194 research outputs found
The Giant Inflaton
We investigate a new mechanism for realizing slow roll inflation in string
theory, based on the dynamics of p anti-D3 branes in a class of mildly warped
flux compactifications. Attracted to the bottom of a warped conifold throat,
the anti-branes then cluster due to a novel mechanism wherein the background
flux polarizes in an attempt to screen them. Once they are sufficiently close,
the M units of flux cause the anti-branes to expand into a fuzzy NS5-brane,
which for rather generic choices of p/M will unwrap around the geometry,
decaying into D3-branes via a classical process. We find that the effective
potential governing this evolution possesses several epochs that can
potentially support slow-roll inflation, provided the process can be arranged
to take place at a high enough energy scale, of about one or two orders of
magnitude below the Planck energy; this scale, however, lies just outside the
bounds of our approximations.Comment: 31 pages, 4 figures, LaTeX. v2: references added, typos fixe
Therapeutic Down-Modulators of Staphylococcal Superantigen-Induced Inflammation and Toxic Shock
Staphylococcal enterotoxin B (SEB) and related superantigenic toxins are potent stimulators of the immune system and cause a variety of diseases in humans, ranging from food poisoning to toxic shock. These toxins bind directly to major histocompatibility complex (MHC) class II molecules on antigen-presenting cells and specific Vβ regions of T-cell receptors (TCR), resulting in hyperactivation of both monocytes/macrophages and T lymphocytes. Activated host cells produce massive amounts of proinflammatory cytokines and chemokines, activating inflammation and coagulation, causing clinical symptoms that include fever, hypotension, and shock. This review summarizes the in vitro and in vivo effects of staphylococcal superantigens, the role of pivotal mediators induced by these toxins in the pathogenic mechanisms of tissue injury, and the therapeutic agents to mitigate the toxic effects of superantigens
Intravesical Treatments of Bladder Cancer: Review
For bladder cancer, intravesical chemo/immunotherapy is widely used as adjuvant therapies after surgical transurethal resection, while systemic therapy is typically reserved for higher stage, muscle-invading, or metastatic diseases. The goal of intravesical therapy is to eradicate existing or residual tumors through direct cytoablation or immunostimulation. The unique properties of the urinary bladder render it a fertile ground for evaluating additional novel experimental approaches to regional therapy, including iontophoresis/electrophoresis, local hyperthermia, co-administration of permeation enhancers, bioadhesive carriers, magnetic-targeted particles and gene therapy. Furthermore, due to its unique anatomical properties, the drug concentration-time profiles in various layers of bladder tissues during and after intravesical therapy can be described by mathematical models comprised of drug disposition and transport kinetic parameters. The drug delivery data, in turn, can be combined with the effective drug exposure to infer treatment efficacy and thereby assists the selection of optimal regimens. To our knowledge, intravesical therapy of bladder cancer represents the first example where computational pharmacological approach was used to design, and successfully predicted the outcome of, a randomized phase III trial (using mitomycin C). This review summarizes the pharmacological principles and the current status of intravesical therapy, and the application of computation to optimize the drug delivery to target sites and the treatment efficacy
Oh Mercy: How On-Demand Interactive Streaming Services Navigate the Digital Music Rights Licensing Landscape
Inadequacies in the Anti-Corruption Agenda and the Quest for Good Governance in Kenya Under the New Constitutional Dispensation: The Role of the Citizens
iPods and Prairie Fires: Designing Legal Regimes for Complex Intellectual Property Systems
The Monist Dualist Dilemma and the Place of International Law in the Hierachy of Valid Norms under the Constitution of Kenya 2010
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