High expression of biglycan is associated with poor prognosis in patients with esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

published_or_final_versio

Fermion correlators in non-abelian holographic superconductors

We consider fermion correlators in non-abelian holographic superconductors. The spectral function of the fermions exhibits several interesting features such as support in displaced Dirac cones and an asymmetric distribution of normal modes. These features are compared to similar ones observed in angle resolved photoemission experiments on high T_c superconductors. Along the way we elucidate some properties of p-wave superconductors in AdS_4 and discuss the construction of SO(4) superconductors.Comment: 49 pages, 11 figure

d+idd+id Holographic Superconductors

A holographic model of $d+id$ superconductors based on the action proposed by Benini, Herzog, and Yarom [arXiv:1006.0731] is studied. This model has a charged spin two field in an AdS black hole spacetime. Working in the probe limit, the normalizable solution of the spin two field in the bulk gives rise to a $d+id$ superconducting order parameter at the boundary of the AdS. We calculate the fermion spectral function in this\ superconducting background and confirm the existence of fermi arcs for non-vanishing Majorana couplings. By changing the relative strength $\gamma$ of the $d$ and $id$ condensations, the position and the size of the fermi arcs are changed. When $\gamma =1$, the spectrum becomes isotropic and the spectral function is s-wave like. By changing the fermion mass, the fermi momentum is changed. We also calculate the conductivity for these holographic $d+id$ superconductors where time reversal symmetry has been broken spontaneously. A non-vanishing Hall conductivity is obtained even without an external magnetic field.Comment: 24 pages,17 figures, Add more discussions on hall conductivity, two new figures, Matched with published versio

Analytic study of properties of holographic p-wave superconductors

In this paper, we analytically investigate the properties of p-wave holographic superconductors in $AdS_{4}$-Schwarzschild background by two approaches, one based on the Sturm-Liouville eigenvalue problem and the other based on the matching of the solutions to the field equations near the horizon and near the asymptotic $AdS$ region. The relation between the critical temperature and the charge density has been obtained and the dependence of the expectation value of the condensation operator on the temperature has been found. Our results are in very good agreement with the existing numerical results. The critical exponent of the condensation also comes out to be 1/2 which is the universal value in the mean field theory.Comment: Latex, To appear in JHE

AdS Phase Transitions at finite \kappa

We investigate the effect of adding a Chern-Simons term coupled to an axion field to SU(2) Einstein-Yang-Mills in a fixed $AdS_4$/Schwarzschild background. We show that, when the axion has no potential, there is a phase transition between a Reissner-Nordstrom black-hole and one with a non-abelian condensate as per the vanishing Chern-Simons case. Furthermore, by giving the axion field a mass, one observes a phase transition between a Reissner-Nordstrom black-hole with axion hair to a "superconducting" phase which also has a non-trivial axion profile. We are able to perform a preliminary analysis for this interesting case and observe that we can shift the critical temperature at which the phase transition occurs and observe interesting features of the order parameter scaling form.Comment: Version Published in JHE

Analytic study of Gauss-Bonnet holographic superconductors in Born-Infeld electrodynamics

Using Sturm-Liouville (SL) eigenvalue problem, we investigate several properties of holographic s-wave superconductors in Gauss-Bonnet gravity with Born-Infeld electrodynamics in the probe limit. Our analytic scheme has been found to be in good agreement with the numerical results. From our analysis it is quite evident that the scalar hair formation at low temperatures is indeed affected by both the Gauss-Bonnet as well as the Born-Infeld coupling parameters. We also compute the critical exponent associated with the condensation near the critical temperature. The value of the critical exponent thus obtained indeed suggests a universal mean field behavior.Comment: 9 pages, Latex, minor modifications, To appear in JHE

Roles of tetrahydrobiopterin in promoting tumor angiogenesis.

Nitric oxide (NO), which is derived from endothelial NO synthase (eNOS), provides crucial signals for angiogenesis in the tumor microenvironment. Tetrahydrobiopterin (BH4) is an absolute requirement for eNOS activity. In this study, we investigated whether this activation is both maintained by a wild-type Ras/phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI3K)/Akt-positive feedback loop in endothelial cells and affects tumor angiogenesis. We found that supplementation of BH4 (via the pterin salvage pathway with Sep) increased Akt/eNOS phosphorylation in both human eNOS-transfected COS-7 cells and endothelial cells concomitant with increases in NO production, cell proliferation, migration, and tube formation. This augmentation was abrogated by a PI3K inhibitor. Sepiapterin (Sep) also increased GTP-bound wild-type Ras and PI3K/Akt/eNOS activation, which was prevented by the eNOS inhibitor, Nω-Nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Furthermore, expression of GTP cyclohydrolase I (the rate-limiting enzyme in de novo BH4 synthesis) under doxycycline control potentiated in vivo tumorigenesis, tumor cell proliferation, as well as angiogenesis. Conversely, both switching off GTP cyclohydrolase I expression as well as inhibiting its enzymatic activity significantly decreased eNOS expression and tumor vascularization. This study demonstrates an important role for BH4 synthesis in angiogenesis by the activation of eNOS for NO production, which is maintained by a PI3K/Akt-positive feedback loop through effects on wild-type Ras in endothelial cells. Our findings suggest that BH4 synthesis may be a rational target for antiangiogenesis therapy for tumors

Mental wellbeing amongst younger and older migrant workers in comparison to their urban counterparts in Guangzhou city, China: a cross-sectional study

published_or_final_versio

Remotely acting SMCHD1 gene regulatory elements: in silico prediction and identification of potential regulatory variants in patients with FSHD

Background: Facioscapulohumeral dystrophy (FSHD) is commonly associated with contraction of the D4Z4 macro-satellite repeat on chromosome 4q35 (FSHD1) or mutations in the SMCHD1 gene (FSHD2). Recent studies have shown that the clinical manifestation of FSHD1 can be modified by mutations in the SMCHD1 gene within a given family. The absence of either D4Z4 contraction or SMCHD1 mutations in a small cohort of patients suggests that the disease could also be due to disruption of gene regulation. In this study, we postulated that mutations responsible for exerting a modifier effect on FSHD might reside within remotely acting regulatory elements that have the potential to interact at a distance with their cognate gene promoter via chromatin looping. To explore this postulate, genome-wide Hi-C data were used to identify genomic fragments displaying the strongest interaction with the SMCHD1 gene. These fragments were then narrowed down to shorter regions using ENCODE and FANTOM data on transcription factor binding sites and epigenetic marks characteristic of promoters, enhancers and silencers

Analytical study on holographic superconductors in external magnetic field

We investigate the holographic superconductors immersed in an external magnetic field by using the analytical approach. We obtain the spatially dependent condensate solutions in the presence of the magnetism and find analytically that the upper critical magnetic field satisfies the relation given in the Ginzburg-Landau theory. We observe analytically the reminiscent of the Meissner effect where the magnetic field expels the condensate. Extending to the D-dimensional Gauss-Bonnet AdS black holes, we examine the influence given by the Gauss-Bonnet coupling on the condensation. Different from the positive coupling, we find that the negative Gauss-Bonnet coupling enhances the condensation when the external magnetism is not strong enough.Comment: revised version, to appear in JHE