8,417 research outputs found
Basal deuterostomes (chaetognaths, hemichordates, calcichordates, cephalochordates and tunicates
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Dietary supplementation contributes to lifestyle improvement in hypercholesterolemic patients in real-life contexts
No full textAbstract Aims: Assess the evolution of cardiovascular lifestyle behaviors in hypercholesterolemic patients concomitantly with changes in their daily intake of phytosterol-supplemented yoghurt (Phyto-SY). Methods: Nationwide prospective observational study conducted in general practices across France and Spain. Each practitioner suggested lifestyle changes to five consecutive patients with hypercholesterolemia (whether or not they were taking hypocholesterolemic drugs) and recommended daily consumption of Phyto-SY. The study design involved an inclusion visit, a patient's self-monitoring assessment after 1 month, and a final visit after 4 months. Primary evaluation criterion: changes in dietary habits assessed by a standardized Nutritional Lifestyle score. Secondary criteria: changes in lipid profile, anthropometry (waist circumference) and lifestyle behavior. Results: A total of 2376 hypercholesterolemic patients (of whom 54.8% were women) were included. The average age was 56.2 years old. The Nutritional Lifestyle score improved from 15.4 ± 5.4 to 8.7 ± 4.0 (p 30 min) increased from 59.3% to 78.3% (p < 0.0001). The overweight rate decreased from 22.8% to 17.5% (p < 0.0001) and waist circumference from 94.6 ± 13.3 cm to 93.0 ± 12.8 cm (p < 0.0001). Nutritional Lifestyles and other lifestyle markers' improvement were parallel to adherence to Phyto-SY adherence. Conclusion: Improvements in Nutritional Lifestyle scores, which included regular consumption of Phyto-SY over 4 months, was significantly linked to healthier lifestyles and to beneficial modifications in atherogenic lipid profiles, which reflected patient empowerment in a 'real life' context
Self-compression of 4.9 µm pulses to sub-40 fs with 2 mJ energy in Zinc Sulfide
No full textNonlinear self-compression of few-cycle multi-mJ pulses at 4.9 µm in ZnS is presented. 80 fs input pulses are compressed to 37 fs with 2.1 mJ energy at a 1 kHz repetition rate. © 2024 The Author(s
Building a laboratory based XUV microscope
No full textHigh harmonic generation (HHG) is a non-linear interaction between a driving laser pulse and a target gas. The result of this process is the generation of coherent extreme ultraviolet (XUV) and soft X-ray radiation at harmonic frequencies of the driving laser. There are several uses for this source including attosecond time resolved spectroscopy and nanoscale imaging which this thesis will focus on.The work contained within this thesis begins by investigating the development of capillary based HHG by comparison of the experimentally observed propagation of the driving laser pulse to both a linear ionisation based model and a multimode non-linearSchrodinger equation model. Manufacture, mounting and coupling into the capillary are described. A simple linear model of propagation along the capillary is compared to experimental measurements of fluorescence along the capillary showingthe presence of mode beating. The model is extended to a non linear propagation model and validated against the spatio spectral output of the capillary.The second half of the thesis takes the XUV output from a gas cell and uses it for a coherent diffractive imaging experiment (CDI). The development of the imaging setup is described before presenting the results of a preliminary CDI experiment with a binary test sample and a polychromatic beam. Accurate measurement of the XUV beam focal position was determined by recording diffraction through a binary array of apertures. Results of a CDI experiment demonstrating a resolution of better than 200 nm is shown for a polychromatic beam with an algorithm designed for a monochromatic source
Fast and sensitive multiple alignment of large genomic sequences
No full textBrudno M, Chapman M, Göttgens B, Batzoglou S, Morgenstern B. Fast and sensitive multiple alignment of large genomic sequences. BMC Bioinformatics. 2003;4(1): 66.Background: Genomic sequence alignment is a powerful method for genome analysis and annotation, as alignments are routinely used to identify functional sites such as genes or regulatory elements. With a growing number of partially or completely sequenced genomes, multiple alignment is playing an increasingly important role in these studies. In recent years, various tools for pair-wise and multiple genomic alignment have been proposed. Some of them are extremely fast, but often efficiency is achieved at the expense of sensitivity. One way of combining speed and sensitivity is to use an anchored-alignment approach. In a first step, a fast search program identifies a chain of strong local sequence similarities. In a second step, regions between these anchor points are aligned using a slower but more accurate method. Results: Herein, we present CHAOS, a novel algorithm for rapid identification of chains of local pair-wise sequence similarities. Local alignments calculated by CHAOS are used as anchor points to improve the running time of DIALIGN, a slow but sensitive multiple-alignment tool. We show that this way, the running time of DIALIGN can be reduced by more than 95% for BAC-sized and longer sequences, without affecting the quality of the resulting alignments. We apply our approach to a set of five genomic sequences around the stem-cell-leukemia (SCL) gene and demonstrate that exons and small regulatory elements can be identified by our multiple-alignment procedure. Conclusion: We conclude that the novel CHAOS local alignment tool is an effective way to significantly speed up global alignment tools such as DIALIGN without reducing the alignment quality. We likewise demonstrate that the DIALIGN/CHAOS combination is able to accurately align short regulatory sequences in distant orthologues
Palynological evidence for a warmer boreal climate in the Late Pliocene of the Yukon Territory, Canada
No full textThe Late Pliocene (3.6–2.6 Ma) was a period of significant global warmth, considered a potential analogue for future anthropogenic climate change. Newly discovered fine-grained sediments from between the gold-bearing lower and upper White Channel Gravels show the presence of a wetland or lake within Bonanza Creek, Dawson Mining District, Yukon. This environment was surrounded by a diverse Pinaceae-dominated boreal forest with significant stands of angiosperms in favourable sites. Quantitative climate reconstructions derived from pollen and spores reveal a mean annual temperature at least 6 °C warmer than today with warm summers and relatively mild winters. Finally, the new pollen assemblage is used to discuss the age of the White Channel Gravels
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