Cofactor regeneration by a soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase for biological production of hydromorphone

We have applied the soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase of Pseudomonas fluorescens to a cell-free system for the regeneration of the nicotinamide cofactors NAD and NADP in the biological production of the important semisynthetic opiate drug hydromorphone. The original recombinant whole-cell system suffered from cofactor depletion resulting from the action of an NADP(+)-dependent morphine dehydrogenase and an NADH-dependent morphinone reductase. By applying a soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase, which can transfer reducing equivalents between NAD and NADP, we demonstrate with a cell-free system that efficient cofactor cycling in the presence of catalytic amounts of cofactors occurs, resulting in high yields of hydromorphone. The ratio of morphine dehydrogenase, morphinone reductase, and soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase is critical for diminishing the production of the unwanted by-product dihydromorphine and for optimum hydromorphone yields. Application of the soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase to the whole-cell system resulted in an improved biocatalyst with an extended lifetime. These results demonstrate the usefulness of the soluble pyridine nucleotide transhydrogenase and its wider application as a tool in metabolic engineering and biocatalysis

Generalized Conformal Quantum Mechanics of D0-brane

We study the generalized conformal quantum mechanics of the probe D0-brane in the near horizon background of the bound state of source D0-branes. We elaborate on the relationship of such model to the M theory in the light cone frame.Comment: 14 pages, RevTeX, revised version with added references to appear in Phys. Rev.

Mirror effect induced by the dilaton field on the Hawking radiation

We discuss the string creation in the near-extremal NS1 black string solution. The string creation is described by an effective field equation derived from a fundamental string action coupled to the dilaton field in a conformally invariant manner. In the non-critical string model the dilaton field causes a timelike mirror surface outside the horizon when the size of the black string is comparable to the Planck scale. Since the fundamental strings are reflected by the mirror surface, the negative energy flux does not propagate across the surface. This means that the evaporation stops just before the naked singularity of the extremal black string appears even though the surface gravity is non-zero in the extremal limit.Comment: 15 page

Risk factors and oral health-related quality of life: A case–control comparison between patients after a first-episode psychosis and people from general population

INTRODUCTION: No research is available about the oral health risk factors and oral health-related quality of life (OHRQoL) in patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder. AIM: To compare oral health risk factors and OHRQoL in patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (first-episode) to people with no history of psychotic disorder. METHOD: A case-control comparison (1:2) multivariable linear regression analysis and an estimation of prevalence of impact on OHRQoL. RESULTS: Patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (first-episode) have lower OHRQoL with more associated risk factors. Of the patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (first-episode), 14.8% reported a negative impact on OHRQoL, higher than the prevalence of 1.8% found in people from the general population. DISCUSSION: The high prevalence rate of a negative impact on OHRQoL in patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (first-episode) shows the importance of acting at an early stage to prevent a worse outcome. IMPLICATIONS FOR PRACTICE: The findings highlight the need for oral health interventions in patients diagnosed with a psychotic disorder (first-episode). Mental health nurses, as one of the main health professionals supporting the health of patients diagnosed with a mental health disorder, can support oral health (e.g. assess oral health in somatic screening) in order to improve the OHRQoL

Dilaton Domain Walls and Dynamical Systems

Domain wall solutions of $d$-dimensional gravity coupled to a dilaton field $\sigma$ with an exponential potential $\Lambda e^{-\lambda\sigma}$ are shown to be governed by an autonomous dynamical system, with a transcritical bifurcation as a function of the parameter $\lambda$ when $\Lambda<0$. All phase-plane trajectories are found exactly for $\lambda=0$, including separatrices corresponding to walls that interpolate between $adS_d$ and adS_{d-1} \times\bR, and the exact solution is found for $d=3$. Janus-type solutions are interpreted as marginal bound states of these ``separatrix walls''. All flat domain wall solutions, which are given exactly for any $\lambda$, are shown to be supersymmetric for some superpotential $W$, determined by the solution.Comment: 30 pp, 11 figs, significant revision of original. Minor additional corrections in version to appear in journa

Domain walls in three dimensional gauged supergravity

We explicitly construct two Chern-Simons gauged supergravities in three dimensions with N=4 and N=8 supersymmetries and non-semisimple gauge groups. The N=4 theory has scalar manifold $SO(4,3)/SO(4)\times SO(3)$ with the gauge group $SO(3)\ltimes (\mathbf{T}^3,\hat{\mathbf{T}}^3)$. The theory describes (1,0) six dimensional supergravity reduced on an SU(2) group manifold. The equivalent Yang-Mills type gauged supergravity has SO(3) gauge group coupled to three massive vector fields. The N=8 theory is described by $SO(8,8)/SO(8)\times SO(8)$ scalar manifold, and the gauge group is given by $SO(8)\ltimes \mathbf{T}^{28}$. The theory is a truncation of the $SO(8)\ltimes \mathbf{T}^{28}$ gauged N=16 theory with scalar manifold $E_{8(8)}/SO(16)$ and can be obtained by an S^7 compactification of type I theory in ten dimensions. Domain wall solutions of both gauged supergravities are analytically found and can be uplifted to higher dimensions. These provide domain wall vacua in the three dimensional gauged supergravity framework which might be useful for the study of Domain Wall$_3$/QFT$_2$ correspondence.Comment: 19 pages, no figures, typoes and a mistake in a sign corrected, clarifications on the notations adde

Effective Actions for Massive Kaluza-Klein States on AdS_3 x S^3 x S^3

We construct the effective supergravity actions for the lowest massive Kaluza-Klein states on the supersymmetric background AdS_3 x S^3 x S^3. In particular, we describe the coupling of the supergravity multiplet to the lowest massive spin-3/2 multiplet which contains 256 physical degrees of freedom and includes the moduli of the theory. The effective theory is realized as the broken phase of a particular gauging of the maximal three-dimensional supergravity with gauge group SO(4) x SO(4). Its ground state breaks half of the supersymmetries leading to 8 massive gravitinos acquiring mass in a super Higgs effect. The holographic boundary theory realizes the large N=(4,4) superconformal symmetry.Comment: 31 pages, v2: minor change

Holographic Kondo Model in Various Dimensions

We study the addition of localised impurities to U(N) Supersymmetric Yang-Mills theories in (p+1)-dimensions by using the gauge/gravity correspondence. From the gravity side, the impurities are introduced by considering probe D(8-p)-branes extendingalong the time and radial directions and wrapping an (7-p)-dimensional submanifold of the internal (8-p)-sphere, so that the degrees of freedom are point-like from the gauge theory perspective. We analyse both the configuration in which the branes generate straight flux tubes -corresponding to actual single impurities - and the one in which connected flux tubes are created- corresponding to dimers. We discuss the thermodynamics of both the configurations and the related phase transition. In particular, the specific heat of the straight flux-tube configuration is negative for p<3, while it is never the case for the connected one. We study the stability of the system by looking at the impurity fluctuations. Finally, we characterise the theory by computing one- and two-point correlators of the gauge theory operators dual to the impurity fluctuations. Because of the underlying generalised conformal structure, such correlators can be expressed in terms of an effective coupling constant (which runs because of its dimensionality) and a generalised conformal dimension.Comment: 56 pages, 3 figures; v2: typos correcte

A brief review of "little string theories"

This is a brief review of the current state of knowledge on "little string theories", which are non-gravitational theories having several string-like properties. We focus on the six dimensional maximally supersymmetric "little string theories" and describe their definition, some of their simple properties, the motivations for studying them, the DLCQ and holographic constructions of these theories and their behaviour at finite energy density. (Contribution to the proceedings of Strings '99 in Potsdam, Germany.)Comment: 11 pages, contribution to Strings '99 proceeding

Conquering the Solar System with CubeSat Technology – First Results of CubeSat Hardware Beyond Low Earth Orbit

This paper sets out to show the in-flight results of The Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE) – one of the first times CubeSat hardware has left low Earth Orbit. The Netherlands-China Low-Frequency Explorer (NCLE), is a low-frequency payload which is part of the Chinese Chang’e 4 mission. The NCLE instrument consists of three 5-meter long monopole antennas mounted on the Queqiao satellite and will be measuring in the 80 kHz - 80 MHz radio frequency range. The instrument is designed to address a multitude of high-profile science cases, but predominantly NCLE will open up the low-frequency regime for radio astronomy and will prepare for the ground-breaking observations of the 21-cm line emission from the Dark Ages and the Cosmic Dawn, considered to be the holy grail of cosmology. The design of the instrument began in May 2016, with a launch scheduled May 2018. This left only 2 years to develop, build and test the instrument. Given the short development time the design is based on COTS and space qualified components as much as possible, and a design and model philosophy common to nano-satellites was adopted. Even so, special care had to be taken as one of the main challenges of this mission is EMC. This is an area which is only marginally considered during a typical CubeSat project and required a different approach. Following the delivery in March 2018, less than 2 years after the project started, the instruments was successful launched in the 21st of May 2018 and saw its first return of telemetry January 2019. In this paper, the design of the instrument will be covered, as well as the first in flight results which were obtained. These results indicate NCLE is performing admirably after having spent over a year in interplanetary space. The NCLE instrument represents one of the first times the CubeSat methodology and hardware left Low Earth Orbit. This, together with the strict EMC requirements have resulted in CubeSat hardware which can be used in future interplanetary missions. The promising results give strong confidence in the technology and enables new mission opportunities which could not be served by CubeSats in the past. This will fuel the next phase of the CubeSat revolution where they will venture out into interplanetary space in support of bigger missions