Significanceα-Synuclein (α-Syn) aggregation underlies neurodegeneration in synucleinopathies. However, the nature of α-Syn aggregates and their toxic mechanisms in human pathology remains elusive. Here, we delineate a role of α-Syn oligomeric aggregates for axonal integrity in human neuronal models of synucleinopathies. α-Syn oligomers disrupt anterograde axonal transport of mitochondria by causing subcellular changes in transport-regulating proteins and energy deficits. An increase of α-Syn oligomers in human neurons finally results in synaptic degeneration. Together, our data provide mechanistic insights of α-Syn oligomeric toxicity in human neurons. Taking into account that α-Syn oligomers and axonal dysfunction are characteristic for early neurodegeneration in synucleinopathies, our data might deliver targets for therapeutic interference with early disease pathology.
Context. Recently, evidence for the presence of weak magnetic fields in Herbig Ae/Be stars has been found in several studies. Aims. We seek to expand the sample of intermediate-mass pre-main sequence stars with circular polarization data to measure their magnetic fields, and to determine whether magnetic field properties in these stars are correlated with mass-accretion rate, disk inclination, companions, silicates, PAHs, or show a correlation with age and X-ray emission as expected for the decay of a remnant dynamo. Methods. Spectropolarimetric observations of 21 Herbig Ae/Be stars and six debris disk stars have been obtained at the European Southern Observatory with FORS 1 mounted on the 8 m Kueyen telescope of the VLT. With the GRISM 600B in the wavelength range 3250-6215 Å we were able to cover all hydrogen Balmer lines from Hβ to the Balmer jump. In all observations a slit width of 0. 4 was used to obtain a spectral resolving power of R ≈ 2000. Results. Among the 21 Herbig Ae/Be stars studied, new detections of a magnetic field were achieved in six stars. For three Herbig Ae/Be stars, we confirm previous magnetic field detections. The largest longitudinal magnetic field, B z = −454 ± 42 G, was detected in the Herbig Ae/Be star HD 101412 using hydrogen lines. No field detection at a significance level of 3σ was achieved in stars with debris disks. Our study does not indicate any correlation of the strength of the longitudinal magnetic field with disk orientation, disk geometry, or the presence of a companion. We also do not see any simple dependence on the mass-accretion rate. However, it is likely that the range of observed field values qualitatively supports the expectations from magnetospheric accretion models giving support for dipole-like field geometries. Both the magnetic field strength and the X-ray emission show hints of a decline with age in the range of ∼2-14 Myr probed by our sample, supporting a dynamo mechanism that decays with age. However, our study of rotation does not show any obvious trend of the strength of the longitudinal magnetic field with rotation period. Furthermore, the stars seem to obey the universal power-law relation between magnetic flux and X-ray luminosity established for the Sun and main-sequence active dwarf stars.
HD 65949 is a late B star with exceptionally strong Hg ii λ3984, but it is not a typical HgMn star. The Re ii spectrum is of extraordinary strength. Abundances or upper limits are derived here for 58 elements based on a model with Teff= 13 100 K and log (g) = 4.0. Even‐Z elements through nickel show minor deviations from solar abundances. Anomalies among the odd‐Z elements through copper are mostly small. Beyond the iron peak, a huge scatter is found. Enormous enhancements are found for the elements rhenium through mercury (Z= 75–80). We note the presence of Th iii in the spectrum. The abundance pattern of the heaviest elements resembles the N= 126 r‐process peak of solar material, though not in detail. An odd‐Z anomaly appears at the triplet (Zr Nb Mo), and there is a large abundance jump between Xe (Z= 54) and Ba (Z= 56). These are signatures of chemical fractionation. We find a significant correlation of the abundance excesses with second ionization potentials for elements with Z > 30. If this is not a red herring (false lead), it indicates the relevance of photospheric or near‐photospheric processes. Large excesses (4–6 dex) require diffusion from deeper layers with the elements passing through a number of ionization stages. That would make the correlation with second ionization potential puzzling. We explore a model with mass accretion of exotic material followed by the more commonly accepted differentiation by diffusion. That model leads to a number of predictions which challenge future work. New observations confirm the orbital elements of Gieseking and Karimie, apart from the systemic velocity, which has increased. Likely primary and secondary masses are near 3.3 and 1.6 M⊙, with a separation of ca. 0.25 au. New atomic structure calculations are presented in two appendices. These include partition functions for the first through third spectra of Ru, Re and Os, as well as oscillator strengths in the Re ii spectrum.
We present an image-processing method that enhances the detection of regions of higher absorbance in optical mammograms. At the heart of this method lies a second-derivative operator that is commonly employed in edge-detection algorithms. The resulting images possess a high contrast, an automatic display scale, and a greater sensitivity to smaller departures from the local background absorbance. Moreover, the images are free of artifacts near the breast edge. This second-derivative method enhances the display of structural information in optical mammograms and may be used to robustly select areas of interest to be further analyzed spectrally to determine the oxygenation level of breast lesions.
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