University of California, Davis

About: University of California, Davis is a education organization based out in Davis, California, United States. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Gene. The organization has 78770 authors who have published 180033 publications receiving 8064158 citations. The organization is also known as: UC Davis & UCD.

Alzheimer's Disease Neuroimaging Initiative (ADNI): clinical characterization.

Abstract: Background: Neuroimaging measures and chemical biomarkers may be important indices of clinical progression in normal aging and mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and need to be evaluated longitudinally. Objective: To characterize cross-sectionally and longitudinally clinical measures in normal controls, subjects with MCI, and subjects with mild Alzheimer disease (AD) to enable the assessment of the utility of neuroimaging and chemical biomarker measures. Methods: A total of 819 subjects (229 cognitively normal, 398 with MCI, and 192 with AD) were enrolled at baseline and followed for 12 months using standard cognitive and functional measures typical of clinical trials. Results: The subjects with MCI were more memory impaired than the cognitively normal subjects but not as impaired as the subjects with AD. Nonmemory cognitive measures were only minimally impaired in the subjects with MCI. The subjects with MCI progressed to dementia in 12 months at a rate of 16.5% per year. Approximately 50% of the subjects with MCI were on antidementia therapies. There was minimal movement on the Alzheimer’s Disease Assessment Scale–Cognitive Subscale for the normal control subjects, slight movement for the subjects with MCI of 1.1, and a modest change for the subjects with AD of 4.3. Baseline CSF measures of A-42 separated the 3 groups as expected and successfully predicted the 12-month change in cognitive measures. Conclusion: The Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative has successfully recruited cohorts of cognitively normal subjects, subjects with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and subjects with Alzheimer disease with anticipated baseline characteristics. The 12-month progression rate of MCI was as predicted, and the CSF measures heralded progression of clinical measures over 12 months. Neurology ® 2010;74:201–209

Crystallization by particle attachment in synthetic, biogenic, and geologic environments

Abstract: Field and laboratory observations show that crystals commonly form by the addition and attachment of particles that range from multi-ion complexes to fully formed nanoparticles. The particles involved in these nonclassical pathways to crystallization are diverse, in contrast to classical models that consider only the addition of monomeric chemical species. We review progress toward understanding crystal growth by particle-attachment processes and show that multiple pathways result from the interplay of free-energy landscapes and reaction dynamics. Much remains unknown about the fundamental aspects, particularly the relationships between solution structure, interfacial forces, and particle motion. Developing a predictive description that connects molecular details to ensemble behavior will require revisiting long-standing interpretations of crystal formation in synthetic systems, biominerals, and patterns of mineralization in natural environments.

Heavy quarkonium: progress, puzzles, and opportunities

Abstract: A golden age for heavy-quarkonium physics dawned a decade ago, initiated by the confluence of exciting advances in quantum chromodynamics (QCD) and an explosion of related experimental activity. The early years of this period were chronicled in the Quarkonium Working Group (QWG) CERN Yellow Report (YR) in 2004, which presented a comprehensive review of the status of the field at that time and provided specific recommendations for further progress. However, the broad spectrum of subsequent breakthroughs, surprises, and continuing puzzles could only be partially anticipated. Since the release of the YR, the BESII program concluded only to give birth to BESIII; the B-factories and CLEO-c flourished; quarkonium production and polarization measurements at HERA and the Tevatron matured; and heavy-ion collisions at RHIC have opened a window on the deconfinement regime. All these experiments leave legacies of quality, precision, and unsolved mysteries for quarkonium physics, and therefore beg for continuing investigations at BESIII, the LHC, RHIC, FAIR, the Super Flavor and/or Tau-Charm factories, JLab, the ILC, and beyond. The list of newly found conventional states expanded to include h(c)(1P), chi(c2)(2P), B-c(+), and eta(b)(1S). In addition, the unexpected and still-fascinating X(3872) has been joined by more than a dozen other charmonium- and bottomonium-like "XYZ" states that appear to lie outside the quark model. Many of these still need experimental confirmation. The plethora of new states unleashed a flood of theoretical investigations into new forms of matter such as quark-gluon hybrids, mesonic molecules, and tetraquarks. Measurements of the spectroscopy, decays, production, and in-medium behavior of c (c) over bar, b (b) over bar, and b (c) over bar bound states have been shown to validate some theoretical approaches to QCD and highlight lack of quantitative success for others. Lattice QCD has grown from a tool with computational possibilities to an industrial-strength effort now dependent more on insight and innovation than pure computational power. New effective field theories for the description of quarkonium in different regimes have been developed and brought to a high degree of sophistication, thus enabling precise and solid theoretical predictions. Many expected decays and transitions have either been measured with precision or for the first time, but the confusing patterns of decays, both above and below open-flavor thresholds, endure and have deepened. The intriguing details of quarkonium suppression in heavy-ion collisions that have emerged from RHIC have elevated the importance of separating hot- and cold-nuclear-matter effects in quark-gluon plasma studies. This review systematically addresses all these matters and concludes by prioritizing directions for ongoing and future efforts.

Lakes as sentinels of climate change

Abstract: While there is a general sense that lakes can act as sentinels of climate change, their efficacy has not been thoroughly analyzed. We identified the key response variables within a lake that act as indicators of the effects of climate change on both the lake and the catchment. These variables reflect a wide range of physical, chemical, and biological responses to climate. However, the efficacy of the different indicators is affected by regional response to climate change, characteristics of the catchment, and lake mixing regimes. Thus, particular indicators or combinations of indicators are more effective for different lake types and geographic regions. The extraction of climate signals can be further complicated by the influence of other environmental changes, such as eutrophication or acidification, and the equivalent reverse phenomena, in addition to other land-use influences. In many cases, however, confounding factors can be addressed through analytical tools such as detrending or filtering. Lakes are effective sentinels for climate change because they are sensitive to climate, respond rapidly to change, and integrate information about changes in the catchment.

A century of trends in adult human height

Abstract: Being taller is associated with enhanced longevity, and higher education and earnings. We reanalysed 1472 population-based studies, with measurement of height on more than 18.6 million participants to estimate mean height for people born between 1896 and 1996 in 200 countries. The largest gain in adult height over the past century has occurred in South Korean women and Iranian men, who became 20.2 cm (95% credible interval 17.5–22.7) and 16.5 cm (13.3–19.7) taller, respectively. In contrast, there was little change in adult height in some sub-Saharan African countries and in South Asia over the century of analysis. The tallest people over these 100 years are men born in the Netherlands in the last quarter of 20th century, whose average heights surpassed 182.5 cm, and the shortest were women born in Guatemala in 1896 (140.3 cm; 135.8–144.8). The height differential between the tallest and shortest populations was 19-20 cm a century ago, and has remained the same for women and increased for men a century later despite substantial changes in the ranking of countries.