Spin Structure of the Proton

By assuming that there is no significant intrinsic polarization of the gluon, we have computed the polarized quark contributions to the proton's spin under SU(3) flavor symmetry breaking for the polarized sea and have performed a global leading-order QCD fit to obtain the spin-dependent quark distributions, which could be used as input for analyzing lepton-hadron and hadron-hadron collisions.Comment: 13 pages, NCKU-HEP/94-0

Probing gravitational non-minimal coupling with dark energy surveys

We investigate observational constraints on a specific one-parameter extension to the minimal quintessence model, where the quintessence field acquires a quadratic coupling to the scalar curvature through a coupling constant $\xi$. The value of $\xi$ is highly suppressed in typical tracker models if the late-time cosmic acceleration is driven at some field values near the Planck scale. We test $\xi$ in a second class of models in which the field value today becomes a free model parameter. We use the combined data from type-Ia supernovae, cosmic microwave background, baryon acoustic oscillations and matter power spectrum, to weak lensing measurements and find a best-fit value $\xi > 0.289$ where $\xi = 0$ is excluded outside the 95 per cent confidence region. The effective gravitational constant $G_{\rm eff}$ subject to the hint of a non-zero $\xi$ is constrained to $-0.003 < 1- G_{\rm eff}/G < 0.033$ at the same confidence level on cosmological scales, and can be narrowed down to $1- G_{\rm eff}/G < 2.2 \times 10^{-5}$ when combining with Solar System tests.Comment: Context extended, figures and references added, title changed to match with accepted version for publicatio

Liquid biopsy genotyping in lung cancer: ready for clinical utility?

Liquid biopsy is a blood test that detects evidence of cancer cells or tumor DNA in the circulation. Despite complicated collection methods and the requirement for technique-dependent platforms, it has generated substantial interest due, in part, to its potential to detect driver oncogenes such as epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutants in lung cancer. This technology is advancing rapidly and is being incorporated into numerous EGFR tyrosine kinase inhibitor (EGFR-TKI) development programs. It appears ready for integration into clinical care. Recent studies have demonstrated that biological fluids such as saliva and urine can also be used for detecting EGFR mutant DNA through application other user-friendly techniques. This review focuses on the clinical application of liquid biopsies to lung cancer genotyping, including EGFR and other targets of genotype-directed therapy and compares multiple platforms used for liquid biopsy