Strong Cosmic Censorship in Charged de Sitter spacetime with Scalar Field Non-minimally Coupled to Curvature

We examine the stability and the strong cosmic censorship in the Reissner-Nordstrom-de Sitter (RN-dS) black hole by investigating the evolution of a scalar field non-minimally coupled to the curvature. We find that when the coupling parameter is negative, the RN-dS black hole experiences instability. The instability disappears when the coupling parameter becomes non-negative. With the increase of the coupling parameter, the violation of the strong cosmic censorship occurs at a larger critical charge ratio. But such an increase of the critical charge is suppressed by the increase of the cosmological constant. Different from the minimal coupling situation, it is possible to accommodate $\beta\ge1$ in the near extremal black hole when the scalar field is non-minimally coupled to curvature. The increase of the cosmological constant can allow $\beta\ge1$ to be satisfied for even smaller value of the coupling parameter. The existence of $\beta\ge1$ implies that the resulting curvature can continuously cross the Cauchy horizon.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figures, 5 table

Modelling Work Effort of Workers in the Crowdsourcing Intermediary Market

This study examines crowdsourcing task characteristics (skill variety, task identity, task significance, autonomy, feedback, and task clarity) and the online work situation factor; that is, the trust in evaluations on work effort in the crowdsourcing intermediary market. An e-questionnaire was released as a crowdsourcing task on the Time Fortune website in China; data from 231 valid questionnaires were analyzed using SmartPLS 3 software. Results show that under the conditions of this study, crowdsourcing workers’ internal motivation has a significant positive relationship with their effort. Task autonomy and feedback have significant and positive relationship with internal motivation. Skill variety, task significance, task clarity, and task identity have no significant correlation with internal motivation. However, task clarity has a significant and positive relationship with work effort. The study also finds that the effect of workers’ trust in the task requester on work effort is mediated by internal motivation

Observing various phase transitions in the holographic model of superfluidity

We study the gravity duals of supercurrent solutions in the AdS black hole background with general phase structure to describe both the first and the second order phase transitions at finite temperature in strongly interacting systems. We argue that the conductivity and the pair susceptibility can be possible phenomenological indications to distinguish the order of phase transitions. We extend our discussion to the AdS soliton configuration. Different from the black hole spacetime, in the probe limit the first order phase transition cannot be brought by introducing the spatial component of the vector potential of the gauge field in the AdS soliton background.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in Phys.Rev.

Effects of Low-Level Laser Therapy and Eccentric Exercises in the Treatment of Patellar Tendinopathy

The study aims to investigate if low-level laser therapy (LLLT) combined with eccentric exercises could more effectively treat patellar tendinopathy than LLLT alone and eccentric exercises alone. Twenty-one patients with patellar tendinopathy were randomized to three groups: laser alone, exercise alone, or laser plus exercise, with seven in each group. Laser irradiations were administered at the inferior pole of the patella and the two acupoints of Extra 36 (Xiyan) with the intensity of 1592 mW/cm2. Eccentric training program consisted of three sets of 15 repetitions of unilateral squat on level ground. All patients received six treatments per week for four weeks. Knee pain and function and quadriceps muscle strength and endurance were evaluated at baseline and the end of treatment. After the 4-week intervention, all groups showed significant improvements in all the outcomes (P<0.01). The laser + exercise group had significantly greater improvements in all the outcomes than the other two groups (P<0.05), except nonsignificant difference in pain relief between the laser + exercise group and the laser group. In conclusion, LLLT combined with eccentric exercises is superior to LLLT alone and eccentric exercises alone to reduce pain and improve function in patients with patellar tendinopathy

Evaluation of anti-hyperglycemic activities of phloridzin in diabetic mice

Background: The aim of the study was to investigate the hypoglycemic effects of Phloridzin.Methods and Materials: High fat diet induced diabetic KKAy mice were administered with phloridzin at an oral dose (60 mg/kg/day, ig.) for 10 weeks. A range of parameters, including blood glucose and lipid, serum insulin, glucose tolerance, were tested to evaluate its anti-hyperglycemic effects.Results: Phloridzin decreased water-intake, body weight, FBG, FINS, HOME-IR, Serum leptin, and CRP levels, increased serum adiponectin level in diabetic mice. Phloridzin also improved the oral glucose tolerance test (OGTT) to a certain degree. In addition, phloridzin decreased liver index, and epididymal, perirenal white adipose tissue indexs, increased pancreas index in diabetic mice. At last, phloridzin increased hepatic GK activity and hepatic glycogen level, decreased hepatic PEPCK, G-6-Pase activities in diabetic mice.Conclusions: Phloridzin possessed anti-hyperglycemic activities.Keywords: Diabetes, Phloridzin, FBG, Insulin resistance, Area under curv

Geometric bionics: Lotus effect helps polystyrene nanotube films get good blood compatibility

Various biomaterials have been widely used for manufacturing biomedical applications including artificial organs, medical devices and disposable clinical apparatus, such as vascular prostheses, blood pumps, artificial kidney, artificial hearts, dialyzers and plasma separators, which could be used in contact with blood^1^. However, the research tasks of improving hemocompatibility of biomaterials have been carrying out with the development of biomedical requirements^2^. Since the interactions that lead to surface-induced thrombosis occurring at the blood-biomaterial interface become a reason of familiar current complications with grafts therapy, improvement of the blood compatibility of artificial polymer surfaces is, therefore a major issue in biomaterials science^3^. After decades of focused research, various approaches of modifying biomaterial surfaces through chemical or biochemical methods to improve their hemocompatibility were obtained^1^. In this article, we report that polystyrene nanotube films with morphology similar to the papilla on lotus leaf can be used as blood-contacted biomaterials by virtue of Lotus effect^4^. Clearly, this idea, resulting from geometric bionics that mimicking the structure design of lotus leaf, is very novel technique for preparation of hemocompatible biomaterials

4-{2-[5-(3,5-Difluoro­phen­yl)-2-methyl­thio­phen-3-yl]-3,3,4,4,5,5-hexa­fluoro­cyclo­pent-1-en-1-yl}-1,5-dimethyl­pyrrole-2-carbonitrile

In the title compound, C23H14F8N2S, the dihedral angles between the pyrrole and thio­phene groups and the almost planar C—C=C—C unit of the cyclo­pentene ring (r.m.s. deviation = 0.4193 Å) are 43.6 (5) and 50.1 (2)°, respectively. The distance of 3.612 (3) Å between the potentially reactive C atoms of the two heteroaryl substituents is short enough to enable a photocyclization reaction