More Holography from Conformal Field Theory

We extend the work of [4] to support the conjecture that any conformal field theory with a large N expansion and a large gap in the spectrum of anomalous dimensions has a local bulk dual. We count to O(1/N^2) the solutions to the crossing constraints in conformal field theory for a completely general scalar four-point function and show that, to this order, the counting matches the number of independent interactions in a general scalar theory on Anti-de Sitter space. We introduce parity odd conformal blocks for this purpose.Comment: 19 page

Handheld computers for data entry: high tech has its problems too

BACKGROUND: The use of handheld computers in medicine has increased in the last decade, they are now used in a variety of clinical settings. There is an underlying assumption that electronic data capture is more accurate that paper-based data methods have been rarely tested. This report documents a study to compare the accuracy of hand held computer data capture versus more traditional paper-based methods. METHODS: Clinical nurses involved in a randomised controlled trial collected patient information on a hand held computer in parallel with a paper-based data form. Both sets of data were entered into an access database and the hand held computer data compared to the paper-based data for discrepancies. RESULTS: Error rates from the handheld computers were 67.5 error per 1000 fields, compared to the accepted error rate of 10 per 10,000 field for paper-based double data entry. Error rates were highest in field containing a default value. CONCLUSION: While popular with staff, unacceptable high error rates occurred with hand held computers. Training and ongoing monitoring are needed if hand held computers are to be used for clinical data collection

Challenges of Profile Likelihood Evaluation in Multi-Dimensional SUSY Scans

Statistical inference of the fundamental parameters of supersymmetric theories is a challenging and active endeavor. Several sophisticated algorithms have been employed to this end. While Markov-Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) and nested sampling techniques are geared towards Bayesian inference, they have also been used to estimate frequentist confidence intervals based on the profile likelihood ratio. We investigate the performance and appropriate configuration of MultiNest, a nested sampling based algorithm, when used for profile likelihood-based analyses both on toy models and on the parameter space of the Constrained MSSM. We find that while the standard configuration is appropriate for an accurate reconstruction of the Bayesian posterior, the profile likelihood is poorly approximated. We identify a more appropriate MultiNest configuration for profile likelihood analyses, which gives an excellent exploration of the profile likelihood (albeit at a larger computational cost), including the identification of the global maximum likelihood value. We conclude that with the appropriate configuration MultiNest is a suitable tool for profile likelihood studies, indicating previous claims to the contrary are not well founded.Comment: 21 pages, 9 figures, 1 table; minor changes following referee report. Matches version accepted by JHE

The Complete Star Formation History of the Universe

The determination of the star-formation history of the Universe is a key goal of modern cosmology, as it is crucial to our understanding of how structure in the Universe forms and evolves. A picture has built up over recent years, piece-by-piece, by observing young stars in distant galaxies at different times in the past. These studies indicated that the stellar birthrate peaked some 8 billion years ago, and then declined by a factor of around ten to its present value. Here we report on a new study which obtains the complete star formation history by analysing the fossil record of the stellar populations of 96545 nearby galaxies. Broadly, our results support those derived from high-redshift galaxies elsewhere in the Universe. We find, however, that the peak of star formation was more recent - around 5 billion years ago. Our study also shows that the bigger the stellar mass of the galaxy, the earlier the stars were formed. This striking result indicates a very different formation history for high- and low-mass formation.Comment: Accepted by Nature. Press embargo until publishe

Selection for Replicases in Protocells

PMCID: PMC3649988This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited

Immunogenicity of a Promiscuous T Cell Epitope Peptide Based Conjugate Vaccine against Benzo[a]pyrene: Redirecting Antibodies to the Hapten

The prototype polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon benzo[a]pyrene (B[a]P) is an environmental pollutant and food contaminant of epidemiological importance. To protect against adverse effects of this ubiquitous carcinogen, we developed an immunoprophylactic strategy based on a B[a]P-protein conjugate vaccine to induce B[a]P specific antibodies (Grova et al., Vaccine. 2009;27:4142–51). Here, we investigated in mice the efficacy of B[a]P-peptide conjugates based on promiscuous T cell epitopes (TCE) into further improve this approach. We showed that B[a]P-peptide conjugates induced very different levels of hapten-specific antibodies with variable functional efficacy, depending on the carrier. In some cases peptide carriers induced a more efficient antibody response against B[a]P than tetanus toxoid as a protein carrier, with the capacity to sequester more B[a]P in the blood. Reducing the carrier size to a single TCE can dramatically shift the antibody bias from the carrier to the B[a]P. Conjugates based on the TCE FIGITEL induced the best anti-hapten response and no antibodies against the carrier peptide. Some peptide conjugates increased the selectivity of the antibodies for the activated metabolite 7,8-diol-B[a]P and B[a]P by one or two orders of magnitude. The antibody efficacy was also demonstrated in their ability to sequester B[a]P in the blood and modulate its faecal excretion (15–56%). We further showed that pre-existing immunity to the carrier from which the TCE was derived did not reduce the immunogenicity of the peptide conjugate. In conclusion, we showed that a vaccination against B[a]P using promiscuous TCEs of tetanus toxin as carriers is feasible even in case of a pre-existing immunity to the toxoid and that some TCE epitopes dramatically redirect the antibody response to the hapten. Further studies to demonstrate a long-term protection of an immunoprophylactic immunisation against B[a]P are warranted

Metabolism of ticagrelor in patients with acute coronary syndromes.

© The Author(s) 2018Ticagrelor is a state-of-the-art antiplatelet agent used for the treatment of patients with acute coronary syndromes (ACS). Unlike remaining oral P2Y12 receptor inhibitors ticagrelor does not require metabolic activation to exert its antiplatelet action. Still, ticagrelor is extensively metabolized by hepatic CYP3A enzymes, and AR-C124910XX is its only active metabolite. A post hoc analysis of patient-level (n = 117) pharmacokinetic data pooled from two prospective studies was performed to identify clinical characteristics affecting the degree of AR-C124910XX formation during the first six hours after 180 mg ticagrelor loading dose in the setting of ACS. Both linear and multiple regression analyses indicated that ACS patients presenting with ST-elevation myocardial infarction or suffering from diabetes mellitus are more likely to have decreased rate of ticagrelor metabolism during the acute phase of ACS. Administration of morphine during ACS was found to negatively influence transformation of ticagrelor into AR-C124910XX when assessed with linear regression analysis, but not with multiple regression analysis. On the other hand, smoking appears to increase the degree of ticagrelor transformation in ACS patients. Mechanisms underlying our findings and their clinical significance warrant further research.Peer reviewedFinal Published versio