Mass hierarchy sensitivity of medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments with multiple detectors

We report the neutrino mass hierarchy (MH) sensitivity of medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments with multiple detectors. Sensitivity of determining the MH can be significantly improved by adding a near detector and combining both the near and far detectors. The size of the sensitivity improvement is related to accuracy of the individual mass-splitting measurements and requires strict control on the relative energy scale uncertainty of the near and far detectors. We study the impact of both baseline and target mass of the near detector on the combined sensitivity. A figure-of-merit is defined to optimize the baseline and target mass of the near detector and the optimal selections are $\sim$13~km and $\sim$4~kton respectively for a far detector with the 20~kton target mass and 52.5~km baseline. As typical examples of future medium baseline reactor neutrino experiments, the optimal location and target mass of the near detector are selected for JUNO and RENO-50. Finally, we discuss distinct effects of the neutrino spectrum uncertainty for setups of a single detector and double detectors, which indicate that the spectrum uncertainty can be well constrained in the presence of the near detector.Comment: 7 pages, 9 figure

Heterobasidion annosum sensu stricto Pathogenesis : Bioinformatic and Functional Study of Cerato-platanin Family Proteins

The basidiomycete white-rot fungus Heterobasidion annosum sensu stricto (s.s.) is one of the most severe conifer pathogens in the Northern Hemisphere. It can live as a saprotroph on dead wood tissues or a necrotroph on living trees. Taking advantage of a sequenced genome from a closely related species, Heterobasidion irregulare, we performed an in-depth transcriptomic analysis of this fungus under various abiotic stresses (temperature stress, osmotic stress, oxidative stress, and nutrient starvation) and during saprotrophic growth on pine bark, sapwood, and heartwood. The results unraveled potential regulatory mechanisms to overcome these conditions. Based on the specific induction in the microarray, cerato-platanins were selected for further study in the interactions between H. annosum s.s. and Pinus sylvestris. As the first step, a genome-wide bioinformatic study of the cerato-platanin family in Dikarya was therefore conducted. The results suggested that they exist in both Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, but were lost in early branches of jelly fungi as well as in some groups with yeast or yeast-like forms in their life cycles. The ancestor of the Dikarya possessed multiple copies of cerato-platanins, which sorted differently in Ascomycota and Basidiomycota, and this gene family might have expanded in Basidiomycota. To gain insight into the role of cerato-platanins as potential virulence factors in H. annosum s.s., we performed the functional study of HaCPL2 by using a recombinant protein produced in Pichia pastoris. Interestingly, HaCPL2 was able to induce cell death in both host (P. sylvestris) and non-host (Nicotiana tabacum) plants. Besides cell death symptoms, HaCPL2 retarded apical root growth of P. sylvestris seedlings and induced phytoalexin production in N. tabacum. Defense-related gene expression was also upregulated in both plants after HaCPL2 treatment. This study has provided valuable information about potential gene regulatory mechanisms in H. annosum s.s. that mediate stress adaptation and growth in different pine wood compartments. Moreover, we propose that HaCPL2, a cerato-platanin protein, could act as an effector and contribute to the virulence in the H. annosum s.s.–P. sylvestris pathosystem. This furthers our understanding of Heterobasidion pathogenesis and provides a future target for disease control.Juurikääpä (Heterobasidion annosum sensu stricto) on pohjoisen pallonpuoliskon havupuiden merkittävin taudinaiheuttaja. Sieni on hyvin sopeutumiskykyinen, sillä se pystyy elämään lahottajana ja myös tappamaan elävää solukkoa. Tutkimuksessa sieni altistettiin ulkoisille stressitekijöille (ravinnon puute, lämpötila, osmoottinen ja oksidatiivinen stressi), ja sen geenien transkriptiota tutkittiin männyn kuoressa, mantopuussa ja sydänpuussa. Työssä käytettiin pohjoisamerikkalaisen juurikäävän (Heterobasidion irregulare) genomin perusteella laadittua geenisirua. Tulokset paljastivat säätelymekanismeja, joilla sieni pystyy selviämään vaikeissa olosuhteissa. Geenisirututkimus paljasti, että ns. CPL-geenit (cerato-platanin-like) ovat avainasemassa juurikäävän ja männyn vuorovaikutuksessa. Näiden geenien tarkempi tutkimus aloitettiin analysoimalla Dikarya-alakuntaan kuuluvien sienten genomien CPL-geenejä. Tutkimus osoitti, että CPL-geenejä löytyi sekä kotelosieniltä että kantasieniltä mutta hyytelösieniltä ja hiivamaisesti kasvavilta sieniltä geenit ovat hävinneet evoluutiossa. Dikarya-alakunnan esi-isillä geenit ovat todennäköisesti olleet yleisiä, ja geeniperhe on kehittynyt edelleen kantasienissä. HaCPL2-geenin yhteyttä juurikäävän taudinaiheuttamiskykyyn tutkittiin tuottamalla sen koodaamaa proteiinia Pichia pastoris-hiivassa. HaCPL2 aiheuti solukuolemaa sekä männyllä että tupakkakasvilla, joka ei kuulu männynjuurikäävän isäntäkasveihin. Solukuoleman lisäksi HaCPL2 esti männyn juurten kasvua ja herätti tupakkakasvin puolustusreaktioita, kuten fytoaleksiinien tuotannon. Puolustautumiseen liittyvien geenien toiminta kiihtyi molemmissa kasveissa. Tutkimus tuotti arvokasta uutta tietoa säätelymekanismeista, jotka vaikuttivat stressinsietokykyyn ja kasvuun erilaisissa männyn puuaineen solukoissa. HaCPL2 proteiini voi toimia efektorimolekyylinä, ja siten olla avainasemassa juurikäävän taudinaiheuttamiskyvyn kannalta

Experimental study on discretely modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution

We present a discretely modulated continuous-variable quantum key distribution system in free space by using strong coherent states. The amplitude noise in the laser source is suppressed to the shot-noise limit by using a mode cleaner combined with a frequency shift technique. Also, it is proven that the phase noise in the source has no impact on the final secret key rate. In order to increase the encoding rate, we use broadband homodyne detectors and the no-switching protocol. In a realistic model, we establish a secret key rate of 46.8 kbits/s against collective attacks at an encoding rate of 10 MHz for a 90% channel loss when the modulation variance is optimal.Comment: 7 pages,6 figure

Anatomy and giant enhancement of the perpendicular magnetic anisotropy of cobalt-graphene heterostructures

We report strongly enhanced perpendicular magnetic anisotropy (PMA) of Co films by graphene coating from both first-principles and experiments. Our calculations show that graphene can dramatically boost the surface anisotropy of Co films up to twice the value of its pristine counterpart and can extend the out-of-plane effective anisotropy up to unprecedented thickness of 25~\AA. These findings are supported by our experiments on graphene coating on Co films grown on Ir substrate. Furthermore, we report layer-resolved and orbital-hybridization-resolved anisotropy analysis which help understanding the physical mechanisms of PMA and more practically can help design structures with giant PMA. As an example, we propose super-exchange stabilized Co-graphene heterostructures with a robust out-of-plane constant effective PMA and linearly increasing interfacial anisotropy as a function of film thickness. These findings point towards possibilities to engineer graphene/ferromagnetic metal heterostructures with giant magnetic anisotropy more than 20 times larger compared to conventional multilayers, which constitutes a hallmark for future graphene and traditional spintronic technologies.Comment: 17 pages, 4 figure

SheetCopilot: Bringing Software Productivity to the Next Level through Large Language Models

Computer end users have spent billions of hours completing daily tasks like tabular data processing and project timeline scheduling. Most of these tasks are repetitive and error-prone, yet most end users lack the skill to automate these burdensome works. With the advent of large language models (LLMs), directing software with natural language user requests become a reachable goal. In this work, we propose a SheetCopilot agent that takes natural language task and control spreadsheet to fulfill the requirements. We propose a set of atomic actions as an abstraction of spreadsheet software functionalities. We further design a state machine-based task planning framework for LLMs to robustly interact with spreadsheets. We curate a representative dataset containing 221 spreadsheet control tasks and establish a fully automated evaluation pipeline for rigorously benchmarking the ability of LLMs in software control tasks. Our SheetCopilot correctly completes 44.3\% of tasks for a single generation, outperforming the strong code generation baseline by a wide margin. Our project page:https://sheetcopilot.github.io/.Comment: Accepted to NeurIPS 202

Knee anterior cruciate ligament bio stiffness measuring instrument

Aiming at the lack of timely and effective evaluation of knee anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) reconstruction, a knee ACL force and displacement measuring instrument was developed. Test experiments were carried out using a laboratory-made test platform and a robotic arm. Firstly, the importance of anterior cruciate ligament reconstruction surgery is introduced. The necessity of this kind of measuring instrument is proposed. The reliability of the lower stiffness measuring instrument under different measurement conditions in space is verified by the mechanical model of the previous ACL in-situ measurement. Then the design structure and measurement system of the instrument are introduced in detail. Finally, using the laboratory-made test platform and the UR5 robot arm and stiffness measuring instrument for the displacement and force test accuracy experiments, and the pig bone anterior cruciate ligament test and postoperative evaluation experiments, prove that the measuring instrument can be used for ACL Assessment of reconstructive surgery

Several Integral Estimates and Some Applications

In this paper, the authors first consider the bidirectional estimates of several typical integrals. As some applications of these integral estimates, the authors investigate the pointwise multipliers from the normal weight general function space $F(p,\mu,s)$ to the normal weight Bloch type space $\mathcal{B_{\nu}}(B_{n})$ on the unit ball $B_{n}$ of $\mathbb{C}^{n}$, where $\mu$ and $\nu$ are two normal functions on $[0,1)$. For the special normal function $\displaystyle{\mu(r)=(1-r^{2})^{\alpha}\log^{\beta}\frac{e}{1-r^{2}}}$ ($\alpha>0$, $-\infty<\beta<\infty$), the authors give the necessary and sufficient conditions of pointwise multipliers from $F(p,\mu,s)$ to $\mathcal{B_{\nu}}(B_{n})$ for all cases

DOS: Diverse Outlier Sampling for Out-of-Distribution Detection

Modern neural networks are known to give overconfident prediction for out-of-distribution inputs when deployed in the open world. It is common practice to leverage a surrogate outlier dataset to regularize the model during training, and recent studies emphasize the role of uncertainty in designing the sampling strategy for outlier dataset. However, the OOD samples selected solely based on predictive uncertainty can be biased towards certain types, which may fail to capture the full outlier distribution. In this work, we empirically show that diversity is critical in sampling outliers for OOD detection performance. Motivated by the observation, we propose a straightforward and novel sampling strategy named DOS (Diverse Outlier Sampling) to select diverse and informative outliers. Specifically, we cluster the normalized features at each iteration, and the most informative outlier from each cluster is selected for model training with absent category loss. With DOS, the sampled outliers efficiently shape a globally compact decision boundary between ID and OOD data. Extensive experiments demonstrate the superiority of DOS, reducing the average FPR95 by up to 25.79% on CIFAR-100 with TI-300K