1,220 research outputs found
Moduli-Space Approximation for BPS Brane-Worlds
We develop the moduli-space approximation for the low energy regime of
BPS-branes with a bulk scalar field to obtain an effective four-dimensional
action describing the system. An arbitrary BPS potential is used and account is
taken of the presence of matter in the branes and small supersymmetry breaking
terms. The resulting effective theory is a bi-scalar tensor theory of gravity.
In this theory, the scalar degrees of freedom can be stabilized naturally
without the introduction of additional mechanisms other than the appropriate
BPS potential. We place observational constraints on the shape of the potential
and the global configuration of branes.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figur
Borehole water and hydrologic model around the Nojima fault, SW Japan
International audienceThe active fault drilling at Nojima Hirabayashi after the 1995 Hyogoken-nanbu (Kobe) earthquake (MJMA = 7.2) provides us with a unique opportunity to investigate subsurface fault structure and the in-situ properties of fault and fluid. The borehole intersected the fault gouge of the Nojima fault at a depth interval of 623m to 625m. The lithology is mostly Cretaceous granodiorite with some porphyry dikes. The fault core is highly permeable due to fracturing. The borehole water was sampled in 1996 and 2000 from the depth interval between 630 and 650 m, just below the fault core. The chemical and isotopic compositions were analyzed. Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of carbonates from the fault core were analyzed to estimate the origin of fluid. The following conclusions were obtained. (1) The ionic and isotopic compositions of borehole water did not change from 1996 to 2000. They are mostly derived from local ground water as mentioned by Sato and Takahashi (2000). (2) Geochemical speciation revealed that the borehole water was derived from a relatively deep reservoir, which may be situated at a depth of 3 to 4 km where the temperature is about 80-90 ÌC. (3) The shallower part of the Nojima fault (shallower than the reservoir depth) has not been healed from the hydrological viewpoints 5 years after the event, in contrast to the rapid healing detected by S wave splitting (Tadokoro and Ando, 2002). (4) Precipitation of calcite from present borehole water since drilling supports the idea of precipitation of some calcite in coseismic hydraulic fractures in the fault core (Boullier et al., 2004). (5) Carbon and oxygen isotope ratios of calcite indicated that the meteoric water flux had been localized at the fault core. (6) A difference in the carbon isotope ratio between the footwall and the hangingwall suggests that the fault has been acted as a hydrologic barrier, although the permeability along the fault is still high
Osteogenic lineage restriction by osteoprogenitors cultured on nanometric grooved surfaces â the role of focal adhesion maturation
The differentiation of progenitor cells is dependent on more than biochemical signalling. Topographical cues in natural bone extracellular matrix guide cellular differentiation through the formation of focal adhesions, contact guidance, cytoskeletal rearrangement and ultimately gene expression. Osteoarthritis and a number of bone disorders present as growing challenges for our society. Hence, there is a need for next generation implantable devices to substitute for, or guide, bone repair in vivo. Cellular responses to nanometric topographical cues need to be better understood in vitro in order to ensure the effective and efficient integration and performance of these orthopaedic devices. In this study, the FDA approved plastic polycaprolactone, was embossed with nanometric grooves and the response of primary and immortalised osteoprogenitor cells observed. Nanometric groove dimensions were 240 nm or 540 nm deep and 12.5 ÎŒm wide. Cells cultured on test surfaces followed contact guidance along the length of groove edges, elongated along their major axis and showed nuclear distortion, they formed more focal complexes and a lower proportions of mature adhesions relative to planar controls. Down-regulation of the osteoblast marker genes RUNX2 and BMPR2 in primary and immortalised cells was observed on grooved substrates. Down-regulation appeared to directly correlate with focal adhesion maturation, indicating the involvement of ERK 1/2 negative feedback pathways following integrin mediated FAK activation
The âHypertension Approaches in the Elderly: a Lifestyle studyâ multicenter, randomized trial (HAEL Study): rationale and methodological protocol
Background: Hypertension is a clinical condition highly prevalent in the elderly, imposing great risks to
cardiovascular diseases and loss of quality of life. Current guidelines emphasize the importance of
nonpharmacological strategies as a first-line approach to lower blood pressure. Exercise is an efficient lifestyle tool
that can benefit a myriad of health-related outcomes, including blood pressure control, in older adults. We herein
report the protocol of the HAEL Study, which aims to evaluate the efficacy of a pragmatic combined exercise
training compared with a health education program on ambulatory blood pressure and other health-related
outcomes in older individuals.
Methods: Randomized, single-blinded, multicenter, two-arm, parallel, superiority trial.
A total of 184 subjects (92/center), â„60 years of age, with no recent history of cardiovascular events, will be
randomized on a 1:1 ratio to 12-week interventions consisting either of a combined exercise (aerobic and
strength) training, three times per week, or an active-control group receiving health education intervention,
once a week. Ambulatory (primary outcome) and office blood pressures, cardiorespiratory fitness and
endothelial function, together with quality of life, functional fitness and autonomic control will be measured
in before and after intervention.
Discussion: Our conceptual hypothesis is that combined training intervention will reduce ambulatory blood
pressure in comparison with health education group. Using a superiority framework, analysis plan prespecifies
an intention-to-treat approach, per protocol criteria, subgroups analysis, and handling of missing data. The
trial is recruiting since September 2017. Finally, this study was designed to adhere to data sharing practices.
Trial registration: NCT03264443. Registered on 29 August, 2017
An Ambystoma mexicanum EST sequencing project: analysis of 17,352 expressed sequence tags from embryonic and regenerating blastema cDNA libraries
BACKGROUND: The ambystomatid salamander, Ambystoma mexicanum (axolotl), is an important model organism in evolutionary and regeneration research but relatively little sequence information has so far been available. This is a major limitation for molecular studies on caudate development, regeneration and evolution. To address this lack of sequence information we have generated an expressed sequence tag (EST) database for A. mexicanum. RESULTS: Two cDNA libraries, one made from stage 18-22 embryos and the other from day-6 regenerating tail blastemas, generated 17,352 sequences. From the sequenced ESTs, 6,377 contigs were assembled that probably represent 25% of the expressed genes in this organism. Sequence comparison revealed significant homology to entries in the NCBI non-redundant database. Further examination of this gene set revealed the presence of genes involved in important cell and developmental processes, including cell proliferation, cell differentiation and cell-cell communication. On the basis of these data, we have performed phylogenetic analysis of key cell-cycle regulators. Interestingly, while cell-cycle proteins such as the cyclin B family display expected evolutionary relationships, the cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor 1 gene family shows an unusual evolutionary behavior among the amphibians. CONCLUSIONS: Our analysis reveals the importance of a comprehensive sequence set from a representative of the Caudata and illustrates that the EST sequence database is a rich source of molecular, developmental and regeneration studies. To aid in data mining, the ESTs have been organized into an easily searchable database that is freely available online
The Erotic and the Vulgar: Visual Culture and Organized Labor's Critique of U.S. Hegemony in Occupied Japan
This essay engages the colonial legacy of postwar Japan by arguing that the political cartoons produced as part of the postwar Japanese labor movementâs critique of U.S. cultural hegemony illustrate how gendered discourses underpinned,
and sometimes undermined, the ideologies formally represented by visual artists and the organizations that funded them. A significant component of organized
laborâs propaganda rested on a corpus of visual media that depicted women as icons of Japanese national culture. Japanâs most militant labor unions were propagating anti-imperialist discourses that invoked an engendered/endangered nation that accentuated the importance of union roles for men by subordinating, then eliminating, union roles for women
Cosmology from cosmic shear power spectra with Subaru Hyper Suprime-Cam first-year data
We measure cosmic weak lensing shear power spectra with the Subaru Hyper
Suprime-Cam (HSC) survey first-year shear catalog covering 137deg of the
sky. Thanks to the high effective galaxy number density of 17
arcmin even after conservative cuts such as magnitude cut of
and photometric redshift cut of , we obtain a high
significance measurement of the cosmic shear power spectra in 4 tomographic
redshift bins, achieving a total signal-to-noise ratio of 16 in the multipole
range . We carefully account for various uncertainties
in our analysis including the intrinsic alignment of galaxies, scatters and
biases in photometric redshifts, residual uncertainties in the shear
measurement, and modeling of the matter power spectrum. The accuracy of our
power spectrum measurement method as well as our analytic model of the
covariance matrix are tested against realistic mock shear catalogs. For a flat
cold dark matter (CDM) model, we find for
( for ) from our HSC tomographic
cosmic shear analysis alone. In comparison with Planck cosmic microwave
background constraints, our results prefer slightly lower values of ,
although metrics such as the Bayesian evidence ratio test do not show
significant evidence for discordance between these results. We study the effect
of possible additional systematic errors that are unaccounted in our fiducial
cosmic shear analysis, and find that they can shift the best-fit values of
by up to in both directions. The full HSC survey data
will contain several times more area, and will lead to significantly improved
cosmological constraints.Comment: 43 pages, 21 figures, accepted for publication in PAS
The Ctf18 RFC-like complex positions yeast telomeres but does not specify their replication time
Peer reviewedPreprin
- âŠ