Mesons and Flavor on the Conifold

We explore the addition of fundamental matter to the Klebanov-Witten field theory. We add probe D7-branes to the ${\cal N}=1$ theory obtained from placing D3-branes at the tip of the conifold and compute the meson spectrum for the scalar mesons. In the UV limit of massless quarks we find the exact dimensions of the associated operators, which exhibit a simple scaling in the large-charge limit. For the case of massive quarks we compute the spectrum of scalar mesons numerically.Comment: 19 pages, 3 figures, v2: typos fixe

Model Regulations for the Control of Land Subdivision

Viewed in this framework of the changing needs of land use controls, this article will endeavor to show how subdivision regulations can be successfully utilized to accomplish a community\u27s goals and objectives. Our purpose will be to indicate the problems concerning subdivision regulations in Missouri and to suggest various solutions based on existing legislation. This article will also present proposals for statutory revision, analysis of judicial decisions, and lastly, the provisions of a set of model subdivision regulations. The model covers all possible situations with which a governing body or administrative agency may be faced and incorporates requirements suited to meet each community\u27s respective needs. There are many areas of Missouri law in this field which require clarification. New concepts such as money-in-lieu of land, excess facilities, and compulsory dedications will have to be accorded judicial scrutiny and clarification. The model regulations have, however, been drafted in a form suited for immediate adoption by municipalities and counties

Modeling the impact of changing patient transportation systems on peri-operative process performance in a large hospital: insights from a computer simulation study

Transportation of patients is a key hospital operational activity. During a large construction project, our patient admission and prep area will relocate from immediately adjacent to the operating room suite to another floor of a different building. Transportation will require extra distance and elevator trips to deliver patients and recycle transporters (specifically: personnel who transport patients). Management intuition suggested that starting all 52 first cases simultaneously would require many of the 18 available elevators. To test this, we developed a data-driven simulation tool to allow decision makers to simultaneously address planning and evaluation questions about patient transportation. We coded a stochastic simulation tool for a generalized model treating all factors contributing to the process as JAVA objects. The model includes elevator steps, explicitly accounting for transporter speed and distance to be covered. We used the model for sensitivity analyses of the number of dedicated elevators, dedicated transporters, transporter speed and the planned process start time on lateness of OR starts and the number of cases with serious delays (i.e., more than 15 min). Allocating two of the 18 elevators and 7 transporters reduced lateness and the number of cases with serious delays. Additional elevators and/or transporters yielded little additional benefit. If the admission process produced ready-for-transport patients 20 min earlier, almost all delays would be eliminated. Modeling results contradicted clinical managers’ intuition that starting all first cases on time requires many dedicated elevators. This is explained by the principle of decreasing marginal returns for increasing capacity when there are other limiting constraints in the system.National Science Foundation (U.S.) (DMS-0732175)National Science Foundation (U.S.) (CMMI-0846554)United States. Air Force Office of Scientific Research (FA9550-08-1-0369)Singapore-MIT AllianceMassachusetts Institute of Technology. Buschbaum Research Fund

Stream restoration and ecosystem functioning in lowland streams

Restoration has been increasingly applied over the last decades as a way to improve the ecological conditions in stream ecosystems, but documentation of the impact of restoration on ecosystem functions is sparse. Here, we applied a space-for-time approach to explore effects of stream restoration on metabolism and organic matter decomposition in lowland agricultural streams. We included stream reaches that were restored >10 years ago and compared ecosystem functioning in these streams with those in channelized and naturally meandering stream reaches from the same geographical region. Specifically, we tested the following hypotheses: 1) rates of stream metabolism (gross primary production, GPP, and ecosystem respiration, ER) and organic matter decomposition in restored reaches resemble rates in naturally meandering reaches more than rates in channelized stream reaches and 2) higher resemblance in ecosystem metabolism and organic matter decomposition between restored reaches and meandering reaches can be attributed to the improved physical habitat conditions in the restored stream reaches. Overall, we did not find that stream metabolism or organic matter decomposition differed among restored, channelized and naturally meandering stream reaches even though habitat conditions differed among the three stream types. Instead, we found a large variation in ecosystem function characteristics across all sites. When analyzing all stream types combined, we found that GPP increased with increasing plant coverage and that ER increased with increasing stream size and with the coverage of coarse substratum on the stream bottom. Organic matter decomposition, on the other hand, only slightly increased with the number of plant species and declined with increasing concentrations of nutrients. Overall, our findings suggest that physical habitat improvements in restored stream reaches can affect ecosystem functions, but also that the restoration outcome is context-dependent since many of the physical characteristics playing a role for the measured functions were only to some extent affected by the restoration and/or clouded by interference with factors operating at a larger-scale.publishedVersio

On the physical meaning of Fermi coordinates

(Some Latex problems should be removed in this version) Fermi coordinates (FC) are supposed to be the natural extension of Cartesian coordinates for an arbitrary moving observer in curved space-time. Since their construction cannot be done on the whole space and even not in the whole past of the observer we examine which construction principles are responsible for this effect and how they may be modified. One proposal for a modification is made and applied to the observer with constant acceleration in the two and four dimensional Minkowski space. The two dimensional case has some surprising similarities to Kruskal space which generalize those found by Rindler for the outer region of Kruskal space and the Rindler wedge. In perturbational approaches the modification leads also to different predictions for certain physical systems. As an example we consider atomic interferometry and derive the deviation of the acceleration-induced phase shift from the standard result in Fermi coordinates.Comment: 11 pages, KONS-RGKU-94/02 (Latex

In Vivo Role of Neutrophil Extracellular Traps in Antiphospholipid Antibody–Mediated Venous Thrombosis

Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136296/1/art39938_am.pdfhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/136296/2/art39938.pd

Frequent mutation of receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases provides a mechanism for STAT3 hyperactivation in head and neck cancer

The underpinnings of STAT3 hyperphosphorylation resulting in enhanced signaling and cancer progression are incompletely understood. Loss-of-function mutations of enzymes that dephosphorylate STAT3, such as receptor protein tyrosine phosphatases, which are encoded by the PTPR gene family, represent a plausible mechanism of STAT3 hyperactivation. We analyzed whole exome sequencing (n = 374) and reverse-phase protein array data (n = 212) from head and neck squamous cell carcinomas (HNSCCs). PTPR mutations are most common and are associated with significantly increased phospho-STAT3 expression in HNSCC tumors. Expression of receptor-like protein tyrosine phosphatase T (PTPRT) mutant proteins induces STAT3 phosphorylation and cell survival, consistent with a “driver” phenotype. Computational modeling reveals functional consequences of PTPRT mutations on phospho-tyrosine–substrate interactions. A high mutation rate (30%) of PTPRs was found in HNSCC and 14 other solid tumors, suggesting that PTPR alterations, in particular PTPRT mutations, may define a subset of patients where STAT3 pathway inhibitors hold particular promise as effective therapeutic agents.Fil: Lui, Vivian Wai Yan. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Peyser, Noah D.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Ng, Patrick Kwok-Shing. University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center;Fil: Hritz, Jozef. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. Masaryk University; República ChecaFil: Zeng, Yan. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Lu, Yiling. University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center;Fil: Li, Hua. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: Wang, Lin. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: Gilbert, Breean R.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: General, Ignacio. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: Bahar, Ivet. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Ju, Zhenlin. University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center;Fil: Wang, Zhenghe. Case Western Reserve University; Estados UnidosFil: Pendleton, Kelsey P.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: Xiao, Xiao. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Du, Yu. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Vries, John K.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados UnidosFil: Hammerman, Peter S.. Harvard Medical School; Estados UnidosFil: Garraway, Levi A.. Harvard Medical School; Estados UnidosFil: Mills, Gordon B.. University Of Texas Md Anderson Cancer Center;Fil: Johnson, Daniel E.. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh; Estados UnidosFil: Grandis, Jennifer R.. University of Pittsburgh; Estados Unidos. University of Pittsburgh at Johnstown; Estados Unido

Common NOTCH3 Variants and Cerebral Small-Vessel Disease.

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE: The most common monogenic cause of cerebral small-vessel disease is cerebral autosomal dominant arteriopathy with subcortical infarcts and leukoencephalopathy, caused by NOTCH3 gene mutations. It has been hypothesized that more common variants in NOTCH3 may also contribute to the risk of sporadic small-vessel disease. Previously, 4 common variants (rs10404382, rs1043994, rs10423702, and rs1043997) were found to be associated with the presence of white matter hyperintensity in hypertensive community-dwelling elderly. METHODS: We investigated the association of common single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) in NOTCH3 in 1350 patients with MRI-confirmed lacunar stroke and 7397 controls, by meta-analysis of genome-wide association study data sets. In addition, we investigated the association of common SNPs in NOTCH3 with MRI white matter hyperintensity volumes in 3670 white patients with ischemic stroke. In each analysis, we considered all SNPs within the NOTCH3 gene, and within 50-kb upstream and downstream of the coding region. A total of 381 SNPs from the 1000 genome population with a mean allele frequency>0.01 were included in the analysis. A significance level of P<0.0015 was used, adjusted for the effective number of independent SNPs in the region using the Galwey method. RESULTS: We found no association of any common variants in NOTCH3 (including rs10404382, rs1043994, rs10423702, and rs1043997) with lacunar stroke or white matter hyperintensity volume. We repeated our analysis stratified for hypertension but again found no association. CONCLUSIONS: Our study does not support a role for common NOTCH3 variation in the risk of sporadic small-vessel disease.Collection of the UK Young Lacunar Stroke DNA Study (DNA lacunar) was primarily supported by the Wellcome Trust (WT072952) with additional support from the Stroke Association (TSA 2010/01). Genotyping of the DNA lacunar samples, and Dr Traylor, was supported by a Stroke Association Grant (TSA 2013/01). Funding for the genotyping at Massachusetts General Hospital was provided by the Massachusetts General Hospital- Deane Institute for the Integrative Study of Atrial Fibrillation and Stroke and the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (U01 NS069208). Dr Rutten-Jacobs was supported by a project grant from the Stroke Association/British Heart Foundation grant (TSA BHF 2010/01). Dr Adib-Samii was supported by a Medical Research Council (United Kingdom) training fellowship. Drs Markus and Bevan were supported by the National Institute for Health Research Cambridge University Hospitals Comprehensive Biomedical Research Centre. Dr Markus was supported by a National Institute for Health Research Senior Investigator award. Dr Thijs was supported by a Clinical Investigator Grant from the scientific research fund, Fonds Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek Flanders. Dr Rost was supported by a National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke grant (R01 NS082285-01).This is the final published version. It first appeared at http://stroke.ahajournals.org/content/46/6/1482.long

Translational treatment paradigm for managing non‐unions secondary to radiation injury utilizing adipose derived stem cells and angiogenic therapy

BackgroundBony non‐unions arising in the aftermath of collateral radiation injury are commonly managed with vascularized free tissue transfers. Unfortunately, these procedures are invasive and fraught with attendant morbidities. This study investigated a novel, alternative treatment paradigm utilizing adipose‐derived stem cells (ASCs) combined with angiogenic deferoxamine (DFO) in the rat mandible.MethodsRats were exposed to a bioequivalent dose of radiation and mandibular osteotomy. Those exhibiting non‐unions were subsequently treated with surgical debridement alone or debridement plus combination therapy. Radiographic and biomechanical outcomes were assessed after healing.ResultsSignificant increases in biomechanical strength and radiographic metrics were observed in response to combination therapy (p < .05). Importantly, combined therapy enabled a 65% reduction in persisting non‐unions when compared to debridement alone.ConclusionWe support the continued investigation of this promising combination therapy in its potential translation for the management of radiation‐induced bony pathology. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Head Neck 38: E837–E843, 2016Peer Reviewedhttps://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/137613/1/hed24110.pd