Disentangling Sources of Momentum Fluctuations in Xe+Xe and Pb+Pb Collisions with the ATLAS Detector.

High-energy nuclear collisions create a quark-gluon plasma, whose initial condition and subsequent expansion vary from event to event, impacting the distribution of the eventwise average transverse momentum [P([p_{T}])]. Disentangling the contributions from fluctuations in the nuclear overlap size (geometrical component) and other sources at a fixed size (intrinsic component) remains a challenge. This problem is addressed by measuring the mean, variance, and skewness of P([p_{T}]) in ^{208}Pb+^{208}Pb and ^{129}Xe+^{129}Xe collisions at sqrt[s_{NN}]=5.

Suppression of thrombospondin-1-mediated inflammaging prolongs hematopoietic health span.

Chronic low-grade inflammation observed in older adults, termed inflammaging, is a common feature underlying a multitude of aging-associated maladies including a decline in hematopoietic activity. However, whether suppression of inflammaging can preserve hematopoietic health span remains unclear, in part because of a lack of tools to measure inflammaging within hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs). Here, we identify thrombospondin-1 (Thbs1) as an essential regulator of inflammaging within HSCs.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Psychosis occurs in 30-40% of individuals with AD. New insights into disease mechanisms may lead to novel pharmacological targets and treatments. Previous studies have focused on bulk tissue analysis with limited results.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Huntington's disease (HD) is an autosomal dominant condition causing severe neurodegeneration in the striatum and the entorhinal cortex (EC). An epigenome wide association study of DNA methylation in HD by our group, identified potential hypomethylation at the PTGDS gene in the striatum. We aimed to validate this result through pyrosequencing, examining the locus in fine detail, and to assess the signal specificity by profiling multiple neurodegenerative diseases.

Basic Science and Pathogenesis.

Background: Psychosis (broadly delusions and hallucinations) has a cumulative disease prevalence of around 40% in Alzheimer's disease (AD). The epigenomic, genomic, and neuropathological data provide powerful evidence that AD+P has a distinct neurobiological profile. Here, we used the weighted gene co-expression network analysis (WGCNA) method to investigate DNA methylation associated with AD+P in the dorsolateral prefrontal cortex of 153 post-mortem brain samples.