University of Antwerp

About: University of Antwerp is a education organization based out in Antwerp, Belgium. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Context (language use). The organization has 16682 authors who have published 48837 publications receiving 1689748 citations. The organization is also known as: Universiteit Antwerpen & UAntwerp.

Observation of sequential Υ suppression in PbPb collisions

Abstract: The suppression of the individual Υ(nS) states in PbPb collisions with respect to their yields in pp data has been measured. The PbPb and pp data sets used in the analysis correspond to integrated luminosities of 150 μb^(-1) and 230 nb^(-1), respectively, collected in 2011 by the CMS experiment at the LHC, at a center-of-mass energy per nucleon pair of 2.76 TeV. The Υ(nS) yields are measured from the dimuon invariant mass spectra. The suppression of the Υ(nS) yields in PbPb relative to the yields in pp, scaled by the number of nucleon-nucleon collisions, R_(AA), is measured as a function of the collision centrality. Integrated over centrality, the R_(AA) values are 0.56±0.08(stat)±0.07(syst), 0.12±0.04(stat)±0.02(syst), and lower than 0.10 (at 95% confidence level), for the Υ(1S), Υ(2S), and Υ(3S) states, respectively. The results demonstrate the sequential suppression of the Υ(nS) states in PbPb collisions at LHC energies.

Phytate and phytase in fish nutrition

Abstract: Phytate formed during maturation of plant seeds and grains is a common constituent of plant-derived fish feed. Phytate-bound phosphorus (P) is not available to gastric or agastric fish. A major concern about the presence of phytate in the aquafeed is its negative effect on growth performance, nutrient and energy utilization, and mineral uptake. Bound phytate-P, can be effectively converted to available-P by phytase. During the last decade, phytase has been used by aqua feed industries to enhance the growth performance, nutrient utilization and bioavailability of macro and micro minerals in fish and also to reduce the P pollution into the aquatic environment. Phytase activity is highly dependent on the pH of the fish gut. Unlike mammals, fish are either gastric or agastric, and hence, the action of dietary phytase varies from species to species. In comparison to poultry and swine production, the use of phytase in fish feed is still in an unproven stage. This review discusses effects of phytate on fish, dephytinisation processes, phytase and pathway for phytate degradation, phytase production systems, mode of phytase application, bioefficacy of phytase, effects of phytase on growth performance, nutrient utilization and aquatic environment pollution, and optimum dosage of phytase in fish diets.

Frontotemporal dementia and its subtypes: a genome-wide association study

Abstract: Summary Background Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) is a complex disorder characterised by a broad range of clinical manifestations, differential pathological signatures, and genetic variability. Mutations in three genes— MAPT , GRN , and C9orf72 —have been associated with FTD. We sought to identify novel genetic risk loci associated with the disorder. Methods We did a two-stage genome-wide association study on clinical FTD, analysing samples from 3526 patients with FTD and 9402 healthy controls. To reduce genetic heterogeneity, all participants were of European ancestry. In the discovery phase (samples from 2154 patients with FTD and 4308 controls), we did separate association analyses for each FTD subtype (behavioural variant FTD, semantic dementia, progressive non-fluent aphasia, and FTD overlapping with motor neuron disease [FTD-MND]), followed by a meta-analysis of the entire dataset. We carried forward replication of the novel suggestive loci in an independent sample series (samples from 1372 patients and 5094 controls) and then did joint phase and brain expression and methylation quantitative trait loci analyses for the associated (p −8 ) single-nucleotide polymorphisms. Findings We identified novel associations exceeding the genome-wide significance threshold (p −8 ). Combined (joint) analyses of discovery and replication phases showed genome-wide significant association at 6p21.3, HLA locus (immune system), for rs9268877 (p=1·05 × 10 −8 ; odds ratio=1·204 [95% CI 1·11–1·30]), rs9268856 (p=5·51 × 10 −9 ; 0·809 [0·76–0·86]) and rs1980493 (p value=1·57 × 10 −8 , 0·775 [0·69–0·86]) in the entire cohort. We also identified a potential novel locus at 11q14, encompassing RAB38 / CTSC (the transcripts of which are related to lysosomal biology), for the behavioural FTD subtype for which joint analyses showed suggestive association for rs302668 (p=2·44 × 10 −7 ; 0·814 [0·71–0·92]). Analysis of expression and methylation quantitative trait loci data suggested that these loci might affect expression and methylation in cis . Interpretation Our findings suggest that immune system processes (link to 6p21.3) and possibly lysosomal and autophagy pathways (link to 11q14) are potentially involved in FTD. Our findings need to be replicated to better define the association of the newly identified loci with disease and to shed light on the pathomechanisms contributing to FTD. Funding The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke and National Institute on Aging, the Wellcome/MRC Centre on Parkinson's disease, Alzheimer's Research UK, and Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center.