Looking up at seesaw and GUT scales from TeV

In this talk, I discuss how we may approach physics at the seesaw- and GUT-scales using data from the TeV scale. Even though we cannot hope to directly reach these energy scales using particle accelerators, we may get convinced of grand unification and seesaw mechanism based on experimental data if Nature is kind to us. In addition, we may find compelling reason to believe in leptogenesis based on experimental data. This cannot be achieved by a single experiment, but rather a collection of them, based on LHC, ILC, neutrino oscillation, neutrinoless double beta decay, direct dark matter detection, CMB power spectrum and its tensor mode.Comment: Proceedings of "Grand Unified Theories: Current Status and Future Prospects: An International Workshop", Kusatsu, Shiga, Japan, 17-19 December 200

Studies on Bluing Effect in the Petals of Red Rose, V. : A Survey of the Various Bluing Types

One hundred and forty five rose cultivars, including old roses, were used to determine the various bluing patterns of red rose petals. The upper epidermis of fresh petals, which had exhibited the bluing phenomenon, were peeled and examined microscopically. The bluing patterns observed were grouped into three types. The first was the cell sap-type where the central vacuole of upper epidermal cells was uniformly blue without any apparent blue structures. The second was a tannin body-type in which blue spherical tannin bodies appeared in the vacuoles. The third was a miscellaneous-type which included blue structures in the vacuole other than tannin bodies. Old roses drived from Rosa chinensis usually exhibited the cell sap-type of bluing while those derived from Rosa gallica had a tendency to exhibit a combination of the tannin body-miscellaneous bluing types. Combinations of two or even all three of the bluing types were found in some cultivars. With the long history of rose breeding, the various bluing types and their combination could have evolved through the segregation and recombination of the bluing factors, specifically when Rosa chinensis or Rosa gallica were used as parents.Article信州大学理学部紀要 13(1): 79-86(1978)departmental bulletin pape

Imaging of Ultraweak Spontaneous Photon Emission from Human Body Displaying Diurnal Rhythm

The human body literally glimmers. The intensity of the light emitted by the body is 1000 times lower than the sensitivity of our naked eyes. Ultraweak photon emission is known as the energy released as light through the changes in energy metabolism. We successfully imaged the diurnal change of this ultraweak photon emission with an improved highly sensitive imaging system using cryogenic charge-coupled device (CCD) camera. We found that the human body directly and rhythmically emits light. The diurnal changes in photon emission might be linked to changes in energy metabolism

Low-lying excitations at the rare-earth site due to rattling motion in the filled skutterudite LaOs_4Sb_{12} revealed by ^{139}La NMR and ^{121/123}Sb NQR

We report experimental results of nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) at the La site and nuclear quadrupole resonance (NQR) at the Sb site in the filled skutterudite LaOs$_4$Sb$_{12}$. We found that the nuclear spin-lattice relaxation rate divided by temperature $1/T_1T$ at the La site exhibits a different temperature dependence from that at the Sb site. Although $1/T_1T$ at the Sb site is explained by the Korringa mechanism, $1/T_1T$ at the La site exhibits a broad maximum around 50 K, showing the presence of an additional contribution at the La site. The additional low-lying excitations observed at the La site can be understood with the relaxation from anharmonic phonons due to the rattling motion of the La atoms.Comment: 5 pages, 4 figures, final version published in Phys. Rev. B (Rapid Communications

Effect of bond valence sum on the structural modeling of lead borate glass

The structural model of 66.7PbO-33.3B2O3 glass was constructed using a reverse Monte Carlo (RMC) method, in which bond valence sum (BVS) was added as a constraint condition to suppress formation of unrealistic local structures. Based on the crystal structures, the optimal BVS calculating conditions were determined. As a result, BVS distributions with small deviation were successfully achieved without lowering the reproducibility of other experimental constraints. The geometric asymmetry of PbOn polyhedra was evaluated from the eccentric distance between Pb and gravity center of oxygen atoms. The average eccentric distance was shorter than that in the lead borate crystals, indicating less asymmetry of PbOn units in the RMC glass model. The connectivity between BOn and PbOn units was investigated. It was consequently concluded that the glass had a different network structure from the crystal with the same composition, which might be due to the different chemical bonding character between the lead borate glasses and crystals

A new therapeutic strategy with istradefylline for postural deformities in Parkinson’s disease

Aim of the study. Postural deformities are common in Parkinson’s disease (PD) patients. Several treatment options have been reported, but responses to these treatments appear unpredictable. Istradefylline is a novel drug for PD. Cases of PD patients whose postural deformities were improved after withdrawal of dopamine agonists and initiation of istradefylline are presented. Materials and Methods. Four consecutive patients with postural deformities including antecollis, Pisa syndrome, and camptocormia were recruited and treated with istradefylline in combination with withdrawal of dopamine agonists, which are possible causes of postural deformities. Results. The dopamine agonists were discontinued an average of 26 months after the development of the postural deformities, and istradefylline was initiated an average of 1.3 months after dopamine agonist withdrawal. Three patients with preserved paraspinal muscle volume showed good responses to the treatment regimen at least two months after dopamine agonist withdrawal. Conclusions and clinical Implications. Postural deformities caused by dopamine agonists generally improve less than two weeks after dopamine agonist withdrawal. Given the response time in the present study, the response was unlikely to be caused solely by dopamine agonist withdrawal. Istradefylline can be a potential therapeutic option; however, appropriate selection of patients for treatment with istradefylline is warranted

Systematic Study of Lattice Specific Heat of Filled Skutterudites

The lattice specific heat C lat of La-based filled skutterudites La T 4 X 12 ( T = Fe, Ru and Os; X = P, As, and Sb) has been systematically studied, and both the Debye temperature Θ D and the Einstein temperature Θ E of La T 4 X 12 were carefully estimated. We confirmed that a correlation exists between Θ D and the reciprocal of the square root of average atomic mass for La T 4 P 12 , La T 4 As 12 , and La T 4 Sb 12 . The Θ D of filled skutterudites was found to depend mainly on the nature of the species X forming the cage. The temperature dependence of C lat / T 3 for La T 4 X 12 exhibited a large broad maximum at low temperatures (10–30 K), which suggests a nearly dispersionless low-energy optical mode characterized by Einstein specific heat. Since no such broad maximum exists for the unfilled skutterudite RhP 3 , the low-energy optical modes are associated with vibration involving La ions in the X 12 cage (the so-called “guest ion modes”). The Θ E of filled skutterudites was found to roughly correspond to the energy of low-energy guest ion optical modes. Furthermore, a good correlation was shown to exist between Θ E and r R–X - r R3+ , where r R–X is the R – X distance and r R3+ is the effective ionic radius of R 3+ . As r R–X - r R3+ increased, Θ E was found to decrease