TauDecay: a library to simulate polarized tau decays via FeynRules and MadGraph5

TauDecay is a library of helicity amplitudes to simulate polarized tau decays, constructed in the FeynRules and MadGraph5 framework. Together with the leptonic mode, the decay library includes the main hadronic modes, \tau \to \nu_{\tau}+\pi, 2\pi, and 3\pi, which are introduced as effective vertices by using FeynRules. The model file allows us to simulate tau decays when the on-shell tau production is kinematically forbidden. We also demonstrate that all possible correlations among the decay products of pair-produced taus through a Z boson and a scalar/pseudoscalar Higgs boson are produced automatically. The program has been tested carefully by making use of the standard tau decay library Tauola.Comment: 10 pages, 12 figures, 3 tables; v2: typo in Eq.(20b) corrected, references added, version accepted by EPJC. 'Note added' also included for the brief TauDecay instruction in MadGraph5_aMC@NL

GO Hessian for Expectation-Based Objectives

An unbiased low-variance gradient estimator, termed GO gradient, was proposed recently for expectation-based objectives $\mathbb{E}_{q_{\boldsymbol{\gamma}}(\boldsymbol{y})} [f(\boldsymbol{y})]$, where the random variable (RV) $\boldsymbol{y}$ may be drawn from a stochastic computation graph with continuous (non-reparameterizable) internal nodes and continuous/discrete leaves. Upgrading the GO gradient, we present for $\mathbb{E}_{q_{\boldsymbol{\boldsymbol{\gamma}}}(\boldsymbol{y})} [f(\boldsymbol{y})]$ an unbiased low-variance Hessian estimator, named GO Hessian. Considering practical implementation, we reveal that GO Hessian is easy-to-use with auto-differentiation and Hessian-vector products, enabling efficient cheap exploitation of curvature information over stochastic computation graphs. As representative examples, we present the GO Hessian for non-reparameterizable gamma and negative binomial RVs/nodes. Based on the GO Hessian, we design a new second-order method for $\mathbb{E}_{q_{\boldsymbol{\boldsymbol{\gamma}}}(\boldsymbol{y})} [f(\boldsymbol{y})]$, with rigorous experiments conducted to verify its effectiveness and efficiency

Nephrin is an important component of the barrier system in the testis.

Nephrin, a gene product of the congenital nephrotic syndrome of the Finnish type (NPHS1), is a 1242-residue putative transmembrane protein of the immunoglobulin family of cell adhesion molecules. The expression of this gene is localized in rat and human glomerular epithelial cells. Here we report the expression of nephrin in various tissues other than the kidneys in mice. The expression of nephrin mRNA in various tissues of mice, including the kidneys, testes, spleen, thymus and brain, were first investigated by the RT-PCR method, and it was shown that a high level of nephrin mRNA could be detected in the testes of mice 1-6 weeks old. In situ hybridization revealed the expression of the nephrin gene in the Sertoli cells. Additionally, immunofluorescent staining studies indicated that nephrin was colocalized with anchoring protein ZO-1 in the mouse testis. From these results, it is inferred that nephrin is an important component of the barrier system in testes.</p

Mechanical behavior of spiral reinforcement recycled aggregate concrete round columns under axial compression after spraying water at high temperatures

Spiral hoops can effectively enhance the load-bearing capacity of recycled aggregate concrete columns, and the mechanical performance of such a member after experiencing fire and a fire sprinkler is very important for its application and promotion. Aiming at this problem, the mechanical behavior of spiral reinforcement recycled aggregate concrete round columns under axial compression after spraying water at high temperatures cooling was investigated. Three parameters including recycled coarse aggregate replacement ratio, temperature, and pitch of screw stirrups were taken into consideration. 26 specimens were designed for static loading test. The failure modes of regenerated concrete columns with spiral reinforcement were observed after cooling by high-temperature water spraying. The mechanical properties of specimens under different cooling modes after high temperatures were obtained and analyzed. The results indicate that the effect of the recycled aggregate replacement ratio on the performance of the specimens was mainly in terms of peak displacement. And the reduction in the spiral stirrup spacing increases the peak load and ductility coefficient of the specimens. The high temperature above 600°C has a obvious effect on the mechanical properties of the specimens. Water spray cooling can reduce the appearance of small cracks on the surface of the specimens and their peak displacement. The calculation method of bearing capacity of regenerated spiral reinforced concrete columns cooled by high-temperature water spraying was discussed

The History and Outlook of Animal Drugs Treating Asthma, Chronic Bronchitis, and Haze Episode-induced Respiratory Diseases

Animal drugs have been historically applied in Chinese remedies for more than two thousands. It was reported that Chinese medical animals consisting of 1,590 species took up 12.5% of the total number of all TCM resources. Those animal drugs such as, earthworm, gecko, periostracum cicadae, and scorpios, of commonly used in China, are very remarkable and traditional for the treatment of asthma or chronic bronchitis. This review presents research advance of animal drugs possessing significant implications for the development of novel anti-asthma or chronic bronchitis drugs. The experimental studies and clinical efficacies against asthma and chronic bronchitis of animal drugs were summarized herein. Moreover, the potential utilization of animal drugs on inhibiting haze/fog induced respiratory diseases was also discusse

Ncapg dynamically coordinates the myogenesis of fetal bovine tissue by adjusting chromatin accessibility

© 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. NCAPG is a subunit of condensin I that plays a crucial role in chromatin condensation during mitosis. NCAPG has been demonstrated to be associated with farm animal growth traits. However, its role in regulating myoblast differentiation is still unclear. We used myoblasts derived from fetal bovine tissue as an in vitro model and found that NCAPG was expressed during myogenic differentiation in the cytoplasm and nucleus. Silencing NCAPG prolonged the mitosis and impaired the differentiation due to increased myoblast apoptosis. After 1.5 days of differentiation, silencing NCAPG enhanced muscle-specific gene expression. An assay for transposase-accessible chromatinhigh throughput sequencing (ATAC-seq) revealed that silencing NCAPG altered chromatin accessibility to activating protein 1 (AP-1) and its subunits. Knocking down the expression of the AP-1 subunits fos-related antigen 2 (FOSL2) or junB proto-oncogene (JUNB) enhanced part of the muscle-specific gene expression. In conclusion, our data provide valuable evidence about NCAPG’s function in myogenesis, as well as its potential role in gene expression

Automatic identification of bottleneck tasks for business process management using fusion-based text clustering

With the arrival of the industrial big data era, it offers unprecedented opportunities for machine learning to intelligently uncover hidden tasks and restore the entire underlying process for business process modelling. While recent studies, e.g., process mining and ontologies, have advanced the research agenda of business process modelling and management, identifying a bottleneck task automatically needs more in-depth research. In this paper, a text mining-based bottleneck task identification approach is proposed. Firstly, to extract tasks from documents in different lengths, a dynamic sliding window is introduced to the biterm topic model. The sliding window size is adjusted according to document length during biterm selection process to ensure the two words in biterm comes from a context. Secondly, a fusion-based clustering algorithm is studied to uncover business tasks. The improved biterm topic model and the Doc2vec model are used to train two document vectors and then calculate two distances. The linear fusion of these two distances is used as the metric of clustering. Thirdly, the temporal frequency of each task at different periods is calculated to show the timeline and abnormal occurrence of tasks to identify bottleneck tasks. The proposed approach is evaluated using a data set containing the execution of a multi-year multidisciplinary student design project. The experiment results show the approach can effectively identify bottleneck tasks without manual intervention

bta-miR-23a Regulates the Myogenic Differentiation of Fetal Bovine Skeletal Muscle-Derived Progenitor Cells by Targeting MDFIC Gene

miR-23a, a member of the miR-23a/24-2/27a cluster, has been demonstrated to play pivotal roles in many cellular activities. However, the mechanisms of how bta-miR-23a controls the myogenic differentiation (MD) of PDGFRalpha(-) bovine progenitor cells (bPCs) remain poorly understood. In the present work, bta-miR-23a expression was increased during the MD of (PDGFRalpha-) bPCs. Moreover, bta-miR-23a overexpression significantly promoted the MD of (PDGFRalpha-) bPCs. Luciferase reporter assays showed that the 3\u27-UTR region of MDFIC (MyoD family inhibitor domain containing) could be a promising target of bta-miR-23a, which resulted in its post-transcriptional down-regulation. Additionally, the knockdown of MDFIC by siRNA facilitated the MD of (PDGFRalpha-) bPCs, while the overexpression of MDFIC inhibited the activating effect of bta-miR-23a during MD. Of note, MDFIC might function through the interaction between MyoG transcription factor and MEF2C promoter. This study reveals that bta-miR-23a can promote the MD of (PDGFRalpha-) bPCs through post-transcriptional downregulation of MDFIC