A Comparative Note on Tunneling in AdS and in its Boundary Matrix Dual

For charged black hole, within the grand canonical ensemble, the decay rate from thermal AdS to the black hole at a fixed high temperature increases with the chemical potential. We check that this feature is well captured by a phenomenological matrix model expected to describe its strongly coupled dual. This comparison is made by explicitly constructing the kink and bounce solutions around the de-confinement transition and evaluating the matrix model effective potential on the solutions.Comment: 1+12 pages, 9 figure

Phase transitions in higher derivative gravity and gauge theory: R-charged black holes

This is a continuation of our earlier work where we constructed a phenomenologically motivated effective action of the boundary gauge theory at finite temperature and finite gauge coupling on $S^3 \times S^1$. In this paper, we argue that this effective action qualitatively reproduces the gauge theory representing various bulk phases of R-charged black hole with Gauss-Bonnet correction. We analyze the system both in canonical and grand canonical ensemble.Comment: 36 pages, 16 figures; v2: typos corrected, references adde

Clinico-biochemical correlation between psoriasis and lipid profile

Background: Psoriasis is an autoimmune disorder associated with alteration of different metabolism. The present study was aimed to assess the lipid metabolism and its correlation with severity of disease and associated cardiovascular risk factors in psoriasis.Methods: Study comprises total of 60 cases of psoriasis attended the dermatology clinics at Maharaja Yashwant Rao hospital, Indore, Madhya Pradesh, India and 30 age, gender matched healthy controls. Subjects were enrolled in the study as per the inclusion criteria. Severity of the disease was assessed by PASI score. Fasting blood samples were collected and evaluated for Lipid profile and risk ratio was calculated.Results: The results indicated that serum total cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL-C,VLDL-C were significantly increased in moderate to severe cases in comparison to control and level of HDL-C significantly decreased in moderate psoriasis and highly significant decreased was observed in severe cases when compared to control. Serum triglyceride (TG), total cholesterol, low density lipoprotein showed a significant positive correlation with severity of psoriasis. Study concludes that lipid derangement correlate with the severity of disease and also acts as a good prognostic sign.  Conclusions: Present study concludes that psoriatic patients should be evaluated and followed up for the risk of dyslipidemia and cardiovascular morbidity

A note on matrix model with IR cutoff and AdS/CFT

We propose an effective model of strongly coupled gauge theory at finite temperature on $R^3$ in the presence of an infrared cutoff. It is constructed by considering the theory on $S^3$ with an infrared cutoff and then taking the size of the $S^3$ to infinity while keeping the cutoff fixed. This model reproduces various qualitative features expected from its gravity dual.Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures, an appendix added, other minor changes, journal versio

Status of serum anti-mullerian hormone and lipid profile in polycystic ovarian syndrome: a cross-sectional study at tertiary care centre of central India

Background: Polycystic ovarian syndrome (PCOS) is the most common cause of chronic anovulation in young women and affects 5 to 10 % of the female population. Anti-Mullerian Hormone (AMH) level indicate the quantity of the ovarian follicle pool and may be a useful marker of ovarian reserves. In order to establish the pattern of change in serum AMH level and its contribution in alteration of lipid metabolism and PCOS related complications the present study was planned.Methods: Study was carried out in M.G.M. medical college, Govt Holker College and K. R. G’s Blessed mom centre from June -2016 to December -2017. The study population consisted total 50 women subjects among them 25 women suffering from PCOS aged between 18 to 35-year taken as case group and 25 age matched healthy women taken as control group. Fasting blood sample was collected from each subject and analyzed for AMH level and Lipid profile level.Results: Results revealed that significantly increased serum AMH, cholesterol, triglycerides, LDL, VLDL levels and significantly decreased HDL levels were observed in PCOS cases when compare to control subjects.Conclusions: Study concluded elevated AMH level leads to increase risk of polycystic ovarian syndrome and PCOS associated hyperlipidemia and other complications

BI-69A11 enhances susceptibility of colon cancer cells to mda-7/IL-24-induced growth inhibition by targeting Akt

Background: Akt and its downstream signalling pathways contribute to the aetiology and progression of Colorectal Carcinoma (CRC). Targeting the Akt pathway is an attractive strategy but few chemotherapeutic drugs have been used to treat CRC with only limited success. BI-69A11, a small molecule inhibitor of Akt, efficiently inhibits growth in melanoma cells. Melanoma differentiation associated gene-7 (mda-7)/interleukin-24 promotes cancer-selective apoptosis when delivered by a tropism-modified replication incompetent adenovirus (Ad.5/3-mda-7). However, Ad.5/3-mda-7 displays diminished antitumour efficacy in several CRC cell lines, which correlates with the expression of K-RAS. Methods: The individual and combinatorial effect of BI-69A11 and Ad.5/3-mda-7 in vitro was studied by cell viability, cell cycle, apoptosis and invasion assays in HT29 and HCT116 cells containing wild type or mutant K-ras, respectively. In vivo HT29 tumour xenografts were used to test the efficacy of the combination treatment. Results: BI-69A11 inhibited growth and induced apoptosis in CRC. However, combinatorial treatment was more effective compared with single treatment. This combination showed profound antitumour and anti angiogenic effects in vitro and in vivo by downregulating Akt activity. Conclusions: BI-69A11 enhances the antitumour efficacy of Ad.5/3-mda-7 on CRC overexpressing K-RAS by inducing apoptosis and regulating Akt activity thereby warranting further evaluation in treating CRC

Tracking ultrafast dynamics of intense shock generation and breakout at target rear

We report upon the picosecond plasma dynamics at the rear surface of a thin aluminium foil (of either 5.5 um or 12 um thickness) excited by high contrast (picosecond intensity contrast of 10^10), 800 nm, femtosecond pulses at an intensity of 3 x 10^19 W/cm2. We employ ultrafast pump-probe reflectometry using a second harmonic probe (400 nm) interacting with the rear surface of the target. A rise in the probe reflectivity 30 picoseconds after the pump pulse interaction reveals the breakout of a shock wave at the target rear surface which reflects the 400 nm probe pulse. Simulations using the ZEPHYROS hybrid particle-in-cell code were performed to understand the heating of the target under the influence of the high intensity laser pulse, and the temperature profile was then passed to the radiation-hydrodynamics simulation code HYADES in order to model the shock wave propagation in the target. A good agreement was found between the calculations and experimental results

Gravitational Lensing by Black Holes

We review the theoretical aspects of gravitational lensing by black holes, and discuss the perspectives for realistic observations. We will first treat lensing by spherically symmetric black holes, in which the formation of infinite sequences of higher order images emerges in the clearest way. We will then consider the effects of the spin of the black hole, with the formation of giant higher order caustics and multiple images. Finally, we will consider the perspectives for observations of black hole lensing, from the detection of secondary images of stellar sources and spots on the accretion disk to the interpretation of iron K-lines and direct imaging of the shadow of the black hole.Comment: Invited article for the GRG special issue on lensing (P. Jetzer, Y. Mellier and V. Perlick Eds.). 31 pages, 12 figure