Serum vitamin D in patients with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease

Objectives: To determine the relevance of Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D (25(OH)D3), and 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations to mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and various stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD). Materials and Methods: The study included 230 participants (>74 years) allocated to three main groups: 1-healthy subjects (HS, n = 61), 2-patients with MCI (n = 61), and 3- patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD) subdivided into three stages: mild (n = 41), moderate (n = 35), and severe AD (n = 32). The cognitive status was evaluated using MMSE. Serum 25 (OH)D3 (ng/ml) and 1,25(OH)2D3 concentrations (pg/ml) were determined by competitive radioimmunoassay. Results: MMSE scores and 25(OH)D3 were decreased in MCI and all stages of the AD in both genders. MMSE variability was due to gender in HS (11%) and to 25(OH)D3 in MCI (15%) and AD (26%). ROC analysis revealed an outstanding property of MMSE in diagnosis of MCI (AUC, 0.906; CI 95%, 0.847–0.965; sensitivity 82%; specificity, 98%) and AD (AUC, 0.997; CI 95%, 0.992–1; sensitivity, 100%; specificity, 98%). 25(OH)D3 exhibited good property in MCI (AUC, 0.765; CI 95%, 0.681–0.849; sensitivity, 90%; specificity, 54%) and an excellent property in diagnosis of AD (AUC, 0.843; CI 95%, 0.782–0.904; sensitivity, 97%; specificity, 79%). Logistic analyses revealed that, in MCI, MMSE could predict (or classify correctly) with 97.6% accuracy (Wald, 15.22, β, −0.162; SE, 0.554; OR = 0.115:0.039–0.341; p =.0001), whereas 25(OH)D3 with 80% accuracy (Wald, 41,013; β, −0.213; SE, 0.033; OR = 0.808: 0.757–863; p =.0001). 25(OH)D3 was the only significant predictor for the severe AD and contributed to MMSE variability. Age and gender were significant predictors only in the moderate AD. In patients with MCI, 25(OH)D3 and 1,25(OH)2D3 were correlated men, but in case of the AD, they were correlated in women. Conclusions: MMSE and serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations could be useful biomarkers for prediction and diagnosis of MCI and various stages of the AD. The results support the utility of vitamin D supplementation in AD therapy regimen. © 2018 The Authors. Brain and Behavior published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc

The Average Kinetic Energy of the Superconducting State

Isothermal magnetization curves are plotted as the magnetization times the magnetic induction, $4 \pi M \cdot B$, versus the applied field, H. We show here that this new curve is the average kinetic energy of the superconducting state versus the applied field, for type-II superconductors with a high Ginzburg-Landau parameter $\kappa$. The maximum of $4 \pi M \cdot B$ occurs at a field, $H^{*}$, directly related to the upper critical field, $H_{c2}$, suggesting that $H_{c2}(T)$ may be extracted from such plots even in cases when it is too high for direct measurement. We obtain these plots both theoretically, from the Ginzburg-Landau theory, and experimentally, using a Niobium sample with $T_c = 8.5 K$, and compare them.Comment: 11 pages, 9 postscript figure

Type Inference for Deadlock Detection in a Multithreaded Polymorphic Typed Assembly Language

We previously developed a polymorphic type system and a type checker for a multithreaded lock-based polymorphic typed assembly language (MIL) that ensures that well-typed programs do not encounter race conditions. This paper extends such work by taking into consideration deadlocks. The extended type system verifies that locks are acquired in the proper order. Towards this end we require a language with annotations that specify the locking order. Rather than asking the programmer (or the compiler's backend) to specifically annotate each newly introduced lock, we present an algorithm to infer the annotations. The result is a type checker whose input language is non-decorated as before, but that further checks that programs are exempt from deadlocks

Synthesis effects on the magnetic and superconducting properties of RuSr2GdCu2O8

A systematic study on the synthesis of the Ru-1212 compound by preparing a series of samples that were annealed at increasing temperatures and then quenched has been performed. It results that the optimal temperature for the annealing lies around 1060-1065 C; a further temperature increase worsens the phase formation. Structural order is very important and the subsequent grinding and annealing improves it. Even if from the structural point of view the samples appear substantially similar, the physical characterization highlight great differences both in the electrical and magnetic properties related to intrinsic properties of the phase as well as to the connection between the grains as inferred from the resistive and the Curie Weiss behaviour at high temperature as well as in the visibility of ZFC anf FC magnetic signals.Comment: 17 pages, 12 figures. Proc. Int. Workshop " Ruthenate and rutheno-cuprate materials: theory and experiments", Vietri, October 2001. To be published on LNP Series, Springer Verlag, Berlin, C. Noce, A. Vecchione, M. Cuoco, A. Romano Eds, 200

Cones, pringles, and grain boundary landscapes in graphene topology

A polycrystalline graphene consists of perfect domains tilted at angle {\alpha} to each other and separated by the grain boundaries (GB). These nearly one-dimensional regions consist in turn of elementary topological defects, 5-pentagons and 7-heptagons, often paired up into 5-7 dislocations. Energy G({\alpha}) of GB computed for all range 0<={\alpha}<=Pi/3, shows a slightly asymmetric behavior, reaching ~5 eV/nm in the middle, where the 5's and 7's qualitatively reorganize in transition from nearly armchair to zigzag interfaces. Analysis shows that 2-dimensional nature permits the off-plane relaxation, unavailable in 3-dimensional materials, qualitatively reducing the energy of defects on one hand while forming stable 3D-landsapes on the other. Interestingly, while the GB display small off-plane elevation, the random distributions of 5's and 7's create roughness which scales inversely with defect concentration, h ~ n^(-1/2)Comment: 9 pages, 4 figure

Optical orientation and alignment of excitons in ensembles of inorganic perovskite nanocrystals

We demonstrate the optical orientation and alignment of excitons in a two-dimensional layer of CsPbI$_3$ perovskite nanocrystals prepared by colloidal synthesis and measure the anisotropic exchange splitting of exciton levels in the nanocrystals. From the experimental data at low temperature (2K), we obtain the average value of anisotropic splitting of bright exciton states of the order of 120{\mu}eV. Our calculations demonstrate that there is a significant contribution to the splitting due to the nanocrystal shape anisotropy for all inorganic perovskite nanocrystrals.Comment: 10 page

SEEDS direct imaging of the RV-detected companion to V450 Andromedae, and characterization of the system

We report the direct imaging detection of a low-mass companion to a young, moderately active star V450 And, that was previously identified with the radial velocity method. The companion was found in high-contrast images obtained with the Subaru Telescope equipped with the HiCIAO camera and AO188 adaptive optics system. From the public ELODIE and SOPHIE archives we extracted available high-resolution spectra and radial velocity (RV) measurements, along with RVs from the Lick planet search program. We combined our multi-epoch astrometry with these archival, partially unpublished RVs, and found that the companion is a low-mass star, not a brown dwarf, as previously suggested. We found the best-fitting dynamical masses to be $m_1=1.141_{-0.091}^{+0.037}$ and $m_2=0.279^{+0.023}_{-0.020}$ M$_\odot$. We also performed spectral analysis of the SOPHIE spectra with the iSpec code. The Hipparcos time-series photometry shows a periodicity of $P=5.743$ d, which is also seen in SOPHIE spectra as an RV modulation of the star A. We interpret it as being caused by spots on the stellar surface, and the star to be rotating with the given period. From the rotation and level of activity, we found that the system is $380^{+220}_{-100}$ Myr old, consistent with an isochrone analysis ($220^{+2120}_{-90}$ Myr). This work may serve as a test case for future studies of low-mass stars, brown dwarfs and exoplanets by combination of RV and direct imaging data.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figures, 7 tables, to appear in Ap