Anorexia nervosa and reproduction: connecting brain to gonads

Anorexia nervosa (AN) is a psychiatric disorder that predominantly affects young women and is characterized by low caloric intake and a major dissatisfaction with one’s body image. It is often overlooked and, while patients and family seek medical help, emaciation and nutritional misbalances may become extreme and potentially life threatening. Among the many somatic complications, an accumulation of early endocrine adaptations occurs, leading to functional amenorrhea and impaired reproduction as a result of dysfunction of the hypothalamic-pituitary-ovarian axis. Even though these conditions are reversible, long-term consequences may affect the fertility of women with AN and can lead to maternal and fetal complications during pregnancy and birth. This review presents the clinical particularities of reproduction in the context of AN, along with the possible pathophysiological mechanisms involved

Strain induced stabilization of stepped Si and Ge surfaces near (001)

We report on calculations of the formation energies of several [100] and [110] oriented step structures on biaxially stressed Si and Ge (001) surfaces. It is shown that a novel rebonded [100] oriented single-height step is strongly stabilized by compressive strain compared to most well-known step structures. We propose that the side walls of ``hut''-shaped quantum dots observed in recent experiments on SiGe/Si films are made up of these steps. Our calculations provide an explanation for the nucleationless growth of shallow mounds, with steps along the [100] and [110] directions in low- and high-misfit films, respectively, and for the stability of the (105) facets under compressive strain.Comment: to appear in Appl. Phys. Lett.; v2=minor corrections,figs resize

Rapidly Rotating Fermi Gases

We show that the density profile of a Fermi gas in rapidly rotating potential will develop prominent features reflecting the underlying Landau level like energy spectrum. Depending on the aspect ratio of the trap, these features can be a sequence of ellipsoidal volumes or a sequence of quantized steps.Comment: 4 pages, 1 postscript fil

On Lyndon's equation in some Λ-free groups and HNN extensions

In this paper we study Lyndon's equation xpyqzr = 1, with x, y, z group elements and p, q, r positive integers, in HNN extensions of free and fully residually free groups, and draw some conclusions about its behavior in Λ-free group

An Abstraction Theory for Qualitative Models of Biological Systems

Multi-valued network models are an important qualitative modelling approach used widely by the biological community. In this paper we consider developing an abstraction theory for multi-valued network models that allows the state space of a model to be reduced while preserving key properties of the model. This is important as it aids the analysis and comparison of multi-valued networks and in particular, helps address the well-known problem of state space explosion associated with such analysis. We also consider developing techniques for efficiently identifying abstractions and so provide a basis for the automation of this task. We illustrate the theory and techniques developed by investigating the identification of abstractions for two published MVN models of the lysis-lysogeny switch in the bacteriophage lambda.Comment: In Proceedings MeCBIC 2010, arXiv:1011.005

More Than 1700 Years of Word Equations

Geometry and Diophantine equations have been ever-present in mathematics. Diophantus of Alexandria was born in the 3rd century (as far as we know), but a systematic mathematical study of word equations began only in the 20th century. So, the title of the present article does not seem to be justified at all. However, a linear Diophantine equation can be viewed as a special case of a system of word equations over a unary alphabet, and, more importantly, a word equation can be viewed as a special case of a Diophantine equation. Hence, the problem WordEquations: "Is a given word equation solvable?" is intimately related to Hilbert's 10th problem on the solvability of Diophantine equations. This became clear to the Russian school of mathematics at the latest in the mid 1960s, after which a systematic study of that relation began. Here, we review some recent developments which led to an amazingly simple decision procedure for WordEquations, and to the description of the set of all solutions as an EDT0L language.Comment: The paper will appear as an invited address in the LNCS proceedings of CAI 2015, Stuttgart, Germany, September 1 - 4, 201

Theory of spin-2 Bose-Einstein condensates: spin-correlations, magnetic response, and excitation spectra

The ground states of Bose-Einstein condensates of spin-2 bosons are classified into three distinct (ferromagnetic, ^^ ^^ antiferromagnetic", and cyclic) phases depending on the s-wave scattering lengths of binary collisions for total-spin 0, 2, and 4 channels. Many-body spin correlations and magnetic response of the condensate in each of these phases are studied in a mesoscopic regime, while low-lying excitation spectra are investigated in the hermodynamic regime. In the mesoscopic regime, where the system is so tightly confined that the spatial degrees of freedom are frozen, the exact, many-body ground state for each phase is found to be expressed in terms of the creation operators of pair or trio bosons having spin correlations. These pairwise and trio-wise units are shown to bring about some unique features of spin-2 BECs such as a huge jump in magnetization from minimum to maximum possible values and the robustness of the minimum-magnetization state against an applied agnetic field. In the thermodynamic regime, where the system is spatially uniform, low-lying excitation spectra in the presence of magnetic field are obtained analytically using the Bogoliubov approximation. In the ferromagnetic phase, the excitation spectrum consists of one Goldstone mode and four single-particle modes. In the antiferromagnetic phase, where spin-singlet ^^ ^^ pairs" undergo Bose-Einstein condensation, the spectrum consists of two Goldstone modes and three massive ones, all of which become massless when magnetic field vanishes. In the cyclic phase, where boson ^^ ^^ trios" condense into a spin-singlet state, the spectrum is characterized by two Goldstone modes, one single-particle mode having a magnetic-field-independent energy gap, and a gapless single-particle mode that becomes massless in the absence of magnetic field.Comment: 28 pages, 4 figure

Histological and immunohistochemical evaluation of mandibular bone tissue regeneration

The purpose of the study was to perform an immunohistochemical and histological evaluation of samples taken from different bone regeneration procedures in atrophic human mandible. 30 patients (15 men and 15 women, age range of 35-60 years), non-smokers, with good general and oral health were recruited in this study and divided into three groups. The first group included patients who were treated with blood Concentration Growth Factors (bCGF), the second group included patients who were treated with a mixture of bCGF and autologous bone, while the third group of patients was treated with bCGF and tricalcium phosphate/hydroxyapatite (TCP-HA). Six months after the regenerative procedures, all patients undergone implant surgery, and a bone biopsy was carried out in the site of implant insertion. Each sample was histologically and immunohistochemically examined. Histological evaluation showed a complete bone formation for group II, partial ossification for group I, and moderate ossification for group III. Immunohistochemical analysis demonstrated a statistically significant difference between the three groups, and the best clinical result was obtained with a mixture of bCGF and autologous bone

A Survey on the Application of Evolutionary Algorithms for Mobile Multihop Ad Hoc Network Optimization Problems

Evolutionary algorithms are metaheuristic algorithms that provide quasioptimal solutions in a reasonable time. They have been applied to many optimization problems in a high number of scientific areas. In this survey paper, we focus on the application of evolutionary algorithms to solve optimization problems related to a type of complex network likemobilemultihop ad hoc networks. Since its origin, mobile multihop ad hoc network has evolved causing new types of multihop networks to appear such as vehicular ad hoc networks and delay tolerant networks, leading to the solution of new issues and optimization problems. In this survey, we review the main work presented for each type of mobile multihop ad hoc network and we also present some innovative ideas and open challenges to guide further research in this topic

Dynamics of spin-2 Bose condensate driven by external magnetic fields

Dynamic response of the F=2 spinor Bose-Einstein condensate (BEC) under the influence of external magnetic fields is studied. A general formula is given for the oscillation period to describe population transfer from the initial polar state to other spin states. We show that when the frequency and the reduced amplitude of the longitudinal magnetic field are related in a specific manner, the population of the initial spin-0 state will be dynamically localized during time evolution. The effects of external noise and nonlinear spin exchange interaction on the dynamics of the spinor BEC are studied. We show that while the external noise may eventually destroy the Rabi oscillations and dynamic spin localization, these coherent phenomena are robust against the nonlinear atomic interaction.Comment: 16 pages, 7 figures. accepted by Phys. Rev.