Rare decays Bs→l+l−B_s\to l^+l^- and B→Kl+l−B\to Kl^+l^- in \the topcolor-assisted technicolor model

We examine the rare decays $B_s\to l^+l^-$ and $B\to Kl^+l^-$ in the framework of the topcolor-assisted technicolor ($TC2$) model. The contributions of the new particles predicted by this model to these rare decay processes are evaluated. We find that the values of their branching ratios are larger than the standard model predictions by one order of magnitude in wide range of the parameter space. The longitudinal polarization asymmetry of leptons in $B_s \to l^+l^-$ can approach \ord(10^{-2}). The forward-backward asymmetry of leptons in $B \to Kl^+l^-$ is not large enough to be measured in future experiments. We also give some discussions about the branching ratios and the asymmetry observables related to these rare decay processes in the littlest Higgs model with T-parity.Comment: 29 pages, 9 figure, corrected typos, the version to appear in PR

TripleSurv: Triplet Time-adaptive Coordinate Loss for Survival Analysis

A core challenge in survival analysis is to model the distribution of censored time-to-event data, where the event of interest may be a death, failure, or occurrence of a specific event. Previous studies have showed that ranking and maximum likelihood estimation (MLE)loss functions are widely-used for survival analysis. However, ranking loss only focus on the ranking of survival time and does not consider potential effect of samples for exact survival time values. Furthermore, the MLE is unbounded and easily subject to outliers (e.g., censored data), which may cause poor performance of modeling. To handle the complexities of learning process and exploit valuable survival time values, we propose a time-adaptive coordinate loss function, TripleSurv, to achieve adaptive adjustments by introducing the differences in the survival time between sample pairs into the ranking, which can encourage the model to quantitatively rank relative risk of pairs, ultimately enhancing the accuracy of predictions. Most importantly, the TripleSurv is proficient in quantifying the relative risk between samples by ranking ordering of pairs, and consider the time interval as a trade-off to calibrate the robustness of model over sample distribution. Our TripleSurv is evaluated on three real-world survival datasets and a public synthetic dataset. The results show that our method outperforms the state-of-the-art methods and exhibits good model performance and robustness on modeling various sophisticated data distributions with different censor rates. Our code will be available upon acceptance.Comment: 9 pages,6 figure

An Improved Electrical Switching and Phase-Transition Model for Scanning Probe Phase-Change Memory

Scanning probe phase-change memory (SPPCM) has been widely considered as one of the most promising candidates for next-generation data storage devices due to its fast switching time, low power consumption, and potential for ultra-high density. Development of a comprehensive model able to accurately describe all the physical processes involved in SPPCM operations is therefore vital to provide researchers with an effective route for device optimization. In this paper, we introduce a pseudo-three-dimensional model to simulate the electrothermal and phase-transition phenomena observed during the SPPCM writing process by simultaneously solving Laplace’s equation to model the electrical process, the classical heat transfer equation, and a rate equation to model phase transitions. The crystalline bit region of a typical probe system and the resulting current-voltage curve obtained from simulations of the writing process showed good agreement with experimental results obtained under an equivalent configuration, demonstrating the validity of the proposed model

Polarization-sensitive optical projection tomography for muscle fiber imaging

Optical projection tomography (OPT) is a tool used for three-dimensional imaging of millimeter-scale biological samples, with the advantage of exhibiting isotropic resolution typically in the micron range. OPT can be divided into two types: transmission OPT (tOPT) and emission OPT (eOPT). Compared with eOPT, tOPT discriminates different tissues based on their absorption coefficient, either intrinsic or after specific staining. However, it fails to distinguish muscle fibers whose absorption coefficients are similar to surrounding tissues. To circumvent this problem, in this article we demonstrate a polarization sensitive OPT system which improves the detection and 3D imaging of muscle fibers by using polarized light. We also developed image acquisition and processing protocols that, together with the system, enable the clear visualization of muscles. Experimental results show that the muscle fibers of diaphragm and stomach, difficult to be distinguished in regular tOPT, were clearly displayed in our system, proving its potential use. Moreover, polarization sensitive OPT was fused with tOPT to investigate the stomach tissue comprehensively. Future applications of polarization sensitive OPT could be imaging other fiberlike structures such as myocardium or other tissues presenting high optical anisotropy.This work is supported by the National Basic Research Program of China (973 Program) under Grant 2011CB707700, the National Natural Science Foundation of China under Grant No. 81227901, 61231004, 81501616, 81301346, 81527805 the Chinese Academy of Sciences Fellowship for Young Foreign Scientists under Grant No. 2010Y2GA03, 2013Y1GA0004, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Visiting Professorship for Senior International Scientists under Grant No. 2012T1G0036, 2013T1G0013, the Instrument Developing Project of the Chinese Academy of Sciences under Grant No. YZ201502, YZ201457 and the Strategic Priority Research Program (B) of Chinese Academy of Sciences (XDB02060010). A. Arranz acknowledges support from the Marie Curie Intra-European Fellowship program IEF-2010-275137. J.R. acknowledges support from EC FP7 IMI project PREDICT-TB, the EC FP7 CIG grant HIGH-THROUGHPUT TOMO, and the Spanish MINECO project grant FIS2013-41802-R MESO-IMAGING

An Improved Electrical Switching and Phase-Transition Model for Scanning Probe Phase-Change Memory

Scanning probe phase-change memory (SPPCM) has been widely considered as one of the most promising candidates for nextgeneration data storage devices due to its fast switching time, low power consumption, and potential for ultra-high density. Development of a comprehensive model able to accurately describe all the physical processes involved in SPPCM operations is therefore vital to provide researchers with an effective route for device optimization. In this paper, we introduce a pseudo-threedimensional model to simulate the electrothermal and phase-transition phenomena observed during the SPPCM writing process by simultaneously solving Laplace's equation to model the electrical process, the classical heat transfer equation, and a rate equation to model phase transitions. The crystalline bit region of a typical probe system and the resulting current-voltage curve obtained from simulations of the writing process showed good agreement with experimental results obtained under an equivalent configuration, demonstrating the validity of the proposed model

Two-dimensional interlocked pentagonal bilayer ice: how do water molecules form a hydrogen bonding network?

The plethora of ice structures observed both in bulk and under nanoscale confinement reflects the extraordinary ability of water molecules to form diverse forms of hydrogen bonding networks. An ideal hydrogen bonding network of water should satisfy three requirements: (1) four hydrogen bonds connected with every water molecule, (2) nearly linear hydrogen bonds, and (3) tetrahedral configuration for the four hydrogen bonds around an O atom. However, under nanoscale confinement, some of the three requirements have to be unmet, and the selection of the specific requirement(s) leads to different types of hydrogen bonding structures. According to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for water confined between two smooth hydrophobic walls, we obtain a phase diagram of three two-dimensional (2D) crystalline structures and a bilayer liquid. A new 2D bilayer ice is found and named the interlocked pentagonal bilayer ice (IPBI), because its side view comprises interlocked pentagonal channels. The basic motif in the top view of IPBI is a large hexagon composed of four small pentagons, resembling the top view of a previously reported ‘‘coffin’’ bilayer ice [Johnston, et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2010, 133, 154516]. First-principles optimizations suggest that both bilayer ices are stable. However, there are fundamental differences between the two bilayer structures due to the difference in the selection among the three requirements. The IPBI sacrifices the linearity of hydrogen bonds to retain locally tetrahedral configurations of the hydrogen bonds, whereas the coffin structure does the opposite. The tradeoff between the conditions of an ideal hydrogen bonding network can serve as a generic guidance to understand the rich phase behaviors of nanoconfined water

Two-dimensional interlocked pentagonal bilayer ice: how do water molecules form a hydrogen bonding network?

The plethora of ice structures observed both in bulk and under nanoscale confinement reflects the extraordinary ability of water molecules to form diverse forms of hydrogen bonding networks. An ideal hydrogen bonding network of water should satisfy three requirements: (1) four hydrogen bonds connected with every water molecule, (2) nearly linear hydrogen bonds, and (3) tetrahedral configuration for the four hydrogen bonds around an O atom. However, under nanoscale confinement, some of the three requirements have to be unmet, and the selection of the specific requirement(s) leads to different types of hydrogen bonding structures. According to molecular dynamics (MD) simulations for water confined between two smooth hydrophobic walls, we obtain a phase diagram of three two-dimensional (2D) crystalline structures and a bilayer liquid. A new 2D bilayer ice is found and named the interlocked pentagonal bilayer ice (IPBI), because its side view comprises interlocked pentagonal channels. The basic motif in the top view of IPBI is a large hexagon composed of four small pentagons, resembling the top view of a previously reported ‘‘coffin’’ bilayer ice [Johnston, et al., J. Chem. Phys., 2010, 133, 154516]. First-principles optimizations suggest that both bilayer ices are stable. However, there are fundamental differences between the two bilayer structures due to the difference in the selection among the three requirements. The IPBI sacrifices the linearity of hydrogen bonds to retain locally tetrahedral configurations of the hydrogen bonds, whereas the coffin structure does the opposite. The tradeoff between the conditions of an ideal hydrogen bonding network can serve as a generic guidance to understand the rich phase behaviors of nanoconfined water