2,167 research outputs found
Decay Modes of Intersecting Fluxbranes
Just as the single fluxbrane is quantum mechanically unstable to the
nucleation of a locally charged spherical brane, so intersecting fluxbranes are
unstable to various decay modes. Each individual element of the intersection
can decay via the nucleation of a spherical brane, but uncharged spheres can
also be nucleated in the region of intersection. For special values of the
fluxes, however, intersecting fluxbranes are supersymmetric, and so are
expected to be stable. We explicitly consider the instanton describing the
decay modes of the two--element intersection (an F5-brane in the string theory
context), and show that in dimensions greater than four the action for the
decay mode of the supersymmetric intersection diverges. This observation allows
us to show that stable intersecting fluxbranes should also exist in type 0A
string theory.Comment: 19 pages, 6 figures. References adde
An approach to cork oak forest management planning: a case study in southwestern Portugal
This paper presents results of research aiming
at the development of tools that may enhance cork oak
(Quercus suber L.) forest management planning. Specifically,
it proposes an hierarchical approach that encompasses
the spatial classification of a cork oak forest and the
temporal scheduling of cork harvests. The use of both
geographical information systems and operations research
techniques is addressed. Emphasis is on the achievement of
cork even flow objectives. Results from an application to a
case study in the Charneca Plioce´nica of Ribatejo in
southern Portugal encompassing a cork oak forest extending
over 4.8 thousand ha are discussed. They suggest that
the proposed approach is capable of effective spatial classification
of cork oak management units. They further
suggest that it may be used to select optimal cork even flow
scheduling strategies. Results also show that the proposed
approach may lead to a substantial increase in net present
value when compared to traditional approaches to cork oak
forest management planning
A New Cosmological Scenario in String Theory
We consider new cosmological solutions with a collapsing, an intermediate and
an expanding phase. The boundary between the expanding (collapsing) phase and
the intermediate phase is seen by comoving observers as a cosmological past
(future) horizon. The solutions are naturally embedded in string and M-theory.
In the particular case of a two-dimensional cosmology, space-time is flat with
an identification under boost and translation transformations. We consider the
corresponding string theory orbifold and calculate the modular invariant
one-loop partition function. In this case there is a strong parallel with the
BTZ black hole. The higher dimensional cosmologies have a time-like curvature
singularity in the intermediate region. In some cases the string coupling can
be made small throughout all of space-time but string corrections become
important at the singularity. This happens where string winding modes become
light which could resolve the singularity. The new proposed space-time casual
structure could have implications for cosmology, independently of string
theory.Comment: 28 pages, 3 figures; v2: Added new subsection relating
two-dimensional model to BTZ black hole, typos corrected and references
added; v3: minor corrections, PRD versio
(Twisted) Toroidal Compactification of pp-Waves
The maximally supersymmetric type IIB pp-wave is compactified on spatial
circles, with and without an auxiliary rotational twist. All spatial circles of
constant radius are identified. Without the twist, an S compactification
can preserve 24, 20 or 16 supercharges. compactifications can preserve
20, 18 or 16 supercharges; compactifications can preserve 18 or 16
supercharges and higher compactifications preserve 16 supercharges. The
worldsheet theory of this background is discussed. The T-dual and
decompactified type IIA and M-theoretic solutions which preserve 24
supercharges are given. Some comments are made regarding the AdS parent and the
CFT description.Comment: 22 pages REVTeX 4 and AMSLaTeX. v3: References and a paragraph on
nine dimensional Killing spinors were added. v4: A few typos corrected and a
footnote was modifie
Particle Pair Production in Cosmological General Relativity
The Cosmological General Relativity (CGR) of Carmeli, a 5-dimensional (5-D)
theory of time, space and velocity, predicts the existence of an acceleration
a_0 = c / tau due to the expansion of the universe, where c is the speed of
light in vacuum, tau = 1 / h is the Hubble-Carmeli time constant, where h is
the Hubble constant at zero distance and no gravity.
The Carmeli force on a particle of mass m is F_c = m a_0, a fifth force in
nature.
In CGR, the effective mass density rho_eff = rho - rho_c, where rho is the
matter density and rho_c is the critical mass density which we identify with
the vacuum mass density rho_vac = -rho_c.
The fields resulting from the weak field solution of the Einstein field
equations in 5-D CGR and the Carmeli force are used to hypothesize the
production of a pair of particles.
The mass of each particle is found to be m = tau c^3 / 4 G, where G is
Newton's constant.
The vacuum mass density derived from the physics is rho_vac = -rho_c = -3 /
(8 pi G tau^2).
The cosmic microwave background (CMB) black body radiation at the temperature
T_o = 2.72548 K which fills that volume is found to have a relationship to the
ionization energy of the Hydrogen atom. Define the radiation energy
epsilon_gamma = (1 - g) m c^2 / N_gamma, where (1-g) is the fraction of the
initial energy m c^2 which converts to photons, g is a function of the baryon
density parameter Omega_b and N_gamma is the total number of photons in the CMB
radiation field. We make the connection with the ionization energy of the first
quantum level of the Hydrogen atom by the hypothesis epsilon_gamma = [(1 - g) m
c^2] / N_gamma = alpha^2 mu c^2 / 2, where alpha is the fine-structure constant
and mu = m_p f / (1 + f), where f= m_e / m_p with m_e the electron mass and m_p
the proton mass.Comment: 14 pages, 0 figures. The final publication is available at
springerlink.co
Evaluation of Nanoparticle Uptake iii Co-culture Cancer Modeis
Co-culture models are currently bridging the gap between classical cultures and in vivo animal models. Exploring this novel approach unlocks the possibility to mimic the tumor microenvironment in vitro, through the establishment of cancer-stroma synergistic interactions. Notably, these organotypic models offer a perfect platform for the development and pre-clinical evaluation of candidate nanocarriers loaded with anti-tumoral drugs in a high throughput screening mode, with lower costs and absence of ethical issues. However, this evaluation was until now limited to co-culture systems established with precise cell ratios, not addressing the natural cell heterogeneity commonly found in different tumors. Therefore, herein the multifunctional nanocarriers efficiency was characterized in various fibroblast-MCF-7 co-culture systems containing different cell ratios, in order to unravel key design parameters that influence nanocarrier performance and the therapeutic outcome. The successful establishment of the co-culture models was confirmed by the tissue-like distribution of the different cells in culture. Nanoparticles incubation in the various co-culture systems reveals that these nanocarriers possess targeting specificity for cancer cells, indicating their suitability for being used in this illness therapy. Additionally, by using different co-culture ratios, different nanoparticle uptake profiles were obtained. These findings are of crucial importance for the future design and optimization of new drug delivery systems, since their real targeting capacity must be addressed in heterogenous cell populations, such as those found in tumors.PEst-OE/EGEJUI4D5G/201
Braess's Paradox in Wireless Networks: The Danger of Improved Technology
When comparing new wireless technologies, it is common to consider the effect
that they have on the capacity of the network (defined as the maximum number of
simultaneously satisfiable links). For example, it has been shown that giving
receivers the ability to do interference cancellation, or allowing transmitters
to use power control, never decreases the capacity and can in certain cases
increase it by , where is the
ratio of the longest link length to the smallest transmitter-receiver distance
and is the maximum transmission power. But there is no reason to
expect the optimal capacity to be realized in practice, particularly since
maximizing the capacity is known to be NP-hard. In reality, we would expect
links to behave as self-interested agents, and thus when introducing a new
technology it makes more sense to compare the values reached at game-theoretic
equilibria than the optimum values.
In this paper we initiate this line of work by comparing various notions of
equilibria (particularly Nash equilibria and no-regret behavior) when using a
supposedly "better" technology. We show a version of Braess's Paradox for all
of them: in certain networks, upgrading technology can actually make the
equilibria \emph{worse}, despite an increase in the capacity. We construct
instances where this decrease is a constant factor for power control,
interference cancellation, and improvements in the SINR threshold (),
and is when power control is combined with interference
cancellation. However, we show that these examples are basically tight: the
decrease is at most O(1) for power control, interference cancellation, and
improved , and is at most when power control is
combined with interference cancellation
Obstetrician's risk perception on the prescription of magnesium sulfate in severe preeclampsia and eclampsia: a qualitative study in Brazil
Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) is the drug of choice for the prevention and control of seizures in the management of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia. Several barriers have been iden-tified in the use of MgSO4, especially in low and middle-income settings. Objective To describe the obstetrician's perception on possible reasons for underutilizing magnesium sulfate to treat preeclampsia/eclampsia. Method A qualitative clinical study, based on phenomenological reference by semi-structured inter-views and open-ended discussions with obstetricians of the public healthcare system in pri-mary care units (PCU) and referral maternity hospitals (RMH), in a southeastern Brazilian city. Results Fear of drug toxicity was the major cause for not prescribing the medication in PCU. Fear was justified by insufficient technical, structural and organizational resources of healthcare facilities and by a shortage of physicians properly trained for adequate drug use. Conclusion Fear of toxicity of magnesium sulfate was the main barrier towards timely and proper drug use. Periodic skill development and training of obstetricians, along with integration of the medical team in the work environment may contribute to decrease fear, ensuring safety of drug prescription and thus possibly reducing adverse outcomes related to PE.Introduction Magnesium sulfate (MgSO4) is the drug of choice for the prevention and control of seizures in the management of severe preeclampsia/eclampsia. Several barriers have been iden-tified in the use of MgSO4, especially in low and middle-income set123sem informaçãosem informaçã
T-duality in M-theory and supermembranes
The (q_1,q_2) SL(2,Z) string bound states of type IIB superstring theory
admit two inequivalent (T-dual) representations in eleven dimensions in terms
of a fundamental 2-brane. In both cases, the spectrum of membrane oscillations
can be determined exactly in the limit , where is the
type IIA string coupling. We find that the BPS mass formulas agree, and
reproduce the BPS mass spectrum of the string bound state. In the
non-BPS sector, the respective mass formulas apply in different corners of the
moduli space. The axiomatic requirement of T-duality in M-theory permits to
derive a discrete mass spectrum in a (thin torus) region where standard
supermembrane theory undergoes instabilities.Comment: harvmac, 9 page
D-Brane Probe and Closed String Tachyons
We consider a D-brane probe in unstable string background associated with
flux branes. The twist in spacetime metric reponsible for the supersymmetry
breaking is shown to manifest itself in mixing of open Wilson lines with the
phases of some adjoint matter fields, resulting in a nonlocal and
nonsupersymmetric form of Yang-Mills theory as the probe dynamics. This
provides a setup where one can study fate of a large class of unstable closed
string theories that include as a limit type 0 theories and various orbifolds
of type II and type 0 theories. We discuss the limit of orbifold
in some detail and speculate on couplings with closed string tachyons.Comment: LaTeX, 17 pages, typos fixed, references update
- …