Current Profiles of Molecular Nanowires; DFT Green Function Representation

The Liouville-space Green function formalism is used to compute the current density profile across a single molecule attached to electrodes. Time ordering is maintained in real, physical, time, avoiding the use of artificial time loops and backward propagations. Closed expressions for molecular currents, which only require DFT calculations for the isolated molecule, are derived to fourth order in the molecule/electrode coupling.Comment: 21 page

A varicocoele mimicking a hydrocoele in a man with portal hypertension: a case report

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Introduction</p> <p>Hydrocoele is a condition frequently encountered in adult urological practice. It is usually of benign aetiology and often diagnosed on clinical grounds. Surgical repair, if indicated, is generally straightforward.</p> <p>Case presentation</p> <p>We report a 53-year-old man with liver cirrhosis and clinical features of a hydrocoele, in whom flow was demonstrated using Doppler ultrasonography in the fluid around the testis, which communicated via varices with the left renal vein.</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>In this patient with misleading clinical signs, diagnosis was established radiologically. Had surgery proceeded without this investigation, significant intra-operative bleeding would have been likely.</p

Supergravity Dual of Noncommutative N=1 SYM

We construct the noncommutative deformation of the Maldacena-Nunez supergravity solution. The background describes a bound state of D5-D3 branes wrapping an S^2 inside a Calabi-Yau three-fold, and in the presence of a magnetic B-field. The dual field theory in the IR is a N=1 U(N) SYM theory with spatial noncommutativity. We show that, under certain conditions, the massive Kaluza-Klein states can be decoupled and that UV/IR mixing seems to be visible in our solution. By calculating the quark-antiquark potential via the Wilson loop we show confinement in the IR and strong repulsion at closer distances. We also compute the beta-function and show that it coincides with the recently calculated commutative one.Comment: 24 pages, latex, 4 figures; v2 references added, correction of a sign mistake in the expression of the curvatur

N3N^3 entropy of M5 branes from dielectric effect

We observe that the $N^3$ entropy behavior of near-extermal M5 branes can be reproduced from SYM side with the role of Myers' terms. We start by generalizing the Klebanov-Tseytlin (KT) supergravity solution that displays the $N^3$ entropy behavior. The new feature of the general solution is visibility of the "internal" degrees of the M5 branes, i.e., the M0 branes and the M2 branes. With the rationale provided by the supergravity analysis, we consider a D0 brane quantum mechanical setup with Myers' terms. Using localization technique, we show that the leading $N^3$ behavior of the free energy comes from the "classical contribution" with the rest sub-leading.Comment: latex, 21 pages, missing figure adde

Differential effects of clinically used derivatives and metabolites of artemisinin in the activation of constitutive androstane receptor isoforms

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Widespread resistance to antimalarial drugs requires combination therapies with increasing risk of pharmacokinetic drugdrug interactions. Here, we explore the capacity of antimalarial drugs to induce drug metabolism via activation of constitutive androstane receptors (CAR) by ligand binding. EXPERIMENTAL APPROACH A total of 21 selected antimalarials and 11 major metabolites were screened for binding to CAR isoforms using cellular and in vitro CAR-coactivator interaction assays, combined with in silico molecular docking. Identified ligands were further characterized by cell-based assays and primary human hepatocytes were used to elucidate induction of gene expression. KEY RESULTS Only two artemisinin derivatives arteether and artemether, the metabolite deoxyartemisinin and artemisinin itself demonstrated agonist binding to the major isoforms CAR1 and CAR3, while arteether and artemether were also inverse agonists of CAR2. Dihydroartemisinin and artesunate acted as weak inverse agonists of CAR1. While arteether showed the highest activities in vitro, it was less active than artemisinin in inducing hepatic CYP3A4 gene expression in hepatocytes. CONCLUSIONS AND IMPLICATIONS Artemisinin derivatives and metabolites differentially affect the activities of CAR isoforms and of the pregnane X receptor (PXR). This negates a common effect of these drugs on CAR/PXR-dependent induction of drug metabolism and further provides an explanation for artemisinin consistently inducing cytochrome P450 genes in vivo, whereas arteether and artemether do not. All these drugs are metabolized very rapidly, but only artemisinin is converted to an enzyme-inducing metabolite. For better understanding of pharmacokinetic drugdrug interaction possibilities, the inducing properties of artemisinin metabolites should be considered.German Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF) HepatosSys network [0313081B, 0313080F, 0313080I]; Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Germany) [KE 1629/1-1]; Robert Bosch Foundation, Stuttgart, Germanyinfo:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Subject and object pronouns in high-functioning children with ASD of a null-subject language

Although the use of pronouns has been extensively investigated in children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD), most studies have focused on English, and no study to date has investigated the use of subject pronouns in null subject languages. The present study aims to fill this gap by investigating the use of subject and object pronouns in 5- to 8-year-old Greek-speaking high-functioning children with ASD compared to individually matched typically developing age and language controls. The "Frog where are you" (Mayer, 1969) narrative task was used to elicit subject and object pronouns as well as Determiner Phrases (DPs). Greek is a null subject language, and as a result, subject pronouns most often remain without phonological content. The findings showed that both groups used more null than overt subject pronouns, indicating that children with ASD know that Greek is a null subject language. TD children used more null subjects than subject DPs, whereas children with ASD used an equal proportion of null subjects and subject DPs. In terms of object pronouns, both groups produced more clitics and object DPs than strong object pronouns, but the difference between clitics and DPs did not reach significance in either of the groups. Importantly, the groups did not differ from each other in the use of ambiguous pronouns in both the subject and object position. The ASD children's avoidance to use pronominal subjects can be taken as evidence that they use a strategy to avoid infelicitous reference. This would suggest that the ASD children's difficulties with pronouns is not due to difficulties in core grammar

Causal Bulk Viscous Dissipative Isotropic Cosmologies with Variable Gravitational and Cosmological Constants

We consider the evolution of a flat Friedmann-Robertson-Walker Universe, filled with a causal bulk viscous cosmological fluid, in the presence of variable gravitational and cosmological constants. The basic equation for the Hubble parameter, generalizing the evolution equation in the case of constant gravitational coupling and cosmological term, is derived, under the supplementary assumption that the total energy of the Universe is conserved. By assuming that the cosmological constant is proportional to the square of the Hubble parameter and a power law dependence of the bulk viscosity coefficient, temperature and relaxation time on the energy density of the cosmological fluid, two classes of exact solutions of the field equations are obtained. In the first class of solutions the Universe ends in an inflationary era, while in the second class of solutions the expansion of the Universe is non-inflationary for all times. In both models the cosmological "constant" is a decreasing function of time, while the gravitational "constant" increases in the early period of evolution of the Universe, tending in the large time limit to a constant value.Comment: 14 pages, 15 figure