Holographic duals of 6d RG flows

A notable class of superconformal theories (SCFTs) in six dimensions is parameterized by an integer $N$, an ADE group $G$, and two nilpotent elements $\mu_\mathrm{L,R}$ in $G$. Nilpotent elements have a natural partial ordering, which has been conjectured to coincide with the hierarchy of renormalization-group flows among the SCFTs. In this paper we test this conjecture for $G=\mathrm{SU}(k)$, where AdS$_7$ duals exist in IIA. We work with a seven-dimensional gauged supergravity, consisting of the gravity multiplet and two $\mathrm{SU}(k)$ non-Abelian vector multiplets. We show that this theory has many supersymmetric AdS$_7$ vacua, determined by two nilpotent elements, which are naturally interpreted as IIA AdS$_7$ solutions. The BPS equations for domain walls connecting two such vacua can be solved analytically, up to a Nahm equation with certain boundary conditions. The latter admit a solution connecting two vacua if and only if the corresponding nilpotent elements are related by the natural partial ordering, in agreement with the field theory conjecture.Comment: 33 pages, 2 figure

Insufficient control of blood pressure and incident diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Incidence of type 2 diabetes might be associated with preexisting hypertension. There is no information on whether incident diabetes is predicted by blood pressure control. We evaluated the hazard of diabetes in relation to blood pressure control in treated hypertensive patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Nondiabetic, otherwise healthy, hypertensive patients (N = 1,754, mean +/- SD age 52 +/- 11 years, 43% women) participated in a network over 3.4 +/- 1 years of follow-up. Blood pressure was considered uncontrolled if systolic was >or=140 mmHg and/or diastolic was >or=90 mmHg at the last outpatient visit. Diabetes was defined according to American Diabetes Association guidelines. RESULTS: Uncontrolled blood pressure despite antihypertensive treatment was found in 712 patients (41%). At baseline, patients with uncontrolledblood pressure were slightly younger than patients with controlled blood pressure (51 +/- 11 vs. 53 +/- 12 years, P < 0.001), with no differences in sex distribution, BMI, duration of hypertension, baseline blood pressure, fasting glucose, serum creatinine and potassium, lipid profile, or prevalence of metabolic syndrome. During follow-up, 109 subjects developed diabetes. Incidence of diabetes was significantly higher in patients with uncontrolled (8%) than in those with controlled blood pressure (4%, odds ratio 2.08, P < 0.0001). In Cox regression analysis controlling for baseline systolic blood pressure and BMI, family history of diabetes, and physical activity, uncontrolled blood pressure doubled the risk of incident diabetes (hazard ratio [HR] 2.10, P < 0.001), independently of significant effects of age (HR 1.02 per year, P = 0.03) and baseline fasting glucose (HR 1.10 per mg/dl, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In a large sample of treated nondiabetic hypertensive subjects, uncontrolled blood pressure is associated with twofold increased risk of incident diabetes independently of age, BMI, baseline blood pressure, or fasting glucose

Accounting for attitudes and perceptions influencing users' willingness to purchase Electric Vehicles through a Hybrid Choice Modeling approach based on Analytic Hierarchy Process

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Improving Energy Conserving Descent for Machine Learning: Theory and Practice

We develop the theory of Energy Conserving Descent (ECD) and introduce ECDSep, a gradient-based optimization algorithm able to tackle convex and non-convex optimization problems. The method is based on the novel ECD framework of optimization as physical evolution of a suitable chaotic energy-conserving dynamical system, enabling analytic control of the distribution of results - dominated at low loss - even for generic high-dimensional problems with no symmetries. Compared to previous realizations of this idea, we exploit the theoretical control to improve both the dynamics and chaos-inducing elements, enhancing performance while simplifying the hyper-parameter tuning of the optimization algorithm targeted to different classes of problems. We empirically compare with popular optimization methods such as SGD, Adam and AdamW on a wide range of machine learning problems, finding competitive or improved performance compared to the best among them on each task. We identify limitations in our analysis pointing to possibilities for additional improvements.Comment: 15 pages + appendices, full code availabl

Insufficient control of blood pressure and incident diabetes

OBJECTIVE: Incidence of type 2 diabetes might be associated with preexisting hypertension. There is no information on whether incident diabetes is predicted by blood pressure control. We evaluated the hazard of diabetes in relation to blood pressure control in treated hypertensive patients. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS: Nondiabetic, otherwise healthy, hypertensive patients (N = 1,754, mean +/- SD age 52 +/- 11 years, 43% women) participated in a network over 3.4 +/- 1 years of follow-up. Blood pressure was considered uncontrolled if systolic was >or=140 mmHg and/or diastolic was >or=90 mmHg at the last outpatient visit. Diabetes was defined according to American Diabetes Association guidelines. RESULTS: Uncontrolled blood pressure despite antihypertensive treatment was found in 712 patients (41%). At baseline, patients with uncontrolledblood pressure were slightly younger than patients with controlled blood pressure (51 +/- 11 vs. 53 +/- 12 years, P < 0.001), with no differences in sex distribution, BMI, duration of hypertension, baseline blood pressure, fasting glucose, serum creatinine and potassium, lipid profile, or prevalence of metabolic syndrome. During follow-up, 109 subjects developed diabetes. Incidence of diabetes was significantly higher in patients with uncontrolled (8%) than in those with controlled blood pressure (4%, odds ratio 2.08, P < 0.0001). In Cox regression analysis controlling for baseline systolic blood pressure and BMI, family history of diabetes, and physical activity, uncontrolled blood pressure doubled the risk of incident diabetes (hazard ratio [HR] 2.10, P < 0.001), independently of significant effects of age (HR 1.02 per year, P = 0.03) and baseline fasting glucose (HR 1.10 per mg/dl, P < 0.001). CONCLUSIONS: In a large sample of treated nondiabetic hypertensive subjects, uncontrolled blood pressure is associated with twofold increased risk of incident diabetes independently of age, BMI, baseline blood pressure, or fasting glucose

Harmonic functions and gravity localization

In models with extra dimensions, matter particles can be easily localized to a 'brane world', but gravitational attraction tends to spread out in the extra dimensions unless they are small. Strong warping gradients can help localize gravity closer to the brane. In this note we give a mathematically rigorous proof that the internal wave-function of the massless graviton is constant as an eigenfunction of the weighted Laplacian, and hence is a power of the warping as a bound state in an analogue Schr\"odinger potential. This holds even in presence of singularities induced by thin branes. We also reassess the status of AdS vacuum solutions where the graviton is massive. We prove a bound on scale separation for such models, as an application of our recent results on KK masses. We also use them to estimate the scale at which gravity is localized, without having to compute the spectrum explicitly. For example, we point out that localization can be obtained at least up to the cosmological scale in string/M-theory solutions with infinite-volume Riemann surfaces; and in a known class of N = 4 models, when the number of NS5- and D5-branes is roughly equal.Comment: 43 pages, 2 figure

Impaired release of Vitamin D in dysfunctional adipose tissue: New cues on Vitamin D supplementation in obesity

Context: Vitamin D accumulates in adipose tissue (AT) and vitamin D deficiency is frequent in obesity. Objective: We hypothesize that trafficking of vitamin D is altered in dysfunctional AT. Design, Patients, Settings: 54 normal-weight and 67 obese males were recruited in a prospective study and randomly assigned to supplementation with 50 \ub5g/week 25-hydroxyvitamin-D3 (25(OH)D) or 150 \ub5g/week vitamin D3 for 1 year, raising dosage by 50% if vitamin D-sufficiency (serum 25(OH)D>50 nomol/l), was not achieved at 6 months; 97 subjects completed the study. Methods: Vitamin D3 (D3) and 25(OH)D were quantified by HPLC-MS in control and insulin-resistant (IR) 3T3-L1 cells and subcutaneous AT (SAT) from lean and obese subjects, incubated with or without adrenaline; expression of 25-hydroxylase (CYP27A1), 1\u3b1-hydroxylase (CYP27B1) and vitamin D receptor (VDR) were analysed by real-time PCR. Results: In IR adipocytes the uptake of D3 and 25(OH)D was higher, but after adrenaline stimulation, the decrement in D3 and 25(OH)D was stronger in control cells, which also showed increased expression of CYP27A1 and CYP27B1 and higher levels of 25(OH)D. In SAT from obese subjects, the adrenaline-induced release of D3 and 25(OH)D was blunted; in both IR cells and obese SAT, protein expression of \u3b22-adrenergic receptor was reduced. Supplementation with 25-hydroxyvitamin-D3 was more effective in achieving vitamin D sufficiency in obese, but not in normal weight subjects. Conclusion: Dysfunctional AT shows a reduced catecholamine-induced release of D3 and 25(OH)D, and altered activity of vitamin D-metabolizing enzymes, for these reasons supplementation with 25-hydroxyvitamin-D3 is more effective in obese individuals