Convex risk measures for good deal bounds

We study convex risk measures describing the upper and lower bounds of a good deal bound, which is a subinterval of a no-arbitrage pricing bound. We call such a convex risk measure a good deal valuation and give a set of equivalent conditions for its existence in terms of market. A good deal valuation is characterized by several equivalent properties and in particular, we see that a convex risk measure is a good deal valuation only if it is given as a risk indifference price. An application to shortfall risk measure is given. In addition, we show that the no-free-lunch (NFL) condition is equivalent to the existence of a relevant convex risk measure which is a good deal valuation. The relevance turns out to be a condition for a good deal valuation to be reasonable. Further we investigate conditions under which any good deal valuation is relevant

All-mode Renormalization for Tensor Network with Stochastic Noise

In usual (non-stochastic) tensor network calculations, the truncated singular value decomposition (SVD) is often used for approximating a tensor, and it causes systematic errors. By introducing stochastic noise in the approximation, however, one can avoid such systematic errors at the expense of statistical errors which can be straightforwardly controlled. Therefore in principle, exact results can be obtained even at finite bond dimension up to the statistical errors. A previous study of the unbiased method implemented in tensor renormalization group (TRG) algorithm, however, showed that the statistical errors for physical quantity are not negligible, and furthermore the computational cost is linearly proportional to a system volume. In this paper, we introduce a new way of stochastic noise such that the statistical error is suppressed, and moreover, in order to reduce the computational cost we propose common noise method whose cost is proportional to the logarithm of volume. We find that the method provides better accuracy for the free energy compared with the truncated SVD when applying to TRG for Ising model on square lattice. Although the common noise method introduces systematic error originated from a correlation of noises, we show that the error can be described by a simple functional form in terms of the number of noises, thus the error can be straightforwardly controlled in an actual analysis. We also apply the method to the graph independent local truncation algorithm and show that the accuracy is further improved.Comment: 34 pages, 19 figures, 2 tables, version published in Phys.Rev.

Effect of shin'iseihaito on lung colonization of pneumococcus in murine model

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) causes various serious diseases including sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. One serious problem observed recently with pneumococcal therapy is attenuation of the antibiotic effect because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcus. Shin’iseihaito, a traditional Japanese medicine based on ancient Chinese medicine, has been used for treatment of otolaryngeal diseases in Japan. The objective of this study was to examine the anti-infectious effects of shin’iseihaito and its related mechanism.Materials and Methods: We evaluated the beneficial effect of shin’iseihaito extract (SSHT) against pneumococcus-infected murine model. The colonization of bacteria, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) killing activity, the levels of inflammatory cytokine and IgA were investigated.Results: The pneumococcus from blood was not found in both SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, the pneumococcal colonization of lung was significantly (p<0.05) lower after SSHT administration compared with untreated mice. Blood bactericidal assay showed that no significant difference (p=0.07) was observed in the anti-bacterial effect between SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, BAL bactericidal assay showed that the survival rate of pneumococcus using the BAL from SSHT-treated mice was significantly (p<0.05) lower than that using the BAL from untreated mice. We also found increased levels of tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IgA in pneumococcus-infected mice treated with SSHT.Conclusions: SSHT decreased the colonization rate after pneumococcal infection and up-regulated BAL bactericidal activity through modulation of inflammatory cytokines and IgA. Our data also suggest SSHT may be useful for the treatment of pneumococcal infection.Keywords: shin'iseihito, Streptococcus pneumoniae, murine model, inflammatory cytokine, Ig

Association of the RYR3 gene polymorphisms with atherosclerosis in elderly Japanese population

BACKGROUND: The Ryanodine receptor 3 gene (RYR3) encodes an intracellular calcium channel that mediates the efflux of Ca(2+) from intracellular stores. Two single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in the RYR3 gene have been shown to associate with stroke (rs877087) and carotid intima-media thickness (rs2229116) in two independent genome-wide association studies (GWAS) in Caucasian. We investigated the effect of these two SNPs as well as the 31.1 kilobases spanning region on atherosclerosis in Japanese population. METHODS: Atherosclerotic severity was assessed by carotid artery (n = 1374) and pathological atherosclerosis index (PAI) (n = 1262), which is a macroscopic examination of the luminal surfaces of 8 systemic arteries in consecutive autopsy samples. 4 tag SNPs in the 31.1 Kb region, rs877087, rs2132207, rs658750 and rs2229116, were genotyped and haplotypes were inferred to study the association with atherosclerotic indices. RESULTS: rs877087 and rs2229116 were associated with PAI (OR = 2.07 [1.04-4.12] (95% CI), p = 0.038; and OR = 1.38 [1.02-1.86], p = 0.035, respectively). rs2229116 was also associated with common carotid atherosclerosis (OR = 1.45 [1.13-1.86], p = 0.003). The risk allele of rs2229116 was opposite from the original report. The haplotype block of this 31.1 Kb region was different between Caucasian and Japanese. Haplotype analysis revealed that only TAGG haplotype was associated with PAI (OR = 0.67 [0.48-0.94], p = 0.020) and atherosclerosis of common carotid artery (OR = 0.75 [0.58-0.98], p = 0.034). CONCLUSION: rs877087 and rs2229116 of RYR3 gene are associated with atherosclerosis severity in Japanese. The functional difference caused by rs2229116 needs to be investigated

High SDF-1 Expression in HIV-1 Carriers Does Not Correlate with CD8+T-Cell-Mediated Suppression of Viral Replication

AbstractStromal cell-derived factor 1 (SDF-1) inhibits T-cell tropic (T-tropic) HIV-1 infectionin vitro. In this study, we examined the regulatory role of SDF-1 on HIV-1 replication in peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) of HIV-infected individuals. We found that the amount of SDF-1 mRNA in freshly isolated PBMC of HIV-1 carriers was higher than in healthy donors. Moreover, PBMC from some asymptomatic carriers (ACs) exhibited high levels of SDF-1 mRNA expression. The level of SDF-1 expression in PBMC did not correlate with the magnitude of CD8+T cell-mediated suppression of HIV-1 among ACs. SDF-1 inhibited HIV-1 replication at the viral entry step, whereas a single-cycle HIV-1 infection system showed that the major part of the CD8+T-cell-mediated suppression occurs after intracellular penetration of the virus. Our results suggest that SDF-1 acts as a suppressor of virus replication in a CD8+T-cell-independent mechanism in HIV-infected individuals

EFFECT OF SHIN'ISEIHAITO ON LUNG COLONIZATION OF PNEUMOCOCCUS IN MURINE MODEL

Background: Streptococcus pneumoniae (pneumococcus) causes various serious diseases including sinusitis, pneumonia, and meningitis. One serious problem observed recently with pneumococcal therapy is attenuation of the antibiotic effect because of the emergence of antibiotic-resistant pneumococcus. Shin’iseihaito, a traditional Japanese medicine based on ancient Chinese medicine, has been used for treatment of otolaryngeal diseases in Japan. The objective of this study was to examine the anti-infectious effects of shin’iseihaito and its related mechanism. Materials and Methods: We evaluated the beneficial effect of shin’iseihaito extract (SSHT) against pneumococcus-infected murine model. The colonization of bacteria, blood and bronchoalveolar lavage (BAL) killing activity, the levels of inflammatory cytokine and IgA were investigated. Results: The pneumococcus from blood was not found in both SSHT-treated mice and untreated mice. However, the pneumococcal colonization of lung was significantly (

Optical phase synchronization by injection of common broadband low-coherent light

金沢大学理工研究域機械工学系We demonstrate experimentally and numerically that, by injecting common broadband optical noise into two uncoupled lasers, the phases of the respective laser oscillations can be successfully synchronized. Experimental observation of the resulting phase dynamics is achieved using a heterodyne detection method. The present phase synchronization differs from the synchronization induced by coherent light signals or narrow band optical noise in the sense that it occurs without any frequency locking to the injection light. Moreover, it is revealed that there is an optimal intensity of the injection light that maximizes the quality of the phase synchronization. These results can open new perspectives for understanding and functional utilization of the laser phase dynamics. © 2014 American Physical Society

Temperature Changes in Brown Adipocytes Detected with a Bimaterial Microcantilever

AbstractMammalian cells must produce heat to maintain body temperature and support other biological activities. Methods to measure a cell’s thermogenic ability by inserting a thermometer into the cell or measuring the rate of oxygen consumption in a closed vessel can disturb its natural state. Here, we developed a noninvasive system for measuring a cell’s heat production with a bimaterial microcantilever. This method is suitable for investigating the heat-generating properties of cells in their native state, because changes in cell temperature can be measured from the bending of the microcantilever, without damaging the cell and restricting its supply of dissolved oxygen. Thus, we were able to measure increases in cell temperature of <1 K in a small number of murine brown adipocytes (n = 4–7 cells) stimulated with norepinephrine, and observed a slow increase in temperature over several hours. This long-term heat production suggests that, in addition to converting fatty acids into heat energy, brown adipocytes may also adjust protein expression to raise their own temperature, to generate more heat. We expect this bimaterial microcantilever system to prove useful for determining a cell’s state by measuring thermal characteristics

Missing ophiolitic rocks along the Mae Yuam Fault as the Gondwana-Tethys divide in north-west Thailand

Thailand comprises two continental blocks: Sibumasu and Indochina. The clastic rocks of the Triassic Mae Sariang Group are distributed in the Mae Hong Son-Mae Sariang area, north-west Thailand, which corresponds to the central part of Sibumasu. The clastic rocks yield abundant detrital chromian spinels, indicating a source of ultramafic/mafic rocks. The chemistry of the detrital chromian spinels suggests that they were derived from three different rock types: ocean-floor peridotite, chromitite and intraplate basalt, and that ophiolitic rocks were exposed in the area, where there are no outcrops of them at present. Exposition of an ophiolitic complex denotes a suture zone or other tectonic boundary. The discovery of chromian spinels suggests that the Gondwana-Tethys divide is located along the Mae Yuam Fault zone. Both paleontological and tectonic aspects support this conclusion. © 2004 Blackwell Publishing Asia Pty Ltd