Influence of a monitored aerobic training and a low-energy diet on serum leptin concentration in obese women

The study focused on the influence of a 9-week monitored energy deficit on serum leptin level in 16 obese women. Additionally, measurements of body components and total cholesterol (CHO), HDL cholesterol (HDL) and triacylglycerols (TRG) concentration in blood were carried out, concentration of LDL cholesterol (LDL) was evaluated. Energy deficit was induced by a diet and “fat burning” type exercises. Leptin concentration in blood serum was significantly higher before (41.7±16.5 ng/ml) than after the accomplishment of experiment (24.7±16.2 ng/ml). Body mass decreased, which was mainly due to a drop in body fat (from 36.6±13.9 kg to 29.0±12.5 kg). All changes have been statistically significant at the level of P<0.001. A significant decrease of CHO (from 187.9±26.3 mg/dl to 167.1±25.4 mg/dl; P<0.001) and LDL (from 115.5±25.1 mg/dl to 102.3±21.5 mg/dl; P<0.05) concentration in blood was noticed. However, changes in HDL and TRG concentration were statistically insignificant. There was a statistically significant correlation (P<0.05) recorded between changes in leptin concentration in blood and changes in body mass, BMI and body fat (0.51; 0.58; 0.64 respectively). No correlation was observed between leptin and lean body mass, CHO, HDL, LDL or TRG

Head-on collisions of unequal mass black holes in D=5 dimensions

We study head-on collisions of unequal mass black hole binaries in D=5 space-time dimensions, with mass ratios between 1:1 and 1:4. Information about gravitational radiation is extracted by using the Kodama-Ishibashi gauge-invariant formalism and details of the apparent horizon of the final black hole. For the first time, we present waveforms, total integrated energy and momentum for this process. Our results show surprisingly good agreement, within 5% or less, with those extrapolated from linearized, point-particle calculations. Our results also show that consistency with the area theorem bound requires that the same process in a large number of spacetime dimensions must display new features.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, RevTex4. v2: Published versio

Numerical Relativity in D dimensional space-times: Collisions of unequal mass black holes

We present unequal mass head-on collisions of black holes in D = 5 dimensional space-times. We have simulated BH systems with mass ratios q = 1,1/2,1/3,1/4. We extract the total energy radiated throughout the collision and compute the linear momentum flux and the recoil velocity of the final black hole. The numerical results show very good agreement with point particle calculations when extrapolated to this limit

Numerical Relativity in D dimensional space-times: Collisions of unequal mass black holes

We present unequal mass head-on collisions of black holes in D = 5 dimensional space-times. We have simulated BH systems with mass ratios q = 1,1/2,1/3,1/4. We extract the total energy radiated throughout the collision and compute the linear momentum flux and the recoil velocity of the final black hole. The numerical results show very good agreement with point particle calculations when extrapolated to this limit

Numerical relativity in higher dimensions

We give a status report on our project targeted at performing numerical simulations of a head-on collision of non-spinning black holes in higher dimensional non-compact space-times. These simulations should help us understand black objects in higher dimensions and their stability properties. They are also relevant for the problem of black hole formation and evaporation in particle accelerators and cosmic rays. We use the symmetries of the system to reduce the problem to an effective 3+1 problem, allowing the use of existing numerical codes. As a simple application of the formalism, we present the results for the evolution of a five dimensional single black hole space-time. © 2010 IOP Publishing Ltd

Numerical Relativity in D dimensional space-times: Collisions of unequal mass black holes

We present unequal mass head-on collisions of black holes in D = 5 dimensional space-times. We have simulated BH systems with mass ratios q = 1,1/2,1/3,1/4. We extract the total energy radiated throughout the collision and compute the linear momentum flux and the recoil velocity of the final black hole. The numerical results show very good agreement with point particle calculations when extrapolated to this limit

Elevating crop disease resistance with cloned genes

Essentially all plant species exhibit heritable genetic variation for resistance to a variety of plant diseases caused by fungi, bacteria, oomycetes or viruses. Disease losses in crop monocultures are already significant, and would be greater but for applications of disease-controlling agrichemicals. For sustainable intensification of crop production, we argue that disease control should as far as possible be achieved using genetics rather than using costly recurrent chemical sprays. The latter imply CO2 emissions from diesel fuel and potential soil compaction from tractor journeys. Great progress has been made in the past 25 years in our understanding of the molecular basis of plant disease resistance mechanisms, and of how pathogens circumvent them. These insights can inform more sophisticated approaches to elevating disease resistance in crops that help us tip the evolutionary balance in favour of the crop and away from the pathogen. We illustrate this theme with an account of a genetically modified (GM) blight-resistant potato trial in Norwich, using the Rpi-vnt1.1 gene isolated from a wild relative of potato, Solanum venturii, and introduced by GM methods into the potato variety Desiree

On Field Theory Thermalization from Gravitational Collapse

Motivated by its field theory interpretation, we study gravitational collapse of a minimally coupled massless scalar field in Einstein gravity with a negative cosmological constant. After demonstrating the accuracy of the numerical algorithm for the questions we are interested in, we investigate various aspects of the apparent horizon formation. In particular, we study the time and radius of the apparent horizon formed as functions of the initial Gaussian profile for the scalar field. We comment on several aspects of the dual field theory picture.Comment: 31 pages, 17 figures; V2 Some figures corrected, minor revision. arXiv admin note: substantial text overlap with arXiv:1106.233

Non-equilibrium Condensation Process in a Holographic Superconductor

We study the non-equilibrium condensation process in a holographic superconductor. When the temperature T is smaller than a critical temperature T_c, there are two black hole solutions, the Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black hole and a black hole with a scalar hair. In the boundary theory, they can be regarded as the supercooled normal phase and the superconducting phase, respectively. We consider perturbations on supercooled Reissner-Nordstrom-AdS black holes and study their non-linear time evolution to know about physical phenomena associated with rapidly-cooled superconductors. We find that, for T<T_c, the initial perturbations grow exponentially and, eventually, spacetimes approach the hairy black holes. We also clarify how the relaxation process from a far-from-equilibrium state proceeds in the boundary theory by observing the time dependence of the superconducting order parameter. Finally, we study the time evolution of event and apparent horizons and discuss their correspondence with the entropy of the boundary theory. Our result gives a first step toward the holographic understanding of the non-equilibrium process in superconductors.Comment: 20 pages, 7 figure