Constraints on axion inflation from the weak gravity conjecture

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Rudelius, Tom

2015-09-08

We derive constraints facing models of axion inflation based on decay constant alignment from a string-theoretic and quantum gravitational perspective. In particular, we investigate the prospects for alignment and ‘anti-alignment’ of C{sub 4} axion decay constants in type IIB string theory, deriving a strict no-go result in the latter case. We discuss the relationship of axion decay constants to the weak gravity conjecture and demonstrate agreement between our string-theoretic constraints and those coming from the ‘generalized’ weak gravity conjecture. Finally, we consider a particular model of decay constant alignment in which the potential of C{sub 4} axions in type IIBmore » compactifications on a Calabi-Yau three-fold is dominated by contributions from D7-branes, pointing out that this model evades some of the challenges derived earlier in our paper but is highly constrained by other geometric considerations.« less

Non-topological cycloops

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lake, Matthew; Thomas, Steven; Ward, John

2010-01-01

We propose a mechanism for the creation of cosmic string loops with dynamically stabilised windings in the internal space. Assuming a velocity correlations regime in the post-inflationary epoch, such windings are seen to arise naturally in string networks prior to loop formation. The angular momentum of the string in the compact space may then be sufficient to ensure that the windings remain stable after the loop chops off from the network, even if the internal manifold is simply connected. For concreteness we embed our model in the Klebanov-Strassler geometry, which provides a natural mechanism for brane inflation, as well a being one of the best understood compactification schemes in type IIB string theory. We see that the interaction of angular momentum with the string tension causes the loop to oscillate between phases of expansion and contraction. This, in principle, should give rise to a distinct gravitational wave signature, the future detection of which could provide indirect evidence for the existence of extra dimensions.

Phases of QCD3 from non-SUSY Seiberg duality and brane dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Armoni, Adi; Niarchos, Vasilis

2018-05-01

We consider a nonsupersymmetric USp Yang-Mills Chern-Simons gauge theory coupled to fundamental flavors. The theory is realised in type-IIB string theory via an embedding in a Hanany-Witten brane configuration which includes an orientifold and antibranes. We argue that the theory admits a magnetic Seiberg dual. Using the magnetic dual we identify dynamics in field theory and brane physics that correspond to various phases, obtaining a better understanding of three-dimensional bosonization and dynamical breaking of flavor symmetry in USp QCD3 theory. In field theory both phases correspond to magnetic "squark" condensation. In string theory, they correspond to open string tachyon condensation and brane reconnection. We also discuss other phases where the magnetic `squark' is massive. Finally, we briefly comment on the case of unitary gauge groups.

Five-dimensional gauge theory and compactification on a torus

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Haghighat, Babak; Vandoren, Stefan

2011-09-01

We study five-dimensional minimally supersymmetric gauge theory compactified on a torus down to three dimensions, and its embedding into string/M-theory using geometric engineering. The moduli space on the Coulomb branch is hyperkähler equipped with a metric with modular transformation properties. We determine the one-loop corrections to the metric and show that they can be interpreted as worldsheet and D1-brane instantons in type IIB string theory. Furthermore, we analyze instanton corrections coming from the solitonic BPS magnetic string wrapped over the torus. In particular, we show how to compute the path-integral for the zero-modes from the partition function of the M5 brane, or, using a 2d/4d correspondence, from the partition function of N=4 SYM theory on a Hirzebruch surface.

Type II string theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds with torsion and non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries

DOE PAGES

Braun, Volker; Cvetič, Mirjam; Donagi, Ron; ...

2017-07-26

Here, we provide the first explicit example of Type IIB string theory compactication on a globally defined Calabi-Yau threefold with torsion which results in a fourdimensional effective theory with a non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetry. Our example is based on a particular Calabi-Yau manifold, the quotient of a product of three elliptic curves by a fixed point free action of Z 2 X Z 2. Its cohomology contains torsion classes in various degrees. The main technical novelty is in determining the multiplicative structure of the (torsion part of) the cohomology ring, and in particular showing that the cup product of secondmore » cohomology torsion elements goes non-trivially to the fourth cohomology. This specifies a non-Abelian, Heisenberg-type discrete symmetry group of the four-dimensional theory.« less

Type II string theory on Calabi-Yau manifolds with torsion and non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetries

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Braun, Volker; Cvetič, Mirjam; Donagi, Ron

Here, we provide the first explicit example of Type IIB string theory compactication on a globally defined Calabi-Yau threefold with torsion which results in a fourdimensional effective theory with a non-Abelian discrete gauge symmetry. Our example is based on a particular Calabi-Yau manifold, the quotient of a product of three elliptic curves by a fixed point free action of Z 2 X Z 2. Its cohomology contains torsion classes in various degrees. The main technical novelty is in determining the multiplicative structure of the (torsion part of) the cohomology ring, and in particular showing that the cup product of secondmore » cohomology torsion elements goes non-trivially to the fourth cohomology. This specifies a non-Abelian, Heisenberg-type discrete symmetry group of the four-dimensional theory.« less

Reflection states in Ding-Iohara-Miki algebra and brane-web for D-type quiver

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bourgine, J.-E.; Fukuda, M.; Matsuo, Y.; Zhu, R.-D.

2017-12-01

Reflection states are introduced in the vertical and horizontal modules of the Ding-Iohara-Miki (DIM) algebra (quantum toroidal gl_1 ). Webs of DIM representations are in correspondence with ( p, q)-web diagrams of type IIB string theory, under the identification of the algebraic intertwiner of Awata, Feigin and Shiraishi with the refined topological vertex. Extending the correspondence to the vertical reflection states, it is possible to engineer the N=1 quiver gauge theory of D-type (with unitary gauge groups). In this way, the Nekrasov instanton partition function is reproduced from the evaluation of expectation values of intertwiners. This computation leads to the identification of the vertical reflection state with the orientifold plane of string theory. We also provide a translation of this construction in the Iqbal-Kozcaz-Vafa refined topological vertex formalism.

T-duality of singular spacetime compactifications in an H-flux

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Linshaw, Andrew; Mathai, Varghese

2018-07-01

We begin by presenting a symmetric version of the circle equivariant T-duality result in a joint work of the second author with Siye Wu, thereby generalizing the results there. We then initiate the study of twisted equivariant Courant algebroids and equivariant generalized geometry and apply it to our context. As before, T-duality exchanges type IIA and type IIB string theories. In our theory, both spacetime and the T-dual spacetime can be singular spaces when the fixed point set is non-empty; the singularities correspond to Kaluza-Klein monopoles. We propose that the Ramond-Ramond charges of type II string theories on the singular spaces are classified by twisted equivariant cohomology groups, consistent with the previous work of Mathai and Wu, and prove that they are naturally isomorphic. We also establish the corresponding isomorphism of twisted equivariant Courant algebroids.

Warped AdS 6 × S 2 in Type IIB supergravity III. Global solutions with seven-branes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

D'Hoker, Eric; Gutperle, Michael; Uhlemann, Christoph F.

2017-11-01

We extend our previous construction of global solutions to Type IIB super-gravity that are invariant under the superalgebra F(4) and are realized on a spacetime of the form AdS 6 × S 2 warped over a Riemann surface Σ by allowing the supergravity fields to have non-trivial SL(2, ℝ) monodromy at isolated punctures on Σ. We obtain explicit solutions for the case where Σ is a disc, and the monodromy generators are parabolic elements of SL(2, ℝ) physically corresponding to the monodromy allowed in Type IIB string theory. On the boundary of Σ the solutions exhibit singularities at isolated points which correspond to semi-infinite five-branes, as is familiar from the global solutions without monodromy. In the interior of Σ, the solutions are everywhere regular, except at the punctures where SL(2, ℝ) monodromy resides and which physically correspond to the locations of [ p, q] seven-branes. The solutions have a compelling physical interpretation corresponding to fully localized five-brane intersections with additional seven-branes, and provide candidate holographic duals to the five-dimensional superconformal field theories realized on such intersections.

Higher derivative couplings in theories with sixteen supersymmetries

DOE PAGES

Lin, Ying -Hsuan; Shao, Shu -Heng; Yin, Xi; ...

2015-12-15

We give simple arguments for new non-renormalization theorems on higher derivative couplings of gauge theories to supergravity, with sixteen supersymmetries, by considerations of brane-bulk superamplitudes. This leads to some exact results on the effective coupling of D3-branes in type IIB string theory. As a result, we also derive exact results on higher dimensional operators in the torus compactification of the six dimensional (0, 2) superconformal theory.

Minimal string theories and integrable hierarchies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Iyer, Ramakrishnan

Well-defined, non-perturbative formulations of the physics of string theories in specific minimal or superminimal model backgrounds can be obtained by solving matrix models in the double scaling limit. They provide us with the first examples of completely solvable string theories. Despite being relatively simple compared to higher dimensional critical string theories, they furnish non-perturbative descriptions of interesting physical phenomena such as geometrical transitions between D-branes and fluxes, tachyon condensation and holography. The physics of these theories in the minimal model backgrounds is succinctly encoded in a non-linear differential equation known as the string equation, along with an associated hierarchy of integrable partial differential equations (PDEs). The bosonic string in (2,2m-1) conformal minimal model backgrounds and the type 0A string in (2,4 m) superconformal minimal model backgrounds have the Korteweg-de Vries system, while type 0B in (2,4m) backgrounds has the Zakharov-Shabat system. The integrable PDE hierarchy governs flows between backgrounds with different m. In this thesis, we explore this interesting connection between minimal string theories and integrable hierarchies further. We uncover the remarkable role that an infinite hierarchy of non-linear differential equations plays in organizing and connecting certain minimal string theories non-perturbatively. We are able to embed the type 0A and 0B (A,A) minimal string theories into this single framework. The string theories arise as special limits of a rich system of equations underpinned by an integrable system known as the dispersive water wave hierarchy. We find that there are several other string-like limits of the system, and conjecture that some of them are type IIA and IIB (A,D) minimal string backgrounds. We explain how these and several other string-like special points arise and are connected. In some cases, the framework endows the theories with a non-perturbative definition for the first time. Notably, we discover that the Painleve IV equation plays a key role in organizing the string theory physics, joining its siblings, Painleve I and II, whose roles have previously been identified in this minimal string context. We then present evidence that the conjectured type II theories have smooth non-perturbative solutions, connecting two perturbative asymptotic regimes, in a 't Hooft limit. Our technique also demonstrates evidence for new minimal string theories that are not apparent in a perturbative analysis.

Forbidden territories in the string landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kumar, Alok; Mukhopadhyay, Subir; Ray, Koushik

2007-12-01

Problems of stabilizing moduli of the type-IIB string theory on toroidal orientifolds T6/Z2, in presence of worldvolume fluxes on various D-branes, are considered. For Z2 actions, introducing either O9 or O3 planes, we rule out the possibility of moduli stabilization in a wide class of models with Script N = 1 supersymmetry, characterized by the type of fluxes turned on along D-brane worldvolume. Our results, in particular, imply that Abelian worldvolume fluxes can not by themselves stabilize closed string moduli, in a consistent supersymmtric model, for above orientifold compactifications. We also discuss other Z2 orientifolds of T6 and show that certain other brane wrappings are also ruled out by similar consistency requirements. In specific setups we consider examples with D9-branes wrapping on a complex three-torus with its world-volume fluxes taken to be semi-homogeneous bundles and D7-branes wrapping holomorphic four-cycles of the complex three-torus carrying world-volume fluxes.

Negative branes, supergroups and the signature of spacetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dijkgraaf, Robbert; Heidenreich, Ben; Jefferson, Patrick; Vafa, Cumrun

2018-02-01

We study the realization of supergroup gauge theories using negative branes in string theory. We show that negative branes are intimately connected with the possibility of timelike compactification and exotic spacetime signatures previously studied by Hull. Isolated negative branes dynamically generate a change in spacetime signature near their worldvolumes, and are related by string dualities to a smooth M-theory geometry with closed timelike curves. Using negative D3-branes, we show that SU(0| N) supergroup theories are holographically dual to an exotic variant of type IIB string theory on {dS}_{3,2}× {\\overline{S}}^5 , for which the emergent dimensions are timelike. Using branes, mirror symmetry and Nekrasov's instanton calculus, all of which agree, we derive the Seiberg-Witten curve for N=2 SU( N | M ) gauge theories. Together with our exploration of holography and string dualities for negative branes, this suggests that supergroup gauge theories may be non-perturbatively well-defined objects, though several puzzles remain.

Non-perturbative effects and wall-crossing from topological strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Collinucci, Andrés; Soler, Pablo; Uranga, Angel M.

2009-11-01

We argue that the Gopakumar-Vafa interpretation of the topological string partition function can be used to compute and resum certain non-perturbative brane instanton effects of type II CY compactifications. In particular the topological string A-model encodes the non-perturbative corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space metric from general D1/D(-1)-brane instantons in 4d Script N = 2 IIB models. We also discuss the reduction to 4d Script N = 1 by fluxes and/or orientifolds and/or D-branes, and the prospects to resum brane instanton contributions to non-perturbative superpotentials. We argue that the connection between non-perturbative effects and the topological string underlies the continuity of non-perturbative effects across lines of BPS stability. We also confirm this statement in mirror B-model matrix model examples, relating matrix model instantons to non-perturbative D-brane instantons. The computation of non-perturbative effects from the topological string requires a 3d circle compactification and T-duality, relating effects from particles and instantons, reminiscent of that involved in the physical derivation of the Kontsevich-Soibelmann wall-crossing formula.

Aspects of some dualities in string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Bom Soo

AdS/CFT correspondence in string theory has changed landscape of the theoretical physics. Through this celebrated duality between gravity theory and field theory, one can investigate analytically strongly coupled gauge theories such as Quantum Chromodynamics (QCD) in terms of weakly coupled string theory such as supergravity theory and vice versa. In the first part of this thesis we used this duality to construct a new type of nonlocal field theory, called Puff Field Theory, in terms of D3 branes in type IIB string theory with a geometric twist. In addition to the strong-weak duality of AdS/CFT, there also exists a weak-weak duality, called Twistor String Theory. Twistor technique is successfully used to calculate the SYM scattering amplitude in an elegant fashion. Yet, the progress in the string theory side was hindered by a non-unitary conformal gravity. We extend the Twistor string theory by introducing mass terms, in the second part of the thesis. A chiral mass term is identified as a vacuum expectation value of a conformal supergravity field and is tied with the breaking of the conformal symmetry of gravity. As a prime candidate for a quantum theory of gravity, string theory revealed many promising successes such as counting the number of microstates in supersymmetric Black Holes thermodynamics and resolution of timelike and null singularities, to name a few. Yet, the fundamental string and M-theroy formulations are not yet available. Various string theories without gravity, such as Non-Commutative Open String (NCOS) and Open Membrane (OM) theories, are very nice playground to investigate the fundamental structure of string and M-theory without the complication of gravity. In the last part of the thesis, simpler Non-Relativistic String Theories are constructed and investigated. One important motivation for those theories is related to the connection between Non-Relativistic String Theories and Non-critical String Theories through the bosonization of betagamma CFT.

Modularity, quaternion-Kähler spaces, and mirror symmetry

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Alexandrov, Sergei; Banerjee, Sibasish

2013-10-15

We provide an explicit twistorial construction of quaternion-Kähler manifolds obtained by deformation of c-map spaces and carrying an isometric action of the modular group SL(2,Z). The deformation is not assumed to preserve any continuous isometry and therefore this construction presents a general framework for describing NS5-brane instanton effects in string compactifications with N= 2 supersymmetry. In this context the modular invariant parametrization of twistor lines found in this work yields the complete non-perturbative mirror map between type IIA and type IIB physical fields.

Instantons in Script N = 2 magnetized D-brane worlds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Billò, Marco; Frau, Marialuisa; Pesando, Igor; Di Vecchia, Paolo; Lerda, Alberto; Marotta, Raffaele

2007-10-01

In a toroidal orbifold of type IIB string theory we study instanton effects in Script N = 2 super Yang-Mills theories engineered with systems of wrapped magnetized D9 branes and Euclidean D5 branes. We analyze the various open string sectors in this brane system and study the 1-loop amplitudes described by annulus diagrams with mixed boundary conditions, explaining their rôle in the stringy instanton calculus. We show in particular that the non-holomorphic terms in these annulus amplitudes precisely reconstruct the appropriate Kähler metric factors that are needed to write the instanton correlators in terms of purely holomorphic variables. We also explicitly derive the correct holomorphic structure of the instanton induced low energy effective action in the Coulomb branch.

Statistical distribution of the vacuum energy density in racetrack Kähler uplift models in string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sumitomo, Yoske; Tye, S.-H. Henry; Wong, Sam S. C.

2013-07-01

We study a racetrack model in the presence of the leading α'-correction in flux compactification in Type IIB string theory, for the purpose of getting conceivable de-Sitter vacua in the large compactified volume approximation. Unlike the Kähler Uplift model studied previously, the α'-correction is more controllable for the meta-stable de-Sitter vacua in the racetrack case since the constraint on the compactified volume size is very much relaxed. We find that the vacuum energy density Λ for de-Sitter vacua approaches zero exponentially as the volume grows. We also analyze properties of the probability distribution of Λ in this class of models. As in other cases studied earlier, the probability distribution again peaks sharply at Λ = 0. We also study the Racetrack Kähler Uplift model in the Swiss-Cheese type model.

Scale invariance of the η-deformed AdS5 × S5 superstring, T-duality and modified type II equations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Arutyunov, G.; Frolov, S.; Hoare, B.; Roiban, R.; Tseytlin, A. A.

2016-02-01

We consider the ABF background underlying the η-deformed AdS5 ×S5 sigma model. This background fails to satisfy the standard IIB supergravity equations which indicates that the corresponding sigma model is not Weyl invariant, i.e. does not define a critical string theory in the usual sense. We argue that the ABF background should still define a UV finite theory on a flat 2d world-sheet implying that the η-deformed model is scale invariant. This property follows from the formal relation via T-duality between the η-deformed model and the one defined by an exact type IIB supergravity solution that has 6 isometries albeit broken by a linear dilaton. We find that the ABF background satisfies candidate type IIB scale invariance conditions which for the R-R field strengths are of the second order in derivatives. Surprisingly, we also find that the ABF background obeys an interesting modification of the standard IIB supergravity equations that are first order in derivatives of R-R fields. These modified equations explicitly depend on Killing vectors of the ABF background and, although not universal, they imply the universal scale invariance conditions. Moreover, we show that it is precisely the non-isometric dilaton of the T-dual solution that leads, after T-duality, to modification of type II equations from their standard form. We conjecture that the modified equations should follow from κ-symmetry of the η-deformed model. All our observations apply also to η-deformations of AdS3 ×S3 ×T4and AdS2 ×S2 ×T6models.

Scale invariance of the η-deformed AdS 5 × S 5 superstring, T-duality and modified type II equations

DOE PAGES

Arutyunov, G.; Frolov, S.; Hoare, B.; ...

2015-12-23

We consider the ABF background underlying the η-deformed AdS 5 × S 5 sigma model. This background fails to satisfy the standard IIB supergravity equations which indicates that the corresponding sigma model is not Weyl invariant, i.e. does not define a critical string theory in the usual sense. We argue that the ABF background should still define a UV finite theory on a flat 2d world-sheet implying that the η-deformed model is scale invariant. This property follows from the formal relation via T-duality between the η-deformed model and the one defined by an exact type IIB supergravity solution that hasmore » 6 isometries albeit broken by a linear dilaton. We find that the ABF background satisfies candidate type IIB scale invariance conditions which for the R–R field strengths are of the second order in derivatives. Surprisingly, we also find that the ABF background obeys an interesting modification of the standard IIB supergravity equations that are first order in derivatives of R–R fields. These modified equations explicitly depend on Killing vectors of the ABF background and, although not universal, they imply the universal scale invariance conditions. Moreover, we show that it is precisely the non-isometric dilaton of the T-dual solution that leads, after T-duality, to modification of type II equations from their standard form. We conjecture that the modified equations should follow from κ-symmetry of the η-deformed model. All our observations apply also to η-deformations of AdS 3 × S 3 × T 4 and AdS 2 × S 2 × T 6 models.« less

Tiny graviton matrix theory/SYM correspondence: Analysis of BPS states

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Ali-Akbari, M.; Torabian, M.; Department of Physics, Sharif University of Technology, P.O. Box 11365-9161, Tehran

2006-09-15

In this paper we continue analysis of the Matrix theory describing the DLCQ of type IIB string theory on AdS{sub 5}xS{sup 5} (and/or the plane-wave) background, i.e. the tiny graviton matrix theory (TGMT) [M. M. Sheikh-Jabbari, J. High Energy Phys. 09 (2004) 017.]. We study and classify 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8 BPS solutions of the TGMT which are generically of the form of rotating three-brane giants. These are branes whose shape are deformed three-spheres and hyperboloids. In lack of a classification of such ten-dimensional type IIb supergravity configurations, we focus on the dual N=4 four-dimensional 1/2, 1/4, and one 1/8more » BPS operators and show that they are in one-to-one correspondence with the states of the same set of quantum numbers in TGMT. This provides further evidence in support of the matrix theory.« less

Holographic Chern-Simons defects

DOE PAGES

Fujita, Mitsutoshi; Melby-Thompson, Charles M.; Meyer, René; ...

2016-06-28

Here, we study SU(N ) Yang-Mills-Chern-Simons theory in the presence of defects that shift the Chern-Simons level from a holographic point of view by embedding the system in string theory. The model is a D3-D7 system in Type IIB string theory, whose gravity dual is given by the AdS soliton background with probe D7 branes attaching to the AdS boundary along the defects. We holographically renormalize the free energy of the defect system with sources, from which we obtain the correlation functions for certain operators naturally associated to these defects. We find interesting phase transitions when the separation of themore » defects as well as the temperature are varied. We also discuss some implications for the Fractional Quantum Hall Effect and for 2-dimensional QCD.« less

Global embedding of fibre inflation models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cicoli, Michele; Muia, Francesco; Shukla, Pramod

2016-11-01

We present concrete embeddings of fibre inflation models in globally consistent type IIB Calabi-Yau orientifolds with closed string moduli stabilisation. After performing a systematic search through the existing list of toric Calabi-Yau manifolds, we find several examples that reproduce the minimal setup to embed fibre inflation models. This involves Calabi-Yau manifolds with h 1,1 = 3 which are K3 fibrations over a ℙ1 base with an additional shrinkable rigid divisor. We then provide different consistent choices of the underlying brane set-up which generate a non-perturbative superpotential suitable for moduli stabilisation and string loop corrections with the correct form to drive inflation. For each Calabi-Yau orientifold setting, we also compute the effect of higher derivative contributions and study their influence on the inflationary dynamics.

Is inflation from unwinding fluxes IIB?

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gautason, Fridrik Freyr; Schillo, Marjorie; Van Riet, Thomas

2017-03-01

In this paper we argue that the mechanism of unwinding inflation is naturally present in warped compactifications of type IIB string theory with local throats. The unwinding of flux is caused by its annihilation against branes. The resulting inflaton potential is linear with periodic modulations. We initiate an analysis of the inflationary dynamics and cosmological observables, which are highly constrained by moduli stabilization. For the simplified model of single-Kähler Calabi-Yau spaces we find that many, though not all of the consistency constraints can be satisfied. Particularly, in this simple model geometric constraints are in tension with obtaining the observed amplitude of the scalar power spectrum. However, we do find 60 efolds of inflation with a trans-Planckian field excursion which offers the hope that slightly more complicated models can lead to a fully consistent explicit construction of large field inflation of this kind.

R 4 couplings in M- and type II theories on Calabi-Yau spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antoniadis, I.; Feffara, S.; Minasian, R.; Narain, K. S.

1997-02-01

We discuss several implications of R 4 couplings in M-theory when compactified on Calabi-Yau (CY) manifolds. In particular, these couplings can be predicted by supersymmetry from the mixed gauge-gravitational Chem-Simons couplings in five dimensions and are related to the one-loop holomorphic anomaly in four-dimensional N = 2 theories. We find a new contribution to the Einstein term in five dimensions proportional to the Euler number of the internal CY threefold, which corresponds to a one-loop correction of the hypermultiplet geometry. This correction is reproduced by a direct computation in type 11 string theories. Finally, we discuss a universal non-perturbative correction to the type IIB hyper-metric.

SO(N) restricted Schur polynomials

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kemp, Garreth, E-mail: garreth.kemp@students.wits.ac.za

2015-02-15

We focus on the 1/4-BPS sector of free super Yang-Mills theory with an SO(N) gauge group. This theory has an AdS/CFT (an equivalence between a conformal field theory in d-1 dimensions and type II string theory defined on an AdS space in d-dimensions) dual in the form of type IIB string theory with AdS{sub 5}×RP{sup 5} geometry. With the aim of studying excited giant graviton dynamics, we construct an orthogonal basis for this sector of the gauge theory in this work. First, we demonstrate that the counting of states, as given by the partition function, and the counting of restrictedmore » Schur polynomials match by restricting to a particular class of Young diagram labels. We then give an explicit construction of these gauge invariant operators and evaluate their two-point function exactly. This paves the way to studying the spectral problem of these operators and their D-brane duals.« less

On classifying the divisor involutions in Calabi-Yau threefolds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Xin; Shukla, Pramod

2013-11-01

In order to support the odd moduli in models of (type IIB) string compactification, we classify the Calabi-Yau threefolds with h 1,1 ≤ 4 which exhibit pairs of identical divisors, with different line-bundle charges, mapping to each other under possible divisor exchange involutions. For this purpose, the divisors of interest are identified as completely rigid surface, Wilson surface, K3 surface and some other deformation surfaces. Subsequently, various possible exchange involutions are examined under the symmetry of Stanley-Reisner Ideal. In addition, we search for the Calabi-Yau theefolds which contain a divisor with several disjoint components. Under certain reflection involution, such spaces also have nontrivial odd components in (1,1)-cohomology class. String compactifications on such Calabi-Yau orientifolds with non-zero could be promising for concrete model building in both particle physics and cosmology. In the spirit of using such Calabi-Yau orientifolds in the context of LARGE volume scenario, we also present some concrete examples of (strong/weak) swiss-cheese type volume form.

One-loop Pfaffians and large-field inflation in string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruehle, Fabian; Wieck, Clemens

2017-06-01

We study the consistency of large-field inflation in low-energy effective field theories of string theory. In particular, we focus on the stability of Kähler moduli in the particularly interesting case where the non-perturbative superpotential of the Kähler sector explicitly depends on the inflaton field. This situation arises generically due to one-loop corrections to the instanton action. The field dependence of the modulus potential feeds back into the inflationary dynamics, potentially impairing slow roll. We distinguish between world-sheet instantons from Euclidean D-branes, which typically yield polynomial one-loop Pfaffians, and gaugino condensates, which can yield exponential or periodic corrections. In all scenarios successful slow-roll inflation imposes bounds on the magnitude of the one-loop correction, corresponding to constraints on possible compactifications. While we put a certain emphasis on Type IIB constructions with mobile D7-branes, our results seem to apply more generally.

On non-BPS effective actions of string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatefi, Ehsan

2018-05-01

We discuss some physical prospective of the non-BPS effective actions of type IIA and IIB superstring theories. By dealing with all complete three and four point functions, including a closed Ramond-Ramond string (in terms of both its field strength and its potential), gauge (scalar) fields as well as a real tachyon and under symmetry structures, we find various restricted world volume and bulk Bianchi identities. The complete forms of the non-BPS scattering amplitudes including their Chan-Paton factors are elaborated. All the singularity structures of the non-BPS amplitudes, their all order α ' higher-derivative corrections, their contact terms and various modified Bianchi identities are derived. Finally, we show that scattering amplitudes computed in different super-ghost pictures are compatible when suitable Bianchi identities are imposed on the Ramond-Ramond fields. Moreover, we argue that the higher-derivative expansion in powers of the momenta of the tachyon is universal.

Strings on plane-waves and spin chains on orbifolds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sadri, Darius

This thesis covers a number of topics in string theory focusing on various aspects of the AdS/CFT duality in various guises and regimes. In the first chapter we present a self-contained review of the Plane-wave/super-Yang-Mills duality. This duality is a specification of the usual AdS/CFT correspondence in the "Penrose limit". In chapter two we study the most general parallelizable pp-wave backgrounds which are non-dilatonic solutions in the NS-NS sector of type IIA and IIB string theories. We demonstrate that parallelizable pp-wave backgrounds are necessarily homogeneous plane-waves, and that a large class of homogeneous plane-waves are parallelizable, stating the necessary conditions. Quantization of string modes, their compactification and behaviour under T-duality are also studied, as are BPS Dp-branes on such backgrounds. In chapter three we consider giant gravitons on the maximally supersymmetric plane-wave background. We deduce the low energy effective light-cone Hamiltonian of the three-sphere giant graviton, and place sources in this effective gauge theory. Although non-vanishing net electric charge configurations are disallowed by Gauss' law, electric dipoles can be formed. From the string theory point of view these dipoles can be understood as open strings piercing the three-sphere, giving a two dimensional (worldsheet) description of giant gravitons. Chapter four presents some new ideas regarding the relation between super-conformal gauge theories and string theories with three-dimensional target spaces, possible relations of these systems to Hamiltonian lattice gauge theories, and integrable spin chains. We consider N = 1, D = 4 superconformal SU( N)px q Yang-Mills theories dual to AdS5 x S5/Zp x Zq orbifolds. We show that a specific sector of this dilatation operator can be thought of as the transfer matrix for a three-dimensional statistical mechanical system, which in turn is equivalent to a 2 + 1-dimensional string theory where the spatial slices are discretized on a triangular lattice, and comment on the integrability of this N = 1 gauge theory, its connection to three-dimensional lattice gauge theories, extensions to six-dimensional string theories, AdS/CFT type dualities and finally their construction via orbifolds and brane-box models. In the process we discover a new class of almost-BPS BMN type operators with large engineering dimensions but controllably small anomalous corrections.

Wrapping rules (in) string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bergshoeff, Eric A.; Riccioni, Fabio

2018-01-01

In this paper we show that the number of all 1/2-BPS branes in string theory compactified on a torus can be derived by universal wrapping rules whose formulation we present. These rules even apply to branes in less than ten dimensions whose ten-dimensional origin is an exotic brane. In that case the wrapping rules contain an additional combinatorial factor that is related to the highest dimension in which the ten-dimensional exotic brane, after compactification, can be realized as a standard brane. We show that the wrapping rules also apply to cases with less supersymmetry. As a specific example, we discuss the compactification of IIA/IIB string theory on ( T 4/ ℤ 2) × T n .

EXACT S-MATRICES FOR AdS3/CFT2

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ahn, Changrim; Bombardelli, Diego

2013-12-01

We propose exact S-matrices for the AdS3/CFT2 duality between type IIB strings on AdS3×S3×M4 with M4 = S3×S1 or T4 and the corresponding two-dimensional conformal field theories. We fix the two-particle S-matrices on the basis of the symmetries su(1|1) and su(1|1)×su(1|1). A crucial justification comes from the derivation of the all-loop Bethe ansatz matching exactly the recent conjecture proposed by Babichenko et al. [J. High Energy Phys.1003, 058 (2010), arXiv:0912.1723 [hep-th

N-flation with hierarchically light axions in string compactifications

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cicoli, Michele; Dutta, Koushik; Maharana, Anshuman, E-mail: mcicoli@ictp.it, E-mail: koushik.dutta@saha.ac.in, E-mail: anshumanmaharana@hri.res.in

2014-08-01

We propose a possible embedding of axionic N-flation in type IIB string compactifications where most of the Kähler moduli are stabilised by perturbative effects, and so are hierarchically heavier than the corresponding N>> 1 axions whose collective dynamics drives inflation. This is achieved in the framework of the LARGE Volume Scenario for moduli stabilisation. Our set-up can be used to realise a model of either large field inflation or quintessence, just by varying the volume of the internal space which controls the scale of the axionic potential. Both cases predict a very high scale of supersymmetry breaking. A fully explicit stringymore » embedding of N-flation would require control over dangerous back-reaction effects due to a large number of species. A viable reheating of the Standard Model degrees of freedom can be achieved after the end of inflation due to the perturbative decay of the N light axions which drive inflation.« less

Calculating the jet quenching parameter in the plasma of noncommutative Yang-Mills theory from gauge/gravity duality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chakraborty, Somdeb; Roy, Shibaji

2012-02-01

A particular decoupling limit of the nonextremal (D1, D3) brane bound state system of type IIB string theory is known to give the gravity dual of space-space noncommutative Yang-Mills theory at finite temperature. We use a string probe in this background to compute the jet quenching parameter in a strongly coupled plasma of hot noncommutative Yang-Mills theory in (3+1) dimensions from gauge/gravity duality. We give expressions for the jet quenching parameter for both small and large noncommutativity. For small noncommutativity, we find that the value of the jet quenching parameter gets reduced from its commutative value. The reduction is enhanced with temperature as T7 for fixed noncommutativity and fixed ’t Hooft coupling. We also give an estimate of the correction due to noncommutativity at the present collider energies like in RHIC or in LHC and find it too small to be detected. We further generalize the results for noncommutative Yang-Mills theories in diverse dimensions.

New class of de Sitter vacua in string theory compactifications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Achúcarro, Ana; Ortiz, Pablo; Sousa, Kepa

2016-10-01

String theory contains few known working examples of de Sitter vacua, four-dimensional universes with a positive cosmological constant. A notorious obstacle is the stabilization of a large number—sometimes hundreds—of moduli fields that characterize the compact dimensions. We study the stability of a class of supersymmetric moduli (the complex structure moduli and dilaton in type-IIB flux compactifications) in the regime where the volume of the compact space is large but not exponentially large. We show that, if the number of moduli is very large, random matrix theory provides a new stability condition, a lower bound on the volume. We find a new class of stable vacua where the mass spectrum of these supersymmetric moduli is gapped, without requiring a large mass hierarchy between moduli sectors or any fine-tuning of the superpotential. We provide the first explicit example of this class of vacua in the P[1,1 ,1 ,6 ,9 ] 4 model. A distinguishing feature is that all fermions in the supersymmetric sector are lighter than the gravitino.

Transmogrifying fuzzy vortices

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Murugan, Jeff; Millner, Antony

2004-04-01

We show that the construction of vortex solitons of the noncommutative abelian-Higgs model can be extended to a critically coupled gauged linear sigma model with Fayet-Illiopolous D-terms. Like its commutative counterpart, this fuzzy linear sigma model has a rich spectrum of BPS solutions. We offer an explicit construction of the degree-k static semilocal vortex and study in some detail the infinite coupling limit in which it descends to a degree-k Bbb CBbb PkN instanton. This relation between the fuzzy vortex and noncommutative lump is used to suggest an interpretation of the noncommutative sigma model soliton as tilted D-strings stretched between an NS5-brane and a stack of D3-branes in type-IIB superstring theory.

Fluxes, holography and twistors: String theory paths to four dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gao, Peng

2007-12-01

There are presently three popular paths to obtain four dimensional physics from string theory: compactification, holography and twistor space. We present results in this thesis on each of them, discussing the geometric structure of flux compactifications, the interplay between holography and S -duality in M-theory and the perturbative amplitudes of the marginally deformed super-Yang-Mills theory obtained from topological string theory on a supertwistor space. First we analyze supersymmetric flux compactifications of ten dimensional string theories to four dimensions. Back reaction of the fluxes on the six dimensional internal geometry is characterized by G-structures. In type IIB compactification on SU(3)-structure manifold with N = 1 supersymmetry, we solve the equations dictating the five components of intrinsic torsion. We find that the six dimensional manifold always retains an integrable almost complex structure compatible with supersymmetry. In terms of the various vacuum fields, the axion/dilaton is found to be generically non-holomorphic, and the four dimensional cosmological constant is nonvanishing only if the SU(3) structure group is reduced to SU(2). The equations are solved by one holomorphic function. Around the poles and zeros of the holomorphic function, the geometry locally looks like the well known type-A and type-B solutions. When this function is a constant, the geometry can be viewed as a holographic RG flow. After classifying the type IIB SU(3)-structure flux vacua, we analyze the effect of non-perturbative corrections on the moduli space of N = 2 flux compactifications. At energy below the Kaluza-Klein scale, the four dimensional effective theory is a gauged supergravity theory with vanishing cosmological constant. The gauging of isometries on the hyper-multiplet moduli space is induced by the fluxes. We show that instanton corrections which could potentially lift the gauged isometries are in fact prohibited both in the type IIA and heterotic string theories by the inclusion of flux. Hence gauged supergravity is a robust framework for studying flux vacua even when these stringy effects are taken into account. The mechanisms which protect the gauged isometries are different in the two theories. Then we switch to the understanding of SL(2, Z ) duality transformations in asymptotically AdS4 x S7 spacetime with an Abelian gauge theory. The bulk duality acts non-trivially on the three-dimensional SCFT of coincident M2-branes on the conformal boundary. We develop a systematic method to holographically obtain the deformations of the boundary CFT manifested by generalized boundary conditions and show how SL(2, Z ) duality relates different deformations of the conformal vacuum. We analyze in detail marginal deformations and deformations by dimension 4 operators. In the case of massive deformations, the RG flow induces a Legendre transform as well as S-duality. Correlation functions in the CFT are computed by differentiating with respect to magnetic bulk sources, whereas correlation functions in the Legendre dual CFT are computed using electric bulk sources. Under massive deformations, the boundary effective action is generically minimized by massive self-dual configurations of the U(1) gauge field. We show that a massive and self-dual boundary condition corresponds to the unique self-dual topologically massive gauge theory in three dimensions. Thus, self-duality in three dimensions can be understood as a consequence of SL(2, Z ) invariance in the bulk of AdS4. We discuss various implications for understanding the strongly interacting worldvolume theory of M2-branes and more general dualities of the maximally supersymmetric AdS4 supergravity theory. Finally we study the twistor string theory whose D-instanton expansion gives the perturbative expansion of marginally deformed N = 4 super-Yang-Mills theories. More precisely this string theory is a topological B-model with both open and closed string sectors with target space CP3|4 , a super-Calabi-Yau manifold. The tree-level amplitudes in the N = 1 beta-deformed field theory are exactly reproduced by introducing non-anticommutative star-products among the D1 and D5 open strings. A related star-product gives the tree-level amplitudes of the non-supersymmetric gamma-deformed conformal field theory. The non-anticommutativity arises essentially from the deformation of the supertwistor space which reduces the amount of superconformal symmetries realized by the supertwistor space. The tree-level gluonic amplitudes in more general marginally deformed field theories are also discussed using twistor string theory.

Vertex Operator Formulation of Scattering around Black-Hole

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Park, I. Y.

We propose a full-fledged open string framework that seems suited to study the black hole information paradox. We set up a configuration to compute the scattering amplitude of a IIB open string around a D5-brane. The D5-brane is situated at the origin of a transverse D3-brane. A string perturbation theory is employed where the geometry of the D5-brane is treated as a potential. We reason that the setup is capable of reconciling the unitary evolution of states and information loss that is measured by an observer on the D3 brane. With the configurations of these kinds, the information loss is an apparent phenomenon: it is just a manifestation of the fact that the D3-observer does not have access to the "hair" of the D5 black brane.

String theory origin of constrained multiplets

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kallosh, Renata; Vercnocke, Bert; Wrase, Timm

2016-09-01

We study the non-linearly realized spontaneously broken supersymmetry of the (anti-)D3-brane action in type IIB string theory. The worldvolume fields are one vector A μ , three complex scalars ϕ i and four 4d fermions λ 0, λ i. These transform, in addition to the more familiar {N}=4 linear supersymmetry, also under 16 spontaneously broken, non-linearly realized supersymmetries. We argue that the worldvolume fields can be packaged into the following constrained 4d non-linear {N}=1 multiplets: four chiral multiplets S, Y i that satisfy S 2 = SY i =0 and contain the worldvolume fermions λ 0 and λ i ; and four chiral multiplets W α , H i that satisfy S{W}_{α }=S{overline{D}}_{overset{\\cdotp }{α }}{overline{H}}^{overline{imath}}=0 and contain the vector A μ and the scalars ϕ i . We also discuss how placing an anti-D3-brane on top of intersecting O7-planes can lead to an orthogonal multiplet Φ that satisfies S(Φ -overline{Φ})=0 , which is particularly interesting for inflationary cosmology.

AdS/CFT in string theory and M-theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gulotta, Daniel R.

The AdS/CFT correspondence is a powerful tool that can help shed light on the relationship between geometry and field theory. The first part of this thesis will focus on the construction of theories dual to Type IIB string theory on AdS5 × Y5, where Y5 is a toric Sasaki-Einstein manifold. This thesis will introduce a consistency condition called ``proper ordering'' and demonstrate that it is equivalent to several other previously known consistency conditions. It will then give an efficient algorithm that produces a consistent field theory for any toric Sasaki-Einstein Y5. The second part of this thesis will examine the large-N limit of the Kapustin-Willett-Yaakov matrix model. This model computes the S3 partition function for a CFT dual to M-theory on AdS4 × Y7. One of the main results will be a formula that relates the distribution of eigenvalues in the matrix model to the distribution of holomorphic operators on the cone over Y7. A variety of examples are given to support this formula.

Yang-Baxter deformations of W2,4 × T1,1 and the associated T-dual models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakamoto, Jun-ichi; Yoshida, Kentaroh

2017-08-01

Recently, for principal chiral models and symmetric coset sigma models, Hoare and Tseytlin proposed an interesting conjecture that the Yang-Baxter deformations with the homogeneous classical Yang-Baxter equation are equivalent to non-abelian T-dualities with topological terms. It is significant to examine this conjecture for non-symmetric (i.e., non-integrable) cases. Such an example is the W2,4 ×T 1 , 1 background. In this note, we study Yang-Baxter deformations of type IIB string theory defined on W2,4 ×T 1 , 1 and the associated T-dual models, and show that this conjecture is valid even for this case. Our result indicates that the conjecture would be valid beyond integrability.

E11, brane dynamics and duality symmetries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

West, Peter

2018-05-01

Following arXiv:hep-th/0412336 we use the nonlinear realisation of the semi-direct product of E11 and its vector representation to construct brane dynamics. The brane moves through a space-time which arises in the nonlinear realisation from the vector representation and it contains the usual embedding coordinates as well as the worldvolume fields. The resulting equations of motion are first order in derivatives and can be thought of as duality relations. Each brane carries the full E11 symmetry and so the Cremmer-Julia duality symmetries. We apply this theory to find the dynamics of the IIA and IIB strings, the M2 and M5 branes, the IIB D3 brane as well as the one and two branes in seven dimensions.

Hyperconifold transitions, mirror symmetry, and string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Davies, Rhys

2011-09-01

Multiply-connected Calabi-Yau threefolds are of particular interest for both string theorists and mathematicians. Recently it was pointed out that one of the generic degenerations of these spaces (occurring at codimension one in moduli space) is an isolated singularity which is a finite cyclic quotient of the conifold; these were called hyperconifolds. It was also shown that if the order of the quotient group is even, such singular varieties have projective crepant resolutions, which are therefore smooth Calabi-Yau manifolds. The resulting topological transitions were called hyperconifold transitions, and change the fundamental group as well as the Hodge numbers. Here Batyrev's construction of Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces in toric fourfolds is used to demonstrate that certain compact examples containing the remaining hyperconifolds — the Z and Z cases — also have Calabi-Yau resolutions. The mirrors of the resulting transitions are studied and it is found, surprisingly, that they are ordinary conifold transitions. These are the first examples of conifold transitions with mirrors which are more exotic extremal transitions. The new hyperconifold transitions are also used to construct a small number of new Calabi-Yau manifolds, with small Hodge numbers and fundamental group Z or Z. Finally, it is demonstrated that a hyperconifold is a physically sensible background in Type IIB string theory. In analogy to the conifold case, non-perturbative dynamics smooth the physical moduli space, such that hyperconifold transitions correspond to non-singular processes in the full theory.

A black hole quartet: New solutions and applications to string theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Padi, Megha

In this thesis, we study a zoo of black hole solutions which help us connect string theory to the universe we live in. The intuition for how to attack fundamental problems can often be found in a toy model. In Chapter 2, we show that three-dimensional topologically massive gravity with a negative cosmological constant -ℓ -2 and coupling constant has "warped AdS3" solutions with SL(2, R ) x U(1) isometry. For muℓ > 3, we show that certain discrete quotients of warped AdS3 lead to black holes. Their thermodynamics is consistent with the existence of a holographic dual CFT with central charges cR = 15mℓ 2+81Gmm ℓ2+27 and cL = 12mℓ 2Gmm ℓ2+27 . The entropy of many supersymmetric black holes have been accounted for, but more realistic non-supersymmetric black holes have been largely overlooked. In Chapter 3, we derive new single-centered and multi-centered non-BPS black hole solutions for several four dimensional models which, after Kaluza-Klein reduction, admit a description in terms of a sigma model with symmetric target space. In particular, we provide the exact solution with generic charges and asymptotic moduli in N=2 supergravity coupled to one vector multiplet. As it stands, the current formulation of string theory allows for an extremely large number of possible solutions (or vacua). We first analyze this landscape by looking for universal characteristics. In Chapter 4, we provide evidence for the conjecture that gravity is always the weakest force in any string compactification. We show that, in several examples arising in string theory, higher-derivative corrections always make extremal non-supersymmetric black holes lighter than the classical bound M/Q = 1. In Chapter 5, we construct novel black hole bound states, called orientiholes, that are T-dual to IIB orientifold compactifications. The gravitational entropy of such orientiholes provides an "experimental" estimate of the number of vacua in various sectors of the IIB landscape. Furthermore, basic physical properties of orientiholes map to (sometimes subtle) microscopic features, thus providing a useful alternative viewpoint on a number of issues arising in D-brane model building. We also suggest a relation to the topological string analogous to the OSV conjecture.

The large N limit of superconformal field theories and supergravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Maldacena, Juan

1999-07-01

We show that the large N limit of certain conformal field theories in various dimensions include in their Hilbert space a sector describing supergravity on the product of Anti-deSitter spacetimes, spheres and other compact manifolds. This is shown by taking some branes in the full M/string theory and then taking a low energy limit where the field theory on the brane decouples from the bulk. We observe that, in this limit, we can still trust the near horizon geometry for large N. The enhanced supersymmetries of the near horizon geometry correspond to the extra supersymmetry generators present in the superconformal group (as opposed to just the super-Poincare group). The 't Hooft limit of 3+1N=4 super-Yang-Mills at the conformal point is shown to contain strings: they are IIB strings. We conjecture that compactifications of M/string theory on various Anti-deSitter spacetimes is dual to various conformal field theories. This leads to a new proposal for a definition of M-theory which could be extended to include five non-compact dimensions.

Local D3/D7 μ-SPLIT SUSY, 125 GeV Higgs and Large Volume Ricci-Flat Swiss-Cheese Metrics:. a Brief Review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Misra, Aalok

In this paper, we review briefly recent progress made in realizing local(ized around a mobile spacetime filling D3-brane in) D3/D7 μ-split Supersymmetry in (the large volume limit of Type IIB) String Theory (compactified on Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau orientifolds) as well as obtaining a 125 GeV (light) Higgs in the same setup. We also discuss obtaining the geometric Kähler potential (and hence the Ricci-flat metric) for the Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau in the large volume limit using the Donaldson's algorithm and intuition from GLSM-based calculations — we present new results for Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau (used in the setup) metrics at points finitely away from the "big" divisor.

Charged black holes and the AdS/CFT correspondence

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tesileanu, Tiberiu

The AdS/CFT duality is an equivalence between string theory and gauge theory. The duality allows one to use calculations done in classical gravity to derive results in strongly-coupled field theories. This thesis explores several applications of the duality that have some relevance to condensed matter physics. In the first of these applications, it is shown that a large class of strongly-coupled (3 + 1)-dimensional conformal field theories undergo a superfluid phase transition in which a certain chiral primary operator develops a non-zero expectation value at low temperatures. A suggestion is made for the identity of the condensing operator in the field theory. In a different application, the conifold theory, an SU(N) x SU(N) gauge theory, is studied at nonzero chemical potential for baryon number density. In the low-temperature limit, the near-horizon geometry of the dual supergravity solution becomes a warped product AdS 2 x R3 x T1,1, with logarithmic warp factors. This encodes a type of emergent quantum near-criticality in the field theory. A similar construction is analyzed in the context of M theory. This construction is based on branes wrapped around topologically nontrivial cycles of the geometry. Several non-supersymmetric solutions are found, which pass a number of stability checks. Reducing one of the solutions to type IIA string theory, and T-dualizing to type IIB yields a product of a squashed Sasaki-Einstein manifold with an extremal BTZ black hole. Possible field theory interpretations are discussed.

Supersymmetry: Compactification, flavor, and dualities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heidenreich, Benjamin Jones

We describe several new research directions in the area of supersymmetry. In the context of low-energy supersymmetry, we show that the assumption of R-parity can be replaced with the minimal flavor violation hypothesis, solving the issue of nucleon decay and the new physics flavor problem in one stroke. The assumption of minimal flavor violation uniquely fixes the form of the baryon number violating vertex, leading to testable predictions. The NLSP is unstable, and decays promptly to jets, evading stringent bounds on vanilla supersymmetry from LHC searches, whereas the gravitino is long-lived, and can be a dark matter component. In the case of a sbottom LSP, neutral mesinos can form and undergo oscillations before decaying, leading to same sign tops, and allowing us to place constraints on the model in this case. We show that this well-motivated phenomenology can be naturally explained by spontaneously breaking a gauged flavor symmetry at a high scale in the presence of additional vector-like quarks, leading to mass mixings which simultaneously generate the flavor structure of the baryon-number violating vertex and the Standard Model Yukawa couplings, explaining their minimal flavor violating structure. We construct a model which is robust against Planck suppressed corrections and which also solves the mu problem. In the context of flux compactifications, we begin a study of the local geometry near a stack of D7 branes supporting a gaugino condensate, an integral component of the KKLT scenario for Kahler moduli stabilization. We obtain an exact solution for the geometry in a certain limit using reasonable assumptions about symmetries, and argue that this solution exhibits BPS domain walls, as expected from field theory arguments. We also begin a larger program of understanding general supersymmetric compactifications of type IIB string theory, reformulating previous results in an SL(2, R ) covariant fashion. Finally, we present extensive evidence for a new class of N = 1 gauge theory dualities relating different world-volume gauge theories of D3 branes probing an orientifold singularity. We argue that these dualities originate from the S-duality of type IIB string theory, much like electromagnetic dualities of N = 4 gauge theories.

Supergravity backgrounds for deformations of AdS n × S n supercoset string models

DOE PAGES

Lunin, O.; Roiban, R.; Tseytlin, A. A.

2014-12-11

We considermore » type IIB supergravity backgrounds corresponding to the deformed AdS n × S n × T 10 - 2 n supercoset string models of the type constructed in arXiv:1309.5850[2] which depend on one deformation parameter κ. In AdS 2 × S 2 case we find that the deformed metric can be extended to a full supergravity solution with non-trivial dilaton, RR scalar and RR 5-form strength. The solution depends on a free parameter a that should be chosen as a particular function of κ to correspond to the deformed supercoset model. In AdS 3 × S 3 case the full solution supported by the dilaton, RR scalar and RR 3-form strength exists only in the two special cases, a = 0 and a = 1 . We conjecture that there may be a more general one-parameter solution supported by several RR fields that for particular a = a ( κ ) corresponds to the supercoset model. In the most complicated deformed AdS 5 × S 5 case we were able to find only the expressions for the dilaton and the RR scalar. The full solution is likely to be supported by a combination of the 5-form and 3-form field strengths. We comment on the singularity structure of the resulting metric and exact dilaton field.« less

Supergravity backgrounds for deformations of AdS n × S n supercoset string models

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lunin, O.; Roiban, R.; Tseytlin, A. A.

We considermore » type IIB supergravity backgrounds corresponding to the deformed AdS n × S n × T 10 - 2 n supercoset string models of the type constructed in arXiv:1309.5850[2] which depend on one deformation parameter κ. In AdS 2 × S 2 case we find that the deformed metric can be extended to a full supergravity solution with non-trivial dilaton, RR scalar and RR 5-form strength. The solution depends on a free parameter a that should be chosen as a particular function of κ to correspond to the deformed supercoset model. In AdS 3 × S 3 case the full solution supported by the dilaton, RR scalar and RR 3-form strength exists only in the two special cases, a = 0 and a = 1 . We conjecture that there may be a more general one-parameter solution supported by several RR fields that for particular a = a ( κ ) corresponds to the supercoset model. In the most complicated deformed AdS 5 × S 5 case we were able to find only the expressions for the dilaton and the RR scalar. The full solution is likely to be supported by a combination of the 5-form and 3-form field strengths. We comment on the singularity structure of the resulting metric and exact dilaton field.« less

Quantum vacua of 2d maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Koloğlu, Murat

2017-11-01

We analyze the classical and quantum vacua of 2d N=(8,8) supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with SU( N) and U( N) gauge group, describing the worldvolume interactions of N parallel D1-branes with flat transverse directions {R}^8 . We claim that the IR limit of the SU( N) theory in the superselection sector labeled M (mod N) — identified with the internal dynamics of ( M, N)-string bound states of the Type IIB string theory — is described by the symmetric orbifold N=(8,8) sigma model into ({R}^8)^{D-1}/S_D when D = gcd( M, N) > 1, and by a single massive vacuum when D = 1, generalizing the conjectures of E. Witten and others. The full worldvolume theory of the D1-branes is the U( N) theory with an additional U(1) 2-form gauge field B coming from the string theory Kalb-Ramond field. This U( N) + B theory has generalized field configurations, labeled by the Z-valued generalized electric flux and an independent {Z}_N -valued 't Hooft flux. We argue that in the quantum mechanical theory, the ( M, N)-string sector with M units of electric flux has a {Z}_N -valued discrete θ angle specified by M (mod N) dual to the 't Hooft flux. Adding the brane center-of-mass degrees of freedom to the SU( N) theory, we claim that the IR limit of the U( N) + B theory in the sector with M bound F-strings is described by the N=(8,8) sigma model into {Sym}^D({R}^8) . We provide strong evidence for these claims by computing an N=(8,8) analog of the elliptic genus of the UV gauge theories and of their conjectured IR limit sigma models, and showing they agree. Agreement is established by noting that the elliptic genera are modular-invariant Abelian (multi-periodic and meromorphic) functions, which turns out to be very restrictive.

Analysis of Altered Micro RNA Expression Profiles in Focal Cortical Dysplasia IIB.

PubMed

Li, Lin; Liu, Chang-Qing; Li, Tian-Fu; Guan, Yu-Guang; Zhou, Jian; Qi, Xue-Ling; Yang, Yu-Tao; Deng, Jia-Hui; Xu, Zhi-Qing David; Luan, Guo-Ming

2016-04-01

Focal cortical dysplasia type IIB is a commonly encountered subtype of developmental malformation of the cerebral cortex and is often associated with pharmacoresistant epilepsy. In this study, to investigate the molecular etiology of focal cortical dysplasia type IIB, the authors performed micro ribonucleic acid (RNA) microarray on surgical specimens from 5 children (2 female and 3 male, mean age was 73.4 months, range 50-112 months) diagnosed of focal cortical dysplasia type IIB and matched normal tissue adjacent to the lesion. In all, 24 micro RNAs were differentially expressed in focal cortical dysplasia type IIB, and the microarray results were validated using quantitative real-time polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Then the putative target genes of the differentially expressed micro RNAs were identified by bioinformatics analysis. Moreover, biological significance of the target genes was evaluated by investigating the pathways in which the genes were enriched, and the Hippo signaling pathway was proposed to be highly related with the pathogenesis of focal cortical dysplasia type IIB. © The Author(s) 2015.

Clinical, imaging, and immunohistochemical characteristics of focal cortical dysplasia Type II extratemporal epilepsies in children: analyses of an institutional case series.

PubMed

Knerlich-Lukoschus, Friederike; Connolly, Mary B; Hendson, Glenda; Steinbok, Paul; Dunham, Christopher

2017-02-01

OBJECTIVE Focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) Type II is divided into 2 subgroups based on the absence (IIA) or presence (IIB) of balloon cells. In particular, extratemporal FCD Type IIA and IIB is not completely understood in terms of clinical, imaging, biological, and neuropathological differences. The aim of the authors was to analyze distinctions between these 2 formal entities and address clinical, MRI, and immunohistochemical features of extratemporal epilepsies in children. METHODS Cases formerly classified as Palmini FCD Type II nontemporal epilepsies were identified through the prospectively maintained epilepsy database at the British Columbia Children's Hospital in Vancouver, Canada. Clinical data, including age of seizure onset, age at surgery, seizure type(s) and frequency, affected brain region(s), intraoperative electrocorticographic findings, and outcome defined by Engel's classification were obtained for each patient. Preoperative and postoperative MRI results were reevaluated. H & E-stained tissue sections were reevaluated by using the 2011 International League Against Epilepsy classification system and additional immunostaining for standard cellular markers (neuronal nuclei, neurofilament, glial fibrillary acidic protein, CD68). Two additional established markers of pathology in epilepsy resection, namely, CD34 and α-B crystallin, were applied. RESULTS Seven nontemporal FCD Type IIA and 7 Type B cases were included. Patients with FCD Type IIA presented with an earlier age of epilepsy onset and slightly better Engel outcome. Radiology distinguished FCD Types IIA and IIB, in that Type IIB presented more frequently with characteristic cortical alterations. Nonphosphorylated neurofilament protein staining confirmed dysplastic cells in dyslaminated areas. The white-gray matter junction was focally blurred in patients with FCD Type IIB. α-B crystallin highlighted glial cells in the white matter and subpial layer with either of the 2 FCD Type II subtypes and balloon cells in patients with FCD Type IIB. α-B crystallin positivity proved to be a valuable tool for confirming the histological diagnosis of FCD Type IIB in specimens with rare balloon cells or difficult section orientation. Distinct nonendothelial cellular CD34 staining was found exclusively in tissue from patients with MRI-positive FCD Type IIB. CONCLUSIONS Extratemporal FCD Types IIA and IIB in the pediatric age group exhibited imaging and immunohistochemical characteristics; cellular immunoreactivity to CD34 emerged as an especially potential surrogate marker for lesional FCD Type IIB, providing additional evidence that FCD Types IIA and IIB might differ in their etiology and biology. Although the sample number in this study was small, the results further support the theory that postoperative outcome-defined by Engel's classification-is multifactorial and determined by not only histology but also the extent of the initial lesion, its location in eloquent areas, intraoperative electrocorticographic findings, and achieved resection grade.

Changes in skeletal muscle biochemistry and histology relative to fiber type in rats with heart failure.

PubMed

Delp, M D; Duan, C; Mattson, J P; Musch, T I

1997-10-01

One of the primary consequences of left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) after myocardial infarction is a decrement in exercise capacity. Several factors have been hypothesized to account for this decrement, including alterations in skeletal muscle metabolism and aerobic capacity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether LVD-induced alterations in skeletal muscle enzyme activities, fiber composition, and fiber size are 1) generalized in muscles or specific to muscles composed primarily of a given fiber type and 2) related to the severity of the LVD. Female Wistar rats were divided into three groups: sham-operated controls (n = 13) and rats with moderate (n = 10) and severe (n = 7) LVD. LVD was surgically induced by ligating the left main coronary artery and resulted in elevations (P < 0.05) in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (sham, 5 +/- 1 mmHg; moderate LVD, 11 +/- 1 mmHg; severe LVD, 25 +/- 1 mmHg). Moderate LVD decreased the activities of phosphofructokinase (PFK) and citrate synthase in one muscle composed of type IIB fibers but did not modify fiber composition or size of any muscle studied. However, severe LVD diminished the activity of enzymes involved in terminal and beta-oxidation in muscles composed primarily of type I fibers, type IIA fibers, and type IIB fibers. In addition, severe LVD induced a reduction in the activity of PFK in type IIB muscle, a 10% reduction in the percentage of type IID/X fibers, and a corresponding increase in the portion of type IIB fibers. Atrophy of type I fibers, type IIA fibers, and/or type IIB fibers occurred in soleus and plantaris muscles of rats with severe LVD. These data indicate that rats with severe LVD after myocardial infarction exhibit 1) decrements in mitochondrial enzyme activities independent of muscle fiber composition, 2) a reduction in PFK activity in type IIB muscle, 3) transformation of type IID/X to type IIB fibers, and 4) atrophy of type I, IIA, and IIB fibers.

Changes in skeletal muscle biochemistry and histology relative to fiber type in rats with heart failure

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Delp, M. D.; Duan, C.; Mattson, J. P.; Musch, T. I.

1997-01-01

One of the primary consequences of left ventricular dysfunction (LVD) after myocardial infarction is a decrement in exercise capacity. Several factors have been hypothesized to account for this decrement, including alterations in skeletal muscle metabolism and aerobic capacity. The purpose of this study was to determine whether LVD-induced alterations in skeletal muscle enzyme activities, fiber composition, and fiber size are 1) generalized in muscles or specific to muscles composed primarily of a given fiber type and 2) related to the severity of the LVD. Female Wistar rats were divided into three groups: sham-operated controls (n = 13) and rats with moderate (n = 10) and severe (n = 7) LVD. LVD was surgically induced by ligating the left main coronary artery and resulted in elevations (P < 0.05) in left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (sham, 5 +/- 1 mmHg; moderate LVD, 11 +/- 1 mmHg; severe LVD, 25 +/- 1 mmHg). Moderate LVD decreased the activities of phosphofructokinase (PFK) and citrate synthase in one muscle composed of type IIB fibers but did not modify fiber composition or size of any muscle studied. However, severe LVD diminished the activity of enzymes involved in terminal and beta-oxidation in muscles composed primarily of type I fibers, type IIA fibers, and type IIB fibers. In addition, severe LVD induced a reduction in the activity of PFK in type IIB muscle, a 10% reduction in the percentage of type IID/X fibers, and a corresponding increase in the portion of type IIB fibers. Atrophy of type I fibers, type IIA fibers, and/or type IIB fibers occurred in soleus and plantaris muscles of rats with severe LVD. These data indicate that rats with severe LVD after myocardial infarction exhibit 1) decrements in mitochondrial enzyme activities independent of muscle fiber composition, 2) a reduction in PFK activity in type IIB muscle, 3) transformation of type IID/X to type IIB fibers, and 4) atrophy of type I, IIA, and IIB fibers.

Importance of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol levels in elderly diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia: A 2-year survey of cardiovascular events.

PubMed

Ina, Koichiro; Hayashi, Toshio; Araki, Atsushi; Kawashima, Seinosuke; Sone, Hirohito; Watanabe, Hiroshi; Ohrui, Takashi; Yokote, Koutaro; Takemoto, Minoru; Kubota, Kiyoshi; Noda, Mitsuhiko; Noto, Hiroshi; Ding, Qun-Fang; Zhang, Jie; Yu, Ze-Yun; Yoon, Byung-Koo; Nomura, Hideki; Kuzuya, Masafumi

2014-10-01

The risk factors for ischemic heart disease (IHD) or cerebrovascular accident (CVA) in elderly diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia are not fully known. Therefore, we investigated the relationship between lipid levels and IHD and CVA in diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia. The Japan Cholesterol and Diabetes Mellitus Study is a prospective cohort study of 4014 type 2 diabetic patients (1936 women; age 67.4 ± 9.5 years). The primary end-points were the onset of IHD or CVA. Lipid and glucose levels, and other factors were investigated in relation to the occurrence of IHD or CVA. A total of 462 participants were included in the group of patients with type IIb dyslipidemia. The 462 diabetic participants with type IIb dyslipidemia were divided into those who were aged <65 years, 65-74 years and >75 years (n=168, 190 and 104, respectively). High-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol/HDL-C were significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events in diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia who were aged <65 years, and HDL-C and diastolic blood pressure was significantly associated with cardiovascular events in patients aged 65-74 years. Non-HDL-C was not significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events. Multiple regression analysis showed that lower HDL-C was significantly associated with the risk of cardiovascular events in diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia who were aged <65 years and 65-74 years. Lower HDL-C was an important risk factor for cardiovascular events in diabetic individuals with type IIb dyslipidemia who were aged <75 years. © 2013 Japan Geriatrics Society.

Large field inflation from axion mixing

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shiu, Gary; Staessens, Wieland; Ye, Fang

2015-06-01

We study the general multi-axion systems, focusing on the possibility of large field inflation driven by axions. We find that through axion mixing from a non-diagonal metric on the moduli space and/or from Stückelberg coupling to a U(1) gauge field, an effectively super-Planckian decay constant can be generated without the need of "alignment" in the axion decay constants. We also investigate the consistency conditions related to the gauge symmetries in the multi-axion systems, such as vanishing gauge anomalies and the potential presence of generalized Chern-Simons terms. Our scenario applies generally to field theory models whose axion periodicities are intrinsically sub-Planckian, but it is most naturally realized in string theory. The types of axion mixings invoked in our scenario appear quite commonly in D-brane models, and we present its implementation in type II superstring theory. Explicit stringy models exhibiting all the characteristics of our ideas are constructed within the frameworks of Type IIA intersecting D6-brane models on and Type IIB intersecting D7-brane models on Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau orientifolds.

Structure–activity correlations of variant forms of the B pentamer of Escherichia coli type II heat-labile enterotoxin LT-IIb with Toll-like receptor 2 binding

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Cody, Vivian, E-mail: cody@hwi.buffalo.edu; University at Buffalo, 700 Ellicott Street, Buffalo, NY 14203; Pace, Jim

2012-12-01

Structural data for the S74D variant of the pentameric B subunit of type II heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli reveal a smaller pore opening that may explain its reduced Toll-like receptor binding affinity compared to that of the wild type enterotoxin. The explanation for the enhanced Toll-like receptor binding affinity of the S74A variant is more complex than simply being attributed to the pore opening. The pentameric B subunit of the type II heat-labile enterotoxin of Escherichia coli (LT-IIb-B{sub 5}) is a potent signaling molecule capable of modulating innate immune responses. It has previously been shown that LT-IIb-B{sub 5}, butmore » not the LT-IIb-B{sub 5} Ser74Asp variant [LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(S74D)], activates Toll-like receptor (TLR2) signaling in macrophages. Consistent with this, the LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(S74D) variant failed to bind TLR2, in contrast to LT-IIb-B{sub 5} and the LT-IIb-B{sub 5} Thr13Ile [LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(T13I)] and LT-IIb-B{sub 5} Ser74Ala [LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(S74A)] variants, which displayed the highest binding activity to TLR2. Crystal structures of the Ser74Asp, Ser74Ala and Thr13Ile variants of LT-IIb-B{sub 5} have been determined to 1.90, 1.40 and 1.90 Å resolution, respectively. The structural data for the Ser74Asp variant reveal that the carboxylate side chain points into the pore, thereby reducing the pore size compared with that of the wild-type or the Ser74Ala variant B pentamer. On the basis of these crystallographic data, the reduced TLR2-binding affinity of the LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(S74D) variant may be the result of the pore of the pentamer being closed. On the other hand, the explanation for the enhanced TLR2-binding activity of the LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(S74A) variant is more complex as its activity is greater than that of the wild-type B pentamer, which also has an open pore as the Ser74 side chain points away from the pore opening. Data for the LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(T13I) variant show that four of the five variant side chains point to the outside surface of the pentamer and one residue points inside. These data are consistent with the lack of binding of the LT-IIb-B{sub 5}(T13I) variant to GD1a ganglioside.« less

Quarterly Performance/Technical Report of the National Marrow Donor Program

DTIC Science & Technology

2008-02-05

HLA-DRB1 High Resolution Typing Closed 9 IIB.1.3 Aim 3 – Evaluate HLA-C Typing of Donors Closed 9 IIB.1.4 Aim 4 – Evaluate Buccal Swabs Open 10 IIB...December 31, 2007 10 of 21 IIB.1.4 Aim 4: Evaluate Buccal Swabs Period 5 Activity: In April of 2006, the NMDP transitioned to the use of... buccal swabs for the collection of DNA samples from newly recruited donors. To support this change in sample type, Quality Control samples for donor

SUSY’s Ladder: Reframing sequestering at Large Volume

DOE PAGES

Reece, Matthew; Xue, Wei

2016-04-07

Theories with approximate no-scale structure, such as the Large Volume Scenario, have a distinctive hierarchy of multiple mass scales in between TeV gaugino masses and the Planck scale, which we call SUSY's Ladder. This is a particular realization of Split Supersymmetry in which the same small parameter suppresses gaugino masses relative to scalar soft masses, scalar soft masses relative to the gravitino mass, and the UV cutoff or string scale relative to the Planck scale. This scenario has many phenomenologically interesting properties, and can avoid dangers including the gravitino problem, flavor problems, and the moduli-induced LSP problem that plague othermore » supersymmetric theories. We study SUSY's Ladder using a superspace formalism that makes the mysterious cancelations in previous computations manifest. This opens the possibility of a consistent effective field theory understanding of the phenomenology of these scenarios, based on power-counting in the small ratio of string to Planck scales. We also show that four-dimensional theories with approximate no-scale structure enforced by a single volume modulus arise only from two special higher-dimensional theories: five-dimensional supergravity and ten-dimensional type IIB supergravity. As a result, this gives a phenomenological argument in favor of ten dimensional ultraviolet physics which is different from standard arguments based on the consistency of superstring theory.« less

Anisotropic modulus stabilisation: strings at LHC scales with micron-sized extra dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cicoli, M.; Burgess, C. P.; Quevedo, F.

2011-10-01

We construct flux-stabilised Type IIB string compactifications whose extra dimensions have very different sizes, and use these to describe several types of vacua with a TeV string scale. Because we can access regimes where two dimensions are hierarchically larger than the other four, we find examples where two dimensions are micron-sized while the other four are at the weak scale in addition to more standard examples with all six extra dimensions equally large. Besides providing ultraviolet completeness, the phenomenology of these models is richer than vanilla large-dimensional models in several generic ways: ( i) they are supersymmetric, with supersymmetry broken at sub-eV scales in the bulk but only nonlinearly realised in the Standard Model sector, leading to no MSSM superpartners for ordinary particles and many more bulk missing-energy channels, as in supersymmetric large extra dimensions (SLED); ( ii) small cycles in the more complicated extra-dimensional geometry allow some KK states to reside at TeV scales even if all six extra dimensions are nominally much larger; ( iii) a rich spectrum of string and KK states at TeV scales; and ( iv) an equally rich spectrum of very light moduli exist having unusually small (but technically natural) masses, with potentially interesting implications for cosmology and astrophysics that nonetheless evade new-force constraints. The hierarchy problem is solved in these models because the extra-dimensional volume is naturally stabilised at exponentially large values: the extra dimensions are Calabi-Yau geometries with a 4D K3 or T 4-fibration over a 2D base, with moduli stabilised within the well-established LARGE-Volume scenario. The new technical step is the use of poly-instanton corrections to the superpotential (which, unlike for simpler models, are likely to be present on K3 or T 4-fibered Calabi-Yau compactifications) to obtain a large hierarchy between the sizes of different dimensions. For several scenarios we identify the low-energy spectrum and briefly discuss some of their astrophysical, cosmological and phenomenological implications.

T -folds from Yang-Baxter deformations

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fernández-Melgarejo, José J.; Sakamoto, Jun-ichi; Sakatani, Yuho; Yoshida, Kentaroh

2017-12-01

Yang-Baxter (YB) deformations of type IIB string theory have been well studied from the viewpoint of classical integrability. Most of the works, however, are focused upon the local structure of the deformed geometries and the global structure still remains unclear. In this work, we reveal a non-geometric aspect of YB-deformed backgrounds as T -fold by explicitly showing the associated O( D, D; ℤ) T -duality monodromy. In particular, the appearance of an extra vector field in the generalized supergravity equations (GSE) leads to the non-geometric Q-flux. In addition, we study a particular solution of GSE that is obtained by a non-Abelian T-duality but cannot be expressed as a homogeneous YB deformation, and show that it can also be regarded as a T -fold. This result indicates that solutions of GSE should be non-geometric quite in general beyond the YB deformation.

Toward de Sitter space from ten dimensions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Moritz, Jakob; Retolaza, Ander; Westphal, Alexander

2018-02-01

Using a 10D lift of nonperturbative volume stabilization in type IIB string theory, we study the limitations for obtaining de Sitter vacua. Based on this we find that the simplest Kachru, Kallosh, Linde, and Trivedi vacua with a single Kähler modulus stabilized by a gaugino condensate cannot be uplifted to de Sitter. Rather, the uplift flattens out due to stronger backreaction on the volume modulus than has previously been anticipated, resulting in vacua which are metastable and supersymmetry breaking, but that are always anti-de Sitter (AdS). However, we also show that setups such as racetrack stabilization can avoid this issue. In these models it is possible to obtain supersymmetric AdS vacua with a cosmological constant that can be tuned to zero while retaining finite moduli stabilization. In this regime, it seems that de Sitter uplifts are possible with negligible backreaction on the internal volume. We exhibit this behavior also from the 10D perspective.

Generation of large-scale magnetic fields, non-Gaussianity, and primordial gravitational waves in inflationary cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bamba, Kazuharu

2015-02-01

The generation of large-scale magnetic fields in inflationary cosmology is explored, in particular, in a kind of moduli inflation motivated by racetrack inflation in the context of the type IIB string theory. In this model, the conformal invariance of the hypercharge electromagnetic fields is broken thanks to the coupling of both the scalar and pseudoscalar fields to the hypercharge electromagnetic fields. The following three cosmological observable quantities are first evaluated: the current magnetic field strength on the Hubble horizon scale, which is much smaller than the upper limit from the backreaction problem, local non-Gaussianity of the curvature perturbations due to the existence of the massive gauge fields, and the tensor-to-scalar ratio. It is explicitly demonstrated that the resultant values of local non-Gaussianity and the tensor-to-scalar ratio are consistent with the Planck data.

Flat monodromies and a Moduli Space Size Conjecture

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hebecker, Arthur; Henkenjohann, Philipp; Witkowski, Lukas T.

2017-12-01

We investigate how super-Planckian axions can arise when type IIB 3-form flux is used to restrict a two-axion field space to a one-dimensional winding trajectory. If one does not attempt to address notoriously complicated issues like Kähler moduli stabilization, SUSY-breaking and inflation, this can be done very explicitly. We show that the presence of flux generates flat monodromies in the moduli space which we therefore call `Monodromic Moduli Space'. While we do indeed find long axionic trajectories, these are non-geodesic. Moreover, the length of geodesics remains highly constrained, in spite of the (finite) monodromy group introduced by the flux. We attempt to formulate this in terms of a `Moduli Space Size Conjecture'. Interesting mathematical structures arise in that the relevant spaces turn out to be fundamental domains of congruence subgroups of the modular group. In addition, new perspectives on inflation in string theory emerge.

Bayesian phylogeny of sucrose transporters: ancient origins, differential expansion and convergent evolution in monocots and dicots

PubMed Central

Peng, Duo; Gu, Xi; Xue, Liang-Jiao; Leebens-Mack, James H.; Tsai, Chung-Jui

2014-01-01

Sucrose transporters (SUTs) are essential for the export and efficient movement of sucrose from source leaves to sink organs in plants. The angiosperm SUT family was previously classified into three or four distinct groups, Types I, II (subgroup IIB), and III, with dicot-specific Type I and monocot-specific Type IIB functioning in phloem loading. To shed light on the underlying drivers of SUT evolution, Bayesian phylogenetic inference was undertaken using 41 sequenced plant genomes, including seven basal lineages at key evolutionary junctures. Our analysis supports four phylogenetically and structurally distinct SUT subfamilies, originating from two ancient groups (AG1 and AG2) that diverged early during terrestrial colonization. In both AG1 and AG2, multiple intron acquisition events in the progenitor vascular plant established the gene structures of modern SUTs. Tonoplastic Type III and plasmalemmal Type II represent evolutionarily conserved descendants of AG1 and AG2, respectively. Type I and Type IIB were previously thought to evolve after the dicot-monocot split. We show, however, that divergence of Type I from Type III SUT predated basal angiosperms, likely associated with evolution of vascular cambium and phloem transport. Type I SUT was subsequently lost in monocots along with vascular cambium, and independent evolution of Type IIB coincided with modified monocot vasculature. Both Type I and Type IIB underwent lineage-specific expansion. In multiple unrelated taxa, the newly-derived SUTs exhibit biased expression in reproductive tissues, suggesting a functional link between phloem loading and reproductive fitness. Convergent evolution of Type I and Type IIB for SUT function in phloem loading and reproductive organs supports the idea that differential vascular development in dicots and monocots is a strong driver for SUT family evolution in angiosperms. PMID:25429293

IIB duals of D = 3 {N} = 4 circular quivers

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assel, Benjamin; Bachas, Costas; Estes, John; Gomis, Jaume

2012-12-01

We construct the type-IIB AdS4 ⋉ K supergravity solutions which are dual to the three-dimensional {N} = 4 superconformal field theories that arise as infrared fixed points of circular-quiver gauge theories. These superconformal field theories are labeled by a triple ( {ρ, hat{ρ},L} ) subject to constraints, where ρ and hat{ρ} are two partitions of a number N, and L is a positive integer. We show that in the limit of large L the localized five- branes in our solutions are effectively smeared, and these type-IIB solutions are dual to the near-horizon geometry of M-theory M2-branes at a {{{{{{C}}^4}}} / {{( {{Z_k}× {Z_{widehat{k}}}} )}} .} orbifold singularity. Our IIB solutions resolve the singularity into localized five-brane throats, without breaking the conformal symmetry. The constraints satisfied by the triple ( {ρ, hat{ρ},L} ) , together with the enhanced non-abelian flavour symmetries of the superconformal field theories are precisely reproduced by the type-IIB supergravity solutions. As a bonus, we uncover a novel type of "orbifold equivalence" between different quantum field theories and provide quantitative evidence for this equivalence.

Formulation of D-brane Dynamics

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Evans, Thomas

2012-03-01

It is the purpose of this paper (within the context of STS rules & guidelines ``research report'') to formulate a statistical-mechanical form of D-brane dynamics. We consider first the path integral formulation of quantum mechanics, and extend this to a path-integral formulation of D-brane mechanics, summing over all the possible path integral sectors of R-R, NS charged states. We then investigate this generalization utilizing a path-integral formulation summing over all the possible path integral sectors of R-R charged states, calculated from the mean probability tree-level amplitude of type I, IIA, and IIB strings, serving as a generalization of all strings described by D-branes. We utilize this generalization to study black holes in regimes where the initial D-brane system is legitimate, and further this generalization to look at information loss near regions of nonlocality on a non-ordinary event horizon. We see here that in these specific regimes, we can calculate a path integral formulation, as describing D0-brane mechanics, tracing the dissipation of entropy throughout the event horizon. This is used to study the information paradox, and to propose a resolution between the phenomena and the correct and expected quantum mechanical description. This is done as our path integral throughout entropy entering the event horizon effectively and correctly encodes the initial state in subtle correlations in the Hawking radiation.

[Type IIb primary hyperlipoproteinemia. An homogenous series of 412 cases].

PubMed

Rouffy, J; Loeper, J; Dreux, C; Lemogne, M; Loeper, J; Pestel, M; Dakkak, R

1976-03-20

On the basis of a homogeneous series of 412 cases of type IIb primary hyperlipoproteinaemia, the authors compare their experience with findings in the literature. The prevalence of this type of hyperlipoproteinaemia in the general population has been underestimated at 3%. Biological diagnosis remains simple (identification of a double and distinct excess in beta and pre beta lipoproteins). Extravascular lipid deposits (gerontoxon, xanthelasma, tendon xanthomata) are not type specific. Hyperlipidaemic syndrome is rare. Above all, the importance of type IIb in atheromatous disease in the young subject now seems obvious. The mode of hereditary transmission of the familial anomaly is not certain but would appear to be often associated with a double heterozygote condition.

Platelet adhesion via glycoprotein IIb integrin is critical for atheroprogression and focal cerebral ischemia: an in vivo study in mice lacking glycoprotein IIb.

PubMed

Massberg, Steffen; Schürzinger, Katrin; Lorenz, Michael; Konrad, Ildiko; Schulz, Christian; Plesnila, Nikolaus; Kennerknecht, Elisabeth; Rudelius, Martina; Sauer, Susanne; Braun, Siegmund; Kremmer, Elisabeth; Emambokus, Nikla R; Frampton, Jon; Gawaz, Meinrad

2005-08-23

The platelet glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa integrin binds to fibrinogen and thereby mediates platelet aggregation. Here, we addressed the role of GP IIb for platelet adhesion and determined the relevance of platelet GP IIb for the processes of atherosclerosis and cerebral ischemia-reperfusion (I/R) injury. GP IIb(-/-) mice were generated and bred with ApoE(-/-) animals to create GP IIb(-/-)ApoE(-/-) mice. Platelet adhesion to the mechanically injured or atherosclerotic vessel wall was monitored by in vivo video fluorescence microscopy. In the presence of GP IIb, vascular injury and early atherosclerosis induced platelet adhesion in the carotid artery (CA). In contrast, platelet adhesion was significantly reduced in the absence of GP IIb integrin (P<0.05). To address the contribution of platelet GP IIb to atheroprogression, we determined atherosclerotic lesion formation in the CA and aortic arch (AA) of GP IIb(+/+)ApoE(-/-) or GP IIb(-/-)ApoE(-/-) mice. Interestingly, the absence of GP IIb attenuated lesion formation in CA and AA, indicating that platelets, via GP IIb, contribute substantially to atherosclerosis. Next, we assessed the implication of GP IIb for cerebral I/R injury. We observed that after occlusion of the middle cerebral artery, the cerebral infarct size was drastically reduced in mice lacking GP IIb compared with wild-types. These findings show for the first time in vivo that GP IIb not only mediates platelet aggregation but also triggers platelet adhesion to exposed extracellular matrices and dysfunctional endothelial cells. In a process strictly involving GP IIb, platelets, which are among the first blood cells to arrive at the scene of endothelial dysfunction, contribute essentially to atherosclerosis and cerebral I/R injury.

A geometrical upper bound on the inflaton range

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cicoli, Michele; Ciupke, David; Mayrhofer, Christoph; Shukla, Pramod

2018-05-01

We argue that in type IIB LVS string models, after including the leading order moduli stabilisation effects, the moduli space for the remaining flat directions is compact due the Calabi-Yau Kähler cone conditions. In cosmological applications, this gives an inflaton field range which is bounded from above, in analogy with recent results from the weak gravity and swampland conjectures. We support our claim by explicitly showing that it holds for all LVS vacua with h 1,1 = 3 obtained from 4-dimensional reflexive polytopes. In particular, we first search for all Calabi-Yau threefolds from the Kreuzer-Skarke list with h 1,1 = 2, 3 and 4 which allow for LVS vacua, finding several new LVS geometries which were so far unknown. We then focus on the h 1,1 = 3 cases and show that the Kähler cones of all toric hypersurface threefolds force the effective 1-dimensional LVS moduli space to be compact. We find that the moduli space size can generically be trans-Planckian only for K3 fibred examples.

Exceptional M-brane sigma models and η-symbols

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakatani, Yuho; Uehara, Shozo

2018-03-01

We develop the M-brane actions proposed in Y. Sakatani and S. Uehara, arXiv:1607.04265, by using η-symbols determined in Y. Sakatani and S. Uehara, arXiv:1708.06342. Introducing η-forms that are defined with the η-symbols, we present U-duality-covariant M-brane actions which describe the known brane worldvolume theories for Mp-branes with p=0,2,5. We show that the self-duality relation known in the double sigma model is naturally generalized to M-branes. In particular, for an M5-brane, the self-duality relation is nontrivially realized, where the Hodge star operator is defined with the familiar M5-brane metric while the η-form contains the self-dual three-form field strength. The action for a Kaluza-Klein monopole is also partially reproduced. Moreover, we explain how to treat type IIB branes in our general formalism. As a demonstration, we reproduce the known action for a (p,q)-string.

Holographic complexity and noncommutative gauge theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Couch, Josiah; Eccles, Stefan; Fischler, Willy; Xiao, Ming-Lei

2018-03-01

We study the holographic complexity of noncommutative field theories. The four-dimensional N=4 noncommutative super Yang-Mills theory with Moyal algebra along two of the spatial directions has a well known holographic dual as a type IIB supergravity theory with a stack of D3 branes and non-trivial NS-NS B fields. We start from this example and find that the late time holographic complexity growth rate, based on the "complexity equals action" conjecture, experiences an enhancement when the non-commutativity is turned on. This enhancement saturates a new limit which is exactly 1/4 larger than the commutative value. We then attempt to give a quantum mechanics explanation of the enhancement. Finite time behavior of the complexity growth rate is also studied. Inspired by the non-trivial result, we move on to more general setup in string theory where we have a stack of D p branes and also turn on the B field. Multiple noncommutative directions are considered in higher p cases.

Multiple D3-Instantons and Mock Modular Forms II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrov, Sergei; Banerjee, Sibasish; Manschot, Jan; Pioline, Boris

2018-03-01

We analyze the modular properties of D3-brane instanton corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space in type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold. In Part I, we found a necessary condition for the existence of an isometric action of S-duality on this moduli space: the generating function of DT invariants in the large volume attractor chamber must be a vector-valued mock modular form with specified modular properties. In this work, we prove that this condition is also sufficient at two-instanton order. This is achieved by producing a holomorphic action of {SL(2,Z)} on the twistor space which preserves the holomorphic contact structure. The key step is to cancel the anomalous modular variation of the Darboux coordinates by a local holomorphic contact transformation, which is generated by a suitable indefinite theta series. For this purpose we introduce a new family of theta series of signature (2, n - 2), find their modular completion, and conjecture sufficient conditions for their convergence, which may be of independent mathematical interest.

Clavicle hook plate fixation for distal-third clavicle fracture (Neer type II): comparison of clinical and radiologic outcomes between Neer types IIA and IIB.

PubMed

Lee, Wonyong; Choi, Chong-Hyuk; Choi, Yun-Rak; Lim, Kyung-Han; Chun, Yong-Min

2017-07-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate clinical and radiologic outcomes of clavicle hook plate fixation for distal-third clavicle fracture (Neer type II) and to compare the clinical and radiologic outcomes and complications between Neer type IIA and type IIB. We retrospectively reviewed 35 patients who underwent open reduction and internal fixation with AO hook locking compression plate (LCP) for distal clavicle fracture, including 13 patients with Neer type IIA and 22 patients with type IIB. Visual analog scale pain score, shoulder scores (subjective shoulder value, University of California-Los Angeles shoulder score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score), and active range of motion were evaluated to determine clinical outcome. Coracoclavicular distance was measured, and that of the injured side at last follow-up was compared with that of the uninjured side to evaluate radiologic outcomes. AO hook LCP fixation for distal-third clavicle fracture (Neer type II) produced satisfactory radiologic outcomes, including high union rates (100%) and coracoclavicular distance maintenance, as well as satisfactory clinical outcomes, including visual analog scale score for pain, shoulder scores (subjective shoulder value, University of California-Los Angeles shoulder score, American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score), and active range of motion. There were no significant differences between Neer type IIA and type IIB. With regard to complications, 22.9% of patients experienced shoulder stiffness and 17.1% had subacromial erosion; however, there were no significant differences between the 2 groups. The AO hook LCP is a suitable choice for Neer type IIA and type IIB distal-third clavicle fracture fixation. Copyright © 2016 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Dualities and Topological Field Theories from Twisted Geometries

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Markov, Ruza

I will present three studies of string theory on twisted geometries. In the first calculation included in this dissertation we use gauge/gravity duality to study the Coulomb branch of an unusual type of nonlocal field theory, called Puff Field Theory. On the gravity side, this theory is given in terms of D3-branes in type IIB string theory with a geometric twist. While the field theory description, available in the IR limit, is a deformation of Yang-Mills gauge theory by an order seven operator which we here compute. In the rest of this dissertation we explore N = 4 super Yang-Mills (SYM) theory compactied on a circle with S-duality and R-symmetry twists that preserve N = 6 supersymmetry in 2 + 1D. It was shown that abelian theory on a flat manifold gives Chern-Simons theory in the low-energy limit and here we are interested in the non-abelian counterpart. To that end, we introduce external static supersymmetric quark and anti-quark sources into the theory and calculate the Witten Index of the resulting Hilbert space of ground states on a two-torus. Using these results we compute the action of simple Wilson loops on the Hilbert space of ground states without sources. In some cases we find disagreement between our results for the Wilson loop eigenvalues and previous conjectures about a connection with Chern-Simons theory. The last result discussed in this dissertation demonstrates a connection between gravitational Chern-Simons theory and N = 4 four-dimensional SYM theory compactified on a circle twisted by S-duality where the remaining three-manifold is not flat starting with the explicit geometric realization of S-duality in terms of (2, 0) theory.

Does the Modified Gartland Classification Clarify Decision Making?

PubMed

Leung, Sophia; Paryavi, Ebrahim; Herman, Martin J; Sponseller, Paul D; Abzug, Joshua M

2018-01-01

The modified Gartland classification system for pediatric supracondylar fractures is often utilized as a communication tool to aid in determining whether or not a fracture warrants operative intervention. This study sought to determine the interobserver and intraobserver reliability of the Gartland classification system, as well as to determine whether there was agreement that a fracture warranted operative intervention regardless of the classification system. A total of 200 anteroposterior and lateral radiographs of pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures were retrospectively reviewed by 3 fellowship-trained pediatric orthopaedic surgeons and 2 orthopaedic residents and then classified as type I, IIa, IIb, or III. The surgeons then recorded whether they would treat the fracture nonoperatively or operatively. The κ coefficients were calculated to determine interobserver and intraobserver reliability. Overall, the Wilkins-modified Gartland classification has low-moderate interobserver reliability (κ=0.475) and high intraobserver reliability (κ=0.777). A low interobserver reliability was found when differentiating between type IIa and IIb (κ=0.240) among attendings. There was moderate-high interobserver reliability for the decision to operate (κ=0.691) and high intraobserver reliability (κ=0.760). Decreased interobserver reliability was present for decision to operate among residents. For fractures classified as type I, the decision to operate was made 3% of the time and 27% for type IIa. The decision was made to operate 99% of the time for type IIb and 100% for type III. There is almost full agreement for the nonoperative treatment of Type I fractures and operative treatment for type III fractures. There is agreement that type IIb fractures should be treated operatively and that the majority of type IIa fractures should be treated nonoperatively. However, the interobserver reliability for differentiating between type IIa and IIb fractures is low. Our results validate the Gartland classfication system as a method to help direct treatment of pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures, although the modification of the system, IIa versus IIb, seems to have limited reliability and utility. Terminology based on decision to treat may lead to a more clinically useful classification system in the evaluation and treatment of pediatric supracondylar humerus fractures. Level III-diagnostic studies.

Toll-Like Receptor 2 Mediates Cellular Activation by the B Subunits of Type II Heat-Labile Enterotoxins

PubMed Central

Hajishengallis, George; Tapping, Richard I.; Martin, Michael H.; Nawar, Hesham; Lyle, Elizabeth A.; Russell, Michael W.; Connell, Terry D.

2005-01-01

The type II heat-labile enterotoxins (LT-IIa and LT-IIb) of Escherichia coli have an AB5 subunit structure similar to that of cholera toxin (CT) and other type I enterotoxins, despite significant differences in the amino acid sequences of their B subunits and different ganglioside receptor specificities. LT-II holotoxins and their nontoxic B subunits display unique properties as immunological adjuvants distinct from those of CT and its B subunits. In contrast to type II holotoxins, the corresponding pentameric B subunits, LT-IIaB and LT-IIbB, stimulated cytokine release in both human and mouse cells dependent upon Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2). Induction of interleukin-1β (IL-1β), IL-6, IL-8, or tumor necrosis factor alpha in human THP-1 cells by LT-IIaB or LT-IIbB was inhibited by anti-TLR2 but not by anti-TLR4 antibody. Furthermore, transient expression of TLR1 and TLR2 in human embryonic kidney 293 cells resulted in activation of a nuclear factor-κB-dependent luciferase gene in response to LT-IIaB or LT-IIbB. Moreover, peritoneal macrophages from TLR2-deficient mice failed to respond to LT-IIaB or LT-IIbB, in contrast to wild-type or TLR4-deficient cells. These results demonstrate that besides their established binding to gangliosides, the B subunits of type II enterotoxins also interact with TLR2. Although a ganglioside-nonbinding mutant (T34I) of LT-IIaB effectively induced cytokine release, a phenotypically similar point mutation (T13I) in LT-IIbB abrogated cytokine induction, suggesting a variable requirement for gangliosides as coreceptors in TLR2 agonist activity. TLR2-dependent activation of mononuclear cells by type II enterotoxin B subunits appears to be a novel mechanism whereby these molecules may exert their immunomodulatory and adjuvant activities. PMID:15731031

On SYM theory and all order bulk singularity structures of BPS strings in type II theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hatefi, Ehsan

2018-06-01

The complete forms of the S-matrix elements of a transverse scalar field, two world volume gauge fields, and a Potential Cn-1 Ramond-Ramond (RR) form field are investigated. In order to find an infinite number of t , s , (t + s + u)-channel bulk singularity structures of this particular mixed open-closed amplitude, we employ all the conformal field theory techniques to , exploring all the entire correlation functions and all order α‧ contact interactions to these supersymmetric Yang-Mills (SYM) couplings. Singularity and contact term comparisons with the other symmetric analysis, and are also carried out in detail. Various couplings from pull-Back of branes, Myers terms and several generalized Bianchi identities should be taken into account to be able to reconstruct all order α‧ bulk singularities of type IIB (IIA) superstring theory. Finally, we make a comment on how to derive without any ambiguity all order α‧ contact terms of this S-matrix which carry momentum of RR in transverse directions.

The Relationship between Muscle Fiber Type-Specific PGC-1α Content and Mitochondrial Content Varies between Rodent Models and Humans

PubMed Central

Gouspillou, Gilles; Sgarioto, Nicolas; Norris, Brandon; Barbat-Artigas, Sébastien; Aubertin-Leheudre, Mylène; Morais, Jose A.; Burelle, Yan; Taivassalo, Tanja; Hepple, Russell T.

2014-01-01

PGC-1α regulates critical processes in muscle physiology, including mitochondrial biogenesis, lipid metabolism and angiogenesis. Furthermore, PGC-1α was suggested as an important regulator of fiber type determination. However, whether a muscle fiber type-specific PGC-1α content exists, whether PGC-1α content relates to basal levels of mitochondrial content, and whether such relationships are preserved between humans and classically used rodent models are all questions that have been either poorly addressed or never investigated. To address these issues, we investigated the fiber type-specific content of PGC-1α and its relationship to basal mitochondrial content in mouse, rat and human muscles using in situ immunolabeling and histochemical methods on muscle serial cross-sections. Whereas type IIa fibers exhibited the highest PGC-1α in all three species, other fiber types displayed a hierarchy of type IIx>I>IIb in mouse, type I = IIx> IIb in rat, and type IIx>I in human. In terms of mitochondrial content, we observed a hierarchy of IIa>IIx>I>IIb in mouse, IIa >I>IIx> IIb in rat, and I>IIa> IIx in human skeletal muscle. We also found in rat skeletal muscle that type I fibers displayed the highest capillarization followed by type IIa >IIx>IIb. Finally, we found in human skeletal muscle that type I fibers display the highest lipid content, followed by type IIa>IIx. Altogether, our results reveal that (i) the fiber type-specific PGC-1α and mitochondrial contents were only matched in mouse, (ii) the patterns of PGC-1α and mitochondrial contents observed in mice and rats do not correspond to that seen in humans in several respects, and (iii) the classical phenotypes thought to be regulated by PGC-1α do not vary exclusively as a function of PGC-1α content in rat and human muscles. PMID:25121500

Physical cognition: birds learn the structural efficacy of nest material

PubMed Central

Bailey, Ida E.; Morgan, Kate V.; Bertin, Marion; Meddle, Simone L.; Healy, Susan D.

2014-01-01

It is generally assumed that birds’ choice of structurally suitable materials for nest building is genetically predetermined. Here, we tested that assumption by investigating whether experience affected male zebra finches’ (Taeniopygia guttata) choice of nest material. After a short period of building with relatively flexible string, birds preferred to build with stiffer string while those that had experienced a stiffer string were indifferent to string type. After building a complete nest with either string type, however, all birds increased their preference for stiff string. The stiffer string appeared to be the more effective building material as birds required fewer pieces of stiffer than flexible string to build a roofed nest. For birds that raised chicks successfully, there was no association between the material they used to build their nest and the type they subsequently preferred. Birds’ material preference reflected neither the preference of their father nor of their siblings but juvenile experience of either string type increased their preference for stiffer string. Our results represent two important advances: (i) birds choose nest material based on the structural properties of the material; (ii) nest material preference is not entirely genetically predetermined as both the type and amount of experience influences birds’ choices. PMID:24741011

Physical cognition: birds learn the structural efficacy of nest material.

PubMed

Bailey, Ida E; Morgan, Kate V; Bertin, Marion; Meddle, Simone L; Healy, Susan D

2014-06-07

It is generally assumed that birds' choice of structurally suitable materials for nest building is genetically predetermined. Here, we tested that assumption by investigating whether experience affected male zebra finches' (Taeniopygia guttata) choice of nest material. After a short period of building with relatively flexible string, birds preferred to build with stiffer string while those that had experienced a stiffer string were indifferent to string type. After building a complete nest with either string type, however, all birds increased their preference for stiff string. The stiffer string appeared to be the more effective building material as birds required fewer pieces of stiffer than flexible string to build a roofed nest. For birds that raised chicks successfully, there was no association between the material they used to build their nest and the type they subsequently preferred. Birds' material preference reflected neither the preference of their father nor of their siblings but juvenile experience of either string type increased their preference for stiffer string. Our results represent two important advances: (i) birds choose nest material based on the structural properties of the material; (ii) nest material preference is not entirely genetically predetermined as both the type and amount of experience influences birds' choices.

Differences in sodium voltage-gated channel properties according to myosin heavy chain isoform expression in single muscle fibres.

PubMed

Rannou, F; Droguet, M; Giroux-Metges, M A; Pennec, Y; Gioux, M; Pennec, J P

2009-11-01

The myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform determines the characteristics and shortening velocity of muscle fibres. The functional properties of the muscle fibre are also conditioned by its membrane excitability through the electrophysiological properties of sodium voltage-gated channels. Macropatch-clamp is used to study sodium channels in fibres from peroneus longus (PL) and soleus (Sol) muscles (Wistar rats, n = 8). After patch-clamp recordings, single fibres are identified by SDS-PAGE electrophoresis according to their myosin heavy chain isoform (slow type I and the three fast types IIa, IIx, IIb). Characteristics of sodium currents are compared (Student's t test) between fibres exhibiting only one MHC isoform. Four MHC isoforms are identified in PL and only type I in Sol single fibres. In PL, maximal sodium current (I(max)), maximal sodium conductance (g(Na,max)) and time constants of activation and inactivation ((m) and (h)) increase according to the scheme I-->IIa-->IIx-->IIb (P < 0.05). (m) values related to sodium channel type and/or function, are similar in Sol I and PL IIb fibres (P = 0.97) despite different contractile properties. The voltage dependence of activation (V(a,1/2)) shows a shift towards positive potentials from Sol type I to IIa, IIx and finally IIb fibres from PL (P < 0.05). These data are consistent with the earlier recruitment of slow fibres in a fast-mixed muscle like PL, while slow fibres of postural muscle such as soleus could be recruited in the same ways as IIb fibres in a fast muscle.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Liu, Yu-Qian; Modjaz, Maryam; Bianco, Federica B.

Using the largest spectroscopic data set of stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (stripped SNe), we present a systematic investigation of spectral properties of Type IIb SNe (SNe IIb), Type Ib SNe (SNe Ib), and Type Ic SNe (SNe Ic). Prior studies have been based on individual objects or small samples. Here, we analyze 242 spectra of 14 SNe IIb, 262 spectra of 21 SNe Ib, and 207 spectra of 17 SNe Ic based on the stripped SN data set of Modjaz et al. and other published spectra of individual SNe. Each SN in our sample has a secure spectroscopic ID, a datemore » of V -band maximum light, and most have multiple spectra at different phases. We analyze these spectra as a function of subtype and phase in order to improve the SN identification scheme and constrain the progenitors of different kinds of stripped SNe. By comparing spectra of SNe IIb with those of SNe Ib, we find that the strength of H α can be used to quantitatively differentiate between these two subtypes at all epochs. Moreover, we find a continuum in observational properties between SNe IIb and Ib. We address the question of hidden He in SNe Ic by comparing our observations with predictions from various models that either include hidden He or in which He has been burnt. Our results favor the He-free progenitor models for SNe Ic. Finally, we construct continuum-divided average spectra as a function of subtype and phase to quantify the spectral diversity of the different types of stripped SNe.« less

6D fractional quantum Hall effect

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heckman, Jonathan J.; Tizzano, Luigi

2018-05-01

We present a 6D generalization of the fractional quantum Hall effect involving membranes coupled to a three-form potential in the presence of a large background four-form flux. The low energy physics is governed by a bulk 7D topological field theory of abelian three-form potentials with a single derivative Chern-Simons-like action coupled to a 6D anti-chiral theory of Euclidean effective strings. We derive the fractional conductivity, and explain how continued fractions which figure prominently in the classification of 6D superconformal field theories correspond to a hierarchy of excited states. Using methods from conformal field theory we also compute the analog of the Laughlin wavefunction. Compactification of the 7D theory provides a uniform perspective on various lower-dimensional gapped systems coupled to boundary degrees of freedom. We also show that a supersymmetric version of the 7D theory embeds in M-theory, and can be decoupled from gravity. Encouraged by this, we present a conjecture in which IIB string theory is an edge mode of a 10 + 2-dimensional bulk topological theory, thus placing all twelve dimensions of F-theory on a physical footing.

Holographic entanglement entropy and entanglement thermodynamics of 'black' non-susy D3 brane

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bhattacharya, Aranya; Roy, Shibaji

2018-06-01

Like BPS D3 brane, the non-supersymmetric (non-susy) D3 brane of type IIB string theory is also known to have a decoupling limit and leads to a non-supersymmetric AdS/CFT correspondence. The throat geometry in this case represents a QFT which is neither conformal nor supersymmetric. The 'black' version of the non-susy D3 brane in the decoupling limit describes a QFT at finite temperature. Here we first compute the entanglement entropy for small subsystem of such QFT from the decoupled geometry of 'black' non-susy D3 brane using holographic technique. Then we study the entanglement thermodynamics for the weakly excited states of this QFT from the asymptotically AdS geometry of the decoupled 'black' non-susy D3 brane. We observe that for small subsystem this background indeed satisfies a first law like relation with a universal (entanglement) temperature inversely proportional to the size of the subsystem and an (entanglement) pressure normal to the entangling surface. Finally we show how the entanglement entropy makes a cross-over to the thermal entropy at high temperature.

Supersymmetric gauge theory with space-time-dependent couplings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Jaewang; Fernández-Melgarejo, José J.; Sugimoto, Shigeki

2018-01-01

We study deformations of N=4 supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory with couplings and masses depending on space-time. The conditions to preserve part of the supersymmetry are derived and a lot of solutions of these conditions are found. The main example is the case with ISO(1,1)× SO(3)× SO(3) symmetry, in which couplings, as well as masses and the theta parameter, can depend on two spatial coordinates. In the case in which ISO(1,1) is enhanced to ISO(1,2), it reproduces the supersymmetric Janus configuration found by Gaiotto and Witten [J. High Energy Phys. 06, 097 (2010)]. When SO(3)× SO(3) is enhanced to SO(6), it agrees with the world-volume theory of D3-branes embedded in F-theory (a background with 7-branes in type IIB string theory). We have also found the general solution of the supersymmetry conditions for the cases with ISO(1,1)× SO(2)× SO(4) symmetry. Cases with time-dependent couplings and/or masses are also considered.

Stability of the matrix model in operator interpretation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sakai, Katsuta

2017-12-01

The IIB matrix model is one of the candidates for nonperturbative formulation of string theory, and it is believed that the model contains gravitational degrees of freedom in some manner. In some preceding works, it was proposed that the matrix model describes the curved space where the matrices represent differential operators that are defined on a principal bundle. In this paper, we study the dynamics of the model in this interpretation, and point out the necessity of the principal bundle from the viewpoint of the stability and diffeomorphism invariance. We also compute the one-loop correction which yields a mass term for each field due to the principal bundle. We find that the stability is not violated.

Super-Lie n-algebra extensions, higher WZW models and super-p-branes with tensor multiplet fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fiorenza, Domenico; Sati, Hisham; Schreiber, Urs

2015-12-01

We formalize higher-dimensional and higher gauge WZW-type sigma-model local prequantum field theory, and discuss its rationalized/perturbative description in (super-)Lie n-algebra homotopy theory (the true home of the "FDA"-language used in the supergravity literature). We show generally how the intersection laws for such higher WZW-type σ-model branes (open brane ending on background brane) are encoded precisely in (super-)L∞-extension theory and how the resulting "extended (super-)space-times" formalize spacetimes containing σ-model brane condensates. As an application we prove in Lie n-algebra homotopy theory that the complete super-p-brane spectrum of superstring/M-theory is realized this way, including the pure σ-model branes (the "old brane scan") but also the branes with tensor multiplet worldvolume fields, notably the D-branes and the M5-brane. For instance the degree-0 piece of the higher symmetry algebra of 11-dimensional (11D) spacetime with an M2-brane condensate turns out to be the "M-theory super-Lie algebra". We also observe that in this formulation there is a simple formal proof of the fact that type IIA spacetime with a D0-brane condensate is the 11D sugra/M-theory spacetime, and of (prequantum) S-duality for type IIB string theory. Finally we give the non-perturbative description of all this by higher WZW-type σ-models on higher super-orbispaces with higher WZW terms in stacky differential cohomology.

Volatile anesthetics, not intravenous anesthetic propofol bind to and attenuate the activation of platelet receptor integrin αIIbβ3.

PubMed

Yuki, Koichi; Bu, Weiming; Shimaoka, Motomu; Eckenhoff, Roderic

2013-01-01

In clinical reports, the usage of isoflurane and sevoflurane was associated with more surgical field bleeding in endoscopic sinus surgeries as compared to propofol. The activation of platelet receptor αIIbβ3 is a crucial event for platelet aggregation and clot stability. Here we studied the effect of isoflurane, sevoflurane, and propofol on the activation of αIIbβ3. The effect of anesthetics on the activation of αIIbβ3 was probed using the activation sensitive antibody PAC-1 in both cell-based (platelets and αIIbβ3 transfectants) and cell-free assays. The binding sites of isoflurane on αIIbβ3 were explored using photoactivatable isoflurane (azi-isoflurane). The functional implication of revealed isoflurane binding sites were studied using alanine-scanning mutagenesis. Isoflurane and sevoflurane diminished the binding of PAC-1 to wild-type αIIbβ3 transfectants, but not to the high-affinity mutant, β3-N305T. Both anesthetics also impaired PAC-1 binding in a cell-free assay. In contrast, propofol did not affect the activation of αIIbβ3. Residues adducted by azi-isoflurane were near the calcium binding site (an important regulatory site termed SyMBS) just outside of the ligand binding site. The mutagenesis experiments demonstrated that these adducted residues were important in regulating integrin activation. Isoflurane and sevoflurane, but not propofol, impaired the activation of αIIbβ3. Azi-isoflurane binds to the regulatory site of integrin αIIbβ3, thereby suggesting that isoflurane blocks ligand binding of αIIbβ3 in not a competitive, but an allosteric manner.

Capriccio For Strings: Collision-Mediated Parallel Transport in Curved Landscapes and Conifold-Enhanced Hierarchies among Mirror Quintic Flux Vacua

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Eckerle, Kate

This dissertation begins with a review of Calabi-Yau manifolds and their moduli spaces, flux compactification largely tailored to the case of type IIb supergravity, and Coleman-De Luccia vacuum decay. The three chapters that follow present the results of novel research conducted as a graduate student. Our first project is concerned with bubble collisions in single scalar field theories with multiple vacua. Lorentz boosted solitons traveling in one spatial dimension are used as a proxy to the colliding 3-dimensional spherical bubble walls. Recent work found that at sufficiently high impact velocities collisions between such bubble vacua are governed by "free passage" dynamics in which field interactions can be ignored during the collision, providing a systematic process for populating local minima without quantum nucleation. We focus on the time period that follows the bubble collision and provide evidence that, for certain potentials, interactions can drive significant deviations from the free passage bubble profile, thwarting the production of a new patch with different field value. However, for simple polynomial potentials a fine-tuning of vacuum locations is required to reverse the free passage kick enough that the field in the collision region returns to the original bubble vacuum. Hence we deem classical transitions mediated by free passage robust. Our second project continues with soliton collisions in the limit of relativistic impact velocity, but with the new feature of nontrivial field space curvature. We establish a simple geometrical interpretation of such collisions in terms of a double family of field profiles whose tangent vector fields stand in mutual parallel transport. This provides a generalization of the well-known limit in flat field space (free passage). We investigate the limits of this approximation and illustrate our analytical results with numerical simulations. In our third and final project we investigate the distribution of field theories that arise from the low energy limit of flux vacua built on type IIb string theory compactified on the mirror quintic. For a large collection of these models, we numerically determine the distribution of Taylor coefficients in a polynomial expansion of each model's scalar potential to fourth order. We provide an analytic explanation of the proncounced hierarchies exhibited by the random sample of masses and couplings generated numerically. The analytic argument is based on the structure of masses in no scale supergravity and the divergence of the Yukawa coupling at the conifold point in the moduli space of the mirror quintic. Our results cast the superpotential vev as a random element whose capacity to cloud structure vanishes as the conifold is approached.

Hierarchies in Quantum Gravity: Large Numbers, Small Numbers, and Axions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Stout, John Eldon

Our knowledge of the physical world is mediated by relatively simple, effective descriptions of complex processes. By their very nature, these effective theories obscure any phenomena outside their finite range of validity, discarding information crucial to understanding the full, quantum gravitational theory. However, we may gain enormous insight into the full theory by understanding how effective theories with extreme characteristics--for example, those which realize large-field inflation or have disparate hierarchies of scales--can be naturally realized in consistent theories of quantum gravity. The work in this dissertation focuses on understanding the quantum gravitational constraints on these "extreme" theories in well-controlled corners of string theory. Axion monodromy provides one mechanism for realizing large-field inflation in quantum gravity. These models spontaneously break an axion's discrete shift symmetry and, assuming that the corrections induced by this breaking remain small throughout the excursion, create a long, quasi-flat direction in field space. This weakly-broken shift symmetry has been used to construct a dynamical solution to the Higgs hierarchy problem, dubbed the "relaxion." We study this relaxion mechanism and show that--without major modifications--it can not be naturally embedded within string theory. In particular, we find corrections to the relaxion potential--due to the ten-dimensional backreaction of monodromy charge--that conflict with naive notions of technical naturalness and render the mechanism ineffective. The super-Planckian field displacements necessary for large-field inflation may also be realized via the collective motion of many aligned axions. However, it is not clear that string theory provides the structures necessary for this to occur. We search for these structures by explicitly constructing the leading order potential for C4 axions and computing the maximum possible field displacement in all compactifications of type IIB string theory on toric Calabi-Yau hypersurfaces with h1,1 ≤ 4 in the Kreuzer-Skarke database. While none of these examples can sustain a super-Planckian displacement--the largest possible is 0.3 Mpl--we find an alignment mechanism responsible for large displacements in random matrix models at large h 1,1 >> 1, indicating that large-field inflation may be feasible in compactifications with tens or hundreds of axions. These results represent a modest step toward a complete understanding of large hierarchies and naturalness in quantum gravity.

Myosin heavy chain isoform composition and Ca(2+) transients in fibres from enzymatically dissociated murine soleus and extensor digitorum longus muscles.

PubMed

Calderón, Juan C; Bolaños, Pura; Caputo, Carlo

2010-01-01

Electrically elicited Ca(2+) transients reported with the fast Ca(2+) dye MagFluo-4 AM and myosin heavy chain (MHC) electrophoretic patterns were obtained in intact, enzymatically dissociated fibres from adult mice extensor digitorum longus (EDL) and soleus muscles. Thirty nine fibres (23 from soleus and 16 from EDL) were analysed by both fluorescence microscopy and electrophoresis. These fibres were grouped as follows: group 1 included 13 type I and 4 type IC fibres; group 2 included 2 type IIC, 3 IIA and 1 I/IIA/IIX fibres; group 3 included 4 type IIX and 1 type IIX/IIB fibres; group 4 included 2 type IIB/IIX and 9 type IIB fibres. Ca(2+) transients obtained in groups 1, 2, 3 and 4 had the following kinetic parameters (mean +/- s.e.m.): amplitude (F/F): 0.61 +/- 0.05, 0.53 +/- 0.08, 0.61 +/- 0.06 and 0.61 +/- 0.03; rise time (ms): 1.64 +/- 0.05, 1.35 +/- 0.05, 1.18 +/- 0.06 and 1.14 +/- 0.04; half-amplitude width (ms): 19.12 +/- 1.85, 11.86 +/- 3.03, 4.62 +/- 0.31 and 4.23 +/- 0.37; and time constants of decay (tau(1) and tau(2), ms): 3.33 +/- 0.13 and 52.48 +/- 3.93, 2.69 +/- 0.22 and 41.06 +/- 9.13, 1.74 +/- 0.06 and 12.88 +/- 1.93, and 1.56 +/- 0.11 and 9.45 +/- 1.03, respectively. The statistical differences between the four groups and the analysis of the distribution of the parameters of Ca(2+) release and clearance show that there is a continuum from slow to fast, that parallels the MHC continuum from pure type I to pure IIB. However, type IIA fibres behave more like IIX and IIB fibres regarding Ca(2+) release but closer to type I fibres regarding Ca(2+) clearance. In conclusion, we show for the first time the diversity of Ca(2+) transients for the whole continuum of fibre types and correlate this functional diversity with the structural and biochemical diversity of the skeletal muscle fibres.

GUTs on Compact Type IIB Orientifolds

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Blumenhagen, Ralph; /Munich, Max Planck Inst.; Braun, Volker

We systematically analyze globally consistent SU(5) GUT models on intersecting D7-branes in genuine Calabi-Yau orientifolds with O3- and O7-planes. Beyond the well-known tadpole and K-theory cancellation conditions there exist a number of additional subtle but quite restrictive constraints. For the realization of SU(5) GUTs with gauge symmetry breaking via U(1)Y flux we present two classes of suitable Calabi-Yau manifolds defined via del Pezzo transitions of the elliptically fibred hypersurface P{sub 1,1,1,6,9}[18] and of the Quintic P{sub 1,1,1,1,1}[5], respectively. To define an orientifold projection we classify all involutions on del Pezzo surfaces. We work out the model building prospects of thesemore » geometries and present five globally consistent string GUT models in detail, including a 3-generation SU(5) model with no exotics whatsoever. We also realize other phenomenological features such as the 10 10 5{sub H} Yukawa coupling and comment on the possibility of moduli stabilization, where we find an entire new set of so-called swiss-cheese type Calabi-Yau manifolds. It is expected that both the general constrained structure and the concrete models lift to F-theory vacua on compact Calabi-Yau fourfolds.« less

Common errors in textbook descriptions of muscle fiber size in nontrained humans.

PubMed

Chalmers, Gordon R; Row, Brandi S

2011-09-01

Exercise science and human anatomy and physiology textbooks commonly report that type IIB muscle fibers have the largest cross-sectional area of the three fiber types. These descriptions of muscle fiber sizes do not match with the research literature examining muscle fibers in young adult nontrained humans. For men, most commonly type IIA fibers were significantly larger than other fiber types (six out of 10 cases across six different muscles). For women, either type I, or both I and IIA muscle fibers were usually significantly the largest (five out of six cases across four different muscles). In none of these reports were type IIB fibers significantly larger than both other fiber types. In 27 studies that did not include statistical comparisons of mean fiber sizes across fiber types, in no cases were type IIB or fast glycolytic fibers larger than both type I and IIA, or slow oxidative and fast oxidative glycolytic fibers. The likely reason for mistakes in textbook descriptions of human muscle fiber sizes is that animal data were presented without being labeled as such, and without any warning that there are interspecies differences in muscle fiber properties. Correct knowledge of muscle fiber sizes may facilitate interpreting training and aging adaptations.

The role of myostatin and activin receptor IIB in the regulation of unloading-induced myofiber type-specific skeletal muscle atrophy.

PubMed

Babcock, Lyle W; Knoblauch, Mark; Clarke, Mark S F

2015-09-15

Chronic unloading induces decrements in muscle size and strength. This adaptation is governed by a number of molecular factors including myostatin, a potent negative regulator of muscle mass. Myostatin must first be secreted into the circulation and then bind to the membrane-bound activin receptor IIB (actRIIB) to exert its atrophic action. Therefore, we hypothesized that myofiber type-specific atrophy observed after hindlimb suspension (HLS) would be related to myofiber type-specific expression of myostatin and/or actRIIB. Wistar rats underwent HLS for 10 days, after which the tibialis anterior was harvested for frozen cross sectioning. Simultaneous multichannel immunofluorescent staining combined with differential interference contrast imaging was employed to analyze myofiber type-specific expression of myostatin and actRIIB and myofiber type cross-sectional area (CSA) across fiber types, myonuclei, and satellite cells. Hindlimb suspension (HLS) induced significant myofiber type-specific atrophy in myosin heavy chain (MHC) IIx (P < 0.05) and MHC IIb myofibers (P < 0.05). Myostatin staining associated with myonuclei was less in HLS rats compared with controls, while satellite cell staining for myostatin remained unchanged. In contrast, the total number myonuclei and satellite cells per myofiber was reduced in HLS compared with ambulatory control rats (P < 0.01). Sarcoplasmic actRIIB staining differed between myofiber types (I < IIa < IIx < IIb) independent of loading conditions. Myofiber types exhibiting the greatest cytoplasmic staining of actRIIB corresponded to those exhibiting the greatest degree of atrophy following HLS. Our data suggest that differential expression of actRIIB may be responsible for myostatin-induced myofiber type-selective atrophy observed during chronic unloading. Copyright © 2015 the American Physiological Society.

Mapping of a microbial protein domain involved in binding and activation of the TLR2/TLR1 heterodimer.

PubMed

Liang, Shuang; Hosur, Kavita B; Lu, Shanyun; Nawar, Hesham F; Weber, Benjamin R; Tapping, Richard I; Connell, Terry D; Hajishengallis, George

2009-03-01

The pentameric B subunit of type IIb Escherichia coli enterotoxin (LT-IIb-B(5)), a doughnut-shaped oligomeric protein from enterotoxigenic E. coli, activates the TLR2/TLR1 heterodimer (TLR2/1). We investigated the molecular basis of the LT-IIb-B(5) interaction with TLR2/1 to define the structure-function relationship of LT-IIb-B(5) and, moreover, to gain an insight into how TLR2/1 recognizes large, nonacylated protein ligands that cannot fit within its lipid-binding pockets, as previously shown for the Pam(3)CysSerLys(4) (Pam(3)CSK(4)) lipopeptide. We first identified four critical residues in the upper region of the LT-IIb-B(5) pore. Corresponding point mutants (M69E, A70D, L73E, S74D) were defective in binding TLR2 or TLR1 and could not activate APCs, despite retaining full ganglioside-binding capacity. Point mutations in the TLR2/1 dimer interface, as determined in the crystallographic structure of the TLR2/1-Pam(3)CSK(4) complex, resulted in diminished activation by both Pam(3)CSK(4) and LT-IIb-B(5). Docking analysis of the LT-IIb-B(5) interaction with this apparently predominant activation conformation of TLR2/1 revealed that LT-IIb-B(5) might primarily contact the convex surface of the TLR2 central domain. Although the TLR1/LT-IIb-B(5) interface is relatively smaller, the leucine-rich repeat motifs 9-12 in the central domain of TLR1 were found to be critical for cooperative TLR2-induced cell activation by LT-IIb-B(5). Moreover, the putative LT-IIb-B(5) binding site overlaps partially with that of Pam(3)CSK(4); consistent with this, Pam(3)CSK(4) suppressed TLR2 binding of LT-IIb-B(5), albeit not as potently as self-competitive inhibition. We identified the upper pore region of LT-IIb-B(5) as a TLR2/1 interactive domain, which contacts the heterodimeric receptor at a site that is distinct from, although it overlaps with, that of Pam(3)CSK(4).

Binding to Gangliosides Containing N-Acetylneuraminic Acid Is Sufficient To Mediate the Immunomodulatory Properties of the Nontoxic Mucosal Adjuvant LT-IIb(T13I) ▿

PubMed Central

Nawar, Hesham F.; Berenson, Charles S.; Hajishengallis, George; Takematsu, Hiromu; Mandell, Lorrie; Clare, Ragina L.; Connell, Terry D.

2010-01-01

By use of a mouse mucosal immunization model, LT-IIb(T13I), a nontoxic mutant type II heat-labile enterotoxin, was shown to have potent mucosal and systemic adjuvant properties. In contrast to LT-IIb, which binds strongly to ganglioside receptors decorated with either N-acetylneuraminic acid (NeuAc) or N-glycolylneuraminic acid (NeuGc), LT-IIb(T13I) binds NeuAc gangliosides much less well. Rather, LT-IIb(T13I) binds preferentially to NeuGc gangliosides. To determine if the adjuvant properties of LT-IIb(T13I) are altered in the absence of NeuGc ganglioside receptors, experiments were conducted using a Cmah-null mouse line which is deficient in the synthesis of NeuGc gangliosides. Several immunomodulatory properties of LT-IIb(T13I) were shown to be dependent on NeuGc gangliosides. LT-IIb(T13I) had reduced binding activity for NeuGc-deficient B cells and macrophages; binding to NeuGc-deficient T cells and dendritic cells (DC) was essentially undetectable. Treatment of Cmah-null macrophages with LT-IIb(T13I), however, upregulated the transcription of interleukin-4 (IL-4), IL-6, IL-17, and gamma interferon (IFN-γ), four cytokines important for promoting immune responses. The production of mucosal IgA and serum IgG against an immunizing antigen was augmented in NeuGc-deficient mice administered LT-IIb(T13I) as a mucosal adjuvant. Notably, NeuGc gangliosides are not expressed in humans. Still, treatment of human monocytes with LT-IIb(T13I) induced the secretion of IL-6, an inflammatory cytokine that mediates differential control of leukocyte activation. These results suggested that NeuAc gangliosides are sufficient to mediate the immunomodulatory properties of LT-IIb(T13I) in mice and in human cells. The nontoxic mutant enterotoxin LT-IIb(T13I), therefore, is potentially a new and safe human mucosal adjuvant. PMID:20392887

Topoisomerase VI senses and exploits both DNA crossings and bends to facilitate strand passage

PubMed Central

Wendorff, Timothy J

2018-01-01

Type II topoisomerases manage DNA supercoiling and aid chromosome segregation using a complex, ATP-dependent duplex strand passage mechanism. Type IIB topoisomerases and their homologs support both archaeal/plant viability and meiotic recombination. Topo VI, a prototypical type IIB topoisomerase, comprises two Top6A and two Top6B protomers; how these subunits cooperate to engage two DNA segments and link ATP turnover to DNA transport is poorly understood. Using multiple biochemical approaches, we show that Top6B, which harbors the ATPase activity of topo VI, recognizes and exploits the DNA crossings present in supercoiled DNA to stimulate subunit dimerization by ATP. Top6B self-association in turn induces extensive DNA bending, which is needed to support duplex cleavage by Top6A. Our observations explain how topo VI tightly coordinates DNA crossover recognition and ATP binding with strand scission, providing useful insights into the operation of type IIB topoisomerases and related meiotic recombination and GHKL ATPase machineries. PMID:29595473

Analysis of type IIb synthetic diamond using FTIR spectrometry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Klepikov, I. V.; Koliadin, A. V.; Vasilev, E. A.

2017-12-01

Analysis of internal structure in large IIb-type high pressure-high temperature (HPHT) synthetic single-crystal diamond are presented. The concentration of boron impurity in different growth sectors varies from 0.02 to 10.3 ppm. It is shown that in the manufacturing of synthetic diamond plates, internal inhomogeneities of the diamond should be taken into account; plates with different characteristics can be cut from one diamond, each of which can be used for its own purpose.

Tilted string cosmologies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clancy, Dominic; Feinstein, Alexander; Lidsey, James E.; Tavakol, Reza

1999-04-01

Global symmetries of the string effective action are employed to generate tilted, homogeneous Bianchi type VIh string cosmologies from a previously known stiff perfect fluid solution to Einstein gravity. The dilaton field is not constant on the surfaces of homogeneity. The future asymptotic state of the models is interpreted as a plane wave and is itself an exact solution to the string equations of motion to all orders in the inverse string tension. An inhomogeneous generalization of the Bianchi type III model is also found.

Rapid actions of aldosterone revisited: Receptors in the limelight.

PubMed

Wehling, Martin

2018-02-01

Steroid hormones like aldosterone have been conclusively shown to elicit both late genomic and rapid, nongenomically initiated responses. Aldosterone was among the first for which rapid, clinically relevant effects were even shown in humans. Yet, after over 30 years of research, the nature of receptors involved in rapid actions of aldosterone is still unclear. Such effects may be assigned to the classical, intracellular steroid receptors, in this case mineralocorticoid receptors (MR, class IIa action Mannheim classification). They typically disappear in knockout models and are blocked by MR-antagonists such as spironolactone, as shown for several cellular and physiological, e.g. renal or cardiovascular effects. In contrast, there is also consistent evidence suggesting type IIb effects involving structurally different receptors ("membrane receptors") being insensitive to classic antagonists and persistent in knockout models; IIb effects have lately even been confirmed by atomic force detection of surface receptors which bind aldosterone but not spironolactone. Type IIa and b may coexist in the same cell with IIa often augmenting early IIb effects. So far cloning of IIb receptors was unsuccessful; therefore results on G-protein coupled estrogen receptor 1 (GPER1) being potentially involved in rapid aldosterone action raised considerable interest. Surprisingly, GPER1 does not bind aldosterone. Though under these circumstances GPER1 should not yet be considered as IIb-receptor, it might be an intermediary signaling enhancer of mineralocorticoid action as shown for epithelial growth factor receptors reconciling those results. We still seem to be left without IIb-receptors whose identification would however be highly desirable and essential for clinical translation. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Risk reductions for cardiovascular disease with pravastatin treatment by dyslipidemia phenotype: a post hoc analysis of the MEGA Study.

PubMed

Nishiwaki, Masato; Ikewaki, Katsunori; Ayaori, Makoto; Mizuno, Kyoichi; Ohashi, Yasuo; Ohsuzu, Fumitaka; Ishikawa, Toshitsugu; Nakamura, Haruo

2013-03-01

The beneficial effect of statins for cardiovascular disease (CVD) prevention has been well established. However, the effectiveness among different phenotypes of dyslipidemia has not been confirmed. We evaluated the effect of pravastatin on the incidence of CVD in relation to the phenotype of dyslipidemia. The MEGA Study evaluated the effect of low-dose pravastatin on primary prevention of CVD in 7832 Japanese patients, who were randomized to diet alone or diet plus pravastatin and followed for more than 5 years. These patients were classified into phenotype IIa (n=5589) and IIb (n=2041) based on the electrophoretic pattern for this post hoc analysis. In the diet group there was no significant difference in the incidence of coronary heart disease (CHD), stroke, CVD, and total mortality between the two phenotypes. Phenotype IIb patients, compared to phenotype IIa, had lower levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) and a significantly higher incidence of CVD in relation to a low HDL-C level (<47.5mg/dL; p=0.02). Furthermore, pravastatin decreased the relative risk for each major endpoint in both type IIa and type IIb dyslipidemia. Significant risk reductions were observed for CHD by 38% (p=0.04) and CVD by 31% (p=0.02) in type IIa dyslipidemia but not in phenotype IIb. Pravastatin therapy provided significant risk reductions for CHD and CVD in patients with phenotype IIa dyslipidemia, but not in those with phenotype IIb dyslipidemia. Copyright © 2012 Japanese College of Cardiology. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Late-time spectroscopy of envelope-stripped SNe: Figuring the central engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawabata, Koji

2012-01-01

We propose to perform late-time spectroscopy of envelope-stripped core-collapse supernovae (SNe), i.e., Type Ib/c/IIb SNe. We aim to examine the explosion physics and its dependence on the progenitor mass. The key information is the asphericity and the chemical composition of the inner atmosphere, which can be explored by late-time observations. The difference in [O I] line profiles indicates that GRB-associated energetic SNe Ic (like SN 1998bw) and non-GRB energetic SNe Ic (2003jd) are intrinsically similar aspherical explosions that are differently viewed (pole-on for 1998bw and nearly edge-on for 2003jd). Our continuing study suggests that the asphericity is rather common characteristic even for normal energy SNe without a GRB. However, it is still unclear how the intermediate types of SNe (SNe Ib/IIb) are produced and how they connected with other types of core-collapse SNe. High-quality late-time spectra of SNe Ib/Ic/IIb are still lacking. We propose to obtain a larger number of nebular spectra of envelope-stripped SNe including SNe IIb so that we examine the degree of the asphericity explosion energy, amount of synthesized ^56Ni and the physical properties of the central remnant as a function of the progenitor's mass.

Panchromatic Observations of SN2011dh Point to a Compact Progenitor Star

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Soderberg, A. M.; Margutti, R.; Zauerer, B. A.; Krauss, M.; Katz, B.; Chomiuk, L.; Dittmann, J. A.; Nakar, E.; Sakamoto, T.; Kawai, N.;

The Type II Heat-Labile Enterotoxins LT-IIa and LT-IIb and Their Respective B Pentamers Differentially Induce and Regulate Cytokine Production in Human Monocytic Cells

PubMed Central

Hajishengallis, George; Nawar, Hesham; Tapping, Richard I.; Russell, Michael W.; Connell, Terry D.

2004-01-01

The type II heat-labile enterotoxins, LT-IIa and LT-IIb, exhibit potent adjuvant properties. However, little is known about their immunomodulatory activities upon interaction with innate immune cells, unlike the widely studied type I enterotoxins that include cholera toxin (CT). We therefore investigated interactions of LT-IIa and LT-IIb with human monocytic THP-1 cells. We found that LT-II enterotoxins were inactive in stimulating cytokine release, whereas CT induced low levels of interleukin-1β (IL-1β) and IL-8. However, all three enterotoxins potently regulated cytokine induction in cells activated by bacterial lipopolysaccharide or fimbriae. Induction of proinflammatory (tumor necrosis factor α [TNF-α]) or chemotactic (IL-8) cytokines was downregulated, whereas induction of cytokines with anti-inflammatory (IL-10) or mucosal adjuvant properties (IL-1β) was upregulated by the enterotoxins. These effects appeared to depend on their A subunits, because isolated B-pentameric subunits lacked regulatory activity. Enterotoxin-mediated inhibition of proinflammatory cytokine induction in activated cells was partially attributable to synergism for endogenous production of IL-10 and to an IL-10-independent inhibition of nuclear factor κB (NF-κB) activation. In sharp contrast to the holotoxins, the B pentamers (LT-IIaB and, to a greater extent, LT-IIbB) stimulated cytokine production, suggesting a link between the absence of the A subunit and increased proinflammatory properties. In this regard, the ability of LT-IIbB to activate NF-κB and induce TNF-α and IL-8 was antagonized by the LT-IIb holotoxin. These findings support distinct immunomodulatory roles for the LT-II holotoxins and their respective B pentamers. Moreover, the anti-inflammatory properties of the holotoxins may serve to suppress innate immunity and promote the survival of the pathogen. PMID:15501764

Two hybridization events define the population structure of Trypanosoma cruzi.

PubMed

Westenberger, Scott J; Barnabé, Christian; Campbell, David A; Sturm, Nancy R

2005-10-01

Genetic variation in Trypanosoma cruzi is likely a key determinant in transmission and pathogenesis of Chagas disease. We have examined nine loci as markers for the extant T. cruzi strains. Four distinct alleles were found for each locus, corresponding to the sequence classes present in the homozygous discrete typing units (DTUs) I, IIa, IIb, and IIc. The alleles in DTUs IIa and IIc showed a spectrum of polymorphism ranging from DTU I-like to DTU IIb-like, in addition to DTU-specific sequence variation. DTUs IId and IIe were indistinguishable, showing DTU homozygosity at one locus and heterozygosity with DTU IIb and IIc allelic sequences at eight loci. Recombination between the DTU IIb and IIc alleles is evidenced from mosaic polymorphisms. These data imply that two discrete hybridization events resulted in the formation of the current DTUs. We propose a model in which a fusion between ancestral DTU I and IIb strains gave rise to a heterozygous hybrid that homogenized its genome to become the homozygous progenitor of DTUs IIa and IIc. The second hybridization between DTU IIb and IIc strains that generated DTUs IId and IIe resulted in extensive heterozygosity with subsequent recombination of parental genotypes.

Differential Muscle Hypertrophy Is Associated with Satellite Cell Numbers and Akt Pathway Activation Following Activin Type IIB Receptor Inhibition in Mtm1 p.R69C Mice

PubMed Central

Lawlor, Michael W.; Viola, Marissa G.; Meng, Hui; Edelstein, Rachel V.; Liu, Fujun; Yan, Ke; Luna, Elizabeth J.; Lerch-Gaggl, Alexandra; Hoffmann, Raymond G.; Pierson, Christopher R.; Buj-Bello, Anna; Lachey, Jennifer L.; Pearsall, Scott; Yang, Lin; Hillard, Cecilia J.; Beggs, Alan H.

2015-01-01

X-linked myotubular myopathy is a congenital myopathy caused by deficiency of myotubularin. Patients often present with severe perinatal weakness, requiring mechanical ventilation to prevent death from respiratory failure. We recently reported that an activin receptor type IIB inhibitor produced hypertrophy of type 2b myofibers and modest increases of strength and life span in the severely myopathic Mtm1δ4 mouse model of X-linked myotubular myopathy. We have now performed a similar study in the less severely symptomatic Mtm1 p.R69C mouse in hopes of finding greater treatment efficacy. Activin receptor type IIB inhibitor treatment of Mtm1 p.R69C animals produced behavioral and histological evidence of hypertrophy in gastrocnemius muscles but not in quadriceps or triceps. The ability of the muscles to respond to activin receptor type IIB inhibitor treatment correlated with treatment-induced increases in satellite cell number and several muscle-specific abnormalities of hypertrophic signaling. Treatment-responsive Mtm1 p.R69C gastrocnemius muscles displayed lower levels of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 and higher levels of phosphorylated eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase than were observed in Mtm1 p.R69C quadriceps muscle or in muscles from wild-type littermates. Hypertrophy in the Mtm1 p.R69C gastrocnemius muscle was associated with increased levels of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6. Our findings indicate that muscle-, fiber type-, and mutation-specific factors affect the response to hypertrophic therapies that will be important to assess in future therapeutic trials. PMID:24726641

Differential muscle hypertrophy is associated with satellite cell numbers and Akt pathway activation following activin type IIB receptor inhibition in Mtm1 p.R69C mice.

PubMed

Lawlor, Michael W; Viola, Marissa G; Meng, Hui; Edelstein, Rachel V; Liu, Fujun; Yan, Ke; Luna, Elizabeth J; Lerch-Gaggl, Alexandra; Hoffmann, Raymond G; Pierson, Christopher R; Buj-Bello, Anna; Lachey, Jennifer L; Pearsall, Scott; Yang, Lin; Hillard, Cecilia J; Beggs, Alan H

2014-06-01

X-linked myotubular myopathy is a congenital myopathy caused by deficiency of myotubularin. Patients often present with severe perinatal weakness, requiring mechanical ventilation to prevent death from respiratory failure. We recently reported that an activin receptor type IIB inhibitor produced hypertrophy of type 2b myofibers and modest increases of strength and life span in the severely myopathic Mtm1δ4 mouse model of X-linked myotubular myopathy. We have now performed a similar study in the less severely symptomatic Mtm1 p.R69C mouse in hopes of finding greater treatment efficacy. Activin receptor type IIB inhibitor treatment of Mtm1 p.R69C animals produced behavioral and histological evidence of hypertrophy in gastrocnemius muscles but not in quadriceps or triceps. The ability of the muscles to respond to activin receptor type IIB inhibitor treatment correlated with treatment-induced increases in satellite cell number and several muscle-specific abnormalities of hypertrophic signaling. Treatment-responsive Mtm1 p.R69C gastrocnemius muscles displayed lower levels of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6 and higher levels of phosphorylated eukaryotic elongation factor 2 kinase than were observed in Mtm1 p.R69C quadriceps muscle or in muscles from wild-type littermates. Hypertrophy in the Mtm1 p.R69C gastrocnemius muscle was associated with increased levels of phosphorylated ribosomal protein S6. Our findings indicate that muscle-, fiber type-, and mutation-specific factors affect the response to hypertrophic therapies that will be important to assess in future therapeutic trials. Copyright © 2014 American Society for Investigative Pathology. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Entangled de Sitter from stringy axionic Bell pair I: an analysis using Bunch-Davies vacuum

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choudhury, Sayantan; Panda, Sudhakar

2018-01-01

In this work, we study the quantum entanglement and compute entanglement entropy in de Sitter space for a bipartite quantum field theory driven by an axion originating from Type IIB string compactification on a Calabi-Yau three fold (CY^3) and in the presence of an NS5 brane. For this computation, we consider a spherical surface S^2, which divides the spatial slice of de Sitter (dS_4) into exterior and interior sub-regions. We also consider the initial choice of vacuum to be Bunch-Davies state. First we derive the solution of the wave function of the axion in a hyperbolic open chart by constructing a suitable basis for Bunch-Davies vacuum state using Bogoliubov transformation. We then derive the expression for density matrix by tracing over the exterior region. This allows us to compute the entanglement entropy and Rényi entropy in 3+1 dimension. Furthermore, we quantify the UV-finite contribution of the entanglement entropy which contain the physics of long range quantum correlations of our expanding universe. Finally, our analysis complements the necessary condition for generating non-vanishing entanglement entropy in primordial cosmology due to the axion.

Holographic duals of 3d S-fold CFTs

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Assel, Benjamin; Tomasiello, Alessandro

2018-06-01

We construct non-geometric AdS4 solutions of IIB string theory where the fields in overlapping patches are glued by elements of the S-duality group. We obtain them by suitable quotients of compact and non-compact geometric solutions. The quotient procedure suggests CFT duals as quiver theories with links involving the so-called T [U( N)] theory. We test the validity of the non-geometric solutions (and of our proposed holographic duality) by computing the three-sphere partition function Z of the CFTs. A first class of solutions is obtained by an S-duality quotient of Janus-type non-compact solutions and is dual to 3d N=4 SCFTs; for these we manage to compute Z of the dual CFT at finite N, and it agrees perfectly with the supergravity result in the large N limit. A second class has five-branes, it is obtained by a Möbius-like S-quotient of ordinary compact solutions and is dual to 3d N=3 SCFTs. For these, Z agrees with the supergravity result if one chooses the limit carefully so that the effect of the fivebranes does not backreact on the entire geometry. Other limits suggest the existence of IIA duals.

Habemus superstratum! A constructive proof of the existence of superstrata

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bena, Iosif; Giusto, Stefano; Russo, Rodolfo; Shigemori, Masaki; Warner, Nicholas P.

2015-05-01

We construct the first example of a superstratum: a class of smooth horizonless supergravity solutions that are parameterized by arbitrary continuous functions of (at least) two variables and have the same charges as the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole. We work in Type IIB string theory on T 4 or K3 and our solutions involve a subset of fields that can be described by a six-dimensional supergravity with two tensor multiplets. The solutions can thus be constructed using a linear structure, and we give an explicit recipe to start from a superposition of modes specified by an arbitrary function of two variables and impose regularity to obtain the full horizonless solutions in closed form. We also give the precise CFT description of these solutions and show that they are not dual to descendants of chiral primaries. They are thus much more general than all the known solutions whose CFT dual is precisely understood. Hence our construction represents a substantial step toward the ultimate goal of constructing the fully generic superstratum that can account for a finite fraction of the entropy of the three-charge black hole in the regime of parameters where the classical black hole solution exists.

Upgrades to the Closed Bomb Facility and Measurement of Propellant Burning Rate

DTIC Science & Technology

2010-01-01

attenuation ratio myScope.WriteString (":CHAN1:RANGe " + CStr (Me.tbVRange.value)) ‘Sets the vertical voltage range myScope.WriteString (":CHAN1...OFFSet " + CStr (Me.tboffset.value)) ‘Sets the voltage offset myScope.WriteString ":CHAN1:PROB:STYP SING" ‘Sets the signal type...myScope.WriteString (":TRIG:EDGE:SOURce CHAN" + CStr (Int(val(GetRegistry(CollType, cCHANNEL))))) ‘Sets the source channel myScope.WriteString

Probing conformational changes in the I-like domain and the cysteine-rich repeat of human beta 3 integrins following disulfide bond disruption by cysteine mutations: identification of cysteine 598 involved in alphaIIbbeta3 activation.

PubMed

Chen, P; Melchior, C; Brons, N H; Schlegel, N; Caen, J; Kieffer, N

2001-10-19

We have investigated receptor function and epitope expression of recombinant alpha(IIb)beta(3) mutated at Cys(177) or Cys(273) in the I-like domain as well as Cys(598), located in the fourth repeat of the membrane-proximal cysteine-rich region and mutated in a Glanzmann's thrombasthenia type II patient. The beta(3) mutants beta(3)C177A, beta(3)C273A, and beta(3)C598Y exhibited a decreased electrophoretic mobility in SDS-polyacrylamide gel electrophoresis under nonreducing conditions, confirming the disruption of the respective disulfide loops. Despite reduced surface expression, the alpha(IIb)beta(3)C177A, alpha(IIb)beta(3)C273A, and alpha(IIb)beta(3)C598Y receptors mediated cell adhesion to immobilized fibrinogen and translocated into focal adhesion plaques. The beta(3)C598Y mutation, but not the beta(3)C177A or beta(3)C273A mutations, induced spontaneous binding of the ligand mimetic monoclonal antibody PAC-1, while the beta(3)C177A and beta(3)C273A mutants exhibited reduced complex stability in the absence of Ca(2+). Epitope mapping of function-blocking monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) allowed the identification of two distinct subgroups; mAbs A2A9, pl2-46, 10E5, and P256 did not interact with alpha(IIb)beta(3)C273A and bound only weakly to alpha(IIb)beta(3)C177A, while mAbs AP2, LM609 and 7E3 bound normally to mutant alpha(IIb)beta(3)C273A, but interacted only weakly with mutant alpha(IIb)beta(3)C177A. Furthermore, a cryptic epitope recognized by mAb 4D10G3 and not exposed on wild type alpha(IIb)beta(3) became accessible only on mutant alpha(IIb)beta(3)C177A and was mapped to the 60-kDa chymotrypsin fragment of beta(3). Finally, the ligand-induced binding site (LIBS) epitopes AP5, D3, LIBS1, and LIBS2 were spontaneously expressed on all three mutants independent of RGDS or dithiothreitol treatment. Our results provide evidence that disruption of a single cysteine disulfide bond in the cysteine-rich repeat domain, but not in the I-like domain, activates integrin alpha(IIb)beta(3). In contrast, disruption of each of the disulfide bonds in the two long insertions of the I-like domain predicted to be in close contact with the alpha subunit beta-propeller domain affect the stability of the alpha(IIb)beta(3) heterodimer and inhibit complex-specific mAb binding without affecting the RGD binding capacity of the metal ion-dependent adhesion site-like domain.

Type-I cosmic-string network

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hiramatsu, Takashi; Sendouda, Yuuiti; Takahashi, Keitaro; Yamauchi, Daisuke; Yoo, Chul-Moon

2013-10-01

We study the network of Type-I cosmic strings using the field-theoretic numerical simulations in the Abelian-Higgs model. For Type-I strings, the gauge field plays an important role, and thus we find that the correlation length of the strings is strongly dependent upon the parameter β, the ratio between the masses of the scalar field and the gauge field, namely, β=mφ2/mA2. In particular, if we take the cosmic expansion into account, the network becomes densest in the comoving box for a specific value of β for β<1.

Increased serum butyrylcholinesterase activity in type IIb hyperlipidaemic patients.

PubMed

Kálmán, János; Juhász, Anna; Rakonczay, Zoltán; Abrahám, György; Zana, Marianna; Boda, Krisztina; Farkas, Tibor; Penke, Botond; Janka, Zoltán

2004-07-23

The inheritance of the apolipoprotein E4 (APOE4) allele has been shown to increase the plasma cholesterol level, but little information is as concerns the association of the APOE genotype and hyperlipidaemia and the activities of two serum enzymes, acetylcholinesterase (AChE) and butyrylcholinesterase (BChE). Blood samples from 55 type IIb hyperlipidaemic, non-demented patients and 55 age- and sex-matched controls were therefore examined in this pilot study. A significantly increased BChE activity was found in the serum of type IIb hyperlipidaemic patients, but the AChE activity did not differ significantly as compared with that in the control group. The APOE4 allele was significantly overrepresented among the hyperlipidaemic probands, but neither serum cholinesterase activity was affected by the dosage of the APOE4 gene. Our results point to a possible association between an abnormal lipid metabolism and the BChE activity and might have implications as regards the pathomechanism of both Alzheimer's and vascular dementias and the cholinesterase inhibitor therapy of dementing disorders.

Complex Langevin analysis of the spontaneous symmetry breaking in dimensionally reduced super Yang-Mills models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Anagnostopoulos, Konstantinos N.; Azuma, Takehiro; Ito, Yuta; Nishimura, Jun; Papadoudis, Stratos Kovalkov

2018-02-01

In recent years the complex Langevin method (CLM) has proven a powerful method in studying statistical systems which suffer from the sign problem. Here we show that it can also be applied to an important problem concerning why we live in four-dimensional spacetime. Our target system is the type IIB matrix model, which is conjectured to be a nonperturbative definition of type IIB superstring theory in ten dimensions. The fermion determinant of the model becomes complex upon Euclideanization, which causes a severe sign problem in its Monte Carlo studies. It is speculated that the phase of the fermion determinant actually induces the spontaneous breaking of the SO(10) rotational symmetry, which has direct consequences on the aforementioned question. In this paper, we apply the CLM to the 6D version of the type IIB matrix model and show clear evidence that the SO(6) symmetry is broken down to SO(3). Our results are consistent with those obtained previously by the Gaussian expansion method.

Applications of warped geometries: From cosmology to cold atoms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Brown, C. M.

This thesis describes several interrelated projects furthering the study of branes on warped geometries in string theory. First, we consider the non-perturbative interaction between D3 and D7 branes which stabilizes the overall volume in braneworld compactification scenarios. This interaction might offer stable nonsupersymmetric vacua which would naturally break supersymmetry if occupied by D3 branes. We derive the equations for the nonsupersymmetric vacua of the D3-brane and analyze them in the case of two particular 7-brane embeddings at the bottom of the warped deformed conifold. These geometries have negative dark energy. Stability of these models is possible but not generic. Further, we reevaluate brane/flux annihilation in a warped throat with one stabilized Kahler modulus. We find that depending on the relative size of various fluxes three things can occur: the decay process proceeds unhindered, the D3-branes are forbidden to decay classically, or the entire space decompactifies. Additionally, we show that the Kahler modulus receives a contribution from the collective 3-brane tension allowing significant changes in the compactified volume during the transition. Next, furthering the effort to describe cold atoms using AdS/CFT, we construct charged asymptotically Schrodinger black hole solutions of IIB supergravity. We begin by obtaining a closed-form expression for the null Melvin twist of many type IIB backgrounds and identify the resulting five-dimensional effective action. We use these results to demonstrate that the near-horizon physics and thermodynamics of asymptotically Schrodinger black holes obtained in this way are essentially inherited from their AdS progenitors, and verify that they admit zero-temperature extremal limits with AdS2 near-horizon geometries. Finally, in an effort to understand rotating nonrelativistic systems we use the null Melvin twist technology on a charged rotating AdS black hole and discover a type of Godel space-time. We discuss how the dual field theory avoids the closed time-like curves which arise because of Bousso's holographic screen conjecture. This Godel space-time is locally equivalent to a Schrodinger space-time that has been forced onto an S2.

Voltage-Matched, Monolithic, Multi-Band-Gap Devices

DOEpatents

Wanlass, M. W.; Mascarenhas, A.

2006-08-22

Monolithic, tandem, photonic cells include at least a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer, wherein each semiconductor layer includes an n-type region, a p-type region, and a given band-gap energy. Formed within each semiconductor layer is a string of electrically connected photonic sub-cells. By carefully selecting the numbers of photonic sub-cells in the first and second layer photonic sub-cell string(s), and by carefully selecting the manner in which the sub-cells in a first and second layer photonic sub-cell string(s) are electrically connected, each of the first and second layer sub-cell strings may be made to achieve one or more substantially identical electrical characteristics.

Muscle hypertrophy and fast fiber type conversions in heavy resistance-trained women.

PubMed

Staron, R S; Malicky, E S; Leonardi, M J; Falkel, J E; Hagerman, F C; Dudley, G A

1990-01-01

Twenty-four women completed a 20-week heavy-resistance weight training program for the lower extremity. Workouts were twice a week and consisted of warm-up exercises followed by three sets each of full squats, vertical leg presses, leg extensions, and leg curls. All exercises were performed to failure using 6-8 RM (repetition maximum). Weight training caused a significant increase in maximal isotonic strength (1 RM) for each exercise. After training, there was a decrease in body fat percentage (p less than 0.05), and an increase in lean body mass (p less than 0.05) with no overall change in thigh girth. Biopsies were obtained before and after training from the superficial portion of the vastus lateralis muscle. Sections were prepared for histological and histochemical examination. Six fiber types (I, IC, IIC, IIA, IIAB, and IIB) were distinguished following routine myofibrillar adenosine triphosphatase histochemistry. Areas were determined for fiber types I, IIA, and IIAB + IIB. The heavy-resistance training resulted in significant hypertrophy of all three groups: I (15%), IIA (45%), and IIAB + IIB (57%). These data are similar to those in men and suggest considerable hypertrophy of all major fiber types is also possible in women if exercise intensity and duration are sufficient. In addition, the training resulted in a significant decrease in the percentage of IIB with a concomitant increase in IIA fibers, suggesting that strength training may lead to fiber conversions.

Coracoclavicular stabilization using a suture button device for Neer type IIB lateral clavicle fractures.

PubMed

Cho, Chul-Hyun; Jung, Jae-Hoon; Kim, Beom-Soo

2017-05-01

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the radiologic and clinical outcomes of coracoclavicular (CC) stabilization using a suture button device for Neer type IIB lateral clavicle fractures. Eighteen consecutive patients with Neer type IIB fractures were treated with CC stabilization using a TightRope device (Arthrex, Naples, FL, USA). The mean follow-up period was 46.6 months (range, 24-75 months). Radiologic outcomes were assessed using serial plain radiographs. Clinical outcomes were evaluated using the visual analog scale pain score; University of California, Los Angeles score; American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score; and subjective shoulder value. Intraoperative and postoperative complications were also evaluated. Of the 18 cases, 17 (94.4%) showed complete bony union. The mean final visual analog scale pain score was 1.1; University of California, Los Angeles score, 31.3; American Shoulder and Elbow Surgeons score, 88.6; and subjective shoulder value, 88.5%. Four complications were observed: (1) intraoperative coracoid process fracture, (2) nonunion, (3) delayed union, and (4) shoulder stiffness. The case with a coracoid process fracture during coracoid tunnel generation was converted to the K-wire tension band technique. CC stabilization using a suture button device for Neer type IIB lateral clavicle fractures yielded satisfactory radiologic and clinical outcomes. The major advantage of this technique is that implant removal is not required. Copyright © 2017 Journal of Shoulder and Elbow Surgery Board of Trustees. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

On `light' fermions and proton stability in `big divisor' D3/ D7 large volume compactifications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Misra, Aalok; Shukla, Pramod

2011-06-01

Building on our earlier work (Misra and Shukla, Nucl. Phys. B 827:112, 2010; Phys. Lett. B 685:347-352, 2010), we show the possibility of generating "light" fermion mass scales of MeV-GeV range (possibly related to the first two generations of quarks/leptons) as well as eV (possibly related to first two generations of neutrinos) in type IIB string theory compactified on Swiss-Cheese orientifolds in the presence of a mobile space-time filling D3-brane restricted to (in principle) stacks of fluxed D7-branes wrapping the "big" divisor Σ B . This part of the paper is an expanded version of the latter half of Sect. 3 of a published short invited review (Misra, Mod. Phys. Lett. A 26:1, 2011) written by one of the authors [AM]. Further, we also show that there are no SUSY GUT-type dimension-five operators corresponding to proton decay, and we estimate the proton lifetime from a SUSY GUT-type four-fermion dimension-six operator to be 1061 years. Based on GLSM calculations in (Misra and Shukla, Nucl. Phys. B 827:112, 2010) for obtaining the geometric Kähler potential for the "big divisor," using further the Donaldson's algorithm, we also briefly discuss in the first of the two appendices the metric for the Swiss-Cheese Calabi-Yau used, which we obtain and which becomes Ricci flat in the large-volume limit.

Disulfide bond exchanges in integrins αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 are required for activation and post-ligation signaling during clot retraction.

PubMed

Mor-Cohen, Ronit; Rosenberg, Nurit; Averbukh, Yulia; Seligsohn, Uri; Lahav, Judith

2014-05-01

Integrin αIIbβ3 mediates platelet adhesion, aggregation and fibrin clot retraction. These processes require activation of αIIbβ3 and post-ligation signaling. Disulfide bond exchanges are involved in αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 activation. In order to investigate the role of integrin activation and disulfide bond exchange during αIIbβ3- and αvβ3-mediated clot retraction, we co-expressed in baby hamster kidney cells wild-type (WT) human αIIb and WT or mutated human β3 that contain single or double cysteine substitutions disrupting C523-C544 or C560-C583 bonds. Flow cytometry was used to measure surface expression and activation state of the integrins. Time-course of fibrin clot retraction was examined. Cells expressed WT or mutated human αIIbβ3 as well as chimeric hamster/human αvβ3. The αIIbβ3 mutants were constitutively active and the thiol blocker dithiobisnitrobenzoic acid (DTNB) did not affect their activation state. WT cells retracted the clot and addition of αvβ3 inhibitors decreased the retraction rate. The active mutants and WT cells activated by anti-LIBS6 antibody retracted the clot faster than untreated WT cells, particularly in the presence of αvβ3 inhibitor. DTNB substantially inhibited clot retraction by WT or double C523S/C544S mutant expressing cells, but minimally affected single C523S, C544S or C560S mutants. Anti-LIBS6-enhanced clot retraction was significantly inhibited by DTNB when added prior to anti-LIBS6. Both αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 contribute to clot retraction without prior activation of the integrins. Activation of αIIbβ3, but not of αvβ3 enhances clot retraction. Both αIIbβ3 activation and post-ligation signaling during clot retraction require disulfide bond exchange. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

An Ada/SQL (Structured Query Language) Application Scanner.

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-03-01

Digital ...8217 (" DIGITS "), 46 new STRING’ ("DO"), new STRING’ ("ELSE"), new STRING’ ("ELSIF"), new STRING’ ("END"), new STRING’ ("ENTRY"), new STRING’ ("EXCEPTION...INTEGERPRINT; generic type NUM is digits <>; package FLOATPRINT is package txtprts.ada 18 prcdr PR (FL inFL %YE LINE n LINTYPE UNCLASSIFIED procedure

Diversity and regulation of plant Ca2+ pumps: insights from expression in yeast

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Sze, H.; Liang, F.; Hwang, I.; Curran, A. C.; Harper, J. F.; Evans, M. L. (Principal Investigator)

2000-01-01

The spatial and temporal regulation of calcium concentration in plant cells depends on the coordinate activities of channels and active transporters located on different organelles and membranes. Several Ca2+ pumps have been identified and characterized by functional expression of plant genes in a yeast mutant (K616). This expression system has opened the way to a genetic and biochemical characterization of the regulatory and catalytic features of diverse Ca2+ pumps. Plant Ca(2+)-ATPases fall into two major types: AtECA1 represents one of four or more members of the type IIA (ER-type) Ca(2+)-ATPases in Arabidopsis, and AtACA2 is one of seven or more members of the type IIB (PM-type) Ca(2+)-ATPases that are regulated by a novel amino terminal domain. Type IIB pumps are widely distributed on membranes, including the PM (plasma membrane), vacuole, and ER (endoplasmic reticulum). The regulatory domain serves multiple functions, including autoinhibition, calmodulin binding, and sites for modification by phosphorylation. This domain, however, is considerably diverse among several type IIB ATPases, suggesting that the pumps are differentially regulated. Understanding of Ca2+ transporters at the molecular level is providing insights into their roles in signaling networks and in regulating fundamental processes of cell biology.

Self-organization in a system of binary strings with spatial interactions

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Banzhaf, W.; Dittrich, P.; Eller, B.

1999-01-01

We consider an artificial reaction system whose components are binary strings. Upon encounter, two binary strings produce a third string which competes for storage space with the originators. String types or species can only survive when produced in sufficient numbers. Spatial interactions through introduction of a topology and rules for distance-dependent reactions are discussed. We observe various kinds of survival strategies of binary strings.

Regulation of contractile protein gene expression in unloaded mouse skeletal muscle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Criswell, D. S.; Carson, J. A.; Booth, F. W.

1996-01-01

Hindlimb unloading was performed on mice in an effort to study the regulation of contractile protein genes. In particular, the regulation of myosin heavy chain IIb was examined. During unloading, muscle fibers undergo a type conversion. Preliminary data from this study does not support the hypothesis that the fiber type conversion is due to an increase in promoter activity of fast isoform genes, such as myosin heavy chain IIb. The consequences of this finding are examined, with particular focus on other factors controlling gene regulation.

Reactive codoping of GaAlInP compound semiconductors

DOEpatents

Hanna, Mark Cooper [Boulder, CO; Reedy, Robert [Golden, CO

2008-02-12

A GaAlInP compound semiconductor and a method of producing a GaAlInP compound semiconductor are provided. The apparatus and method comprises a GaAs crystal substrate in a metal organic vapor deposition reactor. Al, Ga, In vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing organometallic compounds. P vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing phospine gas, group II vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing an organometallic group IIA or IIB compound. Group VIB vapors are prepared by thermally decomposing a gaseous compound of group VIB. The Al, Ga, In, P, group II, and group VIB vapors grow a GaAlInP crystal doped with group IIA or IIB and group VIB elements on the substrate wherein the group IIA or IIB and a group VIB vapors produced a codoped GaAlInP compound semiconductor with a group IIA or IIB element serving as a p-type dopant having low group II atomic diffusion.

Multiple bottlenecks in hierarchical control of action sequences: what does "response selection" select in skilled typewriting?

PubMed

Yamaguchi, Motonori; Logan, Gordon D; Li, Vanessa

2013-08-01

Does response selection select words or letters in skilled typewriting? Typing performance involves hierarchically organized control processes: an outer loop that controls word level processing, and an inner loop that controls letter (or keystroke) level processing. The present study addressed whether response selection occurs in the outer loop or the inner loop by using the psychological refractory period (PRP) paradigm in which Task1 required typing single words and Task2 required vocal responses to tones. The number of letters (string length) in the words was manipulated to discriminate selection of words from selection of keystrokes. In Experiment 1, the PRP effect depended on string length of words in Task1, suggesting that response selection occurs in the inner loop. To assess contributions of the outer loop, the influence of string length was examined in a lexical-decision task that also involves word encoding and lexical access (Experiment 2), or to-be-typed words were preexposed so outer-loop processing could finish before typing started (Experiment 3). Response time for Task2 (RT2) did not depend on string length with lexical decision, and RT2 still depended on string length with typing preexposed strings. These results support the inner-loop locus of the PRP effect. In Experiment 4, typing was performed as Task2, and the effect of string length on typing RT interacted with stimulus onset asynchrony superadditively, implying that another bottleneck also exists in the outer loop. We conclude that there are at least two bottleneck processes in skilled typewriting. 2013 APA, all rights reserved

ADAP interactions with talin and kindlin promote platelet integrin αIIbβ3 activation and stable fibrinogen binding

PubMed Central

Kang, Jian; Kahner, Bryan; Ye, Feng; Ginsberg, Mark H.; Shattil, Sanford J.

2014-01-01

ADAP is a hematopoietic-restricted adapter protein that promotes integrin activation and is a carrier for other adapter proteins, Src kinase–associated phosphoprotein 1 (SKAP1) and SKAP2. In T lymphocytes, SKAP1 is the ADAP-associated molecule that activates integrins through direct linkages with Rap1 effectors (regulator of cell adhesion and polarization enriched in lymphoid tissues; Rap1-interacting adapter molecule). ADAP also promotes integrin αIIbβ3 activation in platelets, which lack SKAP1, suggesting an ADAP integrin–regulatory pathway different from those in lymphocytes. Here we characterized a novel association between ADAP and 2 essential integrin-β cytoplasmic tail-binding proteins involved in αIIbβ3 activation, talin and kindlin-3. Glutathione S-transferase pull-downs identified distinct regions in ADAP necessary for association with kindlin or talin. ADAP was physically proximal to talin and kindlin-3 in human platelets, as assessed biochemically, and by immunofluorescence microscopy and proximity ligation. Relative to wild-type mouse platelets, ADAP-deficient platelets exhibited reduced co-localization of talin with αIIbβ3, and reduced irreversible fibrinogen binding in response to a protease activated receptor 4 (PAR4) thrombin receptor agonist. When ADAP was heterologously expressed in Chinese hamster ovary cells co-expressing αIIbβ3, talin, PAR1, and kindlin-3, it associated with an αIIbβ3/talin complex and enabled kindlin-3 to promote agonist-dependent ligand binding to αIIbβ3. Thus, ADAP uniquely promotes activation of and irreversible fibrinogen binding to platelet αIIbβ3 through interactions with talin and kindlin-3. PMID:24523237

Muscle fiber characteristics and performance correlates of male Olympic-style weightlifters.

PubMed

Fry, Andrew C; Schilling, Brian K; Staron, Robert S; Hagerman, Fredrick C; Hikida, Robert S; Thrush, John T

2003-11-01

Biopsies fro the vastus lateralis muscle of male weightlifters (WL; n=6; X +/- SE, age=27.0 +/- 2.1 years), and non-weight-trained men (CON; n=7; age=27.0 +/- 2.0 years) were compared for fiber types, myosin heavy chain (MHC) and titin content, and fiber type-specific capillary density. Differences (p<0.05) were observed for percent fiber types IIC (WL=0.4 +/- 0.2, CON=2.4 +/- 0.8); IIA (WL=50.5 +/- 3.2, CON=26.9 +/- 3.7); and IIB (WL=1.7 +/- 1.4, CON=21.0 +/- 5.3), as well as percent MHC IIa (WL=65.3 +/- 2.4, CON=52.1 +/- 4.2) and percent MHC IIB (WL=0.9 +/- 0.9; CON=18.2 +/- 6.1). All WL exhibited only the titin-1 isoform. Capillary density (caps.mm(-2)) for all fiber types combined was greater for the CON subjects (WL=192.7 +/- 17.3; CON=262.9 +/- 26.3), due primarily to a greater capillary density in the IIA fibers. Weightlifting performances and vertical jump power were correlated with type II fiber characteristics. These results suggest that successful weightlifting performance is not dependent on IIB fibers, and that weightlifters exhibit large percentages of type IIA muscle fibers and MHC IIa isoform content.

Exercise increases the plasma membrane content of the Na+ -K+ pump and its mRNA in rat skeletal muscles.

PubMed

Tsakiridis, T; Wong, P P; Liu, Z; Rodgers, C D; Vranic, M; Klip, A

1996-02-01

Muscle fibers adapt to ionic challenges of exercise by increasing the plasma membrane Na+-K+ pump activity. Chronic exercise training has been shown to increase the total amount of Na+-K+ pumps present in skeletal muscle. However, the mechanism of adaptation of the Na+-K+ pump to an acute bout of exercise has not been determined, and it is not known whether it involves alterations in the content of plasma membrane pump subunits. Here we examine the effect of 1 h of treadmill running (20 m/min, 10% grade) on the subcellular distribution and expression of Na+-K+ pump subunits in rat skeletal muscles. Red type I and IIa (red-I/IIa) and white type IIa and IIb (white-IIa/IIb) hindlimb muscles from resting and exercised female Sprague-Dawley rats were removed for subcellular fractionation. By homogenization and gradient centrifugation, crude membranes and purified plasma membranes were isolated and subjected to gel electrophoresis and immunoblotting by using pump subunit-specific antibodies. Furthermore, mRNA was isolated from specific red type I (red-I) and white type IIb (white-IIb) muscles and subjected to Northern blotting by using subunit-specific probes. In both red-I/IIa and white-IIa/IIb muscles, exercise significantly raised the plasma membrane content of the alpha1-subunit of the pump by 64 +/- 24 and 55 +/- 22%, respectively (P < 0.05), and elevated the alpha2-polypeptide by 43 +/- 22 and 94 +/- 39%, respectively (P < 0.05). No significant effect of exercise could be detected on the amount of these subunits in an internal membrane fraction or in total membranes. In addition, exercise significantly increased the alpha1-subunit mRNA in red-I muscle (by 50 +/- 7%; P < 0.05) and the beta2-subunit mRNA in white-IIb muscles (by 64 +/- 19%; P < 0.01), but the alpha2- and beta1-mRNA levels were unaffected in this time period. We conclude that increased presence of alpha1- and alpha2-polypeptides at the plasma membrane and subsequent elevation of the alpha1- and beta2-subunit mRNAs may be mechanisms by which acute exercise regulates the Na+-K+ pump of skeletal muscle.

The waiting time problem in a model hominin population.

PubMed

Sanford, John; Brewer, Wesley; Smith, Franzine; Baumgardner, John

2015-09-17

Functional information is normally communicated using specific, context-dependent strings of symbolic characters. This is true within the human realm (texts and computer programs), and also within the biological realm (nucleic acids and proteins). In biology, strings of nucleotides encode much of the information within living cells. How do such information-bearing nucleotide strings arise and become established? This paper uses comprehensive numerical simulation to understand what types of nucleotide strings can realistically be established via the mutation/selection process, given a reasonable timeframe. The program Mendel's Accountant realistically simulates the mutation/selection process, and was modified so that a starting string of nucleotides could be specified, and a corresponding target string of nucleotides could be specified. We simulated a classic pre-human hominin population of at least 10,000 individuals, with a generation time of 20 years, and with very strong selection (50% selective elimination). Random point mutations were generated within the starting string. Whenever an instance of the target string arose, all individuals carrying the target string were assigned a specified reproductive advantage. When natural selection had successfully amplified an instance of the target string to the point of fixation, the experiment was halted, and the waiting time statistics were tabulated. Using this methodology we tested the effect of mutation rate, string length, fitness benefit, and population size on waiting time to fixation. Biologically realistic numerical simulations revealed that a population of this type required inordinately long waiting times to establish even the shortest nucleotide strings. To establish a string of two nucleotides required on average 84 million years. To establish a string of five nucleotides required on average 2 billion years. We found that waiting times were reduced by higher mutation rates, stronger fitness benefits, and larger population sizes. However, even using the most generous feasible parameters settings, the waiting time required to establish any specific nucleotide string within this type of population was consistently prohibitive. We show that the waiting time problem is a significant constraint on the macroevolution of the classic hominin population. Routine establishment of specific beneficial strings of two or more nucleotides becomes very problematic.

Modeling the influence of string collective phenomena on the long range rapidity correlations between the transverse momentum and the multiplicities

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Andronov, E.; Vechernin, V.

2016-01-22

The long-range rapidity correlations between the multiplicities (n-n) and the transverse momentum and the multiplicity (pT-n) of charge particles are analyzed in the framework of the simple string inspired model with two types of sources. The sources of the first type correspond to the initial strings formed in a hadronic collision. The sources of the second type imitate the appearance of the emitters of a new kind resulting from interaction (fusion) of the initial strings. The model enabled to describe effectively the influence of the string fusion effects on the strength both the n-n and the pT-n correlations. It wasmore » found that in the region, where the process of string fusion comes into play, the calculation results predict the non-monotonic behaviour of the n-n and pT-n correlation coefficients with the growth of the mean number of initial strings, i.e. with the increase of the collision centrality. It was shown also that the increase of the event-by-event fluctuation in the number of primary strings leads to the change of the pT-n correlation sign from negative to positive. One can try to search these signatures of string collective phenomena in interactions of various nuclei at different energies varying the class of collision centrality and its width.« less

Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase p110β Regulates Integrin αIIbβ3 Avidity and the Cellular Transmission of Contractile Forces*

PubMed Central

Schoenwaelder, Simone M.; Ono, Akiko; Nesbitt, Warwick S.; Lim, Joanna; Jarman, Kate; Jackson, Shaun P.

2010-01-01

Phosphoinositide (PI) 3-kinase (PI3K) signaling processes play an important role in regulating the adhesive function of integrin αIIbβ3, necessary for platelet spreading and sustained platelet aggregation. PI3K inhibitors are effective at reducing platelet aggregation and thrombus formation in vivo and as a consequence are currently being evaluated as novel antithrombotic agents. PI3K regulation of integrin αIIbβ3 activation (affinity modulation) primarily occurs downstream of Gi-coupled and tyrosine kinase-linked receptors linked to the activation of Rap1b, AKT, and phospholipase C. In the present study, we demonstrate an important role for PI3Ks in regulating the avidity (strength of adhesion) of high affinity integrin αIIbβ3 bonds, necessary for the cellular transmission of contractile forces. Using knock-out mouse models and isoform-selective PI3K inhibitors, we demonstrate that the Type Ia p110β isoform plays a major role in regulating thrombin-stimulated fibrin clot retraction in vitro. Reduced clot retraction induced by PI3K inhibitors was not associated with defects in integrin αIIbβ3 activation, actin polymerization, or actomyosin contractility but was associated with a defect in integrin αIIbβ3 association with the contractile cytoskeleton. Analysis of integrin αIIbβ3 adhesion contacts using total internal reflection fluorescence microscopy revealed an important role for PI3Ks in regulating the stability of high affinity integrin αIIbβ3 bonds. These studies demonstrate an important role for PI3K p110β in regulating the avidity of high affinity integrin αIIbβ3 receptors, necessary for the cellular transmission of contractile forces. These findings may provide new insight into the potential antithrombotic properties of PI3K p110β inhibitors. PMID:19940148

Addition of a suture anchor for coracoclavicular fixation to a superior locking plate improves stability of type IIB distal clavicle fractures.

PubMed

Madsen, Wes; Yaseen, Zaneb; LaFrance, Russell; Chen, Tony; Awad, Hani; Maloney, Michael; Voloshin, Ilya

2013-06-01

The purpose of this study was to determine the effect of coracoclavicular (CC) fixation on biomechanical stability in type IIB distal clavicle fractures fixed with plate and screws. Twelve fresh-frozen matched cadaveric specimens were used to create type IIB distal clavicle fractures. Dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry (DEXA) scans ensured similar bone quality. Group 1 (6 specimens) was stabilized with a superior precontoured distal clavicle locking plate and supplemental suture anchor CC fixation. Group 2 (6 specimens) followed the same construct without CC fixation. Each specimen was cyclically loaded in the coronal plane at 40 to 80 N for 17,500 cycles. Load-to-failure testing was performed on the specimens that did not fail cyclic loading. Outcome measures included mode of failure and the number of cycles or load required to create 10 mm of displacement in the construct. All specimens (12 of 12) completed cyclic testing without failure and underwent load-to-failure testing. Group 1 specimens failed at a mean of 808.5 N (range, 635.4 to 952.3 N), whereas group 2 specimens failed at a mean of 401.3 N (range, 283.6 to 656.0 N) (P = .005). Group 1 specimens failed by anchor pullout without coracoid fracture (4 of 6) and distal clavicle fracture fragment fragmentation (1 of 6); one specimen did not fail at the maximal load the materials testing machine was capable of exerting (1,000 N). Group 2 specimens failed by distal clavicle fracture fragment fragmentation (3 of 6) and acromioclavicular (AC) joint displacement (1 of 6); 2 specimens did not fail at the maximal load of the materials testing machine. During cyclic loading, type IIB distal clavicle fractures with and without CC fixation remain stable. CC fixation adds stability to type IIB distal clavicle fractures fixed with plate and screws when loaded to failure. CC fixation for distal clavicle fractures is a useful adjunct to plate-and-screw fixation to augment stability of the fracture. Copyright © 2013 Arthroscopy Association of North America. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Altered inhibition in Tuberous Sclerosis and Type IIb cortical dysplasia

PubMed Central

Talos, Delia M.; Sun, Hongyu; Kosaras, Bela; Joseph, Annelise; Folkerth, Rebecca D.; Poduri, Annapurna; Madsen, Joseph R.; Black, Peter M.; Jensen, Frances E.

2012-01-01

Objective The most common neurological symptom of tuberous sclerosis complex (TSC) and focal cortical dysplasia (FCD) is early-life refractory epilepsy. As previous studies have shown enhanced excitatory glutamatergic neurotransmission in TSC and FCD brains, we hypothesized that neurons associated with these lesions may also express altered GABAA receptor (GABAAR)-mediated inhibition. Methods Expression of the GABAAR subunitsα1 and α4, the Na+-K+-2Cl− (NKCC1), and the K+−Cl− (KCC2) transporters in human TSC and FCD Type II specimens were analyzed by Western blot and double label immunocytochemistry. GABAAR responses in dysplastic neurons from a single case of TSC were measured by perforated-patch recording and compared to normal-appearing cortical neurons from a non-TSC epilepsy case. Results TSC and FCD Type IIb lesions demonstrated decreased expression of the GABAAR α1, increased NKCC1 and decreased KCC2 levels. In contrast, FCD Type IIa lesions showed decreased α4, and increased expression of both NKCC1 and KCC2 transporters. Patch clamp recordings from dysplastic neurons in acute slices from TSC tubers demonstrated excitatory GABAAR responses that were significantly attenuated by the NKCC1 inhibitor bumetanide, in contrast to hyperpolarizing GABAAR-mediated currents in normal neurons from non-TSC cortical slices. Interpretation Expression and function of GABAARs in TSC and FCD IIb suggests the relative benzodiazepine insensitivity and more excitatory action of GABA compared to FCD IIa. These factors may contribute to resistance of seizure activity to anticonvulsants that increase GABAergic function, and may justify add-on trials of the NKCC1 inhibitor bumetanide for the treatment of TSC and FCD Type IIb related epilepsy. PMID:22447678

Ultraviolet Detection of the Binary Companion to the Type IIb SN 2001ig

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ryder, Stuart D.; Van Dyk, Schuyler D.; Fox, Ori D.; Zapartas, Emmanouil; de Mink, Selma E.; Smith, Nathan; Brunsden, Emily; Azalee Bostroem, K.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Shivvers, Isaac; Zheng, WeiKang

2018-03-01

We present HST/WFC3 ultraviolet imaging in the F275W and F336W bands of the Type IIb SN 2001ig at an age of more than 14 years. A clear point source is detected at the site of the explosion, with m F275W = 25.39 ± 0.10 and m F336W = 25.88 ± 0.13 mag. Despite weak constraints on both the distance to the host galaxy NGC 7424 and the line-of-sight reddening to the supernova, this source matches the characteristics of an early B-type main-sequence star with 19,000 < T eff < 22,000 K and {log}({L}bol}/{L}ȯ )=3.92+/- 0.14. A BPASS v2.1 binary evolution model, with primary and secondary masses of 13 M ⊙ and 9 M ⊙, respectively, is found to simultaneously resemble, in the Hertzsprung–Russell diagram, both the observed location of this surviving companion, and the primary star evolutionary endpoints for other Type IIb supernovae. This same model exhibits highly variable late-stage mass loss, as expected from the behavior of the radio light curves. A Gemini/GMOS optical spectrum at an age of 6 years reveals a narrow He II λ4686 emission line, indicative of continuing interaction with a dense circumstellar medium at large radii from the progenitor. We review our findings on SN 2001ig in the context of binary evolution channels for stripped-envelope supernovae. Owing to the uncrowded nature of its environment in the ultraviolet, this study of SN 2001ig represents one of the cleanest detections to date of a surviving binary companion to a Type IIb supernova.

K-theoretic aspects of string theory dualities

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mendez-Diez, Stefan Milo

String theory is a a physical field theory in which point particles are replaced by 1-manifolds propagating in time, called strings. The 2-manifold representing the time evolution of a string is called the string worldsheet. Strings can be either closed (meaning their worldsheets are closed surfaces) or open (meaning their worldsheets have boundary). A D-brane is a submanifold of the spacetime manifold on which string endpoints are constrained to lie. There are five different string theories that have supersymmetry, and they are all related by various dualities. This dissertation will review how D-branes are classified by K-theory. We will then explore the K-theoretic aspects of a hypothesized duality between the type I theory compactified on a 4-torus and the type IIA theory compactified on a K3 surface, by looking at a certain blow down of the singular limit of K3. This dissertation concludes by classifying D-branes on the type II orientifold Tn/Z2 when the Z2 action is multiplication by -1 and the H-flux is trivial. We find that classifying D-branes on the singular limit of K3, T4/Z2 by equivariant K-theory agrees with the classification of D-branes on a smooth K3 surface by ordinary K-theory.

The role of protein disulfide isomerase in the post-ligation phase of β3 integrin-dependent cell adhesion.

PubMed

Leader, Avi; Mor-Cohen, Ronit; Ram, Ron; Sheptovitsky, Vera; Seligsohn, Uri; Rosenberg, Nurit; Lahav, Judith

2015-12-01

Protein disulfide isomerase (PDI) catalyzes disulfide bond exchange. It is crucial for integrin-mediated platelet adhesion and aggregation and disulfide bond exchange is necessary for αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 activation. However, the role of disulfide bond exchange and PDI in the post-ligation phase of αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 mediated cell adhesion has yet to be determined. To investigate a possible such role, we expressed wild type (WT) human αIIb and either WT human β3, or β3 harboring single or double cysteine to serine substitutions disrupting Cys473-Cys503 or Cys523-Cys544 bonds, in baby hamster kidney (BHK) cells, leading to expression of both human αIIbβ3 and a chimeric hamster/human αvβ3. Adhesion to fibrinogen-coated wells was studied in the presence or absence of bacitracin, a PDI inhibitor, with and without an αvβ3 blocker. Flow cytometry showed WT and mutant αIIbβ3 expression in BHK cells and indicated that mutated αIIbβ3 receptors were constitutively active while WT αIIbβ3 was inactive. Both αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 integrins, WT and mutants, mediated adhesion to fibrinogen as shown by reduced but still substantial adhesion following treatment with the αvβ3 blocker. Mutated αIIbβ3 integrins disrupted in the Cys523-Cys544 bond still depended on PDI for adhesion as shown by the inhibitory effect of bacitracin in the presence of the αvβ3 blocker. Mutated integrins disrupted in the Cys473-Cys503 bond showed a similar trend. PDI-mediated disulfide bond exchange plays a pivotal role in the post-ligation phase of αIIbβ3-mediated adhesion to fibrinogen, while this step in αvβ3-mediated adhesion is independent of disulfide exchange. Copyright © 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Type IIB flux vacua from G-theory II

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Candelas, Philip; Constantin, Andrei; Damian, Cesar; Larfors, Magdalena; Morales, Jose Francisco

2015-02-01

We find analytic solutions of type IIB supergravity on geometries that locally take the form Mink × M 4 × ℂ with M 4 a generalised complex manifold. The solutions involve the metric, the dilaton, NSNS and RR flux potentials (oriented along the M 4) parametrised by functions varying only over ℂ. Under this assumption, the supersymmetry equations are solved using the formalism of pure spinors in terms of a finite number of holomorphic functions. Alternatively, the solutions can be viewed as vacua of maximally supersymmetric supergravity in six dimensions with a set of scalar fields varying holomorphically over ℂ. For a class of solutions characterised by up to five holomorphic functions, we outline how the local solutions can be completed to four-dimensional flux vacua of type IIB theory. A detailed study of this global completion for solutions with two holomorphic functions has been carried out in the companion paper [1]. The fluxes of the global solutions are, as in F-theory, entirely codified in the geometry of an auxiliary K3 fibration over ℂℙ1. The results provide a geometric construction of fluxes in F-theory.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Finn, Kieran; Bianco, Federica B.; Modjaz, Maryam

We compare the diversity of spectral line velocities in a large sample of type IIb supernovae (SNe IIb) with the expected asphericity in the explosion, as measured from the light echoes (LEs) of Cassiopeia A (Cas A), which was a historical galactic SN IIb. We revisit the results of Rest et al., who used LEs to observe Cas A from multiple lines of sight and hence determine its asphericity, as seen in the velocity of three spectral lines (He i λ 5876, H α , and the Ca ii near-infrared (NIR) triplet). We confirm and improve on this measurement bymore » reproducing the effect of the LEs in the spectra of several extragalactic SNe IIb found in the literature as well as mean SN IIb spectra recently created by Liu et al. and comparing these to the observed light echo spectra of Cas A, including their associated uncertainties. In order to quantify the accuracy of this comparison, we smooth the light echo spectra of Cas A using Gaussian processes and use a Monte Carlo method to measure the absorption velocities of these three features in the spectra. We then test the hypothesis that the diversity of ejecta velocities seen in SNe IIb can be explained by asphericity. We do this by comparing the range of velocities seen in the different LEs, and hence different lines of sight, of Cas A to that seen in the population of SNe IIb. We conclude that these two ranges are of the same order and thus asphericity could be enough to explain the diversity in the expansion velocity alone.« less

Voltage-matched, monolithic, multi-band-gap devices

DOEpatents

Wanlass, Mark W.; Mascarenhas, Angelo

2006-08-22

Monolithic, tandem, photonic cells include at least a first semiconductor layer and a second semiconductor layer, wherein each semiconductor layer includes an n-type region, a p-type region, and a given band-gap energy. Formed within each semiconductor layer is a sting of electrically connected photonic sub-cells. By carefully selecting the numbers of photonic sub-cells in the first and second layer photonic sub-cell string(s), and by carefully selecting the manner in which the sub-cells in a first and second layer photonic sub-cell string(s) are electrically connected, each of the first and second layer sub-cell strings may be made to achieve one or more substantially identical electrical characteristics.

Bianchi type-VIh string cloud cosmological models with bulk viscosity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tripathy, Sunil K.; Behera, Dipanjali

2010-11-01

String cloud cosmological models are studied using spatially homogeneous and anisotropic Bianchi type VIh metric in the frame work of general relativity. The field equations are solved for massive string cloud in presence of bulk viscosity. A general linear equation of state of the cosmic string tension density with the proper energy density of the universe is considered. The physical and kinematical properties of the models have been discussed in detail and the limits of the anisotropic parameter responsible for different phases of the universe are explored.

Anisotropic Bianchi Type-I and Type-II Bulk Viscous String Cosmological Models Coupled with Zero Mass Scalar Field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Venkateswarlu, R.; Sreenivas, K.

2014-06-01

The LRS Bianchi type-I and type-II string cosmological models are studied when the source for the energy momentum tensor is a bulk viscous stiff fluid containing one dimensional strings together with zero-mass scalar field. We have obtained the solutions of the field equations assuming a functional relationship between metric coefficients when the metric is Bianchi type-I and constant deceleration parameter in case of Bianchi type-II metric. The physical and kinematical properties of the models are discussed in each case. The effects of Viscosity on the physical and kinematical properties are also studied.

E(lementary)-strings in six-dimensional heterotic F-theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Choi, Kang-Sin; Rey, Soo-Jong

2017-09-01

Using E-strings, we can analyze not only six-dimensional superconformal field theories but also probe vacua of non-perturabative heterotic string. We study strings made of D3-branes wrapped on various two-cycles in the global F-theory setup. We claim that E-strings are elementary in the sense that various combinations of E-strings can form M-strings as well as heterotic strings and new kind of strings, called G-strings. Using them, we show that emissions and combinations of heterotic small instantons generate most of known six-dimensional superconformal theories, their affinizations and little string theories. Taking account of global structure of compact internal geometry, we also show that special combinations of E-strings play an important role in constructing six-dimensional theories of D- and E-types. We check global consistency conditions from anomaly cancellation conditions, both from five-branes and strings, and show that they are given in terms of elementary E-string combinations.

Quantum gravity inde Sitter space and anti-de Sitter space

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lippert, Matthew S.

In this thesis, we consider two aspects of quantum gravity---the nature of holography in anti-de Sitter space and string theory models of de Sitter space. Searching for a holographic resolution of the black hole information paradox, we pursue the identity of precursors in the context of AdS/CFT. We consider precursors that encode bulk information causally disconnected from the boundary and whose measurement involves nonlocal bulk processes. Previous arguments that these precursors are large, undecorated Wilson loops are found to be flawed. We construct a toy model of holography which encapsulates the expected properties of precursors and compare it with previous such discussions. The information contained in precursors is argued to be encoded in the high-energy sector of the theory and not observable by low-energy measurements. These considerations lead us to propose a locality bound, which indicates where locality breaks down due to black hole or stringy effects. We apply the locality bound to Hawking's argument for information loss in black hole evaporation. We argue that independence of internal and external Hilbert spaces cannot be established without incorporating strong gravitational effects that undermine locality and invalidate the use of quantum field theory in a semiclassical background geometry. We then turn to the investigation of the landscape of string theory vacua, and investigate a recently constructed de Sitter compactification of IIB string theory, which was shown to be metastable in agreement with general arguments about de Sitter spacetimes in quantum gravity. We describe how discrete flux choices lead to a closely-spaced set of vacua and explore various decay channels. We find that in many situations NS5-brane meditated decays which exchange NSNS 3-form flux for D3-branes are comparatively extremely fast.

Synergistic ablation does not affect atrophy or altered myosin heavy chain expression in the non-weight bearing soleus muscle

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Linderman, J. K.; Talmadge, R. J.; Gosselink, K. L.; Tri, P. N.; Roy, R. R.; Grindeland, R. E.

1996-01-01

The purpose of this study was to investigate whether the soleus muscle undergoes atrophy and alterations in myosin heavy chain (MHC) composition during non-weight bearing in the absence of synergists. Thirty-two female rats were randomly assigned to four groups: control (C), synergistic ablation (ABL) of the gastrocnemius and plantaris muscles to overload the soleus muscle, hindlimb suspension (HLS), or a combination of synergistic ablation and hindlimb suspension (HLS-ABL). After 28 days of hindlimb suspension, soleus atrophy was more pronounced in HLS (58%) than in HLS-ABL (43%) rats. Compared to C rats, non-weight bearing decreased mixed and myofibrillar protein contents and Type I MHC 49%, 45%, and 7%, respectively, in HLS animals. In addition, de novo expression of fast Type IIx and Type IIb MHC (5% and 2%, respectively) was observed in HLS animals. Similarly, when compared to C rats, mixed and myofibrillar protein contents and Type I MHC decreased 43%, 46%, and 4%, respectively, in HLS-ABL animals. Also, de novo expression of Type IIx (4%) and IIb (1%) MHC was observed. Collectively, these data indicate that the loss of muscle protein and Type I MHC, and the de novo expression of Type IIx and Type IIb MHC in the rat soleus occur independently of the presence of synergists during non-weight bearing. Furthermore, these results confirm the contention that soleus mass and MHC expression are highly sensitive to alterations in mechanical load.

Displaced Neer Type IIB distal-third clavicle fractures-Long-term clinical outcome after plate fixation and additional screw augmentation for coracoclavicular instability.

PubMed

Tiefenboeck, Thomas M; Boesmueller, Sandra; Binder, Harald; Bukaty, Adam; Tiefenboeck, Michael M; Joestl, Julian; Hofbauer, Marcus; Ostermann, Roman C

2017-01-23

Unstable Neer Type IIB fractures require meticulous surgical treatment. Thus, the aim of this study was to present long-term outcomes after plate fixation and minimally invasive coracoclavicular (CC) stabilization using screw fixation. A consecutive series of patients with unstable Neer Type IIB displaced clavicle fractures, treated by open reduction and internal fixation (ORIF) with a plate and additional screw fixation for coracoclavicular ligament instability, was reviewed in order to determine long-term clinical and radiological outcome. Seven patients, six males and one female, with a mean age of 37 ± 8 years (median: 36 years; range, 28-51 years), were evaluated. At latest follow-up, after a mean of 67 months (range, 11-117 months), patients presented with the following mean scores: DASH: 0.57, ASES: 98.81, UCLA: 34.29, VAS: 0.43, Simple Shoulder Test: 11.57. However, two complications were observed: one case of implant loosening and one non-union. There were no differences observed between the CC distances comparing postoperative X-rays to those in final follow-up. In 25% of our patients early postoperative complications occurred. In all patients reoperation was necessary to remove the implanted screw. The results of the present study indicate that the treatment of Neer Type IIB lateral clavicle fractures with ORIF using a plate and additional CC screw fixation, leads to satisfying clinical and radiological outcomes in the long-term. However, considering an early postoperative complication rate of 25% and a 100% rate of secondary surgery due to removal of the CC screw does not seem to justify this technique anymore.

Habemus superstratum! A constructive proof of the existence of superstrata

DOE PAGES

Bena, Iosif; Giusto, Stefano; Russo, Rodolfo; ...

2015-05-21

Here, we construct the first example of a superstratum: a class of smooth horizonless supergravity solutions that are parameterized by arbitrary continuous functions of (at least) two variables and have the same charges as the supersymmetric D1-D5-P black hole. We work in Type IIB string theory on T 4 or K 3 and our solutions involve a subset of fields that can be described by a six-dimensional supergravity with two tensor multiplets. The solutions can thus be constructed using a linear structure, and we give an explicit recipe to start from a superposition of modes specified by an arbitrary functionmore » of two variables and impose regularity to obtain the full horizonless solutions in closed form. We also give the precise CFT description of these solutions and show that they are not dual to descendants of chiral primaries. They are thus much more general than all the known solutions whose CFT dual is precisely understood. Hence our construction represents a substantial step toward the ultimate goal of constructing the fully generic superstratum that can account for a finite fraction of the entropy of the three-charge black hole in the regime of parameters where the classical black hole solution exists.« less

definitions.xsd

MedlinePlus

... name="title" use="required">

Survival of pq -superstrings in field theory simulations

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Lizarraga, Joanes; Urrestilla, Jon, E-mail: joanes.lizarraga@ehu.eus, E-mail: jon.urrestilla@ehu.eus

2016-04-01

We perform large-scale field theoretical simulations in expanding universe to characterize a network of strings that can form composed bound states. The network consists of two copies of Abelian Higgs strings (which we label p and q , respectively) coupled via a potential term to give pq bound states. The simulations are performed using two different kinds of initial conditions: the first one with a network of p - and q -strings, and the second one with a network of q - and pq -strings. This way, we start from two opposite situations: one with no initial pq -strings, andmore » one with a large initial number of pq -strings. We find that in both cases the system scales, and in both cases the system prefers to have a low fraction of pq -strings. This is somewhat surprising in the case for the second type of conditions, showing that the unzipping mechanism is very efficient. We also find hints that both initial conditions tend to asymptote to a common configuration, though we would need a larger dynamical range to confirm it. The average velocities of the different types of strings in the network have also been explored for the first time.« less

Implementing odd-axions in dimensional oxidation of 4D non-geometric type IIB scalar potential

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shukla, Pramod

2016-01-01

In a setup of type IIB superstring compactification on an orientifold of a T6 /Z4 sixfold, the presence of geometric flux (ω) and non-geometric fluxes (Q, R) is implemented along with the standard NS-NS and RR three-form fluxes (H, F). After computing the F/D-term contributions to the N = 1 four dimensional effective scalar potential, we rearrange the same into 'suitable' pieces by using a set of new generalized flux orbits. Subsequently, we dimensionally oxidize the various pieces of the total four dimensional scalar potential to guess their ten-dimensional origin.

Light Curve and Spectral Evolution of Type IIb Supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gangopadhyay, Anjasha; Misra, Kuntal; Pastorello, Andrea; Sahu, Devendra Kumar; Singh, Mridweeka; Dastidar, raya; Anapuma, Gadiyara Chakrapani; Kumar, Brijesh; Pandey, Shashi Bhushan

2018-04-01

Stripped-Envelope Supernovae constitute the sub-class of core-collapse supernovae that strip off their outer hydrogen envelope due to high stellar winds or due to interaction with a binary companion where mass transfer occurs as a result of Roche lobe overflow. We present here the photometric and spectroscopic analysis of a member of this class : SN 2015as classified as a type IIb supernova. Light curve features are similar to those of SN 2011fu while spectroscopic features are quite similar to those of SN 2008ax and SN 2011dh. Early epoch spectra have been modelled with SYN++ which indicates a photospheric velocity of 8500 km sec-1 and temperature of 6500K. Spectroscopic lines show transitioning from H to He features confirming it to be a type IIb supernova. Prominent oxygen and calcium emission features are indicative of the asymmetry of the ejecta. We also estimate the signal to noise ratio of the 3.6m telescope data. This telescope is located at ARIES, Devasthal, Nainital at an altitude of 2450m. We also show the comparison plots of spectra taken with a 2m and 4m class telescopes to enlighten the importance of spectral features displayed by bigger diameter telescopes.

Late-time spectral line formation in Type IIb supernovae, with application to SN 1993J, SN 2008ax, and SN 2011dh

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jerkstrand, A.; Ergon, M.; Smartt, S. J.; Fransson, C.; Sollerman, J.; Taubenberger, S.; Bersten, M.; Spyromilio, J.

2015-01-01

We investigate line formation processes in Type IIb supernovae (SNe) from 100 to 500 days post-explosion using spectral synthesis calculations. The modelling identifies the nuclear burning layers and physical mechanisms that produce the major emission lines, and the diagnostic potential of these. We compare the model calculations with data on the three best observed Type IIb SNe to-date - SN 1993J, SN 2008ax, and SN 2011dh. Oxygen nucleosynthesis depends sensitively on the main-sequence mass of the star and modelling of the [O I] λλ6300, 6364 lines constrains the progenitors of these three SNe to the MZAMS = 12-16 M⊙ range (ejected oxygen masses 0.3-0.9 M⊙), with SN 2011dh towards the lower end and SN 1993J towards the upper end of the range. The high ejecta masses from MZAMS ≳ 17 M⊙ progenitors give rise to brighter nebular phase emission lines than observed. Nucleosynthesis analysis thus supports a scenario of low-to-moderate mass progenitors for Type IIb SNe, and by implication an origin in binary systems. We demonstrate how oxygen and magnesium recombination lines may be combined to diagnose the magnesium mass in the SN ejecta. For SN 2011dh, a magnesium mass of 0.02-0.14 M⊙ is derived, which gives a Mg/O production ratio consistent with the solar value. Nitrogen left in the He envelope from CNO burning gives strong [N II] λλ6548, 6583 emission lines that dominate over Hα emission in our models. The hydrogen envelopes of Type IIb SNe are too small and dilute to produce any noticeable Hα emission or absorption after ~150 days, and nebular phase emission seen around 6550 Å is in many cases likely caused by [N II] λλ6548, 6583. Finally, the influence of radiative transport on the emergent line profiles is investigated. Significant line blocking in the metal core remains for several hundred days, which affects the emergent spectrum. These radiative transfer effects lead to early-time blueshifts of the emission line peaks, which gradually disappear as the optical depths decrease with time. The modelled evolution of this effect matches the observed evolution in SN 2011dh. Appendices are available in electronic form at http://www.aanda.org

A seamless phase IIB/III adaptive outcome trial: design rationale and implementation challenges.

PubMed

Chen, Y H Joshua; Gesser, Richard; Luxembourg, Alain

2015-02-01

The licensed four-valent prophylactic human papillomavirus vaccine is highly efficacious in preventing cervical, vulvar, vaginal, and anal cancers and related precancers caused by human papillomavirus types 6, 11, 16, and 18. These four types account for approximately 70% of cervical cancers. A nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine, including the four original types (6, 11, 16, and 18) plus the next five most prevalent types in cervical cancer (31, 33, 45, 52, and 58) could provide approximately 90% overall cervical cancer coverage. To expedite the nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine clinical development, an adaptive, seamless Phase IIB/III outcome trial with ∼ 15,000 subjects was conducted to facilitate dose formulation selection and provide pivotal evidence of safety and efficacy for regulatory registrations. We discuss the design rationale and implementation challenges of the outcome trial, focusing on the adaptive feature of the seamless Phase IIB/III design. Subjects were enrolled in two parts (Part A and Part B). Approximately 1240 women, 16-26 years of age, were enrolled in Part A for Phase IIB evaluation and equally randomized to one of three dose formulations of the nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine or the four-valent human papillomavirus vaccine (active control). Based on an interim analysis of immunogenicity and safety, one dose formulation of the nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine was selected for evaluation in the Phase III part of the study. Subjects enrolled in Part A who received the selected dose formulation of the nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine or four-valent human papillomavirus vaccine continued to be followed up and contributed to the final efficacy and safety analyses. In addition, ∼ 13,400 women 16-26 years of age were enrolled in Part B, randomized to nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine at the selected dose formulation or four-valent human papillomavirus vaccine, and followed for immunogenicity, efficacy, and safety. A seamless Phase IIB/III design was justified by the extensive pre-existing knowledge of the licensed four-valent human papillomavirus vaccine and the development objectives for the nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine. Subjects enrolled in Part A who received either the selected nine-valent human papillomavirus formulation or four-valent human papillomavirus vaccine contributed ∼ 10% of person-years of follow-up due to its earlier start-thereby maximizing the overall efficiency of the trial. Some of the challenges encountered in the implementation of the adaptive design included practical considerations during Phase IIB formulation selection by internal and external committees, End-of-Phase II discussion with health authorities and managing changes in the assay for immunological endpoints. Application of the experience and lesson learned from this seamless adaptive design to other clinical programs may depend on case-by-case consideration. A seamless Phase IIB/III adaptive design was successfully implemented in this large outcome study. The development time of the second-generation nine-valent human papillomavirus vaccine was shortened due to improved statistical efficiency. © The Author(s) 2014.

Spontaneous Intramuscular Hematomas of the Abdomen and Pelvis: A New Multilevel Algorithm to Direct Transarterial Embolization and Patient Management.

PubMed

Popov, Milen; Sotiriadis, Charalampos; Gay, Frederique; Jouannic, Anne-Marie; Lachenal, Yann; Hajdu, Steven D; Doenz, Francesco; Qanadli, Salah D

2017-04-01

To report our experience using a multilevel patient management algorithm to direct transarterial embolization (TAE) in managing spontaneous intramuscular hematoma (SIMH). From May 2006 to January 2014, twenty-seven patients with SIMH had been referred for TAE to our Radiology department. Clinical status and coagulation characteristics of the patients are analyzed. An algorithm integrating CT findings is suggested to manage SIMH. Patients were classified into three groups: Type I, SIMH with no active bleeding (AB); Type II, SIMH with AB and no muscular fascia rupture (MFR); and Type III, SIMH with MFR and AB. Type II is furthermore subcategorized as IIa, IIb and IIc. Types IIb, IIc and III were considered for TAE. The method of embolization as well as the material been used are described. Continuous variables are presented as mean ± SD. Categorical variables are reported as percentages. Technical success, clinical success, complications and 30-day mortality (d30 M) were analyzed. Two patients (7.5%) had Type IIb, four (15%) Type IIc and 21 (77.5%) presented Type III. The detailed CT and CTA findings, embolization procedure and materials used are described. Technical success was 96% with a complication rate of 4%. Clinical success was 88%. The bleeding-related thirty-day mortality was 15% (all with Type III). TAE is a safe and efficient technique to control bleeding that should be considered in selected SIMH as soon as possible. The proposed algorithm integrating CT features provides a comprehensive chart to select patients for TAE. 4.

Selective neck irradiation for supraglottic cancer: focus on Sublevel IIb omission.

PubMed

Kanayama, Naoyuki; Nishiyama, Kinji; Kawaguchi, Yoshifumi; Konishi, Koji; Ogawa, Kazuhiko; Suzuki, Motoyuki; Yoshii, Tadashi; Fujii, Takashi; Yoshino, Kunitoshi; Teshima, Teruki

2016-01-01

To estimate selective neck irradiation omitting surgical Sublevel IIb. Bilateral necks of 47 patients (94 necks) were subjected to definitive radiotherapy for supraglottic cancer. Sixty-nine and 25 necks were clinically node negative (cN-) and clinically node positive (cN+), respectively. We subdivided Sublevel IIb by the international consensus guideline for radiotherapy into Sublevel IIb/a, directly posterior to the internal jugular vein, and Sublevel IIb/b, which was behind Sublevel IIb/a and coincided with surgical Sublevel IIb. Bilateral (Sub)levels IIa, III, IV and IIb/a were routinely irradiated, whereas Sublevel IIb/b was omitted from the elective clinical target volume in 73/94 treated necks (78%). Two patients presented with ipsilateral Sublevel IIb/a metastases. No Sublevel IIb/b metastasis was observed. Five patients experienced cervical lymph node recurrence; Sublevel IIb/a recurrence developed in two patients, whereas no Sublevel IIb/b recurrence occurred even in the cN- necks of cN+ patients or cN0 patients. The 5-year regional control rates were 91.5% for Sublevel IIb/b-omitted patients and 77.8% for Sublevel IIb/b treated patients. Selective neck irradiation omitting Sublevel IIb/b did not compromise regional control and could be indicated for cN- neck of supraglottic cancer. © The Author 2015. Published by Oxford University Press. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oup.com.

High phosphorus diet-induced changes in NaPi-IIb phosphate transporter expression in the rat kidney: DNA microarray analysis.

PubMed

Suyama, Tatsuya; Okada, Shinji; Ishijima, Tomoko; Iida, Kota; Abe, Keiko; Nakai, Yuji

2012-01-01

The mechanism by which phosphorus levels are maintained in the body was investigated by analyzing changes in gene expression in the rat kidney following administration of a high phosphorus (HP) diet. Male Wistar rats were divided into two groups and fed a diet containing 0.3% (control) or 1.2% (HP) phosphorous for 24 days. Phosphorous retention was not significantly increased in HP rats, but fractional excretion of phosphorus was significantly increased in the HP group compared to controls, with an excessive amount of the ingested phosphorus being passed through the body. DNA microarray analysis of kidney tissue from both groups revealed changes in gene expression profile induced by a HP diet. Among the genes that were upregulated, Gene Ontology (GO) terms related to ossification, collagen fibril organization, and inflammation and immune response were significantly enriched. In particular, there was significant upregulation of type IIb sodium-dependent phosphate transporter (NaPi-IIb) in the HP rat kidney compared to control rats. This upregulation was confirmed by in situ hybridization. Distinct signals for NaPi-IIb in both the cortex and medulla of the kidney were apparent in the HP group, while the corresponding signals were much weaker in the control group. Immunohistochemical analysis showed that NaPi-IIb localized to the basolateral side of kidney epithelial cells surrounding the urinary duct in HP rats but not in control animals. These data suggest that NaPi-IIb is upregulated in the kidney in response to the active excretion of phosphate in HP diet-fed rats.

Dependence of cross-bridge kinetics on myosin light chain isoforms in rabbit and rat skeletal muscle fibres.

PubMed

Andruchov, Oleg; Andruchova, Olena; Wang, Yishu; Galler, Stefan

2006-02-15

Cross-bridge kinetics underlying stretch-induced force transients was studied in fibres with different myosin light chain (MLC) isoforms from skeletal muscles of rabbit and rat. The force transients were induced by stepwise stretches (< 0.3% of fibre length) applied on maximally Ca2+-activated skinned fibres. Fast fibre types IIB, IID (or IIX) and IIA and the slow fibre type I containing the myosin heavy chain isoforms MHC-IIb, MHC-IId (or MHC-IIx), MHC-IIa and MHC-I, respectively, were investigated. The MLC isoform content varied within fibre types. Fast fibre types contained the fast regulatory MLC isoform MLC2f and different proportions of the fast alkali MLC isoforms MLC1f and MLC3f. Type I fibres contained the slow regulatory MLC isoform MLC2s and the slow alkali MLC isoform MLC1s. Slow MLC isoforms were also present in several type IIA fibres. The kinetics of force transients differed by a factor of about 30 between fibre types (order from fastest to slowest kinetics: IIB > IID > IIA > I). The kinetics of the force transients was not dependent on the relative content of MLC1f and MLC3f. Type IIA fibres containing fast and slow MLC isoforms were about 1.2 times slower than type IIA fibres containing only fast MLC isoforms. We conclude that while the cross-bridge kinetics is mainly determined by the MHC isoforms present, it is affected by fast and slow MLC isoforms but not by the relative content of MLC1f and MLC3f. Thus, the physiological role of fast and slow MLC isoforms in type IIA fibres is a fine-tuning of the cross-bridge kinetics.

Constraining de Sitter Space in String Theory.

PubMed

Kutasov, David; Maxfield, Travis; Melnikov, Ilarion; Sethi, Savdeep

2015-08-14

We argue that the heterotic string does not have classical vacua corresponding to de Sitter space-times of dimension four or higher. The same conclusion applies to type II vacua in the absence of Ramond-Ramond fluxes. Our argument extends prior supergravity no-go results to regimes of high curvature. We discuss the interpretation of the heterotic result from the perspective of dual type II orientifold constructions. Our result suggests that the genericity arguments used in string landscape discussions should be viewed with caution.

Spontaneous Intramuscular Hematomas of the Abdomen and Pelvis: A New Multilevel Algorithm to Direct Transarterial Embolization and Patient Management

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Popov, Milen; Sotiriadis, Charalampos; Gay, Frederique

PurposeTo report our experience using a multilevel patient management algorithm to direct transarterial embolization (TAE) in managing spontaneous intramuscular hematoma (SIMH).Materials and MethodsFrom May 2006 to January 2014, twenty-seven patients with SIMH had been referred for TAE to our Radiology department. Clinical status and coagulation characteristics of the patients are analyzed. An algorithm integrating CT findings is suggested to manage SIMH. Patients were classified into three groups: Type I, SIMH with no active bleeding (AB); Type II, SIMH with AB and no muscular fascia rupture (MFR); and Type III, SIMH with MFR and AB. Type II is furthermore subcategorized asmore » IIa, IIb and IIc. Types IIb, IIc and III were considered for TAE. The method of embolization as well as the material been used are described. Continuous variables are presented as mean ± SD. Categorical variables are reported as percentages. Technical success, clinical success, complications and 30-day mortality (d30 M) were analyzed.ResultsTwo patients (7.5%) had Type IIb, four (15%) Type IIc and 21 (77.5%) presented Type III. The detailed CT and CTA findings, embolization procedure and materials used are described. Technical success was 96% with a complication rate of 4%. Clinical success was 88%. The bleeding-related thirty-day mortality was 15% (all with Type III).ConclusionTAE is a safe and efficient technique to control bleeding that should be considered in selected SIMH as soon as possible. The proposed algorithm integrating CT features provides a comprehensive chart to select patients for TAE.Level of Evidence4.« less

Late-time spectroscopy of envelope-stripped SNe: Figuring the central engine

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawabata, Koji

2011-01-01

We propose to perform late-time spectroscopy of envelope-stripped core-collapse supernovae (SNe), i.e., Type Ib/c/IIb SNe. We aim to examine the explosion physics and its dependence on the progenitor mass. The key information is the asphericity and the chemical composition of the inner atmosphere, which can be explored by late-time observations. The difference in [O I] line profiles indicates that GRB-associated energetic SNe Ic (like SN 1998bw) and non-GRB energetic SNe Ic (2003jd) are intrinsically similar aspherical explosions that are differently viewed (pole-on for 1998bw and nearly edge-on for 2003jd). Our continuing study suggests that the asphericity is rather common characteristic even for normal energy SNe without a GRB. However, it is still unclear how the intermediate types of SNe (SNe Ib/IIb) are produced and how they connected with other types of core-collapse SNe. High-quality late-time spectra of SNe Ib/Ic/IIb are still lacking. We propose to obtain a larger number of nebular spectra of envelope-stripped SNe so that we examine the degree of the asphericity as a function of the progenitor's mass, explosion energy, amount of synthesized ^56Ni, and the physical properties of the central remnant.

Spectropolarimetry of SN 2011dh in M51: geometric insights on a Type IIb supernova progenitor and explosion

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Mauerhan, Jon C.; Williams, G. Grant; Leonard, Douglas C.; Smith, Paul S.; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Smith, Nathan; Hoffman, Jennifer L.; Huk, Leah; Clubb, Kelsey I.; Silverman, Jeffrey M.; Cenko, S. Bradley; Milne, Peter; Gal-Yam, Avishay; Ben-Ami, Sagi

2015-11-01

We present seven epochs of spectropolarimetry of the Type IIb supernova (SN IIb) 2011dh in M51, spanning 86 d of its evolution. The first epoch was obtained 9 d after the explosion, when the photosphere was still in the depleted hydrogen layer of the stripped-envelope progenitor. Continuum polarization is securely detected at the level of P ≈ 0.5 per cent through day 14 and appears to diminish by day 30, which is different from the prevailing trends suggested by studies of other core-collapse SNe. Time-variable modulations in P and position angle are detected across P-Cygni line features. H α and He I polarization peak after 30 d and exhibit position angles roughly aligned with the earlier continuum, while O I and Ca II appear to be geometrically distinct. We discuss several possibilities to explain the evolution of the continuum and line polarization, including the potential effects of a tidally deformed progenitor star, aspherical radioactive heating by fast-rising plumes of 56Ni from the core, oblique shock breakout, or scattering by circumstellar material. While these possibilities are plausible and guided by theoretical expectations, they are not unique solutions to the data. The construction of more detailed hydrodynamic and radiative-transfer models that incorporate complex aspherical geometries will be required to further elucidate the nature of the polarized radiation from SN 2011dh and other SNe IIb.

Comparative Adjuvant Effects of Type II Heat-Labile Enterotoxins in Combination with Two Different Candidate Ricin Toxin Vaccine Antigens.

PubMed

Vance, David J; Greene, Christopher J; Rong, Yinghui; Mandell, Lorrie M; Connell, Terry D; Mantis, Nicholas J

2015-12-01

Type II heat-labile enterotoxins (HLTs) constitute a promising set of adjuvants that have been shown to enhance humoral and cellular immune responses when coadministered with an array of different proteins, including several pathogen-associated antigens. However, the adjuvant activities of the four best-studied HLTs, LT-IIa, LT-IIb, LT-IIb(T13I), and LT-IIc, have never been compared side by side. We therefore conducted immunization studies in which LT-IIa, LT-IIb, LT-IIb(T13I), and LT-IIc were coadministered by the intradermal route to mice with two clinically relevant protein subunit vaccine antigens derived from the enzymatic A subunit (RTA) of ricin toxin, RiVax and RVEc. The HLTs were tested with low and high doses of antigen and were assessed for their abilities to stimulate antigen-specific serum IgG titers, ricin toxin-neutralizing activity (TNA), and protective immunity. We found that all four HLTs tested were effective adjuvants when coadministered with RiVax or RVEc. LT-IIa was of particular interest because as little as 0.03 μg when coadministered with RiVax or RVEc proved effective at augmenting ricin toxin-specific serum antibody titers with nominal evidence of local inflammation. Collectively, these results justify the need for further studies into the mechanism(s) underlying LT-IIa adjuvant activity, with the long-term goal of evaluating LT-IIa's activity in humans. Copyright © 2015, American Society for Microbiology. All Rights Reserved.

Are the binary typology models of alcoholism valid in polydrug abusers?

PubMed

Pombo, Samuel; da Costa, Nuno F; Figueira, Maria L

2015-01-01

To evaluate the dichotomy of type I/II and type A/B alcoholism typologies in opiate-dependent patients with a comorbid alcohol dependence problem (ODP-AP). The validity assessment process comprised the information regarding the history of alcohol use (internal validity), cognitive-behavioral variables regarding substance use (external validity), and indicators of treatment during 6-month follow-up (predictive validity). ODP-AP subjects classified as type II/B presented an early and much more severe drinking problem and a worse clinical prognosis when considering opiate treatment variables as compared with ODP-AP subjects defined as type I/A. Furthermore, type II/B patients endorse more general positive beliefs and expectancies related to the effect of alcohol and tend to drink heavily across several intra- and interpersonal situations as compared with type I/A patients. These findings confirm two different forms of alcohol dependence, recognized as a low-severity/vulnerability subgroup and a high-severity/vulnerability subgroup, in an opiate-dependent population with a lifetime diagnosis of alcohol dependence.

Novel single skeletal muscle fiber analysis reveals a fiber type-selective effect of acute exercise on glucose uptake.

PubMed

Cartee, Gregory D; Arias, Edward B; Yu, Carmen S; Pataky, Mark W

2016-11-01

One exercise session can induce subsequently elevated insulin sensitivity that is largely attributable to greater insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by skeletal muscle. Because skeletal muscle is a heterogeneous tissue comprised of diverse fiber types, our primary aim was to determine exercise effects on insulin-independent and insulin-dependent glucose uptake by single fibers of different fiber types. We hypothesized that each fiber type featuring elevated insulin-independent glucose uptake immediately postexercise (IPEX) would be characterized by increased insulin-dependent glucose uptake at 3.5 h postexercise (3.5hPEX). Rat epitrochlearis muscles were isolated and incubated with 2-[ 3 H]deoxyglucose. Muscles from IPEX and sedentary (SED) controls were incubated without insulin. Muscles from 3.5hPEX and SED controls were incubated ± insulin. Glucose uptake (2-[ 3 H]deoxyglucose accumulation) and fiber type (myosin heavy chain isoform expression) were determined for single fibers dissected from the muscles. Major new findings included the following: 1) insulin-independent glucose uptake was increased IPEX in single fibers of each fiber type (types I, IIA, IIB, IIBX, and IIX), 2) glucose uptake values from insulin-stimulated type I and IIA fibers exceeded the values for the other fiber types, 3) insulin-stimulated glucose uptake for type IIX exceeded IIB fibers, and 4) the 3.5hPEX group vs. SED had greater insulin-stimulated glucose uptake in type I, IIA, IIB, and IIBX but not type IIX fibers. Insulin-dependent glucose uptake was increased at 3.5hPEX in each fiber type except for IIX fibers, although insulin-independent glucose uptake was increased IPEX in all fiber types (including type IIX). Single fiber analysis enabled the discovery of this fiber type-related difference for postexercise, insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Copyright © 2016 the American Physiological Society.

Charged string loops in Reissner-Nordström black hole background

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Oteev, Tursinbay; Kološ, Martin; Stuchlík, Zdeněk

2018-03-01

We study the motion of current carrying charged string loops in the Reissner-Nordström black hole background combining the gravitational and electromagnetic field. Introducing new electromagnetic interaction between central charge and charged string loop makes the string loop equations of motion to be non-integrable even in the flat spacetime limit, but it can be governed by an effective potential even in the black hole background. We classify different types of the string loop trajectories using effective potential approach, and we compare the innermost stable string loop positions with loci of the charged particle innermost stable orbits. We examine string loop small oscillations around minima of the string loop effective potential, and we plot radial profiles of the string loop oscillation frequencies for both the radial and vertical modes. We construct charged string loop quasi-periodic oscillations model and we compare it with observed data from microquasars GRO 1655-40, XTE 1550-564, and GRS 1915+105. We also study the acceleration of current carrying string loops along the vertical axis and the string loop ejection from RN black hole neighbourhood, taking also into account the electromagnetic interaction.

76 FR 4271 - Approval and Promulgation of State Implementation Plans; State of Colorado Regulation Number 3...

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-01-25

... action on the revision to APEN exemption II.D.1.uuu., because we proposed approval of the revision in the....uuu; II.D.1.eeee. No Action--Un-Revised Provisions.. II.B; II.B.1.a; II.B.3.b; II.B.4; II.B.5; II.B.6...

Interaction of chronic reatine depletion and muscle unloading effects on postural and locomotor muscles

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Adams, Gregory R.; Haddad, Fadia; Baldwin, Kenneth M.

1994-01-01

In this study, creatine depletion was induced separately and in combination with non-weight-bearing activity to determine if the response to lowering this metabolite would counter the MHC transitions expected from non-weight-bearing. Creatine depletion was induced by feeding rats a diet supplemented with the creatine analogue beta-guanidinopropionic acid (beta-GPA). Animals were fed a diet containing the creatine analogue for 68 days. Hindlimb non-weight-bearing in BS and NS animals was accomplished by tail suspension for the final 30 days of this period. Beta-GPA feeding lowered the creatine content of muscles sampled by 65%. Creatine depletion resulted in a 16% increase in citrate synthase activity in the soleus (SOL) and a 24% increase in the plantaris (PLN). In two postural muscles, the SOL and vastus intermedius (VI), tail suspension resulted in large decreases in the type I MHC expression and increases in type IIx and IIb MHCs. In two locomotor muscles, the PLN and medial gastrocnemius, type I MHC declined and type IIb increased with suspension. Creatine depletion did not prevent the suspension-induced decline in type I MHC in any of these muscles. The increase in type IIb MHC was either prevented or reduced by creatine depletion before and during suspension in the SOL, VI, and PLN. Creatine depletion alone resulted in small increases in type I and IIa MHCs in the two locomotor muscles, but it had no effect on the MHC profile of the postural muscles studied. These results indicate that the mechanical signal generated by the hindlimb non-weight-bearing state dominated over the metabolic stimulus of creatine depletion with respect to the primary adaptation involving a reduction in type I MHC.

Deconfinement and the Hagedorn transition in string theory.

PubMed

Chaudhuri, S

2001-03-05

We introduce a new definition of the thermal partition function in string theory. With this new definition, the thermal partition functions of all of the string theories obey thermal duality relations with self-dual Hagedorn temperature beta(2)(H) = 4pi(2)alpha('). A beta-->beta(2)(H)/beta transformation maps the type I theory into a new string theory (type I) with thermal D p-branes, spatial hypersurfaces supporting a p-dimensional finite temperature non-Abelian Higgs-gauge theory for p< or =9. We demonstrate a continuous phase transition in the behavior of the static heavy quark-antiquark potential for small separations r(2)(*)

Mode of complement activation by acidic heteroglycans from the leaves of Artemisia princeps PAMP.

PubMed

Yamada, H; Nagai, T; Cyong, J C; Otsuka, Y

1991-08-01

The mode of action of the anti-complementary acidic heteroglycans, AAF-IIb-2 and IIb-3 which consisted of rhamnogalacturonan core and arabinogalactan moieties, purified from the leaves of Artemisia princeps PAMP (Japanese name = Gaiyo) were investigated. The anti-complementary activities of AAF-IIb-2 and IIb-3 were reduced partially in the absence of Ca2+ ions. A marked consumption of C4 was observed to have occurred when serum was incubated with both polysaccharides in the presence of Ca2+ ions. AAF-IIb-2 showed more potent C4 consumption than IIb-3. After the incubation of the serum with AAF-IIb-2 in the absence of Ca2+ ions, a cleavage of C3 in the serum was detected by immunoelectrophoresis. AAF-IIb-2 showed more significant consumption of the complement than IIb-3 when rabbit erythrocytes were used in the assay system in the absence of Ca2+ ions. These results indicate that AAF-IIb-2 activates the complement via both the alternative and classical pathways, whereas IIb-3 mainly activates the complement via the classical pathway. The absorption of serum with Protein A-Sepharose results in a decrease of the activity of AAF-IIb-2 and IIb-3. However, the decrease of the activity was restored by the replacement of the immunoglobulin G (IgG) fraction after its recovery from the Protein A-Sepharose. These results suggest that IgG dependent mechanisms are both involved in the anti-complementary activity of AAF-IIb-2 and IIb-3.

Polyclonal antibody against a complement-activating pectin from the roots of Angelica acutiloba.

PubMed

Wang, N L; Kiyohara, H; Matsumoto, T; Otsuka, H; Hirano, M; Yamada, H

1994-10-01

Anti-sera against a complement-activating pectin (AR-2IIb), which was purified from the roots of Angelica acutiloba Kitagawa, were obtained by immunization of rabbits, and a polyclonal anti-AR-2IIb antibody of the IgG class was purified by affinity chromatography on AR-2IIb-immobilized Sepharose and Protein G-Sepharose. Periodate oxidation of AR-2IIb significantly reduced its inhibitory activity on the reactivity of AR-2IIb to anti-AR-2IIb-IgG, but pronase digestion of AR-2IIb did not affect its inhibitory activity. Other pharmacologically active pectins from A. autiloba, Bupleurum falcatum, and Glycyrrhiza uralensis and the complement-activating pectic arabinogalactan from A. autiloba also showed significant inhibitory activities on the reactivity of AR-2IIb to anti-AR-2IIb-IgG, but these inhibitory activities were lower than that of AR-2IIb. Other pectins, polygalacturonic acid, arabinogalactan, galactan, and araban tested had negligible inhibitory activity. Endo-a-(1-->4)-polygalacturonase digestion of AR-2IIb indicated that its "ramified" region (rhamnogalacturonan core possessing neutral oligosaccharide side-chains) contained epitopes for anti-AR-2IIb-IgG, but that 2-keto-3-deoxyoctulosonic acid (KDO)-containing regions and oligogalacturonides obtained from AR-2IIb were not recognized by anti-AR-2IIb-IgG. Although carboxyl-reduction of galacturonic acid in the "ramified" region decreased the inhibitory activity of the "ramified" on its reactivity to anti-AR-2IIb, an acidic tetrasaccharide unit in the rhamnogalacturonan core had negligible inhibitory activity.

General N=1 supersymmetric flux vacua of massive type IIA string theory.

PubMed

Behrndt, Klaus; Cvetic, Mirjam

2005-07-08

We derive conditions for the existence of four-dimensional N=1 supersymmetric flux vacua of massive type IIA string theory with general supergravity fluxes turned on. For an SU(3) singlet Killing spinor, we show that such flux vacua exist when the internal geometry is nearly Kähler. The geometry is not warped, all the allowed fluxes are proportional to the mass parameter, and the dilaton is fixed by a ratio of (quantized) fluxes. The four-dimensional cosmological constant, while negative, becomes small in the vacuum with the weak string coupling.

Multiple D3-Instantons and Mock Modular Forms I

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrov, Sergei; Banerjee, Sibasish; Manschot, Jan; Pioline, Boris

2017-07-01

We study D3-instanton corrections to the hypermultiplet moduli space in type IIB string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau threefold. In a previous work, consistency of D3-instantons with S-duality was established at first order in the instanton expansion, using the modular properties of the M5-brane elliptic genus. We extend this analysis to the two-instanton level, where wall-crossing phenomena start playing a role. We focus on the contact potential, an analogue of the Kähler potential which must transform as a modular form under S-duality. We show that it can be expressed in terms of a suitable modification of the partition function of D4-D2-D0 BPS black holes, constructed out of the generating function of MSW invariants (the latter coincide with Donaldson-Thomas invariants in a particular chamber). Modular invariance of the contact potential then requires that, in the case where the D3-brane wraps a reducible divisor, the generating function of MSW invariants must transform as a vector-valued mock modular form, with a specific modular completion built from the MSW invariants of the constituents. Physically, this gives a powerful constraint on the degeneracies of BPS black holes. Mathematically, our result gives a universal prediction for the modular properties of Donaldson-Thomas invariants of pure two-dimensional sheaves.

Type IIB Colliding Plane Waves

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gutperle, M.; Pioline, B.

2003-09-01

Four-dimensional colliding plane wave (CPW) solutions have played an important role in understanding the classical non-linearities of Einstein's equations. In this note, we investigate CPW solutions in 2n+2-dimensional Einstein gravity with a n+1-form flux. By using an isomorphism with the four-dimensional problem, we construct exact solutions analogous to the Szekeres vacuum solution in four dimensions. The higher-dimensional versions of the Khan-Penrose and Bell-Szekeres CPW solutions are studied perturbatively in the vicinity of the light-cone. We find that under small perturbations, a curvature singularity is generically produced, leading to both space-like and time-like singularities. For n = 4, our results pertain to the collision of two ten-dimensional type-IIB Blau-Figueroa o'Farrill-Hull-Papadopoulos plane waves.

On asymptotic freedom and confinement from type-IIB supergravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kehagias, A.; Sfetsos, K.

1999-06-01

We present a new type-IIB supergravity vacuum that describes the strong coupling regime of a non-supersymmetric gauge theory. The latter has a running coupling such that the theory becomes asymptotically free in the ultraviolet. It also has a running theta angle due to a non-vanishing axion field in the supergravity solution. We also present a worm-hole solution, which has finite action per unit four-dimensional volume and two asymptotic regions, a flat space and an AdS5xS5. The corresponding N=2 gauge theory, instead of being finite, has a running coupling. We compute the quark-antiquark potential in this case and find that it exhibits, under certain assumptions, an area-law behaviour for large separations.

Novel string field theory with also negative energy constituents/objects gives Veneziano amplitude

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Nielsen, H. B.; Ninomiya, M.

2018-02-01

We have proposed a new type of string field theory. The main point of the present article is to cure some technical troubles: missing two out three terms in Veneziano amplitude. Our novel string field theory, describes a theory with many strings in terms of "objects", which are not exactly, but close to Charles Thorn's string bits. The new point is that the objects in terms of which the universe states are constructed, and which have an essentially 26-momentum variable called J μ , can have the energy J 0 be also negative as well as positive. We get a long way in deriving in this model the Veneziano model and obtain all the three terms needed for a four point amplitude. This result strongly indicates that our novel string field theory is indeed string theory.

Factorization of chiral string amplitudes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Huang, Yu-tin; Siegel, Warren; Yuan, Ellis Ye

We re-examine a closed-string model defined by altering the boundary conditions for one handedness of two-dimensional propagators in otherwise-standard string theory. We evaluate the amplitudes using Kawai-Lewellen-Tye factorization into open-string amplitudes. The only modification to standard string theory is effectively that the spacetime Minkowski metric changes overall sign in one open-string factor. This cancels all but a finite number of states: as found in earlier approaches, with enough supersymmetry (e.g., type II) the tree amplitudes reproduce those of the massless truncation of ordinary string theory. However, we now find for the other cases that additional fields, formerly thought to bemore » auxiliary, describe new spin-2 states at the two adjacent mass levels (tachyonic and tardyonic). The tachyon is always a ghost, but can be avoided in the heterotic case.« less

Factorization of chiral string amplitudes

DOE PAGES

Huang, Yu-tin; Siegel, Warren; Yuan, Ellis Ye

2016-09-16

We re-examine a closed-string model defined by altering the boundary conditions for one handedness of two-dimensional propagators in otherwise-standard string theory. We evaluate the amplitudes using Kawai-Lewellen-Tye factorization into open-string amplitudes. The only modification to standard string theory is effectively that the spacetime Minkowski metric changes overall sign in one open-string factor. This cancels all but a finite number of states: as found in earlier approaches, with enough supersymmetry (e.g., type II) the tree amplitudes reproduce those of the massless truncation of ordinary string theory. However, we now find for the other cases that additional fields, formerly thought to bemore » auxiliary, describe new spin-2 states at the two adjacent mass levels (tachyonic and tardyonic). The tachyon is always a ghost, but can be avoided in the heterotic case.« less

Immunohistochemical analysis of MCT1 and CD147 in equine skeletal muscle fibres.

PubMed

Mykkänen, A K; Hyyppä, S; Pösö, A R; Ronéus, N; Essén-Gustavsson, B

2010-12-01

Monocarboxylate transporter 1 (MCT1) and its ancillary protein CD147 facilitate efflux of lactate from the muscle. Expression of MCT1 and CD147 were studied with immunohistochemistry in type I, IIA, IIAB and IIB fibres of equine gluteal muscle. Staining intensity of MCT1 in the cytoplasm as well as in the membranes of fibre types decreased in the order I=IIA>IIAB>IIB and correlated with the oxidative capacity. Capillaries were pronounced in the MCT1 staining. CD147 antibody stained plasma membranes of all fibre types evenly, whereas the staining in the cytoplasm followed that of MCT1. In the middle gluteal muscle the expression of MCT1 follows the oxidative capacity of muscle fibres, but the expression of CD147 in sarcolemma does not vary among fibre types. The use of horse specific MCT1 and CD147 antibodies can in future studies help to evaluate lactate efflux from different muscle fibre types. Copyright © 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Skeletal muscle myostatin mRNA expression is fiber-type specific and increases during hindlimb unloading

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Carlson, C. J.; Booth, F. W.; Gordon, S. E.

1999-01-01

Transgenic mice lacking a functional myostatin (MSTN) gene demonstrate greater skeletal muscle mass resulting from muscle fiber hypertrophy and hyperplasia (McPherron, A. C., A. M. Lawler, and S. -J. Lee. Nature 387: 83-90, 1997). Therefore, we hypothesized that, in normal mice, MSTN may act as a negative regulator of muscle mass. Specifically, we hypothesized that the predominately slow (type I) soleus muscle, which demonstrates greater atrophy than the fast (type II) gastrocnemius-plantaris complex (Gast/PLT), would show more elevation in MSTN mRNA abundance during hindlimb unloading (HU). Surprisingly, MSTN mRNA was not detectable in weight-bearing or HU soleus muscle, which atrophied 42% by the 7th day of HU in female ICR mice. In contrast, MSTN mRNA was present in weight-bearing Gast/PLT muscle and was significantly elevated (67%) at 1 day but not at 3 or 7 days of HU. However, the Gast/PLT muscle had only atrophied 17% by the 7th day of HU. Because the soleus is composed only of type I and IIa fibers, whereas the Gast/PLT expresses type IId/x and IIb in addition to type I and IIa, it was necessary to perform a more careful analysis of the relationship between MSTN mRNA levels and myosin heavy-chain (MHC) isoform expression (as a marker of fiber type). A significant correlation (r = 0.725, P < 0. 0005) was noted between the percentage of MHC isoform IIb expression and MSTN mRNA abundance in several muscles of the mouse hindlimb. These results indicate that MSTN expression is not strongly associated with muscle atrophy induced by HU; however, it is strongly associated with MHC isoform IIb expression in normal muscle.

Energy in a String Wave

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Ng, Chiu-king

2010-01-01

When one end of a taut horizontal elastic string is shaken repeatedly up and down, a transverse wave (assume sine waveform) will be produced and travel along it. College students know this type of wave motion well. They know when the wave passes by, each element of the string will perform an oscillating up-down motion, which in mechanics is termed…

SEARCH FOR PRECURSOR ERUPTIONS AMONG TYPE IIB SUPERNOVAE

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Strotjohann, Nora L.; Ofek, Eran O.; Gal-Yam, Avishay

2015-10-01

The progenitor stars of several Type IIb supernovae (SNe) show indications of extended hydrogen envelopes. These envelopes might be the outcome of luminous energetic pre-explosion events, so-called precursor eruptions. We use the Palomar Transient Factory (PTF) pre-explosion observations of a sample of 27 nearby SNe IIb to look for such precursors during the final years prior to the SN explosion. No precursors are found when combining the observations in 15-day bins, and we calculate the absolute-magnitude-dependent upper limit on the precursor rate. At the 90% confidence level, SNe IIb have on average <0.86 precursors as bright as an absolute R-bandmore » magnitude of −14 in the final 3.5 years before the explosion and <0.56 events over the final year. In contrast, precursors among SNe IIn have a ≳5 times higher rate. The kinetic energy required to unbind a low-mass stellar envelope is comparable to the radiated energy of a few-weeks-long precursor that would be detectable for the closest SNe in our sample. Therefore, mass ejections, if they are common in such SNe, are radiatively inefficient or have durations longer than months. Indeed, when using 60-day bins, a faint precursor candidate is detected prior to SN 2012cs (∼2% false-alarm probability). We also report the detection of the progenitor of SN 2011dh that does not show detectable variability over the final two years before the explosion. The suggested progenitor of SN 2012P is still present, and hence is likely a compact star cluster or an unrelated object.« less

Solvability of a Nonlinear Integral Equation in Dynamical String Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Khachatryan, A. Kh.; Khachatryan, Kh. A.

2018-04-01

We investigate an integral equation of the convolution type with a cubic nonlinearity on the entire real line. This equation has a direct application in open-string field theory and in p-adic string theory and describes nonlocal interactions. We prove that there exists a one-parameter family of bounded monotonic solutions and calculate the limits of solutions constructed at infinity.

Mechanism of Tennis Racket Spin Performance

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kawazoe, Yoshihiko; Okimoto, Kenji; Okimoto, Keiko

Players often say that some strings provide a better grip and more spin than others, but ball spin did not depend on string type, gauge, or tension in pervious laboratory experiments. There was no research work on spin to uncover what is really happening during an actual tennis impact because of the difficulty of performing the appropriate experiments. The present paper clarified the mechanism of top spin and its improvement by lubrication of strings through the use of high-speed video analysis. It also provided a more detailed explanation of spin behavior by comparing a racket with lubricated strings with the famous “spaghetti” strung racket, which was banned in 1978 by the International Tennis Federation because it used plastic spaghetti tubing over the strings to reduce friction, resulting in excessive ball spin. As the main strings stretch and slide sideways more, the ball is given additional spin due to the restoring force parallel to the string face when the main strings spring back and the ball is released from the strings. Herein, we also showed that the additional spin results in a reduction of shock vibrations of the wrist joint during impact.

Generalizations of holographic renormalization group flows

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Suh, Minwoo

The AdS/CFT correspondence conjectures the duality between type IIB supergravity on AdS5 × S5 and N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory. Mass deformations of N = 4 super Yang-Mills theory drive renormalization group (RG) flows. Holographic RG flows are described by domain wall solutions interpolating between AdS5 geometries at critical points of N = 8 gauged supergravity in five dimensions. In this thesis we study two directions of generalizations of holographic RG flows. First, motivated by the Janus solutions, we study holographic RG flows with dilaton and axion fields. To be specific, we consider the SU (3)-invariant flow with dilaton and axion fields, and discover the known supersymmetric Janus solution in five dimensions. Then, by employing the lift ansatz, we uplift the supersymmetric Janus solution of the SU(3)-invariant truncation with dilaton and axion fields to a solution of type IIB supergravity. We identify the uplifted solution to be one of the known supersymmetric Janus solution in type IIB supergravity. Furthermore, we consider the SU(2) × U(1)-invariant N = 2 and N = 1 supersymmetric flows with dilaton and axion fields. Second, motivated by the development in AdS/CMT, we study holographic RG flows with gauge fields. We consider the SU(3)-invariant flow with electric potentials or magnetic fields, and find first-order systems of flow equations for each case.

Effects of 1alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol on growth performance, parameters of tibia and plasma, meat quality, and type IIb sodium phosphate cotransporter gene expression of one- to twenty-one-day-old broilers.

PubMed

Han, J C; Yang, X D; Zhang, T; Li, H; Li, W L; Zhang, Z Y; Yao, J H

2009-02-01

This experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of 1alpha-hydroxycholecalciferol (1alpha-OH D3) on the growth performance, tibia and plasma parameters, nutrient utilization, meat quality of the breast and thigh, and type IIb sodium phosphate cotranspoter gene expression of broilers. A total of 96 males of 1-d-old Arbor Acres broilers were randomly assigned to 8 cages of 12 birds each. Two dietary treatments were applied to 4 cages each. Diet 1 was prepared as the basal diet (nonphytate phosphorus, 0.21%), whereas diet 2 was the basal diet supplemented with 5 microg/kg of 1alpha-OH D3. Results showed that supplementation of the basal diet with 1alpha-OH D3 increased growth performance, tibia ash and strength, plasma inorganic phosphate concentration, utilization of total phosphorus and nonphytate phosphorus, lightness and yellowness of the breast and thigh meat, and intestinal type IIb sodium phosphate cotranspoter mRNA expression, whereas it decreased the shear force and water-holding capacity of the thigh meat. These data suggest that the addition of 1alpha-OH D3 might improve growth performance, tibia development, and meat quality in 1- to 21-d-old broilers by increasing the absorption and retention of phosphorus.

Multi-Wavelength Observations of the Type IIb Supernova 2009mg

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Oates, S. R.; Bayless, A. J.; Stritzinger, M. D.; Prichard, T.; Prieto, J. L.; Immler, S.; Brown, P. J.; Breeveld, A. A.; DePasquale, M.; Kuin, N. P. M.;

Ada (Trade Name)/SQL (Structured Query Language) Binding Specification

DTIC Science & Technology

1988-06-01

TYPES iS package ADA-SOL Is type DWPLOYEEyNAME Is new STRING ( 1 .. 30 ); type BOSSNAME is new EMPLOYEENAME; type EMPLOYEE SALARY is digits 7 range 0.00...minimum number of significant decimal digits . All real numbers between the lower and upper bounds, inclusive, belong to the subtype, and are...and the elements of strings. Format <character> -:- < digit > I <letter> ! <special character> < digit > ::- 0111213141516171819 <letter> ::- <upper case

The B2 Alternatively Spliced Isoform of Nonmuscle Myosin II-B Lacks Actin-activated MgATPase Activity and In Vitro Motility

PubMed Central

Kim, Kye-Young; Kawamoto, Sachiyo; Bao, Jianjun; Sellers, James R.; Adelstein, Robert S.

2008-01-01

We report the initial biochemical characterization of an alternatively spliced isoform of nonmuscle heavy meromyosin (HMM) II-B2 and compare it with HMM II-B0, the non-spliced isoform. HMM II-B2 is the HMM derivative of an alternatively spliced isoform of endogenous nonmuscle myosin (NM) II-B, which has 21-amino acids inserted into loop 2, near the actin-binding region. NM II-B2 is expressed in the Purkinje cells of the cerebellum as well as in other neuronal cells (Ma et al., Mol. Biol. Cell 15 (2006) 2138-2149). In contrast to any of the previously described isoforms of NM II (II-A, II-B0, II-B1, II-C0 and II-C1) or to smooth muscle myosin, the actin-activated MgATPase activity of HMM II-B2 is not significantly increased from a low, basal level by phosphorylation of the 20 kDa myosin light chain (MLC-20). Moreover, although HMM II-B2 can bind to actin in the absence of ATP and is released in its presence, it cannot propel actin in the sliding actin filament assay following MLC-20 phosphorylation. Unlike HMM II-B2, the actin-activated MgATPase activity of a chimeric HMM with the 21-amino acids II-B2 sequence inserted into the homologous location in the heavy chain of HMM II-C is increased following MLC-20 phosphorylation. This indicates that the effect of the II-B2 insert is myosin heavy chain specific. PMID:18060863

Peptides derived from central turn motifs within integrin αIIb and αV cytoplasmic tails inhibit integrin activation.

PubMed

Li, Xinlei; Liu, Yongqing; Haas, Thomas A

2014-12-01

We previously found that peptides derived from the full length of integrin αIIb and αV cytoplasmic tails inhibited their parent integrin activation, respectively. Here we showed that the cell-permeable peptides corresponding to the conserved central turn motif within αIIb and αV cytoplasmic tails, myr-KRNRPPLEED (αIIb peptide) and myr-KRVRPPQEEQ (αV peptide), similarly inhibited both αIIb and αV integrin activation. Pre-treatment with αIIb or αV peptides inhibited Mn(2+)-activated αIIbβ3 binding to soluble fibrinogen as well as the binding of αIIbβ3-expressing Chinese Hamster Ovary cells to immobilized fibrinogen. Our turn peptides also inhibited adhesion of two breast cancer cell lines (MDA-MB-435 and MCF7) to αV ligand vitronectin. These results suggest that αIIb and αV peptides share a same mechanism in regulating integrin function. Using αIIb peptide as a model, we found that replacement of RPP with AAA significantly attenuated the inhibitory activity of αIIb peptide. Furthermore, we found that αIIb peptide specifically bound to β-tubulin in cells. Our work suggests that the central motif of α tails is an anchoring point for cytoskeletons during integrin activation and integrin-mediated cell adhesion, and its function depends on the turn structure at RPP. However, post-treatment of peptides derived from the full-length tail or from the turn motif did not reverse αIIb and αV integrin activation. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Matrix theory interpretation of discrete light cone quantization string worldsheets

PubMed

Grignani; Orland; Paniak; Semenoff

2000-10-16

We study the null compactification of type-IIA string perturbation theory at finite temperature. We prove a theorem about Riemann surfaces establishing that the moduli spaces of infinite-momentum-frame superstring worldsheets are identical to those of branched-cover instantons in the matrix-string model conjectured to describe M theory. This means that the identification of string degrees of freedom in the matrix model proposed by Dijkgraaf, Verlinde, and Verlinde is correct and that its natural generalization produces the moduli space of Riemann surfaces at all orders in the genus expansion.

Magnetic Bianchi type II string cosmological model in loop quantum cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Rikhvitsky, Victor; Saha, Bijan; Visinescu, Mihai

2014-07-01

The loop quantum cosmology of the Bianchi type II string cosmological model in the presence of a homogeneous magnetic field is studied. We present the effective equations which provide modifications to the classical equations of motion due to quantum effects. The numerical simulations confirm that the big bang singularity is resolved by quantum gravity effects.

Cold, warm, and composite (cool) cosmic string models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carter, B.

1994-01-01

The dynamical behaviour of a cosmic string is strongly affected by any reduction of the effective string tension T below the constant value, T = m2 say, that typifies a simple, longitudinally Lorentz invariant Goto-Nambu type string model, where m is a fixed mass scale determined by the internal structure of an underlying Nielsen-Olesen type vacuum vortex. Such a reduction of tension occurs in the standard ``warm'' cosmic string model in which the effect of thermal perturbations of a simple Goto-Nambu model is represented by an effective tension T given in terms of the corresponding effective temperature, Θ say, by T2 = m2(m2 - 1/3πΘ2). A qualitatively similar though analytically more complicated tension reduction phenomenon occurs in ``cold'' conducting cosmic string models of the kind whose existence was first proposed by Witten, where the role of the temperature is played by an effective mass or chemical potential μ that is constructed as the scalar magnitude of the energy momentum covector obtained as the gradient of the phase ϕ of a bosonic condensate in the core of the vacuum vortex. The present article describes the construction and essential mechanical properties of a new category of composite ``cool'' cosmic string models that are intermediate between these ``warm'' and ``cold'' limit cases. These composite models are the string analogues of the standard Landau model for a two-constituent finite temperature superfluid, and as such involve two independent currents interpretable as that of the entropy on the one hand and that of the bosonic condensate on the other. It is surmised that the stationary (in particular ring) equilibrium states of such ``cool'' cosmic strings may be of cosmologicl significance.

Muscle glycogen depletion patterns during draught work in Standardbred horses.

PubMed

Gottlieb, M

1989-03-01

Muscle fibre recruitment was investigated during draught loaded exercise by studying glycogen depletion patterns from histochemical stains of muscle biopsies from the gluteus and semitendinosus muscles. Three Standardbred trotters performed several intervals of draught loaded exercise on a treadmill with 34 kp at a trot (7 m/sec) and with 34 and 80 kp, respectively at a walk (2m/sec). Exercise was continued until the horses were unwilling to continue. Glycogen depletion was seen in all three fibre types when trotting with 34 kp for 5 or 10 mins. When an equal weight resistance was pulled at a walk, glycogen depletion was first seen in type I fibres only, then followed by a small percentage of type IIA fibres after at least 1 h. When 80 kp was pulled at a walk both type I and IIA fibres showed glycogen depletion, and after at least 30 mins exercise a small percentage of type IIB fibres was also depleted. These results indicate that the muscle fibres are depleted, in order, from type I through IIA to IIB as the intensity or duration of draught work increases.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McGreevy, John Austen; /Stanford U., Phys. Dept.

This thesis is a study of D-branes in string compactifications. In this context, D-branes are relevant as an important component of the nonperturbative spectrum, as an incisive probe of these backgrounds, and as a natural stringy tool for localizing gauge interactions. In the first part of the thesis, we discuss half-BPS D-branes in compactifications of type II string theory on Calabi-Yau threefolds. The results we describe for these objects are pertinent both in their role as stringy brane-worlds, and in their role as solitonic objects. In particular, we determine couplings of these branes to the moduli determining the closed-string geometry,more » both perturbatively and non-perturbatively in the worldsheet expansion. We provide a local model for transitions in moduli space where the BPS spectrum jumps, and discuss the extension of mirror symmetry between Calabi-Yau manifolds to the case when D-branes are present. The next section is an interlude which provides some applications of D-branes to other curved backgrounds of string theory. In particular, we discuss a surprising phenomenon in which fundamental strings moving through background Ramond-Ramond fields dissolve into large spherical D3-branes. This mechanism is used to explain a previously-mysterious fact discovered via the AdS-CFT correspondence. Next, we make a connection between type IIA string vacua of the type discussed in the first section and M-theory compactifications on manifolds of G{sub 2} holonomy. Finally we discuss constructions of string vacua which do not have large radius limits. In the final part of the thesis, we develop techniques for studying the worldsheets of open strings ending on the curved D-branes studied in the first section. More precisely, we formulate a large class of massive two-dimensional gauge theories coupled to boundary matter, which flow in the infrared to the relevant boundary conformal field theories. Along with many other applications, these techniques are used to describe world-volume theories of point-like D-probes of various Calabi-Yau threefolds.« less

SESNPCA: Principal Component Analysis Applied to Stripped-Envelope Core-Collapse Supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Williamson, Marc; Bianco, Federica; Modjaz, Maryam

2018-01-01

In the new era of time-domain astronomy, it will become increasingly important to have rigorous, data driven models for classifying transients, including supernovae (SNe). We present the first application of principal component analysis (PCA) to stripped-envelope core-collapse supernovae (SESNe). Previous studies of SNe types Ib, IIb, Ic, and broad-line Ic (Ic-BL) focus only on specific spectral features, while our PCA algorithm uses all of the information contained in each spectrum. We use one of the largest compiled datasets of SESNe, containing over 150 SNe, each with spectra taken at multiple phases. Our work focuses on 49 SNe with spectra taken 15 ± 5 days after maximum V-band light where better distinctions can be made between SNe type Ib and Ic spectra. We find that spectra of SNe type IIb and Ic-BL are separable from the other types in PCA space, indicating that PCA is a promising option for developing a purely data driven model for SESNe classification.

A quantitative study of the histochemical and morphometric characteristics of the human cricopharyngeus muscle.

PubMed Central

Brownlow, H; Whitmore, I; Willan, P L

1989-01-01

Samples of human cricopharyngeus muscles obtained at postmortem were assessed for fibre type composition and fibre size. Fibre type was determined using serial cryostat sections exposed to several histochemical reactions; narrow fibre diameter and fibre area were measured from photomicrographs using a digitiser interfaced to a microcomputer. Results were compared with values from samples of vastus lateralis obtained from the same subjects. Cricopharyngeus muscle, in comparison with vastus lateralis, contained significantly more oxidative fibres but fewer glycolytic fibres and significantly more Type I fibres but fewer Type IIB. Cricopharyngeal fibres were significantly smaller than the fibres in vastus lateralis and in neither muscle were fibre sizes normally distributed. In each muscle most Type I fibres were oxidative, and the ratio of oxidative: glycolytic fibres was similar for Type IIA and IIB fibres. The fibre type proportions and fibre sizes in cricopharyngeus did not vary significantly with age or between males and females. The composition of cricopharyngeus--mostly Type I oxidative fibres and few Type II glycolytic fibres--correlated well with the functions of sustained tonicity to prevent aerophagia and occasional forceful contraction during deglutition. Images Fig. 1 PMID:2621147

Effects of a traditional Chinese medicine formula and its extraction on muscle fiber characteristics in finishing pigs, porcine cell proliferation and isoforms of myosin heavy chain gene expression in myocytes

PubMed Central

Yu, Qin Ping; Feng, Ding Yuan; He, Xiao Jun; Wu, Fan; Xia, Min Hao; Dong, Tao; Liu, Yi Hua; Tan, Hui Ze; Zou, Shi Geng; Zheng, Tao; Ou, Xian Hua; Zuo, Jian Jun

2017-01-01

Objective This study evaluated the effects of a traditional Chinese medicine formula (TCMF) on muscle fiber characteristics in finishing pigs and the effects of the formula’s extract (distilled water, ethyl acetate and petroleum ether extraction) on porcine cell proliferation and isoforms of myosin heavy chain (MyHC) gene expression in myocytes. Methods In a completely randomized design, ninety pigs were assigned to three diets with five replications per treatment and six pigs per pen. The diets included the basal diet (control group), TCMF1 (basal diet+2.5 g/kg TCMF) and TCMF2 (basal diet+5 g/kg TCMF). The psoas major muscle was obtained from pigs at the end of the experiment. Muscle fiber characteristics in the psoas major muscle were analyzed using myosin ATPase staining. Cell proliferation was measured using 3-(4,5-dimethyl-2-thiazolyl)-2,5-diphenyl-2H-tetrazolium bromide (MTT) dye and cytometry. Isoforms of MyHC gene expression were detected by real-time quantitative polymerase chain reaction. Results The final body weight and carcass weight of finishing pigs were increased by TCMF1 (p<0.05), while the psoas major muscle cross-sectional area was increased by TCMF (p<0.05). The cross-sectional area and diameter of psoas major muscle fiber I, IIA, and IIB were increased by TCMF2 (p<0.05). The cross-sectional area and fiber diameter of psoas major muscle fiber IIA and IIB were increased by diet supplementation with TCMF1 (p<0.05). Psoas major muscle fiber IIA and IIB fiber density from the pigs fed the TCMF1 diet and the type IIB fiber density from the pigs fed the TCMF2 diet were lower compared to pigs fed the control diet (p<0.05). Pigs fed TCMF2 had a higher composition of type I fiber and a lower percentage of type IIB fiber in the psoas major muscle (p<0.05). The expression levels of MyHC I, MyHC IIa, and MyHC IIx mRNA increased and the amount of MyHC IIb mRNA decreased in the psoas major muscle from TCMF2, whereas MyHC I and MyHC IIx mRNA increased in the psoas major muscle from TCMF1 (p<0.05). Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor γ coactivator-1α and CaN mRNA expression in the psoas major muscle were up-regulated by TCMF (p<0.05). Porcine skeletal muscle satellite cell proliferation was promoted by 4 μg/mL and 20 μg/mL TCMF water extraction (p<0.05). Both 1 μg/mL and 5 μg/mL of TCMF water extraction increased MyHC IIa, MyHC IIb, and MyHC IIx mRNA expression in porcine myocytes (p<0.05), while MyHC I mRNA expression in porcine myocytes was decreased by 5 μg/mL TCMF water extraction (p<0.05). Porcine myocyte MyHC I and MyHC IIx mRNA expression were increased, and MyHC IIa and MyHC IIb mRNA expression were down-regulated by 5 μg/mL TCMF ethyl acetate extraction (p<0.05). MyHC I and MyHC IIa mRNA expression in porcine myocytes were increased, and the MyHC IIb mRNA expression was decreased by 1 μg/mL TCMF ethyl acetate extraction (p<0.05). Four isoforms of MyHC mRNA expression in porcine myocytes were reduced by 5 μg/mL TCMF petroleum ether extraction (p<0.05). MyHC IIa mRNA expression in porcine myocytes increased and MyHC IIb mRNA expression decreased by 1 μg/mL in a TCMF petroleum ether extraction (p<0.05). Conclusion These results indicated that TCMF amplified the psoas major muscle cross-sectional area through changing muscle fiber characteristics in finishing pigs. This effect was confirmed as TCMF extraction promoted porcine cell proliferation and affected isoforms of MyHC gene expression in myocytes. PMID:28728382

Structural characterization of anti-complementary polysaccharides from the leaves of Artemisia princeps.

PubMed

Yamada, H; Otsuka, Y; Omura, S

1986-08-01

Structural characterizations of the anti-complementary acidic heteroglycans, AAF IIb-2 and IIb-3, obtained from the leaves of Artemisia princeps pamp have been studied. AAF IIb-2 consists of rhamnose, xylose, arabinose, galactose, glucose and uronic acids (glucuronic acid and galacturonic acid) in the molar ratio of 7.6:7.6:13.0:10.9:3.0:57.9, and AAF IIb-3 consists of the same sugars in the ratio of 3.9:2.6:24.7:19.7:2.6:46.5. Methylation analysis including carboxyl-reduction and also selective enzymolysis using EXO-alpha- L-arabinofuranosidase suggested that AAF IIb-3 has a main chain consisting of (1-->4)-linked galacturonic acid and (1-->2)-linked rhamnose mostly substituted at the O-4 position. AAF IIb-3 also contained arabino-3,6-galactan moiety and most of the arabinose was present as an alpha- L-furanosyl residue in the non-reducing terminals and highly branched side chains which mostly attached to the O-3 position of (1-->6)-linked galactopyranosyl residue. The basic structure of AAF IIb-2 is similar to that of AAF IIb-3, but IIb-3 has a higher arabinogalactan content than IIb-2.

Modulation of Muscle Fiber Compositions in Response to Hypoxia via Pyruvate Dehydrogenase Kinase-1

PubMed Central

Nguyen, Daniel D.; Kim, Gyuyoup; Pae, Eung-Kwon

2016-01-01

Muscle fiber-type changes in hypoxic conditions in accordance with pyruvate dehydrogenase kinase (Pdk)-1 and hypoxia inducible factor (Hif)-1α were investigated in rats. Hif-1α and its down-stream molecule Pdk-1 are well known for readily response to hypoxia. We questioned their roles in relation to changes in myosin heavy chain (MyHC) composition in skeletal muscles. We hypothesize that the level of Pdk-1 with respect to the level of Hif-1α determines MyHC composition of the muscle in rats in hypoxia. Young male rats were housed in a chamber maintained at 11.5% (for sustained hypoxia) or fluctuating between 11.5 and 20.8% (for intermittent hypoxia or IH) oxygen levels. Then, muscle tissues from the geniohyoid (GH), soleus, and anterior tibialis (TA) were obtained at the end of hypoxic conditionings. After both hypoxic conditionings, protein levels of Pdk-1 and Hif-1 increased in GH muscles. GH muscles in acute sustained hypoxia favor an anaerobic glycolytic pathway, resulting in an increase in glycolytic MyHC IIb protein-rich fibers while maintain original fatigue-resistant MyHC IIa protein in the fibers; thus, the numbers of IIa- and IIb MyHC co-expressing fibers increased. Exogenous Pdk-1 over-expression using plasmid vectors elevated not only the glycolytic MyHC IIb, but also IIx as well as IIa expressions in C2C12 myotubes in ambient air significantly. The increase of dual expression of IIa- and IIb MyHC proteins in fibers harvested from the geniohyoid muscle has a potential to improve endurance as shown in our fatigability tests. By increasing the Pdk-1/Hif-1 ratio, a mixed-type muscle could alter endurance within the innate characteristics of the muscle toward more fatigue resistant. We conclude that an increased Pdk-1 level in skeletal muscle helps maintain MyHC compositions to be a fatigue resistant mixed-type muscle. PMID:28018235

Lineage Analysis of Circulating Trypanosoma cruzi Parasites and Their Association with Clinical Forms of Chagas Disease in Bolivia

PubMed Central

del Puerto, Ramona; Nishizawa, Juan Eiki; Kikuchi, Mihoko; Iihoshi, Naomi; Roca, Yelin; Avilas, Cinthia; Gianella, Alberto; Lora, Javier; Gutierrez Velarde, Freddy Udalrico; Renjel, Luis Alberto; Miura, Sachio; Higo, Hiroo; Komiya, Norihiro; Maemura, Koji; Hirayama, Kenji

2010-01-01

Background The causative agent of Chagas disease, Trypanosoma cruzi, is divided into 6 Discrete Typing Units (DTU): Tc I, IIa, IIb, IIc, IId and IIe. In order to assess the relative pathogenicities of different DTUs, blood samples from three different clinical groups of chronic Chagas disease patients (indeterminate, cardiac, megacolon) from Bolivia were analyzed for their circulating parasites lineages using minicircle kinetoplast DNA polymorphism. Methods and Findings Between 2000 and 2007, patients sent to the Centro Nacional de Enfermedades Tropicales for diagnosis of Chagas from clinics and hospitals in Santa Cruz, Bolivia, were assessed by serology, cardiology and gastro-intestinal examinations. Additionally, patients who underwent colonectomies due to Chagasic magacolon at the Hospital Universitario Japonés were also included. A total of 306 chronic Chagas patients were defined by their clinical types (81 with cardiopathy, 150 without cardiopathy, 100 with megacolon, 144 without megacolon, 164 with cardiopathy or megacolon, 73 indeterminate and 17 cases with both cardiopathy and megacolon). DNA was extracted from 10 ml of peripheral venous blood for PCR analysis. The kinetoplast minicircle DNA (kDNA) was amplified from 196 out of 306 samples (64.1%), of which 104 (53.3%) were Tc IId, 4 (2.0%) Tc I, 7 (3.6%) Tc IIb, 1 (0.5%) Tc IIe, 26 (13.3%) Tc I/IId, 1 (0.5%) Tc I/IIb/IId, 2 (1.0%) Tc IIb/d and 51 (25.9%) were unidentified. Of the 133 Tc IId samples, three different kDNA hypervariable region patterns were detected; Mn (49.6%), TPK like (48.9%) and Bug-like (1.5%). There was no significant association between Tc types and clinical manifestations of disease. Conclusions None of the identified lineages or sublineages was significantly associated with any particular clinical manifestations in the chronic Chagas patients in Bolivia. PMID:20502516

Arsenic processing of yeast isolates IIB-As1 & IIB-As2 and production of glutathione under stress conditions.

PubMed

Muneer, Bushra; Lali, Tayyaba; Iqbal, Muhammad J; Shakoori, Farah R; Shakoori, Abdul R

2016-10-01

Four arsenic resistant yeast were isolated from the industrial wastewater. Two strains IIB-As1 and IIB-As2 identified as Candida tropicalis and Saccharomyces cerevisiae, respectively. IIB-As1 and IIB-As2 showed maximum arsenic resistance. IIB-As1 showed maximum growth at 35 °C whereas it was 30 °C for IIB-As2. The yeast isolate showed typical growth curves, but arsenic extended the lag phase. Glutathione plays an important role in metal tolerance. In the present study, As increased the level glutathione and non-protein thiols in yeast isolates. Removal of As from supernatant was analyzed using the atomic absorption spectrophotometer. They removed arsenic from the medium after 72 h of incubation. Both yeast strains efficiently removed arsenic from the industrial effluent when used individually or in consortia. © 2016 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim.

Bianchi type-II String Cosmological Model with Magnetic Field in Scale-Covariant Theory of Gravitation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, N. K.; Singh, J. K.

2014-12-01

The spatially homogeneous and totally anisotropic Bianchi type-II cosmological solutions of massive strings have been investigated in the presence of the magnetic field in the framework of scale-covariant theory of gravitation formulated by Canuto et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett. 39, 429, 1977). With the help of special law of variation for Hubble's parameter proposed by Berman (Nuovo Cimento 74, 182, 1983) string cosmological model is obtained in this theory. We use the power law relation between scalar field ϕ and scale factor R to find the solutions. Some physical and kinematical properties of the model are also discussed.

The physics of unwound and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm systems.

PubMed

Kemp, Jonathan A

2017-01-01

The physics of wound and unwound strings on the electric guitar are presented here, and the pitch intervals produced by the movements of a Fender Stratocaster tremolo unit are explained. Predicted changes in pitch sensitivity of different strings are given, and experimentally verified, for changes in saddle height, the distance of string free to move behind the nut and ratio of diameters/masses of the core and windings of wound strings. Also, it is shown that changes to the gauge of strings (assuming the string tension is sufficient for linear behaviour and in absence of changes to other construction details) don't alter the pitch intervals produced by a given angle of tremolo arm use assuming the instrument is set up with the same sounding pitches and starting bridge angle. It is demonstrated that it not possible to equalise the relative sensitivity of unwound steel stings on a Fender Stratocaster type tremolo unit through string construction techniques. The ratio of core to winding mass in the string, on the other hand, was found to be a very powerful design parameter for choosing the sensitivity of the string to tremolo arm use and standard pitch bends. For instance, the pitch intervals produced by operation of tremolo arm for wound strings may be made to approximately match that for one of the unwound strings if they share very similar core gauges (assuming the winding masses are chosen to give approximately the same tension at their sounding pitches). Such a design, only available currently by custom order, also delivers the optimum equalisation in sensitivity of strings for standard string bends (due to these also being produced by altering the length of the string to generate changes in tension and therefore pitch).

Gaugino and scalar masses in the landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Conlon, Joseph P.; Quevedo, Fernando

2006-06-01

In this letter we demonstrate the genericity of suppressed gaugino masses Ma ~ m3/2/ln (MPlanck/m3/2) in the IIB string landscape, by showing that this relation holds for D7-brane gauginos whenever the associated modulus is stabilised by nonperturbative effects. Although m3/2 and Ma take many different values across the landscape, the above small mass hierarchy is maintained. We show that it is valid for models with an arbitrary number of moduli and applies to both the KKLT and exponentially large volume approaches to Kähler moduli stabilisation. In the latter case we explicitly calculate gaugino and moduli masses for compactifications on the two-modulus Calabi-Yau Bbb P4[1,1,1,6,9]. In the large-volume scenario we also show that soft scalar masses are approximately universal with mi2 ~ m3/22(1+epsiloni), with the non-universality parametrised by epsiloni ~ 1/ln (MP/m3/2)2 ~ (1/1000). We briefly discuss possible phenomenological implications of our results.

Microvascular oxygen pressures in muscles comprised of different fiber types: Impact of dietary nitrate supplementation

PubMed Central

Ferguson, Scott K.; Holdsworth, Clark T.; Wright, Jennifer L.; Fees, Alex J.; Allen, Jason D.; Jones, Andrew M.; Musch, Timothy I.; Poole, David C.

2014-01-01

Nitrate (NO3−) supplementation via beetroot juice (BR) preferentially improves vascular conductance and O2 delivery to contracting skeletal muscles comprised predominantly of type IIb + d/x (i.e. highly glycolytic) fibers following its reduction to nitrite and nitric oxide (NO). To address the mechanistic basis for NO3− to improve metabolic control we tested the hypothesis that increased NO bioavailability via BR supplementation would elevate microvascular PO2 (PO2mv) in fast twitch but not slow twitch muscle. Twelve young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered BR ([NO3−] 1 mmol/kg/day, n=6) or water (control, n=6) for 5 days. PO2mv (phosphorescence quenching) was measured at rest and during 180s of electrically induced 1-Hz twitch contractions (6–8 V) of the soleus (9% type IIb +d/x) and mixed portion of the gastrocnemius (MG, 91% type IIb + d/x) muscles. In the MG, but not the soleus, BR elevated contracting steady state PO2mv by ~43% (control: 13.7 ± 0.5, BR: 19 ± 1.6 mmHg, (P<0.05). This higher PO2mv represents a greater blood-myocyte O2 driving force during muscle contractions thus providing a potential mechanism by which NO3− supplementation via BR improves metabolic control in fast twitch muscle. Recruitment of higher order type II muscle fibers is thought to play a role in the development of the V.O2 slow component which is inextricably linked to the fatigue process. These data therefore provide a putative mechanism for the BR-induced improvements in high-intensity exercise performance seen in humans. PMID:25280991

Microvascular oxygen pressures in muscles comprised of different fiber types: Impact of dietary nitrate supplementation.

PubMed

Ferguson, Scott K; Holdsworth, Clark T; Wright, Jennifer L; Fees, Alex J; Allen, Jason D; Jones, Andrew M; Musch, Timothy I; Poole, David C

2015-08-01

Nitrate (NO3(-)) supplementation via beetroot juice (BR) preferentially improves vascular conductance and O2 delivery to contracting skeletal muscles comprised predominantly of type IIb + d/x (i.e. highly glycolytic) fibers following its reduction to nitrite and nitric oxide (NO). To address the mechanistic basis for NO3(-) to improve metabolic control we tested the hypothesis that BR supplementation would elevate microvascular PO2 (PO2mv) in fast twitch but not slow twitch muscle. Twelve young adult male Sprague-Dawley rats were administered BR ([NO3(-)] 1 mmol/kg/day, n = 6) or water (control, n = 6) for 5 days. PO2mv (phosphorescence quenching) was measured at rest and during 180 s of electrically-induced 1-Hz twitch contractions (6-8 V) of the soleus (9% type IIb +d/x) and mixed portion of the gastrocnemius (MG, 91% type IIb + d/x) muscles. In the MG, but not the soleus, BR elevated contracting steady state PO2mv by ~43% (control: 14 ± 1, BR: 19 ± 2 mmHg (P < 0.05)). This higher PO2mv represents a greater blood-myocyte O2 driving force during muscle contractions thus providing a potential mechanism by which NO3(-) supplementation via BR improves metabolic control in fast twitch muscle. Recruitment of higher order type II muscle fibers is thought to play a role in the development of the VO2 slow component which is inextricably linked to the fatigue process. These data therefore provide a putative mechanism for the BR-induced improvements in high-intensity exercise performance seen in humans. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Protein expression changes during human triple negative breast cancer cell line progression to lymph node metastasis in a xenografted model in nude mice

PubMed Central

Roberti, María Paula; Arriaga, Juan Martín; Bianchini, Michele; Quintá, Héctor Ramiro; Bravo, Alicia Inés; Levy, Estrella Mariel; Mordoh, José; Barrio, María Marcela

2012-01-01

Triple negative breast cancers (TNBC) lacking hormone receptors and HER-2 amplification are very aggressive tumors. Since relevant differences between primary tumors and metastases could arise during tumor progression as evidenced by phenotypic discordances reported for hormonal receptors or HER-2 expression, in this analysis we studied changes that occurred in our TNBC model IIB-BR-G throughout the development of IIB-BR-G-MTS6 metastasis to the lymph nodes (LN) in nude mice, using an antibody-based protein array to characterize their expression profile. We also analyzed their growth kinetics, migration, invasiveness and cytoskeleton structure in vitro and in vivo. In vitro IIB-BR-G-MTS6 cells grew slower but showed higher anchorage independent growth. In vivo IIB-BR-G-MTS6 tumors grew significantly faster and showed a 100% incidence of LN metastasis after s.c. inoculation, although no metastasis was observed for IIB-BR-G. CCL3, IL1β, CXCL1, CSF2, CSF3, IGFBP1, IL1α, IL6, IL8, CCL20, PLAUR, PlGF and VEGF were strongly upregulated in IIB-BR-G-MTS6 while CCL4, ICAM3, CXCL12, TNFRSF18, FIGF were the most downregulated proteins in the metastatic cell line. IIB-BR-G-MTS6 protein expression profile could reflect a higher NFκB activation in these cells. In vitro, IIB-BR-G displayed higher migration but IIB-BR-G-MTS6 had more elevated matrigel invasion ability. In agreement with that observation, IIB-BR-G-MTS6 had an upregulated expression of MMP1, MMP9, MMP13, PLAUR and HGF. IIB-BR-G-MTS6 tumors presented also higher local lymphatic invasion than IIB-BR-G but similar lymphatic vessel densities. VEGFC and VEGFA/B expression were higher both in vitro and in vivo for IIB-BR-G-MTS6. IIB-BR-G-MTS6 expressed more vimentin than IB-BR-G cells, which was mainly localized in the cellular extremities and both cell lines are E-cadherin negative. Our results suggest that IIB-BR-G-MTS6 cells have acquired a pronounced epithelial-to-mesenchymal transition phenotype. Protein expression changes observed between primary tumor-derived IIB-BR-G and metastatic IIB-BR-G-MTS6 TNBC cells suggest potential targets involved in the control of metastasis. PMID:22825326

Long-lasting X-ray emission from type IIb supernova 2011dh and mass-loss history of the yellow supergiant progenitor

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Maeda, Keiichi; Katsuda, Satoru; Bamba, Aya

2014-04-20

Type IIb supernova (SN) 2011dh, with conclusive detection of an unprecedented yellow supergiant (YSG) progenitor, provides an excellent opportunity to deepen our understanding on the massive star evolution in the final centuries toward the SN explosion. In this paper, we report on detection and analyses of thermal X-ray emission from SN IIb 2011dh at ∼500 days after the explosion on Chandra archival data, providing a solidly derived mass-loss rate of a YSG progenitor for the first time. We find that the circumstellar media should be dense, more than that expected from a Wolf-Rayet (W-R) star by one order of magnitude.more » The emission is powered by a reverse shock penetrating into an outer envelope, fully consistent with the YSG progenitor but not with a W-R progenitor. The density distribution at the outermost ejecta is much steeper than that expected from a compact W-R star, and this finding must be taken into account in modeling the early UV/optical emission from SNe IIb. The derived mass-loss rate is ∼3 × 10{sup –6} M {sub ☉} yr{sup –1} for the mass-loss velocity of ∼20 km s{sup –1} in the final ∼1300 yr before the explosion. The derived mass-loss properties are largely consistent with the standard wind mass-loss expected for a giant star. This is not sufficient to be a main driver to expel nearly all the hydrogen envelope. Therefore, the binary interaction, with a huge mass transfer having taken place at ≳ 1300 yr before the explosion, is a likely scenario to produce the YSG progenitor.« less

Discrete symmetries in the heterotic-string landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Athanasopoulos, P.

2015-07-01

We describe a new type of discrete symmetry that relates heterotic-string models. It is based on the spectral flow operator which normally acts within a general N = (2, 2) model and we use this operator to construct a map between N = (2, 0) models. The landscape of N = (2, 0) models is of particular interest among all heterotic-string models for two important reasons: Firstly, N =1 spacetime SUSY requires (2, 0) superconformal invariance and secondly, models with the well motivated by the Standard Model SO(10) unification structure are of this type. This idea was inspired by a new discrete symmetry in the space of fermionic ℤ2 × ℤ2 heterotic-string models that exchanges the spinors and vectors of the SO(10) GUT group, dubbed spinor-vector duality. We will describe how to generalize this to arbitrary internal rational Conformal Field Theories.

Elliptic genus of E-strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kim, Joonho; Kim, Seok; Lee, Kimyeong; Park, Jaemo; Vafa, Cumrun

2017-09-01

We study a family of 2d N=(0, 4) gauge theories which describes at low energy the dynamics of E-strings, the M2-branes suspended between a pair of M5 and M9 branes. The gauge theory is engineered using a duality with type IIA theory, leading to the D2-branes suspended between an NS5-brane and 8 D8-branes on an O8-plane. We compute the elliptic genus of this family of theories, and find agreement with the known results for single and two E-strings. The partition function can in principle be computed for arbitrary number of E-strings, and we compute them explicitly for low numbers. We test our predictions against the partially known results from topological strings, as well as from the instanton calculus of 5d Sp(1) gauge theory. Given the relation to topological strings, our computation provides the all genus partition function of the refined topological strings on the canonical bundle over 1/2K3.

Lack of myostatin results in excessive muscle growth but impaired force generation.

PubMed

Amthor, Helge; Macharia, Raymond; Navarrete, Roberto; Schuelke, Markus; Brown, Susan C; Otto, Anthony; Voit, Thomas; Muntoni, Francesco; Vrbóva, Gerta; Partridge, Terence; Zammit, Peter; Bunger, Lutz; Patel, Ketan

2007-02-06

The lack of myostatin promotes growth of skeletal muscle, and blockade of its activity has been proposed as a treatment for various muscle-wasting disorders. Here, we have examined two independent mouse lines that harbor mutations in the myostatin gene, constitutive null (Mstn(-/-)) and compact (Berlin High Line, BEH(c/c)). We report that, despite a larger muscle mass relative to age-matched wild types, there was no increase in maximum tetanic force generation, but that when expressed as a function of muscle size (specific force), muscles of myostatin-deficient mice were weaker than wild-type muscles. In addition, Mstn(-/-) muscle contracted and relaxed faster during a single twitch and had a marked increase in the number of type IIb fibers relative to wild-type controls. This change was also accompanied by a significant increase in type IIB fibers containing tubular aggregates. Moreover, the ratio of mitochondrial DNA to nuclear DNA and mitochondria number were decreased in myostatin-deficient muscle, suggesting a mitochondrial depletion. Overall, our results suggest that lack of myostatin compromises force production in association with loss of oxidative characteristics of skeletal muscle.

Effect of chronic ethanol ingestion and exercise training on skeletal muscle in rat.

PubMed

Vila, L; Ferrando, A; Voces, J; Cabral de Oliveira, C; Prieto, J G; Alvarez, A I

2001-09-01

The aim of this study was to investigate the interactive effects of exercise training and chronic ethanol consumption on metabolism, capillarity, and myofibrillar composition in rat limb muscles. Male Wistar rats were treated in separate groups as follows: non exercised-control; ethanol (15%) in animals' drinking water for 12 weeks; exercise training in treadmill and ethanol administration plus exercise for 12 weeks. Ethanol administration decreased capillarity and increased piruvate kinase and lactate dehydrogenase activities in white gastrocnemius; in plantaris muscle, ethanol increased citrate synthase activity and decreased cross-sectional area of type I, IIa, and IIb fibres. Exercise increased capillarity in all four limb muscles and decreased type I fibre area in plantaris. The decreased capillarity effect induced by ethanol in some muscles, was ameliorated when alcohol was combined with exercise. While alcoholic myopathy affects predominantly type IIb fibres, ethanol administration and aerobic exercise in some cases can affect type I and type IIa fibre areas. The exercise can decrease some harmful effects produced by ethanol in the muscle, including the decrease in the fibre area and capillary density.

Interaction of solitons with a string of coupled quantum dots

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kumar, Vijendra, E-mail: vsmedphysics@gmail.com; Swami, O. P., E-mail: omg1789@gmail.com; Nagar, A. K., E-mail: ajaya.nagar@gmail.com

2016-05-06

In this paper, we develop a theory for discrete solitons interaction with a string of coupled quantum dots in view of the local field effects. Discrete nonlinear Schrodinger (DNLS) equations are used to describe the dynamics of the string. Numerical calculations are carried out and results are analyzed with the help of matlab software. With the help of numerical solutions we demonstrate that in the quantum dots string, Rabi oscillations (RO) are self trapped into stable bright Rabi solitons. The Rabi oscillations in different types of nanostructures have potential applications to the elements of quantum logic and quantum memory.

Klein-Gordon oscillator with position-dependent mass in the rotating cosmic string spacetime

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Bing-Qian; Long, Zheng-Wen; Long, Chao-Yun; Wu, Shu-Rui

2018-02-01

A spinless particle coupled covariantly to a uniform magnetic field parallel to the string in the background of the rotating cosmic string is studied. The energy levels of the electrically charged particle subject to the Klein-Gordon oscillator are analyzed. Afterwards, we consider the case of the position-dependent mass and show how these energy levels depend on the parameters in the problem. Remarkably, it shows that for the special case, the Klein-Gordon oscillator coupled covariantly to a homogeneous magnetic field with the position-dependent mass in the rotating cosmic string background has the similar behaviors to the Klein-Gordon equation with a Coulomb-type configuration in a rotating cosmic string background in the presence of an external magnetic field.

Equine endometrial fibrosis correlates with 11beta-HSD2, TGF-beta1 and ACE activities.

PubMed

Ganjam, V K; Evans, T J

2006-03-27

Endometrial periglandular fibrosis (EPF) contributes to embryonic and fetal loss in mares. Equine EPF correlates inversely with conception and successful gestation. In the modified Kenney endometrial biopsy classification system, EPF categories I, IIA, IIB, and III correspond to minimal, mild, moderate, and severe fibrosis (+/-inflammation), respectively. Paraffin sections of biopsy specimens were stained with H&E, and picrosirius red (specific for fibrillar collagens types I and III), to determine %EPCVF. Endometrial ACE-binding activity, TGF-beta1 and 11beta-HSD2 activities were also measured. Ultrastructural changes in EPF categories IIB and III endometria strongly suggested myofibroblastic transformation. ACE-binding activity was highest in EPF category IIB; however, endometrial TGF-beta1 and 11beta-HSD2 activities were significantly correlated to the severity of EPF (P<0.05). We conclude that, locally generated angiotensin II initiates the expression of TGF-beta1 resulting in myofibroblastic transformation. 11Beta-HSD2 in concert appears to modulate the severity of endometrial fibrosis.

Kinetic mechanism of non-muscle myosin IIB: functional adaptations for tension generation and maintenance.

PubMed

Wang, Fei; Kovacs, Mihaly; Hu, Aihua; Limouze, John; Harvey, Estelle V; Sellers, James R

2003-07-25

Besides driving contraction of various types of muscle tissue, conventional (class II) myosins serve essential cellular functions and are ubiquitously expressed in eukaryotic cells. Three different isoforms in the human myosin complement have been identified as non-muscle class II myosins. Here we report the kinetic characterization of a human non-muscle myosin IIB subfragment-1 construct produced in the baculovirus expression system. Transient kinetic data show that most steps of the actomyosin ATPase cycle are slowed down compared with other class II myosins. The ADP affinity of subfragment-1 is unusually high even in the presence of actin filaments, and the rate of ADP release is close to the steady-state ATPase rate. Thus, non-muscle myosin IIB subfragment-1 spends a significantly higher proportion of its kinetic cycle strongly attached to actin than do the muscle myosins. This feature is even more pronounced at slightly elevated ADP levels, and it may be important in carrying out the cellular functions of this isoform working in small filamentous assemblies.

Note on tachyon actions in string theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Headrick, Matthew

2009-02-15

A number of spacetime fields in string theory (notably the metric, dilaton, bosonic and type 0 bulk closed-string tachyon, and bosonic open-string tachyon) have the following property: whenever the spacetime field configuration factorizes in an appropriate sense, the matter sector of the world-sheet theory factorizes into a tensor product of two decoupled theories. Since the beta functions for such a product theory necessarily also factorize, this property strongly constrains the form of the spacetime action encoding those beta functions. We show that this constraint alone--without needing actually to compute any of the beta functions--is sufficient to fix the form ofmore » the two-derivative action for the metric-dilaton system, as well as the potential for the bosonic open-string tachyon. We also show that no action consistent with this constraint exists for the closed-string tachyon coupled to the metric and dilaton.« less

New families of interpolating type IIB backgrounds

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Minasian, Ruben; Petrini, Michela; Zaffaroni, Alberto

2010-04-01

We construct new families of interpolating two-parameter solutions of type IIB supergravity. These correspond to D3-D5 systems on non-compact six-dimensional manifolds which are mathbb{T}2 fibrations over Eguchi-Hanson and multi-center Taub-NUT spaces, respectively. One end of the interpolation corresponds to a solution with only D5 branes and vanishing NS three-form flux. A topology changing transition occurs at the other end, where the internal space becomes a direct product of the four-dimensional surface and the two-torus and the complexified NS-RR three-form flux becomes imaginary self-dual. Depending on the choice of the connections on the torus fibre, the interpolating family has either mathcal{N}=2 or mathcal{N}=1 supersymmetry. In the mathcal{N}=2 case it can be shown that the solutions are regular.

Inhomogeneous Einstein-Rosen string cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Clancy, Dominic; Feinstein, Alexander; Lidsey, James E.; Tavakol, Reza

1999-08-01

Families of anisotropic and inhomogeneous string cosmologies containing non-trivial dilaton and axion fields are derived by applying the global symmetries of the string effective action to a generalized Einstein-Rosen metric. The models exhibit a two-dimensional group of Abelian isometries. In particular, two classes of exact solutions are found that represent inhomogeneous generalizations of the Bianchi type VIh cosmology. The asymptotic behavior of the solutions is investigated and further applications are briefly discussed.

About non standard Lagrangians in cosmology

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Dimitrijevic, Dragoljub D.; Milosevic, Milan

A review of non standard Lagrangians present in modern cosmological models will be considered. Well known example of non standard Lagrangian is Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) type Lagrangian for tachyon field. Another type of non standard Lagrangian under consideration contains scalar field which describes open p-adic string tachyon and is called p-adic string theory Lagrangian. We will investigate homogenous cases of both DBI and p-adic fields and obtain Lagrangians of the standard type which have the same equations of motions as aforementioned non standard one.

Dualities in CHL-models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Persson, Daniel; Volpato, Roberto

2018-04-01

We define a very general class of CHL-models associated with any string theory S (bosonic or supersymmetric) compactified on an internal CFT C× Td . We take the orbifold by a pair (g, δ) , where g is a (possibly non-geometric) symmetry of C and δ is a translation along T n . We analyze the T-dualities of these models and show that in general they contain Atkin–Lehner type symmetries. This generalizes our previous work on N=4 CHL-models based on heterotic string theory on T 6 or type II on K3× T2 , as well as the ‘monstrous’ CHL-models based on a compactification of heterotic string theory on the Frenkel–Lepowsky–Meurman CFT V\

Construction of a virtual combinatorial library using SMILES strings to discover potential structure-diverse PPAR modulators.

PubMed

Liao, Chenzhong; Liu, Bing; Shi, Leming; Zhou, Jiaju; Lu, Xian-Ping

2005-07-01

Based on the structural characters of PPAR modulators, a virtual combinatorial library containing 1226,625 compounds was constructed using SMILES strings. Selected ADME filters were employed to compel compounds having poor drug-like properties from this library. This library was converted to sdf and mol2 files by CONCORD 4.0, and was then docked to PPARgamma by DOCK 4.0 to identify new chemical entities that may be potential drug leads against type 2 diabetes and other metabolic diseases. The method to construct virtual combinatorial library using SMILES strings was further visualized by Visual Basic.net that can facilitate the needs of generating other type virtual combinatorial libraries.

Giant graviton interactions and M2-branes ending on multiple M5-branes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hirano, Shinji; Sato, Yuki

2018-05-01

We study splitting and joining interactions of giant gravitons with angular momenta N 1/2 ≪ J ≪ N in the type IIB string theory on AdS 5 × S 5 by describing them as instantons in the tiny graviton matrix model introduced by Sheikh-Jabbari. At large J the instanton equation can be mapped to the four-dimensional Laplace equation and the Coulomb potential for m point charges in an n-sheeted Riemann space corresponds to the m-to- n interaction process of giant gravitons. These instantons provide the holographic dual of correlators of all semi-heavy operators and the instanton amplitudes exactly agree with the pp-wave limit of Schur polynomial correlators in N = 4 SYM computed by Corley, Jevicki and Ramgoolam. By making a slight change of variables the same instanton equation is mathematically transformed into the Basu-Harvey equation which describes the system of M2-branes ending on M5-branes. As it turns out, the solutions to the sourceless Laplace equation on an n-sheeted Riemann space correspond to n M5-branes connected by M2-branes and we find general solutions representing M2-branes ending on multiple M5-branes. Among other solutions, the n = 3 case describes an M2-branes junction ending on three M5-branes. The effective theory on the moduli space of our solutions might shed light on the low energy effective theory of multiple M5-branes.

A string theory which isn't about strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Kanghoon; Rey, Soo-Jong; Rosabal, J. A.

2017-11-01

Quantization of closed string proceeds with a suitable choice of worldsheet vacuum. A priori, the vacuum may be chosen independently for left-moving and right-moving sectors. We construct ab initio quantized bosonic string theory with left-right asymmetric worldsheet vacuum and explore its consequences and implications. We critically examine the validity of new vacuum and carry out first-quantization using standard operator formalism. Remarkably, the string spectrum consists only of a finite number of degrees of freedom: string gravity (massless spin-two, Kalb-Ramond and dilaton fields) and two massive spin-two Fierz-Pauli fields. The massive spin-two fields have negative norm, opposite mass-squared, and provides a Lee-Wick type extension of string gravity. We compute two physical observables: tree-level scattering amplitudes and one-loop cosmological constant. Scattering amplitude of four dilatons is shown to be a rational function of kinematic invariants, and in D = 26 factorizes into contributions of massless spin-two and a pair of massive spin-two fields. The string one loop partition function is shown to perfectly agree with one loop Feynman diagram of string gravity and two massive spin-two fields. In particular, it does not exhibit modular invariance. We critically compare our construction with recent studies and contrast differences.

Single-fiber myosin heavy chain polymorphism during postnatal development: modulation by hypothyroidism

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

di Maso, N. A.; Caiozzo, V. J.; Baldwin, K. M.

2000-01-01

The primary objective of this study was to follow the developmental time course of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform transitions in single fibers of the rodent plantaris muscle. Hypothyroidism was used in conjunction with single-fiber analyses to better describe a possible linkage between the neonatal and fast type IIB MHC isoforms during development. In contrast to the general concept that developmental MHC isoform transitions give rise to muscle fibers that express only a single MHC isoform, the single-fiber analyses revealed a very high degree of MHC polymorphism throughout postnatal development. In the adult state, MHC polymorphism was so pervasive that the rodent plantaris muscles contained approximately 12-15 different pools of fibers (i.e., fiber types). The degree of polymorphism observed at the single-fiber level made it difficult to determine specific developmental schemes analogous to those observed previously for the rodent soleus muscle. However, hypothyroidism was useful in that it confirmed a possible link between the developmental regulation of the neonatal and fast type IIB MHC isoforms.

NAVAIR Progress in Assessing, Validating and Implementing Non-Chromate Primers (Briefing charts)

DTIC Science & Technology

2011-02-09

logistics for any new coating or coating system NAVAIR Application Areas for Hexavalent Chromium Alternatives: Status Components/ Structure... Hexavalent chromium alternatives Sacrificial Coating Post Treatment MIL-A-8625 Anodize Avionics/ Electronics Magnesium/Titanium Conversion Aluminum Anodizing...Aluminum Pretreatment Type IC Seal Type IIB Seal Type II Seal Phosphating Rinse (Aluminum)Rinse (Steel) Cadmium Zinc-Nickel Aluminum Bonding Chrome

Deforming baryons into confining strings

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Hartnoll, Sean A.; Portugues, Ruben

2004-09-15

We find explicit probe D3-brane solutions in the infrared of the Maldacena-Nunez background. The solutions describe deformed baryon vertices: q external quarks are separated in spacetime from the remaining N-q. As the separation is taken to infinity we recover known solutions describing infinite confining strings in N=1 gauge theory. We present results for the mass of finite confining strings as a function of length. We also find probe D2-brane solutions in a confining type IIA geometry, the reduction of a G{sub 2} holonomy M theory background. The relation between these deformed baryons and confining strings is not as straightforward.

Role of string-like collective atomic motion on diffusion and structural relaxation in glass forming Cu-Zr alloys

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Zhang, Hao; Department of Chemical and Materials Engineering, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta T6G 2V4; Zhong, Cheng

2015-04-28

We investigate Cu-Zr liquid alloys using molecular dynamics simulation and well-accepted embedded atom method potentials over a wide range of chemical composition and temperature as model metallic glass-forming (GF) liquids. As with other types of GF materials, the dynamics of these complex liquids are characterized by “dynamic heterogeneity” in the form of transient polymeric clusters of highly mobile atoms that are composed in turn of atomic clusters exhibiting string-like cooperative motion. In accordance with the string model of relaxation, an extension of the Adam-Gibbs (AG) model, changes in the activation free energy ΔG{sub a} with temperature of both the Cumore » and Zr diffusion coefficients D, and the alpha structural relaxation time τ{sub α} can be described to a good approximation by changes in the average string length, L. In particular, we confirm that the strings are a concrete realization of the abstract “cooperatively rearranging regions” of AG. We also find coexisting clusters of relatively “immobile” atoms that exhibit predominantly icosahedral local packing rather than the low symmetry packing of “mobile” atoms. These two distinct types of dynamic heterogeneity are then associated with different fluid structural states. Glass-forming liquids are thus analogous to polycrystalline materials where the icosahedrally packed regions correspond to crystal grains, and the strings reside in the relatively disordered grain boundary-like regions exterior to these locally well-ordered regions. A dynamic equilibrium between localized (“immobile”) and wandering (“mobile”) particles exists in the liquid so that the dynamic heterogeneity can be considered to be type of self-assembly process. We also characterize changes in the local atomic free volume in the course of string-like atomic motion to better understand the initiation and propagation of these fluid excitations.« less

Investigation of the Acoustics of Plucked String Tones Based on the Analysis of Their Time-Varying Spectra.

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chen, Kwok-Ping John

This research investigates two aspects of the time-varying vibration patterns of plucked string tones of classical guitar, Chinese pipa and Chinese ch'in. First, the assumption that horizontal and vertical frequencies and decay rates may be different is used as a basis for classifying the partial amplitude envelopes into four types. It is found that the partial envelopes of the tones produced by the three instruments, using the finger tip excitation method, on a single undamped string, can be described in terms of these four types. The results show that ch'in tones contain Type III, and IV, guitar tones contain Type I, II and III, and pipa tones contain all four types with a higher percentage of Type III and IV. Second, the theories of "missing modes" (Young, 1800), (Benade, 1976) and delayed generation of these modes (Fletcher, 1984), (Hall, 1987) are re-examined experimentally. The edge of a conventional guitar pick is used to excite a single undamped string on a classical guitar at nodal position N which is L/N from the bridge. As a result, it is a consistent feature that any mode whose index n is a multiple of N is attenuated during the attack phase but subsequently rises with a more gradual attack to reach a significant peak amplitude, except for the first multiple of locations L/3 to L/7. This amplitude envelope pattern, Type V, which is only applicable when the pick-edge excitation method is used, is distinct from the other four types mentioned above.

The physics of unwound and wound strings on the electric guitar applied to the pitch intervals produced by tremolo/vibrato arm systems

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

The physics of wound and unwound strings on the electric guitar are presented here, and the pitch intervals produced by the movements of a Fender Stratocaster tremolo unit are explained. Predicted changes in pitch sensitivity of different strings are given, and experimentally verified, for changes in saddle height, the distance of string free to move behind the nut and ratio of diameters/masses of the core and windings of wound strings. Also, it is shown that changes to the gauge of strings (assuming the string tension is sufficient for linear behaviour and in absence of changes to other construction details) don’t alter the pitch intervals produced by a given angle of tremolo arm use assuming the instrument is set up with the same sounding pitches and starting bridge angle. It is demonstrated that it not possible to equalise the relative sensitivity of unwound steel stings on a Fender Stratocaster type tremolo unit through string construction techniques. The ratio of core to winding mass in the string, on the other hand, was found to be a very powerful design parameter for choosing the sensitivity of the string to tremolo arm use and standard pitch bends. For instance, the pitch intervals produced by operation of tremolo arm for wound strings may be made to approximately match that for one of the unwound strings if they share very similar core gauges (assuming the winding masses are chosen to give approximately the same tension at their sounding pitches). Such a design, only available currently by custom order, also delivers the optimum equalisation in sensitivity of strings for standard string bends (due to these also being produced by altering the length of the string to generate changes in tension and therefore pitch). PMID:28934268

Don't Panic! Closed String Tachyons in ALE Spacetimes

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Silverstein, Eva M

2001-08-20

We consider closed string tachyons localized at the fixed points of noncompact nonsupersymmetric orbifolds. We argue that tachyon condensation drives these orbifolds to flat space or supersymmetric ALE spaces. The decay proceeds via an expanding shell of dilaton gradients and curvature which interpolates between two regions of distinct angular geometry. The string coupling remains weak throughout. For small tachyon VEVs, evidence comes from quiver theories on D-branes probes, in which deformations by twisted couplings smoothly connect non-supersymmetric orbifolds to supersymmetric orbifolds of reduced order. For large tachyon VEVs, evidence comes from worldsheet RG flow and spacetime gravity. For C{sup 2}/Z{submore » n}, we exhibit infinite sequences of transitions producing SUSY ALE spaces via twisted closed string condensation from non-supersymmetric ALE spaces. In a T-dual description this provides a mechanism for creating NS5-branes via closed string tachyon condensation similar to the creation of D-branes via open string tachyon condensation. We also apply our results to recent duality conjectures involving fluxbranes and the type 0 string.« less

Role of G protein signaling in the formation of the fibrin(ogen)-integrin αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton complex in platelets.

PubMed

Budnik, Ivan; Shenkman, Boris; Savion, Naphtali

2016-09-01

Effective platelet function requires formation of a physical link between fibrin(ogen), integrin αIIbβ3, and cytoplasmic actin filaments. We investigated the role of the Gαq, Gαi, and Gα12/13 families of heterotrimeric GTP-binding proteins (G proteins) in the assembly of a ligand-αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton complex. Selective and combined activation of the G proteins was achieved by using combinations of various platelet agonists and inhibitors. Formation and stability of fibrinogen-αIIbβ3 interaction were evaluated by the extent of platelet aggregation and the rate of eptifibatide-induced platelet disaggregation; association of αIIbβ3 with the cytoskeleton was analyzed by western blot. Formation of the fibrin-αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton complex was evaluated by rotational thromboelastometry assay in which clot formation was induced by the mixture of reptilase and factor XIIIa. We demonstrated that involvement of heterotrimeric G proteins in the formation of the ligand-αIIbβ3-cytoskeleton complex depends on whether fibrinogen or fibrin serves as the integrin ligand. Formation of the fibrinogen-αIIbβ3-cytoskeleton complex requires combined activation of at least two G protein pathways while the maximal αIIbβ3-cytoskeleton association and the strongest αIIbβ3-fibrinogen binding supporting irreversible platelet aggregation require combined activation of all three-Gαq, Gαi, and Gα12/13-G protein families. In contrast, formation of the fibrin-αIIbβ3-cytoskeleton complex mediating clot retraction is critically dependent on the activation of the Gαi family, especially on the activation of Gαz.

The Interaction of Integrin αIIbβ3 with Fibrin Occurs through Multiple Binding Sites in the αIIb β-Propeller Domain*

PubMed Central

Podolnikova, Nataly P.; Yakovlev, Sergiy; Yakubenko, Valentin P.; Wang, Xu; Gorkun, Oleg V.; Ugarova, Tatiana P.

2014-01-01

The currently available antithrombotic agents target the interaction of platelet integrin αIIbβ3 (GPIIb-IIIa) with fibrinogen during platelet aggregation. Platelets also bind fibrin formed early during thrombus growth. It was proposed that inhibition of platelet-fibrin interactions may be a necessary and important property of αIIbβ3 antagonists; however, the mechanisms by which αIIbβ3 binds fibrin are uncertain. We have previously identified the γ370–381 sequence (P3) in the γC domain of fibrinogen as the fibrin-specific binding site for αIIbβ3 involved in platelet adhesion and platelet-mediated fibrin clot retraction. In the present study, we have demonstrated that P3 can bind to several discontinuous segments within the αIIb β-propeller domain of αIIbβ3 enriched with negatively charged and aromatic residues. By screening peptide libraries spanning the sequence of the αIIb β-propeller, several sequences were identified as candidate contact sites for P3. Synthetic peptides duplicating these segments inhibited platelet adhesion and clot retraction but not platelet aggregation, supporting the role of these regions in fibrin recognition. Mutant αIIbβ3 receptors in which residues identified as critical for P3 binding were substituted for homologous residues in the I-less integrin αMβ2 exhibited reduced cell adhesion and clot retraction. These residues are different from those that are involved in the coordination of the fibrinogen γ404–411 sequence and from auxiliary sites implicated in binding of soluble fibrinogen. These results map the binding of fibrin to multiple sites in the αIIb β-propeller and further indicate that recognition specificity of αIIbβ3 for fibrin differs from that for soluble fibrinogen. PMID:24338009

Cervical level IIb metastases in squamous cell carcinoma of the oral cavity: a systematic review and meta-analysis.

PubMed

Kou, Yurong; Zhao, Tengfei; Huang, Shaohui; Liu, Jie; Duan, Weiyi; Wang, Yunjing; Wang, Zechen; Li, Delong; Ning, Chunliu; Sun, Changfu

2017-01-01

The aim of this study was to clarify whether level IIb dissection should be performed or avoided in the treatment of oral squamous cell carcinoma by meta-analysis. Articles that were published before June 2017 were searched electronically in four databases (Web of Science, PubMed, Ovid and China National Knowledge Infrastructure) without any date or language restrictions by two independent reviewers. Abstracts and full-text papers which investigated the cervical metastases to level IIb from primary head and neck cancers and were deemed potentially relevant were screened. Data were analyzed using RevMan 5.3. Four hundred and fifty-five abstracts and 129 full-text papers were screened, and 22 studies were included in the analysis. Among the 2001 patients included, 112 patients had level IIb metastases, the pooled frequency of which was 6% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 4.0-7.0). Among the 400 patients with tongue squamous cell carcinoma from 12 studies, 37 patients had level IIb metastases, the pooled incidence of which was 7% (95% CI: 5.0-10.0). Metastases to level IIb always went together with level IIa, and only three patients were found to have isolated level IIb metastases without involving the other levels. Due to the low frequency of level IIb nodal metastases in oral squamous cell carcinoma patients and rare occurrence of isolated level IIb, level IIb dissection could be avoided when the primary lesions were in early stages (T1 and T2), with the exception of tongue cancer. It is recommended to dissect level IIb tongue cancers without considering the stages of primary lesions and the lymph nodes status. It is also suggested that level IIb dissection should be performed in patients preoperatively or intraoperatively found with multilevel neck metastasis, especially level IIa metastasis.

Active and adaptive Legionella CRISPR-Cas reveals a recurrent challenge to the pathogen.

PubMed

Rao, Chitong; Guyard, Cyril; Pelaz, Carmen; Wasserscheid, Jessica; Bondy-Denomy, Joseph; Dewar, Ken; Ensminger, Alexander W

2016-10-01

Clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats with CRISPR-associated gene (CRISPR-Cas) systems are widely recognized as critical genome defense systems that protect microbes from external threats such as bacteriophage infection. Several isolates of the intracellular pathogen Legionella pneumophila possess multiple CRISPR-Cas systems (type I-C, type I-F and type II-B), yet the targets of these systems remain unknown. With the recent observation that at least one of these systems (II-B) plays a non-canonical role in supporting intracellular replication, the possibility remained that these systems are vestigial genome defense systems co-opted for other purposes. Our data indicate that this is not the case. Using an established plasmid transformation assay, we demonstrate that type I-C, I-F and II-B CRISPR-Cas provide protection against spacer targets. We observe efficient laboratory acquisition of new spacers under 'priming' conditions, in which initially incomplete target elimination leads to the generation of new spacers and ultimate loss of the invasive DNA. Critically, we identify the first known target of L. pneumophila CRISPR-Cas: a 30 kb episome of unknown function whose interbacterial transfer is guarded against by CRISPR-Cas. We provide evidence that the element can subvert CRISPR-Cas by mutating its targeted sequences - but that primed spacer acquisition may limit this mechanism of escape. Rather than generally impinging on bacterial fitness, this element drives a host specialization event - with improved fitness in Acanthamoeba but a reduced ability to replicate in other hosts and conditions. These observations add to a growing body of evidence that host range restriction can serve as an existential threat to L. pneumophila in the wild. © 2016 The Authors Cellular Microbiology Published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd.

X-ray bubble lens and x-ray hollow plastic ball lens

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Kohmura, Yoshiki; Awaji, Mitsuhiro; Suzuki, Yoshio; Ishikawa, Tetsuya

1998-11-01

Recent development of anew refractive x-ray lens at SPring-8 is reported. This is the first refractive x-ray lens with a string of spherical lens in-spite of the string of cylindrical holes. Two types of the lends were developed which consists of a string of bubbles formed in a viscous liquid and a string of hollow plastic balls on pure water. They are sealed inside a container made from an acrylic resin. The x-ray focusing properties were investigated with the monochromated beam at an undulator beam line BL47 in SPring-8. Demagnified images of the source for these tow types of lens were observed at the energy of 19.0-24.5 keV with the focal length of approximately 5m. For the bubble lens, a gain of about 12 was observed. The observed vertical image size, 48 micrometers , was 6 times larger than the expected size. The method to improve the focusing capability is discussed.

Did BICEP2 see vector modes? First B-mode constraints on cosmic defects.

PubMed

Moss, Adam; Pogosian, Levon

2014-05-02

Scaling networks of cosmic defects, such as strings and textures, actively generate scalar, vector, and tensor metric perturbations throughout the history of the Universe. In particular, vector modes sourced by defects are an efficient source of the cosmic microwave background B-mode polarization. We use the recently released BICEP2 and POLARBEAR B-mode polarization spectra to constrain properties of a wide range of different types of cosmic strings networks. We find that in order for strings to provide a satisfactory fit on their own, the effective interstring distance needs to be extremely large--spectra that fit the data best are more representative of global strings and textures. When a local string contribution is considered together with the inflationary B-mode spectrum, the fit is improved. We discuss implications of these results for theories that predict cosmic defects.

Domain Walls and Strings in Dense Quark Matter

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhitnitsky, Ariel R.

2002-12-01

I discuss several types of domain walls and global strings which occur in colour superconducting quark matter due to the spontaneous violation of relevant U(1) and discrete symmetries. These include the baryon U(1)B, approximate axial U(1)A symmetries as well as an approximate U(1)Y symmetry arising from kaon condensation in colour-flavour locking phase. In this talk I concentrate on discussions of K strings due to their interesting internal structures. Specifically, I demonstrate that under some conditions the global U(1)Y symmetry may not be restored inside the string, in contrast with the standard expectations. Instead, K+ condensation occurs inside the core of the string if a relevant parameter \\cos θ K0 ≡ mK0^2 /μ eff2 is larger than some critical value θK0 ≥ θcrit. If this phenomenon happens, the U(1)Y strings become superconducting and may considerably influence the magnetic properties of dense quark matter, in particular in neutron stars.

A swamp of non-SUSY vacua

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Danielsson, U. H.; Dibitetto, G.; Vargas, S. C.

2017-11-01

We consider known examples of non-supersymmetric AdS7 and AdS4 solutions arising from compactifications of massive type IIA supergravity and study their stability, taking into account the coupling between closed- and open-string sector excitations. Generically, open strings are found to develop modes with masses below the Breitenlohner-Freedman (BF) bound. We comment on the relation with the Weak Gravity Conjecture, and how this analysis may play an important role in examining the validity of non-supersymmetric constructions in string theory.

Pauses enhance chunk recognition in song element strings by zebra finches.

PubMed

Spierings, Michelle; de Weger, Anouk; Ten Cate, Carel

2015-07-01

When learning a language, it is crucial to know which syllables of a continuous sound string belong together as words. Human infants achieve this by attending to pauses between words or to the co-occurrence of syllables. It is not only humans that can segment a continuous string. Songbirds learning their song tend to copy 'chunks' from one or more tutors' songs and combine these into their own song. In the tutor songs, these chunks are often separated by pauses and a high co-occurrence of elements, suggesting that these features affect chunking and song learning. We examined experimentally whether the presence of pauses and element co-occurrence affect the ability of adult zebra finches to discriminate strings of song elements. Using a go/no-go design, two groups of birds were trained to discriminate between two strings. In one group (Pause-group), pauses were inserted between co-occurring element triplets in the strings, and in the other group (No-pause group), both strings were continuous. After making a correct discrimination, an individual proceeded to a reversal training using string segments. Segments were element triplets consistent in co-occurrence, triplets that were partly consistent in composition and triplets consisting of elements that did not co-occur in the strings. The Pause-group was faster in discriminating between the two strings. This group also responded differently to consistent triplets in the reversal training, compared to inconsistent triplets. The No-pause group did not differentiate among the triplet types. These results indicate that pauses in strings of song elements aid song discrimination and memorization of co-occurring element groups.

Penrose limits and spin chains in the GJV/CS-SYM duality

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Araujo, Thiago; Itsios, Georgios; Nastase, Horatiu; Colgáin, Eoin Ó.

2017-12-01

We examine Penrose limits of the duality proposed by Guarino, Jafferis and Varela between a type IIA massive background of the type of a warped, squashed AdS 4 × S 6, and a 2+1 dimensional IR fixed point of N=8 super Yang-Mills deformed by Chern-Simons terms to N=2 supersymmetry. One type of Penrose limit for closed strings corresponds to a large charge closed spin chain, and another, for open strings on giant graviton D-branes, corresponds to an open spin chain on sub-determinant operators. For the first limit, we find that like in the ABJM case, there are functions f a ( λ) that interpolate between the perturbative and nonperturbative (string) regions for the magnon energy. For the second, we are unable to match the gravity result with the expected field theory result, making this model more interesting than ones with more supersymmetry.

Spontaneous knotting of an agitated string.

PubMed

Raymer, Dorian M; Smith, Douglas E

2007-10-16

It is well known that a jostled string tends to become knotted; yet the factors governing the "spontaneous" formation of various knots are unclear. We performed experiments in which a string was tumbled inside a box and found that complex knots often form within seconds. We used mathematical knot theory to analyze the knots. Above a critical string length, the probability P of knotting at first increased sharply with length but then saturated below 100%. This behavior differs from that of mathematical self-avoiding random walks, where P has been proven to approach 100%. Finite agitation time and jamming of the string due to its stiffness result in lower probability, but P approaches 100% with long, flexible strings. We analyzed the knots by calculating their Jones polynomials via computer analysis of digital photos of the string. Remarkably, almost all were identified as prime knots: 120 different types, having minimum crossing numbers up to 11, were observed in 3,415 trials. All prime knots with up to seven crossings were observed. The relative probability of forming a knot decreased exponentially with minimum crossing number and Möbius energy, mathematical measures of knot complexity. Based on the observation that long, stiff strings tend to form a coiled structure when confined, we propose a simple model to describe the knot formation based on random "braid moves" of the string end. Our model can qualitatively account for the observed distribution of knots and dependence on agitation time and string length.

Systematic Phenomenology on the Landscape of Calabi-Yau Hypersurfaces in Toric Varieties

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Altman, Ross

The largest known database of Calabi-Yau threefold string vacua was famously produced by Kreuzer and Skarke in the form of a complete construction of all 473,800,776 reflexive polyhedra that exist in four dimensions [1]. These reflexive polyhedra describe the singu- lar limits of ambient Gorenstein toric Fano varieties in which Calabi-Yau threefolds are known to exist as the associated anticanonical hypersurfaces. In this thesis, we review how to unpack the topological and geometric information describing these Calabi-Yau threefolds using the toric construction, and provide, in a companion online database (see www.rossealtman.com), a detailed inventory of these quantities which are of interest to string phenomenologists. Many of the singular ambient varieties associated to the Kreuzer-Skarke list can be partially smoothed out into a multiplicity of distinct, terminal toric ambient spaces, each of which may embed a unique Calabi-Yau threefold. Some, however are not unique, and can be identified through topological and smoothness con- straints. A distribution of the unique Calabi-Yau threefolds which can be obtained from each 4D reflexive polyhedron, will be provided up to current computational limits. In addition, we will detail the computation of a variety of quantities associated to each of these vacua, such as the Chern classes, Hodge data, intersection numbers, and the Kahler and Mori cones. Then, moving on to actual string phenomenology on the Calabi-Yau compactification vacua, we outline the prescription for moduli stabilization with a supersymmetry breaking vacuum known as the LARGE Volume Scenario (LVS), paying particular attention to the so-called "Swiss cheese" models. It is an important open problem in string model building to identify the set of Swiss cheese solutions within the space of Calabi-Yau threefolds. In this thesis, we present an algorithm to isolate a special subset of Swiss cheese solutions that are characterized by "holes," or small 4-cycles in homology, descending from the toric divisors inherent to the original four dimensional reflexive polyhedra. Implementing these methods, we find 2,313 "toric" Swiss cheese manifolds, over half of which have h1,1 = 6. Of these, 70 have two or more large 4-cycles and a flat direction in the effective potential. In an explicit example, we find a stable minimum for the small Kahler moduli and a flat direction in the large moduli. Finally, we approach the subject of orientifolding the Calabi-Yau threefold vacuum of a type IIB theory in order to break N = 2 supergravity down to N = 1 in the low energy effective theory. To this end, we describe the process of choosing a non-trivial Z 2 involution, and locating its fixed points on the compactification manifold. It will be shown that consistency of this involution across the full Kahler cone is very restrictive and results in at most O3/O7 planes in nearly every case. We also discuss the splitting of the Kahler moduli space of the orientifold into even and odd parity components, and present concrete examples demonstrating this process.

Level IIB Neck Dissection in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma: Science or Myth?

PubMed

Ghantous, Yasmine; Akrish, Sharon; Abd-Elraziq, Morad; El-Naaj, Imad Abu

2016-06-01

Selective neck dissection enables us to reduce the morbidity of neck dissection while maintaining the same oncological results, mainly in clinically negative neck N0. The most common morbidity associated with selective neck dissection is spinal accessory nerve dysfunction and related shoulder disability, which are encountered during dissection of level IIB.The aim of authors' study is to evaluate the incidence of sublevel IIB lymphatic metastasis in clinically N0 oral squamous cell carcinoma (OSCC) patients.The study group comprised 48 men (68%) and 22 women (32%). The median number of the lymph nodes removed from level IIB was 6.5. All the investigated necks were clinically classified as N0, of which 14 (20%) turned out to have an occult nodal metastasis, including only 1 patient (1.42%) of level IIB occult metastasis, which originated from the primary tumor located in the tongue and also metastasized to level IIA. The most associated morbidity was shoulder pain and dysfunction, which presented in 60% of the patients.Also, an electronic search was conducted to find relevant studies investigating the prevalence of level IIB metastasis in OSCC. Ten studies were included for full text review, including the current study. The overall incidence of level IIB metastasis is 4% (17 patients); of these 17 patients, only 4 patients had isolated level IIB nodal metastases (2%).To conclude, neck dissecting, including dissecting level IIB, remains the keystone of treating OSCC. Its prognostic and therapeutic value exceeds its associated morbidity; therefore, dissecting level IIB is recommended in treating OSCC in clinically N0 patients.

Pre-orthographic character string processing and parietal cortex: a role for visual attention in reading?

PubMed

Lobier, Muriel; Peyrin, Carole; Le Bas, Jean-François; Valdois, Sylviane

2012-07-01

The visual front-end of reading is most often associated with orthographic processing. The left ventral occipito-temporal cortex seems to be preferentially tuned for letter string and word processing. In contrast, little is known of the mechanisms responsible for pre-orthographic processing: the processing of character strings regardless of character type. While the superior parietal lobule has been shown to be involved in multiple letter processing, further data is necessary to extend these results to non-letter characters. The purpose of this study is to identify the neural correlates of pre-orthographic character string processing independently of character type. Fourteen skilled adult readers carried out multiple and single element visual categorization tasks with alphanumeric (AN) and non-alphanumeric (nAN) characters under fMRI. The role of parietal cortex in multiple element processing was further probed with a priori defined anatomical regions of interest (ROIs). Participants activated posterior parietal cortex more strongly for multiple than single element processing. ROI analyses showed that bilateral SPL/BA7 was more strongly activated for multiple than single element processing, regardless of character type. In contrast, no multiple element specific activity was found in inferior parietal lobules. These results suggests that parietal mechanisms are involved in pre-orthographic character string processing. We argue that in general, attentional mechanisms are involved in visual word recognition, as an early step of word visual analysis. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Specific Molecular Signatures for Type II Crustins in Penaeid Shrimp Uncovered by the Identification of Crustin-Like Antimicrobial Peptides in Litopenaeus vannamei

PubMed Central

Barreto, Cairé; Coelho, Jaqueline da Rosa; Yuan, Jianbo; Xiang, Jianhai; Perazzolo, Luciane Maria

2018-01-01

Crustins form a large family of antimicrobial peptides (AMPs) in crustaceans composed of four sub-groups (Types I-IV). Type II crustins (Type IIa or “Crustins” and Type IIb or “Crustin-like”) possess a typical hydrophobic N-terminal region and are by far the most representative sub-group found in penaeid shrimp. To gain insight into the molecular diversity of Type II crustins in penaeids, we identified and characterized a Type IIb crustin in Litopenaeus vannamei (Crustin-like Lv) and compared Type II crustins at both molecular and transcriptional levels. Although L. vannamei Type II crustins (Crustin Lv and Crustin-like Lv) are encoded by separate genes, they showed a similar tissue distribution (hemocytes and gills) and transcriptional response to the shrimp pathogens Vibrio harveyi and White spot syndrome virus (WSSV). As Crustin Lv, Crustin-like Lv transcripts were found to be present early in development, suggesting a maternal contribution to shrimp progeny. Altogether, our in silico and transcriptional data allowed to conclude that (1) each sub-type displays a specific amino acid signature at the C-terminal end holding both the cysteine-rich region and the whey acidic protein (WAP) domain, and that (2) shrimp Type II crustins evolved from a common ancestral gene that conserved a similar pattern of transcriptional regulation. PMID:29337853

Geology and mineral deposits of an area in the Departments of Antioquia and Caldas (Subzone IIB), Colombia

USGS Publications Warehouse

Feininger, Tomas; Barrero L., Dario; Castro, Nestor; Hall, R.B.

1973-01-01

The Inventario Minero National (IMN), a four-year cooperative geologic mapping and mineral resources appraisal project, was accomplished under an agreement between the Republic of Colombia and the U. S. Agency for International Development from 1964 through 1969. Subzone IIB, consisting essentially of the east half of Zone comprises nearly 20,000 km2 principally in the Department of Antioquia but including also small parts of the Departments of Caldas and Tolima. The rocks in IIB range from Precambrian to Holocene. Precambrian feldspar-quartz gneiss occupies a mosaic of fault-bounded blocks intruded by igneous rocks between the Oto fault and the Rio Magdalena. Paleozoic rocks are extensive, and include lightly metamorphosed graptolite-bearing Ordovician shale at Cristalina, and a major suite of graphitic quartz-mica schist, feldspathic and aluminous gneiss, quartzite, marble, amphibolite, and other rocks. Syntectonic intrusive gneiss included many of the older rocks during a late Paleozoic(?) orogeny, which was accompanied by Abukuma-type metamorphosing from lowermost greenschist to upper amphibolite facies. A Jurassic diorite pluton bounded by faults cuts volcanic rocks of unknown age east of the Otu fault. Cretaceous rocks are major units. Middle Cretaceous carbonaceous shale, sandstone, graywacke, conglomerate, and volcanic rocks are locally prominent. The Antioquian batholith (quartz diorite) of Late Cretaceous age cuts the middle Cretaceous and older rocks. A belt of Tertiary nonmarine clastic sedimentary rocks crops out along the Magdalena Valley. Patches of Tertiary alluvium are locally preserved in the mountains. Quaternary alluvium, much of it auriferous, is widespread in modern stream valleys. Structurally IIB constitutes part of a vast complex synclinorium intruded concordantly by syntectonic catazonal or mesozonal felsic plutons, and by the later epizonal post-tectonic Antioquian batholith. Previously unrecognized major wrench faults are outstanding structural features of IIB. Some are traceable for several hundred kilometers and probably have displacements measurable in kilometers, although only the Palestina fault, with right-lateral displacement of 27.7 km, is accurately documented. Correlations of rocks mapped in IIB with those of outlying areas including neighboring IIA are discussed.

Proflavine acts as a Rev inhibitor by targeting the high-affinity Rev binding site of the Rev responsive element of HIV-1.

PubMed

DeJong, Eric S; Chang, Chia-en; Gilson, Michael K; Marino, John P

2003-07-08

Rev is an essential regulatory HIV-1 protein that binds the Rev responsive element (RRE) within the env gene of the HIV-1 RNA genome, activating the switch between viral latency and active viral replication. Previously, we have shown that selective incorporation of the fluorescent probe 2-aminopurine (2-AP) into a truncated form of the RRE sequence (RRE-IIB) allowed the binding of an arginine-rich peptide derived from Rev and aminoglycosides to be characterized directly by fluorescence methods. Using these fluorescence and nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) methods, proflavine has been identified, through a limited screen of selected small heterocyclic compounds, as a specific and high-affinity RRE-IIB binder which inhibits the interaction of the Rev peptide with RRE-IIB. Direct and competitive 2-AP fluorescence binding assays reveal that there are at least two classes of proflavine binding sites on RRE-IIB: a high-affinity site that competes with the Rev peptide for binding to RRE-IIB (K(D) approximately 0.1 +/- 0.05 microM) and a weaker binding site(s) (K(D) approximately 1.1 +/- 0.05 microM). Titrations of RRE-IIB with proflavine, monitored using (1)H NMR, demonstrate that the high-affinity proflavine binding interaction occurs with a 2:1 (proflavine:RRE-IIB) stoichiometry, and NOEs observed in the NOESY spectrum of the 2:1 proflavine.RRE-IIB complex indicate that the two proflavine molecules bind specifically and close to each other within a single binding site. NOESY data further indicate that formation of the 2:1 proflavine.RRE-IIB complex stabilizes base pairing and stacking within the internal purine-rich bulge of RRE-IIB in a manner analogous to what has been observed in the Rev peptide.RRE-IIB complex. The observation that proflavine competes with Rev for binding to RRE-IIB by binding as a dimer to a single high-affinity site opens the possibility for rational drug design based on linking and modifying it and related compounds.

Mapping of a Microbial Protein Domain Involved in Binding and Activation of the TLR2/TLR1 Heterodimer 1

PubMed Central

Liang, Shuang; Hosur, Kavita B.; Lu, Shanyun; Nawar, Hesham F.; Weber, Benjamin R.; Tapping, Richard I.; Connell, Terry D.; Hajishengallis, George

2009-01-01

LT-IIb-B5, a doughnut-shaped oligomeric protein from enterotoxigenic Escherichia coli, is known to activate the TLR2/TLR1 heterodimer (TLR2/1). We investigated the molecular basis of the LT-IIb-B5 interaction with TLR2/1 in order to define the structure-function relationship of LT-IIb-B5 and, moreover, to gain an insight into how TLR2/1 recognizes large, non-acylated protein ligands that cannot fit within its lipid-binding pockets, as previously shown for the Pam3CSK4 lipopeptide. We first identified four critical residues in the upper region of the LT-IIb-B5 pore: Corresponding point mutants (M69E, A70D, L73E, S74D) were defective in binding TLR2 or TLR1 and could not activate antigen-presenting cells, despite retaining full ganglioside-binding capacity. Point mutations in the TLR2/1 dimer interface, as determined in the crystallographic structure of the TLR2/1-Pam3CSK4 complex, resulted in diminished activation by both Pam3CSK4 and LT-IIb-B5. Docking analysis of the LT-IIb-B5 interaction with this apparently “predominant” activation conformation of TLR2/1 revealed that LT-IIb-B5 may primarily contact the convex surface of the TLR2 central domain. Although the TLR1/LT-IIb-B5 interface is relatively smaller, the leucine-rich repeat motifs 9–12 in the central domain of TLR1 were found to be critical for cooperative TLR2-induced cell activation by LT-IIb-B5. Moreover, the putative LT-IIb-B5 binding site overlaps partially with that of Pam3CSK4; consistent with this, Pam3CSK4 suppressed TLR2 binding of LT-IIb-B5, albeit not as potently as self-competitive inhibition. In conclusion, we identified the upper pore region of LT-IIb-B5 as a TLR2/1 interactive domain, which contacts the heterodimeric receptor at a site that is distinct from, though overlaps with, that of Pam3CSK4. PMID:19234193

GpIIb/IIIa+ subpopulation of rat megakaryocyte progenitor cells exhibits high responsiveness to human thrombopoietin.

PubMed

Kato, T; Horie, K; Hagiwara, T; Maeda, E; Tsumura, H; Ohashi, H; Miyazaki, H

1996-08-01

The recently cloned factor thrombopoietin (TPO) has been shown to exhibit megakaryocyte colony-stimulating activity in vitro. In this investigation, to further evaluate the action of TPO on megakaryocyte progenitor cells (colony-forming units-megakaryocyte [CFU-MK]), GpIIb/IIIa+ and GpIIb/IIIa- populations of CFU-MK were prepared from rat bone marrow cells based on their reactivity with P55 antibody, a monoclonal antibody against rat GpIIb/IIIa, and their responsiveness to recombinant human TPO (rhTPO) and recombinant rat interleukin-3 (rrIL-3) was examined using a megakaryocyte colony-forming assay (Meg-CSA). rhTPO supported only megakaryocyte colony growth from both fractions in a dose-dependent fashion. The mean colony size observed with the GpIIb/IIIa+ population was smaller than that seen with the GpIIb/IIIa- population. With the optimal concentration of either rhTPO or rrIL-3, similar numbers of megakaryocyte colonies were formed from the GpIIb/IIIa+ population previously shown to be highly enriched for CFU-MK. In contrast, the maximum number of megakaryocyte colonies from the GpIIb/IIIa- population stimulated by rhTPO was only 24.2% of that achieved with rrIL-3. Morphologic analysis of rhTPO-promoted megakaryocyte colonies from the GpIIb/IIIa+ population showed that the average colony size was smaller but that the mean diameter of individual megakaryocytes was larger than in megakaryocyte colonies promoted with rrIL-3. rhTPO plus rrIL-3, each at suboptimal concentrations, had an additive effect on proliferation of CFU-MK in the GpIIb/IIIa+ fraction, whereas rhTPO plus murine IL-6 or murine granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (mG-M-CSF) modestly but significantly reduced megakaryocyte colony growth. These results indicate that TPO preferentially acts on GpIIb/IIIa+ late CFU-MK with lower proliferative capacity and interacts with some other cytokines in CFU-MK development.

Dual mechanism of integrin αIIbβ3 closure in procoagulant platelets.

PubMed

Mattheij, Nadine J A; Gilio, Karen; van Kruchten, Roger; Jobe, Shawn M; Wieschhaus, Adam J; Chishti, Athar H; Collins, Peter; Heemskerk, Johan W M; Cosemans, Judith M E M

2013-05-10

Inactivation of integrin αIIbβ3 reverses platelet aggregate formation upon coagulation. Platelets from patient (Scott) and mouse (Capn1(-/-) and Ppif(-/-)) blood reveal a dual mechanism of αIIbβ3 inactivation: by calpain-2 cleavage of integrin-associated proteins and by cyclophilin D/TMEM16F-dependent phospholipid scrambling. These data provide novel insight into the switch mechanisms from aggregating to procoagulant platelets. Aggregation of platelets via activated integrin αIIbβ3 is a prerequisite for thrombus formation. Phosphatidylserine-exposing platelets with a key role in the coagulation process disconnect from a thrombus by integrin inactivation via an unknown mechanism. Here we show that αIIbβ3 inactivation in procoagulant platelets relies on a sustained high intracellular Ca(2+), stimulating intracellular cleavage of the β3 chain, talin, and Src kinase. Inhibition of calpain activity abolished protein cleavage, but only partly suppressed αIIbβ3 inactivation. Integrin αIIbβ3 inactivation was unchanged in platelets from Capn1(-/-) mice, suggesting a role of the calpain-2 isoform. Scott syndrome platelets, lacking the transmembrane protein TMEM16F and having low phosphatidylserine exposure, displayed reduced αIIbβ3 inactivation with the remaining activity fully dependent on calpain. In platelets from Ppif(-/-) mice, lacking mitochondrial permeability transition pore (mPTP) formation, agonist-induced phosphatidylserine exposure and αIIbβ3 inactivation were reduced. Treatment of human platelets with cyclosporin A gave a similar phenotype. Together, these data point to a dual mechanism of αIIbβ3 inactivation via calpain(-2) cleavage of integrin-associated proteins and via TMEM16F-dependent phospholipid scrambling with an assistant role of mPTP formation.

Three-dimensional Model of Human Platelet Integrin αIIbβ3 in Solution Obtained by Small Angle Neutron Scattering*

PubMed Central

Nogales, Aurora; García, Carolina; Pérez, Javier; Callow, Phil; Ezquerra, Tiberio A.; González-Rodríguez, José

2010-01-01

Integrin αIIbβ3 is the major membrane protein and adhesion receptor at the surface of blood platelets, which after activation plays a key role in platelet plug formation in hemostasis and thrombosis. Small angle neutron scattering (SANS) and shape reconstruction algorithms allowed formation of a low resolution three-dimensional model of whole αIIbβ3 in Ca2+/detergent solutions. Model projections after 90° rotation along its long axis show an elongated and “arched” form (135°) not observed before and a “handgun” form. This 20-nm-long structure is well defined, despite αIIbβ3 multidomain nature and expected segmental flexibility, with the largest region at the top, followed by two narrower and smaller regions at the bottom. Docking of this SANS envelope into the high resolution structure of αIIbβ3, reconstructed from crystallographic and NMR data, shows that the solution structure is less constrained, allows tentative assignment of the disposition of the αIIb and β3 subunits and their domains within the model, and points out the structural analogies and differences of the SANS model with the crystallographic models of the recombinant ectodomains of αIIbβ3 and αVβ3 and with the cryo-electron microscopy model of whole αIIbβ3. The ectodomain is in the bent configuration at the top of the model, where αIIb and β3 occupy the concave and convex sides, respectively, at the arched projection, with their bent knees at its apex. It follows the narrower transmembrane region and the cytoplasmic domains at the bottom end. αIIbβ3 aggregated in Mn2+/detergent solutions, which impeded to get its SANS model. PMID:19897481

A superstring field theory for supergravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Reid-Edwards, R. A.; Riccombeni, D. A.

2017-09-01

A covariant closed superstring field theory, equivalent to classical tendimensional Type II supergravity, is presented. The defining conformal field theory is the ambitwistor string worldsheet theory of Mason and Skinner. This theory is known to reproduce the scattering amplitudes of Cachazo, He and Yuan in which the scattering equations play an important role and the string field theory naturally incorporates these results. We investigate the operator formalism description of the ambitwsitor string and propose an action for the string field theory of the bosonic and supersymmetric theories. The correct linearised gauge symmetries and spacetime actions are explicitly reproduced and evidence is given that the action is correct to all orders. The focus is on the NeveuSchwarz sector and the explicit description of tree level perturbation theory about flat spacetime. Application of the string field theory to general supergravity backgrounds and the inclusion of the Ramond sector are briefly discussed.

Transplanckian censorship and global cosmic strings

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dolan, Matthew J.; Draper, Patrick; Kozaczuk, Jonathan; Patel, Hiren

2017-04-01

Large field excursions are required in a number of axion models of inflation. These models also possess global cosmic strings, around which the axion follows a path mirroring the inflationary trajectory. Cosmic strings are thus an interesting theoretical laboratory for the study of transplanckian field excursions. We describe connections be-tween various effective field theory models of axion monodromy and study the classical spacetimes around their supercritical cosmic strings. For small decay constants f < M p and large winding numbers n > M p /f , the EFT is under control and the string cores undergo topological inflation, which may be either of exponential or power-law type. We show that the exterior spacetime is nonsingular and equivalent to a decompactifying cigar geometry, with the radion rolling in a potential generated by axion flux. Signals are able to circumnavigate infinite straight strings in finite but exponentially long time, t ˜ e Δ a/ M p . For finite loops of supercritical string in asymptotically flat space, we argue that if topological inflation occurs, then topological censorship implies transplanckian censorship, or that external observers are forbidden from threading the loop and observing the full excursion of the axion.

Key role of integrin α(IIb)β (3) signaling to Syk kinase in tissue factor-induced thrombin generation.

PubMed

van der Meijden, Paola E J; Feijge, Marion A H; Swieringa, Frauke; Gilio, Karen; Nergiz-Unal, Reyhan; Hamulyák, Karly; Heemskerk, Johan W M

2012-10-01

The fibrin(ogen) receptor, integrin α(IIb)β(3), has a well-established role in platelet spreading, aggregation and clot retraction. How α(IIb)β(3) contributes to platelet-dependent coagulation is less well resolved. Here, we demonstrate that the potent suppressing effect of clinically used α(IIb)β(3) blockers on tissue factor-induced thrombin generation is linked to diminished platelet Ca(2+) responses and phosphatidylserine (PS) exposure. The same blockers suppress these responses in platelets stimulated with collagen and thrombin receptor agonists, whereas added fibrinogen potentiates these responses. In platelets spreading on fibrinogen, outside-in α(IIb)β(3) signaling similarly enhances thrombin-induced Ca(2+) rises and PS exposure. These responses are reduced in α(IIb)β(3)-deficient platelets from patients with Glanzmann's thrombasthenia. Furthermore, the contribution of α(IIb)β(3) to tissue factor-induced platelet Ca(2+) rises, PS exposure and thrombin generation in plasma are fully dependent on Syk kinase activity. Tyrosine phosphorylation analysis confirms a key role of Syk activation, which is largely but not exclusively dependent on α(IIb)β(3) activation. It is concluded that the majority of tissue factor-induced procoagulant activity of platelets relies on Syk activation and ensuing Ca(2+) signal generation, and furthermore that a considerable part of Syk activation relies on α(IIb)β(3) signaling. These results hence point to a novel role of Syk in integrin-dependent thrombin generation.

Variation in One Residue Associated with the Metal Ion-Dependent Adhesion Site Regulates αIIbβ3 Integrin Ligand Binding Affinity

PubMed Central

Wu, Xue; Xiu, Zhilong; Li, Guohui; Luo, Bing-Hao

2013-01-01

The Asp of the RGD motif of the ligand coordinates with the β I domain metal ion dependent adhesion site (MIDAS) divalent cation, emphasizing the importance of the MIDAS in ligand binding. There appears to be two distinct groups of integrins that differ in their ligand binding affinity and adhesion ability. These differences may be due to a specific residue associated with the MIDAS, particularly the β3 residue Ala252 and corresponding Ala in the β1 integrin compared to the analogous Asp residue in the β2 and β7 integrins. Interestingly, mutations in the adjacent to MIDAS (ADMIDAS) of integrins α4β7 and αLβ2 increased the binding and adhesion abilities compared to the wild-type, while the same mutations in the α2β1, α5β1, αVβ3, and αIIbβ3 integrins demonstrated decreased ligand binding and adhesion. We introduced a mutation in the αIIbβ3 to convert this MIDAS associated Ala252 to Asp. By combination of this mutant with mutations of one or two ADMIDAS residues, we studied the effects of this residue on ligand binding and adhesion. Then, we performed molecular dynamics simulations on the wild-type and mutant αIIbβ3 integrin β I domains, and investigated the dynamics of metal ion binding sites in different integrin-RGD complexes. We found that the tendency of calculated binding free energies was in excellent agreement with the experimental results, suggesting that the variation in this MIDAS associated residue accounts for the differences in ligand binding and adhesion among different integrins, and it accounts for the conflicting results of ADMIDAS mutations within different integrins. This study sheds more light on the role of the MIDAS associated residue pertaining to ligand binding and adhesion and suggests that this residue may play a pivotal role in integrin-mediated cell rolling and firm adhesion. PMID:24116162

The hypermultiplet with Heisenberg isometry in N = 2 global and local supersymmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ambrosetti, Nicola; Antoniadis, Ignatios; Derendinger, Jean-Pierre; Tziveloglou, Pantelis

2011-06-01

The string coupling of N = 2 supersymmetric compactifications of type II string theory on a Calabi-Yau manifold belongs to the so-called universal dilaton hyper-multiplet, that has four real scalars living on a quaternion-Kähler manifold. Requiring Heisenberg symmetry, which is a maximal subgroup of perturbative isometries, reduces the possible manifolds to a one-parameter family that describes the tree-level effective action deformed by the only possible perturbative correction arising at one-loop level. A similar argument can be made at the level of global supersymmetry where the scalar manifold is hyper-Kähler. In this work, the connection between global and local supersymmetry is explicitly constructed, providing a non-trivial gravity decoupled limit of type II strings already in perturbation theory.

Contour variations of the body and tail of the pancreas: evaluation with MDCT.

PubMed

Omeri, Ahmad Khalid; Matsumoto, Shunro; Kiyonaga, Maki; Takaji, Ryo; Yamada, Yasunari; Kosen, Kazuhisa; Mori, Hiromu; Miyake, Hidetoshi

2017-06-01

To analyze morphology/contour variations of the pancreatic body and tail in subjects free of pancreatic disease. We retrospectively reviewed triple-phase, contrast-enhanced multi-detector row computed tomography (3P-CE-MDCT) examinations of 449 patients who had no clinical or CT evidence of pancreatic diseases. These patients were evaluated for morphologic/contour variations of the pancreatic body and tail, which were classified into two types. In Type I, a portion of normal pancreatic parenchyma protrudes >1 cm in maximum diameter from the body or tail (Ia-anteriorly; Ib-posteriorly). Type II was defined as a morphologic anomaly of the pancreatic tail (IIa-globular; IIb-lobulated; IIc-tapered; IId-bifid). Thirty-eight (8.5%) out of 449 patients had body or tail variations. Of those, 23 patients showed Type I variant: Ia in 21 and Ib in two. Type II variant was identified in 15 patients: IIa in eight, IIb in two, IIc in two and IId in three. Protrusion of the anterior surface of the normal pancreas, especially in the tail, was the most frequently occurring variant. Recognizing the types and subtypes of morphology/contour variations of the pancreatic body and tail could help prevent misinterpretation of normal variants as pancreatic tumors on unenhanced MDCT.

Lnk regulates integrin αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling in mouse platelets, leading to stabilization of thrombus development in vivo

PubMed Central

Takizawa, Hitoshi; Nishimura, Satoshi; Takayama, Naoya; Oda, Atsushi; Nishikii, Hidekazu; Morita, Yohei; Kakinuma, Sei; Yamazaki, Satoshi; Okamura, Satoshi; Tamura, Noriko; Goto, Shinya; Sawaguchi, Akira; Manabe, Ichiro; Takatsu, Kiyoshi; Nakauchi, Hiromitsu; Takaki, Satoshi; Eto, Koji

2009-01-01

The nature of the in vivo cellular events underlying thrombus formation mediated by platelet activation remains unclear because of the absence of a modality for analysis. Lymphocyte adaptor protein (Lnk; also known as Sh2b3) is an adaptor protein that inhibits thrombopoietin-mediated signaling, and as a result, megakaryocyte and platelet counts are elevated in Lnk–/– mice. Here we describe an unanticipated role for Lnk in stabilizing thrombus formation and clarify the activities of Lnk in platelets transduced through integrin αIIbβ3–mediated outside-in signaling. We equalized platelet counts in wild-type and Lnk–/– mice by using genetic depletion of Lnk and BM transplantation. Using FeCl3- or laser-induced injury and in vivo imaging that enabled observation of single platelet behavior and the multiple steps in thrombus formation, we determined that Lnk is an essential contributor to the stabilization of developing thrombi within vessels. Lnk–/– platelets exhibited a reduced ability to fully spread on fibrinogen and mediate clot retraction, reduced tyrosine phosphorylation of the β3 integrin subunit, and reduced binding of Fyn to integrin αIIbβ3. These results provide new insight into the mechanism of αIIbβ3-based outside-in signaling, which appears to be coordinated in platelets by Lnk, Fyn, and integrins. Outside-in signaling modulators could represent new therapeutic targets for the prevention of cardiovascular events. PMID:20038804

Twistor approach to string compactifications: A review

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alexandrov, Sergei

2013-01-01

We review a progress in obtaining the complete non-perturbative effective action of type II string theory compactified on a Calabi-Yau manifold. This problem is equivalent to understanding quantum corrections to the metric on the hypermultiplet moduli space. We show how all these corrections, which include D-brane and NS5-brane instantons, are incorporated in the framework of the twistor approach, which provides a powerful mathematical description of hyperkähler and quaternion-Kähler manifolds. We also present new insights on S-duality, quantum mirror symmetry, connections to integrable models and topological strings.

Segmented strings coupled to a B-field

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Vegh, David

2018-04-01

In this paper we study segmented strings in AdS3 coupled to a background two-form whose field strength is proportional to the volume form. By changing the coupling, the theory interpolates between the Nambu-Goto string and the SL(2, ℝ) Wess-Zumino-Witten model. In terms of the kink momentum vectors, the action is independent of the coupling and the classical theory reduces to a single discrete-time Toda-type theory. The WZW model is a singular point in coupling space where the map into Toda variables degenerates.

Aspects of string phenomenology in particle physics and cosmology

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Antoniadis, I.

2017-12-01

I discuss possible connections between several scales in particle physics and cosmology, such the the electroweak, inflation, dark energy and Planck scales. In particular, I discuss the physics of extra dimensions and low scale gravity that are motivated from the problem of mass hierarchy, providing an alternative to low energy supersymmetry. I describe their realization in type I string theory with D-branes and I present the main experimental predictions in particle accelerators and their implications in cosmology. I also show that low-mass-scale string compactifications, with a generic D-brane configuration that realizes the Standard Model by open strings, can explain the relatively broad peak in the diphoton invariant mass spectrum at 750 GeV recently reported by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations.

[New varieties of lateral metatarsophalangeal dislocations of the great toe].

PubMed

Bousselmame, N; Rachid, K; Lazrak, K; Galuia, F; Taobane, H; Moulay, I

2001-04-01

We report seven cases of traumatic dislocation of the great toe, detailing the anatomy, the mechanism of injury and the radiographic diagnosis. We propose an additional classification based on three hereto unreported cases. Between october 1994 and october 1997, we treated seven patients with traumatic dislocation of the first metatarso-phalangeal joint of the great toe. There were six men and one woman, mean age 35 years (range 24 - 44 years). Dislocation was caused by motor vehicle accidents in four cases and by falls in three. Diagnosis was made on anteroposterior, lateral and medial oblique radiographs. According to Jahss' classification, there was one type I and three type IIB dislocations. There was also one open lateral dislocation and two dorsomedial dislocations. Only these dorsomedial dislocations required open reduction, done via a dorsal approach. Mean follow-up was 17.5 months (range 9 - 24 months) in six cases. One patient was lost to follow-up. The outcome was good in six cases and poor in one (dorsomedial dislocation). Dislocation of the first metatarso-phalangeal joint of the great toe is an uncommon injury. In 1980, Jahss reported two cases and reviewed three others described in the literature. He proposed three types of dislocation based on the feasibility of closed reduction (type I, II and IIB). In 1991, Copeland and Kanat reported a unique case in which there was an association of IIA and IIB lesions. They proposed an addition to the classification (type IIC). In 1994, Garcia Mata et al. reported another case which had not been described by Jahss and proposed another addition. All dislocations reported to date have been sagittal dislocations. Pathological alteration of the collateral ligaments has not been previously reported. In our experience, we have seen one case of open lateral dislocation due, at surgical exploration, to medial ligament rupture and two cases of dorsomedial dislocation due, at surgical exploration, to lateral ligament rupture. We propose another additional classification with pure lateral dislocation (type III) and dorso-lateral dislocation (type IL or IIL+), which are related to the formerly described variants.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Steiner, B.; Cousot, D.; Trzeciak, A.

The platelet glycoprotein IIb-IIIa complex (GP IIb-IIIa) is a member of the integrin receptor family that recognizes adhesive proteins containing the Arg-Gly-Asp (RGD) sequence. In the present study the binding characteristics of the synthetic hexapeptide Tyr-Asn-Arg-Gly-Asp-Ser (YNRGDS, a sequence present in the fibrinogen alpha-chain at position 570-575) to purified GP IIb-IIIa were determined by equilibrium dialysis. The binding of 125I-YNRGDS to GP IIb-IIIa was specific, saturable, and reversible. The apparent dissociation constant was 1.0 +/- 0.2 microM, and the maximal binding capacity was 0.92 +/- 0.02 mol of 125I-YNRGDS/mol of GP IIb-IIIa, indicating that GP IIb-IIIa contains a single bindingmore » site for RGD peptides. The binding of 125I-YNRGDS to purified GP IIb-IIIa showed many of the characteristics of fibrinogen binding to activated platelets: the binding was inhibited by fibrinogen, by the monoclonal antibody A2A9, and by the dodecapeptide from the C terminus of the fibrinogen gamma-chain. In addition, the binding of 125I-YNRGDS to GP IIb-IIIa was divalent cation-dependent. Our data suggest that two divalent cation binding sites must be occupied for YNRGDS to bind: one site is specific for calcium and is saturated at 1 microM free Ca2+, whereas the other site is less specific and reaches saturation at millimolar concentrations of either Ca2+ or Mg2+. The results of the present study support the hypothesis that the RGD domains within the adhesive proteins are responsible for their binding to GP IIb-IIIa.« less

Cascading gauge theory on dS4 and String Theory landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Buchel, Alex; Galante, Damián A.

2014-06-01

Placing anti-D3 branes at the tip of the conifold in Klebanov-Strassler geometry provides a generic way of constructing meta-stable de Sitter (dS) vacua in String Theory. A local geometry of such vacua exhibit gravitational solutions with a D3 charge measured at the tip opposite to the asymptotic charge. We discuss a restrictive set of such geometries, where anti-D3 branes are smeared at the tip. Such geometries represent holographic dual of cascading gauge theory in dS4 with or without chiral symmetry breaking. We find that in the phase with unbroken chiral symmetry the D3 charge at the tip is always positive. Furthermore, this charge is zero in the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry. We show that the effective potential of the chirally symmetric phase is lower than that in the symmetry broken phase, i.e., there is no spontaneous chiral symmetry breaking for cascading gauge theory in dS4. The positivity of the D3 brane charge in smooth de-Sitter deformed conifold geometries with fluxes presents difficulties in uplifting AdS vacua to dS ones in String Theory via smeared anti-D3 branes. First, turning on fluxes on Calabi-Yau compactifications of type IIB string theory produces highly warped geometry with stabilized complex structure (but not Kähler) moduli of the compactification [3]; Next, including non-perturbative effects (which are under control given the unbroken supersymmetry), one obtains anti-de Sitter (AdS4) vacua with all moduli fixed; Finally, one uses anti-D3 branes of type IIB string theory to uplift AdS4 to de Sitter (dS4) vacua. As the last step of the construction completely breaks supersymmetry, it is much less controlled. In fact, in [4-7] it was argued that putting anti-D3 branes at the tip of the Klebanov-Strassler (KS) [8] geometry (as done in KKLT construction) leads to a naked singularity. Whether or not the resulting singularity is physical is subject to debates. When M4=dS4 and the chiral symmetry is unbroken, the D3 brane charge at the tip of the conifold is always positive, as long as ln H2Λ2/P2g0 ⩾-0.4. When M4=dS4 and the chiral symmetry is broken, the D3 brane charge at the tip of the conifold is always zero; we managed to construct geometries of this type for ln H2Λ2/P2g0⩾-0.03. Comparing effective potential of the gauge theory in broken Veffb and unbroken Veffs phases we establish that in all cases, when we can construct the phase with spontaneously broken chiral symmetry, Veffb>Veffs, when ln H2Λ2/P2g0⩾-0.03, i.e., spontaneous symmetry breaking does not happen for given values of the gauge theory parameters. To put these parameters in perspective, note that the (first-order) confinement/deconfinement and chiral symmetry breaking phase transition in cascading gauge theory plasma occurs at temperature T such that [16] ln Tdeconfinement,χSB2Λ2/P2g0=0.2571(2), and the (first-order) chiral symmetry breaking in cascading gauge theory on S3 occurs for compactification scale μ3≡ℓ3-1 such that [21] ln μ3,χSB2Λ2/P2g0=0.4309(8). When M4=R×S3 and the chiral symmetry is unbroken, the D3 brane charge at the tip of the conifold is negative when ln μ32Λ2/P2g0 μ, and the D3 brane charge at the tip of the conifold in broken phase is zero, the charge in the ground state is in fact zero whenever μ3⩽μ. Furthermore, chirally symmetric states of cascading gauge theory on S3 develop symmetry breaking tachyonic instabilities at μ (below the first order chiral symmetry breaking scale μ) ln μ3,tachyon2Λ2/P2g0=0.3297(3) which is again above μ.Our results represented here, together with those reported in [10], point that the singularity of smeared anti-D3 branes at the tip of the conifold is unphysical: had it been otherwise, we should have been able to implement an infrared cutoff in the geometry with a D3 brane charge measured at the cutoff being negative. The role of the cutoff is played by the temperature (as discussed in [10]), by the compactification scale (when M4=R×S3), or by the Hubble scale (when M4=dS4). Interesting, we find that the D3 brane charge can become negative when the KT throat geometry is S3 deformed; however this occurs in the regime where this phase is unstable both via the first order phase transition and the tachyon condensation to S3 deformed KS throat geometry - the latter geometry has zero D3 brane charge at the tip. All this raises questions about construction of generic de Sitter vacua in String Theory [2].We stress, however, that our analysis does not definitely exclude local non-singular supergravity description of de Sitter vacua in String Theory. The issue stems from the anti-D3 brane “smearing approximation” used. Early discussion of the relevant smearing approximation appeared in [6,9]. There, the authors carefully analyzed non-supersymmetric deformations of KS geometry, invariant under the SU(2)×SU(2) global symmetry of the latter. They further identified a class of perturbations that is being sources by anti-D3 branes, placed at the tip of the conifold, and then computed the leading-order backreaction of those perturbations on KS geometry. Insistence on preserving the SU(2)×SU(2) global symmetry is a smearing approximation - from the brane perspective it implies that anti-D3 branes are uniformly distributed (uniformly smeared) over the transverse compact five-dimensional manifold. Our discussion here shares the same smearing approximation as in [6,9], but extends the analysis to the full (rather than leading-order) backreaction. Smearing approximation is a practical tool enabling the analysis of the complicated cascading geometries involved. However, it must be questioned: it is not clear that non-supersymmetric uniform distribution along T directions of anti-D3 branes is stable against ‘clumping’. While it is highly desirable to lift this approximation, it is very difficult to do this in practice: one is forced to analyze a coupled nonlinear system of partial differential equations, rather than ordinary differential equations. We feel that until fully localized anti-D3 brane analysis in cascading geometries are performed, the singularity question of local supergravity description of de Sitter vacua in String Theory will remain open.

AdS6 solutions of type II supergravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Apruzzi, Fabio; Fazzi, Marco; Passias, Achilleas; Rosa, Dario; Tomasiello, Alessandro

2014-11-01

Very few AdS6 × M 4 supersymmetric solutions are known: one in massive IIA, and two IIB solutions dual to it. The IIA solution is known to be unique; in this paper, we use the pure spinor approach to give a classification for IIB supergravity. We reduce the problem to two PDEs on a two-dimensional space Σ. M 4 is then a fibration of S 2 over Σ; the metric and fluxes are completely determined in terms of the solution to the PDEs. The results seem likely to accommodate near-horizon limits of ( p, q)-fivebrane webs studied in the literature as a source of CFT5's. We also show that there are no AdS6 solutions in eleven-dimensional supergravity.

Comparison of Muscle Fiber and Meat Quality Characteristics in Different Japanese Quail Lines

PubMed Central

Choi, Y. M.; Hwang, S.; Lee, K.

2016-01-01

The aim of this study was to compare the growth performance, fiber characteristics of the pectoralis major muscle, and meat quality characteristics in the heavy weight (HW) and random bred control (RBC) quail lines and genders. The HW male exhibited more than two times greater body (245.7 vs 96.1 g, p<0.05) and pectoralis major muscle (PMW; 37.1 vs 11.1 g, p<0.05) weights compared to the RBC female. This growth performance in the HW line was associated with a greater muscle fiber area (1,502 vs 663.0 μm2, p<0.001) compared to the RBC line. Greater muscle mass of the HW male was accompanied by a higher percentage of type IIB fiber compared to the HW female (64.0% vs 51.0%, p<0.05). However, muscle fiber hyperplasia (increase in fiber number) has had a somewhat limited effect on PMW between the two lines. On the other hand, the HW line harboring a higher proportion of type IIB fiber showed rapid pH decline at the early postmortem period (6.23 vs 6.41, p<0.05) and lighter meat surface (53.5 vs 47.3, p<0.05) compared to the RBC line harboring a lower proportion of type IIB fiber. There were no significant differences observed in the measurement of water-holding capacity including drip loss (2.74% vs 3.07%, p>0.05) and cooking loss (21.9% vs 20.4%, p>0.05) between the HW and RBC lines. Therefore, the HW quail line developed by selection from the RBC quail, was slightly different in the meat quality characteristics compared to the RBC line, and a marked difference was found in growth performance between the two quail lines. PMID:27383804

[Comparison between Endoscopic Therapy and Medical Therapy in Peptic Ulcer Patients with Adherent Clot: A Multicenter Prospective Observational Cohort Study].

PubMed

Kim, Si Hye; Jung, Jin Tae; Kwon, Joong Goo; Kim, Eun Young; Lee, Dong Wook; Jeon, Seong Woo; Park, Kyung Sik; Lee, Si Hyung; Park, Jeong Bae; Ha, Chang Yoon; Park, Youn Sun

2015-08-01

The optimal management of bleeding peptic ulcer with adherent clot remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to compare clinical outcome between endoscopic therapy and medical therapy. We also evaluated the risk factors of rebleeding in Forrest type IIB peptic ulcer. Upper gastrointestinal (UGI) bleeding registry data from 8 hospitals in Korea between February 2011 and December 2013 were reviewed and categorized according to the Forrest classification. Patients with acute UGI bleeding from peptic ulcer with adherent clots were enrolled. Among a total of 1,101 patients diagnosed with peptic ulcer bleeding, 126 bleedings (11.4%) were classified as Forrest type IIB. Of the 126 patients with adherent clots, 84 (66.7%) received endoscopic therapy and 42 (33.3%) were managed with medical therapy alone. The baseline characteristics of patients in two groups were similar except for higher Glasgow Blatchford Score and pre-endoscopic Rockall score in medical therapy group. Bleeding related mortality (1.2% vs.10%; p=0.018) and all cause mortality (3.7% vs. 20.0%; p=0.005) were significantly lower in the endoscopic therapy group. However, there was no difference between endoscopic therapy and medical therapy regarding rebleeding (7.1% vs. 9.5%; p=0.641). In multivariate analysis, independent risk factors of rebleeding were previous medication with aspirin and/or NSAID (OR, 13.1; p=0.025). In patients with Forrest type IIB peptic ulcer bleeding, endoscopic therapy was associated with a significant reduction in bleeding related mortality and all cause mortality compared with medical therapy alone. Important risk factor of rebleeding was use of aspirin and/or NSAID.

AGSuite: Software to conduct feature analysis of artificial grammar learning performance.

PubMed

Cook, Matthew T; Chubala, Chrissy M; Jamieson, Randall K

2017-10-01

To simplify the problem of studying how people learn natural language, researchers use the artificial grammar learning (AGL) task. In this task, participants study letter strings constructed according to the rules of an artificial grammar and subsequently attempt to discriminate grammatical from ungrammatical test strings. Although the data from these experiments are usually analyzed by comparing the mean discrimination performance between experimental conditions, this practice discards information about the individual items and participants that could otherwise help uncover the particular features of strings associated with grammaticality judgments. However, feature analysis is tedious to compute, often complicated, and ill-defined in the literature. Moreover, the data violate the assumption of independence underlying standard linear regression models, leading to Type I error inflation. To solve these problems, we present AGSuite, a free Shiny application for researchers studying AGL. The suite's intuitive Web-based user interface allows researchers to generate strings from a database of published grammars, compute feature measures (e.g., Levenshtein distance) for each letter string, and conduct a feature analysis on the strings using linear mixed effects (LME) analyses. The LME analysis solves the inflation of Type I errors that afflicts more common methods of repeated measures regression analysis. Finally, the software can generate a number of graphical representations of the data to support an accurate interpretation of results. We hope the ease and availability of these tools will encourage researchers to take full advantage of item-level variance in their datasets in the study of AGL. We moreover discuss the broader applicability of the tools for researchers looking to conduct feature analysis in any field.

Preferential motor unit loss in the SOD1G93A transgenic mouse model of amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

PubMed Central

Hegedus, J; Putman, C T; Tyreman, N; Gordon, T

2008-01-01

The present study investigated motor unit (MU) loss in a murine model of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS). The fast-twitch tibialis anterior (TA) and medial gastrocnemius (MG) muscles of transgenic SOD1G93A and SOD1WT mice were studied during the presymptomatic phase of disease progression at 60 days of age. Whole muscle maximum isometric twitch and tetanic forces were 80% lower (P < 0.01) in the TA muscles of SOD1G93A compared to SOD1WT mice. Enumeration of total MU numbers within TA muscles showed a 60% reduction (P < 0.01) within SOD1G93A mice (38 ± 7) compared with SOD1WT controls (95 ± 12); this was attributed to a lower proportion of the most forceful fast-fatigable (FF) MU in SOD1G93A mice, as seen by a significant (P < 0.01) leftward shift in the cumulative frequency histogram of single MU forces. Similar patterns of MU loss and corresponding decreases in isometric twitch force were observed in the MG. Immunocytochemical analyses of the entire cross-sectional area (CSA) of serial sections of TA muscles stained with anti-neural cell adhesion molecule (NCAM) and various monoclonal antibodies for myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms showed respective 65% (P < 0.01) and 28% (P < 0.05) decreases in the number of innervated IIB and IID/X muscle fibres in SOD1G93A, which paralleled the 60% decrease (P < 0.01) in the force generating capacity of individual fibres. The loss of fast MUs was partially compensated by activity-dependent fast-to-slower fibre type transitions, as determined by increases (P < 0.04) in the CSA and proportion of IIA fibres (from 4% to 14%) and IID/X fibres (from 31% to 39%), and decreases (P < 0.001) in the CSA and proportion of type IIB fibres (from 65% to 44%). We conclude that preferential loss of IIB fibres is incomplete at 60 days of age, and is consistent with a selective albeit gradual loss of FF MUs that is not fully compensated by sprouting of the remaining motoneurons that innervate type IIA or IID/X muscle fibres. Our findings indicate that disease progression in fast-twitch muscles of SOD1G93A mice involves parallel processes: (1) gradual selective motor axon die-back of the FF motor units that contain large type IIB muscle fibres, and of fatigue-intermediate motor units that innervate type IID/X muscle fibres, and (2) activity-dependent conversion of motor units to those innervated by smaller motor axons innervating type IIA fatigue-resistant muscle fibres. PMID:18467368

Some finite terms from ladder diagrams in three and four loop maximal supergravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Basu, Anirban

2015-10-01

We consider the finite part of the leading local interactions in the low energy expansion of the four graviton amplitude from the ladder skeleton diagrams in maximal supergravity on T 2, at three and four loops. At three loops, we express the {D}8{{R}}4 and {D}10{{R}}4 amplitudes as integrals over the moduli space of an underlying auxiliary geometry. These amplitudes are evaluated exactly for special values of the the moduli of the auxiliary geometry, where the integrand simplifies. We also perform a similar analysis for the {D}8{{R}}4 amplitude at four loops that arise from the ladder skeleton diagrams for a special value of a parameter in the moduli space of the auxiliary geometry. While the dependence of the amplitudes on the volume of the T 2 is very simple, the dependence on the complex structure of the T 2 is quite intricate. In some of the cases, the amplitude consists of terms each of which factorizes into a product of two {SL}(2,{{Z}}) invariant modular forms. While one of the factors is a non-holomorphic Eisenstein series, the other factor splits into a sum of modular forms each of which satisfies a Poisson equation on moduli space with source terms that are bilinear in the Eisenstein series. This leads to several possible perturbative contributions unto genus 5 in type II string theory on S1. Unlike the one and two loop supergravity analysis, these amplitudes also receive non-perturbative contributions from bound states of three D-(anti)instantons in the IIB theory.

Integrin αIIb (CD41) plays a role in the maintenance of hematopoietic stem cell activity in the mouse embryonic aorta

PubMed Central

Boisset, Jean-Charles; Clapes, Thomas; Van Der Linden, Reinier; Dzierzak, Elaine; Robin, Catherine

2013-01-01

Summary Integrins are transmembrane receptors that play important roles as modulators of cell behaviour through their adhesion properties and the initiation of signaling cascades. The αIIb integrin subunit (CD41) is one of the first cell surface markers indicative of hematopoietic commitment. αIIb pairs exclusively with β3 to form the αIIbβ3 integrin. β3 (CD61) also pairs with αv (CD51) to form the αvβ3 integrin. The expression and putative role of these integrins during mouse hematopoietic development is as yet unknown. We show here that hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) differentially express αIIbβ3 and αvβ3 integrins throughout development. Whereas the first HSCs generated in the aorta at mid-gestation express both integrins, HSCs from the placenta only express αvβ3, and most fetal liver HSCs do not express either integrin. By using αIIb deficient embryos, we show that αIIb is not only a reliable HSC marker but it also plays an important and specific function in maintaining the HSC activity in the mouse embryonic aorta. PMID:23789102

DNA G-segment bending is not the sole determinant of topology simplification by type II DNA topoisomerases.

PubMed

Thomson, Neil H; Santos, Sergio; Mitchenall, Lesley A; Stuchinskaya, Tanya; Taylor, James A; Maxwell, Anthony

2014-08-21

DNA topoisomerases control the topology of DNA. Type II topoisomerases exhibit topology simplification, whereby products of their reactions are simplified beyond that expected based on thermodynamic equilibrium. The molecular basis for this process is unknown, although DNA bending has been implicated. To investigate the role of bending in topology simplification, the DNA bend angles of four enzymes of different types (IIA and IIB) were measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The enzymes tested were Escherichia coli topo IV and yeast topo II (type IIA enzymes that exhibit topology simplification), and Methanosarcina mazei topo VI and Sulfolobus shibatae topo VI (type IIB enzymes, which do not). Bend angles were measured using the manual tangent method from topographical AFM images taken with a novel amplitude-modulated imaging mode: small amplitude small set-point (SASS), which optimises resolution for a given AFM tip size and minimises tip convolution with the sample. This gave improved accuracy and reliability and revealed that all 4 topoisomerases bend DNA by a similar amount: ~120° between the DNA entering and exiting the enzyme complex. These data indicate that DNA bending alone is insufficient to explain topology simplification and that the 'exit gate' may be an important determinant of this process.

DNA G-segment bending is not the sole determinant of topology simplification by type II DNA topoisomerases

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Thomson, Neil H.; Santos, Sergio; Mitchenall, Lesley A.; Stuchinskaya, Tanya; Taylor, James A.; Maxwell, Anthony

2014-08-01

DNA topoisomerases control the topology of DNA. Type II topoisomerases exhibit topology simplification, whereby products of their reactions are simplified beyond that expected based on thermodynamic equilibrium. The molecular basis for this process is unknown, although DNA bending has been implicated. To investigate the role of bending in topology simplification, the DNA bend angles of four enzymes of different types (IIA and IIB) were measured using atomic force microscopy (AFM). The enzymes tested were Escherichia coli topo IV and yeast topo II (type IIA enzymes that exhibit topology simplification), and Methanosarcina mazei topo VI and Sulfolobus shibatae topo VI (type IIB enzymes, which do not). Bend angles were measured using the manual tangent method from topographical AFM images taken with a novel amplitude-modulated imaging mode: small amplitude small set-point (SASS), which optimises resolution for a given AFM tip size and minimises tip convolution with the sample. This gave improved accuracy and reliability and revealed that all 4 topoisomerases bend DNA by a similar amount: ~120° between the DNA entering and exiting the enzyme complex. These data indicate that DNA bending alone is insufficient to explain topology simplification and that the `exit gate' may be an important determinant of this process.

Platelet glycoprotein IIb/IIIa receptor inhibition in non-ST-elevation acute coronary syndromes: early benefit during medical treatment only, with additional protection during percutaneous coronary intervention.

PubMed

Boersma, E; Akkerhuis, K M; Théroux, P; Califf, R M; Topol, E J; Simoons, M L

1999-11-16

Glycoprotein (GP) IIb/IIIa receptor blockers prevent life-threatening cardiac complications in patients with acute coronary syndromes without ST-segment elevation and protect against thrombotic complications associated with percutaneous coronary interventions (PCIs). The question arises as to whether these 2 beneficial effects are independent and additive. We analyzed data from the CAPTURE, PURSUIT, and PRISM-PLUS randomized trials, which studied the effects of the GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors abciximab, eptifibatide, and tirofiban, respectively, in acute coronary syndrome patients without persistent ST-segment elevation, with a period of study drug infusion before a possible PCI. During the period of pharmacological treatment, each trial demonstrated a significant reduction in the rate of death or nonfatal myocardial infarction in patients randomized to the GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor compared with placebo. The 3 trials combined showed a 2.5% event rate in this period in the GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor group (N=6125) versus 3.8% in placebo (N=6171), which implies a 34% relative reduction (P<0.001). During study medication, a PCI was performed in 1358 patients assigned GP IIb/IIIa inhibition and 1396 placebo patients. The event rate during the first 48 hours after PCI was also significantly lower in the GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor group (4. 9% versus 8.0%; 41% reduction; P<0.001). No further benefit or rebound effect was observed beyond 48 hours after the PCI. There is conclusive evidence of an early benefit of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors during medical treatment in patients with acute coronary syndromes without persistent ST-segment elevation. In addition, in patients subsequently undergoing PCI, GP IIb/IIIa inhibition protects against myocardial damage associated with the intervention.

Flat connections in open string mirror symmetry

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Alim, Murad; Hecht, Michael; Jockers, Hans; Mayr, Peter; Mertens, Adrian; Soroush, Masoud

2012-06-01

We study a flat connection defined on the open-closed deformation space of open string mirror symmetry for type II compactifications on Calabi-Yau threefolds with D-branes. We use flatness and integrability conditions to define distinguished flat coordinates and the superpotential function at an arbitrary point in the open-closed deformation space. Integrability conditions are given for concrete deformation spaces with several closed and open string deformations. We study explicit examples for expansions around different limit points, including orbifold Gromov-Witten invariants, and brane configurations with several brane moduli. In particular, the latter case covers stacks of parallel branes with non-Abelian symmetry.

Notes on strings and higher spins

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sagnotti, A.

2013-05-01

This review is devoted to the intriguing and still largely unexplored links between string theory and higher spins, the types of excitations that lie behind their most cherished properties. A closer look at higher spin fields provides some further clues that string theory describes a broken phase of a higher spin gauge theory. Conversely, string amplitudes contain a wealth of information on higher spin interactions that can clarify long-standing issues related to their infrared behavior. This article is part of a special issue of Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical devoted to ‘Higher spin theories and holography’. Based on the lectures presented at the International School for Subnuclear Physics Searching for the Unexpected at LHC and Status of Our Knowledge (Erice, June 24-July 3 2011) and on the talks presented at Strings, Branes and Supergravity (Istanbul, 31 July -5 Aug 2011), at QTS’07: Quantum Theory and Symmetries (Prague, 7-13 Aug. 2011) and at FFP’12: Fundamental Fields and Particles (Udine, 21-23 Nov. 2011).

Topological charges in SL(2,R) covariant massive 11-dimensional and type IIB supergravity

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Callister, Andrew K.; Smith, Douglas J.

2009-12-15

In this paper we construct closed expressions that correspond to the topological charges of the various 1/2-BPS states of the maximal 10- and 11-dimensional supergravity theories. These expressions are related to the structure of the supersymmetry algebras in curved spacetimes. We mainly focus on IIB supergravity and 11-dimensional supergravity in a double M9-brane background, with an emphasis on the SL(2,R) multiplet structure of the charges and how these map between theories. This includes the charges corresponding to the multiplets of 7- and 9-branes in IIB. We find that examining the possible multiplet structures of the charges provides another tool formore » exploring the spectrum of BPS states that appear in these theories. As a prerequisite to constructing the charges we determine the field equations and multiplet structure of the 11-dimensional gauge potentials, extending previous results on the subject. The massive gauge transformations of the fields are also discussed. We also demonstrate how these massive gauge transformations are compatible with the construction of an SL(2,R) covariant kinetic term in the 11-dimensional Kaluza-Klein monopole worldvolume action.« less

Antioxidant and immunological activities of polysaccharides from Gentiana scabra Bunge roots.

PubMed

Wang, Zhanyong; Wang, Chenyu; Su, Tingting; Zhang, Jing

2014-11-04

Two polysaccharide fractions, GSP I-a and GSP II-b, were isolated from Gentiana scabra Bunge roots. Both GSP I-a and GSP II-b comprised seven monosaccharides: fructose, mannose, rhamnose, galacturonic acid, glucose, galactose, and fucose. Ultraviolet and infrared analyses show that GSP I-a and GSP II-b are proteoglycans. In vitro evaluation of the antioxidant activity suggests that GSP I-a and GSP II-b scavenge 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals. However, the scavenging activity of the latter is stronger than that of the former. GSP I-a and GSP II-b have relatively low reducing powers and scavenging activities toward superoxide anions and hydroxyls. GSP I-a and GSP II-b significantly increase lymphocyte proliferation when lipopolysaccharide is used as a mitogen for lymphocytes, but only GSP I-a can significantly increase lymphocyte proliferation within the test-dosage range when concanavalin A is used as a mitogen. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

Creatine Supplementation Induces Alteration in Cross-Sectional Area in Skeletal Muscle Fibers of Wistar Rats Under Swimming Training

PubMed Central

Santos, Fernando Farias Dos; Moura, José A. A.; Curi, Rui; Fernandes, Luiz C.

2002-01-01

Creatine has been shown to increase the total muscle mass. In this study, we investigated the effect of oral creatine monohydrate supplementation on cross-sectional area of type I, IIA and IIB fibers of gastrocnemius, extensor digitorum longus - EDL and soleus muscles from male Wistar rats subjected to swimming training for 33 days. Four groups were set up: sedentary with no supplementation (CON), sedentary with creatine supplementation (3.3 mg creatine per g chow) (CR), exercised with no supplementation (EX) and exercised with supplementation (CREX). The rats performed in a special swimming pool and swam five times a week for 1 hour each day, with a extra lead weight corresponding to 15% of their body weight. At the end of 33 days, skeletal muscles of the animals were dissected and the samples got immediately frozen using liquid nitrogen. Muscle samples were allocated to slices of 10 μm by a cryostat at -20°C, which was followed by histochemical analysis in order to identify fiber types of the muscles, and morphometrical analysis to calculate the muscle fiber areas. All groups gained body weight at the end of 33 days but there was no statistical difference among them. The EX and CREX rats had a larger food intake than the sedentary groups (CON and CR), and the CREX group had a larger food intake than CR rats. The cross-sectional area of type I and IIA fibers of the soleus muscle, type IIA and IIB fibers of EDL muscle and type IIA and IIB fibers of the white portion of gastrocnemius muscle were greater in the EX and CREX groups in comparison to sedentary rats. In addition, these fibers were greater in the CREX rats than in the EX group. There was no change in the cross sectional area of type I fibers in EDL muscle among all groups studied. Our results suggest that creatine supplementation enhances the exercise related muscle fiber hypertrophy in rodents. PMID:24701129

Constraints on the Progenitor System of SN 2016gkg from a Comprehensive Statistical Analysis

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sravan, Niharika; Marchant, Pablo; Kalogera, Vassiliki; Margutti, Raffaella

2018-01-01

Type IIb supernovae (SNe) present a unique opportunity for understanding the progenitors of stripped-envelope SNe because the stellar progenitor of several SNe IIb have been identified in pre-explosion images. In this paper, we use Bayesian inference and a large grid of non-rotating solar-metallicity single and binary stellar models to derive the associated probability distributions of single and binary progenitors of the SN IIb 2016gkg using existing observational constraints. We find that potential binary star progenitors have smaller pre-SN hydrogen-envelope and helium-core masses than potential single-star progenitors typically by 0.1 M ⊙ and 2 M ⊙, respectively. We find that, a binary companion, if present, is a main-sequence or red-giant star. Apart from this, we do not find strong constraints on the nature of the companion star. We demonstrate that the range of progenitor helium-core mass inferred from observations could help improve constraints on the progenitor. We find that the probability that the progenitor of SN 2016gkg was a binary is 22% when we use constraints only on the progenitor luminosity and effective temperature. Imposing the range of pre-SN progenitor hydrogen-envelope mass and radius inferred from SN light curves, the probability that the progenitor is a binary increases to 44%. However, there is no clear preference for a binary progenitor. This is in contrast to binaries being the currently favored formation channel for SNe IIb. Our analysis demonstrates the importance of statistical inference methods to constrain progenitor channels.

Disease Burden of Invasive Listeriosis and Molecular Characterization of Clinical Isolates in Taiwan, 2000-2013.

PubMed

Huang, Yu-Tsung; Ko, Wen-Chien; Chan, Yu-Jiun; Lu, Jang-Jih; Tsai, Hsih-Yeh; Liao, Chun-Hsing; Sheng, Wang-Huei; Teng, Lee-Jene; Hsueh, Po-Ren

2015-01-01

The information about disease burden and epidemiology of invasive listeriosis in Asia is scarce. From 2000 to 2013, a total of 338 patients with invasive listeriosis (bacteremia, meningitis, and peritonitis) were treated at four medical centers in Taiwan. The incidence (per 10,000 admissions) of invasive listeriosis increased significantly during the 14-year period among the four centers (0.15 in 2000 and >1.25 during 2010-2012) and at each of the four medical centers. Among these patients, 45.9% were elderly (>65 years old) and 3.3% were less than one year of age. More than one-third (36.7%) of the patients acquired invasive listeriosis in the spring (April to June). Among the 132 preserved Listeria monocytogenes isolates analyzed, the most frequently isolated PCR serogroup-sequence type (ST) was IIb-ST87 (23.5%), followed by IIa-ST378 (19.7%) and IIa-ST155 (12.1%). Isolation of PCR serogroups IIb and IVb increased significantly with year, with a predominance of IIb-ST87 isolates (23.5%) and IIb-ST 228 isolates emerging in 2013. A total of 12 different randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns (Patterns I to XII) were identified among the 112 L. monocytogenes isolates belonging to eight main PCR serogroup-STs. Identical RAPD patterns were found among the isolates exhibiting the same PCR serogroup-ST. In conclusion, our study revealed that during 2000-2013, listeriosis at four medical centers in Taiwan was caused by heterogeneous strains and that the upsurge in incidence beginning in 2005 was caused by at least two predominant clones.

Hidden Symmetries in String Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chervonyi, Iurii

In this thesis we study hidden symmetries within the framework of string theory. Symmetries play a very important role in physics: they lead to drastic simplifications, which allow one to compute various physical quantities without relying on perturbative techniques. There are two kinds of hidden symmetries investigated in this work: the first type is associated with dynamics of quantum fields and the second type is related to integrability of strings on various backgrounds. Integrability is a remarkable property of some theories that allows one to determine all dynamical properties of the system using purely analytical methods. The goals of this thesis are twofold: extension of hidden symmetries known in General Relativity to stringy backgrounds in higher dimensions and construction of new integrable string theories. In the context of the first goal we study hidden symmetries of stringy backgrounds, with and without supersymmetry. For supersymmetric geometries produced by D-branes we identify the backgrounds with solvable equations for geodesics, which can potentially give rise to integrable string theories. Relaxing the requirement of supersymmetry, we also study charged black holes in higher dimensions and identify their hidden symmetries encoded in so-called Killing(-Yano) tensors. We construct the explicit form of the Killing(-Yano) tensors for the charged rotating black hole in arbitrary number of dimensions, study behavior of such tensors under string dualities, and use the analysis of hidden symmetries to explain why exact solutions for black rings (black holes with non-spherical event horizons) in more than five dimensions remain elusive. As a byproduct we identify the standard parameterization of AdSp x Sq backgrounds with elliptic coordinates on a flat base. The second goal of this work is construction of new integrable string theories by applying continuous deformations of known examples. We use the recent developments called (generalized) lambda-deformation to construct new integrable backgrounds depending on several continuous parameters and study analytical properties of the such deformations.

Muscle mechanics: adaptations with exercise-training.

PubMed

Fitts, R H; Widrick, J J

1996-01-01

Based on the MHC isoform pattern, adult mammalian limb skeletal muscles contain two and, in some species, three types of fast fibers (Type IIa, IIx, and IIb), and one slow fiber (Type I). Slow muscles, such as the soleus, contain primarily the slow Type I fiber, whereas fast-twitch muscles are composed primarily of a mixture of the fast myosin isozymes. Force generation involves cross-bridge interaction and transition from a weakly bound, low-force state (AM-ADP-P(i)) to the strongly bound, high-force state (AM-ADP). This transition is thought to be rate limiting in terms of dP/dt, and the high-force state is the dominant cross-bridge form during a peak isometric contraction. Intact fast and slow skeletal muscles generate approximately the same amount of peak force (Po) of between 200 and 250 kN.m-2. However, the rate of transition from the low- to high-force state shows Ca2+ sensitivity and is 7-fold higher in fast-twitch, as compared to slow-twitch, skeletal muscle fibers. Fiber Vo or the maximal cross-bridge cycle rate is highly correlated with and thought to be dependent on the specific activity of the myosin or myofibrillar ATPase. The hierarchy for Vo is the Type IIb > IIx > IIa > I. This functional difference for the fast fiber types explains the higher Vo observed in the predominantly Type IIb SVL vs. the mixed fast Type IIa and IIb EDL muscle. A plot of Vo vs. species size demonstrates that an inverse relationship exists between Vo and body mass. From the standpoint of work capacity, the important property is power output. An analysis of individual muscles indicates that peak power is obtained at loads considerably below 50% of Po. Individuals with a high percentage of fast-twitch fibers generate a greater torque and higher power at a given velocity than those with predominantly slow-twitch fibers. In humans, mean peak power occurred in a ratio of 10:5:1 for the Type IIb, IIa, and I fibers. The in vivo measurement of the torque-velocity relationship and Vmax in human muscle is difficult because of limitations inherent in the equipment used and the inability to study the large limb muscles independently. Nevertheless, the in vivo torque-velocity relationships are similar to those measured in vitro in animals. This observation suggests that little central nervous system inhibition exists and that healthy subjects are able to achieve maximal activation of their muscles. Although peak isometric tension is not dependent on fiber type distribution, a positive correlation exists between the percentage of fast fibers and peak torque output at moderate-to-high angular isokinetic velocities. Consequently, peak power output is substantially greater in subjects possessing a predominance of fast fibers. The mechanical properties of slow and fast muscles do adapt to programs of regular exercise. Endurance exercise training has been shown to increase the Vo of the slow soleus by 20%. This increase could have been caused by either a small increase in all, or most, of the fibers, or to a conversion of a few fibers from slow to fast. Recently, the increase was shown to be caused by the former, as the individual slow Type I fibers of the soleus showed a 20% increase in Vo, but there was little or no change in the percentage of fast fibers. The increased Vo was correlated with, and likely caused by, an increased fiber ATPase. We hypothesize that the increased ATPase and cross-bridge cycling speed might be attributable to an increased expression of fast MLCs in the slow Type I fibers (Fig. 14.10). This hypothesis is based on the fact that light chains have been shown to be involved in the power stroke, and removal of light chains depresses force and velocity. Regular endurance exercise training had no effect on fiber size, but with prolonged durations of daily training it depressed Po and peak power. When the training is maintained over prolonged periods, it may even induce atrophy of the slow Type I and fast Type IIa fibers. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED)

Morphometry, ultrastructure, myosin isoforms, and metabolic capacities of the "mini muscles" favoured by selection for high activity in house mice.

PubMed

Guderley, Helga; Houle-Leroy, Philippe; Diffee, Gary M; Camp, Dana M; Garland, Theodore

2006-07-01

Prolonged selective breeding of mice (Mus musculus) for high levels of voluntary wheel running has favoured an unusual phenotype ("mini muscles"), apparently caused by a single Mendelian recessive allele, in which most hind-limb muscles are markedly reduced in mass, but have increased mass-specific activities of mitochondrial enzymes. We examined whether these changes reflect changes in fibre size, number or ultrastructure in normal and "mini-muscle" mice within the two (of four) selectively bred lines (lab designations L3 and L6) that exhibit the phenotype at generations 26 and 27. In both lines, the gastrocnemius and plantaris muscles are smaller in mass (by >50% and 20%, respectively) in affected individuals. The mass-specific activities of mitochondrial enzymes in the gastrocnemius and plantaris muscles were increased in the mini phenotype in both lines, with stronger effects in the gastrocnemius muscle. In the gastrocnemius, the % myosin heavy chain (MHC) IIb was reduced by 50% in L3 and by 30% in L6, whereas the % MHC IIa and I were higher, particularly in L3. Fibre number in the plantaris muscle did not significantly differ between mini and normal muscles, although muscle mass was a significant positive correlate of fibre number. Small fibres were more abundant in mini than normal muscles in L3. Mitochondrial volume density was significantly higher in mini than normal muscle fibres in L3, but not in L6. Microscopy revealed a surprising attribute of the mini muscles: an abundance of small, minimally differentiated, myofibril-containing cells positioned in a disorderly fashion, particularly in the surface layer. We hypothesise that these unusual cells may be satellite cells or type IIb fibres that did not complete their differentiation. Together, these observations suggest that mice with the mini phenotype have reduced numbers of type IIb fibres in many of their hind-limb muscles, leading to a decrease in mass and an increase in mass-specific aerobic capacity in muscles that typically have a high proportion of type IIb fibres. Moreover, the several statistically significant interactions between muscle phenotype and line indicate that the effect of the underlying allele is altered by genetic background.

Open/closed string duality and relativistic fluids

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Niarchos, Vasilis

2016-07-01

We propose an open/closed string duality in general backgrounds extending previous ideas about open string completeness by Ashoke Sen. Our proposal sets up a general version of holography that works in gravity as a tomographic principle. We argue, in particular, that previous expectations of a supergravity/Dirac-Born-Infeld (DBI) correspondence are naturally embedded in this conjecture and can be tested in a well-defined manner. As an example, we consider the correspondence between open string field theories on extremal D-brane setups in flat space in the large-N , large 't Hooft limit, and asymptotically flat solutions in ten-dimensional type II supergravity. We focus on a convenient long-wavelength regime, where specific effects of higher-spin open string modes can be traced explicitly in the dual supergravity computation. For instance, in this regime we show how the full Abelian DBI action arises from supergravity as a straightforward reformulation of relativistic hydrodynamics. In the example of a (2 +1 )-dimensional open string theory this reformulation involves an Abelian Hodge duality. We also point out how different deformations of the DBI action, related to higher-derivative corrections and non-Abelian effects, can arise in this context as deformations in corresponding relativistic hydrodynamics.

Won't get fooled again: An event-related potential study of task and repetition effects on the semantic processing of items without semantics.

PubMed

Laszlo, Sarah; Stites, Mallory; Federmeier, Kara D

2012-01-01

A growing body of evidence suggests that semantic access is obligatory. Several studies have demonstrated that brain activity associated with semantic processing, measured in the N400 component of the event-related brain potential (ERP), is elicited even by meaningless, orthographically illegal strings, suggesting that semantic access is not gated by lexicality. However, the downstream consequences of that activity vary by item type, exemplified by the typical finding that N400 activity is reduced by repetition for words and pronounceable nonwords but not for illegal strings. We propose that this lack of repetition effect for illegal strings is caused not by lack of contact with semantics, but by the unrefined nature of that contact under conditions in which illegal strings can be readily categorised as task-irrelevant. To test this, we collected ERPs from participants performing a modified Lexical Decision Task, in which the presence of orthographically illegal acronyms rendered meaningless illegal strings more difficult lures than normal. Confirming our hypothesis, under these conditions illegal strings elicited robust N400 repetition effects, quantitatively and qualitatively similar to those elicited by words, pseudowords, and acronyms.

Thermal stabilization of superconducting sigma strings and their drum vortons

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Carter, Brandon; Brandenberger, Robert H.; Davis, Anne-Christine

2002-05-01

We discuss various issues related to stabilized embedded strings in a thermal background. In particular, we demonstrate that such strings will generically become superconducting at moderately low temperatures, thus enhancing their stability. We then present a new class of defects-drum vortons-which arise when a small symmetry breaking term is added to the potential. We display these points within the context of the O(4) sigma model, relevant for hadrodynamics below the QCD scale. This model admits ``embedded defects'' (topological defect configurations of a simpler-in this case O(2) symmetric-model obtained by imposing an embedding constraint) that are unstable in the full model at zero temperature, but that can be stabilized (by electromagnetic coupling to photons) in a thermal gas at moderately high termperatures. It is shown here that below the embedded defect stabilization threshold, there will still be stabilized cosmic string defects. However, they will not be of the symmetric embedded vortex type, but of an ``asymmetric'' vortex type, and are automatically superconducting. In the presence of weak symmetry breaking terms, such as arise naturally when using the O(4) model for hadrodynamics, the strings become the boundary of a new kind of cosmic sigma membrane, with tension given by the pion mass. The string current would then make it possible for a loop to attain a (classically) stable equilibrium state that differs from an ``ordinary'' vorton state by the presence of a sigma membrane stretched across it in a drum-like configuration. Such defects will however be entirely destabilized if the symmetry breaking is too strong, as is found to be the case-due to the rather large value of the pion mass-in the hadronic application of the O(4) sigma model.

Saying the Right Word at the Right Time: Syntagmatic and Paradigmatic Interference in Sentence Production

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Dell, Gary S.; Oppenheim, Gary M.; Kittredge, Audrey K.

2008-01-01

Retrieving a word in a sentence requires speakers to overcome syntagmatic, as well as paradigmatic interference. When accessing "cat" in "The cat chased the string", not only are similar competitors such as "dog" and "cap" activated, but also other words in the planned sentence, such as "chase" and "string". We hypothesise that both types of…

The Magic of Words Reconsidered: Investigating the Automaticity of Reading Color-Neutral Words in the Stroop Task

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Kinoshita, Sachiko; De Wit, Bianca; Norris, Dennis

2017-01-01

In 2 variants of the color-word Stroop task, we compared 5 types of color-neutral distractors--real words (e.g., "HAT"), pseudowords (e.g., "HIX"), consonant strings (e.g., "HDK"), symbol strings (e.g., #$%), and a row of Xs (e.g., "XXX")--as well as incongruent color words (e.g., "GREEN" displayed…

Integrin αIIbβ3

PubMed Central

Bledzka, Kamila; Smyth, Susan S.; Plow, Edward F.

2013-01-01

From the initial description of platelets in 1882, their propensity to aggregate and to contribute to thrombosis was apparent. Indeed, excessive platelet aggregation is associated with myocardial infarction and other thrombotic diseases whereas Glanzmann thrombasthenia, in which platelet aggregation is reduced, is a bleeding syndrome. Over the last half of the 20th century, many investigators have provided insights into the cellular and molecular basis for platelet aggregation. The major membrane protein on platelets, integrin αIIbβ3, mediates this response by rapidly transiting from its resting to an activated state in which it serves as a receptor for ligands that can bridge platelets together. Monoclonal antibodies, natural products, and small peptides were all shown to inhibit αIIbβ3 dependent platelet aggregation, and these inhibitors became the forerunners of antagonists that proceeded through preclinical testing and into large patient trials to treat acute coronary syndromes, particularly in the context of percutaneous coronary interventions. Three such αIIbβ3 antagonists, abciximab, eptifibatide, and tirofiban, received Food and Drug Administration approval. Over the past 15 years, millions of patients have been treated with these αIIbβ3 antagonists and many lives have been saved by their administration. With the side effect of increased bleeding and the development of new antithrombotic drugs, the use of αIIbβ3 antagonists is waning. Nevertheless, they are still widely used for the prevention of periprocedural thrombosis during percutaneous coronary interventions. This review focuses on the biology of αIIbβ3, the development of its antagonists, and some of the triumphs and shortcomings of αIIbβ3 antagonism. PMID:23580774

Integrin αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling

PubMed Central

2017-01-01

Integrin αIIbβ3 is a highly abundant heterodimeric platelet receptor that can transmit information bidirectionally across the plasma membrane, and plays a critical role in hemostasis and thrombosis. Upon platelet activation, inside-out signaling pathways increase the affinity of αIIbβ3 for fibrinogen and other ligands. Ligand binding and integrin clustering subsequently stimulate outside-in signaling, which initiates and amplifies a range of cellular events driving essential platelet processes such as spreading, thrombus consolidation, and clot retraction. Integrin αIIbβ3 has served as an excellent model for the study of integrin biology, and it has become clear that integrin outside-in signaling is highly complex and involves a vast array of enzymes, signaling adaptors, and cytoskeletal components. In this review, we provide a concise but comprehensive overview of αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling, focusing on the key players involved, and how they cooperate to orchestrate this critical aspect of platelet biology. We also discuss gaps in the current understanding of αIIbβ3 outside-in signaling and highlight avenues for future investigation. PMID:28794070

Soluble activin receptor type IIB decoy receptor differentially impacts murine osteogenesis imperfecta muscle function.

PubMed

Jeong, Youngjae; Daghlas, Salah A; Kahveci, Alp S; Salamango, Daniel; Gentry, Bettina A; Brown, Marybeth; Rector, R Scott; Pearsall, R Scott; Phillips, Charlotte L

2018-02-01

Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is characterized by skeletal fragility and muscle weakness. In this study we investigated the effects of soluble activin type IIB receptor (sActRIIB-mFc) on muscle mass and function in 2 distinct mouse models of OI: osteogenesis imperfecta murine (oim) and +/G610C. Wild-type (WT), +/G610C, and oim/oim mice were treated from 2 to 4 months of age with Tris-buffered saline (vehicle) or sActRIIB-mFc and their hindlimb muscles evaluated for mass, morphology, and contractile function. sActRIIB-mFc-treated WT, +/G610C, and oim/oim mice had increased hindlimb muscle weights and myofiber cross-sectional area compared with vehicle-treated counterparts. sActRIIB-mFc-treated oim/oim mice also exhibited increased contractile function relative to vehicle-treated counterparts. Blocking endogenous ActRIIB was effective at increasing muscle size in mouse models of OI, and increasing contractile function in oim/oim mice. ActRIIB inhibitors may provide a potential mutation-specific therapeutic option for compromised muscle function in OI. Muscle Nerve 57: 294-304, 2018. © 2017 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.

[Diabetes mellitus and breast cancer. A retrospective follow-up study].

PubMed

Unterburger, P; Sinop, A; Noder, W; Berger, M R; Fink, M; Edler, L; Schmähl, D; Ehrhart, H

1990-02-01

The influence of diabetes mellitus on the course of breast cancer was investigated retrospectively in 752 patients. Possible unfavourable prognostic factors like overweight, lipid disorders, age and menopausal status were considered as confounders in a Cochran-Mantel-Haensel analysis. There was no difference in primary tumor status and lymph node involvement between patients with diabetes mellitus and nondiabetic patients. Diabetic patients had more often overweight, lipid disorders and were older than nondiabetic patients. Metastatic disease was highly significant correlated with primary tumor status (p less than 10(-6)) lymph node involvement (p less than 10(-10)) and diabetes mellitus (p less than 10(-5)). Overweight, lipid disorders, age and menopausal status were not correlated with metastatic disease. A possible explanation of the correlation between diabetes mellitus and metastatic disease could be hyperinsulinism in type IIB diabetes. A type IIB diabetes in most of the patients included in this study is very plausible because of the correlation between overweight, lipid disorders, old age and diabetes mellitus. This type of diabetes is characterised by a relative resistence to insulin in the target tissues and a prolonged and exceeding insulin secretion. Experimental data demonstrate that insulin stimulates the growth of breast cancer cell in vivo and in vitro.

The Compact Mutation of Myostatin Causes a Glycolytic Shift in the Phenotype of Fast Skeletal Muscles

PubMed Central

Baán, Júlia Aliz; Kocsis, Tamás; Keller-Pintér, Anikó; Müller, Géza; Zádor, Ernö; Dux, László

2013-01-01

Myostatin is an important negative regulator of skeletal muscle growth. The hypermuscular Compact (Cmpt) mice carry a 12-bp natural mutation in the myostatin propeptide, with additional modifier genes being responsible for the phenotype. Muscle cellularity of the fast-type tibialis anterior (TA) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL) as well as the mixed-type soleus (SOL) muscles of Cmpt and wild-type mice was examined by immunohistochemical staining of the myosin heavy chain (MHC) proteins. In addition, transcript levels of MHC isoforms were quantified by qPCR. Based on our results, all investigated muscles of Cmpt mice were significantly larger compared with that of wild-type mice, as characterized by fiber hyperplasia of different grades. Fiber hypertrophy was not present in TA; however, EDL muscles showed specific IIB fiber hypertrophy while the (I and IIA) fibers of SOL muscles were generally hypertrophied. Both the fast TA and EDL muscles of Cmpt mice contained significantly more glycolytic IIB fibers accompanied by a decreased number of IIX and IIA fibers; however, this was not the case for SOL muscles. In summary, despite the variances found in muscle cellularity between the different myostatin mutant mice, similar glycolytic shifts were observed in Cmpt fast muscles as in muscles from myostatin knockout mice. PMID:23979839

3D string theory and Umbral moonshine

DOE PAGES

Kachru, Shamit; Paquette, Natalie M.; Volpato, Roberto

2017-09-05

Here, the simplest string theory compactifications to 3D with 16 supercharges—the heterotic string on T 7, and type II strings onmore » $$K3 \\times T^3$$ —are related by U-duality, and share a moduli space of vacua parametrized by $$O(8, 24;{{\\mathbb Z}}) ~\\backslash ~O(8, 24)~ /~ (O(8) \\times O(24))$$ . One can think of this as the moduli space of even, self-dual 32-dimensional lattices with signature (8,24). At 24 special points in moduli space, the lattice splits as $$\\Gamma^{8, 0} \\oplus \\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ . $$\\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ can be the Leech lattice or any of 23 Niemeier lattices, while $$\\Gamma^{8, 0}$$ is the E 8 root lattice. We show that starting from this observation, one can find a precise connection between the Umbral groups and type IIA string theory on K3. This may provide a natural physical starting point for understanding Mathieu and Umbral moonshine. The maximal unbroken subgroups of Umbral groups in 6D (or any other limit) are those obtained by starting at the associated Niemeier point and moving in moduli space while preserving the largest possible subgroup of the Umbral group. To illustrate the action of these symmetries on BPS states, we discuss the computation of certain protected four-derivative terms in the effective field theory, and recover facts about the spectrum and symmetry representations of 1/2-BPS states.« less

Evidence for complexation of P-450 IIC6 by an orphenadrine metabolite.

PubMed

Reidy, G F; Murray, M

1990-01-30

Removal of the orphenadrine metabolite from its complex with rat liver P-450 IIB1 is associated with a discrepancy in the reactivation of IIB1 activity. Two possible explanations are that either (1) NADPH-P-450-reductase is inaccessible to the restored IIB1, or (2) complexation of other P-450s may occur. Exogenous P-450 reductase increased all pathways of steroid hydroxylation (1.9 to 3.6-fold) but did not enhance reactivation of IIB1-dependent steroid 16 beta-hydroxylation. Instead, P-450 IIC6-dependent progesterone 21-hydroxylase activity was increased after dissociation to 122% of control. IIC6 activity was also inhibited in vitro in microsomes from phenobarbital-induced rats (ki = 151 microM). Thus, orphenadrine appears to complex P-450 IIC6 as well as IIB1 in rat liver.

Synergistic effect of signaling from receptors of soluble platelet agonists and outside-in signaling in formation of a stable fibrinogen-integrin αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton complex.

PubMed

Budnik, Ivan; Shenkman, Boris; Savion, Naphtali

2015-01-01

Thrombus formation in the injured vessel wall is a highly complex process involving various blood-born components that go through specific temporal and spatial changes as observed by intravital videomicroscopy. Platelets bind transiently to the developing thrombus and may either become stably incorporated into or disengage from the thrombus. The aim of the present study was to reveal the processes involved in the formation of a stable thrombus. Platelet-rich plasma and washed platelets were studied by the aggregometer. The aggregate stability was challenged by eptifibatide. Platelet Triton-insoluble fraction was prepared and the actin and αIIb content in the cytoskeleton was analyzed by western blot. Maximal actin polymerization is achieved 1min after platelet activation while maximal αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton association requires 5 to 10min of activation and fibrinogen-mediated platelet-to-platelet bridging. Thus, actin polymerization is dependent on platelet activation and requires neither αIIbβ3 integrin occupation nor platelet aggregation. Formation of a stable aggregate requires platelet activation for more than 1min, complete increase in actin cytoskeleton fraction and partial association of αIIbβ3 with the actin cytoskeleton. However, direct αIIbβ3 activation is not sufficient for cytoskeleton complex formation. Thus, stable αIIbβ3-fibrinogen interaction, representing stable aggregate, is achieved after more than 1min agonist activation, involving inside-out and outside-in signaling but not after direct integrin activation, involving only outside-in signaling. Formation of a stable fibrinogen-αIIbβ3-actin cytoskeleton complex is the result of the combined effect of platelet stimulation by soluble agonists, activation of αIIbβ3, fibrinogen binding and platelet-to-platelet bridging. Copyright © 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

αIIbβ3 variants defined by next-generation sequencing: Predicting variants likely to cause Glanzmann thrombasthenia

PubMed Central

Buitrago, Lorena; Rendon, Augusto; Liang, Yupu; Simeoni, Ilenia; Negri, Ana; Filizola, Marta; Ouwehand, Willem H.; Coller, Barry S.; Alessi, Marie-Christine; Ballmaier, Matthias; Bariana, Tadbir; Bellissimo, Daniel; Bertoli, Marta; Bray, Paul; Bury, Loredana; Carrell, Robin; Cattaneo, Marco; Collins, Peter; French, Deborah; Favier, Remi; Freson, Kathleen; Furie, Bruce; Germeshausen, Manuela; Ghevaert, Cedric; Gomez, Keith; Goodeve, Anne; Gresele, Paolo; Guerrero, Jose; Hampshire, Dan J.; Hadinnapola, Charaka; Heemskerk, Johan; Henskens, Yvonne; Hill, Marian; Hogg, Nancy; Johnsen, Jill; Kahr, Walter; Kerr, Ron; Kunishima, Shinji; Laffan, Michael; Natwani, Amit; Neerman-Arbez, Marguerite; Nurden, Paquita; Nurden, Alan; Ormiston, Mark; Othman, Maha; Ouwehand, Willem; Perry, David; Vilk, Shoshana Ravel; Reitsma, Pieter; Rondina, Matthew; Simeoni, Ilenia; Smethurst, Peter; Stephens, Jonathan; Stevenson, William; Szkotak, Artur; Turro, Ernest; Van Geet, Christel; Vries, Minka; Ward, June; Waye, John; Westbury, Sarah; Whiteheart, Sidney; Wilcox, David; Zhang, Bi

2015-01-01

Next-generation sequencing is transforming our understanding of human genetic variation but assessing the functional impact of novel variants presents challenges. We analyzed missense variants in the integrin αIIbβ3 receptor subunit genes ITGA2B and ITGB3 identified by whole-exome or -genome sequencing in the ThromboGenomics project, comprising ∼32,000 alleles from 16,108 individuals. We analyzed the results in comparison with 111 missense variants in these genes previously reported as being associated with Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT), 20 associated with alloimmune thrombocytopenia, and 5 associated with aniso/macrothrombocytopenia. We identified 114 novel missense variants in ITGA2B (affecting ∼11% of the amino acids) and 68 novel missense variants in ITGB3 (affecting ∼9% of the amino acids). Of the variants, 96% had minor allele frequencies (MAF) < 0.1%, indicating their rarity. Based on sequence conservation, MAF, and location on a complete model of αIIbβ3, we selected three novel variants that affect amino acids previously associated with GT for expression in HEK293 cells. αIIb P176H and β3 C547G severely reduced αIIbβ3 expression, whereas αIIb P943A partially reduced αIIbβ3 expression and had no effect on fibrinogen binding. We used receiver operating characteristic curves of combined annotation-dependent depletion, Polyphen 2-HDIV, and sorting intolerant from tolerant to estimate the percentage of novel variants likely to be deleterious. At optimal cut-off values, which had 69–98% sensitivity in detecting GT mutations, between 27% and 71% of the novel αIIb or β3 missense variants were predicted to be deleterious. Our data have implications for understanding the evolutionary pressure on αIIbβ3 and highlight the challenges in predicting the clinical significance of novel missense variants. PMID:25827233

Structure-guided design of a high-affinity platelet integrin αIIbβ3 receptor antagonist that disrupts Mg²⁺ binding to the MIDAS.

PubMed

Zhu, Jieqing; Choi, Won-Seok; McCoy, Joshua G; Negri, Ana; Zhu, Jianghai; Naini, Sarasija; Li, Jihong; Shen, Min; Huang, Wenwei; Bougie, Daniel; Rasmussen, Mark; Aster, Richard; Thomas, Craig J; Filizola, Marta; Springer, Timothy A; Coller, Barry S

2012-03-14

An integrin found on platelets, α(IIb)β(3) mediates platelet aggregation, and α(IIb)β(3) antagonists are effective antithrombotic agents in the clinic. Ligands bind to integrins in part by coordinating a magnesium ion (Mg(2+)) located in the β subunit metal ion-dependent adhesion site (MIDAS). Drugs patterned on the integrin ligand sequence Arg-Gly-Asp have a basic moiety that binds the α(IIb) subunit and a carboxyl group that coordinates the MIDAS Mg(2+) in the β(3) subunits. They induce conformational changes in the β(3) subunit that may have negative consequences such as exposing previously hidden epitopes and inducing the active conformation of the receptor. We recently reported an inhibitor of α(IIb)β(3) (RUC-1) that binds exclusively to the α(IIb) subunit; here, we report the structure-based design and synthesis of RUC-2, a RUC-1 derivative with a ~100-fold higher affinity. RUC-2 does not induce major conformational changes in β(3) as judged by monoclonal antibody binding, light scattering, gel chromatography, electron microscopy, and a receptor priming assay. X-ray crystallography of the RUC-2-α(IIb)β(3) headpiece complex in 1 mM calcium ion (Ca(2+))/5 mM Mg(2+) at 2.6 Å revealed that RUC-2 binds to α(IIb) the way RUC-1 does, but in addition, it binds to the β(3) MIDAS residue glutamic acid 220, thus displacing Mg(2+) from the MIDAS. When the Mg(2+) concentration was increased to 20 mM, however, Mg(2+) was identified in the MIDAS and RUC-2 was absent. RUC-2's ability to inhibit ligand binding and platelet aggregation was diminished by increasing the Mg(2+) concentration. Thus, RUC-2 inhibits ligand binding by a mechanism different from that of all other α(IIb)β(3) antagonists and may offer advantages as a therapeutic agent.

Effects of muscle fiber type on glycolytic potential and meat quality traits in different Tibetan pig muscles and their association with glycolysis-related gene expression.

PubMed

Shen, L Y; Luo, J; Lei, H G; Jiang, Y Z; Bai, L; Li, M Z; Tang, G Q; Li, X W; Zhang, S H; Zhu, L

2015-11-13

The myosin heavy chain (MyHC) composition, glycolytic potential, mitochondrial content, and gene expression related to energy metabolism were analyzed in eight muscles from Tibetan pigs, to study how meat quality develops in different muscle tissues. The muscles were classified into three clusters, based on MyHC composition: masseter, trapezius, and latissimus dorsi as 'slow-oxidative-type'; psoas major and semimembranosus as 'intermediate-type'; and longissimus dorsi, obliquus externus abdominis, and semitendinosus as 'fast-glycolytic-type'. The 'slow-oxidative-type' muscles had the highest MyHC I and MyHC IIA content (P < 0.01); 'intermediate-type' muscles, the highest MyHC IIx content (P < 0.01); and 'fast-glycolytic-type' muscles, the highest MyHC IIb content (P < 0.01). The pH values measured in 'slow-oxidative-type' muscles were higher than those in the other clusters were; however, the color of 'fast-glycolytic-type' muscles was palest (P < 0.01). Mitochondrial content increased in the order: fast-glycolytic-type < intermediate-type < slow-oxidative-type. In the 'slow-oxidative-type' muscles, the expression levels of genes related to ATP synthesis were higher, but were lower for those related to glycogen synthesis and glycolysis. Mitochondrial content was significantly positively correlated with MyHC I content, but negatively correlated with MyHC IIb content. MyHC I and mitochondrial content were both negatively correlated with glycolytic potential. Overall, muscles used frequently in exercise had a higher proportion of type I fibers. 'Slow-oxidative-type' muscles, rich in type I fibers with higher mitochondrial and lower glycogen and glucose contents, had a higher ATP synthesis efficiency and lower glycolytic capacity, which contributed to their superior meat quality.

Analyzing Process Data from Game/Scenario-Based Tasks: An Edit Distance Approach

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Hao, Jiangang; Shu, Zhan; von Davier, Alina

2015-01-01

Students' activities in game/scenario-based tasks (G/SBTs) can be characterized by a sequence of time-stamped actions of different types with different attributes. For a subset of G/SBTs in which only the order of the actions is of great interest, the process data can be well characterized as a string of characters (i.e., action string) if we…

Strong coupling in F-theory and geometrically non-Higgsable seven-branes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Halverson, James

2017-06-01

Geometrically non-Higgsable seven-branes carry gauge sectors that cannot be broken by complex structure deformation, and there is growing evidence that such configurations are typical in F-theory. We study strongly coupled physics associated with these branes. Axiodilaton profiles are computed using Ramanujan's theories of elliptic functions to alternative bases, showing explicitly that the string coupling is O (1) in the vicinity of the brane; that it sources nilpotent SL (2 , Z) monodromy and therefore the associated brane charges are modular; and that essentially all F-theory compactifications have regions with order one string coupling. It is shown that non-perturbative SU (3) and SU (2) seven-branes are related to weakly coupled counterparts with D7-branes via deformation-induced Hanany-Witten moves on (p , q) string junctions that turn them into fundamental open strings; only the former may exist for generic complex structure. D3-brane near these and the Kodaira type II seven-branes probe Argyres-Douglas theories. The BPS states of slightly deformed theories are shown to be dyonic string junctions.

Hadronic density of states from string theory.

PubMed

Pando Zayas, Leopoldo A; Vaman, Diana

2003-09-12

We present an exact calculation of the finite temperature partition function for the hadronic states corresponding to a Penrose-Güven limit of the Maldacena-Nùñez embedding of the N=1 super Yang-Mills (SYM) into string theory. It is established that the theory exhibits a Hagedorn density of states. We propose a semiclassical string approximation to the finite temperature partition function for confining gauge theories admitting a supergravity dual, by performing an expansion around classical solutions characterized by temporal windings. This semiclassical approximation reveals a hadronic energy density of states of a Hagedorn type, with the coefficient determined by the gauge theory string tension as expected for confining theories. We argue that our proposal captures primarily information about states of pure N=1 SYM theory, given that this semiclassical approximation does not entail a projection onto states of large U(1) charge.

Isometry group orbit quantization of spinning strings in AdS3 × S3

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Heinze, Martin; Jorjadze, George; Megrelidze, Luka

2015-03-01

Describing the bosonic AdS3 × S3 particle and string in SU(1,1) × SU(2) group variables, we provide a Hamiltonian treatment of the isometry group orbits of solutions via analysis of the pre-symplectic form. For the particle we obtain a one-parameter family of orbits parameterized by creation-annihilation variables, which leads to the Holstein-Primakoff realization of the isometry group generators. The scheme is then applied to spinning string solutions characterized by one winding number in AdS3 and two winding numbers in S3. We find a two-parameter family of orbits, where quantization again provides the Holstein-Primakoff realization of the symmetry generators with an oscillator-type energy spectrum. Analyzing the minimal energy at strong coupling, we verify the spectrum of short strings at special values of winding numbers.

Sv-map between type I and heterotic sigma models

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fan, Wei; Fotopoulos, A.; Stieberger, S.; Taylor, T. R.

2018-05-01

The scattering amplitudes of gauge bosons in heterotic and open superstring theories are related by the single-valued projection which yields heterotic amplitudes by selecting a subset of multiple zeta value coefficients in the α‧ (string tension parameter) expansion of open string amplitudes. In the present work, we argue that this relation holds also at the level of low-energy expansions (or individual Feynman diagrams) of the respective effective actions, by investigating the beta functions of two-dimensional sigma models describing world-sheets of open and heterotic strings. We analyze the sigma model Feynman diagrams generating identical effective action terms in both theories and show that the heterotic coefficients are given by the single-valued projection of the open ones. The single-valued projection appears as a result of summing over all radial orderings of heterotic vertices on the complex plane representing string world-sheet.

Massless spinning particle and null-string on AdS d : projective-space approach

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Uvarov, D. V.

2018-07-01

The massless spinning particle and the tensionless string models on an AdS d background in the projective-space realization are proposed as constrained Hamiltonian systems. Various forms of particle and string Lagrangians are derived and classical mechanics is studied including the Lax-type representation of the equations of motion. After that, the transition to the quantum theory is discussed. The analysis of potential anomalies in the tensionless string model necessitates the introduction of ghosts and BRST charge. It is shown that a quantum BRST charge is nilpotent for any d if coordinate-momentum ordering for the phase-space bosonic variables, Weyl ordering for the fermions and cb () ordering for the ghosts is chosen, while conformal reparametrizations and space-time dilatations turn out to be anomalous for ordering in terms of positive and negative Fourier modes of the phase-space variables and ghosts.

Quon 3D language for quantum information

PubMed Central

Liu, Zhengwei; Wozniakowski, Alex; Jaffe, Arthur M.

2017-01-01

We present a 3D topological picture-language for quantum information. Our approach combines charged excitations carried by strings, with topological properties that arise from embedding the strings in the interior of a 3D manifold with boundary. A quon is a composite that acts as a particle. Specifically, a quon is a hemisphere containing a neutral pair of open strings with opposite charge. We interpret multiquons and their transformations in a natural way. We obtain a type of relation, a string–genus “joint relation,” involving both a string and the 3D manifold. We use the joint relation to obtain a topological interpretation of the C∗-Hopf algebra relations, which are widely used in tensor networks. We obtain a 3D representation of the controlled NOT (CNOT) gate that is considerably simpler than earlier work, and a 3D topological protocol for teleportation. PMID:28167790

Regulation of an antisense RNA with the transition of neonatal to IIb myosin heavy chain during postnatal development and hypothyroidism in rat skeletal muscle

PubMed Central

Jiang, Weihua; Qin, Anqi X.; Bodell, Paul W.; Baldwin, Kenneth M.; Haddad, Fadia

2012-01-01

Postnatal development of fast skeletal muscle is characterized by a transition in expression of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms, from primarily neonatal MHC at birth to primarily IIb MHC in adults, in a tightly coordinated manner. These isoforms are encoded by distinct genes, which are separated by ∼17 kb on rat chromosome 10. The neonatal-to-IIb MHC transition is inhibited by a hypothyroid state. We examined RNA products [mRNA, pre-mRNA, and natural antisense transcript (NAT)] of developmental and adult-expressed MHC genes (embryonic, neonatal, I, IIa, IIx, and IIb) at 2, 10, 20, and 40 days after birth in normal and thyroid-deficient rat neonates treated with propylthiouracil. We found that a long noncoding antisense-oriented RNA transcript, termed bII NAT, is transcribed from a site within the IIb-Neo intergenic region and across most of the IIb MHC gene. NATs have previously been shown to mediate transcriptional repression of sense-oriented counterparts. The bII NAT is transcriptionally regulated during postnatal development and in response to hypothyroidism. Evidence for a regulatory mechanism is suggested by an inverse relationship between IIb MHC and bII NAT in normal and hypothyroid-treated muscle. Neonatal MHC transcription is coordinately expressed with bII NAT. A comparative phylogenetic analysis also suggests that bII NAT-mediated regulation has been a conserved trait of placental mammals for most of the eutherian evolutionary history. The evidence in support of the regulatory model implicates long noncoding antisense RNA as a mechanism to coordinate the transition between neonatal and IIb MHC during postnatal development. PMID:22262309

Regulation of an antisense RNA with the transition of neonatal to IIb myosin heavy chain during postnatal development and hypothyroidism in rat skeletal muscle.

PubMed

Pandorf, Clay E; Jiang, Weihua; Qin, Anqi X; Bodell, Paul W; Baldwin, Kenneth M; Haddad, Fadia

2012-04-01

Postnatal development of fast skeletal muscle is characterized by a transition in expression of myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoforms, from primarily neonatal MHC at birth to primarily IIb MHC in adults, in a tightly coordinated manner. These isoforms are encoded by distinct genes, which are separated by ∼17 kb on rat chromosome 10. The neonatal-to-IIb MHC transition is inhibited by a hypothyroid state. We examined RNA products [mRNA, pre-mRNA, and natural antisense transcript (NAT)] of developmental and adult-expressed MHC genes (embryonic, neonatal, I, IIa, IIx, and IIb) at 2, 10, 20, and 40 days after birth in normal and thyroid-deficient rat neonates treated with propylthiouracil. We found that a long noncoding antisense-oriented RNA transcript, termed bII NAT, is transcribed from a site within the IIb-Neo intergenic region and across most of the IIb MHC gene. NATs have previously been shown to mediate transcriptional repression of sense-oriented counterparts. The bII NAT is transcriptionally regulated during postnatal development and in response to hypothyroidism. Evidence for a regulatory mechanism is suggested by an inverse relationship between IIb MHC and bII NAT in normal and hypothyroid-treated muscle. Neonatal MHC transcription is coordinately expressed with bII NAT. A comparative phylogenetic analysis also suggests that bII NAT-mediated regulation has been a conserved trait of placental mammals for most of the eutherian evolutionary history. The evidence in support of the regulatory model implicates long noncoding antisense RNA as a mechanism to coordinate the transition between neonatal and IIb MHC during postnatal development.

Multi-Step Fibrinogen Binding to the Integrin αIIbβ3 Detected Using Force Spectroscopy

PubMed Central

Litvinov, Rustem I.; Bennett, Joel S.; Weisel, John W.; Shuman, Henry

2005-01-01

The regulated ability of integrin αIIbβ3 to bind fibrinogen plays a crucial role in platelet aggregation and hemostasis. We have developed a model system based on laser tweezers, enabling us to measure specific rupture forces needed to separate single receptor-ligand complexes. First of all, we performed a thorough and statistically representative analysis of nonspecific protein-protein binding versus specific αIIbβ3-fibrinogen interactions in combination with experimental evidence for single-molecule measurements. The rupture force distribution of purified αIIbβ3 and fibrinogen, covalently attached to underlying surfaces, ranged from ∼20 to 150 pN. This distribution could be fit with a sum of an exponential curve for weak to moderate (20–60 pN) forces, and a Gaussian curve for strong (>60 pN) rupture forces that peaked at 80–90 pN. The interactions corresponding to these rupture force regimes differed in their susceptibility to αIIbβ3 antagonists or Mn2+, an αIIbβ3 activator. Varying the surface density of fibrinogen changed the total binding probability linearly >3.5-fold but did not affect the shape of the rupture force distribution, indicating that the measurements represent single-molecule binding. The yield strength of αIIbβ3-fibrinogen interactions was independent of the loading rate (160–16,000 pN/s), whereas their binding probability markedly correlated with the duration of contact. The aggregate of data provides evidence for complex multi-step binding/unbinding pathways of αIIbβ3 and fibrinogen revealed at the single-molecule level. PMID:16040750

Relationship of angiotensin I-converting enzyme (ACE) and bradykinin B2 receptor (BDKRB2) polymorphism with diabetic nephropathy.

PubMed

Zou, Honghong; Wu, Guoqing; Lv, Jinlei; Xu, Gaosi

2017-06-01

To determine whether ACE 2 I/D and BDKRB2 3 +9/-9 polymorphism causatively affect diabetic nephropathy progression RESULTS: STZ-induced metabolic disorder, as well as inflammatory responses, was significantly aggravated in ACE II-B2R 4 +9bp, ACE DD-B2R+9bp, or ACE DD-B2R-9bp diabetic mice but not ACE II-B2R-9bp, indicating the genetic susceptibility of ACE DD or B2R+9bp to diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, ACE II-B2R+9bp, ACE DD-B2R+9bp, or ACE DD-B2R-9bp rather than ACE II-B2R-9bp, worsened renal performance and enhanced pathological alterations induced by STZ. Markedly elevated monocyte chemoattractant protein-1(MCP-1), podocin, osteopontin (OPN), transforming growth factor-β1 (TGF-β1), and reduced nephrin, podocin were also detected both in diabetic mice and podocytes under hyperglycemic conditions in response to ACE II-B2R+9bp, ACE DD-B2R+9bp, or ACE DD-B2R-9bp, versus ACE II-B2R-9bp. In addition, high glucose-induced mitochondrial oxidative stress and cell apoptosis were observably increased in response to ACE II-B2R+9bp, ACE DD-B2R+9bp, or ACE DD-B2R-9bp but not ACE II-B2R-9bp. We provide first evidence indicating the causation between ACE DD or B2R+9bp genotype and the increased risk for diabetic nephropathy, broadening our horizon about the role of genetic modulators in this disease. Copyright © 2017 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Perturbation theory from automorphic forms

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lambert, Neil; West, Peter

2010-05-01

Using our previous construction of Eisenstein-like automorphic forms we derive formulae for the perturbative and non-perturbative parts for any group and representation. The result is written in terms of the weights of the representation and the derivation is largely group theoretical. Specialising to the E n+1 groups relevant to type II string theory and the representation associated with node n + 1 of the E n+1 Dynkin diagram we explicitly find the perturbative part in terms of String Theory variables, such as the string coupling g d and volume V n . For dimensions seven and higher we find that the perturbation theory involves only two terms. In six dimensions we construct the SO(5, 5) automorphic form using the vector representation. Although these automorphic forms are generally compatible with String Theory, the one relevant to R 4 involves terms with g d -6 and so is problematic. We then study a constrained SO(5, 5) automorphic form, obtained by summing over null vectors, and compute its perturbative part. We find that it is consistent with String Theory and makes precise predictions for the perturbative results. We also study the unconstrained automorphic forms for E 6 in the 27 representation and E 7 in the 133 representation, giving their perturbative part and commenting on their role in String Theory.

Disease Burden of Invasive Listeriosis and Molecular Characterization of Clinical Isolates in Taiwan, 2000-2013

PubMed Central

Huang, Yu-Tsung; Ko, Wen-Chien; Chan, Yu-Jiun; Lu, Jang-Jih; Tsai, Hsih-Yeh; Liao, Chun-Hsing; Sheng, Wang-Huei; Teng, Lee-Jene; Hsueh, Po-Ren

2015-01-01

The information about disease burden and epidemiology of invasive listeriosis in Asia is scarce. From 2000 to 2013, a total of 338 patients with invasive listeriosis (bacteremia, meningitis, and peritonitis) were treated at four medical centers in Taiwan. The incidence (per 10,000 admissions) of invasive listeriosis increased significantly during the 14-year period among the four centers (0.15 in 2000 and >1.25 during 2010–2012) and at each of the four medical centers. Among these patients, 45.9% were elderly (>65 years old) and 3.3% were less than one year of age. More than one-third (36.7%) of the patients acquired invasive listeriosis in the spring (April to June). Among the 132 preserved Listeria monocytogenes isolates analyzed, the most frequently isolated PCR serogroup-sequence type (ST) was IIb-ST87 (23.5%), followed by IIa-ST378 (19.7%) and IIa-ST155 (12.1%). Isolation of PCR serogroups IIb and IVb increased significantly with year, with a predominance of IIb-ST87 isolates (23.5%) and IIb-ST 228 isolates emerging in 2013. A total of 12 different randomly amplified polymorphic DNA (RAPD) patterns (Patterns I to XII) were identified among the 112 L. monocytogenes isolates belonging to eight main PCR serogroup-STs. Identical RAPD patterns were found among the isolates exhibiting the same PCR serogroup-ST. In conclusion, our study revealed that during 2000–2013, listeriosis at four medical centers in Taiwan was caused by heterogeneous strains and that the upsurge in incidence beginning in 2005 was caused by at least two predominant clones. PMID:26555445

The He-rich stripped-envelope core-collapse supernova 2008ax

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Taubenberger, S.; Navasardyan, H.; Maurer, J. I.; Zampieri, L.; Chugai, N. N.; Benetti, S.; Agnoletto, I.; Bufano, F.; Elias-Rosa, N.; Turatto, M.; Patat, F.; Cappellaro, E.; Mazzali, P. A.; Iijima, T.; Valenti, S.; Harutyunyan, A.; Claudi, R.; Dolci, M.

2011-05-01

Extensive optical and near-infrared (NIR) observations of the Type IIb supernova (SN IIb) 2008ax are presented, covering the first year after the explosion. The light curve is mostly similar in shape to that of the prototypical SN IIb 1993J, but shows a slightly faster decline rate at late phases and lacks the prominent narrow early-time peak of SN 1993J. From the bolometric light curve and ejecta expansion velocities, we estimate that about 0.07-0.15 M⊙ of 56Ni was produced during the explosion and that the total ejecta mass was between 2 and 5 M⊙, with a kinetic energy of at least 1051 erg. The spectral evolution of SN 2008ax is similar to that of SN Ib/IIb 2007Y, exhibiting high-velocity Ca II features at early phases and signs of ejecta-wind interaction from Hα observations at late times. NIR spectra show strong He I lines similar to SN Ib 1999ex and a large number of emission features at late times. Particularly interesting are the strong, double-peaked He I lines in late NIR spectra, which - together with the double-peaked [O I] emission in late optical spectra - provide clues for the asymmetry and large-scale Ni mixing in the ejecta. a Phase in days with respect to the explosion date (JD =245 4528.80 ± 0.15). B-band maximum light occurred on day 18.3. b Average seeing in arcsec over all filter bands. c CAFOS = Calar Alto 2.2m Telescope + CAFOS; DOLORES = 3.58m Telescopio Nazionale Galileo + DOLORES; AFOSC = Asiago 1.82m Copernico Telescope + AFOSC.

Conceptual waste packaging options for deep borehole disposal

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Su, Jiann -Cherng; Hardin, Ernest L.

This report presents four concepts for packaging of radioactive waste for disposal in deep boreholes. Two of these are reference-size packages (11 inch outer diameter) and two are smaller (5 inch) for disposal of Cs/Sr capsules. All four have an assumed length of approximately 18.5 feet, which allows the internal length of the waste volume to be 16.4 feet. However, package length and volume can be scaled by changing the length of the middle, tubular section. The materials proposed for use are low-alloy steels, commonly used in the oil-and-gas industry. Threaded connections between packages, and internal threads used to sealmore » the waste cavity, are common oilfield types. Two types of fill ports are proposed: flask-type and internal-flush. All four package design concepts would withstand hydrostatic pressure of 9,600 psi, with factor safety 2.0. The combined loading condition includes axial tension and compression from the weight of a string or stack of packages in the disposal borehole, either during lower and emplacement of a string, or after stacking of multiple packages emplaced singly. Combined loading also includes bending that may occur during emplacement, particularly for a string of packages threaded together. Flask-type packages would be fabricated and heat-treated, if necessary, before loading waste. The fill port would be narrower than the waste cavity inner diameter, so the flask type is suitable for directly loading bulk granular waste, or loading slim waste canisters (e.g., containing Cs/Sr capsules) that fit through the port. The fill port would be sealed with a tapered, threaded plug, with a welded cover plate (welded after loading). Threaded connections between packages and between packages and a drill string, would be standard drill pipe threads. The internal flush packaging concepts would use semi-flush oilfield tubing, which is internally flush but has a slight external upset at the joints. This type of tubing can be obtained with premium, low-profile threaded connections at each end. The internal-flush design would be suitable for loading waste that arrives from the originating site in weld-sealed, cylindrical canisters. Internal, tapered plugs with sealing filet welds would seal the tubing at each end. The taper would be precisely machined onto both the tubing and the plug, producing a metal-metal sealing surface that is compressed as the package is subjected to hydrostatic pressure. The lower plug would be welded in place before loading, while the upper plug would be placed and welded after loading. Conceptual Waste Packaging Options for Deep Borehole Disposal July 30, 2015 iv Threaded connections between packages would allow emplacement singly or in strings screwed together at the disposal site. For emplacement on a drill string the drill pipe would be connected directly into the top package of a string (using an adapter sub to mate with premium semi-flush tubing threads). Alternatively, for wireline emplacement the same package designs could be emplaced singly using a sub with wireline latch, on the upper end. Threaded connections on the bottom of the lowermost package would allow attachment of a crush box, instrumentation, etc.« less

Effects of Calorie Restriction and Fiber Type on Glucose Uptake and Abundance of Electron Transport Chain and Oxidative Phosphorylation Proteins in Single Fibers from Old Rats.

PubMed

Wang, Haiyan; Arias, Edward B; Yu, Carmen S; Verkerke, Anthony R P; Cartee, Gregory D

2017-11-09

Calorie restriction (CR; reducing calorie intake by ~40% below ad libitum) can increase glucose uptake by insulin-stimulated muscle. Because skeletal muscle is comprised of multiple, heterogeneous fiber types, our primary aim was to determine the effects of CR (initiated at 14 weeks old) and fiber type on insulin-stimulated glucose uptake by single fibers of diverse fiber types in 23-26-month-old rats. Isolated epitrochlearis muscles from AL and CR rats were incubated with [3H]-2-deoxyglucose ± insulin. Glucose uptake and fiber type were determined for single fibers dissected from the muscles. We also determined CR-effects on abundance of several key metabolic proteins in single fibers. CR resulted in: (a) significantly (p < .05 to .001) greater glucose uptake by insulin-stimulated type I, IIA, IIB, IIBX, and IIX fibers; (b) significantly (p < .05 to .001) reduced abundance of several mitochondrial electron transport chain (ETC) and oxidative phosphorylation (OxPhos) proteins in type I, IIA, and IIBX but not IIB and IIX fibers; and (c) unaltered hexokinase II abundance in each fiber type. These results demonstrate that CR can enhance glucose uptake in each fiber type of rat skeletal muscle in the absence of upregulation of the abundance of hexokinase II or key mitochondrial ETC and OxPhos proteins. © The Author 2017. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of The Gerontological Society of America. All rights reserved. For permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oup.com.

Endoscopic agger nasi type Draf IIb treatment for frontal sinus lesions.

PubMed

Shi, Linggai; Liu, Jun; Ma, Jiqing; Liu, Fei; Wang, Guangke

2016-09-01

Treatment of frontal sinus using surgery is complicated owing to the complex anatomical structure of the sinus region. The aim of the present study was to investigate the efficacy and safety of Draf IIb endoscopic frontal sinus surgery treatment for frontal sinus lesions using the agger nasi approach on 19 patients (28 left or and right nasal cavities). A 10-12 mm excision of the upper frontal maxilla was performed for endoscopic resection between the middle turbinate and lateral nasal wall. No serious complications in frontal sinus surgery treatment for the removal of the frontal sinus were observed. Patients were followed up after surgery for 6-36 months. Chronic sinusitis and nasal polyps were identified in 10 cases (19 left or and right nasal cavities; disease control, 15 left or and right nasal cavities; and disease partial control, 4 left or and right nasal cavities). Frontal sinus inverted papilloma was observed in 9 cases (9 left or and right nasal cavities). Frontal sinus inverted papilloma were successfully treated in 8 cases, and 1 case of recurrence was observed. In conclusion, the nasal endoscopic Draf IIb agger nasi approach is a minimally invasive treatment for frontal sinus lesions. This surgical procedure is safe and less complicated and may be applied in the clinic.

Arsenate transport by sodium/phosphate cotransporter type IIb

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Villa-Bellosta, Ricardo, E-mail: rvilla@unizar.e; Sorribas, Victor, E-mail: sorribas@unizar.e

2010-08-15

Arsenic is a metalloid that causes the dysfunction of critical enzymes, oxidative stress, and malignancies. In recent years several transporters of As{sup III} have been identified, including aquaglyceroporins (AQP) and multidrug resistance proteins (MRP). As{sup V} transport, however, has not been sufficiently studied because it has been assumed that arsenate is taken up by mammalian cells through inorganic phosphate (Pi) transporters. In this paper we have analyzed the role of Pi transporters in the uptake of arsenate by directly using {sup 73}As{sup V} as a radiotracer in phosphate transporter-expressing Xenopus laevis oocytes. The affinities of Pi transporters for H{sub 3}AsO{submore » 4} were lower than the affinities for Pi. NaPiIIa, NaPiIIc, Pit1, and Pit2 showed a K{sub m} for arsenate that was > 1 mM (i.e., at least ten times lower than the affinities for Pi). The NaPiIIb isoform showed the highest affinity for As{sup V} in mouse (57 {mu}M), rat (51 {mu}M), and human (9.7 {mu}M), which are very similar to the affinities for Pi. Therefore, NaPiIIb can have a prominent role in the toxicokinetics of arsenic following oral exposure to freshwater or food contaminated with As{sup V}.« less

Chemical surface deposition of ultra-thin semiconductors

DOEpatents

McCandless, Brian E.; Shafarman, William N.

2003-03-25

A chemical surface deposition process for forming an ultra-thin semiconducting film of Group IIB-VIA compounds onto a substrate. This process eliminates particulates formed by homogeneous reactions in bath, dramatically increases the utilization of Group IIB species, and results in the formation of a dense, adherent film for thin film solar cells. The process involves applying a pre-mixed liquid coating composition containing Group IIB and Group VIA ionic species onto a preheated substrate. Heat from the substrate causes a heterogeneous reaction between the Group IIB and VIA ionic species of the liquid coating composition, thus forming a solid reaction product film on the substrate surface.

A critical role for topoisomerase IIb and DNA double strand breaks in transcription

PubMed Central

Calderwood, Stuart K.

2016-01-01

ABSTRACT Recent studies have indicated a novel role for topoisomerase IIb in transcription. Transcription of heat shock genes, serum-induced immediate early genes and nuclear receptor-activated genes, each required DNA double strands generated by topoisomerase IIb. Such strand breaks seemed both necessary and sufficient for transcriptional activation. In addition, such transcription was associated with initiation of the DNA damage response pathways, including the activation of the enzymes: ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM), DNA-dependent protein kinase and poly (ADP ribose) polymerase 1. DNA damage response signaling was involved both in transcription and in repair of DNA breaks generated by topoisomerase IIb. PMID:27100743

A critical role for topoisomerase IIb and DNA double strand breaks in transcription.

PubMed

Calderwood, Stuart K

2016-05-26

Recent studies have indicated a novel role for topoisomerase IIb in transcription. Transcription of heat shock genes, serum-induced immediate early genes and nuclear receptor-activated genes, each required DNA double strands generated by topoisomerase IIb. Such strand breaks seemed both necessary and sufficient for transcriptional activation. In addition, such transcription was associated with initiation of the DNA damage response pathways, including the activation of the enzymes: ataxia-telangiectasia mutated (ATM), DNA-dependent protein kinase and poly (ADP ribose) polymerase 1. DNA damage response signaling was involved both in transcription and in repair of DNA breaks generated by topoisomerase IIb.

Elective neck dissection for primary oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma involving the tongue should include sublevel IIb.

PubMed

Maher, Nigel Gordon; Hoffman, Gary Russell

2014-11-01

The surgical clearance of sublevel IIb lymph nodes, facilitated by neck dissection, increases the risk of postoperative shoulder dysfunction. Our study purpose was to determine the value of including sublevel IIb in elective neck dissections for primary oral cavity squamous cell carcinoma (OCSCC). A retrospective cohort study based on a review of the pathology records accumulated by 1 head and neck surgeon was conducted for 71 patients with clinically node-negative, primary OCSCC treated from 2006 to June 2013. The predictor variables were the oral cavity subsite and tumor clinicopathologic characteristics (ie, perineural, perivascular, and perilymphatic invasion, tumor depth, and T stage). The primary outcome variable was the presence of sublevel IIb metastasis. The secondary outcome variables were the survival and tumor recurrence rates and metastases to any cervical level. Descriptive statistics were calculated for the categorical and continuous variables. A comparison of categorical variables was performed using Fisher's exact test; for continuous variables, t tests or the Mann-Whitney U test were used for 2 groups and analysis of variance or Kruskal-Wallis tests (with Bonferroni's correction) were used for more than 2 groups, depending on the distribution. Disease-specific survival (DSS) analyses were plotted for the predictor variables and patients with sublevel IIb metastasis. Competing risks models were created using the Fine and Gray method (SAS macro %PSHREG) to provide estimates of the crude and adjusted subhazard ratios for DSS for all variables. A total of 71 patients were included in the present study, of whom 69% were male. The greatest proportion of oral cavity subsites was from the tongue and floor of mouth. The overall frequency of sublevel IIb lymphatic metastases at neck dissection was 5.6% of the patient cohort. Sublevel IIb metastases occurred from the primary sites involving the tongue (n = 3) and retromolar trigone (n = 1). The incidence of perilymphatic and perivascular invasion was significantly associated with sublevel IIb lymphatic metastases (P < .02). Sublevel IIb is likely to be an important region to incorporate in elective neck dissections for primary OCSCC involving the tongue. More studies are needed, with greater numbers, to clarify the risk of metastasis to sublevel IIb from oral cavity subsites in primary OCSCC with clinically node-negative necks. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

76 FR 28265 - Solicitation of Comment To Assist in Study on Assigned Credit Ratings

Federal Register 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014

2011-05-16

... Commission requests, in Section II.B, that interested parties address these matters through a series of... in rating structured finance products. For example, in what ways, if any, does the issuer... structured finance products? For example, do certain types of structured finance products account for a...

Power-law expansion of the Universe from the bosonic Lorentzian type IIB matrix model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ito, Yuta; Nishimura, Jun; Tsuchiya, Asato

2015-11-01

Recent studies on the Lorentzian version of the type IIB matrix model show that (3+1)D expanding universe emerges dynamically from (9+1)D space-time predicted by superstring theory. Here we study a bosonic matrix model obtained by omitting the fermionic matrices. With the adopted simplification and the usage of a large-scale parallel computer, we are able to perform Monte Carlo calculations with matrix size up to N = 512, which is twenty times larger than that used previously for the studies of the original model. When the matrix size is larger than some critical value N c ≃ 110, we find that (3+1)D expanding universe emerges dynamically with a clear large- N scaling property. Furthermore, the observed increase of the spatial extent with time t at sufficiently late times is consistent with a power-law behavior t 1/2, which is reminiscent of the expanding behavior of the Friedmann-Robertson-Walker universe in the radiation dominated era. We discuss possible implications of this result on the original supersymmetric model including fermionic matrices.

Realizing three generations of the Standard Model fermions in the type IIB matrix model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Aoki, Hajime; Nishimura, Jun; Tsuchiya, Asato

2014-05-01

We discuss how the Standard Model particles appear from the type IIB matrix model, which is considered to be a nonperturbative formulation of superstring theory. In particular, we are concerned with a constructive definition of the theory, in which we start with finite- N matrices and take the large- N limit afterwards. In that case, it was pointed out recently that realizing chiral fermions in the model is more difficult than it had been thought from formal arguments at N = ∞ and that introduction of a matrix version of the warp factor is necessary. Based on this new insight, we show that two generations of the Standard Model fermions can be realized by considering a rather generic configuration of fuzzy S2 and fuzzy S2 × S2 in the extra dimensions. We also show that three generations can be obtained by squashing one of the S2's that appear in the configuration. Chiral fermions appear at the intersections of the fuzzy manifolds with nontrivial Yukawa couplings to the Higgs field, which can be calculated from the overlap of their wave functions.

The Effects of Sentence Imitation and Picture Verification on the Recall of Subsequent Digits. Lektos: Interdisciplinary Working Papers in Language Sciences, Vol. 3, No. 1.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Scholes, Robert J.; And Others

The effects of sentence imitation and picture verification on the recall of subsequent digits were studied. Stimuli consisted of 20 sentences, each sentence followed by a string of five digit names, and five structural types of sentences were presented. Subjects were instructed to listen to the sentence and digit string and then either immediately…

Solving Semantic Searches for Source Code

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-11-01

but of input and expected output pairs. In this domain, those inputs take the form of strings and outputs could be one of sev- eral datatypes ...for some relaxation of CPi that yields C ′ Pi . Encoding weakening is performed by systematically making the constraints on a particular datatype ...the datatypes that can hold concrete or symbolic values: integers, characters, booleans, and strings. The Java implementation uses all the data types

Stereo-Based Region-Growing using String Matching

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Mandelbaum, Robert; Mintz, Max

1995-01-01

We present a novel stereo algorithm based on a coarse texture segmentation preprocessing phase. Matching is performed using a string comparison. Matching sub-strings correspond to matching sequences of textures. Inter-scanline clustering of matching sub-strings yields regions of matching texture. The shape of these regions yield information concerning object's height, width and azimuthal position relative to the camera pair. Hence, rather than the standard dense depth map, the output of this algorithm is a segmentation of objects in the scene. Such a format is useful for the integration of stereo with other sensor modalities on a mobile robotic platform. It is also useful for localization; the height and width of a detected object may be used for landmark recognition, while depth and relative azimuthal location determine pose. The algorithm does not rely on the monotonicity of order of image primitives. Occlusions, exposures, and foreshortening effects are not problematic. The algorithm can deal with certain types of transparencies. It is computationally efficient, and very amenable to parallel implementation. Further, the epipolar constraints may be relaxed to some small but significant degree. A version of the algorithm has been implemented and tested on various types of images. It performs best on random dot stereograms, on images with easily filtered backgrounds (as in synthetic images), and on real scenes with uncontrived backgrounds.

Determination of lumbosacral transitional vertebrae in kidney urinary bladder x-ray films in the Saudi population

PubMed Central

Khashoggi, Khalid G.; Hafiz, Rawan M.; Bock, Yasmin M.; Kaki, Abdullah M.

2017-01-01

Objectives: To investigated the rate of occurrence of lumbosacral transitional vertebrae (LSTV), spinal variant, in kidney urinary bladder (KUB) plain radiographs in a Saudi population. Methods: Between January 2012 to January 2015, KUB plain films obtained from patients at King Abdulaziz University Hospital, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, were reviewed, and the presence or absence of LSTV was documented and classified as incomplete or complete. Patients who had evidence of spinal surgery that would obscure the view were excluded. Results: A total of 2078 patients underwent KUB examinations during the study period; LSTV anomalies were detected in 158 of these. Sacralization was present in 153 (96.8%) of this cohort, while lumbarization was present in 5 (3.2%). A total of 136 (86.1%) of the sacralized segments were of the incomplete type, whereas 17 (10.7%) were complete. Of the lumbarized vertebrae, 3 (1.8%) were incomplete, and 2 (1.2%) were complete. The most frequent type in men was type Ib (28.5%) for sacralized segments, and type IIb for lumbarized segments (0.6%). In women, type Ia was the most common form of sacralized segments (11.3%) and type IIb was the most common form of lumbarized segments (2.8%). Conclusion: The prevalence of LSTV in Saudi patients is 7.6%, with a higher incidence of sacralization than lumbarization. Further studies with larger sample sizes and longer follow-up time are needed to demonstrate the clinical significance thereof. PMID:28762430

Head and neck cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma metastatic to cervical sublevel IIb lymph nodes occurred from primary sites involving the auricle and adjacent neck.

PubMed

Maher, Nigel Gordon; Hoffman, Gary Russell

2014-03-01

Neck dissections that include sublevel IIb increase the risk of postoperative shoulder dysfunction. The purpose of this investigation was to document the incidence of level IIb metastatic lymphatic spread in a group of patients undergoing neck dissection as part of the surgical management of cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck. A retrospective review of the pathology records taken from 1 surgeon from June 2006 through June 2013 was carried out. The predictor variable was the primary tumor site. The outcome variable was the metastatic nodal involvement according to neck level and sublevel. Secondary variables included T stage, pathologist, tumor depth, and the presence of perineural, perilymphatic, and perivascular invasion. Data analyses were by descriptive statistics. Thirty-six patients with a total of 40 neck dissections met the inclusion criteria. The average primary site tumor depth was 14.7 mm, and there were 16 cases of poorly differentiated squamous cell carcinoma. Sublevel IIb was involved in 7.5% of cases, all of which occurred from lateralized primary sites of the head and neck. Cutaneous squamous cell carcinoma arising from the auricle and neck sites adjacent to sublevel IIb may have increased risk of metastatic involvement of sublevel IIb nodes. Further studies with larger numbers are required to determine the risk of metastasis to sublevel IIb from midline sites of the face. Crown Copyright © 2014. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Millicharged dark matter in quantum gravity and string theory.

PubMed

Shiu, Gary; Soler, Pablo; Ye, Fang

2013-06-14

We examine the millicharged dark matter scenario from a string theory perspective. In this scenario, kinetic and mass mixings of the photon with extra U(1) bosons are claimed to give rise to small electric charges, carried by dark matter particles, whose values are determined by continuous parameters of the theory. This seems to contradict folk theorems of quantum gravity that forbid the existence of irrational charges in theories with a single massless gauge field. By considering the underlying structure of the U(1) mass matrix that appears in type II string compactifications, we show that millicharges arise exclusively through kinetic mixing, and require the existence of at least two exactly massless gauge bosons.

New infinite-dimensional hidden symmetries for heterotic string theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao Yajun

The symmetry structures of two-dimensional heterotic string theory are studied further. A (2d+n)x(2d+n) matrix complex H-potential is constructed and the field equations are extended into a complex matrix formulation. A pair of Hauser-Ernst-type linear systems are established. Based on these linear systems, explicit formulations of new hidden symmetry transformations for the considered theory are given and then these symmetry transformations are verified to constitute infinite-dimensional Lie algebras: the semidirect product of the Kac-Moody o(d,d+n-circumflex) and Virasoro algebras (without center charges). These results demonstrate that the heterotic string theory under consideration possesses more and richer symmetry structures than previously expected.

Studies of tricyclic piperazine/piperidine furnished molecules as novel integrin αvβ3/αIIbβ3 dual antagonists using 3D-QSAR and molecular docking.

PubMed

Yan, Yulian; Li, Yan; Zhang, Shuwei; Ai, Chunzhi

2011-02-01

The development of injectable integrin α(v)β(3)/α(IIb)β(3) dual antagonists attracts much attention of research for treating of acute ischemic diseases in recent years. In this work, based on a dataset composed of 102 tricyclic piperazine/piperidine furnished dual α(v)β(3) and α(IIb)β(3) antagonists, a variety of in silico modeling approaches including the comparative molecular field analysis (CoMFA), comparative similarity indices analysis (CoMSIA), and molecular docking were applied to reveal the requisite 3D structural features impacting the biological activities. Our statistical results show that the ligand-based 3D-QSAR models for both the α(v)β(3) and α(IIb)β(3) studies exhibited satisfactory internal and external predictability, i.e., for the CoMFA models, results of Q(2)=0.48, R(ncv)(2)=0.87, R(pred)(2)=0.71 for α(v)β(3) and Q(2)=0.50, R(ncv)(2)=0.85, R(pred)(2)=0.72 for α(IIb)β(3) analysis were obtained, and for the CoMSIA ones, the outcomes of Q(2)=0.55, R(ncv)(2)=0.90, R(pred)(2)=0.72 for α(v)β(3) and Q(2)=0.52, R(ncv)(2)=0.88, R(pred)(2)=0.74 for α(IIb)β(3) were achieved respectively. In addition, through a comparison between 3D-QSAR contour maps and docking results, it is revealed that that the most crucial interactions occurring between the tricyclic piperazine/piperidine derivatives and α(v)β(3)/α(IIb)β(3) receptor ligand binding pocket are H-bonding, and the key amino acids impacting the interactions are Arg214, Asn215, Ser123, and Lys253 for α(v)β(3), but Arg214, Asn215, Ser123 and Tyr190 for α(IIb)β(3) receptors, respectively. Halogen-containing groups at position 15 and 16, benzene sulfonamide substituent at position 23, and the replacement of piperazine with 4-aminopiperidine of ring B may increase the α(v)β(3)/α(IIb)β(3) antagonistic activity. The potencies for antagonists to inhibit isolated α(v)β(3) and α(IIb)β(3) are linear correlated, indicating that similar interaction mechanisms may exist for the series of molecules. To our best knowledge this is the first report on 3D-QSAR modeling of these dual α(v)β(3)/α(IIb)β(3) antagonists. The results obtained should provide information for better understanding of the mechanism of antagonism and thus be helpful in design of novel potent dual α(v)β(3)/α(IIb)β(3) antagonists. Copyright © 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Fat content in individual muscle fibers of lean and obese subjects.

PubMed

Malenfant, P; Joanisse, D R; Thériault, R; Goodpaster, B H; Kelley, D E; Simoneau, J A

2001-09-01

To examine skeletal muscle intracellular triglyceride concentration in different fiber types in relation to obesity. Skeletal muscle fiber type distribution and intracellular lipid content were measured in vastus lateralis samples obtained by needle biopsy from lean and obese individuals. Seven lean controls (body mass index (BMI) 23.0+/-3.3 kg/m(2); mean+/-s.d.) and 14 obese (BMI 33.7+/-2.7 kg/m(2)) individuals; both groups included comparable proportions of men and women. Samples were histochemically stained for the identification of muscle fiber types (myosin ATPase) and intracellular lipid aggregates (oil red O dye). The number and size of fat aggregates as well as their concentration within type I, IIA and IIB muscle fiber types were measured. The cellular distribution of the lipid aggregates was also examined. The size of fat aggregates was not affected by obesity but the number of lipid droplets within muscle fibers was twice as abundant in obese compared to lean individuals. This was seen in type I (298+/-135 vs 129+/-75; obese vs lean, P<0.05), IIA (132+/-67 vs 79+/-29; P<0.05), and IIB (103+/-63 vs 51+/-13; P<0.05) muscle fibers. A more central distribution of lipid droplets was observed in muscle fibers of obese compared to lean subjects (27.2+/-5.7 vs 19.7+/-6.4%; P<0.05). The higher number of lipid aggregates and the disposition to a greater central distribution in all fiber types in obesity indicate important changes in lipid metabolism and/or storage that are fiber type-independent.

Word Skipping During Sentence Reading: Effects of Lexicality on Parafoveal Processing

PubMed Central

Choi, Wonil; Gordon, Peter C.

2013-01-01

Two experiments examined how lexical status affects the targeting of saccades during reading by using the boundary technique to vary independently the content of a letter string when seen in parafoveal preview and when directly fixated. Experiment 1 measured the skipping rate for a target word embedded in a sentence under three parafoveal preview conditions: full preview (e.g. brain-brain), pseudohomophone preview (e.g. brane-brain), and orthographic nonword control preview (e.g. brant-brain); in the first condition the preview string was always an English word while in the second and third conditions it was always a nonword. Experiment 2 investigated three conditions where the preview string was always a word: full preview (e.g. beach-beach), homophone preview (e.g. beech-beach), and orthographic control preview (e.g. bench-beach). None of the letter string manipulations used to create the preview conditions in the experiments disrupted sub-lexical orthographic or phonological patterns. In Experiment 1 higher skipping rates were observed for the full (lexical) preview condition, which consisted of a word, compared to the nonword preview conditions (pseudohomophone and orthographic-control). In contrast Experiment 2 showed no difference in skipping rates across the three types of lexical preview conditions (full, homophone and orthographic control), though preview type did influence reading times. This pattern indicates that skipping depends not only on the presence of disrupted sub-lexical patterns of orthography or phonology but is also critically dependent on processes that are sensitive to the lexical status of letter strings in the parafovea. PMID:24170376

Structure and Activity Analyses of Escherichia coli K-12 NagD Provide Insight into the Evolution of Biochemical Function in the Haloakanoic Acid Dehlogenase Superfamily

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Tremblay,L.; Dunaway-Mariano, D.; Allen, K.

2006-01-01

The HAD superfamily is a large superfamily of proteins which share a conserved core domain that provides those active site residues responsible for the chemistry common to all family members. The superfamily is further divided into the four subfamilies I, IIA, IIB, and III, based on the topology and insertion site of a cap domain that provides substrate specificity. This structural and functional division implies that members of a given HAD structural subclass may target substrates that have similar structural characteristics. To understand the structure/function relationships in all of the subfamilies, a type IIA subfamily member, NagD from Escherichia colimore » K-12, was selected (type I, IIB, and III members have been more extensively studied). The structure of the NagD protein was solved to 1.80 Angstroms with R{sub work} = 19.8% and R{sub free} = 21.8%. Substrate screening and kinetic analysis showed NagD to have high specificity for nucleotide monophosphates with kcat/Km = 3.12 x 10{sup 4} and 1.28 x 10{sup 4} {micro}M{sup -1} s{sup -1} for UMP and GMP, respectively. This specificity is consistent with the presence of analogues of NagD that exist as fusion proteins with a nucleotide pyrophosphatase from the Nudix family. Docking of the nucleoside substrate in the active site brings it in contact with conserved residues from the cap domain that can act as a substrate specificity loop (NagD residues 144-149) in the type IIA subfamily. NagD and other subfamily IIA and IIB members show the common trait that substrate specificity and catalytic efficiencies (k{sub cat}/K{sub m}) are low (1 x 10{sup 4} M{sup -1} s{sup -1}) and the boundaries defining physiological substrates are somewhat overlapping. The ability to catabolize other related secondary metabolites indicates that there is regulation at the genetic level.« less

Overexpression of caveolin-3-enhanced protein synthesis rather than proteolysis inhibition in C2C12 myoblasts: relationship with myostatin activity.

PubMed

Hadj Sassi, Abdessattar; Monteil, Julien; Sauvant, Patrick; Atgié, Claude

2012-12-01

Caveolin-3 (cav-3), which is involved in the regulation of signal transduction and vesicular trafficking, could interact with activin receptor IIB to inhibit myostatin (MSTN) activity and may therefore play a role in muscle development and hypertrophy. MSTN is a member of the transforming growth factor-β family, identified as a negative regulator of skeletal muscle mass. The expression of MSTN is fiber-type specific and the greatest amount of MSTN is present in fiber, which is composed of myosin heavy chain (MHC) type IIb. MSTN acts through the activin receptor IIB to activate smad2/3 which leads to an increase in gene transcription involved in muscle atrophy. Muscle hypertrophy is a consequence of two mechanisms: (1) the inhibition of proteolysis such as the calcium-dependent proteolytic system calpains and calpastatin and (2) an increase in protein synthesis through the Akt/mTOR/p70s6K pathway. In order to determine which of the two processes predominates in inhibition of MSTN activity in a cav-3 context, we transfected a C2C12 cell line with plasmids containing mstn or cav-3 wild genes. The results reported in this study demonstrate that inhibition of MSTN activity by overexpression of cav-3 induces an activation of protein synthesis rather than an inhibition of proteolysis through the calcium proteolytic system. The inhibition of phosphorylation of smad-3 due to overexpression of cav-3 causes an increase in the phosphorylation of the ribosomal protein S6, promoting the synthesis of MHC type II, probably through activation of Akt/mTOR/p70s6K. These data highlight the role of protein synthesis as the predominant mechanism in muscle hypertrophy observed when the expression of MSTN is altered and confirm the value of studying the physiological role of MSTN in the growing processes of skeletal muscle.

The SU(r)2 string functions as q-diagrams

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Genish, Arel; Gepner, Doron

2016-06-01

A generalized Roger Ramanujan (GRR) type expression for the characters of A-type parafermions has been a long standing puzzle dating back to conjectures made regarding some of the characters in the 90s. Not long ago we have put forward such GRR type identities describing any of the level two ADE-type generalized parafermions characters at any rank. These characters are the string functions of simply laced Lie algebras at level two, as such, they are also of mathematical interest. In our last joint paper we presented the complete derivation for the D-type generalized parafermions characters identities. Here we generalize our previous discussion and prove the GRR type expressions for the characters of A-type generalized parafermions. To prove the A-type GRR conjecture we study further the q-diagrams, introduced in our last joint paper, and examine the diagrammatic interpretations of known identities among them Slater identities for the characters of the first minimal model, which is the Ising model, and the Bailey lemma.

Non-Abelian string and particle braiding in topological order: Modular SL (3 ,Z ) representation and (3 +1 ) -dimensional twisted gauge theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Wang, Juven C.; Wen, Xiao-Gang

2015-01-01

String and particle braiding statistics are examined in a class of topological orders described by discrete gauge theories with a gauge group G and a 4-cocycle twist ω4 of G 's cohomology group H4(G ,R /Z ) in three-dimensional space and one-dimensional time (3 +1 D ) . We establish the topological spin and the spin-statistics relation for the closed strings and their multistring braiding statistics. The 3 +1 D twisted gauge theory can be characterized by a representation of a modular transformation group, SL (3 ,Z ) . We express the SL (3 ,Z ) generators Sx y z and Tx y in terms of the gauge group G and the 4-cocycle ω4. As we compactify one of the spatial directions z into a compact circle with a gauge flux b inserted, we can use the generators Sx y and Tx y of an SL (2 ,Z ) subgroup to study the dimensional reduction of the 3D topological order C3 D to a direct sum of degenerate states of 2D topological orders Cb2 D in different flux b sectors: C3 D=⊕bCb2 D . The 2D topological orders Cb2 D are described by 2D gauge theories of the group G twisted by the 3-cocycle ω3 (b ), dimensionally reduced from the 4-cocycle ω4. We show that the SL (2 ,Z ) generators, Sx y and Tx y, fully encode a particular type of three-string braiding statistics with a pattern that is the connected sum of two Hopf links. With certain 4-cocycle twists, we discover that, by threading a third string through two-string unlink into a three-string Hopf-link configuration, Abelian two-string braiding statistics is promoted to non-Abelian three-string braiding statistics.

SN 2015as: a low-luminosity Type IIb supernova without an early light-curve peak

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Gangopadhyay, Anjasha; Misra, Kuntal; Pastorello, A.; Sahu, D. K.; Tomasella, L.; Tartaglia, L.; Singh, Mridweeka; Dastidar, Raya; Srivastav, S.; Ochner, P.; Brown, Peter J.; Anupama, G. C.; Benetti, S.; Cappellaro, E.; Kumar, Brajesh; Kumar, Brijesh; Pandey, S. B.

2018-05-01

We present results of the photometric (from 3 to 509 d post-explosion) and spectroscopic (up to 230 d post-explosion) monitoring campaign of the He-rich Type IIb supernova (SN) 2015as. The (B - V) colour evolution of SN 2015as closely resemble those of SN 2008ax, suggesting that SN 2015as belongs to the SN IIb subgroup that does not show the early, short-duration photometric peak. The light curve of SN 2015as reaches the B-band maximum about 22 d after the explosion, at an absolute magnitude of -16.82 ± 0.18 mag. At ˜75 d after the explosion, its spectrum transitions from that of a SN II to a SN Ib. P Cygni features due to He I lines appear at around 30 d after explosion, indicating that the progenitor of SN 2015as was partially stripped. For SN 2015as, we estimate a 56Ni mass of ˜0.08 M⊙ and ejecta mass of 1.1-2.2 M⊙, which are similar to the values inferred for SN 2008ax. The quasi-bolometric analytical light-curve modelling suggests that the progenitor of SN 2015as has a modest mass (˜0.1 M⊙), a nearly compact (˜0.05 × 1013 cm) H envelope on top of a dense, compact (˜2 × 1011 cm) and a more massive (˜1.2 M⊙) He core. The analysis of the nebular phase spectra indicates that ˜0.44 M⊙ of O is ejected in the explosion. The intensity ratio of the [Ca II]/[O I] nebular lines favours either a main-sequence progenitor mass of ˜15 M⊙ or a Wolf-Rayet star of 20 M⊙.

Supernova 2010as: The Lowest-velocity Member of a Family of Flat-velocity Type IIb Supernovae

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Folatelli, Gastón; Bersten, Melina C.; Kuncarayakti, Hanindyo; Olivares Estay, Felipe; Anderson, Joseph P.; Holmbo, Simon; Maeda, Keiichi; Morrell, Nidia; Nomoto, Ken'ichi; Pignata, Giuliano; Stritzinger, Maximilian; Contreras, Carlos; Förster, Francisco; Hamuy, Mario; Phillips, Mark M.; Prieto, José Luis; Valenti, Stefano; Afonso, Paulo; Altenmüller, Konrad; Elliott, Jonny; Greiner, Jochen; Updike, Adria; Haislip, Joshua B.; LaCluyze, Aaron P.; Moore, Justin P.; Reichart, Daniel E.

2014-09-01

We present extensive optical and near-infrared photometric and spectroscopic observations of the stripped-envelope supernova SN 2010as. Spectroscopic peculiarities such as initially weak helium features and low expansion velocities with a nearly flat evolution place this object in the small family of events previously identified as transitional Type Ib/c supernovae (SNe). There is ubiquitous evidence of hydrogen, albeit weak, in this family of SNe, indicating that they are in fact a peculiar kind of Type IIb SNe that we name "flat-velocity Type IIb. The flat-velocity evolution—which occurs at different levels between 6000 and 8000 km s-1 for different SNe—suggests the presence of a dense shell in the ejecta. Despite the spectroscopic similarities, these objects show surprisingly diverse luminosities. We discuss the possible physical or geometrical unification picture for such diversity. Using archival Hubble Space Telescope images, we associate SN 2010as with a massive cluster and derive a progenitor age of ≈6 Myr, assuming a single star-formation burst, which is compatible with a Wolf-Rayet progenitor. Our hydrodynamical modeling, on the contrary, indicates that the pre-explosion mass was relatively low, ≈4 M ⊙. The seeming contradiction between a young age and low pre-SN mass may be solved by a massive interacting binary progenitor. This paper includes data gathered with the following facilities in Chile: the 6.5 m Magellan Telescopes located at Las Campanas Observatory, the Gemini Observatory, Cerro Pachón (Gemini Program GS-2008B-Q-56), and the European Organisation for Astronomical Research in the Southern Hemisphere (ESO Programmes 076.A-0156, 078.D-0048, 080.A-0516, and 082.A-0526). We have also used data from the ESO Science Archive Facility under request number gfolatelli74580 and from the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, obtained from the Hubble Legacy Archive, which is a collaboration between the Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI/NASA), the Space Telescope European Coordinating Facility (ST-ECF/ESA), and the Canadian Astronomy Data Centre (CADC/NRC/CSA).

[Oncological outcomes of combined therapy in patients with cervical carcinoma FIGO stage IIB].

PubMed

Kornovski, Y; Ismail, E; Kaneva, M

2012-01-01

To establish the overall and disease-free survival and the role of surgery as well as in cervical cancer stage IIB (FIGO) patients submitted to combined radiotherapy and surgery. Between 2003-2011 86 patients with cervical cancer stage IIB had been operated on. Five patients were operated on after neoajuvant chemotherapy. Thirty one women (group 3) had primary pelvic surgery (radical hysterectomy class III and lymphonodulectomy) and adjuvant RT until 52 Gy and 50 women were operated on after preoperative RT (30 Gy) and were submitted to adjuvant RT until 52 Gy (group 4). After median follow of 45 months the acturial overall and disease-free survival (OS and DFS) were estimated as 75.6% and 77.9% respectively for all patients staged IIB (FIGO). In group 3 the incidence of local relapses and distant metastases was 9.7% and 12.9%, respectively and in group 4--local and distant recurrences were 6% and 14%, respectively. The acturial OS and DFS for group 3 were 80.6% and 77.5%, respectively and for group 4--76% and 80% (NS). Combinated treatment (RT and pelvic surgery) produce reliable local control of the disease (cervical cancer IIB stage) but is ineffective for metastases outside the small pelvis which is the cause of worse survival of patients with cervical cancer stage IIB (FIGO). Preoperative RT (group 4) doesn't change the OS and DFS significantly. The main indication for surgery in patients with cervical cancer stage IIB is the surgical staging (pelvic and paraaortic lymph node dissection) which enables the appropriate individual treatment planning.

Small field axion inflation with sub-Planckian decay constant

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kadota, Kenji; Kobayashi, Tatsuo; Oikawa, Akane

2016-10-10

We study an axion inflation model recently proposed within the framework of type IIB superstring theory, where we pay a particular attention to a sub-Planckian axion decay constant. Our axion potential can lead to the small field inflation with a small tensor-to-scalar ratio, and a typical reheating temperature can be as low as GeV.

Validation of the prognostic grouping of the seventh edition of the tumor-nodes-metastasis classification using a large-scale prospective cohort study database of prostate cancer treated with primary androgen deprivation therapy.

PubMed

Kimura, Tomokazu; Onozawa, Mizuki; Miyazaki, Jun; Kawai, Koji; Nishiyama, Hiroyuki; Hinotsu, Shiro; Akaza, Hideyuki

2013-09-01

In the TNM seventh edition, a prognostic grouping for prostate cancer incorporating prostate-specific antigen and Gleason score was advocated. The present study was carried out to evaluate and validate prognostic grouping in prostate cancer patients. The 15 259 study patients treated with primary androgen deprivation therapy were enrolled in the Japan Study Group of Prostate Cancer. Overall survival was stratified by tumor-nodes-metastasis, Gleason score and prostate-specific antigen, and extensively analyzed. The accuracy of grouping systems was evaluated by the concordance index. The 5-year overall survival in prognostic grouping-I, IIA, IIB, III and IV was 90.0%, 88.3%, 84.8%, 80.6% and 57.1%, respectively. When considering subgroup stratification, the 5-year overall survival of subgroups prognostic grouping-IIA, IIB, III and IV was 80.9∼90.5%, 75.4∼91.8%, 75.7∼89.0% and 46.9∼86.2%, respectively. When prognostic grouping-IIB was subclassified into IIB1 (except IIB2) and IIB2 (T1-2b, prostate-specific antigen >20, Gleason score ≥8, and T2c, Gleason score ≥8), the 5-year overall survival of IIB2 was significantly lower than that of IIB1 (79.4% and 87.3%, P < 0.0001). Also, when prognostic grouping-IV was subclassified into IV1 (except IV2) and IV2 (M1, prostate-specific antigen >100 or Gleason score ≥8), the 5-year overall survival of prognostic grouping-IV1 was superior to that of IV2 (72.9% and 49.5%, P < 0.0001). Prognostic groupings were reclassified into modified prognostic groupings, divided into modified prognostic grouping-A (prognostic grouping-I, IIA, and IIB1), modified prognostic grouping-B (prognostic grouping-IIB2 and III), modified prognostic grouping-C (prognostic grouping-IV1) and modified prognostic grouping-D (prognostic grouping-IV2). The concordance index of prognostic grouping and modified prognostic grouping for overall survival was 0.670 and 0.685, respectively. Prognostic grouping could stratify the prognosis of prostate cancer patients. However, there is considerable variation among the prognostic grouping subgroups. Thus, the use of a modified prognostic grouping for patients treated with primary androgen deprivation therapy is advisable. © 2013 The Japanese Urological Association.

Muscle Fiber Characteristics and Fatty Acid Compositions of the Four Major Muscles in Korean Native Black Goat.

PubMed

Hwang, Young-Hwa; Joo, Sung-Hyun; Bakhsh, Allah; Ismail, Ishamri; Joo, Seon-Tea

2017-01-01

The objective of this study was to investigate the relationship between muscle fiber characteristics and fatty acid composition of four major muscles in Korean native black goat (KNBG). Longissimus lumborum (LL), psoas major (PM), semimembranosus (SM), and gluteus medius (GM) were obtained from five male KNBGs of 36 mon of age and subjected to histochemical analysis and to determine fatty acid composition and meat quality traits. There were significant ( p <0.05) differences in fiber number percentage (FNP) and fiber area percentage (FAP) of fiber types among these four muscles. PM had the highest FNP of type I and the lowest FNP of type IIB, while SM had the highest FNP of type IIB. The highest fat content was observed in LL while SM had the lowest fat content. The proportions of SFA and MUFA were significantly ( p <0.05) different among four muscles due to differences in the majority of fatty acids such as oleic (C18:1) and palmitic (C16:0) acids. The PUFA/SFA ratio was significantly ( p <0.05) different among four muscles, and the highest PUFA/SFA ratio was observed in PM. Results suggested that LL and PM might be healthful because of higher desirable fatty acid value and PUFA/SFA ratio, respectively. Also, data showed that correlations between muscle fiber types and fatty acids proportion of goat muscles were reversed with those of cattle muscles.

Gravity Waves and Linear Inflation From Axion Monodromy

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

McAllister, Liam; /Cornell U., LEPP /Cornell U., Phys. Dept.; Silverstein, Eva

2010-08-26

Wrapped branes in string compactifications introduce a monodromy that extends the field range of individual closed-string axions to beyond the Planck scale. Furthermore, approximate shift symmetries of the system naturally control corrections to the axion potential. This suggests a general mechanism for chaotic inflation driven by monodromy-extended closed-string axions. We systematically analyze this possibility and show that the mechanism is compatible with moduli stabilization and can be realized in many types of compactifications, including warped Calabi-Yau manifolds and more general Ricci-curved spaces. In this broad class of models, the potential is linear in the canonical inflaton field, predicting a tensormore » to scalar ratio r {approx} 0.07 accessible to upcoming cosmic microwave background (CMB) observations.« less

Evolving neural networks with genetic algorithms to study the string landscape

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ruehle, Fabian

2017-08-01

We study possible applications of artificial neural networks to examine the string landscape. Since the field of application is rather versatile, we propose to dynamically evolve these networks via genetic algorithms. This means that we start from basic building blocks and combine them such that the neural network performs best for the application we are interested in. We study three areas in which neural networks can be applied: to classify models according to a fixed set of (physically) appealing features, to find a concrete realization for a computation for which the precise algorithm is known in principle but very tedious to actually implement, and to predict or approximate the outcome of some involved mathematical computation which performs too inefficient to apply it, e.g. in model scans within the string landscape. We present simple examples that arise in string phenomenology for all three types of problems and discuss how they can be addressed by evolving neural networks from genetic algorithms.

EEG based topography analysis in string recognition task

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ma, Xiaofei; Huang, Xiaolin; Shen, Yuxiaotong; Qin, Zike; Ge, Yun; Chen, Ying; Ning, Xinbao

2017-03-01

Vision perception and recognition is a complex process, during which different parts of brain are involved depending on the specific modality of the vision target, e.g. face, character, or word. In this study, brain activities in string recognition task compared with idle control state are analyzed through topographies based on multiple measurements, i.e. sample entropy, symbolic sample entropy and normalized rhythm power, extracted from simultaneously collected scalp EEG. Our analyses show that, for most subjects, both symbolic sample entropy and normalized gamma power in string recognition task are significantly higher than those in idle state, especially at locations of P4, O2, T6 and C4. It implies that these regions are highly involved in string recognition task. Since symbolic sample entropy measures complexity, from the perspective of new information generation, and normalized rhythm power reveals the power distributions in frequency domain, complementary information about the underlying dynamics can be provided through the two types of indices.

30 CFR 57.22238 - Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B... AND NONMETAL MINES Safety Standards for Methane in Metal and Nonmetal Mines Ventilation § 57.22238 Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). If methane reaches 2.0 percent in the mine...

30 CFR 57.22235 - Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B, and IV mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B... AND NONMETAL MINES Safety Standards for Methane in Metal and Nonmetal Mines Ventilation § 57.22235 Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B, and IV mines). (a) If methane reaches 1.0 percent in the...

30 CFR 57.22231 - Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B... AND NONMETAL MINES Safety Standards for Methane in Metal and Nonmetal Mines Ventilation § 57.22231 Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). If methane reaches 0.25 percent in the...

Development of Medical Technology for Contingency Response to Marrow Toxic Agents

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-03-31

Development of Medical Technology for Contingency Response to Marrow Toxic Agents - Final Performance/Technical Report for March 01, 2010 to February 28...Development of Medical Technology for Contingency Response To Marrow Toxic Agents FINAL REPORT March 1, 2010 – March 31, 2012 National...Buccal Swabs 38 IIB.1.5 Enhancing HLA Data for Selected Donors 43 IIB.1.6 Maintain a Quality Control Program 46 IIB.2.1 Collection of Primary Data

Development of Medical Technology for Contingency Response to Marrow Toxic Agents

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-05-06

Development of Medical Technology for Contingency Response to Marrow Toxic Agents - Final Performance/Technical Report for January 01, 2011 to...Enhancing HLA Data for Selected Donors 44 IIB.1.6 Maintain a Quality Control Program 44 IIB.2.1 Collection of Primary Data 45 IIB.2.2 Validation of...Receptor Donor Selection KORI Korean LD Linkage Disequilibrium LTA Lymphotoxin Alpha MALDI-TOF Matrix-Assisted Laser Desorption/Ionization – Time Of

30 CFR 57.22238 - Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). 57.22238 Section 57.22238 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Actions at 2.0 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). If methane reaches 2.0 percent in the mine...

30 CFR 57.22235 - Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B, and IV mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B, and IV mines). 57.22235 Section 57.22235 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Actions at 1.0 percent methane (I-C, II-A, II-B, and IV mines). (a) If methane reaches 1.0 percent in the...

30 CFR 57.22231 - Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). 57.22231 Section 57.22231 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH ADMINISTRATION... Actions at 0.25 percent methane (I-B, II-B, V-B, and VI mines). If methane reaches 0.25 percent in the...

The two ∇6 R 4 type invariants and their higher order generalisation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Bossard, Guillaume; Verschinin, Valentin

2015-07-01

We show that there are two distinct classes of ∇6 R 4 type supersymmetry invariants in maximal supergravity. The second class includes a coupling in F 2∇4 R 4 that generalises to 1/8 BPS protected F 2 k ∇4 R 4 couplings. We work out the supersymmetry constraints on the corresponding threshold functions, and argue that the functions in the second class satisfy to homogeneous differential equations for arbitrary k ≥ 1, such that the corresponding exact threshold functions in type II string theory should be proportional to Eisenstein series, which we identify. This analysis explains in particular that the exact ∇6 R 4 threshold function is the sum of an Eisenstein function and a solution to an inhomogeneous Poisson equation in string theory.

Label-free imaging of the dynamics of cell-to-cell string-like structure bridging in the free-space by low-coherent quantitative phase microscopy

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yamauchi, Toyohiko; Iwai, Hidenao; Yamashita, Yutaka

2013-03-01

We succeeded in utilizing our low-coherent quantitative phase microscopy (LC-QPM) to achieve label-free and three-dimensional imaging of string-like structures bridging the free-space between live cells. In past studies, three dimensional morphology of the string-like structures between cells had been investigated by electron microscopies and fluorescence microscopies and these structures were called "membrane nanotubes" or "tunneling nanotubes." However, use of electron microscopy inevitably kills these cells and fluorescence microscopy is itself a potentially invasive method. To achieve noninvasive imaging of live cells, we applied our LC-QPM which is a reflection-type, phase resolved and full-field interference microscope employing a low-coherent light source. LC-QPM is able to visualize the three-dimensional morphology of live cells without labeling by means of low-coherence interferometry. The lateral (diffraction limit) and longitudinal (coherence-length) spatial resolution of LC-QPM were respectively 0.49 and 0.93 micrometers and the repeatability of the phase measurement was 0.02 radians (1.0 nm). We successfully obtained three-dimensional morphology of live cultured epithelial cells (cell type: HeLa, derived from cervix cancer) and were able to clearly observe the individual string-like structures interconnecting the cells. When we performed volumetric imaging, a 80 micrometer by 60 micrometer by 6.5 micrometer volume was scanned every 5.67 seconds and 70 frames of a three-dimensional movie were recorded for a duration of 397 seconds. Moreover, the optical phase images gave us detailed information about the three-dimensional morphology of the string-like structure at sub-wavelength resolution. We believe that our LC-QPM will be a useful tool for the study of three-dimensional morphology of live cells.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Kachru, Shamit; Paquette, Natalie M.; Volpato, Roberto

Here, the simplest string theory compactifications to 3D with 16 supercharges—the heterotic string on T 7, and type II strings onmore » $$K3 \\times T^3$$ —are related by U-duality, and share a moduli space of vacua parametrized by $$O(8, 24;{{\\mathbb Z}}) ~\\backslash ~O(8, 24)~ /~ (O(8) \\times O(24))$$ . One can think of this as the moduli space of even, self-dual 32-dimensional lattices with signature (8,24). At 24 special points in moduli space, the lattice splits as $$\\Gamma^{8, 0} \\oplus \\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ . $$\\Gamma^{0, 24}$$ can be the Leech lattice or any of 23 Niemeier lattices, while $$\\Gamma^{8, 0}$$ is the E 8 root lattice. We show that starting from this observation, one can find a precise connection between the Umbral groups and type IIA string theory on K3. This may provide a natural physical starting point for understanding Mathieu and Umbral moonshine. The maximal unbroken subgroups of Umbral groups in 6D (or any other limit) are those obtained by starting at the associated Niemeier point and moving in moduli space while preserving the largest possible subgroup of the Umbral group. To illustrate the action of these symmetries on BPS states, we discuss the computation of certain protected four-derivative terms in the effective field theory, and recover facts about the spectrum and symmetry representations of 1/2-BPS states.« less

Family Caregiver Palliative Care Intervention in Supporting Caregivers of Patients With Stage II-IV Gastrointestinal, Gynecologic, Urologic and Lung Cancers

ClinicalTrials.gov

2018-02-12

Healthy Subject; Localized Transitional Cell Cancer of the Renal Pelvis and Ureter; Metastatic Transitional Cell Cancer of the Renal Pelvis and Ureter; Psychosocial Effects of Cancer and Its Treatment; Recurrent Bladder Cancer; Recurrent Cervical Cancer; Recurrent Colon Cancer; Recurrent Gastric Cancer; Recurrent Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Recurrent Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Recurrent Pancreatic Cancer; Recurrent Rectal Cancer; Recurrent Renal Cell Cancer; Recurrent Transitional Cell Cancer of the Renal Pelvis and Ureter; Recurrent Urethral Cancer; Recurrent Uterine Sarcoma; Regional Transitional Cell Cancer of the Renal Pelvis and Ureter; Stage II Bladder Cancer; Stage II Renal Cell Cancer; Stage II Urethral Cancer; Stage IIA Cervical Cancer; Stage IIA Colon Cancer; Stage IIA Gastric Cancer; Stage IIA Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIA Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIA Pancreatic Cancer; Stage IIA Rectal Cancer; Stage IIA Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IIB Cervical Cancer; Stage IIB Colon Cancer; Stage IIB Gastric Cancer; Stage IIB Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIB Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIB Pancreatic Cancer; Stage IIB Rectal Cancer; Stage IIB Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IIC Colon Cancer; Stage IIC Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIC Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIC Rectal Cancer; Stage III Bladder Cancer; Stage III Pancreatic Cancer; Stage III Renal Cell Cancer; Stage III Urethral Cancer; Stage IIIA Cervical Cancer; Stage IIIA Colon Cancer; Stage IIIA Gastric Cancer; Stage IIIA Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIIA Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIIA Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIA Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IIIB Cervical Cancer; Stage IIIB Colon Cancer; Stage IIIB Gastric Cancer; Stage IIIB Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIIB Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIIB Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIB Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IIIC Colon Cancer; Stage IIIC Gastric Cancer; Stage IIIC Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IIIC Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IIIC Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIC Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IV Bladder Cancer; Stage IV Gastric Cancer; Stage IV Ovarian Epithelial Cancer; Stage IV Ovarian Germ Cell Tumor; Stage IV Pancreatic Cancer; Stage IV Renal Cell Cancer; Stage IV Urethral Cancer; Stage IVA Cervical Cancer; Stage IVA Colon Cancer; Stage IVA Rectal Cancer; Stage IVA Uterine Sarcoma; Stage IVB Cervical Cancer; Stage IVB Colon Cancer; Stage IVB Rectal Cancer; Stage IVB Uterine Sarcoma; Ureter Cancer; Stage IIA Lung Carcinoma; Stage IIB Lung Carcinoma; Stage IIIA Lung Carcinoma; Stage IIIB Lung Carcinoma

Alveolar hemorrhage: an underdiagnosed complication of treatment with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors.

PubMed

Iskandar, Said B; Kasasbeh, Ehab S; Mechleb, Bassam K; Garcia, Israel; Jackson, Ann; Fahrig, Stephen; Albalbissi, Kaiss; Henry, Phillip D

2006-08-01

Alveolar hemorrhage (AH) is a rare complication of treatment with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Hemoptysis, a constant sign, lacks in specificity, and may occur in confounding syndromes such as pulmonary edema, pulmonary infarction, and pneumonia. Nonspecific symptoms and signs often delay the diagnosis, thereby allowing serious or even fatal disease progression. Here, we performed a large-scale retrospective analysis to define the incidence and risk factors of AH in the setting of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors therapy. Randomized controlled trials demonstrate that treatment with glycoprotein IIb/IIIa (GP IIb/IIIa) inhibitors may improve the outcome of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and angioplastic procedures. However, this treatment may rarely lead to severe hemorrhagic complications, in particular AH. Unfortunately, the incidence and risk factors of AH remain poorly defined. We reviewed for the period extending from August 1998 to January 2005 consecutive histories of AMI patients receiving coronary arteriography and treatment with either eptifibatide or abciximab. Concomitantly admitted AMI patients not treated with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors were reviewed and served as a control group. The diagnosis of AH required the demonstration of typical symptoms and signs including dyspnea, hemoptysis, arterial hypoxemia, pulmonary radiographic changes, and, when available, bronchoscopic signs for AH. Potential covariates including pulmonary disease, pulmonary hypertension, smoking, and use of other anticoagulant or antiplatelet agents were evaluated. Six of 1,810 patients (0.33%) receiving eptifibatide and five of 3,648 patients (0.14%) receiving abciximab exhibited typical symptoms and signs of AH. Contrarily, only one of 4,136 patients (0.025%) receiving no GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors presented with similar symptoms and signs. There was no fatal outcome, though two patients required blood transfusions. Statistically significant differences were found between control patients and patients receiving eptifibatide alone (P = 0.004). There was also a significant difference between untreated patients and those receiving eptifibatide and abciximab (P = 0.017). No differences were found between eptifibatide and abciximab-treated patients (P = 0.19) or between abciximab and untreated control patients (P = 0.105). AH is a rare complication of treatment with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors. Its incidence ranged from 0.14% in patients treated with abciximab to 0.33% in those receiving eptifibatide. Compared to a control group, patients treated with GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors had a statistically increased risk for AH.

Coated platelets function in platelet-dependent fibrin formation via integrin αIIbβ3 and transglutaminase factor XIII

PubMed Central

Mattheij, Nadine J.A.; Swieringa, Frauke; Mastenbroek, Tom G.; Berny-Lang, Michelle A.; May, Frauke; Baaten, Constance C.F.M.J.; van der Meijden, Paola E.J.; Henskens, Yvonne M.C.; Beckers, Erik A.M.; Suylen, Dennis P.L.; Nolte, Marc W.; Hackeng, Tilman M.; McCarty, Owen J.T.; Heemskerk, Johan W.M.; Cosemans, Judith M.E.M.

2016-01-01

Coated platelets, formed by collagen and thrombin activation, have been characterized in different ways: i) by the formation of a protein coat of α-granular proteins; ii) by exposure of procoagulant phosphatidylserine; or iii) by high fibrinogen binding. Yet, their functional role has remained unclear. Here we used a novel transglutaminase probe, Rhod-A14, to identify a subpopulation of platelets with a cross-linked protein coat, and compared this with other platelet subpopulations using a panel of functional assays. Platelet stimulation with convulxin/thrombin resulted in initial integrin αIIbβ3 activation, the appearance of a platelet population with high fibrinogen binding, (independently of active integrins, but dependent on the presence of thrombin) followed by phosphatidylserine exposure and binding of coagulation factors Va and Xa. A subpopulation of phosphatidylserine-exposing platelets bound Rhod-A14 both in suspension and in thrombi generated on a collagen surface. In suspension, high fibrinogen and Rhod-A14 binding were antagonized by combined inhibition of transglutaminase activity and integrin αIIbβ3. Markedly, in thrombi from mice deficient in transglutaminase factor XIII, platelet-driven fibrin formation and Rhod-A14 binding were abolished by blockage of integrin αIIbβ3. Vice versa, star-like fibrin formation from platelets of a patient with deficiency in αIIbβ3 (Glanzmann thrombasthenia) was abolished upon blockage of transglutaminase activity. We conclude that coated platelets, with initial αIIbβ3 activation and high fibrinogen binding, form a subpopulation of phosphatidylserine-exposing platelets, and function in platelet-dependent star-like fibrin fiber formation via transglutaminase factor XIII and integrin αIIbβ3. PMID:26721892

Executive summary and recommendations from the WHO/UNAIDS/IAVI expert group consultation on 'Phase IIB-TOC trials as a novel strategy for evaluation of preventive HIV vaccines', 31 January-2 February 2006, IAVI, New York, USA.

PubMed

2007-02-19

This report summarizes the discussions and recommendations from a consultation held in New York City, USA (31 January-2 February 2006) organized by the joint World Health Organization-United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS HIV Vaccine Initiative and the International AIDS Vaccine Initiative. The consultation discussed issues related to the design and implementation of phase IIB 'test of concept' trials (phase IIB-TOC), also referred to as 'proof of concept' trials, in evaluating candidate HIV vaccines and their implications for future approval and licensure. The results of a single phase IIB-TOC trial would not be expected to provide sufficient evidence of safety or efficacy required for licensure. In many instances, phase IIB-TOC trials may be undertaken relatively early in development, before manufacturing processes and capacity are developed sufficiently to distribute the vaccine on a large scale. However, experts at this meeting considered the pressure that could arise, particularly in regions hardest hit by AIDS, if a phase IIB-TOC trial showed high levels of efficacy. The group largely agreed that full-scale phase III trials would still be necessary to demonstrate that the vaccine candidate was safe and effective, but emphasized that governments and organizations conducting trials should consider these issues in advance. The recommendations from this meeting should be helpful for all organizations involved in HIV vaccine trials, in particular for the national regulatory authorities in assessing the utility of phase IIB-TOC trials in the overall HIV vaccine research and development process.

30 CFR 57.22232 - Actions at 0.5 percent methane (I-B, II-A, II-B, IV, V-B, and VI mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Actions at 0.5 percent methane (I-B, II-A, II-B, IV, V-B, and VI mines). 57.22232 Section 57.22232 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH....22232 Actions at 0.5 percent methane (I-B, II-A, II-B, IV, V-B, and VI mines). If methane reaches 0.5...

Nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy for stage IA2-IIB cervical cancer: 5-year survival of 501 consecutive cases.

PubMed

Papp, Z; Csapó, Zs; Hupuczi, P; Mayer, A

2006-01-01

The purpose of this study was to assess the 5-year survival and morbidity in cases with radical hysterectomy and pelvic lymphadenectomy with pre- and postoperative irradiation performed to treat Stage IA2-IIB cervical cancer. During a 10(1/2)-year period between July 1990 and December 2000, 501 consecutive radical hysterectomies with bilateral pelvic lymphadenectomy were performed by the same gynecological surgeon in Stage IA2, IB, IIA and IIB cervical cancer. The patients were treated by pre- and postoperative irradiation as well. Apart from recurrence, perioperative complications were minimal with no long-term morbidity. The absolute 5-year survival rates for the patients in Stage IA2, IB1, IB2, IIA and IIB were 94.4%, 90.7%, 84.1%, 71.1%, and 55.4%, respectively. The respective 5-year survival rates for patients without or with lymph node metastasis were 94.5% and 33.3% in Stage IB2, 81.7% and 48.7% in Stage IIA and 70.2% and 36.5% in Stage IIB, respectively. Nerve-sparing radical hysterectomy with pelvic lymph node dissection and pre- and postoperative irradiation remains the treatment of choice for most patients with early-stage and even Stage IIB cervical cancer. The radicalism and extent of lymph node dissection and parametrial resection should be individualized and tailored to tumor- and patient-related risk factors.

The Extrapolation of Elementary Sequences

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Laird, Philip; Saul, Ronald

1992-01-01

We study sequence extrapolation as a stream-learning problem. Input examples are a stream of data elements of the same type (integers, strings, etc.), and the problem is to construct a hypothesis that both explains the observed sequence of examples and extrapolates the rest of the stream. A primary objective -- and one that distinguishes this work from previous extrapolation algorithms -- is that the same algorithm be able to extrapolate sequences over a variety of different types, including integers, strings, and trees. We define a generous family of constructive data types, and define as our learning bias a stream language called elementary stream descriptions. We then give an algorithm that extrapolates elementary descriptions over constructive datatypes and prove that it learns correctly. For freely-generated types, we prove a polynomial time bound on descriptions of bounded complexity. An especially interesting feature of this work is the ability to provide quantitative measures of confidence in competing hypotheses, using a Bayesian model of prediction.

Spines vs. microspines: an overview of the sculpture exine in selected basal and derived Asteraceae with focus on Asteroideae.

PubMed

Tellería, María C

2017-11-01

This study presents a detailed examination of the echinate and microechinate sculpturing in relation to the size of pollen grains in 31 selected species of Asteraceae belonging to the subfamilies Barnadesioideae, Mutisioideae, Carduoideae and Asteroideae. The aims were to recognize sculpturing patterns, under LM and SEM, within large and small pollen of both basal and derived species and to explore the features that could have taxonomic value to apply in palynological disciplines. The detailed examination of the exine surface showed both the relevance and limits of sculptural patterns for taxonomy. Under LM, the microechinate sculpture gave little taxonomic information, whereas in the echinate sculpture, three exine types and two subtypes were recognized. Type I included microechinate exine, which is commonly present in large pollen grains of the basal lineages. Types II (subtypes IIa and IIb) and III included echinate and smaller pollen grains. In these types, spines were always regularly arranged and, were characterized by the length, shape, tip, perforations and distribution. Type IIa included more or less conical spines usually with a distended base, less than 4 µm in length, present in species of different tribes like Astereae, Eupatorieae, Helenieae, Gnaphalieae, Senecioideae and Heliantheae to a lesser extent. Type IIb includes slender spines with narrower bases, longer than 4 µm, present in species of Coreopsideae, Heliantheae, Tageteae and Eupatorieae to a lesser extent. Type III included spines with swollen base, blunt tip and perforations over their entire surface. This type was present in only one of the basal species-Carduus thoermeri-and in one species of the derived tribe Helenieae, Gaillardia megapotamica. Probably, this is due to evolutionary convergence.

A genetically-engineered von Willebrand disease type 2B mouse model displays defects in hemostasis and inflammation.

PubMed

Adam, Frédéric; Casari, Caterina; Prévost, Nicolas; Kauskot, Alexandre; Loubière, Cécile; Legendre, Paulette; Repérant, Christelle; Baruch, Dominique; Rosa, Jean-Philippe; Bryckaert, Marijke; de Groot, Philip G; Christophe, Olivier D; Lenting, Peter J; Denis, Cécile V

2016-05-23

von Willebrand disease (VWD)-type 2B is characterized by gain-of-function mutations in the von Willebrand factor (VWF) A1-domain, leading to increased affinity for its platelet-receptor, glycoprotein Ibα. We engineered the first knock-in (KI) murine model for VWD-type 2B by introducing the p.V1316M mutation in murine VWF. Homozygous KI-mice replicated human VWD-type 2B with macrothrombocytopenia (platelet counts reduced by 55%, platelet volume increased by 44%), circulating platelet-aggregates and a severe bleeding tendency. Also, vessel occlusion was deficient in the FeCl3-induced thrombosis model. Platelet aggregation induced by thrombin or collagen was defective for KI-mice at all doses. KI-mice manifested a loss of high molecular weight multimers and increased multimer degradation. In a model of VWF-string formation, the number of platelets/string and string-lifetime were surprisingly enhanced in KI-mice, suggesting that proteolysis of VWF/p.V1316M is differentially regulated in the circulation versus the endothelial surface. Furthermore, we observed increased leukocyte recruitment during an inflammatory response induced by the reverse passive Arthus reaction. This points to an active role of VWF/p.V1316M in the exfiltration of leukocytes under inflammatory conditions. In conclusion, our genetically-engineered VWD-type 2B mice represent an original model to study the consequences of spontaneous VWF-platelet interactions and the physiopathology of this human disease.

String theory and aspects of higher dimensional gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Copsey, Keith

2007-05-01

String theory generically requires that there are more than the four dimensions easily observable. It has become clear in recent years that gravity in more than four dimensions presents qualitative new features and this thesis is dedicated to exploring some of these phenomena. I discuss the thermodynamics of new types of black holes with new types of charges and study aspects of the AdS-CFT correspondence dual to gravitational phenomena unique to higher dimensions. I further describe the construction of a broad new class of solutions in more than four dimensions containing dynamical minimal spheres ("bubbles of nothing") in asymptotically flat and AdS space without any asymptotic Kaluza-Klein direction.

Comments on A, B, C chains of heterotic and Type II vacua

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Candelas, Philip; Perevalov, Eugene; Rajesh, Govindan

1997-02-01

We construct, as hypersurfaces in toric varieties, Calabi-Yau manifolds corresponding to F-theory vacua dual to E8 × E8 heterotic strings compactified to six dimensions on K3 surfaces with non-semisimple gauge backgrounds. These vacua were studied in the recent work of Aldazabal, Font, Ibáñez and Uranga as well as by Klemm, Mayr and Vafa. We extend their results by constructing many more examples, corresponding to enhanced gauge symmetries, by noting that they can be obtained from previously known Calabi-Yau manifolds corresponding to K3 compactification of heterotic strings with simple gauge backgrounds by means of extremal transitions of the conifold type.

Supersymmetric solutions of the cosmological, gauged, ℂ magic model

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Chimento, Samuele; Ortín, Tomás; Ruipérez, Alejandro

2018-05-01

We construct supersymmetric solutions of theories of gauged N = 1 , d = 5 supergravity coupled to vector multiplets with a U(1)R Abelian (Fayet-Iliopoulos) gauging and an independent SU(2) gauging associated to an SU(2) isometry group of the Real Special scalar manifold. These theories provide minimal supersymmetrizations of 5-dimensional SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills theories with negative cosmological constant. We consider a minimal model with these gauge groups and the "magic model" based on the Jordan algebra J 3 ℂ with gauge group SU(3) × U(1)R, which is a consistent truncation of maximal SO(6)-gauged supergravity in d = 5 and whose solutions can be embedded in Type IIB Superstring Theory. We find several solutions containing selfdual SU(2) instantons, some of which asymptote to AdS5 and some of which are very small, supersymmetric, deformations of AdS5. We also show how some of those solutions can be embedded in Romans' SU(2) × U(1)-gauged half-maximal supergravity, which was obtained by Lu, Pope and Tran by compactification of the Type IIB Superstring effective action. This provides another way of uplifting those solutions to 10 dimensions.

Families of FPGA-Based Accelerators for Approximate String Matching1

PubMed Central

Van Court, Tom; Herbordt, Martin C.

2011-01-01

Dynamic programming for approximate string matching is a large family of different algorithms, which vary significantly in purpose, complexity, and hardware utilization. Many implementations have reported impressive speed-ups, but have typically been point solutions – highly specialized and addressing only one or a few of the many possible options. The problem to be solved is creating a hardware description that implements a broad range of behavioral options without losing efficiency due to feature bloat. We report a set of three component types that address different parts of the approximate string matching problem. This allows each application to choose the feature set required, then make maximum use of the FPGA fabric according to that application’s specific resource requirements. Multiple, interchangeable implementations are available for each component type. We show that these methods allow the efficient generation of a large, if not complete, family of accelerators for this application. This flexibility was obtained while retaining high performance: We have evaluated a sample against serial reference codes and found speed-ups of from 150× to 400× over a high-end PC. PMID:21603598

Meteorological Sensor Array (MSA)-Phase I. Volume 2 (Data Management Tool: Proof of Concept)

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-10-01

directory of next hourly file to read *** utcString = CStr (CInt(utcString) + 1) utcString = String(2 - Len(utcString), Ŕ...hourly file to read *** utcString = CStr (CInt(utcString) + 1) utcString = String(2 - Len(utcString), Ŕ") & utcString

30 CFR 57.22201 - Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). 57.22201 Section 57.22201 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH....22201 Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). All mines shall...

Overexpression and Initial Characterization of the Chromosomal Aminoglycoside 3′-O-Phosphotransferase APH(3′)-IIb from Pseudomonas aeruginosa▿†

PubMed Central

Hainrichson, Mariana; Yaniv, Orit; Cherniavsky, Marina; Nudelman, Igor; Shallom-Shezifi, Dalia; Yaron, Sima; Baasov, Timor

2007-01-01

The chromosomal gene aph(3′)-IIb, encoding an aminoglycoside 3′-phosphotransferase in Pseudomonas aeruginosa, was cloned and overexpressed in Escherichia coli. The APH(3′)-IIb enzyme was purified as a monomer in a two-step procedure and was shown to phosphorylate its substrates at the C-3′-OH position, with kcat/Km values of 0.4 × 104 to 36 × 104 M−1 s−1. PMID:17088479

26 CFR 1.6049-4 - Return of information as to interest paid and original issue discount includible in gross income...

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-04-01

... record date reporting under § 1.6049-1(a)(1)(ii)(b)(1) may be used, and if it is used, the original issue... aggregation rules of § 1.6049-1(a)(1)(ii)(b)(2) are being used, the aggregate amount or original issue... record date reporting under § 1.6049-1(a)(1)(ii)(b)(1) may be used, and if it is used, the original issue...

30 CFR 57.22501 - Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). 57.22501 Section 57.22501 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND... Illumination § 57.22501 Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines...

30 CFR 57.22501 - Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2010-07-01 2010-07-01 false Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). 57.22501 Section 57.22501 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND... Illumination § 57.22501 Personal electric lamps (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines...

30 CFR 57.22227 - Approved testing devices (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Approved testing devices (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). 57.22227 Section 57.22227 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND... Ventilation § 57.22227 Approved testing devices (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). (a...

30 CFR 57.22201 - Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2011 CFR

2011-07-01

... 30 Mineral Resources 1 2011-07-01 2011-07-01 false Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). 57.22201 Section 57.22201 Mineral Resources MINE SAFETY AND HEALTH....22201 Mechanical ventilation (I-A, I-B, I-C, II-A, II-B, III, IV, V-A, and V-B mines). All mines shall...

Gluon scattering amplitudes from gauge/string duality and integrability

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Satoh, Yuji

2014-06-01

We discuss the gluon scattering amplitudes of the four-dimensional maximally supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory. By the gauge/string duality, the amplitudes at strong coupling are given by the area of the minimal surfaces in anti-de Sitter space, which can be analyzed by a set of integral equations of the thermodynamic Bethe ansatz (TBA) type. By using the two-dimensional integrable models and conformal field theories underlying the TBA system, we derive analytic expansions of the amplitudes around certain kinematic configurations.

Characterizing string-of-pearls colloidal silica by multidetector hydrodynamic chromatography and comparison to multidetector size-exclusion chromatography, off-line multiangle static light scattering, and transmission electron microscopy.

PubMed

Brewer, Amandaa K; Striegel, André M

2011-04-15

The string-of-pearls-type morphology is ubiquitous, manifesting itself variously in proteins, vesicles, bacteria, synthetic polymers, and biopolymers. Characterizing the size and shape of analytes with such morphology, however, presents a challenge, due chiefly to the ease with which the "strings" can be broken during chromatographic analysis or to the paucity of information obtained from the benchmark microscopy and off-line light scattering methods. Here, we address this challenge with multidetector hydrodynamic chromatography (HDC), which has the ability to determine, simultaneously, the size, shape, and compactness and their distributions of string-of-pearls samples. We present the quadruple-detector HDC analysis of colloidal string-of-pearls silica, employing static multiangle and quasielastic light scattering, differential viscometry, and differential refractometry as detection methods. The multidetector approach shows a sample that is broadly polydisperse in both molar mass and size, with strings ranging from two to five particles, but which also contains a high concentration of single, unattached "pearls". Synergistic combination of the various size parameters obtained from the multiplicity of detectors employed shows that the strings with higher degrees of polymerization have a shape similar to the theory-predicted shape of a Gaussian random coil chain of nonoverlapping beads, while the strings with lower degrees of polymerization have a prolate ellipsoidal shape. The HDC technique is contrasted experimentally with multidetector size-exclusion chromatography, where, even under extremely gentle conditions, the strings still degraded during analysis. Such degradation is shown to be absent in HDC, as evidenced by the fact that the molar mass and radius of gyration obtained by HDC with multiangle static light scattering detection (HDC/MALS) compare quite favorably to those determined by off-line MALS analysis under otherwise identical conditions. The multidetector HDC results were also comparable to those obtained by transmission electron microscopy (TEM). Unlike off-line MALS or TEM, however, multidetector HDC is able to provide complete particle analysis based on the molar mass, size, shape, and compactness and their distributions for the entire sample population in less than 20 min. © 2011 American Chemical Society

High Current ESD Test of Advanced Triple Junction Solar Array Coupon

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Wright, Kenneth H., Jr.; Schneider, Todd A.; Vaughn, Jason A.; Hoang, Bao; Wong, Frankie

2014-01-01

Testing was conducted on an Advanced Triple Junction (ATJ) coupon that was part of a risk reduction effort in the development of a high-powered solar array design by Space Systems Loral, LLC (SSL). The ATJ coupon was a small, 4-cell, two-string configuration of flight-type design that has served as the basic test coupon design used in previous SSL environmental aging campaigns. The objective of the present test was to evaluate the performance of the coupon after being subjected to induced electrostatic discharge (ESD) testing at two string voltages (100 V, 150 V) and four string currents (1.65 A, 2.0 A, 2.475 A, and 3.3 A). An ESD test circuit, unique to SSL solar array design, was built that simulates the effect of missing cells and strings in a full solar panel with special primary arc flashover circuitry. A total of 73 primary arcs were obtained that included 7 temporary sustained arcs (TSA) events. The durations of the TSAs ranged from 50 micro-seconds to 2.75 milli-seconds. All TSAs occurred at a string voltage of 150 V. Post-ESD functional testing showed that no degradation occurred due to the TSA events. These test results point to a robust design for application to a high-current, high-power mission.

Relationship between uterine biopsy score, endometrial infection and inflammation in the mare.

PubMed

Buczkowska, Justyna; Kozdrowski, Roland; Nowak, Marcin; Sikora, Monika

2016-06-16

Endometrial biopsy score is an accepted marker of uterine health and predicted fertility, and it has been suggested that endometrial alternations are correlated with susceptibility to persistent infectious endometritis. The objective of this study was to investigate associations of endometrial biopsy score with: 1) presence of polymorphonuclear cells (PMNs) in the epithelium and stratum compactum in histopathology; 2) presence of PMNs in cytology and 3) presence of infection in microbiology. The material for examination was collected from 69 mares suspected for subclinical endometritis (bred three or more times unsuccessfully in the same breeding season) and from 15 maiden mares. Samples were collected by endometrial biopsy and cytobrush technique. Endometrial alterations (biopsy score IIA, IIB, III) were found in 64 of 82 mares (78%). There was an increase in PMN occurrence for grades IIA, IIB and III. When comparing grades and PMNs infiltration, we observed statistically significant differences between grades I and IIA (p  = 0.222) and grades I and IIB (p = 0.042) in samples collected by endometrial biopsy. Statistically significant differences were found in microbiological examination (biopsy p = 0.036; cytobrush p = 0.189), cytological examination (biopsy p = 0.040; cytobrush p = 0.079) and PMN infiltration (p    =    0.042) between mares with biopsy scores I and IIB. Furthermore, the highest percentage of infected mares was in grade IIA and IIB, and we found statistically significant differences between grades I and IIA (p = 0.043), and grades I and IIB (p = 0.036) in biopsy samples. We observed a tendency to higher prevalence of endometrial infection in mares with biopsy score IIA, IIB and III than with biopsy score I in samples collected using cytobrush technique. However, there were no statistical significant differences. Degenerative endometrial changes can predispose to uterine infection and inflammation. Our study shows that mares with endometrial score I are less predisposed to infection than mares with category IIA, IIB and III. Endometrial biopsy is a reliable diagnostic tool.

Comparative analysis and assessment of M. tuberculosis H37Rv protein-protein interaction datasets

PubMed Central

2011-01-01

Background M. tuberculosis is a formidable bacterial pathogen. There is thus an increasing demand on understanding the function and relationship of proteins in various strains of M. tuberculosis. Protein-protein interactions (PPIs) data are crucial for this kind of knowledge. However, the quality of the main available M. tuberculosis PPI datasets is unclear. This hampers the effectiveness of research works that rely on these PPI datasets. Here, we analyze the two main available M. tuberculosis H37Rv PPI datasets. The first dataset is the high-throughput B2H PPI dataset from Wang et al’s recent paper in Journal of Proteome Research. The second dataset is from STRING database, version 8.3, comprising entirely of H37Rv PPIs predicted using various methods. We find that these two datasets have a surprisingly low level of agreement. We postulate the following causes for this low level of agreement: (i) the H37Rv B2H PPI dataset is of low quality; (ii) the H37Rv STRING PPI dataset is of low quality; and/or (iii) the H37Rv STRING PPIs are predictions of other forms of functional associations rather than direct physical interactions. Results To test the quality of these two datasets, we evaluate them based on correlated gene expression profiles, coherent informative GO term annotations, and conservation in other organisms. We observe a significantly greater portion of PPIs in the H37Rv STRING PPI dataset (with score ≥ 770) having correlated gene expression profiles and coherent informative GO term annotations in both interaction partners than that in the H37Rv B2H PPI dataset. Predicted H37Rv interologs derived from non-M. tuberculosis experimental PPIs are much more similar to the H37Rv STRING functional associations dataset (with score ≥ 770) than the H37Rv B2H PPI dataset. H37Rv predicted physical interologs from IntAct also show extremely low similarity with the H37Rv B2H PPI dataset; and this similarity level is much lower than that between the S. aureus MRSA252 predicted physical interologs from IntAct and S. aureus MRSA252 pull-down PPIs. Comparative analysis with several representative two-hybrid PPI datasets in other species further confirms that the H37Rv B2H PPI dataset is of low quality. Next, to test the possibility that the H37Rv STRING PPIs are not purely direct physical interactions, we compare M. tuberculosis H37Rv protein pairs that catalyze adjacent steps in enzymatic reactions to B2H PPIs and predicted PPIs in STRING, which shows it has much lower similarities with the B2H PPIs than with STRING PPIs. This result strongly suggests that the H37Rv STRING PPIs more likely correspond to indirect relationships between protein pairs than to B2H PPIs. For more precise support, we turn to S. cerevisiae for its comprehensively studied interactome. We compare S. cerevisiae predicted PPIs in STRING to three independent protein relationship datasets which respectively comprise PPIs reported in Y2H assays, protein pairs reported to be in the same protein complexes, and protein pairs that catalyze successive reaction steps in enzymatic reactions. Our analysis reveals that S. cerevisiae predicted STRING PPIs have much higher similarity to the latter two types of protein pairs than to two-hybrid PPIs. As H37Rv STRING PPIs are predicted using similar methods as S. cerevisiae predicted STRING PPIs, this suggests that these H37Rv STRING PPIs are more likely to correspond to the latter two types of protein pairs rather than to two-hybrid PPIs as well. Conclusions The H37Rv B2H PPI dataset has low quality. It should not be used as the gold standard to assess the quality of other (possibly predicted) H37Rv PPI datasets. The H37Rv STRING PPI dataset also has low quality; nevertheless, a subset consisting of STRING PPIs with score ≥770 has satisfactory quality. However, these STRING “PPIs” should be interpreted as functional associations, which include a substantial portion of indirect protein interactions, rather than direct physical interactions. These two factors cause the strikingly low similarity between these two main H37Rv PPI datasets. The results and conclusions from this comparative analysis provide valuable guidance in using these M. tuberculosis H37Rv PPI datasets in subsequent studies for a wide range of purposes. PMID:22369691

Comparisons of different myosin heavy chain types, AMPK, and PGC-1α gene expression in the longissimus dorsi muscles in Bama Xiang and Landrace pigs.

PubMed

Huang, Y N; Ao, Q W; Jiang, Q Y; Guo, Y F; Lan, G Q; Jiang, H S

2016-07-14

Bama Xiang and Landrace pigs are the local fatty and lean breeds, respectively, in China. We compared differences in carcass traits, meat quality traits, and myosin heavy chain (MyHC) types in the longissimus dorsi muscles between Bama Xiang and Landrace pigs. This was done in pigs of the same age, using real-time PCR, to investigate the relationship between MyHC fiber types and carcass characteristics, meat quality traits, and the key factors regulating muscle fiber type. Bama Xiang pigs exhibited smaller size and slower growth than Landrace pigs (P < 0.01). We found that the superior meat quality, especially the high intramuscular fat (IMF) content in Bama Xiang pig, was related to elevated type I oxidative muscle fiber content (P < 0.01). In contrast, Landrace pig muscle had a higher glycolytic type IIb muscle fiber content (P < 0.01). MyHC I gene expression was significantly positively correlated with backfat thickness and IMF content (P < 0.01). MyHC IIb was significantly negatively correlated with IMF content (P < 0.05), and positively correlated with carcass yield (P < 0.05). AMP-activated protein kinase and peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-g coactivator-1a are suggested to be the two key factors regulating muscle fiber type in pigs. Our results indicate that muscle fiber composition is one of the key differences leading to the differences of meat quality between Bama Xiang and Landrace pigs. These results may provide a theoretical basis for further studies of the molecular mechanism underlying the excellent meat quality of the Bama Xiang pig.

A Wolf-Rayet-Like Progenitor of SN 2013cu from Spectral Observations of a Stellar Wind

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Gal-Yam, Avishay; Arcavi, I.; Ofek, E. O.; Ben-Ami, S.; Cenko, S. B.; Kasliwal, M. M.; Cao, Y.; Yaron, O.; Tal, D.; Silverman, J. M.;

Functional Interaction of CD154 Protein with α5β1 Integrin Is Totally Independent from Its Binding to αIIbβ3 Integrin and CD40 Molecules*

PubMed Central

El Fakhry, Youssef; Alturaihi, Haydar; Yacoub, Daniel; Liu, Lihui; Guo, Wenyan; Leveillé, Claire; Jung, Daniel; Khzam, Lara Bou; Merhi, Yahye; Wilkins, John A.; Li, Hongmin; Mourad, Walid

2012-01-01

In addition to its classical CD40 receptor, CD154 also binds to αIIbβ3, α5β1, and αMβ2 integrins. Binding of CD154 to these receptors seems to play a key role in the pathogenic processes of chronic inflammation. This investigation was aimed at analyzing the functional interaction of CD154 with CD40, αIIbβ3, and α5β1 receptors. We found that the binding affinity of CD154 for αIIbβ3 is ∼4-fold higher than for α5β1. We also describe the generation of sCD154 mutants that lost their ability to bind CD40 or αIIbβ3 and show that CD154 residues involved in its binding to CD40 or αIIbβ3 are distinct from those implicated in its interaction to α5β1, suggesting that sCD154 may bind simultaneously to different receptors. Indeed, sCD154 can bind simultaneously to CD40 and α5β1 and biologically activate human monocytic U937 cells expressing both receptors. The simultaneous engagement of CD40 and α5β1 activates the mitogen-activated protein kinases, p38, and extracellular signal-related kinases 1/2 and synergizes in the release of inflammatory mediators MMP-2 and -9, suggesting a cross-talk between these receptors. PMID:22461623

Supersymmetric attractors, topological strings, and the M5-brane CFT

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Guica, Monica M.

One of the purposes of this thesis is to present the consistent and unifying picture that emerges in string and M-theory with eight supercharges. On one hand, this involves classifying and relating supersymmetric objects that occur in N = 2 compactifications of string and M-theory on a Calabi-Yau manifold. These come in a surprisingly wide variety of four and five-dimensional black holes, black rings and their sometimes very complicated bound states. On the other hand, the topological string also makes its appearance in theories with eight supercharges, and turns out to compute certain black hole degeneracies. We dedicate the introduction and the first chapter to summarizing and reviewing the beautiful relationships between black holes, black rings, their dual conformal field theory and the topological string, and we also outline the remaining puzzles and issues. Some of the black holes in question can be obtained by multiply-wrapping an M-theory M5-brane on a self-intersecting four-cycle in the Calabi-Yau manifold. Their dual microscopic description is known, and consists of a two-dimensional conformal field theory (CFT) which is the low-energy limit of the gauge theory that resides on the worldvolume of the M5 brane. We show that in a certain limit the M5-brane CFT is - perhaps surprisingly - able to reproduce the entropy of a completely different type of black holes, those obtained from wrapped M2-branes, whose microscopic description has not yet been understood. We also argue that certain black hole bound states should also be described by the same CFT, which suggests a unifying description of the various black objects in eight-supercharge supergravity theories. Finally, we describe and present a proof of the so-called OSV conjecture, which states that the mixed partition function of N = 2 four-dimensional BPS black holes equals the modulus square of the type A topological string partition function. We also attempt to use this relationship to better understand corrections to the entropy of supersymmetric black holes and rings in five dimensions.

A new animal model for modulating myosin isoform expression by altered mechanical activity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Caiozzo, V. J.; Ma, E.; McCue, S. A.; Smith, E.; Herrick, R. E.; Baldwin, K. M.

1992-01-01

The purpose of this study was to develop a new rodent model that is capable of delineating the importance of mechanical loading on myosin heavy chain (MHC) isoform expression of the plantar and dorsi flexor muscles of the ankle. The essential components of this system include 1) stimulating electrodes that are chronically implanted into a muscle, allowing for the control of the activation pattern of the target muscle(s); 2) a training apparatus that translates the moment of the ankle into a linear force; and 3) a computer-controlled Cambridge 310 ergometer. The isovelocity profile of the ergometer ensured that the medial gastrocnemius (MG) produced forces that were > 90% of maximal isometric force (Po), and the eccentric contractions of the tibialis anterior (TA) were typically 120% of Po. Both the concentric and eccentric training programs produced statistically significant increases in the muscle mass of the MG (approximately 15%) and TA (approximately 7%) as well as a decrease in myofibrillar adenosinetriphosphatase activity. Both the white and red regions of the MG and TA exhibited significant increases in the relative content of the type IIa MHC and concomitant decreases in type IIb MHC expression. Although the red regions of the MG and red TA contained approximately 10% type I MHC, the training programs did not affect this isoform. It appears that when a fast-twitch muscle is stimulated at a high frequency (100 Hz) and required to contract either concentrically or eccentrically under high loading conditions, the expression of the type IIa MHC isoform will be upregulated, whereas that of the type IIb MHC will be concomitantly downregulated.

Myosin heavy chain expression in rodent skeletal muscle: effects of exposure to zero gravity

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Haddad, F.; Herrick, R. E.; Adams, G. R.; Baldwin, K. M.

1993-01-01

This study ascertained the effects of 9 days of zero gravity on the relative (percentage of total) and calculated absolute (mg/muscle) content of isomyosin expressed in both antigravity and locomotor skeletal muscle of ground control (CON) and flight-exposed (FL) rats. Results showed that although there were no differences in body weight between FL and CON animals, a significant reduction in muscle mass occurred in the vastus intermedius (VI) (P < 0.05) but not in the vastus lateralis (VL) or the tibialis anterior. Both total muscle protein and myofibril protein content were not different between the muscle regions examined in the FL and CON groups. In the VI, there were trends for reductions in the relative content of type I and IIa myosin heavy chains (MHCs) that were offset by increases in the relative content of both type IIb and possibly type IIx MHC protein (P > 0.05). mRNA levels were consistent with this pattern (P < 0.05). The same pattern held true for the red region of the VL as examined at both the protein and mRNA level (P < 0.05). When the atrophy process was examined, there were net reductions in the absolute content of both type I and IIa MHCs that were offset by calculated increases in type IIb MHC in both VI and red VL. Collectively, these findings suggest that there are both absolute and relative changes occurring in MHC expression in the "red" regions of antigravity skeletal muscle during exposure to zero gravity that could affect muscle function.

Acarbose is an effective adjunct to dietary therapy in the treatment of hypertriglyceridaemias

PubMed Central

Malaguarnera, M; Giugno, I; Ruello, P; Rizzo, M; Motta, M; Mazzoleni, G

1999-01-01

Aims In diabetics, acarbose causes a reduction of blood glucose and triglyceride levels. The aim of this study was to assess the effect of this drug in non diabetic subjects with hypertriglyceridaemia. Methods Thirty non diabetic patients with hypertriglyceridaemia type IIb or IV (24 males, six females; mean age 51.1 ±10.2 years) were studied. They were stratified into two groups depending on their basal triglyceride concentration (group A: triglyceride values ≤4.5 mmol l−1; group B triglyceride values > 4.5 mmol l− 1). Treatment consisted of 4 week courses of diet plus acarbose (50 mg twice daily) alternating with 4 weeks of diet alone for a total period of 16 weeks. Results Mean triglyceride values decreased significantly during the first and third cycles of therapy, i.e. diet plus acarbose treatment cycles in both patient groups. Group A also had significant reductions in total cholesterol and HDL cholesterol concentrations after completion of the acarbose treatment. Reduction of triglyceride levels was observed after both acarbose courses in patients affected by hypertriglyceridaemia type IIb. A marked reduction of triglyceride concentrations was achieved by patients affected by hypertriglyceridaemia type IV after the second acarbose course only. Conclusions Diet alone did not reduce triglyceride concentrations to normal values in our patients. The data suggest that acarbose is a useful adjunct to dietary control in non-diabetic patients affected by severe hypertriglyceridaemia. PMID:10583032

Endothelial Fcγ Receptor IIB Activation Blunts Insulin Delivery to Skeletal Muscle to Cause Insulin Resistance in Mice

PubMed Central

Tanigaki, Keiji; Chambliss, Ken L.; Yuhanna, Ivan S.; Sacharidou, Anastasia; Ahmed, Mohamed; Atochin, Dmitriy N.; Huang, Paul L.

2016-01-01

Modest elevations in C-reactive protein (CRP) are associated with type 2 diabetes. We previously revealed in mice that increased CRP causes insulin resistance and mice globally deficient in the CRP receptor Fcγ receptor IIB (FcγRIIB) were protected from the disorder. FcγRIIB is expressed in numerous cell types including endothelium and B lymphocytes. Here we investigated how endothelial FcγRIIB influences glucose homeostasis, using mice with elevated CRP expressing or lacking endothelial FcγRIIB. Whereas increased CRP caused insulin resistance in mice expressing endothelial FcγRIIB, mice deficient in the endothelial receptor were protected. The insulin resistance with endothelial FcγRIIB activation was due to impaired skeletal muscle glucose uptake caused by attenuated insulin delivery, and it was associated with blunted endothelial nitric oxide synthase (eNOS) activation in skeletal muscle. In culture, CRP suppressed endothelial cell insulin transcytosis via FcγRIIB activation and eNOS antagonism. Furthermore, in knock-in mice harboring constitutively active eNOS, elevated CRP did not invoke insulin resistance. Collectively these findings reveal that by inhibiting eNOS, endothelial FcγRIIB activation by CRP blunts insulin delivery to skeletal muscle to cause insulin resistance. Thus, a series of mechanisms in endothelium that impairs insulin movement has been identified that may contribute to type 2 diabetes pathogenesis. PMID:27207525

A safety and feasibility report of combined direct thrombin and GP IIb/IIIa inhibition with bivalirudin and tirofiban in peripheral vascular disease intervention: treating critical limb ischemia like acute coronary syndrome.

PubMed

Allie, David E; Hebert, Chris J; Lirtzman, Mitchell D; Wyatt, Charles H; Keller, V Antoine; Khan, Mohamed H; Khan, Muhammad A; Fail, Peter S; Vivekananthan, Krishnamoorthy; Allie, Sonja E; Mitran, Elena V; Chaisson, Gary; Stagg, Samuel J; Allie, Adam A; McElderry, Michael W; Barker, Esmond A; Walker, Craig M

2005-08-01

The combination of glycoprotein (GP) IIb-IIIa inhibition and direct thrombin inhibition (DTI) with bivalirudin (Angiomax, The Medicines Company, Cambridge, Massachusetts) have shown ischemic and hemorrhagic outcomes benefit in coronary interventions and may have similar benefits in percutaneous peripheral interventions (PPI). The high incidence of diabetes, chronic renal disease, platelet dysfunction, hypercoagulability, inflammation and a thrombus-rich environment make a GP IIb-IIIa and DTI combination with tirofiban (Aggrastat Merck and Company, Inc., Whitehouse Station, New Jersey) an attractive anticoagulation strategy in the PPI treatment of critical limb ischemia (CLI). Between May 1, 2001 and January 31, 2003, a CLI treatment group of 149 patients received PPI with bivalirudin (0.75 mg per kg bolus with 1.75 mg per kg per hour periprocedural infusion) and tirofiban (10 mcg per kg per minute bolus with 12-hour 0.1 mcg per kg per minute infusion) as an anticoagulation and antiplatelet strategy, and were compared to a matched unfractionated heparin (UFH) control group without GP IIb-IIIa inhibitors. Clinical and hemostasis outcomes were analyzed, including distal embolization (DE). Procedural success was 95.9% and 97.3% in the UFH control group and DTI-GP IIb-IIIa group, respectively. Significant differences were observed in the sheath removal time < 2 hours (60.5% UFH group versus 19.4% DTI-GP IIb-IIIa group; p = < 0.0001). Vascular closure devices were used equally in both groups. No statistical significance was observed in major and minor complications, femoral access complications, acute (< 48 hours) or subacute (30 days) vessel thrombosis, and 6-month duplex ultrasound restenosis rate between the DTI-GP IIb-IIIa versus the UFH group. A trend towards statistical significance was observed in the 6-month secondary re-intervention and limb salvage rates (10.7% versus 18.8%; p = 0.0501 and 93.9% versus 88.5%; p = 0.053) in the DTI-GP IIb-IIIa versus the UFH group, respectively. Angiographically relevant DE occurred in 4 of 149 (1.3%) and 8 of 149 (5.4%) of the bivalirudin-tirofiban and UFH groups, respectively. The combination of DTI with bivalirudin and GP IIb-IIIa inhibition with tirofiban is a safe and feasible alternative anticoagulation and antiplatelet strategy in PPI, and may offer improved clinical and hemostasis outcomes in treating CLI. A larger, prospective randomized trial is warranted.

Charge modulation as fingerprints of phase-string triggered interference

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Zhu, Zheng; Tian, Chushun; Jiang, Hong-Chen; Qi, Yang; Weng, Zheng-Yu; Zaanen, Jan

2015-07-01

Charge order appears to be an ubiquitous phenomenon in doped Mott insulators, which is currently under intense experimental and theoretical investigations particularly in the high Tc cuprates. This phenomenon is conventionally understood in terms of Hartree-Fock-type mean-field theory. Here we demonstrate a mechanism for charge modulation which is rooted in the many-particle quantum physics arising in the strong coupling limit. Specifically, we consider the problem of a single hole in a bipartite t -J ladder. As a remnant of the fermion signs, the hopping hole picks up subtle phases pending the fluctuating spins, the so-called phase-string effect. We demonstrate the presence of charge modulations in the density matrix renormalization group solutions which disappear when the phase strings are switched off. This form of charge modulation can be understood analytically in a path-integral language with a mean-field-like approximation adopted, showing that the phase strings give rise to constructive interferences leading to self-localization. When the latter occurs, left- and right-moving propagating modes emerge inside the localization volume and their interference is responsible for the real space charge modulation.

Serial position effects in the identification of letters, digits, and symbols.

PubMed

Tydgat, Ilse; Grainger, Jonathan

2009-04-01

In 6 experiments, the authors investigated the form of serial position functions for identification of letters, digits, and symbols presented in strings. The results replicated findings obtained with the target search paradigm, showing an interaction between the effects of serial position and type of stimulus, with symbols generating a distinct serial position function compared with letters and digits. When the task was 2-alternative forced choice, this interaction was driven almost exclusively by performance at the first position in the string, with letters and digits showing much higher levels of accuracy than symbols at this position. A final-position advantage was reinstated in Experiment 6 by placing the two alternative responses below the target string. The end-position (first and last positions) advantage for letters and digits compared with symbol stimuli was further confirmed with the bar-probe technique (postcued partial report) in Experiments 5 and 6. Overall, the results further support the existence of a specialized mechanism designed to optimize processing of strings of letters and digits by modifying the size and shape of retinotopic character detectors' receptive fields. (c) 2009 APA, all rights reserved.

Superconducting cosmic strings as sources of cosmological fast radio bursts

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ye, Jiani; Wang, Kai; Cai, Yi-Fu

2017-11-01

In this paper we calculate the radio burst signals from three kinds of structures of superconducting cosmic strings. By taking into account the observational factors including scattering and relativistic effects, we derive the event rate of radio bursts as a function of redshift with the theoretical parameters Gμ and I of superconducting strings. Our analyses show that cusps and kinks may have noticeable contributions to the event rate and in most cases cusps would dominate the contribution, while the kink-kink collisions tend to have secondary effects. By fitting theoretical predictions with the normalized data of fast radio bursts, we for the first time constrain the parameter space of superconducting strings and report that the parameter space of Gμ ˜ [10^{-14}, 10^{-12}] and I ˜ [10^{-1}, 102] GeV fit the observation well although the statistic significance is low due to the lack of observational data. Moreover, we derive two types of best fittings, with one being dominated by cusps with a redshift z = 1.3, and the other dominated by kinks at the range of the maximal event rate.

Input-independent, Scalable and Fast String Matching on the Cray XMT

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Villa, Oreste; Chavarría-Miranda, Daniel; Maschhoff, Kristyn J

2009-05-25

String searching is at the core of many security and network applications like search engines, intrusion detection systems, virus scanners and spam filters. The growing size of on-line content and the increasing wire speeds push the need for fast, and often real- time, string searching solutions. For these conditions, many software implementations (if not all) targeting conventional cache-based microprocessors do not perform well. They either exhibit overall low performance or exhibit highly variable performance depending on the types of inputs. For this reason, real-time state of the art solutions rely on the use of either custom hardware or Field-Programmable Gatemore » Arrays (FPGAs) at the expense of overall system flexibility and programmability. This paper presents a software based implementation of the Aho-Corasick string searching algorithm on the Cray XMT multithreaded shared memory machine. Our so- lution relies on the particular features of the XMT architecture and on several algorith- mic strategies: it is fast, scalable and its performance is virtually content-independent. On a 128-processor Cray XMT, it reaches a scanning speed of ≈ 28 Gbps with a performance variability below 10 %. In the 10 Gbps performance range, variability is below 2.5%. By comparison, an Intel dual-socket, 8-core system running at 2.66 GHz achieves a peak performance which varies from 500 Mbps to 10 Gbps depending on the type of input and dictionary size.« less

NAVAIR Portable Source Initiative (NPSI) Standard for Reusable Source Dataset Metadata (RSDM) V2.4

DTIC Science & Technology

2012-09-26

defining a raster file format: <RasterFileFormat> <FormatName>TIFF</FormatName> <Order>BIP</Order> < DataType >8-BIT_UNSIGNED</ DataType ...interleaved by line (BIL); Band interleaved by pixel (BIP). element RasterFileFormatType/ DataType diagram type restriction of xsd:string facets

Method and making group IIB metal - telluride films and solar cells

DOEpatents

Basol, Bulent M.; Kapur, Vijay K.

1990-08-21

A technique is disclosed forming thin films (13) of group IIB metal-telluride, such as Cd.sub.x Zn.sub.1-x Te (0.ltoreq.x.ltoreq.1), on a substrate (10) which comprises depositing Te (18) and at least one of the elements (19) of Cd, Zn, and Hg onto a substrate and then heating the elements to form the telluride. A technique is also provided for doping this material by chemically forming a thin layer of a dopant on the surface of the unreacted elements and then heating the elements along with the layer of dopant. A method is disclosed of fabricating a thin film photovoltaic cell which comprises depositing Te and at least one of the elements of Cd, Zn, and Hg onto a substrate which contains on its surface a semiconductor film (12) and then heating the elements in the presence of a halide of the Group IIB metals, causing the formation of solar cell grade Group IIB metal-telluride film and also causing the formation of a rectifying junction, in situ, between the semiconductor film on the substrate and the Group IIB metal-telluride layer which has been formed.

National Marrow Donor Program. HLA Typing for Bone Marrow Transplantation

DTIC Science & Technology

2014-11-30

educate the transplant community about the critical importance of establishing a nationwide contingency response plan. 2. Rapid Identification of...Expand Network Communications 59 IIB 4.2 Central Contingency Management 59 IIC Immunogenetic Studies 63 IIC.1.1 Donor Recipient Pair Project 63 IIC...Amendment CMCR Centers for Medical Countermeasures Against Radiation CMDP China Marrow Donor Program CME Continuing Medical Education CMF Community

Cohomology of line bundles: Applications

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Blumenhagen, Ralph; Jurke, Benjamin; Rahn, Thorsten; Roschy, Helmut

2012-01-01

Massless modes of both heterotic and Type II string compactifications on compact manifolds are determined by vector bundle valued cohomology classes. Various applications of our recent algorithm for the computation of line bundle valued cohomology classes over toric varieties are presented. For the heterotic string, the prime examples are so-called monad constructions on Calabi-Yau manifolds. In the context of Type II orientifolds, one often needs to compute cohomology for line bundles on finite group action coset spaces, necessitating us to generalize our algorithm to this case. Moreover, we exemplify that the different terms in Batyrev's formula and its generalizations can be given a one-to-one cohomological interpretation. Furthermore, we derive a combinatorial closed form expression for two Hodge numbers of a codimension two Calabi-Yau fourfold.

Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors in patients with unstable angina/non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction: appropriate interpretation of the guidelines.

PubMed

Antman, Elliott M

2003-10-01

In 2002, the American College of Cardiology and the American Heart Association published an update to their guidelines for the management of patients with unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction. These revised guidelines make specific recommendations regarding the use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors. This article briefly reviews the evidence supporting the use of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors in unstable angina and non-ST-segment elevation myocardial infarction, before moving on to discuss interpretation of these new guidelines.

A TaqMan-Based Multiplex qPCR Assay and DNA Extraction Method for Phylotype IIB Sequevars 1&2 (Select Agent) Strains of Ralstonia solanacearum

PubMed Central

Stulberg, Michael J.; Huang, Qi

2015-01-01

Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 strains belonging to phylotype IIB, sequevars 1 and 2 (IIB-1&2) cause brown rot of potato in temperate climates, and are quarantined pathogens in Canada and Europe. Since these strains are not established in the U.S. and because of their potential risk to the potato industry, the U.S. government has listed them as select agents. Cultivated geraniums are also a host and have the potential to spread the pathogen through trade, and its extracts strongly inhibits DNA-based detection methods. We designed four primer and probe sets for an improved qPCR method that targets stable regions of DNA. RsSA1 and RsSA2 recognize IIB-1&2 strains, RsII recognizes the current phylotype II (the newly proposed R. solanacearum species) strains (and a non-plant associated R. mannitolilytica), and Cox1 recognizes eight plant species including major hosts of R. solanacearum such as potato, tomato and cultivated geranium as an internal plant control. We multiplexed the RsSA2 with the RsII and Cox1 sets to provide two layers of detection of a positive IIB-1&2 sample, and to validate plant extracts and qPCR reactions. The TaqMan-based uniplex and multiplex qPCR assays correctly identified 34 IIB-1&2 and 52 phylotype II strains out of 90 R. solanacearum species complex strains. Additionally, the multiplex qPCR assay was validated successfully using 169 artificially inoculated symptomatic and asymptomatic plant samples from multiple plant hosts including geranium. Furthermore, we developed an extraction buffer that allowed for a quick and easy DNA extraction from infected plants including geranium for detection of R. solanacearum by qPCR. Our multiplex qPCR assay, especially when coupled with the quick extraction buffer method, allows for quick, easy and reliable detection and differentiation of the IIB-1&2 strains of R. solanacearum. PMID:26426354

N6-Trimethyl-lysine metabolism. Structural identification of the metabolite 3-hydroxy-N6-trimethyl-lysine

PubMed Central

Novak, Raymond F.; Swift, Terrence J.; Hoppel, Charles L.

1980-01-01

1H and 13C nuclear-magnetic-resonance spectroscopy and functional-group analysis were used to determine the molecular structure of an isolated metabolite (IIb) of trimethyl-lysine as 3-hydroxy-N6-trimethyl-lysine, an important intermediate in the conversion of trimethyl-lysine into trimethylammoniobutyrate and carnitine [Hoppel, Cox & Novak (1980) Biochem. J. 188, 509–519]. Functional-group analysis revealed the presence of a primary amine and reaction of metabolite (IIb) with periodate yielded 4-N-trimethylammoniobutyrate as a product, showing 2,3-substitution on the molecule and suggesting that the 3-substitution on the molecule may be an alcohol ([unk]CH–OH), amine ([unk]CH[unk]–NH2) or carbonyl ([unk]C=O) functional group. 1H integration ratios, 1H and 13C chemical-shift data and 1H and 13C signal multiplicities from the sample (IIb) were used to complete the identification of metabolite (IIb) as 3-hydroxy-N6-trimethyl-lysine. For example, the proton multiplet at δ 4.2p.p.m. and doublet at δ 4.1p.p.m., positions representative of amine or alcohol substitution on methylene carbon atoms, integration ratios of 1:1:2:9:4 and a positive ninhydrin test suggest 3-hydroxy-N6-trimethyl-lysine as the molecular structure for metabolite (IIb). 13C chemical-shift data obtained from the sample (IIb) and compared with several model compounds (trimethylammoniohexanoate, trimethyl-lysine and 3-hydroxylysine) resulted in generation of the spectrum of the metabolite and allowed independent identification of metabolite (IIb) as 3-hydroxy-N6-trimethyl-lysine. The 1H spectrum of erythro- and threo-3-hydroxylysine are presented for comparison, and the 1H and 13C n.m.r. spectra of the erythro-isomer support this analysis. PMID:6772169

Eisenstein series for infinite-dimensional U-duality groups

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Fleig, Philipp; Kleinschmidt, Axel

2012-06-01

We consider Eisenstein series appearing as coefficients of curvature corrections in the low-energy expansion of type II string theory four-graviton scattering amplitudes. We define these Eisenstein series over all groups in the E n series of string duality groups, and in particular for the infinite-dimensional Kac-Moody groups E 9, E 10 and E 11. We show that, remarkably, the so-called constant term of Kac-Moody-Eisenstein series contains only a finite number of terms for particular choices of a parameter appearing in the definition of the series. This resonates with the idea that the constant term of the Eisenstein series encodes perturbative string corrections in BPS-protected sectors allowing only a finite number of corrections. We underpin our findings with an extensive discussion of physical degeneration limits in D < 3 space-time dimensions.

Magnetically-enhanced open string pair production

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lu, J. X.

2017-12-01

We consider the stringy interaction between two parallel stacks of D3 branes placed at a separation. Each stack of D3 branes in a similar fashion carry an electric flux and a magnetic flux with the two sharing no common field strength index. The interaction amplitude has an imaginary part, giving rise to the Schwinger-like pair production of open strings. We find a significantly enhanced rate of this production when the two electric fluxes are almost identical and the brane separation is on the order of string scale. This enhancement will be largest if the two magnetic fluxes are opposite in direction. This novel enhancement results from the interplay of the non-perturbative Schwinger-type pair production due to the electric flux and the stringy tachyon due to the magnetic flux, and may have realistic physical applications.

Nanoparticle string formation on self-assembled copolymer films

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Jenczyk, J.; Woźniak-Budych, M.; Jarek, M.; Grzeszkowiak, M.; Nowaczyk, G.; Jurga, S.

2017-06-01

Nanoparticles (NP) string formations on self-assembled copolymeric substrates has been observed. These "thread of beads" like structures develop via simple colloidal droplet evaporation during meniscus rim withdrawal on polystyrene-block-poly(ethylene oxide) (PS-PEO) copolymer surfaces. It is shown that the process is triggered by the presence of the substrate impurities, which lead to NP aggregate formations serving as string initiation sites. The growth mechanism of these linear structures seems to be capillarity-driven. Moreover, there is an exceptional alignment coupling between NP strips and the block copolymer (BC) domains observed. BC directed NP assembly stems from a gold nanocrystal surface functionalization, which introduces selective affinity for one particular type of BC domain. The presented results reveal a potential fabrication method of NP wires characterized by remarkably low width and thickness comparable with the size of the individual constituent NP.

Hierarchy of Certain Types of DNA Splicing Systems

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yusof, Yuhani; Sarmin, Nor Haniza; Goode, T. Elizabeth; Mahmud, Mazri; Heng, Fong Wan

A Head splicing system (H-system)consists of a finite set of strings (words) written over a finite alphabet, along with a finite set of rules that acts on the strings by iterated cutting and pasting to create a splicing language. Any interpretation that is aligned with Tom Head's original idea is one in which the strings represent double-stranded deoxyribonucleic acid (dsDNA) and the rules represent the cutting and pasting action of restriction enzymes and ligase, respectively. A new way of writing the rule sets is adopted so as to make the biological interpretation transparent. This approach is used in a formal language- theoretic analysis of the hierarchy of certain classes of splicing systems, namely simple, semi-simple and semi-null splicing systems. The relations between such systems and their associated languages are given as theorems, corollaries and counterexamples.

T-duality constraints on higher derivatives revisited

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hohm, Olaf; Zwiebach, Barton

2016-04-01

We ask to what extent are the higher-derivative corrections of string theory constrained by T-duality. The seminal early work by Meissner tests T-duality by reduction to one dimension using a distinguished choice of field variables in which the bosonic string action takes a Gauss-Bonnet-type form. By analyzing all field redefinitions that may or may not be duality covariant and may or may not be gauge covariant we extend the procedure to test T-duality starting from an action expressed in arbitrary field variables. We illustrate the method by showing that it determines uniquely the first-order α' corrections of the bosonic string, up to terms that vanish in one dimension. We also use the method to glean information about the O({α}^' 2}) corrections in the double field theory with Green-Schwarz deformation.

Capillarization in skeletal muscle of rats with cardiac hypertrophy.

PubMed

Degens, Hans; Anderson, Rebecca K; Alway, Stephen E

2002-02-01

Exercise intolerance during chronic heart failure (CHF) is localized mainly in skeletal muscle. A decreased capillarization may impair exchange of oxygen between capillaries and muscle tissue and in this way contribute to exercise intolerance. We assessed changes in capillary supply in plantaris and diaphragm muscles of a rat aorta-caval fistula (ACF) preparation, a volume overload model for CHF. An ACF was created under equithesin anesthesia. Plantaris and diaphragm muscles were removed 6 wk postsurgery and examined for myosin heavy chain (MyHC) content and capillary supply. Cardiac hypertrophy was 96% (P < 0.002) after ACF. The Type IIb MyHC content of the plantaris muscles increased (33.9 +/- 3.3 vs 49.8 +/- 3.8%; mean +/- SEM) at the expense of Type IIa MyHC (17.6 +/- 1.8 vs 11.2 +/- 1.7%) in ACF rats (P < 0.05). In the diaphragm, the number of Type I (32.1 +/- 2.3 vs 40.6 +/- 2.7%) and IIb fibers (40.6 +/- 1.9 vs 49.6 +/- 3.6%) increased at the expense of Type IIa fibers (26.8 +/- 2.5 vs 9.4 +/- 0.9%) (P < 0.05). The capillary number per fiber did not change, and this indicated that no capillary loss occurred with ACF. Also, the capillary density was maintained in the diaphragm and plantaris muscles of ACF rats. Furthermore, the coupling between fiber type, size, and metabolic type of surrounding fibers, with the capillary supply to a fiber, was maintained in rats with an ACF. The cardiac hypertrophy induced by volume overload seems adequate to prevent atrophy and changes in the microcirculation of limb and diaphragm muscles.

HIT: a new approach for hiding multimedia information in text

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

El-Kwae, Essam A.; Cheng, Li

2002-04-01

A new technique for hiding multimedia data in text, called the Hiding in Text (HIT) technique, is introduced. The HIT technique can transform any type of media represented by a long binary string into innocuous text that follows correct grammatical rules. This technique divides English words into types where each word can appear in any number of types. For each type, there is a dictionary, which maps words to binary codes. Marker types are special types whose words do not repeat in any other type. Each generated sentence must include at least one word from the marker type. In the hiding phase, a binary string is input to the HIT encoding algorithm, which then selects sentence templates at random. The output is a set of English sentences according to the selected templates and the dictionaries of types. In the retrieving phase, the HIT technique uses the position of the marker word to identify the template used to build each sentence. The proposed technique greatly improves the efficiency and the security features of previous solutions. Examples for hiding text and image information in a cover text are given to illustrate the HIT technique.

Basic in vitro experiment on the adhesive effects of sheet-type hemostatic agents used in combination with a liquid fibrin sealant.

PubMed

Ishii, Keiichi; Kawashima, Hideki; Hayama, Takuma; Mayabashira, Sumika; Oka, Shiro; Sugimoto, Toshikado

2011-11-01

Various hemostatic agents have been used quite effectively for hemostasis, as well as for providing effective adhesion during laparoscopic partial nephrectomies. In this study, we investigated the adhesiveness to the renal tissue of some sheet-type hemostatic agents used in combination with a liquid fibrin sealant. In Experiment A, component solutions of the fibrin glue (liquid fibrin sealant) were dripped onto a kite string placed annularly on a porcine kidney slice. Then, one of the sheet-type hemostats--namely, the collagen, gelatin, or cellulose hemostat--was placed on the slices, and a string scale was used to measure the force needed to pull the string apart vertically from the kidney slice. Twelve slices were used for each group, and the weight data were analyzed statistically. The tissue adhering to each sheet-type hemostatic agent was fixed in formalin and sliced and then examined by light microscopy after hematoxylin and eosin staining. In Experiment B, the solutions were dripped onto the sheet-type hemostatic agent placed first on the slice, and the force needed for pulling apart the hemostat sheet from the slice was similarly examined. The combination of fibrin glue plus a collagen hemostat was clearly superior in Experiment A, but the hemostat and renal tissue could be pulled apart more easily in Experiment B. These results showed that fibrin glue could not exert its expected adhesive effect unless it is used in combination with another hemostatic agent or is directly applied to renal tissue. It is important to obtain further comparative data among agents and select the appropriate agents, taking into consideration the type of surgery.

Bianchi Type-II String Cosmological Model with Magnetic Field in f ( R, T) Gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sharma, N. K.; Singh, J. K.

2014-09-01

The spatially homogeneous and totally anisotropic Bianchi type-II cosmological solutions of massive strings have been investigated in the presence of the magnetic field in the framework of f( R, T) gravity proposed by Harko et al. (Phys Rev D 84:024020, 2011). With the help of special law of variation for Hubble's parameter proposed by Berman (Nuovo Cimento B 74:182, 1983) cosmological model is obtained in this theory. We consider f( R, T) model and investigate the modification R+ f( T) in Bianchi type-II cosmology with an appropriate choice of a function f( T)= μ T. We use the power law relation between average Hubble parameter H and average scale factor R to find the solution. The assumption of constant deceleration parameter leads to two models of universe, i.e. power law model and exponential model. Some physical and kinematical properties of the model are also discussed.

A retrospective analysis and case series of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor associated diffuse alveolar hemorrhage: two case reports

PubMed Central

Mikkilineni, Hima; Bruhl, Steven R; Pandya, Utpal

2009-01-01

Introduction Glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitors have a key role in the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndromes undergoing percutaneous interventions. Although, an increased risk of bleeding complications is well recognized, its association with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage is much less recognized. Previous authors have suggested that the incidence of glycoprotein IIb/IIIa inhibitor associated diffuse alveolar hemorrhage has been significantly underestimated due to under reporting. Case presentations In order to help better determine the incidence of GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor associated DAH, a retrospective review of medical records was conducted over a 1 year period at a single high volume medical hospital. The medical records of all patients diagnosed with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage were evaluated for treatment with a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor within 48 hours of its diagnosis. Each patient meeting the inclusion and exclusion criteria were included in the case series. This number was compared with the total number of patients receiving a GP IIb/IIIa inhibitor during the same time period and an incidence of the complication was calculated. 292 patients received either abciximab or eptifibatide during the one year review period and two patients were diagnosed with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage confirmed by serial bronchiolar lavage for an incidence of 0.68%. Of the total 292 patients receiving GP IIb/IIIa inhibitors, 172 patients received abciximab with one occurrence of diffuse alveolar hemorrhage for an incidence of 0.58% while 120 patients received eptifibatide with one occurrence for an incidence of 0.83%. Both patients developed significant morbidity as a result of the complication and 1 of the 2 patients died as a complication of the disease. Conclusions Our findings support the claim that the incidence of GP IIb/IIIa induced diffuse alveolar hemorrhage is substantially higher than initially suggested by drug manufacturer studies. Although these drugs have proven mortality benefits, its association with diffuse alveolar hemorrhage is likely under-recognized leading to significant under-reporting. The best way to more accurately determine the true incidence of this complication and decrease its morbidity and mortality is to increase awareness as well as include diffuse alveolar hemorrhage as a serious complication in product labeling. PMID:19830082

Performance Comparison of Four SolarWorld Module Technologies at the US DOE Regional Test Center in New Mexico: November 2016 - March 2017.

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Burnham, Laurie; Lave, Matthew Samuel; Stein, Joshua

This report provides a preliminary (three month) analysis for the SolarWorld system installed at the New Mexico Regional Test Center (RTC.) The 8.7kW, four-string system consists of four module types): bifacial, mono-crystalline, mono-crystalline glass-glass and polycrystalline. Overall, the SolarWorld system has performed well to date: most strings closely match their specification-sheet module temperature coefficients and Sandia 's f lash tests show that Pmax values are well within expectations. Although the polycrystalline modules underperformed, the results may be a function of light exposure, as well as mismatch within the string, and not a production flaw. The instantaneous bifacial gains for SolarWorldmore » 's Bisun modules were modest but it should be noted that the RTC racking is not optimized for bifacial modules, nor is albedo optimized at the site. Additional analysis, not only of the SolarWorld installation in New Mexico but of the SolarWorld installations at the Vermont and Florida RTCs will be provide much more information regarding the comparative performance of the four module types.« less

On the worldsheet theory of the type IIA {text{Ad}}{{text{S}}_4} × mathbb{C}{mathbb{P}_3} superstring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Sundin, Per

2010-04-01

We perform a detailed study of the type IIA superstring in {text{Ad}}{{text{S}}_4} × mathbb{C}{mathbb{P}_3} . After introducing suitable bosonic light-cone and fermionic kappa worldsheet gauges we derive the pure boson and fermion SU(2|2)×U(1) covariant light-cone Hamiltonian up to quartic order in fields. As a first application of our derivation we calculate energy shifts for string configurations in a closed fermionic subsector and successfully match these with a set of light-cone Bethe equations. We then turn to investigate the mismatch between the degrees of freedom of scattering states and oscillatory string modes. Since only light string modes appear as fundamental Bethe roots in the scattering theory, the physical role of the remaining 4 F + 4 B massive oscillators is rather unclear. By continuing a line of research initiated by Zarembo, we shed light on this question by calculating quantum corrections for the propagators of the bosonic massive fields. We show that, once loop corrections are incorporated, the massive coordinates dissolve in a continuum state of two light particles.

Delocalized SYZ mirrors and confronting top-down SU(3)-structure holographic meson masses at finite g and N_c with P(article) D(ata) G(roup) values

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Yadav, Vikas; Misra, Aalok; Sil, Karunava

2017-10-01

Meson spectroscopy at finite gauge coupling - whereat any perturbative QCD computation would break down - and finite number of colors, from a top-down holographic string model, has thus far been entirely missing in the literature. This paper fills this gap. Using the delocalized type IIA SYZ mirror (with SU(3) structure) of the holographic type IIB dual of large- N thermal QCD of Mia et al. (Nucl Phys B 839:187. arXiv:0902.1540 [hep-th], 2010) as constructed in Dhuria and Misra (JHEP 1311:001. arXiv:1306.4339 [hep-th], 2013) at finite coupling and number of colors (N_c = number of D5(\\overline{D5})-branes wrapping a vanishing two-cycle in the top-down holographic construct of Mia et al. (Nucl Phys B 839:187. arXiv:0902.1540 [hep-th], 2010) = O(1) in the IR in the MQGP limit of Dhuria and Misra (JHEP 1311:001. arXiv:1306.4339 [hep-th], 2013) at the end of a Seiberg-duality cascade), we obtain analytical (not just numerical) expressions for the vector and scalar meson spectra and compare our results with previous calculations of Sakai and Sugimoto (Prog Theor Phys 113:843. doi: 10.1143/PTP.113.843 arXiv:hep-th/0412141, 2005) and Dasgupta et al. (JHEP 1507:122. doi: 10.1007/JHEP07(2015)122 arXiv:1409.0559 [hep-th], 2015), and we obtain a closer match with the Particle Data Group (PDG) results of Olive et al. (Particle Data Group) (Chin Phys C 38:090001, 2014). Through explicit computations, we verify that the vector and scalar meson spectra obtained by the gravity dual with a black hole for all temperatures (small and large) are nearly isospectral with the spectra obtained by a thermal gravity dual valid for only low temperatures; the isospectrality is much closer for vector mesons than scalar mesons. The black-hole gravity dual (with a horizon radius smaller than the deconfinement scale) also provides the expected large- N suppressed decrease in vector meson mass with increase of temperature.

Hypofractionated Radiation Therapy in Treating Patients With Stage 0-IIB Breast Cancer

ClinicalTrials.gov

2018-05-11

Ductal Breast Carcinoma In Situ; Invasive Breast Carcinoma; Stage 0 Breast Cancer; Stage I Breast Cancer; Stage IA Breast Cancer; Stage IB Breast Cancer; Stage II Breast Cancer; Stage IIA Breast Cancer; Stage IIB Breast Cancer

Survivorship Care Planning in Patients With Colorectal or Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

ClinicalTrials.gov

2013-12-16

Stage I Colon Cancer; Stage I Rectal Cancer; Stage IA Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IB Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IIA Colon Cancer; Stage IIA Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IIA Rectal Cancer; Stage IIB Colon Cancer; Stage IIB Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IIB Rectal Cancer; Stage IIC Colon Cancer; Stage IIC Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIA Colon Cancer; Stage IIIA Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IIIA Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIB Colon Cancer; Stage IIIB Non-small Cell Lung Cancer; Stage IIIB Rectal Cancer; Stage IIIC Colon Cancer; Stage IIIC Rectal Cancer

Modification of a Limbed Robot to Favor Climbing

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Okon, Avi; Kennedy, Brett; Garrett, Michael; Magnone, Lee

2006-01-01

The figure shows the LEMUR IIb, which is a modified version of the LEMUR II the second generation of the Limbed Excursion Mechanical Utility Robot (LEMUR). Except as described below, the LEMUR IIb hardware is mostly the same as that of the LEMUR II. The IIb and II versions differ in their kinematic configurations and characteristics associated with their kinematic configurations. The differences are such that relative to the LEMUR II, the LEMUR IIb is simpler and is better suited to climbing on inclined surfaces. The first-generation LEMUR, now denoted the LEMUR I, was described in Six-Legged Experimental Robot (NPO-20897), NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 25, No. 12 (December 2001), page 58. The LEMUR II was described in Second-Generation Six-Limbed Experimental Robot (NPO-35140) NASA Tech Briefs, Vol. 28, No. 11 (November 2004), page 55. To recapitulate: the LEMUR I and LEMUR II were six-legged or sixlimbed robots for demonstrating robotic capabilities for assembly, maintenance, and inspection. They were designed to be capable of walking autonomously along a truss structure toward a mechanical assembly at a prescribed location. They were equipped with stereoscopic video cameras and image-data-processing circuitry for navigation and mechanical operations. They were also equipped with wireless modems, through which they could be commanded remotely. Upon arrival at a mechanical assembly, the LEMUR I would perform simple mechanical operations by use of one or both of its front legs (or in the case of the LEMUR II, any of its limbs could be used to perform mechanical operations). Either LEMUR could also transmit images to a host computer. The differences between the LEMUR IIb and the LEMUR II are the following: Whereas the LEMUR II had six limbs, the LEMUR IIb has four limbs. This change has reduced both the complexity and mass of the legs and of the overall robot. Whereas each limb of the LEMUR II had four degrees of freedom (DOFs), each limb of the LEMUR IIb has three DOFs. This change has also reduced both complexity and mass. Notwithstanding the decrease in the number of DOFs, the three remaining DOFs are configured to provide greater dexterity for motion along a surface. To extend reach, the limbs of the LEMUR IIb are 25 percent longer than those of the LEMUR II. Additional benefits stemming from the modifications are that the robot body supported by the limbs is now less massive and its center of gravity is now closer to the surface along which the robot is to move. These benefits have been obtained without sacrificing load-carrying capacity. Hence, overall, the LEMUR IIb is a more adept climber.

Adaptation of rat jaw muscle fibers in postnatal development with a different food consistency: an immunohistochemical and electromyographic study.

PubMed

Kawai, Nobuhiko; Sano, Ryota; Korfage, Joannes A M; Nakamura, Saika; Kinouchi, Nao; Kawakami, Emi; Tanne, Kazuo; Langenbach, Geerling E J; Tanaka, Eiji

2010-06-01

The development of the craniofacial system occurs, among other reasons, as a response to functional needs. In particular, the deficiency of the proper masticatory stimulus affects the growth. The purpose of this study was to relate alterations of muscle activity during postnatal development to adaptational changes in the muscle fibers. Fourteen 21-day-old Wistar strain male rats were randomly divided into two groups and fed on either a solid (hard-diet group) or a powder (soft-diet group) diet for 63 days. A radio-telemetric device was implanted to record muscle activity continuously from the superficial masseter, anterior belly of digastric and anterior temporalis muscles. The degree of daily muscle use was quantified by the total duration of muscle activity per day (duty time), the total burst number and their average length exceeding specified levels of the peak activity (5, 20 and 50%). The fiber type composition of the muscles was examined by the myosin heavy chain content of fibers by means of immunohistochemical staining and their cross-sectional area was measured. All muscle fibers were identified as slow type I and fast type IIA, IIX or IIB (respectively, with increasing twitch contraction speed and fatigability). At lower activity levels (exceeding 5% of the peak activity), the duty time of the anterior belly of the digastric muscle was significantly higher in the soft-diet group than in the hard-diet group (P < 0.05). At higher activity levels (exceeding 20 and 50% of the peak activity), the duty time of the superficial masseter muscle in the soft-diet group was significantly lower than that in the hard-diet group (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the duty time of the anterior temporalis muscle at any muscle activity level. The percentage of type IIA fibers of the superficial masseter muscle in the soft-diet group was significantly lower than that in the hard-diet group (P < 0.01) and the opposite was true with regard to type IIB fibers (P < 0.05). The cross-sectional area of type IIX and type IIB fibers of the superficial masseter muscle was significantly smaller in the soft-diet group than in the hard-diet group (P < 0.05). There was no difference in the muscle fiber composition and the cross-sectional area of the anterior belly of the digastric and anterior temporalis muscles. In conclusion, for the jaw muscles of male rats reared on a soft diet, the slow-to-fast transition of muscle fiber was shown in only the superficial masseter muscle. Therefore, the reduction in the amount of powerful muscle contractions could be important for the slow-to-fast transition of the myosin heavy chain isoform in muscle fibers.

Type IIB supergravity solution for the T-dual of the η-deformed AdS 5 × S 5 superstring

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Hoare, B.; Tseytlin, A. A.

2015-10-01

We find an exact type IIB supergravity solution that represents a one-parameter deformation of the T-dual of the AdS 5 × S 5 background (with T-duality applied in all 6 abelian bosonic isometric directions). The non-trivial fields are the metric, dilaton and RR 5-form only. The latter has remarkably simple "undeformed" form when written in terms of a "deformation-rotated" vielbein basis. An unusual feature of this solution is that the dilaton contains a linear dependence on the isometric coordinates of the metric precluding a straightforward reversal of T-duality. If we still formally dualize back, we find exactly the metric, B-field and product of dilaton with RR field strengths as recently extracted from the η-deformed AdS 5 × S 5 superstring action in arXiv:1507.04239. We also discuss similar solutions for deformed AdS n × S n backgrounds with n = 2 , 3. In the η → i limit we demonstrate that all these backgrounds can be interpreted as special limits of gauged WZW models and are also related to (a limit of) the Pohlmeyer-reduced models of the AdS n × S n superstrings.

Organization of the BcgI restriction-modification protein for the cleavage of eight phosphodiester bonds in DNA

PubMed Central

Smith, Rachel M.; Marshall, Jacqueline J. T.; Jacklin, Alistair J.; Retter, Susan E.; Halford, Stephen E.; Sobott, Frank

2013-01-01

Type IIB restriction-modification systems, such as BcgI, feature a single protein with both endonuclease and methyltransferase activities. Type IIB nucleases require two recognition sites and cut both strands on both sides of their unmodified sites. BcgI cuts all eight target phosphodiester bonds before dissociation. The BcgI protein contains A and B polypeptides in a 2:1 ratio: A has one catalytic centre for each activity; B recognizes the DNA. We show here that BcgI is organized as A2B protomers, with B at its centre, but that these protomers self-associate to assemblies containing several A2B units. Moreover, like the well known FokI nuclease, BcgI bound to its site has to recruit additional protomers before it can cut DNA. DNA-bound BcgI can alternatively be activated by excess A subunits, much like the activation of FokI by its catalytic domain. Eight A subunits, each with one centre for nuclease activity, are presumably needed to cut the eight bonds cleaved by BcgI. Its nuclease reaction may thus involve two A2B units, each bound to a recognition site, with two more A2B units bridging the complexes by protein–protein interactions between the nuclease domains. PMID:23147005

Prevalence and Clinical Characteristics of Itch in Vitiligo and Its Clinical Significance.

PubMed

Vachiramon, Vasanop; Onprasert, Woranit; Harnchoowong, Sarawin; Chanprapaph, Kumutnart

2017-01-01

Vitiligo usually presented as asymptomatic depigmented macules and patches. Little is known regarding itch in vitiligo. This study aimed to evaluate the prevalence and characteristics of itch in vitiligo patients. A cross-sectional study was conducted on vitiligo patients. Itch character and intensity were determined through questionnaires. Evaluation was also made by dermatologists to define vitiligo subtype, body surface area, Koebner phenomenon (KP), and so on. Data were assessed by computer software. Results were considered statistically significant if p < 0.05. Among 402 patients, itch on vitiliginous lesion presented in 20.2%. Prevalence of itch was most common in focal vitiligo (29.4%), followed by segmental vitiligo (20.3%) and nonsegmental vitiligo (19.6%), respectively. Tingling sensation was the most common itch-related symptom (82.7%). The median itch intensity is 5 by 10-point visual analog scale. Daily activity and sleep disturbance were observed in 60.5% and 39.5% of patients who experience itch. Itch occurred approximately 3 days prior to the development of lesions in 48.1% of patients. Thirty-two patients (78.1%) with both itch and KP type IIb had active disease. Itch in vitiligo is not uncommon. The presence of itch with KP type IIb may warrant the active vitiligo.

String Theory: exact solutions, marginal deformations and hyperbolic spaces

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Orlando, Domenico

2006-10-01

This thesis is almost entirely devoted to studying string theory backgrounds characterized by simple geometrical and integrability properties. The archetype of this type of system is given by Wess-Zumino-Witten models, describing string propagation in a group manifold or, equivalently, a class of conformal field theories with current algebras. We study the moduli space of such models by using truly marginal deformations. Particular emphasis is placed on asymmetric deformations that, together with the CFT description, enjoy a very nice spacetime interpretation in terms of the underlying Lie algebra. Then we take a slight detour so to deal with off-shell systems. Using a renormalization-group approach we describe the relaxation towards the symmetrical equilibrium situation. In he final chapter we consider backgrounds with Ramond-Ramond field and in particular we analyze direct products of constant-curvature spaces and find solutions with hyperbolic spaces.

Detection of text strings from mixed text/graphics images

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tsai, Chien-Hua; Papachristou, Christos A.

2000-12-01

A robust system for text strings separation from mixed text/graphics images is presented. Based on a union-find (region growing) strategy the algorithm is thus able to classify the text from graphics and adapts to changes in document type, language category (e.g., English, Chinese and Japanese), text font style and size, and text string orientation within digital images. In addition, it allows for a document skew that usually occurs in documents, without skew correction prior to discrimination while these proposed methods such a projection profile or run length coding are not always suitable for the condition. The method has been tested with a variety of printed documents from different origins with one common set of parameters, and the experimental results of the performance of the algorithm in terms of computational efficiency are demonstrated by using several tested images from the evaluation.

Inhibition of Activin Receptor Type IIB Increases Strength and Lifespan in Myotubularin-Deficient Mice

PubMed Central

Lawlor, Michael W.; Read, Benjamin P.; Edelstein, Rachel; Yang, Nicole; Pierson, Christopher R.; Stein, Matthew J.; Wermer-Colan, Ariana; Buj-Bello, Anna; Lachey, Jennifer L.; Seehra, Jasbir S.; Beggs, Alan H.

2011-01-01

X-linked myotubular myopathy (XLMTM) is a congenital disorder caused by deficiency of the lipid phosphatase, myotubularin. Patients with XLMTM often have severe perinatal weakness that requires mechanical ventilation to prevent death from respiratory failure. Muscle biopsy specimens from patients with XLMTM exhibit small myofibers with central nuclei and central aggregations of organelles in many cells. It was postulated that therapeutically increasing muscle fiber size would cause symptomatic improvement in myotubularin deficiency. Recent studies have elucidated an important role for the activin-receptor type IIB (ActRIIB) in regulation of muscle growth and have demonstrated that ActRIIB inhibition results in significant muscle hypertrophy. To evaluate whether promoting muscle hypertrophy can attenuate symptoms resulting from myotubularin deficiency, the effect of ActRIIB-mFC treatment was determined in myotubularin-deficient (Mtm1δ4) mice. Compared with wild-type mice, untreated Mtm1δ4 mice have decreased body weight, skeletal muscle hypotrophy, and reduced survival. Treatment of Mtm1δ4 mice with ActRIIB-mFC produced a 17% extension of lifespan, with transient increases in weight, forelimb grip strength, and myofiber size. Pathologic analysis of Mtm1δ4 mice during treatment revealed that ActRIIB-mFC produced marked hypertrophy restricted to type 2b myofibers, which suggests that oxidative fibers in Mtm1δ4 animals are incapable of a hypertrophic response in this setting. These results support ActRIIB-mFC as an effective treatment for the weakness observed in myotubularin deficiency. PMID:21281811

Morphological and Biochemical Effects on the Skeletal Muscle of Ovariectomized Old Female Rats Submitted to the Intake of Diets with Vegetable or Animal Protein and Resistance Training

PubMed Central

Figueiredo Braggion, Glaucia; Ornelas, Elisabete; Carmona Sattin Cury, Jurema; Edviges Alves Lima, Natália; Aquino, Rita C.; Affonso Fonseca, Fernando Luiz; Maifrino, Laura Beatriz Mesiano

2016-01-01

Introduction. Sarcopenia is a process characterized by reduction in protein mass and muscle strength with increasing age, especially in the postmenopausal period, resulting in functional limitations and with great impact on the physical autonomy of the elderly. Objective. To evaluate the effects of diets with vegetable proteins (VP) or animal proteins (AP) associated with resistance training (RT) on the structural and biochemical parameters of the medial gastrocnemius muscle in Wistar rats with sarcopenia. Methods. An experimental model with ovariectomized rats was used to induce sarcopenia and resistance training. The histochemical technique was used for the typing of muscle fibers, the cross-sectional area of myocytes, and volume densities of myocytes and interstitium; the technique of Picrosirius stain was used to highlight the collagen fibers. Results. The VP diet was not able to minimize the effects of sarcopenia in the medial gastrocnemius of sedentary animals and when associated with RT, it promoted maintenance of the CSA, attenuating the atrophy of type IIB fibers in the medial gastrocnemius. The AP diet in sedentary animals protected the type I fibers. When combined with RT, the AP promoted muscle remodeling, with reduction in volume density of type I and IIA fibers, and increase of IIB fibers, together with an increase in collagen volume density. Conclusion. The data suggest a tendency to better results of hypertrophy in animal groups that consumed the AP diet, even the sedentary animals, although more evident in those trained. PMID:26885253

LOSS Revisited. II. The Relative Rates of Different Types of Supernovae Vary between Low- and High-mass Galaxies

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Graur, Or; Bianco, Federica B.; Modjaz, Maryam; Shivvers, Isaac; Filippenko, Alexei V.; Li, Weidong; Smith, Nathan

2017-03-01

In Paper I of this series, we showed that the ratio between stripped-envelope (SE) supernova (SN) and Type II SN rates reveals a significant SE SN deficiency in galaxies with stellar masses ≲ {10}10 {M}⊙ . Here, we test this result by splitting the volume-limited subsample of the Lick Observatory Supernova Search (LOSS) SN sample into low- and high-mass galaxies and comparing the relative rates of various SN types found in them. The LOSS volume-limited sample contains 180 SNe and SN impostors and is complete for SNe Ia out to 80 Mpc and core-collapse SNe out to 60 Mpc. All of these transients were recently reclassified by us in Shivvers et al. We find that the relative rates of some types of SNe differ between low- and high-mass galaxies: SNe Ib and Ic are underrepresented by a factor of ˜3 in low-mass galaxies. These galaxies also contain the only examples of SN 1987A-like SNe in the sample and host about nine times as many SN impostors. Normal SNe Ia seem to be ˜30% more common in low-mass galaxies, making these galaxies better sources for homogeneous SN Ia cosmology samples. The relative rates of SNe IIb are consistent in both low- and high-mass galaxies. The same is true for broad-line SNe Ic, although our sample includes only two such objects. The results presented here are in tension with a similar analysis from the Palomar Transient Factory, especially as regards SNe IIb.

Supernovae from massive stars with extended tenuous envelopes

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Dessart, Luc; Yoon, Sung-Chul; Livne, Eli; Waldman, Roni

2018-04-01

Massive stars with a core-halo structure are interesting objects for stellar physics and hydrodynamics. Using simulations for stellar evolution, radiation hydrodynamics, and radiative transfer, we study the explosion of stars with an extended and tenuous envelope (i.e. stars in which 95% of the mass is contained within 10% or less of the surface radius). We consider both H-rich supergiant and He-giant progenitors resulting from close-binary evolution and dying with a final mass of 2.8-5 M⊙. An extended envelope causes the supernova (SN) shock to brake and a reverse shock to form, sweeping core material into a dense shell. The shock-deposited energy, which suffers little degradation from expansion, is trapped in ejecta layers of moderate optical depth, thereby enhancing the SN luminosity at early times. With the delayed 56Ni heating, we find that the resulting optical and near-IR light curves all exhibit a double-peak morphology. We show how an extended progenitor can explain the blue and featureless optical spectra of some Type IIb and Ib SNe. The dense shell formed by the reverse shock leads to line profiles with a smaller and near-constant width. This ejecta property can explain the statistically narrower profiles of Type IIb compared to Type Ib SNe, as well as the peculiar Hα profile seen in SN 1993J. At early times, our He-giant star explosion model shows a high luminosity, a blue colour, and featureless spectra reminiscent of the Type Ib SN 2008D, suggesting a low-mass progenitor.

Dual modes of motility at the leading edge of migrating epithelial cell sheets

PubMed Central

Klarlund, Jes K.

2012-01-01

Purse-string healing is driven by contraction of actin/myosin cables that span cells at wound edges, and it is the predominant mode of closing small round wounds in embryonic and some adult epithelia. Wounds can also heal by cell crawling, and my colleagues and I have shown previously that the presence of unconstrained, straight edges in sheets of epithelial cells is a sufficient signal to induce healing by crawling. Here, it is reported that the presence of highly concave edges, which are free or physically constrained by an inert material (agarose), is sufficient to induce formation of purse strings. It was determined that neither of the two types of healing required cell damage or other potential stimuli by using the particularly gentle procedure of introducing gaps by digesting agarose blocks imbedded in the cell sheets. Movement by crawling depends on signaling by the EGF receptor (EGFR); however, this was not required for purse-string contraction. A migrating epithelial cell sheet usually produces finger-like projections of crawling cells. The cells between fingers contain continuous actin cables, which were also determined to contain myosin IIA and exhibit additional characteristics of purse strings. When crawling was blocked by inhibition of EGFR signaling, the concave regions continued to move, suggesting that both mechanisms contribute to propel the sheets forward. Wounding epithelial cell sheets causes activation of the EGFR, which triggers movement by crawling. The EGFR was found to be activated only at straight and convex edges, which explains how both types of movement can coexist at leading epithelial edges. PMID:23019364

Colored petri net modeling of small interfering RNA-mediated messenger RNA degradation.

PubMed

Nickaeen, Niloofar; Moein, Shiva; Heidary, Zarifeh; Ghaisari, Jafar

2016-01-01

Mathematical modeling of biological systems is an attractive way for studying complex biological systems and their behaviors. Petri Nets, due to their ability to model systems with various levels of qualitative information, have been wildly used in modeling biological systems in which enough qualitative data may not be at disposal. These nets have been used to answer questions regarding the dynamics of different cell behaviors including the translation process. In one stage of the translation process, the RNA sequence may be degraded. In the process of degradation of RNA sequence, small-noncoding RNA molecules known as small interfering RNA (siRNA) match the target RNA sequence. As a result of this matching, the target RNA sequence is destroyed. In this context, the process of matching and destruction is modeled using Colored Petri Nets (CPNs). The model is constructed using CPNs which allow tokens to have a value or type on them. Thus, CPN is a suitable tool to model string structures in which each element of the string has a different type. Using CPNs, long RNA, and siRNA strings are modeled with a finite set of colors. The model is simulated via CPN Tools. A CPN model of the matching between RNA and siRNA strings is constructed in CPN Tools environment. In previous studies, a network of stoichiometric equations was modeled. However, in this particular study, we modeled the mechanism behind the silencing process. Modeling this kind of mechanisms provides us with a tool to examine the effects of different factors such as mutation or drugs on the process.

String scattering amplitudes and deformed cubic string field theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lai, Sheng-Hong; Lee, Jen-Chi; Lee, Taejin; Yang, Yi

2018-01-01

We study string scattering amplitudes by using the deformed cubic string field theory which is equivalent to the string field theory in the proper-time gauge. The four-string scattering amplitudes with three tachyons and an arbitrary string state are calculated. The string field theory yields the string scattering amplitudes evaluated on the world sheet of string scattering whereas the conventional method, based on the first quantized theory brings us the string scattering amplitudes defined on the upper half plane. For the highest spin states, generated by the primary operators, both calculations are in perfect agreement. In this case, the string scattering amplitudes are invariant under the conformal transformation, which maps the string world sheet onto the upper half plane. If the external string states are general massive states, generated by non-primary field operators, we need to take into account carefully the conformal transformation between the world sheet and the upper half plane. We show by an explicit calculation that the string scattering amplitudes calculated by using the deformed cubic string field theory transform into those of the first quantized theory on the upper half plane by the conformal transformation, generated by the Schwarz-Christoffel mapping.

Covariant open bosonic string field theory on multiple D-branes in the proper-time gauge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Taejin

2017-12-01

We construct a covariant open bosonic string field theory on multiple D-branes, which reduces to a non-Abelian group Yang-Mills gauge theory in the zero-slope limit. Making use of the first quantized open bosonic string in the proper time gauge, we convert the string amplitudes given by the Polyakov path integrals on string world sheets into those of the second quantized theory. The world sheet diagrams generated by the constructed open string field theory are planar in contrast to those of the Witten's cubic string field theory. However, the constructed string field theory is yet equivalent to the Witten's cubic string field theory. Having obtained planar diagrams, we may adopt the light-cone string field theory technique to calculate the multi-string scattering amplitudes with an arbitrary number of external strings. We examine in detail the three-string vertex diagram and the effective four-string vertex diagrams generated perturbatively by the three-string vertex at tree level. In the zero-slope limit, the string scattering amplitudes are identified precisely as those of non-Abelian Yang-Mills gauge theory if the external states are chosen to be massless vector particles.

Gravitational Scattering Amplitudes and Closed String Field Theory in the Proper-Time Gauge

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lee, Taejin

2018-01-01

We construct a covariant closed string field theory by extending recent works on the covariant open string field theory in the proper-time gauge. Rewriting the string scattering amplitudes generated by the closed string field theory in terms of the Polyakov string path integrals, we identify the Fock space representations of the closed string vertices. We show that the Fock space representations of the closed string field theory may be completely factorized into those of the open string field theory. It implies that the well known Kawai-Lewellen-Tye (KLT) relations of the first quantized string theory may be promoted to the second quantized closed string theory. We explicitly calculate the scattering amplitudes of three gravitons by using the closed string field theory in the proper-time gauge.

Gene Regions Responding to Skeletal Muscle Atrophy

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Booth, Frank W.

1997-01-01

Our stated specific aims for this project were: 1) Identify the region(s) of the mouse IIb myosin heavy chain (MHC) promoter necessary for in vivo expression in mouse fast-twitch muscle, and 2) Identify the region(s) of the mouse IIb MHC promoter responsive to immobilization in mouse slow-twitch muscle in vivo. We sought to address these specific aims by introducing various MHC IIb promoter/reporter gene constructs directly into the tibialis anterior and gastrocnemius muscles of living mice. Although the method of somatic gene transfer into skeletal muscle by direct injection has been successfully used in our laboratory to study the regulation of the skeletal alpha actin gene in chicken skeletal muscle, we had many difficulties utilizing this procedure in the mouse. Because of the small size of the mouse soleus and the difficulty in obtaining consistent results, we elected not to study this muscle as first proposed. Rather, our MHC IIb promoter deletion experiments were performed in the gastrocnemius. Further, we decided to use hindlimb unloading via tail suspension to induce an upregulation of the MHC IIb gene, rather than immobilization of the hindlimbs via plaster casts. This change was made because tail suspension more closely mimics spaceflight, and this procedure in our lab results in a smaller loss of overall body mass than the mouse hindlimb immobilization procedure. This suggests that the stress level during tail suspension is less than during immobilization. This research has provided an important beginning point towards understanding the molecular regulation of the MHC lIb gene in response to unweighting of skeletal muscle Future work will focus on the regulation of MHC IIb mRNA stability in response to altered loading of skeletal muscle

Platelet gene therapy improves hemostatic function for integrin αIIbβ3-deficient dogs

PubMed Central

Fang, Juan; Jensen, Eric S.; Boudreaux, Mary K.; Du, Lily M.; Hawkins, Troy B.; Koukouritaki, Sevasti B.; Cornetta, Kenneth; Wilcox, David A.

2011-01-01

Activated blood platelets mediate the primary response to vascular injury. Although molecular abnormalities of platelet proteins occur infrequently, taken collectively, an inherited platelet defect accounts for a bleeding diathesis in ≈1:20,000 individuals. One rare example of a platelet disorder, Glanzmann thrombasthenia (GT), is characterized by life-long morbidity and mortality due to molecular abnormalities in a major platelet adhesion receptor, integrin αIIbβ3. Transfusion therapy is frequently inadequate because patients often generate antibodies to αIIbβ3, leading to immune-mediated destruction of healthy platelets. In the most severe cases allogeneic bone marrow transplantation has been used, yet because of the risk of the procedure it has been limited to few patients. Thus, hematopoietic stem cell gene transfer was explored as a strategy to improve platelet function within a canine model for GT. Bleeding complications necessitated the use of a mild pretransplant conditioning regimen; therefore, in vivo drug selection was used to improve engraftment of autologously transplanted cells. Approximately 5,000 αIIbβ3 receptors formed on 10% of platelets. These modest levels allowed platelets to adhere to αIIbβ3’s major ligand (fibrinogen), form aggregates, and mediate retraction of a fibrin clot. Remarkably, improved hemostatic function was evident, with ≤135-fold reduced blood loss, and improved buccal bleeding times decreased to 4 min for up to 5 y after transplant. One of four transplanted dogs developed a significant antibody response to αIIbβ3 that was attenuated effectively with transient immune suppression. These results indicate that gene therapy could become a practical approach for treating inherited platelet defects. PMID:21606353

A Prospective Study of Level IIB Nodal Metastasis (Supraretrospinal) in Clinically N0 Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma in Indian Population.

PubMed

Chheda, Yogen P; Pillai, Sundaram K; Parikh, Devendra G; Dipayan, Nandy; Shah, Shakuntala V; Alaknanda, Gupta

2017-06-01

Oral cavity carcinoma is the most common cancer in Indian population. Metastatic nodal disease is the most important prognostic factor for oral cancers. In head and neck cancers with clinically N0 neck, standard selective neck dissection is performed by protecting the spinal accessory nerve to remove level IIA & IIB lymph nodes. The purpose of this study was to analyze the significance of level IIB dissection in patients of oral cavity cancer who underwent primary surgery with functional neck dissection. Two hundred ten patients with clinically N0 neck underwent neck dissection, where level IIB lymph nodes were dissected, labelled and processed separately. Among 210 patients of clinically N0 neck, 168 patients were pathologically N0 (80 %). Out of remaining 42 (20 %), 36 (17.14 %) were pN1 and 6 (2.86 %) were pN2. Among those with pN1 (36), level IB was involved in 24 patients (66.67 %) and level IIA was involved in 12 patients (33.33 %). Only 2 patients had involvement of level IIB lymph nodes. Among 6 patients of pN2 disease, 4 patients had simultaneous involvement of level IB and level IIA lymph nodes. Remaining 2 patients had isolated involvement of level III lymph nodes. Thus only 2 patients (< 1 %) out of 210 clinically N0 oral squamous cell carcinoma showed level IIB lymph node involvement. Thus we conclude that a frozen section of level 2a is advisable to decide the need for level 2b node dissection in clinically N0 neck as the sensitivity of clinical evaluation is extremely low.

Hot string soup: Thermodynamics of strings near the Hagedorn transition

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Lowe, David A.; Thorlacius, Lárus

1995-01-01

Above the Hagedorn energy density closed fundamental strings form a long string phase. The dynamics of weakly interacting long strings is described by a simple Boltzmann equation which can be solved explicitly for equilibrium distributions. The averge total number of long strings grows logarithmically with total energy in the microcanonical ensemble. This is consistent with calculations of the free single string density of states provided the thermodynamic limit is carefully defined. If the theory contains open strings the long string phase is suppressed.

Sporadic ganglioneuromatosis of esophagogastric junction in a patient with gastro-esophageal reflux disorder and intestinal metaplasia.

PubMed

Siderits, Richard; Hanna, Iman; Baig, Zahid; Godyn, Janusz-J

2006-12-28

A 58-year-old female with a recurrent history of upper abdominal pain and intermittent dysphagia underwent endoscopic evaluation that demonstrated an irregular and nodular esophago-gastric (EG) junction and grade I erosive esophagitis. Biopsies showed prominent intestinal metaplasia of Barrett's type without dysplasia, chronic inflammation and multiple aggregates of large cells within the mucosal lamina propria, some with spindle shaped nuclei. Immunohistochemistry stains for keratins AE-1/AE-3 were negative, while S-100 and NSE were positive. This, together with routine stains, was diagnostic for mucosal ganglioneuromatosis. The background of chronic inflammation with intestinal type metaplasia was consistent with long-term reflux esophagitis. No evidence of achalasia was seen. Biopsies of gastric antrum and fundus were unremarkable, without ganglioneural proliferation. Colonoscopy was unremarkable. No genetic syndromes were identified in the patient including familial adenomatous polyposis and multiple endocrine neoplasia type IIb (MEN IIb). Iansoprazole (Prevacid) was started by oral administration each day with partial relief of symptoms. Subsequent esophagogastroscopy repeated at 4 mo showed normal appearing EG junction. Esophageal manometry revealed a mild non-specific lower esophageal motility disorder. Mild motor dysfunction is seen with gastro-esophageal reflux disease (GERD) and we feel that the demonstration of localized ganglioneuromatosis was not likely related etiologically. In the absence of findings that might suggest neural hypertrophy, such as achalasia, the nodular mucosal irregularity seen with this instance of ganglioneuromatosis may, however, have exacerbated the patient's reflux.

A TaqMan-based multiplex qPCR assay and DNA extraction method for phylotype IIB sequevars 1&2 (select agent) strains of Ralstonia solanacearum

DOE PAGES

Stulberg, Michael J.; Huang, Qi

2015-10-01

Ralstonia solanacearum race 3 biovar 2 strains belonging to phylotype IIB, sequevars 1 and 2 (IIB-1&2) cause brown rot of potato in temperate climates, and are quarantined pathogens in Canada and Europe. Since these strains are not established in the U.S. and because of their potential risk to the potato industry, the U.S. government has listed them as select agents. Cultivated geraniums are also a host and have the potential to spread the pathogen through trade, and its extracts strongly inhibits DNA-based detection methods. We designed four primer and probe sets for an improved qPCR method that targets stable regionsmore » of DNA. RsSA1 and RsSA2 recognize IIB-1&2 strains, RsII recognizes the current phylotype II (the newly proposed R. solanacearum species) strains (and a non-plant associated R. mannitolilytica), and Cox1 recognizes eight plant species including major hosts of R. solanacearum such as potato, tomato and cultivated geranium as an internal plant control. We multiplexed the RsSA2 with the RsII and Cox1 sets to provide two layers of detection of a positive IIB-1&2 sample, and to validate plant extracts and qPCR reactions. The TaqMan-based uniplex and multiplex qPCR assays correctly identified 34 IIB-1&2 and 52 phylotype II strains out of 90 R. solanacearum species complex strains. Additionally, the multiplex qPCR assay was validated successfully using 169 artificially inoculated symptomatic and asymptomatic plant samples from multiple plant hosts including geranium. Moreover, we developed an extraction buffer that allowed for a quick and easy DNA extraction from infected plants including geranium for detection of R. solanacearum by qPCR. Our multiplex qPCR assay, especially when coupled with the quick extraction buffer method, allows for quick, easy and reliable detection and differentiation of the IIB-1&2 strains of R. solanacearum.« less

Primary bowing tremor: a task-specific movement disorder of string instrumentalists.

PubMed

Lederman, Richard J

2012-12-01

Fear of a tremulous or unsteady bow is widespread among string instrumentalists. Faulty technique and performance anxiety have generally been blamed. The cases of 4 high-level violinists and 1 violist, 3 women and 2 men, with uncontrollable bow tremor are presented. Age at onset was from 16 to 75 years, and symptom duration 8 months to 20 years at the time of neurological evaluation. The degree of tremor varied with type of bow stroke and even the portion of the bow contacting the string. Only 1 patient had a slight postural tremor of the opposite limb. In 3 of 5 the tremor was task-specific; the other 2 had mild and nontroubling tremor with other activities. The tremor appeared to worsen over time but then seemed to stabilize. The characteristics of this tremor appear to be distinguishable from the features of both essential tremor and focal dystonia; comparison is made with representative string players afflicted by these other disorders. Analogy of this tremor is made with primary writing tremor, a well-defined task-specific movement disorder also sharing at least some features with both essential tremor and writers' cramp, a focal dystonia. Hence, it was decided to call this primary bowing tremor. Clinical features, family history, diagnostic studies, and responsiveness to treatment of primary writing tremor are discussed to emphasize the similarity to primary bowing tremor. This appears to represent a previously unreported form of task-specific movement disorder of string instrumentalists.

Energy in a String Wave

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Ng, Chiu-king

2010-01-01

When one end of a taut horizontal elastic string is shaken repeatedly up and down, a transverse wave (assume sine waveform) will be produced and travel along it. College students know this type of wave motion well. They know when the wave passes by, each element of the string will perform an oscillating up-down motion, which in mechanics is termed simple harmonic2. They also know elements of the string at the highest and the lowest positions—the crests and the troughs—are momentarily at rest, while those at the centerline (zero displacement) have the greatest speed, as shown in Fig. 1. Irrespective of this, they are less familiar with the energy associated with the wave. They may fail to answer a question such as, "In a traveling string wave, which elements have respectively the greatest kinetic energy (KE) and the greatest potential energy (PE)?" The answer to the former is not difficult; elements at zero position have the fastest speed and hence their KE, being proportional to the square of speed, is the greatest. To the PE, what immediately comes to their mind may be the simple harmonic motion (SHM), in which the PE is the greatest and the KE is zero at the two turning points. It may thus lead them to think elements at crests or troughs have the greatest PE. Unfortunately, this association is wrong. Thinking that the crests or troughs have the greatest PE is a misconception.3

TH28 (Krautter's star) and its string of Herbig-Haro objects

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Graham, J. A.; Heyer, Mark H.

1988-01-01

A high-quality spectrogram of the unusual T Tauri-like star Th28 and its string of Herbig-Haro (HH) objects has been obtained. New velocities and line intensities for the star and the gaseous knots are reported, and data are given for a third HH object located 87 arcsec to the SE along the same collimation axis as defined by the other features. Th28 has a heliocentric velocity of +5 km/s which is close to the velocity of the CO in the area. The star's spectral type is probably in the G8-K2 range.

Atomic quantum simulation of dynamical gauge fields coupled to fermionic matter: from string breaking to evolution after a quench.

PubMed

Banerjee, D; Dalmonte, M; Müller, M; Rico, E; Stebler, P; Wiese, U-J; Zoller, P

2012-10-26

Using a Fermi-Bose mixture of ultracold atoms in an optical lattice, we construct a quantum simulator for a U(1) gauge theory coupled to fermionic matter. The construction is based on quantum links which realize continuous gauge symmetry with discrete quantum variables. At low energies, quantum link models with staggered fermions emerge from a Hubbard-type model which can be quantum simulated. This allows us to investigate string breaking as well as the real-time evolution after a quench in gauge theories, which are inaccessible to classical simulation methods.

Myofiber metabolic type determination by mass spectrometry imaging.

PubMed

Centeno, Delphine; Vénien, Annie; Pujos-Guillot, Estelle; Astruc, Thierry; Chambon, Christophe; Théron, Laëtitia

2017-08-01

Matrix assisted laser desorption/ionization (MALDI) mass spectrometry imaging is a powerful tool that opens new research opportunities in the field of biology. In this work, predictive model was developed to discriminate metabolic myofiber types using the MALDI spectral data. Rat skeletal muscles are constituted of type I and type IIA fiber, which have an oxidative metabolism for glycogen degradation, and type IIX and type IIB fiber which have a glycolytic metabolism, present in different proportions according to the muscle function and physiological state. So far, myofiber type is determined by histological methods that are time consuming. Thanks to the predictive model, we were able to predict not only the metabolic fiber type but also their location, on the same muscle section that was used for MALDI imaging. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Dissimilar distribution of Trypanosoma cruzi clones in humans after chemotherapy with allopurinol and itraconazole.

PubMed

Coronado, Ximena; Zulantay, Inés; Rozas, Marlene; Apt, Werner; Sánchez, Gittith; Rodríguez, Jorge; Ortiz, Sylvia; Solari, Aldo

2006-07-01

The aim of this work was to study the distribution of Trypanosoma cruzi clones after treatment failure with itraconazole or allopurinol in infected humans. Blood samples from treated and untreated individuals were used to detect T. cruzi by PCR assays and were confirmed by hybridization tests using total kinetoplast DNA as a universal probe. Also, xenodiagnosis (XD) tests were performed with Triatoma infestans fed from the same group of patients. We performed Southern-blot analyses of PCR products from blood or XD samples using a panel of four genotype-specific probes: corresponding to T. cruzi clones TcI, TcIIb, TcIId and TcIIe. The membranes were hybridized with radiolabelled probes and exposed in a Personal Molecular Imager. When comparing the presence of T. cruzi clones in the allopurinol-treated group with the non-treated group significant differences were only observed for XD samples. Clone TcI was present in 9/13 (69.2%) of the XD samples of the treated group, but only in 8/27 (29.6%) in the non-treated group (P = 0.0178). When the itraconazole-treated group and the control group were compared, significant differences were found in both the blood and XD samples. In blood, the clone TcIIb was detected in 6/17 (35.5%) of the treated group and in 18/27 (66.7%) of the non-treated group (P = 0.0207). When XD samples were analysed, the clone TcI was observed in 14/17 (82.3%) of the itraconazole-treated group but only in 8/27 (29.6%) of the control group (P = 0.0006), which suggests resistance of this clone to itraconazole. We detected a dissimilar distribution of T. cruzi clones in treated and untreated groups of patients. The presence of TcI increased in patients treated with allopurinol and itraconazole, whereas the presence of TcIIb decreased in itraconazole-treated patients. The type of T. cruzi clone that prevails suggests that TcI is resistant to both drugs and that TcIIb is susceptible to itraconazole.

Effect of early dietary energy restriction and phosphorus level on subsequent growth performance, intestinal phosphate transport, and AMPK activity in young broilers

PubMed Central

Miao, Zhiqiang; Zhang, Guixian; Zhang, Junzhen; Yang, Yu

2017-01-01

We aimed to determine the effect of low dietary energy on intestinal phosphate transport and the possible underlying mechanism to explain the long-term effects of early dietary energy restriction and non-phytate phosphorus (NPP). A 2 × 3 factorial experiment, consisting of 2 energy levels and 3 NPP levels, was conducted. Broiler growth performance, intestinal morphology in 0–21 days and 22–35 days, type IIb sodium-phosphate co-transporter (NaPi-IIb) mRNA expression, adenylate purine concentrations in the duodenum, and phosphorylated adenosine monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK-α) activity in 0–21 days were determined. The following results were obtained. (1) Low dietary energy (LE) induced a high feed conversion ratio (FCR) and significantly decreased body weight gain in young broilers, but LE induced significantly higher compensatory growth in low NPP (LP) groups than in the high or medium NPP groups (HP and MP). (2) LE decreased the villus height (VH) in the intestine, and LE-HP resulted in the lowest crypt depth (CD) and the highest VH:CD ratio in the initial phase. However, in the later period, the LE-LP group showed an increased VH:CD ratio and decreased CD in the intestine. (3) LE increased ATP synthesis and decreased AMP:ATP ratio in the duodenal mucosa of chickens in 0–21 days, and LP diet increased ATP synthesis and adenylate energy charges but decreased AMP production and AMP:ATP ratio. (4) LE led to weaker AMPK phosphorylation, higher mTOR phosphorylation, and higher NaPi-IIb mRNA expression. Thus, LE and LP in the early growth phase had significant compensatory and interactive effect on later growth and intestinal development in broilers. The effect might be relevant to energy status that LE leads to weaker AMPK phosphorylation, causing a lower inhibitory action toward mTOR phosphorylation. This series of events stimulates NaPi-IIb mRNA expression. Our findings provide a theoretical basis and a new perspective on intestinal phosphate transport regulation, with potential applications in broiler production. PMID:29240752

[The survivability of patients with cervical cancer of IIB stage].

PubMed

Kryzhanivs'ka, A Ie; Diakiv, I B

2014-01-01

To the present tense finally mine-out not tactic of treatment of patients with the cervical cancer (CC) of IIB stage, but in the standards of diagnostics and treatment there are different variants of treatment of this pathology, and choice, most optimum, as a rule, depends on subjective opinion of doctor. Consequently, purpose of our work--to promote efficiency of treatment of patients on CC IIB the stage, by application of neoadjuvant chemotherapy in the combined treatment. The results of treatment are analysed 291 patients on CC IIB stages which got radical treatment in Ivano-Frankivsk OKOD from 1998 to 2013 years. At the use of neoadjuvant chemotherapy index of general 5-years-survival and nonrecurrence survivability made 74.4% and 70.8%, and to preoperative chemotherapy--70.8% and 68.3% accordingly. At application of independent chemoradial therapy, to the index of general 5-years-survival and nonrecurrence survivability was 51.1% and 49.3%, accordingly. It is not exposed reliable difference (P < 0.05) at comparison of indexes of 5-years-survivability of patients which have got the combined methods of treatment, but a reliable difference is exposed when compared to patients which have got independent chemoradial therapy (P > 0.05). Consequently, application of the combined methods of treatment of patients of CC IIB stages were improved by indexes general 5-years and to nonrecurrence survivability by comparison to independent cheradial therapy. .

Boosting the down-shifting luminescence of rare-earth nanocrystals for biological imaging beyond 1500 nm.

PubMed

Zhong, Yeteng; Ma, Zhuoran; Zhu, Shoujun; Yue, Jingying; Zhang, Mingxi; Antaris, Alexander L; Yuan, Jie; Cui, Ran; Wan, Hao; Zhou, Ying; Wang, Weizhi; Huang, Ngan F; Luo, Jian; Hu, Zhiyuan; Dai, Hongjie

2017-09-29

In vivo fluorescence imaging in the near-infrared region between 1500-1700 nm (NIR-IIb window) affords high spatial resolution, deep-tissue penetration, and diminished auto-fluorescence due to the suppressed scattering of long-wavelength photons and large fluorophore Stokes shifts. However, very few NIR-IIb fluorescent probes exist currently. Here, we report the synthesis of a down-conversion luminescent rare-earth nanocrystal with cerium doping (Er/Ce co-doped NaYbF 4 nanocrystal core with an inert NaYF 4 shell). Ce doping is found to suppress the up-conversion pathway while boosting down-conversion by ~9-fold to produce bright 1550 nm luminescence under 980 nm excitation. Optimization of the inert shell coating surrounding the core and hydrophilic surface functionalization minimize the luminescence quenching effect by water. The resulting biocompatible, bright 1550 nm emitting nanoparticles enable fast in vivo imaging of blood vasculature in the mouse brain and hindlimb in the NIR-IIb window with short exposure time of 20 ms for rare-earth based probes.Fluorescence imaging in the near-infrared window between 1500-1700 nm (NIR-IIb window) offers superior spatial resolution and tissue penetration depth, but few NIR-IIb probes exist. Here, the authors synthesize rare earth down-converting nanocrystals as promising fluorescent probes for in vivo imaging in this spectral region.

Antibodies causing thrombocytopenia in patients treated with RGD-mimetic platelet inhibitors recognize ligand-specific conformers of αIIb/β3 integrin

PubMed Central

Rasmussen, Mark; Zhu, Jieqing; Aster, Richard H.

2012-01-01

Arginine-glycine-aspartic acid (RGD)–mimetic platelet inhibitors act by occupying the RGD recognition site of αIIb/β3 integrin (GPIIb/IIIa), thereby preventing the activated integrin from reacting with fibrinogen. Thrombocytopenia is a well-known side effect of treatment with this class of drugs and is caused by Abs, often naturally occurring, that recognize αIIb/β3 in a complex with the drug being administered. RGD peptide and RGD-mimetic drugs are known to induce epitopes (ligand-induced binding sites [LIBS]) in αIIb/β3 that are recognized by certain mAbs. It has been speculated, but not shown experimentally, that Abs from patients who develop thrombocytopenia when treated with an RGD-mimetic inhibitor similarly recognize LIBS determinants. We addressed this question by comparing the reactions of patient Abs and LIBS-specific mAbs against αIIb/β3 in a complex with RGD and RGD-mimetic drugs, and by examining the ability of selected non-LIBS mAbs to block binding of patient Abs to the liganded integrin. Findings made provide evidence that the patient Abs recognize subtle, drug-induced structural changes in the integrin head region that are clustered about the RGD recognition site. The target epitopes differ from classic LIBS determinants, however, both in their location and by virtue of being largely drug-specific. PMID:22490676

Combining universal and odd RR axions for aligned natural inflation

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Gao, Xin; Li, Tianjun; Shukla, Pramod, E-mail: xingao@vt.edu, E-mail: tli@itp.ac.cn, E-mail: pkshukla@to.infn.it

2014-10-01

We successfully embed the Kim-Nilles-Peloso (KNP) alignment mechanism for enhancing the axion decay constant in the context of large volume type IIB orientifolds. The flat direction is generated in the plane of (C{sub 0}-C{sub 2}) axions corresponding to the involutively even universal axion C{sub 0} and odd axion C{sub 2}, respectively. The moduli stabilization with large volume scheme has been established as well.

Restoration of pharyngeal dilator muscle force in dystrophin-deficient (mdx) mice following co-treatment with neutralizing interleukin-6 receptor antibodies and urocortin 2.

PubMed

Burns, David P; Rowland, Jane; Canavan, Leonie; Murphy, Kevin H; Brannock, Molly; O'Malley, Dervla; O'Halloran, Ken D; Edge, Deirdre

2017-09-01

What is the central question of this study? We previously reported impaired upper airway dilator muscle function in the mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD). Our aim was to assess the effect of blocking interleukin-6 receptor signalling and stimulating corticotrophin-releasing factor receptor 2 signalling on mdx sternohyoid muscle structure and function. What is the main finding and its importance? The interventional treatment had a positive inotropic effect on sternohyoid muscle force, restoring mechanical work and power to wild-type values, reduced myofibre central nucleation and preserved the myosin heavy chain type IIb fibre complement of mdx sternohyoid muscle. These data might have implications for development of pharmacotherapies for DMD with relevance to respiratory muscle performance. The mdx mouse model of Duchenne muscular dystrophy shows evidence of impaired pharyngeal dilator muscle function. We hypothesized that inflammatory and stress-related factors are implicated in airway dilator muscle dysfunction. Six-week-old mdx (n = 26) and wild-type (WT; n = 26) mice received either saline (0.9% w/v) or a co-administration of neutralizing interleukin-6 receptor antibodies (0.2 mg kg -1 ) and corticotrophin-releasing factor receptor 2 agonist (urocortin 2; 30 μg kg -1 ) over 2 weeks. Sternohyoid muscle isometric and isotonic contractile function was examined ex vivo. Muscle fibre centronucleation and muscle cellular infiltration, collagen content, fibre-type distribution and fibre cross-sectional area were determined by histology and immunofluorescence. Muscle chemokine content was examined by use of a multiplex assay. Sternohyoid peak specific force at 100 Hz was significantly reduced in mdx compared with WT. Drug treatment completely restored force in mdx sternohyoid to WT levels. The percentage of centrally nucleated muscle fibres was significantly increased in mdx, and this was partly ameliorated after drug treatment. The areal density of infiltrates and collagen content were significantly increased in mdx sternohyoid; both indices were unaffected by drug treatment. The abundance of myosin heavy chain type IIb fibres was significantly decreased in mdx sternohyoid; drug treatment preserved myosin heavy chain type IIb complement in mdx muscle. The chemokines macrophage inflammatory protein 2, interferon-γ-induced protein 10 and macrophage inflammatory protein 3α were significantly increased in mdx sternohyoid compared with WT. Drug treatment significantly increased chemokine expression in mdx but not WT sternohyoid. Recovery of contractile function was impressive in our study, with implications for Duchenne muscular dystrophy. The precise molecular mechanisms by which the drug treatment exerts an inotropic effect on mdx sternohyoid muscle remain to be elucidated. © 2017 The Authors. Experimental Physiology © 2017 The Physiological Society.

Axionic D3-D7 inflation

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Burgess, C. P.; Cline, J. M.; Postma, M.

2009-03-01

We study the motion of a D3 brane moving within a Type IIB string vacuum compactified to 4D on K3 × T2/Z2 in the presence of D7 and O7 planes. We work within the effective 4D supergravity describing how the mobile D3 interacts with the lightest bulk moduli of the compactification, including the effects of modulus-stabilizing fluxes. We seek inflationary solutions to the resulting equations, performing our search numerically in order to avoid resorting to approximate parameterizations of the low-energy potential. We consider uplifting from D-terms and from the supersymmetry-breaking effects of anti-D3 branes. We find examples of slow-roll inflation (with anti-brane uplifting) with the mobile D3 moving along the toroidal directions, falling towards a D7-O7 stack starting from the antipodal point. The inflaton turns out to be a linear combination of the brane position and the axionic partner of the K3 volume modulus, and the similarity of the potential along the inflaton direction with that of racetrack inflation leads to the prediction ns <= 0.95 for the spectral index. The slow roll is insensitive to most of the features of the effective superpotential, and requires a one-in-104 tuning to ensure that the torus is close to square in shape. We also consider D-term inflation with the D3 close to the attractive D7, but find that for a broad (but not exhaustive) class of parameters the conditions for slow roll tend to destabilize the bulk moduli. In contrast to the axionic case, the best inflationary example of this kind requires the delicate adjustment of potential parameters (much more than the part-per-mille level), and gives inflation only at an inflection point of the potential (and so suffers from additional fine-tuning of initial conditions to avoid an overshoot problem).

Brentuximab Vedotin and Combination Chemotherapy in Treating Children and Young Adults With Stage IIB or Stage IIIB-IVB Hodgkin Lymphoma

ClinicalTrials.gov

2018-06-25

Ann Arbor Stage IIB Hodgkin Lymphoma; Ann Arbor Stage IIIB Hodgkin Lymphoma; Ann Arbor Stage IV Hodgkin Lymphoma; Ann Arbor Stage IVA Hodgkin Lymphoma; Ann Arbor Stage IVB Hodgkin Lymphoma; Childhood Hodgkin Lymphoma; Classic Hodgkin Lymphoma

The GLAS editing procedures for the FGGE level II-B data collected during SOP-1 and 2

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Baker, W.; Edelmann, D.; Carus, H.

1981-01-01

The modifications made to the FGGE Level II-b data are discussed and the FORTRAN program developed to perform the modifications is described. It is suggested that the edited database is the most accurate one available for FGGE SOP-1 and 2.

Cosmic strings and superconducting cosmic strings

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Copeland, Edmund

1988-01-01

The possible consequences of forming cosmic strings and superconducting cosmic strings in the early universe are discussed. Lecture 1 describes the group theoretic reasons for and the field theoretic reasons why cosmic strings can form in spontaneously broken gauge theories. Lecture 2 discusses the accretion of matter onto string loops, emphasizing the scenario with a cold dark matter dominated universe. In lecture 3 superconducting cosmic strings are discussed, as is a mechanism which leads to the formation of structure from such strings.

Association of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms with chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome components in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients.

PubMed

Mackawy, Amal M H; Badawi, Mohammed E H

2014-12-01

To date the published data concerning the possible interplay between vitamin D (VitD) and Vit D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism with the immune/inflammatory mediators in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is insufficient. Some of the immune non-classical actions of vitamin D may point to its role in the pathogenesis of type 2 DM through down-regulation of cytokines (IL-6). Although there is evidence to support a relationship among vitamin D status, chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, the underlying mechanism requires further exploration. We aimed to investigate the role of vitamin D in chronic inflammation and insulin resistance in type 2 DM. Moreover, to examine the association of VDR gene polymorphisms [VDR 2228570 C > T (FokI); VDR 1544410 A > G (BsmI)] with the components of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients . A total of 190 subjects were enrolled in this study, 60 controls and 130 type 2 diabetic patients (Group II). Group II was subdivided into 63 patients without MetSyn (subgroup IIa) and 67 patients with MetSyn (subgroup IIb). Genetic analysis for VDR gene polymorphisms was done in all subjects. VitD and IL-6 plasma levels were estimated. The TT genotype for the VDR FokI was significantly more frequent in subgroup IIb than in subgroup IIa and controls (X (2) = 6.83, P = 0.03 and X (2) = 16.592, P = 0.000) respectively. The T allele was more frequent in the MetSyn group as compared to diabetics without MetSyn (p = 0.001), odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI for the T allele of C > T (FokI) = 2.30 (1.37-3.86). We did not detect any significant difference in VDR BsmI genotypes between patients and control groups (P = 0.947). FokI VDR was significantly associated with the lipid profile parameters, VitD and IL-6 plasma levels in subgroup IIa and associated with HOMA-IR, insulin, VitD, IL-6 levels, waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) in subgroup IIb while BsmI VDR variant was associated only with VitD values in both subgroups. The present study suggests an interaction between VDR polymorphisms and important components of MetSyn, VitD and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6). FokI VDR polymorphisms may be linked to mild inflammation and insulin resistance and might represent a genetic determinant for developing MetSyn in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients. The challenge is determining the mechanisms of VitD action for recommendation of VitD supplementation that reduces the risks of MetSyn, insulin resistance and progression to type 2 diabetes.

Association of vitamin D and vitamin D receptor gene polymorphisms with chronic inflammation, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome components in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients

PubMed Central

Mackawy, Amal M.H.; Badawi, Mohammed E.H.

2014-01-01

Background To date the published data concerning the possible interplay between vitamin D (VitD) and Vit D receptor (VDR) gene polymorphism with the immune/inflammatory mediators in type 2 diabetes mellitus (DM) is insufficient. Some of the immune non-classical actions of vitamin D may point to its role in the pathogenesis of type 2 DM through down-regulation of cytokines (IL-6). Although there is evidence to support a relationship among vitamin D status, chronic inflammation and insulin resistance, the underlying mechanism requires further exploration. We aimed to investigate the role of vitamin D in chronic inflammation and insulin resistance in type 2 DM. Moreover, to examine the association of VDR gene polymorphisms [VDR 2228570 C > T (FokI); VDR 1544410 A > G (BsmI)] with the components of metabolic syndrome (MetSyn) in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients . Subjects and methods A total of 190 subjects were enrolled in this study, 60 controls and 130 type 2 diabetic patients (Group II). Group II was subdivided into 63 patients without MetSyn (subgroup IIa) and 67 patients with MetSyn (subgroup IIb). Genetic analysis for VDR gene polymorphisms was done in all subjects. VitD and IL-6 plasma levels were estimated. Results The TT genotype for the VDR FokI was significantly more frequent in subgroup IIb than in subgroup IIa and controls (X2 = 6.83, P = 0.03 and X2 = 16.592, P = 0.000) respectively. The T allele was more frequent in the MetSyn group as compared to diabetics without MetSyn (p = 0.001), odds ratio (OR) and 95% CI for the T allele of C > T (FokI) = 2.30 (1.37–3.86). We did not detect any significant difference in VDR BsmI genotypes between patients and control groups (P = 0.947). FokI VDR was significantly associated with the lipid profile parameters, VitD and IL-6 plasma levels in subgroup IIa and associated with HOMA-IR, insulin, VitD, IL-6 levels, waist circumference (WC) and body mass index (BMI) in subgroup IIb while BsmI VDR variant was associated only with VitD values in both subgroups. Conclusion The present study suggests an interaction between VDR polymorphisms and important components of MetSyn, VitD and pro-inflammatory cytokines (IL-6). FokI VDR polymorphisms may be linked to mild inflammation and insulin resistance and might represent a genetic determinant for developing MetSyn in type 2 diabetic Egyptian patients. The challenge is determining the mechanisms of VitD action for recommendation of VitD supplementation that reduces the risks of MetSyn, insulin resistance and progression to type 2 diabetes. PMID:25606437

String & Sticky Tape Experiments: Coefficient of Restitution.

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Edge, R. D., Ed.

1988-01-01

Described is an experiment for measuring the coefficient of restitution with a meter stick, balls of different types, and scraps of material for the plates. Provides the experimental procedure and an apparatus diagram. (YP)

Efficacy and safety of coadministration of fenofibrate and ezetimibe compared with each as monotherapy in patients with type IIb dyslipidemia and features of the metabolic syndrome: a prospective, randomized, double-blind, three-parallel arm, multicenter, comparative study.

PubMed

Ansquer, Jean-Claude; Bekaert, Ivan; Guy, Martine; Hanefeld, Markolf; Simon, Alain

2009-01-01

Patients with type IIb, or mixed, dyslipidemia have high levels of low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) with predominance of small dense LDL particles, high levels of triglycerides (TG), and low levels of high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C). Fenofibrate significantly reduces TG and, more moderately, LDL-C, increases HDL-C and produces a shift from small to large LDL particle size; the main effect of ezetimibe is a reduction in LDL-C levels. Combined treatment with fenofibrate and ezetimibe may correct all the abnormalities of type IIb dyslipidemia. To assess the efficacy and safety of coadministration of fenofibrate (NanoCrystal(R)) and ezetimibe in patients with type IIb dyslipidemia and the metabolic syndrome compared with administration of fenofibrate and ezetimibe alone (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT00349284; Study ID: CLF178P 04 01). This was a prospective, randomized, double-blind, three-parallel arm, multicenter, comparative study. Sixty ambulatory patients (mean age 56 years; 50% women, 50% men) were treated in each group. For inclusion in the study, patients were required to have LDL-C >or=4.13 mmol/L (>or=160 mg/dL), TG >or=1.71 mmol/L and or=150 mg/dL and

From decay to complete breaking: pulling the strings in SU(2) Yang-Mills theory.

PubMed

Pepe, M; Wiese, U-J

2009-05-15

We study {2Q+1} strings connecting two static charges Q in (2+1)D SU(2) Yang-Mills theory. While the fundamental {2} string between two charges Q=1/2 is unbreakable, the adjoint {3} string connecting two charges Q=1 can break. When a {4} string is stretched beyond a critical length, it decays into a {2} string by gluon pair creation. When a {5} string is stretched, it first decays into a {3} string, which eventually breaks completely. The energy of the screened charges at the ends of a string is well described by a phenomenological constituent gluon model.

The behavior of enclosed-type connection of drill pipes during percussive drilling

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Shadrina, A.; Saruev, L.

2015-11-01

Percussion drilling is the efficient method to drill small holes (≥ 70 mm) in medium- hard and harder rocks. The existing types of drill strings for geological explorations are not intended for strain wave energy transfer. The description of the improved design of the drill string having enclosed-type nipple connections is given in this paper presents. This nipple connection is designed to be used in drilling small exploration wells with formation sampling. Experimental findings prove the effectiveness of the enclosed nipple connection in relation to the load distribution in operation. The paper presents research results of the connection behavior under quasistatic loading (compression-tension). Loop diagrams are constructed and analyzed in force-displacement coordinates. Research results are obtained for shear stresses occurred in the nipple connection. A mechanism of shear stress distribution is described for the wave strain propagation over the connecting element. It is shown that in the course of operation the drill pipe tightening reduces the shear stress three times.

Subterranean barriers, methods, and apparatuses for forming, inspecting, selectively heating, and repairing same

DOEpatents

Nickelson, Reva A.; Sloan, Paul A.; Richardson, John G.; Walsh, Stephanie; Kostelnik, Kevin M.

2009-04-07

A subterranean barrier and method for forming same are disclosed, the barrier including a plurality of casing strings wherein at least one casing string of the plurality of casing strings may be affixed to at least another adjacent casing string of the plurality of casing strings through at least one weld, at least one adhesive joint, or both. A method and system for nondestructively inspecting a subterranean barrier is disclosed. For instance, a radiographic signal may be emitted from within a casing string toward an adjacent casing string and the radiographic signal may be detected from within the adjacent casing string. A method of repairing a barrier including removing at least a portion of a casing string and welding a repair element within the casing string is disclosed. A method of selectively heating at least one casing string forming at least a portion of a subterranean barrier is disclosed.

Spontaneous closure of intracranial dural arteriovenous fistulas: a report of 3 cases.

PubMed

Clarençon, Frédéric; Biondi, Alessandra; Sourour, Nader-Antoine; Di Maria, Federico; Iosif, Christina; Nouet, Aurélien; Navarro, Soledad; Le Jean, Lise; Chiras, Jacques

2013-07-01

Spontaneous closures of dural arteriovenous fistulas (dAVFs) are rare. We present spontaneous occlusion of dAVFs in 3 cases (one type IIa dAVF, one type IIb and one type III). Patients were 3 males with a mean age of 55 years (range 45-61). For two patients, the dAVF was revealed by hemorrhage. No head trauma was recorded at the interrogatory. Mean delay for spontaneous closure was 4 months (3-5 months). Review of the literature about this rare occurrence is presented and the factors that may lead to spontaneous occlusion of dAVFs are discussed. Copyright © 2012 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

Informing New String Programmes: Lessons Learned from an Australian Experience

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Murphy, Fintan; Rickard, Nikki; Gill, Anneliese; Grimmett, Helen

2011-01-01

Although there are many examples of notable string programmes there has been relatively little comparative analysis of these programmes. This paper examines three benchmark string programmes (The University of Illinois String Project, The Tower Hamlets String Teaching Project and Colourstrings) alongside Music4All, an innovative string programme…

[ital N]-string vertices in string field theory

DOE Office of Scientific and Technical Information (OSTI.GOV)

Bordes, J.; Abdurrahman, A.; Anton, F.

1994-03-15

We give the general form of the vertex corresponding to the interaction of an arbitrary number of strings. The technique employed relies on the comma'' representation of string field theory where string fields and interactions are represented as matrices and operations between them such as multiplication and trace. The general formulation presented here shows that the interaction vertex of [ital N] strings, for any arbitrary [ital N], is given as a function of particular combinations of matrices corresponding to the change of representation between the full string and the half string degrees of freedom.

The Birth of String Theory

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Cappelli, Andrea; Castellani, Elena; Colomo, Filippo; Di Vecchia, Paolo

2012-04-01

Part I. Overview: 1. Introduction and synopsis; 2. Rise and fall of the hadronic string G. Veneziano; 3. Gravity, unification, and the superstring J. H. Schwarz; 4. Early string theory as a challenging case study for philosophers E. Castellani; Part II. The Prehistory: The Analytic S-Matrix: 5. Introduction to Part II; 6. Particle theory in the sixties: from current algebra to the Veneziano amplitude M. Ademollo; 7. The path to the Veneziano model H. R. Rubinstein; 8. Two-component duality and strings P. G. O. Freund; 9. Note on the prehistory of string theory M. Gell-Mann; Part III. The Dual Resonance Model: 10. Introduction to Part III; 11. From the S-matrix to string theory P. Di Vecchia; 12. Reminiscence on the birth of string theory J. A. Shapiro; 13. Personal recollections D. Amati; 14. Early string theory at Fermilab and Rutgers L. Clavelli; 15. Dual amplitudes in higher dimensions: a personal view C. Lovelace; 16. Personal recollections on dual models R. Musto; 17. Remembering the 'supergroup' collaboration F. Nicodemi; 18. The '3-Reggeon vertex' S. Sciuto; Part IV. The String: 19. Introduction to Part IV; 20. From dual models to relativistic strings P. Goddard; 21. The first string theory: personal recollections L. Susskind; 22. The string picture of the Veneziano model H. B. Nielsen; 23. From the S-matrix to string theory Y. Nambu; 24. The analogue model for string amplitudes D. B. Fairlie; 25. Factorization in dual models and functional integration in string theory S. Mandelstam; 26. The hadronic origins of string theory R. C. Brower; Part V. Beyond the Bosonic String: 27. Introduction to Part V; 28. From dual fermion to superstring D. I. Olive; 29. Dual models with fermions: memoirs of an early string theorist P. Ramond; 30. Personal recollections A. Neveu; 31. Aspects of fermionic dual models E. Corrigan; 32. The dual quark models K. Bardakci and M. B. Halpern; 33. Remembering the dawn of relativistic strings J.-L. Gervais; 34. Early string theory in Cambridge: personal recollections C. Montonen; Part VI. The Superstring: 35. Introduction to Part VI; 36. Supersymmetry in string theory F. Gliozzi; 37. Gravity from strings: personal reminiscences of early developments T. Yoneya; 38. From the Nambu-Goto to the σ-model action L. Brink; 39. Locally supersymmetric action for superstring P. Di Vecchia; 40. Personal recollections E. Cremmer; 41. The scientific contributions of Joël Scherk J. H. Schwarz; Part VII. Preparing the String Renaissance: 42. Introduction to Part VII; 43. From strings to superstrings: a personal perspective M. B. Green; 44. Quarks, strings and beyond A. M. Polyakov; 45. The rise of the superstring theory A. Cappelli and F. Colomo; Appendices; Index.

String resistance detector

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Hall, A. Daniel (Inventor); Davies, Francis J. (Inventor)

2007-01-01

Method and system are disclosed for determining individual string resistance in a network of strings when the current through a parallel connected string is unknown and when the voltage across a series connected string is unknown. The method/system of the invention involves connecting one or more frequency-varying impedance components with known electrical characteristics to each string and applying a frequency-varying input signal to the network of strings. The frequency-varying impedance components may be one or more capacitors, inductors, or both, and are selected so that each string is uniquely identifiable in the output signal resulting from the frequency-varying input signal. Numerical methods, such as non-linear regression, may then be used to resolve the resistance associated with each string.

Bianchi VI cosmological models representing perfect fluid and radiation with electric-type free gravitational fields

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Roy, S. R.; Banerjee, S. K.

1992-11-01

A homogeneous Bianchi type VIh cosmological model filled with perfect fluid, null electromagnetic field and streaming neutrinos is obtained for which the free gravitational field is of the electric type. The barotropic equation of statep = (γ-1)ɛ is imposed in the particular case of Bianchi VI0 string models. Various physical and kinematical properties of the models are discussed.

Effects of Model-Based and Memory-Based Processing on Speed and Accuracy of Grammar String Generation

ERIC Educational Resources Information Center

Domangue, Thomas J.; Mathews, Robert C.; Sun, Ron; Roussel, Lewis G.; Guidry, Claire E.

2004-01-01

Learners are able to use 2 different types of knowledge to perform a skill. One type is a conscious mental model, and the other is based on memories of instances. The authors conducted 3 experiments that manipulated training conditions designed to affect the availability of 1 or both types of knowledge about an artificial grammar. Participants…

String mediated phase transitions

NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS)

Copeland, ED; Haws, D.; Rivers, R.; Holbraad, S.

1988-01-01

It is demonstrated from first principles how the existence of string-like structures can cause a system to undergo a phase transition. In particular, the role of topologically stable cosmic string in the restoration of spontaneously broken symmetries is emphasized. How the thermodynamic properties of strings alter when stiffness and nearest neighbor string-string interactions are included is discussed.

Black string in dRGT massive gravity

NASA Astrophysics Data System (ADS)

Tannukij, Lunchakorn; Wongjun, Pitayuth; Ghosh, Suchant G.

2017-12-01

We present a cylindrically symmetric solution, both charged and uncharged, which is known as a black string solution to the nonlinear ghost-free massive gravity found by de Rham, Gabadadze, and Tolley (dRGT). This "dRGT black string" can be thought of as a generalization of the black string solution found by Lemos. Moreover, the dRGT black string solution includes other classes of black string solution such as the monopole-black string ones since the graviton mass contributes to the global monopole term as well as the cosmological-constant term. To investigate the solution, we compute mass, temperature, and entropy of the dRGT black string. We found that the existence of the graviton mass drastically affects the thermodynamics of the black string. Furthermore, the Hawking-Page phase transition is found to be possible for the dRGT black string as well as the charged dRGT black string. The dRGT black string solution is thermodynamically stable for r>r_c with negative thermodynamical potential and positive heat capacity while it is unstable for r

30 CFR 57.22604 - Blasting from the surface (II-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2010 CFR

2010-07-01

... MINES Safety Standards for Methane in Metal and Nonmetal Mines Explosives § 57.22604 Blasting from the surface (II-B mines). All development, production, and bench rounds shall be initiated from the surface... methane tests shall not enter the mine until all blast areas have been tested for methane. ...

30 CFR 57.22604 - Blasting from the surface (II-B mines).

Code of Federal Regulations, 2013 CFR

2013-07-01

... MINES Safety Standards for Methane in Metal and Nonmetal Mines Explosives § 57.22604 Blasting from the surface (II-B mines). All development, production, and bench rounds shall be initiated from the surface... methane tests shall not enter the mine until all blast areas have been tested for methane. ...