Hairy black holes in AdS with Robin boundary conditions

We study hairy black holes in Einstein-Maxwell-complex scalar theory in four-dimensional asymptotically global anti-de Sitter (AdS) spacetime when the Robin boundary conditions are imposed on the scalar field. This setup is dual to the double trace deformation of strongly interacting field theory on $R \times S^2$ by charged scalar operators. We identify the instability of the Reissner-Nordstr\"{o}m-AdS (RNAdS) black holes under the Robin boundary conditions and construct backreacted geometries branching at the onset of the instability. Also considering associated horizonless geometries called boson stars, we obtain phase diagrams with fairly rich structure in the grand canonical ensemble depending on the boundary condition parameter or the deformation parameter, where phase transition occurs between thermal AdS, RNAdS, charged boson stars, and hairy black holes.Comment: 30 pages, 10 figure

Reinforcement Learning of Stable Trajectory for Quasi-Passive Dynamic Walking of an Unstable Biped Robot

Biped walking is one of the major research targets in recent humanoid robotics, and many researchers are now interested in Passive Dynamic Walking (PDW) [McGeer (1990)] rather than that by the conventional Zero Moment Point (ZMP) criterion [Vukobratovic (1972)]. The ZMP criterion is usually used for planning a desired trajectory to be tracked by

HYDROGEN-BOND-ASSISTED STEREOCONTROL

Radical polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) in toluene at low temperatures was investigated in the presence of triisopropyl phosphate (TiPP). The addition of TiPP induced a syndiotactic-specificity that was enhanced by lowering polymerization temperature, whereas atactic polymers were obtained in the absence of TiPP regardless of temperature. Syndiotactic-rich poly(NIPAAm) with racemo diad = 65% was obtained at –60°C with a fourfold amount of TiPP, but almost atactic poly(NIPAAm)s were obtained by lowering temperature to –80°C. This result contrasted with the result in the presence of primary alkyl phosphates, such as tri-n-propyl phosphate, that stereospecificity varied from syndiotactic to isotactic by lowering polymerization temperature. NMR analysis at –80°C revealed that TiPP predominantly formed 1:1 complex with NIPAAm, although primary alkyl phosphates preferentially formed 1:2 complex with NIPAAm. Thus, it was concluded that a slight increase in bulkiness of the added phosphates influenced the stoichiometry of the NIPAAm-phosphate complex at lower temperatures and consequently a drastic change in the effect on stereospecificity of NIPAAm polymerization was observed

Stereocontrol in NIPAAm polymerization

Radical polymerizations of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm) were carried out in toluene at low temperatures in the presence of phosphoric acid esters such as trimethyl, triethyl (TEP), tri-n-propyl, and tri-n-butyl phosphates (TBP). Syndiotactic-rich poly(NIPAAm)s were obtained at the temperature range from –60°C to 0°C, and particularly TEP provided the highest syndiotacticity (racemo diad = 65%) at –40°C. On the other hand, lowering temperature reversed the stereoselectivity of the propagation reaction so that isotactic-rich poly(NIPAAm)s were obtained at –80°C. In particular, TBP exhibited the most isotactic-specificity (meso diad = 57%). Job's plots for NIPAAm-TBP mixtures revealed that NIPAAm and TBP formed 1:1 complex at 0°C and predominantly 1:2 complex at –80°C through a hydrogen-bonding interaction. Therefore, it is considered that the stereospecificity of NIPAAm polymerization should depend on the stoichiometry of the hydrogen-bond-assisted complex. Thus, the mechanism for the present polymerization system was discussed

Spearmint Extract Containing Rosmarinic Acid Suppresses Amyloid Fibril Formation of Proteins Associated with Dementia

Neurological dementias such as Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia are thought to be caused in part by the formation and deposition of characteristic insoluble fibrils of polypeptides such as amyloid beta (Aβ), Tau, and/or α-synuclein (αSyn). In this context, it is critical to suppress and remove such aggregates in order to prevent and/or delay the progression of dementia in these ailments. In this report, we investigated the effects of spearmint extract (SME) and rosmarinic acid (RA; the major component of SME) on the amyloid fibril formation reactions of αSyn, Aβ, and Tau proteins in vitro. SME or RA was added to soluble samples of each protein and the formation of fibrils was monitored by thioflavin T (ThioT) binding assays and transmission electron microscopy (TEM). We also evaluated whether preformed amyloid fibrils could be dissolved by the addition of RA. Our results reveal for the first time that SME and RA both suppress amyloid fibril formation, and that RA could disassemble preformed fibrils of αSyn, Aβ, and Tau into non-toxic species. Our results suggest that SME and RA may potentially suppress amyloid fibrils implicated in the progression of Alzheimer’s disease and Lewy body dementia in vivo, as well

EXAMINATION OF THE ORIGINAL AWAODORI GUIDANCE WITH THE LAPTOP COMPUTER

The purposes of this study were 1) to introduce the original AWAODORI guidance computer software with the laptop computer to beginner college students and 2) to examine its effect on their motivation. AWAODORI is one of the most famous regional dances in Japan. It is a humorous dance and remains a traditional event of Tokushima, Japan. The reason why we designed the software was to pass this dance from generation to generation using some of the advantages of the modern laptop computer. 16 healthy college students participated in this study and they were divided into two groups. One group using AWAODORI software, the other the AWAODORI guidance video and other supplementary materials. In this study, there was no statistical difference to be found between the two groups indicating that the software may be as equally effective as conventional methods of guidance

RADICAL POLYMERIZATIONS OF N-ALKYLACRYLAMIDES

The radical polymerizations of N-alkylacrylamides, such as N-methyl- (NMAAm), N-n-propyl- (NNPAAm), N-benzyl- (NBnAAm), and N-(1-phenylethyl)acrylamides (NPhEAAm), at low temperatures were investigated in the absence or presence of hexamethylphosphoramide (HMPA) and 3-methyl-3-pentanol (3Me3PenOH), which induced the syndiotactic-specificities in the radical polymerization of N-isopropylacrylamide (NIPAAm). In the absence of the syndiotactic-specificity inducers, the syndiotacticities of the obtained polymers gradually increased as the bulkiness of the N-substituents increased. Both HMPA and 3Me3PenOH induced the syndiotactic-specificities in the NNPAAm polymerizations as well as in the NIPAAm polymerizations. The addition of 3Me3PenOH into the polymerizations of NMAAm significantly induced the syndiotactic-specificities, whereas the tacticities of the obtained polymers were hardly affected by adding HMPA. In the polymerizations of bulkier monomers, such as NBnAAm and NPhEAAm, HMPA worked as the syndiotactic-specificity inducer at higher temperatures, whereas 3Me3PenOH hardly influenced the stereospecificity, regardless of the temperatures. The phase transition behaviors of the aqueous solutions of poly(NNPAAm)s were also investigated. It appeared that the poly(NNPAAm) with racemo dyad content of 70% exhibited unusual large hysteresis between the heating and cooling processes

High-sensitivity quantitative analysis reveals the non-linear relationship between the dose and deposition of diphenylarsinic acid in the rat central nervous system following its subchronic exposure

In the year 2003, the residents of Kamisu, Japan, were exposed to pentavalent organic arsenic diphenylarsinic acid (DPAA[V]) via their normal drinking water. Following the exposure, they developed cerebellar and brainstem symptoms. Although the relatively high dose of DPAA(V) is assumed to have caused their symptoms, the relationship between the exposed dose of DPAA(V) and the level of their deposition in the central nervous system (CNS) remains unclear. Using liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry, we examined the deposition of DPAA(V) and its pentavalent metabolites in the CNS tissues of Crl:CD(SD) rats following the administration of DPAA(V) for 28 days. We found that the concentrations of DPAA(V) in the CNS were very high, given a dose of 5.0 mg/kg/day. However, very low concentrations of DPAA(V) were detected at a dose of 0.3 or 1.2 mg/kg/day, suggesting the absence of a linear dose-response relationship between the dose and deposition of DPAA(V). We also found that this non-linear relationship was commonly observed in various non-CNS tissues, including the excretory system. Our study showed for the first time the exact relationship between the dose and tissue deposition of the organic arsenic following its subchronic administration

Voice activity detection based on density ratio estimation and system combination

Abstract-We propose a robust voice activity detection (VAD) based on density ratio estimation. In highly noisy environments, the likelihood ratio test (LRT) is effective. Conventional LRT estimates both speech and noise models, calculates the likelihood of each model, and uses ratios of such likelihood to detect speech. However, in LRT, the likelihood ratio of speech and noise models is required, whereas likelihood of individual models is not necessarily required. The framework of the density ratio estimation models likelihood ratio functions by a kernel and directly generates a likelihood ratio. Applying density ratio estimation to VAD requires that feature selection and noise adaptation must be considered. This is because the density ratio estimation constrains the shape of the likelihood ratio functions and speech is dynamic. This paper addresses these problems. To improve accuracy, the proposed method is combined with conventional LRT. Experimental results using CENSREC-1-C show that the proposed method is more effective than conventional methods, especially in non-stationary noisy environments