Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the top quark decay via the Flavor-Changing Neutral-Current operators with mixing effects

In this paper detailed calculations of the complete $\mathcal{O}(\alpha_s)$ corrections to top quark decay widths $\Gamma(t\to q+V)$ are presented ($V=g,\gamma,Z$). Besides describing in detail the calculations in our previous paper (arXiv:0810.3889), we also include the mixing effects of the Flavor-Changing Neutral-Current (FCNC) operators for $t\to q+\gamma$ and $t\to q+Z$, which were not considered in our previous paper. The results for $t\to q+g$ are the same as in our previous paper. But the mixing effects can either be large or small, and increase or decrease the branching ratios for $t\to q+\gamma$ and $t\to q+Z$, depending on the values of the anomalous couplings ($\kappa^{g,\gamma,Z}_{\mathrm{tq}}/\Lambda$, $f^{g,\gamma,Z}_{\mathrm{tq}}$ and $h^{g,\gamma,Z}_{\mathrm{tq}}$).Comment: 21 pages, 12 figure

Ionizing Radiation Induces Stemness in Cancer Cells

The cancer stem cell (CSC) model posits the presence of a small number of CSCs in the heterogeneous cancer cell population that are ultimately responsible for tumor initiation, as well as cancer recurrence and metastasis. CSCs have been isolated from a variety of human cancers and are able to generate a hierarchical and heterogeneous cancer cell population. CSCs are also resistant to conventional chemo- and radio-therapies. Here we report that ionizing radiation can induce stem cell-like properties in heterogeneous cancer cells. Exposure of non-stem cancer cells to ionizing radiation enhanced spherogenesis, and this was accompanied by upregulation of the pluripotency genes Sox2 and Oct3/4. Knockdown of Sox2 or Oct3/4 inhibited radiation–induced spherogenesis and increased cellular sensitivity to radiation. These data demonstrate that ionizing radiation can activate stemness pathways in heterogeneous cancer cells, resulting in the enrichment of a CSC subpopulation with higher resistance to radiotherapy

Altered Functional Connectivity of the Basal Nucleus of Meynert in Mild Cognitive Impairment: A Resting-State fMRI Study

Background: Cholinergic dysfunction plays an important role in mild cognitive impairment (MCI). The basal nucleus of Meynert (BNM) provides the main source of cortical cholinergic innervation. Previous studies have characterized structural changes of the cholinergic basal forebrain in individuals at risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). However, whether and how functional connectivity of the BNM (BNM-FC) is altered in MCI remains unknown.Objective: The aim of this study was to identify alterations in BNM-FC in individuals with MCI as compared to healthy controls (HCs), and to examine the relationship between these alterations with neuropsychological measures in individuals with MCI.Method: One-hundred-and-one MCI patients and 103 HCs underwent resting-state functional magnetic resonance imaging (rs-fMRI). Imaging data were processed with SPM8 and CONN software. BNM-FC was examined via correlation in low frequency fMRI signal fluctuations between the BNM and all other brain voxels. Group differences were examined with a covariance analysis with age, gender, education level, mean framewise displacement (FD) and global correlation (GCOR) as nuisance covariates. Pearson’s correlation was conducted to evaluate the relationship between the BNM-FC and clinical assessments.Result: Compared with HCs, individuals with MCI showed significantly decreased BNM-FC in the left insula extending into claustrum (insula/claustrum). Furthermore, greater decrease in BNM-FC with insula/claustrum was associated with more severe impairment in immediate recall during Auditory Verbal Learning Test (AVLT) in MCI patients.Conclusion: MCI is associated with changes in BNM-FC to the insula/claustrum in relation to cognitive impairments. These new findings may advance research of the cholinergic bases of cognitive dysfunction during healthy aging and in individuals at risk of developing AD

Next-to-leading order QCD corrections to the top quark decay via model-independent FCNC couplings

D0 and CDF collaborations at the Fermilab Tevatron have searched for non-standard-model single top-quark production and set upper limits on the anomalous top quark flavor-changing neutral current (FCNC) couplings $\kappa^g_{tc}/\Lambda$ and $\kappa^g_{tu}/\Lambda$ using the measurement of total cross section calculated at the next-to-leading order (NLO) in QCD. In this Letter, we report on the effect of anomalous FCNC couplings to various decay branching ratios of the top quark, calculated at the NLO. This result is not only mandatory for a consistent treatment of both the top quark production and decay via FCNC couplings by D0 and CDF at the Tevatron but is also important for the study of ATLAS and CMS sensitivity to these anomalous couplings at the CERN LHC. We find that the NLO corrections to the partial decay widths of the three decay channels $t\to q + g$, $t\to q + \gamma$ and $t\to q + Z$ are at the order of 10% in magnitude and modify their branching ratios by about 20%, 0.4% and 2%, respectively, as compared to their leading order predictions.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figures, minor changes, typos correcte

Sound trapping in an open resonator

The ability of sound energy confinement with high-quality factor resonance is of vital importance for acoustic devices requiring high intensity and hypersensitivity in biological ultrasonics, enhanced collimated sound emission (i.e. sound laser) and high-resolution sensing. However, structures reported so far have been experimentally demonstrated with a limited quality factor of acoustic resonances, up to several tens in an open resonator. The emergence of bound states in the continuum makes it possible to realize high quality factor acoustic modes. Here, we report the theoretical design and experimental demonstration of acoustic bound states in the continuum supported by a single open resonator. We predicted that such an open acoustic resonator could simultaneously support three types of bound states in the continuum, including symmetry protected bound states in the continuum, Friedrich-Wintgen bound states in the continuum induced by mode interference, as well as a new type-mirror symmetry induced bound states in the continuum. We also experimentally demonstrated their existence with quality factor up to one order of magnitude greater than the highest quality factor reported in an open resonator

VoiceBank-2023: A Multi-Speaker Mandarin Speech Corpus for Constructing Personalized TTS Systems for the Speech Impaired

Services of personalized TTS systems for the Mandarin-speaking speech impaired are rarely mentioned. Taiwan started the VoiceBanking project in 2020, aiming to build a complete set of services to deliver personalized Mandarin TTS systems to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis patients. This paper reports the corpus design, corpus recording, data purging and correction for the corpus, and evaluations of the developed personalized TTS systems, for the VoiceBanking project. The developed corpus is named after the VoiceBank-2023 speech corpus because of its release year. The corpus contains 29.78 hours of utterances with prompts of short paragraphs and common phrases spoken by 111 native Mandarin speakers. The corpus is labeled with information about gender, degree of speech impairment, types of users, transcription, SNRs, and speaking rates. The VoiceBank-2023 is available by request for non-commercial use and welcomes all parties to join the VoiceBanking project to improve the services for the speech impaired.Comment: submitted to 26th International Conference of the ORIENTAL-COCOSD

From carbon nanotubes and silicate layers to graphene platelets for polymer nanocomposites

In spite of extensive studies conducted on carbon nanotubes and silicate layers for their polymer-based nanocomposites, the rise of graphene now provides a more promising candidate due to its exceptionally high mechanical performance and electrical and thermal conductivities. The present study developed a facile approach to fabricate epoxy–graphene nanocomposites by thermally expanding a commercial product followed by ultrasonication and solution-compounding with epoxy, and investigated their morphologies, mechanical properties, electrical conductivity and thermal mechanical behaviour. Graphene platelets (GnPs) of 3.5