661 research outputs found
Hamilton-Jacobi Counterterms for Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet Gravity
The on-shell gravitational action and the boundary stress tensor are
essential ingredients in the study of black hole thermodynamics. We employ the
Hamilton-Jacobi method to calculate the boundary counterterms necessary to
remove the divergences and allow the study of the thermodynamics of
Einstein-Gauss-Bonnet black holes.Comment: 21 pages, LaTe
Produtos quĂmicos como desreguladores endĂłcrinos: substâncias danosas e como devem ser testadas
This paper presents an analysis of the opinions of different groups from: scientists, international regulatory bodies, non-governmental organizations and industry; with an interest in the problem of identifying chemical substances with endocrine disrupting activity. There is also discussion of the consequences that exposure to endocrine disruptors may have for human health, considering concrete issues related to: the estimation of risk; the tests that must be used to detect endocrine disruption; the difficulties to establish an association between dose, time of exposure, individual susceptibility, and effect; and the attempts to create a census of endocrine disruptors. Finally, it is proposed that not all hormonal mimics should be included under the single generic denomination of endocrine disruptors.This work was supported by a 96/99 Research Project from the Health Department of the Andalusian Regional Government
The estrogenicity of bisphenol A-related diphenylalkanes with various substituents at the central carbon and the hydroxy groups
This work was reported in part at the meeting
Estrogens in the Environment IV: Linking
Fundamental Knowledge, Risk Assessment, and Public Policy held in Washington, DC, 19-21 July 1997.The chemical structure of hydroxylated diphenylalkanes or bisphenols consists of two phenolic rings joined together through a bridging carbon. This class of endocrine disruptors that mimic estrogens is widely used in industry, particularly in plastics. Bisphenol F, bisphenol A, fluorine-containing bisphenol A (bisphenol AF), and other diphenylalkanes were found to be estrogenic in a bioassay with MCF7 human breast cancer cells in culture (E-SCREEN assay). Bisphenols promoted cell proliferation and increased the synthesis and secretion of cell type-specific proteins. When ranked by proliferative potency, the longer the alkyl substituent at the bridging carbon, the lower the concentration needed for maximal cell yield; the most active compound contained two propyl chains at the bridging carbon. Bisphenols with two hydroxyl groups in the para position and an angular configuration are suitable for appropriate hydrogen bonding to the acceptor site of the estrogen receptor. Our data suggest that estrogenicity is influenced not only by the length of the substituents at the bridging carbon but also by their nature. Because diphenylalkane derivatives are widespread and their production and use are increasing, potential exposure of humans to estrogenic bisphenols is becoming a significant issue. The hazardous effects of inadvertent exposure to bisphenol-releasing chemicals in professional workers and the general populations therefore deserve investigation.This research was supported by grants from
the Spanish Ministry of Health (FIS, 95/1959) and the Andalusian Regional Government Department of Health (Consejerla de Salud, 96/159)
Estrogenicity of resin-based composites and sealants used in dentistry.
We tested some resin-based composites used in dentistry for their estrogenic activity. A sealant based on bisphenol-A diglycidylether methacrylate (bis-GMA) increased cell yields, progesterone receptor expression, and pS2 secretion in human estrogen-target, serum-sensitive MCF7 breast cancer cells. Estrogenicity was due to bisphenol-A and bisphenol-A dimethacrylate, monomers found in the base paste of the dental sealant and identified by mass spectrometry. Samples of saliva from 18 subjects treated with 50 mg of a bis-GMA-based sealant applied on their molars were collected 1 hr before and after treatment. Bisphenol-A (range 90-931 micrograms) was identified only in saliva collected during a 1-hr period after treatment. The use of bis-GMA-based resins in dentistry, and particularly the use of sealants in children, appears to contribute to human exposure to xenoestrogens
Thermodynamics of Large AdS Black Holes
We consider leading order quantum corrections to the geometry of large AdS
black holes in a spherical reduction of four-dimensional Einstein gravity with
negative cosmological constant. The Hawking temperature grows without bound
with increasing black hole mass, yet the semiclassical back-reaction on the
geometry is relatively mild, indicating that observers in free fall outside a
large AdS black hole never see thermal radiation at the Hawking temperature.
The positive specific heat of large AdS black holes is a statement about the
dual gauge theory rather than an observable property on the gravity side.
Implications for string thermodynamics with an AdS infrared regulator are
briefly discussed.Comment: 17 pages, 1 figure, v2. added reference
Gauss-Bonnet brane-world cosmology without -symmetry
We consider a single 3-brane situated between two bulk spacetimes that posses
the same cosmological constant, but whose metrics do not posses a
-symmetry. On each side of the brane, the bulk is a solution to
Gauss-Bonnet gravity. This asymmetry modifies junction conditions, and so new
terms arise in the Friedmann equation. If these terms become dominant, these
behave cosmological constant at early times for some case, and might remove the
initial singularity for other case. However, we show that these new terms can
not become dominant ones under usual conditions when our brane is outside an
event horizon. We also show that any brane-world scenarios of this type revert
to a -symmetric form at late times, and hence rule out certain proposed
scenarios.Comment: 8 pages, 3 figures; Minor typos corrected. References added. V3:
Numerical errors are corrected. Fig.1 and Fig.3 are replaced. V4: published
versio
Transgression forms and extensions of Chern-Simons gauge theories
A gauge invariant action principle, based on the idea of transgression forms,
is proposed. The action extends the Chern-Simons form by the addition of a
boundary term that makes the action gauge invariant (and not just
quasi-invariant). Interpreting the spacetime manifold as cobordant to another
one, the duplication of gauge fields in spacetime is avoided. The advantages of
this approach are particularly noticeable for the gravitation theory described
by a Chern-Simons lagrangian for the AdS group, in which case the action is
regularized and finite for black hole geometries in diverse situations. Black
hole thermodynamics is correctly reproduced using either a background field
approach or a background-independent setting, even in cases with asymptotically
nontrivial topologies. It is shown that the energy found from the thermodynamic
analysis agrees with the surface integral obtained by direct application of
Noether's theorem.Comment: 28 pages, no figures. Minor changes in the introduction, final
comments and reference
Conserved Charges for Even Dimensional Asymptotically AdS Gravity Theories
Mass and other conserved Noether charges are discussed for solutions of
gravity theories with locally Anti-de Sitter asymptotics in 2n dimensions. The
action is supplemented with a boundary term whose purpose is to guarantee that
it reaches an extremum on the classical solutions, provided the spacetime is
locally AdS at the boundary. It is also shown that if spacetime is locally AdS
at spatial infinity, the conserved charges are finite and properly normalized
without requiring subtraction of a reference background. In this approach,
Noether charges associated to Lorentz and diffeomorphism invariance vanish
identically for constant curvature spacetimes. The case of zero cosmological
constant is obtained as a limit of AdS, where plays the role of a
regulator.Comment: 8 pages, RevTeX, no figures, two columns, references added and minor
typos corrected, final version for Phys. Rev.
Conserved charges for gravity with locally AdS asymptotics
A new formula for the conserved charges in 3+1 gravity for spacetimes with
local AdS asymptotic geometry is proposed. It is shown that requiring the
action to have an extremum for this class of asymptotia sets the boundary term
that must be added to the Lagrangian as the Euler density with a fixed weight
factor. The resulting action gives rise to the mass and angular momentum as
Noether charges associated to the asymptotic Killing vectors without requiring
specification of a reference background in order to have a convergent
expression. A consequence of this definition is that any negative constant
curvature spacetime has vanishing Noether charges. These results remain valid
in the limit of vanishing cosmological constant.Comment: 5 pages, 2 Columns, revtex. Last version for Phys. Rev. Let
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