Many people have flipped coins but few have stopped to ponder the statistical and physical intricacies of the process. In a preregistered study we collected \(350{,}757\) coin flips to test the ...counterintuitive prediction from a physics model of human coin tossing developed by Diaconis, Holmes, and Montgomery (DHM; 2007). The model asserts that when people flip an ordinary coin, it tends to land on the same side it started -- DHM estimated the probability of a same-side outcome to be about 51%. Our data lend strong support to this precise prediction: the coins landed on the same side more often than not, \(\text{Pr}(\text{same side}) = 0.508\), 95% credible interval (CI) \(0.506\), \(0.509\), \(\text{BF}_{\text{same-side bias}} = 2359\). Furthermore, the data revealed considerable between-people variation in the degree of this same-side bias. Our data also confirmed the generic prediction that when people flip an ordinary coin -- with the initial side-up randomly determined -- it is equally likely to land heads or tails: \(\text{Pr}(\text{heads}) = 0.500\), 95% CI \(0.498\), \(0.502\), \(\text{BF}_{\text{heads-tails bias}} = 0.182\). Furthermore, this lack of heads-tails bias does not appear to vary across coins. Additional exploratory analyses revealed that the within-people same-side bias decreased as more coins were flipped, an effect that is consistent with the possibility that practice makes people flip coins in a less wobbly fashion. Our data therefore provide strong evidence that when some (but not all) people flip a fair coin, it tends to land on the same side it started. Our data provide compelling statistical support for the DHM physics model of coin tossing.
The Nbs1 protein, hypomorphic mutant in Nijmegen breakage syndrome (NBS), is a component of the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (M/R/N) complex that acts as a DNA double-strand break sensor and functions in cell ...cycle checkpoint in response to DNA damage and DNA repair. Here we report that targeted disruption of murine
NBS1 gene (
Nbn) in the lens alters the M/R/N complex nuclear localization and results in microphthalmia in mice due to reduced proliferation of the lens epithelial cells. Unexpectedly, all
Nbn-deficient lenses develop cataracts at an early age due to altered lens fibre cell differentiation, including disruption of normal lens epithelial and fibre cell architecture and incomplete denucleation of fibre cells, and these changes are independent of the p53 pathway. In addition,
Nbn-deficient lenses show dysregulated transcription of various crystallins. Thus, this study implicates a novel function of Nbs1 in terminal differentiation of the lens fibre cells and in cataractogenesis.
Discrepancy exists between the potent effects of therapeutic angiogenesis in laboratory animals and the marginal results observed in patients with advanced coronary artery disease. In vitro and small ...animal data suggest that angiogenesis may depend on locally available nitric oxide (NO), but the impact of endothelial dysfunction on therapeutic angiogenesis in the myocardium has been unclear. We compared the effects of clinically applicable angiogenesis methods in swine in which endothelial dysfunction was experimentally induced to that observed in normal swine.
Miniswine were fed either a regular (N=13) or hypercholesterolemic diet (N=13) for 20 weeks. Hypercholesterolemic swine showed coronary endothelial dysfunction on videomicroscopy. Animals from both groups received 100 microg of perivascular sustained-release fibroblast growth factor (FGF)-2 in the lateral myocardial territory, previously made ischemic by placement of an ameroid constrictor around the circumflex artery. After 4 weeks of FGF-2 therapy, lateral myocardial perfusion was significantly lower in hypercholesterolemic than in normocholesterolemic swine, both at rest and during pacing (0.44+/-0.04 versus 0.81+/-0.15 mL/min/g at rest, respectively; P=0.006; and 0.50+/-0.06 versus 0.71+/-0.10 mL/min/g during pacing; P=0.02). Hypercholesterolemic swine showed no net increase in perfusion from FGF-2 treatment. Endothelial cell density and FGF receptor-1 expression were significantly lower in the lateral territory of hypercholesterolemic versus normocholesterolemic animals.
The cardiac angiogenic response to FGF-2 treatment using clinically applicable methods was markedly inhibited in hypercholesterolemic swine with coronary endothelial dysfunction. These findings suggest that coronary endothelial dysfunction is major obstacle to the efficacy of clinical angiogenesis protocols and constitutes a target toward making angiogenesis more effective in patients with advanced coronary disease.
Nonsteroidal analogues of 1α,25(OH)2D3, lacking either the full five‐membered D ring (C‐ring analogues) or the full six‐membered C ring (D‐ring analogues) are more potent inhibitors of cell ...proliferation or inducers of cell differentiation than is 1α,25(OH)2D3. Maximal superagonistic activity was seen for the C‐ring analogue with a 24(R)‐hydroxyl group in the side chain 30‐ to 60‐fold the activity of 1α,25(OH)2D3. The 19‐nor‐16‐ene‐26,27‐bishomo C‐ring analogue showed the best ratio of antiproliferative to calcemic effects (1275‐fold better than 1α,25(OH)2D3 and severalfold better than all vitamin D analogues so far described). The analogues are able to stimulate specific vitamin D‐dependent genes and are active in transfection assays using an osteocalcin promoter VDRE. Low binding affinity to the vitamin D binding protein, differences in metabolism, or affinity for the vitamin D receptor (VDR) are not the most important explanations for the enhanced intrinsic activity. However, the analogues are able to induce conformational changes in the VDR, which makes the VDR‐ligand complex more resistant against protease digestion than is 1α,25(OH)2D3. In contrast to 20‐epimer steroidal vitamin D analogues, 20‐epimer C‐ring analogues were less potent than analogues with a natural C‐20 configuration. In conclusion, several nonsteroidal vitamin D analogues are superagonists of 1α,25(OH)2D3 despite lower receptor affinity and, for the C‐ring analogues, higher flexibility of the side chain; moreover, they have a better selectivity profile than all analogues yet published. (J Bone Miner Res 2000;15;237–252)
Serum albumin filtered in renal glomeruli is reabsorbed very efficiently in the proximal tubule by endocytosis. The present study was undertaken to determine whether megalin/gp330 binds and mediates ...endocytosis of albumin. Rat serum albumin (RSA) labeled with 125I and colloidal gold particles labeled with bovine serum albumin (BSA) were microinfused into rat surface proximal tubules in vivo, and tubular uptake was determined in the presence or absence of different substances known to interfere with ligand binding to megalin. Binding of 125I-BSA and 125I-RSA to purified megalin was also determined directly using Sepharose columns. The results revealed that the tubular uptake of 125I-labeled RSA was significantly inhibited by receptor-associated protein (RAP), which reduced the uptake by > 50% and by cold RSA. The uptake of BSA gold by the proximal tubule was very intensive. BSA gold was found in small and large endocytic vacuoles, dense apical tubules, and in lysosomes. The uptake was reduced by RAP to 17%, by EDTA to 19%, by BSA to 16%, by megalin to 35%, by cytochrome c to 49%, and, together with gentamicin, there was virtually no uptake. Megalin-Sepharose columns bound 125I-labeled BSA as well as 125I-RSA, the binding was inhibited by RAP and EDTA, and analysis of the eluate revealed the bound tracer to be albumin. In conclusion, the present study demonstrates that megalin is a mediator of albumin reabsorption in renal proximal tubules.
Vitamin D analogues, characterized by the absence of a D-ring (C-ring analogues) are described.
Vitamin D analogues, characterized by the absence of a D-ring are described (X H
2, CH
2).
Synthèse commune de l'INRA et de la Confédération Paysanne Beauval, Valentin; Gasselin, Pierre; Kastler, Gui ...
Quelles variétés et semences pour des agricultures paysannes durables ?, Angers, FRA, 2005-05-11-2005-05-13,
2006
Publication
Rédigée conjointement par l’INRA et la Confédération paysanne, cette synthèse présente trois conclusions importantes du séminaire intitulé « Quelles variétés et semences pour des agricultures ...paysannes durables ? » qui a réuni 52 chercheurs et 56 paysans entre le 11 et le 13 mai 2005. Les deux institutions co-organisatrices du séminaire soulignent en premier lieu leur consensus sur l’intérêt du thème et leur volonté commune de prolonger et de développer la réflexion et les travaux engagés. Ce séminaire a permis de formuler des propositions sur la manière de mieux interagir. Grâce à la richesse des échanges et débats, il a conduit à l’identification de questions d’intérêt commun.
Synthèse commune de l'INRA et de la Confédération Paysanne Beauval, Valentin; Gasselin, Pierre; Kastler, Gui ...
Quelles variétés et semences pour des agricultures paysannes durables ?, Angers, FRA, 2005-05-11-2005-05-13,
2006
Publication
Rédigée conjointement par l’INRA et la Confédération paysanne, cette synthèse présente trois conclusions importantes du séminaire intitulé « Quelles variétés et semences pour des agricultures ...paysannes durables ? » qui a réuni 52 chercheurs et 56 paysans entre le 11 et le 13 mai 2005. Les deux institutions co-organisatrices du séminaire soulignent en premier lieu leur consensus sur l’intérêt du thème et leur volonté commune de prolonger et de développer la réflexion et les travaux engagés. Ce séminaire a permis de formuler des propositions sur la manière de mieux interagir. Grâce à la richesse des échanges et débats, il a conduit à l’identification de questions d’intérêt commun.
Rédigée conjointement par l’INRA et la Confédération paysanne, cette synthèse présente trois conclusions importantes du séminaire intitulé « Quelles variétés et semences pour des agricultures ...paysannes durables ? » qui a réuni 52 chercheurs et 56 paysans entre le 11 et le 13 mai 2005. Les deux institutions co-organisatrices du séminaire soulignent en premier lieu leur consensus sur l’intérêt du thème et leur volonté commune de prolonger et de développer la réflexion et les travaux engagés. Ce séminaire a permis de formuler des propositions sur la manière de mieux interagir. Grâce à la richesse des échanges et débats, il a conduit à l’identification de questions d’intérêt commun.
PDF
