High-energy X-rays from the Crab Nebula

Balloon measurement of high energy X-ray spectrum from Crab Nebul

Genome-wide linkage analysis of 972 bipolar pedigrees using single-nucleotide polymorphisms.

Because of the high costs associated with ascertainment of families, most linkage studies of Bipolar I disorder (BPI) have used relatively small samples. Moreover, the genetic information content reported in most studies has been less than 0.6. Although microsatellite markers spaced every 10 cM typically extract most of the genetic information content for larger multiplex families, they can be less informative for smaller pedigrees especially for affected sib pair kindreds. For these reasons we collaborated to pool family resources and carried out higher density genotyping. Approximately 1100 pedigrees of European ancestry were initially selected for study and were genotyped by the Center for Inherited Disease Research using the Illumina Linkage Panel 12 set of 6090 single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Of the ~1100 families, 972 were informative for further analyses, and mean information content was 0.86 after pruning for linkage disequilibrium. The 972 kindreds include 2284 cases of BPI disorder, 498 individuals with bipolar II disorder (BPII) and 702 subjects with recurrent major depression. Three affection status models (ASMs) were considered: ASM1 (BPI and schizoaffective disorder, BP cases (SABP) only), ASM2 (ASM1 cases plus BPII) and ASM3 (ASM2 cases plus recurrent major depression). Both parametric and non-parametric linkage methods were carried out. The strongest findings occurred at 6q21 (non-parametric pairs LOD 3.4 for rs1046943 at 119 cM) and 9q21 (non-parametric pairs logarithm of odds (LOD) 3.4 for rs722642 at 78 cM) using only BPI and schizoaffective (SA), BP cases. Both results met genome-wide significant criteria, although neither was significant after correction for multiple analyses. We also inspected parametric scores for the larger multiplex families to identify possible rare susceptibility loci. In this analysis, we observed 59 parametric LODs of 2 or greater, many of which are likely to be close to maximum possible scores. Although some linkage findings may be false positives, the results could help prioritize the search for rare variants using whole exome or genome sequencing

A magnetically-driven piston pump for ultra-clean applications

A magnetically driven piston pump for xenon gas recirculation is presented. The pump is designed to satisfy extreme purity and containment requirements, as is appropriate for the recirculation of isotopically enriched xenon through the purification system and large liquid xenon TPC of EXO-200. The pump, using sprung polymer gaskets, is capable of pumping more than 16 standard liters per minute (SLPM) of xenon gas with 750 torr differential pressure.Comment: 6 pages, 5 figure

The EXO-200 detector, part I: Detector design and construction

EXO-200 is an experiment designed to search for double beta decay of $^{136}$Xe with a single-phase, liquid xenon detector. It uses an active mass of 110 kg of xenon enriched to 80.6% in the isotope 136 in an ultra-low background time projection chamber capable of simultaneous detection of ionization and scintillation. This paper describes the EXO-200 detector with particular attention to the most innovative aspects of the design that revolve around the reduction of backgrounds, the efficient use of the expensive isotopically enriched xenon, and the optimization of the energy resolution in a relatively large volume

Copy number variation in bipolar disorder.

Large (>100 kb), rare (500 kb) CNVs in BD compared with SZ, most notably for deletions >1 Mb (P=9 × 10(-4))

Treatment of psychotic symptoms in bipolar disorder with aripiprazole monotherapy: A meta-analysis

Background: We present a systematic review and meta-analysis of the available clinical trials concerning the usefulness of aripiprazole in the treatment of the psychotic symptoms in bipolar disorder.Methods: A systematic MEDLINE and repository search concerning clinical trials for aripiprazole in bipolar disorder was conducted.Results: The meta-analysis of four randomised controlled trials (RCTs) on acute mania suggests that the effect size of aripiprazole versus placebo was equal to 0.14 but a more reliable and accurate estimation is 0.18 for the total Positive and Negative Syndrome Scale (PANSS) score. The effect was higher for the PANSS-positive subscale (0.28), PANSS-hostility subscale (0.24) and PANSS-cognitive subscale (0.20), and lower for the PANSS-negative subscale (0.12). No data on the depressive phase of bipolar illness exist, while there are some data in favour of aripiprazole concerning the maintenance phase, where at week 26 all except the total PANSS score showed a significant superiority of aripiprazole over placebo (d = 0.28 for positive, d = 0.38 for the cognitive and d = 0.71 for the hostility subscales) and at week 100 the results were similar (d = 0.42, 0.63 and 0.48, respectively).Conclusion: The data analysed for the current study support the usefulness of aripiprazole against psychotic symptoms during the acute manic and maintenance phases of bipolar illness. © 2009 Fountoulakis et al; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Resting state cortico-thalamic-striatal connectivity predicts pesponse to dorsomedial prefrontal rTMS in major depressive disorder

Despite its high toll on society, there has been little recent improvement in treatment efficacy for Major Depressive Disorder (MDD). The identification of biological markers of successful treatment response may allow for more personalized and effective treatment. Here we investigate whether resting state functional connectivity predicted response to treatment with rapid transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to dorsomedial prefrontal cortex (dmPFC). Twenty five individuals with treatment-refractory MDD underwent a 4-week course of dmPFC-rTMS. Before and after treatment, subjects received resting state functional MRI scans and assessments of depressive symptoms using the Hamilton Depresssion Rating Scale (HAMD17). We found that higher baseline cortico-cortical connectivity (dmPFC-subgenual cingulate and subgenual cingulate to dorsolateral PFC) and lower cortico-thalamic, cortico-striatal and cortico-limbic connectivity were associated with better treatment outcomes. We also investigated how changes in connectivity over the course of treatment related to improvements in HAMD17 scores. We found that successful treatment was associated with increased dmPFC-thalamic connectivity and decreased sgACC-caudate connectivity, Our findings provide insight into which individuals might respond to rTMS treatment and the mechanisms through which these treatments work