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Whole-body euglycaemia is partly maintained by two cellular processes that encourage glucose uptake in skeletal muscle; 1) the insulin- and 2) contraction-stimulated pathways, with research suggesting convergence between these two previously separate processes. The normal structural integrity of the skeletal muscle requires an intact actin cytoskeleton as well as integrin-associated proteins, thus those structures are likely fundamental for effective glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. In contrast, excessive extracellular matrix (ECM) remodelling and integrin expression in skeletal muscle may contribute to insulin resistance owing to an increased physical barrier causing reduced nutrient and hormonal flux. This review paper explores the role of the ECM and the actin cytoskeleton in insulin- and contraction-mediated glucose uptake in skeletal muscle. This is a clinically important area of research given that defects in the structural integrity of the ECM and integrin-associated proteins may contribute to loss of muscle function and decreased glucose uptake in type 2 diabetes.

Reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS) is promising for future 6G wireless communications. However, the increased number of RIS elements results in the high overhead for channel acquisition and the non-negligible power consumption. Therefore, how to improve the system capacity with limited RIS elements is essential. Unlike the classical regular RIS whose elements are arranged on a regular grid, in this paper, we propose an irregular RIS structure to improve the system capacity. The key idea is to irregularly configure a given number of RIS elements on an enlarged surface, which provides extra spatial degrees of freedom compared with the regular RIS. In this way, the received signal power can be enhanced, and thus the system capacity can be improved. Then, we formulate a joint topology and precoding optimization problem to maximize the capacity for irregular RIS-aided communication systems. Accordingly, a joint optimization algorithm with low complexity is proposed to alternately optimize the RIS topology and the precoding design. Particularly, a tabu search-based method is used to design the irregular RIS topology, and a neighbor extraction-based cross-entropy method is introduced to optimize the precoding design. Simulation results demonstrate that, subject to the constraint of limited RIS elements, the proposed irregular RIS can significantly enhance the system capacity., Comment: Accepted by IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Simulation codes are provided at: http://oa.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/dailinglong/publications/publications.html

In the context of gravity in the strong-coupling regime, the propagation amplitude of gravity coupled to relativistic particles undergoing geodesic separation is calculated exactly. Geodesic separation gives rise to boundary terms associated with the h_\times and h_+ graviton components. At low temperatures the propagation amplitude vanishes, implying no graviton propagation in this regime., Comment: 7 pages

Muscle atrophy, insulin resistance and reduced muscle PI3K-Akt signaling are common characteristics of patients undergoing maintenance hemodialysis (MHD). Disruption to the transmembrane protein linkage between the cytoskeleton and the extracellular matrix in skeletal muscle may contribute to reduced amino acid metabolism and insulin resistance in MHD patients. Eight MHD patients (age: 56±5 y: BMI: 32±2 kg/m-2) and non-diseased controls (age: 50±2 y: BMI: 31±1 kg/m-2) received primed continuous L-[ring-2H5 ]phenylalanine before consuming a mixed meal. Phenylalanine metabolism was determined using two-compartment modelling. Muscle biopsies were collected prior to the meal and at 300 minutes postprandial. In a separate experiment, skeletal muscle tissue from muscle-specific Rac1 knockout (Rac1 mKO) was harvested to investigate whether Rac1 depletion disrupted the cytoskeleton-integrin linkage, allowing for cross-model examination of proteins of interest. ILK, PINCH1 and pFAKTyr397 were significantly lower in MHD (P < 0.01). Rac1 and Akt showed no difference between groups for the human trial. Rac1 deletion in the Rac1 mKO model did not alter the expression of integrin-associated proteins. Phenylalanine rates of appearance and disappearance , as well as metabolic clearance rates were lower in the MHD group at 30 and 60 min post meal ingestion compared to controls (P < 0.05). Both groups showed similar levels of insulin sensitivity and β-cell function. Key proteins in the integrin-cytoskeleton linkage are reduced in MHD patients, suggesting for the first time that integrin-associated proteins dysfunction may contribute to reduced phenylalanine flux without affecting insulin resistance in haemodialysis patients.

If the neutrino is a Majorana particle, low-energy lepton-number-violating (LNV) processes, such as neutrinoless double-beta ($0\nu\beta\beta$) decay, are possible. It may also be possible to observe high-energy $0\nu\beta\beta$-like LNV processes at the LHC. These are distinguished by the presence of same-sign dileptons in the final state (e.g., ${\bar u} d \to t {\bar b} \, e^- \mu^-$). In this paper, we show that CP-violating triple products (TPs) may be present in the process, and may be measurable at the LHC. If a nonzero TP were observed, it would give us much information about the underlying new physics (NP). We would know that there are (at least) two interfering NP amplitudes, with different weak phases and different Lorentz structures. And if we had some knowledge of the NP, e.g., by direct production of NP particles, we could get information about the magnitudes and relative phases of its couplings., Comment: 8 pages, 1 figure. Important changes to the paper: we now focus on a single NP model, and include a detailed discussion about the prospects for the observation of TPs at the LHC

Mangrove forest conservation can help reduce global C emissions. Despite this benefit to climate change mitigation and adaptation, mangrove forests are being deforested or degraded at an alarming rate, though restoration efforts may offset these losses. The impacts of deforestation to C stocks are relatively intuitive and result in significant decreases in C stocks. It remains unclear how degradation from selective harvesting of trees affects C stocks or how effective restoration efforts are at restoring C stocks. Furthermore, total ecosystem C (TEC) stocks of pristine mangroves can significantly vary spatially. To address these issues, we conducted an intensive, national assessment of mangrove forests across Cambodia using a grid approach to: 1) examine how land use land cover (i.e., pristine, deforested, degraded, and restored forests) impacts TEC stocks, and 2) how TEC stocks vary spatially across the country. TEC stocks from deforested mangroves were always lower than pristine forests, resulting in an overall loss of 60% C (480 Mg C ha−1). However, TEC stocks from degraded and 25-year-old restored mangroves forests did not differ from pristine forests. Mean TEC in mangroves was 784.7 ± 30.1 Mg C ha−1, decreasing from 957.2 ± 32.8 Mg C ha−1 in the northern region to 628.9 ± 33.1 Mg C ha−1 in the central region to 386.2 ± 19.1 Mg C ha−1 in the southern region of Cambodia. Intensive sampling in mangroves across Cambodia verified impacts of deforestation reported elsewhere, revealed the lack of degradation impacts on TEC stocks, and demonstrated the effectiveness of restoration on TEC stocks after only 25 years. Our gridded sampling approach was able to capture spatial variability across Cambodia and provide a more realistic TEC stock information that can be used for national reporting or participation in C markets.

Benefiting from the growth of the bandwidth, Terahertz (THz) communication can support the new application with explosive requirements of the ultra-high-speed rates for future 6G wireless systems. In order to compensate for the path loss of high frequency, massive multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) can be utilized for high array gains by beamforming. However, since a large number of analog phase shifters should be used to realize the analog beamforming, the existing THz communication with massive MIMO has very high energy consumption. To solve this problem, a reconfigurable intelligent surface (RIS)-based hybrid precoding architecture for THz communication is developed in this paper, where the energy-hungry phased array is replaced by the energy-efficient RIS to realize the analog beamforming of the hybrid precoding. Then, based on the proposed RIS-based architecture, a sum-rate maximization problem for hybrid precoding is investigated. Since the phase shifts implemented by RIS in practice are often discrete, this sum-rate maximization problem with a non-convex constraint is challenging. Next, the sum-rate maximization problem is reformulated as a parallel deep neural network (DNN)-based classification problem, which can be solved by the proposed low-complexity deep learning-based multiple discrete classification (DL-MDC) hybrid precoding scheme. Finally, we provide numerous simulation results to show that the proposed DL-MDC scheme works well both in the theoretical Saleh-Valenzuela channel model and practical 3GPP channel model. Compared with existing iterative search algorithms, the can proposed DL-MDC scheme reduces the runtime significantly with a negligible performance loss., Comment: 26 pages, 7 figures

River ecosystems receive and process vast quantities of terrestrial organic carbon, the fate of which depends strongly on microbial activity. Variation in and controls of processing rates, however, are poorly characterized at the global scale. In response, we used a peer-sourced research network and a highly standardized carbon processing assay to conduct a global-scale field experiment in greater than 1000 river and riparian sites. We found that Earth's biomes have distinct carbon processing signatures. Slow processing is evident across latitudes, whereas rapid rates are restricted to lower latitudes. Both the mean rate and variability decline with latitude, suggesting temperature constraints toward the poles and greater roles for other environmental drivers (e.g., nutrient loading) toward the equator. These results and data set the stage for unprecedented "next-generation biomonitoring" by establishing baselines to help quantify environmental impacts to the functioning of ecosystems at a global scale.

Introduction: Entrustable Professional Activities (EPAs) 9 and 13 are to “collaborate as a member of an interprofessional team” and to “identify system failures thereby contributing to a culture of safety and improvement.” Addressing EPA 9, an interprofessional initiative was begun using a project team between two university programs: medical education and health systems engineering. Addressing EPA 13, this team set out to provide diagnostic analytics for Length of Stay (LOS) delays in the Emergency Department (ED).Methods: This project was performed in 2018 at an ED with 42 beds, an annual census of 70,000, and a 38% admission rate. Two healthcare systems engineering students and a medical student performed on-site observations to identify specific bottlenecks that could contribute to ED LOS. This data and data generated from the electronic medical record were analyzed and correlated with observations. Factors (44) that affect ED processes were analyzed, including time interval metrics such as arrival to triage, arrival to admit, disposition to departure, and bed request to admit. Results: Patients had an average LOS of 5.9 hours. A total of 4,940 adult, non-psychiatric cases presented; 1,599 (32.4%) of these were admitted. Process evaluation (Figure, mean and median minutes) showed differences between day (7a-7p) and night (7p-7a) flow patterns. These quantitative results (EPA 13) were determined by the interprofessional collaborative work efforts of the students (qualitatively, the outcome of EPA 9).This project demonstrated a synergistic educational experience that allowed the blending of medical education with process engineering, ultimately improving knowledge gaps of both. This unique process allowed for diagnostics to be performed that were necessary for the ED and simultaneously provided a stronger foundation for QI undertakings for both engineering and medical students.Conclusion: Medical students can benefit from working alongside systems engineers, allow

River ecosystems receive and process vast quantities of terrestrial organic carbon, the fate of which depends strongly on microbial activity. Variation in and controls of processing rates, however, are poorly characterized at the global scale. In response, we used a peer-sourced research network and a highly standardized carbon processing assay to conduct a global-scale field experiment in greater than 1000 river and riparian sites. We found that Earth’s biomes have distinct carbon processing signatures. Slow processing is evident across latitudes, whereas rapid rates are restricted to lower latitudes. Both the mean rate and variability decline with latitude, suggesting temperature constraints toward the poles and greater roles for other environmental drivers (e.g., nutrient loading) toward the equator. These results and data set the stage for unprecedented “next-generation biomonitoring” by establishing baselines to help quantify environmental impacts to the functioning of ecosystems at a global scale.

We consider the Skyrme model modified by the addition of mass terms which explicitly break chiral symmetry and pick out a specific point on the model's target space as the unique true vacuum. However, they also allow the possibility of false vacua, local minima of the potential energy. These false vacuum configurations admit metastable skyrmions, which we call false skyrmions. False skyrmions can decay due to quantum tunnelling, consequently causing the decay of the false vacuum. We compute the rate of decay of the false vacuum due to the existence of false skyrmions., Comment: 12 pages, 11 figures

Introduction: The Association of American Medical Colleges’ (AAMC) initiative for Core Entrustable Professional Activities for Entering Residency includes as an element of Entrustable Professional Activity 13 to “identify system failures and contribute to a culture of safety and improvement.” We set out to determine the feasibility of using medical students’ action learning projects (ALPs) to expedite implementation of evidence-based pathways for three common patient diagnoses in the emergency department (ED) setting (Atrial fibrillation, congestive heart failure, and pulmonary embolism).Methods: These prospective quality improvement (QI) initiatives were performed over six months in three Northeastern PA hospitals. Emergency physician mentors were recruited to facilitate a QI experience for third-year medical students for each project. Six students were assigned to each mentor and given class time and network infrastructure support (information technology, consultant experts in lean management) to work on their projects. Students had access to background network data that revealed potential for improvement in disposition (home) for patients.Results: Under the leadership of their mentors, students accomplished standard QI processes such as performing the background literature search and assessing key stakeholders’ positions that were involved in the respective patient’s care. Students effectively developed flow diagrams, computer aids for clinicians and educational programs, and participated in recruiting champions for the new practice standard. They met with other departmental clinicians to determine barriers to implementation and used this feedback to help set specific parameters to make clinicians more comfortable with the changes in practice that were recommended. All three clinical practice guidelines were initiated at consummation of the students’ projects. After implementation, 86% (38/44) of queried ED providers felt comfortable with medical students being a

We study the effect of vortices on the tunneling decay of a symmetry-breaking false vacuum in three spacetime dimensions with gravity. The scenario considered is one in which the initial state, rather than being the homogeneous false vacuum, contains false vortices. The question addressed is whether, and, if so, under which circumstances, the presence of vortices has a significant catalyzing effect on vacuum decay. After studying the existence and properties of vortices, we study their decay rate through quantum tunneling using a variety of techniques. In particular, for so-called thin-wall vortices we devise a one-parameter family of configurations allowing a quantum-mechanical calculation of tunneling. Also for thin-wall vortices, we employ the Israel junction conditions between the interior and exterior spacetimes. Matching these two spacetimes reveals a decay channel which results in an unstable, expanding vortex. We find that the tunneling exponent for vortices, which is the dominant factor in the decay rate, is half that for Coleman-de Luccia bubbles. This implies that vortices are short-lived, making them cosmologically significant even for low vortex densities. In the limit of the vanishing gravitational constant we smoothly recover our earlier results for the decay of the false vortex in a model without gravity., Comment: 27 pages, 8 figures, Typos corrected

Non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) is a promising technique for the fifth generation (5G) wireless communications. As users with good channel conditions can serve as relays to enhance the system performance by using successive interference cancellation (SIC), the integration of NOMA and cooperative relaying has recently attracted increasing interests. In this paper, a NOMA-based cooperative relaying system is studied, and an analytical framework is developed to evaluate its performance. Specifically, the performance of NOMA over Rician fading channels is studied, and the exact expression of the average achievable rate is derived. Moreover, we also propose an approximation method to calculate the achievable rate by using the Gauss-Chebyshev Integration. Numerical results confirm that our derived analytical results match well with the Monte Carlo simulations., Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures. To appear in IEEE Transactions on Vehicular Technology. Simulation codes are provided to reproduce the results presented in this paper: http://oa.ee.tsinghua.edu.cn/dailinglong/publications/publications.html

We consider the decay of "false kinks," that is, kinks formed in a scalar field theory with a pair of degenerate symmetry-breaking false vacua in 1+1 dimensions. The true vacuum is symmetric. A second scalar field and a peculiar potential are added in order for the kink to be classically stable. We find an expression for the decay rate of a false kink. As with any tunneling event, the rate is proportional to $\exp(-S_E)$ where $S_E$ is the Euclidean action of the bounce describing the tunneling event. This factor varies wildly depending on the parameters of the model. Of interest is the fact that for certain parameters $S_E$ can get arbitrarily small, implying that the kink is only barely stable. Thus, while the false vacuum itself may be very long-lived, the presence of kinks can give rise to rapid vacuum decay., Comment: 21 pages, 13 figures

We study the decay of "false" domain walls, which are metastable states of the quantum theory where the true vacuum is trapped inside the wall, with the false vacuum outside. We consider a theory with two scalar fields, a shepherd field and a field of sheep. The shepherd field serves to herd the solitons of the sheep field so that they are nicely bunched together. However, quantum tunnelling of the shepherd field releases the sheep to spread out uncontrollably. We show how to calculate the tunnelling amplitude for such a disintegration., Comment: 20 pages, 9 figures

Long Term Evolution Advanced (LTE-Advanced) is the next step in LTE evolution and allows operators to improve network performance and service capabilities through smooth deployment of new techniques and technologies. LTE-Advanced uses some new features on top of the existing LTE standards to provide better user experience and higher throughputs. Some of the most significant features introduced in LTE-Advanced are carrier aggregation, enhancements in heterogeneous networks, coordinated multipoint transmission and reception, enhanced multiple input multiple output usage and deployment of relay nodes in the radio network. Mentioned features are mainly aimed to enhance the radio access part of the cellular networks. This survey article presents an overview of the key radio access features and functionalities of the LTE-Advanced radio access network, supported by the simulation results. We also provide a detailed review of the literature together with a very rich list of the references for each of the features. An LTE-Advanced roadmap and the latest updates and trends in LTE markets are also presented.

The interplay between the various measures of quantum correlations are well known in stable optical and electronic systems. Here, for the first time, we study such foundational issues in unstable quantum systems. Specifically we study meson-antimeson systems, which are produced copiously in meson factories. We use the semigroup formalism to compute the time evolution of several measures of quantum correlations for three meson systems (K-Kbar, Bd-Bdbar and Bs-Bsbar), circumventing difficulties which arise using other methods due to the instability of these particles. We then compare these measures to one another and find that the relations between them can be nontrivially different from those of their stable counterparts such as neutrinos., Comment: 6 pages, one figure

Richard WA Mackenzie, Bradley T Elliott Department of Human and Health Sciences, Facility of Science and Technology, University of Westminster, London, UK Abstract: Type 2 diabetes is a metabolic disease categorized primarily by reduced insulin sensitivity, β-cell dysfunction, and elevated hepatic glucose production. Treatments reducing hyperglycemia and the secondary complications that result from these dysfunctions are being sought after. Two distinct pathways encourage glucose transport activity in skeletal muscle, ie, the contraction-stimulated pathway reliant on Ca2+/5′-monophosphate-activated protein kinase (AMPK)-dependent mechanisms and an insulin-dependent pathway activated via upregulation of serine/threonine protein kinase Akt/PKB. Metformin is an established treatment for type 2 diabetes due to its ability to increase peripheral glucose uptake while reducing hepatic glucose production in an AMPK-dependent manner. Peripheral insulin action is reduced in type 2 diabetics whereas AMPK signaling remains largely intact. This paper firstly reviews AMPK and its role in glucose uptake and then focuses on a novel mechanism known to operate via an insulin-dependent pathway. Inositol hexakisphosphate (IP6) kinase 1 (IP6K1) produces a pyrophosphate group at the position of IP6 to generate a further inositol pyrophosphate, ie, diphosphoinositol pentakisphosphate (IP7). IP7 binds with Akt/PKB at its pleckstrin homology domain, preventing interaction with phosphatidylinositol 3,4,5-trisphosphate, and therefore reducing Akt/PKB membrane translocation and insulin-stimulated glucose uptake. Novel evidence suggesting a reduction in IP7 production via IP6K1 inhibition represents an exciting therapeutic avenue in the treatment of insulin resistance. Metformin-induced activation of AMPK is a key current intervention in the management of type 2 diabetes. However, this treatment does not seem to improve peripheral insulin resistance. In light of this evidence

We consider the decay of cosmic strings that are trapped in the false vacuum in a theory of scalar electrodynamics in 3+1 dimensions. We restrict our analysis to the case of thin-walled cosmic strings which occur when large magnetic flux trapped inside the string. Thus the string looks like a tube of fixed radius, at which it is classically stable. The core of the string contains magnetic flux in the true vacuum, while outside the string, separated by a thin wall, is the false vacuum. The string decays by tunnelling to a configuration which is represented by a bulge, where the region of true vacuum within, is ostensibly enlarged. The bulge can be described as the meeting, of a kink soliton anti-soliton pair, along the length of the string. It can be described as a bulge appearing in the initial string, starting from the string of small, classically stable radius, expanding to a fat string of large, classically unstable (to expansion) radius and then returning back to the string of small radius along its length. This configuration is the bounce point of a corresponding O(2) symmetric instanton, which we can determine numerically. Once the bulge appears it explodes in real time. The kink soliton anti-soliton pair recede from each other along the length of the string with a velocity that quickly approaches the speed of light, leaving behind a fat tube. At the same time the radius of the fat tube that is being formed, expands (transversely) as it is no longer classically stable, converting false vacuum to the true vacuum with ever diluting magnetic field within. The rate of this expansion is determined by the energy difference between the true vacuum and the false vacuum. Our analysis could be applied to a network, of cosmic strings formed in the very early universe or vortex lines in a superheated superconductor., Comment: 13 pages, 4 figures

We consider the decay of vortices trapped in the false vacuum of a theory of scalar electrodynamics in 2+1 dimensions. The potential is inspired by models with intermediate symmetry breaking to a metastable vacuum that completely breaks a U(1) symmetry, while in the true vacuum the symmetry is unbroken. The false vacuum is unstable through the formation of true vacuum bubbles; however, the rate of decay can be extremely long. On the other hand, the false vacuum can contain metastable vortex solutions. These vortices contain the true vacuum inside in addition to a unit of magnetic flux and the appropriate topologically nontrivial false vacuum outside. We numerically establish the existence of vortex solutions which are classically stable; however, they can decay via tunneling. In general terms, they tunnel to a configuration which is a large, thin-walled vortex configuration that is now classically unstable to the expansion of its radius. We compute an estimate for the tunneling amplitude in the semi-classical approximation. We believe our analysis would be relevant to superconducting thin films or superfluids., Comment: 27 pages, 9 figures

Heat acclimation (HA) can improve thermoregulatory stability in able-bodied athletes in part by an enhanced sweat response. Athletes with spinal cord lesion are unable to sweat below the lesion and it is unknown if they can HA. Five paralympic shooting athletes with spinal cord lesion completed seven consecutive days HA in hot conditions (33.4 ± 0.6 °C, 64.8 ± 3.7 %rh). Each HA session consisted of 20 min arm crank exercise at 50 % [Formula: see text] followed by 40 min rest, or simulated shooting. Aural temperature (T (aur)) was recorded throughout. Body mass was assessed before and after each session and a sweat collection swab was fixed to T12 of the spine. Fingertip whole blood was sampled at rest on days 1 and 7 for estimation of the change in plasma volume. Resting T (aur) declined from 36.3 ± 0.2 °C on day 1 to 36.0 ± 0.2 °C by day 6 (P < 0.05). During the HA sessions mean, T (aur) declined from 37.2 ± 0.2 °C on day 1, to 36.7 ± 0.3 °C on day 7 (P < 0.05). Plasma volume increased from day 1 by 1.5 ± 0.6 % on day 7 (P < 0.05). No sweat secretion was detected or changes in body mass observed from any participant. Repeated hyperthermia combined with limited evaporative heat loss was sufficient to increase plasma volume, probably by alterations in fluid regulatory hormones. In conclusion, we found that although no sweat response was observed, athletes with spinal cord lesion could partially HA.

Heat acclimation (HA) can improve thermoregulatory stability in able-bodied athletes in part by an enhanced sweat response. Athletes with spinal cord lesion are unable to sweat below the lesion and it is unknown if they can HA. Five paralympic shooting athletes with spinal cord lesion completed seven consecutive days HA in hot conditions (33.4 ± 0.6 °C, 64.8 ± 3.7 %rh). Each HA session consisted of 20 min arm crank exercise at 50 % [Formula: see text] followed by 40 min rest, or simulated shooting. Aural temperature (T (aur)) was recorded throughout. Body mass was assessed before and after each session and a sweat collection swab was fixed to T12 of the spine. Fingertip whole blood was sampled at rest on days 1 and 7 for estimation of the change in plasma volume. Resting T (aur) declined from 36.3 ± 0.2 °C on day 1 to 36.0 ± 0.2 °C by day 6 (P < 0.05). During the HA sessions mean, T (aur) declined from 37.2 ± 0.2 °C on day 1, to 36.7 ± 0.3 °C on day 7 (P < 0.05). Plasma volume increased from day 1 by 1.5 ± 0.6 % on day 7 (P < 0.05). No sweat secretion was detected or changes in body mass observed from any participant. Repeated hyperthermia combined with limited evaporative heat loss was sufficient to increase plasma volume, probably by alterations in fluid regulatory hormones. In conclusion, we found that although no sweat response was observed, athletes with spinal cord lesion could partially HA.

Obesity-related metabolic disorders are characterized by mild chronic inflammation, leukocyte infiltration, and tissue fibrosis as a result of adipocytokine production from the expanding white adipose tissue. Annexin A1 (AnxA1) is an endogenous glucocorticoid regulated protein, which modulates systemic anti-inflammatory processes and, therefore, may be altered with increasing adiposity in humans. Paradoxically, we found that plasma AnxA1 concentrations inversely correlated with BMI, total percentage body fat, and waist-to-hip ratio in human subjects. Plasma AnxA1 was also inversely correlated with plasma concentrations of the acute-phase protein, C-reactive protein (CRP), and the adipocytokine leptin, suggesting that as systemic inflammation increases, anti-inflammatory AnxA1 is reduced. In addition, AnxA1 gene expression and protein were significantly up-regulated during adipogenesis in a human adipocyte cell line compared to vehicle alone, demonstrating for the first time that AnxA1 is expressed and excreted from human adipocytes. These data demonstrate a failure in the endogenous anti-inflammatory system to respond to increasing systemic inflammation resulting from expanding adipose tissue, a condition strongly linked to the development of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease. These data raise the possibility that a reduction in plasma AnxA1 may contribute to the chronic inflammatory phenotype observed in human obesity.

In this article, inspired by Lawrence Krauss' plenary talk at the 2007 CAP congress, the relation between faith and science is examined., Comment: 9 pages. To be published in Physics In Canada

We investigate, via Monte Carlo simulations, the phase structure of a system of closed, nonintersecting but otherwise non-interacting, loops in 3 Euclidean dimensions. The loops correspond to closed trajectories of massive particles and we find a phase transition as a function of their mass. We identify the order parameter as the average length of the loops at equilibrium. This order parameter exhibits a sharp increase as the mass is decreased through a critical value, the behaviour seems to be a cross-over transition. We believe that the model represents an effective description of the broken-symmetry sector of the 2+1 dimensional abelian Higgs model, in the extreme strong coupling limit. The massive gauge bosons and the neutral scalars are decoupled, and the relevant low-lying excitations correspond to vortices and anti-vortices. The functional integral can be approximated by a sum over simple, closed vortex loop configurations. We present a novel fashion to generate non-intersecting closed loops, starting from a tetrahedral tessellation of three space. The two phases that we find admit the following interpretation: the usual Higgs phase and a novel phase which is heralded by the appearance of effectively infinitely long loops. We compute the expectation value of the Wilson loop operator and that of the Polyakov loop operator. The Wilson loop exhibits perimeter law behaviour in both phases implying that the transition corresponds neither to the restoration of symmetry nor to confinement. The effective interaction between external charges is screened in both phases, however there is a dramatic increase in the polarization cloud in the novel phase as shown by the energy shift introduced by the Wilson loop., Comment: 10 pages, 20 figures, color viewing helpful; greatly expanded, published version; title changed

We analyze the validity of the adiabatic approximation, and in particular the reliability of what has been called the "standard criterion" for validity of this approximation. Recently, this criterion has been found to be insufficient. We will argue that the criterion is sufficient only when it agrees with the intuitive notion of slowness of evolution of the Hamiltonian. However, it can be insufficient in cases where the Hamiltonian varies rapidly but only by a small amount. We also emphasize the distinction between the adiabatic theorem and the adiabatic approximation, two quite different although closely related ideas.

These lectures are intended as an introduction to the technique of path integrals and their applications in physics. The audience is mainly first-year graduate students, and it is assumed that the reader has a good foundation in quantum mechanics. No prior exposure to path integrals is assumed, however. The path integral is a formulation of quantum mechanics equivalent to the standard formulations, offering a new way of looking at the subject which is, arguably, more intuitive than the usual approaches. Applications of path integrals are as vast as those of quantum mechanics itself, including the quantum mechanics of a single particle, statistical mechanics, condensed matter physics and quantum field theory. After an introduction including a very brief historical overview of the subject, we derive a path integral expression for the propagator in quantum mechanics, including the free particle and harmonic oscillator as examples. We then discuss a variety of applications, including path integrals in multiply-connected spaces, Euclidean path integrals and statistical mechanics, perturbation theory in quantum mechanics and in quantum field theory, and instantons via path integrals. For the most part, the emphasis is on explicit calculations in the familiar setting of quantum mechanics, with some discussion (often brief and schematic) of how these ideas can be applied to more complicated situations such as field theory., Comment: 55 pages, 23 figures. Lectures given at Rencontres du Vietnam: VIth Vietnam School of Physics, Vung Tau, Vietnam, 27 December 1999 - 8 January 2000

Much of the interest in C60 and its derivatives arises from the elegant, nearly spherical molecular architecture associated with these compounds which plays a fundamental role in their solid-state structures and dynamics. While derivative compounds characterized by only modest perturbations of this spherical architecture generally exhibit solid-state behavior similar to that of pristine C60, one might expect significantly divergent behavior as the perturbations become increasingly large. In order to probe such systematics, we have used x-ray powder diffraction (XRPD) and differential scanning calorimetry (DSC) to study the crystalline structures and thermal behavior of the 6,6-cyclopropane isomer of C61H2. At room temperature, the C61H2 cyclopropane molecules, like those of the 6,5-annulene isomer, are orientationally disordered and crystallize on a face-centered cubic lattice such that their methylene groups are statistically disordered among the octahedral voids. Unlike the annulene isomer, however, C61H2 cyclopropane does not adopt a simple cubic Pa3¯ in its low-temperature orientationally ordered phase. Rather, the 20 K XRPD pattern suggests that the orientationally ordered molecules occupy the face-centered orthorhombic basis sites of a low-symmetry orthorhombic lattice in which a ≈ b < c. We have proposed a simple structural model involving in-plane methylene alignment which leads to excellent qualitative agreement with the experimental XRPD data. In reality, however, we believe that the residual disorder observed in this phase may be attributed to the existence of energetically equivalent and/or defect structures. DSC studies performed upon heating revealed a two-step orientational melting transition centered around 203–213 K. In addition, we have also used differential scanning calorimetry, optical microscopy, and x-ray diffraction to study the thermal stability of pristine C60 itself in the solid state. To minimize contamination and/or reaction of the sampl

We examine an approach to justifying the mean field approximation for the anyon gas, using the scattering of anyons. Parity violation permits a nonzero average scattering angle, from which one can extract a mean radius of curvature for anyons. If this is larger than the interparticle separation, one expects that the graininess of the statistical magnetic field is unimportant, and that the mean field approximation is good. We argue that a non-conventional interaction between anyons is crucial, in which case the criterion for validity of the approximation is identical to the one deduced using a self-consistency argument., Comment: 11 pages, UdeM-LPN-TH-130