1,585 research outputs found
Acute and chronic exercise in patients with HFrEF: Evidence of structural and functional plasticity and intact angiogenic signaling in skeletal muscle
This study examined the response to acute submaximal exercise and the effect of training in patients with heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). The acute angiogenic response to submaximal exercise in HFrEF after small muscle mass training is debated. The direct Fick method, with vascular pressures, was performed across the leg during knee-extensor exercise (KE) at 50% of maximum work rate (WRmax) in patients (n = 6) and controls (n = 6) and then after KE training in patients. Muscle biopsies facilitated the assessment of skeletal muscle structure and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA levels. Prior to training, HFrEF exhibited significantly higher leg vascular resistance (LVR) (approximate to 15%) and significantly greater noradrenaline spillover (approximate to 385%). Apart from mitochondrial volume density, which was significantly lower (approximate to 22%) in HFrEF, initial skeletal muscle structure, including capillarity, was not different between groups. Resting VEGF mRNA levels, and the increase with exercise, was not different between patients and controls. Following training, LVR was no longer elevated and noradrenaline spillover was curtailed. Skeletal muscle capillarity increased with training, as assessed by capillary-to-fibre ratio (approximate to 13%) and number of capillaries around a fibre (N-CAF) (approximate to 19%). VEGF mRNA was now not significantly increased by acute exercise. Muscle fibre cross-sectional area and percentage area of type I fibres both increased significantly with training (approximate to 18% and approximate to 21%, respectively), while the percentage area of type II fibres fell significantly (approximate to 11%), and mitochondrial volume density now exceeded that of controls. These data reveal structural and functional plasticity and appropriate angiogenic signalling in skeletal muscle of HFrEF patients
N-body simulations with generic non-Gaussian initial conditions I: Power Spectrum and halo mass function
We address the issue of setting up generic non-Gaussian initial conditions
for N-body simulations. We consider inflationary-motivated primordial
non-Gaussianity where the perturbations in the Bardeen potential are given by a
dominant Gaussian part plus a non-Gaussian part specified by its bispectrum.
The approach we explore here is suitable for any bispectrum, i.e. it does not
have to be of the so-called separable or factorizable form. The procedure of
generating a non-Gaussian field with a given bispectrum (and a given power
spectrum for the Gaussian component) is not univocal, and care must be taken so
that higher-order corrections do not leave a too large signature on the power
spectrum. This is so far a limiting factor of our approach. We then run N-body
simulations for the most popular inflationary-motivated non-Gaussian shapes.
The halo mass function and the non-linear power spectrum agree with theoretical
analytical approximations proposed in the literature, even if they were so far
developed and tested only for a particular shape (the local one). We plan to
make the simulations outputs available to the community via the non-Gaussian
simulations comparison project web site
http://icc.ub.edu/~liciaverde/NGSCP.html.Comment: 23 pages, 10 figure
Signatures of very high energy physics in the squeezed limit of the bispectrum (violation of Maldacena's condition)
We investigate the signatures in the squeezed limit of the primordial scalar
bispectrum due to modifications of the standard theory at high energy. In
particular, we consider the cases of modified dispersion relations and/or
modified initial quantum state (both in the Boundary Effective Field Theory and
in the New Physics Hyper-Surface formulations). Using the in-in formalism we
study in details the squeezed limit of the contributions to the bispectrum from
all possible cubic couplings in the effective theory of single-field inflation.
We find general features such as enhancements and/or non-local shape of the
non-Gaussianities, which are relevant, for example, for measurements of the
halo bias and which distinguish these scenarios from the standard one (with
Bunch-Davies vacuum as initial state and standard kinetic terms). We find that
the signatures change according to the magnitude of the scale of new physics,
and therefore several pieces of information regarding high energy physics could
be obtained in case of detection of these signals, especially bounds on the
scales of new physics.Comment: 37 pages plus bibliography, version matching the one accepted for
publication by JCAP. Increased pedagogical comments, improved presentation
and text, added reference
Quasiparticle undressing in a dynamic Hubbard model: exact diagonalization study
Dynamic Hubbard models have been proposed as extensions of the conventional
Hubbard model to describe the orbital relaxation that occurs upon double
occupancy of an atomic orbital. These models give rise to pairing of holes and
superconductivity in certain parameter ranges. Here we explore the changes in
carrier effective mass and quasiparticle weight and in one- and two-particle
spectral functions that occur in a dynamic Hubbard model upon pairing, by exact
diagonalization of small systems. It is found that pairing is associated with
lowering of effective mass and increase of quasiparticle weight, manifested in
transfer of spectral weight from high to low frequencies in one- and
two-particle spectral functions. This 'undressing' phenomenology resembles
observations in transport, photoemission and optical experiments in high T_c
cuprates. This behavior is contrasted with that of a conventional electron-hole
symmetric Holstein-like model with attractive on-site interaction, where
pairing is associated with 'dressing' instead of 'undressing'
Large non-Gaussian Halo Bias from Single Field Inflation
We calculate Large Scale Structure observables for non-Gaussianity arising
from non-Bunch-Davies initial states in single field inflation. These scenarios
can have substantial primordial non-Gaussianity from squeezed (but observable)
momentum configurations. They generate a term in the halo bias that may be more
strongly scale-dependent than the contribution from the local ansatz. We also
discuss theoretical considerations required to generate an observable
signature.Comment: 30 pages, 14 figures, typos corrected and minor changes to match
published version JCAP09(2012)00
Bilingualism alters childrenâs frontal lobe functioning for attentional control
Bilingualism is a typical linguistic experience, yet relatively little is known about its impact on childrenâs cognitive and brain development. Theories of bilingualism suggest that early dualĂą language acquisition can improve childrenâs cognitive abilities, specifically those relying on frontal lobe functioning. While behavioral findings present much conflicting evidence, little is known about its effects on childrenâs frontal lobe development. Using functional nearĂą infrared spectroscopy (fNIRS), the findings suggest that SpanishĂą English bilingual children (nĂÂ =ĂÂ 13, ages 7Ăą 13) had greater activation in left prefrontal cortex during a nonĂą verbal attentional control task relative to ageĂą matched English monolinguals. In contrast, monolinguals (nĂÂ =ĂÂ 14) showed greater right prefrontal activation than bilinguals. The present findings suggest that early bilingualism yields significant changes to the functional organization of childrenâs prefrontal cortex for attentional control and carry implications for understanding how early life experiences impact cognition and brain development.This fNIRS study investigated the impact of bilingual exposure on childrenâs brain organization for attentional control (N = 27, ages 7Ăą 13). During a nonĂą verbal attention task, bilinguals showed greater left frontal lobe activation than monolinguals. Monolinguals showed greater right frontal lobe activation than bilinguals. The findings suggest that bilingualism affects the functionality of childrenâs left prefrontal cortex for attentional control.Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136694/1/desc12377-sup-0001-FigS1.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136694/2/desc12377.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136694/3/desc12377_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136694/4/desc12377-sup-0003-SupInfo.pd
Constraining primordial non-Gaussianity with cosmological weak lensing: shear and flexion
We examine the cosmological constraining power of future large-scale weak
lensing surveys on the model of \emph{Euclid}, with particular reference to
primordial non-Gaussianity. Our analysis considers several different estimators
of the projected matter power spectrum, based on both shear and flexion, for
which we review the covariances and Fisher matrices. The bounds provided by
cosmic shear alone for the local bispectrum shape, marginalized over
, are at the level of . We consider
three additional bispectrum shapes, for which the cosmic shear constraints
range from (equilateral shape) up to (orthogonal shape). The competitiveness of cosmic
flexion constraints against cosmic shear ones depends on the galaxy intrinsic
flexion noise, that is still virtually unconstrained. Adopting the very high
value that has been occasionally used in the literature results in the flexion
contribution being basically negligible with respect to the shear one, and for
realistic configurations the former does not improve significantly the
constraining power of the latter. Since the flexion noise decreases with
decreasing scale, by extending the analysis up to
cosmic flexion, while being still subdominant, improves the shear constraints
by when added. However on such small scales the highly non-linear
clustering of matter and the impact of baryonic physics make any error
estimation uncertain. By considering lower, and possibly more realistic, values
of the flexion intrinsic shape noise results in flexion constraining power
being a factor of better than that of shear, and the bounds on
and being improved by a factor of upon
their combination. (abridged)Comment: 30 pages, 4 figures, 4 tables. To appear on JCA
From Marginalized to Maximized Opportunities for Diverse Youths With Disabilities: A Position Paper of the Division on Career Development and Transition
Current secondary education and transition practices have created differential education and employment outcomes by gender, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, and disability classifications. These differential outcomes result in economic and social marginalization of far too many students with disabilities. Transition education practices need to respond to these differential outcomes and provide targeted, systematic, and long-term opportunities for all students to attain individually and family-determined postschool goals. This position paper recommends an ecological framework for considering the multiple systems that influence transition education and postschool outcomes for diverse youths with disabilities. The authors argue for educators, researchers, and policy makers to attend to social, political, economic, educational, and cultural contexts in developing effective interventions and improving postschool outcomes.Yeshttps://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/manuscript-submission-guideline
The deep propagating gravity wave experiment (deepwave): an airborne and ground-based exploration of gravity wave propagation and effects from their sources throughout the lower and middle atmosphere
Abstract
The Deep Propagating Gravity Wave Experiment (DEEPWAVE) was designed to quantify gravity wave (GW) dynamics and effects from orographic and other sources to regions of dissipation at high altitudes. The core DEEPWAVE field phase took place from May through July 2014 using a comprehensive suite of airborne and ground-based instruments providing measurements from Earthâs surface to âŒ100 km. Austral winter was chosen to observe deep GW propagation to high altitudes. DEEPWAVE was based on South Island, New Zealand, to provide access to the New Zealand and Tasmanian âhotspotsâ of GW activity and additional GW sources over the Southern Ocean and Tasman Sea. To observe GWs up to âŒ100 km, DEEPWAVE utilized three new instruments built specifically for the National Science Foundation (NSF)/National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) Gulfstream V (GV): a Rayleigh lidar, a sodium resonance lidar, and an advanced mesosphere temperature mapper. These measurements were supplemented by in situ probes, dropsondes, and a microwave temperature profiler on the GV and by in situ probes and a Doppler lidar aboard the German DLR Falcon. Extensive ground-based instrumentation and radiosondes were deployed on South Island, Tasmania, and Southern Ocean islands. Deep orographic GWs were a primary target but multiple flights also observed deep GWs arising from deep convection, jet streams, and frontal systems. Highlights include the following: 1) strong orographic GW forcing accompanying strong cross-mountain flows, 2) strong high-altitude responses even when orographic forcing was weak, 3) large-scale GWs at high altitudes arising from jet stream sources, and 4) significant flight-level energy fluxes and often very large momentum fluxes at high altitudes.David C. Fritts, Ronald B. Smith, Michael J. Taylor, James D. Doyle, Stephen D. Eckermann, Andreas Dörnbrack, Markus Rapp, Bifffford P. Williams, P.-Dominique Pautet, Katrina Bossert, Neal R. Criddddle, Carolyn A. Reynolds, P. Alex Reinecke, Michael Uddddstrom, Michael J. Revell, Richard Turner, Bernd Kaifler, Johannes S. Wagner, Tyler Mixa, Christopher G. Kruse, Alison D. Nugent, Campbell D. Watson, Sonja Gisinger, Steven M. Smith, Ruth S. Lieberman, Brian Laughman, James J. Moore, William O. Brown, Julie A. Haggerty, Alison Rockwell, Gregory J. Stossmeister, Steven F. Williams, Gonzalo Hernandez, Damian J. Murphy, Andrew R. Klekociuk, Iain M. Reid, and Jun M
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