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On being a memory expert witness: Three cases
I describe three legal cases in which I acted as a memory expert witness. The cases contain remarkable accounts of memories. Such memories are by no means unusual in legal cases, are often over retention intervals measured in decades, and contain details the specificity of which is highly unusual. For example, recalling from childhood verbatim conversations, clothes worn by self and others, the weather, actions that at the time could not have been understood, details that could not have been known, precise durations and calendar dates, and much more. I show how our scientific understanding of memory can help courts reach more informed decisions about such fantastical "memories" and how these memories constitute data that as researchers we should seek to understand
Distinct gene signatures in aortic tissue from ApoE-/- mice exposed to pathogens or Western diet
BACKGROUND: Atherosclerosis is a progressive disease characterized by inflammation and accumulation of lipids in vascular tissue. Porphyromonas gingivalis (Pg) and Chlamydia pneumoniae (Cp) are associated with inflammatory atherosclerosis in humans. Similar to endogenous mediators arising from excessive dietary lipids, these Gram-negative pathogens are pro-atherogenic in animal models, although the specific inflammatory/atherogenic pathways induced by these stimuli are not well defined. In this study, we identified gene expression profiles that characterize P. gingivalis, C. pneumoniae, and Western diet (WD) at acute and chronic time points in aortas of Apolipoprotein E (ApoE-/-) mice.
RESULTS: At the chronic time point, we observed that P. gingivalis was associated with a high number of unique differentially expressed genes compared to C. pneumoniae or WD. For the top 500 differentially expressed genes unique to each group, we observed a high percentage (76%) that exhibited decreased expression in P. gingivalis-treated mice in contrast to a high percentage (96%) that exhibited increased expression in WD mice. C. pneumoniae treatment resulted in approximately equal numbers of genes that exhibited increased and decreased expression. Gene Set Enrichment Analysis (GSEA) revealed distinct stimuli-associated phenotypes, including decreased expression of mitochondrion, glucose metabolism, and PPAR pathways in response to P. gingivalis but increased expression of mitochondrion, lipid metabolism, carbohydrate and amino acid metabolism, and PPAR pathways in response to C. pneumoniae; WD was associated with increased expression of immune and inflammatory pathways. DAVID analysis of gene clusters identified by two-way ANOVA at acute and chronic time points revealed a set of core genes that exhibited altered expression during the natural progression of atherosclerosis in ApoE-/- mice; these changes were enhanced in P. gingivalis-treated mice but attenuated in C. pneumoniae-treated mice. Notable differences in the expression of genes associated with unstable plaques were also observed among the three pro-atherogenic stimuli.
CONCLUSIONS: Despite the common outcome of P. gingivalis, C. pneumoniae, and WD on the induction of vascular inflammation and atherosclerosis, distinct gene signatures and pathways unique to each pro-atherogenic stimulus were identified. Our results suggest that pathogen exposure results in dysregulated cellular responses that may impact plaque progression and regression pathways
Energy dependence of particle ratio fluctuations in central Pb+Pb collisions from ~6.3 to 17.3 GeV
We present measurements of the energy dependence of event-by-event
fluctuations in the K/pi and (p + \bar{p})/pi multiplicity ratios in heavy ion
collisions at the CERN SPS. The particle ratio fluctuations were obtained for
central Pb+Pb collisions at five collision energies, \sqrt{s_{_{NN}}}, between
6.3 and 17.3 GeV. After accounting for the effects of finite-number statistics
and detector resolution, we extract the strength of non-statistical
fluctuations at each energy. For the K/pi ratio, larger fluctuations than
expected for independent particle production are found at all collision
energies. The fluctuations in the (p + \bar{p})/pi ratio are smaller than
expectations from independent particle production, indicating correlated pion
and proton production from resonance decays. For both ratios, the deviation
from purely statistical fluctuations shows an increase towards lower collision
energies. The results are compared to transport model calculations, which fail
to describe the energy dependence of the K/pi ratio fluctuations.Comment: 11 pages, 10 figures, update to published versio
Upper Limit of D0 Production in Central Pb-Pb Collisions at 158A GeV
Results are presented from a search for the decays D0 -> Kmin piplus and
D0bar -> Kplus pimin in a sample of 3.8x10^6 central Pb-Pb events collected
with a beam energy of 158A GeV by NA49 at the CERN SPS. No signal is observed.
An upper limit on D0 production is derived and compared to predictions from
several models.Comment: REVTEX 5 pages, 4 figure
Inclusive production of charged pions in p+C collisions at 158 GeV/c beam momentum
The production of charged pions in minimum bias p+C interactions is studied
using a sample of 377000 inelastic events obtained with the NA49 detector at
the CERN SPS at 158 GeV/c beam momentum. The data cover a phase space area
ranging from 0 to 1.8 GeV/c in transverse momentum and from -0.1 to 0.5 in
Feynman x. Inclusive invariant cross sections are given on a grid of 270 bins
per charge thus offering for the first time a dense coverage of the projectile
hemisphere and of the cross-over region into the target fragmentation zone.Comment: 31 pages, 30 figures, submitted to European Journal of Physic
New Human Papilloma Virus E2 Transcription Factor Mimics: A Tripyrrole-Peptide Conjugate with Tight and Specific DNA-Recognition
BACKGROUND: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the main causative agent of cervical cancer, particularly high risk strains such us HPV-16, -18 and -31. The viral encoded E2 protein acts as a transcriptional modulator and exerts a key role in viral DNA replication. Thus, E2 constitutes an attractive target for developing antiviral agents. E2 is a homodimeric protein that interacts with the DNA target through an α-helix of each monomer. However, a peptide corresponding to the DNA recognition helix of HPV-16 E2 binds DNA with lower affinity than its full-length DNA binding domain. Therefore, in an attempt to promote the DNA binding of the isolated peptide, we have designed a conjugate compound of the E2 α-helix peptide and a derivative of the antibiotic distamycin, which involves simultaneous minor- and major-groove interactions. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: An E2 α-helix peptide-distamycin conjugate was designed and synthesized. It was characterized by NMR and CD spectroscopy, and its DNA binding properties were investigated by CD, DNA melting and gel shift experiments. The coupling of E2 peptide with distamycin does not affect its structural properties. The conjugate improves significantly the affinity of the peptide for specific DNA. In addition, stoichiometric amounts of specific DNA increase meaningfully the helical population of the peptide. The conjugate enhances the DNA binding constant 50-fold, maintaining its specificity. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: These results demonstrate that peptide-distamycin conjugates are a promising tool to obtain compounds that bind the E2 target DNA-sequences with remarkable affinity and suggest that a bipartite major/minor groove binding scaffold can be a useful approach for therapeutic treatment of HPV infection
Rapidity and energy dependence of the electric charge correlations in A+A collisions at the SPS energies
Results from electric charge correlations studied with the Balance Function
method in A+A collisions from 20\emph{A} to 158\emph{A} GeV are presented in
two different rapidity intervals: In the mid-rapidity region we observe a
decrease of the width of the Balance Function distribution with increasing
centrality of the collision, whereas this effect vanishes in the forward
rapidity region.
Results from the energy dependence study in central Pb+Pb collisions show
that the narrowing of the Balance Function expressed by the normalised width
parameter \textit{W} increases with energy towards the highest SPS and RHIC
energies.
Finally we compare our experimental data points with predictions of several
models. The hadronic string models UrQMD and HIJING do not reproduce the
observed narrowing of the Balance Function. However, AMPT which contains a
quark-parton transport phase before hadronization can reproduce the narrowing
of the BF's width with centrality. This confirms the proposed sensitivity of
the Balance Function analysis to the time of hadronization.Comment: Submitted in Phys. Rev.
Bose-Einstein correlations of pion pairs in central Pb+Pb collisions at CERN SPS energies
Measurements of Bose-Einstein correlations of pion pairs in central Pb+Pb
collisions were performed with the NA49 detector at the CERN SPS for beam
energies of 20A, 30A, 40A, 80A, and 158A GeV. Correlation functions were
measured in the longitudinally co-moving ``out-side-long'' reference frame as a
function of rapidity and transverse momentum in the forward hemisphere of the
reaction. Radius and correlation strength parameters were obtained from fits of
a Gaussian parametrization. The results show a decrease of the radius
parameters with increasing transverse momentum characteristic of strong radial
flow in the pion source. No striking dependence on pion-pair rapidity or beam
energy is observed. Static and dynamic properties of the pion source are
obtained from simultaneous fits with a blast-wave model to radius parameters
and midrapidity transverse momentum spectra. Predictions of hydrodynamic and
microscopic models of Pb+Pb collisions are discussed.Comment: 22 pages, 23 figure
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