Chiral Transition of N=4 Super Yang-Mills with Flavor on a 3-Sphere

We use the AdS/CFT correspondence to perform a numerical study of a phase transition in strongly-coupled large-Nc N = 4 Super-Yang-Mills theory on a 3-sphere coupled to a finite number Nf of massive N = 2 hypermultiplets in the fundamental representation of the gauge group. The gravity dual system is a number Nf of probe D7-branes embedded in AdS_5 x S^5. We draw the phase diagram for this theory in the plane of hypermultiplet mass versus temperature and identify for temperatures above the Hawking-Page deconfinement temperature a first-order phase transition line across which the chiral condensate jumps discontinuously.Comment: 23 pages, 15 figures, minor corrections, reference added, nine figures improved, no change in results or conclusions; expanded discussion of fixing finite counterterms in section 3.3, figures updated, no changes to conclusion

Lateral Gene Transfer Drives Metabolic Flexibility in the Anaerobic Methane-Oxidizing Archaeal Family Methanoperedenaceae

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is an important biological process responsible for controlling the flux of methane into the atmosphere. Members of the archaeal family Methanoperedenaceae (formerly ANME-2d) have been demonstrated to couple AOM to the reduction of nitrate, iron, and manganese. Here, comparative genomic analysis of 16 Methanoperedenaceace metagenome-assembled genomes (MAGs), recovered from diverse environments, revealed novel respiratory strategies acquired through lateral gene transfer (LGT) events from diverse archaea and bacteria. Comprehensive phylogenetic analyses suggests that LGT has allowed members of the Methanoperedenaceae to acquire genes for the oxidation of hydrogen and formate, and the reduction of arsenate, selenate and elemental sulfur. Numerous membrane-bound multi-heme c type cytochrome complexes also appear to have been laterally acquired, which may be involved in the direct transfer of electrons to metal oxides, humics and syntrophic partners

Gender, economics and culture: diversity and the international evolution of smoking prevalence

Aims: To examine whether the observed diversity between national patterns of smoking prevalence could require modification of the World Health Organization (WHO) linear model for an international `smoking pandemic' (a worldwide epidemic) to address data from non-western countries. Method: We conducted secondary research using current measures in three publicly available databases: Globalink, the International Labour Organization and the World Bank (all internetaccessible). The measures we used are the separate percentage data for men and women on: smoking and employment and national income per capita (US$) and percentage growth per annum. Results: Regression analysis showed that women smokers were more frequent in countries with higher national income, but women were less likely to smoke in countries of rapid growth. Men were less likely to smoke in countries with higher national income, but more likely to smoke in countries of rapid growth. Two principle components together explained 62% of all the variance in the international data. The largest factor was positively correlated with the percentage of employed females, the percentage of female smokers and national income per capita, but negatively correlated with the percentage of male smokers and percentage annual growth. The effect of female employment was not continuous, but above a threshold of 51%, was associated with a higher prevalence of female smoking. The smaller, second factor was only weakly correlated with any smoking variables. Conclusions: In his 1994 model (subsequently adopted by the WHO) Lopez looked at historical trends in `stages' of smoking prevalence. These have been associated with `stages' of economic development. We extended this analysis to look at a dynamic change (% annual growth) and a social indicator (employment). Male and female smoking is affected differentially by economic change and by level of income. These are also strongly related to the percentage of women in employment. This has implications for workplace policies on smoking

Steroidal Saponins from Furcraea hexapetala Leaves and Their Phytotoxic Activity

Four new steroidal saponins (1−4) along with 13 known saponins were isolated from the leaves of Furcraea hexapetala. The new compounds were identified as (20R,22R,25R)-3β-hydroxy-5α-spirostan-12-one 3-O-{α-Lrhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-O-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)]-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-β-D-galactopyranoside} (1), (25R)-3β-hydroxy-5α-spirost-20(21)-en-12-one 3-O-{α-Lrhamnopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-O-[β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→3)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)]-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-β-D-galactopyranoside} (2), (25R)-5α-spirostan-3β-ol 3-O-{β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→2)-O-β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→4)-O-β-D-galactopyranoside} (3), and (25R)-5β-spirostan-3β-ol 3-O-{β-D-glucopyranosyl-(1→6)-O-β-D-galactopyranoside} (4) by spectroscopic analysis, including one- and two-dimensional NMR techniques, mass spectrometry, and chemical methods. The phytotoxicity of the isolated compounds against the standard target species Lactuca sativa was evaluated. Structure−activity relationships for these compounds with respect to phytotoxic effects are discussed

Anaerobic methane oxidation coupled to manganese reduction by members of the Methanoperedenaceae

Anaerobic oxidation of methane (AOM) is a major biological process that reduces global methane emission to the atmosphere. Anaerobic methanotrophic archaea (ANME) mediate this process through the coupling of methane oxidation to different electron acceptors, or in concert with a syntrophic bacterial partner. Recently, ANME belonging to the archaeal family Methanoperedenaceae (formerly known as ANME-2d) were shown to be capable of AOM coupled to nitrate and iron reduction. Here, a freshwater sediment bioreactor fed with methane and Mn(IV) oxides (birnessite) resulted in a microbial community dominated by two novel members of the Methanoperedenaceae, with biochemical profiling of the system demonstrating Mn(IV)-dependent AOM. Genomic and transcriptomic analyses revealed the expression of key genes involved in methane oxidation and several shared multiheme c-type cytochromes (MHCs) that were differentially expressed, indicating the likely use of different extracellular electron transfer pathways. We propose the names “Candidatus Methanoperedens manganicus” and “Candidatus Methanoperedens manganireducens” for the two newly described Methanoperedenaceae species. This study demonstrates the ability of members of the Methanoperedenaceae to couple AOM to the reduction of Mn(IV) oxides, which suggests their potential role in linking methane and manganese cycling in the environment

The constrained-monad problem

In Haskell, there are many data types that would form monads were it not for the presence of type-class constraints on the operations onthat data type. This is a frustrating problem in practice, because there is a considerable amount of support and infrastructure for monads that these data types cannot use. Using several examples,we show that a monadic computation can be restructured into a normal form such that the standard monad class can be used. The technique is not specific to monads, and we show how it can also be applied to other structures, such as applicative functors. One significant use case for this technique is domain-specific languages,where it is often desirable to compile a deep embedding of a computation to some other language, which requires restricting the types that can appear in that computation

Circulating levels of anti-angiogenic VEGF-A isoform (VEGF-Axxxb) in colorectal cancer patients predicts tumour VEGF-A ratios

Purpose: Bevacizumab as an adjunct to chemotherapy improves survival for some patients with metastatic colorectal cancer. Immunohistochemical staining of samples from the registration ECOG E3200 trial of bevacizumab with FOLFOX demonstrated that only patients with carcinomas expressing low levels of VEGF-A(165)b, an anti-angiogenic splice variant of the Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor family of proteins, benefited from bevacizumab treatment. To identify a more useful biomarker of response we tested the hypothesis that circulating VEGF-A(165)b levels correlate with immunohistochemical staining. Experimental Design: 17 patients with biopsy proven colorectal adenocarcinoma had pre-operative blood samples drawn. They underwent resection and had post-resection blood drawn. The plasma was analysed for levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA) and the tumour blocks stained for VEGF-A(xxx)b and pan-VEGF-A. The normalised ratio of VEGF-A(xxx)b expression to that of panVEGF-A expression scored by IHC was calculated and correlated with plasma VEGF-A(165)b levels. Results: Plasma levels of VEGF-A(xxx)b significantly correlated with the VEGF-A(xxx)b:panVEGF-A ratio (r=0.594, P<0.02) in colorectal cancers. Median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels were 151 pg/ml. The mean (1.5±0.17) and median, IQR (1.8, 1-2) IHC scores of the patients with greater than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b were significantly greater than those with less than median plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels (mean ± SEM=0.85±10.12, median, IQR=1, 0.54-1). Conclusion: These results suggest that plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels could be an effective biomarker of response to Bevacizumab. These results indicate that a prospective trial is warranted to explore the use of plasma VEGF-A(xxx)b levels to stratify patients for colorectal cancer treatment by bevacizumab

Bioactive steroidal saponins from Agave offoyana flowers

Bioguided studies of flowers of Agave offoyana allowed the isolation of five steroidal saponins never described previously, Magueyosides A–E (1–5), along with six known steroidal saponins (6–11). The structures of compounds were determined as (25R)-spirost-5-en-2a,3b-diol-12-one 3-O-{b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-O-[b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)]-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-( 1-4)-O-b-D-galactopyranoside} (1), (25R)-spirost-5-en-2a,3b-diol-12-one 3-O-{b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-O-[b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)]-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-4)-O-b-D galactopyranoside} (2), (25R)-spirost-5-en-2a,3b,12b-triol 3-O-{b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-O-[b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)]- O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-4)-O-b-D-galactopyranoside} (3), (25R)-5a-spirostan-2a,3b-diol-12-one 3-O-{b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-O-[b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)]-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-4)-O-b-D-galactopyranoside} (4), and (25R)-5a-spirostan-2a,3b-diol-9(11)-en-12-one 3-O-{b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-(1-2)-O-[b-D-xylopyranosyl-(1-3)]-O-b-D-glucopyranosyl-( 1-4)-O-b-D-galactopyranoside} (5), by comprehensive spectroscopic analysis, including one- and two-dimensional NMR techniques, mass spectrometry and chemical methods. The bioactivities of the isolated compounds on the standard target species Lactuca sativa were evaluated. A dosedependent phytotoxicity and low dose stimulation were observed