Branes in the plane wave background with gauge field condensates

Supersymmetric branes in the plane wave background with additional constant magnetic fields are studied from the world-sheet point of view. It is found that in contradistinction to flat space, boundary condensates on some maximally supersymmetric branes necessarily break at least some supersymmetries. The maximally supersymmetric cases with condensates are shown to be in one to one correspondence with the previously classified class II branes.Comment: LaTeX, 31 pages, no figures; v2: references added, some typos correcte

Exercise-Induced Changes in Metabolic Intermediates, Hormones, and Inflammatory Markers Associated With Improvements in Insulin Sensitivity

OBJECTIVE: To understand relationships between exercise training-mediated improvements in insulin sensitivity (S(I)) and changes in circulating concentrations of metabolic intermediates, hormones, and inflammatory mediators. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Targeted mass spectrometry and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays were used to quantify metabolic intermediates, hormones, and inflammatory markers at baseline, after 6 months of exercise training, and 2 weeks after exercise training cessation (n = 53). A principal components analysis (PCA) strategy was used to relate changes in these intermediates to changes in S(I). RESULTS: PCA reduced the number of intermediates from 90 to 24 factors composed of biologically related components. With exercise training, improvements in S(I) were associated with reductions in by-products of fatty acid oxidation and increases in glycine and proline (P < 0.05, R² = 0.59); these relationships were retained 15 days after cessation of exercise training (P < 0.05, R² = 0.34). CONCLUSIONS: These observations support prior observations in animal models that exercise training promotes more efficient mitochondrial β-oxidation and challenges current hypotheses regarding exercise training and glycine metabolism

On Horizons and Plane Waves

We investigate the possibility of having an event horizon within several classes of metrics that asymptote to the maximally supersymmetric IIB plane wave. We show that the presence of a null Killing vector (not necessarily covariantly constant) implies an effective separation of the Einstein equations into a standard and a wave component. This feature may be used to generate new supergravity solutions asymptotic to the maximally supersymmetric IIB plane wave, starting from standard seed solutions such as branes or intersecting branes in flat space. We find that in many cases it is possible to preserve the extremal horizon of the seed solution. On the other hand, non-extremal deformations of the plane wave solution result in naked singularities. More generally, we prove a no-go theorem against the existence of horizons for backgrounds with a null Killing vector and which contain at most null matter fields. Further attempts at turning on a nonzero Hawking temperature by introducing additional matter have proven unsuccessful. This suggests that one must remove the null Killing vector in order to obtain a horizon. We provide a perturbative argument indicating that this is in fact possible.Comment: 46 pp, 1 figur

Tumor site immune markers associated with risk for subsequent basal cell carcinomas.

BackgroundBasal cell carcinoma (BCC) tumors are the most common skin cancer and are highly immunogenic.ObjectiveThe goal of this study was to assess how immune-cell related gene expression in an initial BCC tumor biopsy was related to the appearance of subsequent BCC tumors.Materials and methodsLevels of mRNA for CD3ε (a T-cell receptor marker), CD25 (the alpha chain of the interleukin (IL)-2 receptor expressed on activated T-cells and B-cells), CD68 (a marker for monocytes/macrophages), the cell surface glycoprotein intercellular adhesion molecule-1 (ICAM-1), the cytokine interferon-γ (IFN-γ) and the anti-inflammatory cytokine IL-10 were measured in BCC tumor biopsies from 138 patients using real-time PCR.ResultsThe median follow-up was 26.6 months, and 61% of subjects were free of new BCCs two years post-initial biopsy. Patients with low CD3ε CD25, CD68, and ICAM-1 mRNA levels had significantly shorter times before new tumors were detected (p = 0.03, p = 0.02, p = 0.003, and p = 0.08, respectively). Furthermore, older age diminished the association of mRNA levels with the appearance of subsequent tumors.ConclusionsOur results show that levels of CD3ε, CD25, CD68, and ICAM-1 mRNA in BCC biopsies may predict risk for new BCC tumors

Creation and validation of a new tool for the monitoring efficacy of neurogenic bowel dysfunction treatment on response: the MENTOR tool

STUDY DESIGN: Prospective observational study. OBJECTIVES: A tool to help decision-making tool for Neurogenic Bowel Dysfunction (NBD) in individuals with SCI is needed. We present a project to create and validate a new tool, the Monitoring Efficacy of NBD Treatment On Response (MENTOR), and to determine its level of concordance with decisions made by experienced clinicians in the field. SETTING: UK, Denmark, USA, Italy, The Netherlands, Germany. METHODS: The first phase was creation of the tool through a modified Delphi process. The second phase was the validation, wherein individuals with spinal cord injury with NBD were asked to complete the MENTOR tool immediately prior to clinic consultation. From the responses to the questionnaire of the tool, each participant was allocated into one of three categories reflecting the possible therapeutic recommendations ("recommend change", "further discussion" and "monitoring"). An expert clinician then assessed the participant, blinded to MENTOR results, and made an independent treatment decision. RESULTS: A total of 248 MENTOR forms were completed. Strong agreement was found when the MENTOR tool recommended monitoring (92%) or treatment change (83%); the lowest concordance when the decision was for the "further discussion" option (59%). Patient acceptability was reported by 97% of individuals. CONCLUSIONS: MENTOR is an easy to use tool to monitor the treatment of NBD and determinate progression through the clinical pathway. This validation study shows good correspondence between expert clinician opinion and MENTOR result. The tool has potential to be used in other patient groups, following further studies

Preliminary archaeoentomological analyses of permafrost-preserved cultural layers from the pre-contact Yup’ik Eskimo site of Nunalleq, Alaska : implications, potential and methodological considerations

Acknowledgements Site excavation and samples collection were conducted by archaeologists from the University of Aberdeen, with the help of archaeologists and student excavators from the University of Aberdeen University of Alaska Fairbanks and Bryn Mawr College, Kuskokwim Campus, College of Rural Alaska and residents of Quinhagak and Mekoryuk. This study is funded through AHRC grant to the project ‘Understanding Cultural Resilience and Climate Change on the Bering Sea through Yup’ik Ecological Knowledge, Lifeways, Learning and Archaeology’ to Rick Knecht, Kate Britton and Charlotta Hillderal (University of Aberdeen; AH/K006029/1). Thanks are due to Qanirtuuq Inc. and Quinhagak, Alaska for sampling permissions and to entomologists working at the CNC in Ottawa for allowing access to reference collections of beetles, lice and fleas. Yves Bousquet, Ales Smetana and Anthony E. Davies are specially acknowledged for their help with the identification of coleopteran specimens. Finally, we would also like to thank Scott Elias for useful comments on the original manuscript.Peer reviewedPublisher PD

A Note on D-brane - Anti-D-brane Interactions in Plane Wave Backgrounds

We study aspects of the interaction between a D-brane and an anti-D-brane in the maximally supersymmetric plane wave background of type IIB superstring theory, which is equipped with a mass parameter mu. An early such study in flat spacetime (mu=0) served to sharpen intuition about D-brane interactions, showing in particular the key role of the ``stringy halo'' that surrounds a D-brane. The halo marks the edge of the region within which tachyon condensation occurs, opening a gateway to new non-trivial vacua of the theory. It seems pertinent to study the fate of the halo for non--zero mu. We focus on the simplest cases of a Lorentzian brane with p=1 and an Euclidean brane with p=-1, the D--instanton. For the Lorentzian brane, we observe that the halo is unaffected by the presence of non--zero mu. This most likely extends to other (Lorentzian) p. For the Euclidean brane, we find that the halo is affected by non-zero mu. As this is related to subtleties in defining the exchange amplitude between Euclidean branes in the open string sector, we expect this to extend to all Euclidean branes in this background.Comment: 14 pages, LaTeX, 2 eps figures. v2: a reference and some clarifying remarks added; v3: Considerably revised version; halo unaffected by plane wave background for Lorentzian branes, but Euclidean branes' halo is modifie

Changes in union membership over time : a panel analysis for West Germany

Despite the apparent stability of the wage bargaining institutions in West Germany, aggregate union membership has been declining dramatically since the early 90's. However, aggregate gross membership numbers do not distinguish by employment status and it is impossible to disaggregate these sufficiently. This paper uses four waves of the German Socioeconomic Panel in 1985, 1989, 1993, and 1998 to perform a panel analysis of net union membership among employees. We estimate a correlated random effects probit model suggested in Chamberlain (1984) to take proper account of individual specfic effects. Our results suggest that at the individual level the propensity to be a union member has not changed considerably over time. Thus, the aggregate decline in membership is due to composition effects. We also use the estimates to predict net union density at the industry level based on the IAB employment subsample for the time period 1985 to 1997. JEL - Klassifikation: J