63 research outputs found
Long-term periarticular bone adaptation in a feline knee injury model for post-traumatic experimental osteoarthritis
SummaryObjectivesThis study investigates the long-term changes of the periarticular bone, including cancellous bone and the subchondral plate, in an anterior cruciate ligament (ACL)-transected cat for post-traumatic osteoarthritis (OA). These periarticular bone changes are related to the health of all knee tissues including articular cartilage degeneration and may be a key component of osteoarthritic development.MethodsThirteen cats (mean mass 4.9±1.9kg) were divided into three experimental groups: (1) normal controls, (2) 16 week, and (3) 5 year post unilateral ACL-transection (ACLT). Micro-computed tomography was used to scan the three-dimensional (3D) bone architecture of the proximal tibia, and analysis was performed on the subchondral plate and cancellous bone in the epiphyseal and metaphyseal regions of each bone.ResultsA decrease in cancellous bone mass (BV/TV) and subchondral plate thickness (Ct.Th) was observed 16 week post-ACLT, and the trend was statistically significant for the long-term animals (>5 year post-ACLT: BV/TV decreased 16.8%, P<0.003; Ct.Th decreased 36.8%, P<0.03). A decrease in bone mass was also observed as a function of animal age by comparing the young and aged normal control animals, however ACLT intensified those changes, particularly Ct.Th (P<0.009) and anisotropy (P<0.045). It was speculated that decreased internal joint loading despite normal kinematics may play an important role in the long-term reduction of cancellous bone volume and subchondral plate thinning.ConclusionsThe periarticular bone changes measured in this study were concurrent with articular cartilage degeneration, and suggest that bone may be a contributing factor in the aetiology of post-traumatic OA development
Risk of pre-term birth as a function of sleep quality and obesity: prospective analysis in a large Prematurity Research Cohort
STUDY OBJECTIVE: To investigate whether poor sleep quality is associated with pre-term birth (PTB) risk, overall and independent of sleep apnea and habitual snoring. METHODS: We used longitudinal data from the Washington University Prematurity Research Cohort to investigate the association between poor sleep quality (defined as a Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index > 5) and PTB, overall and independent of sleep apnea and snoring (defined by the Berlin questionnaire and prior sleep clinic attendance). Associations were investigated for sleep quality early and throughout pregnancy. Stratified analyses were performed by factors previously shown to modify associations between sleep and PTB (race, pre-pregnancy obesity). RESULTS: Of the 976 eligible participants, 50.1% experienced poor sleep quality early in pregnancy (<20 completed weeks) and 14.2% delivered pre-term (n = 50 without and 89 with poor sleep quality). In multivariable-adjusted analyses, poor sleep quality early in pregnancy was associated with increased PTB risk (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.48, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.02-2.14). This association persisted after further adjustment for sleep apnea and snoring (HR = 1.50, 95% CI = 1.02-2.20) and in analyses stratified by race. It varied, however, by pre-pregnancy obesity. Among individuals without obesity, no association was observed between poor sleep and PTB (HR = 1.08, 95% CI = 0.65-1.79), whereas among those with obesity, a positive association was observed (HR = 2.94, 95% CI = 1.52-5.69, p-interaction = .05). This association was limited to individuals with obesity who experienced poor sleep both earlier and later in pregnancy (HR = 3.94, 95% CI = 1.56-9.99). CONCLUSION: Our findings suggest that improving sleep quality early in pregnancy may be important for PTB prevention, particularly among individuals with obesity
Bulk Filling Branes and the Baryon Density in AdS/QCD with gravity back-reaction
We consider the gravity back reaction on the metric due to the baryon density
in effective ads/qcd model by reconsidering the role of the charged AdS black
hole. Previously it has been known that the U(1) charge is dual to the
R-charge. Here we point out that if we consider the case where is
completely filled with flavor branes, the gravity back reaction produces
charged AdS black hole where the effect of charge on the metric is proportional
to . As a consequence, phase diagram changes qualitatively if we allow
finite: it closes at the finite density unlike the probe brane
embedding approach.
Another issue we discuss here is the question whether there is any chemical
potential dependence in the confining phase. We consider this problem in the
hard wall model with baryon charge. We conclude that there is a non-trivial
dependence on the chemical potential in this case also.Comment: 17 pages 3x2 figures, v2: references added;v3 published version,
title change and reference adde
Dynamics of Baryons from String Theory and Vector Dominance
We consider a holographic model of QCD from string theory, a la Sakai and
Sugimoto, and study baryons. In this model, mesons are collectively realized as
a five-dimensional \ Yang-Mills field and baryons
are classically identified as solitons with a unit Pontryagin number
and electric charges. The soliton is shown to be very small in the large
't Hooft coupling limit, allowing us to introduce an effective field . Its coupling to the mesons are dictated by the soliton structure, and
consists of a direct magnetic coupling to the field strength as well
as a minimal coupling to the gauge field. Upon the dimensional
reduction, this effective action reproduces all interaction terms between
nucleons and an infinite tower of mesons in a manner consistent with the large
expansion. We further find that all electromagnetic interactions, as
inferred from the same effective action via a holographic prescription, are
mediated by an infinite tower of vector mesons, rendering the baryon
electromagnetic form factors completely vector-dominated as well. We estimate
nucleon-meson couplings and also the anomalous magnetic moments, which compare
well with nature.Comment: 65pages, 3 figures, vector mesons and axial-vector mesons are now
canonically normalized (comparisons with data and conclusions unaffected
Quantum Criticality via Magnetic Branes
Holographic methods are used to investigate the low temperature limit,
including quantum critical behavior, of strongly coupled 4-dimensional gauge
theories in the presence of an external magnetic field, and finite charge
density. In addition to the metric, the dual gravity theory contains a Maxwell
field with Chern-Simons coupling. In the absence of charge, the magnetic field
induces an RG flow to an infrared AdS geometry, which is
dual to a 2-dimensional CFT representing strongly interacting fermions in the
lowest Landau level. Two asymptotic Virasoro algebras and one chiral Kac-Moody
algebra arise as {\sl emergent symmetries} in the IR. Including a nonzero
charge density reveals a quantum critical point when the magnetic field reaches
a critical value whose scale is set by the charge density. The critical theory
is probed by the study of long-distance correlation functions of the boundary
stress tensor and current. All quantities of major physical interest in this
system, such as critical exponents and scaling functions, can be computed
analytically. We also study an asymptotically AdS system whose magnetic
field induced quantum critical point is governed by a IR Lifshitz geometry,
holographically dual to a D=2+1 field theory. The behavior of these holographic
theories shares important similarities with that of real world quantum critical
systems obtained by tuning a magnetic field, and may be relevant to materials
such as Strontium Ruthenates.Comment: To appear in Lect. Notes Phys. "Strongly interacting matter in
magnetic fields" (Springer), edited by D. Kharzeev, K. Landsteiner, A.
Schmitt, H.-U. Ye
Electron spin as a spectrometer of nuclear spin noise and other fluctuations
This chapter describes the relationship between low frequency noise and
coherence decay of localized spins in semiconductors. Section 2 establishes a
direct relationship between an arbitrary noise spectral function and spin
coherence as measured by a number of pulse spin resonance sequences. Section 3
describes the electron-nuclear spin Hamiltonian, including isotropic and
anisotropic hyperfine interactions, inter-nuclear dipolar interactions, and the
effective Hamiltonian for nuclear-nuclear coupling mediated by the electron
spin hyperfine interaction. Section 4 describes a microscopic calculation of
the nuclear spin noise spectrum arising due to nuclear spin dipolar flip-flops
with quasiparticle broadening included. Section 5 compares our explicit
numerical results to electron spin echo decay experiments for phosphorus doped
silicon in natural and nuclear spin enriched samples.Comment: Book chapter in "Electron spin resonance and related phenomena in low
dimensional structures", edited by Marco Fanciulli. To be published by
Springer-Verlag in the TAP series. 35 pages, 9 figure
STU/QCD Correspondence
In this review article we consider a special case of ,
supergravity called the STU model. We apply the gauge/gravity correspondence to
the STU model to gain insight into properties of the quark-gluon plasma. Given
that the quark-gluon plasma is in reality described by QCD, therefore we call
our study STU/QCD correspondence. First, we investigate the thermodynamics and
hydrodynamics of the STU background. Then we use dual picture of the theory,
which is type IIB string theory, to obtain the drag force and jet-quenching
parameter of an external probe quark.Comment: 56 pages, 20 figures. The paper is review of previous papers
arXiv:0905.1466, arXiv:1005.1368, arXiv:1011.2291 and arXiv:1011.2291.
Published versio
Functional mechanisms underlying pleiotropic risk alleles at the 19p13.1 breast-ovarian cancer susceptibility locus
A locus at 19p13 is associated with breast cancer (BC) and ovarian cancer (OC) risk. Here we analyse 438 SNPs in this region in 46,451 BC and 15,438 OC cases, 15,252 BRCA1 mutation carriers and 73,444 controls and identify 13 candidate causal SNPs associated with serous OC (P=9.2 × 10-20), ER-negative BC (P=1.1 × 10-13), BRCA1-associated BC (P=7.7 × 10-16) and triple negative BC (P-diff=2 × 10-5). Genotype-gene expression associations are identified for candidate target genes ANKLE1 (P=2 × 10-3) and ABHD8 (P<2 × 10-3). Chromosome conformation capture identifies interactions between four candidate SNPs and ABHD8, and luciferase assays indicate six risk alleles increased transactivation of the ADHD8 promoter. Targeted deletion of a region containing risk SNP rs56069439 in a putative enhancer induces ANKLE1 downregulation; and mRNA stability assays indicate functional effects for an ANKLE1 3′-UTR SNP. Altogether, these data suggest that multiple SNPs at 19p13 regulate ABHD8 and perhaps ANKLE1 expression, and indicate common mechanisms underlying breast and ovarian cancer risk
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