Realization of a spontaneous gauge and supersymmetry breaking vacuum

It is one of the major issues to realize a vacuum which breaks supersymmetry (SUSY) and R-symmetry, in a supersymmetric model. We study the model, where the same sector breaks the gauge symmetry and SUSY. In general, the SUSY breaking model without gauge symmetry has a flat direction at the minimum of F-term scalar potential. When we introduce U(1) gauge symmetry to such a SUSY breaking model, there can appear a runaway direction. Such a runway direction can be lifted by loop effects, and the gauge symmetry breaking and SUSY breaking are realized. The R-symmetry, that is assigned to break SUSY, is also spontaneously broken at the vacuum. This scenario can be extended to non-Abelian gauge theories. We also discuss application to the Pati-Salam model and the SU(5) grand unified theory. We see that non-vanishing gaugino masses are radiatively generated by the R-symmetry breaking and the gauge messenger contribution.Comment: 23 pages, version accepted in JHE

Seasonal scatology of wolves along the Dempster Highway, northwestern Canada-an introduction of pollen analysis for dating old scats

This study aims to renovate the method of studying seasonal variation in wolf diet by introducing simultaneous analysis of undigested residua and pollen grains in wolf scats collected regardless of their freshness over a short period of time, in which pollen grains help to identify the season the diet was taken. The present study was conducted over a range of 500 km along the Dempster Highway extending north from Dawson, Yukon Territory to Inuvik, the Northwest Territories, Canada. We collected a total of 24 wolf scats along side roads and rivers, in which as many as 14 million pollen grains/scat were found on an average. The analysis revealed that the wolves relied exclusively on the caribou during winter when scats are free of pollen grains, but increase their dependence on the beaver and other mammals up to over 50% in term of residuum occurrence in spring and summer when scats are respectively loaded primarily with arboreal and herbaceous pollen grains. This result was consistent with the local fauna of prey animals, the migration pattern of the caribou for breeding and wintering, availability of the beaver and other rodents as dictated by ice/snow cover, and breeding and cub rearing pattern of the wolves themselves. Thus it was concluded that the pollen analysis serves as a powerful and effective tool for identifying the seasonality of old scats, and therefore saves a great deal of time and effort to be devoted to finding fresh scats

NOTE ON LOWER BOUNDS OF ENERGY GROWTH FOR SOLUTIONS TO WAVE EQUATIONS

In this note we study lower bounds of energy growth for solutions to wave equations which are compact in space perturbations of the wave equation ∂^2_tu−Δu=0. Assuming that there exists a null bicharacteristic (x(t),ξ(t)), parametrized by the time t, such that x(t) remains inside a ball and ξ(t) outside a ball for t≥0 we prove that the solution operator R(t) is bounded from below by constant times √ in the operator norm. We apply this result to examples constructed by the same idea as in Colombini and Rauch [1] and show that there exist compact in space perturbations which cause exp(ct^α) growth of the energy for any given 0≤α≤1

Crosstalk between Smad and Mitogen-Activated Protein Kinases for the Regulation of Apoptosis in Cyclosporine A- Induced Renal Tubular Injury

www.karger.com/nne This is an Open Access article licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 License (www.karger.com/OA-license), applicable to the online version of the article only. Distribution for non-commercial purposes only

Dibutyryl cyclic adenosine monophosphate attenuates lung injury caused by cold preservation and ischemia-reperfusion

AbstractObjective: Dibutyryl adenosine 3`,5`cyclic monophosphate (db-cAMP) is a membrane-permeable analog of adenosine 3`,5`cyclic monophosphate (cAMP). We examined the effect of db-cAMP against lung injury caused by cold preservation and ischemia-reperfusion. Methods: Rats were divided into three groups (each n = 6) according to the presence or absence of db-cAMP in the preservative solution and cold ischemia (4° C for 15 hours). In the fresh group, the lung was flushed with the preservative solution and reperfusion was performed immediately. In the control group and the db-cAMP group, the lung was flushed either with the solution or with a combination of the solution plus db-cAMP, respectively, and preserved at 4° C for 15 hours. The lung was reperfused for 60 minutes in an ex vivo rat lung perfusion model. Results: The shunt ratios of the reperfused lung in the db-cAMP group were 4.0% ± 1.6% and 3.4% ± 1.2% 10 and 60 minutes, respectively, after the initiation of reperfusion, being as low as those in the fresh group and significantly lower than those in the control group (p < 0.01). The wet/dry weight ratio of the lung tissue after reperfusion was 5.99 ± 1.50 in the db-cAMP group, which was similar to that in the fresh group (5.45 ± 0.23) and significantly lower than that in the control group (14.20 ± 3.43) (p < 0.01). Electron microscopic examination showed less damage in the pulmonary arterial endothelium in the db-cAMP group. Conclusions: We conclude that db-cAMP attenuates the lung injury by cold preservation and ischemia-reperfusion, at least partly by protection of the vascular endothelium. (J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1997;114:635-42

The Benefits of Urban Agglomeration: Is Tokyo a Unique Case? (Japanese)

The greater the density of working population in the vicinity of an office building, the greater the potential number of face-to-face contacts per day, and the greater the productivity of office operations. Such is the benefit of urban agglomeration. The productivity of offices located in central Tokyo is far greater than the productivity of those located in other Japanese cities. Is this high productivity essentially attributable to the greater agglomeration in Tokyo? Or is a totally different production function occurring due to the uniqueness of goods and services produced there, or because Tokyo is Japan's capital? This paper analyzes these issues. Office rents are relatively high in areas with a high degree of agglomeration. Taking advantage of this correlation, a production function for office operations within a single city has been estimated. In this paper, the same measurement method is applied to a number of cities. Based on the micro-data on seven major government-decreed cities, the paper shows that output-input relationships occur in all but one city, Sapporo. This can basically be explained by a single production function. In other words, it demonstrates that even if a dummy variable corresponding to the respective cities is added to the production function, it does not produce a statistically significant effect. This analysis has found that the productivity difference between Tokyo and other cities stems fundamentally from the difference in the economy of scale, and is neither attributable to the uniqueness of goods and services produced in Tokyo, nor to its being the national capital.

Comparison of Epirubicin-Iodized Oil Suspension and Emulsion for Transcatheter Arterial Chemoembolization in VX2 Tumor

To compare the antitumor efficacy and safety of transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) by epirubicin suspension (epirubicin suspension: epirubicin-iodized oil mixture without solution) to that by epirubicin emulsion (epirubicin emulsion: epirubicin-iodized oil mixture with solution), the efficacy of treatment by administration of either an epirubicin suspension or emulsion was examined in an animal model. Changes in plasma epirubicin concentration were compared over 24 h immediately after treatment, and enhanced ultrasonographic and histopathological analysis subsequently conducted 7 days after treatment to determine the growth ratio and proportion of viable tumor cells. The growth ratio and proportion of viable tumor cells were found to be significantly lower in the suspension group than in the emulsion group while the plasma epirubicin concentration was found to be significantly higher in the suspension group than in the emulsion group. These results indicate that administration of an epirubicin suspension is a superior form of TACE compared to that of administration of an epirubicin emulsion

Embolization using warmed glue via the triaxial microballoon occlusion system for various vascular disorders

PURPOSE:We aimed to illustrate the benefits of using warmed glue for viscosity reduction via the triaxial microballoon system for the treatment of various vascular disorders.METHODS:Seven patients who underwent 10 treatment sessions for hemoptysis, type II endoleak, post-pancreatic surgical bleeding, spontaneous retroperitoneal bleeding, or ovarian tumor bleeding were evaluated based on technical and clinical outcomes. In the procedure, the triaxial system, consisting of a 4.5-Fr guiding catheter, a 2.8-Fr microballoon catheter, and a 1.9-Fr no-taper microcatheter, was advanced into the target lesion. Glue (33% n-butyl cyanoacrylate mixed with Lipiodol) warmed to 40°C was injected under balloon occlusion.RESULTS:The common hepatic, right bronchial, intercostals, internal mammary, costocervical, lateral thoracic, superior thoracic, thoracoacromial, inferior thyroid, iliolumbar, lumbar, internal pudendal arteries, and branch of the inferior mesenteric artery were successfully embolized; 100% technical success and 100% clinical success were obtained after each session.CONCLUSION:Our modified balloon-occluded glue embolization may lead to better handling with more distal glue penetration capability