Non-extensive statistics to the cosmological lithium problem

Big Bang nucleosynthesis (BBN) theory predicts the abundances of the light elements D, 3He, 4He, and 7Li produced in the early universe. The primordial abundances of D and 4He inferred from observational data are in good agreement with predictions, however, BBN theory overestimates the primordial 7Li abundance by about a factor of three. This is the so-calledPeer ReviewedPostprint (author's final draft

Automatic facial analysis for objective assessment of facial paralysis

Facial Paralysis is a condition causing decreased movement on one side of the face. A quantitative, objective and reliable assessment system would be an invaluable tool for clinicians treating patients with this condition. This paper presents an approach based on the automatic analysis of patient video data. Facial feature localization and facial movement detection methods are discussed. An algorithm is presented to process the optical flow data to obtain the motion features in the relevant facial regions. Three classification methods are applied to provide quantitative evaluations of regional facial nerve function and the overall facial nerve function based on the House-Brackmann Scale. Experiments show the Radial Basis Function (RBF) Neural Network to have superior performance

Can Social Capital be Transferred Cross the Boundary of the Real and Virtual Worlds? An Empirical Investigation of Twitter

Micro-blogs like Twitter are playing increasingly important roles in social life. Some key users of Twitter have drawn huge attention from other people. Their opinions have had significant influence on the rest of Twitter users. In other words, these people are highly reputable and have more social capital in the Twitter world. But what factors contribute to the social capital in a part of the virtual world like Twitter is still largely unknown. This paper investigates the source of social capital in the Twitter world. We identify two types of sources that influence a user’s social capital in the Twitter world: (1) inherited capital from outside the Twitter world; and (2) social activities conducted within the Twitter world. The results show that both inherited capital from outside, and activities within, the Twitter world, have positive influence on a user’s social capital in the Twitter world. Our results suggest that social capital can be transferred from the real world to the virtual one. Meanwhile the inherited social capital of a user from outside the Twitter world significantly impacts the level of activities the user undertakes in the Twitter world. For ordinary people, inherited social capital positively associates with the level of their social activities in the Twitter world. But for the most well known Twitter users, who are usually celebrities, this relationship is negative. Implications for research and practice are further discussed

Onset of thermal convection in a horizontal layer of granular gas

The Navier-Stokes granular hydrodynamics is employed for determining the threshold of thermal convection in an infinite horizontal layer of granular gas. The dependence of the convection threshold, in terms of the inelasticity of particle collisions, on the Froude and Knudsen numbers is found. A simple necessary condition for convection is formulated in terms of the Schwarzschild's criterion, well-known in thermal convection of (compressible) classical fluids. The morphology of convection cells at the onset is determined. At large Froude numbers, the Froude number drops out of the problem. As the Froude number goes to zero, the convection instability turns into a recently discovered phase separation instability.Comment: 6 pages, 6 figures. An extended version. A simple and universal necessary criterion for convection presente

O(p6)O(p^6) extension of the large--NCN_C partial wave dispersion relations

Continuing our previous work(JHEP 0706:030,2007), large--$N_C$ techniques and partial wave dispersion relations are used to discuss $\pi\pi$ scattering amplitudes. We get a set of predictions for $O(p^6)$ low-energy chiral perturbation theory couplings. They are provided in terms of the masses and decay widths of scalar and vector mesons.Comment: 7 page

Whole-Genome Sequence of the 1,4-Dioxane-Degrading Bacterium Mycobacterium dioxanotrophicus PH-06

We report here the complete genome sequence of Mycobacterium dioxanotrophicus PH-06, which is capable of using 1,4-dioxane as a sole source of carbon and energy. The reported sequence will enable the elucidation of this novel metabolic pathway and the development of molecular biomarkers to assess bioremediation potential at contaminated sites

1,4-Dioxane-degrading consortia can be enriched from uncontaminated soils: prevalence of Mycobacterium and soluble di-iron monooxygenase genes

Two bacterial consortia were enriched from uncontaminated soil by virtue of their ability to grow on 1,4-dioxane (dioxane) as a sole carbon and energy source. Their specific dioxane degradation rates at 30°C, pH = 7 (i.e. 5.7 to 7.1 g-dioxane per g-protein per day) were comparable to those of two dioxane-metabolizing archetypes: Pseudonocardia dioxanivoransCB1190 and Mycobacterium dioxanotrophicusPH-06. Based on 16S rRNA sequencing, Mycobacterium was the dominant genus. Acetylene inhibition tests suggest that dioxane degradation was mediated by monooxygenases. However, qPCR analyses targeting the tetrahydrofuran/dioxane monooxygenase gene (thmA/dxmA) (which is, to date, the only sequenced dioxane monooxygenase gene) were negative, indicating that other (as yet unknown) catabolic gene(s) were responsible. DNA sequence analyses also showed threefold to sevenfold enrichment of group 5 and group 6 soluble di-iron monooxygenase (SDIMO) genes relative to the original soil samples. Whereas biodegradation of trace levels of dioxane is a common challenge at contaminated sites, both consortia degraded dioxane at low initial concentrations (300 μg l−1) below detectable levels (5 μg l−1) in bioaugmented microcosms prepared with impacted groundwater. Overall, this work shows that dioxane-degrading bacteria (and the associated natural attenuation potential) exist even in some uncontaminated soils, and may be enriched to broaden bioaugmentation options for sites experiencing insufficient dioxane catabolic capacity

B→DsπB \to D_s \pi and the tree amplitude in B→π+π−B \to \pi^+ \pi^-

The recently-observed decay $B^0 \to D_s^+ \pi^-$ is expected to proceed mainly by means of a tree amplitude in the factorization limit: $B^0 \to \pi^- {(W^+)}^*$, ${(W^+)}^* \to D_s^+$. Under this assumption, we predict the corresponding contribution of the tree amplitude to $B^0 \to \pi^+ \pi^-$. We indicate the needed improvements in data that will allow a useful estimate of this amplitude with errors comparable to those accompanying other methods. Since the factorization hypothesis for this process goes beyond that proved in most approaches, we also discuss independent tests of this hypothesis.Comment: 7 pages, LaTeX, 1 figure, to be submitted to Phys. Rev. D (Brief Reports

The rare top quark decays t→cVt\to cV in the topcolor-assisted technicolor model

We consider the rare top quark decays in the framework of topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) model. We find that the contributions of top-pions and top-Higgs predicted by the TC2 model can enhance the SM branching ratios by as much as 6-9 orders of magnitude. i.e., in the most case, the orders of magnitude of branching ratios are $Br(t\to c g)\sim 10^{-5}$, $Br(t\to c Z)\sim 10^{-5}$, $Br(t\to c \gamma)\sim 10^{-7}$. With the reasonable values of the parameters in TC2 model, such rare top quark decays may be testable in the future experiments. So, rare top quark decays provide us a unique way to test TC2 model.Comment: 14 pages, 4 figure