infection rate by an amount that tends to 0 as $N \to \infty$ but more slowly than $N^{-1/2}$. We derive precise asymptotics for the distribution of the extinction time and the total number of cases throughout the subcritical regime, give a detailed description of the course of the epidemic, and compare to numerical results for a range of parameter values. We hypothesise that features of the course of the epidemic will be seen in a wide class of other epidemic models, and we use real data to provide some tentative and preliminary support for this theory.Comment: Revised; 34 pages; 6 figure

Self-reported impact of developmental stuttering across the lifespan

Aim To examine the phenomenology of stuttering across the lifespan in the largest prospective cohort to date. Method Participants aged 7 years and older with a history of developmental stuttering were recruited. Self-reported phenotypic data were collected online including stuttering symptomatology, co-occurring phenotypes, genetic predisposition, factors associated with stuttering severity, and impact on anxiety, education, and employment. Results A total of 987 participants (852 adults: 590 males, 262 females, mean age 49 years [SD = 17 years 10 months; range = 18–93 years] and 135 children: 97 males, 38 females, mean age 11 years 4 months [SD = 3 years; range = 7–17 years]) were recruited. Stuttering onset occurred at age 3 to 6 years in 64.0%. Blocking (73.2%) was the most frequent phenotype; 75.9% had sought stuttering therapy and 15.5% identified as having recovered. Half (49.9%) reported a family history. There was a significant negative correlation with age for both stuttering frequency and severity in adults. Most were anxious due to stuttering (90.4%) and perceived stuttering as a barrier to education and employment outcomes (80.7%). Interpretation The frequent persistence of stuttering and the high proportion with a family history suggest that stuttering is a complex trait that does not often resolve, even with therapy. These data provide new insights into the phenotype and prognosis of stuttering, information that is critically needed to encourage the development of more effective speech therapies

The Pioneer anomaly in the context of the braneworld scenario

We examine the Pioneer anomaly - a reported anomalous acceleration affecting the Pioneer 10/11, Galileo and Ulysses spacecrafts - in the context of a braneworld scenario. We show that effects due to the radion field cannot account for the anomaly, but that a scalar field with an appropriate potential is able to explain the phenomena. Implications and features of our solution are analyzed.Comment: Final version to appear at Classical & Quantum Gravity. Plainlatex 19 page

Fenfluramine treatment is associated with improvement in everyday executive function in preschool-aged children (<5 years) with Dravet syndrome: A critical period for early neurodevelopment

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate whether fenfluramine (FFA) is associated with improvement in everyday executive function (EF)-self-regulation-in preschool-aged children with Dravet syndrome (DS). METHODS: Children with DS received placebo or FFA in one of two phase III studies (first study: placebo, FFA 0.2 mg/kg/day, or FFA 0.7 mg/kg/day added to stiripentol-free standard-of-care regimens; second study: placebo or FFA 0.4 mg/kg/day added to stiripentol-inclusive regimens). Everyday EF was evaluated at baseline and Week 14-15 for children aged 2-4 years with parent ratings on the Behavior Rating Inventory of Executive Function®-Preschool (BRIEF®-P); raw scores were transformed to T-scores and summarized in Inhibitory Self-Control Index (ISCI), Flexibility Index (FI), Emergent Metacognition Index (EMI), and Global Executive Composite (GEC). Clinically meaningful improvement and worsening were defined using RCI ≥ 90% and RCI ≥ 80% certainty, respectively. The associations between placebo vs FFA combined (0.2, 0.4, and 0.7 mg/kg/day) or individual treatment groups and the likelihood of clinically meaningful change in BRIEF®-P indexes/composite T-scores were evaluated using Somers'd; pairwise comparisons were calculated by 2-sided Fisher's Exact tests (p ≤ 0.05) and Cramér's V. RESULTS: Data were analyzed for 61 evaluable children of median age 3 years (placebo, n = 22; FFA 0.2 mg/kg/day, n = 15; 0.4 mg/kg/day [with stiripentol], n = 10; 0.7 mg/kg/day, n = 14 [total FFA, n = 39]). Elevated or problematic T-scores (T ≥ 65) were reported in 55% to 86% of patients at baseline for ISCI, EMI, and GEC, and in ∼33% for FI. Seventeen of the 61 children (28%) showed reliable, clinically meaningful improvement (RCI ≥ 90% certainty) in at least one BRIEF®-P index/composite, including a majority of the children in the FFA 0.7 mg/kg/day group (9/14, 64%). Only 53% of these children (9/17) also experienced clinically meaningful reduction (≥50%) in monthly convulsive seizure frequency, including 6/14 patients in the FFA 0.7 mg/kg/day group. Overall, there were positive associations between the four individual treatment groups and the likelihood of reliable, clinically meaningful improvement in all BRIEF®-P indexes/composite (ISCI, p = 0.001; FI, p = 0.005; EMI, p = 0.040; GEC, p = 0.002). The FFA 0.7 mg/kg/day group showed a greater likelihood of reliable, clinically meaningful improvement than placebo in ISCI (50% vs 5%; p = 0.003), FI (36% vs 0%; p = 0.005), and GEC (36% vs 0%; p = 0.005). For EMI, the FFA 0.7 mg/kg/day group showed a greater likelihood of reliable, clinically meaningful improvement than the FFA 0.2 mg/kg/day group (29% vs 0%; p = 0.040), but did not meet the significance threshold compared with placebo (29% vs 5%; p = 0.064). There were no significant associations between treatment and the likelihood of reliable, clinically meaningful worsening (p > 0.05). SIGNIFICANCE: In this preschool-aged DS population with high baseline everyday EF impairment, FFA treatment for 14-15 weeks was associated with dose-dependent, clinically meaningful improvements in regulating behavior, emotion, cognition, and overall everyday EF. These clinically meaningful improvements in everyday EF were not entirely due to seizure frequency reduction, suggesting that FFA may have direct effects on everyday EF during the early formative years of neurodevelopment

From Social Data Mining to Forecasting Socio-Economic Crisis

Socio-economic data mining has a great potential in terms of gaining a better understanding of problems that our economy and society are facing, such as financial instability, shortages of resources, or conflicts. Without large-scale data mining, progress in these areas seems hard or impossible. Therefore, a suitable, distributed data mining infrastructure and research centers should be built in Europe. It also appears appropriate to build a network of Crisis Observatories. They can be imagined as laboratories devoted to the gathering and processing of enormous volumes of data on both natural systems such as the Earth and its ecosystem, as well as on human techno-socio-economic systems, so as to gain early warnings of impending events. Reality mining provides the chance to adapt more quickly and more accurately to changing situations. Further opportunities arise by individually customized services, which however should be provided in a privacy-respecting way. This requires the development of novel ICT (such as a self- organizing Web), but most likely new legal regulations and suitable institutions as well. As long as such regulations are lacking on a world-wide scale, it is in the public interest that scientists explore what can be done with the huge data available. Big data do have the potential to change or even threaten democratic societies. The same applies to sudden and large-scale failures of ICT systems. Therefore, dealing with data must be done with a large degree of responsibility and care. Self-interests of individuals, companies or institutions have limits, where the public interest is affected, and public interest is not a sufficient justification to violate human rights of individuals. Privacy is a high good, as confidentiality is, and damaging it would have serious side effects for society.Comment: 65 pages, 1 figure, Visioneer White Paper, see http://www.visioneer.ethz.c