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Detailed Visual Cortical Responses Generated by Retinal Sheet Transplants in Rats with Severe Retinal Degeneration.
To combat retinal degeneration, healthy fetal retinal sheets have been successfully transplanted into both rodent models and humans, with synaptic connectivity between transplant and degenerated host retina having been confirmed. In rodent studies, transplants have been shown to restore responses to flashes of light in a region of the superior colliculus corresponding to the location of the transplant in the host retina. To determine the quality and detail of visual information provided by the transplant, visual responsivity was studied here at the level of visual cortex where higher visual perception is processed. For our model, we used the transgenic Rho-S334ter line-3 rat (both sexes), which loses photoreceptors at an early age and is effectively blind at postnatal day 30. These rats received fetal retinal sheet transplants in one eye between 24 and 40 d of age. Three to 10 months following surgery, visually responsive neurons were found in regions of primary visual cortex matching the transplanted region of the retina that were as highly selective as normal rat to stimulus orientation, size, contrast, and spatial and temporal frequencies. Conversely, we found that selective response properties were largely absent in nontransplanted line-3 rats. Our data show that fetal retinal sheet transplants can result in remarkably normal visual function in visual cortex of rats with a degenerated host retina and represents a critical step toward developing an effective remedy for the visually impaired human population.SIGNIFICANCE STATEMENT Age-related macular degeneration and retinitis pigmentosa lead to profound vision loss in millions of people worldwide. Many patients lose both retinal pigment epithelium and photoreceptors. Hence, there is a great demand for the development of efficient techniques that allow for long-term vision restoration. In this study, we transplanted dissected fetal retinal sheets, which can differentiate into photoreceptors and integrate with the host retina of rats with severe retinal degeneration. Remarkably, we show that transplants generated visual responses in cortex similar in quality to normal rats. Furthermore, transplants preserved connectivity within visual cortex and the retinal relay from the lateral geniculate nucleus to visual cortex, supporting their potential application in curing vision loss associated with retinal degeneration
A New Look at the Axial Anomaly in Lattice QED with Wilson Fermions
By carrying out a systematic expansion of Feynman integrals in the lattice
spacing, we show that the axial anomaly in the U(1) lattice gauge theory with
Wilson fermions, as determined in one-loop order from an irrelevant lattice
operator in the Ward identity, must necessarily be identical to that computed
from the dimensionally regulated continuum Feynman integrals for the triangle
diagrams.Comment: 1 figure, LaTeX, 18 page
Spectroscopy of Ne for the thermonuclear O()Ne and F()O reaction rates
Uncertainties in the thermonuclear rates of the
O()Ne and F()O reactions
affect model predictions of light curves from type I X-ray bursts and the
amount of the observable radioisotope F produced in classical novae,
respectively. To address these uncertainties, we have studied the nuclear
structure of Ne over MeV and MeV using
the F(He,t)Ne reaction. We find the values of the
4.14 and 4.20 MeV levels to be consistent with and
respectively, in contrast to previous assumptions. We confirm the recently
observed triplet of states around 6.4 MeV, and find evidence that the state at
6.29 MeV, just below the proton threshold, is either broad or a doublet. Our
data also suggest that predicted but yet unobserved levels may exist near the
6.86 MeV state. Higher resolution experiments are urgently needed to further
clarify the structure of Ne around the proton threshold before a
reliable F()O rate for nova models can be determined.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, Phys. Rev. C (in press
Quasi-long-range ordering in a finite-size 2D Heisenberg model
We analyse the low-temperature behaviour of the Heisenberg model on a
two-dimensional lattice of finite size. Presence of a residual magnetisation in
a finite-size system enables us to use the spin wave approximation, which is
known to give reliable results for the XY model at low temperatures T. For the
system considered, we find that the spin-spin correlation function decays as
1/r^eta(T) for large separations r bringing about presence of a
quasi-long-range ordering. We give analytic estimates for the exponent eta(T)
in different regimes and support our findings by Monte Carlo simulations of the
model on lattices of different sizes at different temperatures.Comment: 9 pages, 3 postscript figs, style files include
Is \gamma-ray emission from novae affected by interference effects in the 18F(p,\alpha)15O reaction?
The 18F(p,\alpha)15O reaction rate is crucial for constraining model
predictions of the \gamma-ray observable radioisotope 18F produced in novae.
The determination of this rate is challenging due to particular features of the
level scheme of the compound nucleus, 19Ne, which result in interference
effects potentially playing a significant role. The dominant uncertainty in
this rate arises from interference between J\pi=3/2+ states near the proton
threshold (Sp = 6.411 MeV) and a broad J\pi=3/2+ state at 665 keV above
threshold. This unknown interference term results in up to a factor of 40
uncertainty in the astrophysical S-factor at nova temperatures. Here we report
a new measurement of states in this energy region using the 19F(3He,t)19Ne
reaction. In stark contrast with previous assumptions we find at least 3
resonances between the proton threshold and Ecm=50 keV, all with different
angular distributions. None of these are consistent with J\pi= 3/2+ angular
distributions. We find that the main uncertainty now arises from the unknown
proton-width of the 48 keV resonance, not from possible interference effects.
Hydrodynamic nova model calculations performed indicate that this unknown width
affects 18F production by at least a factor of two in the model considered.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev. Let
QED in strong, finite-flux magnetic fields
Lower bounds are placed on the fermionic determinants of Euclidean quantum
electrodynamics in two and four dimensions in the presence of a smooth,
finite-flux, static, unidirectional magnetic field , where
or , and is a point in the xy-plane.Comment: 10 pages, postscript (in uuencoded compressed tar file
Charge Deficiency, Charge Transport and Comparison of Dimensions
We study the relative index of two orthogonal infinite dimensional
projections which, in the finite dimensional case, is the difference in their
dimensions. We relate the relative index to the Fredholm index of appropriate
operators, discuss its basic properties, and obtain various formulas for it. We
apply the relative index to counting the change in the number of electrons
below the Fermi energy of certain quantum systems and interpret it as the
charge deficiency. We study the relation of the charge deficiency with the
notion of adiabatic charge transport that arises from the consideration of the
adiabatic curvature. It is shown that, under a certain covariance,
(homogeneity), condition the two are related. The relative index is related to
Bellissard's theory of the Integer Hall effect. For Landau Hamiltonians the
relative index is computed explicitly for all Landau levels.Comment: 23 pages, no figure
Low-Dimensional Long-Range Topological Charge Structure in the QCD Vacuum
While sign-coherent 4-dimensional structures cannot dominate topological
charge fluctuations in the QCD vacuum at all scales due to reflection
positivity, it is possible that enhanced coherence exists over extended
space-time regions of lower dimension. Using the overlap Dirac operator to
calculate topological charge density, we present evidence for such structure in
pure-glue SU(3) lattice gauge theory. It is found that a typical equilibrium
configuration is dominated by two oppositely-charged sign-coherent connected
structures (``sheets'') covering about 80% of space-time. Each sheet is built
from elementary 3-d cubes connected through 2-d faces, and approximates a
low-dimensional curved manifold (or possibly a fractal structure) embedded in
the 4-d space. At the heart of the sheet is a ``skeleton'' formed by about 18%
of the most intense space-time points organized into a global long-range
structure, involving connected parts spreading over maximal possible distances.
We find that the skeleton is locally 1-dimensional and propose that its
geometrical properties might be relevant for understanding the possible role of
topological charge fluctuations in the physics of chiral symmetry breaking.Comment: 4 pages RevTeX, 4 figures; v2: 6 pages, 5 figures, more explanations
provided, figure and references added, published versio
Constraint-preserving boundary treatment for a harmonic formulation of the Einstein equations
We present a set of well-posed constraint-preserving boundary conditions for
a first-order in time, second-order in space, harmonic formulation of the
Einstein equations. The boundary conditions are tested using robust stability,
linear and nonlinear waves, and are found to be both less reflective and
constraint preserving than standard Sommerfeld-type boundary conditions.Comment: 18 pages, 7 figures, accepted in CQ
Genetics and mapping of the \u3ci\u3eR\u3c/i\u3e11 gene conferring resistance to recently emerged rust races, tightly linked to male fertility restoration, in sunflower (\u3ci\u3eHelianthus annuus\u3c/i\u3e L.)
Sunflower oil is one of the major sources of edible oil. As the second largest hybrid crop in the world, hybrid sunflowers are developed by using the PET1 cytoplasmic male sterility system that contributes to a 20 % yield advantage over the open-pollinated varieties. However, sunflower production in North America has recently been threatened by the evolution of new virulent pathotypes of sunflower rust caused by the fungus Puccinia helianthi Schwein. Rf ANN-1742, an âHA 89â backcross restorer line derived from wild annual sunflower (Helianthus annuus L.), was identified as resistant to the newly emerged rust races. The aim of this study was to elucidate the inheritance of rust resistance and male fertility restoration and identify the chromosome location of the underlying genes in Rf ANN-1742. Chi-squared analysis of the segregation of rust response and male fertility in F2 and F3 populations revealed that both traits are controlled by single dominant genes, and that the rust resistance gene is closely linked to the restorer gene in the coupling phase. The two genes were designated as R11 and Rf5, respectively. A set of 723 mapped SSR markers of sunflower was used to screen the polymorphism between HA 89 and the resistant plant. Bulked segregant analysis subsequently located R11 on linkage group (LG) 13 of sunflower. Based on the SSR analyses of 192 F2 individuals, R11 and Rf5 both mapped to the lower end of LG13 at a genetic distance of 1.6 cM, and shared a common marker, ORS728, which was mapped 1.3 cM proximal to Rf5 and 0.3 cM distal to R11 (Rf5/ORS728/ R11). Two additional SSRs were linked to Rf5 and R11: ORS995 was 4.5 cM distal to Rf5 and ORS45 was 1.0 cM proximal to R11. The advantage of such an introduced alien segment harboring two genes is its large phenotypic effect and simple inheritance, thereby facilitating their rapid deployment in sunflower breeding programs. Suppressed recombination was observed in LGs 2, 9, and 11 as it was evident that no recombination occurred in the introgressed regions of LGs 2, 9, and 11 detected by 5, 9, and 22 SSR markers, respectively. R11 is genetically independent from the rust R-genes R1, R2, and R5, but may be closely linked to the rust R-gene Radv derived from wild Helianthus argophyllus, forming a large rust R-gene cluster of Radv/ R11 /R4 in the lower end of LG13. The relationship of Rf5 with Rf1 is discussed based on the marker association analysis
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