Equivalence of Darmois-Israel and Distributional-Methods for Thin Shells in General Relativity

A distributional method to solve the Einstein's field equations for thin shells is formulated. The familiar field equations and jump conditions of Darmois-Israel formalism are derived. A carefull analysis of the Bianchi identities shows that, for cases under consideration, they make sense as distributions and lead to jump conditions of Darmois-Israel formalism.Comment: 17 pages Latex, no figures, to be published in Journ. Math. Phy

The effect of 12 weeks Anethum graveolens (dill) on metabolic markers in patients with metabolic syndrome; A randomized double blind controlled trial

Background: The clustering of metabolic abnormalities defined as metabolic syndrome is now both a public health and a clinical problem .While interest in herbal medicine has greatly increased, lack of human evidence to support efficacies shown in animals does exist. This clinical trial study designed to investigate whether herbal medicine, Anethum graveolens (dill) extract, could improve metabolic components in patients with metabolic syndrome. Methods: A double-blind, randomized, placebo-controlled trial using a parallel design was conducted. 24 subjects who had metabolic syndrome diagnostic criteria (update of ATP III) were randomly assigned to either dill extract (n = 12) or placebo (n = 12) for 3 months. Results: Across lipid component of metabolic syndrome, no significant differences in triglyceride (TG) concentration and high density lipoprotein cholesterol were seen between the two groups. However TG improved significantly from baseline (257.0 vs. 201.5p = 0.01) with dill treatment but such a significant effect was not observed in placebo group. Moreover, no significant differences in waist circumference, blood pressure and fasting blood sugar were seen between two groups after 3 months follow up period. Conclusion: In this small clinical trial in patients with metabolic syndrome, 12 weeks of dill extract treatment had a beneficial effect in terms of reducing TG from baseline. However dill treatment was not associated with a significant improvement in metabolic syndrome related markers compared to control group. Larger studies might be required to prove the efficacy and safety of long-Term administration of dill to resolve metabolic syndrome components. © 2012 Mansouri et al.; licensee BioMed Central Ltd

Matching LTB and FRW spacetimes through a null hypersurface

Matching of a LTB metric representing dust matter to a background FRW universe across a null hypersurface is studied. In general, an unrestricted matching is possible only if the background FRW is flat or open. There is in general no gravitational impulsive wave present on the null hypersurface which is shear-free and expanding. Special cases of the vanishing pressure or energy density on the hypersurface is discussed. In the case of vanishing energy momentum tensor of the null hypersurface, i.e. in the case of a null boundary, it turns out that all possible definitions of the Hubble parameter on the null hypersurface, being those of LTB or that of FRW, are equivalent, and that a flat FRW can only be joined smoothly to a flat LTB.Comment: 9 page

Thick planar domain wall: its thin wall limit and dynamics

We consider a planar gravitating thick domain wall of the $\lambda \phi^4$ theory as a spacetime with finite thickness glued to two vacuum spacetimes on each side of it. Darmois junction conditions written on the boundaries of the thick wall with the embedding spacetimes reproduce the Israel junction condition across the wall in the limit of infinitesimal thickness. The thick planar domain wall located at a fixed position is then transformed to a new coordinate system in which its dynamics can be formulated. It is shown that the wall's core expands as if it were a thin wall. The thickness in the new coordinates is not constant anymore and its time dependence is given.Comment: 11 pages, to appear in IJMP

A note on light velocity anisotropy

It is proved that in experiments on or near the Earth, no anisotropy in the one-way velocity of light may be detected. The very accurate experiments which have been performed to detect such an effect are to be considered significant tests of both special relativity and the equivalence principleComment: 8 pages, LaTex, Gen. Relat. Grav. accepte

Radiation from the LTB black hole

Does a dynamical black hole embedded in a cosmological FRW background emit Hawking radiation where a globally defined event horizon does not exist? What are the differences to the Schwarzschild black hole? What about the first law of black hole mechanics? We face these questions using the LTB cosmological black hole model recently published. Using the Hamilton-Jacobi and radial null geodesic-methods suitable for dynamical cases, we show that it is the apparent horizon which contributes to the Hawking radiation and not the event horizon. The Hawking temperature is calculated using the two different methods giving the same result. The first law of LTB black hole dynamics and the thermal character of the radiation is also dealt with.Comment: 9 pages, revised version, Europhysics Letter 2012 97 2900

Noncommutative gravity: fuzzy sphere and others

Gravity on noncommutative analogues of compact spaces can give a finite mode truncation of ordinary commutative gravity. We obtain the actions for gravity on the noncommutative two-sphere and on the noncommutative ${\bf CP}^2$ in terms of finite dimensional $(N\times N)$-matrices. The commutative large $N$ limit is also discussed.Comment: LaTeX, 13 pages, section on CP^2 added + minor change

A Review of Biologic Therapies Targeting IL-23 and IL-17 for Use in Moderate-to-Severe Plaque Psoriasis

International audienceThis paper presents numerical crack propagations in case of explicit dynamics, and applied to eXtended Finite Element Method. The interest of this method is non remeshing. Hence the crack propagates through the constant mesh. Only some elements cut by the crack can have critical time step close to zero. To avoid this case, the lumping technique of mass matrix will allow to obtain the same critical time step than the case without crack: a crack and its propagation do not modify the critical time step of the whole structure. To conclude, we have $\Delta t_\text{c}^\text{X-FEM} = \Delta t_\text{c}^\text{FEM}$ for some elements.Ce papier traite de la simulation numérique de propagation dynamique de fissure dans le cas particulier de calcul explicite, et appliquée à la méthode des éléments finis étendus. L'intérêt de cette méthode est le non-remaillage. Effectivement, la fissure se propage dans le maillage invariant. Seulement certains éléments, coupés par la fissure, peuvent avoir des pas de temps critiques de calcul presque nuls. Pour s'affranchir de ces cas pénalisant le calcul, la méthode de diagonalisation de matrice de masse va permettre d'obtenir le même pas de temps critique que le cas sans fissure : l'introduction d'une fissure et sa propagation ne modifie pas le pas de temps critique de la structure. Au final, on a dans certains cas $\Delta t_\text{c}^\text{X-FEM} = \Delta t_\text{c}^\text{FEM}$

Investigation of phonon behavior in Pr2NiMnO6 by micro-Raman spectroscopy

The temperature dependence of phonon excitations and the presence of spin phonon coupling in polycrystalline Pr2NiMnO6 samples were studied using micro-Raman spectroscopy and magnetometry. Magnetic properties show a single ferromagnetic-to-paramagnetic transition at 228 K and a saturation magnetization close to 4.95 \muB/f.u.. Three distinct Raman modes at 657, 642, and 511 cm-1 are observed. The phonon excitations show a clear hardening due to anharmonicity from 300 K down to 10 K. Further, temperature dependence of the 657 cm-1 mode shows only a small softening. This reflects the presence of a relatively weak spin-phonon coupling in Pr2NiMnO6 contrary to other double perovskites previously studied.Comment: 10 pages, 4 fig

Special biconformal changes of K\"ahler surface metrics

The term "special biconformal change" refers, basically, to the situation where a given nontrivial real-holomorphic vector field on a complex manifold is a gradient relative to two K\"ahler metrics, and, simultaneously, an eigenvector of one of the metrics treated, with the aid of the other, as an endomorphism of the tangent bundle. A special biconformal change is called nontrivial if the two metrics are not each other's constant multiples. For instance, according to a 1995 result of LeBrun, a nontrivial special biconformal change exists for the conformally-Einstein K\"ahler metric on the two-point blow-up of the complex projective plane, recently discovered by Chen, LeBrun and Weber; the real-holomorphic vector field involved is the gradient of its scalar curvature. The present paper establishes the existence of nontrivial special biconformal changes for some canonical metrics on Del Pezzo surfaces, viz. K\"ahler-Einstein metrics (when a nontrivial holomorphic vector field exists), non-Einstein K\"ahler-Ricci solitons, and K\"ahler metrics admitting nonconstant Killing potentials with geodesic gradients.Comment: 16 page