Isospin dependence of nucleon effective mass in Dirac Brueckner-Hartree-Fock approach

The isospin dependence of the nucleon effective mass is investigated in the framework of the Dirac Brueckner-Hartree-Fock (DBHF) approach. The definition of nucleon scalar and vector effective masses in the relativistic approach is clarified. Only the vector effective mass is the quantity related to the empirical value extracted from the analysis in the nonrelatiistic shell and optical potentials. In the relativistic mean field theory, where the nucleon scalar and vector potentials are both energy independent, the neutron vector potential is stronger than that of proton in the neutron rich nuclear matter, which produces a smaller neutron vector effective mass than that of proton. It is pointed out that the energy dependence of nucleon potentials has to be considered in the analysis of the isospin dependence of the nucleon effective mass. In the DBHF the neutron vector effective mass is larger than that of proton once the energy dependence of nucleon potentials is considered. The results are consistent with the analysis of phenomenological isospin dependent optical potentials.Comment: 4 pages, 3 Postscript figure

Aging-associated Alteration in the Cardiac MIF-AMPK Cascade in Response to Ischemic Stress

An important role for a macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF)-AMP-activated protein kinase (AMPK) signaling pathway in ameliorating myocardial damage following ischemia/reperfusion has been described. An aging-associated reduction in AMPK activity may be associated with a decline in the ability of cardiac cells to activate the MIF-AMPK cascade, thereby resulting in reduced tolerance to ischemic insults. To test this hypothesis, _in vivo_ regional ischemia was induced by occlusion of the left anterior descending (LAD) coronary artery in young (4-6 months) and aged (24-26 months) mice. The ischemic AMPK activation response was impaired in aged hearts compared to young ones (p<0.01). Notably, cardiac MIF expression in aged hearts was lower than in young hearts (p<0.01). Dual staining data clearly demonstrated larger infarct size in aged hearts following ischemia and reperfusion compared to young hearts (p<0.05). Ischemia-induced AMPK activation in MIF knock out (MIF KO) hearts was blunted, leading to greater contractile dysfunction of MIF KO cardiomyocytes during hypoxia than that of wild type (WT) cardiomyocytes. Finally exogenous recombinant MIF significantly reversed the contractile dysfunction of aged cardiomyocytes in response to hypoxia. We conclude that an aging-associated reduction in ischemic AMPK activation contributes to ischemic intolerance in aged hearts

Deletion of annexin 2 light chain p11 in nociceptors causes deficits in somatosensory coding and pain behavior

The S100 family protein p11 (S100A10, annexin 2 light chain) is involved in the trafficking of the voltage-gated sodium channel Na(V)1.8, TWIK-related acid-sensitive K+ channel (TASK-1), the ligand-gated ion channels acid-sensing ion channel 1a (ASIC1a) and transient receptor potential vanilloid 5/6 (TRPV5/V6), as well as 5-hydroxytryptamine receptor 1B (5-HT1B), a G-protein-coupled receptor. To evaluate the role of p11 in peripheral pain pathways, we generated a loxP-flanked (floxed) p11 mouse and used the Cre-loxP recombinase system to delete p11 exclusively from nociceptive primary sensory neurons in mice. p11-null neurons showed deficits in the expression of NaV1.8, but not of annexin 2. Damage-sensing primary neurons from these animals show a reduced tetrodotoxin-resistant sodium current density, consistent with a loss of membrane-associated NaV1.8. Noxious coding in wide-dynamic-range neurons in the dorsal horn was markedly compromised. Acute pain behavior was attenuated in certain models, but no deficits in inflammatory pain were observed. A significant deficit in neuropathic pain behavior was also apparent in the conditional-null mice. These results confirm an important role for p11 in nociceptor function

Muon anomalous magnetic moment in technicolor models

Contributions to the muon anomalous magnetic moment are evaluated in the technicolor model with scalars and topcolor assisted technicolor model. In the technicolor model with scalars, the additional contributions come from the loops of scalars, which were found sizable only for a very large $f/f^{'}$ disfavored by the experiment of $b\to s\gamma$. The topcolor effect is also found to be large only for an unnaturally large $\tan\theta'$, and thus the previously evaluated loop effects of extended technicolor bosons, suppressed by $m_{\mu}^2/M_{ETC}^2$, must be resorted to account for the E821 experiment. So, if the E821 experiment result persists, it would be a challenge to technicolor models.Comment: refs and comments adde

Gradient-less Federated Gradient Boosting Trees with Learnable Learning Rates

The privacy-sensitive nature of decentralized datasets and the robustness of eXtreme Gradient Boosting (XGBoost) on tabular data raise the needs to train XGBoost in the context of federated learning (FL). Existing works on federated XGBoost in the horizontal setting rely on the sharing of gradients, which induce per-node level communication frequency and serious privacy concerns. To alleviate these problems, we develop an innovative framework for horizontal federated XGBoost which does not depend on the sharing of gradients and simultaneously boosts privacy and communication efficiency by making the learning rates of the aggregated tree ensembles learnable. We conduct extensive evaluations on various classification and regression datasets, showing our approach achieves performance comparable to the state-of-the-art method and effectively improves communication efficiency by lowering both communication rounds and communication overhead by factors ranging from 25x to 700x.Comment: Accepted at the 3rd ACM Workshop on Machine Learning and Systems (EuroMLSys), May 8th 2023, Rome, Ital

Non-universal gauge bosons Z′Z^{\prime} and lepton flavor-violation tau decays

There are many models beyond the standard model predicting the existence of non-universal gauge bosons $Z^{\prime}$, which can give rise to very rich phenomena. We calculate the contributions of the non-universal gauge bosons $Z^{\prime}$, predicted by topcolor-assisted technicolor (TC2) models and flavor-universal TC2 models, to the lepton flavor-violation tau decays $\tau\to l_{i}\gamma$ and $\tau\to l_{i}l_{j}l_{k}$. We find that the branching ratio $B_{r}(\tau\longrightarrow l_{i}l_{j}l_{k})$ is larger than that of the process $\tau\longrightarrow l_{i}\gamma$ in all of the parameter space. Over a sizable region of the parameter space, we have $B_{r}(\tau\longrightarrow l_{i}l_{j}l_{k})\sim 10^{-8}$, which may be detected in the future experiments.Comment: Final version to appear in Phys. Lett. B. References added and typos correcte

Using Design of Experiments in Finite Element Modeling to Identify Critical Variables for Laser Powder Bed Fusion

Input of accurate material and simulation parameters is critical for accurate predictions in Laser Powder Bed Fusion (L-PBF) Finite Element Analysis (FEA). It is challenging and resource consuming to run experiments that measure and control all possible material properties and process parameters. In this research, we developed a 3-dimensional thermal L-PBF FEA model for a single track laser scan on one layer of metal powder above a solid metal substrate. We applied a design of experiments (DOE) approach which varies simulation parameters to identify critical variables in L-PBF. DOE is an exploratory tool for examining a large number of factors and alternative modeling approaches. It also determines which approaches can best predict L-PBF process performance.Mechanical Engineerin

Topcolor assisted technicolor models and muon anomalous magnetic moment

We discuss and estimate the contributions of the new particles predicted by topcolor assisted technicolor(TC2) models to the muon anomalous magnetic moment $a_{\mu}$. Our results show that the contributions of Pseudo Goldstone bosons are very small which can be safely ignored. The main contributions come from the ETC gauge boson $x_{\mu}$ and topcolor gauge boson $Z^{\prime}$. If we demand that the mass of $Z^{\prime}$ is consistent with other experimental constrains, its contributions are smaller than that of $x_{\mu}$. With reasonable values of the parameters in TC2 models, the observed BNL results for $a_{\mu}$ could be explained.Comment: latex file, 11 pages, several figures and references adde

HDX-guided EPR spectroscopy to interrogate membrane protein dynamics

This project was supported by a Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC) grant (BB/S018069/1) to C.P., who also acknowledges support from the Wellcome Trust (WT) (219999/Z/19/Z) and the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC) in the form of studentships for B.J.L. and B.W., respectively. A.N.C. is a Sir Henry Dale Fellow jointly funded by the WT and the Royal Society (220628/Z/20/Z). Funding from the BBSRC (BB/M012573/1) enabled the purchase of mass spectrometry equipment.Solvent accessibilities of and distances between protein residues measured by pulsed-EPR approaches provide high-resolution information on dynamic protein motions. We describe protocols for the purification and site-directed spin labeling of integral membrane proteins. In our protocol, peptide-level HDX-MS is used as a precursor to guide single-residue resolution ESEEM accessibility measurements and spin labeling strategies for EPR applications. Exploiting the pentameric MscL channel as a model, we discuss the use of cwEPR, DEER/PELDOR, and ESEEM spectroscopies to interrogate membrane protein dynamics. For complete details on the use and execution of this protocol, please refer to Wang et al. (2022).Publisher PDFPeer reviewe