949 research outputs found
On the Topology of the Inflaton Field in Minimal Supergravity Models
We consider global issues in minimal supergravity models where a single field
inflaton potential emerges. In a particular case we reproduce the Starobinsky
model and its description dual to a certain formulation of R+R^2 supergravity.
For definiteness we confine our analysis to spaces at constant curvature,
either vanishing or negative. Five distinct models arise, two flat models with
respectively a quadratic and a quartic potential and three based on the
SU(1,1)/U(1) space where its distinct isometries, elliptic, hyperbolic and
parabolic are gauged. Fayet-Iliopoulos terms are introduced in a geometric way
and they turn out to be a crucial ingredient in order to describe the de Sitter
inflationary phase of the Starobinsky model.Comment: 31 pages, LaTex, 7 eps figures, 2 table
An Exploratory Study of Suboxone (Buprenorphine/ Naloxone) Film Splitting: Cutting Methods, Content Uniformity, and Stability
Suboxone films are U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved to treat opioid dependence. While the package insert states that films should not be cut, physicians often prescribe film fractions for treatment and tapering. There is no data to support this practice, and this study was initiated to evaluate cutting methods, content uniformity, and stability of split films. Suboxone 8-mg buprenorphine/2-mg naloxone films were split using four methods: 1) ruler/razor cut, 2) scissor cut, 3) fold/rip, and 4) fold/scissor cut. United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e was used to evaluate the weight variation and content uniformity of split films. The stability of split films stored in polybags was evaluated over 7 days. A stability-indicating high-performance liquid chromatography method was used for content uniformity and stability evaluation. The weight variation results were acceptable for the half films from all four cutting methods, but this was not true for the quarter films. The method of ruler/razor cut was determined most favorable and used for the content uniformity test. Based on the high-performance liquid chromatography results, the half films from the ruler/razor cut method met the passing criteria of United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e with acceptance values of 9.8 to 10.4 for buprenorphine and 8.4 to 11.5 for naloxone (≤15 is considered passing). The stability results indicated that both actives retained \u3e97.7% of initial strength. Four cutting methods were found to be acceptable for splitting Suboxone films into half but not quarter fractions. The half films from the ruler/razor cut method also passed United States Pharmacopeia Chapter \u3c905\u3e content uniformity test. Both actives remained stable for 7 days when the half films were stored in polybags at room temperature
q-Deformed Superalgebras
The article deals with q-analogs of the three- and four-dimensional Euclidean
superalgebra and the Poincare superalgebra.Comment: 38 pages, LateX, no figures, corrected typo
Distinct immune signatures in directly treated and distant tumors result from TLR adjuvants and focal ablation.
Both adjuvants and focal ablation can alter the local innate immune system and trigger a highly effective systemic response. Our goal is to determine the impact of these treatments on directly treated and distant disease and the mechanisms for the enhanced response obtained by combinatorial treatments. Methods: We combined RNA-sequencing, flow cytometry and TCR-sequencing to dissect the impact of immunotherapy and of immunotherapy combined with ablation on local and systemic immune components. Results: With administration of a toll-like receptor agonist agonist (CpG) alone or CpG combined with same-site ablation, we found dramatic differences between the local and distant tumor environments, where the directly treated tumors were skewed to high expression of F4/80, Cd11b and Tnf and the distant tumors to enhanced Cd11c, Cd3 and Ifng. When ablation was added to immunotherapy, 100% (n=20/20) of directly treated tumors and 90% (n=18/20) of distant tumors were responsive. Comparing the combined ablation-immunotherapy treatment to immunotherapy alone, we find three major mechanistic differences. First, while ablation alone enhanced intratumoral antigen cross-presentation (up to ~8% of CD45+ cells), systemic cross-presentation of tumor antigen remained low. Combining same-site ablation with CpG amplified cross-presentation in the draining lymph node (~16% of CD45+ cells) compared to the ablation-only (~0.1% of CD45+ cells) and immunotherapy-only cohorts (~10% of CD45+ cells). Macrophages and DCs process and present this antigen to CD8+ T-cells, increasing the number of unique T-cell receptor rearrangements in distant tumors. Second, type I interferon (IFN) release from tumor cells increased with the ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared with ablation or immunotherapy alone. Type I IFN release is synergistic with toll-like receptor activation in enhancing cytokine and chemokine expression. Expression of genes associated with T-cell activation and stimulation (Eomes, Prf1 and Icos) was 27, 56 and 89-fold higher with ablation-immunotherapy treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls (and 12, 32 and 60-fold higher for immunotherapy-only treatment as compared to the no-treatment controls). Third, we found that the ablation-immunotherapy treatment polarized macrophages and dendritic cells towards a CD169 subset systemically, where CD169+ macrophages are an IFN-enhanced subpopulation associated with dead-cell antigen presentation. Conclusion: While the local and distant responses are distinct, CpG combined with ablative focal therapy drives a highly effective systemic immune response
Extremal Multicenter Black Holes: Nilpotent Orbits and Tits Satake Universality Classes
Four dimensional supergravity theories whose scalar manifold is a symmetric
coset manifold U[D=4]/Hc are arranged into a finite list of Tits Satake
universality classes. Stationary solutions of these theories, spherically
symmetric or not, are identified with those of an euclidian three-dimensional
sigma-model, whose target manifold is a Lorentzian coset U[D=3]/H* and the
extremal ones are associated with H* nilpotent orbits in the K* representation
emerging from the orthogonal decomposition of the algebra U[D=3] with respect
to H*. It is shown that the classification of such orbits can always be reduced
to the Tits-Satake projection and it is a class property of the Tits Satake
universality classes. The construction procedure of Bossard et al of extremal
multicenter solutions by means of a triangular hierarchy of integrable
equations is completed and converted into a closed algorithm by means of a
general formula that provides the transition from the symmetric to the solvable
gauge. The question of the relation between H* orbits and charge orbits W of
the corresponding black holes is addressed and also reduced to the
corresponding question within the Tits Satake projection. It is conjectured
that on the vanishing locus of the Taub-NUT current the relation between
H*-orbit and W-orbit is rigid and one-to-one. All black holes emerging from
multicenter solutions associated with a given H* orbit have the same W-type.
For the S^3 model we provide a complete survey of its multicenter solutions
associated with all of the previously classified nilpotent orbits of sl(2) x
sl(2) within g[2,2]. We find a new intrinsic classification of the W-orbits of
this model that might provide a paradigm for the analogous classification in
all the other Tits Satake universality classes.Comment: 83 pages, LaTeX; v2: few misprints corrected and references adde
On graviton non-Gaussianities during inflation
We consider the most general three point function for gravitational waves
produced during a period of exactly de Sitter expansion. The de Sitter
isometries constrain the possible shapes to only three: two preserving parity
and one violating parity. These isometries imply that these correlation
functions should be conformal invariant. One of the shapes is produced by the
ordinary gravity action. The other shape is produced by a higher derivative
correction and could be as large as the gravity contribution. The parity
violating shape does not contribute to the bispectrum [1106.3228, 1108.0175],
even though it is present in the wavefunction. We also introduce a spinor
helicity formalism to describe de Sitter gravitational waves with circular
polarization. These results also apply to correlation functions in Anti-de
Sitter space. They also describe the general form of stress tensor correlation
functions, in momentum space, in a three dimensional conformal field theory.
Here all three shapes can arise, including the parity violating one.Comment: 51 pages, v2: Corrected statement about parity violation in the
gravitational wave bispectrum. Some other changes and references adde
Open Superstring Star as a Continuous Moyal Product
By diagonalizing the three-string vertex and using a special coordinate
representation the matter part of the open superstring star is identified with
the continuous Moyal product of functions of anti-commuting variables. We show
that in this representation the identity and sliver have simple expressions.
The relation with the half-string fermionic variables in continuous basis is
given.Comment: Latex, 19 pages; more comments added and notations are simplifie
Torsion Constraints in the Randall--Sundrum Scenario
Torsion appears due to fermions coupled to gravity and leads to the strongest
particle physics bounds on flat extra dimensions. In this work, we consider
torsion constraints in the case of a warped extra dimension with brane and bulk
fermions. From current data we obtain a 3-sigma bound on the TeV--brane mass
scale scale \Lambda_\pi > 2.2 (10) TeV for the AdS curvature k=1 (0.01) in
(reduced) Planck units. If Dirac or light sterile neutrinos reside on the
brane, the bound increases to 17 (78) TeV.Comment: typos corrected, matches the Phys. Rev. D versio
Cosmic Mimicry: Is LCDM a Braneworld in Disguise ?
For a broad range of parameter values, braneworld models display a remarkable
property which we call cosmic mimicry. Cosmic mimicry is characterized by the
fact that, at low redshifts, the Hubble parameter in the braneworld model is
virtually indistinguishable from that in the LCDM cosmology. An important point
to note is that the \Omega_m parameters in the braneworld model and in the LCDM
cosmology can nevertheless be quite different. Thus, at high redshifts (early
times), the braneworld asymptotically expands like a matter-dominated universe
with the value of \Omega_m inferred from the observations of the local matter
density. At low redshifts (late times), the braneworld model behaves almost
exactly like the LCDM model but with a renormalized value of the cosmological
density parameter \Omega_m^{LCDM}. The redshift which characterizes cosmic
mimicry is related to the parameters in the higher-dimensional braneworld
Lagrangian. Cosmic mimicry is a natural consequence of the scale-dependence of
gravity in braneworld models. The change in the value of the cosmological
density parameter is shown to be related to the spatial dependence of the
effective gravitational constant in braneworld theory. A subclass of mimicry
models lead to an older age of the universe and also predict a redshift of
reionization which is lower than z_{reion} \simeq 17 in the LCDM cosmology.
These models might therefore provide a background cosmology which is in better
agreement both with the observed quasar abundance at z \gsim 4 and with the
large optical depth to reionization measured by the Wilkinson Microwave
Anisotropy Probe.Comment: 22 pages, 4 figures. A subsection and references added; main results
remain unchanged. Accepted for publication in JCA
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