Identification of the growth arrest and DNA damage protein GADD34 in the normal human heart and demonstration of alterations in expression following myocardial ischaemia

Growth arrest and DNA damage protein 34 (GADD34) is a multifunctional protein upregulated in response to cellular stress and is believed to mediate DNA repair and restore protein synthesis. In the present study we have examined GADD34 immunoreactivity in human myocardial tissue at defined survival times following cardiac arrest and determined alterations in expression following ischaemia. In the normal human heart, GADD34 immunoreactivity was generally intense and present within most cells. GADD34 immunoreactivity was downregulated in tissue displaying ischaemic damage and remained intense in adjacent non-infarcted tissue. Unlike brain, GADD34 was not found to be upregulated in the peri-infarct zone. Cells displaying apoptotic changes were located in regions displaying reduced GADD34 immunoreactivity. In the brain, it is thought that GADD34 supports re-initiation of protein synthesis following ischaemia. Similarly, GADD34 may perform important functions in cardiac tissue in response to ischaemia

Exploring the role of Positive Leadership for Mobilizing Innovative Practices: a social network approach

An emerging body of literature suggests the importance of positive leadership for school and district improvement (e.g., Cherkowski, 2018; Louis & Murphy, 2018). A number of lines of evidence have converged upon how positive leadership principles can influence behavioral outcomes (e.g., collaboration among school staff), attitudinal outcomes (e.g., job satisfaction), leader-related outcomes (e.g., trust for leadership), and performance outcomes (e.g., collective efficacy), as well as a wide variety of moderating and mediating variables for these outcomes (Murphy & Louis, 2018). At present, there is little evidence about the role of positive leadership in relation to the mobilization of innovative teaching and learning practices, particularly practices that advance well-being and positive mental health for students and teachers. This article reports on a study that examined the associations between school staff perceptions of positive school leadership, their behaviors related to innovative practices, and their connections to other staff within a multi-school network. The question guiding our work was, "How do school staff perceptions of positive leadership alongside information about their school roles and social connections influence the potential for mobilizing innovative practices?" A cross-sectional survey methodolog y combining traditional and social network data collection methods (Carolan, 2014; Groves et al., 2009) was employed to generate an understanding of the interconnectedness of relational patterns within schools, perceptions of positive leadership, and individual efforts toward innovation. The case for this study was a federation comprising three infant schools in Hampshire, England. In total, 31 teaching staff completed the survey: a response rate of 84%. Our analysis suggests that well-being and positive mental health leadership roles are important not only for mobilizing advice about teaching practices and classroom management, but also in galvanizing the expressive social networks that promote self-governance in school staff. Furthermore, expert uses of innovative practices related to well-being appear to be concentrated on the staff holding well-being leadership positions. Although it is intuitively beneficial to have this concentration of expertise in individuals explicitly charged to promote and support well-being, comparisons between the instrumental and expressive networks suggest that some school staff were not strongly influenced by these leaders. We view this finding as reflecting the importance of paying attention to how practices are mobilized throughout school networks. Against the backdrop of positive leadership, mobilizing practices requires that leaders have an authentic understanding of their staff, an attentiveness to their needs, and an ability to attune their behaviors to those needs

Exploiting Aging Benefits for the Design of Reliable Drowsy Cache Memories

In this paper, we show how beneficial effects of aging on static power consumption can be exploited to design reliable drowsy cache memories adopting dynamic voltage scaling(DVS) to reduce static power. First, we develop an analytical model allowing designers to evaluate the long-term threshold voltage degradation induced by bias temperature instability (BTI)in a drowsy cache memory. Through HSPICE simulations, we demonstrate that, as drowsy memories age, static power reduction techniques based on DVS become more effective because of reduction in sub-threshold current due to BTI aging. We develop a simulation framework to evaluate trade-offs between static power and reliability, and a methodology to properly select the “drowsy” data retention voltage. We then propose different architectures of a drowsy cache memory allowing designers to meet different power and reliability constraints. The performed HSPICE simulations show a soft error rate and static noise margin improvement up to 20.8% and 22.7%, respectively, compared to standard aging unaware drowsy technique. This is achieved with a limited static power increase during the very early lifetime, and with static energy saving of up to 37% in 10 years of operation, at no or very limited hardware overhead

Vacuum polarization in two-dimensional static spacetimes and dimensional reduction

We obtain an analytic approximation for the effective action of a quantum scalar field in a general static two-dimensional spacetime. We apply this to the dilaton gravity model resulting from the spherical reduction of a massive, non-minimally coupled scalar field in the four-dimensional Schwarzschild geometry. Careful analysis near the event horizon shows the resulting two-dimensional system to be regular in the Hartle-Hawking state for general values of the field mass, coupling, and angular momentum, while at spatial infinity it reduces to a thermal gas at the black-hole temperature.Comment: REVTeX 4, 23 pages. Accepted by PRD. Minor modifications from original versio

Field quantization for open optical cavities

We study the quantum properties of the electromagnetic field in optical cavities coupled to an arbitrary number of escape channels. We consider both inhomogeneous dielectric resonators with a scalar dielectric constant $\epsilon({\bf r})$ and cavities defined by mirrors of arbitrary shape. Using the Feshbach projector technique we quantize the field in terms of a set of resonator and bath modes. We rigorously show that the field Hamiltonian reduces to the system--and--bath Hamiltonian of quantum optics. The field dynamics is investigated using the input--output theory of Gardiner and Collet. In the case of strong coupling to the external radiation field we find spectrally overlapping resonator modes. The mode dynamics is coupled due to the damping and noise inflicted by the external field. For wave chaotic resonators the mode dynamics is determined by a non--Hermitean random matrix. Upon including an amplifying medium, our dynamics of open-resonator modes may serve as a starting point for a quantum theory of random lasing.Comment: 16 pages, added references, corrected typo

D' Production in Heavy Ion Collisions

The production of d' dibaryons in heavy ion collisions due to the elementary process NN -> d' + pion is considered. The cross section NN -> d' + pion is estimated using the vacuum d' width = 0.5 MeV extracted from data on the double charge exchange reactions on nuclei. The d' production rate per single collision of heavy ions is estimated at an incident beam energy of 1 A GeV within the framework of the Quantum Molecular Dynamics transport model. We suggest to analyse the invariant mass spectrum of the NN + pion system in order to search for an abundance of events with the invariant mass of the d' dibaryon. The d' peak is found to exceed the statistical fluctuations of the background at a level of 6 standard deviations for 2 10^5 A central collisions of heavy ions with the atomic number A.Comment: 29 pages including 7 figures, REVTe

Analytical approximation of the stress-energy tensor of a quantized scalar field in static spherically symmetric spacetimes

Analytical approximations for ${}$ and ${}$ of a quantized scalar field in static spherically symmetric spacetimes are obtained. The field is assumed to be both massive and massless, with an arbitrary coupling $\xi$ to the scalar curvature, and in a zero temperature vacuum state. The expressions for ${}$ and ${}$ are divided into low- and high-frequency parts. The contributions of the high-frequency modes to these quantities are calculated for an arbitrary quantum state. As an example, the low-frequency contributions to ${}$ and ${}$ are calculated in asymptotically flat spacetimes in a quantum state corresponding to the Minkowski vacuum (Boulware quantum state). The limits of the applicability of these approximations are discussed.Comment: revtex4, 17 pages; v2: three references adde