1,071 research outputs found
Sex Differences in Lipid Metabolism: Implications for Systemic Lupus Erythematosus and Cardiovascular Disease Risk
It is known that healthy women during childbearing years have a lower risk of cardiovascular disease (CVD) and coronary heart disease compared to age matched men. Various traditional risk factors have been shown to confer differential CVD susceptibilities by sex. Atherosclerosis is a major cause of CVD and mortality and sex differences in CVD risk could be due to reduced atherogenic low and very low-density lipoproteins (LDL and VLDL) and increased atheroprotective high density lipoproteins (HDLs) in women. In contrast, patients with systemic lupus erythematosus (SLE), a chronic inflammatory disease that predominately affects women, have an increased atherosclerotic and CVD risk. This increased CVD risk is largely associated with dyslipidaemia, the imbalance of atherogenic and atheroprotective lipoproteins, a conventional CVD risk factor. In many women with SLE, dyslipidaemia is characterised by elevated LDL and reduced HDL, eradicating the sex-specific CVD protection observed in healthy women compared to men. This review will explore this paradox, reporting what is known regarding sex differences in lipid metabolism and CVD risk in the healthy population and transgender individuals undergoing cross-sex hormone therapy, and provide evidence for how these differences may be compromised in an autoimmune inflammatory disease setting. This could lead to better understanding of mechanistic changes in lipid metabolism driving the increased CVD risk by sex and in autoimmunity and highlight potential therapeutic targets to help reduce this risk
Heavy Quarkonium in a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma below the melting temperature
We calculate the heavy quarkonium energy levels and decay widths in a
quark-gluon plasma, whose temperature T and screening mass m_D satisfy the
hierarchy m alpha_s >> T >> m alpha_s^2 >> m_D (m being the heavy-quark mass),
at order m alpha_s^5. We first sequentially integrate out the scales m, m
alpha_s and T, and, next, we carry out the calculations in the resulting
effective theory using techniques of integration by regions. A collinear region
is identified, which contributes at this order. We also discuss the
implications of our results concerning heavy quarkonium suppression in heavy
ion collisions.Comment: 25 pages, 2 figure
Generalized quark-antiquark potential at weak and strong coupling
We study a two-parameter family of Wilson loop operators in N=4
supersymmetric Yang-Mills theory which interpolates smoothly between the 1/2
BPS line or circle and a pair of antiparallel lines. These observables capture
a natural generalization of the quark-antiquark potential. We calculate these
loops on the gauge theory side to second order in perturbation theory and in a
semiclassical expansion in string theory to one-loop order. The resulting
determinants are given in integral form and can be evaluated numerically for
general values of the parameters or analytically in a systematic expansion
around the 1/2 BPS configuration. We comment about the feasibility of deriving
all-loop results for these Wilson loops.Comment: 43 pages: 15 comprising the main text and 25 for detailed appendice
Gauge invariant definition of the jet quenching parameter
In the framework of Soft-Collinear Effective Theory, the jet quenching
parameter, , has been evaluated by adding the effect of Glauber gluon
interactions to the propagation of a highly-energetic collinear parton in a
medium. The result, which holds in covariant gauges, has been expressed in
terms of the expectation value of two Wilson lines stretching along the
direction of the four-momentum of the parton. In this paper, we show how that
expression can be generalized to an arbitrary gauge by the addition of
transverse Wilson lines. The transverse Wilson lines are explicitly computed by
resumming interactions of the parton with Glauber gluons that appear only in
non-covariant gauges. As an application of our result, we discuss the
contribution to coming from transverse momenta of order in a
medium that is a weakly-coupled quark-gluon plasma.Comment: 31 pages, 7 figures; journal versio
Recommended from our members
Food environment and diabetes mellitus in South Asia: A geospatial analysis of health outcome data
BACKGROUND: The global epidemic of type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) renders its prevention a major public health priority. A key risk factor of diabetes is obesity and poor diets. Food environments have been found to influence people's diets and obesity, positing they may play a role in the prevalence of diabetes. Yet, there is scant evidence on the role they may play in the context of low- and middle-income countries (LMICs). We examined the associations of food environments on T2DM among adults and its heterogeneity by income and sex. METHODS AND FINDINGS: We linked individual health outcome data of 12,167 individuals from a network of health surveillance sites (the South Asia Biobank) to the density and proximity of food outlets geolocated around their homes from environment mapping survey data collected between 2018 and 2020 in Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Density was defined as share of food outlets within 300 m from study participant's home, and proximity was defined as having at least 1 outlet within 100 m from home. The outcome variables include fasting blood glucose level, high blood glucose, and self-reported diagnosed diabetes. Control variables included demographics, socioeconomic status (SES), health status, healthcare utilization, and physical activities. Data were analyzed in ArcMap 10.3 and STATA 15.1. A higher share of fast-food restaurants (FFR) was associated with a 9.21 mg/dl blood glucose increase (95% CI: 0.17, 18.24; p < 0.05). Having at least 1 FFR in the proximity was associated with 2.14 mg/dl blood glucose increase (CI: 0.55, 3.72; p < 0.01). A 1% increase in the share of FFR near an individual's home was associated with 8% increase in the probability of being clinically diagnosed as a diabetic (average marginal effects (AMEs): 0.08; CI: 0.02, 0.14; p < 0.05). Having at least 1 FFR near home was associated with 16% (odds ratio [OR]: 1.16; CI: 1.01, 1.33; p < 0.05) and 19% (OR: 1.19; CI: 1.03, 1.38; p < 0.05) increases in the odds of higher blood glucose levels and diagnosed diabetes, respectively. The positive association between FFR density and blood glucose level was stronger among women than men, but the association between FFR proximity and blood glucose level was stronger among men as well as among those with higher incomes. One of the study's key limitations is that we measured exposure to food environments around residency geolocation; however, participants may source their meals elsewhere. CONCLUSIONS: Our results suggest that the exposure to fast-food outlets may have a detrimental impact on the risk of T2DM, especially among females and higher-income earners. Policies should target changes in the food environments to promote better diets and prevent T2DM
Pathogen- and Host-Directed Antileishmanial Effects Mediated by Polyhexanide (PHMB)
BACKGROUND:Cutaneous leishmaniasis (CL) is a neglected tropical disease caused by protozoan parasites of the genus Leishmania. CL causes enormous suffering in many countries worldwide. There is no licensed vaccine against CL, and the chemotherapy options show limited efficacy and high toxicity. Localization of the parasites inside host cells is a barrier to most standard chemo- and immune-based interventions. Hence, novel drugs, which are safe, effective and readily accessible to third-world countries and/or drug delivery technologies for effective CL treatments are desperately needed. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS:Here we evaluated the antileishmanial properties and delivery potential of polyhexamethylene biguanide (PHMB; polyhexanide), a widely used antimicrobial and wound antiseptic, in the Leishmania model. PHMB showed an inherent antileishmanial activity at submicromolar concentrations. Our data revealed that PHMB kills Leishmania major (L. major) via a dual mechanism involving disruption of membrane integrity and selective chromosome condensation and damage. PHMB's DNA binding and host cell entry properties were further exploited to improve the delivery and immunomodulatory activities of unmethylated cytosine-phosphate-guanine oligodeoxynucleotides (CpG ODN). PHMB spontaneously bound CpG ODN, forming stable nanopolyplexes that enhanced uptake of CpG ODN, potentiated antimicrobial killing and reduced host cell toxicity of PHMB. CONCLUSIONS:Given its low cost and long history of safe topical use, PHMB holds promise as a drug for CL therapy and delivery vehicle for nucleic acid immunomodulators
Radio Emission from Ultra-Cool Dwarfs
The 2001 discovery of radio emission from ultra-cool dwarfs (UCDs), the very
low-mass stars and brown dwarfs with spectral types of ~M7 and later, revealed
that these objects can generate and dissipate powerful magnetic fields. Radio
observations provide unparalleled insight into UCD magnetism: detections extend
to brown dwarfs with temperatures <1000 K, where no other observational probes
are effective. The data reveal that UCDs can generate strong (kG) fields,
sometimes with a stable dipolar structure; that they can produce and retain
nonthermal plasmas with electron acceleration extending to MeV energies; and
that they can drive auroral current systems resulting in significant
atmospheric energy deposition and powerful, coherent radio bursts. Still to be
understood are the underlying dynamo processes, the precise means by which
particles are accelerated around these objects, the observed diversity of
magnetic phenomenologies, and how all of these factors change as the mass of
the central object approaches that of Jupiter. The answers to these questions
are doubly important because UCDs are both potential exoplanet hosts, as in the
TRAPPIST-1 system, and analogues of extrasolar giant planets themselves.Comment: 19 pages; submitted chapter to the Handbook of Exoplanets, eds. Hans
J. Deeg and Juan Antonio Belmonte (Springer-Verlag
Threshold production of unstable top
We develop a systematic approach to describe the finite lifetime effects in
the threshold production of top quark-antiquark pairs. It is based on the
nonrelativistic effective field theory with an additional scale rho^(1/2) m_t
characterizing the dynamics of the top-quark decay, which involves a new
expansion parameter rho=1-m_W/m_t. Our method naturally resolves the problem of
spurious divergences in the analysis of the unstable top production. Within
this framework we compute the next-to-leading nonresonant contribution to the
total cross section of the top quark-antiquark threshold production in
electron-positron annihilation through high-order expansion in rho and confirm
the recently obtained result. We extend the analysis to the
next-to-next-to-leading O(alpha_s) nonresonant contribution which is derived in
the leading order in rho. The dominant nonresonant contribution to the
top-antitop threshold production in hadronic collisions is also obtained.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figures; v2: added a section on invariant mass cuts and
one reference, minor changes in Introduction, results unchanged, matches
published versio
- âŠ