Renormalization Group Invariants in the MSSM and Its Extensions

We derive one-loop renormalization group (RG) invariant observables and analyze their phenomenological implications in the MSSM and its \mu problem solving extensions, U(1)' model and NMSSM. We show that there exist several RG invariants in the gauge, Yukawa and soft-breaking sectors of each model. In general, RG invariants are highly useful for projecting experimental data to messenger scale, for revealing correlations among the model parameters, and for probing the mechanism that breaks supersymmetry. The Yukawa couplings and trilinear soft terms in U(1)' model and NMSSM do not form RG invariants though there exist approximate invariants in low tan(beta). In the NMSSM, there are no invariants that contain the Higgs mass-squareds. We provide a comparative analysis of RG invariants in all three models and analyze their model-building and phenomenological implications by a number of case studies.Comment: 32 pages, 5 tables; extended previous analysis to include U(1)' models and NMSSM where a comparative discussion is give

Solvable Systems of Linear Differential Equations

The asymptotic iteration method (AIM) is an iterative technique used to find exact and approximate solutions to second-order linear differential equations. In this work, we employed AIM to solve systems of two first-order linear differential equations. The termination criteria of AIM will be re-examined and the whole theory is re-worked in order to fit this new application. As a result of our investigation, an interesting connection between the solution of linear systems and the solution of Riccati equations is established. Further, new classes of exactly solvable systems of linear differential equations with variable coefficients are obtained. The method discussed allow to construct many solvable classes through a simple procedure.Comment: 13 page

Phytoplankton composition related to the environmental conditions in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Erdek

1545-1559Seasonal changes of phytoplankton communities in the coastal waters of the Gulf of Erdek from November 2006 to August 2008 were examined in relation to some environmental variables and 95 species from 6 different algae groups were identified. In addition, two species were recorded for the first time in the Turkish coastal waters and one species for the Sea of Marmara. The maximum total phytoplankton abundance (1.99 × 105 cells L-1) were observed in May 2008, with Pseudo-nitzschia sp. being the most dominant species of that month (1.52 × 105 cells L-1). Both the Bray-Curtis diversity index and the Euclidean distance indicated that the upper and lower water layers were separated from each other at the stations, and the Spearman’s rank-correlation and CCA analyses also showed that environmental variables affected the abundance of species. Furthermore, according to the CCA diagram, especially the temperature and dissolved oxygen had a bigger impact on the distribution of species. The Shannon-Wiener diversity index (Hʹ) values were low when Pseudo-nitzschia sp., Prorocentrum micans, Gymnodinium sp. and Prorocentrum scutellum were dominant over other species in the sampling period

Portable Microfluidic Integrated Plasmonic Platform for Pathogen Detection

Timely detection of infectious agents is critical in early diagnosis and treatment of infectious diseases. Conventional pathogen detection methods, such as enzyme linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA), culturing or polymerase chain reaction (PCR) require long assay times, and complex and expensive instruments, which are not adaptable to point-of-care (POC) needs at resource-constrained as well as primary care settings. Therefore, there is an unmet need to develop simple, rapid, and accurate methods for detection of pathogens at the POC. Here, we present a portable, multiplex, inexpensive microfluidic-integrated surface plasmon resonance (SPR) platform that detects and quantifies bacteria, i.e., Escherichia coli (E. coli) and Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) rapidly. The platform presented reliable capture and detection of E. coli at concentrations ranging from ∼105 to 3.2 × 107 CFUs/mL in phosphate buffered saline (PBS) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) fluid. The multiplexing and specificity capability of the platform was also tested with S. aureus samples. The presented platform technology could potentially be applicable to capture and detect other pathogens at the POC and primary care settings. © 2015, Nature Publishing Group. All rights reserved

Federated learning based on dynamic regularization

https://openreview.net/pdf?id=B7v4QMR6Z9wPublished versio

Federated learning based on dynamic regularization

https://openreview.net/pdf?id=B7v4QMR6Z9wPublished versio

Diagnostic and prognostic role of TFF3, Romo-1, NF-кB and SFRP4 as biomarkers for endometrial and ovarian cancers: a prospective observational translational study

Purpose: This study aimed to evaluate trefoil factor 3 (TFF3), secreted frizzled-related protein 4 (sFRP4), reactive oxygen species modulator 1 (Romo1) and nuclear factor kappa B (NF-κB) as diagnostic and prognostic markers of endometrial cancer (EC) and ovarian cancer (OC). Methods: Thirty-one patients with EC and 30 patients with OC undergone surgical treatment were enrolled together with 30 healthy controls in a prospective study. Commercial ELISA kits determined serum TFF-3, Romo-1, NF-кB and sFRP-4 concentrations. Results: Serum TFF-3, Romo-1 and NF-кB levels were significantly higher in patients with EC and OC than those without cancer. Regarding EC, none of the serum biomarkers differs significantly between endometrial and non-endometrioid endometrial carcinomas. Mean serum TFF-3 and NF-кB levels were significantly higher in advanced stages. Increased serum levels of TFF-3 and NF-кB were found in those with a higher grade of the disease. Regarding OC, none of the serum biomarkers differed significantly among histological subtypes. Significantly increased serum levels of NF-кB were observed in patients with advanced-stage OC than those with stage I and II diseases. No difference in serum biomarker levels was found between those who had a recurrence and those who had not. The sensibility and specificity of these four biomarkers in discriminating EC and OC from the control group showed encouraging values, although no one reached 70%. Conclusions: TFF-3, Romo-1, NF-кB and SFRP4 could represent new diagnostic and prognostic markers for OC and EC. Further studies are needed to validate our results

Effect of Wood-derived Charcoal Content on Properties of Wood Plastic Composites

The effect of wood-derived charcoal flour on the water resistance and mechanical properties of wood plastic composite (WPC) panels was investigated. The hot press molded WPC panels were produced from polypropylene (37 wt%) with maleic anhydride-grafted polypropylene (MAPP, 3 wt%) and different mixtures of wood flour and charcoal flour. The amount of charcoal flour was gradually increased up to 60 wt%. The thickness swelling and water absorption of WPC panels considerably decreased with increasing charcoal flour content. The internal bond strength and bending properties of the WPC panels significantly improved with increasing charcoal flour content. This was mainly attributed to the high amount of pores and gaps in the charcoal flour. Melted polypropylene could get into the pores and gaps during the hot press molding, which lead to a better interfacial adhesion between polymer matrix and wood filler. The results showed that the charcoal flour could be partially substituted for the wood flour in the production of WPC panels having higher dimensional stability and internal bond strength

Constraining Bosonic Supersymmetry from Higgs results and 8 TeV ATLAS multi-jets plus missing energy data

The collider phenomenology of models with Universal Extra Dimensions (UED) is surprisingly similar to that of supersymmetric (SUSY) scenarios. For each level-1 bosonic (fermionic) Kaluza-Klein (KK) state, there is a fermionic (bosonic) analog in SUSY and thus UED scenarios are often known as bosonic supersymmetry. The minimal version of UED (mUED) gives rise to a quasi-degenerate particle spectrum at each KK-level and thus, can not explain the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate hinted by the ATLAS collaboration of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) experiment. However, in the non-minimal version of the UED (nmUED) model, the enhanced Higgs to diphoton decay rate can be easily explained via the suitable choice of boundary localized kinetic (BLK) terms for higher dimensional fermions and gauge bosons. BLK terms remove the degeneracy in the KK mass spectrum and thus, pair production of level-1 quarks and gluons at the LHC gives rise to hard jets, leptons and large missing energy in the final state. These final states are studied in details by the ATLAS and CMS collaborations in the context of SUSY scenarios. We find that the absence of any significant deviation of the data from the Standard Model (SM) prediction puts a lower bound of about 2.1 TeV on equal mass excited quarks and gluons.Comment: 19 page