Zeta Functions in Brane World Cosmology

We present a calculation of the zeta function and of the functional determinant for a Laplace-type differential operator, corresponding to a scalar field in a higher dimensional de Sitter brane background, which consists of a higher dimensional anti-de Sitter bulk spacetime bounded by a de Sitter section, representing a brane. Contrary to the existing examples, which all make use of conformal transformations, we evaluate the zeta function working directly with the higher dimensional wave operator. We also consider a generic mass term and coupling to curvature, generalizing previous results. The massless, conformally coupled case is obtained as a limit of the general result and compared with known calculations. In the limit of large anti-de Sitter radius, the zeta determinant for the ball is recovered in perfect agreement with known expressions, providing an interesting check of our result and an alternative way of obtaining the ball determinant.Comment: 14 pages, 1 figur

Association of human papillomavirus 16 E2 with Rad50-interacting protein 1 enhances viral DNA replication

This work was supported by a Royal Society university research fellowship awarded to J.L.P. (UF110010). K.C.-L. is supported by a Medical Research Council research grant awarded to J.L.P. (MR/N023498/1).Rad50-interacting protein 1 (Rint1) associates with the DNA damage response protein Rad50 during the transition from the S phase to the G2/M phase and functions in radiation-induced G2 checkpoint control. It has also been demonstrated that Rint1 is essential in vesicle trafficking from the Golgi apparatus to the endoplasmic reticulum (ER) through an interaction with Zeste-White 10 (ZW10). We have isolated a novel interaction between Rint1 and the human papillomavirus 16 (HPV16) transcription and replication factor E2. E2 binds to Rint1 within its ZW10 interaction domain, and we show that in the absence of E2, Rint1 is localized to the ER and associates with ZW10. E2 expression results in a disruption of the Rint1-ZW10 interaction and an accumulation of nuclear Rint1, coincident with a significant reduction in vesicle movement from the ER to the Golgi apparatus. Interestingly, nuclear Rint1 and members of the Mre11/Rad50/Nbs1 (MRN) complex were found in distinct E2 nuclear foci, which peaked during mid-S phase, indicating that the recruitment of Rint1 to E2 foci within the nucleus may also result in the recruitment of this DNA damage-sensing protein complex. We show that exogenous Rint1 expression enhances E2-dependent virus replication. Conversely, the overexpression of a truncated Rint1 protein that retains the E2 binding domain but not the Rad50 binding domain acts as a dominant negative inhibitor of E2-dependent HPV replication. Put together, these experiments demonstrate that the interaction between Rint1 and E2 has an important function in HPV replication.Publisher PDFPeer reviewe

The psychosocial impact of prostate cancer on patients and their partners

The document attached has been archived with permission from the editor of the Medical Journal of Australia. An external link to the publisher’s copy is included.See page 5 of PDF for this item.James A Smith, Shaun M Filiault, Murray J Drummond and Robert J Knapma

An Innovative Interactive Modeling Tool to Analyze Scenario-Based Physician Workforce Supply and Demand

Effective physician workforce management requires that the various organizations comprising the House of Medicine be able to assess their current and future workforce supply. This information has direct relevance to funding of graduate medical education. We describe a dynamic modeling tool that examines how individual factors and practice variables can be used to measure and forecast the supply and demand for existing and new physician services. The system we describe, while built to analyze the pathologist workforce, is sufficiently broad and robust for use in any medical specialty. Our design provides a computer-based software model populated with data from surveys and best estimates by specialty experts about current and new activities in the scope of practice. The model describes the steps needed and data required for analysis of supply and demand. Our modeling tool allows educators and policy makers, in addition to physician specialty organizations, to assess how various factors may affect demand (and supply) of current and emerging services. Examples of factors evaluated include types of professional services (3 categories with 16 subcategories), service locations, elements related to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, new technologies, aging population, and changing roles in capitated, value-based, and team-based systems of care. The model also helps identify where physicians in a given specialty will likely need to assume new roles, develop new expertise, and become more efficient in practice to accommodate new value-based payment models

Casimir effect between anti-de Sitter braneworlds

We calculate the one-loop effective action of a scalar field with general mass and coupling to the curvature in the detuned Randall-Sundrum brane world scenario, where the four-dimensional branes are anti-de Sitter. We make use of conformal transformations to map the problem to one on the direct product of the hyperbolic space H^4 and the interval. We also include the cocycle function for this transformation. This Casimir potential is shown to give a sizable correction to the classical radion potential for small values of brane separation.Comment: 14 pages, 3 figures, revtex. Typos corrected and references added. Minor mistakes in Eq. 48 and Eq. A10 correcte

A Qualitative Study of an Integrated Maternity, Drugs and Social Care Service for Drug-using Women

Background: The care of drug-using pregnant women is a growing health and social care concern in many countries. A specialist clinic was established offering multidisciplinary care and advice to pregnant drug users in and around Aberdeen (UK) in 1997. The majority of women stabilise and reduce their drug use. By determining the needs and views of the women more appropriate services and prevention strategies may be developed. There has been little research conducted in this area and none in Scotland. Methods: This is a qualitative study that aimed to gain an understanding of the experiences of women drug users, seeking and receiving prenatal care and drug services from a specialist clinic. Twelve women participated in semi-structured one-to-one interviews. Results: The women preferred the multidisciplinary clinic (one-stop shop) to traditional prenatal care centred within General Practice. The relationships of the clients to the range of Clinic professionals and in hospital were explored as well as attitudes to Clinic care. The study participants attributed success in reducing their drug use to the combination of different aspects of care of the multi-agency clinic, especially the high level prenatal support. It is this arrangement of all aspects of care together that seem to produce better outcomes for mother and child than single care elements delivered separately. Some women reported that their pregnancy encouraged them to rapidly detoxify due to the guilt experienced. The most important aspects of the Clinic care were found to be non-judgemental attitude of staff, consistent staff, high level of support, reliable information and multi-agency integrated care. Conclusion: There is an impetus for women drug users to change lifestyle during pregnancy. The study highlighted a need for women to have access to reliable information on the effects of drugs on the baby. Further research is required to determine whether positive outcomes related to clinic attendance in the prenatal period are sustained in the postnatal period. Early referral to a specialist clinic is of benefit to the women, as they reported to receive more appropriate care, especially in relation to their drug use. A greater awareness of needs of the pregnant drug user could help the design of more effective prevention strategies

National Government Responses to Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) Fisheries Certification: Insights from Atlantic Canada

Over the last decade, the proliferation of social and environmental certification programmes has attracted the attention of a growing number of political scientists interested in new forms of ‘private’ transnational governance. However, we still lack analyses on the nature and extent of different state responses to and involvement in new private transnational governance arrangements in particular sectors and in different jurisdictions. This paper advances our understanding of the interactions between nation-state and private transnational modes of governance by analysing the role of national government authorities in Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) fisheries certification in Atlantic Canada, known more for the disastrous collapse of Northern cod stocks than good marine stewardship. Focusing on the 2008 certification of Northern shrimp (Pandalus borealis) fisheries off the Province of Newfoundland and Labrador, the analysis finds that the implementation and maintenance of MSC certification in this case depended on significant support from government authorities. The delicate legitimacy of both authorities face a period of uncertainty in this case since some certified shrimp stocks appear to be in decline and perhaps also migrating northward off Newfoundland and Labrador

Dendritic Morphology of Hippocampal and Amygdalar Neurons in Adolescent Mice Is Resilient to Genetic Differences in Stress Reactivity

Many studies have shown that chronic stress or corticosterone over-exposure in rodents leads to extensive dendritic remodeling, particularly of principal neurons in the CA3 hippocampal area and the basolateral amygdala. We here investigated to what extent genetic predisposition of mice to high versus low stress reactivity, achieved through selective breeding of CD-1 mice, is also associated with structural plasticity in Golgi-stained neurons. Earlier, it was shown that the highly stress reactive (HR) compared to the intermediate (IR) and low (LR) stress reactive mice line presents a phenotype, with respect to neuroendocrine parameters, sleep architecture, emotional behavior and cognition, that recapitulates some of the features observed in patients suffering from major depression. In late adolescent males of the HR, IR, and LR mouse lines, we observed no significant differences in total dendritic length, number of branch points and branch tips, summated tip order, number of primary dendrites or dendritic complexity of either CA3 pyramidal neurons (apical as well as basal dendrites) or principal neurons in the basolateral amygdala. Apical dendrites of CA1 pyramidal neurons were also unaffected by the differences in stress reactivity of the animals; marginally higher length and complexity of the basal dendrites were found in LR compared to IR but not HR mice. In the same CA1 pyramidal neurons, spine density of distal apical tertiary dendrites was significantly higher in LR compared to IR or HR animals. We tentatively conclude that the dendritic complexity of principal hippocampal and amygdala neurons is remarkably stable in the light of a genetic predisposition to high versus low stress reactivity, while spine density seems more plastic. The latter possibly contributes to the behavioral phenotype of LR versus HR animals

Sleep disturbances in highly stress reactive mice: Modeling endophenotypes of major depression

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Neuronal mechanisms underlying affective disorders such as major depression (MD) are still poorly understood. By selectively breeding mice for high (HR), intermediate (IR), or low (LR) reactivity of the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenocortical (HPA) axis, we recently established a new genetic animal model of extremes in stress reactivity (SR). Studies characterizing this SR mouse model on the behavioral, endocrine, and neurobiological levels revealed several similarities with key endophenotypes observed in MD patients. HR mice were shown to have changes in rhythmicity and sleep measures such as rapid eye movement sleep (REMS) and non-REM sleep (NREMS) as well as in slow wave activity, indicative of reduced sleep efficacy and increased REMS. In the present study we were interested in how far a detailed spectral analysis of several electroencephalogram (EEG) parameters, including relevant frequency bands, could reveal further alterations of sleep architecture in this animal model. Eight adult males of each of the three breeding lines were equipped with epidural EEG and intramuscular electromyogram (EMG) electrodes. After recovery, EEG and EMG recordings were performed for two days.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Differences in the amount of REMS and wakefulness and in the number of transitions between vigilance states were found in HR mice, when compared with IR and LR animals. Increased frequencies of transitions from NREMS to REMS and from REMS to wakefulness in HR animals were robust across the light-dark cycle. Detailed statistical analyses of spectral EEG parameters showed that especially during NREMS the power of the theta (6-9 Hz), alpha (10-15 Hz) and eta (16-22.75 Hz) bands was significantly different between the three breeding lines. Well defined distributions of significant power differences could be assigned to different times during the light and the dark phase. Especially during NREMS, group differences were robust and could be continuously monitored across the light-dark cycle.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The HR mice, i.e. those animals that have a genetic predisposition to hyper-activating their HPA axis in response to stressors, showed disturbed patterns in sleep architecture, similar to what is known from depressed patients. Significant alterations in several frequency bands of the EEG, which also seem to at least partly mimic clinical observations, suggest the SR mouse lines as a promising animal model for basic research of mechanisms underlying sleep impairments in MD.</p