A New Preventive for B L O A T

New product called poloxalene has been tested at Iowa State and Kansas State Universities and is the most effective preventive of legume bloat yet developed. It\u27s now being marketed commercially

The Role of Control in Intimate Partner Violence: A Study in Dutch Forensic Outpatients

Johnson argued that coercive control is crucial in explaining heterogeneity in intimate partner violence, with such violence being more frequent, less reciprocal, and more often male-to-female aggression when it serves to exercise control over the partner. We assessed 280 Dutch forensic outpatients who had recently engaged in intimate partner violence on nonaggressive coercive control. Control showed significant, small to moderate, associations with more frequent past year acts of psychological aggression, physical assault, and sexual coercion and more frequently resulted in partner injury. Control was unrelated to reciprocity of partner violence. High controlling violence was enacted mostly, but not exclusively by men. Overall, while perhaps not having a uniquely strong association, our findings provide partial support for the role of coercive control in intimate partner violence and suggest it may benefit intimate partner violence risk assessment.</p

Fuel-Supply-Limited Stellar Relaxation Oscillations: Application to Multiple Rings around AGB Stars and Planetary Nebulae

We describe a new mechanism for pulsations in evolved stars: relaxation oscillations driven by a coupling between the luminosity-dependent mass-loss rate and the H fuel abundance in a nuclear-burning shell. When mass loss is included, the outward flow of matter can modulate the flow of fuel into the shell when the stellar luminosity is close to the Eddington luminosity $L_{\rm Edd}$. When the luminosity drops below $L_{\rm Edd}$, the mass outflow declines and the shell is re-supplied with fuel. This process can be repetitive. We demonstrate the existence of such oscillations and discuss the dependence of the results on the stellar parameters. In particular, we show that the oscillation period scales specifically with the mass of the H-burning relaxation shell (HBRS), defined as the part of the H-burning shell above the minimum radius at which the luminosity from below first exceeds the Eddington threshold at the onset of the mass loss phase. For a stellar mass M_*\sim 0.7\Msun, luminosity L_*\sim 10^4\Lsun, and mass loss rate |\dot M|\sim 10^{-5}\Msun yr$^{-1}$, the oscillations have a recurrence time $\sim 1400$ years $\sim 57\tau_{\rm fsm}$, where $\tau_{\rm fsm}$ is the timescale for modulation of the fuel supply in the HBRS by the varying mass-loss rate. This period agrees with the $\sim$ 1400-year period inferred for the spacings between the shells surrounding some planetary nebulae, and the the predictied shell thickness, of order 0.4 times the spacing, also agrees reasonably well.Comment: 15 pages TeX, 1 ps figure submitted to Ap

Equivalence of particle-particle random phase approximation correlation energy and ladder-coupled-cluster doubles

We present an analytical proof and numerical demonstrations of the equivalence of the correlation energy from particle-particle random phase approximation (pp-RPA) and ladder-couple-cluster-doubles (ladder-CCD). These two theories reduce to the identical algebraic matrix equation and correlation energy expressions, under the assumption that the pp-RPA equation is stable. The numerical examples illustrate that the correlation energy missed by pp-RPA in comparison with couple-cluster single and double is largely canceled out when considering reaction energies. This theoretical connection will be beneficial to future pp-RPA studies based on the well established couple cluster theory

Collective fluctuations in networks of noisy components

Collective dynamics result from interactions among noisy dynamical components. Examples include heartbeats, circadian rhythms, and various pattern formations. Because of noise in each component, collective dynamics inevitably involve fluctuations, which may crucially affect functioning of the system. However, the relation between the fluctuations in isolated individual components and those in collective dynamics is unclear. Here we study a linear dynamical system of networked components subjected to independent Gaussian noise and analytically show that the connectivity of networks determines the intensity of fluctuations in the collective dynamics. Remarkably, in general directed networks including scale-free networks, the fluctuations decrease more slowly with the system size than the standard law stated by the central limit theorem. They even remain finite for a large system size when global directionality of the network exists. Moreover, such nontrivial behavior appears even in undirected networks when nonlinear dynamical systems are considered. We demonstrate it with a coupled oscillator system.Comment: 5 figure

Disentangling the effects of age and mild traumatic brain injury on brain network connectivity:A resting state fMRI study

INTRODUCTION: Cognitive complaints are common shortly after mild traumatic brain injury (mTBI) but may persist up to years. Age-related cognitive decline can worsen these symptoms. However, effects of age on mTBI sequelae have scarcely been investigated. METHODS: Fifty-four mTBI patients (median age: 35 years, range 19-64 years, 67% male) and twenty age- and sex-matched healthy controls were studied using resting state functional magnetic resonance imaging in the sub-acute phase. Independent component analysis was used to identify intrinsic connectivity networks (ICNs). A multivariate approach was adopted to evaluate the effects of age and group on the ICNs in terms of (static) functional network connectivity (FNC), intensities of spatial maps (SMs) and time-course spectral power (TC). RESULTS: We observed significant age-related changes for a) FNC: changes between 10 pairs of ICNs, mostly involving the default mode (DM) and/or the cognitive-control (CC) domains; b) SMs: intensity decrease in clusters across three domains and intensity increase in clusters across two domains, including the CC but not the DM and c) TC: spectral power decrease within the 0-0.15 Hz range and increase within the 0.20-0.25 Hz range for increasing age within networks located in frontal areas, including the anterior DM. Groups only differed for TC within the 0.065-0.10 Hz range in the cerebellar ICN and no age × group interaction effect was found. CONCLUSIONS: We showed robust effects of age on connectivity between and within ICNs that are associated with cognitive functioning. Differences between mTBI patients and controls were only found for activity in the cerebellar network, increasingly recognized to participate in cognition. Our results suggest that to allow for capturing the true effects related to mTBI and its effects on cognitive functioning, age should be included as a covariate in mTBI studies, in addition to age-matching groups

Selecting a single orientation for millimeter sized graphene sheets

We have used Low Energy Electron Microscopy (LEEM) and Photo Emission Electron Microscopy (PEEM) to study and improve the quality of graphene films grown on Ir(111) using chemical vapor deposition (CVD). CVD at elevated temperature already yields graphene sheets that are uniform and of monatomic thickness. Besides domains that are aligned with respect to the substrate, other rotational variants grow. Cyclic growth exploiting the faster growth and etch rates of the rotational variants, yields films that are 99 % composed of aligned domains. Precovering the substrate with a high density of graphene nuclei prior to CVD yields pure films of aligned domains extending over millimeters. Such films can be used to prepare cluster-graphene hybrid materials for catalysis or nanomagnetism and can potentially be combined with lift-off techniques to yield high-quality, graphene based electronic devices

Psychosis and relapse in bipolar disorder are related to GRM3, DAOA, and GRIN2B genotype

Objective:  Key Words: Manic-Depressive Psychosis; Glutamate; GRIN2B receptor; mGluR3; G72 protein; HumanDysfunction in glutamate signalling is thought to play a role in the pathophysiology of bipolar disorder (BD). There is evidence of associations between single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in GRM3, GRIN2B, and DAOA genes and the diagnosis of BD. In this pilot study, we investigated the frequency of SNP variants in these 3 genes within South African population groups, and assessed interactions between genes and phenotypes of BD disease severity. Method: Multiplex SNaPshotTM PCR was used to genotype 191 case and 188 control samples. Cases comprised of 191 individuals in a South African cohort of mixed ancestry and Caucasians, with BD Type 1. Phenotypes of BD disease severity were: age of onset, number of illness episodes, number of hospitalisations for depression or mania and history of psychotic symptoms. Results: There were no significant difference in SNP allele frequencies between cases and controls. In the case-only analysis, the GRM3 rs6465084 heterozygote was associated with a 4-fold increased risk of lifetime history of psychotic symptoms, and the specific variants within the gene pair, DAOA and GRIN2B, had a significant interaction with the number of hospitalisations for mania, with lowest admission rates associated with both pairs of ancestral alleles. Conclusion: In BD, variations in glutamatergic genes may influence phenotypes related to the severity of illness. Speculatively, newly derived genes associated with various evolutionary advantages, may also increase the risk for more severe BD. These preliminary findings deserve validation in a larger cohort