4,994 research outputs found
Corporate Financing in Great Britain
Background: The antifungal compound ketoconazole has, in addition to its ability to interfere with fungal ergosterol synthesis, effects upon other enzymes including human CYP3A4, CYP17, lipoxygenase and thromboxane synthetase. In the present study, we have investigated whether ketoconazole affects the cellular uptake and hydrolysis of the endogenous cannabinoid receptor ligand anandamide (AEA). Methodology/Principal Findings: The effects of ketoconazole upon endocannabinoid uptake were investigated using HepG2, CaCo2, PC-3 and C6 cell lines. Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) activity was measured in HepG2 cell lysates and in intact C6 cells. Ketoconazole inhibited the uptake of AEA by HepG2 cells and CaCo2 cells with IC50 values of 17 and 18 mu M, respectively. In contrast, it had modest effects upon AEA uptake in PC-3 cells, which have a low expression of FAAH. In cell-free HepG2 lysates, ketoconazole inhibited FAAH activity with an IC50 value (for the inhibitable component) of 34 mu M. Conclusions/Significance: The present study indicates that ketoconazole can inhibit the cellular uptake of AEA at pharmacologically relevant concentrations, primarily due to its effects upon FAAH. Ketoconazole may be useful as a template for the design of dual-action FAAH/CYP17 inhibitors as a novel strategy for the treatment of prostate cancer
Lattice-Gas Simulations of Ternary Amphiphilic Fluid Flow in Porous Media
We develop our existing two-dimensional lattice-gas model to simulate the
flow of single-phase, binary-immiscible and ternary-amphiphilic fluids. This
involves the inclusion of fixed obstacles on the lattice, together with the
inclusion of ``no-slip'' boundary conditions. Here we report on preliminary
applications of this model to the flow of such fluids within model porous
media. We also construct fluid invasion boundary conditions, and the effects of
invading aqueous solutions of surfactant on oil-saturated rock during
imbibition and drainage are described.Comment: 9 pages, 6 figures (1 and 6 are in color), RevTeX with epsf and
graphic
Fluid-crystal coexistence for proteins and inorganic nanocolloids: dependence on ionic strength
We investigate theoretically the fluid-crystal coexistence of solutions of
globular charged nanoparticles like proteins and inorganic colloids. The
thermodynamic properties of the fluid phase are computed via the optimized
Baxter model. This is done specifically for lysozyme and silicotungstates for
which the bare adhesion parameters are evaluated via the experimental second
virial coefficients. The electrostatic free energy of the crystal is
approximated by supposing the cavities in the interstitial phase between the
particles are spherical in form. In the salt-free case a Poisson-Boltzmann
equation is solved to calculate the effective charge on a particle and a Donnan
approximation is used to derive the chemical potential and osmotic pressure in
the presence of salt. The coexistence data of lysozyme and silicotungstates are
analyzed within this scheme, especially with regard to the ionic-strength
dependence of the chemical potentials. The latter agree within the two phases
provided some upward adjustment of the effective charge is allowed for.Comment: 15 pages, 9 figure
Accuracy threshold for concatenated error detection in one dimension
Estimates of the quantum accuracy threshold often tacitly assume that it is
possible to interact arbitrary pairs of qubits in a quantum computer with a
failure rate that is independent of the distance between them. None of the many
physical systems that are candidates for quantum computing possess this
property. Here we study the performance of a concatenated error-detection code
in a system that permits only nearest-neighbor interactions in one dimension.
We make use of a new message-passing scheme that maximizes the number of errors
that can be reliably corrected by the code. Our numerical results indicate that
arbitrarily accurate universal quantum computation is possible if the
probability of failure of each elementary physical operation is below
approximately 10^{-5}. This threshold is three orders of magnitude lower than
the highest known.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figures, now with error bar
Results of the US contribution to the joint US/USSR Bering Sea experiment
The atmospheric circulation which occurred during the Bering Sea Experiment, 15 February to 10 March 1973, in and around the experiment area is analyzed and related to the macroscale morphology and dynamics of the sea ice cover. The ice cover was very complex in structure, being made up of five ice types, and underwent strong dynamic activity. Synoptic analyses show that an optimum variety of weather situations occurred during the experiment: an initial strong anticyclonic period (6 days), followed by a period of strong cyclonic activity (6 days), followed by weak anticyclonic activity (3 days), and finally a period of weak cyclonic activity (4 days). The data of the mesoscale test areas observed on the four sea ice option flights, and ship weather, and drift data give a detailed description of mesoscale ice dynamics which correlates well with the macroscale view: anticyclonic activity advects the ice southward with strong ice divergence and a regular lead and polynya pattern; cyclonic activity advects the ice northward with ice convergence, or slight divergence, and a random lead and polynya pattern
Gauge Coupling Instability and Dynamical Mass Generation in N=1 Supersymmetric QED(3)
Using superfield Dyson-Schwinger equations, we compute the infrared dynamics
of the semi-amputated full vertex, corresponding to the effective running gauge
coupling, in N-flavour {\mathcal N}=1 supersymmetric QED(3). It is shown that
the presence of a supersymmetry-preserving mass for the matter multiplet
stabilizes the infrared gauge coupling against oscillations present in the
massless case, and we therefore infer that the massive vacuum is thus selected
at the level of the (quantum) effective action. We further demonstrate that
such a mass can indeed be generated dynamically in a self-consistent way by
appealing to the superfield Dyson-Schwinger gap equation for the full matter
propagator.Comment: 14 pages ReVTeX; four axodraw figures incorporate
Diffractive Dissociation In The Interacting Gluon Model
We have extended the Interacting Gluon Model (IGM) to calculate diffractive
mass spectra generated in hadronic collisions. We show that it is possible to
treat both diffractive and non-diffractive events on the same footing, in terms
of gluon-gluon collisions. A systematic analysis of available data is
performed. The energy dependence of diffractive mass spectra is addressed. They
show a moderate narrowing at increasing energies. Predictions for LHC energies
are presented.Comment: 12 pages, latex, 14 figures (PostScript Files included); accepted for
publication in Phys. Rev. D (Feb.97
Strangelet spectra from type II supernovae
We study in this work the fate of strangelets injected as a contamination in
the tail of a "strange matter-driven" supernova shock. A simple model for the
fragmentation and braking of the strangelets when they pass through the
expanding oxygen shell is presented and solved to understand the reprocessing
of this component. We find that the escaping spectrum is a scaled-down version
of the one injected at the base of the oxygen shell. The supernova source is
likely to produce low-energy particles of quite independently
of the initial conditions. However, it is difficult that ultrarrelativistic
strangelets (such as the hypothetical Centauro primaries) can have an origin in
those explosive events.Comment: RevTex file, 5 pp., no figure
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