4,534 research outputs found
Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency causes hyperactivity and increased sensitivity to inflammatory stimuli
Nedd4-2 (NEDD4L in humans) is a ubiquitin protein ligase best known for its role in regulating ion channel internalization and turnover. Nedd4-2 deletion in mice causes perinatal lethality associated with increased epithelial sodium channel (ENaC) expression in lung and kidney. Abundant data suggest that Nedd4-2 plays a role in neuronal functions and may be linked to epilepsy and dyslexia in humans. We used a mouse model of Nedd4-2 haploinsufficiency to investigate whether an alteration in Nedd4-2 levels of expression affects general nervous system functions. We found that Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice are hyperactive, have increased basal synaptic transmission and have enhanced sensitivity to inflammatory pain. Thus, Nedd4-2 heterozygous mice provide a new genetic model to study inflammatory pain. These data also suggest that in human, SNPs affecting NEDD4L levels may be involved in the development of neuropsychological deficits and peripheral neuropathies and may help unveil the genetic basis of comorbidities
Janus and Multifaced Supersymmetric Theories
We investigate the various properties Janus supersymmetric Yang-Mills
theories. A novel vacuum structure is found and BPS monopoles and dyons are
studied. Less supersymmetric Janus theories found before are derived by a
simpler method. In addition, we find the supersymmetric theories when the
coupling constant depends on two and three spatial coordinates.Comment: 20 pages, no figures, typos, equations corrected. Additional comment
Cosmological perturbations in a healthy extension of Horava gravity
In Horava's theory of gravity, Lorentz symmetry is broken in exchange for
renormalizability, but the original theory has been argued to be plagued with
problems associated with a new scalar mode stemming from the very breaking of
Lorentz symmetry. Recently, Blas, Pujolas, and Sibiryakov have proposed a
healthy extension of Horava gravity, in which the behavior of the scalar mode
is improved. In this paper, we study scalar modes of cosmological perturbations
in extended Horava gravity. The evolution of metric and density perturbations
is addressed analytically and numerically. It is shown that for vanishing
non-adiabatic pressure of matter the large scale evolution of cosmological
perturbations converges to that described by a single constant, , which
is an analog of a curvature perturbation on the uniform-density slicing
commonly used in usual gravitational theories. The subsequent evolution is thus
determined completely by the value of .Comment: 10 pages, 4 figures; v2: published versio
Ultrafast supercontinuum spectroscopy of carrier multiplication and biexcitonic effects in excited states of PbS quantum dots
We examine the multiple exciton population dynamics in PbS quantum dots by
ultrafast spectrally-resolved supercontinuum transient absorption (SC-TA). We
simultaneously probe the first three excitonic transitions over a broad
spectral range. Transient spectra show the presence of first order bleach of
absorption for the 1S_h-1S_e transition and second order bleach along with
photoinduced absorption band for 1P_h-1P_e transition. We also report evidence
of the one-photon forbidden 1S_{h,e}-1P_{h,e} transition. We examine signatures
of carrier multiplication (multiexcitons for the single absorbed photon) from
analysis of the first and second order bleaches, in the limit of low absorbed
photon numbers (~ 10^-2), at pump energies from two to four times the
semiconductor band gap. The multiexciton generation efficiency is discussed
both in terms of a broadband global fit and the ratio between early- to
long-time transient absorption signals.. Analysis of population dynamics shows
that the bleach peak due to the biexciton population is red-shifted respect the
single exciton one, indicating a positive binding energy.Comment: 16 pages, 5 figure
Intelligent Financial Fraud Detection Practices: An Investigation
Financial fraud is an issue with far reaching consequences in the finance
industry, government, corporate sectors, and for ordinary consumers. Increasing
dependence on new technologies such as cloud and mobile computing in recent
years has compounded the problem. Traditional methods of detection involve
extensive use of auditing, where a trained individual manually observes reports
or transactions in an attempt to discover fraudulent behaviour. This method is
not only time consuming, expensive and inaccurate, but in the age of big data
it is also impractical. Not surprisingly, financial institutions have turned to
automated processes using statistical and computational methods. This paper
presents a comprehensive investigation on financial fraud detection practices
using such data mining methods, with a particular focus on computational
intelligence-based techniques. Classification of the practices based on key
aspects such as detection algorithm used, fraud type investigated, and success
rate have been covered. Issues and challenges associated with the current
practices and potential future direction of research have also been identified.Comment: Proceedings of the 10th International Conference on Security and
Privacy in Communication Networks (SecureComm 2014
Constraining the Detailed Balance Condition in Horava Gravity with Cosmic Accelerating Expansion
In 2009 Ho\v{r}ava proposed a power-counting renormalizable quantum gravity
theory. Afterwards a term in the action that softly violates the detailed
balance condition has been considered with the attempt of obtaining a more
realistic theory in its IR-limit. This term is proportional to , where is a constant parameter and is the spatial
Ricci scalar. In this paper we derive constraints on this IR-modified
Ho\v{r}ava theory using the late-time cosmic accelerating expansion
observations. We obtain a lower bound of that is nontrivial and
depends on , the cosmological constant of the three dimensional
spatial action in the Ho\v{r}ava gravity. We find that to preserve the detailed
balance condition, one needs to fine-tune such that - 2.29\times
10^{-4}< (c^2 \Lambda_W)/(H^2_0 \currentDE) - 2 < 0 , where and
\currentDE are the Hubble parameter and dark energy density fraction in the
present epoch, respectively. On the other hand, if we do not insist on the
detailed balance condition, then the valid region for is much
relaxed to -0.39< (c^2 \Lambda_W)/(H^2_0 \currentDE) - 2 < 0.12. We find that
although the detailed balance condition cannot be ruled out, it is strongly
disfavored.Comment: 22 pages with 7 figures, references adde
Kaluza-Klein Higher Derivative Induced Gravity
The existence and stability analysis of an inflationary solution in a
-dimensional anisotropic induced gravity is presented in this paper.
Nontrivial conditions in the field equations are shown to be compatible with a
cosmological model in which the 4-dimension external space evolves
inflationary, while, the D-dimension internal one is static. In particular,
only two additional constraints on the coupling constants are derived from the
abundant field equations and perturbation equations. In addition, a compact
formula for the non-redundant 4+D dimensional Friedmann equation is also
derived for convenience. Possible implications are also discussed in this
paper.Comment: 13 pages, typos/errors corrected, three additional appendices adde
Anthracycline-Induced Cardiotoxicity: Cardiac Monitoring by Continuous Wave-Doppler Ultrasound Cardiac Output Monitoring and Correlation to Echocardiography
Background: Anthracyclines are agents with a well-known cardiotoxicity. The study sought to evaluate the hemodynamic response to an anthracycline using real-time continuous-wave (CW)-Doppler ultrasound cardiac output monitoring (USCOM) and echocardiography in combination with serum biomarkers. Methods: 50 patients (26 male, 24 female, median age 59 years) suffering from various types of cancer received an anthracycline-based regimen. Patients' responses were measured at different time points (T0 prior to infusion, T1 6 h post infusion, T2 after 1 day, T3 after 7 days, and T4 after 3 months) with CW-Doppler ultrasound (T0-T4) and echocardiography (T1, T4) for hemodynamic parameters such as stroke volume (SV; SVUSCOM ml) and ejection fraction (EF; EFechocardiography%) and with NT-pro-BNP and hs-Troponin T (T0-T4). Results: During the 3-month observation period, the relative decrease in the EF determined by echocardiography was -2.1% (Delta T0-T4, T0 71 +/- 7.8%, T4 69.5 +/- 7%, p = 0.04), whereas the decrease in SV observed using CW-Doppler was -6.5% (Delta T0-T4, T0 54 +/- 19.2 ml, T4 50.5 +/- 20.6 ml, p = 0.14). The kinetics for serum biomarkers were inversely correlated. Conclusions: Combining real-time CW-Doppler USCOM and serum biomarkers is feasible for monitoring the immediate and chronic hemodynamic changes during an anthracycline-based regimen; the results obtained were comparable to those from echocardiography
On stable higher spin states in Heterotic String Theories
We study properties of 1/2 BPS Higher Spin states in heterotic
compactifications with extended supersymmetry. We also analyze non BPS Higher
Spin states and give explicit expressions for physical vertex operators of the
first two massive levels. We then study on-shell tri-linear couplings of these
Higher Spin states and confirm that BPS states with arbitrary spin cannot decay
into lower spin states in perturbation theory. Finally, we consider scattering
of vector bosons off higher spin BPS states and extract form factors and
polarization effects in various limits.Comment: 38 page
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