D=26 and Exact Solution to the Conformal-Gauge Two-Dimensional Quantum Gravity

The conformal-gauge two-dimensional quantum gravity is formulated in the framework of the BRS quantization and solved completely in the Heisenberg picture: All n-point Wightman functions are explicitly obtained. The field-equation anomaly is shown to exist as in other gauges, but there is no other subtlety. At the critical dimension D=26 of the bosonic string, the field-equation anomaly is shown to be absent. However, this result is not equivalent to the statement that the conformal anomaly is proportional to D-26. The existence of the FP-ghost number current anomaly is seen to be an illusion.Comment: 18 pages, LaTe

Silage produces biofuel for local consumption

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>In the normal process of bioethanol production, biomass is transported to integrated large factories for degradation to sugar, fermentation, and recovery of ethanol by distillation. Biomass nutrient loss occurs during preservation and degradation. Our aim was to develop a decentralized ethanol production system appropriate for farm or co-operative level production that uses a solid-state fermentation method for producing bio-ethanol from whole crops, provides cattle feed, and produces no wastes. The idea is to incorporate traditional silage methods with simultaneous saccharification and fermentation. Harvested, fresh biomass is ensiled with biomass-degrading enzymes and yeast. Multiple parallel reactions for biomass degradation and ethanol and lactic acid production are induced in solid culture in hermetically sealed containers at a ranch. After fermentation, ethanol is collected on site from the vapor from heated fermented products.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The parallel reactions of simultaneous saccharification and fermentation were induced efficiently in the model fermentation system. In a laboratory-scale feasibility study of the process, 250 g of freshly harvested forage rice with 62% moisture was treated with 0.86 filter paper units/g dry matter (DM) of cellulase and 0.32 U/g DM of glucoamylase. After 20 days of incubation at 28°C, 6.4 wt.% of ethanol in fresh matter (equivalent to 169 g/kg DM) was produced. When the 46 wt.% moisture was gathered as vapor from the fermented product, 74% of the produced ethanol was collected. Organic cellular contents (such as the amylase and pronase degradable fractions) were decreased by 63% and organic cell wall (fiber) content by 7% compared to silage prepared from the same material.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>We confirmed that efficient ethanol production is induced in nonsterilized whole rice plants in a laboratory-scale solid-state fermentation system. For practical use of the method, further study is needed to scale-up the fermentation volume, develop an efficient ethanol recovery method, and evaluate the fermentation residue as an actual cattle feed.</p

Effect of pre-germinated brown rice intake on diabetic neuropathy in streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>To study the effects of a pre-germinated brown rice diet (PR) on diabetic neuropathy in streptozotocin (STZ)-induced diabetic rats.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>The effects of a PR diet on diabetic neuropathy in STZ-induced diabetic rats were evaluated and compared with those fed brown rice (BR) or white rice (WR) diets with respect to the following parameters: blood-glucose level, motor-nerve conduction velocity (NCV), sciatic-nerve Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity, and serum homocysteine-thiolactonase (HTase) activity.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Compared with diabetic rats fed BR or WR diets, those fed a PR diet demonstrated significantly lower blood-glucose levels (<it>p </it>< 0.001), improved NCV (1.2- and 1.3-fold higher, respectively), and increased Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity (1.6- and 1.7-fold higher, respectively). The PR diet was also able to normalize decreased serum homocysteine levels normally seen in diabetic rats. The increased Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity observed in rats fed PR diets was associated with elevations in HTase activity (r = 0.913, <it>p </it>< 0.001). The <it>in vitro </it>effect of the total lipid extract from PR bran (TLp) on the Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase and HTase activity was also examined. Incubation of homocysteine thiolactone (HT) with low-density lipoprotein (LDL) <it>in vitro </it>resulted in generation of HT-modified LDL, which possessed high potency to inhibit Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity in the sciatic nerve membrane. The inhibitory effect of HT-modified LDL on Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase activity disappeared when TLp was added to the incubation mixture. Furthermore, TLp directly activated the HTase associated with high-density lipoprotein (HDL).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>PR treatment shows efficacy for protecting diabetic deterioration and for improving physiological parameters of diabetic neuropathy in rats, as compared with a BR or WR diet. This effect may be induced by a mechanism whereby PR intake mitigates diabetic neuropathy by one or more factors in the total lipid fraction. The active lipid fraction is able to protect the Na⁺/K⁺-ATPase of the sciatic-nerve membrane from the toxicity of HT-modified LDL and to directly activate the HTase of HDL.</p

Evolution of level density step structures from 56,57-Fe to 96,97-Mo

Level densities have been extracted from primary gamma spectra for 56,57-Fe and 96,97-Mo nuclei using (3-He,alpha gamma) and (3-He,3-He') reactions on 57-Fe and 97-Mo targets. The level density curves reveal step structures above the pairing gap due to the breaking of nucleon Cooper pairs. The location of the step structures in energy and their shapes arise from the interplay between single-particle energies and seniority-conserving and seniority-non-conserving interactions.Comment: 9 pages, including 5 figure

Pretransplant assessment of human liver grafts by plasma lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity in multiple organ donors.

In spite of the improved outcome of orthotopic liver transplantation (OLTx), primary graft nonfunction remains one of the life-threatening problems following OLTx. The purpose of this study was to evaluate plasma lecithin: cholesterol acyltransferase (LCAT) activity in multiple organ donors as a predictor of liver allograft viability prior to OLTx. Thirty-nine donors were studied during a 5-month period between April and August 1988. Allograft hepatectomy was performed using a rapid technique or its minor modification with hilar dissections, and the allografts were stored cold (4 degrees C) in University of Wisconsin (UW) solution. Early post-transplant allograft function was classified as good, fair, or poor, according to the highest SGOT, SGPT, and prothrombin time within 5 days following OLTx. Procurement records were reviewed to identify donor data, which included conventional liver function tests, duration of hospital stay, history of cardiac arrest, and graft ischemic time. Blood samples from the donors were drawn immediately prior to aortic crossclamp, and from these plasma LCAT activity was determined. Plasma LCAT activity of all donors was significantly lower than that of healthy controls (12.4 +/- 8.0 vs 39.2 +/- 13.3 micrograms/ml per hour, P less than 0.01). LCAT activity (16.4 +/- 8.3 micrograms/ml per hour) in donors of grafts with good function was significantly higher than that in those with fair (8.6 +/- 4.5 micrograms/ml per hour, P less than 0.01) or poor (7.3 +/- 2.4 micrograms/ml per hour, P less than 0.01) function.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

KLF11 and association study in Japanese

Aims: Krüppel-like factor 11 (KLF11) is a transcriptional factor of the zinc finger domain family that regulates the expression of insulin. In North European populations, its common functional variant Q62R (rs35927125) is a strong genetic factor for Type 2 diabetes (P = 0.00033, odds ratio for G allele = 1.29, 95% CI 1.12–1.49). We examined the contribution of KLF11 variants to the susceptibility to Type 2 diabetes in a Japanese population. Methods: By re-sequencing Japanese individuals (n = 24, partly 96), we screened all four exons, exon/intron boundaries and flanking regions of KLF11. Verified single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were genotyped in 731 initial samples (369 control and 362 case subjects). Subsequently, we tested for association in 1087 samples (524 control and 563 case subjects), which were collected in different districts of Japan from the initial samples. Results: We identified eight variants, including a novel A/C variant on intron 3, but no mis-sense mutations. In an association study, we failed to find any significant result of SNPs (minor allele frequency 8.2–46.2%) after correcting for multiple testing. Similarly, no haplotypes were associated with Type 2 diabetes. It is notable that the G allele in rs35927125 was completely absent in 1818 Japanese individuals. Conclusions: Genetic variants in KLF11 are unlikely to have a major effect of Type 2 diabetes in the Japanese population, although they were significantly associated in North European populations. These observations might help to determine the role of KLF11 variants in Type 2 diabetes in different populations

"Task-relevant autoencoding" enhances machine learning for human neuroscience

In human neuroscience, machine learning can help reveal lower-dimensional neural representations relevant to subjects' behavior. However, state-of-the-art models typically require large datasets to train, so are prone to overfitting on human neuroimaging data that often possess few samples but many input dimensions. Here, we capitalized on the fact that the features we seek in human neuroscience are precisely those relevant to subjects' behavior. We thus developed a Task-Relevant Autoencoder via Classifier Enhancement (TRACE), and tested its ability to extract behaviorally-relevant, separable representations compared to a standard autoencoder, a variational autoencoder, and principal component analysis for two severely truncated machine learning datasets. We then evaluated all models on fMRI data from 59 subjects who observed animals and objects. TRACE outperformed all models nearly unilaterally, showing up to 12% increased classification accuracy and up to 56% improvement in discovering "cleaner", task-relevant representations. These results showcase TRACE's potential for a wide variety of data related to human behavior.Comment: 41 pages, 11 figures, 5 tables including supplemental materia

Compact Einstein Spaces based on Quaternionic K\"ahler Manifolds

We investigate the Einstein equation with a positive cosmological constant for $4n+4$-dimensional metrics on bundles over Quaternionic K\"ahler base manifolds whose fibers are 4-dimensional Bianchi IX manifolds. The Einstein equations are reduced to a set of non-linear ordinary differential equations. We numerically find inhomogeneous compact Einstein spaces with orbifold singularity.Comment: LaTeX 28 pages, 5 eps figure

A scalable lysyl hydroxylase 2 expression system and luciferase-based enzymatic activity assay

Hydroxylysine aldehyde-derived collagen cross-links (HLCCs) accumulate in fibrotic tissues and certain types of cancer and are thought to drive the progression of these diseases. HLCC formation is initiated by lysyl hydroxylase 2 (LH2), an Fe(II) and α-ketoglutarate (αKG)-dependent oxygenase that hydroxylates telopeptidyl lysine residues on collagen. Development of LH2 antagonists for the treatment of these diseases will require a reliable source of recombinant LH2 protein and a non-radioactive LH2 enzymatic activity assay that is amenable to high throughput screens of small molecule libraries. However, LH2 protein generated previously using E coli– or insect-based expression systems was either insoluble or enzymatically unstable, and LH2 enzymatic activity assays have measured radioactive CO2 released from 14C-labeled αKG during its conversion to succinate. To address these deficiencies, we have developed a scalable process to purify human LH2 protein from Chinese hamster ovary cell-derived conditioned media samples and a luciferase-based assay that quantifies LH2-dependent conversion of αKG to succinate. These methodologies may be applicable to other Fe(II) and αKG-dependent oxygenase systems