Diquarks and the Semi-Leptonic Decay of Λb\Lambda_{b} in the Hybrid Scheme

In this work we use the heavy-quark-light-diquark picture to study the semileptonic decay $\Lambda_b \to \Lambda_c+l+\bar{\nu}_l$ in the so-called hybrid scheme. Namely, we apply the heavy quark effective theory (HQET) for larger $q^2$ (corresponding to small recoil), which is the invariant mass square of $l+\bar\nu$, whereas the perturbative QCD approach for smaller $q^2$ to calculate the form factors. The turning point where we require the form factors derived in the two approaches to be connected, is chosen near $\rho_{cut}=1.1$. It is noted that the kinematic parameter $\rho$ which is usually adopted in the perturbative QCD approach, is in fact exactly the same as the recoil factor $\omega=v\cdot v'$ used in HQET where $v$, $v'$ are the four velocities of $\Lambda_b$ and $\Lambda_c$ respectively. We find that the final result is not much sensitive to the choice, so that it is relatively reliable. Moreover, we apply a proper numerical program within a small range around $\rho_{cut}$ to make the connection sufficiently smooth and we parameterize the form factor by fitting the curve gained in the hybrid scheme. The expression and involved parameters can be compared with the ones gained by fitting the experimental data. In this scheme the end-point singularities do not appear at all. The calculated value is satisfactorily consistent with the data which is recently measured by the DELPHI collaboration within two standard deviations.Comment: 16 pages, including 4 figures, revtex

Entanglement conditions for multi-mode states

We provide a class of inequalities for detecting entanglements in multi-mode systems. Necessary conditions for fully separable, bi-separable and sufficient conditions for fully entangled states are explicitly presented.Comment: 12 page

Phylogeographic Structure of a Tethyan Relict Capparis spinosa

Complex geological movements more or less affected or changed floristic structures, while the alternation of glacials and interglacials is presumed to have further shaped the present discontinuous genetic pattern of temperate plants. Here we consider Capparis spinosa, a xeromorphic Tethyan relict, to discuss its divergence pattern and explore how it responded in a stepwise fashion to Pleistocene geologic and climatic changes. 267 individuals from 31 populations were sampled and 24 haplotypes were identified, based on three cpDNA fragments (trnL-trnF, rps12-rpl20, and ndhF). SAMOVA clustered the 31 populations into 5 major clades. AMOVA suggests that gene flow between them might be restricted by vicariance. Molecular clock dating indicates that intraspecific divergence began in early Pleistocene, consistent with a time of intense uplift of the Himalaya and Tianshan Mountains, and intensified in mid-Pleistocene. Species distribution modeling suggests range reduction in the high mountains during the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) as a result of cold climates when glacier advanced, while gorges at midelevations in Tianshan appear to have served as refugia. Populations of low-altitude desert regions, on the other hand, probably experienced only marginal impacts from glaciation, according to the high levels of genetic diversity

Global and partitioned reconstructions of undirected complex networks

It is a significant challenge to predict the network topology from a small amount of dynamical observations. Different from the usual framework of the node-based reconstruction, two optimization approaches (i.e., the global and partitioned reconstructions) are proposed to infer the structure of undirected networks from dynamics. These approaches are applied to evolutionary games occurring on both homogeneous and heterogeneous networks via compressed sensing, which can more efficiently achieve higher reconstruction accuracy with relatively small amounts of data. Our approaches provide different perspectives on effectively reconstructing complex networks.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, 1 table; revised version; added numerical results of the PR in Table 1 and expanded Section 4; added 7 reference

Effects of polymer additives in the bulk of turbulent thermal convection

We present experimental evidence that a minute amount of polymer additives can significantly enhance heat transport in the bulk region of turbulent thermal convection. The effects of polymer additives are found to be the \textit{suppression} of turbulent background fluctuations that give rise to incoherent heat fluxes that make no net contribution to heat transport, and at the same time to \textit{increase} the coherency of temperature and velocity fields. The suppression of small-scale turbulent fluctuations leads to more coherent thermal plumes that result in the heat transport enhancement. The fact that polymer additives can increase the coherency of thermal plumes is supported by the measurements of a number of local quantities, such as the extracted plume amplitude and width, the velocity autocorrelation functions and the velocity-temperature cross-correlation coefficient. The results from local measurements also suggest the existence of a threshold value for the polymer concentration, only above which can significant modification of the plume coherent properties and enhancement of the local heat flux be observed. Estimation of the plume emission rate suggests that the second effect of polymer additives is to stabilize the thermal boundary layers.Comment: 8 figures, 11 page

Conserved Extracellular Cysteines Differentially Regulate the Potentiation Produced by Zn2+ in Rat P2X4 Receptors

One feature of the amino acid sequence of P2X receptors identified from mammalian species, Xenopus laevis and zebrafish is the conservation of ten cysteines in the extracellular loop. Little information is available about the role of these conserved ectodomain cysteines in the function of P2X receptors. Here, we investigated the possibility that ten conserved cysteine residues in the extracellular loop of the rat P2X4 receptor may regulate zinc potentiation of the receptor using a series of individual cysteine to alanine point mutations and functional characterization of recombinant receptors expressed in Xenopus oocytes. For the C116A, C132A, C159A, C165A, C217A and C227A mutants, 10 µM zinc did not significantly affect the current activated by an EC40 concentration of ATP. By contrast, 5 µM zinc shifted the ATP concentration-response curve to the right in a parallel manner for both the C261A and C270A mutants and the magnitudes of those shifts were similar to that of the wildtype receptor. Interestingly, for the C126A and C149A mutants, 5 µM zinc potentiated ATP-activated current, but increased the maximal response to ATP by 90% and 81% respectively, without significantly changing the EC50 value of ATP. Thus, these results suggest that cysteines and disulfide bonds between cysteines are differentially involved in the potentiation of the rat P2X4 receptor by zinc