Dissipationless Counterflow Currents above T_c in Bilayer Superconductors

We report the existence of dissipationless currents in bilayer superconductors above the critical temperature Tc, assuming that the superconducting phase transition is dominated by phase fluctuations. Using a semiclassical U(1) lattice gauge theory, we show that thermal fluctuations cause a transition from the superconducting state at low temperature to a resistive state above Tc, accompanied by the proliferation of unbound vortices. Remarkably, while the proliferation of vortex excitations causes dissipation of homogeneous in-plane currents, we find that counterflow currents, flowing in the opposite direction within a bilayer, remain dissipationless. The presence of a dissipationless current channel above Tc is attributed to the inhibition of vortex motion by local superconducting coherence within a single bilayer, in the presence of counterflow currents. Our theory presents a possible scenario for the pseudogap phase in bilayer cuprates

Non-invasive detection of iron deficiency by fluorescence measurement of erythrocyte zinc protoporphyrin in the lip

Worldwide, more individuals have iron deficiency than any other health problem. Most of those affected are unaware of their lack of iron, in part because detection of iron deficiency has required a blood sample. Here we report a non-invasive method to optically measure an established indicator of iron status, red blood cell zinc protoporphyrin, in the microcirculation of the lower lip. An optical fibre probe is used to illuminate the lip and acquire fluorescence emission spectra in similar to 1 min. Dual-wavelength excitation with spectral fitting is used to distinguish the faint zinc protoporphyrin fluorescence from the much greater tissue background fluorescence, providing immediate results. In 56 women, 35 of whom were iron-deficient, the sensitivity and specificity of optical non-invasive detection of iron deficiency were 97% and 90%, respectively. This fluorescence method potentially provides a rapid, easy to use means for point-of-care screening for iron deficiency in resource-limited settings lacking laboratory infrastructure

Non-invasive detection of iron deficiency by fluorescence measurement of erythrocyte zinc protoporphyrin in the lip

Worldwide, more individuals have iron deficiency than any other health problem. Most of those affected are unaware of their lack of iron, in part because detection of iron deficiency has required a blood sample. Here we report a non-invasive method to optically measure an established indicator of iron status, red blood cell zinc protoporphyrin, in the microcirculation of the lower lip. An optical fibre probe is used to illuminate the lip and acquire fluorescence emission spectra in similar to 1 min. Dual-wavelength excitation with spectral fitting is used to distinguish the faint zinc protoporphyrin fluorescence from the much greater tissue background fluorescence, providing immediate results. In 56 women, 35 of whom were iron-deficient, the sensitivity and specificity of optical non-invasive detection of iron deficiency were 97% and 90%, respectively. This fluorescence method potentially provides a rapid, easy to use means for point-of-care screening for iron deficiency in resource-limited settings lacking laboratory infrastructure

Reconstruction of primary vertices at the ATLAS experiment in Run 1 proton–proton collisions at the LHC

This paper presents the method and performance of primary vertex reconstruction in proton–proton collision data recorded by the ATLAS experiment during Run 1 of the LHC. The studies presented focus on data taken during 2012 at a centre-of-mass energy of √s=8 TeV. The performance has been measured as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing over a wide range, from one to seventy. The measurement of the position and size of the luminous region and its use as a constraint to improve the primary vertex resolution are discussed. A longitudinal vertex position resolution of about 30μm is achieved for events with high multiplicity of reconstructed tracks. The transverse position resolution is better than 20μm and is dominated by the precision on the size of the luminous region. An analytical model is proposed to describe the primary vertex reconstruction efficiency as a function of the number of interactions per bunch crossing and of the longitudinal size of the luminous region. Agreement between the data and the predictions of this model is better than 3% up to seventy interactions per bunch crossing

Low blood levels of selenium, selenoprotein P and GPx3 are associated with accelerated biological aging: results from the Berlin Aging Study II (BASE-II)

Background: Biological age reflects inter-individual differences in biological function and capacity beyond chronological age. DNA methylation age (DNAmA) and its deviation from chronological age, DNAmA acceleration (DNAmAA), which was calculated as residuals of leukocyte cell count adjusted linear regression of DNAmA on chronological age, were used to estimate biological age in this study. Low levels of serum selenium, selenoprotein P (SELENOP), and the selenocysteine-containing glutathione peroxidase 3 (GPx3) are associated with adverse health outcomes and selenium supplementation is discussed as an anti-aging intervention. Methods: In this study, we cross-sectionally analyzed 1568 older participants from the observational Berlin Aging Study II (mean age ± SD: 68.8 ± 3.7 years, 51% women). Serum selenium was measured by total reflection X-ray fluorescence (TXRF) spectroscopy and SELENOP was determined by sandwich ELISA. GPx3 was assessed as part of a proteomics dataset using liquid chromatography–mass spectrometry (LC–MS). The relationship between selenium biomarkers and epigenetic clock measures was analyzed using linear regression analyses. P values and 95% confidence intervals (not adjusted for multiple testing) are stated for each analysis. Results: Participants with deficient serum selenium levels (< 90 μg/L) had a higher rate of biological aging (DunedinPACE, β = − 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95% CI − 0.033 to − 0.004, p = 0.010, n = 865). This association remained statistically significant after adjustment for age, sex, BMI, smoking, and first four genetic principal components (β = − 0.02, SE = 0.01, 95% CI − 0.034 to − 0.004, p = 0.012, n = 757). Compared to the highest quartile, participants in the lowest quartile of SELENOP levels showed an accelerated biological aging rate (DunedinPACE, β = − 0.03, SE = 0.01, 95% CI − 0.051 to − 0.008, p = 0.007, n = 740, fully adjusted model). Similarly, after adjustment for confounders, accelerated biological age was found in participants within the lowest GPx3 quartile compared to participants in the fourth quartile (DunedinPACE, β = − 0.04, SE = 0.01, 95% CI − 0.06 to − 0.02, p = 0.001, n = 674 and GrimAge, β = − 0.98, SE = 0.32, 95% CI − 1.6 to − 0.4, p = 0.002, n = 608). Only the association with GPx3 remained statistically significant after multiple testing correction. Conclusion: Our study suggests that low levels of selenium biomarkers are associated with accelerated biological aging measured through epigenetic clocks. This effect was not substantially changed after adjustment for known confounders

Responsibility and Economics

Empirically, responsibility is a concept increasingly made use of in order to address societal issues. At the same time, it is a concept mainstream economics has, so far, hardly touched on. The paper shows that the application of economic reasoning to the responsibility concept can instruct a twofold learning process: First, the very tradition of economics allows to better understand and elaborate the semantics of responsibility. Here, the paper develops the concept of ordo-responsibility that differentiates between the initial basic game and the related meta-games. The focus thus shifts to the rule- setting processes and rule-finding discourses for which the actors can accept governance responsibility and discourse responsibility, respectively. Second, the rational-choice analysis of the responsibility concept also produces important insights for mainstream economic theory. Building on a simple model that delineates the responsibility aptitude of an actor, the paper explains why standard economics tends to attribute the rule-setting function exclusively to state actors. Yet, as the underlying nation-state paradigm depends on social determinants that are not universally given, such economic theory shows a double blind spot. Against this backdrop, the paper sketches out how to broaden the conventional perspective and identifies policy recommendations for state actors and business corporations

Fast index based algorithms and software for matching position specific scoring matrices

BACKGROUND: In biological sequence analysis, position specific scoring matrices (PSSMs) are widely used to represent sequence motifs in nucleotide as well as amino acid sequences. Searching with PSSMs in complete genomes or large sequence databases is a common, but computationally expensive task. RESULTS: We present a new non-heuristic algorithm, called ESAsearch, to efficiently find matches of PSSMs in large databases. Our approach preprocesses the search space, e.g., a complete genome or a set of protein sequences, and builds an enhanced suffix array that is stored on file. This allows the searching of a database with a PSSM in sublinear expected time. Since ESAsearch benefits from small alphabets, we present a variant operating on sequences recoded according to a reduced alphabet. We also address the problem of non-comparable PSSM-scores by developing a method which allows the efficient computation of a matrix similarity threshold for a PSSM, given an E-value or a p-value. Our method is based on dynamic programming and, in contrast to other methods, it employs lazy evaluation of the dynamic programming matrix. We evaluated algorithm ESAsearch with nucleotide PSSMs and with amino acid PSSMs. Compared to the best previous methods, ESAsearch shows speedups of a factor between 17 and 275 for nucleotide PSSMs, and speedups up to factor 1.8 for amino acid PSSMs. Comparisons with the most widely used programs even show speedups by a factor of at least 3.8. Alphabet reduction yields an additional speedup factor of 2 on amino acid sequences compared to results achieved with the 20 symbol standard alphabet. The lazy evaluation method is also much faster than previous methods, with speedups of a factor between 3 and 330. CONCLUSION: Our analysis of ESAsearch reveals sublinear runtime in the expected case, and linear runtime in the worst case for sequences not shorter than | [Formula: see text] |(m )+ m - 1, where m is the length of the PSSM and [Formula: see text] a finite alphabet. In practice, ESAsearch shows superior performance over the most widely used programs, especially for DNA sequences. The new algorithm for accurate on-the-fly calculations of thresholds has the potential to replace formerly used approximation approaches. Beyond the algorithmic contributions, we provide a robust, well documented, and easy to use software package, implementing the ideas and algorithms presented in this manuscript

Use of the analysis of the volatile faecal metabolome in screening for colorectal cancer

Diagnosis of colorectal cancer is an invasive and expensive colonoscopy, which is usually carried out after a positive screening test. Unfortunately, existing screening tests lack specificity and sensitivity, hence many unnecessary colonoscopies are performed. Here we report on a potential new screening test for colorectal cancer based on the analysis of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the headspace of faecal samples. Faecal samples were obtained from subjects who had a positive faecal occult blood sample (FOBT). Subjects subsequently had colonoscopies performed to classify them into low risk (non-cancer) and high risk (colorectal cancer) groups. Volatile organic compounds were analysed by selected ion flow tube mass spectrometry (SIFT-MS) and then data were analysed using both univariate and multivariate statistical methods. Ions most likely from hydrogen sulphide, dimethyl sulphide and dimethyl disulphide are statistically significantly higher in samples from high risk rather than low risk subjects. Results using multivariate methods show that the test gives a correct classification of 75% with 78% specificity and 72% sensitivity on FOBT positive samples, offering a potentially effective alternative to FOBT

Genome-Wide Association Study of Alzheimer's Disease Brain Imaging Biomarkers and Neuropsychological Phenotypes in the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery Dataset

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is the most frequent neurodegenerative disease with an increasing prevalence in industrialized, aging populations. AD susceptibility has an established genetic basis which has been the focus of a large number of genome-wide association studies (GWAS) published over the last decade. Most of these GWAS used dichotomized clinical diagnostic status, i.e., case vs. control classification, as outcome phenotypes, without the use of biomarkers. An alternative and potentially more powerful study design is afforded by using quantitative AD-related phenotypes as GWAS outcome traits, an analysis paradigm that we followed in this work. Specifically, we utilized genotype and phenotype data from n = 931 individuals collected under the auspices of the European Medical Information Framework for Alzheimer's Disease Multimodal Biomarker Discovery (EMIF-AD MBD) study to perform a total of 19 separate GWAS analyses. As outcomes we used five magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) traits and seven cognitive performance traits. For the latter, longitudinal data from at least two timepoints were available in addition to cross-sectional assessments at baseline. Our GWAS analyses revealed several genome-wide significant associations for the neuropsychological performance measures, in particular those assayed longitudinally. Among the most noteworthy signals were associations in or near EHBP1 (EH domain binding protein 1; on chromosome 2p15) and CEP112 (centrosomal protein 112; 17q24.1) with delayed recall as well as SMOC2 (SPARC related modular calcium binding 2; 6p27) with immediate recall in a memory performance test. On the X chromosome, which is often excluded in other GWAS, we identified a genome-wide significant signal near IL1RAPL1 (interleukin 1 receptor accessory protein like 1; Xp21.3). While polygenic score (PGS) analyses showed the expected strong associations with SNPs highlighted in relevant previous GWAS on hippocampal volume and cognitive function, they did not show noteworthy associations with recent AD risk GWAS findings. In summary, our study highlights the power of using quantitative endophenotypes as outcome traits in AD-related GWAS analyses and nominates several new loci not previously implicated in cognitive decline