Verbal Episodic Memory and Endogenous Estradiol: An Association in Patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment and Alzheimer's Disease

In the continuum of patients with Alzheimer's disease (AD), mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and normal controls, a possible association of verbal memory and endogenous estradiol (E2) levels was investigated. Verbal episodic memory was measured with a german version of the California verbal memory test (CVLT). Results were controlled for apolipoprotein E (ApoE) phenotype. We studied 37 controls, 32 MCIs and 117 ADs. Groups differed in all trials of the CVLT (P < 0.001) and in E2 levels (P < 0.001). E2 levels differed significantly between groups only among females (P < 0.001). In females correcting for age and ApoE, there was an overall correlation between CVLT delayed recall and level of E2 (P = 0.025). Stepwise regression analyses found E2 level to be a significant predictor for CVLT delayed recall (P < 0.001). It may be concluded that lower E2 levels occur more in the course of the disease than may be considered as a risk factor per se

Extremal transmission through a microwave photonic crystal and the observation of edge states in a rectangular Dirac billiard

This article presents experimental results on properties of waves propagating in an unbounded and a bounded photonic crystal consisting of metallic cylinders which are arranged in a triangular lattice. First, we present transmission measurements of plane waves traversing a photonic crystal. The experiments are performed in the vicinity of a Dirac point, i.e., an isolated conical singularity of the photonic band structure. There, the transmission shows a pseudodiffusive 1/L dependence, with $L$ being the thickness of the crystal, a phenomenon also observed in graphene. Second, eigenmode intensity distributions measured in a microwave analog of a relativistic Dirac billiard, a rectangular microwave billiard that contains a photonic crystal, are discussed. Close to the Dirac point states have been detected which are localized at the straight edge of the photonic crystal corresponding to a zigzag edge in graphene

A Synthetic Model of the Putative Fe(II)-Iminobenzosemiquinonate Intermediate in the Catalytic Cycle of \u3cem\u3eo\u3c/em\u3e-Aminophenol Dioxygenases

The oxidative ring cleavage of aromatic substrates by nonheme Fe dioxygenases is thought to involve formation of a ferrous–(substrate radical) intermediate. Here we describe the synthesis of the trigonal-bipyramdial complex Fe(Ph2Tp)(ISQtBu) (2), the first synthetic example of an iron(II) center bound to an iminobenzosemiquinonate (ISQ) radical. The unique electronic structure of this S = 3/2 complex and its one-electron oxidized derivative ([3]+) have been established on the basis of crystallographic, spectroscopic, and computational analyses. These findings further demonstrate the viability of Fe2+–ISQ intermediates in the catalytic cycles of o-aminophenol dioxygenases

Soccer: is scoring goals a predictable Poissonian process?

The non-scientific event of a soccer match is analysed on a strictly scientific level. The analysis is based on the recently introduced concept of a team fitness (Eur. Phys. J. B 67, 445, 2009) and requires the use of finite-size scaling. A uniquely defined function is derived which quantitatively predicts the expected average outcome of a soccer match in terms of the fitness of both teams. It is checked whether temporary fitness fluctuations of a team hamper the predictability of a soccer match. To a very good approximation scoring goals during a match can be characterized as independent Poissonian processes with pre-determined expectation values. Minor correlations give rise to an increase of the number of draws. The non-Poissonian overall goal distribution is just a consequence of the fitness distribution among different teams. The limits of predictability of soccer matches are quantified. Our model-free classification of the underlying ingredients determining the outcome of soccer matches can be generalized to different types of sports events

Wigner surmise for Hermitian and non-Hermitian Chiral random matrices

We use the idea of a Wigner surmise to compute approximate distributions of the first eigenvalue in chiral Random Matrix Theory, for both real and complex eigenvalues. Testing against known results for zero and maximal non-Hermiticity in the microscopic large-N limit we find an excellent agreement, valid for a small number of exact zero-eigenvalues. New compact expressions are derived for real eigenvalues in the orthogonal and symplectic classes, and at intermediate non-Hermiticity for the unitary and symplectic classes. Such individual Dirac eigenvalue distributions are a useful tool in Lattice Gauge Theory and we illustrate this by showing that our new results can describe data from two-colour QCD simulations with chemical potential in the symplectic class