Uniformity, local variability, and systematic variation in neuron numbers per unit of cortical surface area across species and cortical areas have been claimed to characterize the isocortex. ...Resolving these claims has been difficult, because species, techniques, and cortical areas vary across studies. We present a stereological assessment of neuron numbers in layers II-IV and V-VI per unit of cortical surface area across the isocortex in rodents (hamster, Mesocricetus auratus; agouti, Dasyprocta azarae; paca, Cuniculus paca) and primates (owl monkey, Aotus trivigratus; tamarin, Saguinus midas; capuchin, Cebus apella); these chosen to vary systematically in cortical size. The contributions of species, cortical areas, and techniques (stereology, "isotropic fractionator") to neuron estimates were assessed. Neurons per unit of cortical surface area increase across the rostro-caudal (RC) axis in primates (varying by a factor of 1.64-2.13 across the rostral and caudal poles) but less in rodents (varying by a factor of 1.15-1.54). Layer II-IV neurons account for most of this variation. When integrated into the context of species variation, and this RC gradient in neuron numbers, conflicts between studies can be accounted for. The RC variation in isocortical neurons in adulthood mirrors the gradients in neurogenesis duration in development.
Mortality from acute myocardial infarction has been falling during the past 30 years. The aim of the study was to evaluate the temporal trends of demographics, mortality rates, and time to treatment ...in patients admitted for acute ST elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) in Vendée.
From 2008 to 2016, 1994 patients hospitalised in CHD Vendée for STEMI <48hours were included. Two groups were compared, 838 patients admitted between 2008 and 2011 (group 1), and 1156 admitted between 2013 and 2016 (group 2).
Between the 2 periods, mean age was comparable (63.8 vs. 64.4 years), the gender ratio decreased (from 3.15 to 2.79 ; P=0.25). The mean duration of hospital stay was 0.8 day shorter (P=0.008). Treatment at discharge was optimum in 97.5% patients versus 92% (P<0.001). Left ventricular ejection fraction was comparable (50.6% vs. 50.2%). There was a non-significant trend to a decrease in hospital mortality (from 6.3% to 4.4%; p=0.12), and 6-month mortality (from 6.9% to 5.9%; P=0.51). There was a reduction in the use of emergency call-outs (74.9% to 68.9%; P<0.01), but an increase in direct presentations from 44% to 48.7% (P<0.05). The time before calling was comparable (2.5hours vs. 2.3hours; P=04.7). The "door-to-balloon" time decreased (0.71 vs. 0.55hour; P<0.001). The mean time between pain and angioplasty increased (5.7 vs. 6.8hours; P<0.05).
In vendee, from 2011 to 2016, hospital and 6-month mortality of STEMI trend to decrease non-significantly. The door to balloon time decreased, although emergency call-out rates and delays did not. Considerable efforts are still required with respect to patient information and education. Our registry offers an excellent tool to improve practices, the aim being to ensure its integration in the CRAC-France PCI registry.
The 4π array INDRA was used to detect nearly all charged products emitted in Ar + Ni collisions between 52 and 95 MeV/u. The charge, mass and excitation energy
E
∗
of the quasi-projectiles have been ...reconstructed event by event. Excitation energies up to 25 MeV per nucleon are reached. Apparent temperatures obtained from several double isotopic yield ratios
Tr
0 show different dependences upon
E
∗
.
T
6
Li
7
Li
3
Heα
0 yields the highest values, as well as the high energy slopes
Ts of the kinetic energy spectra. Two statistical models, sequential evaporation and gas in complete equilibrium, taking into account side feeding and discrete excited states population, show that the data can be explained by a steady increase of the initial temperature with excitation energy without evidence for a liquid-gas phase transition.
A general model of neural development is derived to fit 18 mammalian species, including humans, macaques, several rodent species, and six metatherian (marsupial) mammals. The goal of this work is to ...describe heterochronic changes in brain evolution within its basic developmental allometry, and provide an empirical basis to recognize equivalent maturational states across animals. The empirical data generating the model comprises 271 developmental events, including measures of initial neurogenesis, axon extension, establishment, and refinement of connectivity, as well as later events such as myelin formation, growth of brain volume, and early behavioral milestones, to the third year of human postnatal life. The progress of neural events across species is sufficiently predictable that a single model can be used to predict the timing of all events in all species, with a correlation of modeled values to empirical data of 0.9929. Each species' rate of progress through the event scale, described by a regression equation predicting duration of development in days, is highly correlated with adult brain size. Neural heterochrony can be seen in selective delay of retinogenesis in the cat, associated with greater numbers of rods in its retina, and delay of corticogenesis in all species but rodents and the rabbit, associated with relatively larger cortices in species with delay. Unexpectedly, precocial mammals (those unusually mature at birth) delay the onset of first neurogenesis but then progress rapidly through remaining developmental events.
The unbound nucleus He7 has been investigated via the reaction of a 16.8 MeV He6 radioactive ion beam on a Be9 target. The measurement of the outgoing Be8 through its well characterized two-α decay ...permitted the energy of the He6+n system to be reconstructed. Through comparison with a complete Monte Carlo simulation incorporating R-matrix lineshapes, the He7 ground state was determined to lie 0.380(28) MeV above the neutron decay with a width of Γ=0.179(21) MeV. A neutron spectroscopic factor SF=0.608(18) was extracted in agreement with the most recent calculations. Significant evidence was found for a broad resonance lying at 2.6(2) MeV above threshold with a ΓFWHM=2.3(3) MeV. These parameters are fully consistent with the properties of 1/2− state reported by Wuosmaa et al. Phys. Rev. C 72, 061301(R) (2005). Limits were also put on the presence of narrow resonances seen in earlier experiments.
New structural studies and 40Ar/39Ar dating in northwest China provide information about late Paleozoic strike‐slip motions subsequent to accretional events, which built eastern central Asia during ...the Paleozoic. Two principal areas were affected by these large transcurrent motions. First, in the Tianshan range, main east‐west ductile shear zones are dextral and coeval with an eastward decreasing greenschist retrograde metamorphism. Associated biotites give ages ranging from 290 Ma to 245 Ma. The earlier N110 shearing occurred in western Tianshan, while the last one, dextral in whole Tianshan, occurred 250–245 Myr ago. Second, in the Chinese Altay region several NW‐SE shear zones structured the area. The main motion is sinistral and occurred along the Erqishi zone at 280–290 Ma. It is followed by a complex succession of dextral and sinistral shearing episodes, leading to the northwestward structuring, dated at 245 Ma, of a metamorphic zone that was folded during a compressive event.
We present measurements of the fractional momentum loss (Sloss = delta pT / pT) of high-transverse-momentum-identified hadrons in heavy-ion collisions. Using pi0 in Au + Au and Cu + Cu collisions at ...√sNN = 62.4 and 200 GeV measured by the PHENIX experiment at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider and and charged hadrons in Pb + Pb collisions measured by the ALICE experiment at the Large Hadron Collider, we studied the scaling properties of Sloss as a function of a number of variables: the number of participants, Npart, the number of quark participants, Nqp, the charged-particle density, dNch/dη, and the Bjorken energy density times the equilibration time, epsilonBjτ0. We also find that the pT, where Sloss has its maximum, varies both with centrality and collision energy. Above the maximum, Sloss tends to follow a power-law function with all four scaling variables. Finally, the data at √sNN = 200 GeV and 2.76 TeV, for sufficiently high particle densities, have a common scaling of Sloss with dNch/dη and εBjτ0, lending insight into the physics of parton energy loss.
Cholinergic agonists such as levamisole and pyrantel are widely used as anthelmintics to treat parasitic nematode infestations. These drugs elicit spastic paralysis by activating acetylcholine ...receptors (AChRs) expressed in nematode body wall muscles. In the model nematode Caenorhabditis elegans, genetic screens led to the identification of five genes encoding levamisole-sensitive-AChR (L-AChR) subunits: unc-38, unc-63, unc-29, lev-1 and lev-8. These subunits form a functional L-AChR when heterologously expressed in Xenopus laevis oocytes. Here we show that the majority of parasitic species that are sensitive to levamisole lack a gene orthologous to C. elegans lev-8. This raises important questions concerning the properties of the native receptor that constitutes the target for cholinergic anthelmintics. We demonstrate that the closely related ACR-8 subunit from phylogenetically distant animal and plant parasitic nematode species functionally substitutes for LEV-8 in the C. elegans L-AChR when expressed in Xenopus oocytes. The importance of ACR-8 in parasitic nematode sensitivity to cholinergic anthelmintics is reinforced by a 'model hopping' approach in which we demonstrate the ability of ACR-8 from the hematophagous parasitic nematode Haemonchus contortus to fully restore levamisole sensitivity, and to confer high sensitivity to pyrantel, when expressed in the body wall muscle of C. elegans lev-8 null mutants. The critical role of acr-8 to in vivo drug sensitivity is substantiated by the successful demonstration of RNAi gene silencing for Hco-acr-8 which reduced the sensitivity of H. contortus larvae to levamisole. Intriguingly, the pyrantel sensitivity remained unchanged thus providing new evidence for distinct modes of action of these important anthelmintics in parasitic species versus C. elegans. More broadly, this highlights the limits of C. elegans as a predictive model to decipher cholinergic agonist targets from parasitic nematode species and provides key molecular insight to inform the discovery of next generation anthelmintic compounds.
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