648 research outputs found
Cellular excitability and the regulation of functional neuronal identity: from gene expression to neuromodulation
The intrinsic properties of a neuron determine the translation of synaptic input to axonal output. It is this input– output relationship that is the heart of all nervous system activity. As such, the overall regulation of the intrinsic excitability of a neuron directly determines the output of that neuron at a given point in time, giving the cell a unique “functional identity.” To maintain this distinct functional output, neurons must adapt to changing patterns of synaptic excitation. These adaptations are essential to prevent neurons from either falling silent as synaptic excitation falls or becoming saturated as excitation increases. In the absence of stabilizing mechanisms, activity-dependent plasticity could drive neural activity to saturation or quiescence. Furthermore, as cells adapt to changing patterns of synaptic input, presumably the overall balance of intrinsic conductances of the cell must be maintained so that reliable output is achieved (Daoudal and Debanne, 2003; Turrigiano and Nelson, 2004; Frick and Johnston, 2005). Although these regulatory phenomena have been well documented, the molecular and physiological mechanisms involved are poorly understood
Intraoperative Image Guidance in Neurosurgery: Development, Current Indications, and Future Trends
Introduction. As minimally invasive surgery becomes the standard of care in neurosurgery, it is imperative that surgeons become skilled in the use of image-guided techniques. The development of image-guided neurosurgery represents a substantial improvement in the microsurgical treatment of tumors, vascular malformations, and other intracranial lesions. Objective. There have been numerous advances in neurosurgery which have aided the neurosurgeon to achieve accurate removal of pathological tissue with minimal disruption of surrounding healthy neuronal matter including the development of microsurgical, endoscopic, and endovascular techniques. Neuronavigation systems and intraoperative imaging should improve success in cranial neurosurgery. Additional functional imaging modalities such as PET, SPECT, DTI (for fiber tracking), and fMRI can now be used in order to reduce neurological deficits resulting from surgery; however the positive long-term effect remains questionable for many indications. Method. PubMed database search using the search term “image guided neurosurgery.” More than 1400 articles were published during the last 25 years. The abstracts were scanned for prospective comparative trials. Results and Conclusion. 14 comparative trials are published. To date significant data amount show advantages in intraoperative accuracy influencing the perioperative morbidity and long-term outcome only for cerebral glioma surgery
Direct measurement of neutrons induced in lead by cosmic muons at a shallow underground site
Neutron production in lead by cosmic muons has been studied with a Gadolinium
doped liquid scintillator detector. The detector was installed next to the
Muon-Induced Neutron Indirect Detection EXperiment (MINIDEX), permanently
located in the T\"ubingen shallow underground laboratory where the mean muon
energy is approximately 7 GeV. The MINIDEX plastic scintillators were used to
tag muons; the neutrons were detected through neutron capture and
neutron-induced nuclear recoil signals in the liquid scintillator detector.
Results on the rates of observed neutron captures and nuclear recoils are
presented and compared to predictions from GEANT4-9.6 and GEANT4-10.3. The
predicted rates are significantly too low for both versions of GEANT4. For
neutron capture events, the observation exceeds the predictions by factors of and for GEANT4-9.6
and GEANT4-10.3, respectively. For neutron nuclear recoil events, which require
neutron energies above approximately 5 MeV, the factors are even larger, and , respectively.
Also presented is the first statistically significant measurement of the
spectrum of neutrons induced by cosmic muons in lead between 5 and 40 MeV. It
was obtained by unfolding the nuclear recoil spectrum. The observed neutron
spectrum is harder than predicted by GEANT4. An investigation of the
distribution of the time difference between muon tags and nuclear recoil
signals confirms the validity of the unfolding procedure and shows that GEANT4
cannot properly describe the time distribution of nuclear recoil events. In
general, the description of the data is worse for GEANT4-10.3 than for
GEANT4-9.6.Comment: 29 pages, 22 figures, 4 table
On ℤ2-indices for ground states of fermionic chains
For parity-conserving fermionic chains, we review how to associate
-indices to ground states in finite systems with quadratic and
higher-order interactions as well as to quasifree ground states on the infinite
CAR algebra. It is shown that the -valued spectral flow provides
a topological obstruction for two systems to have the same
-index. A rudimentary definition of a -phase label
for a class of parity-invariant and pure ground states of the one-dimensional
infinite CAR algebra is also provided. Ground states with differing phase
labels cannot be connected without a closing of the spectral gap of the
infinite GNS Hamiltonian.Comment: v2: 61 pages, many revisions. To appear in Reviews in Mathematical
Physic
SPIRE Point Source Catalog Explanatory Supplement
The Spectral and Photometric Imaging Receiver (SPIRE) was launched as one of
the scientific instruments on board of the space observatory Herschel. The
SPIRE photometer opened up an entirely new window in the Submillimeter domain
for large scale mapping, that up to then was very difficult to observe. There
are already several catalogs that were produced by individual Herschel science
projects. Yet, we estimate that the objects of only a fraction of these maps
will ever be systematically extracted and published by the science teams that
originally proposed the observations. The SPIRE instrument performed its
standard photometric observations in an optically very stable configuration,
only moving the telescope across the sky, with variations in its configuration
parameters limited to scan speed and sampling rate. This and the scarcity of
features in the data that require special processing steps made this dataset
very attractive for producing an expert reduced catalog of point sources that
is being described in this document. The Catalog was extracted from a total of
6878 unmodified SPIRE scan map observations. The photometry was obtained by a
systematic and homogeneous source extraction procedure, followed by a rigorous
quality check that emphasized reliability over completeness. Having to exclude
regions affected by strong Galactic emission, that pushed the limits of the
four source extraction methods that were used, this catalog is aimed primarily
at the extragalactic community. The result can serve as a pathfinder for ALMA
and other Submillimeter and Far-Infrared facilities. 1,693,718 sources are
included in the final catalog, splitting into 950688, 524734, 218296 objects
for the 250\mu m, 350\mu m, and 500\mu m bands, respectively. The catalog comes
with well characterized environments, reliability, completeness, and
accuracies, that single programs typically cannot provide
Temperature Dependence of the Electron-Drift Anisotropy and Implications for the Electron-Drift Model
The electron drift in germanium detectors is modeled making many assumptions.
Confronted with data, these assumptions have to be revisited. The temperature
dependence of the drift of electrons was studied in detail for an n-type
segmented point-contact germanium detector. The detector was mounted in a
temperature controlled, electrically cooled cryostat. Surface events were
induced with collimated 81 keV photons from a Ba source. A detailed
analysis of the rise time of pulses collected in surface scans, performed at
different temperatures, is presented. The longitudinal anisotropy of the
electron drift decreases with rising temperature. A new approach, making use of
designated rise-time windows determined by simulations using
SolidStateDetectors.jl, was used to isolate the longitudinal drift of electrons
along different axes to quantify this observation. The measured temperature
dependence of the longitudinal drift velocities combined with the standard
electron drift model as widely used in relevant simulation packages results in
unphysical predictions. A first suggestion to modify the electron-drift model
is motivated and described. The results of a first implementation of the
modified model in SolidStateDetectors.jl are shown. They describe the data
reasonably well. A general review of the model and the standard input values
for mobilities is suggested
Objectively measured physical activity and fat mass in a large cohort of children
Background Previous studies have been unable to characterise the association between physical activity and obesity, possibly because most relied on inaccurate measures of physical activity and obesity.
Methods and Findings We carried out a cross sectional analysis on 5,500 12-year-old children enrolled in the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Total physical activity and minutes of moderate and vigorous physical activity (MVPA) were measured using the Actigraph accelerometer. Fat mass and obesity (defined as the top decile of fat mass) were measured using the Lunar Prodigy dual x-ray emission absorptiometry scanner. We found strong negative associations between MVPA and fat mass that were unaltered after adjustment for total physical activity. We found a strong negative dose-response association between MVPA and obesity. The odds ratio for obesity in adjusted models between top and the bottom quintiles of minutes of MVPA was 0.03 (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.01-0.13, p-value for trend < 0.0001) in boys and 0.36 (95% CI 0.17-0.74, p-value for trend = 0.006) in girls.
Conclusions We demonstrated a strong graded inverse association between physical activity and obesity that was stronger in boys. Our data suggest that higher intensity physical activity may be more important than total activity
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