A construction of Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles and applications

A construction theorem for Frobenius manifolds with logarithmic poles is established. This is a generalization of a theorem of Hertling and Manin. As an application we prove a generalization of the reconstruction theorem of Kontsevich and Manin for projective smooth varieties with convergent Gromov-Witten potential. A second application is a construction of Frobenius manifolds out of a variation of polarized Hodge structures which degenerates along a normal crossing divisor when certain generation conditions are fulfilled.Comment: 46 page

Optimized culture conditions for tissue explants of uterine leiomyoma

Background: Uterine leiomyomas are the most common benign tumours in women, which arise from smooth muscle cells of the uterine myometrium and usually are multicentric. In spite of their frequency pathogenesis is widely unknown, mainly due to the absence of a suitable model system. We describe the systematic optimization of culturing leiomyoma tissue explants in an economical and effective ex vivo system. Methods: Different concentrations of oxygen, different media, sera, hormones, and growth factor supplements were tested. Immunohistochemical stainings with antibodies against hormone receptors as well as specifying proliferation and apoptotic indices and real-time PCR were performed. Results: Main parameters for culturing myoma tissue explants were tested for finding an optimal protocol. Standard medium D-MEM-F12 in combination with the use of horse serum in a reduced concentration of 1% turned out to be optimal for these tissue cultures as well as the addition of estradiol and epidermal growth factor EGF to media. Reduced oxygen content in the incubator air showed no positive effect. Conclusions: For culturing tissue explants of uterine leiomyoma several conditions were optimized. The established tissue culture model allows examining the effects of known and potential therapeutic substances and the influence of immune competent cells in the process of tumour formation to find new targets for medical treatmen

Orbital-assisted metal-insulator transition in VO2_{2}

We found direct experimental evidence for an orbital switching in the V 3d states across the metal-insulator transition in VO$_{2}$. We have used soft-x-ray absorption spectroscopy at the V $L_{2,3}$ edges as a sensitive local probe, and have determined quantitatively the orbital polarizations. These results strongly suggest that, in going from the metallic to the insulating state, the orbital occupation changes in a manner that charge fluctuations and effective band widths are reduced, that the system becomes more 1-dimensional and more susceptible to a Peierls-like transition, and that the required massive orbital switching can only be made if the system is close to a Mott insulating regime

Social Value of Marine and Coastal Protected Areas in England and Wales.

The U.K. government is committed to establishing a coherent network of marine protected areas by 2012 and the recentMarine and Coastal Access Act, 2009 will designate marine conservation zones and provide wider access rights to the coast. To fulfill these goals, this article argues the need for a clearer, shared understanding of the social value of protected areas in creating new designations and managing existing ones. Although marine and coastal environments attract many people and are vitally important in terms of realized and potential social value, the majority of the public in the United Kingdom lacks understanding and awareness regarding them. Combined with this, the social value of marine and coastal protected areas (MCPAs) have been largely ignored relative to conservation and economics, with the latter invariably taking precedence in environmental policymaking. Social value reflects the complex, individual responses that people experience in a given place. Many reasons determine why one area is valued above another, and this research investigates the social value of MCPAs from a practitioner’s perspective through a series of interviews. Understanding why we “socially” value MCPAs will ultimately equip managers with an informed understanding of these spaces, influence management decisions, and, potentially, policymaking. This article defines social value in the context of MCPAs in England and Wales from a practitioner perspective, explores key concepts, and suggests possible improvements in decision-making

Effective Rheology of Bubbles Moving in a Capillary Tube

We calculate the average volumetric flux versus pressure drop of bubbles moving in a single capillary tube with varying diameter, finding a square-root relation from mapping the flow equations onto that of a driven overdamped pendulum. The calculation is based on a derivation of the equation of motion of a bubble train from considering the capillary forces and the entropy production associated with the viscous flow. We also calculate the configurational probability of the positions of the bubbles.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Memory reconsolidation in aversive and appetitive settings

Memory reconsolidation has been observed across species and in a number of behavioral paradigms. The majority of memory reconsolidation studies have been carried out in Pavlovian fear conditioning and other aversive memory settings, with potential implications for the treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. However, there is a growing literature on memory reconsolidation in appetitive reward-related memory paradigms, including translational models of drug addiction. While there appears to be substantial similarity in the basic phenomenon and underlying mechanisms of memory reconsolidation across unconditioned stimulus valence, there are also notable discrepancies. These arise both when comparing aversive to appetitive paradigms and also across different paradigms within the same valence of memory. We review the demonstration of memory reconsolidation across different aversive and appetitive memory paradigms, the commonalities and differences in underlying mechanisms and the conditions under which each memory undergoes reconsolidation. We focus particularly on whether principles derived from the aversive literature are applicable to appetitive settings, and also whether the expanding literature in appetitive paradigms is informative for fear memory reconsolidation