240 research outputs found
Distinctive Features of Saccadic Intrusions and Microsaccades in Progressive Supranuclear Palsy
International audience; The eyes do not stay perfectly still during attempted fixation; fixational eye movements and saccadic intrusions (SIs) continuously change the position of gaze. The most common type of SI, square-wave jerks (SWJs), consists of saccade pairs that appear purely horizontal on clinical inspection: the first saccade moves the eye away from the fixation target, and after a short interval, the second saccade brings it back toward the target. SWJs are prevalent in certain neurological disorders, including progressive supranuclear palsy (PSP). Here, we developed an objective method to identify SWJs. We found that SWJs are more frequent, larger, and more markedly horizontal in PSP patients than in healthy human subjects. Furthermore, the loss of a vertical component in fixational saccades and SWJs was the eye movement feature that best distinguished PSP patients from controls. We moreover determined that, in PSP patients and controls, the larger the saccade the more likely it was part of a SWJ. Furthermore, saccades produced by PSP patients had equivalent properties whether they were part of a SWJ or not, suggesting that normal fixational saccades (microsaccades) are rare in PSP. We propose that fixational saccades and SIs are generated by the same neural circuit and that, both in PSP patients and in controls, SWJs result from a coupling mechanism that generates a second corrective saccade shortly after a large fixation saccade. Because of brainstem and/or cerebellum impairment, fixational saccades in PSP are abnormally large and thus more likely to trigger a corrective saccade, giving rise to SWJs
Causality constraints in AdS/CFT from conformal collider physics and Gauss-Bonnet gravity
We explore the relation between positivity of the energy constraints in
conformal field theories and causality in their dual gravity description. Our
discussion involves CFTs with different central charges whose description, in
the gravity side, requires the inclusion of quadratic curvature corrections. It
is enough, indeed, to consider the Gauss-Bonnet term. We find that both sides
of the AdS/CFT correspondence impose a restriction on the Gauss-Bonnet
coupling. In the case of 6d supersymmetric CFTs, we show the full matching of
these restrictions. We perform this computation in two ways. First by
considering a thermal setup in a black hole background. Second by scrutinizing
the scattering of gravitons with a shock wave in AdS. The different helicities
provide the corresponding lower and upper bounds. We generalize these results
to arbitrary higher dimensions and comment on some hints and puzzles they
prompt regarding the possible existence of higher dimensional CFTs and the
extent to which the AdS/CFT correspondence would be valid for them.Comment: 31 pages, 5 figures; v2: typos fixed, cosmetic amendments and
references adde
Black holes in three dimensional higher spin gravity: A review
We review recent progress in the construction of black holes in three
dimensional higher spin gravity theories. Starting from spin-3 gravity and
working our way toward the theory of an infinite tower of higher spins coupled
to matter, we show how to harness higher spin gauge invariance to consistently
generalize familiar notions of black holes. We review the construction of black
holes with conserved higher spin charges and the computation of their partition
functions to leading asymptotic order. In view of the AdS/CFT correspondence as
applied to certain vector-like conformal field theories with extended conformal
symmetry, we successfully compare to CFT calculations in a generalized Cardy
regime. A brief recollection of pertinent aspects of ordinary gravity is also
given.Comment: 49 pages, harvmac, invited contribution to J. Phys. A special volume
on "Higher Spin Theories and AdS/CFT" edited by M. R. Gaberdiel and M.
Vasilie
Association between adiposity levels and cognitive impairment in the Chilean older adult population
Although both obesity and ageing are risk factors for cognitive impairment, there is no evidence in Chile on how obesity levels are associated with cognitive function. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate the association between adiposity levels and cognitive impairment in older Chilean adults. This cross-sectional study includes 1384 participants, over 60 years of age, from the Chilean National Health Survey 2009–2010. Cognitive impairment was evaluated using the Mini-Mental State Examination. BMI and waist circumference (WC) were used as measures of adiposity. Compared with people with a normal BMI, the odds of cognitive impairment were higher in participants who were underweight (OR 4·44; 95 % CI 2·43, 6·45; P < 0·0001), overweight (OR 1·86; 95 % CI 1·06, 2·66; P = 0·031) and obese (OR 2·26; 95 % CI 1·31, 3·21; P = 0·003). The associations were robust after adjustment for confounding variables. Similar results were observed for WC. Low and high levels of adiposity are associated with an increased likelihood of cognitive impairment in older adults in Chile
Second-Order Formalism for 3D Spin-3 Gravity
A second-order formalism for the theory of 3D spin-3 gravity is considered.
Such a formalism is obtained by solving the torsion-free condition for the spin
connection \omega^a_{\mu}, and substituting the result into the action
integral. In the first-order formalism of the spin-3 gravity defined in terms
of SL(3,R) X SL(3,R) Chern-Simons (CS) theory, however, the generalized
torsion-free condition cannot be easily solved for the spin connection, because
the vielbein e^a_{\mu} itself is not invertible. To circumvent this problem,
extra vielbein-like fields e^a_{\mu\nu} are introduced as a functional of
e^a_{\mu}. New set of affine-like connections \Gamma_{\mu M}^N are defined in
terms of the metric-like fields, and a generalization of the Riemann curvature
tensor is also presented. In terms of this generalized Riemann tensor the
action integral in the second-order formalism is expressed. The transformation
rules of the metric and the spin-3 gauge field under the generalized
diffeomorphims are obtained explicitly. As in Einstein gravity, the new
affine-like connections are related to the spin connection by a certain gauge
transformation, and a gravitational CS term expressed in terms of the new
connections is also presented.Comment: 40 pages, no figures. v2:references added, coefficients of eqs in
apppendix D corrected, minor typos also corrected, v3:Version accepted for
publication in Classical and Quantum Gravit
Gas Accretion and Star Formation Rates
Cosmological numerical simulations of galaxy evolution show that accretion of
metal-poor gas from the cosmic web drives the star formation in galaxy disks.
Unfortunately, the observational support for this theoretical prediction is
still indirect, and modeling and analysis are required to identify hints as
actual signs of star-formation feeding from metal-poor gas accretion. Thus, a
meticulous interpretation of the observations is crucial, and this
observational review begins with a simple theoretical description of the
physical process and the key ingredients it involves, including the properties
of the accreted gas and of the star-formation that it induces. A number of
observations pointing out the connection between metal-poor gas accretion and
star-formation are analyzed, specifically, the short gas consumption time-scale
compared to the age of the stellar populations, the fundamental metallicity
relationship, the relationship between disk morphology and gas metallicity, the
existence of metallicity drops in starbursts of star-forming galaxies, the
so-called G dwarf problem, the existence of a minimum metallicity for the
star-forming gas in the local universe, the origin of the alpha-enhanced gas
forming stars in the local universe, the metallicity of the quiescent BCDs, and
the direct measurements of gas accretion onto galaxies. A final section
discusses intrinsic difficulties to obtain direct observational evidence, and
points out alternative observational pathways to further consolidate the
current ideas.Comment: Invited review to appear in Gas Accretion onto Galaxies, Astrophysics
and Space Science Library, eds. A. J. Fox & R. Dav\'e, to be published by
Springe
The ALMA Frontier Fields Survey. II. Multiwavelength Photometric analysis of 1.1 mm continuum sources in Abell 2744, MACSJ0416.1-2403 and MACSJ1149.5+2223
CONTEXT: The Hubble and Spitzer Space Telescope surveys of the Frontier Fields provide extremely deep images around six massive, strong-lensing clusters of galaxies. The ALMA Frontier Fields survey aims to cover the same fields at 1.1 mm, with maps reaching (unlensed) sensitivities of <70 μJy, in order to explore the properties of background dusty star-forming galaxies.
AIMS: We report on the multi-wavelength photometric analysis of all 12 significantly detected (>5σ) sources in the first three Frontier Fields clusters observed by ALMA, based on data from Hubble and Spitzer, the Very Large Telescope and the Herschel Space Observatory.
METHODS: We measure the total photometry in all available bands and determine the photometric redshifts and the physical properties of the counterparts via SED-fitting. In particular, we carefully estimate the far-infrared (FIR) photometry using 1.1 mm priors to limit the misidentification of blended FIR counterparts, which strongly affect some flux estimates in previous FIR catalogs. Due to the extremely red nature of these objects, we used a large range of parameters (e.g. 0.0 <Av< 20.0) and templates (including AGNs and ULIRGs models).
RESULTS: We identify robust near-infrared (NIR) counterparts for all 11 sources with Ks detection, the majority of which are quite red, with eight having F814W − Ks ≳ 4 and five having F160W − [ 4.5 ] ≳ 3. From the FIR point of view, all our objects have zphot ~ 1–3, whereas based on the optical SED one object prefers a high-z solution (z ≥ 7). Five objects among our sample have spectroscopic redshifts from the GLASS survey for which we can reproduce their SEDs with existing templates. This verification confirms the validity of our photometric redshift methodology. The mean redshift of our sample is zphot = 1.99 ± 0.27. All 1.1 mm selected objects are massive (10.0 < log [ M⋆(M⊙) ] < 11.5), with high star formation rates (⟨ log [ SFR(M⊙/ yr) ] ⟩ ≈ 1.6) and high dust contents (8.1 < log [ Mdust(M⊙) ] < 8.8), consistent with previous ALMA surveys
An Integrated TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource to Drive High-Quality Survival Outcome Analytics
For a decade, The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) program collected clinicopathologic annotation data along with multi-platform molecular profiles of more than 11,000 human tumors across 33 different cancer types. TCGA clinical data contain key features representing the democratized nature of the data collection process. To ensure proper use of this large clinical dataset associated with genomic features, we developed a standardized dataset named the TCGA Pan-Cancer Clinical Data Resource (TCGA-CDR), which includes four major clinical outcome endpoints. In addition to detailing major challenges and statistical limitations encountered during the effort of integrating the acquired clinical data, we present a summary that includes endpoint usage recommendations for each cancer type. These TCGA-CDR findings appear to be consistent with cancer genomics studies independent of the TCGA effort and provide opportunities for investigating cancer biology using clinical correlates at an unprecedented scale. Analysis of clinicopathologic annotations for over 11,000 cancer patients in the TCGA program leads to the generation of TCGA Clinical Data Resource, which provides recommendations of clinical outcome endpoint usage for 33 cancer types
Transient Focal Cerebral Ischemia/Reperfusion Induces Early and Chronic Axonal Changes in Rats: Its Importance for the Risk of Alzheimer's Disease
The dementia of Alzheimer's type and brain ischemia are known to increase at comparable rates with age. Recent advances suggest that cerebral ischemia may contribute to the pathogenesis of Alzheimer's disease (AD), however, the neuropathological relationship between these two disorders is largely unclear. It has been demonstrated that axonopathy, mainly manifesting as impairment of axonal transport and swelling of the axon and varicosity, is a prominent feature in AD and may play an important role in the neuropathological mechanisms in AD. In this study, we investigated the early and chronic changes of the axons of neurons in the different brain areas (cortex, hippocampus and striatum) using in vivo tracing technique and grading analysis method in a rat model of transient focal cerebral ischemia/reperfusion (middle cerebral artery occlusion, MCAO). In addition, the relationship between the changes of axons and the expression of β-amyloid 42 (Aβ42) and hyperphosphorylated Tau, which have been considered as the key neuropathological processes of AD, was analyzed by combining tracing technique with immunohistochemistry or western blotting. Subsequently, we found that transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion produced obvious swelling of the axons and varicosities, from 6 hours after transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion even up to 4 weeks. We could not observe Aβ plaques or overexpression of Aβ42 in the ischemic brain areas, however, the site-specific hyperphosphorylated Tau could be detected in the ischemic cortex. These results suggest that transient cerebral ischemia/reperfusion induce early and chronic axonal changes, which may be an important mechanism affecting the clinical outcome and possibly contributing to the development of AD after stroke
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An integrated omics analysis reveals molecular mechanisms that are associated with differences in seed oil content between Glycine max and Brassica napus
Abstract
Background: Rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) and soybean (Glycine max L.) seeds are rich in both protein and oil, which
are major sources of biofuels and nutrition. Although the difference in seed oil content between soybean (~ 20%) and
rapeseed (~ 40%) exists, little is known about its underlying molecular mechanism.
Results: An integrated omics analysis was performed in soybean, rapeseed, Arabidopsis (Arabidopsis thaliana L. Heynh),
and sesame (Sesamum indicum L.), based on Arabidopsis acyl-lipid metabolism- and carbon metabolism-related genes.
As a result, candidate genes and their transcription factors and microRNAs, along with phylogenetic analysis and
co-expression network analysis of the PEPC gene family, were found to be largely associated with the difference
between the two species. First, three soybean genes (Glyma.13G148600, Glyma.13G207900 and Glyma.12G122900)
co-expressed with GmPEPC1 are specifically enriched during seed storage protein accumulation stages, while the
expression of BnPEPC1 is putatively inhibited by bna-miR169, and two genes BnSTKA and BnCKII are co-expressed
with BnPEPC1 and are specifically associated with plant circadian rhythm, which are related to seed oil biosynthesis. Then,
in de novo fatty acid synthesis there are rapeseed-specific genes encoding subunits β-CT (BnaC05g37990D) and BCCP1
(BnaA03g06000D) of heterogeneous ACCase, which could interfere with synthesis rate, and β-CT is positively regulated by
four transcription factors (BnaA01g37250D, BnaA02g26190D, BnaC01g01040D and BnaC07g21470D). In triglyceride synthesis,
GmLPAAT2 is putatively inhibited by three miRNAs (gma-miR171, gma-miR1516 and gma-miR5775). Finally, in rapeseed
there was evidence for the expansion of gene families, CALO, OBO and STERO, related to lipid storage, and
the contraction of gene families, LOX, LAH and HSI2, related to oil degradation.
Conclusions: The molecular mechanisms associated with differences in seed oil content provide the basis for
future breeding efforts to improve seed oil content
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