Adiabatic Electroweak Baryogenesis Driven by an Axion-like Particle

An axion-like particle (ALP) offers a new direction in electroweak baryogenesis because the periodic nature enables it to trigger a strong first-order phase transition insensitively to the decay constant $f$. For $f$ much above TeV, the ALP-induced electroweak phase transition is approximately described by adiabatic processes, distinguishing our scenario for electroweak baryogenesis from the conventional ones. We show that, coupled to the electroweak anomaly, the ALP can naturally realize spontaneous electroweak baryogenesis to solve the matter-antimatter asymmetry problem for $f$ in the range between about $10^5$ GeV and $10^7$ GeV. In such an ALP window, the $CP$ violation for baryogenesis is totally free from the experimental constraints, especially from the recently improved limit on the electron electric dipole moment. Future searches for ALPs could probe our scenario while revealing the connection between electroweak symmetry breaking and baryogenesis.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figures, appendices added, published versio

Minimalist's Linux Cluster

Using barebone PC components and NIC's, we construct a linux cluster which has 2-dimensional mesh structure. This cluster has smaller footprint, is less expensive, and use less power compared to conventional linux cluster. Here, we report our experience in building such a machine and discuss our current lattice project on the machine.Comment: 3 pages, 2 figures, Proceedings of the Lattice 03 Conference (Tsukuba, Japan

Entropic measure of directional emissions in microcavity lasers

We propose a noble notion of the directional emission in microcavity lasers. First, Shannon entropy of the far-field profiles in the polar coordinate can quantify the degree of unidirectionality of the emission, while previous notions about the unidirectionality can not efficiently measure in the robust range against a variation of the deformation parameter. Second, a divergence angle of the directional emission is defined phenomenologically in terms of full width at half maximum, and it is barely applicable to a complicated peak structure. However, Shannon entropy of semi-marginal probability of the far-field profiles in the cartesian coordinate can present equivalent results, and moreover it is applicable to even the cases with a complicated peak structure of the emission

An immunohistochemical study of the pancreatic endocrine cells of the ddN mouse.

The regional distribution and frequency of the pancreatic endocrine cells in the ddN mouse were studied using specific antisera against insulin, glucagon, somatostatin and human pancreatic polypeptide (hPP). In the pancreatic islets, most of insulin-immunoreactive (IR) cells were located in the central region, and glucagon-, somatostatin and hPP-IR cells were located in the peripheral region regardless of the lobe. In the splenic part, glucagon-IR cells were also located in the central regions, and more numerous somatostatin-IR cells were detected in the central regions as compared with the duo-denal part. hPP-IR cells were restricted to the peripheral regions in both lobes but more numerous cells were detected in the duodenal portion. In the exocrine parenchyma of the splenic lobe, only insulin- and glucagon-IR cells were detected but all four kinds of IR cells were observed in the duodenal portion. In addition, insulin and hPP-IR cells were also demonstrated in the pancreatic duct regions. In conclusion, some strain-dependent characteristic distributional patterns of pancreatic endocrine cells were found in the ddN mouse with somewhat different distributional patterns between the two pancreatic lobes

Biomarkers of Oxidative Stress and Endogenous Antioxidants for Patients with Chronic Subjective Dizziness

As a neurotologic disorder of persistent non-vertiginous dizziness, chronic subjective dizziness (CSD) arises unsteadily by psychological and physiological imbalance. The CSD is hypersensitivity reaction due to exposure to complex motions visual stimuli. However, the pathophysiological features and mechanism of the CSD still remains unclearly. The present study was purposed to establish possible endogenous contributors of the CSD using serum samples from patients with the CSD. A total 199 participants were gathered and divided into two groups; healthy (n = 152, male for 61, and female for 91) and CSD (n = 47, male for 5, female for 42), respectively. Oxidative stress parameters such as, hydrogen peroxide and reactive substances were significantly elevated (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001), whereas endogenous antioxidant components including total glutathione contents, and activities of catalase and superoxide dismutase were significantly deteriorated in the CSD group (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001) as comparing to the healthy group, respectively. Serum levels of tumor necrosis factor -α and interferon-γ were significantly increased in the CSD participants (p < 0.001). Additionally, emotional stress related hormones including cortisol, adrenaline, and serotonin were abnormally observed in the serum levels of the CSD group (p < 0.01 or p < 0.001). Our results confirmed that oxidative stress and antioxidants are a critical contributor of pathophysiology of the CSD, and that is first explored to establish features of redox system in the CSD subjects compared to a healthy population

Decomposed entropy and estimation of output power in deformed microcavity lasers

Park et al. [Phys. Rev. A 106, L031504 (2022)] showed that the Shannon entropy of the probability distribution of a single random variable for far-field profiles (FFPs) in deformed microcavity lasers can efficiently measure the directionality of deformed microcavity lasers. In this study, we instead consider two random variables of FFPs with joint probability distributions and introduce the decomposed (Shannon) entropy for the peak intensity of directional emissions. This provides a new foundation such that the decomposed entropy can estimate the degree of the output power at given FFPs without any further information.Comment: 7 pages, 5 figure

Optimization of 4-Port Asymmetric Elliptical Birdcage RF Coil for 1.5 Tesla MRI

The elliptical whole-body radiofrequency (RF) coil can be used for RF transmission/reception in magnetic resonance (MR)-guided treatment or MR-fused system with space between the RF shield and the gradient coil available for other imaging/treatment modality. The elliptical birdcage has higher B1⁺ field uniformity than circular birdcage due to increased filling factor between the RF coil and target. In this work, the asymmetric elliptical birdcage is proposed to improve overall performance through electromagnetic simulations. This work compares the 2-port and 4-port excitations and their effects on B1⁺ field uniformity and SAR deposition for both circular and elliptical coil with symmetrical/asymmetrical structures

Development of an Emergency Locking Unit for a Belt-In-Seat (BIS) System Using a MEMS Acceleration Sensor

This paper proposes an emergency locking unit (ELU) for a seat belt retractor which is mounted on the back frame of a vehicle seat. The proposed unit uses a recliner sensor based on a MEMS acceleration sensor and solenoid mechanism. The seat has an upper frame supported to tilt on a lower frame. The retractor in belt in seat (BIS) system is supported by the upper frame. The proposed recliner sensor based on a MEMS acceleration sensor comprises orientation means for maintaining a predetermined orientation of emergency relative to the lower frame independently of the force of gravity when the upper frame tilts on the lower frame. Experimental results show that the developed recliner sensor unit operates effectively with respect to rollover angles. Thus, the developed unit will have a considerable potential to offer a new design concept in BIS system

Tetramethyl-O-scutellarin isolated from peels of immature Shiranuhi fruit exhibits anti-inflammatory effects on LPSinduced RAW264.7 cells

Purpose: To investigate the anti-inflammatory activity of the ethanol extract of the immature fruit of a citrus, Shiranuhi, and to identify the active ingredient.Methods: The immature Shiranuhi peel was extracted with 80 % ethanol, and the extract was fractionated with solvents (n-hexane, ethyl acetate and n-butanol) to afford the corresponding fractions and water residue. Among them, the EtOAc-soluble portion was subjected to medium pressure liquid chromatography (MPLC) over a reversed-phase SiO2 column to give compound 1. The isolated compound was identified based on the proton and carbon nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) spectra. The release of nitric oxide, prostaglandin (PG)E2, tumor necrosis factor (TNF)-α, interleukin (IL)-1β, and IL-6 secreted by mouse macrophages was measured using RAW264.7 cell culture supernatant.Results: Shiranuhi (Korean name, Hallabong) is an important citrus species cultivated in Jeju Island, Korea. A polymethoxyflavonoid (PMF), tetramethyl-O-scutellarin (1), was isolated from the peels of immature Shiranuhi fruit. Upon the evaluation of anti-inflammatory effects, the flavonoid 1 decreased the nitric oxide production in macrophage cells with high efficiency, viz, 50 % inhibition concentration, IC50 of 57.4 μM. Subsequent studies demonstrated that PMF 1 effectively inhibited the generation of PGE2, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 cytokine in a dose-dependent manner.Conclusion: Tetramethyl-O-scutellarin (1) has been successfully isolated from Shiranuhi species for the first time. Thus, Shiranuhi fruit peel extract containing PMF 1 can potentially be applied as an antiinflammatory ingredient in food or cosmetic industries.Keywords: Shiranuhi fruit, Nitric oxide, Tetramethyl-O-scutellarin, Anti-inflammator