On Di\'osi-Penrose criterion of gravity-induced quantum collapse

It is shown that the Di\'osi-Penrose criterion of gravity-induced quantum collapse may be inconsistent with the discreteness of space-time, which is generally considered as an indispensable element in a complete theory of quantum gravity. Moreover, the analysis also suggests that the discreteness of space-time may result in rapider collapse of the superposition of energy eigenstates than required by the Di\'osi-Penrose criterion.Comment: 5 pages, no figure

On the Extra Mode and Inconsistency of Horava Gravity

We address the consistency of Horava's proposal for a theory of quantum gravity from the low-energy perspective. We uncover the additional scalar degree of freedom arising from the explicit breaking of the general covariance and study its properties. The analysis is performed both in the original formulation of the theory and in the Stueckelberg picture. A peculiarity of the new mode is that it satisfies an equation of motion that is of first order in time derivatives. At linear level the mode is manifest only around spatially inhomogeneous and time-dependent backgrounds. We find two serious problems associated with this mode. First, the mode develops very fast exponential instabilities at short distances. Second, it becomes strongly coupled at an extremely low cutoff scale. We also discuss the "projectable" version of Horava's proposal and argue that this version can be understood as a certain limit of the ghost condensate model. The theory is still problematic since the additional field generically forms caustics and, again, has a very low strong coupling scale. We clarify some subtleties that arise in the application of the Stueckelberg formalism to Horava's model due to its non-relativistic nature.Comment: Discussion expanded; a figure added; accepted to JHE

Two dimensional scaling of resistance in flux flow region in Tl2Ba2CaCu2O8Tl_2Ba_2CaCu_2O_8 thin films

The resistance of $Tl_2Ba_2CaCu_2O_8$ thin films has been measured when the angle between the applied fields and $ab$-plane of the film is changed continuously at various temperatures. Under various magnetic fields, the resistance can be well scaled in terms of the c-axis component of the applied fields at the same temperature in the whole angle range. Meanwhile, we show that the measurement of resistance in this way is a complementary method to determine the growth orientation of the anisotropic high-$T_c$ superconductors.Comment: 11 pages, 8 figures. Have been published in Physica

In vitro and in vivo anticancer activity of steroid saponins of paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis

Aim: To confirm the anticancer activity of steroid saponins isolated from the rhizome of Paris polyphylla var. yunnanensis and evaluate the structure-activity relationships of these steroid saponins in vitro and in vivo. Materials and Methods: Eight known steroid saponins were isolated from the rhizome of Paris polyphylla. The LA795 lung adenocarcinoma cell line from mice was chosen to evaluate cytotoxicity by means of MTT assay, and to study apoptosis by means of AnnexinV-FITC/PI flow cytometry. Diosgenin-3-α-L-arabinofuranosyl(1→4)-[α-L-rhamnopyranosyl(1→2)]-β-D-glycopyranoside (compound 1), the main steroid saponin of Paris polyphylla, and diosgenin (Dio), the aglycone of major steroid saponins, were evaluated for antitumor activity on LA795 lung adenocarcinoma in T739 inbred mice. Results: The steroid saponins showed remarkable cytotoxicity and caused typical apoptosis in a dose-dependent manner. They were evaluated in vivo by their effect on tumor developed in T739 inbred mice. The oral administration to T739 mice bearing LA795 lung adenocarcinoma of compound 1 and diosgenin significantly inhibited tumor growth, by 29.44% and 33.94%, respectively. HE staining showed that lungs and livers of treated mice underwent various levels of histopathological alterations. It was demonstrated by TUNEL assay that apoptosis rate in tumor cells was increased in comparison to cells in control mice. The 3-O-glycoside moiety and spirostanol structure played an important role in the anticancer activity of steroid saponins, and the number and the variety of glycosides of compounds strongly influenced on their anticancer activity. Conclusion: Rhizoma Paridis saponins showed anticancer activity against lung adenocarcinoma cell line, both in vitro and in vivo, and their effect was dependent on compounds’ structure in a certain degree

Temporal analyses reveal a pivotal role for sense and antisense enhancer RNAs in coordinate immunoglobulin lambda locus activation.

Transcription enhancers are essential activators of V(D)J recombination that orchestrate non-coding transcription through complementary, unrearranged gene segments. How transcription is coordinately increased at spatially distinct promoters, however, remains poorly understood. Using the murine immunoglobulin lambda (Igλ) locus as model, we find that three enhancer-like elements in the 3' Igλ domain, Eλ3-1, HSCλ1 and HSE-1, show strikingly similar transcription factor binding dynamics and close spatial proximity, suggesting that they form an active enhancer hub. Temporal analyses show coordinate recruitment of complementary V and J gene segments to this hub, with comparable transcription factor binding dynamics to that at enhancers. We find further that E2A, p300, Mediator and Integrator bind to enhancers as early events, whereas YY1 recruitment and eRNA synthesis occur later, corresponding to transcription activation. Remarkably, the interplay between sense and antisense enhancer RNA is central to both active enhancer hub formation and coordinate Igλ transcription: Antisense Eλ3-1 eRNA represses Igλ activation whereas temporal analyses demonstrate that accumulating levels of sense eRNA boost YY1 recruitment to stabilise enhancer hub/promoter interactions and lead to coordinate transcription activation. These studies therefore demonstrate for the first time a critical role for threshold levels of sense versus antisense eRNA in locus activation

A review and benchmark on state-of-the-art steel defects detection

Steel, a critical material in construction, automobile, and railroad manufacturing industries, often presents defects that can lead to equipment failure, significant safety risks, and costly downtime. This research aims to evaluate the performance of state-of-the-art object detection models in detecting defects on steel surfaces, a critical task in industries such as railroad and automobile manufacturing. The study addresses the challenges of limited defect data and lengthy model training times. Five existing state-of-the-art object detection models (faster R-CNN, deformable DETR, double head R-CNN, Retinanet, and deformable convolutional network) were benchmarked on the Northeastern University (NEU) steel dataset. The selection of models covers a broad spectrum of methodologies, including two-stage detectors, single-stage detectors, transformers, and a model incorporating deformable convolutions. The deformable convolutional network achieved the highest accuracy of 77.28% on the NEU dataset following a fivefold cross-validation method. Other models also demonstrated notable performance, with accuracies within the 70–75% range. Certain models exhibited particular strengths in detecting specific defects, indicating potential areas for future research and model improvement. The findings provide a comprehensive foundation for future research in steel defect detection and have significant implications for practical applications. The research could improve quality control processes in the steel industry by automating the defect detection task, leading to safer and more reliable steel products and protecting workers by removing the human factor from hazardous environments

D-concurrence bounds for pair coherent states

The pair coherent state is a state of a two-mode radiation field which is known as a state with non-Gaussian wave function. In this paper, the upper and lower bounds for D-concurrence (a new entanglement measure) have been studied over this state and calculated.Comment: 11 page

On Kedlaya type inequalities for weighted means

In 2016 we proved that for every symmetric, repetition invariant and Jensen concave mean $\mathscr{M}$ the Kedlaya-type inequality $$\mathscr{A}\big(x_1,\mathscr{M}(x_1,x_2),\ldots,\mathscr{M}(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\big)\le \mathscr{M} \big(x_1, \mathscr{A}(x_1,x_2),\ldots,\mathscr{A}(x_1,\ldots,x_n)\big)$$ holds for an arbitrary $(x_n)$ ($\mathscr{A}$ stands for the arithmetic mean). We are going to prove the weighted counterpart of this inequality. More precisely, if $(x_n)$ is a vector with corresponding (non-normalized) weights $(\lambda_n)$ and $\mathscr{M}_{i=1}^n(x_i,\lambda_i)$ denotes the weighted mean then, under analogous conditions on $\mathscr{M}$, the inequality $$\mathscr{A}_{i=1}^n \big(\mathscr{M}_{j=1}^i (x_j,\lambda_j),\:\lambda_i\big) \le \mathscr{M}_{i=1}^n \big(\mathscr{A}_{j=1}^i (x_j,\lambda_j),\:\lambda_i\big)$$ holds for every $(x_n)$ and $(\lambda_n)$ such that the sequence $(\frac{\lambda_k}{\lambda_1+\cdots+\lambda_k})$ is decreasing.Comment: J. Inequal. Appl. (2018

Long-distant contribution and χc1\chi_{c1} radiative decays to light vector meson

The discrepancy between the PQCD calculation and the CLEO data for $\chi_{c1}\to \gamma V$ ($V=\rho^0,\,\omega,\,\phi$) stimulates our interest in exploring extra mechanism of $\chi_{c1}$ decay. In this work, we apply an important non-perturbative QCD effect, i.e., hadronic loop mechanism, to study $\chi_{c1}\to \gamma V$ radiative decay. Our numerical result shows that the theoretical results including the hadronic loop contribution and the PQCD calculation of $\chi_{c1}\to \gamma V$ are consistent with the corresponding CLEO data of $\chi_{c1}\to \gamma V$. We expect further experimental measurement of $\chi_{c1}\to \gamma V$ at BES-III, which will be helpful to test the hadronic loop effect on $\chi_{c1}$ decay.Comment: 7 pages, 2 figures. Accepted for publication in Eur. Phys. J.

Imperfect Dark Energy from Kinetic Gravity Braiding

We introduce a large class of scalar-tensor models with interactions containing the second derivatives of the scalar field but not leading to additional degrees of freedom. These models exhibit peculiar features, such as an essential mixing of scalar and tensor kinetic terms, which we have named kinetic braiding. This braiding causes the scalar stress tensor to deviate from the perfect-fluid form. Cosmology in these models possesses a rich phenomenology, even in the limit where the scalar is an exact Goldstone boson. Generically, there are attractor solutions where the scalar monitors the behaviour of external matter. Because of the kinetic braiding, the position of the attractor depends both on the form of the Lagrangian and on the external energy density. The late-time asymptotic of these cosmologies is a de Sitter state. The scalar can exhibit phantom behaviour and is able to cross the phantom divide with neither ghosts nor gradient instabilities. These features provide a new class of models for Dark Energy. As an example, we study in detail a simple one-parameter model. The possible observational signatures of this model include a sizeable Early Dark Energy and a specific equation of state evolving into the final de-Sitter state from a healthy phantom regime.Comment: 41 pages, 7 figures. References and some clarifying language added. This version was accepted for publication in JCA