There is less data available regarding the characteristics of cognitive impairment in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) in a population-based series.
Patients with ALS incident in ...Piemonte, Italy, between 2009 and 2011 underwent an extensive neuropsychological battery. Cognitive status was classified as follows: normal cognition, frontotemporal dementia (ALS-FTD), executive cognitive impairment (ALS-ECI), non-executive cognitive impairment (ALS-NECI), behavioural impairment (ALS-Bi), non-classifiable cognitive impairment. We also assessed 127 age-matched and gender-matched controls identified through patients' general practitioners.
Out of the 281 incident patients, 207 (71.9%) underwent the neuropsychological testing; of these, 19 were excluded from the analysis due previous conditions affecting cognition. Ninety-one (49.7%) patients were cognitively normal, 23 (12.6%) had ALS-FTD, 36 (19.7%) ALS-ECI, 10 (5.5%) ALS-NECI, 11 (6.0%) ALS-Bi and 11 (6.0%) non-classifiable cognitive impairment, 1 had comorbid Alzheimer's disease. Patients with ALS-FTD were older, had a lower education level, and had a shorter survival than any other cognitive group. Of the nine cases with C9ORF72 mutation, six had ALS-FTD, two ALS-ECI and one was cognitively normal; one of the five patients with SOD1 mutations and one of the five patients with TARBDP mutations had ALS-Bi.
About 50% of Italian patients with ALS had some degree of cognitive impairment, in keeping with a previous Irish study, despite the largely different genetic background of the two populations. The lower educational attainment in patients with ALS-FTD indicated a possible role of cognitive reserve in ALS-related cognitive impairment. ALS-ECI and ALS-NECI may represent discrete cognitive syndromes in the continuum of ALS and FTD.
We present a first search for dark-trident scattering in a neutrino beam using a data set corresponding to \(7.2 \times 10^{20}\) protons on target taken with the MicroBooNE detector at Fermilab. ...Proton interactions in the neutrino target at the Main Injector produce \(\pi^0\) and \(\eta\) mesons, which could decay into dark-matter (DM) particles mediated via a dark photon \(A^\prime\). A convolutional neural network is trained to identify interactions of the DM particles in the liquid-argon time projection chamber (LArTPC) exploiting its image-like reconstruction capability. In the absence of a DM signal, we provide limits at the \(90\%\) confidence level on the squared kinematic mixing parameter \(\varepsilon^2\) as a function of the dark-photon mass in the range \(10\le M_{A^\prime}\le 400\) MeV. The limits cover previously unconstrained parameter space for the production of fermion or scalar DM particles \(\chi\) for two benchmark models with mass ratios \(M_{\chi}/M_{A^\prime}=0.6\) and \(2\) and for dark fine-structure constants \(0.1\le\alpha_D\le 1\).
We present a set of new generalized kinematic imbalance variables that can be measured in neutrino scattering. These variables extend previous measurements of kinematic imbalance on the transverse ...plane, and are more sensitive to modeling of nuclear effects. We demonstrate the enhanced power of these variables using simulation, and then use the MicroBooNE detector to measure them for the first time. We report flux-integrated single- and double-differential measurements of charged-current muon neutrino scattering on argon using a topolgy with one muon and one proton in the final state as a function of these novel kinematic imbalance variables. These measurements allow us to demonstrate that the treatment of charged current quasielastic interactions in GENIE version 2 is inadequate to describe data. Further, they reveal tensions with more modern generator predictions particularly in regions of phase space where final state interactions are important.
We report the first double-differential neutrino-argon cross section measurement made simultaneously for final states with and without protons for the inclusive muon neutrino charged-current ...interaction channel. The proton kinematics of this channel are further explored with a differential cross section measurement as a function of the leading proton's kinetic energy that extends across the detection threshold. These measurements utilize data collected using the MicroBooNE detector from 6.4\(\times10^{20}\) protons on target from the Fermilab Booster Neutrino Beam with a mean neutrino energy of \(\sim\)0.8 GeV. Extensive data-driven model validation utilizing the conditional constraint formalism is employed. This motivates enlarging the uncertainties with an empirical reweighting approach to minimize the possibility of extracting biased cross section results. The extracted nominal flux-averaged cross sections are compared to widely used event generator predictions revealing severe mismodeling of final states without protons for muon neutrino charged-current interactions, possibly from insufficient treatment of final state interactions. These measurements provide a wealth of new information useful for improving event generators which will enhance the sensitivity of precision measurements in neutrino experiments.
We present the first search for heavy neutral leptons (HNL) decaying into \(\nu e^+e^-\) or \(\nu\pi^0\) final states in a liquid-argon time projection chamber using data collected with the ...MicroBooNE detector. The data were recorded synchronously with the NuMI neutrino beam from Fermilab's Main Injector corresponding to a total exposure of \(7.01 \times 10^{20}\) protons on target. We set upper limits at the \(90\%\) confidence level on the mixing parameter \(\lvert U_{\mu 4}\rvert^2\) in the mass ranges \(10\le m_{\rm HNL}\le 150\) MeV for the \(\nu e^+e^-\) channel and \(150\le m_{\rm HNL}\le 245\) MeV for the \(\nu\pi^0\) channel, assuming \(\lvert U_{e 4}\rvert^2 = \lvert U_{\tau 4}\rvert^2 = 0\). These limits represent the most stringent constraints in the mass range \(35<m_{\rm HNL}<175\) MeV and the first constraints from a direct search for \(\nu\pi^0\) decays.
A 4-year-old, male French Brittany weighing 18 kg was presented for continuous disorexia associated with a large palpable mass in the cranial abdomen. Radiographic and ultrasonographic examination ...showed the presence of a mass close to the gastric wall. Percutaneous needle aspiration of the mass revealed pyogranulomatous inflammation. An exploratory laparotomy was performed in order to remove the mass. Actinomiycotic mycetoma was revealed after surgery by positive culture. After a three months antibiotic therapy, nine months follow up showed complete remission.
The Beautiful Mess in Abell 2255 Botteon, A.; Brunetti, G.; van Weeren, R. J. ...
The Astrophysical journal,
07/2020, Letnik:
897, Številka:
1
Journal Article
Recenzirano
Odprti dostop
We present LOFAR observations of one of the most spectacular objects in the radio sky: Abell 2255. This is a nearby (z = 0.0806) merging galaxy cluster hosting one of the first radio halos ever ...detected in the intracluster medium (ICM). The deep LOFAR images at 144 MHz of the central ∼10 Mpc2 region show a plethora of emission on different scales, from tens of kiloparsecs to above megaparsec sizes. In this work, we focus on the innermost region of the cluster. Among the numerous interesting features observed, we discover remarkable bright and filamentary structures embedded in the radio halo. We incorporate archival WSRT 1.2 GHz data to study the spectral properties of the diffuse synchrotron emission and find a very complex spectral index distribution in the halo spanning a wide range of values. We combine the radio data with Chandra observations to investigate the connection between the thermal and nonthermal components by quantitatively comparing the radio and X-ray surface brightness and the spectral index of the radio emission with the thermodynamical quantities of the ICM. Despite the multitude of structures observed in the radio halo, we find that the X-ray and radio emission are overall well correlated. The fact that the steepest spectrum emission is located in the cluster center and traces regions with high entropy possibly suggests the presence of seed particles injected by radio galaxies that are spread in the ICM by the turbulence generating the extended radio halo.
Deep gray matter involvement is a consistent feature in multiple sclerosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate the relationship between different deep gray matter alterations and the development ...of subcortical atrophy, as well as to investigate the possible different substrates of volume loss between phenotypes.
Seventy-seven patients with MS (52 with relapsing-remitting and 25 with progressive MS) and 41 healthy controls were enrolled in this cross-sectional study. MR imaging investigation included volumetric, DTI, PWI and Quantitative Susceptibility Mapping analyses. Deep gray matter structures were automatically segmented to obtain volumes and mean values for each MR imaging metric in the thalamus, caudate, putamen, and globus pallidus. Between-group differences were probed by ANCOVA analyses, while the contribution of different MR imaging metrics to deep gray matter atrophy was investigated via hierarchic multiple linear regression models.
Patients with MS showed a multifaceted involvement of the thalamus and basal ganglia, with significant atrophy of all deep gray matter structures (
< .001). In the relapsing-remitting MS group, WM lesion burden proved to be the main contributor to volume loss for all deep gray matter structures (
≤ .006), with a minor role of local microstructural damage, which, in turn, was the main determinant of deep gray matter atrophy in patients with progressive MS (
≤ .01), coupled with thalamic susceptibility changes (
= .05).
Our study confirms the diffuse involvement of deep gray matter in MS, demonstrating a different behavior between MS phenotypes, with subcortical GM atrophy mainly determined by global WM lesion burden in patients with relapsing-remitting MS, while local microstructural damage and susceptibility changes mainly accounted for the development of deep gray matter volume loss in patients with progressive MS.
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