Dietary Patterns and Cognitive Function among Older Community-Dwelling Adults.

Diet may be an important modifiable risk factor for maintenance of cognitive health in later life. This study aimed at examining associations between common dietary indices and dietary patterns defined by factor analysis and cognitive function in older community-dwelling adults. Dietary information for 1499 participants from the Rancho Bernardo Study was collected in 1988⁻1992 and used to calculate the alternate Mediterranean diet score, Alternate Healthy Eating Index (AHEI)-2010 score and factor scores derived from factor analysis of nutrients. Global cognitive function, executive function, verbal fluency and episodic memory were assessed at approximate four-year intervals from 1988⁻2016. Linear mixed models were used to examine associations between dietary patterns and cognitive trajectories. Estimates for the highest vs. lowest tertile in models adjusting for age, sex, education, energy intake, lifestyle variables and retest effect showed greater adherence to the Mediterranean score was associated with better baseline global cognitive function (β (95% CI) = 0.33 (0.11, 0.55)). The AHEI-2010 score was not significantly associated with cognitive performance. Higher loading on a plant polyunsaturated fatty acid (PUFA)/vitamin E factor was associated with better baseline global cognitive function and executive function (β = 0.22 (0.02, 0.42) and β = -7.85 (-13.20, -2.47)). A sugar/low protein factor was associated with poorer baseline cognitive function across multiple domains. Dietary patterns were not associated with cognitive decline over time. Adherence to a healthy diet with foods high in PUFA and vitamin E and a low sugar to protein ratio, as typified by a Mediterranean diet, may be beneficial for cognitive health in late life

Lattice model for cold and warm swelling of polymers in water

We define a lattice model for the interaction of a polymer with water. We solve the model in a suitable approximation. In the case of a non-polar homopolymer, for reasonable values of the parameters, the polymer is found in a non-compact conformation at low temperature; as the temperature grows, there is a sharp transition towards a compact state, then, at higher temperatures, the polymer swells again. This behaviour closely reminds that of proteins, that are unfolded at both low and high temperatures.Comment: REVTeX, 5 pages, 2 EPS figure

A New Handle on de Sitter Compactifications

We construct a large new class of de Sitter (and anti de Sitter) vacua of critical string theory from flux compactifications on products of Riemann surfaces. In the construction, the leading effects stabilizing the moduli are perturbative. We show that these effects self-consistently dominate over standard estimates for further $\alpha^\prime$ and quantum corrections, via tuning available from large flux and brane quantum numbers.Comment: 26 pages, harvmac big. v2: Correction generalizing specific ingredients required for tunable negative term; conclusions and structure of potential unchange

AdS Bubbles, Entropy and Closed String Tachyons

We study the conjectured connection between AdS bubbles (AdS solitons) and closed string tachyon condensations. We confirm that the entanglement entropy, which measures the degree of freedom, decreases under the tachyon condensation. The entropies in supergravity and free Yang-Mills agree with each other remarkably. Next we consider the tachyon condensation on the AdS twisted circle and argue that its endpoint is given by the twisted AdS bubble, defined by the double Wick rotation of rotating black 3-brane solutions. We calculated the Casimir energy and entropy and checked the agreements between the gauge and gravity results. Finally we show an infinite boost of a null linear dilaton theory with a tachyon wall (or bubble), leads to a solvable time-dependent background with a bulk tachyon condensation. This is the simplest example of spacetimes with null boundaries in string theory.Comment: 45 pages, 6 figures, harvmac, eq.(2.16) corrected, references adde

A Phase Transition between Small and Large Field Models of Inflation

We show that models of inflection point inflation exhibit a phase transition from a region in parameter space where they are of large field type to a region where they are of small field type. The phase transition is between a universal behavior, with respect to the initial condition, at the large field region and non-universal behavior at the small field region. The order parameter is the number of e-foldings. We find integer critical exponents at the transition between the two phases.Comment: 21 pages, 8 figure

Fine tuning and the ratio of tensor to scalar density fluctuations from cosmological inflation

The form of the inflationary potential is severely restricted if one requires that it be natural in the technical sense, i.e. terms of unrelated origin are not required to be correlated. We determine the constraints on observables that are implied in such natural inflationary models, in particular on $r$, the ratio of tensor to scalar perturbations. We find that the naturalness constraint does not require $r$ to be lare enough to be detectable by the forthcoming searches for B-mode polarisation in CMB maps. We show also that the value of $r$ is a sensitive discriminator between inflationary models.Comment: 8 pages LaTeX; clarifications and a reference added; to appear in JCA

Moduli Stabilization with Long Winding Strings

Stabilizing all of the modulus fields coming from compactifications of string theory on internal manifolds is one of the outstanding challenges for string cosmology. Here, in a simple example of toroidal compactification, we study the dynamics of the moduli fields corresponding to the size and shape of the torus along with the ambient flux and long strings winding both internal directions. It is known that a string gas containing states with non-vanishing winding and momentum number in one internal direction can stabilize the radius of this internal circle to be at self-dual radius. We show that a gas of long strings winding all internal directions can stabilize all moduli, except the dilaton which is stabilized by hand, in this simple example.Comment: title changed, improved presentation; reference added. 18 pages, JHEP styl

Closed string tachyons, flips and conifolds

Following the analysis of tachyons and orbifold flips described in hep-th/0412337, we study nonsupersymmetric analogs of the supersymmetric conifold singularity and show using their toric geometry description that they are nonsupersymmetric orbifolds of the latter. Using linear sigma models, we see that these are unstable to localized closed string tachyon condensation and exhibit flip transitions between their two small resolutions (involving 2-cycles), in the process mediating mild dynamical topology change. Our analysis shows that the structure of these nonsupersymmetric conifolds as quotients of the supersymmetric conifold obstructs the 3-cycle deformation of such singularities, suggesting that these nonsupersymmetric conifolds decay by evolving towards their stable small resolutions.Comment: Latex, 22 pgs, 2 figs. v4: matches JHEP version, 29 pgs, 3 figures, more elaborate Introduction, various clarifications adde

Competition of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin ordering in nuclear matter

In the framework of a Fermi liquid theory it is considered the possibility of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic phase transitions in symmetric nuclear matter with Skyrme effective interaction. The zero temperature dependence of ferromagnetic and antiferromagnetic spin polarization parameters as functions of density is found for SkM$^*$, SGII effective forces. It is shown that in the density domain, where both type of solutions of self--consistent equations exist, ferromagnetic spin state is more preferable than antiferromagnetic one.Comment: 9p., 3 figure

The vacuum bubbles in de Sitter background and black hole pair creation

We study the possible types of the nucleation of vacuum bubbles. We classify vacuum bubbles in de Sitter background and present some numerical solutions. The thin-wall approximation is employed to obtain the nucleation rate and the radius of vacuum bubbles. With careful analysis we confirm that Parke's formula is also applicable to the large true vacuum bubbles. The nucleation of the false vacuum bubble in de Sitter background is also evaluated. The tunneling process in the potential with degenerate vacua is analyzed as the limiting cases of the large true vacuum bubble and false vacuum bubble. Next, we consider the pair creation of black holes in the background of bubble solutions. We obtain static bubble wall solutions of junction equation with black hole pair. The masses of created black holes are uniquely determined by the cosmological constant and surface tension on the wall. Finally, we obtain the rate of pair creation of black holes.Comment: 3 figures, minor including errors and typos corrected, and refs. adde