Probing Light Higgsinos in Natural SUSY from Monojet Signals at the LHC

We investigate a strategy to search for light, nearly degenerate higgsinos within the natural MSSM at the LHC. We demonstrate that the higgsino mass range $\mu$ in $100-150$ GeV, which is preferred by the naturalness, can be probed at $2\sigma$ significance through the monojet search at 14 TeV HL-LHC with 3000 fb$^{-1}$ luminosity. The proposed method can also probe certain region in the parameter space for the lightest neutralino with a high higgsino purity, that cannot be reached by planned direct detection experiments at XENON-1T(2017).Comment: references and discussions adde

Two-Higgs-doublet model with a color-triplet scalar: a joint explanation for top quark forward-backward asymmetry and Higgs decay to diphoton

The excess of top quark forward-backward asymmetry ($A^t_{FB}$) reported by the Tevatron and the enhancement of the Higgs decay to diphoton observed by the LHC may point to a same origin of new physics. In this note we examined such anomalies in the two-Higgs-doublet model with a color-triplet scalar. We found that under current experimental constraints this model can simultaneously explain both anomalies at $1\sigma$ level. Also, we examined the Higgs decay $h\to Z\gamma$ and displayed its correlation with $h\to \gamma\gamma$. We found that unlike other models, this model predicts a special correlation between $h\to Z\gamma$ and $h\to \gamma\gamma$, i.e., the $Z\gamma$ rate is highly suppressed while the $\gamma\gamma$ rate is enhanced. This behavior may help to distinguish this model in the future high luminosity run of the LHC.Comment: 18pages, 4figures, references adde

Probing topcolor-assisted technicolor from top charge asymmetry and triple-top production at the LHC

In a topcolor-assisted technicolor model (TC2) with large FCNC top quark couplings, we study its correlated contributions to the top quark forward-backward asymmetry ($A_{FB}$) at the Tevatron, the top charge asymmetry ($A_{C}$) and the triple-top production at the LHC. Under current constraints on the top quark from the LHC and Tevatron(such as the total and differential production rates), we scan the parameter space of such a TC2 model. We find that in the allowed parameter space the TC2 model can explain the Tevatron measured $A_{FB}$ at $2\sigma$ level, but meanwhile significantly enhance $A_{C}$ at the LHC. Such enhanced $A_{C}$, albeit currently allowed by the LHC measurement at $2\sigma$ level, will serve as a test of TC2 with the improvement of measurement precision at the LHC. Then with all the constraints (including the requirement to explain $A_{FB}$ at $2\sigma$ level and satisfying the current LHC measurement of $A_{C}$ at $2\sigma$ level), we find that the TC2 model can induce sizable triple-top production at the 14 TeV LHC (the production rate can maximally reach 16 pb). Due to the low SM backgrounds, the triple-top production can also be a good probe for TC2 model, complementary to $A_{C}$.Comment: 15 pages, 5 figures, new constraints from LHC addded, published version(Phys. Lett. B

Simultaneous Distillation Extraction of Some Volatile Flavor Components from Pu-erh Tea Samples—Comparison with Steam Distillation-Liquid/Liquid Extraction and Soxhlet Extraction

A simutaneous distillation extraction (SDE) combined GC method was constructed for determination of volatile flavor components in Pu-erh tea samples. Dichloromethane and ethyl decylate was employed as organic phase in SDE and internal standard in determination, respectively. Weakly polar DB-5 column was used to separate the volatile flavor components in GC, 10 of the components were quantitatively analyzed, and further confirmed by GC-MS. The recovery covered from 66.4%–109%, and repeatability expressed as RSD was in range of 1.44%–12.6%. SDE was most suitable for the extraction of the anlytes by comparing with steam distillation-liquid/liquid extraction and Soxhlet extraction. Commercially available Pu-erh tea samples, including Pu-erh raw tea and ripe tea, were analyzed by the constructed method. the high-volatile components, such as benzyl alcohol, linalool oxide, and linalool, were greatly rich in Pu-erh raw teas, while the contents of 1,2,3-Trimethoxylbenzene and 1,2,4-Trimethoxylbenzene were much high in Pu-erh ripe teas

Transcriptome analysis of germ cell changes in male Chinese mitten crabs (Eriocheir sinensis) induced by rhizocephalan parasite, Polyascus gregaria

The parasitism by Polyascus gregaria on Eriocheir sinensis induces feminization of the appearance of male crabs, misleading fishermen to bring them to the breeding ponds as female crabs to cultivate broodstock selection. However, there are few studies on whether P. gregaria feminizes the male germ cells, resulting in a decline in the fecundity of male crabs. Therefore, this study aims to clarify the changes in gene expression levels of male crab testes after being parasitized by P. gregaria through transcriptome sequencing to evaluate the change in fecundity. We selected parasitized and healthy male crabs from a pond culture for comparison of gene expression in germ cells. The results showed that, compared with healthy male crabs, there were 104 genes with significantly different expressions, of which 79 were up-regulated and 25 were down-regulated. These genes are mainly focused on the cytoskeleton pathway in cell components and cellular protein complex assembly in biological processes. Several spermatogenesis-related genes, such as Kazal-type protease inhibitor, which inhibits gelatinolytic activities of sperm proteases, and juvenile hormone esterase 6, which degrades methyl farnesoate, were up-regulated; while the down-regulated expression of certain heat shock proteins may lead to spermatogenic dysfunction. In addition, some immune-related genes, such as double whey acidic protein domain-containing protein and serine proteinase inhibitor 3, were significantly up-regulated. These results indicated that P. gregaria changed the development process and cell structure of male host germ cells to inhibit sperm proliferation and maturation, while multiple immune pathways in the hosts were activated to resist P. gregaria invasion

The effect of combined cryoprotectants on the cryotolerance of boar sperm

Objective The frozen semen has the significant advantages of long-term storage and long-range transportation. However, due to the low cryotolerance of boar sperm, the global utilization of frozen boar semen in artificial insemination was less than 1% until the year 2000. Methods In this study, the effects of five cryoprotectants at different concentrations on the cryotolerance of boar semen were evaluated when they were added separately, and the optimal concentrations for each cryoprotectant were determined, then their combined additive effects were further assessed. Results At a glycerol (GLY) concentration of 5%, the quality of frozen-thawed sperm reached its maximum value, which was significantly higher than the 4% GLY group (p0.05). Conclusion The optimized boar semen cryopreservation system can substantially enhance the quality of frozen-thawed boar sperm, making it suitable for artificial insemination in pig farm

Construction of a Medical Micro-Object Cascade Network for Automated Segmentation of Cerebral Microbleeds in Susceptibility Weighted Imaging

Aim: The detection and segmentation of cerebral microbleeds (CMBs) images are the focus of clinical diagnosis and treatment. However, segmentation is difficult in clinical practice, and missed diagnosis may occur. Few related studies on the automated segmentation of CMB images have been performed, and we provide the most effective CMB segmentation to date using an automated segmentation system.Materials and Methods: From a research perspective, we focused on the automated segmentation of CMB targets in susceptibility weighted imaging (SWI) for the first time and then constructed a deep learning network focused on the segmentation of micro-objects. We collected and marked clinical datasets and proposed a new medical micro-object cascade network (MMOC-Net). In the first stage, U-Net was utilized to select the region of interest (ROI). In the second stage, we utilized a full-resolution network (FRN) to complete fine segmentation. We also incorporated residual atrous spatial pyramid pooling (R-ASPP) and a new joint loss function.Results: The most suitable segmentation result was achieved with a ROI size of 32 × 32. To verify the validity of each part of the method, ablation studies were performed, which showed that the best segmentation results were obtained when FRN, R-ASPP and the combined loss function were used simultaneously. Under these conditions, the obtained Dice similarity coefficient (DSC) value was 87.93% and the F2-score (F2) value was 90.69%. We also innovatively developed a visual clinical diagnosis system that can provide effective support for clinical diagnosis and treatment decisions.Conclusions: We created the MMOC-Net method to perform the automated segmentation task of CMBs in an SWI and obtained better segmentation performance; hence, this pioneering method has research significance