Mixed harmonic charge dependent azimuthal correlations in Pb-Pb collisions at sNN\sqrt{s_{NN}} = 2.76 TeV measured with the ALICE experiment at the LHC

Mixed harmonic charge dependent azimuthal correlations at mid-rapidity in Pb-Pb collisions at $\sqrt{s_{NN}}$ = 2.76 TeV were measured with the ALICE detector at the LHC. A clear charge dependence for a series of correlations is observed both via the multi-particle cumulant and the event plane methods. Implications from these measurements for the possible effects of the local parity violation in QCD and for models which incorporate the azimuthal anisotropic flow and the local charge conservation on the kinetic freeze-out surface are discussed.Comment: 4 pages, 7 figures, Proceedings for Quark Matter 2012, Washington D.C., Augest 13-18, 201

Abnormal phospholipids distribution in the prefrontal cortex from a patient with schizophrenia revealed by matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry

Schizophrenia is one of the major psychiatric disorders, and lipids have focused on the important roles in this disorder. In fact, lipids related to various functions in the brain. Previous studies have indicated that phospholipids, particularly ones containing polyunsaturated fatty acyl residues, are deficient in postmortem brains from patients with schizophrenia. However, due to the difficulties in handling human postmortem brains, particularly the large size and complex structures of the human brain, there is little agreement regarding the qualitative and quantitative abnormalities of phospholipids in brains from patients with schizophrenia, particularly if corresponding brain regions are not used. In this study, to overcome these problems, we employed matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization imaging mass spectrometry (IMS), enabling direct microregion analysis of phospholipids in the postmortem brain of a patient with schizophrenia via brain sections prepared on glass slides. With integration of traditional histochemical examination, we could analyze regions of interest in the brain at the micrometric level. We found abnormal phospholipid distributions within internal brain structures, namely, the frontal cortex and occipital cortex. IMS revealed abnormal distributions of phosphatidylcholine molecular species particularly in the cortical layer of frontal cortex region. In addition, the combined use of liquid chromatography/electrospray ionization tandem mass spectrometry strengthened the capability for identification of numerous lipid molecular species. Our results are expected to further elucidate various metabolic processes in the neural system