Statistical Description of Rotating Kaluza-Klein Black Holes

We extend the recent microscopic analysis of extremal dyonic Kaluza-Klein (D0-D6) black holes to cover the regime of fast rotation in addition to slow rotation. Fastly rotating black holes, in contrast to slow ones, have non-zero angular velocity and possess ergospheres, so they are more similar to the Kerr black hole. The D-brane model reproduces their entropy exactly, but the mass gets renormalized from weak to strong coupling, in agreement with recent macroscopic analyses of rotating attractors. We discuss how the existence of the ergosphere and superradiance manifest themselves within the microscopic model. In addition, we show in full generality how Myers-Perry black holes are obtained as a limit of Kaluza-Klein black holes, and discuss the slow and fast rotation regimes and superradiance in this context.Comment: 25 pages. v2: minor correction + ref adde

From traumatic childhood to cocaine abuse: the critical function of the immune system

Background: Experiencing traumatic childhood is a risk factor for developing substance use disorder (SUD), but the mechanisms that underlie this relationship have not been determined. Adverse childhood experiences affect the immune system and the immune system mediates the effects of psychostimulants. However, whether this system is involved in the etiology of SUD in individuals who have experience early life stress is unknown. Methods:In this study, we performed a series of ex vivo and in vivo experiments in mice and humans to define the function of the immune system in the early-life stress-induced susceptibility to the neurobehavioral effects of cocaine. Results: We provide evidence that exposure to social-stress (S-S) at an early age permanently sensitizes the peripheral (splenocytes) and brain (microglia) immune responses to cocaine in mice. In the brain, microglial activation in the ventral tegmental area (VTA) of S-S mice was associated with functional alterations in dopaminergic neurotransmission, as measured by whole-cell voltage clamp recordings in dopamine (DA) neurons. Notably, preventing immune activation during the S-S exposure reverted the effects of DA in the VTA and the cocaine-induced behavioral phenotype to control levels. In humans, cocaine modulated Toll-like receptor 4-mediated innate immunity, an effect that was enhanced in cocaine addicts who had experienced a difficult childhood. Conclusions Collectively, our findings demonstrate that sensitization to cocaine in early-life-stressed individuals involves brain and peripheral immune responses and that this mechanism is shared between mice and humans

TRPV1 channels are critical brain inflammation detectors and neuropathic pain biomarkers in mice

The capsaicin receptor TRPV1 has been widely characterized in the sensory system as a key component of pain and inflammation. A large amount of evidence shows that TRPV1 is also functional in the brain although its role is still debated. Here we report that TRPV1 is highly expressed in microglial cells rather than neurons of the anterior cingulate cortex and other brain areas. We found that stimulation of microglial TRPV1 controls cortical microglia activation per se and indirectly enhances glutamatergic transmission in neurons by promoting extracellular microglial microvesicles shedding. Conversely, in the cortex of mice suffering from neuropathic pain, TRPV1 is also present in neurons affecting their intrinsic electrical properties and synaptic strength. Altogether, these findings identify brain TRPV1 as potential detector of harmful stimuli and a key player of microglia to neuron communication

Does a Change in the ESG Ratings Influence Firms’ Market Value? Evidence from an Event Study

In recent years, the field of “ESG finance” has seen rapid growth, resulting in the emergence and expansion of ESG ratings and rating agencies. This study investigates how financial investors react to updates in ESG ratings provided by two prominent ESG rating agencies, namely MSCI and Refinitiv. The main objective is to determine whether any positive or negative changes in a company’s sustainability ratings directly impact its market value. The Event Study methodology was used for this investigation, which analyses the Cumulated Average Abnormal Returns (CAARs) of economic events to assess their influence on corporate valuations. We analysed over 840 rating updates (events) using a sample of 75 companies across various industries, all listed on major stock exchanges. Our findings indicate that shifts in sustainability ratings, as evaluated by the two rating agencies, do not significantly impact companies’ market capitalisation. Furthermore, these outcomes remain consistent over time, suggesting that financial markets are not assigning increasing significance to ESG ratings. We offer potential explanations for these findings, which are discussed in light of the existing literature on the subject

Quantification of anandamide content in animal cells and tissues: the normalization makes the difference

Anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamine, AEA) is an endogenous lipid that binds to cannabinoid receptors in the central nervous system and in peripheral cells. Quantitative analysis of AEA is generally based on the normalization to the fresh weight of the samples. Here, we show that the normalization procedure of AEA content is such a critical factor, that it might introduce per se significant discrepancies in the quantification of AEA even in the same sample. We suggest that a rapid, accurate and most reliable reference to quantify AEA and congeners from different sources is the protein content, a common parameter to cells and tissues

Microscopic analysis of rotating black holes

[eng] The main objective of this thesis is to understand from a microscopic point of view some of the characteristic phenomena of rotating black holes. The inclusion of rotation gives rise to physics that allows a more precise and detailed understanding of the microscopic string theory of black holes. In this thesis we focus on two models of particular interest: one is based on the D0-D6 system and the other on the D1-D5-P system. The former is interesting because, through its connection to M-theory, it yields a statistical-mechanics description of neutral black holes. The latter allows to have better control over the microscopic conformal field theory and yields a cleaner picture of the origin of superradiance. We extend the microscopic analysis of extremal dyonic Kaluza-Klein (D0-D6) black holes to cover the regime of fast rotation in addition to slow rotation. Fastly rotating black holes, incontrast to slow ones, have non-zero angular velocity and possess ergospheres, so they are more similar to the Kerr black hole. The D-brane model reproduces their entropy exactly, but the mass gets renormalized from weak to strong coupling, in agreement with recent macroscopic analyses of rotating attractors. We discuss how the microscopic model accounts for the fact that fastly rotating extremal KK black holes possess an ergosphere and exhibit superradiance while slow ones don't. In addition, we show in full generality how Myers-Perry black holes are obtained as a límit of Kaluza-Klein black holes, and discuss the slow and fast rotation regimes and superradiance in this context. A, perhaps surprising, consequence of our analysis is that both slowly and fastly-rotating KK black holes provide microscopic accounts of the entropy formula of MP black holes, even if they correspond to rather different microscopic states. As we discuss, this does not pose any problem, since the microscopic theory always retains a memory of how the 5D black hole is embedded within Taub-NUT. For a more detailed and quantitative study of black hole superradiance from the stringy microscopic side, we consider the D1-D5-P system. In order to disentangle superradiance from finite-temperature effects, we consider an extremal, rotating D1-D5-P black hole that has an ergosphere and is not supersymmetric. We explain how the microscopic dual accounts for the superradiant ergosphere of this black hole. The bound 0 < ω < mΩH on superradiant mode frequencies is argued to be a consequence of Fermi-Dirac statistics for the spin-carrying degrees of freedom in the dual CFT. We also compute the superradiant emission rates from both sides of the correspondence, and show their agreement. This is an extension of previous analyses of radiation from the D1-D5-P black holes. We generalize those results to include momentum for the bulk scalar. It would be interesting to extend our picture for superradiance to the smooth SUGRA solitons with D1-D5-P charges which correspond to CFT states such that both sectors are in pure states. Another issue to be investigated would be the absence of fermionic superradiance emission by the previously considered systems with ergoregion.[cat] L'objectiu principal d'aquesta tesi és comprendre des d'un punt de vista microscòpic alguns dels fenòmens característics dels forats negres amb rotació. Ens centrem en forats negres amb rotació, extremals, però no supersimètrics. Aquesta mena de solucions són les més adequades per al nostre propòsit. A diferència del cas supersimètric, presenten una ergosfera i, per tant, s'hi pot produir el fenomen de la superradiància. Però, en tenir temperatura nul·la aquest fenomen no apareix “barrejat” amb la radiació de Hawking d'origen purament tèrmic. Alhora, aquestes geometries extremals també preserven el nombre de microestats en passar d'acoblament feble a acoblament fort. La primera part de la tesi, se centra en l'estudi microscòpic de l'entropia dels forats negres de Kaluza-Klein amb rotació. Aquesta família de solucions, presenta dos límits extremals: el de “rotació lenta” i el de “rotació ràpida”. Treballs anteriors ja havien aconseguit reproduir l'entropia del primer cas. Aquí, estenem aquest càlcul al límit extremal amb rotació ràpida. Alhora, mostrem que el fenomen de la superradiància es pot explicar de manera anàloga a la radiació de Hawking, en termes de dues excitacions que xoquen i provoquen l'emissió d'una corda tancada. En aquest cas, aquest mode emès té necessàriament un moment angular diferent de zero. A la segona part, ens centrem en aquesta interpretació microscòpica de la superradiància amb un tractament més quantitatiu. En aquest cas, considerem les solucions extremals no supersimètriques del sistema D1-D5-P amb rotació. A partir de la seva descripció microscòpica, aconseguim reproduir la condició de superradiància ω < mΩH i mostrem que es pot entendre com a conseqüència de l'estadística de Fermi-Dirac. També avaluem els ritmes d'emissió de superradiància des del punt de vista macroscòpic i microscòpic i analitzem si concorden

Anandamide uptake by synaptosomes from human, mouse and rat brain: inhibition by glutamine and glutamate

Anandamide (N-arachidonoylethanolamine, AEA) belongs to an emerging class of endogenous lipids, called "endocannabinoids". A specific AEA membrane transporter (AMT) allows the import of this lipid and its degradation by the intracellular enzyme AEA hydrolase. Here, we show that synaptosomes from human, mouse and rat brain might be an ideal ex vivo system for the study of: i) the accumulation of AEA in brain, and ii) the pharmacological properties of AMT inhibitors. Using this ex vivo system, we demonstrate for the first time that glutamine and glutamate act as non-competitive inhibitors of AEA uptake by human, mouse and rat brain AMT

Leptin activates the anandamide hydrolase promoter in human T lymphocytes through STAT3

Physiological concentrations of leptin stimulate the activity of the endocannabinoid-degrading enzyme anandamide hydrolase (fatty acid amide hydrolase, FAAH) in human T lymphocytes up to approximately 300% over the untreated controls. Stimulation of FAAH occurred through up-regulation of gene expression at transcriptional and translational levels and involved binding of leptin to its receptor with an apparent dissociation constant (K(d)) of 1.95 +/- 0.14 nm and maximum binding (B(max)) of 392 +/- 8 fmol x mg protein(-1). Leptin binding to the receptor triggered activation of STAT3 but not STAT1 or STAT5 or the mitogen-activated protein kinases p38, p42, and p44. Peripheral lymphocytes of leptin knock-out (ob/ob) mice showed decreased FAAH activity and expression (approximately 25% of the wild-type littermates), which were reversed to control levels by exogenous leptin. Analysis of the FAAH promoter showed a cAMP-response element-like site, which is a transcriptional target of STAT3. Consistently, mutation of this site prevented FAAH activation by leptin in transient expression assays. Electrophoretic mobility shift and supershift assays further corroborated the promoter activity data. Taken together, these results suggest that leptin, by up-regulating the FAAH promoter through STAT3, enhances FAAH expression, thus tuning the immunomodulatory effects of anandamide. These findings might also have critical implications for human fertility