Of Bounces, Branes and Bounds

Some recent studies have considered a Randall-Sundrum-like brane world evolving in the background of an anti-de Sitter Reissner-Nordstrom black hole. For this scenario, it has been shown that, when the bulk charge is non-vanishing, a singularity-free ``bounce'' universe will always be obtained. However, for the physically relevant case of a de Sitter brane world, we have recently argued that, from a holographic (c-theorem) perspective, such brane worlds may not be physically viable. In the current paper, we reconsider the validity of such models by appealing to the so-called ``causal entropy bound''. In this framework, a paradoxical outcome is obtained: these brane worlds are indeed holographically viable, provided that the bulk charge is not too small. We go on to argue that this new finding is likely the more reliable one.Comment: 15 pages, Revtex; references added and very minor change

Farming and the geography of nutrient production for human use: a transdisciplinary analysis

Background: Information about the global structure of agriculture and nutrient production and its diversity is essential to improve present understanding of national food production patterns, agricultural livelihoods, and food chains, and their linkages to land use and their associated ecosystems services. Here we provide a plausible breakdown of global agricultural and nutrient production by farm size, and also study the associations between farm size, agricultural diversity, and nutrient production. This analysis is crucial to design interventions that might be appropriately targeted to promote healthy diets and ecosystems in the face of population growth, urbanisation, and climate change. Methods: We used existing spatially-explicit global datasets to estimate the production levels of 41 major crops, seven livestock, and 14 aquaculture and fish products. From overall production estimates, we estimated the production of vitamin A, vitamin B₁₂, folate, iron, zinc, calcium, calories, and protein. We also estimated the relative contribution of farms of different sizes to the production of different agricultural commodities and associated nutrients, as well as how the diversity of food production based on the number of different products grown per geographic pixel and distribution of products within this pixel (Shannon diversity index [H]) changes with different farm sizes. Findings: Globally, small and medium farms (≤50 ha) produce 51–77% of nearly all commodities and nutrients examined here. However, important regional differences exist. Large farms (>50 ha) dominate production in North America, South America, and Australia and New Zealand. In these regions, large farms contribute between 75% and 100% of all cereal, livestock, and fruit production, and the pattern is similar for other commodity groups. By contrast, small farms (≤20 ha) produce more than 75% of most food commodities in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, south Asia, and China. In Europe, west Asia and north Africa, and central America, medium-size farms (20–50 ha) also contribute substantially to the production of most food commodities. Very small farms (≤2 ha) are important and have local significance in sub-Saharan Africa, southeast Asia, and south Asia, where they contribute to about 30% of most food commodities. The majority of vegetables (81%), roots and tubers (72%), pulses (67%), fruits (66%), fish and livestock products (60%), and cereals (56%) are produced in diverse landscapes (H>1·5). Similarly, the majority of global micronutrients (53–81%) and protein (57%) are also produced in more diverse agricultural landscapes (H>1·5). By contrast, the majority of sugar (73%) and oil crops (57%) are produced in less diverse ones (H≤1·5), which also account for the majority of global calorie production (56%). The diversity of agricultural and nutrient production diminishes as farm size increases. However, areas of the world with higher agricultural diversity produce more nutrients, irrespective of farm size. Interpretation: Our results show that farm size and diversity of agricultural production vary substantially across regions and are key structural determinants of food and nutrient production that need to be considered in plans to meet social, economic, and environmental targets. At the global level, both small and large farms have key roles in food and nutrition security. Efforts to maintain production diversity as farm sizes increase seem to be necessary to maintain the production of diverse nutrients and viable, multifunctional, sustainable landscapes. Funding: Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, CGIAR Research Programs on Climate Change, Agriculture and Food Security and on Agriculture for Nutrition and Health funded by the CGIAR Fund Council, Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, European Union, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Australian Research Council, National Science Foundation, Gordon and Betty Moore Foundation, and Joint Programming Initiative on Agriculture, Food Security and Climate Change—Belmont Forum

Preparation of Elastomeric Nanocomposites Using Nanocellulose and Recycled Alum Sludge for Flexible Dielectric Materials

Flexible dielectric materials with environmental-friendly, low-cost and high-energy density characteristics are in increasing demand as the world steps into the new Industrial 4.0 era. In this work, an elastomeric nanocomposite was developed by incorporating two components: cellulose nanofibrils (CNFs) and recycled alum sludge, as the reinforcement phase and to improve the dielectric properties, in a bio-elastomer matrix. CNF and alum sludge were produced by processing waste materials that would otherwise be disposed to landfills. A biodegradable elastomer polydimethylsiloxane was used as the matrix and the nanocomposites were processed by casting the materials in Petri dishes. Nanocellulose extraction and heat treatment of alum sludge were conducted and characterized using various techniques including scanning electron microscopy (SEM), thermogravimetric analysis/derivative thermogravimetric (TGA/DTG) and X-ray diffraction (XRD) analysis. When preparing the nanocomposite samples, various amount of alum sludge was added to examine their impact on the mechanical, thermal and electrical properties. Results have shown that it could be a sustainable practice of reusing such wastes in preparing flexible, lightweight and miniature dielectric materials that can be used for energy storage applications

Systematic Review of Medicine-Related Problems in Adult Patients with Atrial Fibrillation on Direct Oral Anticoagulants

New oral anticoagulant agents continue to emerge on the market and their safety requires assessment to provide evidence of their suitability for clinical use. There-fore, we searched standard databases to summarize the English language literature on medicine-related problems (MRPs) of direct oral anticoagulants DOACs (dabigtran, rivaroxban, apixban, and edoxban) in the treatment of adults with atri-al fibrillation. Electronic databases including Medline, Embase, International Pharmaceutical Abstract (IPA), Scopus, CINAHL, the Web of Science and Cochrane were searched from 2008 through 2016 for original articles. Studies pub-lished in English reporting MRPs of DOACs in adult patients with AF were in-cluded. Seventeen studies were identified using standardized protocols, and two reviewers serially abstracted data from each article. Most articles were inconclusive on major safety end points including major bleeding. Data on major safety end points were combined with efficacy. Most studies inconsistently reported adverse drug reactions and not adverse events or medication error, and no definitions were consistent across studies. Some harmful drug effects were not assessed in studies and may have been overlooked. Little evidence is provided on MRPs of DOACs in patients with AF and, therefore, further studies are needed to establish the safety of DOACs in real-life clinical practice

Open Source ImmGen: network perspective on metabolic diversity among mononuclear phagocytes

We dissect metabolic variability of mononuclear phagocyte (MNP) subpopulations across different tissues through integrative analysis of three large scale datasets. Specifically, we introduce ImmGen MNP Open Source dataset that profiled 337 samples and extended previous ImmGen effort which included 202 samples of mononuclear phagocytes and their progenitors. Next, we analysed Tabula Muris Senis dataset to extract data for 51,364 myeloid cells from 18 tissues. Taken together, a compendium of data assembled in this work covers phagocytic populations found across 38 different tissues. To analyse common metabolic features, we developed novel network-based computational approach for unbiased identification of key metabolic subnetworks based on cellular transcriptional profiles in large-scale datasets. Using ImmGen MNP Open Source dataset as baseline, we define 9 metabolic subnetworks that encapsulate the metabolic differences within mononuclear phagocytes, and demonstrate that these features are robustly found across all three datasets, including lipid metabolism, cholesterol biosynthesis, glycolysis, and a set of fatty acid related metabolic pathways, as well as nucleotide and folate metabolism. We systematically define major features specific to macrophage and dendritic cell subpopulations. Among other things, we find that cholesterol synthesis appears particularly active within the migratory dendritic cells. We demonstrate that interference with this pathway through statins administration diminishes migratory capacity of the dendritic cells in vivo. This result demonstrates the power of our approach and highlights importance of metabolic diversity among mononuclear phagocytes

Network analysis of large-scale ImmGen and Tabula Muris datasets highlights metabolic diversity of tissue mononuclear phagocytes

The diversity of mononuclear phagocyte (MNP) subpopulations across tissues is one of the key physiological characteristics of the immune system. Here, we focus on understanding the metabolic variability of MNPs through metabolic network analysis applied to three large-scale transcriptional datasets: we introduce (1) an ImmGen MNP open-source dataset of 337 samples across 26 tissues; (2) a myeloid subset of ImmGen Phase I dataset (202 MNP samples); and (3) a myeloid mouse single-cell RNA sequencing (scRNA-seq) dataset (51,364 cells) assembled based on Tabula Muris Senis. To analyze such large-scale datasets, we develop a network-based computational approach, genes and metabolites (GAM) clustering, for unbiased identification of the key metabolic subnetworks based on transcriptional profiles. We define 9 metabolic subnetworks that encapsulate the metabolic differences within MNP from 38 different tissues. Obtained modules reveal that cholesterol synthesis appears particularly active within the migratory dendritic cells, while glutathione synthesis is essential for cysteinyl leukotriene production by peritoneal and lung macrophages

A fast assay for developing serum free media for cord blood haematopoietic cells

10.1007/BF00152447Biotechnology Techniques98577-582BTEC

Enhancement Effect of C40 TiSi2 on the C54 Phase Formation

10.1149/1.1417978Journal of the Electrochemical Society14812g734-g737JESO

Study of titanium suicide formation using spike anneal for integrated chip manufacturing

Journal of Vacuum Science and Technology B: Microelectronics and Nanometer Structures212767-774JVTB

Synthesis and characterization of pure C40 TiSi2

Applied Physics Letters77264395-4397APPL