A simultaneous explanation of the large phase in B_s-\bar B_s mixing and B --> \pi\pi / \pi K puzzles in R-parity violating supersymmetry

Recent data on $B$ meson mixings and decays are, in general, in accord with the standard model expectations, except showing a few hiccups: (i) a large phase in $B_s$ mixing, (ii) a significant difference ($> 3.5 \sigma$) between CP-asymmetries in $B^\pm \to \pi^0 K^\pm$ and $B_d \to \pi^\mp K^\pm$ channels, and (iii) a larger than expected branching ratio in $B_d \to \pi^0\pi^0$ channel. We show that selective baryon number violating Yukawa couplings in R-parity violating supersymmetry can reconcile all the measurements.Comment: 8 pages, 4 eps figs; v2: minor errors corrected, fig.2a redrawn with correct y-axis labels, footnote on updated UTfit result on Bs mixing phase added, References and Acknowledgements sections update

A least-disruptive mechanism to compile integral and pointer types of unknown compile-time size to EFI Byte Code

Unified Extensible Firmware Interface (UEFI) is a specification which describes an interface between the operating system (OS) and the platform firmware. UEFI is a replacement for BIOS. The UEFI Specification describes how to write drivers for a device. One of the design goals in the UEFI Specification is keeping the driver images as small as possible. But the primary disadvantage of this specification is, these device drivers will be platform- and processor-dependent. In addition to the standard architecture-specific (native) device drivers, the EFI specification also provides for a processor-independent device driver environment, known as the EFI Byte Code (EBC) Virtual Machine, which enables execution of device drivers written in EFI Byte Code, independent of the platform and architecture. It follows that the target machine architecture is unknown during the compilation of an EBC image, since the compiled EBC image can potentially be run on any architecture and platform that supports the EBC Virtual Machine. In order to support writing such (EBC) code that can be executed unchanged on both 32- and 64-bit architectures, the UEFI specification describes a natural indexing mechanism, along with the introduction of a new integral type INTN, the size of which is dependent on the runtime target architecture. This implies that the size of the pointer (void*) and the newly introduced natural types (INTN/UINTN) is unknown at compile time, being dependent on the runtime architecture of the platform on which the EBC driver is executed. The above specification creates several challenges in implementation of the EBC compiler. One of the basic assumptions in any compiler implementation is that the size and alignment of all types are known at compile time, enabling the compiler to be able to generate correct object layouts, structure field offsets, array indexes, load/store alignments, and to be able to correctly compute the function call stack frame allocations, etc. Accordingly, all static language compilers such as C/C++ compilers expect the type system of the language to be well-known at compile-time, with no concept of types dependent on the runtime platform. Unfortunately, the UEFI specification defines the source language for EBC device drivers to be the C language with certain restrictions, implying that the compiler implementation for the static C language be able to handle such runtime platform dependent types. It would follow that a well-defined technique to handle pointer (void*) and natural (INTN/UINTN) types with runtime target dependent size is critical in being able to implement a C compiler with the ability to compile to (target) platform and processor independent EBC. Unfortunately, there are no documented and well-defined techniques to implement a compiler with the ability to support such types with unknown compile-time size and alignment

An Approach Towards Supporting Types with Unknown Compile-Time Size in a Typical C Compiler

One of the basic premises in the implementation of a ISO C compiler is that the size and alignment of all types specified by the language is known at compile time. The ISO C standard unambiguously states the size and alignment requirements of all types specified by the language. It follows that the size and alignment of all composite types is hence also known at compile time. The compiler uses the knowledge of the size and alignment of the types to be able to correctly allocate objects, generate object layouts, compute member offsets into structures and array indices, load/store alignments, allocate function call stack frame, etc. Even for platforms that support both 32-bit and 64-bit data models, with the latter providing wider sizes for some of the basic types such as pointers and long, the compiler needs the data model to be specified at compile-time in view of the above considerations. There are certain domain-specific extensions to the C language, most notably the source language for EFI Byte Code (EBC), that do not specify the size and alignment of certain types, leaving them to be determined by the underlying architecture at runtime. Such specifications allow for the generated code (typically a high-level byte code) to be platform agnostic, allowing execution without change on multiple platforms. One of the primary motivations for such non-standard lenient language specification is the significant cost savings realized by the consolidated development and testing of the platform agnostic code deployed on multiple platforms. Unfortunately, there are no documented and well-defined techniques to implement a compiler with the ability to support such types with unknown compile-time size and alignment

Evaluation of rapeseed-mustard cultivars under late sown condition in coastal ecosystem of West Bengal

In our present report, we evaluated seven rapeseed mustard cultivars at coastal saline zone of West Bengal, India under rice-mustard sequence in a triplicated randomized block design for 14 traits to study their performance under late sown (2nd December) condition. The cultivars were sown at 30 cm × 10 cm spacing during winter of 2013?14 and 2014?15. The soil was clay in texture and had the following key properties for the 0?30 cm layer: pH 5.84, electrical conductivity (EC) 1.55 dS/m, available nitrogen (N) 155.24 kg/ha, available phosphorus (P) 105.76 kg/ha, available potassium (K) 365.86 kg/ha and available B 2.63 kg/ha. Among the seven cultivars, Kranti produced significantly (p?0.05) higher seed yield (1.33 t/ha) closely followed by the hybrids PAC-409 (1.23 t/ha) and Pusa Bold (1.21 t/ha). Seed yield showed significant (p?0.05) positive correlation with all the independent variables (plant height, R2=0.88; dry matter, R2=0.42; days to 50 % flowering, R2=0.27; number of siliqua/plant, R2=0.38; seeds/siliqua, R2=0.48; except number of fertile plants/m2, R2=-0.06; number of secondary branches/plant, R2=-0.97 and length of siliqua, R2=-0.07). However, number of secondary branches/plant had significant (p?0.05) and negative correlation with seed yield of mustard (R2=-0.97). Plant height revealed the highest degree of correlation (R2=0.88) with seed yield followed by siliqua per main branch (R2=0.77), days to harvest (R2=0.75) and 1000-seed weight (R2=0.52). The results indicated that selection of suitable rapeseed mustard cultivars based on these traits would be more effective in improving seed yield in mustard

Enhancement of post harvest fruit quality and leaf curl disease tolerance in tomato through hybrid breeding

Development of hybrids tolerant to leaf curl virus disease along with good post harvest/processing traits is the major thrust areas in tomato breeding now-a-days. A study was undertaken following 7 × 7 half diallel mating design utilizing four exotic and three indigenous lines to identify potential donors and crosses, to study the extent of heterobeltiosis and dominance behaviour, and to assess the genetic control of post harvest quality traits along with disease tolerance in tomato. Breeding strategies to improve characters governed by different types of gene action are discussed. Two parental lines, CLN 2777F and CLN 2777E could be utilized further in tomato breeding programme as they were identified as the most promising general combiners for fruit yield, processing quality and ToLCV tolerance. The maximum extent of heterobeltiosis (104.17%) was found in pericarp thickness followed by fruit yield plant-1 (63.57 %) and PDI of ToLCV disease (-60.00 %). The hybrids also exhibited various degrees of dominance effects. The study could also able to identify a promising cross ‘CLN 2777E × CLN 2777F’ which could be recommended for commercial exploitation after critical study in leaf curl disease prone areas of the tropics and sub-tropics

Driving Factors Behind the Adoption of Improved Technologies by Lentil Growers in West Bengal

Over the last six decades in India, there has been an unsatisfactory gain in pulse productivity, which is a severe threat to the creation of resilient livelihoods and the overall food and nutritional security of the country. To specifically enhance lentil productivity under rice-based cropping systems in West Bengal, the International Centre for Agriculture Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA) began a multi-disciplinary project in 2012/13 providing improved technologies, including 29 improved lentil varieties, and a package of agronomic practices to farmers

Correlated enhancements in Ds→ℓνD_s \to \ell\nu, (g−2)(g-2) of muon, and lepton flavor violating τ\tau decays with two R-parity violating couplings

With just two R-parity violating couplings, $\lambda'_{223}$ and $\lambda'_{323}$, we correlate several channels, namely, $D_s \to \ell \nu$ ($\ell = \mu, \tau$), $(g-2)_\mu$, and some lepton flavor violating $\tau$ decays. For $\lambda'_{223} = \lambda'_{323} \sim 0.3$ and for a common superpartner mass of 300 GeV, which explain the recently observed excesses in the above $D_s$ decay channels, we predict the following R-parity violating contributions: ${\rm Br} (\tau \to \mu \gamma) \sim 4.5 \cdot 10^{-8}$, ${\rm Br} (\tau \to \mu\mu\mu) \sim 1.2 \cdot 10^{-8}$, ${\rm Br} (\tau \to \mu\eta/\eta') \sim 4 \cdot 10^{-10}$, and $(g_\mu-2)/2 \sim 4 \cdot 10^{-11}$. We exhibit our results through observable versus observable correlation plots.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figures: v2: An equation and a few comments and references added, version to appear in Nucl Phys

Targeting Mitochondrial Cell Death Pathway to Overcome Drug Resistance with a Newly Developed Iron Chelate

Background: Multi drug resistance (MDR) or cross-resistance to multiple classes of chemotherapeutic agents is a major obstacle to successful application of chemotherapy and a basic problem in cancer biology. The multidrug resistance gene, MDR1, and its gene product P-glycoprotein (P-gp) are an important determinant of MDR. Therefore, there is an urgent need for development of novel compounds that are not substrates of P-glycoprotein and are effective against drug-resistant cancer. Methodology/Principal Findings: In this present study, we have synthesized a novel, redox active Fe (II) complex (chelate), iron N- (2-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinate (FeNG). The structure of the complex has been determined by spectroscopic means. To evaluate the cytotoxic effect of FeNG we used doxorubicin resistant and/or sensitive T lymphoblastic leukemia cells and show that FeNG kills both the cell types irrespective of their MDR phenotype. Moreover, FeNG induces apoptosis in doxorubicin resistance T lymphoblastic leukemia cell through mitochondrial pathway via generation reactive oxygen species (ROS). This is substantiated by the fact that the antioxidant N-acetyle-cysteine (NAC) could completely block ROS generation and, subsequently, abrogated FeNG induced apoptosis. Therefore, FeNG induces the doxorubicin resistant T lymphoblastic leukemia cells to undergo apoptosis and thus overcome MDR. Conclusion/Significance: Our study provides evidence that FeNG, a redox active metal chelate may be a promising ne

A Novel Copper Chelate Modulates Tumor Associated Macrophages to Promote Anti-Tumor Response of T Cells

At the early stages of carcinogenesis, the induction of tumor specific T cell mediated immunity seems to block the tumor growth and give protective anti-tumor immune response. However, tumor associated macrophages (TAMs) might play an immunosuppressive role and subvert this anti tumor immunity leading to tumor progression and metastasis.The Cu (II) complex, (chelate), copper N-(2-hydroxy acetophenone) glycinate (CuNG), synthesized by us, has previously been shown to have a potential usefulness in immunotherapy of multiple drug resistant cancers. The current study demonstrates that CuNG treatment of TAMs modulates their status from immunosuppressive to proimmunogenic nature. Interestingly, these activated TAMs produced high levels of IL-12 along with low levels of IL-10 that not only allowed strong Th1 response marked by generation of high levels of IFN-gamma but also reduced activation induced T cell death. Similarly, CuNG treatment of peripheral blood monocytes from chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy refractory cancer patients also modulated their cytokine status. Most intriguingly, CuNG treated TAMs could influence reprogramming of TGF-beta producing CD4(+)CD25(+) T cells toward IFN-gamma producing T cells.Our results show the potential usefulness of CuNG in immunotherapy of drug-resistant cancers through reprogramming of TAMs that in turn reprogram the T cells and reeducate the T helper function to elicit proper anti-tumorogenic Th1 response leading to effective reduction in tumor growth