The host galaxies of luminous radio-quiet quasars

We present the results of a deep K-band imaging study which reveals the host galaxies around a sample of luminous radio-quiet quasars. The K-band images, obtained at UKIRT, are of sufficient quality to allow accurate modelling of the underlying host galaxy. Initially, the basic structure of the hosts is revealed using a modified Clean deconvolution routine optimised for this analysis. 2 of the 14 quasars are shown to have host galaxies with violently disturbed morphologies which cannot be modelled by smooth elliptical profiles. For the remainder of our sample, 2D models of the host and nuclear component are fitted to the images using the chi-squared statistic to determine goodness of fit. Host galaxies are detected around all of the quasars. The reliability of the modelling is extensively tested, and we find the host luminosity to be well constrained for 9 quasars. The derived average K-band absolute K-corrected host galaxy magnitude for these luminous radio-quiet quasars is =-25.15+/-0.04, slightly more luminous than an L* galaxy. The spread of derived host galaxy luminosities is small, although the spread of nuclear-to-host ratios is not. These host luminosities are shown to be comparable to those derived from samples of quasars of lower total luminosity and we conclude that there is no correlation between host and nuclear luminosity for these quasars. Nuclear-to-host ratios break the lower limit previously suggested from studies of lower nuclear luminosity quasars and Seyfert galaxies. Morphologies are less certain but, on the scales probed by these images, some hosts appear to be dominated by spheroids but others appear to have disk-dominated profiles.Comment: 16 pages, 8 figures, revised version to be published in MNRA

The Escherichia coli glucuronylsynthase promoted synthesis of steroid glucuronides: improved practicality and broader scope

A library of steroid glucuronides was prepared using the glucuronylsynthase derived from Escherichia coliβ-glucuronidase, followed by purification using solid-phase extraction. A representative range of steroid substrates were screened for synthesis on the milligram scale under optimised conditions with conversions dependent on steroid substitution and stereochemistry. Epiandrosterone (3β-hydroxy-5α-androstan-17-one) provided the highest conversion of 90% (84% isolated yield). The previously unreported glucuronide conjugates of methandriol (17α-methylandrost-5-ene-3β,17β-diol), cholest-5-ene-3β,25-diol and the designer steroid trenazone (17β-hydroxyestra-4,9-dien-3-one) were prepared on a multi-milligram scale suitable for characterisation by (1)H and (13)C NMR spectroscopy. The glucuronide conjugate of d5-etiocholanolone (2,2,3,4,4-d5-3α-hydroxy-5β-androstan-17-one), a target developed by the World Anti-Doping Agency as a certified reference material, was also prepared on a milligram scale. The improved E. coli glucuronylsynthase method provides for the rapid synthesis and purification of steroid glucuronides on a scale suitable for a range of analytical applications.Australian Research Council (DP110101235

The effectiveness and safety of isometric resistance training for adults with high blood pressure: a systematic review and meta-analysis

High blood pressure (BP) is a global health challenge. Isometric resistance training (IRT) has demonstrated antihypertensive effects, but safety data are not available, thereby limiting its recommendation for clinical use. We conducted a systematic review of randomized controlled trials comparing IRT to controls in adults with elevated BP (systolic ≥130 mmHg/diastolic ≥85 mmHg). This review provides an update to office BP estimations and is the first to investigate 24-h ambulatory BP, central BP, and safety. Data were analyzed using a random-effects meta-analysis. We assessed the risk of bias with the Cochrane risk of bias tool and the quality of evidence with GRADE. Twenty-four trials were included (n = 1143; age = 56 ± 9 years, 56% female). IRT resulted in clinically meaningful reductions in office systolic (–6.97 mmHg, 95% CI –8.77 to –5.18, p < 0.0001) and office diastolic BP (–3.86 mmHg, 95% CI –5.31 to –2.41, p < 0.0001). Novel findings included reductions in central systolic (–7.48 mmHg, 95% CI –14.89 to –0.07, p = 0.035), central diastolic (–3.75 mmHg, 95% CI –6.38 to –1.12, p = 0.005), and 24-h diastolic (–2.39 mmHg, 95% CI –4.28 to –0.40, p = 0.02) but not 24-h systolic BP (–2.77 mmHg, 95% CI –6.80 to 1.25, p = 0.18). These results are very low/low certainty with high heterogeneity. There was no significant increase in the risk of IRT, risk ratio (1.12, 95% CI 0.47 to 2.68, p = 0.8), or the risk difference (1.02, 95% CI 1.00 to 1.03, p = 0.13). This means that there is one adverse event per 38,444 bouts of IRT. IRT appears safe and may cause clinically relevant reductions in BP (office, central BP, and 24-h diastolic). High-quality trials are required to improve confidence in these findings. PROSPERO (CRD42020201888); OSF (https://doi.org/10.17605/OSF.IO/H58BZ)

Subdiffractional focusing and guiding of polaritonic rays in a natural hyperbolic material

Uniaxial materials whose axial and tangential permittivities have opposite signs are referred to as indefinite or hyperbolic media. In such materials light propagation is unusual, leading to novel and often non-intuitive optical phenomena. Here we report infrared nano-imaging experiments demonstrating that crystals of hexagonal boron nitride (hBN), a natural mid-infrared hyperbolic material, can act as a "hyper-focusing lens" and as a multi-mode waveguide. The lensing is manifested by subdiffractional focusing of phonon-polaritons launched by metallic disks underneath the hBN crystal. The waveguiding is revealed through the modal analysis of the periodic patterns observed around such launchers and near the sample edges. Our work opens new opportunities for anisotropic layered insulators in infrared nanophotonics complementing and potentially surpassing concurrent artificial hyperbolic materials with lower losses and higher optical localization.Comment: 25 pages, 5 figure

Uniqueness of radial solutions for the fractional Laplacian

We prove general uniqueness results for radial solutions of linear and nonlinear equations involving the fractional Laplacian $(-\Delta)^s$ with $s \in (0,1)$ for any space dimensions $N \geq 1$. By extending a monotonicity formula found by Cabre and Sire \cite{CaSi-10}, we show that the linear equation $(-\Delta)^s u+ Vu = 0$ in $\mathbb{R}^N$ has at most one radial and bounded solution vanishing at infinity, provided that the potential $V$ is a radial and non-decreasing. In particular, this result implies that all radial eigenvalues of the corresponding fractional Schr\"odinger operator $H=(-\Delta)^s + V$ are simple. Furthermore, by combining these findings on linear equations with topological bounds for a related problem on the upper half-space $\mathbb{R}^{N+1}_+$, we show uniqueness and nondegeneracy of ground state solutions for the nonlinear equation $(-\Delta)^s Q + Q - |Q|^{\alpha} Q = 0$ in $\mathbb{R}^N$ for arbitrary space dimensions $N \geq 1$ and all admissible exponents $\alpha >0$. This generalizes the nondegeneracy and uniqueness result for dimension N=1 recently obtained by the first two authors in \cite{FrLe-10} and, in particular, the uniqueness result for solitary waves of the Benjamin--Ono equation found by Amick and Toland \cite{AmTo-91}.Comment: 38 pages; revised version; various typos corrected; proof of Lemma 8.1 corrected; discussion of case \kappa_* =1 in the proof of Theorem 2 corrected with new Lemma A.2; accepted for publication in Comm. Pure. Appl. Mat

Uniqueness and Nondegeneracy of Ground States for (−Δ)sQ+Q−Qα+1=0(-\Delta)^s Q + Q - Q^{\alpha+1} = 0 in R\mathbb{R}

We prove uniqueness of ground state solutions $Q = Q(|x|) \geq 0$ for the nonlinear equation $(-\Delta)^s Q + Q - Q^{\alpha+1}= 0$ in $\mathbb{R}$, where $0 < s < 1$ and $0 < \alpha < \frac{4s}{1-2s}$ for $s < 1/2$ and $0 < \alpha < \infty$ for $s \geq 1/2$. Here $(-\Delta)^s$ denotes the fractional Laplacian in one dimension. In particular, we generalize (by completely different techniques) the specific uniqueness result obtained by Amick and Toland for $s=1/2$ and $\alpha=1$ in [Acta Math., \textbf{167} (1991), 107--126]. As a technical key result in this paper, we show that the associated linearized operator $L_+ = (-\Delta)^s + 1 - (\alpha+1) Q^\alpha$ is nondegenerate; i.\,e., its kernel satisfies $\mathrm{ker}\, L_+ = \mathrm{span}\, \{Q'\}$. This result about $L_+$ proves a spectral assumption, which plays a central role for the stability of solitary waves and blowup analysis for nonlinear dispersive PDEs with fractional Laplacians, such as the generalized Benjamin-Ono (BO) and Benjamin-Bona-Mahony (BBM) water wave equations.Comment: 45 page

Pseudomonas aeruginosa arylsulfatase: a purified enzyme for the mild hydrolysis of steroid sulfates

The hydrolysis of sulfate ester conjugates is frequently required prior to analysis for a range of analytical techniques including gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS). Sulfate hydrolysis may be achieved with commercial crude arylsulfatase enzyme preparations such as that derived from Helix pomatia but these contain additional enzyme activities such as glucuronidase, oxidase, and reductase that make them unsuitable for many analytical applications. Strong acid can also be used to hydrolyze sulfate esters but this can lead to analyte degradation or increased matrix interference. In this work, the heterologously expressed and purified arylsulfatase from Pseudomonas aeruginosa is shown to promote the mild enzyme-catalyzed hydrolysis of a range of steroid sulfates. The substrate scope of this P. aeruginosa arylsulfatase hydrolysis is compared with commercial crude enzyme preparations such as that derived from H. pomatia. A detailed kinetic comparison is reported for selected examples. Hydrolysis in a urine matrix is demonstrated for dehydroepiandrosterone 3-sulfate and epiandrosterone 3-sulfate. The purified P. aeruginosa arylsulfatase contains only sulfatase activity allowing for the selective hydrolysis of sulfate esters in the presence of glucuronide conjugates as demonstrated in the short three-step chemoenzymatic synthesis of 5α-androstane-3β,17β-diol 17-glucuronide (ADG, 1) from epiandrosterone 3-sulfate. The P. aeruginosa arylsulfatase is readily expressed and purified (0.9 g per L of culture) and thus provides a new and selective method for the hydrolysis of steroid sulfate esters in analytical sample preparation.We thank the Australian Government Anti-Doping Research Pro-gram for financial support

Cancer pharmacogenetics

The large number of active combination chemotherapy regimens for most cancers has led to the need for better information to guide the \u27standard\u27 treatment for each patient. In an attempt to individualise therapy, pharmacogenetics and pharmacogenomics (a polygenic approach to pharmacogenetic studies) encompass the search for answers to the hereditary basis for interindividual differences in drug response. This review will focus on the results of studies assessing the effects of polymorphisms in drug-metabolising enzymes and drug targets on the toxicity and response to commonly used chemotherapy drugs. In addition, the need for polygenic pharmacogenomic strategies to identify patients at risk for adverse drug reactions will be highlighted

Determination of boron in serum, plasma and urine by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (ICP-MS). Use of mannitol-ammonia as diluent and for eliminating memory effect

A rapid and accurate method has been developed for the determination of boron in serum, plasma and urine by inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry. The memory effects of B were examined using different diluents/rinse solutions, including water, nitric acid, Triton X-100, ammonia and mannitol in water, in nitric acid and in ammonia. A combination of ammonia with mannitol, as both diluent and flush solution, gave the best precision, the minimum memory effect and the lowest background. A sample dilution of 20-fold was simply made for serum and plasma and 100-fold for urine for determination with a single calibration curve. Beryllium was employed as the internal standard to control matrix effects and to compensate for possible fluctuation and instrument drift. The isotope B-10(+) was utilised to avoid spectral overlap by the intense C-12(+) isotope. The final solution of blank, standards and samples contained 0.25% w/v mannitol, 0.1 M ammonia and 20 ng ml(-1) of Be. Six samples, including human and horse serum, human and horse plasma, and human urine, were analysed to test the reliability of the method. A limit of detection (3 sigma) of 0.015 ng ml(-1) was obtained and the recoveries of spiked boron (two spiking levels for each matrix) from the selected samples ranged from 98% to 104%. Much higher concentrations of B in urine (approximate to 1 mu g ml(-1)) were found compared to those in serum and plasma samples (32.8-61.1 ng ml(-1))