Parity-violating πNN\pi NN coupling constant from the flavor-conserving effective weak chiral Lagrangian

We investigate the parity-violating pion-nucleon-nucleon coupling constant $h^1_{\pi NN}$, based on the chiral quark-soliton model. We employ an effective weak Hamiltonian that takes into account the next-to-leading order corrections from QCD to the weak interactions at the quark level. Using the gradient expansion, we derive the leading-order effective weak chiral Lagrangian with the low-energy constants determined. The effective weak chiral Lagrangian is incorporated in the chiral quark-soliton model to calculate the parity-violating $\pi NN$ constant $h^1_{\pi NN}$. We obtain a value of about $10^{-7}$ at the leading order. The corrections from the next-to-leading order reduce the leading order result by about 20~\%.Comment: 12 page

Investigation of the SH3BP2 Gene Mutation in Cherubism

Cherubism is a rare developmental lesion of the jaw that is generally inherited as an autosomal dominant trait. Recent studies have revealed point mutations in the SH3BP2 gene in cherubism patients. In this study, we examined a 6-year-old Korean boy and his family. We found a Pro418Arg mutation in the SH3BP2 gene of the patient and his mother. A father and his 30-month-old younger brother had no mutations. Immunohistochemically, the multinucleated giant cells proved positive for CD68 and tartrate-resistant acid phosphatase (TRAP). Numerous spindle-shaped stromal cells expressed a ligand for receptor activator of nuclear factor kB (RANKL), but not in multinucleated giant cells. These results provide evidence that RANKL plays a critical role in the differentiation of osteoclast precursor cells to multinucleated giant cells in cherubism. Additionally, genetic analysis may be a useful method for differentiation of cherubism.</p

Flow-Induced Voltage Generation Over Monolayer Graphene in the Presence of Herringbone Grooves

While flow-induced voltage over a graphene layer has been reported, its origin remains unclear. In our previous study, we suggested different mechanisms for different experimental configurations: phonon dragging effect for the parallel alignment and an enhanced out-of-plane phonon mode for the perpendicular alignment (Appl. Phys. Lett. 102:063116, 2011). In order to further examine the origin of flow-induced voltage, we introduced a transverse flow component by integrating staggered herringbone grooves in the microchannel. We found that the flow-induced voltage decreased significantly in the presence of herringbone grooves in both parallel and perpendicular alignments. These results support our previous interpretation

Image Segmentation by Edge Partitioning over a Nonsubmodular Markov Random Field

Edge weight-based segmentation methods, such as normalized cut or minimum cut, require a partition number specification for their energy formulation. The number of partitions plays an important role in the segmentation overall quality. However, finding a suitable partition number is a nontrivial problem, and the numbers are ordinarily manually assigned. This is an aspect of the general partition problem, where finding the partition number is an important and difficult issue. In this paper, the edge weights instead of the pixels are partitioned to segment the images. By partitioning the edge weights into two disjoints sets, that is, cut and connect, an image can be partitioned into all possible disjointed segments. The proposed energy function is independent of the number of segments. The energy is minimized by iterating the QPBO-α-expansion algorithm over the pairwise Markov random field and the mean estimation of the cut and connected edges. Experiments using the Berkeley database show that the proposed segmentation method can obtain equivalently accurate segmentation results without designating the segmentation numbers

Mixed cultures of Kimchi lactic acid bacteria show increased cell density and lactate productivity

This study was carried out to determine the characteristics of cell growth, lactate production and amino acid secretion among four kimchi lactic acid bacteria (Leuconostoc mesenteroides JEI, Leuconostoc kimchi 132, Lactobacillus sakei 171, and Weissella koreensis 521) alone and in selected mixtures. In solo culture, L. sakei 171 was superior in cell growth, lactate production and the release of amino acids to the extracellular medium. In contrast, W. koreensis 521 showed the least cell growth, lactate production and amino acid release among the tested bacteria. W. koreensis 521 consumed essential amino acids for growth, whereas L. sakei 171 released several of the essential amino acids important for the growth of W. koreensis 521. When we mixed L. sakei 171 and W. koreensis 521 at optimal concentrations, the obtained cell growth and lactic acid production were higher than those seen with either strain alone, presumably reflecting mutual effects between the two strains. Mixed culture of two kimchi lactobacilli on batch fermentation increased the cell density and lactic acid production with low nutrients consumption. These results suggest that mixed culturing of kimchi lactobacilli may be more effective than single culturing of kimchi lactic acid bacteria for improving lactic acid production.Keywords: Kimchi lactic acid bacteria, amino acid utilization, nutrients consumption.African Journal of BiotechnologyVol. 12(25), pp. 4000-400