9,652 research outputs found
Corporate Financing in Great Britain
Background: The antifungal compound ketoconazole has, in addition to its ability to interfere with fungal ergosterol synthesis, effects upon other enzymes including human CYP3A4, CYP17, lipoxygenase and thromboxane synthetase. In the present study, we have investigated whether ketoconazole affects the cellular uptake and hydrolysis of the endogenous cannabinoid receptor ligand anandamide (AEA). Methodology/Principal Findings: The effects of ketoconazole upon endocannabinoid uptake were investigated using HepG2, CaCo2, PC-3 and C6 cell lines. Fatty acid amide hydrolase (FAAH) activity was measured in HepG2 cell lysates and in intact C6 cells. Ketoconazole inhibited the uptake of AEA by HepG2 cells and CaCo2 cells with IC50 values of 17 and 18 mu M, respectively. In contrast, it had modest effects upon AEA uptake in PC-3 cells, which have a low expression of FAAH. In cell-free HepG2 lysates, ketoconazole inhibited FAAH activity with an IC50 value (for the inhibitable component) of 34 mu M. Conclusions/Significance: The present study indicates that ketoconazole can inhibit the cellular uptake of AEA at pharmacologically relevant concentrations, primarily due to its effects upon FAAH. Ketoconazole may be useful as a template for the design of dual-action FAAH/CYP17 inhibitors as a novel strategy for the treatment of prostate cancer
What is the influence on water quality in temperate eutrophic lakes of a reduction of planktivorous and benthivorous fish? A systematic review protocol
Background:Â In lakes that have become eutrophic due to sewage discharges or nutrient runoff from land, problems such as algal blooms and oxygen deficiency often persist even when nutrient supplies have been reduced. One reason is that phosphorus stored in the sediments can exchange with the water. There are indications that the high abundance of phytoplankton, turbid water and lack of submerged vegetation seen in many eutrophic lakes may represent a semi-stable state. For that reason, a shift back to more natural clear-water conditions could be difficult to achieve. In some cases, though, temporary mitigation of eutrophication-related problems has been accomplished through biomanipulation: stocks of zooplanktivorous fish have been reduced by intensive fishing, leading to increased populations of phytoplankton-feeding zooplankton. Moreover, reduction of benthivorous fish may result in lower phosphorus fluxes from the sediments. An alternative to reducing the dominance of planktivores and benthivores by fishing is to stock lakes with piscivorous fish. These two approaches have often been used in combination. The implementation of the EU Water Framework Directive has recently led to more stringent demands for measures against eutrophication, and a systematic review could clarify whether biomanipulation is efficient as a measure of that kind. Methods:Â The review will examine primary field studies of how large-scale biomanipulation has affected water quality and community structure in eutrophic lakes or reservoirs in temperate regions. Such studies can be based on comparison between conditions before and after manipulation, on comparison between treated and non-treated water bodies, or both. Relevant outcomes include Secchi depth, concentrations of oxygen, nutrients, suspended solids and chlorophyll, abundance and composition of phytoplankton, zooplankton and fish, and coverage of submerged macrophytes.A Systematic review to this article was published on 22 May 2015: ernes, C., Carpenter, S.R., GÃ¥rdmark, A. et al. What is the influence of a reduction of planktivorous and benthivorous fish on water quality in temperate eutrophic lakes? A systematic review. Environ Evid 4, 7 (2015). DOI: 10.1186/s13750-015-0032-9Mistr
Knowing, Learning and Teaching - How Homo Became Docens
Copyright © The McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research. This article discusses the relation between knowing, learning and teaching in relation to early Palaeolithic technologies. We begin by distinguishing between three kinds of knowledge: knowing how, knowing what and knowing that. We discuss the relation between these types of knowledge and different forms of learning and long-term memory systems. On the basis of this analysis, we present three types of teaching: (1) helping and correcting; (2) showing; and (3) explaining. We then use this theoretical framework to suggest what kinds of teaching are required for the pre-Oldowan, the Oldowan, the early Acheulean and the late Acheulean stone-knapping technologies. As a general introductory overview to this special section, the text concludes with a brief presentation of the papers included
Parity independence of the zero-bias conductance peak in a nanowire based topological superconductor-quantum dot hybrid device
We explore the signatures of Majorana fermions in a nanowire based
topological superconductor-quantum dot-topological superconductor hybrid device
by charge transport measurements. The device is made from an epitaxially grown
InSb nanowire with two superconductor Nb contacts on a Si/SiO substrate. At
low temperatures, a quantum dot is formed in the segment of the InSb nanowire
between the two Nb contacts and the two Nb contacted segments of the InSb
nanowire show superconductivity due to the proximity effect. At zero magnetic
field, well defined Coulomb diamonds and the Kondo effect are observed in the
charge stability diagram measurements in the Coulomb blockade regime of the
quantum dot. Under the application of a finite, sufficiently strong magnetic
field, a zero-bias conductance peak structure is observed in the same Coulomb
blockade regime. It is found that the zero-bias conductance peak is present in
many consecutive Coulomb diamonds, irrespective of the even-odd parity of the
quasi-particle occupation number in the quantum dot. In addition, we find that
the zero-bias conductance peak is in most cases accompanied by two differential
conductance peaks, forming a triple-peak structure, and the separation between
the two side peaks in bias voltage shows oscillations closely correlated to the
background Coulomb conductance oscillations of the device. The observed
zero-bias conductance peak and the associated triple-peak structure are in line
with the signatures of Majorana fermion physics in a nanowire based topological
superconductor-quantum dot-topological superconductor system, in which the two
Majorana bound states adjacent to the quantum dot are hybridized into a pair of
quasi-particle states with finite energies and the other two Majorana bound
states remain as the zero-energy modes located at the two ends of the entire
InSb nanowire.Comment: 6 pages, 4 figure
Minimum detection efficiency for a loophole-free atom-photon Bell experiment
In Bell experiments, one problem is to achieve high enough photodetection to
ensure that there is no possibility of describing the results via a local
hidden-variable model. Using the Clauser-Horne inequality and a two-photon
non-maximally entangled state, a photodetection efficiency higher than 0.67 is
necessary. Here we discuss atom-photon Bell experiments. We show that, assuming
perfect detection efficiency of the atom, it is possible to perform a
loophole-free atom-photon Bell experiment whenever the photodetection
efficiency exceeds 0.50.Comment: REVTeX4, 4 pages, 1 figur
Strict detector-efficiency bounds for n-site Clauser-Horne inequalities
An analysis of detector-efficiency in many-site Clauser-Horne inequalities is
presented, for the case of perfect visibility. It is shown that there is a
violation of the presented n-site Clauser-Horne inequalities if and only if the
efficiency is greater than n/(2n-1). Thus, for a two-site two-setting
experiment there are no quantum-mechanical predictions that violate local
realism unless the efficiency is greater than 2/3. Secondly, there are n-site
experiments for which the quantum-mechanical predictions violate local realism
whenever the efficiency exceeds 1/2.Comment: revtex, 5 pages, 1 figure (typesetting changes only
Localization due to Damage in Two-Direction Fiber-Reinforced Composites
International audienceFiber pull-out is one of the fracture features of fiber-reinforced ceramic matrix composites. The onset of this mechanism is predicted by using continuum damage mechanics, and corresponds to a localization of deformation. After deriving two damage models from a uniaxial bundle approach, different configurations are analyzed through numerical methods. For one model some very simple criteria can be derived, whereas for the second one none of these criteria can be derived and the general criterion of localization must be used
The Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap : a mass spectrometer of infinite mass range
We study the ions dynamics inside an Electrostatic Ion Beam Trap (EIBT) and
show that the stability of the trapping is ruled by a Hill's equation. This
unexpectedly demonstrates that an EIBT, in the reference frame of the ions
works very similar to a quadrupole trap. The parallelism between these two
kinds of traps is illustrated by comparing experimental and theoretical
stability diagrams of the EIBT. The main difference with quadrupole traps is
that the stability depends only on the ratio of the acceleration and trapping
electrostatic potentials, not on the mass nor the charge of the ions. All kinds
of ions can be trapped simultaneously and since parametric resonances are
proportional to the square root of the charge/mass ratio the EIBT can be used
as a mass spectrometer of infinite mass range
Correlation-induced conductance suppression at level degeneracy in a quantum dot
The large, level-dependent g-factors in an InSb nanowire quantum dot allow
for the occurrence of a variety of level crossings in the dot. While we observe
the standard conductance enhancement in the Coulomb blockade region for aligned
levels with different spins due to the Kondo effect, a vanishing of the
conductance is found at the alignment of levels with equal spins. This
conductance suppression appears as a canyon cutting through the web of direct
tunneling lines and an enclosed Coulomb blockade region. In the center of the
Coulomb blockade region, we observe the predicted correlation-induced
resonance, which now turns out to be part of a larger scenario. Our findings
are supported by numerical and analytical calculations.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figure
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