The thermodynamics of isolated horizons in loop quantum gravity

The statistical mechanical calculation of the thermodynamical properties of non-rotating isolated horizons are studied in the loop quantum gravity framework. By employing the Hawking temperature and horizon mass of isolated horizons as physical inputs, the microcanonical ensemble associated with the system are well established. As a result, the black hole entropy and other thermodynamical quantities can be computed and consistent with well-known Hawking's semiclassical analysis. Moreover, the value of the Immirzi parameter of loop quantum gravity for {higher dimensional case and 4-dimensional U(1) case are} also obtained.Comment: 9 pages, 1 figure;V2, 12 pages, U(1) group case in 4 dimensions is included, figure update

A Case Study of the Diversity and Optimization of Mathematical Definitions and Symbolization

Taking the idea of “reflective and critical optimization thinking”, this article first examines “the outlook on development of big mathematics” in International Mathematics Day in 2003 from the perspective of the history of mathematics. Then according to the requirements of mathematical core literacy and mathematical beauty, a deep analysis is conducted on the limitations of the teaching methods in the Turing mathematics and statistics series “Terence Tao Analysis”. The case study shows that (1) the sets, relations, functions and operations present a concentric circle relationship of layer-by-layer proper subsets; (2) rejecting mathematical notation damages the beauty of simplicity and learning efficiency; and (3) forcing the first mapping function to be a surjection unnecessarily limits the wider range of applications that composite functions can have, and it lacks the unified beauty of mathematical definitions. Finally, itemized strategies and suggestions for improvement and optimization are proposed

Functional roles of two novel P450 genes in the adaptability of Conogethes punctiferalis to three commonly used pesticides

Introduction: Insect cytochrome P450 (CYP450) genes play important roles in the detoxification and metabolism of xenobiotics, such as plant allelochemicals, mycotoxins and pesticides. The polyphagous Conogethes punctiferalis is a serious economic pest of fruit trees and agricultural crops, and it shows high adaptability to different living environments.Methods: The two novel P450 genes CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 were identified and characterized. Quantitative real-time PCR (qRT-PCR) technology was used to study the expression patterns of the two target genes in different larval developmental stages and tissues of C. punctiferalis. Furthermore, RNA interference (RNAi) technology was used to study the potential functions of the two P450 genes by treating RNAi-silenced larvae with three commonly used pesticides.Results: The CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 genes were expressed throughout various C. punctiferalis larval stages and in different tissues. Their expression levels increased along with larval development, and expression levels of the two target genes in the midgut were significantly higher than in other tissues. The toxicity bioassay results showed that the LC50 values of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin on C. punctiferalis larvae were 0.2028 μg/g, 0.0683 μg/g and 0.6110 mg/L, respectively. After treating with different concentrations of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin (LC10, LC30, LC50), independently, the relative expressions of the two genes CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 were significantly induced. After the dsRNA injection, the expression profiles of the two CYP genes were reduced 72.91% and 70.94%, respectively, and the mortality rates of the larvae significantly increased when treated with the three insecticides independently at LC10 values.Discussion: In the summary, after interfering with the CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 in C. punctiferalis, respectively, the sensitivity of C. punctiferalis to chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin was significantly increased, indicating that the two CYP6 genes were responsible for the adaptability of C. punctiferalis to the three chemical insecticides in C. punctiferalis. The results from this study demonstrated that CYP6CV1 and CYP6AB51 in C. punctiferalis play crucial roles in the detoxification of chlorantraniliprole, emamectin benzoate and lambda-cyhalothrin

Testicular Characteristics and the Block to Spermatogenesis in Mature Hinny

Most hinnies (female donkey×male horse) and mules (female horse×male donkey) are sterile with few reports of equine fertile hybrids. The main cause of this sterility is thought to be a meiotic block to spermatogenesis and oogenesis. This study compared the developmental features of the testes and a histological analyses of spermatogenesis in a male hinny with those of a normal, fertile stallion and Jack donkey. Hinny testes showed a thicker tunica albuginea, fewer blood vessels and more connective tissue in the testis parenchyma than those of the stallion and Jack donkey. Although the mean number of seminiferous tubules was significantly higher in stallion and hinny than Jack donkey (p<0.01), the mean proportion of seminiferous tubules was lower in the hinny (p<0.01) which resulted in a smaller diameter of seminiferous tubules. The mean number of spermatogonia and spermatocytes per unit area were significantly lower in hinny testis (p<0.01) and no spermatids or mature spermatozoa cells were found during immunofluorescent analyses. These results indicated that defects in seminiferous tubule development and structure occur in the testis of hinnies. Furthermore, most spermatogonia and spermatocytes cease development in synapsis during mid-meiosis of spermatocytes, which results in a block to spermatogenesis that prevents the formation of spermatids and matured spermatozoa during meiosis in male hinnies

Efficient Rank Based KNN Query Processing Over Uncertain Data

Abstract — Uncertain data are inherent in many applications such as environmental surveillance and quantitative economics research. As an important problem in many applications, KNN query has been extensively investigated in the literature. In this paper, we study the problem of processing rank based KNN query against uncertain data. Besides applying the expected rank semantic to compute KNN, we also introduce the median rank which is less sensitive to the outliers. We show both ranking methods satisfy nice top-k properties such as exactk, containment, unique ranking, value invariance, stability and fairfulness. For given query q, IO and CPU efficient algorithms are proposed in the paper to compute KNN based on expected (median) ranks of the uncertain objects. To tackle the correlations of the uncertain objects and high IO cost caused by large number of instances of the uncertain objects, randomized algorithms are proposed to approximately compute KNN with theoretical guarantees. Comprehensive experiments are conducted on both real and synthetic data to demonstrate the efficiency of our techniques. I