1,575 research outputs found
Impulsivity in Parkinson’s disease is associated with alterations in affective and sensorimotor striatal networks
A subset of patients with Parkinson’s disease (PD) experiences problems with impulse control, characterized by a loss of voluntary control over impulses, drives, or temptations regarding excessive hedonic behavior. The present study aimed to better understand the neural basis of such impulse control disorders (ICDs) in PD. We collected resting-state functional connectivity and structural MRI data from 21 PD patients with ICDs and 30 patients without such disorders. To assess impulsivity, all patients completed the Barratt Impulsiveness Scale and performed an information-gathering task. MRI results demonstrated substantial differences in neural characteristics between PD patients with and without ICDs. Results showed that impulsivity was linked to alterations in affective basal ganglia circuitries. Specifically, reduced frontal–striatal connectivity and GPe volume were associated with more impulsivity. We suggest that these changes affect decision making and result in a preference for risky or inappropriate actions. Results further showed that impulsivity was linked to alterations in sensorimotor striatal networks. Enhanced connectivity within this network and larger putamen volume were associated with more impulsivity. We propose that these changes affect sensorimotor processing such that patients have a greater propensity to act. Our findings suggest that the two mechanisms jointly contribute to impulsive behaviors in PD
Electron Quasiparticles Drive the Superconductor-to-Insulator Transition in Homogeneously Disordered Thin Films
Transport data on Bi, MoGe, and PbBi/Ge homogeneously-disordered thin films
demonstrate that the critical resistivity, , at the nominal
insulator-superconductor transition is linearly proportional to the normal
sheet resistance, . In addition, the critical magnetic field scales
linearly with the superconducting energy gap and is well-approximated by
. Because is determined at high temperatures and is the
pair-breaking field, the two immediate consequences are: 1)
electron-quasiparticles populate the insulating side of the transition and 2)
standard phase-only models are incapable of describing the destruction of the
superconducting state. As gapless electronic excitations populate the
insulating state, the universality class is no longer the 3D XY model. The lack
of a unique critical resistance in homogeneously disordered films can be
understood in this context. In light of the recent experiments which observe an
intervening metallic state separating the insulator from the superconductor in
homogeneously disordered MoGe thin films, we argue that the two transitions
that accompany the destruction of superconductivity are 1) superconductor to
Bose metal in which phase coherence is lost and 2) Bose metal to localized
electron insulator via pair-breaking.Comment: This article is included in the Festschrift for Prof. Michael Pollak
on occasion of his 75th birthda
The local electronic structure of alpha-Li3N
New theoretical and experimental investigation of the occupied and unoccupied
local electronic density of states (DOS) are reported for alpha-Li3N. Band
structure and density functional theory calculations confirm the absence of
covalent bonding character. However, real-space full-multiple-scattering
(RSFMS) calculations of the occupied local DOS finds less extreme nominal
valences than have previously been proposed. Nonresonant inelastic x-ray
scattering (NRIXS), RSFMS calculations, and calculations based on the
Bethe-Salpeter equation are used to characterize the unoccupied electronic
final states local to both the Li and N sites. There is good agreement between
experiment and theory. Throughout the Li 1s near-edge region, both experiment
and theory find strong similarities in the s- and p-type components of the
unoccupied local final density of states projected onto an orbital angular
momentum basis (l-DOS). An unexpected, significant correspondence exists
between the near-edge spectra for the Li 1s and N 1s initial states. We argue
that both spectra are sampling essentially the same final density of states due
to the combination of long core-hole lifetimes, long photoelectron lifetimes,
and the fact that orbital angular momentum is the same for all relevant initial
states. Such considerations may be generically applicable for low atomic number
compounds.Comment: 34 pages, 7 figures, 1 tabl
Too much noise in the Times Higher Education rankings
Several individual indicators from the Times Higher Education Survey (THES) data base—the overall score, the reported staff-to-student ratio, and the peer ratings—demonstrate unacceptably high fluctuation from year to year. The inappropriateness of the summary tabulations for assessing the majority of the “top 200” universities would be apparent purely for reason of this obvious statistical instability regardless of other grounds of criticism. There are far too many anomalies in the change scores of the various indices for them to be of use in the course of university management
Exciton spectroscopy of hexagonal boron nitride using non-resonant x-ray Raman scattering
We report non-resonant x-ray Raman scattering (XRS) measurements from
hexagonal boron nitride for transferred momentum from 2 to 9
along directions both in and out of the basal plane. A
symmetry-based argument, together with real-space full multiple scattering
calculations of the projected density of states in the spherical harmonics
basis, reveals that a strong pre-edge feature is a dominantly -type
Frenkel exciton with no other \textit{s}-, \textit{p}-, or \textit{d}-
components. This conclusion is supported by a second, independent calculation
of the \textbf{q}-dependent XRS cross-section based on the Bethe-Salpeter
equation
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Structure-based inhibitors of amyloid beta core suggest a common interface with tau.
Alzheimer's disease (AD) pathology is characterized by plaques of amyloid beta (Aβ) and neurofibrillary tangles of tau. Aβ aggregation is thought to occur at early stages of the disease, and ultimately gives way to the formation of tau tangles which track with cognitive decline in humans. Here, we report the crystal structure of an Aβ core segment determined by MicroED and in it, note characteristics of both fibrillar and oligomeric structure. Using this structure, we designed peptide-based inhibitors that reduce Aβ aggregation and toxicity of already-aggregated species. Unexpectedly, we also found that these inhibitors reduce the efficiency of Aβ-mediated tau aggregation, and moreover reduce aggregation and self-seeding of tau fibrils. The ability of these inhibitors to interfere with both Aβ and tau seeds suggests these fibrils share a common epitope, and supports the hypothesis that cross-seeding is one mechanism by which amyloid is linked to tau aggregation and could promote cognitive decline
Two-Tone Optomechanical Instability and Its Fundamental Implications for Backaction-Evading Measurements
While quantum mechanics imposes a fundamental limit on the precision of
interferometric measurements of mechanical motion due to measurement
backaction, the nonlinear nature of the coupling also leads to parametric
instabilities that place practical limits on the sensitivity by limiting the
power in the interferometer. Such instabilities have been extensively studied
in the context of gravitational wave detectors, and their presence has recently
been reported in Advanced LIGO. Here, we observe experimentally and describe
theoretically a new type of optomechanical instability that arises in two-tone
backaction-evading (BAE) measurements, designed to overcome the standard
quantum limit, and demonstrate the effect in the optical domain with a photonic
crystal nanobeam, and in the microwave domain with a micromechanical oscillator
coupled to a microwave resonator. In contrast to the well-known oscillatory
parametric instability that occurs in single-tone, blue-detuned pumping, which
is characterized by a vanishing effective mechanical damping, the parametric
instability in balanced two-tone optomechanics is exponential, and is a result
of small detuning errors in the two pump frequencies. Its origin can be
understood in a rotating frame as the vanishing of the effective mechanical
frequency due to an optical spring effect. Counterintuitively, the instability
occurs even in the presence of perfectly balanced intracavity fields, and can
occur for both signs of detuning. We find excellent quantitative agreement with
our theoretical predictions. Since the constraints on tuning accuracy become
stricter with increasing probe power, it imposes a fundamental limitation on
BAE measurements, as well as other two-tone schemes. In addition to introducing
a new limitation in two-tone BAE measurements, the results also introduce a new
type of nonlinear dynamics in cavity optomechanics
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Ecology and virulence of Legionnaire's disease bacteria in aquatic habitats near Mt. St. Helens
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