Superluminal Neutrinos in the Minimal Standard Model Extension

Most recently, the measurement of the neutrino velocity with the OPERA detector in the CNGS beam shows unexpected indication, that the muon neutrino velocity, $v_{\nu}$, exceeds the velocity of light in the vacuum, $c$, which is obviously in contradiction with the most basic hypothesis of modern physics. Within the framework of minimal Standard Model Extension, we discuss the modified dispersion relation and consequently the velocity-energy relation of muon neutrinos. The simplified models are fit to the OPERA data, Fermilab experiment and MINO data. We find that minimal Standard Extension can describe these long baseline superluminal neutrinos to a good accuracy. For the well-known tension between the OPERA measurement and the Supernova 1987A neutrino observation, we discussed two ways out of the contradiction.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figure

PI-BA Bundle Adjustment Acceleration on Embedded FPGAs with Co-observation Optimization

Bundle adjustment (BA) is a fundamental optimization technique used in many crucial applications, including 3D scene reconstruction, robotic localization, camera calibration, autonomous driving, space exploration, street view map generation etc. Essentially, BA is a joint non-linear optimization problem, and one which can consume a significant amount of time and power, especially for large optimization problems. Previous approaches of optimizing BA performance heavily rely on parallel processing or distributed computing, which trade higher power consumption for higher performance. In this paper we propose {\pi}-BA, the first hardware-software co-designed BA engine on an embedded FPGA-SoC that exploits custom hardware for higher performance and power efficiency. Specifically, based on our key observation that not all points appear on all images in a BA problem, we designed and implemented a Co-Observation Optimization technique to accelerate BA operations with optimized usage of memory and computation resources. Experimental results confirm that {\pi}-BA outperforms the existing software implementations in terms of performance and power consumption.Comment: in Proceedings of IEEE FCCM 201

Novel SPP Water Management Strategy and Its Applications

Clean freshwater is the most precious resource in the world and the development of water resources has had a very long history, as early as humans changed from being hunters and food collectors to modern civilization. At very early stage, people had to rely on creeks, rivers and lakes for their water demand that was relatively small, and today humans have accumulated the knowledge and techniques for water storage, building artificial lakes or reservoirs to meet their huge water demand due to industrialization and urbanization. The Wworld’s earliest large dam was the Sadd-el-kafara Dam built in Egypt between 2950 and 2690 B.C. Up to now, water from lakes and reservoirs is still the main source for people’s water supply. However these large water bodies suffer two problems incurred by nature and human being, one is sedimentation and the other water pollution. Two of them jointly reduce the available amount of clean water and deteriorate the water quality. Consequently, approximate 1.1 billion people lack of safe drinking water and between 2 and 5 million people die annually from water-related disease (Gleick, 2004). It is understandable that with the population growth in the world, it is difficult to provide sufficient clean water to meet the demand; on the other hand, our natural systems are under pressure from drought (too little), floods (too much), pollution (too dirty), climate change, and other stresses. This creates serious challenges for water management

Parametrization of fermion mixing matrices in Kobayashi-Maskawa form

Recent works show that the original Kobayashi-Maskawa (KM) form of fermion mixing matrix exhibits some advantages, especially when discussing problems such as unitarity boomerangs and maximal CP violation hypothesis. Therefore, the KM form of fermion mixing matrix is systematically studied in this paper. Starting with a general triminimal expansion of the KM matrix, we discuss the triminimal and Wolfenstein-like parametrizations with different basis matrices in detail. The quark-lepton complementarity relations play an important role in our discussions on describing quark mixing and lepton mixing in a unified way.Comment: 10 latex pages, final version to appear in PR

Anhuienoside C ameliorates atherosclerosis in rats via regulation of the NFκB/eNOS/NO signaling pathway

Purpose: To investigate the protective effect of anhuienoside C (AC) against high cholesterol dietinduced atherosclerosis in a rat model. Methods: Atherosclerosis was induced in rats by administration of high fat diet for 8 weeks, and AC (20 and 40 mg/kg) was administered orally. The effect of AC was determined by assessing serum lipid profiles and mediators of inflammation, as well as oxidative stress parameters in aortic tissue using enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). Western blot assay and reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) were used for the evaluation of protein expressions. Results: Serum levels of total cholesterol (TC), triglycerides (TGs), high density lipoprotein (HDL), low density lipoprotein (LDLP), and IL-1β, IL-18, TNF-α and NF-κB were significantly reduced in AC-treated group, relative to atherosclerotic rats (p < 0.01). Moreover, parameters of oxidative stress were attenuated in the aortic tissues of AC-treated group, when compared with atherosclerotic rats. There was significant increase in eNOS expression, and marked decrease in the expressions of MAPK and NF-kB protein in the aortic tissue homogenate of AC treated group, relative to atherosclerotic group (p <0.01). Treatment with AC attenuated the mRNA expressions of ICAM-1, VCAM-1 and MCP-1 in aortic tissue of the atherosclerotic rats. Conclusion: These results reveal that AC prevents atherosclerosis in rats by modulating the NFκB/eNOS/NO signaling pathway, and thus, can thus potentially be developed as anti-atherosclerotic agent. Keywords: Anhuienoside C, Atherosclerosis, Inflammation, Oxidative stress, Cholestero

The Roles of the Kisspeptin System in the Reproductive Physiology of the Lined Seahorse (Hippocampus erectus), an Ovoviviparous Fish With Male Pregnancy

The kisspeptin/GPR54 system plays a crucial role in the regulation of the reproductive axis in vertebrates. Male pregnancy and ovoviviparity are special reproductive phenomena among vertebrates. To better understand the neuroendocrine mechanisms of male pregnancy, cDNAs encoding kiss2 and GPR54 were cloned and functionally characterized from the lined seahorse, Hippocampus erectus, an ovoviviparous teleost with male pregnancy. The core mature peptide of seahorse Kiss2 is high conserved among seahorses, but unique among vertebrate Kiss orthologs. In the phylogenic analysis, the seahorse Kiss clustered with the teleost Kiss2 clade. The kiss2 transcripts were shown to be widely expressed in various tissues, notably in the brain and gonad of the seahorse, while GPR54-2 mRNA was expressed exclusively in the brain. In addition, kiss2 mRNA found in male seahorse brain tissue increased significantly at the early pubertal stage, and decreased significantly during pregnancy. Intraperitoneal administration of seahorse Kiss2-10 to sexual mature male seahorses demonstrated to stimulate lutropin β (LHβ) and follitropin β (FSHβ) release and increased serum testosterone levels. In summary, we first identified the kisspeptin/GPR54 system in an ovoviviparous fish with male pregnancy, which might be involved in the regulation of the reproductive functions of pubertal onset, gonadal development, and male pregnancy via regulating the synthesis of both gonadotropic hormone (GTH) and testosterone

A new simple form of quark mixing matrix

Although different parametrizations of quark mixing matrix are mathematically equivalent, the consequences of experimental analysis may be distinct. Based on the triminimal expansion of Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix around the unit matrix, we propose a new simple parametrization. Compared with the Wolfenstein parametrization, we find that the new form is not only consistent with the original one in the hierarchical structure, but also more convenient for numerical analysis and measurement of the CP-violating phase. By discussing the relation between our new form and the unitarity boomerang, we point out that along with the unitarity boomerang, this new parametrization is useful in hunting for new physics.Comment: 10 pages, 1 figure, final version for journal publicatio

Lethal activity of BRD4 PROTAC degrader QCA570 against bladder cancer cells

Bladder cancer is the most common malignancy of the urinary system. Efforts to identify innovative and effective therapies for bladder cancer are urgently needed. Recent studies have identified the BRD4 protein as the critical factor in regulation of cell proliferation and apoptosis in bladder cancer, and it shows promising potential for pharmacologic treatment against bladder cancer. In this study, we have evaluated the biological function of QCA570, a novel BET degrader, on multiple bladder cancer cells and explore its underlying mechanisms. QCA570 potently induces degradation of BRD4 protein at nanomolar concentrations, with a DC50 of ∼ 1 nM. It decreases EZH2 and c-MYC levels by transcriptional suppression and protein degradation. Moreover, the degrader significantly induces cell apoptosis and cycle arrest and shows antiproliferation activity against bladder cancer cells. These findings support the potential efficacy of QCA570 on bladder cancer