3,316 research outputs found
HTR4 gene structure and altered expression in the developing lung
Background: Meta-analyses of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) have identified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) spanning the 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 4 (5-HT4R) gene (HTR4) associated with lung function. The aims of this study were to i) investigate the expression profile of HTR4 in adult and fetal lung tissue and cultured airway cells, ii) further define HTR4 gene structure and iii) explore the potential functional implications of key SNPs using a bioinformatic approach
A feasibility, randomised controlled trial of a complex breathlessness intervention in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (BREEZE-IPF): study protocol
Introduction Idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF) is a chronic and progressive lung disease that causes breathlessness and cough that worsen over time, limiting daily activities and negatively impacting quality of life. Although treatments are now available that slow the rate of lung function decline, trials of these treatments have failed to show improvement in symptoms or quality of life. There is an immediate unmet need for evidenced-based interventions that improve patients' symptom burden and make a difference to everyday living. This study aims to assess the feasibility of conducting a definitive randomised controlled trial of a holistic, complex breathlessness intervention in people with IPF.
Methods and analysis The trial is a two-centre, randomised controlled feasibility trial of a complex breathlessness intervention compared with usual care in patients with IPF. 50 participants will be recruited from secondary care IPF clinics and randomised 1:1 to either start the intervention within 1 week of randomisation (fast-track group) or to receive usual care for 8 weeks before receiving the intervention (wait-list group). Participants will remain in the study for a total of 16 weeks. Outcome measures will be feasibility outcomes, including recruitment, retention, acceptability and fidelity of the intervention. Clinical outcomes will be measured to inform outcome selection and sample size calculation for a definitive trial.
Ethics and dissemination Yorkshire and The Humber – Bradford Leeds Research Ethics Committee approved the study protocol (REC 18/YH/0147). Results of the main trial and all secondary end-points will be submitted for publication in a peer-reviewed journal
Python for Information Theoretic Analysis of Neural Data
Information theory, the mathematical theory of communication in the presence of noise, is playing an increasingly important role in modern quantitative neuroscience. It makes it possible to treat neural systems as stochastic communication channels and gain valuable, quantitative insights into their sensory coding function. These techniques provide results on how neurons encode stimuli in a way which is independent of any specific assumptions on which part of the neuronal response is signal and which is noise, and they can be usefully applied even to highly non-linear systems where traditional techniques fail. In this article, we describe our work and experiences using Python for information theoretic analysis. We outline some of the algorithmic, statistical and numerical challenges in the computation of information theoretic quantities from neural data. In particular, we consider the problems arising from limited sampling bias and from calculation of maximum entropy distributions in the presence of constraints representing the effects of different orders of interaction in the system. We explain how and why using Python has allowed us to significantly improve the speed and domain of applicability of the information theoretic algorithms, allowing analysis of data sets characterized by larger numbers of variables. We also discuss how our use of Python is facilitating integration with collaborative databases and centralised computational resources
Orbit spaces of free involutions on the product of two projective spaces
Let be a finitistic space having the mod 2 cohomology algebra of the
product of two projective spaces. We study free involutions on and
determine the possible mod 2 cohomology algebra of orbit space of any free
involution, using the Leray spectral sequence associated to the Borel fibration
. We also
give an application of our result to show that if has the mod 2 cohomology
algebra of the product of two real projective spaces (respectively complex
projective spaces), then there does not exist any -equivariant
map from for (respectively ), where
is equipped with the antipodal involution.Comment: 14 pages, to appear in Results in Mathematic
Evaluating Matrix Circuits
The circuit evaluation problem (also known as the compressed word problem)
for finitely generated linear groups is studied. The best upper bound for this
problem is , which is shown by a reduction to polynomial
identity testing. Conversely, the compressed word problem for the linear group
is equivalent to polynomial identity testing. In
the paper, it is shown that the compressed word problem for every finitely
generated nilpotent group is in . Within
the larger class of polycyclic groups we find examples where the compressed
word problem is at least as hard as polynomial identity testing for skew
arithmetic circuits
Epitaxial growth of Cu on Cu(001): experiments and simulations
A quantitative comparison between experimental and Monte Carlo simulation
results for the epitaxial growth of Cu/Cu(001) in the submonolayer regime is
presented. The simulations take into account a complete set of hopping
processes whose activation energies are derived from semi-empirical
calculations using the embedded-atom method. The island separation is measured
as a function of the incoming flux and the temperature. A good quantitative
agreement between the experiment and simulation is found for the island
separation, the activation energies for the dominant processes, and the
exponents that characterize the growth. The simulation results are then
analyzed at lower coverages, which are not accessible experimentally, providing
good agreement with theoretical predictions as well.Comment: Latex document. 7 pages. 3 embedded figures in separate PS files. One
bbl fil
- …