Semileptonic B Decays at BABAR

We present results on semileptonic B decays obtained with the BABAR detector. The large data set accumulated at the PEP-II asymmetric-energy B-Factory allows a new measurement technique, where the hadronic decay of one B meson is fully reconstructed and the semileptonic decay of the recoiling B meson is studied. Traditional analysis techniques of inclusive and exclusive B decays complement this approach with very high statistics data samples. These measurements play an important role in the tests of the description of CP violation in the Standard Model: The determinations of the Cabibbo-Kobayashi-Maskawa matrix elements |Vcb| and |Vub| provide constraints on the unitarity of the CKM triangle. Furthermore, the experimental measurement of parameters of Heavy Quark Effective Theory test the consistency of the theoretical description of semileptonic B decays.Comment: Invited Brief Review, to appear in Modern Physics Letters

A low complexity resource allocation algorithm for multicast service delivery in OFDMA networks

Allocating and managing radio resources to multicast transmissions in Orthogonal Frequency-Division Multiple Access (OFDMA) systems is the challenging research issue addressed by this paper. A subgrouping technique, which divides the subscribers into subgroups according to the experienced channel quality, is considered to overcome the throughput limitations of conventional multicast data delivery schemes. A low complexity algorithm, designed to work with different resource allocation strategies, is also proposed to reduce the computational complexity of the subgroup formation problem. Simulation results, carried out by considering the Long Term Evolution (LTE) system based on OFDMA, testify the effectiveness of the proposed solution, which achieves a near-optimal performance with a limited computational load for the system

Deformation Quantization: Quantum Mechanics Lives and Works in Phase-Space

Wigner's quasi-probability distribution function in phase-space is a special (Weyl) representation of the density matrix. It has been useful in describing quantum transport in quantum optics; nuclear physics; decoherence (eg, quantum computing); quantum chaos; "Welcher Weg" discussions; semiclassical limits. It is also of importance in signal processing. Nevertheless, a remarkable aspect of its internal logic, pioneered by Moyal, has only emerged in the last quarter-century: It furnishes a third, alternative, formulation of Quantum Mechanics, independent of the conventional Hilbert Space, or Path Integral formulations. In this logically complete and self-standing formulation, one need not choose sides--coordinate or momentum space. It works in full phase-space, accommodating the uncertainty principle. This is an introductory overview of the formulation with simple illustrations.Comment: LaTeX, 22 pages, 2 figure

Multimedia content delivery for emerging satellite networks

Multimedia content delivery over satellite systems is considered as a promising service in the emerging networks. The aim of this work is to design a novel radio resource management (RRM) algorithm for efficiently managing multicast multimedia content transmission over satellite network. The proposed approach performs the spectrum management on a per-group basis, by splitting multicast terminals into different subgroups according to the experienced channel qualities. We demonstrate that subgrouping policy defined by the authors as multicast subgrouping-maximum satisfaction index (MS-MSI), is based on a new metric (i.e., MSI), which overcomes the weakness of the previous techniques proposed in literature and provides the best trade-off between user throughput and fairness. As a further result, we demonstrate that MS-MSI is robust to the long propagation delay of satellite links. An extensive simulation campaign has been conducted by considering several satellite environments

Renormalization Group Functional Equations

Functional conjugation methods are used to analyze the global structure of various renormalization group trajectories, and to gain insight into the interplay between continuous and discrete rescaling. With minimal assumptions, the methods produce continuous flows from step-scaling {\sigma} functions, and lead to exact functional relations for the local flow {\beta} functions, whose solutions may have novel, exotic features, including multiple branches. As a result, fixed points of {\sigma} are sometimes not true fixed points under continuous changes in scale, and zeroes of {\beta} do not necessarily signal fixed points of the flow, but instead may only indicate turning points of the trajectories.Comment: A physical model with a limit cycle added as section IV, along with reference

A Classical Bound on Quantum Entropy

A classical upper bound for quantum entropy is identified and illustrated, $0\leq S_q \leq \ln (e \sigma^2 / 2\hbar)$, involving the variance $\sigma^2$ in phase space of the classical limit distribution of a given system. A fortiori, this further bounds the corresponding information-theoretical generalizations of the quantum entropy proposed by Renyi.Comment: Latex2e, 7 pages, publication versio

Drug trade names: a morpho-semantic study in resourcefulness and perfidy.

Linguistic analyses of drug trade names are of interest because they reveal the challenges of uniquely identifying proprietary medicines and because responses to these challenges can have a range of implications: health (medication errors), commercial (compromised sales figures of specific brand names), and legal (protection of industrial property rights). Regrettably, and to the disadvantage of many stakeholders, these perspectives have scarcely been brought to bear on the trade in medicines in a complex environment such as Nigeria, which is a microcosm of environments in the developing world. Based on a corpus of trade names for three categories of medicines (non-opioid analgesics and antipyretics, nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs, and antimalarials), we do a morpho-semantic analysis of proprietary drug names marketed in Nigeria. In part, our objectives are to determine how resourceful manufacturers have been in assigning trade names to drugs; to ascertain whether and how trade naming contributes to unfair trade practices and to the potential for adverse drug events; to identify challenges which drug naming practices pose to regulatory authorities and the legal framework within which these authorities operate. This morpho-semantic study shows manufacturers targeting a core of motifs or brand attributes, which are then encoded (often through blending and clipping) into trade names. It is a reflection of the resourcefulness of some manufacturers that they are able to propose different realisations of this core motif set, and thereby maintain some form of distinctiveness. On the other hand, we also see trade names that smack of perfidy or of an intention to cause deception. Remarkable in this respect is the conversion to generic of what is otherwise a unique name-part. This and some of the otherwise resourceful naming practices are shown, through a combination of orthographic and phonetic measures, to have the potential for causing confusion. The health, commercial and regulatory challenges such confusion raises are discussed. The study shows the relevance of linguistic scholarship to public health, thus confirming and extending some of our previous work: text analysis and childhood diarrhea (Antia, Omotara, et al 2003), terminology and animal care (Antia, Mohammadou, Tamdjo 2004), multilingualism and health planning (Antia & Fankep 2004), etc

Simulation and Performance Analysis of Software-Based Mobile Core Network Architecture (SBMCNA) using OMNeT++

Abstract— Software defined Networking (SDN) represent the future framework for the mobile networks. This paper discusses the required modifications within the EPC in order to overcome some of the limitations of the current EPS, these modifications include introducing an SDN based solution Software Based Mobile Core Network Architecture (SBMCNA), we also show that Openflow protocol 1.3 has been extended to develop two methods to support GPRS Tunnelling Protocol (GTP) operations. The use of an intelligent Forwarding device (FD) were proposed to reduce the signalling load. SBMCNA were built on OMNeT++ by extending simuLTE [12] and Openflow 1.3 [13] modules. Load balancing and resiliency were used to demonstrate the capability of the proposed system to reduce the signalling load. The preliminary results of the system performance are presented

PERP, an apoptosis-associated target of p53, is a novel member of the PMP-22/gas3 family

The p53 tumor suppressor activates either cell cycle arrest or apoptosis in response to cellular stress. Mouse embryo fibroblasts (MEFs) provide a powerful primary cell system to study both p53-dependent pathways. Specifically, in response to DNA damage, MEFs undergo p53-dependent G(1) arrest, whereas MEFs expressing the adenovirus E1A oncoprotein undergo p53-dependent apoptosis. As the p53-dependent apoptosis pathway is not well understood, we sought to identify apoptosis-specific p53 target genes using a subtractive cloning strategy. Here, we describe the characterization of a gene identified in this screen, PERP, which is expressed in a p53-dependent manner and at high levels in apoptotic cells compared with G(1)-arrested cells. PERP induction is linked to p53-dependent apoptosis, including in response to E2F-1-driven hyperproliferation. Furthermore, analysis of the PERP promoter suggests that PERP is directly activated by p53. PERP shows sequence similarity to the PMP-22/gas3 tetraspan membrane protein implicated in hereditary human neuropathies such as Charcot-Marie-Tooth, Like PMP-22/gas3, PERP is a plasma membrane protein, and importantly, its expression causes cell death in fibroblasts. Taken together, these data suggest that PERP is a novel effector of p59-dependent apoptosis