Supersymmetry of consistent massive truncations of IIB supergravity

We discuss the supersymmetry and fermionic sector of the recently obtained consistent truncations of IIB supergravity containing massive modes. In particular, we present the general form of the five-dimensional N = 4 supersymmetry transformations and equations of motion for the fermions arising in the reduction of IIB theory on T^{1,1} which contains all modes invariant under the SU(2) x SU(2) isometry group. The N = 4 reduction can be further truncated to two different N = 2 sub-sectors. For each of these, we present the N = 2 fermionic supersymmetry transformations and corresponding superpotentials. As an application, we obtain the explicit Killing spinors of the Klebanov-Strassler solution and comment on the relation to the ansatz of Papadopoulos and Tseytlin. We also demonstrate the applicability of consistent truncations on squashed Sasaki-Einstein manifolds to a class of flux compactifications, focusing on a recent solution describing the geometry of gaugino condensation on wrapped D7 branes and which possesses dynamic SU(2) structure.Comment: v2: minor typos corrected, references added, v3: significant additions to include fermion equations of motion, journal versio

Density mapping with weak lensing and phase information

The available probes of the large scale structure in the Universe have distinct properties: galaxies are a high resolution but biased tracer of mass, while weak lensing avoids such biases but, due to low signal-to-noise ratio, has poor resolution. We investigate reconstructing the projected density field using the complementarity of weak lensing and galaxy positions. We propose a maximum-probability reconstruction of the 2D lensing convergence with a likelihood term for shear data and a prior on the Fourier phases constructed from the galaxy positions. By considering only the phases of the galaxy field, we evade the unknown value of the bias and allow it to be calibrated by lensing on a mode-by-mode basis. By applying this method to a realistic simulated galaxy shear catalogue, we find that a weak prior on phases provides a good quality reconstruction down to scales beyond l=1000, far into the noise domain of the lensing signal alone.Comment: 11 pages, 9 figures, published in MNRA

UCHL1/PGP 9.5 Dynamic in neuro-immune-cutaneous milieu : focusing on axonal nerve terminals and epidermal keratinocytes in psoriatic itch

Psoriasis is an immunogenetic skin disease manifesting as plaque lesions on the skin. Patients with psoriasis frequently suffer from itch, an unpleasant sensation causing a desire to scratch. Psoriatic itch is mainly transmitted by unmyelinated C-fibers; however, the exact molecular mechanism of psoriatic itch is still unexplained. Protein gene product 9.5 (PGP 9.5) is a panneurological marker commonly used for analysis of peripheral peptidergic and nonpeptidergic nerves and identification of cutaneous neuro-immune-endocrine cells. However, some studies suggested that nonneuronal cells, like keratinocytes, may also express PGP 9.5. This phenomenon might be linked with impaired axonal transport, keratinocyte injury, or dysfunctions of neuro-immune-cutaneous connections. The aim of this study was to analyze the expression of PGP 9.5 in psoriatic skin. We observed significantly altered density of PGP 9.5-positive axonal nerve terminals in pruritic lesional (p=0.04) and nonlesional psoriatic skin (p>0.001) compared with controls. In contrast, no significant differences were observed between psoriatic skin without itch and controls. Furthermore, PGP 9.5 expression by suprabasal keratinocytes (SBKs) was significantly increased in itchy skin lesions (p=0.007) compared to skin without itch, and a positive correlation was observed between PGP 9.5 expression and itch intensity (r=0.64; p=0.02). Our findings indicate changes in peripheral innervations and psoriatic keratinocytes, which may influence neuro-immune-cutaneous homeostasis and modulate itch transmission

A survey among dermatologists: diagnostics of superficial fungal infections - what is used and what is needed to initiate therapy and assess efficacy?

BACKGROUND: Superficial fungal infections are common. It is important to confirm the clinical diagnosis by mycological laboratory methods before initiating systemic antifungal treatment, especially as antifungal sensitivity and in vitro susceptibility may differ between different genera and species. For many years, the gold standard for diagnosis of superficial fungal infections has been direct fungal detection in the clinical specimen (microscopy) supplemented by culturing. Lately, newer molecular based methods for fungal identification have been developed. OBJECTIVE: This study was initiated to focus on the current usage of mycological diagnostics for superficial fungal infections by dermatologists. It was designed to investigate whether it was necessary to differentiate between initial diagnostic tests and those used at treatment follow-up in specific superficial fungal infections. METHODS: An online questionnaire was distributed among members of the EADV mycology Task Force and other dermatologists with a special interest in mycology and nail disease. RESULTS: The survey was distributed to 62 dermatologists of whom 38 (61%) completed the whole survey, 7 (11%) partially completed and 17 (27%) did not respond. Nearly, all respondents (82-100%) said that ideally they would use the result of direct microscopy (or histology) combined with a genus/species directed treatment of onychomycosis, dermatophytosis, Candida- and Malassezia-related infections. The majority of the dermatologists used a combination of clinical assessment and direct microscopy for treatment assessment and the viability of the fungus was considered more important at this visit than when initiating the treatment. Molecular based methods were not available for all responders. CONCLUSION: The available diagnostic methods are heterogeneous and their usage differs between different practices as well as between countries. The survey confirmed that dermatologists find it important to make a mycological diagnosis, particularly prior to starting oral antifungal treatment in order to confirm the diagnose and target the therapy according to genus and species

Efficacy and Safety of Adalimumab in Conjunction With Surgery in Moderate to Severe Hidradenitis Suppurativa:The SHARPS Randomized Clinical Trial

IMPORTANCE: Surgery is a mainstay in the management of hidradenitis suppurativa (HS). Adalimumab is the first drug approved for HS. OBJECTIVE: To investigate the efficacy and safety of adalimumab in combination with wide-excision surgery followed by secondary intention healing. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: The Safety and Efficacy of Adalimumab for Hidradenitis Suppurativa Peri-Surgically (SHARPS) trial was a phase 4, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study of adalimumab in conjunction with surgery. Patients were enrolled in 45 sites across 20 countries from July 18, 2016, to February 2, 2019, with the last patient visit on October 16, 2019. Eligible patients (aged 18-65 years) had moderate to severe HS that required radical surgery in an axillary or inguinal region and had 2 other anatomical regions affected, with 1 or more regions at Hurley stage II or III. Analysis was conducted in November 2019. INTERVENTIONS: Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive continuous adalimumab, 40 mg, or placebo during presurgery (12 weeks), perioperative (2 weeks), and postoperative (10 weeks) periods. MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES: The primary end point was the proportion of patients achieving HS clinical response across all body regions at week 12. RESULTS: Overall, 103 patients were randomized to adalimumab and 103 to matching placebo. Among all patients, 51% (n = 106) were women, 94% (n = 193) were White, and the mean (SD) age was 37.6 (11.3) years. At week 12, significantly more patients receiving adalimumab (49 of 103 [48%]) vs placebo (35 of 103 [34%]; P = .049) achieved HS clinical response across all body regions (treatment difference, 14% [95% CI, 0%-27%]). Treatment-emergent adverse events were reported in 74 of 103 patients (72%) and 69 of 103 patients (67%) in the adalimumab and placebo groups, respectively. No increased risk of postoperative wound infection, complication, or hemorrhage was observed with adalimumab vs placebo. Two deaths occurred in the adalimumab group; neither was considered as having a reasonable possibility of relationship to study drug. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE: Adalimumab was efficacious in conjunction with wide-excision surgery followed by secondary intention healing, with no need to interrupt treatment prior to surgery. These data support further investigation of adalimumab as an adjuvant therapy to surgery in patients with moderate to severe HS. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT0280897

Orientation bias of optically selected galaxy clusters and its impact on stacked weak-lensing analyses

Weak-lensing measurements of the averaged shear profiles of galaxy clusters binned by some proxy for cluster mass are commonly converted to cluster mass estimates under the assumption that these cluster stacks have spherical symmetry. In this paper, we test whether this assumption holds for optically selected clusters binned by estimated optical richness. Using mock catalogues created from N-body simulations populated realistically with galaxies, we ran a suite of optical cluster finders and estimated their optical richness. We binned galaxy clusters by true cluster mass and estimated optical richness and measure the ellipticity of these stacks. We find that the processes of optical cluster selection and richness estimation are biased, leading to stacked structures that are elongated along the line of sight. We show that weak-lensing alone cannot measure the size of this orientation bias. Weak-lensing masses of stacked optically selected clusters are overestimated by up to 3–6 per cent when clusters can be uniquely associated with haloes. This effect is large enough to lead to significant biases in the cosmological parameters derived from large surveys like the Dark Energy Survey, if not calibrated via simulations or fitted simultaneously. This bias probably also contributes to the observed discrepancy between the observed and predicted Sunyaev–Zel’dovich signal of optically selected clusters

Higher Derivative Corrections to R-charged Black Holes: Boundary Counterterms and the Mass-Charge Relation

We carry out the holographic renormalization of Einstein-Maxwell theory with curvature-squared corrections. In particular, we demonstrate how to construct the generalized Gibbons-Hawking surface term needed to ensure a perturbatively well-defined variational principle. This treatment ensures the absence of ghost degrees of freedom at the linearized perturbative order in the higher-derivative corrections. We use the holographically renormalized action to study the thermodynamics of R-charged black holes with higher derivatives and to investigate their mass to charge ratio in the extremal limit. In five dimensions, there seems to be a connection between the sign of the higher derivative couplings required to satisfy the weak gravity conjecture and that violating the shear viscosity to entropy bound. This is in turn related to possible constraints on the central charges of the dual CFT, in particular to the sign of c-a.Comment: 30 pages. v2: references added, some equations simplifie

On the Temperature Dependence of the Shear Viscosity and Holography

We examine the structure of the shear viscosity to entropy density ratio eta/s in holographic theories of gravity coupled to a scalar field, in the presence of higher derivative corrections. Thanks to a non-trivial scalar field profile, eta/s in this setup generically runs as a function of temperature. In particular, its temperature behavior is dictated by the shape of the scalar potential and of the scalar couplings to the higher derivative terms. We consider a number of dilatonic setups, but focus mostly on phenomenological models that are QCD-like. We determine the geometric conditions needed to identify local and global minima for eta/s as a function of temperature, which translate to restrictions on the signs and ranges of the higher derivative couplings. Finally, such restrictions lead to an holographic argument for the existence of a global minimum for eta/s in these models, at or above the deconfinement transition.Comment: references adde

Probing the accelerating Universe with radio weak lensing in the JVLA Sky Survey

We outline the prospects for performing pioneering radio weak gravitational lensing analyses using observations from a potential forthcoming JVLA Sky Survey program. A large-scale survey with the JVLA can offer interesting and unique opportunities for performing weak lensing studies in the radio band, a field which has until now been the preserve of optical telescopes. In particular, the JVLA has the capacity for large, deep radio surveys with relatively high angular resolution, which are the key characteristics required for a successful weak lensing study. We highlight the potential advantages and unique aspects of performing weak lensing in the radio band. In particular, the inclusion of continuum polarisation information can greatly reduce noise in weak lensing reconstructions and can also remove the effects of intrinsic galaxy alignments, the key astrophysical systematic effect that limits weak lensing at all wavelengths. We identify a VLASS "deep fields" program (total area ~10-20 square degs), to be conducted at L-band and with high-resolution (A-array configuration), as the optimal survey strategy from the point of view of weak lensing science. Such a survey will build on the unique strengths of the JVLA and will remain unsurpassed in terms of its combination of resolution and sensitivity until the advent of the Square Kilometre Array. We identify the best fields on the JVLA-accessible sky from the point of view of overlapping with existing deep optical and near infra-red data which will provide crucial redshift information and facilitate a host of additional compelling multi-wavelength science.Comment: Submitted in response to NRAO's recent call for community white papers on the VLA Sky Survey (VLASS

Redefining cutaneous lupus erythematosus: a proposed international consensus approach and results of a preliminary questionnaire

There is currently no uniform definition of cutaneous lupus erythematosus (CLE) upon which to base a study population for observational and interventional trials. A preliminary questionnaire was derived from and sent to a panel of CLE experts which demonstrated consensus agreement that (1) there is a need for new definitions for CLE (2) CLE is distinct from systemic lupus erythematosus and that a CLE grouping scheme should remain apart from current systemic lupus erythematosus schema (3) current CLE grouping schemes are inadequate around communication, prognostic information and to meet the needs of researchers, clinicians, patients and payers