Associated production of the top-pions and single top at hadron colliders

In the context of topcolor assisted technicolor(TC2) models, we study the production of the top-pions $\pi_{t}^{0,\pm}$ with single top quark via the processes $p\bar{p} \to t\pi_{t}^{0}+X$ and $p\bar{p} \to t\pi_{t}^{\pm}+X$, and discuss the possibility of detecting these new particles at Tevatron and LHC. We find that it is very difficult to observe the signals of these particles via these processes at Tevatron, while the neutral and charged top-pions $\pi_{t}^{0}$ and $\pi_{t}^{\pm}$ can be detecting via considering the same sign top pair $tt\bar{c}$ event and the $tt\bar{b}$ (or $t\bar{t}b$) event at LHC, respectively.Comment: latex files,14 pages, 7 figures. Accepted for publication in Phys. Rev.

Phase Compensation Enhancement of Photon Pair Entanglement Generated from Biexciton Decays in Quantum Dots

Exciton fine-structure splittings within quantum dots introduce phase differences between the two biexciton decay paths that greatly reduce the entanglement of photon pairs generated via biexciton recombination. We analyze this problem in the frequency domain and propose a practicable method to compensate the phase difference by inserting a spatial light modulator, which substantially improves the entanglement of the photon pairs without any loss.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Hepatitis C: From inflammatory pathogenesis to anti-inflammatory/hepatoprotective therapy

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection commonly causes progressive liver diseases that deteriorate from chronic inflammation to fibrosis, cirrhosis and even to hepatocellular carcinoma. A long-term, persistent and uncontrolled inflammatory response is a hallmark of these diseases and further leads to hepatic injury and more severe disease progression. The levels of inflammatory cytokines and chemokines change with the states of infection and treatment, and therefore, they may serve as candidate biomarkers for disease progression and therapeutic effects. The mechanisms of HCV-induced inflammation involve classic pathogen pattern recognition, inflammasome activation, intrahepatic inflammatory cascade response, and oxidative and endoplasmic reticulum stress. Direct-acting antivirals (DAAs) are the first-choice therapy for effectively eliminating HCV, but DAAs alone are not sufficient to block the uncontrolled inflammation and severe liver injury in HCV-infected individuals. Some patients who achieve a sustained virologic response after DAA therapy are still at a long-term risk for progression to liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Therefore, coupling with anti-inflammatory/hepatoprotective agents with anti-HCV effects is a promising therapeutic regimen for these patients during or after treatment with DAAs. In this review, we discuss the relationship between inflammatory mediators and HCV infection, summarize the mechanisms of HCV-induced inflammation, and describe the potential roles of anti-inflammatory/hepatoprotective drugs with anti-HCV activity in the treatment of advanced HCV infection