On CP Asymmetries in Two-, Three- and Four-Body D Decays

Indirect and direct CP violations have been established in K_L and B_d decays. They have been found in two-body decay channels -- with the exception of K_L to pi^+ pi^- e^+ e^- transitions. Evidence for direct CP asymmetry has just appeared in LHCb data on A_{CP}(D^0 to K^+ K^-) - A_{CP}(D^0 to pi^+ pi^-) with 3.5 sigma significance. Manifestations of New Dynamics (ND) can appear in CP asymmetries just below experimental bounds. We discuss D^{\pm}_{(s)}, D^0/\bar D^0 and D_L/D_S transitions to 2-, 3- and 4-body final states with a comment on predictions for inclusive vs. exclusive CP asymmetries. In particular we discuss T asymmetries in D to h_1 h_2 l^+ l^- in analogy with K_L to pi^+ pi^- e^+ e^- transitions due to interference between M1, internal bremsstrahlung and possible E1 amplitudes. Such an effect depends on the strength of CP violation originating from the ND -- as discussed here for Little Higgs Models with T parity and non-minimal Higgs sectors -- but also in the interferences between these amplitudes even in the Standard Model (SM). More general lessons can be learnt for T asymmetries in non-leptonic D decays like D to h_1h_2 h_3 h_4. Such manifestations of ND can be tested at LHCb and other Super-Flavour Factories like the projects at KEK near Tokyo and at Tor Vergata/Frascati near Rome.Comment: 27 pages, 6 figures. Revised with current results from LHCb and HFAG and further interpretation

Analysis of protein carbonylation - pitfalls and promise in commonly used methods

Abstract Oxidation of proteins has received a lot of attention in the last decades due to the fact that they have been shown to accumulate and to be implicated in the progression and the patho-physiology of several diseases such as Alzheimer, coronary heart diseases, etc. This has also resulted in the fact that research scientist became more eager to be able to measure accurately the level of oxidized protein in biological materials, and to determine the precise site of the oxidative attack on the protein, in order to get insights into the molecular mechanisms involved in the progression of diseases. Several methods for measuring protein carbonylation have been implemented in different laboratories around the world. However, to date no methods prevail as the most accurate, reliable and robust. The present paper aims at giving an overview of the common methods used to determine protein carbonylation in biological material as well as to highlight the limitations and the potential. The ultimate goal is to give quick tips for a rapid decision making when a method has to be selected and taking into consideration the advantage and drawback of the methods

Recurrent Spiking Networks Solve Planning Tasks

A recurrent spiking neural network is proposed that implements planning as probabilistic inference for finite and infinite horizon tasks. The architecture splits this problem into two parts: The stochastic transient firing of the network embodies the dynamics of the planning task. With appropriate injected input this dynamics is shaped to generate high-reward state trajectories. A general class of reward-modulated plasticity rules for these afferent synapses is presented. The updates optimize the likelihood of getting a reward through a variant of an Expectation Maximization algorithm and learning is guaranteed to convergence to a local maximum. We find that the network dynamics are qualitatively similar to transient firing patterns during planning and foraging in the hippocampus of awake behaving rats. The model extends classical attractor models and provides a testable prediction on identifying modulating contextual information. In a real robot arm reaching and obstacle avoidance task the ability to represent multiple task solutions is investigated. The neural planning method with its local update rules provides the basis for future neuromorphic hardware implementations with promising potentials like large data processing abilities and early initiation of strategies to avoid dangerous situations in robot co-worker scenarios