3,817 research outputs found
A Labor Lawyer\u27s Guide to the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990*
On July 26, 1990, in a joyous ceremony on the south lawn of the
White House, President George Bush signed the Americans with Disabilities
Act of 1990 lx into la
Using epigenomic studies in monozygotic twins to improve our understanding of cancer
Cancer is a set of diseases that exhibit not only genetic mutations but also a profoundly distorted epigenetic landscape. Over the last two decades, great advances have been made in identifying these alterations and their importance in the initiation and progression of cancer. Epigenetic changes can be seen from the very early stages in tumorigenesis and dysregulation of the epigenome has an increasingly acknowledged pathogenic role. Epigenomic twin studies have great potential to contribute to our understanding of complex diseases, such as cancer. This is because the use of monozygotic twins discordant for cancer enables epigenetic variation analysis without the confounding influence of the constitutive genetic background, age or cohort effects. It therefore allows the identification of susceptibility loci that may be sensitive to modification by the environment. These studies into cancer etiology will potentially lead to robust epigenetic markers for the detection and risk assessment of cance
Human-specific CpG 'beacons' identify human-specific prefrontal cortex H3K4me3 chromatin peaks
Therefore, CpG-focused comparative sequence analysis can precisely pinpoint chromatin structures that contribute to the human-specific phenotype and further supports an integrated approach in genomic and epigenomic studie
Anomaly mediated neutrino-photon interactions at finite baryon density
We propose new physical processes based on the axial vector anomaly and
described by the Wess-Zumino-Witten term that couples the photon, Z-boson, and
the omega-meson. The interaction takes the form of a pseudo-Chern-Simons term,
. This term
induces neutrino-photon interactions at finite baryon density via the coupling
of the Z-boson to neutrinos. These interactions may be detectable in various
laboratory and astrophysical arenas. The new interactions may account for the
MiniBooNE excess. They also produce a competitive contribution to neutron star
cooling at temperatures >10^9 K. These processes and related axion--photon
interactions at finite baryon density appear to be relevant in many
astrophysical regimes.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures; references adde
Hydrothermal activity lowers trophic diversity in Antarctic sedimented hydrothermal vents
Sedimented hydrothermal vents are those in which hydrothermal fluid vents through sediment and are among the least studied deep-sea ecosystems. We present a combination of microbial and biochemical data to assess trophodynamics between and within hydrothermally active and off-vent areas of the Bransfield Strait (1050–1647 m depth). Microbial composition, biomass and fatty acid signatures varied widely between and within vent and non-vent sites and provided evidence of diverse metabolic activity. Several species showed diverse feeding strategies and occupied different trophic positions in vent and non-vent areas and stable isotope values of consumers were generally not consistent with feeding structure morphology. Niche area and the diversity of microbial fatty acids reflected trends in species diversity and was lowest at the most hydrothermally active site. Faunal utilisation of chemosynthetic activity was relatively limited but was detected at both vent and non-vent sites as evidenced by carbon and sulphur isotopic signatures, suggesting that the hydrothermal activity can affect trophodynamics over a much wider area than previously thought
Self-Referential Noise and the Synthesis of Three-Dimensional Space
Generalising results from Godel and Chaitin in mathematics suggests that
self-referential systems contain intrinsic randomness. We argue that this is
relevant to modelling the universe and show how three-dimensional space may
arise from a non-geometric order-disorder model driven by self-referential
noise.Comment: Figure labels correcte
Exploring Halo Substructure with Giant Stars IV: The Extended Structure of the Ursa Minor Dwarf Spheroidal
We present a large area photometric survey of the Ursa Minor dSph. We
identify UMi giant star candidates extending to ~3 deg from the center of the
dSph. Comparison to previous catalogues of stars within the tidal radius of UMi
suggests that our photometric luminosity classification is 100% accurate. Over
a large fraction of the survey area, blue horizontal branch stars associated
with UMi can also be identified. The spatial distribution of both the UMi giant
stars and the BHB stars are remarkably similar, and a large fraction of both
samples of stars are found outside the tidal radius of UMi. An isodensity
contour map of the stars within the tidal radius of UMi reveals two
morphological peculiarities: (1) The highest density of dSph stars is offset
from the center of symmetry of the outer isodensity contours. (2) The overall
shape of the outer contours appear S-shaped. We find that previously determined
King profiles with ~50' tidal radii do not fit well the distribution of our UMi
stars. A King profile with a larger tidal radius produces a reasonable fit,
however a power law with index -3 provides a better fit for radii > 20'. The
existence of UMi stars at large distances from the core of the galaxy, the
peculiar morphology of the dSph within its tidal radius, and the shape of its
surface density profile all suggest that UMi is evolving significantly due to
the tidal influence of the Milky Way. However, the photometric data on UMi
stars alone does not allow us to determine if the candidate extratidal stars
are now unbound or if they remain bound to the dSph within an extended dark
matter halo. (Abridged)Comment: accepted by AJ, 32 pages, 15 figures, emulateapj5 styl
Proper Motions of Dwarf Spheroidal Galaxies from Hubble Space Telescope Imaging. I: Method and a Preliminary Measurement for Fornax
This article presents and discusses a method for measuring the proper motions
of the Galactic dwarf spheroidal galaxies using images taken with the Hubble
Space Telescope. The method involves fitting an effective point spread function
to the image of a star or quasi-stellar object to determine its centroid with
an accuracy of about 0.005 pixel (0.25 milliarcseconds) -- an accuracy
sufficient to measure the proper motion of a dwarf spheroidal galaxy using
images separated by just a few years. The data consist of images, dithered to
reduce the effects of undersampling, taken at multiple epochs with the Space
Telescope Imaging Spectrograph or the Wide Field Planetary Camera. The science
fields are in the directions of the Carina, Fornax, Sculptor, and Ursa Minor
dwarf spheroidal galaxies and each has at least one quasi-stellar object whose
identity has been established by other studies. The rate of change with time of
the centroids of the stars of the dwarf spheroidal with respect to the centroid
of the quasi-stellar object is the proper motion.
Four independent preliminary measurements of the proper motion of Fornax for
three fields agree within their uncertainties. The weighted average of these
measurements is mu_alpha = 49 +- 13 milliarcseconds/century and mu_delta = -59
+- 13 milliarcseconds/century. The Galactocentric velocity derived from the
proper motion implies that Fornax is near perigalacticon, may not be bound to
the Milky Way, and is not a member of any of the proposed streams of galaxies
and globular clusters in the Galactic halo. If Fornax is bound, the Milky Way
must have a mass of at least (1.6 +- 0.8) x 10^{12} solar masses.Comment: 4 tables, 16 figures (22 postscript files), 30+ pages. Accepted for
publication in AJ. v2: Revised to remove a typo in the abstract and improve
the formattin
A DNA methylation signature in the stress driver gene Fkbp5 indicates a neuropathic component in chronic pain
BACKGROUND: Epigenetic changes can bring insight into gene regulatory mechanisms associated with disease pathogenicity, including chronicity and increased vulnerability. To date, we are yet to identify genes sensitive to epigenetic regulation that contribute to the maintenance of chronic pain and with an epigenetic landscape indicative of the susceptibility to persistent pain. Such genes would provide a novel opportunity for better pain management, as their epigenetic profile could be targeted for the treatment of chronic pain or used as an indication of vulnerability for prevention strategies. Here, we investigated the epigenetic profile of the gene Fkbp5 for this potential, using targeted bisulphite sequencing in rodent pre-clinical models of chronic and latent hypersensitive states. RESULTS: The Fkbp5 promoter DNA methylation (DNAm) signature in the CNS was significantly different between models of persistent pain, and there was a significant correlation between CNS and peripheral blood Fkbp5 DNAm, indicating that further exploration of Fkbp5 promoter DNAm as an indicator of chronic pain pathogenic origin is warranted. We also found that maternal separation, which promotes the persistency of inflammatory pain in adulthood, was accompanied by long-lasting reduction in Fkbp5 DNAm, suggesting that Fkbp5 DNAm profile may indicate the increased vulnerability to chronic pain in individuals exposed to trauma in early life. CONCLUSIONS: Overall, our data demonstrate that the Fkbp5 promoter DNAm landscape brings novel insight into the differing pathogenic origins of chronic pain, may be able to stratify patients and predict the susceptibility to chronic pain
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