DHCR7 mutations linked to higher vitamin D status allowed early human migration to Northern latitudes

PMCID: PMC3708787This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Status of the EDELWEISS-II experiment

EDELWEISS is a direct dark matter search experiment situated in the low radioactivity environment of the Modane Underground Laboratory. The experiment uses Ge detectors at very low temperature in order to identify eventual rare nuclear recoils induced by elastic scattering of WIMPs from our Galactic halo. We present results of the commissioning of the second phase of the experiment, involving more than 7 kg of Ge, that has been completed in 2007. We describe two new types of detectors with active rejection of events due to surface contamination. This active rejection is required in order to achieve the physics goals of 10-8 pb cross-section measurement for the current phase

The Effects of Gravitational Back-Reaction on Cosmological Perturbations

Because of the non-linearity of the Einstein equations, the cosmological fluctuations which are generated during inflation on a wide range of wavelengths do not evolve independently. In particular, to second order in perturbation theory, the first order fluctuations back-react both on the background geometry and on the perturbations themselves. I this paper, the gravitational back-reaction of long wavelength (super-Hubble) scalar metric fluctuations on the perturbations themselves is investigated for a large class of inflationary models. Specifically, the equations describing the evolution of long wavelength cosmological metric and matter perturbations in an inflationary universe are solved to second order in both the amplitude of the perturbations and in the slow roll expansion parameter. Assuming that the linear fluctuations have random phases, we show that the fractional correction to the power spectrum due to the leading infrared back-reaction terms does not change the shape of the spectrum. The amplitude of the effect is suppressed by the product of the inflationary slow-roll parameter and the amplitude of the linear power spectrum. The non-gaussianity of the spectrum induced by back-reaction is commented upon.Comment: 9 page

Effect of an Acute Bout of Low-, Moderate, and High-Intensity Aerobic Exercise on Immediate and Delayed Fractionated Response Time

In the present investigation, we investigated the role of three intensities of aerobic exercise (Low Intensity [LI], Moderate Intensity [MI], High Intensity [HI]) on IPC using a unique method to fractionate RPT into three components: (1) RT, which is the interval between the onset of the stimulus signal and the onset of muscle activity in the responding muscle (cognitive-decision making component), (2) movement time (MT), which is the time interval between the onset of muscle activation and completion of the required motor response, and (3) RPT, which encompasses both RT and MT. Movement time reflects more the muscular components of the stimulus-response action, whereas RT reflects the duration of all earlier stages of information processing

Serum anti-Müllerian hormone concentrations before and after treatment of an ovarian granulosa cell tumour in a cat

Case summary A 15-year-old female cat was presented for investigation of progressive behavioural changes, polyuria, polydipsia and periuria. An ovarian granulosa cell tumour was identified and the cat underwent therapeutic ovariohysterectomy (OHE). The cat’s clinical signs resolved, but 6 months later it was diagnosed as having an anaplastic astrocytoma and was euthanased. Serum anti-Müllerian hormone (AMH) concentration prior to OHE was increased vs a control group of entire and neutered female cats. Following OHE, serum AMH concentration decreased to <1% of the original value. Relevance and novel information Serum AMH measurement may represent a novel diagnostic and monitoring tool for functional ovarian neoplasms in cats

Ethnic Variation in Inflammatory Profile in Tuberculosis

PMCID: PMC3701709This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Development of a radio detection array for the observation of showers induced by UHE Tau neutrinos

International audienceDevelopment of a radio detection array for the observation of showers induced by UHE Tau neutrino

Exposure to environmental stressors result in increased viral load and further reduction of production parameters in pigs experimentally infected with PCV2b

Porcine circovirus type 2 (PCV2) has been identified as the essential, but not sole, underlying infectious component for PCV-associated diseases (PCVAD). Several co-factors have been suggested to convert an infection with PCV2 into the clinical signs of PCVAD, including co-infection with a secondary pathogen and the genetic background of the pig. In the present study, we investigated the role of environmental stressors in the form of changes in environmental temperature and increased stocking-density on viral load in serum and tissue, average daily weight gain (ADG) and food conversion rate (FCR) of pigs experimentally infected with a defined PCV2b strain over an eight week period. These stressors were identified recently as risk factors leading to the occurrence of severe PCVAD on a farm level. In the current study, PCV2-free pigs were housed in separate, environmentally controlled rooms, and the experiment was performed in a 2 × 2 factorial design. In general, PCV2b infection reduced ADG and increased FCR, and these were further impacted on by the environmental stressors. Furthermore, all stressors led to an increased viral load in serum and tissue as assessed by qPCR, although levels did not reach statistical significance. Our data suggest that there is no need for an additional pathogen to develop PCVAD in conventional status pigs, and growth retardation and clinical signs can be induced in PCV2 infected pigs that are exposed to environmental stressors alone

The TIANSHAN Radio Experiment for Neutrino Detection

An antenna array devoted to the autonomous radio-detection of high energy cosmic rays is being deployed on the site of the 21 cm array radio telescope in XinJiang, China. Thanks in particular to the very good electromagnetic environment of this remote experimental site, self-triggering on extensive air showers induced by cosmic rays has been achieved with a small scale prototype of the foreseen antenna array. We give here a detailed description of the detector and present the first detection of extensive air showers with this prototype.Comment: 37 pages, 15 figures. Astroparticle Physics (in press