A New Phase at Finite Quark Density from AdS/CFT

We explore phases of N=2 super Yang-Mills theory at finite quark density by introducing quark chemical potential in a D3-D7 setup. We formulate the thermodynamics of brane embeddings and find that we need to renormalize the finite chemical potential due to the divergence of the thermodynamic potentials and we find that the density versus chemical potential equation of state has rich structure. This yields two distinct first order phase transitions in a small window of quark density. In order words, there is a new first order phase transition in the region of deconfined quarks. In this new phase, the chemical potential is a decreasing function of the density. We suggest that this might be relevant to the difference in sQGP--wQGP phases of QCD.Comment: 4 pages, revte

Photo-emission rate of sQGP at finite density

We calculate the thermal spectral function of SYM plasma with finite density using holographic technique. We take the RN-AdS black hole as the dual gravity theory. In the presence of charge, vector modes of gravitational and electromagnetic perturbation are coupled with each other. By introducing master variables for these modes, we solve the coupled system and calculate spectral function. We also calculated photoemission rate of SYM plasma from spectral function for light like momentum, AC conductivity and their density dependence. The suppression of the conductivity in high density is noticed, which might be yet another mechanism for the Jet quenching phenomena in RHIC experiment.Comment: 27 pages, 10 figure

Control of Alternaria alternata, Causal Agent of Dead (Dormant) Flower Bud Disease of Pear

Dead (dormant) flower buds of pear are an important phenomenon in pear production in the Netherlands. Vigourous or unbalanced tree growth and Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae (P.s.s.) are mentioned as likely causes of dead flower buds. Pseudomonas syringae pv. syringae was occasionally isolated from diseased flower buds. However, Alternaria alternata was nearly always isolated from diseased buds and also often in symptomless flower buds. By identifying the causal agent of dead flower buds disease, an effective control strategy can be developed. In field trials it was proven that fungicide treatments can reduce disease incidences significantly

Binary mixture of hard disks as a model glass former: Caging and uncaging

I have proposed a measure for the cage effect in glass forming systems. A binary mixture of hard disks is numerically studied as a model glass former. A network is constructed on the basis of the colliding pairs of disks. A rigidity matrix is formed from the isostatic (rigid) sub--network, corresponding to a cage. The determinant of the matrix changes its sign when an uncaging event occurs. Time evolution of the number of the uncaging events is determined numerically. I have found that there is a gap in the uncaging timescales between the cages involving different numbers of disks. Caging of one disk by two neighboring disks sustains for a longer time as compared with other cages involving more than one disk. This gap causes two--step relaxation of this system

Tiffs, tosses, and turns:Effects of affective reactivity to interpersonal stressors during the day on nightly sleep

BackgroundSleep has been recognized as an antecedent as well as a consequence of daytime stress. However, less research has compared the role of different stressor types on same-night sleep in the context of daily life. Interpersonal stressors may be particularly important, given that social stressors to elicit greater stress responses than other forms of stressors. This study tested the hypothesis that following days when a person exhibits greater negative affect (NA) reactivity to stressors (versus on days with less NA reactivity), sleep quality will be lower. This link between affective reactivity to stressors and subsequent sleep was expected to be more pronounced for interpersonal stressors versus non-interpersonal stressors.MethodsIn this pre-registered study, 252 adults in British Columbia, Canada (ages 25 to 87y; 68% women; 64% White) completed mobile surveys 5x/day for 14 days to assess daily stressors and NA. Self-reported sleep quality was assessed in morning surveys. Multilevel-models tested daily stressors (interpersonal, non-interpersonal, or no stressors), daily NA (averaged across the day), and their interaction as predictors of subsequent sleep quality, controlling for prior-night sleep quality and sociodemographics.ResultsDaily NA and stressor occurrence independently predicted poorer subsequent sleep quality. Stressor type moderated the relationship between NA and sleep quality, such that this association was stronger for interpersonal compared to non-interpersonal stressors.DiscussionThe findings suggest that encountering interpersonal stressors may be particularly impactful to one’s subsequent sleep. Future studies should consider investigating potential mechanisms that may underlie this association, such as pre-sleep cognitive, emotional, and physiological arousal

Knowledge management infrastructure: Preliminary evidences of Malaysian banking practice

Knowledge Management (KM) has become a vital concept for Malaysian banking industries in enhancing their competitive advantage.Leveraging the power of knowledge occurs when individuals intended to share their knowledge.When there is a trust and secure feeling of ownership, the knowledge will spread without any constraints.With an adequate infrastructure in organizations, it can ease the communication and employees interaction for knowledge sharing. The purpose of this research is to investigate the impact of infrastructure, organizational culture, organizational structure and technology towards knowledge sharing in banking industries

An extension of Wiener integration with the use of operator theory

With the use of tensor product of Hilbert space, and a diagonalization procedure from operator theory, we derive an approximation formula for a general class of stochastic integrals. Further we establish a generalized Fourier expansion for these stochastic integrals. In our extension, we circumvent some of the limitations of the more widely used stochastic integral due to Wiener and Ito, i.e., stochastic integration with respect to Brownian motion. Finally we discuss the connection between the two approaches, as well as a priori estimates and applications.Comment: 13 page

Microencapsulation of Neuroblastoma Cells and Mesenchymal Stromal Cells in Collagen Microspheres: A 3D Model for Cancer Cell Niche Study

There is a growing trend for researchers to use in vitro 3D models in cancer studies, as they can better recapitulate the complex in vivo situation. And the fact that the progression and development of tumor are closely associated to its stromal microenvironment has been increasingly recognized. The establishment of such tumor supportive niche is vital in understanding tumor progress and metastasis. The mesenchymal origin of many cells residing in the cancer niche provides the rationale to include MSCs in mimicking the niche in neuroblastoma. Here we co-encapsulate and co-culture NBCs and MSCs in a 3D in vitro model and investigate the morphology, growth kinetics and matrix remodeling in the reconstituted stromal environment. Results showed that the incorporation of MSCs in the model lead to accelerated growth of cancer cells as well as recapitulation of at least partially the tumor microenvironment in vivo. The current study therefore demonstrates the feasibility for the collagen microsphere to act as a 3D in vitro cancer model for various topics in cancer studies.published_or_final_versio